"Firstly, we need to find an empty room with a mirror..."
Gu Mian glanced around. "That seems hard to find."
"Secondly, we need to split up. Only one person can enter..."
Gu Mian concluded, "Finally, this thing can actually be called a lantern riddle?"
Chu Changge also looked at the lantern in front of him. "It's a supernatural game event; you can't expect it to ask you what one plus one equals."
Gu Mian stroked his chin and looked at the lantern next to him again.
There were many lanterns in this courtyard, providing plenty of options, but these riddles were each more excessive than the last.
Next to it was a lantern with an even more absurd riddle.
"How many lanterns are there in the event area?"
Gu Mian looked at this riddle, then turned his head back to the previous lantern. "I think this riddle is more reliable."
To be honest, Gu Mian had never done anything this thrilling before.
Well aware of his own bad luck, Gu Mian had never attempted this type of horror game in the past.
But now, he had no choice but to try.
"Let's find an empty room first, and there must be a mirror inside," Gu Mian said, looking around.
They were currently in the backyard of a mansion. Some corners had props from a film crew piled up, and they even saw a canopy set up not far away, likely for shade.
This global game had started so abruptly that the film crew hadn't had time to pack up their things.
Gu Mian took a couple of steps forward. "There must be an empty room with a mirror here. Let's find it first."
「Meanwhile, elsewhere...」
A somewhat small and thin middle-aged man was climbing out of a basement.
"Pah," he spat while climbing out. "It's really dirty down there; it stinks to high heaven."
Following close behind him was a slightly younger man, speaking in a very soft voice, "Yeah, yeah, it stinks enough to kill you..."
If Fatty were here, he would have recognized their voices as the two people he'd heard while hiding in the closet.
Bai Yuhu spat twice more, then looked up at his surroundings. He breathed a sigh of relief after confirming there were no horrifying ghosts around.
The man next to him, whose game nickname was Pi Peng, also cautiously looked around. The area was empty; there were no ghosts, nor any people.
Seeing this, Pi Peng asked softly, "Boss, should we try the lantern riddles first, or look for people?"
He remembered they had another purpose for entering this event.
Ever since that wanted list came out, many people had been paying close attention to this person named Gu Mian. Not long ago, someone had told them Gu Mian was coming to Hengdian.
This was fantastic news.
Killing this person would immediately reward them with 15,000 Game Coins, several special items, and dozens of Attribute Points.
Consider that completing an instance nowadays only yielded one or two hundred Game Coins. Killing one person was equivalent to clearing a hundred instances—why wouldn't they jump at the chance?
Their informant had told them Gu Mian was accompanied by a Fatty and a man with glasses. Gu Mian always wore a white coat and carried a large bag, making his features quite distinct.
Their group had recognized Gu Mian the moment he arrived, but due to the large number of troops in the city, they hadn't made a move immediately.
Bai Yuhu, whom Pi Peng called Boss, nodded slightly. "Let's check the lantern riddles first. We'll decide what to do next based on the situation."
They wanted to kill people in this event, but they also wanted to reap some benefits. It would be best if they could achieve both—reap benefits and kill their target—hitting two birds with one stone.
However, as soon as the two of them read the riddle on the nearest lantern, they abandoned their plan to solve riddles first.
"In a narrow alley, two people walk, facing each other, eyes tightly shut. Each retreats to an end, then suddenly opens their eyes. Behind whom does a phantom lurk?"
This meant they had to find an alley, close their eyes, and walk backward away from each other toward opposite ends. Only when both reached their respective ends were they to open their eyes.
Since they would be backing away from a face-to-face starting position towards opposite ends, upon opening their eyes, they could clearly see what was behind the other person...
Looking at this riddle, Pi Peng felt a chill creep over him.
He took a deep breath. "Boss, the event rules only state that the lanterns will release ghosts every fifteen minutes... but they didn't say there weren't any ghosts here to begin with, right?"
Perhaps if they followed these instructions, upon opening their eyes, they would see a phantom behind the other person.
A ghost behind the other person wasn't the most terrifying possibility... The most terrifying thing would be if there was *nothing* behind the other person at all.
Thinking of this, Pi Peng shivered violently.
Bai Yuhu's face also paled as he looked at the riddle. "Even during these fifteen-minute intervals before the lanterns release more, we're not safe. It seems Hengdian already has some ghosts. If we follow the riddles, there's a high probability we'll encounter the ghosts that are already here."
"Then we..." Pi Peng hesitated.
Bai Yuhu paused for a moment. "Let's find our targets first. Anyway, the rewards for solving these riddles might not be as good as those for killing one person. We'll search for them and keep an eye on the riddles. If we find any simple ones, we'll give them a try."
Dying in this event meant real death. Although facing death in instances was somewhat frightening, most people still felt a sense of detachment, a barrier preventing that bone-deep fear. But not in this event; here, they faced actual death.
The night wind howled, carrying a chill. Pi Peng felt his neck grow numb from the cold. He looked up at the white lanterns swaying in the wind; the sight was rather unsettling.
He wrapped his clothes tighter around himself.
Nearby, Bai Yuhu glanced at the time. "Another three minutes have passed. We need to find our targets quickly... but this place is a bit big. Never mind, let's walk around for a bit. If we can't find that Doctor, we'll find Second-in-Command first. He has a tracking device that can pinpoint the Doctor's location." For origınal chapters go to 𝙣𝙤𝙫𝙚𝙡⚑𝙛𝙞𝙧𝙚⚑𝙣𝙚𝙩
The architecture here resembled that seen in Qing Palace dramas. The absence of people made it look particularly eerie.
Pi Peng followed behind Bai Yuhu, a sense of trepidation in his heart.
Fortunately, quite a few people had entered the event. Although the area was large, they encountered someone after walking for only a few minutes.
Pi Peng craned his neck, looking in the direction of a sound up ahead. It was a person in a military uniform.
Many in the army had also managed to get tickets for the event, so it wasn't strange to see soldiers here. However, the army had evidently been scattered upon entering the event, so now they were only encountering lone soldiers.
Bai Yuhu's steps faltered for a moment. He saw that the lone person in military uniform ahead had also noticed them.
After they exchanged glances for a moment, Bai Yuhu, with Pi Peng following, made a slight detour, avoiding the person ahead.
Pi Peng was a little confused. "Boss, why did we detour around him?"
Bai Yuhu shook his head. "It's best we don't have any contact with the army. Right now, the army is the largest organization. We shouldn't draw their attention."