CH 37

(Isn’t it quite fun here?)

Edited by Silver Wind 

Suddenly, Blueberry felt that people living in this world could not be compared with others, and not only could they not compare, she was particularly oppressed herself.

Her narrow escape from death last night had given her a useful card but Shen Dongqing still disdained her card for being too weak.

Truly, it was better to throw away the goods than compare them.

Blueberry kept the card and said: “I’ll help you keep it first, if you want to use it later, I’ll give it back to you.”

Shen Dongqing was fine with anything so he nodded his head.

The Black Shadow led them forward.

They walked around a bend in the corridor and stopped in front of a door.

“Is it here?” Shen Dongqing asked.

Black Shadow nodded its head. 

Shen Dongqing strode up and before he could knock the door, Black Shadow tunnelled into the crack underneath the door and opened it for him.

Creak—

The room door opened slowly.

Four people could be found sitting in the room and they had looked over at the same time. One of the sofas was openly occupied by one individual and sitting in the middle of it was  Zhou Wenyan. 

Those long legs of his could not be placed anywhere properly so he crossed them on the tea table instead, and he did not look to be trifled with, considering the extreme aggression he oozed. As a result of his imposing manner, no one dared to sit by his side.

Shen Dongqing sat next to him without care, completely ignoring the other inhabitants in the room. Then, he started to complain: “Why am I separated from you every time we enter a game?”

It made him worried about the safety of his reserve grain.

Zhou Wenyan put his legs down and said lazily: “This SB of a game is trying to deal with us.” 

Sheng Dongqing: “En.”

It was troublesome to explain this problem.

Their existence was a threat to the game’s usual operations, but the game’s rules and regulations dictated that it could not directly kill the players no matter what.

Hence, the game could only think of other ways to get rid of them, like increasing the level of difficulty. 

Previously, they were separated into two opposing camps in the Sanatorium, and now it had stepped up a notch by throwing a battle royale at them and placed them in two different teams.

The games wanted to make them kill each other, but Zhou Wenyan disliked playing according to the rules the most.

Zhou Wenyan did not want others to know about this matter so he suppressed his voice and said: “I’ll tell you later.”

Shen Dongqing did not have a strong thirst for  knowledge so he put it aside after responding with an “oh”. Then, he grabbed Zhou Wenyan and said: “There seems to be a shopping mall nearby, let’s go there to take a look.” 

The fact that he could say such words meant that he was either a big boss or he was an ignorant novice. However, from the person’s appearance, he looked like a presumptuous novice, and the sort who hugged other people’s thighs in order to lie down and win.

After discerning that point, everyone in the room lost their interest.

A man wearing a flowery shirt opened his mouth, “I don’t care if you know each other but he’s from another team. It’s better to keep him out of our room.”

When he said that, the other players agreed in succession. 

“Yeah, we want to be able to sleep at night with peace of mind.”

“This is not a game where you can mess around, don’t bring harm into our lives.”

Flower Shirt continued to look at Zhou Wenyan with displeasure, and now that he had gained the support of two more people, he said with an abundance of confidence. “If you want to bring a new person, I’ll trouble you not to stay here.”

Zhou Wenyan did not refute as he let out a soft laugh: “Sure.” 

Subsequently after, he pulled Shen Dongqing up and left.

Standing by the door, Blueberry asked with caution: “Are you alright?”

She heard the conversation that took place inside, and according to this big boss’s personality, it was highly probable that they would have acted against them directly. However, she did not expect that the two of them would leave without doing anything.

Zhou Wenyan raised his eyelids to give Blueberry a look. 

Shen Dongqing gave an explanation: “This is my teammate.”

Zhou Wenyan nodded and offered a line: “I don’t like to argue.”

Nodding his head, Shen Dongqing voiced his agreement: “We should be more accepting as people.”

Blueberry stayed rooted to the spot for a while, and she inexplicably felt that his sentence was missing a few words. 

— I don’t like to argue with dead people.

Feeling a chill run down her spine, Blueberry gritted her teeth, and turned her head back to look at the people in the room again.

Viciously, Flower Shirt said: “What are you looking at?”

Then, he closed the door forcibly. 

*

This game was not like the others he had experienced before.

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“Honestly speaking, being ordinary has its own benefits. I really wish that I could be a part of crowds like these again, mediocre and allowing things to take their own course, living like that day in, day out.”

Licking his ice cream, Shen Dongqing commented rather idly, “There’s a ghost in that crowd.”

Blueberry: ……

With much difficulty, she found the same atmosphere again: “Do you still remember the world you were in before you entered the game? If we were to go back, will there be something different about it?” 

Shen Dongqing bit into the brittle biscuit that made up the ice cream cone and kept it in his mouth as he said: “It’ll be fine, either way, this… already died. Furthermore, I think it’s quite fun here, how nice would it be if every game had electricity and internet?”

Zhou Wenyan was even more straight-forward. “I’ve forgotten.”

He honestly did not remember it at all.

He seemed to have lost the image of who he was before he entered the game and he was only left with fragmented memories. 

Which was why he wanted to leave the game to find his past.

But he met Shen Dongqing.

After that, he felt like it was fine if he did not go out and his past was no longer as important.

It was then that Blueberry finally understood that it was impossible for common people and big bosses to communicate, thus  she rationally chose to give up speaking.

Meanwhile, Shen Dongqing was browsing through an application on  his phone before he leaned against Zhou Wenyan to show him the contents on his screen, “Shall we go and eat here?”

In a warm voice, Zhou Wenyan replied, “Okay.”

The pair completely ignored the white shirt ghost hanging in the tree, the rustling noises the deformed monstrosity hiding in the darkness made, and the drowned corpse floating in the middle of the pond in the park. 

With unyielding toughness, they changed a horror movie into a city love story, the sort that was exceptionally soft and sweet.

Blueberry was already numb to it.

She just had to follow the big bosses to win while lying down.

* 

There were certain aspects in the game that could be considered generous.

Every player had a bank account  with ten million dollars in their hands. Despite that, it had to be said that in a world where ghosts and monsters roamed the streets, paper currency was no different from waste paper.

The pair and one lightbulb roamed around the shopping mall once.

Initially, Blueberry was still preoccupied but after walking for a period of time, she completely entered a state where she started buying endlessly. 

Even Zhou Wenyan entered a luxury goods store and bought quite a few clothing articles too.

In his opinion, the system mall did not have an appreciation for aesthetics; it did not possess clothes with good designs and the products it sold were suited for street stalls. Thankfully, the luxury goods in this store mimicked brands that existed in reality and it was passable in quality.

Blueberry was a little speechless.

The clothes provided in the system mall were imbued with special abilities and the people who wanted to buy them had to clinch their waists in order to afford wearing an article of it, but how did it become a good sold at a stall once it landed in the big boss’s eyes? 

Blueberry laughed dryly: “Brother Zhou is definitely a wealthy and respected person in reality.”

Zhou Wenyan was in the process of tying his necktie when his movements stilled, “Perhaps.”

They swept all the luxury goods stores in the shopping mall clean, and they were ostentatious to the point where the store clerks were staring at them with wide eyes. After they were done shopping, they even went to have a huge meal which would have cost each person a thousand in reality.

Blueberry felt like her entire person had been cleansed. 

“I’ve never played the game like this before,” said Blueberry as she rubbed her stomach.

Shen Dongqing asked: “Isn’t it quite fun like this?”

At the side, Zhou Wenyan was caressing his head repeatedly like he was a lazy leopard stroking his toy.

Blueberry nodded her head, “I would definitely want to stay in the game and not leave if I could play this. Unfortunately…” 

Unfortunately, she was only a pitiable thing that had to flee out of fear whenever she was confronted with ghosts and monsters when the big bosses were not around.

*

When they left the shopping mall, it was already late in the afternoon.

The only strange incident they encountered was the 【Trapped in a Lift Ghost】and they subsequently acquired its card. 

Feeling disgusted, Shen Dongqing said: “Why are they all trash.”

If they were in a game revolving around collecting cards, these cards would probably all be N cards and they would not be able to find any use.

Pinching the thin card between his fingers, Zhou Wenyan uttered: “These are just appetisers.”

That gained Shen Dongqing’s interest. “Will there be more powerful ghosts then?” 

Zhou Wenyan made a comparison: “Naturally, someone will eventually draw a SSR.”

Shen Dongqing’s eyes glowed slightly in reply. “I’m looking forward to it!”

If they were all useless, wouldn’t that take the fun out of it all?

Only powerful ghosts and monsters could liven things up. 

At the side, Blueberry was thinking: He really proves himself to be a madman who once dared to pick up a chainsaw and charge around violently.

For the sake of not disturbing the two big bosses on their dates, she followed them from a distance. However, she failed to notice the two people coming from the side and the two parties knocked into each other.

“Apologies.”

The person who knocked into Blueberry was a middle-aged woman and she did not look like she came from the best living conditions. She bent her waist, apologising repeatedly: “I’m really sorry, I wasn’t watching my steps.” 

Blueberry waved her hands, “It’s alright.”

She did not dare to provoke the original natives of the game, because there was a probability that a tottering old man on the road could transform into a ferocious ghost who would take her life at night.

The middle-aged woman apologised again before she pulled the young man by her side away.

The two of them were probably mother and son. 

The young man was exceedingly sloven and his hair was utterly unkempt. Even though he was wearing a pair of sunglasses, it was apparent from his complexion that he was someone who stayed home for the most part and liked to stay up late.

His mother was rebuking him nonstop: “You’re always hiding at home writing that novel of yours and you refuse to go out even when I ask you to. Your body is going to become weaker at this rate…”

The pair gradually moved further away.

They were just an ordinary mother and son. 

Blueberry withdrew her gaze.

Even though it was still daytime, the small community was chilly and it seemed like they were the only inhabitants.

Last night alone, ten players had died, and perhaps because the remaining players were afraid of another player taking their lives, they simply chose to hide in their rooms and not go out.

This evidently made the actions that the three of them took weirder. 

Not only were they not afraid, they even strolled around the streets and brought back bags of all sizes, and all of it was sent to their door by the workers. Since they were heaped at their door, it was extremely eye-catching.

Zhou Wenyan used both hands to pick up those paper bags and brought them into the living room.

Truthfully speaking, they had bought too much, to the extent where their purchases piled up into a small hill and it took quite a bit of effort to organise them completely.

After they were done, Shen Dongqing picked up his phone and raised his head, only to see the back view of Zhou Wenyan leaving. 

“You’re leaving?” he asked.

Zhou Wenyan paused, giving him a smile. “Why, reluctant?”

Shen Dongqing tilted his head. “Come back soon.”

In reply to that, Zhou Wenyan walked back to him, kneeling on the sofa with one of his long legs. He bent his waist slightly, and easily trapped the entirety of Shen Dongqing in his shadow. 

Lowering his voice, he asked, “How are you so certain I’ll come back?”

Shen Dongqing spoke in a matter-of-fact tone. “Because they are all idiots, you couldn’t possibly want to room together with idiots, right?”

A tinge of helplessness lined Zhou Wenyan’s smile.

Why was it that even after they had kissed and hugged, his little idiot still didn’t have his ideas straightened out? 

Zhou Wenyan lowered his head, meeting those distinctive eyes of his. Finally, he pressed him down, giving him a gentle kiss on his forehead.

“I’m going to get something, wait for me to come back.”

That kiss of his was a mere brush of lips.

Zhou Wenyan stood back on both feet and wandered out of the main door. 

When his figure finally disappeared into the corridor, Shen Dongqing hugged his knees and said with uncertainty: “I’m not even hungry, what was he feeding me for?”

Because he had relied on kissing to eat the yin energy on Zhou Wenyan’s body, Shen Dongqing’s simple worldview was that kissing = eating.

He rubbed his rounded stomach and laid back down.

* 

Zhou Wenyan returned back to the room that he was originally assigned.

Compared to the last time he had been here, the atmosphere in the living room felt a lot stranger. Everyone was red-eyed like they were preparing for a cockfight.

Calmly, Zhou Wenyan opened the door to the door to his room and walked in.

When every player entered the game, they were given a bag that  contained their identity proof in the instance, a bank card and the address to the small community. 

Other than that, Zhou Wenyan had two ghost cards in his bag.

Lifting his bag up, Zhou Wenyan casually checked for the contents.

Everything was still there but the two ghost cards had disappeared.

Behind his room’s door, he could hear the players outside conversing. 

Flower Shirt asked: “Why did he come back?”

The other player replied, “What are you afraid of? Didn’t you take the cards already?”

Flower Shirt: “Tch, you make it sound like you didn’t act either. It was just that my hands were faster and I managed to get it before you did.”

“Stop talking about it, we’ll just pretend we don’t know anything.” 

The smile hanging on Zhou Wenyan’s mouth had a touch of coldness, and he slung his bag and left.

When the door opened, the players who had been bickering with each other quietened, pretending nothing had happened as they shifted their gazes away.

But Zhou Wenyan did not ask anything either for he strode past them without giving a pause. During the moment when he was going to close the door, however, he lowered his voice and murmured: “I hope you’ll have sweet dreams tonight.”

The three players did not know why but they felt a chill. 

“What’s with your bravado?”

“Didn’t you get those two cards because you had good luck? But now, you don’t have the cards and you don’t have props; you’re nothing.”

*

Deep in the night. 

Flower Shirt pulled out the two cards.

These were the cards he had stolen from Zhou Wenyan’s room, and one of them was called【Drowned Ghost】which allowed the ghost to appear as long as there was a surface with water and kill a person by suffocating them.

He planned on using this card to take Zhou Wenyan’s life.

If you had to know, in a game that followed the laws of a battle royale, leaving a teammate with enmity was more terrifying than leaving an enemy alive. 

Additionally, Flower Shirt found Zhou Wenyan displeasing to the eye and he did not hesitate in the slightest when using the card.

Immediately after, the thin card transformed into a small pool of water and a mop of black hair could be perceived within its depths.

“Go, kill him.” Flower Shirt ordered.

The pool of water seeped into the floorboards and where it went was unknown. 

While waiting, Flower Shirt felt thirsty all of a sudden.

He stood up and poured a cup of water before he gulped it down. Mid-drink, he abruptly felt that something was amiss. Lowering his head, he saw that a mop of black hair had emerged from the cup and half of it had already entered his mouth.

“Cough cough—”

Flower Shirt placed down the cup in a hurry and held his throat, wanting to vomit the hair inside. 

But that tuft of black hair seemed to lodge itself in his throat firmly. Not only could he not expel it, he slowly found it hard to breathe.

“Ah oh…”

Flower Shirt’s eyes rolled to its whites and the black hair he desperately tried to remove was not dug out even at the very end. Having fallen to the ground due to asphyxia, both his hands did not have the strength to move.

* 

Shen Dongqing was bundled in his blankets as he played his phone.

Late at night, a knock could suddenly be heard outside his door.

Knock—

After a short beat, the door was pushed open and a human figure walked in. 

Shen Dongqing peeked out of his blankets to take a look. “Why are you here?”

“I’m afraid,” said Zhou Wenyan.

If there was a third person in the room to hear what he said, they would probably  laugh out loud.

Because it was normal for others to say they were afraid, but it was rather hilarious when Zhou Wenyan was the one who  said it… 

And like it could not be more natural, he lifted the blanket and lied down. Then, he used his eyes to express that because he was scared, he wanted to sleep together with him.

Shen Dongqing believed it.

According to him, his reserve grain was also a person and it was normal to feel fear.

Setting down his phone, Shen Dongqing patted Zhou Wenyan’s arm. “Don’t be afraid, I’m here, I’ll protect you.” 

Zhou Wenyan could not resist the urge to laugh as he tugged him into his arms.

Shen Dongqing squirmed, whispering in a low voice: “I still want to play on my phone.”

Zhou Wenyan did not let him go. “Didn’t you want to know why we were always placed in separate camps?”

Shen Dongqing had already forgotten the matter, thus, he asked curiously, “Was there such a matter?” 

Zhou Wenyan tapped him on his nose. “It’s because you’ve broken a few game copies consecutively.”

“You obviously have a share of the blame,” Shen Dongqing retorted.

“Yes, yes, both of us have broken a few game copies, which is why the game marked us as uncontrollable factors, and the game wants us to mutually kill each other.”

Subconsciously, Shen Dongqing replied, “I would never.” 

His reserve grain was so delicious; he hadn’t eaten enough of it.

Zhou Wenyan consoled him by ruffling his head. “I know you won’t but the rules exist.”

Shen Dongqing thought about the words that the system had said during the opening of the instance. His brows furrowed slightly. “Both of us aren’t in the same team, what do we do?”

Stretching his hand out, Zhou Wenyan smoothed out the wrinkles between his eyebrows. “Don’t worry, I’ll think of a plan.” 

Hearing that, Shen Dongqing casted his worries aside and settled his heart. Extremely optimistic, he uttered, “I think staying in this place is quite fun, and it even has a lot of restaurants I haven’t tried yet.”

Zhou Wenyan was helpless. “… Noted.”

Then, Shen Dongqing placed his phone down and his sleepiness rose up very quickly. While he was sinking into unconsciousness, muddled, he heard a miserable scream outside. Each scream was louder than the last and it was endless.

Zhou Wenyan covered his ears and said softly: “It’s nothing, sleep.” 

Shen Dongqing’s eyelashes trembled and he sank into a slumber filled with dreams.

Once he had fallen asleep, Zhou Wenyan carefully let go of him before he leaned over, directly confronting the ashen-pale face hiding below the bed.

That face hadn’t expected that there were people who would dare to meet it head on and it became the frightened one instead.

Next, it revealed a wretched grin, stretching its hands out from the darkness, reaching for a target on the bed. 

It easily caught Zhou Wenyan as its limbs lifted off the ground and he smiled happily, wanting to drag the person into the darkness.

Hold on……

Why couldn’t he be moved?!