Courtyard instance world
Tian Xihua was asleep, but it could be seen that he would wake up soon. He was wrapped in a huge quilt, and the light breeze made a scattered curl tickle his nose.
He felt surrounded by the warmth of the sun, and sighed contently. He was ready to fall into a deeper sleep when something poked him.
He frowned and rolled towards the side of the bed, but someone kept poking him. After that someone realised that poking him through the thick covers wasn’t going to work, he felt a light poke on his face. The finger was small and cold, and it made Tian Xihua furrow his brows even more.
He blinked his eyes open, and the first thing he saw was a boy around twelve years old sitting on his bed and looking down at him.
‘You’re awake.’ The boy stated, apparently feeling no guilt over waking him up.
‘You.. where is this?’ Tian Xihua asked, but the sound of his voice made him sink into silence. He had the voice of a child no older than fifteen, maybe even younger.
His confusion was obvious as he jumped up from the bed, looking at his small palms. His perspective didn’t change much after standing up, and he couldn’t help taking a look at their surroundings.
He was standing in front of the bed furthest away from the door, in the corner of a long, wooden house filled with nothing but beds. There were around eleven beds in the room, and all of them had the messy head of a child poking out from the covers, except for an empty one in the other corner. Other than the two of them, everyone else was asleep.
‘Is this.. Am I dreaming?’ He turned back to the boy, before deciding that no, there was absolutely no way this was a dream. The other boy still hadn’t left the bed, and answered as he observed Tian Xihua.
‘Maybe.’ He shrugged, finally standing up from the bed. He had thin glasses on, ones that seemed too big for the features of a child. He spoke in a practical manner. ‘We should wake the others up.’
He didn’t wait for an answer, and walked to the closest bed to him that still had someone sleeping in it. He went straight to poking the boy’s freckled face, skipping over the useless methods he tried on Tian Xihua.
The boy frowned, and mumbled to himself as he tried to pull the covers up. The boy in glasses didn’t let him, placing a cold palm against his neck as he kept the quilt in place instead. Tian Xihua still felt somewhat dazed as he stood at the foot of the bed looking at the scene.
After the freckled boy woke up, Glasses said a couple of words to him and went to the next bed. Before he could poke the next boy awake though, he was stopped by Tian Xihua.
He held him back by his shoulders, and placed a finger in front of his lips. His vague explanation sounded a moment later. ‘Not that bed. Let him sleep.’
Glasses didn’t understand, but he didn’t care to ask. He gave a small nod and directly sat down on the bed of his next victim, starting his poking routine.
Tian Xihua stared down at the familiar face half-visible in the covers. The boy looked the exact same way he did when he had first met him. He sat down on the bed, and pulled down the cover with a small hand, carefully folding it around the sleeping boy so he wouldn’t feel suffocated.
Zhai Xiaoyi’s face twisted suddenly, as if he was in great pain. He hid his face in the thin pillow and unconsciously pulled his hand to cover his ringing ears. He felt a warm palm hold his wrist, but he couldn’t concentrate on anything other than what felt like hundreds of voices humming in his head.
A childish but familiar voice came from somewhere over his head. ‘Where is it uncomfortable? Can you tell me? Does your head hurt?’
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.
Kljc Wltej ofia rbwfktja qjclmxfv. Itjl Wljbsl tjv ugjyyfv bcf bo tlr tjcvr jr tf lcralcmalnfis cfraifv vffqfg lcab atf mbnfgr. Lf abemtfv atf ybs’r obgftfjv klat tlr batfg qjiw, yea tf vlvc’a offi jcsatlcu ragjcuf. Lf revvfcis ofia rtjiibk ygfjatlcu ys tlr fjg, jcv tf ibbxfv eq.
Xijrrfr kjr ifjclcu bnfg atf yfv, mibrfis byrfgnlcu Itjl Wljbsl. Lf qbxfv atf ybs’r ojmf atf rjwf kjs tf vlv klat fnfgsbcf firf, jcv tewwfv jr lo tjnlcu mbcolgwfv rbwfatlcu. ‘Lf klii yf olcf joafg j mbeqif bo wlceafr.’
Having declared that, he stood up and walked to his bed, folding up his quilt. He had already finished waking up the others, who were now sitting on their beds looking somewhat confused and even excited.
‘How do you know?’ Tian Xihua asked, looking at him with suspicion.
‘He has a special physique. I had a friend who was the same, although not to this extent. She used to be in pain on the first morning of instances, but it would go away after five minutes. He seems stronger, so I’m guessing his pain is stronger too.’ This was by far the most he had said this morning, even more than his words to the other boys after waking them up.
‘Where is your friend now?’
Glasses shrugged. ‘It doesn’t matter. Do you know where this is?’ He changed the topic, but he didn’t wait for an answer. ‘I looked outside, the courtyard is closed off and there seems to be nothing on the other side of the gate. This is something you’ll have to get used to. There are no clues yet, so we can’t leave here.’ He habitually pushed his glasses up, having finished cleaning up his bed. ‘Most of you look like this is your first time. Who aren’t newcomers?’
Two other boys raised their hands, while another kid, Freckles stood on his tiptoes to look outside the window. He confirmed Glasses’ words in a small voice. ‘The courtyard is empty. There are three other houses here, and beyond the gate everything is shrouded in red mist!’
At the same time as he said the words ‘red mist’, soft knocking sounded from the door. The boys looked at each other and then at the door, as if trying to decide whether to open the door and face whatever was lurking outside or not.
The thing that knocked didn’t wait for their admission though, and the door opened with a loud creak to reveal a thin and tall woman in her forties.
The woman was dressed rather plainly and she held a woven basket in her arms. She moved her gaze across the room, her eyes resting on each of their faces for a moment, as if counting them.
After a minute of complete silence, she spoke in a soft accent. ‘Breakfast is ready. Get dressed and come to the dining room.’
Her gaze held an emptiness that made all the newcomers shudder involuntarily. She left after having said what she wanted to, and the boys saw her receding figure disappear into the widest house in the yard through the crack of the door.
The first to react was Glasses. He clapped his hands together, and jumped down from his bed. ‘It’s best to do what the NPCs tell us until we find the rule plaque. Let’s go.’ He opened the door, then looked back at Tian Xihua as if remembering something. ‘I told you he would be fine, it is better to come and see the other buildings than waiting for him to wake up. After the pain, he will want to sleep for a little longer. He’s different from us.’
Tian Xihua nodded, but it didn’t seem like he understood what Glasses meant. He kept looking down at the boy sleeping next to him, as if guarding a great treasure.
Glasses sighed, but he didn’t try to persuade him anymore. The other was a newcomer, and even if he was lucky, there was only a small chance he would survive his first instance. He decided to let him do what he wanted, and left for the dining hall with the others.
Tian Xihua looked up the moment they left. He stood up to close the door so that the cold breeze didn’t cool the air inside too much. At first he was confused by the new environment, but now he felt it was good that he could see Zhai Xiaoyi again.
Zhai Xiaoyi didn’t feel the splitting pain anymore. The warmth on his hand disappeared, and he felt cold all of a sudden. Then the breeze waned, and he felt the weight of a person on his bed again. This new warmth surrounded him, and he fell into a deep sleep.
He had a strange dream. He was a young boy, just like in reality, but in this dream he went to school instead of living with the other boys in the countryside, and he gradually grew up.
Then the scene changed, and the colors faded from his dream. This part was about reality. He stood in front of a tall gate, his entire body drenched in the beating rain.
He saw a pair of curious eyes appear in a slit on the tall doors, and soon someone came to open the gates for him.
The moment he heard the creaking sound of the wood, he opened his eyes subconsciously.
The scene around him was different from the darkness of the dream. The bright sun shone into the room, covering the time-worn wood of the house. He looked up, and saw a familiar pair of eyes looking down at him.
‘……’ He had many questions, but didn’t know which one to ask first, so he chose to just stare back at the other without a word.
‘You’re awake.’ Tian Xihua broke the silence after a couple of minutes spent in tranquillity. He wanted to laugh, because these helpless words were the same the boy with glasses said to him when he first woke up. The sound didn’t leave his mouth, but the laughter appeared in his eyes.
‘En.’ Zhai Xiaoyi was still thinking about what to ask first. Finally, he decided on the simplest one. ‘Where is this?’
Tian Xihua didn’t know much more than him. ‘I don’t know. There was a boy just now, he has glasses.. He seems to know about things I’m not clear on.’
‘Alright. Then, why..’ He was ready to ask about their ages, but the other cut him off before he could finish the question.
‘I really don’t know anything. I just stayed because you hadn’t woken up. The others are already outside, we can ask them if you want to?’
Zhai Xiaoyi agreed, and the two left the room behind to find the dining hall. The building wasn’t hard to find, it was precisely the one the woman from before went to.
The courtyard looked like it had been a beautifully arranged garden once, but the mark of the years showed in every corner. Although it was tidy, the luxurious grandeur was long gone.
Inside the dining room, there weren’t any decorations. The style of the building was the same as the bedroom’s, where efficiency seemed to be the only goal of the designer.
Glasses and the others were already sitting around a long, hand crafted table, whispering between each other. The woman who called them over was nowhere to be seen, and there were simple wooden bowls filled with food in front of every one of the boys.
There were two empty seats with bowls in front of them, and there were two without food at the head of the table. The upper end of the table was without a chair, and there was a big brazen plaque propped up to the wall. When Glasses saw the two enter, he pointed at the plaque for them to see.
‘The rule plaque I mentioned. Every world I’ve been to had one, it’s a list of the rules of the game, or the conditions we have to fulfill to leave the world, if you will. Have a look at it yourselves.’
There weren’t a lot of words on the plaque, only four lines. The sentences were short and on point, leaving no room for misunderstandings.
[Rules.]
[I. Survive for 7 days, or find the murderer.]
[II. Find…h…n….sur….] The second one looked as if someone had tried to erase it, but could only scratch off half of the words.
[III. Act your role.]
Zhai Xiaoyi looked at the crudely carved words, and the questions in his head multiplied per second. Tian Xihua pulled him to sit at the table, and asked the boys who had said that they weren’t newcomers. ‘This.. should be like a game?’
A boy with dyed green hair shook his head. He leaned forward as he searched for the right words. ‘Don’t take it as a game. Didn’t you see, it said ‘survive’? ‘For seven days’ should be enough to tell you how easy it is to lose your life here.’
The third boy who raised his hand that morning also chimed in. ‘Shi ge only said ‘game’ to seem more poetic. It is more like living through a horror story. Well, I guess that’s what games are..’
Glasses, who was apparently surnamed Shi, just waved dismissively. ‘Don’t pay attention to him. It really is worse than a game, but what else can I call it? Right, you saw the second rule.’
He said this more as a matter of fact than a question, and Zhai Xiaoyi nodded. ‘It is scraped off.’
‘Pretty much. It still says that there is something we have to find to leave here, so pay attention to things that could be hidden. Maybe we’ll get a clue later on, this isn’t the first time I’ve seen something like this on a plaque.’ Glasses pushed the food in his bowl from one side to the other, then back. It could have been called playing with the food more than eating.
‘Can we go out of here? Or is the space we have to search limited?’ Freckles asked, having already finished his portion.
‘We should be able to leave. As Shi ge said, after we get enough clues..’ The boy with green hair replied, but Glasses cut him off.
‘I’m not sure. Maybe we don’t have anything to do outside, isn’t it better to not have to look through other places too? What I’m worried about is the murderer mentioned on the plaque. If we have to catch a murderer to leave, but no one has died yet, doesn’t that mean that we are the targets?’
‘How can we find the culprit if he hasn’t acted yet, and how could we dare to sacrifice one of ourselves to have a chance at survival? That’s the problem here, not the damn territorial restrictions.’
Uncomfortable silence filled the room, and Glasses coughed slightly. ‘I’m sorry. I said too much.’
‘Surviving up to seven days is an option too, of course, it’s just that I’ve never seen it happen before. Someone will always die before the deadline, and that basically eliminates the first method, leaving finding out the truth as the only way out.’
‘We can try to keep together, that would slow it down if anything.’ Tian Xihua proposed, and Glasses nodded slowly.
‘That should work. Maybe we..’ He looked back at him helplessly, but before he could say anything else, the door in the back of the room opened.
The one who came in was the woman with the basket yet again. The basket in her arms wasn’t empty anymore, and it was filled with potatoes instead.
She looked at the speechless boys, and showed a strange smile.
‘It is time to go out.’
The author has something to say:
Our first instance!٩(^ᴗ^)۶ We’ll have a double update next tuesday too, to get things going. After that, it’ll most likely be two chapters/week.
Ngl, NPCs are hella creepy especially in horror genre (─.─||)
And imma speculate now who the Ml is 🤔
Is it this Tian Xihua or they are yet to enter the scene???
Thanks for the chapter 🌸
Yes, it’s him. Although, the romance part might seem like too much of a slowburn, especially later on. Thanks for reading!
You’re Welcome and don’t worry slowburns are simply adorable…(✪㉨✪)
Love your work🌸
Thanks for the chapter!
Omg, sorry for replying!!
I thought it was just going to be a ghost story, but I see it is more along the lines of NHSRE
Thanks for the chapter!
Thank you for the chapter 💛💛💛