Chapter 55: The Beginning of Losing Control

Chapter 55: Out of Control

"Fang Xiujie!"

Sister Yao clung to Ning Yan, sobbing, leaving Ning Yan flustered and unable to think clearly. Influenced by Sister Yao, she found herself crying for some unknown reason and could only frantically turn to Fang Xiujie for help.

Fang Xiujie's expression was tinged with sorrow. He looked between Ning Yan and Sister Yao, hesitating several times before finally speaking to Ning Yan: "Ning Yan, perhaps three years ago we already..."

"Cough—cough—cough—"

Just as Fang Xiujie was about to speak, a series of coughs erupted from very close by.

"It's that coughing sound! The one we heard in Building Two!" Qiu Lei blurted out, jumping to her feet and completely cutting off Fang Xiujie's words.

Everyone's attention immediately shifted.

Though the coughing sounded very near, it didn't seem to be inside Building One's lobby but rather came from outside.

Coughing itself wasn't a unique identifier, but earlier, when Su Bai rescued Feng Ling, the female ghost who had been strangling Feng Ling was dragged into a pit beneath a tree by a coughing ghost.

Had Su Bai's commotion not disturbed that coughing ghost, the female ghost would likely have been buried alive, and given the pit's depth, she would have been utterly trapped.

Players peered through the glass doors to the outside and saw a humanoid shadow standing not far from Building One's entrance. The shadow held a shovel, looking strikingly similar to the ghost Su Bai and Feng Ling had encountered before.

"I think I've seen him before." Feng Ling no longer dwelled on Su Bai's words and quickly shared everything she knew: seeing the coughing ghost drag someone into a pit, running out of Building Three to save people, being attacked by the female ghost in the pit, and then being rescued by a mysterious black-clad boy.

"Someone like that... was really one of the deceased players?" The others felt a pang of regret for the black-clad boy Feng Ling described.

The shadow outside, holding the shovel, didn't gaze up at the red moon like other ghosts, nor did it turn to look at the players inside the glass doors. It merely ambled along the edge of the landscaped area, its gaze fixed on the other ghosts basking in the moonlight, as if those supernatural entities held far more allure than the human players gathered in Building One.

"So that means, last time I saw him, his target was also those ghosts." Su Bai recalled the coughing ghost he'd seen earlier—the creature had fled at the first sound but had then attacked the fierce female ghost and even forcibly dragged her into the pit under the tree.

"Last time?" Feng Ling murmured softly, almost to herself, after hearing Su Bai's words.

"Since it's out of control, it must be another ghost that has regained its memories, right? What does it want to do?" Qiu Man, though a newcomer, noticed that those older than her were visibly on edge.

"Those ghosts—!!"

Qiu Lei suddenly clapped a hand over her mouth, gasping.

But in truth, Qiu Lei's reminder wasn't needed. Everyone had been watching the coughing ghost outside the door, and now they all noticed the hundreds of ghosts that had been quietly and orderly lined up in the landscaped areas between the four buildings, gazing up at the red moon... they were moving!

It wasn't a controlled state; rather, it seemed as if the gathered ghosts had suddenly lost all restraint. From the players' perspective, they could even see the ghosts' eyes leaving the red moon and beginning to look around in confusion.

At first, the hundreds of ghosts under the red moon appeared fairly normal, as if still controlled by the false memories of "Happy Community," playing the roles of "ordinary" characters who looked normal but might secretly be chopping up suspicious meat.

But gradually, these ghosts' appearances began to change.

Although the red moon's light allowed them to barely discern some of the ghosts' forms, even clearer than the coughing ghost standing in the shadows outside the door, it was still only a faint glimpse. Even Su Bai could only guess that the ghosts were slowly regaining their memories, and their appearances might change as those memories returned.

Some vengeful spirits developed various wounds; some lost their limbs or even their heads.

Evil spirits gradually revealed their truest, most terrifying forms—perhaps a human-shaped pool of blood, a blood-drenched butcher, or a malicious paper figure...

Su Bai didn't know if these ghosts, having basked in the moonlight for a while, had regained their memories, or how much they remembered, but they clearly wouldn't continue to stand there idly under the moon.

Almost within two or three minutes, the situation with the ghosts outside the glass doors spiraled completely out of control!

Just like starving feline spirits eating neighbors on the same floor, some starving ghosts, when unable to find human prey, would turn to hunting their own kind.

However, the biggest difference between ghosts and human players was that ghosts showed no alarm or reaction to seeing others devour each other. Most ghosts drifted past those being eaten like wandering spirits, perhaps not even bothering to cast a second glance.

Ignoring the ghosts being devoured, the others were quickly drawn by the lights from the four residential buildings. Perhaps catching the scent of humans from the four buildings, the ghosts under the red moon soon surged toward the residential buildings in different directions.

One group was approaching Building One at an alarming speed!

"It's about to start." Qiu Man glanced at Lan Xingchen, who sat silently with his head down, then at Sister Yao, who had finally stopped crying but still looked shaken, and Su Bai, who was standing further away from them. She sighed with frustration.

"We should still have time to escape upstairs."

Almost as soon as Qiu Man finished speaking, the two stairwell doors at the end of the hallway suddenly slammed shut with a "bang," followed by the distinct sound of metal locking.

Then, in the next second, the previously lit elevator panel went dark. No matter how the two male players beside Sister Yao pressed the buttons, the elevator remained unresponsive.

"This Happy Community is the anomaly itself and naturally possesses its own consciousness." Su Bai, noticing the changes inside the building, tightened his grip on his long-handled umbrella. "When we entered the game, the administrator said losing points would cause dissatisfaction among other residents. I can't tell if those things outside are dissatisfied, but this community, even this building itself, is seething with malice."

With their escape routes suddenly blocked, players only had one choice left: "face it."

Ning Yan carefully extricated herself from Sister Yao's grasp, wiped the tears from her face, and asked her teammate: "Fang Xiujie, can you help treat her wound?"

Fang Xiujie looked at his hands, then nodded.

"I'll leave Yao Yao to you." Ning Yan said, instinctively reaching for something behind her waist but finding nothing. After a moment's pause, she turned to face the ghosts approaching outside the glass doors.

"Ning Yan, what I wanted to say was..." Fang Xiujie seemed intent on finishing his interrupted sentence.

"Save it for after this is over." Ning Yan cut him off again.

"Ning Yan!"

"Stay back and don't move, protect yourselves!" Ning Yan raised her voice. "Really, wounded liabilities are as troublesome as newcomers!"

Ning Yan took a few steps closer to the glass doors.

Su Bai saw everyone's attention drawn to Ning Yan and took a few steps back, moving into a blind spot out of everyone's sight until he reached the stairwell door shut by supernatural force.

Although Su Bai couldn't open the stairwell door either...

Su Bai reached out with his left hand to touch the stairwell door handle. Even if he couldn't open the door leading upstairs, he might be able to open another door.

"Don't worry, hide behind." Ning Yan noticed someone moving behind her but didn't mind. "If I'm holding the front, even if something happens... maybe, our points might not get deducted, right?"