Edited by musk
Residential instance world
There was no visible emotion on Yu Qinyan’s face, and if not for his abnormal paleness, he would have looked the same as any other day.
He was the first one to react to the sound of the door hitting the wall, holding out a palm to hold it back from hitting him in the face as he stepped inside.
Only after hearing the echo of his own steps did he stop and turn halfway to look back at the other two who were still seemingly frozen in place.
He lifted an eyebrow, asking, ‘Not coming in? What on earth are you waiting for?’
Zhai Xiaoyi finally moved. The harsh tone seemingly woke him up from his momentary daze, and he walked inside. Wei Cai followed him in, only to ask, ‘What’s there to do in here? Yang Meili’s clearly not in the flat..’
Yu Qinyan didn’t reply to him and walked to the first door instead. That was right, they couldn’t eliminate the chance of the woman being in one of the additional rooms without checking.
Only after seeing for themselves could they be certain, and only then could they move over to the next flat to search until they found a person or a body or even a ghost – anything.
None of them had been to the old lady’s apartment previously, but because the entire building had been built using the same layout for every flat, they didn’t find it difficult to navigate inside.
The three of them opened three doors simultaneously, carefully scrutinizing the rooms for any possible sign of previous struggle.
Yu Qinyan’s door was naturally that of the master bedroom. He walked around the double bed, picking up boxes of medicine and other small objects to look at before putting them back with no care concerning their original places.
After spending a couple of minutes looking around, he found that there was no sign of anyone having recently lived in the room, nevermind anything out of the ordinary. It simply looked like a dusty guest room if not counting the old pieces of everyday items. He could evaluate that even if the woman had once lived here, no one had stepped inside the room for more than a quick glance. It was useless.
Wei Cai’s door was the one that led into the small bathroom.
He groped around for the light switch for a couple of moments, finally hitting it just as the wind from the living room slammed the door in behind him with a loud bang.
The small bathroom was completely engulfed in darkness, but only for half a moment. The switch let out a click, and an LED stick lit up above the man’s head.
The light was old, and it kept flickering for a few moments, painting the white tiles and the man in an even paler, colder hue.
The light flickered, and Wei Cai could only see the vague outline of the sink and toilet in front of himself, as well as the curtained off bathtub. He seemed to feel something brushing past him and shuddered.
There was a mirror above the sink attached to a small cabinet, the same design as the ones in all the other apartments. It was designed in a way that whoever opened the bathroom door would come face to face with themselves without even needing to take a step inside.
The mirror glimmered in the pale light, and Wei Cai felt his legs go soft from fright.
The reflection held a face where his should have been, but the face looked nothing like his own. Its features looked terrible; it appeared crude and beastly at the same time, showing a wide grin that seemed to only become wider, ready to swallow the intruder whole.
The flickering finally stopped, but Wei Cai didn’t dare calm down, only gripping the handle with white knuckles as he leaned on the door to keep himself from falling. His breathing got rougher as he stared at the bloody red features that still hadn’t disappeared from the mirror’s surface.
It appeared as if those hard lines were melting with vividity, the terrifying face slowly flowing down to the ground drop by drop only to take up the form of that gruesome monster later and eat him alive.
Plink.
We’re sorry for MTLers or people who like using reading mode, but our translations keep getting stolen by aggregators so we’re going to bring back the copy protection. If you need to MTL please retype the gibberish parts.
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This way Wei Cai could only stay still and stare at it, never taking his gaze off those flowing features in fear that in a moment of carelessness, he would easily be devoured.
He watched the beast unblinkingly, and as he stared, those lines twisted and moved under his gaze, slowly turning into more than his eyes could reflect. The lines spun and turned, and what was revealed underneath them was a face that made the man unconsciously take a step back in surprise.
It was the most natural thing to see one’s reflection in the mirror, yet Wei Cai was stunned for a long time after discovering his own features under the mask of the beast.
It really was nothing more than a mask, only a dense web of red lines, a mere painting.
Was this supposed to act as a warning? Was it deliberately placed there to scare him, or did it hold a deeper meaning?
The man stepped closer, extending a finger to wipe at the drawing. He looked down at the redness on the tip of his finger, then smelled it. It had the faint smell of strawberries.
The third and last room was the bedroom Yang Meili had searched before.
The rising sun’s colors dyed the pale white walls with warm colors, washing away the feeling of purity and cleanliness that previously permeated the air, replacing it with a sense of solitary plenitude.
The room was small, and it didn’t have much furnishing. Everything appeared inaccessible, as if as long as the light layer of dust was stirred up, the world would inevitably break into shards.
The bedroom was small, and there wasn’t much to see. After Zhai Xiaoyi made certain that he couldn’t see any sign of strangeness, he left the room.
Yu Qinyan was already waiting for them outside. He didn’t ask anything, only moving towards the door when he saw the expressions of the other two.
The day was still young, but there were several floors they had to search, which meant that they couldn’t slow down even for a moment.
They were currently on the first floor, which had three more apartments to search.
The only problem was.. They had no access to the keys.
This problem turned out to not be as much of an issue as it appeared at first after Wei Cai kicked the second door open, which as it turned out, was also not locked at all.
They went around and tried to open the remaining two doors, which, again, weren’t locked. It appeared as if someone was deliberately opening and closing doors around them, as if to say; you can’t catch me at all, and you won’t be able to even if I help you do it.
Because the developers used the same design for all the apartments, they were inevitably very similar to each other. The three only needed two or so minutes to check if there was any sign of struggle or previous human presence, but in the first flat on the second floor they couldn’t help but look around for a while more.
This was the first apartment since the old lady’s that didn’t look unoccupied.
The living room looked rather ordinary, with everyday items covering most available surfaces, dirty shoes next to the wall and dishes in the kitchen sink.
It was obvious though that no one had been to the apartment for quite a time now. The air was heavy with the dust that the three’s search had stirred up, and the food in the kitchen was naturally all rotten.
The atmosphere felt almost familiar. Everything was very similar to their own flat except for the color scheme and a couple pieces of furniture.
Unfortunately, this familiarity didn’t last too long.
Yu Qinyan was just about to stand up after inspecting the lower cupboards when Zhai Xiaoyi’s muffled voice came from one of the side rooms.
‘You guys.. Might want to check this out.’
He had only switched on the lights a mere minute before, but he was so stunned at the sight that it proved to be quite the challenge to force out even those few words.
Yu Qinyan walked over hurriedly, wanting to urge the other to say what he saw, but he choked on his words before he could say even a word.
The bedroom.. No, this shouldn’t be called a bedroom. Although there was a bed inside, it was pushed into a corner and covered with boxes. The room was clearly used as a storage room. And yet..
This was the strangest storage room Zhai Xiaoyi had ever seen in his life. The boxes were alright, and the furniture inside was also fine, but the walls.. The walls were completely covered with pictures.
These pictures, if only they were family photos or even just scenery.. But this was too damn scary!
The pictures had all been taken of a single person, a youth that didn’t look older than sixteen or seventeen years old. Zhai Xiaoyi inexplicably felt that he seemed somewhat familiar.
After having a closer look at him, he finally knew why. This boy, wasn’t he the one who had almost killed him just the day before?
There were all kinds of photos glued to the walls. If looked at from further away, it could almost seem like it was all the wallpaper’s strange, modern design.
Looking closely though.. There were pictures of the youth walking, of him chatting with other people in front of what seemed like a school, as well as close ups of his features as he happened to look towards the camera, even a couple of blurry photos of a hand that was reaching out, keys dangling between the long fingers as the person opened a door.
It was needless to say that none of these pictures appeared to have been taken with the person’s consent. They looked like a talentless and cheap student’s careless attempts at impressionist photography.
Of course, this place couldn’t really belong to a photography student, and even if it did, Zhai Xiaoyi wasn’t sure if the self-made wallpapers could be explained so simply.
Yu Qinyan stood in the doorway, staring at the boy’s face for only a couple seconds before looking away. He was already quite sure in his guess, but he wanted to confirm it completely. He didn’t even need to call out as Wei Cai had also come to look at what Zhai Xiaoyi had found.
Yu Qinyan waited for a little longer before asking him, ‘This is the same person as the one in the old woman’s apartment, right?’
Wei Cai watched the photographs in somewhat of a daze, but still subconsciously nodded when he heard the question. Whether the boy in these pictures and the smiling youth in the family photos were the same or not, did it still need to be asked? The answer was obvious.
Zhai Xiaoyi had already finished looking through all the photos, and just thought of something. ‘I’ve also met him; he threw a potted plant at me earlier yesterday. Is he the old lady’s ‘ah Cheng’?’
Yu Qinyan nodded as if to confirm his guess. ‘He should be Qi Cheng. According to the landlord, he works at the grocery store we visited last night. The body in the basement should also be his.’
Although Wei Cai felt surprised, he wasn’t stunned enough to not be able to react to that. ‘You.. You found a body and didn’t say anything?’
‘Eh..’ Yu Qinyan sighed before admitting to his mistake straight away, ‘We did, but we found you right after and after that.. It wasn’t really the time to explain further clues, was it now?’
‘Right. If he’s down there, and he was last seen yesterday, his death should have been.. In the afternoon?’ Wei Cai didn’t care too much, and he soon discovered a more pressing issue. ‘Or even later? Although I can’t recall every detail, but this,’ He gestured towards the walls vaguely, ‘This is pretty much what the kid who attacked us looked like. So, what’s the situation? Evil twins? One of them killed the other then went on to hunt us down?’
Zhai Xiaoyi couldn’t listen anymore and interrupted him. ‘Evil twins? Are you hearing yourself right now? If what you’ve said is right, then the boy would have needed to die in a very small window of time, and it would have been more than impossible to get the body down there without us noticing anything amiss.’
‘You’re saying that he attacked you, which is to say that he dragged you all the way down to the ground floor. When we went down to the basement, you weren’t there yet. So, following your theory, he was still alive at that time. But when we were down there, we didn’t notice any movement, and there wasn’t anyone else either. Your explanation makes absolutely no sense.’
Wei Cai listened, then shook his head, only asking, ‘Are you completely sure the body is his? Is there no chance that it is someone else’s?’
‘Of course..’ Zhai Xiaoyi didn’t give in. ‘There was the employee card. If it wasn’t him, do you think that it’s another teenage boy who also happens to work at the same grocery store and also lives here? I..’
‘Alright, alright.’ Yu Qinyan waved his hand as he spoke, ‘Obviously it isn’t another person, or we would have heard about him already. Ignoring the ‘evil twins’ theory, it is possible that there is only one Qi Cheng.’
‘Yeah, well if he’s the only one, how is he dead and alive at the same time? Is this Schrodinger’s instance world or what do you want to say?’ Wei Cai tried to make a joke, but no one laughed. He scratched the back of his neck as he let out an ‘ay’.
Yu Qinyan’s expression was blank as he explained, ‘No, in that case only one of them would be reality. Here though, he is indeed alive and dead at the same time. The explanation is quite simple; ghosts.’
‘Yang Meili saw him too.’ Zhai Xiaoyi was quick to object, but Yu Qinyan only nodded.
‘Yes. Since he tried to kill you, and there is no reasonable explanation as to how he could still be alive if he isn’t a ghost, it is most likely that he’s the boss here. If the players couldn’t even see the boss, wouldn’t that be an overly difficult setting with no reasonable explanation?’
‘This..’ Wei Cai pursed his lips, his expression dimming. ‘This is still too much though, no? It is the four of us against a ghost; no, the three of us, because he has already caught Yang Meili. We don’t know what the conditions are, still, but he might be able to even kill her.’
‘She was already taken away, which means that she has, to some extent, fulfilled a death condition, while I might not have done so, which is why I was simply just sedated. What did she do differently from me? There is nothing except that she was the only one who got to talk to Qi Zhengli.’
‘Don’t rush it. The condition might have to do something with the apartment instead, not necessarily the person.’ Yu Qinyan had deliberation in his heart, but he only said so much.
‘It might be that she managed to sabotage him when he attacked me. She pulled me back, and I didn’t get injured in the end.’ Zhai Xiaoyi was also thinking back at all he could remember. After all, he was the one Yang Meili spent the most time with during the day. Maybe if he happened to go with her to the apartment instead of Wei Cai, he also wouldn’t have gotten off so easily.
‘We don’t know what the condition is, but that doesn’t really matter. There is barely any chance of running into the woman again, and we’re probably going to try to stop him from killing anyway. We’ve already searched four apartments too, so if the condition is any of these, we either do not have any chance of fulfilling it anymore, or we’ve already done so. It’s nothing worth worrying over.’
‘My guess is that the condition might have to do with uncovering the past. This should also be the key to leaving the instance.’
’We already have some clues. The first one is the people who have been going missing recently. The second one should be the dead body, and the third one is this room. The main clue is the identity of Qi Cheng itself. He is a ghost, but he still has such power that he can attack living people directly.’
Zhai Xiaoyi nodded solemnly, ‘Right, he shouldn’t be able to do that. Of course, that might just have something to do with the taboos.’
‘Based on the condition of the body, he has been dead for a long time now, yet his spirit is still so strong. It is reasonable to presume that the disappearances are caused by him. Since the people didn’t disappear all at the same time, but everything happened gradually, it is safe to say that he is following some kind of a pattern.’
Yu Qinyan gestured vaguely towards the door as he spoke, ‘This pattern can be of any type. It might be based on age or the location of the flats, or even just the locations that these people have been to; it can just as well be something they did.’
‘The saving graces of such patterns are only two; it has to begin somewhere, and it has to include a certain common point. When we find those, we’ll be one step closer to getting out of here.’
‘Clearly speaking,’ He looked back at the room filled with photos before explaining, ‘This is a good place to begin. In these photos, Qi Cheng was still alive, but most of them give off a very ominous vibe. What’s going on in there is kind of obviously a stalker situation.’
Zhai Xiaoyi followed his gaze, glancing inside before averting his gaze and speaking up, ‘I think this isn’t necessarily the right thing to begin with. In my opinion, the dead body is the most obvious starting point.’
‘It has a head injury and is also hidden; this leads to the obvious conclusion that what had happened was murder. Someone killed Qi Cheng, and whether that person is still alive or not is what we need to find out. If they turn out to be the first person who went missing, it’ll be clear that the entire matter is nothing but retaliation.’
‘If they aren’t.. Then it’s more complicated.’
Yu Qinyan thought the case through this way and felt that it was rather logical. He agreed, ‘Right. Then go and find out who the first person to disappear had been. Find the person this apartment belongs to, too, just for the sake of safety. I do think the two answers are connected to a certain extent.’
This matter – finding out was quite simple. Hopefully the landlord hadn’t gone to sleep just yet.
The author has something to say:
Writing consistently while at school is way more difficult than I had previously thought it’d be! I didn’t write half a word for three weeks, and today I wrote about half a chapter.. Turns out when you actually take time to study every day, you’ll have basically no time left to do anything. I’m starting to understand past me going ‘nah’ to the whole thing.. I used to think I was just lazy but these days I’m realising I actually had a point.
Even though it’s depressing, I’m still going to do it though.. That’s just the way life is, I guess. It’s not always good to slack off.
On another note, I’ve been quite into sci-fi novels recently. My favorites are the type that take place in futuristic and distopian cities.. I also have an extreme fondness for post-apocalyptic society settings like that. So if anyone has any recommendations, you know what to do~
have you checked out Moon Theory on here?
thanks for the chapter <3
I’ll check it out, thank you:)