Salted Fish Zombie

Chapter 36.2: Manman (9)

May 18, 2023 by Wyrd

And on the other floors, even Shi Tianzhu only had four points, and some players have none at all.

Zhu Shuangshuang squatted in front of the paper doll, tilted her head to look at it, and said with a smile, “Thank you, Zhizhi.”

The paper doll made a “squeak” sound and stuck to Zhu Shuangshuang’s arm.

At first, they were all terrified of these ghost friends, but now they were no longer afraid and had found a way to interact with them.

Perhaps these beings, given the names of terror and evil, were also innocent and naïve spirits when they first gained consciousness. They naturally treated others the way they were treated by the world.

Seeing them all having intimate interactions with their ghost friends, Blood Doll tugged at Ning Su’s clothes, and Ning Su made a sound of agreement. “Gui Sheng and Blood Doll should hug.”

“...”

Blood Doll’s eyes welled up with tears.

Gui Sheng immediately took out a lily leaf and placed it under her face.

Ning Su said, “Don’t cry for now, save your tears. Shed them when we’re out of money for food in the future.”

“...”

Blood Doll blinked, on the verge of bursting into tears, but Ning Su suddenly rubbed her head and a pleasant, gentle laughter sounded. “Don’t cry, I’ll make you a skull night light later.”

Blood Doll immediately stopped crying, and the other ghost friends also turned to look at him.

The other three: “...”

Was this how you all react to a skull night light?

Don’t let him distort your aesthetics!

The four of them went up with their ghost friends. They didn’t need any protection, as the protective measures from last night were not only undamaged, but also stronger against the attacks of the monster children.

However, they needed to repair and decorate the door. The door was almost burnt beyond recognition during the night that they used fire to defend against the monster children.

Naturally, lily vines could be used for decoration and protection.

They hung lily vines on the door.

On door 405, three blooming lily vines were decorated with flickering skull night lights. Blood Doll stood at the door, making other ghost friends envious.

Seeing their ghost friends staring enviously, Zhu Shuangshuang stepped forward and said, “Um...”

Ning Su gave Zhu Shuangshuang a skull night light, and Zhu Shuangshuang happily hung it on a lily vine on her room’s door.

Zhizhi happily grabbed Zhu Shuangshuang’s arm.

Ji Mingrui and Meng Jiang stepped forward and said, “Um...”

Gui Sheng gave them a skull, and the two boys, enduring goosebumps, made skull night lights for their ghost friends.

“It looks simple, but it’s actually difficult. I didn’t expect your handicrafts to be so good, Ning Su.”

Ning Su said, “The world is difficult, and life forces me to do so.”

“...”

When the night began to fall, there were thick green vines and leaves, red three-petal lily flowers, and bright skull night lights on the door of the fourth-floor rooms.

There were also several skull lanterns hanging on the corridor walls, and a string of shining little skull decorations hanging from the roof.

The ghost friends looked up at them happily, walking around in the corridor, bouncing and jumping. Their eyes with different textures all had a sparkling feeling. The mummy doll even clapped its hands happily and turned around in a circle.

Zhu Shuangshuang said, “Is there something wrong with me? Why do I feel a warm feeling at night?”

Meng Jiang said, “I also think I have a problem with my taste. The skull night lights and lanterns are actually quite pretty?”

Ning Su looked at them in confusion and said firmly, “They’re just really pretty.”

Gui Sheng: “Yeah! They’re too pretty!”

Ji Mingrui: “...”

He looked at the skulls on the corridor shining dimly, pressed his forehead and said, “It’s dinnertime. Let’s go down and eat.”

Before dinner, the stairwell hadn’t been sealed off yet, and when people from the two floors above came down, they almost stumbled and fell down the stairs on the fourth floor.

Currently, the fourth floor and the fifth floor were in a hostile relationship, while the sixth floor had a slightly better relationship with the fourth floor.

A player from the sixth floor asked a seemingly approachable newcomer named Ji Mingrui, “Why did you turn the corridor into a haunted house?”

Ji Mingrui: “...”

Ji Mingrui didn’t want to answer.

Tonight, the fifth-floor players were in charge of opening the windows, and the players from the fourth and sixth floors were relaxed during dinner.

To everyone’s surprise, the faces of the fifth-floor players didn’t show any signs of heaviness either. They seemed relaxed as well.

The four players on the fourth floor exchanged glances, some understanding something, while others were puzzled.

After finishing dinner, a player from the fifth floor carried a plate of food upstairs and knocked on the door of room 505. As there was no response, he pushed the door open.

Holding the plate of still decent food, he said to the person on the mattress, “Qian Dongfang, I’ve come to bring you some food.”

The person lying on the mattress was the one who was thrown out by Shi Tianzhu that night.

Shi Tianzhu’s intention was to intimidate, not to take a life, so he was still alive, albeit seriously injured, and needing to rest in bed.

After going through the training of various instances, the players’ physical strength and physique had improved significantly.

Qian Dongfang, who was originally the strongest among this group of players, benefited from the nourishing energy of the castle and would recover soon.

“Thank you, Kong Sheng. I’ve caused trouble for you. You really are a good buddy,” Qian Dongfang struggled to sit up a little and said to him.

He, Kong Sheng, and another male player had known each other before entering this instance. They had all chosen the fifth floor together.

The other two told him that by choosing the fifth floor, they had selected the Gu Witch, and they were supposed to protect the interests of the Gu Witch and the fifth floor throughout the game.

The more outstanding their performance, the more they would gain the appreciation of the Gu Witch. After leaving this instance, there’s a possibility that they could join the current first-ranked guild–Yongming Guild.

What they said was reasonable, and Qian Dongfang had indeed acted accordingly.

When he heard someone from the sixth floor badmouthing the Gu Witch in the restroom, he immediately pushed the door open and confronted them.

Shi Tianzhu came to the fifth floor to warn them not to smash the corridor. She was arrogant and domineering. The Gu Witch remained silent with her head down. With the gestures of the other two, he stepped forward to express his dissatisfaction.

Later, it turned out like this.

Fortunately, they didn’t give up on him.

They carried him back to the room, searched for bandages and medicine in the castle, and brought him food and water.

Qian Dongfang said, “True friendship is revealed in times of adversity. It’s worth it.”

Kong Sheng didn’t respond. He glanced at Qian Dongfang’s ghost friend lying on the mattress.

Qian Dongfang had multiple fractures from being smashed by Shi Tianzhu and found it inconvenient to lie on the tall bed. The players on the fifth floor moved his mattress to the living room, allowing him to lie on it.

His ghost friend was a very small straw doll, just slightly taller than the mattress.

Since Qian Dongfang was carried onto the mattress, the ghost friend sat on the carpet with both little arms resting on the mattress, head lying on it, motionless, watching Qian Dongfang and keeping him company.

An unpleasant smell wafted in the air.

Qian Dongfang awkwardly said, “Kong Sheng, can you help...”

Kong Sheng interrupted in advance, “I’ll bring you food. I haven’t eaten yet. Hold on for another hour, and I’ll come help you after I finish eating.”

“Okay, okay, go eat quickly,” Qian Dongfang replied, his face turning red.

“You big dummy,” Kong Sheng chuckled before leaving.

Qian Dongfang laughed. They often jokingly called him that in the game base.

He took it as a familiar joke. They wouldn’t call him that if they weren’t familiar.

Kong Sheng left, lightly pushing the door before closing it. The door bounced back a little after it closed.

Qian Dongfang didn’t pay attention.

In the past two days, the players on the fifth floor, protected by the insects, didn’t bother securing the doors along the corridor. The monster children couldn’t enter the corridor, so it didn’t matter whether the doors were tightly closed.

He spent the whole day lying in bed, unaware of the decisions made by the players from the fifth floor in the restaurant downstairs. He faintly heard knocking sounds in the corridor, thinking that they were setting traps in the corridor just like they did on that day.

He didn’t pay much attention, but the straw doll was extremely anxious. It cried softly and hurriedly ran to the door, looking at the layers of wooden boards and metal blocks protecting the other doors. It was stunned for a moment.

Crying, it went to chase Kong Sheng.

“Squeak, squeak, squeak...“

With its small size, Kong Sheng only needed a few steps to return to the room and close the door. When it slowly ran over, it could only face a tightly closed door.

It stared blankly at the door, thought about the person lying in bed, and quickly ran back.

“Dao Dao, why are you crying?” Qian Dongfang said, “I’m fine, I’m getting much better. I’ll be able to get out of bed in a couple of days. Stop crying and feed me.”

Qian Dongfang had both arms severely broken and couldn’t use his hands. For the past two days, it was the straw doll who fed him.

With both of its little arms together, the straw doll lifted a spoonful of food and put it near Qian Dongfang’s mouth. Qian Dongfang opened his mouth and ate it.

After eating two spoonfuls, he saw several drops of green liquid in the plate.

It was the straw doll’s tears.

Qian Dongfang pursed his lips, and his eyes suddenly became sore.

The chubby boy made an effort to swallow something and said to him, “Dao Dao, do you know why I gave you this name?”

“Besides the fact that you look like a scarecrow, it’s also because when I was young, my family had a large rice field with scarecrows on it.”

He didn’t know what he was thinking, and his eyes shimmered.

“The earliest mature rice is in late July. At that time, the whole rice field is filled with heavy, golden rice ears. We made scarecrows by the field to scare away birds and protect the rice.”

“That’s a scene I’ll never forget. I really like scarecrows because they guarded our hard work for half a year.”

“Unexpectedly, I have encountered you here again. I also like you. Just like them, you stayed by my side, lying on the bed, during my most difficult times.”

“If one day, I could take you back to that field of rice paddies to have a look, it’s so beautiful there, and you would definitely love it. Although the scarecrows there wear tattered clothes, I feel like you could perhaps become friends with them.”

The green liquid on the plate kept accumulating.

The straw doll ran out, crying, “Squeak squeak.”

It ran to the stairwell, wanting to go down to the fourth floor, but found that the stairwell was blocked.

Rough wooden boards, thick iron plates, so tall, so large, it was impossible for him to budge them.

After leaving behind a pool of green liquid, it hurriedly ran back to the room, heading straight for the terrace.

There was still a layer of black insects on the terrace, but the ones below were slowly receding.

It held onto the two bottom railings, standing in the middle, and cried incessantly towards room 405 downstairs, “Squeak squeak!“

“Squeak! Squeak squeak! Squeak squeak squeak!“ The cries were urgent and filled with sorrow.

The terrace of room 405 was covered by dense vines, with only two slits letting out two strands of warm light, flickering on its straw-woven tear-filled eyes.

Its “squeak” cries couldn’t reach inside, its green tears dripped onto the vines, absorbed by them.

“Squeak... Squeak...“

The hopeless and sorrowful “squeak” cries suddenly turned into fear and terror.

It saw numerous monster children climbing upward, their speed so fast that they seemed to be right in front of it in an instant.

It was frightened and fell to the ground, hurriedly running to the mattress, rubbing against Qian Dongfang’s face. The green liquid merged with the white liquid.

The corridor’s glass broke with a crisp sound, clearly reaching inside through the loosely closed door.

Qian Dongfang’s eyes turned red in an instant.

He seemed to understand why, after he was severely injured and almost became useless, the people on the fifth floor were so enthusiastic in helping him find medicine and bandages to sustain his life.

The song of the monster children grew closer and closer, and Qian Dongfang and the trembling straw doll simultaneously looked towards the doorway.

They saw the door that was not closed.

The straw doll moved away from Qian Dongfang’s cheek and tremblingly climbed down from the mattress, unsteadily walking towards the door.

“Come back!” Qian Dongfang yelled at him.

“Come back!!! Don’t close the door!!!!”

The monster children was the most feared presence among ghost friends.

The straw doll was so scared that not only was it trembling, but the straw on its body had already snapped.

It still walked forward tremblingly.

“Come back!!! Dao Dao, come back!!!” Qian Dongfang desperately shouted at him, tears streaming down his face. “Dao Dao, come back...”

The straw doll made the loudest “squeak squeak” sound and bumped into the door.

It was too small, and any ghost friend could easily knock it over and tear it apart.

It was knocked over, but didn’t hit the ground.

It was caught by a hand, and it didn’t know how that person climbed up.

The monster children rushed in, and that person firmly protected the straw doll.

The straw doll saw the red liquid that had burst from the person’s bandaged chest, which was human blood, and it was warm when it dripped on its face.

“Squeak... Squeak...“

[Congratulations to the player Qian Dongfang for receiving 6 luck points from his ghost friend.]

[Player Qian Dongfang’s ghost friend has been destroyed.]

[Player Qian Dongfang has died.]