At eight o’clock the next evening, the eleven people in the villa gathered at the entrance once again.
Excluding Lin Huai and the other two who had left the group, the new group centered around Tang Wen had completed the distribution of the remaining items before initiating the purchase. After the distribution, Tang Wen approached the three and said, “If you regret it tomorrow morning, you can still join us.”
Provided, of course, that they still had their lives.
With five minutes left until the delivery, Lin Huai stared blankly at the balance page on his phone.
…In the blink of an eye, he was left with less than three hundred yuan.
While the other players were still worried about the final allocation of nearly seven hundred yuan, only Lin Huai was preoccupied with his last three hundred. He stared at the cruel balance page, much like a college student staring at the Huabei repayment page on the 9th of every month—speaking of which, he forgot to ask yesterday, if they can’t transfer money, can they open a Huabei account?
For this reason, he gave up on the Lucky Bag that could prove his skin color, settling instead for the 129 yuan “Ex-Girlfriend’s Rage.”
The description of “Ex-Girlfriend’s Rage” was very simple: Today is the first anniversary of your breakup, and she has decided to give you a surprise.
What kind of surprise would it be? Nude photos? An erotic video? Or the Dark ○○ Group?
Just as he was lost in thought, the delivery arrived once again.
Each package, filled with the shoppers’ anticipation, emerged from the 20×50 cm opening. Lin Huai and the others sat in the corner, waiting for the others to sign for their packages.
After signing, everyone, as usual, threw the packaging into the trash, keeping only the contents. Then, they would return to their rooms collectively, while the remaining three would sign for the packages downstairs to avoid accidental injuries.
Chu Tian stared at the black plastic bag, swallowing hard, and looked at Lin Huai: “Um, why don’t you go first?”
Lin Huai obediently said, “No, you go first, Brother Chu.”
“You’re younger, you go first.”
“You’re taller, you go first.”
“You’re handsomer, you go first.”
“Enough, I’ll go first.”
The two young men were pushing and shoving when Zhang Lu stepped forward to the package ahead of them.
“Pathetic,” Chu Tian said to Lin Huai.
Lin Huai: “…You were the one who started being pathetic first.”
She looked down at the package, her fingers trembling slightly.
‘Why did I impulsively buy the Lucky Bag?’ She had asked herself this question in her heart just before placing the order.
Perhaps it was just… not wanting to remain in the dark, not wanting to be manipulated anymore. Since it’s in the Game, at least… let me choose my own death.
She took a deep breath and tore open the Lucky Bag.
…Inside the Lucky Bag was only a small box of matches.
“Matchsticks for Selling Girls: They can ignite hair, whether it’s a woman’s or a female ghost’s.”
She couldn’t help but laugh and cry, showing the first smile she had in these two days. Lin Huai squeezed her shoulder: “This isn’t bad at all.”
“Yeah,” she raised her chin, “it’s not bad.”
With that, she carefully put the matches in her pocket and went upstairs.
Only Chu Tian and Lin Huai remained downstairs. Chu Tian looked at Lin Huai and said, “How about, I go first…”
“I’ll go first this time,” Lin Huai decided to redeem himself.
They competed in speed, but ended up opening their packages simultaneously. Lin Huai pulled out a black raincoat from the bag.
The moment his fingers touched the black raincoat, a piece of information appeared in his mind.
‘After her ex-boyfriend got a new girlfriend, this lady put on a black raincoat, took a pair of scissors, and wandered the streets, disappearing into the darkness. The black raincoat is waterproof and bloodproof. P.S. Please use it on rainy days.’
‘P.P.S. The raincoat cannot cover the face. If you see a floating head at night, please understand.’
‘P.P.P.S. Don’t expect to get perfect good stuff from Lucky Bags! Silly player, I tricked you.’
Lin Huai: …
Lin Huai shook the stealth tool and looked at Chu Tian.
Chu Tian frowned, and after a long while, he whispered, “I… only got a note.”
With that, he held up the note for Lin Huai to see. Lin Huai scrutinized it three times, but it still only had eight words: “Thank you for your patronage, welcome again.”
“Are you kidding me? They sent me an empty package…” Chu Tian squatted on the ground, searching the package repeatedly, “Can I return it? I must be able to return it, right? This is outright consumer fraud.”
With that, he clicked on the Lucky Bag purchase page, which displayed four large characters: “No returns or exchanges.”
Chu Tian: …
He tried in vain to click the return button, which then popped up a prompt: “Please enter your return order number.”
However, Lucky Bags don’t have return order numbers. After seeing the seven-day no-reason return slip in Lin Huai’s package, Chu Tian finally gave up searching.
“This is just too unlucky,” Chu Tian said somewhat helplessly.
He didn’t ask about the item Lin Huai had obtained. Clearly, in the Game world, not revealing each other’s cards is basic etiquette. It was late, and the two went upstairs to sleep.
The night passed, and the third day arrived. As expected, there were no killings during the night. When Lin Huai came downstairs, everyone was already standing in the hall.
Seeing the three of them alive and well, Tang Wen was somewhat surprised: “I didn’t expect your luck to be so good.”
Lin Huai said, “Of course, we three have the best-looking faces among the remaining eleven.”
Peng Xuan looked at them enviously: “I should have bought a Lucky Bag too… It’s five hundred yuan. Compared to those ghost products, not only is the price high, but it’s also safe…”
With that, he shamelessly sat on the sofa. Tang Wen no longer asked: “Then today we…”
With that, he opened the mall to continue the distribution. Lin Huai, trying to save money, also joined the daily necessities group.
He was thinking of buying a second-class item he had his eye on on the fourth day. At this moment, Yu Fu spoke up: “I, I want to buy a Lucky Bag today too!”
His words stirred up a hornet’s nest, like flipping a switch.
“Take a gamble, a bicycle could turn into a motorcycle,” Scene Kid said, “At worst, it’s just death… Not finishing is also death! I’m not afraid!”
With that, he also placed an order for a Lucky Bag while purchasing daily necessities.
Ye Keke did the same, and Ni Xiao gritted her teeth and also placed an order.
Only Tang Wen and Huang Lu were still hesitating. Ye Xian opened his mouth but eventually shrank back.
Compared to the perilous first and third-class products, the Lucky Bag was obviously a very good choice… but he still felt uneasy in his heart.
Faintly, he remembered the piece of paper he saw in the trash yesterday, aside from the burned parts, there were also red edges.
What were those red edges? He pondered hard, feeling as if he had seen them somewhere before, or perhaps not.
After much thought, he finally opened the purchase page for a third-class product. Just as he was about to pay, Ye Xian hesitated again.
…Maybe I should buy a Lucky Bag after all, since everyone’s buying it.
Thinking this, he was about to exit when he was suddenly bumped hard from behind.
“Damn it!!” Ye Xian cried out.
“Sorry, sorry, I slipped,” Lin Huai said, pretending to be startled.
“I… you…” Ye Xian was on the verge of tears, “You just made me place a death order…”
With that, he clicked the cancel button in vain. Lin Huai peeked at his operation and asked, “You don’t want to buy this?”
“Who would want to buy this!!”
“If you don’t want to buy it, just return it after buying,” he said softly.
“Return it? How can I return this!”
“Look, it says seven-day no-reason return.”
“…”
Ye Xian couldn’t argue with him and had to admit his bad luck. On this side, everyone had completed their orders, and surprisingly, there were a total of four people: Ye Keke, Ni Xiao, Scene Kid, and Yu Fu.
The unlucky Ye Xian was forced to choose a third-class product, which had no description, only a title: “Heartbeat Memories.”
…This isn’t heartbeat memories, it’s more like a heart stop!!
“Since the purchases are over, it’s time to identify… the Insider,” Tang Wen said.
As this topic came up, the previously lively atmosphere instantly fell into silence.
At twelve o’clock on the fourth night, everything would end. By eight o’clock tomorrow night, if the hidden Insider had not been found, everyone would spend a full four hours fighting against the numerous ghostly items delivered to the villa.
This was almost an impossible task, so identifying the real Insider before eight o’clock became a relatively economical choice.
“Who do you think is the Insider?” Tang Wen asked.
No one answered.
“In that case, let’s write anonymous notes,” Tang Wen tore a page from his notebook, dividing it into twelve neat pieces. He handed eleven pieces to the eleven people, saying, “Each of us will name someone, and then we’ll vote.”
For a moment, the only sound in the living room was the scratching of pens on paper. Lin Huai looked at the people around him, thought for a moment, and finally handed in a blank piece of paper.
When it was time to count the votes, Tang Wen took the notes and tallied: “Huang Lu… Lin Huai… Chu Tian… Lin Huai… Chu Tian… Tang Wen… Lin Huai… Chu Tian… Huh? A blank note?”
Lin Huai said, “That’s mine, I don’t want to wrong an innocent person. That’s my principle.”
Tang Wen continued reading: “Huang Lu… Lin & Peng? Why are there two names on this note?”
After saying this, he looked at everyone: “Who wrote this?”
No one answered.
He casually tossed the note aside: “This one is invalid, so the result of the public vote is…”
Clearly, Lin Huai and Chu Tian were in the lead by a wide margin.
Ni Xiao said, “I think Lin Huai, as a newcomer, is acting too suspiciously. Shouldn’t a normal newcomer keep a low profile?”
Yu Fu said, “I think this Chu Tian is even more suspicious, running around with a wrench all the time, always stirring things up…”
The two at the center of the storm remained unfazed. Huang Lu looked at Chu Tian, and his nonchalant demeanor finally reminded her of someone.
“Chu Tian, Tian Chu… you are… Tian Chu from Chenxing!”
Ye Xian and Yu Fu looked confused, but Tang Wen, who had some knowledge of the intermediate and advanced levels, was startled.
In the beginner level, the mercenary team “Chenxing” was not well-known. But in the advanced level, this team composed of absolute elites was second only to the battle-crazy mercenary team Gangfeng in terms of reputation.
Members of “Chenxing” all used code names to address each other. The code names of a few core members were widely known, but the code name “Tian Chu” was extremely low-key. Initially, it wasn’t known to many.
Tang Wen had once learned that the Game environment he was in was only the most basic beginner level. When reaching the advanced level, the entire Game scope would be further expanded, and players would no longer face just a few Specters, but even an entire apocalyptic world infected and invaded by Specters.
The advanced level meant more risks and more opportunities. At the same time, the transit city open in the advanced level became a place for many players to trade. Therefore, advanced level players spontaneously formed mercenary teams, relying on their powerful abilities to navigate various scripts, seeking greater benefits.
In addition to the advanced level, mercenary teams also looked for promising newcomers in the intermediate level to join their organizations. And “Tian Chu” was a newcomer recruited by Chenxing in the beginner level.
Chenxing was known for its aloofness, rarely recruiting even in the intermediate level. When “Tian Chu” was invited by Chenxing as a beginner level player, it caused quite a stir in the advanced level.
But this ripple didn’t reach the low level. With “Tian Chu” keeping a low profile and hardly taking on missions, the matter soon became an urban legend.
Until that incident happened.
“To be precise, a traitor from Chenxing,” Chu Tian played with his phone, not looking up, “Now I don’t belong to that organization, nor do I get paid from there… I’m financially independent.”
With this, he implicitly admitted to being at least an intermediate level player. Tang Wen automatically ignored the last sentence, his eyes sharpening, and then he looked at Lin Huai, who was daydreaming nearby.
According to the principle of deduction, Chu Tian is a hidden big shot → Chu Tian and Lin Huai are like-minded → Lin Huai is a like-minded big shot → Lin Huai is a hidden big shot.
This makes perfect sense.
“So, in conclusion, Lin Huai and Chu Tian are not ghosts, right?” Scene Kid, who didn’t understand what they were talking about, started his newbie talk, “Then… is the ghost Huang Lu?”
Huang Lu said, “I was almost killed by a ghost, okay!”
“Being killed is just your side of the story,” Detective Scene Kid began his reasoning, “Maybe you just pretended to fall on the stairs in the middle of the night, otherwise how would you explain how you got back to your room in the morning?”
Huang Lu choked: “I…”
Yes, she really didn’t remember that time. The last thing she remembered was being entangled by a Human Skin ghost on her calf, and then…
Then, it seemed like a pair of black eyes.
“But speaking of which, Tang Wen is also quite suspicious,” Scene Kid clapped his hands again, “A forty-something-year-old uncle, sleeping at night without snoring, looks very suspicious…”
“And Yu Fu…”
“And Ye Keke…”
Detective Scene Kid began his reasoning, and everyone started arguing.
Ni Xiao looked in the direction of the few, lost in thought.
“Well… since we can’t reach a conclusion, let’s wait until tomorrow morning to identify, okay?” Peng Xuan spoke up, “It seems now that no one is a clear ghost, what if we wrong someone…”
As she spoke, she rubbed her arms: “The ghost’s restrictions would be directly lifted…”
With this, everyone quieted down. In fact, everyone had their own suspicions, and no one wanted to be the first to point fingers.
Ye Xian still wanted to say something, but Lin Huai was the first to speak.
“If that’s the case, then let’s wait until tomorrow to identify.”
With that, he smiled at Peng Xuan through the crowd.
Author’s Note:
*Omitted meme usage:
Nude photos: Pictures of fruit, plump and beautiful
Erotic video: Maple leaves flute and autumn rustling, the host is on horseback and the guest on the boat… a video of two people playing classical instruments
Dark Sword Discussion Group: Haicheng citizens’ best choice for re-employment, with countless brotherly kings like Billy Herrington discussing and debating here.
