CH 34

Xiao Lan beckons Luo to take the dagger from the hidden drawer.

Luo reached out and took the dagger, glancing at the properties of the prop on it in passing, “Sir, I don’t need a weapon.”

Xiao Lan looked at him suspiciously, only to see Luo extend his other free hand after he had finished speaking. As Xiao Lan watched, the long, black gloved palm gradually morphed, sharp nails protruding from the tips of his fingers into a pitch-black claw.

It looks as if it is much sharper than a dagger.

This reminds Xiao Lan that Luo is not human, and it seems that Luo has fought with other parts of himself before using his claws.

Luo looked at the dagger in his hand, “That’s an interesting prop.”

Xiao Lan still hasn’t recovered from the blow: “What is the point of his existence?”

Luo gave a meaningful smile, “It probably hurts those ordinary people who work hard all year and then look at their balance at the end of the year and realise they can’t even afford one of their toys.”

Xiao Lan, an ordinary person who can’t even afford a toy : “……”

What happened to the knee that suddenly felt so painful.

Xiao Lan looked at this golden, 300,000 dollar high end toy, I really don’t understand the world of you rich people.

But he did have someone in mind who would be perfect for this prop – Wang Taidi.

Wang Taidi, who needs to make a billion dollars, will not let go of the 300,000.

Although it’s a small amount for his 100 million, it’s still 300,000. And as a kryptonite player he also has quite a few props on him. From previous contacts, the Wang family brothers are of good character and should not do such things as deliberately screwing people over.

After leaving the Demeter’s Blade in Luo’s care, Xiao Lan was ready to trade with Wang Taidi at some point after leaving the copy, as he only had a pitiful two compartments left in his backpack.

After leaving the library, Xiao Lan and Luo continue to pretend to wander around the estate looking for clues.

While the two were pretending to enjoy the flowers in the garden, the conversation between the maid and the florist came softly through the layers of flowers and trees.

“Is the white rose your ladyship wants today ready?”

“It’s all here, and do you know why Madame named the White Rose?”

“I don’t know, every month on this day Madame has us prepare a large number of white roses to be sent to her room, then she goes out and doesn’t return until the next evening.”

“And I wonder what the lady is doing?”

“Oops, don’t just pry into the lady’s affairs, be careful if the housekeeper finds out and punishes you!”

This was followed by the sound of a group of maids hurrying away.

Xiao Lan and Luo looked at each other and it seemed that soon would be the best time to enter the fifth floor. Apart from today, the fifth floor would not be this lax for another month after that.

They sneaked up on the maids and watched as they brought a handful of white roses up to a room on the fifth floor.

Xiao Lan surveyed the doorway to the room where the large number of white roses had been delivered, a door that not only looked exquisite but was also so heavy that not even a sound could come out of the room if it was closed.

The door of the room was now open and the sound of the maids’ footsteps, placed very softly, came from inside.

The two men took the opportunity to dodge into the room, which was in the usual extravagant style, and was extremely large and divided into two rooms, inside and outside, which were heavily decorated, which made it easier for them to hide.

Looking for a good opportunity, Xiao Lan hid in the corner where the large vase of decorative flowers and the curtain created a dead end.

Not long afterwards, the maid’s door left and the room fell silent again.

But Xiao Lan didn’t let go of her heart. Although the maids had left, it was after all Madame Bella who was now in the room, and to go straight in would be like sending the boss a thousand miles for her head.

After waiting a while longer, Madame Bella’s heavy footsteps sounded in the room, accompanied by the faint sound of a mechanism turning, and faded away again, and there seemed to be a room hidden inside.

Shortly afterwards, the sound of the mechanism turning sounded again, and this time the figure of Madame Bella emerged from the inner room, seemingly holding something in her hands, and left humming.

Xiao Lan did not emerge from his hiding corner until he had confirmed from the window that Madame Bella’s figure had left in a carriage.

The two men head towards the inner room together.

On the way Luo also left a black mark on the doorway that no one else could detect, so that he would be the first to know if anyone entered the room.

Inside is a spacious bedroom, furnished, perhaps to match Mrs Bella’s size, with furniture of much larger than usual dimensions. The interior is sumptuously furnished, full of exquisite carvings in every detail, even the bedposts are carved with mermaid statues.

One of the walls caught Xiao Lan’s attention.

All of Madame Bella’s bedrooms are decorated with various decorations, except for the one where this wall is located, where nothing is placed on the floor and all the decorations are fixed to the wall.

By the light, Xiao Lan approached the ground with a slight sideways glance, and was able to see inconspicuous semi-circular scratches on the ground, as if the wall had been rotated several times.

So, where would the switch be?

The switch is often designed as a vase or candlestick, but is this too conspicuous? Xiao Lan gently picks up the vase next to it, and there’s no change at all – it’s just an ordinary vase.

Xiao Lan ponders about Madame Bella. This is her private room, where no one would normally break in and where she should be at ease.

If you want to hide something in your room, you will usually choose a place you know well, near you, such as under your bed, under your pillow, or relatively hidden, such as a wardrobe or closet ……

Xiao Lan surveyed some of the possible mechanisms, and finally his eyes fell on a decorative flower at the head of the bed, which was very symmetrical in shape, but the colour of the flower on the right was slightly dull, as if it had been rubbed repeatedly.

Taking two steps forward, Xiao Lan reached out and pressed on the floral decoration.

With that, a slight mechanism sounded and the wall next to it swung open.

The first thing that caught the eye was a dark corridor, through which the two men entered this hidden room, which was windowless and unusually dark for the light from outside to shine through.

With a flick of the brush, Luo lights a match and by the light of it he lights the candelabra placed in the doorway.

Xiao Lan was slightly shocked: “When did you hide the matches?”

Luo kept his smile on his face: “I’ve just been preparing a little to be able to help you.”

Xiao Lan would have liked to have sighed at Luo’s over-competence as a little helper, but then his eyes swept across the room and everything in it became clear in the candlelight, leaving him with no desire to say anything else.

The room was like a cloakroom, full of hangers, and what hung on the hangers were not clothes, they were sheets of carefully stripped and even specially treated – human skin.

These human skins are very soft and even exude the characteristic shiny feeling of skin.

Countless human skins hang in the room like clothes and are dressed in different shapes, like dolls in a dress-up game. In the centre of the room there is another one with butterfly wings, ornate jewellery and beautifully styled decorations, as if it were a unique piece of art.

Something that looks like a human being but is not, and carries a strong sense of death, is most likely to evoke a sense of fear.

On the wall directly in front is another large oil painting of a group of smiling maids, all of whom are very good looking, or at least of the clean-cut type, and there are a few great beauties among them. The painter’s skill is very good, and he has sketched every fold of their clothes very vividly.

Xiao Lan takes a few steps closer and comes forward to take a closer look, while Luo holds a candlestick to light him up.

He soon noticed that something was wrong; the smiles on their faces were all very stiff and fake, all with the exact same curvature, and none of the smiles tugged at the eye muscles, which seemed very odd.

The maids’ eyes were staring straight ahead, as if they were silently locking eyes with Xiao Lan.

“Sir.” Luo reached out and pointed to the bottom right corner of the painting, “This one appears to be the female player who came into the game with us.”

Xiao Lan looks over and this is indeed the only female player in the game. She is now wearing the same uniform as the rest of the maids, and is staring at Xiao Lan with a sly smile.

The colours look uniform throughout and there is no sense of new paint in this corner, as if she should have been there in the first place, with an indescribable sense of treachery.

It seems she didn’t manage to find a way to live in the game.

Closer to the wall, Xiao Lan realises that the walls of this room are caked with black splatter marks, easily reminiscent of blood from long ago, as if a bloodbath had once taken place.

Xiao Lan pushed down his discomfort and re-examined the skins.

This time he made a more detailed discovery; a number of the skins had stitching on them, using threads identical to the skin colour, with particularly fine stitches that mended the tears so delicately that at first glance it was almost impossible to see where the injuries were.

Suddenly he spotted something balled up in a corner under a pile of human skin.

Xiao Lan reached out, picked it up and unfolded it. It was a sketch of a maid with beautiful features and ordinary drawing skills, but the expression on the maid’s face was natural, very different from the stiff smile on the fine painting.

Also wrapped in the portrait were several bloodstained strips of cloth, as if torn from clothing, on which were written in messy handwriting.

[Madame is mad! She’s going to kill us! She said she’d use us as sacrifices!

[She’s made a pact with an unknown being and has gained strange powers, we can’t leave here]

[Never eat the food the lady cooks, her own cooking has a magic that men cannot resist]

[Help! Help!

Perhaps the maids had tried to reach out for help, but they had failed.

Then imprisoned in a room that underwent a brutal massacre, blood staining the walls and eventually turning them into a sheet of skin in the room.

From these messages, it appears that Madame Bella sacrificed her maid and then contracted an unknown being, after which she gained the power to enchant men and possibly cure her.

There may have been many men who were crazy about her, but the players have not seen any male owners or male guests on the estate since they entered the game, apart from the maids of doubtful gender, so where have they all gone?

Why did Madame Bella send out invitations for players to come to the estate? And what was her purpose?

That, coupled with the unconcerned attitude of the housekeeper, who seemed to have no thought whatsoever that they might become the men who would become their own, was why she was so condescending and aloof.

Does she know that these people have no chance of getting to the top.

Suddenly, a rustling of clothes interrupts Xiao Lan’s thoughts and he looks over at Luo, who is simply holding the candlestick motionless.

Next to them, the human skins, which had been hanging up like clothes, now began to twist and turn, the sound of clothing fondling coming from them.

They slowly raised their dried and unsupported hands in the direction of Xiao Lan.

He looked to the other side and noticed that the maids in the painting, who had been looking straight ahead, now had their eyes all turned to the corner where he was, their irises having turned completely to the corners of their eyes, revealing the large whites of their eyes, which paired with the creepy smile they had originally had.

Xiao Lan and Luo, who were targeted by them.