NFM Chapter 68

“Wang Wei was killed? How could he be killed? Isn’t it still before the time?” Cheng Xin stared in shock at Wang Wei’s corpse, then turned to Lin Huai, “Did you see it clearly? How was he killed?”

“Where’s the Fierce Ghost? Where has the Fierce Ghost gone?” Chu Tianshu looked around, “Strange, why was this person beheaded…”

As he spoke, his gaze uncontrollably fixed on the blood-stained scythe in Lin Huai’s hand.

Under everyone’s watchful eyes, Lin Huai put down the scythe and shrugged, “Oh, I forgot to mention. I’m the one who killed him.”

Everyone: “…”

Everyone: “…?!!”

“You killed him?!” Liao Guan roared, “You killed an NPC?! You killed the NPC we were supposed to protect?!”

Facing his accusation, Lin Huai pointed to his head and said, “He attacked me first. It was self-defense.”

Seeing Lin Huai’s matter-of-fact demeanor, Cheng Xin was so frightened that he took a step back. Zhang Mingge stepped forward and shielded him. Chu Tianshu did the same on the other side, though the person he shielded was Lin Huai.

“Everyone, calm down,” Zhang Mingge said, “Lin Huai, what exactly are you trying to do?”

“Everyone, calm down,” Chu Tianshu said, “Lin Huai definitely wouldn’t kill someone without a reason…”

“…You!” Liao Guan was dumbfounded, “We were tasked with protecting the NPCs, and now there are only four left, and you actually went and killed one… Do you know the consequences of your actions?”

Under his questioning, Lin Huai shrugged and threw out a piece of paper, “Rather than protecting the NPCs, you should think about how to protect yourselves—take a look at this.”

With that, he tossed out a piece of paper. Zhang Mingge coldly caught it.

After seeing the contents of the paper, even the angry Liao Guan froze, “This is…”

“A note about mutual slaughter,” Lin Huai said coldly, “They—are hunting players.”

The note circulated and finally reached Chu Tianshu’s hands. He frowned and examined it carefully, “It’s exactly the same handwriting as in Ren Chun’s notebook from yesterday.”

“…Ren Chun? Ren Chun wrote this note?” Liao Guan said in disbelief, “But why would she do that? Wasn’t her target the villagers? Why would she target us…”

“…This…” Cheng Xin suddenly seemed to remember something and ran towards the door, “Ruan Tian!… Could it be that yesterday, Ruan Tian was also…”

They ran back to Feng Ailing’s house and eventually found Ruan Tian’s body at the bottom of the well. She still had a look of wide-eyed terror, staring straight at the sky.

She seemed utterly bewildered by the fact that she had been killed. Chu Tianshu crouched beside her, sighed, and closed her eyes.

“What kind of joke is this? Aren’t we supposed to be the protectors of the villagers? Why would they want to kill us?” Liao Guan slammed his fist into the ground, “This is just… just too…”

He couldn’t find the right words to express his fear and shock. Cheng Xin quietly crouched beside him and patted his shoulder.

“Because we are the protectors of the villagers,” Zhang Mingge said coldly, looking at Ruan Tian’s corpse, “In her eyes, anyone who obstructs her revenge plan—must die. This is a very, very cunning boss. And those people from Jiang Village, when faced with death, are capable of anything. She exploited their survival instincts to eliminate us, the obstacles…”

“But her promise wasn’t fulfilled either. Ruan Tian died—but Feng Ailing’s heart was still ripped out by the Fierce Ghost,” Chu Tianshu scratched his head, “This is strange…”

Zhang Mingge looked at him, “What’s strange?”

“The system never lies. Although it always provides a gacha wheel without even a guarantee, forcing a group of players to work for it for free, not caring if you’re taking a shower or on the toilet, and pulling you into the Game whenever it feels like it—” Chu Tianshu counted off, “But it has never lied.”

“You expect honesty from Ghosts?” Zhang Mingge sneered. He stared into the night of Jiang Village, feeling that everything was shrouded in Ghostly shadows, and nothing was trustworthy, “We can’t go on like this tomorrow. We need to explain to the third victim—make it clear that the contents of the note are purely fictional.”

Cheng Xin nodded with lingering fear, while Liao Guan clenched his fists. He looked straight at Zhang Mingge and said loudly, “Are you saying that even now, we still have to protect them?”

“Isn’t the task the system gave us to protect them and ensure they survive until the last day?” Zhang Mingge said lightly, “This is our job as players. If we want to survive, we have to accept it—”

“I—”

Liao Guan opened his mouth as if he wanted to say something, but in the end, he just dejectedly followed behind Zhang Mingge.

Yes, to survive, we have to protect these people… he thought, unless…

Unless there’s another way.

By the time he returned to the village chief’s house, it was already 2 a.m. To his surprise, the room was still lit.

Since Ji Nanquan and Yan Chuchu had left the team without permission, Liao Guan had tried to persuade them once, but then stopped caring about their affairs. Through the window, Liao Guan could see Ji Nanquan flipping through a notebook under the light. He was frowning, his expression focused, as if he had seen something very important.

Liao Guan’s heart skipped a beat. He crouched down and silently crept under the window, hearing Ji Nanquan’s low voice.

“Chen Du… the temple…” he heard Ji Nanquan say, “So that’s how it is…”

Ji Nanquan’s fingers traced over lines of numbers in the notebook. As his fingers moved, his frown gradually deepened, only relaxing after he saw the last line.

He closed the notebook, rolled his eyes, and finally hid it under the bed. Then he stood up, his lips curling into an uncontrollable, manic smile.

What he had found under the bed was the notebook of the leader of the first wave of players—Chen Du. It detailed Chen Du’s experiences in Jiang Village and the truth behind the Ren Chun incident. At the end of the diary, Chen Du wrote: “Lin Ruo said that the root of everything lies in the temple on the hillside. If only I had listened to her earlier! But it’s too late now, no use in regrets. On the sixth day, the temple was sealed off… All I can do is prepare to fight the Fierce Ghost to the death tomorrow night with all my ritual tools…”

Ji Nanquan didn’t care about the origins and entanglements of the Fierce Ghost. The only thing that caught his attention was the temple mentioned in the diary, the one that had granted the Ren family’s wishes.

‘Tomorrow, I’ll find a way to go up there and see…’ he thought, ‘First, I need to find a way to get rid of Yan Chuchu.’

As he was planning for the next day, the crisp sound of a branch snapping came from the courtyard gate. A sense of guilt made him quickly turn around, and Liao Guan’s figure appeared at the door.

“…Oh, it’s you,” Ji Nanquan breathed a sigh of relief, “Why are you back so early? What about the second victim?”

“Couldn’t save him,” Liao Guan shook his head.

Then, he recounted everything he had seen and heard that day. Ji Nanquan listened to him, secretly glad that he hadn’t joined the team protecting the villagers, but his words were still comforting. Liao Guan listened to him and suddenly asked, “Where have you and Yan Chuchu been these past few days?”

“We…”

Liao Guan closed the doors and windows, sitting down in front of Ji Nanquan, who hadn’t had time to react, and said earnestly, “I saw that notebook.”

Ji Nanquan’s face turned cold, but Liao Guan continued without caring, “…I really think now that those so-called NPCs aren’t worth protecting! If you’ve discovered something, just tell us so we can finish this task and leave this place as soon as possible! I promise I won’t hold you back, you… wait, what’s that crane on your neck?”

“What?”

Ji Nanquan reached behind his neck and found a surveillance origami crane in his hand. Without thinking, he knew who had left it. He inwardly cursed, realizing that Yan Chuchu had already seen everything he had discovered in the notebook. Considering that tonight’s victim was already dead, he thought it over and decided that he couldn’t let Yan Chuchu take the lead in solving this incident.

Compared to the mischievous Yan Chuchu, the honest and simple Liao Guan was clearly easier to control—thinking this, he looked at Liao Guan, stood up, and said, “Alright, you make sense. It’s not safe at night. We’ll go to the temple tomorrow and settle this.”

With that, he pulled out the notebook from under the bed and showed it to Liao Guan, “This is what I found tonight. It contains the solution to the incident. Let’s go now. Every extra day we stay here is another day of risk.”

Liao Guan didn’t suspect anything, “Then I’ll tell Cheng Xin and the others—”

He had just picked up his phone when Ji Nanquan grabbed his hand.

“You?”

“Don’t tell them,” Ji Nanquan said in a low voice, “You know how the Game’s scoring system works, right? The more people involved in solving the incident, the lower the average score… We’ll go quietly at noon tomorrow and not tell anyone.”

“But…”

“You don’t trust me?” Ji Nanquan sneered, “I’m telling you, it’s only because you saw it that I’m willing to take you with me. The notebook is in my hands, and the solution is in my hands. If you dare to spill it, neither of us will come out of this well.”

“…Alright,” Liao Guan swallowed. The usually weak-willed him decided to yield to Ji Nanquan’s proposal. Then, he heard Ji Nanquan’s voice, “There’s one more thing we need to deal with…”

Ji Nanquan picked up the crumpled origami crane, “This Yan Chuchu is full of tricks. We can’t let her ruin our plans. We need to find a way to deal with her so we can share the experience.”

Early the next morning, Cheng Xin received a message from Liao Guan.

“Liao Guan has decided to quit our team,” Cheng Xin rubbed his forehead and looked at the four people in the room, “If any of you also want to quit, speak up now.”

Zhang Mingge adjusted his glasses, and the driver looked around, waving his hand, “Well, I’m just an NPC, so you don’t need to ask for my opinion.”

“Lin Huai, Chu Tianshu, what about you two?”

“We’ll observe the situation today,” the two said in unison, then glanced at each other.

The third victim was a spirited old man. Before they could even enter his house, he shouted at them with full vigor, “What kind of Ghosts are you talking about? I don’t believe in your nonsense! Get out of here! I’ll stay in my house with the door closed, and we’ll see if any Ghost can come in and kill me!”

He was convinced that the series of strange phenomena in the village were man-made and firmly believed that the group was just making things up. The driver was brushed off and slunk back to the team, asking everyone, “What do we do now?”

“Let’s just guard outside his house,” Cheng Xin sighed helplessly, “This old man may be grumpy, but he seems different from the previous two. If we can save a life, we should.”

The driver rubbed his nose and glanced at the old man behind the door, “I wonder how he offended Ren Chun.”