Salted Fish Zombie

Chapter 30.1: Manman (3)

April 24, 2023 by Wyrd

Fifth floor.

Tap-tap, tap-tap-tap... tap, tap-tap-tap.

Tiny footsteps, as if looking for someone in the room.

All the doors were tightly closed, a silent refusal.

The footsteps moved from the stairway to the end of the corridor, then slowly back again.

Accompanied by the footsteps were childish giggles, “hee-hee, hee-hee-hee“.

As if afraid of being discovered, the laughter was very low and light, but anyone could hear the excitement in it, echoing faintly in the empty corridor.

With each step came a “hee“ sound.

Every time it passed a room, the “hee-hee“ would rise suddenly, making the people inside the room nervous.

“Hee, hee, hee, hee-hee, hee, hee, hee, hee-hee...”

A small, black round bug quietly appeared in the door crack.

The footsteps stopped for a moment and moved closer to this side.

After standing in front of the door, the “hee-hee“ sounds merged together, and the laughter became louder and heavier, with a vibration in the echoing sound of the corridor, “hee-hee-hee-hee-hee-hee-hee, open the door!”

The sound of small hands tapping on the door was also heavy, like a rough wooden hammer hitting the door.

All the players on the fifth floor could hear the heavy and fierce pounding sound. The door could not hold for long before being broken open.

Creak-yaa-ah-yaa-ah...

The door slowly opened.

Standing outside the door was a puppet.

The dirty gray puppet’s face was carved into a smiling face, with small eyes and a large mouth, a deep purple mouth that exposed a row of teeth, twisting the wooden muscles on the face.

Its face was painted with a circle of red, black, and green oil paint. It was dirty and imprinted on the wood grain, which was hard to wipe off.

In the red corridor, it gave a big smile to the little witch, its two dark eyes staring at her without blinking.

***

On the fourth floor:

[Daddy grows taller, mommy becomes wider.

Daddy makes big money, mommy feels small.]

At the amusement park, the music of the carousel was getting quieter and quieter, almost drowned out by the sound of footsteps.

Because there was no boss around, several players on the fourth floor who were not qualified to choose a floor were even more fearful than those on the upper two floors.

As the carousel’s music grew softer, its eerie and gentle melody echoed beyond the door and into people’s ears, causing their hair to stand on end.

[Daddy grows taller, mommy becomes wider.

Becomes wider...]

Ji Mingrui leaned against the door, his body tense, breathing heavily without making a sound.

He had received many kinds of education since he was young and knew how to deal with all kinds of crises, but there was none that was specifically designed for this situation.

This cold ghost, which did not exist in the real world and completely shattered his worldview, was now outside his door and slowly approaching him.

Zhu Shuangshuang acted more exaggeratedly than him and could hardly breathe.

She slumped behind the door, her hands on the ground, her palms sinking into the soft woolen carpet, and suddenly she felt a strong urge to vomit.

Children’s laughter, song, and crying were swirling and colliding in her brain, intensifying her dizziness.

She was scared and uncomfortable, and there was already a taste of stomach acid in her mouth.

As she grew more uncomfortable, she leaned against the left wall with her hand on the doorknob. On the other side of the wall was Ning Su, which gave her some comfort.

Meanwhile, Ning Su and Gui Sheng were crouching by the door, peering out into the corridor.

“Has our ghost friend arrived?”

After sleeping for a while on the bed, they felt that it was not a good idea to continue to do so and got up to greet their ghost friend.

They couldn’t wait and opened the door slightly, peeking outside.

“Mm!” the child opened his eyes wide and pointed outside.

Footsteps could be heard in the dim corridor, sometimes louder, sometimes softer, and strange little ghosts appeared in the dark red mist.

Ning Su’s peach blossom eyes caught many strange and eerie little creatures in the red haze.

There were shiny little bronze men, glass men with twisted reflections, red paper men, oil-painted puppet men, and exquisite dolls.

After carefully examining them, the doll that walked a circle in the red mist at the stairway looked the most human.

Her delicate features were very human-like, and from afar, she looked like a normal child. She was about the same height as Gui Sheng, and what caught Ning Su’s attention the most was her hair clip.

“Gui Sheng, look at her hair clip. Is it the lily flower we saw in the villa in ‘Ghost Animal’ dungeon?”

Gui Sheng looked hard at the three red flower petals on the hair clip and nodded.

“Huh? Why is she knocking on someone’s door?” Ning Su pushed the door open a bit more.

He stuck his head out from the door crack, and seeing no players around, he made a gesture at the little girl, who turned around. He then waved at her.

Gui Sheng was a bit smaller, and also waved his small gray-white hand at her, saying, “Come, friend.”

The little doll looked almost like a human, with human eyes that were filled with blood and mist, looking at them.

After a while, she slowly walked towards Ning Su’s side.

Ning Su looked around and saw that no player noticed his cheating behavior, so he quickly opened the door and invited her in.

As soon as the door closed, Ning Su put a small flower wreath woven from a vine on her head, and Gui Sheng put a flower in her hand.

“Welcome!”

The two of them looked at her as if she were their own relative, with their eyes shining.

Tears of blood kept flowing from the doll’s eyes, dropping faster and faster, forming a steady stream of blood.

Fresh blood gushed out of her large eyes, leaving two thick and long blood streaks on her fair face, soaking through her white veil dress and flowing wildly into the carpet.

Seeing that her tears of blood couldn’t stop flowing, Ning Su said, “Hmm... you don’t have to be so moved.”

The blood flowed even more fiercely.

The doll was almost turning into a blood doll, with blood all over her from her neck to her little feet.

Ning Su and Gui Sheng looked at each other in confusion.

One minute later, Ning Su and Gui Sheng each took a large bowl and placed it under the doll’s cheeks.

All the fresh blood was collected in the bowls, and in no time, more than half of the bowl was filled with thick, bright red blood.

Ning Su stared at the fresh blood and said, “Don’t waste it.”

Gui Sheng also stared intently and said, “Mmm.”

The two of them looked very similar, a bit silly, and their eyes shone brightly as they stared at the blood. Moreover, almost at the same time, they swallowed a small mouthful of saliva, and their undeveloped Adam’s apple moved slightly.

“...”

The bleeding had stopped.

Ning Su let out a sound, “Ah”, expressing a complex mix of relief and disappointment.

He said to the little girl, “Don’t worry, we’ve all eaten and won’t drink your blood. We’ll keep it in the refrigerator for you to drink.”

Gui Sheng nodded in agreement. “We’ll give it to you.”

The two little boys immediately put the two bowls of blood in the refrigerator to show their determination.

When Ning Su returned, he brought a wet towel and wiped the two small bloodstains on her face.

The doll’s face was very soft, and the towel left a small indentation on it.

Ning Su made a sound of surprise and handed the towel to Gui Sheng. He poked her chin with his index finger and touched the edge of her chin, as if looking for something.

Six-year-old Ning Su was very thin, with not much flesh on his fingers. When he exerted a little force, his knuckles protruded, revealing his rough strength.

He didn’t know where his fingers went, and his clear, watery peach blossom eyes became serious.

He stared at the blood-covered doll, not knowing what he was thinking. He didn’t notice the faint black veins on his wrist, as the blood doll was absorbing the black energy inside his body, causing her small face to gradually swell up.

Ning Su came to his senses and saw this, his eyes flashing slightly, allowing her to continue sucking.

The child on the side was drooling seeing this.

Ning Su laughed and said to the blood doll, “Don’t be afraid, I will save you.”

Just as he was about to offer another index finger to Gui Sheng, they suddenly heard a disturbance.

More and more strange little things appeared in the corridor, knocking on every player’s door.

Struggling for a longer or shorter time, most players opened the door for them.

Because they knew that this ‘ghost friend’ was the most important NPC in this instance and they couldn’t keep them out.

Many players were so scared when they saw them that they collapsed on the ground for a long time before letting the ghost friend in.

After letting them in, most players did not dare to close the door.

They couldn’t bear to be in a confined space with such a strange thing, in case something happened and they couldn’t escape.

They already had a scene in their minds of the ghost suddenly laughing sinisterly and wanting to eat people, and being unable to open the door during their escape.

Anyway, most players let the ghost in and did not close the door.

Except for one.

The door of the room at the end of the fourth floor corridor had still not been opened.

The knocking and crying of the ghost friend could be heard even by people on the fifth or sixth floor.

It was a little glass mirror person, like a delicate crystal doll, crying and pounding on the door.

All the ghost friends in the corridor had been led into their assigned room. In the long, empty, dark corridor, it stood alone outside the door, with no one to guide it in.

Its crying became louder and more tragic, “Wuwaa! Wuwaa!” beating on the players’ eardrums.

At the same time, the knocking became faster and more forceful.

This attracted many players to peek out of their doors to watch.

Suddenly, the crying grew more intense, the sound too shrill and brittle, like glass shattering on the ground, making one’s heart race with anxiety.

The knocking on the door became even more urgent. The mirror person clapped their hands together, their feet shifting restlessly.

Amidst the loneliness and sadness, fear and panic surged.

But the door remained tightly shut, with no signs of anyone inside wanting to open it.

Ning Su looked at the door and seemed to sense something, so he immediately moved to the balcony.

A fog descended upon the town.

The fog was gray and dense, visible even at night.

In the nearby children’s playground, the merry-go-round had stopped at some point, and the music had naturally stopped as well.

One by one, the children sitting on the merry-go-round got off and silently walked towards the castle.

They appeared and disappeared in the dense gray fog, sometimes more visible than at other times. It was impossible to tell how many children were walking towards the castle in that mist.

The children who were just by the merry-go-round a moment ago now appeared in the fog around the castle, as indistinct as the fetus statue on top of the castle.

A horde of monstrous children surrounded the castle, walking in through the open gate, climbing the ivy-covered walls, and crawling into the castle.

Under the ghastly white moonlight, they all looked pale and stiff, with a slick sheen of oil on their faces, like the fetus statue on the castle’s roof.

The cold, putrid smell in the air grew thicker and thicker.