CH 42

(Part 1 – Otaku 1 and Otaku 2)

Edited by Silver Wind 

Sleepymango123, thank you for your Ko-Fis! This extra chapter is dedicated to you!

The wind blew past and he kept falling.

Faceless Ghost: “AHHHH I’m going to fall to my death—”

Expressionless, Shen Dongqing reminded it: “Actually, you’re a ghost, you can’t fall to your death.” 

Immediately after, Faceless Ghost returned back to normal. “Oh, oh.”

When they looked up or down, all they could see were layers upon layers of stairs and floors, like a deep and endless abyss.

However, when they actually jumped down, it took less than a second before Shen Dongqing touched the ground.

Shen Dongqing looked upwards.

They were on the fourteenth floor.

Faceless Ghost was shocked. “How did you discover the way to get out?”

Shen Dongqing: “Guessed it.”

If it was the thirteenth floor whether they walked up or down, it meant that no matter how much they walked, they could never leave. In the process of elimination, the only way besides walking the stairs was to directly jump off. 

He did not expect that it would really work.

Faceless Ghost: “Aren’t you afraid of falling to your death?”

Shen Dongqing shrugged his shoulders: “It’s just becoming a ghost at most.”

It was difficult the first time and easier on the second. 

Saying that, Shen Dongqing walked forward and pushed open the metal door of the safety exit.

Behind the door was a long, drawn out corridor.

Shen Dongqing did not remember which apartment the writer stayed in so he could only check the houses one by one. 

There was no one present in any of the houses and it was essentially deserted, almost as if the entire floor was completely empty and nothing existed here.

When he reached the furthest door, there were finally some changes.

Shen Dongqing pushed open the door.

The lights were not turned on in the room, and only a computer screen was issuing a dull blue light, which was barely bright enough to irradiate the small, messy, and dirty space.

Once he walked in, the first thing his eyes captured was the figure hanging down from the ceiling fan. His head was tilted downwards and his feet were hanging in the air, body moving in accordance to the ceiling fan’s rotating motion.

Hanged Ghost.

When he ventured deeper into the room with the darkness limiting his vision, he stepped onto something that was obstructing his path. 

Lowering his head, he perceived a young and beautiful lady with a long knife protruding out of her chest and her entire body was drenched in blood. The lady was making groaning noises ceaselessly as she wriggled, leaving a thick spot of blood.

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A room, not more than ten square meters, was unexpectedly stuffed with more than a dozen ghosts and monstrosities who were sharing a peaceful coexistence. 

Then even further in, an emaciated male otaku with a hunched back who was practically glued to the computer screen could be seen. Concurrently, both of his hands were typing on the keyboard, uninterrupted, and the keys clacked with a distinct and rhythmic noise.

Da da da—

Rows and rows of words rapidly appeared on the computer screen.

Every time he finished his sentences, it could be seen that there would be a new supernatural being appearing in the room. The newcomer was a big-bellied Hungry Ghost whose limbs resembled firewood in thickness. It laid behind the otaku and he kept shouting “I’m starving. I’m starving”, but the strangest thing was that the otaku did not show the slightest reaction as he continued with his endless typing. 

Shen Dongqing rubbed his chin: “It turns out the ghosts were written by him?”

【 Player Shen Dongqing has solved 20% of the World Outlook, 50% of the total World Outlook solved 】

Shen Dongqing took a step forward, wanting to investigate how the computer managed to create the ghosts. However, just as he moved, he suddenly heard a frail voice speak.

“Don’t go there, he’s a monster!” 

Shen Dongqing turned his head back and saw the thick curtains shake once, pulling open a slight gap to reveal the person hiding behind it.

It was an emaciated otaku.

There were two identical people in the room.

One of them had a dull face as he sat in front of the computer, typing words as if the concept of exhaustion did not exist; the other had an expression of terror and he was shaking as he hid behind the curtains. 

“He will kill you,” said the otaku behind the curtains.

Who should he believe?

Shen Dongqing chose to believe neither.

He walked towards the computer’s bluish screen. 

Otaku 1 did not react in the slightest as if he was unaware of the fact that another person had appeared in the room and was completely engrossed with what he was seeing on the computer. His fingers flew across the keyboard quickly as if he could write out rows upon rows of words without having to consider it.

Shen Dongqing watched from the side for a while before he directly knocked the endlessly typing Otaku 1 into a faint. Then, while pulling Otaku 1, he moved towards the window.

Otaku 2 swallowed his saliva, deathly afraid that he would be knocked out as well. Hurriedly, he said: “I, I’ll do it myself!”

He jumped off the window ledge he was on. 

Shen Dongqing sat down on the sofa. Otaku 1 was lying on the ground and Otaku 2 stood at the side helplessly.

“What kind of book are you writing?” Shen Dongqing asked.

Otaku 2 did not dare to hide it and he told him the whole sequence of events truthfully. 

After he graduated, he did not go out to find a job and chose to stay at home to be a web novel writer instead, wanting to rely on writing to become famous and make a fortune. However, as glorious as his imaginings might be, reality proved itself to be quite complicated. No one was interested in the fiction he wrote and he could only subsist on the minimum wage given for having full work attendance.

Otaku 2 laughed bitterly, “I just wanted to become famous.”

Afterwards, he chose to write on the subject matter of a supernatural city by curious coincidence and he did not expect that it would become an instant hit, so red in popularity that it saturated into black. As a natural consequence, his income rose above the million mark and the requests for the copyrights for film and television flowed in at an unending stream.

He was happy for a period of time, but as he continued, he started to realise that the things he was writing about seem to have the ability to become real. 

“It only works for ghosts and monsters,” Otaku 2 explained.

The first time he saw a female ghost crawling on the ground as she dragged her tongue along nearly frightened him to death. After that, he did not dare to write on and he even announced that he was discontinuing the novel and putting away his pen for good.

Considering their present circumstances, it was evident that everything was no longer decided by his will.

Otaku 2 had been searching for a job when he received his editor’s call, and he was subsequently praised for possessing new and original ideas in his increasingly quick and recent updates. He even told him that he could prepare to negotiate with a film and television company then sign a contract with them. 

Hearing that, Otaku 2 became utterly stunned because he hadn’t been updating at all!

“When I went home to take a look, I discovered that a person who looked like my replica was sitting in front of the computer…” Otaku 2 said, “And then it became like this. He completely replaced me and I’ve been trapped inside this room ever since.”

Otaku 2 had collapsed by this point, “I beg of you, bring me out, or kill him, you can use any method you want!”

【 Player Shen Dongqing has solved 10% of the World Outlook, 60% of the total World Outlook solved 】 

At that moment, Otaku 1, who had been lying on the ground the entire time, opened his eyes and there was no trace of emotion on his face. All he did after waking up was clamber to his feet and walk in the direction of his computer table.

Shen Dongqing raised his hand and knocked him out again.

Otaku 2 looked at him with eyes full of hope, “Can you think of a method to resolve this?”

Shen Dongqing shook his head: “Can’t think of anything.” 

After he heard the entire story, he had no idea what he should do, and he promptly decided it was better to wait for Zhou Wenyan before he did anything else.

Thinking about that, Shen Dongqing did not feel the slightest pressure. In fact, he went as far as pulling out a lollipop to eat.

As he was waiting, Otaku 1 woke up a few more times only to be beaten back into a faint an equal amount of times by Shen Dongqing without any suspense, and it was to the extent where Otaku 2 felt the nape of his neck aching just from watching.

After waiting for half an hour, another person’s figure moved closer. 

It was Zhou Wenyan.

Zhou Wenyan was a little surprised to see Shen Dongqing: “How did you manage to find this place?”

Shen Dongqing blinked his eyes. “I jumped down.”

Zhou Wenyan could not help but laugh in reaction to that. 

Simple and crude, that was indeed his Xiao Dongqing’s style.

Shen Dongqing returned the question: “How did you manage to find this place?”

In a relaxed manner, Zhou Wenyan said: “I arrived here after solving two puzzles.”

Shen Dongqing did not ask what the puzzles pertained to. 

After all, he was not good with decryption and he would not understand it even if he asked. Since that was the case, he was better off not asking.

Having conversed to this point, it was only then that Shen Dongqing remembered they had proper business to attend to. “Ah, there’s a puzzle here too.”

He pointed at Otaku 1 and Otaku 2 and then repeated the whole sequence of events to him.

Then, Zhou Wenyan muttered something to himself for a brief moment before he strode over to the front of the computer. He manipulated the mouse with his right hand and clicked on the document window. 

The documents were all densely packed with words without exception, and each and every one of them were stories about the supernaturals in a big city. When he swept his eyes across them, he could see the familiar Hit-and-Run Ghost, Hanged Ghost, Drowned Ghost, so on and so forth.

Zhou Wenyan said: “Let’s try and delete it.”

He threw all the documents into the recycle bin and chose the option to delete all the contents in the recycle bin permanently.

What accompanied his actions was the peal of paper shredding noises. 

The desktop was completely cleaned out in an instant, and not one document was left behind.

However, when he turned around to look, the ghosts and monsters in the room were still ever present and there was not the slightest change.

Otaku 2 said weakly: “I’ve tried to delete the documents in secret before but it was useless because it would revert back to normal immediately.”

Just as his words landed, the documents which were obviously cleared out a second ago, returned to the desktop one by one. 

“There’s no use in deleting them either, the reader capacity has already exceeded a million.”

Shen Dongqing said: “Then delete what is on the internet as well.”

Otaku 2 let out a miserable laugh. “The rights to publish the book has already been sold and it’s probable that the printing house is almost done printing as well. Furthermore, the printing house is located in other parts of the country while I can’t leave this city at all.”

When he discovered the supernatural occurrences, Otaku 2 wanted to flee this ghost infested place, but when he bought a bus ticket the bus stopped halfway; bought a train ticket and the train stopped moving; bought an airplane ticket… apologies, this city had no airport. 

Even when he tried to walk out on his feet, it was akin to walking in a circle because he would still return back to the same place.

Zhou Wenyan asked: “Has this book ended?”

Otaku 2 shook his head: “No, it hasn’t. This person writes twenty-four hours a day without stopping and I don’t understand how he manages to have so much inspiration for all the bizarre things he writes.”

Zhou Wenyan pushed away the chair and pointed at the computer. “You write.” 

Otaku 2: “Me?”

“Yes,” Zhou Wenyan said. “Write a chapter with a final conclusion.”

Otaku 2 sat in front of the computer.

He had not typed in a long time, and now he was trembling with fear as he opened a document to write out the words “THE END”. Then, following Zhou Wenyan’s instructions, he wrote another sentence – After the protagonist woke up, he realised that everything was a dream he made up, and there was nothing like that in reality. 

Zhou Wenyan: “Post it on the internet.”

Otaku reproduced his words in action, opening up the novel forum and posting the chapter without any hesitation.

It was published successfully!

Otaku 2 asked restlessly, “Will it work?” 

Zhou Wenyan answered him frankly, “I don’t know.”

Licking his lollipop, Shen Dongqing added, “Doesn’t hurt to try.”

Otaku 2 abruptly felt that these two people were not very dependable as he clicked on refresh.

The webpage moved. 

The newest chapter update was the final conclusion.

Otaku 2 stared at the computer screen with utmost anticipation, hoping that it could resolve his nightmare.

However, that did not happen.

Not long after the final conclusion was sent out, it was deleted by some mysterious power. 

Looking through the comment section, it seemed like not a single reader had seen it because they were still discussing the Hungry Ghost that appeared in the previous chapter with much excitement, and they were completely ignorant to the chapter regarding the final conclusion which had been issued.

Paralysed, the Otaku 2 fell back against his chair and covered his face in despair.

Zhou Wenyan: “It seems like it didn’t work.”

Biting into his lollipop, Shen Dongqing spoke with some sugar in his mouth, “Maybe we should ask the other person?” 

He gestured at the unconscious Otaku 1.