RPGCh57.1 - Paranormal Research Club (X) Part 1

Edited by RinRin~

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Perhaps due to the inherent difficulty in supernatural-type chessboards, ever since the beginning of the game, the system had been in a very soy sauce state of only giving vague alerts, allowing the players to figure things out themselves and providing them time to rest and adjust. 3LxKYv

However, the sudden addition of the new scenario woke everyone up from their relaxed state like a clap of thunder. In that instant, the players recalled the horror of being enslaved by every system scenario, as well as the humiliation of being played to death by the system. The most terrifying thing in RPG wasn’t the possibility of being ambushed from all 8 directions, nor was it the monsters and ghosts in the chessboards, but the system scenarios that pitted every player without so much as a single blink!

The ticking of the clock could be heard from the living room. The players fearfully watched as the countdown to scenario 4 neared 0.

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5. 4, 3, 2, 1—— Scenario 4, active.

[Scenario 4: You/your companion has triggered ghost calls. From now on, when the telephone rings, if no one picks up within a minute, the wrathful spirit will not be pacified and will appear to kill living people one by one, until there is no one left.]

Shan Ziwei swallowed hard. The bronze rotary dial telephone before him was akin to a ticking bomb. Everyone’s life hung upon that long, thin telephone line. 78ztyb

“It seems that this is the only phone in this house.” RoseBlood put her hand on the old rotary dial phone. She focused for a moment, shook her head and said, “It seems to be a special prop. I can’t put it in my toybox.”

It was like that oil barrel in the Wuwang prison chessboard. Shan Ziwei tried to lift the phone by its base——since they couldn’t put it in the toy box, maybe they could carry it with them?

The center of the rotary dial telephone seemed to be attached to the coffee table. Forget about moving the phone, Shan Ziwei only managed to wedge a small crack between the two objects with extreme effort. Clearly, the game was fully prepared to make their lives difficult.

Just as Shan Ziwei was about to let go of the telephone, Hyacinth narrowed her eyes and perceptively said, “There’s some writing underneath it.” 

I5 KMO

Shan Ziwei continued to hold the phone up as the others came closer to look. On the glossy coffee table, a line of letters were roughly printed. It seemed that someone had once put a piece of wet paper under the telephone, causing some words from the page to be transferred onto the surface of the coffee table.

“…fatal wound was a neck fracture caused by blunt impact trauma; Mr. Wei was beheaded and dismembered. Before death, his last phone call was made to… ” As Hyacinth read the words, she quickly reacted, “It’s part of the article from the newspaper earlier! “

PearlMilkTea and SagoMilkTea had once found a news report in the living room that was written for the murder case in Manda Mansion. The first part regarding Madam Wei and Mister Wei had been ripped off, now, the part up to Mr. Wei’s death has been restored.  

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.

“Vb atja lr ab rjs, atf tfjvifrr wjc kjr Zg. Qfl, jcv atf qtbcf mjii pera cbk, kjr jirb ogbw Zg. Qfl.” EbrfDibbv rlutfv, “Jbcrlvfglcu la klat atf mbcafcar ogbw atf qtbcf mjii, atf mtliv tjv qertfv tlr wbatfg, ktb vlfv joafg ojiilcu vbkc atf rajlgr. Ktf mtliv’r ojatfg pera tjqqfcfv ab rff atlr rmfcf, jcv ktfc tf aglfv ab mjii rbwfbcf, rbwfbcf firf yftfjvfv tlw… Zjsyf… Pa kjr atf mtliv ktb vlv la…” eA Juy

Shan Ziwei felt an inexplicable sense of denial. He couldn’t help refuting, “Would a child have enough power to do something like that?”

“I just said ‘maybe’.” RoseBlood gently avoided the topic, “Now the main concern for us is how to deal with the phone calls. If we don’t answer the phone, the headless Mr. Wei will appear and behead us.”

PearlMilkTea lips trembled at the words, appearing to want to say something, but ultimately pursed her lips tightly until they became discolored.

Seeing that no one spoke up, RoseBlood smiled slightly and raised two fingers. YKdT6d

“I have two options for us.”

“There is only one phone. It can’t be moved or carried. Therefore, we can split into two groups, one group will remain here to answer the phone at any time, the other will continue the game.” RoseBlood said slowly, “Splitting up can ensure that both tasks are taken care of simultaneously and will reduce the risk to the entire team. However, this kind of solution also has a problem. “

She suddenly looked at Shan Ziwei. “Could you explain the rules of ‘hide and seek’?”

Shan Ziwei was startled to be suddenly asked to explain. The hypersexual organized his thoughts for a moment before beginning to explain the version that he knew. The rules of the supernatural version of ‘hide and seek’ were very similar to ordinary ‘hide and seek’. The difference was that in normal hide and seek, it was people looking for other people. In the supernatural version, those that seeked were not people. First of all, they needed to go to a room with a TV and turn it to a blank channel. Then, they needed to get a doll and stab it through with a knife or dagger while telling it ‘you will be the ghost, come find me~’. The humans will quickly find somewhere to hide, and if something appears, don’t let it see you until it leaves. If one is playing with multiple people, one shouldn’t let the others know where you are hiding. That way, in case they’re caught by the ghost, the ghost won’t find you as well. When the static-y blank screen on TV disappears, then that means the game has ended and the hiders can come out. GYipWf

“That’s to say, ‘hide and seek’ will start here, ” RoseBlood glanced at the 60 inch TV in the living room and stressed, “and take place within the entire house?”

When Shan Ziwei nodded, he understood what RoseBlood wanted to say. If it was ‘touch the wall’ or ‘ fairy pen’, then things were still OK, since they were all small-scale games that could be limited to a certain room. However, there was nothing they could do with ‘hide and seek’. This was a map-wide game that began in the living room, where the phone was. There was no way to guarantee that the people watching the phone would not be affected.

Chrysanthemum Garden.

“The only game we can play now is hide and seek. Not only is it a house-wide game, but based on the rules, we must spread out as well.” RoseBlood sighed, “Let’s take a look at the other plan.”

“The second option is to take turns answering the phone from now on.” RoseBlood swept her eyes over everyone in the room, her voice unprecedentedly severe, “If we agree to this plan, once the phone rings, no matter where you are hiding, as long as it’s your turn, you must go answer the phone!” nlKSu5

This kind of condition was almost impossible to fulfill. It was a complete gamble on everyone’s character and contained great risk. What if the ghost happened to be right outside their hiding place when the phone rang? Even if they were willing to risk death and rush out, they would most likely be killed by the ghost before they even reached the living room, becoming a completely meaningless sacrifice.

RoseBlood had obviously also considered this point, and her tone changed, “If the ghost is right beside your hiding place and you really can’t answer the phone, then please send some kind of warning to inform the next person to answer the phone.”

Although it was still a test of character, if it came to the point that they had to send a warning, they weren’t far from death already anyway, but at least it would be a valuable sacrifice.

“Any objections to this plan?” YxoWbH

“No.”

PearlMilkTea and Hyacinth replied at nearly the same time. Shan Ziwei looked at PearlMilkTea with some surprise, but he couldn’t think of a better plan at the moment, so he and host acquiesced to RoseBlood’s proposal as well.

After a simple discussion, the order to answer the phone was as follows: host——RoseBlood——Hyacinth——Shan Ziwei——PearlMilkTea. Because host had already picked up the first call, the next to pick up the ghost’s call would begin from RoseBlood.

After the discussion regarding the phone concluded, the group prepared to go upstairs to pick up the doll. As they passed by the dining room, everyone unanimously took a look. The dining room was clean and quiet, not a single soul was in sight——no master that the shadow figure had referred to, nor any sign of a meal having taken place. 0ZtA37

RoseBlood coughed softly, “…Why don’t we go check out the dining room.”

The players filed into the restaurant. Only when they got close did they notice that the main seat of the dining table had been pulled out halfway and an empty plate had been placed on the table facing the seat. Inside the plate was a piece of paper, on which several lines were written in beautiful cursive script.

【The men of this family are too tough

The women of this family are too thin m3Oeo4

I wonder how you would taste, hmm?

Thank you for your hospitality】

The lilting words from the first half was reminiscent of the cute porridge poem from ‘goldilocks and the three bears’, but in the third sentence, the tone immediately dropped. The bloody image of a monster feasting on a corpse was difficult to avoid. Shan Ziwei stared at the words. He seemed to have discovered something, but also wasn’t quite sure what he discovered. Only a sense of strangeness, indescribable strangeness, was left.

——The shadow clearly referred to its ‘master’ as the house owner, yet why did the words make them out to be a ‘guest’ from elsewhere? VWkshn

RoseBlood appeared deep in thought, discussing something with Hyacinth in whispers. A few words could be vaguely made out, “The child… Master…” and a couple others.

A cold wind blew by, and the slip of paper tumbled across the table. Just as it was about to fall off the table in front of Shan Ziwei, he caught the slip subconsciously, only to feel a sharp pain at his fingertips as they touched the paper, like he’d been bitten by something. 

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Shan Ziwei immediately shook his hand violently like a cat who’d had its tail stepped on. The paper that had been thrown away gradually disappeared in the air——no, it should be described as being devoured by an extremely dark inky liquid which then silently merged with the dark shadows in the background.

The paper was not the only thing that blackened, all 4 of Shan Ziwei’s SP bars all turned black as well. In that moment, it was as if Shan Ziwei had suffered a terrible attack. He was so scared that he didn’t dare to move a single finger, just praying silently as he waited for the spiritual pollution to fade away. iceDN8

After learning about the tragedy Shan Ziwei had just experienced, RoseBlood reminded everyone, “Be careful, this old mansion setting is getting more and more dangerous.”

Yes, the successive crises seem to tell the players that the peaceful prelude was over, it was time for the main course.

Shan Ziwei and his party were more vigilant as they approached the second floor. Ignoring the psychological discomfort brought by the human head lamps, they walked into the first guest room on the right-hand side.

The cupboard from the Beijing Opera mask’s flashback was directly before them. It was one of those wooden display cabinets with a bolted handle on the outside. This type of cabinet was easy to open from the outside, but difficult to open from the inside. ZB97K0

Although they didn’t know which guest room the cupboard in the mask’s memory belonged to, they’d definitely be able to find it as long as they checked them one by one——that was what the naïve players thought at first… until the first cabinet wobbled slightly. 

The one who was about to open the cabinet, Hyacinth, froze. She stepped back in fear and panic as she tried to avoid the blood flowing out from the cabinet.

Yet that was only the beginning. Before  everyone’s shaken eyes, the cabinet began to violently shake. With every shake, more muddied blood gushed out of the gap between the cabinet doors——it was as if a blood-drenched monster was locked inside, slamming against the door as it tried to get out.

BANG! BANG! BANG! 8Wy1SZ

Under the violent pounding of the unknown monster within, the fragile-looking door bolt looked ready to snap, unable to contain the monster inside. In the widening gap between the two cabinet doors, they could see two round orbs, each with double pupils, floating vertically inside.

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Iz: The noise that comes from those fuzzy blank TV screens used to be the bane of my existence. This is torture on another level