Chapter 6: Be Yourself

After being sold out by the blabbermouth Chu Fu, Bai Yan did not panic.

He lifted his head and angrily fought back, “Why are you like this? I didn’t say anything when you took away my puzzle and the clothes. Now, you still want to wrong people. I’ll tell you this. When I got that puzzle, it was already like that! I can’t say for sure but that puzzle may naturally have one less piece than the others!”

Bai Yan’s ire scared the man. He suspiciously glared at Bai Yan and seeing that his expression remained unfazed, his trust in him increased to 80 percent, yet at the same time, his anxiety also grew.

During this matter of life and death, the man didn’t flare at another person anymore.

Despite warning that he would flip the table over many times before, flipping the table didn’t give him any benefits. The man had integrated into society for many years and had already known that one shouldn’t use the hard approach all the time. If the situation calls for it, they should act soft, especially in cases of asking for help.

Since this matter concerned his precious life, the man suppressed his irritation and softened his tone to the best of his abilities, “Earlier, this brother has been unfair to you. Think about it carefully, did you leave the puzzle elsewhere? If we are able to survive this, this brother will owe his life to you.”

“……”

Faced with the man’s embarrassing defeat, Bai Yan also didn’t want to push him too far. He deliberately hesitated for a moment and frowned, pretending to look around the area as though he was genuinely trying to recall where he had left the puzzle.

By this time, there was only one minute left on the clock before the game concluded.

Feeling that trouble would suddenly arise if he delayed any longer, the man picked up the puzzle piece that Bai Yan had pushed towards him with sweaty hands, and without even taking a look at it, he pressed it onto the jigsaw.

It wasn’t until the man had let go of the piece that Bai Yan beamed, saying, “That’s right, old brother. I also forgot to tell you one other thing. The puzzle that I gave you also has a ghost on it.”

“What?”

The man immediately set his sights on the last piece of the puzzle, which was the chair.

If it were just a chair, there was no reason to be afraid of it. But looking at it more closely, there was something odd about the chair’s color.

Without this piece, it didn’t seem like anything. But once it was assembled, the figure of a person being flattened and its body and limbs forming the chair’s entire body could be seen.

The scariest thing that the man saw was that at the back of the chair was a person’s face, telling him that this was not just his imagination.

“You actually dare to harm me!”

The man trembled in rage. He wanted to jump out of his seat and exact his revenge on Bai Yan. But when he tried to get up, he found that he couldn’t move an inch from his chair no matter how much strength he put in.

What’s happening to me? Why can’t I get up?

The man was unwilling to give up. Using all the strength in his body, he struggled to lift himself, but the more he tried, the deeper he sunk into his seat. He looked like a lump of playdough being pressed, desperately being squeezed into the chair.

Immediately, a terrifying thought struck his mind.

He lowered his quivering head and discovered in despair that his legs had unexpectedly twisted around. A pair of small hands keeping them bound to the chair.

Recalling the distorted face on the puzzle and recalling the dead junior high student, the man let out a miserable shriek.

He figured it out. He completely figured it out!

The puzzle’s ghost was on the chair. As long as he didn’t sit on the chair, he wouldn’t die.

If he had found this piece a little earlier, if he knew this a little earlier…

Deep down, the man knew that there was no chance for him to get out in one piece. He bitterly looked at Bai Yan, spitting out profanities, “You son of a b*tch! Who the f*ck are you! Why the f*ck would you harm me!”

“Old brother, I’m called Wang Ze. As for the why… Ever since I entered the game, I felt that you weren’t pleasing to the eye, so I plotted to get you killed on the inside. Does that count?”

Being glared at viciously by the man, caused Bai Yan’s mood to be particularly good.

Originally, he didn’t intend to tell the man his name. People like Lei Feng(1), also never revealed their names when doing good deeds. He couldn’t flaunt himself as a hero. But when doing evil deeds, he still acted a bit modestly and simply left behind his good friend’s name. In that way, his death wouldn’t have been so sullen.

Since they were both dead people anyway, at least now, he was going to have a companion join him.

And so, out of the goodness of his heart, he reminded him, “Older brother, on your way down to hell, don’t forget who sent you there. If you call out the wrong name, I wouldn’t be able to answer back!”

“Fine! Wang Ze!” The man squeezed this name through his teeth, “Wang Ze! This daddy will remember you. This daddy will have you know that when I become a ghost, I won’t let you get away!!!!!”

During all this yelling, half of the man’s body was already pulled into the chair, looking comically funny yet terrifying.

With 30 seconds left, the man’s entire body was pulled into a chair. Chu Fu stared wide-eyed as the man’s head didn’t join with the back of the chair, instead, it intertwined with the girl’s head and formed a bigger, sturdier human chair.

“You…You you you you you…” Chu Fu looked at Bai Yan in terror, stuttering and unable to speak a single word.

“You what you? Pretty girl, what do you want to say?”

“N-Nothing at all. I’m fine. I don’t have any problems.” Chu Fu quickly shook her head left to right.

Seeing Wang Ze intending to move towards her, Chu Fu’s fright seeped out of her body through cold sweat. She couldn’t help but drag the chair more and more to the right, trying to distance herself from ‘Wang Ze.’

After playing the game muddle-headed, Chu Fu at long last was illuminated. This little brother at her side was not someone who tried to be on good terms with everyone but was one hundred percent a mental case!

What ‘Ever since I entered the game, I didn’t find you pleasing to the eye, so I plotted to have you killed early on’, peh peh. (T/N: words of spitting) Could a normal person say those things?

Moreover, this little brother’s skin was deadly pale as though he was a ghost. Before, she didn’t pay much attention, but looking at it now, this person was a lot more terrifying than ghosts!

Chu Fu curled into a ball, feeling that if ghosts were to unexpectedly appear, it would still be better than being alone with this person in the room.

Right now, she was more afraid of another matter.

‘Wang Ze’ already dug a hole for the middle-aged man to die in, then what about her? How could she guarantee whether the information ‘Wang Ze’ had told her before was true?

Perhaps eating the food was the correct way to clear the level and if she didn’t heed it, the next person to be killed was her!

Only 10 seconds remained on the clock with not much time to think.

Chu Fu wanted to cry but lacked the tears. She could only tremble in fear as she pressed the piece onto the puzzle. In her heart, she prayed that she wouldn’t have bad luck to have the starving ghost in the puzzle eat her or have the unhinged little brother beside her, killing her with ease.

In reality, Chu Fu was just overthinking.

By the time she placed the final piece on the puzzle, Bai Yan also did the same. He was too preoccupied with the ghost on his puzzle, so where would he have time for her?

In the last five seconds, after Bai Yan completed the puzzle, as expected, he saw a woman that wore only a thin layer of clothes.

Just like the two previous unfortunate people that had died, the ghost in his puzzle had also come out.

The woman was the mother of the family and there was a high probability that she died through drowning.

The female ghost appeared behind Bai Yan, placing her ice-cold hand on Bai Yan’s shoulder. Bai Yan turned his head back and realized that the female ghost’s lips were moving.

Based on the ghost’s mouth, he repeated what the ghost had wanted to say, word by word.

The female ghost incessantly repeated those two words, saying, “It’s so cold.”

Before half a minute had even passed, the female ghost’s hand had already made its way to Bai Yan’s neck. The female ghost’s fingernails were covered by soft blisters, but they remained sharp. Bai Yan could feel them scratching his neck as though it wanted to peel his skin off and wear it to keep itself warm.

Upon seeing this situation, Bai Yan held his phone in one hand while quickly passing the woman’s clothes in the other as if instructing it to put them on.

Touching the familiar clothes, the female ghost’s hand on Bai Yan’s neck paused for a moment and finally let go.

It gradually took the clothes Bai Yan offered, slowly wearing them on itself.

She put on layer after layer, but her lips did not stop moving.

Additionally, Bai Yan found something even more disturbing. As it wore more clothes, the female ghost’s movements became faster and faster. He glanced at the time. At this speed, the female ghost would have put on all these clothes, including the ones inside the closet, within 5 minutes. When there were no more clothes left and time was already up, what could he do?

The mother had a lot of maternal love, but he didn’t want to live with this family of four.

What if, when the time calls for it, should he also take off his clothes?

Bai Yan secretly pondered to himself.

In order not to lag in handing over the clothes and inciting the female ghost to attack, Bai Yan had already taken out the remaining clothes and led the female ghost to stand beside the wardrobe.

After solving the puzzle, leaving your seat was allowed. So, he left his chair without any consequences.

His movements of handing over the clothes inside the wardrobe, was akin to a machine, not needing to think. So, while he was handing the clothes to the female ghost, Bai Yan paid attention to Chu Fu out of the corner of his eyes.

Just like him, Chu Fu’s circumstances at her side were also far from good.

The bag of snacks she grabbed earlier was finished by the starving ghost. Fortunately, the starving ghost’s appetite was big and it wasn’t picky about the quality. So, Chu Fu fed the ghost rotten food from the food table as well.

However, just like his situation, the starving ghost became faster and faster at eating and soon, the food on the table was going to be cleared.

When all of the food was gone, what would the father, who was reincarnated into a starving ghost, eat next?

There was no need to think about this question because Bai Yan already knew the answer. 

The author has something to say: 

The middle-aged man’s puzzle was the easiest. As long as he left the chair before finishing the puzzle, he could have cleared the game. After all, this was the newbie easy mode of the game. There is still the ordinary, difficult, and hell modes after, so the easy mode should’ve been extremely easy to clear. However, the main character is too wicked. He didn’t tell the others about the clues he had found…

Writing this kind of protagonist challenged my conscience deeply but it was also unexpectedly delightful~