Edited by Jules
The three continued on through the wind and snow.
Xiao Lan and Hua Yan didn’t speak, and only Long Shiren kept trying to create opportunities to chat with Hua Yan. Even if Hua Yan merely replied with a simple ‘mn’, he was still able to continue nonstop.
Amply displaying what was called a member of society’s skill at awkward conversation.
Nothing much happened on their journey. There weren’t even any dangers.
As if this place truly was just a wild snowfield.
During the journey, the wind and snow continued to increase.
Xiao Lan and Hua Yan were still fine, but Long Shiren was almost unable to take it at that moment. His entire face was turning purple from the cold, and his mouth, which had been unwilling to stop, like a machine gun, also had no choice but to do so.
After another spell, Long Shiren truly couldn’t take it anymore.
He curled into himself and stuttered, “Two… two great ones, h- how about we find some- somewhere out of the wind?”
Hua Yan continued on without a change in expression, her tone as lazy as always. “I’m not interested. If you want to, I don’t mind.”
But she clearly wouldn’t keep him company.
Long Shiren was about to cry. “I- I don’t want to at all. S- some fresh air is super refreshing, I love it the most.”
It was as if the heavens had heard Long Shiren’s internal cries.
Not long after, when the three walked past a small snow mound, Long Shiren called out in delight, “House!! A house!! We’re saved!!”
Xiao Lan took a look. Unexpectedly, there was a small wooden house up ahead.
It looked very crude, and didn’t even have windows; there were also several cracks in the walls, but it was already a very reliable shelter from wind in this snowfield.
In contrast to Long Shiren’s excitement, Xiao Lan and Hua Yan merely studied this wooden house which had suddenly appeared.
They still remembered that this wasn’t about survival in this snowfield; they were in the middle of a dangerous game, and they had entered a clearly questionable room.
The important question in front of them was how to find clues here.
However… This room could currently be considered the most unique existence in this place.
If they wanted to look for clues, they had to enter this house no matter what.
Placing the clue and trap together; even if players knew it was dangerous, they had no choice but to step inside to clear the game. This was truly Crow laoshi’s evil humour ah.
In the end, the three still entered the house.
Although some wind slipped through, this house could still be considered dry, and it was much warmer compared with outside.
The house had some simple and crude furniture, as well as a rough, clay fireplace that had some firewood placed beside it; it looked like they could warm themselves right away.
When Long Shiren saw the fireplace, he took the initiative to run over and take on the task of lighting a fire.
After some shaky research, a fire was finally lit.
“Huu…” He let out a long sigh of relief, feeling like he was finally revived. He huddled by the fireplace and pretended he was a roasted chicken.
Xiao Lan surveyed the room in a bid to find some clues.
Suddenly, he felt that he was being watched, but was unable to find the source of the gaze. It seemed to be coming from several directions at once.
The next second, the eyes disappeared.
He looked at Hua Yan beside him.
Hua Yan’s pretty eyebrows were slightly knitted, her gaze sweeping around the house for a moment.
It looked like she had also sensed that moment of being watched.
The three people each did their own thing in the house.
Xiao Lan and Hua Yan both chose a different direction and began searching for clues, each minding their own business.
Long Shiren seemed to have become one with the fireplace. He leaned next to the fire as he shook; nothing could separate them, even if the world ended.
Xiao Lan and Hua Yan didn’t expect any contribution from this guy and thus allowed him to do as he pleased.
For a time, no one in the house spoke. There was only the sound of firewood crackling as well as the wind and snow outside the house.
In this short period of time, the wind and snow grew even stronger.
The piercing wind whistled shrilly as it seeped in through the cracks in the wooden house. Not only did it bring a bone-chilling cold, the blaze in the fireplace started to flicker for a while from the wind, frightening Long Shiren into hurriedly adding a few more pieces of firewood.
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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“Ss… Why is it still getting colder?” Long Shiren muttered.
He pulled over a shabby blanket from the side and wrapped himself up. His entire body was practically glued to the fireplace, but he was still shivering nonstop. It was clear that he still felt extremely cold.
Xiao Lan exercised his limbs and could clearly feel that his movements were a little stiff.
Hua Yan’s fingertips were also beginning to turn red. Her bare shins also revealed patches of red from the cold.
Continuing on like this wasn’t good ah. Perhaps the three of them would truly freeze to death here.
Long Shiren saw their movements and pointed at the pile of blankets with indiscernible colours beside him. “H- how about you guys wrap yourselves in- in a blanket…”
Xiao Lan looked at the shivering Long Shiren swaddled in the blanket and was skeptical about its ability to preserve heat.
Moreover, this sort of cold wasn’t something that could be resolved just by keeping warm. The main thing was to leave this place sooner.
Xiao Lan shook his head. “No need.”
Long Shiren advised, “Big brother, don’t choose beauty over comfort; it’s not like your handsomeness can feed you.”
Xiao Lan looked at him, and under Long Shiren’s gaze, Xiao Lan changed 【Emperor’s new clothes ver 2.0】 into a long, fur-collared overcoat.
Waterproof, windproof, and cold-resistant, while the design was simple and didn’t lack elegance either. Say farewell to long underwear pants. It was a man’s top choice for winter.
…Actually it was something that Luo had bought for him in the past, and Xiao Lan subconsciously copied it.
Not to mention, it was also quite warm.
Long Shiren looked at Xiao Lan, then looked at his rotten blanket.
Is it so great to be tall?! To be handsome?! To be an advanced player?!
Uh… If I called you dad, would you respond?
He then looked at Hua Yan in her short black dress. “Hua Yan jie, you can use mine; I’ve even warmed it up for you.”
He still didn’t forget to flirt even at this time; this guy truly was a man.
Hua Yan blinked, then her lips curved up into a gentle smile. “No need.”
After saying that, she took out a cigarette with a slender cigarette filter from her storage space.
Hua Yan gently breathed in and exhaled smoke. As if she was manipulating it, the smoke began to circle and weave around her, and finally formed a Chinese gown as light as smoke. There were some mysterious designs on the gown; clearly, it wasn’t just used for staying warm.
At that moment, Hua Yan standing within the smoke looked even more vivaciously beautiful, like a queen.
Long Shiren: “…”
The beginner player who only had a worn out blanket and was trembling by the fire truly was lowly ah…
He had no choice but to add more wood to the fireplace.
The whistling wind and snow grew even stronger, and the crude little wooden house was practically about to fall apart from the force.
Xiao Lan continued searching for clues in this not-too-large house.
There truly was nothing here; all the furniture was incredibly old, and there was nothing strange to be seen.
Suddenly, Xiao Lan knelt down and looked under his feet.
It seemed like he saw something which reflected light between the seams of the floorboards. That thing was covered in dust and dirt, and he couldn’t see it clearly.
Xiao Lan didn’t dare use 【Dalit’s Bone】, afraid that if he was careless in withdrawing the flame, he would ruin the object.
He took out 【This is a dagger coated in highly toxic poison】, which he hadn’t used in a long time, and carefully stuck it into the crack to dig out the thing that was reflecting light.
It was a small gleaming shard which reflected the light. Its back was a grey coating, and it looked like — a mirror.
Why would there be a mirror here?
Xiao Lan examined his surroundings once more, but didn’t find any other pieces.
It was as if this place had been swept clean, and this small shard had inadvertently fallen through the floorboards.
Knock knock knock —
At that moment, knocking suddenly rang out at the door.
Who was it?
Who would trudge all the way here in this weather to knock on the door?
Moreover, they hadn’t heard any footsteps at all; this knocking had come out of nowhere.
Long Shiren trembled.
His gaze swept between the two players, hoping that one of them would make a move to resolve this matter.
Seeing no one in the house move, the knocking on the door grew more intense, banging as if wanting to simply break the door down.
Xiao Lan looked out through the cracks in the wooden house.
There was no one outside the door.
But now, several human figures had appeared on the snowy plains. These figures were advancing in the wind and snow with stiff movements, but the intense weather didn’t seem to hinder them at all.
Long Shiren asked in a fluster, “W- what is thi-”
Hua Yan also spotted them. She rested a hand against her jaw. “Looks like we have a lot of guests ah.”
As they spoke, the knocking grew even more frantic, and even the dust that had accumulated over the years on the walls fell from the vibrations.
The door creaked with a heavy burden, and looked like it was about to buckle.
Long Shiren trembled again. “Wh- what should we do ah?”
Xiao Lan: “Fight or flight, obviously.”
Long Shiren: “…”
He wanted to advise the two bigshots to be more serious.
Unexpectedly, Hua Yan simply took out a mirror and began tidying up her curls, seemingly engrossed in her good looks and unable to free herself from the mirror.
On the other side, Xiao Lan also casually sat down on a chair in the corner of the room, and played with the dagger in his hands with a relaxed expression.
These two looked like they were ready to welcome the people outside to come in for a party.
Long Shiren was about to go crazy; he had no choice but to crawl to his feet and look for clues inside the house.
He was unable to deal with the two bigshot’s mighty pressure. He overturned everything in the house in large moves. Unnecessary items were tossed aside, and he rummaged through the house until dust filled the air.
It seemed that newcomers always had unusual luck.
He pried up the carpet in front of the fireplace, and unexpectedly found a secret door.
In his delight, he roughly broke the door’s lock and threw it aside, smoothly pulling open the door.
Long Shiren raised his head happily. “A secret passage! We can escape!”
Unexpectedly, he was met with two pairs of eyes.
One pair was clear, another beautiful, but both contained the same indifference.
Long Shiren: “You guys… What’s wrong?”
Xiao Lan played with the dagger, nimbly twirling the cutting edge between his fingertips. “Have you heard of ‘acting as an accomplice to the tiger’?”
Long Shiren froze. “You… What are you saying? Xiao ge, Hua Yan jie, let’s quickly run away. We can leave right away.”
Hua Yan paused in tidying her hair. She turned the mirror around and said to Long Shiren in a slightly tipsy and husky voice, “Don’t be anxious; how about you first explain why you don’t appear in the mirror?”
Long Shiren followed her movements and looked at the mirror in her hand.
In the exquisite makeup mirror, there was a fireplace, a carpet, an open door, but —
No him.
Xiao Lan no longer studied Long Shiren on the sleek surface of the dagger, and put it away.
He took out the white bone rod. “Have you read Crow’s book? In his writing, people who die because of monsters rarely obtain peace, and usually become changs, helping the monsters to kill living people.
“You were the one who shattered the original mirrors in the house, right? To the point that there’s nothing here that can reflect light; you arranged this beforehand as well, right?”
Long Shiren’s face was filled with anxiety. He frantically waved his hands. “No, it’s not like that. There’s only the three of us here; this is definitely a smokescreen by the monsters, don’t be fooled.”
Hua Yan took out her cigarette again. This time, the smoke was clearly different from before.
She lightly breathed out a smoke ring, and there was slight ridicule in her tone. “You were the one who found the wooden house, you were the one who guided us here, you were the one who lit the fireplace, and you were also the one who found the secret passage.
“Mr Long ah, aren’t you a little too amazing?”
Xiao Lan pressed forward. “Moreover, how are there only three people here? Clearly, there’s people everywhere.”
Saying that, he pointed at the seemingly empty roof.
Previously, he had examined the entire house through the reflection in his dagger.
A crowd of human figures hung upside down from the ceiling. Their features were all different, but they all had deathly white eyeballs.
Their lips were curved in horrifying smiles, and they were all staring blankly downwards like this.
As if some sort of truth had been uncovered, the knocking outside the door stopped.
The frantic wind and snow also quieted down.
The room sank into a brief calm.
Long Shiren’s face was pale. He hung his head. “They were the ones who forced me… I didn’t want to do this…”
He looked at Hua Yan, his face filled with agony. “Hua Yan jie, I don’t want to cause you harm… Believe me, this path is real. Hurry up and leave ba. If the people outside also come, you guys won’t be able to escape.”
Xiao Lan glanced outside the house.
At that moment, those stiff figures were already very close to the small house. Everywhere within their line of sight was packed with a horde of figures.
As if infuriated by Long Shiren’s betrayal.
The figures outside suddenly quickened their pace, and there was even constant rustling coming from the ceiling of the wooden house.
Seeing this, Long Shiren’s eyes were filled with despair. “It’s too late, it’s too late…”
He had barely said the words, when the door was directly kicked open by a great force.
A crowd of people with haggard appearances, sunken eyes, and ragged clothes glared at them with gray eyes filled with hunger.
These clearly were no longer living people.
They rushed towards the people in the room.
Even Long Shiren, this whistle-blower, wasn’t let off.
The attacks began in an instant.
An icy hand lunged for Xiao Lan’s head, the fingertips glinting with a sharp and cold light, as if wanting to tear the top of his head straight off.
If the top of his head couldn’t be torn off, tearing off hair to create a bald patch was fine too.
How could a real man have a bald patch?!
Xiao Lan ducked to the side, countering with a swing of his rod.
The dark purple Dalit flame instantly turned the hand to ash.
It looked like these fellows didn’t have much of a defense. How gratifying.
On the other side, Hua Yan gently puffed out smoke.
The smoke turned pink in the air and instantly spread outwards, filling the entire house.
For those touched by the smoke, the hunger in their eyes instantly increased sharply several times over, and their eyes grew even wilder.
But strangely, they turned their vicious gazes on each other and began tearing at one another as if the other was a piece of fresh and juicy steak.
The smoke seemed to attack indiscriminately.
After Long Shiren came in contact with it, his gaze turned lost and he looked at Hua Yan with a tender-hearted gaze, and attempted to rush toward her.
Even if he was surrounded by monsters.
Xiao Lan inadvertently caught a glimpse and nearly threw up in disgust at that gaze.
However, Xiao Lan also came in contact with this smoke, but didn’t feel any different.
Noticing Xiao Lan’s state, Hua Yan’s tone was a little amazed. “Oh, you surprisingly have no reaction to my smoke of obsession. In my smoke, lust, gluttony, love, hatred… all of them have a different smell. The stronger the desire, the more the smell will drive one crazy.
“But you… Interesting. Do you have no desires?”
As he fought, Xiao Lan pondered it in passing.
His desire was probably — poverty ba.
Why? Did poverty not possess a scent?
What was up with being so poor that the world of desires rejected him?
Feeling bad for Long Shiren ;-;
Aishhhhh feels bad to be rejected even by worldly desires hahahhaha
Xiao Lan, desire: POVERTY
wouldn’t her smoke just act as a dr*g to stimulate Xiao Lan’s urge to destroy stuff then? Since he needs poverty value points….?
Hhh the fate of the beginners playing in advance level…
Thank you for the chapter ❤️
Thanks for the chapter! ^^)❤
Long Shiren :'(
Poor Xiao Lan 😂
Thank you for the chapter
well, money don’t smell, so poverty also don’t smell ¯_(ツ)_/¯
thanks for the chapter~
Money DEFINITELY has a smell, and I have no choice but to love the smell of money in this economy and world of capitalism. (；ＴДＴ)
thanks for the chapter <3
No desires? Suuure, right.
Looks at Luo No desires at all except poverty
Thank you for the chapter!
Thx for the ch (ㅅ˘ㅂ˘)
Xiao Lan gege desire Mr.Luo, but he doesn’t know it yet, ba! but hahaha! the world backhands you! your poverty is to pitiful, ah!