Translator-Rhapsodite
Editor-PerpetualMreow, Proofreader-adjective
The fact was, the parastice vine plants in the museum may have had intelligence and the ability to possess and control minds, but ultimately, they were just plants.
When faced with the raging fire, instead of fighting back and attacking the nearby people, the vine plant desperately curled up, trying to protect itself from the flames.
Of course, Ji Dong didn’t miss this opportunity and quickly sprayed half a can of insecticide on the vines.
The exhibition hall was quickly filled with a strange smell.
It had the distinct odor of burning fur, mixed with the charred aroma of roasted meat, and a strong scent of damp wood burning.
With the sound of crackling and bursting, the tangled vines started to show numerous cracks on their surface. They could no longer maintain their spherical shape and the branches began to droop, revealing the “core” that they had enveloped. They stopped moving.
Amidst the billowing smoke, the orange cat’s body and the vines, fueled by accelerant, burned even more intensely. Soon, they turned into a completely charred mass.
After approximately fifteen minutes, all the flammable materials were finally burned up. The fire gradually diminished and was eventually extinguished.
On the floor, only the charred remains of a small animal, hardly recognizable in its blackened state, and the ash-white fragments of burnt plant branches remained.
“Well… I think that should take care of it, right?”
Learning from Mr. Dagen’s experience, Ji Dong didn’t dare to underestimate the situation. He found a broom by the door, extended his arm, and used the broom handle to gently push aside the charred cat carcass on the ground from a distance of about two meters.
The vine, now reduced to brittle charcoal, crumbled into powder with a slight touch. Then they saw something shiny and golden beneath the cat’s belly.
“It’s a playing card!”
Fan Hemian exclaimed with excitement.
The appearance of the playing cards meant that they had resolved the supernatural events at the haunted location. Both the cat carcass on the ground, and the vine that had once parasitized it, were no longer a threat.
So, Fan Hemian, sheathed her long knife, [Bai Lu], and took a few steps forward, bending down to pick up the “3” playing card from the ashes.
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.
However, at that moment, her hair clip suddenly split in half.
Ktf cfza wbwfca, klatbea jcs kjgclcu, j olfgmf ubivfc-oeggfv mja jqqfjgfv yfobgf fnfgsbcf’r fsfr.
Ktf revvfc jqqfjgjcmf bo atf jclwji mjeuta fnfgsbcf boo uejgv, ifjnlcu atfw wbwfcajglis ecjyif ab gfjma.
Ktf olfgmf mja qbecmfv bc atf qijslcu mjgv bc atf ugbecv klat ilutaclcu rqffv, rcjamtlcu la eq lc lar wbeat. Ktfc, klat j aklra bo lar ybvs, la wjvf j 180-vfugff aegc jcv mtjgufv abkjgv Mjc Lflwjc.
Although it was not a particularly large fierce cat, its movements were surprisingly swift and its strength was astonishing. With one powerful leap, it knocked the girl off her feet, causing her to fall to the ground.
Fan Luming, who had been staying behind with the injured Mo Tiangen, exclaimed in disbelief, “It’s Liu Fei! How could he be here!?”
In the time it took for her brother to utter those few words, the fierce cat had already dashed out of the exhibition hall, running into the corridor.
Ji Dong, Ren Jianmo, and Fan Hemian followed closely behind, turning around and chasing after it.
But even though they were fast, two legs couldn’t outrun four. When they dashed out of the corridor, they only saw the fierce cat leap into the air and crash into the window glass.
Ji Xiao’niao immediately drew his bow and shot an arrow.
At the same time, there was a loud crash, and the fierce cat had already smashed through the glass with its head, jumping out of the window on the fourth floor.
Ji Dong’s arrow didn’t hit its vital spot, only grazing its left hind leg, leaving a bloody mark.
The three of them rushed forward, leaning against the window to look down. They happened to see the fierce cat land, stumble with its hind legs, and then without looking back, it plunged into the bushes outside the fence.
Ji Dong, Ren Jianmo, and Fan Hemian: “…”
No one spoke. The three of them just stood silently by the window, exchanging a glance with each other.
—————————————–
Early morning, exactly 7 o’clock.
In the villa, Ji Dong and the others once again opened the door behind the living room staircase, crossed the winding stairs and straight corridor, and entered the basement filled with the huge rabbit dolls.
The five of them arrived a little earlier than the Blue Team, but they only waited for about a minute before Yin Jun and his group arrived.
Compared to the previous two days, this time Yin Jun’s side seemed unusually excited.
They looked at Ji Dong and the others as if they were already a group of dead people, or perhaps, they were more eager to see the frustration and despair of someone on the verge of death on their opponent’s faces.
Compared to Yin Jun and the others’ excitement, Ji Xiao’niao and the others had indifferent expressions, not even wanting to spare a glance at the opposite side.
[Now that everyone is here, let’s not waste any more time and get started!]
Lively music played as the screen in front of the rabbit dolls lit up, and the man wearing the rabbit head mask appeared on the screen again.
[Are all the participants ready?]
Before the man in the rabbit head could even ask them to hand over their playing cards, Yin Jun couldn’t wait any longer and pulled out two golden cards from his pocket. He flipped them over, showing the side with the numbers facing Ji Dong and the others across the glass partition.
In his hand, beside the “8” card, it was none other than the “3” that Ji Dong and the others had, hadsnatched away by the fierce cat!
“Hehehe, hahaha…”
Yin Jun’s suppressed excitement finally erupted at this moment. He laughed so hard that his shoulders trembled, his fingers twitched nervously, his eyes widened, and his pupils dilated. His previously somewhat dignified face now appeared particularly ferocious.
“Hahaha! The cards you wanted are with us! Hahaha!”
Ji Dong didn’t answer. He just pursed his lips, furrowed his brows, and remained silent.
The other four also had similar expressions and none of them wanted to respond to Yin Jun’s provocation.
The blue team interpreted their reaction as knowing that they had no chance of winning and laughed uproariously.
Yin Jun turned his head and stared at the rabbit-faced man on the screen, saying, “Come on, start handing over the playing cards!”
As he spoke, he looked back at the red team, scanning each person’s face one by one, and finally stopped at Fan Hemian’s face.
Through gritted teeth, he said, “I can’t wait to see them die here!”
Firstly, it was because the lower difficulty [Film] provided them with a higher level of safety, allowing them to accumulate points for several months without taking on too much risk. They could then use the surplus points to exchange for useful items and collectibles, which would come in handy for future higher-difficulty [Films].
The second reason was that Yin Jun had always held a grudge against the Fan siblings for betraying him, especially Fan Heiman, who was supposed to be “his woman.” Her decision to leave the guild without hesitation had challenged his unwavering authority, causing him great humiliation.
So, this time Yin Jun and his blue team appearing here was not a coincidence.
In the [Peach Blossom Spring], as long as you knew the real name and appearance of a participant, you could accurately locate them. You can even check their whereabouts for the next month before drawing the [Film] by choosing the “follow” mode. So next month, both sides would inevitably be arranged in the same [Film].
This time, Yin Jun and his four companions followed the Fan siblings and entered the game of [Strange Tales at 24:00].
Besides clearing the game, their other objective was to severely punish the Fan siblings who dared to betray the guild, even to the point of killing them.
However, when Yin Jun and the others entered [Strange Tales at 24:00], they realized that this [Film] was much more difficult than any B-level challenge they had experienced before.
On the first night, based on their previous experience, they challenged the “9” location of the strange tale. As a result, they were chased all over the building by a murderous ghost hiding in the tube building, nearly getting wiped out there.
The five of them were struggling from 1 a.m. until well past 4 a.m. In the end, they were forced to escape from the tube building. When they tried to turn back, they found that the iron gate at the entrance of the hallway was locked, and they couldn’t enter it anymore.
The cost of the first night’s defeat caused the blue team to fall significantly behind the red team. In this situation, unless Ji Dong and the others also made the same mistake, the blue team had essentially lost the possibility of being the first to collect all “24 points.”
So Yin Jun and the others shifted their focus on how to sabotage the red team’s plan of collecting playing cards.
On the map, the point values of each location’s playing cards were public, and the game organizers informed the participants in the morning meeting about which strange haunted locations were opened the previous day.
Therefore, figuring out Ji Xiao’niao and his team’s card-collecting strategy ended up being a very simple matter.
On the first day, Ji Xiaoniao and his team obtained the playing card “A,” which was equivalent to getting both “1” and “11” at the same time.
On the second day, the map was missing the “J” and “7” cards.
So, on the final day, the red team would need either the “3” or “6” card.
The team of five, including Yin Jun, had reached the top level among participants with “B” level difficulty in terms of individual combat abilities and team coordination. After spending two nights at the strange haunted locations, they had to admit that this [Film] was challenging. In fact, it was so difficult that they had to give it their all just to barely manage to clear it.
So they all assumed even though Ji Xiao’niao and his team opened two strange tale locations simultaneously on the second night, they probably only got one card.
Moreover, even if the red team obtained two cards at the same time, they could only turn in one card. The red team would have to choose between the arrangements “11+10+3” and “11+7+6”.
Following this logic, Ji Xiao’niao and the others wouldn’t “split up” just to create a diversion. They would have to concentrate all their efforts on obtaining the card they truly needed.
So, after examining the cards, the accountant under Yin Jun’s command, who was skilled in numbers, quickly came up with a method to push the red team into a desperate situation. They even laid out a detailed plan for this purpose.
And as had been anticipated by Yin Jun and his team, on the final night, Ji Xiao’niao and his team boarded the same car and entered the museum’s strange tale with the poker card number “3.”
Wondering how our group will turn this around. I assume they already figured out Blue’s thoughts.