CH 11

The sound of bones and raw meat being chewed was so horrifying that Ye Zun wanted to jump out of bed and sprint out the door, but his fear of the deeper darkness outside this room kept him lying still.

——He needs to live for seven days. Now is only the first night.

Nogawa Kaoru died on the seventh day, meaning all the choices he made before that day were the right ones.

He imagined Nogawa Kaoru himself encountering such a thing. What would he do?

It should be, pretend to be asleep, pretend not to know ba; as long as he isn’t caught…

Ye Zun tilted his head slightly, burying his face into the pillow and placing his hand next to it to cover his half-closed eyes.

He didn’t dare to close his eyes completely, for fear that the danger would appear in front of him without him knowing.

But he also didn’t dare to open them, for fear of suddenly meeting a pair of petrifying eyes, and letting the other thing find out that he was awake.

While controlling his state of breathing and listening carefully to the horrifying chewing sound, he kept thinking about the scene he would be met with if he looked.

——Is it the irritable man eating the raw meat from the kitchen?

——Is it a ghost eating someone?

With all these thoughts persisting in his mind, unconsciously, between the constant chewing sounds and his taut mind, sleepiness actually slowly emerged.

It turned out, he was actually not as afraid of death as he thought.

If he died, he could see his grandma…

Once Ye Zun was half awake and half asleep, something in the dark slowly moved up and down, climbing up the ladder little by little.

Little by little, climbing onto the upper bunk, climbing into the blanket behind Ye Zun.

The blanket was slowly raised to form an opening, exposing a black head with a pair of green eyes full of bitter resentment.

He fell into a trance, like when he couldn’t help but doze off while doing homework and his grandma who was passing by suddenly pushed him on the shoulder, feeling a sudden weightlessness.

Ye Zun abruptly opened his eyes and woke up instantly, feeling that the insides of the blanket was suddenly cold for no reason, especially his back, which was as cold as ice.

The moment he opened his eyes, the thing behind him disappeared.

Ye Zun pulled on the blanket, not daring to make hard movements that would emit sound. He pricked his ears and listened carefully. He didn’t know when, but the terrifying chewing was gone now.

However, this may mean that the danger was lifted, or it may mean that the danger had moved onto the next one.

Ye Zun remained vigilant, then suddenly remembered something. His fingers gently fumbled under the blanket, but he didn’t find the little white snake.

——Where did you go? Did you go somewhere else to sleep, or out to search for food?

When the terrible chewing sound started, the little white snake was still in his arms. If he hadn’t reminded himself in time, Ye Zun almost thought that the raw meat the thing ate was his snake.

——Don’t go running around ah. If it’s a ghost, it probably won’t eat snakes, right?

Tap, tap, the sound of footsteps suddenly appeared again.

Ye Zun froze in place, keeping his eyes open and staying motionless.

But this time, the footsteps sounded in the living room outside his door.

……

On the other side of the wall.

Sitting on the sofa in the living room was a handsome and elegant man. In the cold darkness, his skin was as white as snow glowing in the moonlight; a dangerous, noble, immaculate paleness.

With shadowed eyes that ran deep as the abyss, he tilted his head slightly, staring directly into the thick aura of maliciousness hidden in the darkness of the living room.

A monotone spoke low and indifferently, “Other things, you all can do as you wish. However, appearing in the place where I sleep, I will be very angry.”

Under his feet, from a pool of some type of dark and cold liquid on the floor, crawled out a man’s blackened head. A leather shoe stepped on the skull, crushing it easily. 

……

Ye Zun got up very early.

When he woke up, the little white snake was neatly wrapped around his wrist, still sleeping.

Ye Zun thought for a while, then carefully pried the snake off his hand, placing it on the inside of the pillow and covering it lightly. He gently stroked its head with his fingertips. “Don’t run around ah.”

Last night, he didn’t take a shower because he was too afraid. Now, he was constantly uncomfortable. So as to not run into any of the members in this family, he specifically got up at dawn and went to the nearby convenience store to buy a change of clothes and a toothbrush.

Fortunately, the money in his phone could also be used in this world.

The bathroom was small and aging, so there was no mirror installed. This let a certain someone breathe a sigh of relief. No mirror meant he could avoid the horrible associations that came with it.

He turned the water on very quietly, but even so, he finished washing as quickly as possible, not daring to close his eyes halfway.

For those not in the know, for someone to behave so particular in a dangerous horror game, it was because he was afraid of opening his eyes and seeing something strange. 

He could buy close-fitting clothes, but Nogawa Kaoru’s school uniforms couldn’t be avoided.

The school uniform consisted of a black outer jacket and pants, with a white shirt underneath. The color and standard were excessively strict.

Ye Zun was about to graduate from university, but he had a slender figure, so he could manage wearing a high schooler’s uniform. However, he only barely fit into the clothes and couldn’t make any larger movements in them.

After returning to the room and finishing changing, Ye Zun hesitated for a while, recalling the sound from last night. He slowly turned back, lightly lifting the blanket under his bunk to take a look.

The next instant, his hand shook, and he quickly put the blanket back down and went out of the door with large strides.

There was actually nothing in the blanket; no person, and no corpses. It seemed that the blanket hadn’t been aired out for a long time as there was a little dampness.

What made Ye Zun react so much was the pool of black stains on the bed sheet.

He didn’t know what it was. It wasn’t like blood, or anything else, but it gave people a very uncomfortable feeling.

Before this reaction, he subconsciously already wanted to leave that space quickly.

There was another banging sound outside the door, accompanied by the cold swearing from a man.

“Is food cooked like this? What’s the use of going to school? In the end, you can’t even cook a meal!”

Ye Zun was stunned for a moment. He saw a middle-aged man with a gloomy expression, standing in front of the master bedroom with his arms folded over his chest, staring at the kitchen with disgust.

In the kitchen, a seven or eight-year-old girl clumsily cut noodles.

Every time the man spat out an eccentric sentence, the girl trembled and made a mistake, bringing her a meaner, more abusive scolding.

This was probably what the woman referenced last night, the young man’s little sister.

An adult ordered a child to cook for him, but in turn he just ridiculed and threw abuse around. Even if they were just game NPCs, it made people unable to spectate.

Ye Zun had originally planned to leave right away, but after a pause, he turned around and walked into the kitchen.

“Let me ba.”

He had been with his grandmother since he was a child, and when he was a little older, he took on the chore of cooking. During the New Year when he was a child, those relatives who came to their house for dinner stood at the door, mocking and directing sarcastic statements at him just like now.

The little girl stood there numbly. There was no emotion on her face, no fear or grievance, only numbness.

Ye Zun turned his head and glanced at her occasionally, suddenly surprised.

This was the first time he knew that the look of numbness could also give people a creepy feeling.

After cutting the noodles evenly and scattering them in the pot, Ye Zun washed his hands and went straight out.

He didn’t plan to eat breakfast, promptly sliding the school bag on his back and going out without delay.

It now looked like there were about five members in this family, the host and the hostess*, two sons, and one daughter.

[T/N: the man and woman owners of the house]

Ye Zun stood at the doorway. A school bus was parked nearby. He saw someone in the same school uniform as him in the bus, so he followed them into the bus.

“Honestly, what are you standing there in a daze for? Waiting for me to invite you guys up?”

Ye Zun found a seat by the window of the bus doors and sat down, ignoring the driver’s eccentric comments.

He was still thinking about how to find Nogawa Kaoru’s classroom and desk when he gets off the bus later.

The bus twisted and turned, stopping several times in the middle before finally arriving at the destination. The driver got out of the bus and opened the door.

The school’s door had a sign written in the common language*: First International Public Middle School.

[T/N: 通用语/lingua franca]

Ye Zun stood at the gate of the school and watched the students enter. There were people of all skin colours from all countries.

Although many people walked into the school, everyone seemed to be in a low mood this early in the morning. Almost no one was chatting, a seemingly quiet environment.

At this moment, Ye Zun unconsciously glanced over at a place. The eyes that had been calm all this time suddenly widened, like the first gleam of light in springtime shining on water, igniting gorgeous ripples across the surface in an instant.

A smile Ye Zun didn’t know about appeared on his face and he sprinted in that direction, opening his mouth to call out a name, but not making a sound. The knot on his throat rolled in restraint and he just ran to the person even faster.

On the path leading to the school, there was a man in the same uniform as Ye Zun. A thin, slender and tall figure, even if it was just the view of his back, he stood out from the crowd, distinguishing him from everyone around.

He just walked slowly in that area, like a superstar walking on the red carpet, calm and noble, elegant and quiet.

Ye Zun flew over quickly, placing his fingers on the man’s shoulders, his somewhat shaky but bright smile filling his eyes with a clear and pure light. He couldn’t wait any longer and called out a name, “Moros!” 

The man’s footsteps paused with his movements. He turned around and he looked back at him.

The moment the man turned his head, the smile on Ye Zun’s face stagnated and the light in his eyes solidified.

“En?” The man in front of him asked with a slightly inquiring expression, looking down at him quietly, his handsome face settled in a gentle appearance.

Although the back view appeared almost exactly the same, and even his looks were very similar, he didn’t know if it was because the clothes are different, but the man in front of him looked a few years younger than the priest himself.

This wasn’t the main point. The main point was that Ye Zun suddenly remembered he entered a single player instance.

How could the priest be here? If he was, what was the identity of the other man?

Ye Zun stiffly retracted his hand, and slowly blinked his eyes. “Sorry, I mistook you for someone else.”

——He definitely mistook!

The man was not angry. He watched him and said kindly, “Perhaps, you didn’t mistake me for another.”

Ye Zun startled. “Wh, what?”

There was no clear smile on the man’s face. His expression was serene, and his clear pupils took over a larger space in his eyes. When looking at other people, he looked particularly attentive and tranquil. Those eyes were beautiful, like rare black crystals sinking in a clear mountain spring, gaze clear and focused.

“I suddenly received a job from the church. Seeing that you were sleeping well, I left without saying goodbye. I didn’t expect for us to meet again here. Did you, perhaps, receive a game invitation from Demon God’s Amusement Park?”

Ye Zun’s expression stirred slightly, his eyes brimming with clear surprise. “…it’s really you!”

The corners of the priest’s lips raised in a subtle and reserved curve and the inconspicuous affinity was different from the negligible expression on his face. Those pitch-black eyes, as long as there was the presence of a faint smile, were like the spring water sparking with the reflection of the soft sky, covered with a thin, crystal-clear gentleness, thin enough that it was as if it wasn’t there at all.

Looking at him intently, with a vaguely curious inquiry at the bottom of his eyes, he softly said, “En, I live next door to you. I wanted to say hello to you before, but you seemed to be very nervous, so I was afraid of scaring you if I showed up so suddenly. But, when you suddenly saw me just then, were you still scared?”

“This, I…” The bump on Ye Zun’s throat rolled faintly. He smiled, but his eyes trembled, and his lips took on a somewhat shaky and restrained curve.

He was, indeed, scared.

The author has something to say:

A chance encounter is absolutely not something that happened by chance, but it can happen passively.

It was Ye Zun who ran to him by himself ya, he didn’t do anything at all~

[T/N: 主动偶遇是绝对不会主动偶遇的，但可以被动偶遇 this A/N is like a tongue twister, I can’t find a way to make it make sense]