Everything happened too fast.

As an object that was desperately guarded by the corpse king, Chen Sheng was dumbfounded.

So... what's the situation now?

He thought that he was bound to die, but he didn't expect to be protected by the most terrifying zombie. Then, an even more unbelievable scene appeared——

As if inspired by some kind of belief, the corpse king put on a heroic and decisive posture; the zombies gradually slowed down, and Chen Sheng's incomprehensible emotions appeared on their pale as paper faces.

Regarding this, Shen Chan was also a little confused: "Other zombies...are also controlled by the puppet technique?"

Xue Zizhen shook his head: "This skill can only control one ghost."

She couldn't figure out why this scene appeared in front of her.

Moreover, in the eyes of the corpse king looking at Chen Sheng, in addition to the initial slyness and hostility, there is actually a little bit more...

love?

520: ...

With your normal brains, you really can't figure it out.

Tired, destroy it.

The zombies somehow gave up their attack, and finally got a chance to escape, so it was useless.

Xue Zizhen's "puppet art" has a limited time, and the few people did not hesitate, pulling Chen Sheng and rushing towards the exit.

This time, when the game announcement sounded, the boy's voice was a little more manic, almost frantic.

"One, two, three, wooden man!"

In the matter of spreading fear, it really depends on the foil of the peers.

After leaving that path, although they met a few new zombies, they would still be stared at very strangely, but with the corpse king Zhuyu in front of them, even the most timid Chen Sheng would no longer face them.So scared.

——After experiencing the endless sense of oppression brought by the corpse king, the other zombies all look extraordinarily naive.

Time was running out, and several people raced against the clock, and when there were six minutes left in the countdown, they rushed to the gate of the house.

The moment he stepped out the door, Bai Shuangxing heard a loud beep.

"Ding dong!"

"Congratulations to the challengers for successfully completing the game. It was really a wonderful and interesting 'One Two Three Wooden Figures'!"

"Presumably, Chen Sheng will keep this beautiful memory in his heart forever."

Hoarfrost Walk: ...

She silently lowered her head and glanced at Chen Sheng.

The boy looked devastated, his face was as white as paper, and his eyes were faintly red because he was too frightened.

How "beautiful" this memory is, she doesn't know.

But Bai Shuangxing is sure that Chen Sheng will definitely remember today for a long time. In a sense, it is indeed "forever in my heart".

"Ding dong!"

"Congratulations to the challengers for receiving the reward, the ghost card 'Zombie'!"

"Zombie"

"After a person dies, if the yin qi is too strong and the resentment is too strong, the corpse will change and become a zombie. Zombies are slow in thinking and like to eat human flesh. They look for strangers through their breath. If you want to subdue them, you can use glutinous rice, peach wood sword andHigh-level talismans."

"The card has been included in the game atlas"

"Gain experience points, the character level has been raised to level 5, challengers please continue to work hard!"

All in all, it passed the level without any risk.

Bai Shuangxing heaved a sigh of relief, and in the blink of an eye, he returned to the depressed street of Guaitan Town.

The task of "one, two, three wooden men" didn't take long, and when they were teleported back to their original location, the children were still there.

After the game was over, they didn't invite Chen Sheng to "play together", but turned their heads to one side, raised their lips to maintain a smile, and let out a soft cooing sound from their throats.

Stared at by six corpse-like children at the same time, Chen Sheng swallowed hard.

"Let's go."

Bai Shuangxing held the umbrella in his hand, stood under the shadow, avoiding the sun: "Stay here, maybe there is still some danger."

She always remembered her identity as a vampire, and she opened the umbrella as early as when the system issued "zombie" cards.

It's always good to plan ahead, otherwise the illusion will disappear, and when the group returns to the daytime town, she will be burned by the sun.

The race of vampires sounds good, but the restrictions are too great.

"Hide and seek" and "one, two, three wooden people" are both at night, and she can move around as she wants; if she encounters a game with a background in the daytime, she will definitely struggle.

Bai Shuangxing spoke calmly, and when he was about to turn to leave, he frowned suddenly.

Not an illusion.

The six children in front of them were originally smiling slyly, staring at them as if they were watching a show, but in an instant, their expressions suddenly changed.

Under their pitch-black eyes, Bai Shuangxing glimpsed an emotion similar to fear.

Who are they afraid of?

Her heart tightened, and she quickly turned her head in the direction the children were looking at.

At the same time, Chen Sheng beside him opened his eyes wide and trembled uncontrollably.

——At a corner of the street, there are a few shadows floating faintly.

The shape of the shadow is very similar to that of a human being, except that the whole body is dark and turbid, like a polluted dirty pool, which makes people not want to get close to it.

Bai Shuangxing recognized that it was a ghost that had appeared in the misty forest, and it was also a strange black shadow that Chen Sheng said would "carry out massacres at night".

Since their appearance, more and more mutations have occurred in the town.

She has always wanted to see this kind of monster up close, but she never expected the opportunity to come so suddenly.

Chen Sheng was very frightened, staring at the direction where the shadow was, and froze in place.

At the same time, the system made a crisp sound.

"Ding dong!"

"Encounter a high-risk monster! Before the monster leaves, please keep still and don't make any noise."

Bai Shuangxing nodded, exchanging glances with other people around him.

Looking at those black shadows again, they are gradually approaching them.

Strange to say, their appearance is not special, but the sense of oppression exuded is extremely strong, the shadows are dark and heavy, making people want to escape involuntarily.

As they got closer, Bai Shuang Xing vaguely heard voices coming from their mouths.

Chaotic, obscure, and difficult to understand, the tone is sometimes high and sometimes low, as if countless Chinese characters were randomly smashed, chaotically reorganized, and pieced together into sentences that she couldn't understand at all.

However, even if she couldn't understand, when those whispers sounded in her ears, she still felt a very strange fear, as if this fear could go directly to her mind along the eardrum, and no one could resist it.

What are they... exactly?

Everyone obediently followed the system's instructions without making a sound or moving.

After the black shadow lingered around for a while and finally left slowly, Shen Chan took a deep breath: "Go... go?"

Her palms were full of cold sweat.

"Ok."

Wen Chuchu patted her chest lightly: "These monsters are very powerful."

If you compare the white night in front of you to a game, the black shadow just now is definitely the most dangerous, the most difficult and the highest boss level.

"I remember," Ji Fenglin said, "don't they come out at night?"

Chen Sheng had a bitter face, being tortured one after another, he was already in a trance.

"Yes... yes, before, they only appeared at night."

The boy trembled: "I don't know..."

"Because the erosion of the town is getting worse."

Xue Zizhen's analysis: "When they first appeared, this place was still the domain of human activities; later, there were changes, more and more people became ghosts, and they began to occupy the night; now, these shadows can appear in the daytime unscrupulously——”

She paused slightly: "Does it mean that this town will soon become a territory of ghosts?"

Bai Shuangxing: "I think so too"

When she spoke, she moved her eyes and looked at the six children not far away.

After the black shadows appeared, their aura of showing off their might has subsided a lot, and now they stood in the corner with pale faces, as quiet as quails.

"The black shadows are so powerful that even other ghosts in the town keep away from them. There is a high probability that they are related to the source of the mutation."

Bai Shuangxing said: "It's just that there are too few clues... let's continue to explore."

A group of people stayed in place and pondered dryly, unable to come up with an answer anyway. After a brief exchange of ideas, they headed towards the dark river to the north again.

Along the way, Bai Shuangxing had nothing to do, observing the scene on both sides of the road, while thinking about the possibility of various answers.

First of all, the background of the story happened decades ago.

Most of the houses on the street are old wooden structures, which are set off by small bridges and flowing water, just like an old Jiangnan landscape painting.

Because it was daytime, the ghosts hid their bodies, and no human beings could be seen in all directions, and there was a kind of depression and eerie tranquility.

Second, she concluded two reasons for the ghosts and monsters that filled the town.

First, Master Baiye has been persecuted by the entire town, and in his (her) subconscious mind, he or she regards everyone as a detestable inhuman form.

Second, due to some accident, many residents in the town died one after another.

"Chen Sheng."

Xue Zizhen asked: "Have you seen the big house where we played with one, two, three wooden figures?"

Chen Sheng was taken aback for a moment, then nodded timidly.

"It's Jiangfu, the westernmost part of the town."

He whispered, "The king of corpses is Master Jiang—he is usually very nice, and every time he sees me and other children, he will give us candy."

Seeing Master Jiang become like that, he felt a little sad after being shocked.

Wen Chuchu: "How long are we from the cave where the dark river is?"

When they said this, they had already crossed a wide long street, and the surrounding scenery became increasingly deserted and empty.

Clearly, had left the center of town.

Chen Sheng replied honestly: "There is still about half of the journey."

As he was speaking, the boy shuddered.

The sun is shining brightly now, and the temperature can be considered warm. For some reason, a chill suddenly rises from the soles of his feet, runs down his back and straight to his forehead.

Bai Shuangxing also noticed something was wrong.

There is no wind.

The air was peaceful, but she seemed to be pierced by the cold wind, and the chill was like a cold blade, pouring into her limbs and bones in an instant.

This is... the same strong yin energy as in "Evil Ghosts will be reflected".

Xue Zizhen said in a deep voice, "There is a problem here, be careful."

Suddenly, the wind blew up and walked through the narrow alleys.

The alleyway is deep, branching out into many tangled paths and forks, and from nowhere, there is a faint singing sound.

It was a soft female voice.

"Moonlight, basking in the hall."

"Bright lights, red clothes..."

Shen Chan cursed secretly in her heart, and moved her steps silently, getting closer to Bai Shuangxing.

The voice was full of resentment, like crying or laughing, and suddenly sounded in the many branched alleyways, making people confused about the direction it came from.

Listening to the lyrics, this should be a festive ballad when you get married, but it is sung by it, but it looks like a very unlucky funeral song.

The cold wind entrenched the alley, swirling slowly at the position of the tailbone.

Shen Chan shivered, turned her eyes sideways, trying to find the source of the sound.

It didn't take long before got goosebumps all over body——

The alley is deep and dark, surrounded by white walls that are about to change color. In a corner of the cold white tone, without warning, she caught a glimpse of blood-like red.

And a pale face looking at them upright, with a strange expression of either crying or laughing.

"……hiss!"

Shen Chan grabbed Bai Shuangxing's cuff: "Look to the left!"

Bai Shuangxing turned her head as she said, and was also taken aback.

In the pure white between the high walls, an extreme red suddenly appeared.

It was a bright red old-fashioned wedding dress, floating in mid-air quietly——

The reason for saying "Gone with the Wind" is because the woman in the wedding dress seems to have no legs.

The skirt was swaying, but there were no proper feet at the bottom, which reminded her of the rumors she had heard a long time ago that ghosts had no feet.

The woman seemed to be crying and laughing, her face was covered with thick makeup, it was abnormally white, and her lips were stained as red as blood. With that wedding dress, she looked even more creepy and creepy.

Wen Chuchu had almost stopped breathing.

Rather than facing such a scalp-numbing scene, she would rather fight to the death with a murderer with a chainsaw.

A few seconds later, the woman bent her eyes and opened her thin lips slightly.

"Go find your clothes...

Tomorrow, will be someone else's bride..."

The singing was full of sadness, and was blown into every corner of the alley by the wind. There was a crying voice at the end, and there was also a smile with a changed tone.

Bai Shuangxing was mentally prepared, and as expected, he soon heard the system tone.

"Ding dong!"

"You are really a group of lucky tourists! During the tour in the town, I accidentally bumped into a happy wedding."

"As we all know, weddings are a symbol of excitement, happiness and celebration. The bride seems to like you very much and intends to invite everyone to participate in it."

Shen Chan: ...

Thanks to the monitoring system 520, redefining "happy", "happy" and "like".

Shen Chan looked at Xue Zizhen: "By the way, are the games in Bliss Island Studio so yin and yang?"

Wen Chuchu rubbed her cold arm: "This one should be the 'red wedding dress' mentioned in the introduction."

This is the last ghost she wants to meet, from its name to its appearance, it is full of treachery.

Ji Fenglin patted Chen Sheng's head and comforted him softly: "Don't be afraid."

"Don't disappoint the bride's kindness, all challengers, please get ready and join this small town wedding together!"

It was pitch black.

Bai Shuang moved her neck and looked around cautiously. The first thing she felt was a jolt.

She is sitting in... a sedan chair?

This thought came to her in an instant, and slowly, she finally recovered her eyesight.

This is indeed the inside of the sedan chair, square and upright, with glaring red up and down.

If you guessed correctly, combined with the background of this side mission, this is a wedding sedan chair.

Only the bride can sit in the wedding sedan chair, so she—

Bai Shuangxing bowed his head quickly.

Sure enough, she was wearing a big red wedding dress.

The wedding dress is not exquisite, the material is flat, and the embroidery on the skirt is also a little rough. It seems that this character's family background is not rich.

Bai Shuangxing was at a loss for a moment.

According to the mission, they were invited to a wedding, but in the end, she became the bride?

Before she could think deeply, the Xi sedan was jolted and put down slowly.

Immediately afterwards, the red curtain beside the car door was lifted, and in her vision, a face as thin as a piece of paper appeared.

— To be precise, this is a paper doll.

The face of the paper figurine is gray and white, the eyes are drawn as two hollow circles, and the corners of the mouth show an abnormal curvature, which keeps rising all the time.

It was wearing a long black gown, opened the red curtain with one hand, and moved the other hand, making a "please" gesture.

Bai Shuangxing understood, and stepped out of the wedding sedan chair.

It is daytime now, and the sun is coming.All the previous clothes and umbrella disappeared, and before leaving, she picked up the red hijab she had placed beside her, barely covering her face.

The sun's rays inadvertently passed across the back of his hand halfway, Bai Shuangxing felt a sting, and pursed his lips.

Until now, the system has not issued a prompt to tell her the content of the side mission.

She was not in a hurry, after leaving the sedan chair, she patiently surveyed the surrounding environment.

This is a very peculiar building.

Although it is an antique-style wooden building with the characteristics of a small town, it has a total of astonishing twenty-story buildings.

There are densely packed rooms on each floor, with almost no gaps between them, reminding her of sardine cans, subconsciously feeling breathless.

"Ding dong!"

The prompt sounds at the right time.

"Welcome to the wedding scene in Wei Tan Town! In order to enhance the sense of substitution, everyone's roles seem to have undergone subtle changes."

"Please follow the paper figurine to your exclusive wedding room!"

The paper figurine led the way, and Bai Shuangxing obediently followed behind it, guessing the theme of this side mission.

Look at the wedding dress and paper figurines... Could it be the ghost marriage with the highest appearance rate in horror movies?

Follow the paper figurine to the sixth floor, when it opened one of the doors, Bai Shuangxing was taken aback.

The so-called "marriage room" has a simple layout, only a bed, a chair, and a rough wooden table.

To her surprise, besides her, there were four other women in the room——

All women in wedding dresses.

This is... a group wedding?

She couldn't understand the picture in front of her, so she looked intently and found the familiar Xue Zizhen and Wen Chuchu among the four.

After sending her into the house, the paper figurine bowed and closed the door to leave.

As a result, there were only five of them left in the "marriage room".

"that"

Bai Shuang didn't understand and asked, "Excuse me, what's the situation now?"

Being teleported to such a place suddenly, Wen Chuchu also felt unable to make any sense of the matter, looked at the other two girls besides them, and asked softly:

"Hello, may I bother you?"

The short-haired girl on the left looked at her, her lips trembling.

"Were you also arrested suddenly?"

The long-haired woman on the right responded timidly, her eyes flushed: "This... is the monster's lair."

Xue Zizhen: "Monster?"

She reacted quickly, sensing the woman's puzzled look, and added quietly: "We are outsiders, and this is the first time we pass by the neighborhood today, so we didn't expect to encounter such a thing."

The woman suddenly realized and nodded.

"The monster has no name, we, we call it the 'Mind Eater'."

She flinched: "The Heart Eater appeared seven days ago, arrested unmarried women, made them wear wedding dresses, and then—"

The woman paused for a second, gritted her teeth: "Then, eat them."

Wen Chuchu understood: "Is this building used to store women?"

She thought about it, and felt terrified: "There are so many floors and so many rooms, so it's not possible that every room is locked up with people?"

The other party looked sad and nodded slightly.

Bai Shuangxing listened quietly, frowning.

Therefore, this is not a wedding at all, but a slaughterhouse full of blood and death.

She said in a deep voice, "Is there no way to escape?"

"Anyone who escapes, as long as they leave this building, they will be spotted instantly by the Mind Eater."

The short-haired girl huddled in a corner: "It's a lunatic... not only wants to kill us, but also watches us be tortured day by day... No one can escape."

Baishuangxing: "If there are people in every room, how is it—"

She originally wanted to ask how the monster screened each 'food', but was interrupted by a series of loud bangs.

The expressions of the two girls who were also wearing wedding dresses changed suddenly, and they both shrank into the corner.

"Quick, come here!"

The long-haired girl lowered her voice: "The mind eater is here... quickly hide in a corner!"

Although don't know what the purpose of doing this is, but at this moment, there is nothing wrong with following them.

Bai Shuangxing quickly leaned against the corner of the wall, and in an instant, he felt darkness in front of his eyes.

——There is no problem with her vision. The reason why her eyes are dim is because something blocks the sunlight.

With an ominous premonition in his chest, Bai Shuangxing suddenly raised his head, his heart trembling.

Outside the window of their room... was a huge eye.

His pupils were dark and bloodshot, and he stared at everyone in the room without blinking, his eyes were serious and fierce.

A strong sense of oppression was overwhelming, Bai Shuangxing stopped all movements.

After about a few seconds, with the rumbling sound, the eyes moved away from the window.

It was also at this time that Bai Shuangxing was able to get a glimpse of the whole picture outside the window.

It was a giant with bloody flesh and a figure approaching the height of the floor.

Its face was covered with stab wounds, and its skin was swollen and pale after being dead for a long time. Its face was lifeless, only its eyes were full of fresh killing intent.

"this"

Wen Chuchu was so shocked that she lost her words, and the next moment, she held her breath.

The giant moved his body a little bit, his eyes passed every window from top to bottom, and for some reason, he stopped suddenly.

Her ears were extremely quiet, and she watched the giant open one of the doors, like catching a mouse, and picked up a woman in a red dress.

The woman wailed hoarsely, but the monster ignored it and opened its bloody mouth.

Wen Chuchu didn't want to watch the next scene.

"Ding dong!"

"Wow, it seems that a little accident happened during the wedding."

"This is a ferocious giant. In his eyes, human beings are no different from bread, weeds, and ants. Every morning, lunch, and dinner, it will randomly open a door and take food from it."

"Weak brides... I don't know if you can survive a day?"

……one day.

Bai Shuangxing secretly sneered.

There are an unknown number of women here, and the probability of them being selected is extremely slim.

The system only allows them to survive for one day, which means——

Xue Zizhen also realized this: "Tonight, there is a high probability that the monster will choose us."

By then, they had escaped death.

"Shen Chan, Ji Fenglin, and Chen Sheng, I don't know where they are now."

Bai Shuangxing nodded: "If they are scattered in other rooms, they may be the ones who are in danger."

To survive, they must get in touch with their teammates as quickly as possible and formulate a strategy for what to do next.

"Excuse me," Bai Shuangxing looked at the two young girls beside him, "If we don't leave this building, can we move around freely in the building?"

The long-haired woman looked at her silently and nodded.

When they were first arrested here, everyone, like the three newcomers, always felt that they could escape.

But they are just humans lacking the strength to even truss up a chicken, how could they possibly fight against that huge and terrifying monster?

As time goes by, the initial enthusiasm and hope are gradually wiped out, and the only thing they can do is to stay in the house and wait to die.

"The monster will only appear at breakfast, lunch and dinner, with an interval of six hours between each time."

The short-haired girl whispered, "When it's gone, you can pry the door open."

Bai Shuangxing smiled: "Thank you."

In the void, the surveillance system 520 watched all this with great interest, once again filled with anticipation.

The giant this time is completely different from the zombie last time.

Giants are tyrannical by nature and will not brainwash and move themselves. The only thing they understand is endless eating and killing;

What's more, the challenger didn't have much skills left, and he didn't have the strength to deal with this monster.

In Jiangfu, this group of people had good luck.

Just as the two women who gave up struggling thought, how could mere human beings fight against such a huge bloodthirsty monster.

They are about to reach the dark river in the north, the game is coming to an end, and there are not many chances left for it to kill.

"Without further delay, let's go out as soon as possible. If other teammates are here, they will definitely show up."

After Xue Zizhen finished speaking, he glanced at Bai Shuangxing: "You are under the sun...is it alright?"

It is morning and the sun is shining brightly, which is extremely restrictive for Hoarfrost.

When she left the wedding sedan chair, although she covered her head with a hijab, the backs of her hands were inevitably burned, and a frightening redness spread out.

Wen Chuchu took a deep breath, opened the points mall without hesitation, and exchanged for a bottle of medicine.

520 smiled deeper.

The race of Baishuangxing is a vampire, born to be blind. Unfortunately, in this mission, 90% of the time is during the day.

She is doomed to be inconvenient to move and is equivalent to a disabled person.

Thinking of this, the little man in the gown squinted his eyes, and slowly lay down on the chair beside him.

Bai Shuangxing's voice came from my ear: "Thank you. Speaking of race—"

She paused slightly: "System, ask a question."

Having been tortured by her so many times, hearing these four words, 520's body stiffened reflexively.

Its smile is a little less:

"...what are you doing?"

Bai Shuangxing looked at it with a gentle smile.

"Vampires can't walk in the sun, and if they come into contact with the sun, they will be burned."

She said: "Only at night, I can appear in the moonlight-in the game settings, it is written like this."

520's face was full of vigilance: "Yes."

Can't.

This side mission is designed to be seamless, without any logical gaps; as for the vampire race, it follows a consistent traditional setting, and there will be no negligence.

What else can she say?

The air froze for a second.

Bai Shuang raised the corner of her mouth.

"But Moonlight—"

She said, "Isn't it the reflection of the sun?"

520: ...

520:???

"Yes."

In an instant, Wen Chuchu opened her eyes: "According to physics, these two lights are exactly the same, there is no difference."

Since they are exactly the same, how can there be a contrast between fearing the sun and being close to the moon?

From the perspective of physics, the setting of vampire itself is a huge bug that contradicts itself!

Paths never imagined.

Why didn't she think about it when she was reading novels and watching movies?

Xue Zizhen: "Well... indeed..."

Vampires are afraid of the sun and can only bathe in the moonlight, which has been a mindset for hundreds of years.

To be honest, she had never thought about this question before.

Inexplicably, she looked at Bai Shuangxing, and then at the little man in long gown in her mind, feeling a faint gloating sympathy for this monitoring system.

"It's because of the heat!"

After thinking hard, 520 finally straightened his body and grabbed the last straw: "The sun is hotter, right! Vampires are not afraid of the sun and moonlight, but the heat brought by the sun!"

Bai Shuangxing didn't think about it: "But if they are only afraid of heat, why aren't vampires afraid of fire?"

The little man in the gown stopped again.

Xue Zizhen coughed lightly.

If you have to explain it, the setting that vampires are afraid of the sun makes sense.

A more scientific and reasonable explanation is: vampires are afraid of ultraviolet rays in the sun, and the moon absorbs part of the ultraviolet rays before reflecting them, so it will not affect vampires.

but-

Does this system, which doesn't seem to be working very well and has been played by Baishuangxing, know what is spectrum, ultraviolet light, reflection and scattering?

Xue Zizhen squinted his eyes.

very good.

Judging by its almost dull expression, there is a high probability that it doesn't know.

So logically, 520 was surrounded by Baishuangxing, thinking that moonlight and sunlight were exactly the same.

The room was very quiet.

The surveillance system 520 stood motionless.

Although every corner of my heart is trying to refute, but well, it seems...she is right.

Sunlight and moonlight, aren't they the same thing?

So what is its setting about vampires?Another obvious bug?It just wants to do a good job of the game conscientiously...

Things, why did it become like this?

"Since I am not afraid of the moonlight, it follows that I cannot be afraid of the sun either."

Bai Shuangxing shrugged: "If you change the setting to 'vampires are afraid of sunlight and moonlight at the same time', I have the right to report to the main system. The monitoring system 520 deliberately targets players and gives a character who is restricted for 24 hours."

She paused for a moment and smiled politely: "As for the point compensation, we can discuss it amicably."

520: ...

Thanks for having you.

Meeting you is really a blessing it has accumulated over three lifetimes.

The wind blows its unpretentious long gown, and the little life in the field of vision has nothing to love, and it is silent for a long time.

Bai Shuangxing was not ashamed, and was about to continue speaking, when suddenly, he heard a soft laugh.

She had never heard such a voice.

"You sure are funnyshh, don't make a sound."

The voice did not appear in the ear, but sounded from the mind, clear as spring water, clear and ethereal: "Don't let the monitoring system detect my existence."

Bai Shuangxing lowered her eyes, suppressed the momentary surprise in her eyes, and tried to respond with consciousness: "Who are you?"

"I'm in the dark river to the north."

The other said: "If only you can find me... I will tell you the truth about this white night, and many more white nights."