Chapter 27: Play Your Role Well

Chapter 27: Play Your Part

"Ding—"

As Fengling fled Room 602, the adjacent elevator inexplicably opened on its own, despite no one having pressed the button.

Seeing the light spill from the elevator, Fengling dared not step inside. For ordinary people, an elevator was the quickest and most convenient way down. But Fengling, now acutely aware she was trapped in the Nightmare World, had no desire to enter such a confined space.

Turning, Fengling headed for the stairwell marked as an emergency exit.

While ghost stories often featured staircases, at least in a stairwell, Fengling would have a chance to flee if she encountered something strange.

With this thought, Fengling pushed open the stairwell door without further hesitation.

Unlike the grim stairwells of horror tales, the one in "Blissful Community" was brightly lit. Potted plants adorned the windows on every landing, and the clean, transparent windows were unlocked. Should she truly encounter something eerie, she could still escape, even if it meant sacrificing her legs.

As she hurried down the stairs toward the first floor, Fengling conjured various terrifying scenarios. Yet, nothing happened even as she reached the second floor, which helped calm her nerves somewhat.

However, before Fengling could fully relax, footsteps echoed from the first-floor stairwell.

Fengling immediately stopped by the second-floor landing window, quietly opened it, and even glanced at the soft grass below.

The footsteps grew closer. Fengling saw a woman in a red dress ascending the stairs, a supermarket shopping bag in hand, her head bowed as she climbed step by step. Fengling reassured herself that the woman likely lived on the second floor and had simply opted for the stairs after shopping, rather than waiting for the elevator.

But as the woman in the red dress drew nearer and reached Fengling’s side, Fengling, who had been observing her intently, noticed that the woman was barefoot and walking on tiptoe.

The only comfort was that the woman kept her head down the entire time, not pausing even as she passed Fengling, continuing her ascent.

Fengling held her breath as if encountering a predator in the forest, her eyes fixed on the woman’s retreating figure. She planned to wait until the woman reached the third floor and was sufficiently distant before quickly fleeing to the first floor.

The stairwell light illuminated the woman in red, and Fengling looked up to see the shadow of the woman’s lowered head cast upon the wall.

The shadow on the wall was unsettlingly distorted. Around its neck was a thick rope, suspended high in the void, resembling the shadow of someone who had been hanged.

Seeing the woman’s perpetually lowered head and tiptoed walk, Fengling began to tremble with fear.

The woman continued upward, soon vanishing from Fengling’s sight. But Fengling remained frozen in the corner of the landing for a long time, unmoving until even the sound of footsteps completely faded. Then, as if suddenly wound up, she dashed toward the first floor.

If not for the fear of tumbling down the stairs, Fengling would have simply leaped.

Pushing open the first-floor stairwell door, Fengling soon re-entered the bright, spacious lobby of Building 3, the very place where she had encountered the boy in black earlier.

The lobby was utterly empty, devoid of a single soul.

For a moment, Fengling was at a loss as to where to go.

Fengling knew she wasn't the only player in the Nightmare World game. But Blissful Community was vast, with numerous buildings, and she had no idea where to find other players.

"Whew— Cough— Cough—"

Just as Fengling was pondering her next move, she suddenly heard close-by gasping and coughing sounds from outside Building 3. Although she knew that not everything making noise in the Nightmare World was human, Fengling still moved closer to the main entrance of Building 3, pressing herself against the inside of the glass door to cautiously peer outside.

Through the residential building’s glass door, Fengling gazed at the verdant area under the red moonlit night.

Even though "Blissful Community’s" lush greenery was dotted with streetlights every few steps, the abundance of trees made it difficult to clearly discern what was happening outside.

Fengling adjusted her glasses for a better view and could only make out a person carrying something along a path toward a nearby tree.

From his build, the person appeared to be a man. What he carried was nearly as large as himself and seemed incredibly heavy, bending him over. He trudged forward with difficulty, breathing heavily and coughing intermittently, as if in poor health.

Upon reaching the target tree, the man flung the object off his back.

It was only then that Fengling clearly saw—the man had been carrying another person!

Judging by the clothing and physique, it was a woman.

On the final stretch, the man roughly dragged the woman before finally tossing her into a pre-dug pit beneath the tree. He then picked up a shovel left by the tree and began filling the pit with soil!

The man was burying the woman alive!

Fengling clapped a hand over her mouth. She didn’t know if the man was truly "human," but the woman was still struggling when thrown into the pit. Could she be another player who had just entered the Nightmare World?

"Crash—"

Just as Fengling was paralyzed with indecision, a deafening crash of breaking glass erupted from another direction.

The "man" who had been shoveling dirt seemed terrified of being discovered. Hearing the noise, he glanced toward the sound, as if he had seen something, then panicked, threw the shovel into the pit, and scrambled into the nearby bushes.

Fengling even saw the "man" emerge from the bushes on the other side and dash into another building in the community.

After confirming he wouldn’t return anytime soon, Fengling glanced again at the pit under the tree. Despite the limited light, she felt she could see something struggling inside.

The person might still be alive!

Without overthinking, Fengling quickly assessed her surroundings, then rushed out of Building 3’s main entrance, soon reaching the tree. The pit contained only a thin layer of soil, so as Fengling approached, she could clearly see that the person buried inside was a middle-aged woman covered in blood. The blood appeared to be gushing from a wound on her neck.

Due to the continuous bleeding, Fengling couldn’t clearly see the wound on her neck, but judging by the amount of blood, it seemed as though her neck had been pierced through.

Despite the severe injury, the middle-aged woman’s eyes were still open, and she was looking at Fengling, who had rushed over. Her mouth opened and closed as if she were trying to say something.

Just as Fengling was about to help the woman up, the woman grabbed Fengling’s wrist instead. Struggling with her severe neck injury, she spoke in a faint voice, her urgency suggesting she had a secret she desperately needed to tell Fengling.

Fengling crouched down and leaned closer, trying to hear what the woman was saying.

"Why?"

"Is causing death such an interesting thing?" Despite having her neck pierced, the woman managed to speak a full sentence clearly.

In that instant, Fengling realized she was doing something incredibly foolish. She shouldn’t have come near this place, shouldn’t have approached this woman. Her pointless kindness might truly kill her at this moment!

Fengling released the woman and began backing away with all her strength, but the woman’s hand still gripped her tightly. Fengling even felt the woman’s red nails digging into her arm, as if about to pierce her skin!

"Let go of me!"

Fengling struggled desperately to break free from the woman—or rather, the female ghost in the pit—but instead, she was dragged into the pit. The female ghost, seemingly uninjured, pinned Fengling down and tightly choked her neck with both hands.

"I remember now, I’ve already died once. Why did he have to kill me again?"

"Is killing really so much fun?" As the female ghost spoke, blood from her neck dripped onto Fengling’s glasses.

As the ghost’s grip tightened, Fengling began to feel suffocated. Even the red moon she could see through the tree branches started to blur. She felt she might be on the verge of failing the game.

"Mmph—"

Just as Fengling thought she was doomed, she saw a sword pierce through the female ghost’s neck through the gap in her glasses!

Yes, a sword!

A sword had once again pierced the wound on the female ghost’s neck.

Fengling watched in horror as the female ghost, enraged, turned her head and even loosened her grip on Fengling’s neck, and then the next second...

The next second, the female ghost was kicked aside by the owner of the sword.

"Run. I can’t hold her off for long," the sword's owner said, pulling Fengling out of the pit with one hand.

Through the blood-stained gap in her glasses, Fengling recognized the person who had saved her with the sword—it was actually the boy in black she had encountered earlier in the lobby. Fengling didn't consider herself particularly thin, yet this strikingly handsome boy not only held a sword oddly but also yanked her out of the pit with just one hand.

However, without waiting for the other to say anything more, Fengling scrambled out of the pit on all fours and took several steps back.

Then, Fengling saw the boy in black pick up the sword again and, just as the female ghost tried to climb out of the pit once more, pierced the ghost’s neck. This time, the boy in black forcefully drove the sword into the bottom of the pit, as if using the long sword as a giant nail, pinning the female ghost firmly inside!

"Her neck is her weak spot. As long as no one else pulls out that sword, she won't be able to get up."

The boy in black showed no intention of retrieving the sword. Instead, he approached Fengling and, fixing his uncovered eye on her, instructed word by word: "Miss Feng, if you want to survive, play your part."

"You... are..."

Fengling had many more questions to ask, such as whether the other was human or a ghost, and how he knew her surname was Feng.

But before Fengling could say anything, the boy in black had already melted into the shadows deep within the trees, vanishing completely in the blink of an eye.

Who exactly was he?