Salted Fish Zombie

Chapter 39.2: Manman (12)

May 29, 2023 by Wyrd

As the two finally regained their composure and sat down, the attention of everyone was drawn to someone coming down the stairs.

It was Zhu Ji.

He was the one who had followed Chen Jinpeng first yesterday and used intimidation to demand his ghost friend’s luck points.

When Chen Jinpeng died last night, everyone was surprised. They were surprised that it was Chen Jinpeng from the sixth floor who had died and astonished that such a skilled player could die so easily.

The players who had used intimidation and coercion on their ghost friends, besides being surprised, were also panicked. They didn’t expect their ghost friends to commit suicide.

They had hardly slept all night and had been trying to come up with solutions.

Zhu Ji’s solution was to lock up and tie his ghost friend to prevent it from committing suicide.

He somehow found a large birdcage and put his ghost friend inside, tying its arms to the iron bars of the cage with a rope.

The slime toy was bound in the birdcage, leaning against the bars, hanging its head lifelessly, devoid of any vitality.

Chen Jinpeng’s death not only failed to halt the deterioration of their relationship with the ghost friends but also pushed it toward a more severe direction.

Zhu Shuangshuang said, “Zhu Ji, you’ve gone too far. How could you treat your ghost friend like this?”

This time she wasn’t as angry as last night, but still managed to provoke the anxious Zhu Ji.

“What do you know? Do you understand the danger I’m in right now? Do you know how I feel? I’m fucking about to die! And you’re blaming me?!”

Zhu Shuangshuang wasn’t intimidated by his angry voice and menacing face. She stood up and, with an equally angry tone, said, “By doing this, you’re only speeding up your own death!”

“He’s not withholding luck points from you. He simply doesn’t have any. Can’t you understand that?”

Zhu Ji grew even angrier. Who could accept that their ghost friend had no luck points? That meant they were accepting their inevitable death.

He strode over, pointing at Zhu Shuangshuang. “What the fuck are you babbling about? Say another word and see what happens!”

Zhu Shuangshuang was sitting between Ning Su and Meng Jiang. Zhu Ji’s hand pointing at her was right in front of Meng Jiang’s eyes. With a forceful movement, Meng Jiang slapped his arm, sending him tumbling halfway around. “Speak nicely and stop pointing randomly!”

Zhu Shuangshuang didn’t fear him at all. She couldn’t bear it any longer.

She deftly pulled out a chair and stood on it, positioning herself to overlook Meng Jiang and face Zhu Ji, as well as those players who had used intimidation tactics to force their ghost friends or were hesitant about resorting to such methods. She said, “Think with your brains!”

“The ghost friends are most afraid of the monster children. They’re the ones who can tear them apart and crush them to death. Bu Bu is being hung over the monster children’s head. If there’s any luck left, would it hesitate to give Chen Jinpeng some luck to save its life? Will it fall into the group of monsters it feared the most? It simply can’t give any more!”

She said with certainty, “I believe that as long as they have a bit of luck in their hands, they will give it to us.”

The restaurant fell silent, and in the quiet, it was easy to hear the quiet sobbing of a few ghost friends, especially the slime toy bound in a cage.

With its arms tied on both sides, its small head drooped weakly, tears falling drop by drop.

“Puh... Ya...“

The players with low luck turned pale, their faces alternating between white and black.

Ji Mingrui lowered his head and looked at Sui Sui. He put down his chopsticks and gently touched the paper-cut doll that was hanging its head.

Even if it had corpse fragments inside him, so what? It had only just gained consciousness, and it had given him so much luck.

Even the scarecrow doll could give Qian Dongfang six points of luck. It had never harmed Qian Dongfang and had always stayed by his bedside when he was seriously injured.

Shi Tianzhu spoke lightly, “Let’s eat.”

Ning Su nodded, “Mmm!”

And immediately picked up his chopsticks.

Breakfast came to an end amidst a moment of silence.

After finishing breakfast, Ning Su said to Shi Tianzhu, “You watch over here. I’ll go and give it a try.”

This was what he had discussed with Shi Tianzhu last night when he went to the sixth floor.

Shi Tianzhu nodded and took the wax figurine with her as she went upstairs.

Ning Su, along with Gui Sheng and Blood Doll, went to the garden.

The three individuals on the fourth floor also followed him to the garden, thinking it would be similar to before, where they would bring their ghost friend to play for a while. However, they didn’t expect that Ning Su was gradually approaching a dangerous location.

He brought Blood Doll to the iron gate.

Yesterday, a few players drove their ghost friend out, demanding luck points in return.

Gui Sheng: “Huh?”

Not just Gui Sheng, but the players in the garden were all shocked.

“What does this mean? Is he also...?”

“He’s only two luck points away. If they can force it out now, they can leave. I can understand that.”

“It’s quite funny. His teammate just confidently stated at the dining table that if a ghost friend had luck points, they’ll give it to us freely. But now he’s directly demanding it.”

Zhu Shuangshuang: “What are you talking about? He wouldn’t do that! He’s not that kind of person.”

The next moment, she was proven wrong.

Ning Su pushed Blood Doll toward the gap in the gate.

Blood Doll looked at him with wide eyes, without tears or blood, clearly looking at him.

In her big eyes, his figure was reflected.

Ning Su placed his hand on her shoulder and forcefully pushed her backward.

But she couldn’t be moved.

It was as if some force blocked him, not directly opposing the force he exerted with his hand, but obstructing Blood Doll.

He exerted more force, so much that the veins on the back of his hand bulged.

Blood Doll’s eyes moistened, about to form tears, but before that could happen, she was pulled into the gate and half embraced in someone’s arms.

A familiar embrace with a very familiar aura.

These days, the energy that flowed into her body and nurtured her.

A hand gently stroked her hair at the back of her head, and a soft voice said, “I’m sorry.”

Ning Su arranged her hair, which was becoming more and more like real hair. He pinned her lily flower hairpin to the left side, separating it from her hair.

The boy said to her, “I’m not trying to force you. I just wanted to check something. I told you I wouldn’t force you for luck points.”

“You have to believe me. I’m not in a hurry to leave. After all, the food here is delicious.”

Blood Doll, with big eyes, stared at him without blinking.

Ning Su looked at her for a moment and said, “As promised, on the first night you came here, I said I would save you. Did I break that promise?”

“I feed you every day, and you slowly gain energy, gradually freeing yourself from where you were trapped. I...” The boy swallowed his words, fell silent for a moment, and said, “I treat you so well, so you better treat me well in the future.”

“...”

“Hmm?” Gui Sheng leaned over with a small head. “Coming out?”

He and Ning Su both looked at Blood Doll.

Compared to when she first arrived, Blood Doll looked more like a real person, especially now that her eyes were free from tears. They were lively and beautiful, an exceptionally beautiful pair of eyes.

Her thick black hair also emitted a healthy shine.

She really seemed like a person appearing from within a doll.

Gui Sheng: “Cute!”

Ning Su: “Beautiful!”

Gui Sheng: “Super cute!”

Ning Su: “Super beautiful!”

“...”

The teardrops in the corner of her eyes were put away.

The two boys flattered and brought fresh flowers for the Blood Doll, obsequiously placing them in her hands.

All the players in the garden: “...”

Zhu Shuangshuang was also helpless and asked, “What are you doing exactly?”

Ning Su didn’t answer her. He looked up at the direction of the sixth floor, then turned to look at Ji Mingrui and Meng Jiang. “Have you figured it out?”

They nodded.

They were the first ones to figure it out because they were the first to attempt to escape from the castle.

That night, Ji Mingrui, accompanied by his ghost friend, and Meng Jiang tried to break through the gate together, but they were all bounced back, including the ghost friend.

And yesterday, Chen Jinpeng and Zhu Ji successfully expelled their ghost friends.

Today, Ning Su tried again, but his ghost friend still couldn’t be pushed out.

The ones that could leave were the ones that slowly provided luck, the ghost friends considered as authentic Gu Man Tong as the system speculated.

They raised these Gu Man Tong to help them reincarnate. If they could leave after being raised for a few days, could they also take the players out with them?

Afterward, Zhu Shuangshuang also understood.

Chen Jinpeng and Zhu Ji were indeed lucky; they possessed treasures.

But they didn’t know.

Especially Chen Jinpeng, he would never know how good the ghost friend he thought of as useless.

They didn’t stay in the garden for long and went to Room 407 to discuss this matter.

They stood on the balcony of Room 407, looking down, unaware of whether the other players had thought of this.

“Should we tell Zhu Ji?”

“Let’s watch things first. It’s not necessarily a good thing to talk about this before we’re sure.”

After Zhu Shuangshuang made those remarks on the table, the rest of the day remained relatively calm.

Those players didn’t completely stop using intimidating methods; they just became milder. After scaring the ghost friend once or twice and gaining one or two points of luck, they couldn’t obtain any more through ordinary means.

They had to accept that the ghost friend no longer had any luck points.

Obtaining those one or two points had already come at the cost of the ghost friend’s self-depletion through intimidation.

Looking at the exhausted and weak ghost friend, the players’ expressions weren’t too pleasant.

Zhu Shuangshuang: “From now on, they won’t scare the ghost friend anymore and will treat them properly, right?”

According to the current situation, that should be the case. However, this game involved the system.

Shortly after dinner ended, and the players returned to their respective floors, they heard the familiar command from the system once again.

【Players, please return to your rooms and wait for the birth of the ghost friend.】

All the players were taken aback.

Meng Jiang asked, “What does that mean? Didn’t our ghost friend already appear? Wasn’t it one for each of us?”

Zhu Shuangshuang was also puzzled. “I remember when we first entered the game, the system said ‘a ghost friend,’ implying it was one, right?”

Ji Mingrui said, “It depends on whether it’s ‘one’ during the process or ‘one’ as the result.”

Both of them were stunned, not knowing the direction this development was taking.

“So, when the newly born ghost friend knocks on the door, should we let them in?” Zhu Shuangshuang asked.

Just imagine, if there were two ghost friends, the obvious advantage would be that they could obtain luck points from both of them.

But at the same time, they would have to take care of two ghost friends, and if one of them died, they might die as well.

The four of them simultaneously looked at their respective ghost friends.

【Players, please return to your own rooms. The first ghost friend is about to appear.】

The four of them didn’t have time to discuss a definitive answer before the system prompted them to return to their rooms.

Following the pattern from the first night, the ghost friend appeared first, followed by the monster children.

With the experience from the previous night and their interactions with the ghost friends over the past few days, the players weren’t as scared this time, but they were still bewildered.

“Bang, bang, bang!” The ghost friend knocked on Room 403’s door.

403 didn’t open the door.

“Bang, bang, bang! Bang, bang, bang!” Another ghost friend knocked on Room 404’s door.

404 didn’t open the door.

405 didn’t open the door.

406 didn’t open the door.

No matter how they knocked or cried, all four doors remained tightly shut.

The four people behind the doors held onto their ghost friend, but it wasn’t easy for them.

The reason they confidently chose not to open the doors for now was that tonight the windows were opened on the fifth floor, and the monster children couldn’t enter the fourth floor.

If the monster children couldn’t enter, it couldn’t harm the ghost friends outside the doors.

The knocking stopped.

The sound of footsteps grew distant in the corridor, followed by the sound of the wooden board being moved at the entrance.

“Did they go upstairs?”

“Yes.”

Not long after, they heard the song of the monster children.

Only then did the four of them open their doors to check.

The ghost friends were nowhere to be seen in the corridor, but the sound of the monster children’s song grew closer outside.

They stood by their respective doors, waiting.

They heard the monster children crawl across their arched windows.

It’s unknown how much time passed, but finally, that system notification sounded.

【Player Bai Shuang’s ghost friend has been destroyed.】

Just that one sentence.