Chapter 4 - Novice Copy (4)

Hongyi Amusement Park

Chapter 4 — Second Game (4)

Before Li Hongying died, the rumours about dating were something that did not happen at all. After all, everyone was afraid that after being associated with her, they would get mocked and pointed at. Jiang Xiaoli did not belong to this world and did not even exist in Li Hongying’s world before her death.

Dating. Li Hongying’s train of thought floated away. It is said that she likes girls but it was because she got caught by her roommates while reading a Yuri comic then the matter spread to the entire school. Afterwards, they changed their dorm room immediately, saying they feared she would secretly look at them taking a shower, afraid of what she would do at night and afraid that she would take liberties with them. To be honest, Li Hongying was not really interested in them but each and every one of them kept scrambling to blow their own trumpets. 1

Not everyone was a wicked person but no one would take the initiative to act for a person who had nothing to do with them. Li Hongying was quite a recluse, withdrawn and introverted. She liked to keep everything in her heart and was not good at expressing herself. Later, she tried to explain herself but no one could understand……

Click.

Li Hongying turned her head, Jiang Xiaoli walked out wearing sky blue cartoon pajamas with white clouds. The smell coming from her breath should be the smell of the shower gel but it was different from merely shower gel. Li Hongying stood up and took the towel hung on Jiang Xiaoli’s bedside clothes hanger. This was what Jiang Xiaoli had placed over there every day to wipe her hair. After wiping her hair, she would dry it on the balcony.

Li Hongying placed the towel on Jiang Xiaoli’s head and wiped her hair. Jiang Xiaoli stood obediently, letting Li Hongying do so.

“About yesterday’s matter, I’m sorry. I shouldn’t have said nonsense.” Jiang Xiaoli’s tone was full of self-blame, “I didn’t know they would understand it that way. I, I actually don’t mean that. I’m really sorry. I’ve given you so much trouble.”

Perhaps, it’s fine to not start the supernatural phenomenon that early. Li Hongying put away the towel and looked into Jiang Xiaoli’s eyes. She said flatly, “It’s nothing, have you completed your homework?”

“I still have a few major questions that I don’t know how to do……” Jiang Xiaoli said in a low voice.

“Let me see, I’ll teach you.”

Looking at the questions she was troubled over for a long time being solved by Li Hongying with no difficulty, Jiang Xiaoli suddenly thought: Since Li Hongying knows how to do these questions so even if Li Hongying scored 60 marks for English, her total score also not ought to be that low. She tested for the exam but was still in the last row?

However, Jiang Xiaoli still did not inquire about it. She intended to wait for after tomorrow’s results to come out to look at Li Hongying’s test paper. She couldn’t say for sure that she would discover anything wrong. ——Of course, on the premise that she could live to tomorrow.

After being restless, Jiang Xiaoli could still quickly go to sleep, probably because her brain had been drained from studying and plus waking up early every morning made her extremely exhausted, day by day. She was obviously laden with worry but she fell asleep once her head touched the pillow.

When the clock turned past midnight, Li Hongying sat up abruptly from the bed and looked at Jiang Xiaoli, who fell asleep long ago, from a distance. A pair of scarlet pupils in the dark was particularly horrifying to people. Countless wisps of blood came from the wall, spreading out and engulfed the entire dorm room. One second, Li Hongying was on her bed and the next second, she was lying on Jiang Xiaoli.

……This smell.

It was calling her and Li Hongying wished she could eat Jiang Xiaoli’s raw flesh and blood at once. Tearing the thin layer of thin, biting off big chunks of her flesh and gulping her blood so that every inch and every piece of bone has been eaten into her stomach.

The people chosen to enter the escape game are able to incite the ‘appetite’ of ghosts to a different extent because if they were too ‘unpalatable’, the ghosts would not comply with the rules and regulations of the escape game to participate in the game to fight for ‘gourmet food’ to eat. On the account that ghosts have different tastes, the reason why if no one breaks a rule in a team copy, then the ghosts will select their first target to kill based on their personal preferences.

Drip, drip.

Blood seeped out inch by inch from Li Hongying’s body, loads of blood-stained her clothes. In the sultry night, it was extremely silent, even the sound of the insects chirping could not be heard at this moment. Wisps of blood covered the room and already spread to Jiang Xiaoli’s bed. As long as Jiang Xiaoli slightly moved her fingers, she would touch those things.

Jiang Xiaoli wrinkled her brow in her sleep, she dreamt that she had been caught by a serial killer and stuffed into a freezer. The narrow freezer filled her with the sensation of choking. She screamed. She couldn’t breathe and it was freezing. She tried to struggle, to escape but realised that she couldn’t move no matter what she did.

Li Hongying couldn’t touch Jiang Xiaoli.

Hongyi Amusement Park was an amusement park that belonged exclusively to Li Hongying. Jiang Xiaoli never humiliated her and even when she was trying to worm out facts from her classmates, she never went along with her classmates to badmouth her. She never discriminated against homosexuals at all even though she was rumoured to be dating with her. Based on the rules and regulations, the player did not offend Li Hongying so this boss could not directly take action.

Li Hongying lowered her head to sniff the scent on Jiang Xiaoli’s body. Normally, there was still the smell of cool and sweet shower gel but following the end of the novice protection period, ghosts could smell the flavour ‘in the bones’ of the player. Only ghosts will be able to smell it, the smell that attracts ghosts.

This person is quite delicious.

Li Hongying opened her mouth but her fangs couldn’t pierce into Jiang Xiaoli’s skin. That rule bound her body and controlled her unwaveringly. She simply had to use a little force and she would be able to drink a delicious ‘beverage’.

This wretched escape game! Li Hongying cursed internally and slowly sat up. The wisps of blood in the room retreated like a tide. Her eyes gradually changed back to black and a bizarre smile emerged on her pale face.

What should she do? She could not let those lowly ghost workers consume such a player.

In the endless night, Li Hongying sat on Jiang Xiaoli’s body and didn’t materialise her body. There wasn’t any discomfort other than making Jiang Xiaoli feel exceptionally ice-cold. She sat upright and lowered her head to look at Jiang Xiaoli’s sleeping face, completely defenseless in her sleep…….If this wasn’t a novice copy, such a player would be apprehended by ghosts on the second day to be shared and eaten cleanly.

……

The protection period had passed.

Jiang Xiaoli crawled out of bed. She sneezed, her throat was very sore and her nose was stuffed up. It was such a hot day, she unexpectedly caught a cold? When she was looking at the mirror and brushing her teeth, Jiang Xiaoli saw herself in the mirror brushing and brushing her teeth, showing a sudden smile. The curvature of the smile was weird, both of her eyes stared blankly ahead without any focus. Jiang Xiaoli got startled and almost choked on foam but when she raised her head, everything was back to normal.

Strange, could it be because she was half asleep?

“Hurry up and brush your teeth.” Li Hongying said as walked up behind Jiang Xiaoli to rush her. Jiang Xiaoli agreed profusely and started to wash her face after rinsing her mouth. Li Hongying shot a glance at the reflection that had become somewhat stiff in the mirror. A small lump of white mist flowed out soon after and escaped from the window.

The atmosphere today was really strange.

Jiang Xiaoli followed behind Li Hongying and suspected whether or not any strange gossip about her was going around on the campus. If not, why did it seem like everyone was secretly looking at her? But also……their eyes were so intense. Jiang Xiaoli inadvertently met the eyes of a student holding and eating a bowl of soup noodles in front of the canteen. That student quickly lowered their head to slurp the noodles. However, his gaze just now……seemed as if she was actually the same as soup noodles.

Jiang Xiaoli trembled, she merely got some sleep so why was everyone behaving oddly……could it be because of the novice protection period? What special effect after the novice protection period made them perceive that she was different from the rest?

When she was eating noodles in the canteen, this strange feeling got stronger. Because Jiang Xiaoli unexpectedly heard the distinct sound of those seated at the next table swallowing their saliva!

Even during morning self-learning, that mathematics teacher, who liked to pick on her in class, surprisingly did not make eye contact with her at all! But when she lowered her head to do a question, she felt countless gazes focusing on her, indistinctly……there was still the constant sound of swallowing.

Something wasn’t, wasn’t right.

“Jiang Xiaoli, let’s go to the toilet together!”

For the first time, there was a female student who asked her, out of the blue, to go to the toilet together. Obviously, since she had gotten close to Li Hongying, that group didn’t associate much with her.

“It just so happens that I want to go too, Jiang Xiaoli, let’s go together.” The student at the desk, in front of her, turned her head to smile at her and took her hand in a friendly manner. Jiang Xiaoli couldn’t stand the enthusiasm and stood up to follow after her. She couldn’t figure out whether or not this was another conspiracy. For instance, she tricked her into the toilet to beat her up, splash water at her, lock her up in the toilet and such……but if she didn’t go and missed out on a clue? In any case, it was still on the campus. There were so many people looking, they also wouldn’t kill to silence her, right? Placing her phone in her pocket, Jiang Xiaoli followed them out of the classroom.

“Everyone says that you and Li Hongying are going out, aren’t you angry?” Female student A seemed to unwittingly ask, “You are in the same dorm room as her, don’t tell me that you guys…….”

“Your dorm room should have three girls, right? You often walk together with them, don’t tell me that you guys are together?” Jiang Xiaoli did not quite understand why these students always pulled her along to badmouth Li Hongying. It couldn’t be that they hoped she would echo a few words they have said to scold Li Hongying? But Li Hongying didn’t do anything and she was quite nice. On the contrary, these students who were almost in their third-year, hindered Li Hongying with rumours……“Li Hongying is great, we’re friends and she’s very kind. I’m just thinking of studying at the present moment and not planning to date.”

Kind?!

Jiang Xiaoli clearly caught sight of female student A’s facial expression distorting, startling her into retreating a few steps back. She turned around and noticed the face of the front desk student, was full of hatred and her temples pulsated twice. Jiang Xiaoli turned around and ran towards the stairs but her wrist got ruthlessly hauled by that front desk student in the end and was thrown back into the ladies toilet. She almost knocked against a student who had just come out after washing their hands.

“If she was kind, she wouldn’t have killed us! ——”

“That damn trash! She’s a pervert and a lunatic! She ought to——ah!” Her angry cursing abruptly came to an end. Jiang Xiaoli watched in shock as the body of female student A started to emit wisps of mist, her whole body appeared to be subjected to unparalleled pain. Her entire body gradually transformed into mist and got ripped apart by incorporeal hands. Before this student could even make a sound, she vanished directly.

She vanished.

Nothing was left.

Jiang Xiaoli was shocked and scared. She could hardly breathe and plastered herself to the ceramic tiles of the toilet but the students surrounding her looked normal. The face of that front desk student was as sinister as before, only that fear could be seen from the depths of her eyes.

“What, what is going on……” Jiang Xiaoli gaped her mouth, looking towards that unfamiliar student in the middle of washing their hands, she seemed like she didn’t see anything. A living person just vanished!

The front desk student suddenly stepped forward to clutch Jiang Xiaoli’s neck, using a lot of force but was obstructed by an incorporeal force. Jiang Xiaoli saw the hatred, killing intent, covetousness intertwined which turned into strong unwillingness, “Did you think you can clear this game? No, she absolutely won’t let you go.”

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Footnotes

争先恐后往脸上贴金 zhēng xiān kǒng hòu wǎng liǎn shàng tiē jīn :

Think of ‘争先恐后’ as striving to be the first and fearing to be the last, everyone will outdo each other to scram out of the place. As for ‘脸上贴金’, refers to a proud person talking big/boasting about their achievements or assets.