Chapter 23: The True Cause of Mother’s Death

Chapter 23: The True Cause of Mother’s Death

"Special reminder: The white faction is currently weakened."

When he first entered the game, that snarky voice had delivered the same message. Devoid of context or explanation, it was impossible for newcomers to grasp what "white faction" meant, let alone its opposition.

Ignorance ensured this message was largely overlooked by new players.

Su Bai, however, understood its full implications—a realization that, unfortunately, offered little solace.

In his previous life, Su Bai and other veterans had jokingly dubbed that snarky voice the "Game Master," or simply "Master." After all, they knew nothing of the "person" or identity behind it, and constantly referring to it as "that snarky voice" was impractical.

According to the Master, human players constituted the "white faction," while the opposing "black faction" naturally comprised the eerie entities of the Nightmare World.

Thus, for players, this special reminder was nothing more than a seemingly profound yet ultimately meaningless platitude.

Indeed, beyond a select few, humanity truly struggled against the supernatural.

"Two... One... Zero."

"Ding—"

As the Master’s countdown concluded, the mechanical whir of elevator doors opening reached Su Bai’s ears. The path leading to the bus twisted before his eyes, and he faintly glimpsed Mr. Qin Ge, having disembarked, running towards him, seemingly shouting. Yet, his voice, like the space itself, was already distorted.

In a blink, the path and the towering flames vanished, and the chill of the Red Moon dissipated instantly.

Su Bai was no longer in the eerie village of the Nightmare World but in the brightly lit corridor of a hospital.

"Su... Classmate Su?" The elevator door opened behind Su Bai, and an unfamiliar female voice spoke.

Rubbing his eyes, Su Bai adjusted to the sudden change in light before turning. Not far behind him, by the elevator, a young nurse regarded him with a puzzled expression.

Su Bai strained his memory, vaguely recalling that when he had entered the inpatient department late last night, this young nurse had been standing beside an older nurse he recognized. She must have learned about him and his name from her senior colleague.

"You look exhausted. Didn’t you rest all night?" the young nurse asked with concern.

All night?

Su Bai glanced around, spotting the digital clock in the corridor. Although they had cleared the game early due to the disappearance of the eerie village and the Ghost Bride, the synchronized time between the Nightmare World and reality meant it was already past six in the morning.

They had spent a real-world night in the Nightmare World.

The young nurse’s puzzled expression likely stemmed from Su Bai’s appearance. He had been wearing wet school clothes in the early hours; though dry now, the mud on his pant legs suggested it was still the same outfit from dawn.

"Don’t worry, Nurse Chen said your mother’s condition is stable," the young nurse reassured him gently, perhaps assuming he was distressed about his mother’s health.

"Thank you."

Su Bai offered his thanks, though his heart wasn’t in it.

He remembered from his previous life how both the attending nurses and consulting specialists had confidently declared his mother’s condition stable, even guaranteeing a way to awaken her.

But what was the outcome? Not long after those assurances, his mother’s condition rapidly deteriorated. After a desperate struggle for life in the ICU, she still succumbed.

Nodding farewell to the young nurse, Su Bai headed towards the hospital room he remembered. Before her transfer to the ICU, his mother had lain in that room for a long time.

The closer he got, the stranger Su Bai felt.

When he had rushed into the hospital in the early hours, he had been desperate to enter the room, even feeling an urge to punch the Master for pulling him into the Nightmare World midway.

But now, with the room in sight, Su Bai’s steps grew slower and slower.

Human emotions are always complex. It was like on the Route 444 Last Bus: the closer they got to the eerie village, the faster the bus sped, yet upon reaching its outskirts, it slowed to a crawl.

The difference was that the Ghost Bride’s emotion was hatred, while Su Bai’s was the apprehension of being near a loved one after a long absence.

No matter how slowly Su Bai walked, he eventually reached his mother’s hospital room door. His right hand trembled slightly as it rested on the doorknob.

Just then, a voice he had heard not long ago echoed in his ear—

"Mr. Su, there’s something wrong in the hospital room!"

It was the crying Nurse from the Nightmare World, the one without a name who called herself 'Cry.' After becoming part of the Puzzle, not only could Su Bai understand Cry Nurse’s abilities and past, but Cry Nurse could also access Su Bai’s information.

Cry Nurse’s abilities might not match those of a fierce ghost like A Xi, who had been exposed to the Red Moon for centuries, but due to her profession, her perception in hospital settings was exceptionally keen.

So, the moment Cry Nurse spoke, Su Bai instantly pushed open the hospital room door.

His mother’s hospital room was a double, but the other bed was covered with a plastic sheet, clearly unoccupied. However, as Su Bai pushed the door open, he saw a figure standing beside his mother’s bed!

It was an elderly person in black burial clothes, their body and face withered like dead wood, covered almost entirely in terrifying purplish-red corpse spots.

Looking closer, besides the corpse-spotted elder, a purple-skinned infant was crawling on Su Bai’s mother’s bed, inching forward from her feet.

Su Bai’s mother lay unconscious, yet she trembled and sweated as if trapped in a nightmare.

No, it wasn’t a nightmare at all!

No words could describe Su Bai’s feelings at that moment. The power within him was almost depleted—but only almost. His experiences from his previous life had taught him to always keep a trump card, an escape plan.

But now, Su Bai couldn’t afford to hold back. Since A Xi was dormant, he immediately borrowed power from another piece of the Puzzle. Even if he couldn’t borrow its full strength due to insufficient energy, it didn’t matter!

The moment he borrowed a portion of the Puzzle’s power, a fierce laceration appeared on Su Bai’s neck—a scar belonging to the fierce ghost within the Puzzle, a normal effect of resonating with it. Additionally, his skin turned as pale and cold as a ghost’s, and even his breathing and heartbeat slowed significantly.

In the next instant, a rusty short knife appeared in Su Bai’s hand. As he approached the bed, he swiftly sliced through the supernatural infant, then flung the knife toward the corpse-spotted elder by the window. The infant’s wails and the old ghost’s startled cries were cut short as both dissolved into black mist and scattered.

Su Bai recognized this black mist—it only appeared when weak ghosts were slain. Clearly, the old ghost and the supernatural infant weren’t particularly powerful entities. But for ordinary people—especially critically ill patients—the influence of such ghosts could be fatal!

After confirming there were no other ghosts nearby, Su Bai saw his mother on the bed for the first time in over a decade. She was pale and thin, her hair already graying despite being only in her forties.

The bloodstain on his neck faded, and color returned to his face. Having exhausted his energy, Su Bai could no longer use the fierce ghost Puzzle’s power for the time being. But at that moment, all he could see was his mother, freed from her "nightmare," sleeping peacefully.

The last time Su Bai had seen his mother, she had no heartbeat or breath, never to wake again. But now, though she still lay unconscious, he could hear her heartbeat and breathing.

Under normal circumstances, Su Bai should have been overwhelmed with emotion and joy. But what had just happened was overturning his entire understanding of the real world!

In his previous life, after entering the Nightmare World, Su Bai had never returned to the real world. Moreover, before entering, he had been nothing more than an ordinary high school dropout. It wasn’t until he entered the Nightmare World that he first learned of the existence of supernatural beings and firmly believed that the real world held no such beings.

Until his rebirth, Su Bai had thought that so-called ghosts and spirits were, for ordinary people in the real world, nothing more than fantasies from novels and movies throughout their lives.

But now, supernatural beings in the real world, though weak, undeniably existed. Even his mother’s death might very well be related to supernatural forces!

Every time his mother’s condition had worsened, she would tremble and break out in cold sweat, just like moments ago, as if trapped in an inescapable nightmare.

Su Bai couldn’t help but smile bitterly and press a hand to his forehead. He had thought his mother’s death was due to the incompetence of the experts and doctors, his inability to afford better hospitals or equipment, or even the limitations of real-world medical technology.

It had never occurred to him that his mother, lying in her hospital bed, had been targeted by ghosts!

Although Su Bai had dealt with the two ghosts approaching his mother now, what if more ghosts came near her bed when he was away?

Su Bai glanced at his own hands. All the power within his body had been exhausted; he might not even be able to deal with the next ghost, let alone leave a fragment behind to protect his mother like he did in his previous life.

However...

Su Bai noticed the blood-red prayer beads on his left hand, and that one bead that had turned blackish-red after capturing the white qipao paper doll.

Still, he wasn’t completely out of options!

With that thought, Su Bai turned without hesitation and walked toward the door of the hospital room. He pressed his left hand—marked with the palm imprint—against the door handle. According to the child in the Mist Shop, using his left hand to open any door with a handle would let him enter the Mist Shop—where time stood still.