KK Translates

Chapter 9: Midnight Mansion (7)

“Clatter”

Seeing the headless body swaying while crawling back up again, Cheng Zhi Chu’s hand trembled. The flashlight in his hand fell to the ground and rolled to one side. He was scared to the point that his heart almost stopped beating and even his fingertips went numb.

At this moment, he even had the urge to die ——— Rather than being alive and getting scared so often, it would be better if he just died and everyone could become evil spirits together. Like this, no one would be able to hurt anyone!!

But this thought only flashed through his mind very quickly. He was very self-aware. If someone as useless as him were to die, he knew that he would probably just become a corpse that the evil spirits can feed off from rather than becoming an evil spirit himself.

But why was Ren Xue’s body still moving? Was that necklace still using its powers? Do they need to destroy it so that it would no longer control her?

Thinking of the emerald necklace, Cheng Zhi Chu immediately reacted. He grabbed the flashlight that had fallen to the ground and directed the light to the location he remembered seeing the necklace fall to but the moment he looked, his entire body went cold. With no one going over to retrieve the necklace, the necklace had disappeared on its own!

“Necklace—That necklace is gone……” Cheng Zhi Chu said with apprehension. “That definitely is not an ordinary prop…….It’s probably a cursed item!”

There is a type of item that is extremely dangerous in Infinite Escape that is collectively referred to as “Cursed Items”. There is a certain probability that it would appear in an instance and it would very rarely appear in the marketplace.

The cursed item can take the appearance of anything. It is filled with maliciousness, curses, madness and resentment from the dead and evil spirits. The moment it appears, it would inevitably result in a significant increase in death tolls in an instance.

But despite this, players still chased after these cursed items like crazy because only a number of them could be taken out of an instance and be kept in the players possession. Every cursed item contains a dangerous but extremely powerful energy. If used properly, it can become a powerful killing item or life-saving item.

When Cheng Zhi Chu browsed through Winter Branch’s posts, the godly player repeatedly emphasised the dangers associated with cursed items and warned beginners not to dream about getting their hands onto one thinking that they can control the cursed item.

In fact, even if the cursed item can be used, most of them would have tremendous side effects that would counteract the user. There were many players who met tragic ends or turned crazy because they had it in their possessions so if you came across a cursed item, no matter whether or not you can take it out of an instance, the most logical course of action was to destroy it before it leads you to a disastrous end.

This post left a particularly strong impression on Cheng Zhi Chu because he was very scared of cursed items after reading about it. In the post, many beginners also expressed their fear and that they definitely wouldn’t take a cursed item. There were also a few people who didn’t want to accept this and asked Winter Branch if he had any cursed items himself.

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That was a from a few years ago when Winter Branch was still actively posting on the forum. When someone asked him a question, he would give them a response.

Winter Branch: ‘I do.’

Beginner: ‘Great god, if you don’t mind revealing it, how many do you have?’

Winter Branch: ‘I didn’t count it this year. Last year a little more than thirty.’

Beginner: ‘…………..’

Winter Branch: ‘It is very dangerous holding onto a cursed item. You shouldn’t take it too lightly.’

Beginner: ‘………’

Following that response was almost ten thousand responses filled with ellipses. Cheng Zhi Chu couldn’t help but also post something under it when he saw that —- With you having more than thirty in your possession, your words are not persuasive at all!!

It was also because of this post that Winter Branch started becoming ridiculed with all sorts of rubbish nicknames like, “The most dangerous one is Winter god”, “Walking cursed item museum”, “Winter Thirty”, “That man who collects garbage” etc. The number of nicknames almost equalled the number of cursed items he had.

However, Winter Branch’s posting frequency then started to gradually reduce. Soon, there was no movements from his end and his final post was from two years ago. No one knew whether or not he was finally killed by his cursed items.

At that time, Cheng Zhi Chu had finished reading the post and, although he understood that cursed items are dangerous and he wasn’t like Winter Branch so he wouldn’t go around picking up cursed items, he realised he had underestimated how dangerous it could be. In just a low-levelled instance like this, it could actually silently kill a player and take control of their dead body!

“But if it is a cursed item, w-why didn’t the system tell us. They should tell us about it……..”

Lu Wenjing gripped tightly onto her crowbar and looked at the headless body while trembling. She was scared to the point that her eyes were filled with tears and her legs went soft. Even her words were a little incoherent.

“Can’t rule out one possibility.”

Bai Yi said quietly.

“Perhaps we were told that it is a cursed item, but the item itself threw the veil over us and altered our perceptions.”

Hearing the two converse, Cheng Zhi Chu felt his hairs stand up. What was even worse was that at this moment a weak groan could be heard not far away from where the headless body stood. Wang Jianming gradually woke up from his slumber and opened his eyes. Through his still blurry vision, he could make out a familiar figure that resembled his dead girlfriend.

“Xiao Xue……. Is that you?”

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Wang Jianming extended his hands with excitement and warm tears fell from his eyes. Even his voice choked up.

But the next second, his tears washed away the blurriness in his vision allowing him to see its true form and he immediately froze.

The air went stagnant. Small amounts of blood were still pouring out of the neck of the body and it seemingly had heard Wang Jianming’s voice as it turned to the side and looked at him.

Wang Jianming didn’t know how to reaction; shock, fear, sorrow and surprise were all mixed together. His face distorted around as he looked at the body in daze. From his throat, a dull squeak was heard, and blue veins protruded but he still didn’t say anything.

The body however turned back around as if it didn’t recognise him and just turned to face Cheng Zhi Chu.

Cheng Zhi Chu’s eyes widened and his expression had a hint of surprise. With a slightly opened mouth, he retreated a few steps and then he suddenly felt the pocket in his shirt sink slightly, as if something had just fallen in.

No way…….

Cheng Zhi Chu had a bad feeling. Holding his breath, his trembling hands reached into his pocket and, just as he suspected, he felt a cold, smooth and hard object.

At the same time, he heard a soft chuckle that was both creepy and cold coming from next to his ears. He also felt something cold slowly brush against the back of his neck.

Fuck!!

The frightened Cheng Zhi Chu felt all the hairs on his body stand up. Without even thinking, he threw away the item in his pocket and a glowing green object flashed across the room. As expected, it was that cursed emerald necklace.

With a thud, the necklace fell to the ground, but it wasn’t the least bit broken. The smooth surface continued to emit a dull green light that made it look particularly haunting.

“Ahhh———-”

Lu Wenjing who stood to the side suddenly screamed and desperately waved the crowbar in her hands around. The crowbar went through a pair of legs that appeared beside her.

That pair of pale feet dangled around in mid-air. As the rest of the body was slowly revealed, they saw an upper body of the same pale colour and a rope suspending it by the neck from the ceiling. The facial features of the ghost were all distorted.

As the body struggled, a hoarse voice was heard from its throat. It scratched at the rope and with a ‘thud’ it finally slammed onto the ground. Its four limbs twitched but, as it could no longer stand up, it could only slowly crawl across the floor. It made strange noises as it slowly climbed towards Lu Wenjing.

It’s the mansions third owner that was hanged to death!

The newspaper article pinned to the door flashed across Cheng Zhi Chu’s mind. His expression immediately went pale but, before he had the chance to react, the floor suddenly cracked open and several pairs of bony hands covered in rotting flesh reached out. This was then followed by rotting heads and bodies. On their bodies, fragments of blue clothing still hung from it. With careful assessment, you could tell that it was a maid’s uniform.

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Their eyes were all dark and holey as they stared at the living humans standing in the room. Being stared at like that, Cheng Zhi Chu felt his legs go soft. If it wasn’t for Bai Yi’s timely support, he would have already fallen to the ground and huddled into a ball.

Why……why are there so many ghosts? Were they all attracted here by the necklace?

Thinking back to the creepy laughter, Cheng Zhi Chu’s face lost its colour. With his entire body trembling, he held onto the corner of Bai Yi’s shirt and moved his gaze over to the corner where the necklace had fallen. Once again, the necklace had disappeared.

At this moment, he regretted his earlier action of throwing the necklace away. He should have directly tried to destroy it. If he did that, there probably wouldn’t be this many ghost appearing now!

“We can’t deal with so many ghosts. Let’s get out of here and find the secret passage.”

Bai Yi said this solemnly and pulled Cheng Zhi Chu’s hand along as he run out of the room. Cheng Zhi Chu reacted quickly and nudged Lu Wenjing next to him. As for Wang Jianming who was far from him with several ghosts between them, he couldn’t get through and could only shout at the dazed Wang Jianming: “If you don’t want to die, run!”

“Bang!”

Lu Wenjing’s entire body trembled as she used the crowbar to smash the hands reaching over in her direction. She then quickly followed behind Bai Yi and Cheng Zhi Chu. At this moment, Wang Jianming had also returned to his senses. With red-rimmed eyes, he looked at Ren Xue and then gritted his teeth while pulling out a card.

The function of this card was that you could use it to move up to twenty metres in an instant and it could only be used once. It was a life-saving item that Wang Jianming had saved for emergencies. Just as he was about to activate the card, he glanced over in the direction of the door preparing to teleport over, but he was inadvertently met with Bai Yi’s gaze.

The handsome man’s lips were slightly curved, and his deep, dark eyes had a eerie gleam to it. Along with the tear mole at the corner of his right eye, it made him look even more mysterious.

Although he was smiling, his eyes looked hollow and dead. With that look, Wang Jianming felt his body go cold and his limbs stiffen up. It was as if he was nailed in place and he couldn’t move even a single finger.

Shh———

The man placed a long and slender finger in front of his lips and smiled while making a ‘quiet’ gesture.

The corpses and ghosts in the room all stopped moving as if time had temporarily stopped. The next second, everything returned to normal apart from the fact that they had all turned around and started advancing towards Wang Jianming. Ren Xue’s headless body swayed over and smacked away the card in Wang Jianming’s hands.

Bai Yi, he———-!

Wang Jianming’s eyes widened. Just as he was about to open his mouth to shout, a cold corpse hand reached out and covered both his nose and mouth. At the same time, the other monsters rushed over and started to bite onto his blood and flesh. With his mouth blocked, none of his agonising screams managed to escape out the door.

Bright red blood gradually flowed out staining the black patterned card.

The door to the room quietly closed sending everything happening in the room into darkness. Sounds could no longer be heard from within.

***

Bai Yi’s Diary (Part 9)

Of course, it was a lie that I couldn’t deal with all those ghosts in the room. I only said it so that I could have a good reason to kill off that man.

But that necklace really is problematic. I can’t feel its power or trace its location. Without a doubt it is a cursed item and I am almost certain that it came from ‘him’.

—– From the other ‘me’.

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KK has something to say:
RIP the couple 🙏