CH 52.1

Bai Lixin silently observed these players.

Their movements were quick. Their hands pulled and their waists tugged. The grown human heads were reluctantly yanked off the branch and thrown into the bucket.

Red blood immediately dripped down the branch and fell to the ground.

The amount of blood was not much, and as soon as it fell to the ground, it was quickly absorbed by the earth and it disappeared without a trace.

It didn’t take long after a head had been plucked for a new fruit to grow on the branch. The small fist-sized ball of flesh pounded rhythmically like a heart.

The players’ eyes were open, but they didn’t blink. Their eyes were red and bloodshot from fatigue, but they still had sweet smiles on their lips.

Bai Lixin wanted to walk out from behind the tree, but Dijia pulled him back.

He turned his head and saw Dijia shaking his head at him.

The buckets weren’t very big, and they could only hold six or seven heads each. The players moved quickly, and the buckets were full within just ten minutes.

They then stood frozen in place, as if they had lost some command.

When the last group had also finished picking apples, the players began to form a line in a very orderly manner, moving in one direction.

Bai Lixin and Dijia looked at each other and waited until the players were about the same distance away before silently following them.

They carried the heavy fruit and walked back along the same path they came.

In the silent night, Bai Lixin could only hear the footsteps of the players in front of him.

As the building in front of him got closer and closer, Bai Lixin sensed something unusual.

The path they had taken should have led to the Red Apple House.

But the building that appeared in front of him was not the Red Apple House.

It was a courtyard surrounded by dark vines that appeared before him.

A fog began to fill the air, and Bai Lixin turned to look at where he had come from. Behind him was a dense fog, and the apple orchard had long since disappeared into the fog that had appeared at some point in time.

The players in front suddenly picked up their pace a few notches.

At first, Bai Lixin could see the scene from afar, but now he could only see blurred figures of the players at the end.

Bai Lixin grabbed Dijia by his side and subconsciously quickened his pace.

The fog got more and more dense.

Bai Lixin followed them for a while, and finally saw the players stop in their tracks.

He looked over and could vaguely make out a large iron gate in the thick fog.

The large iron gate was rusted, and above it were two rusted black metal crows standing opposite each other.

Immediately afterwards, Bai Lixin heard a knock on the locked gate.

Soon after, Bai Lixin heard heavy footsteps behind the gate, accompanied by a coughing sound.

This cough was heavy and the person kept on coughing as if he was going to cough his lungs out of his body.

The footsteps got closer and closer, and Bai Lixin finally got a good look at the person coming.

It was an old man with a hunched back.

The old man was wearing a black butler’s tailcoat, leaning on his crutches as he tremblingly came to the front of the iron gate. He stopped in his tracks and looked at the players carrying the “apples” and said, “You’re here again.”

The old man was thin and his face was skin and bones. His eyes were sunken deep into their sockets, and he looked like a skeleton.

He had a hawkish nose and a pointed chin. His face and body were covered in black spots, and it was unknown whether they were age spots or corpse spots.

The sound of clashing metal rang out, then the chains wrapped around the iron gate were undone.

The gate was opened with an ear-splitting creak, and the old man’s rough voice rang out, “Come in.”

Bai Lixin was about to take advantage of the fog to blend in, but the old man with the spotted face tilted his head and glanced at one man and one ghost and said with sadness, “You can’t come in without the fruit, so go and play.”

“Make way, other children have to come in.”

Other children?

Bai Lixin turned around in surprise and saw several black figures appear in the fog behind him.

The black figures became clearer as they drew closer, and they gradually revealed their full appearance to Bai Lixin’s eyes.

Some were headless ghosts, some were long-tongued ghosts, some had their necks cut halfway and their heads were hanging miserably from their necks..

One by one, the oddly shaped ghosts appeared before the iron gate, each one holding a head in its arms.

So the only way to get in was to bring a “fruit”?

Bai Lixin looked at the fog hesitantly, but he could no longer see the road back.

The white haze of the fog mixed in with the darkness of the night, and everything looked so unreal and eerie.

Even if he couldn’t see, he still remembered the way to the apple orchard. But this place was full of oddities. Would he still be able to find this courtyard if he left and came back?

Dijia pressed himself to Bai Lixin’s ear and whispered in a low voice that only the two of them could hear.

“You can’t go back; you’ll be forever trapped in the fog.”

The man’s voice was magnetic and husky, with a heavy dose of testosterone. His breath was cold as it fell onto Bai Lixin’s earlobe, yet Bai Lixin felt a little hot instead.

Bai Lixin’s body spasmed uncontrollably, and he took out a card from his backpack.

It was a grade A Invisibility card.

This was the card he won from Emil the Fraudster at Punk Paradise on the 50th floor.

Bai Lixin flipped the skill card and saw its description on the back.

[Invisibility Card, rank A. It hides your form, and you’ll be completely undetectable. 30 minutes cool down, 5 minutes stealth duration.]

There was a small line of text at the end.

[The skill card has been forged to obtain additional skills: combined invisibility.]

[The user can be invisible to a person or object at hand at the same time. The Invisibility condition: The player needs to keep contact with the person or object when using the stealth card.]

Bai Lixin raised his head up and whispered into Dijia’s ear, “Don’t ever let go of my hand.”

Unlike Dijia’s cold breath, Bai Lixin’s breath had a warm heat in it.

Dijia secretly swallowed his saliva and nodded.

Without waiting for Bai Lixin to grab him, Dijia took the lead and held Bai Lixin’s wrist.

The slender, soft touch immediately traveled down his skin and into his body, and Dijia froze for a couple of seconds.

Bai Lixin had been watching the old man closely, waiting for the right moment to make a move, so he didn’t notice Dijia’s abnormality.

The moment the old man turned to look at the yard wrapped in a thick fog, Bai Lixin activated the skill card instantly.

[Ding! Invisibility card used successfully. The duration is 5 minutes and the countdown begins now.]

A countdown appeared in the top right corner of the screen in his mind.

Time began to elapse at 5:00 minutes.

Bai Lixin looked down at his body. His and Dijia’s bodies had become translucent at the same time.

He stretched out the hand that was not being held and found that he could directly see through the palm.

With only a duration of five minutes, Bai Lixin winked at Dijia and walked through the gate right under the old man’s nose.

The old man was examining the fruit the ghosts had brought with them when a particular smell suddenly wafted under his nose.

He stretched out his neck and sniffed, looking at the empty space in confusion.

He looked around and withdrew his eyes, continuing to examine the other ghosts’ fruit.

A few seconds after Bai Lixin had entered, a dull bell rang out.

When the ghosts outside the iron gate heard the sound, their faces, which had been expressionless, suddenly became anxious, and they began to push and move forward.

The originally orderly group of ghosts suddenly became crowded and restless.

The old man’s expression also changed, and he said, “That’s all for today’s reception. You all go back.”

As the ghosts pushed and shoved their way forward, the fruit in one ghost’s hand flew up in the air.

A black thread, invisible to other ghosts, had flown out and wrapped around the fruit. The fruit in the air descended along a strange track before disappearing into the air.

The ghost who watched the fruit disappear: “……”

Where is my fruit?

How come it’s gone?

Is it haunted?

No, I’m a ghost!

Wuu, that was a good fruit and he’d found it after looking for ages. How did it disappear?

Two sets of barely visible footprints appeared on the grass, blending in with the final line of ghosts.

A chubby head was cradled in Bai Lixin’s arms. The head looked very young, only five or six years old by the look of its face. The head was well circumscribed; it was as round as a leather ball, and the chubby face had the festive appearance like that of a doll in a New Year picture’s painting.

At the top of his head was a small mane in the shape of a peach, and the two big, watery eyes were open, looking at the man and ghost before it with curiosity.

Bai Lixin, “……”

It seems that he has been so lonely in the past few weeks that he feels weird things are actually good-looking.

The ghost in front of him looked like a lost soul, looking around in confusion as it walked aimlessly down the corridor.

Bai Lixin held the fruit in one hand and pulled Dijia in the other, nimbly surpassing one ghost after another, and he finally caught up with the players.

Compared to the ghosts who had only picked one fruit, the players could truly be described as hoarders.

The deep, eerie fog was still around them, and only the cobbled path beneath their feet could be seen.

Bai Lixin followed the players through the long cobbled path and finally arrived in front of a huge house.

The fog kept getting more dense and although Bai Lixin followed the players closely, he could only see the nearest three or four people.

Up ahead, the sound of metal hitting against a wooden door rang out.

Then the wooden door made an old “creak” and the front moved again.

The countdown in the top right corner was at its last second.

When Bai Lixin was almost at the door, a man, a ghost, and a fruit appeared.

There was an old man at the door, and surprisingly, this old man looked exactly the same as the old man they had just seen at the gate.

Only that the two were wearing different clothes.

The old man at the gate wore a black tuxedo, while this old man wore a pure white robe.

The old man just opened the door and stood there, not checking anyone’s stuff.

Once they walked through the door, the thick fog immediately disappeared, and their blurred vision returned to clarity.

They were in a very spacious house decorated in a strong Western style, or a 17th or 18th century Renaissance style.

On the ground floor was a huge carpet with an intricate pattern.

Beyond the carpet was a mahogany staircase that extended upwards. At the top, it branched off left and right and continued upwards.

Upon entering the house, the players began to scatter in all directions.

Some moved to the left of the ground floor, some to the right.

Others went straight towards the stairs and split into two directions, left and right.

Bai Lixin caught a glimpse of Xia Chi. He and Emil were trudging up the steps on the right with blank expressions.

He and Emil were carrying the fullest bucket, and the heavy heads inside were about to fall out from the jolting.

The head at the top was jolted and more than half of it was hanging out of the bucket. The head was clearly terrified; its mouth was open and its teeth were pressing hard against the rim of the bucket.

As the bucket shook, so did the head, and it had an unusually fierce and aggrieved expression.

Bai Lixin, “……”

For a moment, he didn’t know whether he should feel distressed for Xia Chi or for these heads.

Bai Lixin held the chubby head and also went up to the first floor.

Of course, Dijia followed in his wake.

Bai Lixin soon caught up with Xia Chi and Emil, and kindly picked up the head, whose teeth were about to fall out, and lifted it back into the bucket.

With the turbulence, the head turned back and looked at Bai Lixin gratefully.

Bai Lixin, “……”

If it weren’t for the head with no body, little hair, and bloodshot eyes, Bai Lixin might have been really moved.

The areas to the left and right of the staircase were different from each other.

Bai Lixin followed Xia Chi and Emil to the right, only to find that the corridor, where players should have been present, was empty.

It seems that the spaces were misaligned again and the same path doesn’t lead to the same place.

There were surprises everywhere in the world of the undead.

The fog was disorienting, but this mysterious building was equally unrelenting.

It would be difficult to find one’s way back if they got lost.

The corridor was long, with many small rooms on either side of it, but Xia Chi and the others had a clear destination. Bai Lixin and Dijia quietly followed them until they reached the end of the corridor.

The door at the end was opened, and there was a huge kitchen with everything they needed.

There were several ghosts of various shapes and sizes in the kitchen, and all were wearing aprons and cooking busily.

Bai Lixin silently craned his neck and took a look at the meal they were cooking, and he almost vomited.

Some plates contained ears, some contained bloodstained brains, and others contained eyeballs.

Two of the ghosts looked back when they heard someone coming.

Bai Lixin also finally got a good look at the ghosts’ faces.

A thick fog was wrapped around the outside of their bodies, and their shoe-like faces only had one eye.

One ghost only gave them a faint glance before shouting at Xia Chi and Emil, “Hurry up with the ingredients; the guests want to eat *Pearl Jade White Jade Soup.”

After a pause, he picked up the menu in his hand and began to read it out.

“2 plates of Pearl Jade White Jade Soup, 4 plates of *Shufeng Er and 3 plates of blossoming flowers.”

“Why are the guests so good at eating tonight? Is this an intention to tire the ghosts out?”

Bai Lixin pursed his lips.

He felt some physical discomfort in his stomach.

The Pearl Jade White Jade Soup should be eyeballs.

Shufeng Er, that would be the ears.

And blossoming flowers… the flowers should be brains…..

What the hell kind of gods gave these names?

Would they be able to eat these things when they left the copy?

The other ghost replied, “There were carnivorous ghosts today, so of course they will eat a lot. Hurry up and finish early. We’ll be able to relax in a few days.”

Bai Lixin looked at Xia Chi silently and found that Xia Chi and Emil had already carried the bucket to the tool table and were handling the fruit skillfully.

Bai Lixin, “……”

Sometimes, memory loss was not necessarily a bad thing.

Although these fruits were not human, they looked so much like human heads. If one suddenly woke and discovered what they had done, they would vomit out their intestines.

No wonder those miserable looking players looked exhausted and sleepy.

They didn’t sleep during the day and kept coming back here at night to work.

24 hours without sleep.

Even *donkeys on a production team* dare not do this.

From the conversation between the two ghosts, this was the back kitchen, and the hall was entertaining some kind of cannibalistic guests.

Bai Lixin winked at Dijia, who understood and immediately pulled Bai Lixin out of the kitchen.

In his arms, the small, round doll head yawned, its big, watery black eyes narrowed, and two tears hung from the corners of its eyes, obviously sleepy.