CH 3

003 – Photograph

※·※「someone said, your effort will be rewarded. 」

“Is he trying to die!”

“I haven’t seen someone so cocky.”

The people in front of the water screen discussed this with their arms crossed. A few more straggled over from the distance, all from organisations that had lost some members in the previous game and needed new blood.

When they saw the tall guy, they exchanged a glance, though their attention was very quickly attracted by the person’s action on the water screen.

“He doesn’t want to go ask the host for help, does he?”

Perhaps it really was that the unknowing were fearless. From a certain angle, the ‘host’’s existence was scarier than that of the ghosts’.

In the scene, Gentleman Rosa had already stepped aside, letting Su Er enter. The door closed slowly, and it got on a pretty girl’s conscience. “He probably would die horrendously.”

·

A faint flowery fragrance emitted from the man. The colour of the flower by Gentleman Rosa’s ear was more vibrant at night than in the morning.

Su Er said, “Will everything that happen in here be screened?”

Gentleman Rosa shook his head, staring at the weak neck area and saying with a smile, “Of course not.”

Su Er walked up to him. “You plan to kill me?”

This whole action akin to a lamb entering a tiger’s mouth and willingly taking another step forward was very confusing. Just when Gentleman Rosa was momentarily taken aback, he felt a patch at his waist go numb. Looking down, he saw a black thing poking at his abdomen and frowned. “What’s that?”

The taser didn’t work.

Su Er had come with the mindset that he would bet on this. Clearly, he had lost. His expression unchanging, he retrieved his hand. “Was it comfortable?”

Gentleman Rosa snatched the item away from him easily and, after studying it only for a short while, violently threw it back at Su Er. Just now this thing… seemed to be drawing life energy from him.

Su Er had originally made two plans. Using a spring, he had made a little switch — the moment Gentleman Rosa touched that place, it would slice his hand and he could then take the opportunity to attack the rose on the other’s ear.

Such an eye-catching flower usually would be akin to the Boss’s heart.

Of course, his chances of success wasn’t even ten percent, but if he had stayed in his room, it likely wouldn’t even have been five percent. After all, snakes tended to be really quick. Even if wounded, at such a close distance, it was eighty percent likely he’d be bitten too.

Looking at it this way, this taser wasn’t entirely useless.

Seven days, seven nights?

In the phone call Zhu Yun had specifically mentioned this book… since it was forbidden for being too explicit, perhaps the technique for surviving it would be to go wild?

Su Er pursed his lips. Since he couldn’t find any other ways to better explain this away to himself, he went through this logic, “I’m trying to make you comfortable.” After a pause, he added, “In that moment just now, did you feel a faint sting of pain, accompanied by a tingling numbness, that reached straight to the ends of your nervous system in your brain — the comfort blooming from your pain and the cool awakeness blooming from the comfort?”

He wasn’t done speaking when a lone petal fell and landed on the floor.

“…”

Gentleman Rosa reached towards the space around his ear, his expression changing drastically. As expected, that wasn’t a momentary illusion: this thing really could drain him of his life force.

Feeling the cold killing intent flood him, Su Er said decisively, “If you’re weak you cannot withstand the supplements, if you’re used to it it’ll get better.”

Gentleman Rosa treasured that rose a lot. He asked suspiciously, “Really?”

Of course not. Su Er shut his eyes. The last ‘lightning king’ who dared be so cocky had already been nailed to death on the pillar of shame. But to survive, he couldn’t help but have to say, “It’s an amazing tool, it’ll help you maintain good health.”

Electrotherapy, anyone?

Afterwards he added, “I don’t dare lie to you.”

Gentleman Rosa looked at him deeply. He’s merely a little shrimp leaping about that he could squash with one hand. “If even one word is false,” he smiled slightly, “your body would be the best supplement for this flower.”

Su Er raised his hand and, without hesitation, turned the taser on at the highest setting and aimed it at the heart of the flower.

A good opportunity for attacking in close quarters, at most he’ll have to fight to his death.

Zi-zi —

The taser buzzed rather loudly and, instead of wilting, the flower’s colour became even more vibrant.

“Comfortable.” Gentleman Rosa’s eyes hooded lazily.

Su Er’s hand shook, and he felt a faint toothache coming on. No wonder the book was banned — even something like this worked!

“What a pity…” Gentleman Rosa glanced at Su Er. Pity that he couldn’t own this thing. Not willing to give up, he tried again, but as long as he tried to use it, his life force would be drained. As someone experiencing it though, he seemed to be fine.

Although tools that chose their owners were rare, they were not non-existent. He remembered that there once was a player who, after getting through a very difficult game, had obtained a doll that would die in their place. Though where did this newbie get this from?

7.30 in the morning.

The door was pushed open. With two heavy eyeballs and a fatigue-filled face, Su Er exited with the aid of the wall. Charging Gentleman Rosa for a whole night without a break was really tiring.

From upstairs came the sound of whimpering.

Su Er walked there, frowning, and saw the other three gathered outside his door. There were still some tears on Li Li’s face. The moment they saw him when they turned around, their faces had turned ghastly pale as if they had seen a living ghost.

After taking a few steps back and calming down, someone asked, “You’re still alive?”

Su Er nodded. He saw that on the floor, there was traces of stickiness, and that on the chair in the corner there were some patches of snakeskin. Yesterday before leaving he had made sure to spread out the duvets and stuff a pillow underneath it, now the piece right at the top had been corroded, the cotton sticking into a few bunches and emitting some truly horrendous sour stink.

The toxin was so strong it’s already gone beyond what the venomous snake in the natural world could do. If he really did encounter it, his taser might not even have worked through the snakeskin.

Li Li’s face was pale. “Our guess is real.”

The characters of the horror story would come alive at night to attack them.

Zhang He hurriedly asked Su Er where he went and how he’d avoided the snake. Quite shamefully, they had all heard noises outside around midnight, it’s just a pity that no one dared take even one step out of their room.

“Sleeping on the floor in the Host’s room.”

Xuanyuan Aoyu’s eyes lit up. “There’s this method!”

“It might not be useful for you guys.” Su Er came up with this on the spot. “I was born mid-July, the fortune teller said that I’m naturally attractive to the dirty things [1]. I was this close to dying.”

Gentleman Rosa remained in the shadows, a wide smile on his face. “You’re all welcome to come find me anytime.”

According to the rules, the Host cannot kill players, but there were loopholes. For example, in this game, the players were not allowed to be out at night. Once they broke this rule, the Host could carry out the duties of a supervisor and exterminate them.

Seeing that both Xuanyuan Aoyu and Zhang He were beginning to be thus inclined, Su Er’s heart sank. On the surface, Gentleman Rosa might appear a bit better than the poisonous snake, so they’d rather treat it as a back-up option.

The infant’s wailing cut off his warning. The child was visibly thinner than yesterday.

“His hand…” Li Li covered her mouth, feeling the urge to throw up.

A portion of the thin, weak bone in his hand had been forcefully bitten off and the bedsheets were still coloured with fresh blood.

Zhang He sucked in a deep breath. “He’s treating himself as food.”

To be honest, if he had just died like this they’d all let out a sigh of relief, but this monster’s ability to regenerate was clearly very strong — it wasn’t very long before the bones in his hands had recovered.

It’s clearly time for storytelling again.

They tried to use the same story again, but the crying didn’t stop. Su Er shook his head. “The same story cannot be repeated in a new day.”

Zhang He said, “Stories with horror elements in them aren’t that rare, but…”

Who would tell it?

Automatically, their gazes gathered on Su Er. He rejected it, “It was a narrow escape for me last night.”

Just now, when Xuanyuan Aoyu showed an inclination towards going to stay in his room, the joy in Gentleman Rosa’s eyes were almost palpable. To a Host, the temptation of killing a player might have already won over the ‘cool awakening feeling’ brought on by the taser. After all, after one night, no matter how new something was it’d get old.

Xuanyuan Aoyu pursed his lips, wanting to say something, but ultimately saying nothing. Li Li was a girl, so it’s not good to forcefully push her to do it. The storyteller would most likely be chosen from between him and Zhang He.

Zhang He smiled bitterly. “Scissors paper stone?”

No one was willing to voluntarily go and die, they might as well give it to luck.

Xuanyuan Aoyu nodded.

Li Li said, “How about we do ‘black and white’ [2], and I’ll participate too?”

“Nevermind.” Zhang He and Xuanyuan Aoyu settled it in one go. The latter was responsible for telling the story.

Terrified, but with a hint of having given in and given up, Xuanyuan Aoyu had apparently abandoned hope for himself. “Hurry up and sleep, if you still don’t sleep the Big Bad Wolf will come.”

The child closed his eyes unwillingly once again.

Li Li said softly, “We could try our best to find something to say that might be easier to deal with.”

“Useless.” Zhang He said to the side, “Under this circumstances, a washbasin might be enough to drown someone.”

Su Er thought about it briefly. “There has to be a way to get through this. Let’s search around for clues first.”

Zhang He asked, “Two to a group?”

Su Er shook his head. “We’ve stupidly wasted a day yesterday, now time is our life.”

The villa wasn’t that small. If they included the attic and wanted to investigate all the details in every nook and cranny, even a day’s time might not be enough.

It’s unknown whose stomach suddenly growled.

Li Li said, a little embarrassedly, “I’m a little hungry.”

Zhang He said, “I looked in the morning, there’s expired bread in the fridge.”

Having something to eat was already pretty good. Everyone took a few bites and choked it down to fill their stomachs before splitting up to search in the villa.

Su Er was responsible for the second floor. In the room, there was a family photo; although dust had settled on the frame, the people in the photograph looked very much alive. He suddenly felt that he wasn’t too different from the people in the photo: they were all living in a cage.

Ever since the accident happened, he had slowly began disregarding life more. What terrified Su Er most was that he didn’t even feel the sadness from his parents having left him. Not feeling any pain from having lost the people closest to them — wasn’t that the loss of the most basic human nature?

After entering this world, other than the initial shock, Su Er somehow had felt more gladness: perhaps he could take this opportunity to rediscover something.

The family of three in the photograph were all smiling very happily. After staring at it for a few seconds, Su Er suddenly felt a little dizzy. The eyes of the person in the photograph seemed to be staring at him unmovingly.

“Come.” The woman in it said so gently, her appearance slowly changing and slowly resembling the face of the mother in his memories.

His brain was just like a watch running out of battery, about to stop working. The gentle voice surrounded his ears. “Give me your hand, you’ll get what you want most.”

Unlike what Su Er had seen, the woman’s face in the photograph was filled with viciousness as she watched Su Er’s eyes loose focus with great anticipation. She was about to get her way.

“A peaceful eternity…” the woman enticed.

The youth’s body suddenly shivered, a small patch of his hair even standing up as his body carried out the last order his brain had sent… tase himself.

After three pulses, Su Er’s gaze cleared again. He slapped the photograph, saying very justly, “I’m here looking for the love and feelings I’ve lost, not for death.”

In the photo, the woman’s face had gone crooked from the slap. Su Er stared at his palm that was going numb, then looked at the woman’s shocked, horrified gaze, and was summarily amused. “It seems like you could only create illusions.”

Stuffing the photograph into his pocket, Su Er left the room and looked towards the Gentleman Rosa standing in the shadows. “Will the happenings in the toilet be publicly screened?”

Gentleman Rosa said, “The important bits would be censored.”

As a horror set, the toilet was where the likes of monsters and ghosts typically would show up — of course it’d be screened publicly.

“…” Su Er sighed. “At least it’s only like this for the first time.”

If it was always like this who could stand it?

Removing all thoughts of testing out tasering the photograph in the toilet and knowing that it would be too out of place for him to return so suddenly, Su Er stood by the toilet bowl, the photograph clipped between two fingers. “I’ll ask and you’ll answer. If you keep silent or were discovered to have lied…”

He didn’t continue speaking, instead pressing the flush, the warning obvious in spite of his silence.

“The first question, am I good-looking?”

The woman stared at his eyes, at the beastly savageness flashing in there, and shook her head reflexively.

“How cunning.” Without hesitation Su Er tore a part of the photograph off and threw it into the water, barely a few millimetres away from having torn off the woman’s elbow. “I hate lies.”

The woman couldn’t help but swear, “…savage!”

Su Er’s gaze turned cold and he coolly tore the photograph where her arm was, causing the woman to cry out in pain.

·

Outside the water screen.

“How vicious.” The punk put away the joking on his face. “Though he somehow could avoid being affected by the photograph.”

“Perhaps his willpower is strong.” Someone said, “The effect of illusions vary by the person.”

The punk looked at the tall guy beside him — the other had left the state of repose and had opened his eyes. “What I’m interested in is how he walked out of the host’s room alive last night.”

The punk recalled the scene of Su Er stumbling out with the aid of the wall and said to himself, “Sell out the body to save the soul?”

“…”

=

t/l: cin

(currently unedited, but will be edited soon)

notes:

[1] referring to things like ghosts, monsters, demons, spirits and stuff

[2] so where i’m at we play this game called ‘roti prata’ but i think the english english version is called black and white? basically everyone stands in a circle, and they extend one hand, and then after saying ‘black and white’ everyone would have either their palm facing up, or facing down. then the odd one out would be the one that had lost