Salted Fish Zombie

Chapter 37.1: Manman (10)

May 20, 2023 by Wyrd

Fourth floor.

The lily vine tightly sealed all doors and windows. After last night’s experiment, the four people on the fourth floor had no worries at all.

The corridor was illuminated by warm yellow skull-shaped lamps, covered with thick, soft wool blankets. Zhu Shuangshuang heated up some milk and invited everyone to have a warm drink to warm their bodies and calm their hearts.

Four players, a ghost child, and four ghost friends sat on the soft blankets, drinking milk while listening to the tapping sounds of the monster children outside.

Suddenly, as if hearing something, they raised their heads and looked up.

They didn’t know exactly where to look. At times, they looked up at the corridor ceiling, then at the staircase entrance, and then towards Room 405.

“Squeak... squeak...“

Zhu Shuangshuang thought her ghost friend was still afraid of the monster children and patted its head, saying, “Don’t be afraid, Zhizhi. They can’t come in here.”

Meng Jiang said, “Zhizhi just squeaked. Is he even calling his own name? I also want to give the mummy a name.”

Zhu Shuangshuang said, “Really? It seems like it.”

Zhizhi squeaked again, “Squeak, squeak.“

Its paper-stuffed doll head anxiously turned and met the gaze of the Blood Doll beside it.

The Blood Doll held Ning Su’s arm, its blood-stained eyes staring at the paper doll without blinking.

With a “Squeak” sound, the paper doll immediately sat up straight, resting its head on Zhu Shuangshuang’s arm, no longer moving.

The blood in the eyes of the Blood Doll slowly dissipated, and compared to the night they knocked on the door, there was a slight difference, more like real human eyes.

Exceptionally beautiful human eyes, with the innocent and lively nature of a human child, yet with a hint of eerie innocence.

Ning Su reached out to grab the milk carton, and as his arm moved slightly, the Blood Doll’s eyes immediately turned blood-stained again, pressing tightly against Ning Su’s arm, as if afraid and on the verge of tears.

Zhu Shuangshuang followed Zhizhi’s line of sight and glanced at the Blood Doll, but she didn’t notice anything unusual. Seeing that Zhizhi was no longer looking around, she felt relieved.

“You guys said, tonight on the fifth floor...”

[Congratulations to player Qian Dongfang for receiving 6 Luck Points gifted by the Ghost Friend.]

Before Zhu Shuangshuang could finish speaking, a system prompt interrupted them.

Everyone was momentarily stunned.

The players had previously discussed among themselves how many Luck Points they could obtain at most.

Although someone had already obtained 6 Luck Points before this, it wasn’t easy to acquire Luck Points, and some players currently had none at all.

The experienced players said that, considering the fairness of the game, the maximum number of Luck Points they could obtain shouldn’t exceed 10.

Qian Dongfang already had 2 Luck Points before, and now he has obtained 6 more.

Did this mean his ghost friend gave him all of its Luck Points?

Immediately after, they heard another prompt from the system without any pause.

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

[Player Qian Dongfang has died.]

All four people were stunned, feeling an indescribable heaviness in their hearts.

Although they had speculated when they saw the players from the fifth floor eating in the dining room during dinner and appearing relaxed, hearing it confirmed was still unsettling, especially after hearing about the 6 Luck Points gifted by the ghost friend.

Zhu Shuangshuang said, “Did his scarecrow ghost friend give him all the Luck Points before dying?”

Ning Su made a sound of agreement.

A silence fell upon the fourth floor.

Meng Jiang spoke to the mummy doll, “If there comes a day when we’re about to die, don’t give me Luck Points anymore. It might be more useful to keep them for yourself, who knows, they could have some other purpose, like reincarnation.”

The mummy doll kept its head lowered and said nothing.

Tonight, the monster children quickly left, receding like a tide, leaving behind the silence on all floors.

In the silence, the four of them could easily hear the movements on the fifth floor.

Ji Mingrui walked to the arched window and listened for a while. “It seems like someone from the sixth floor has come to the fifth floor again.”

Zhu Shuangshuang pondered for a moment. “Qian Dongfang, who died tonight, was the person attacked by President Shi that night.”

Ning Su paused for a moment, stood up, and said, “I’ll go up and take a look.”

The corridor was still closed off, so he directly pulled apart the vines on the arched window and climbed up along them.

Ji Mingrui said, “He’s...”

Zhu Shuangshuang held back Gui Sheng and said, “Let him go and check. When he comes back, we can ask him for the details.”

The monster children shattered the arched window on the fifth floor. A six-year-old boy jumped from the vines into the window. He grabbed the window ledge with both hands and jumped up, sitting on the window.

The players from the fifth floor came out of their rooms and looked at Shi Tianzhu at the door of room 505.

The monster children came and went quickly this time, but the fifth floor was far from being as clean as the sixth floor was last night.

There were traces of blood and flesh scattered throughout the corridor, like strands of straw.

The area with the most strips of human flesh was at the door of 505. Shi Tianzhu, dressed in a white dress, stood there barefoot, stepping on a piece of human flesh. The blood stained her feet.

Little Gu Witch stood at the door of 507, her hoarse voice echoing in the dim corridor. “Shi Tianzhu, you killed him. There’s no need to pretend anymore. Your visit won’t hide anything.”

Shi Tianzhu didn’t even turn her head. She calmly observed the situation inside and said, “Did I kill him? Or did the monster children kill him? Or perhaps, it was all of you who killed him?”

She sneered, “You’re all a bunch of heartless and wicked people. Don’t add more sins onto each other.”

She turned her head and looked at Little Gu Witch. Her eyes paused for a moment, and a warm expression appeared in them as she beckoned to the boy sitting on the window.

The players on the fifth floor all looked towards the window and saw a boy jump down from it, running towards Shi Tianzhu. He looked up at her.

Shi Tianzhu: “What are you looking at me for? Weren’t you here to see what’s going on? Look inside.”

Ning Su turned to look inside.

There was still a pile of white bones in the room, with a broken straw underneath.

Shi Tianzhu had already finished looking and, seeing that he understood, lifted her foot and returned to the sixth floor.

“It was you who killed Qian Dongfang,” someone suddenly shouted behind her.

“It was you who killed Qian Dongfang,” another person cried.

“You killed him and still came downstairs to look, pretending to be concerned.”

Ning Su turned his head to look at them.

The fifth floor didn’t have the bright skull-shaped lights, with only small candles on the ceiling of the corridor, struggling to dispel a bit of darkness.

In the dim corridor, players stood ominously at the door and spoke to Shi Tianzhu in this manner.

Among them, two male players cried with tears streaming down their faces amidst the scattered pieces of flesh in the hallway.

In fact, they all knew that Shi Tianzhu had been in this horror game for over a decade, having cleared nearly two thousand copies, so human life no longer held much weight in her heart. Even if they said such things, it wouldn’t cause Shi Tianzhu any pain.

But they still said it one by one.

Even if it just left a trace of darkness in Shi Tianzhu’s heart.

It was also a way of shifting blame.

Ning Su blinked, blocking the darkness in his eyes.

Shi Tianzhu looked at the two crying boys and smiled, “If saying this makes you two, Qian Dongfang’s most trusted good friends, feel a little better, then it’s fine too.”

The two boys were taken aback.

Shi Tianzhu then looked at the person who had spoken first earlier and said, “Bai Shuang, Qian Dongfang is dead. The room can be emptied for you to stay. Well then, good night to you.”

Bai Shuang’s complexion darkened, and their eyes trembled as they looked at the room.

Shi Tianzhu walked towards the stairs, with Ning Su following her.

Shi Tianzhu asked him, “What are you here for?”

Ning Su said, “I came to tell you something.”

“What is it?”

Ning Su replied, “In the previous ‘Ghost Animal’ instance, I broke the Soul-Locking Rope of the black-robed man and threw him against the wall.”

Shi Tianzhu stepped on the dark staircase, and the red on the side of her foot blurred within the darkness. She said, “If it were in the original peaceful world, you wouldn’t have had the power and opportunity to break the Soul-Locking Rope.”

The next day during breakfast, all the players knew about what happened last night.

After Ning Su returned last night, he explained the situation to the three people on the fourth floor.

A night had passed, and everything that happened in the dark night seemed to have vanished with the rising sun.

At a table on the fifth floor, they were discussing luck points.

“Do you think the Scarecrow gave all his luck points to Qian Dongfang before it died?”

“Can we really obtain 8 luck points in this instance? That’s amazing! With the ones we already have, it will be much easier for future instances!”

“But I don’t have any luck points yet. Why isn’t he giving me any?”

As they listened to their increasingly excited and discontented discussions, Zhu Shuangshuang bit onto her chopsticks and muttered, “When will I be able to adapt to this game’s ecosystem?”

Ji Mingrui said, “You’re already adapting quite well.”

Zhu Shuangshuang wasn’t referring to that.

She turned her head to look at Shi Tianzhu, who remained unaffected, enjoying her breakfast.

When will she be able to possess a heart as powerful as hers?

Indifference, darkness, filth, or misery could not affect her emotions in the slightest.

Last night, Ning Su returned and talked about the situation on the fifth floor.

He said that Shi Tianzhu went down there just because of that 6 luck value, wanting to see if there were any clues and not being influenced by the people on the fifth floor.

Zhu Shuangshuang couldn’t explain what she felt in her heart.

After so many years in the game, Shi Tianzhu should have experienced many things like this. Even if each time only left a negligible dark mark on her heart, accumulated countless times, can a 250-gram heart bear so much?

While thinking about it, Shi Tianzhu looked up at her and smiled.

Zhu Shuangshuang was startled for a moment, then she smiled back at her.

She looked at Ning Su beside her; the boy was eating with narrowed eyes, bursting with happiness.

Zhu Shuangshuang sighed.

Forget it, as an ordinary person like her, she shouldn’t bother with these extraordinary matters.

Seeing that Ning Su finally finished eating, belching with happiness, Shi Tianzhu spoke, “Everyone, I want to discuss something with you.”

As soon as they heard her say that, the people on the fifth floor felt their scalps tingling.

They all knew that Shi Tianzhu’s “discussion” was merely a formality.

Shi Tianzhu said, “Starting today, we can’t keep eating like this, we need to go on a diet.”

Ning Su: “...”

Sadness instantly surged in his heart.

Her absurd request puzzled the people on the fifth floor. This time, she wasn’t asking them to sacrifice their lives, so they didn’t put up fierce resistance.

However, someone asked with a headache, “President Shi, you want us to protect the castle and go on a diet. Can you give us an explanation?”

Ning Su looked up at Shi Tianzhu, who glanced at him and then looked at the witch who had been bowing her head all the time.

She asked, “Witch, I made such an obvious request. Did you really not expect it with your Gus spread throughout the castle?”

Ordinary players looked at Shi Tianzhu and then turned to Gu Witch, realizing that there was something they didn’t know.

At this moment, it’s time to speak.

Gu Witch’s voice was hoarse as she spoke: “This castle is the mother’s body. We are inside the mother’s body, and the castle is becoming weaker and can’t hold on much longer. By consuming the mother’s body without any concerns, we are also depleting it.”

Except for a few individuals, the players in the dining room were shocked.

Intense discussions erupted after.

The statement seemed far-fetched, but as the discussions and contemplation deepened, many things began to make sense, and the players were shocked yet enlightened.

Following this line of thought, many players started pondering heavily, facing what seemed to be an unsolvable problem that they had been avoiding.

The duration of this game was 30 days, and there were a total of 20 players, one of whom died before entering the castle. Therefore, there were 19 pairs of players and ghost friends.

The monster children destroyed one pair of player and ghost friend every night, meaning one pair of players and ghost friends would die.

So, how could they hold on for 30 days?

It wasn’t that they hadn’t thought about this problem before. But before this point, apart from resisting the monster children and protecting their own ghost friends, there seemed to be no other method.

And now, another path seemed to have emerged.

Many players looked at Shi Tianzhu, and no one in their hearts cursed her for protecting the castle without considering their feelings.

Currently, two methods of death in the setting of the instance were known: natural death when the mother's body died, and death by the destruction of ghost friends, which led to their own death.

Shi Tianzhu had been helping them prevent the first type of death and seemed to have discovered a possible solution for the second type through unveiling the secrets of the first type.

Shi Tianzhu said, “We need to ‘be born’ as soon as possible, to leave this place and avoid the attacks of the monster children.”

Having said that, she had no obligation to teach them how to play the game.

Silence filled the dining room once again.