Chapter 6

Xiao Tangqiu suddenly recalled that inexplicable voice in his head. Earlier, that cold, mechanical voice announced that he had received a D level mission titled, “Fishing Village’s Haunted House……” So right now, were they in that “Fishing Village’s Haunted House” mission?

Within this small fishing village, the only building that matched the “haunted house” mentioned in the mission would undoubtedly be that ancient Chinese-style building in the middle of the village. It’s no wonder Luo Mansu asked the village chief about it.

If Xiao Tangqiu could figure out that much, so could the others. Tang Mianmian immediately turned around to ask Luo Mansu, “Should we chase after him?”

Luo Mansu shrugged his shoulders, “Judging by his reaction, that big house over there is most likely the objective of this mission. Unfortunately, it won’t be easy getting NPCs to talk unless we manage to find important clues. Or else, we’ll have to look for another way.”

“Another way?” Xiao Tangqiu raised an eyebrow, “Like beating him up?”

Luo Mansu smiled faintly at Xiao Tangqiu, “I thought that among this group, the first one to suggest something like this would’ve been that yellow-haired delinquent. I really didn’t expect it to be you.”

The yellow-haired delinquent immediately blew his top, “Hey, what do you mean by that?!”

But Luo Mansu didn’t bother explaining himself. He grinned broadly as he continued, “You can indeed use violence to deal with NPCs. Every NPC’s character is different so threatening them may or may not work, depending on the NPC. Instead, you may end up offending an NPC. You can weigh the pros and cons yourself. I’m not afraid to tell you that it’s ok to kill NPCs, but if you kill an NPC that’s key to the mission, you will also be killed on the spot.”

Everyone kept quiet – it was obvious they each had their own opinions. Luo Mansu didn’t care at all, “You can choose your partners now, whether you’d like to join me or form your own team……. Of course, even if you decide to form your own team, I won’t refuse to exchange information with you. As long as you offer me valuable information, I will also share whatever information I find.”

His attitude could be considered frank, and in the horrifying atmosphere of this game – that is, if this world could be called a “game” – a person with such leadership seemed very convincing. But, it was also precisely this that raised doubt and uncertainty.

While everyone was busy sizing each other up, the quiet trio walked away without the slightest pause. Yet, none of them were surprised since the the trio didn’t want to have anything to do with them from the very start.

The couple hesitated for a bit before turning away to leave while the yellow-haired delinquent partnered up with the guy in the suit. In a flash, only the twin sisters, Xiao Tangqiu and Tang Mianmian remained.

Xiao Tangqiu looked at Tang Mianmian and asked for his opinion, “Should we both partner up?”

Tang Mianmian immediately nodded in agreement.

Luo Mansu wasn’t surprised by the outcome; he flashed Xiao Tangqiu and Tang Mianmian a wide grin, and left with the twin sisters.

When the others had finally left, Tang Mianmian pulled a long face and asked, “Xiao Tangqiu! Do you know what the hell is going on?!”

Xiao Tangqiu laughed bitterly, “I was just about to ask you the same question ah! We were clearly still live streaming the game. How did we physically get pulled into the game?!” Although he enjoyed playing horror games, it didn’t mean that he wanted to personally experience it!

All of a sudden, Tang Mianmian was dumbstruck. “……Live stream? When did I live stream this game with you?”

Xiao Tangqiu frowned, “Aren’t you a bit too young to be senile? Clearly, you were the one who sent me the official download link for the game, insisting I live stream it with you!”

Tang Mianmian’s jaw dropped; he seemed to have been shocked into silence. After a minute, he exclaimed, “I didn’t!”

Xiao Tangqiu stared blankly at him, “What do you mean you didn’t?”

Tang Mianmian’s face was deathly pale. “Didn’t you tell me you’d be visiting your friend’s grave today? So, I decided to try out the game on my own. But less than a minute into the game, I fainted, and the next thing I knew, I woke up in that tour bus with you!”

Xiao Tangqiu didn’t know what to say. He suddenly felt a chill creeping up his spine. If Tang Mianmian was telling the truth, then who was it that sent him the link to the game? Or more accurately, perhaps it wasn’t human at all….

Tang Mianmian was almost frightened to tears. “Help ah! I don’t want to play a real-live horror game ah! I’m such a scaredy-cat; I’m afraid I’ll be frightened to death before I even make it the end!”

Xiao Tangqiu comforted him, “Look on the bright side; I think there are ghosts in this game. Perhaps you’ll be killed by them before you even get to the end ah.”

Tang Mianmian cried out, “Wuwuwu! I don’t want to play anymore. I want to go home!”

“I was just joking,” Xiao Tangqiu pulled Tang Mianmian along. “We’ll definitely make it to the end. Then, we’ll go home and get married.”

Tang Mianmian shouted, “….. Don’t simply create Flags ah!”

The both of them randomly wandered around the village. As rookies, they had little experience in this real-live horror game. But as live broadcast anchors for horror games, they had a fair bit of insight regarding the various routines of a horror game. Very quickly, they started to happily make fun of the usual game tropes.

“What do you think is in that big house?”

“There must be ghosts in there.”

“What are ghosts afraid of? Do you think we should get some yellow talismans first? We don’t seem to have much experience with Chinese ghosts ah! Ai…. Why are there so few domestic horror games?”

There were definitely more Western and Japanese horror games, so they had much more experience with that.

“Forget about domestic horror games. Don’t tell me you’ve never watched a domestic horror movie?”

“………But there aren’t any ghosts in domestic horror movies.”

“Hmm, what you said makes sense.”

“Glutinous rice? Cinnabar? Rooster’s blood?” Tang Mianmian turned his head inside out, trying to think of a solution.

Xiao Tangqiu lamented in dismay, “Forget about rooster’s blood. Haven’t you noticed that we haven’t come across another living thing even though we’ve been walking for so long?”

Tang Mianmian suddenly realized, “You’re right ah……. Wait! That can’t be right. Isn’t this a fishing village? There must be fish, right?”

“God knows, if this was a regular fishing village, of course there’d be fish. But we both know this village is far from normal.” Xiao Tangqiu continued to look around. The fishing village was really small; Just by standing on a slightly higher terrain, perhaps on a hillside, it would be possible to take in the entire view of the village.

“Although the village is rather strange, there doesn’t seem to be anything special about it….. How on earth are we supposed to get rid of the curse?”

Tang Mianmian diligently analyzed their situation, “Perhaps we need to find a key item that will trigger the plotline. Or maybe, we should look for the village chief again. Maybe we’ll get some clues from that NPC. Of course, there’s another option, that is to break into that big building.

“There must be something wrong with that house. We can’t just hastily barge into the house. If there are ghosts or something sinister inside, we’ll definitely lose our lives going in without any protective measures.” Xiao Tangqiu rubbed his chin in contemplation and eventually made a decision, “Let’s go look for the village chief first. We’ll only explore that house as a last resort.”

Tang Mianmian nodded his head; this was indeed the safest option. No one knows what could happen if they just barged into that big house.

“Let’s go look for the village chief.”

Xiao Tangqiu was about to start walking when Tang Mianmian suddenly mumbled in a small voice, “Um…. I need to use the restroom…..”

Xiao Tangqiu looked at Tang Mianmian, not saying a word. Tang Mianmian blushed a bright red as he explained, “I needed to use the restroom earlier when we were on the tour bus. I’ve been holding it in the whole time, I really can’t hold it anymore.”

“Ok, you don’t need to explain. Just go.”

Xiao Tangqiu pursed his lips; in fact, he had realized that there wasn’t an indoor restroom while they were walking around. The entire village shared a public restroom, which was basically a small wooden hut with several squat toilets. But these “toilets” were really just pits dug into the ground. Tang Mianmian seemed to have noticed that earlier as well, but he couldn’t get over how primitive and dirty the toilet was. At this point however, he couldn’t hold it in any longer and had no choice.

Tang Mianmian hesitated, “I’m a little scared…….”

Xiao Tangqiu thought about it; although he didn’t need to use the restroom yet, it was better to go now than to wait till it turned dark. Even he was afraid of going to the restroom alone at night.

“I’ll go to the restroom with you then.”

Tang Mianmian breathed out a sigh of relief, “Good friends should go to the restroom together!”

Xiao Tangqiu only teased him, “Only schoolboys use the restroom together!”

Tang Mianmian impatiently urged, “Let’s go, let’s go! If we don’t hurry, the sky’s going to turn dark!”