Chapter 204 Strange Tales of Huaishu Road Construction Site 02

Chapter 204 Strange Tales of Huaishu Road Construction Site 02

"It's been a while."

The man's deep and mellow voice carried a hint of amusement as it drifted over unhurriedly.

Qin Fei, as if electrocuted, took a quick step forward, avoiding the heat behind him.

At the same time, he thought to himself: How is it "a long time"? We just met three days ago.

The Pollutant seemed completely oblivious to his discomfort and continued in a casual tone, "This appearance looks good on you; it suits you well."

He paused and added, "However, I still prefer your original appearance."

Qin Fei's temple throbbed visibly.

The downside of having an NPC—especially one powerful enough to surpass all dangers within the scenario—in their party was now evident:

His sense of danger was abysmally low.

In this tense moment, with the source of death threats yet unknown and different player teams eyeing each other warily for the first move, he still had the leisure to flirt.

...Flirt.

Why did he feel that every casual compliment from this guy sounded like flirting?

The young man's eyelid twitched slightly, feeling somewhat offended by his own thoughts.

Soft fingertips brushed against Qin Fei's earlobe, and the faint scent of roses lingered around him. Qin Fei's ears burned, and the skin on his neck felt as if it were being scorched by flames.

"Lu Cheng?" came Lu Cheng's slightly puzzled voice from ahead, "What are you two doing?"

W.

That was the simple and crude fake name the Pollutant gave when introducing himself.

As for 'Lyle', Lu Cheng was already used to calling him that.

The two members of the Butterfly Guild were not far away. Although they likely recognized Qin Fei, Lu Cheng still made a show of covering for him.

Classmate Lu turned around, his clear, bright eyes meeting Qin Fei's, making him feel as if he had been caught in an illicit affair. He hurriedly took another big step forward.

The warm embrace suddenly vanished.

Without turning back, Qin Fei heard the Pollutant's voice, now polite but slightly distant:

"This gentleman's ID badge wasn't properly worn, so I helped adjust it."

Qin Fei: "..."

Quite convincing.

Prince felt conflicted, not even sparing a glance at the person behind him, and walked toward the turnstile on his own.

Lu Cheng scratched the back of his head and casually said to Qin Fei, "This NPC seems quite nice. You should thank him."

Qin Fei's smile nearly cracked.

The spectator spirits in the live-stream hall laughed heartily.

"Hahahaha! What's up with Little Lu? The wheels have already turned miles away, and you're still here mumbling?"

"Speaking of which, this NPC is really handsome. He started flirting with my wife right at the beginning of the strange tale. Could he be interested in her?"

"No doubt about it, he definitely is. They almost hugged."

"Definitely interested +1."

"Exactly. Didn't you hear how he complimented your wife? Better get ready, buddy, it's getting green out here~"

"Wah, I'm so jealous. I want to hug my wife too."

...

This brief interlude didn't attract much attention.

After entering the construction site, yellow dust filled the air, and the pile driver working nearby made the ground shake more noticeably as they got closer.

Upon entering, the players immediately rushed to the plastic crates full of helmets.

Just as Lu Cheng had mentioned earlier, both crates were filled with blue helmets, with no sign of the "red helmet" warned about in the rules.

However, when Qi Xiu reached into the first crate and picked up the topmost helmet, the two Starlight players standing behind him instantly changed their expressions.

Beneath this helmet lay a red one that had been hidden!

Unlike the ordinary blue helmets, the red helmet looked unnaturally thick and mottled, as if someone had forcibly painted it red with poor-quality paint.

This red color seemed alive, spreading from the center outward.

Soon, all the blue helmets in the crate were stained with a bloody hue.

Yiwu's eyes widened abruptly.

Ignoring the slight tearing pain in his eye socket, he turned to Qi Xiu in shock, "Captain Qi, this—"

This is ridiculous. How are we supposed to choose?!

Yiwu's outstretched hand froze in mid-air, and he couldn't help but begin to doubt himself.

Could it be that the key to breaking this deadlock is that everyone must pick up the blue helmet at the same time, or else they will have no choice due to being too slow?

A few meters away, another team of players had just entered the gate and was about to approach.

The team leader saw the glaring red color from afar and immediately stopped, observing with caution.

Standing in front of the plastic bin, Yiwu's expression changed repeatedly, and Qi Xiu also looked displeased.

Not far away, an NPC wearing a blue hard hat and holding a trowel saw a group standing in front of the helmet bin, staring blankly. He angrily tapped the ground with his trowel and shouted:

"Hey! What are you doing over there? Quickly put on your helmets and come here for work!"

Delaying any further would definitely not work. Yiwu stared intently at the helmets, gritting his teeth, with veins popping out on his hand.

All the helmets were red. Which one can be picked up, and which one cannot?

The surface helmets are all red; could there be blue ones underneath? But would touching the red helmets bring danger?

If avoiding the first abnormally red helmet and choosing one of the others that got stained later, would there be a chance of survival?

As Yiwu thought about this, a sudden dizziness came over him, and he was shocked to find that he could no longer remember where the initial red helmet was located.

This was a sign of severe contamination. Yiwu quickly pulled down his attribute panel.

Sure enough, his sanity value had dropped by a full 8 points in a very short time.

... Damn!

The player cursed inwardly.

Yiwu's heartbeat accelerated.

As a player with combat talent, his mental immunity wasn't particularly high, only average to above average, making the impact of contamination more evident.

"Old Five? Old Five!" Qi Xiu quickly noticed something wrong with the person beside him.

Yiwu's eyes were fixed on the plastic bin, muttering silently as if someone was whispering in his ear.

Yiwu indeed heard a voice.

That voice kept telling him:

Just pick any one; all the helmets are the same.

Look, the one right in the middle is great.

It's that one!

It's that one!

It's that one!!

Although contaminated, Yiwu hadn't completely lost his mind. His self-awareness was fighting against the contamination.

He knew that the voice had ill intentions; the more it wanted him to pick a certain helmet, the less he should touch it.

But his right hand seemed to have a mind of its own, moving swiftly towards the bin.

Qi Xiu, quick-witted and fast-handed, took out a bottle of contamination cleaner, unscrewed the cap, and splashed it directly onto Yiwu's face.

At the same time, a particularly slender and pale hand inserted itself into their field of vision.

The unusually thin wrist seemed like it could be broken with a slight bend, but its owner was determined and moved decisively.

He lifted a helmet from the bin and threw it directly at Yiwu.

"Bang!"

With no restraint, the helmet hit Yiwu's forehead like a brick.

Yiwu was already dizzy, and now he saw stars.

"You—"

The player almost exploded in anger, glaring at Qin Fei to question him, but immediately shut up when he grabbed the helmet.

In his hand, without a doubt, was a sky-blue helmet, just like the one in Qi Xiu's hand.

Yiwu looked back at the plastic bin again.

The blood-red color in the bin receded like a tide, quickly disappearing, even the initially red helmet was gone.

Qin Fei casually put on a helmet, picked up another one, and pushed a seemingly ordinary helmet from the center of the bin to the corner.

"Don't take this one," he warned nonchalantly.

Yiwu approached with a complex expression. "Thank you."

The person in front of him had extremely high mental immunity, a fact well-known in the Research Institute scenario.

However, facing it again still left Yiwu in awe.

Qin Fei didn't care and waved his hand dismissively.

The incorrect answers had been eliminated, and the remaining players quickly selected their helmets and approached the NPC who had shouted at them.

However, the other teams behind them suffered. All the helmets in the plastic baskets turned blue again, and no matter how they tried to distinguish them, the odd helmet did not reappear.

But this did not mean it had vanished entirely.

Lu Cheng glanced back at the players standing before the plastic baskets, bald spots visible, and sighed softly:

"I thought being the first team to progress might be bad, but now it seems alright. Moving too slowly means you can't even get fresh shit."

Qin Fei gave Lu Cheng a sidelong glance, speechless: "…"

If you want to eat it, enjoy it all by yourself.

Under the supervision of the NPC, the group of ten walked towards the northeast corner of the construction site to move cement, bricks, and sand.

When they said they would be laborers, they meant it literally.

None of the players escaped the fate of manual labor. Soon after Qin Fei's team was in place, the remaining three groups also took their positions at the southwest and north corners of the site.

They were all assigned the same task of moving materials.

One group had a rather intense argument when collecting construction supplies from the supervisor—more accurately, it was one-sided abuse.

The NPC supervisor verbally attacked one of the players, almost coming to blows.

The player, however, did not dare to resist since the game had just started and the rules were still unclear. They apologized meekly and humbly.

"That's someone from Dark Fire," Lu Cheng, the expert eavesdropper, reported, "Cui Wenxuan is the one being yelled at."

Cui Wenxuan was a notable figure among A-grade players. His advantage in the game mainly came from an A-grade item he had accidentally obtained, the "Mirror of Truth."

This item was incredibly powerful, almost like a skill.

After binding with the Mirror of Truth, Cui Wenxuan could use any reflective surface—mirrors, water, glass—to find traces of ghostly or residual spirit bosses in haunted scenarios, allowing him to avoid most dangers early on.

As a result, Cui Wenxuan always wore various mirrors and glass accessories, making him look like a walking mirror stand.

Now, the mirror stand had been pushed to the ground by the NPC supervisor.

The row of mirrors attached to his belt shattered, and broken pieces embedded into his buttocks, causing Cui Wenxuan's face to contort in pain.

Such injuries were minor; a low-tier red potion could easily heal them. Qin Fei was more concerned about why the NPC supervisor reacted that way.

"Mirrors cannot appear on the construction site?" Lu Cheng quickly deduced, "Why?"

This was a hidden rule not explicitly stated.

Qin Fei narrowed his eyes: "Look closely at the supervisor's expression."

His eyes widened, his breathing quickened, and his fists clenched and unclenched rapidly.

After pushing Cui Wenxuan away, the supervisor quickly stepped back as if trying to distance himself.

The players in the eastern team continued working while watching the scene intently.

After hearing Qin Fei's words, An Yang pondered, "The NPC doesn't seem angry but rather afraid."

Afraid of what?

"It must be afraid of ghosts."

Yiwu frowned and analyzed, "In Chinese ghost stories, mirrors are usually related to ghostly plots over ninety percent of the time."

Upon entering the story, the players received a system prompt informing them that three construction teams had previously worked on this small site, and they were the fourth.

"The previous three teams failed to start work and left hastily after spending one night on the site."

Yiwu opened the attribute panel and read its contents.

"People must have died on this site," Qi Xiu said.

The previous teams left because they saw ghosts during the night and were scared away.

"Right," Lu Cheng agreed, "Didn't we see a blood-red helmet earlier? That probably hinted at this."

The blood-red helmet indicated that workers had died on the site.

Thus, the main mission became clear.

The system required players to survive until Mid-Autumn Festival. Their task was to uncover the tragedy that occurred on the site and find a way to deal with the malevolent ghost.

"We need to explore the site more," Yiwu said, "We should gather clues about the ghost as soon as possible. The game divided us into four teams, likely to make us compete."

Staying in the corner and working diligently would only lag them behind.

As the players whispered their thoughts, Qin Fei, standing behind them, spoke calmly:

"I already have some ideas about the ghost's cause of death."

Lu Cheng turned around, bewildered: "?"

?

??

No way, man. We just figured out there might be a ghost on the site, and you've already figured out how it died?

Lu Cheng's expression was complex, and even Qi Xiu's stony countenance, unchanged for millennia, showed a hint of a crack.