Spring Banquet (11)

The Days I Clear Escape Games Pretending to be an NPCCh45 - Spring Banquet (11)

The two of them parted ways. The old man served Ren Yifei as if he was serving the Buddha while Saman returned to his temporary residence.

After gulping down half a pot of water, he wiped his mouth and looked towards the closed door: I wondered what kind of harvest the players who went out today would have. fZDatN

His harvest was enough, so he didn't need to go out again. Solving a mystery is the same as falling in love; you have to take your time and not rush.

Although, he also couldn't say much about love.

Please visit chrysanthemumgarden (dot) com

After a short walk with the white-robed demon, he has collected more clues than ever before. He doesn't know if there will be another chance to walk with the other party again.

"If there's none, just create one," Saman took out a glowing flower from his sleeve. This was not the one the white-robed demon had, but the one he had picked up himself and stowed away when they had just entered the garden. kD2ZLW

"Don't get close to this flower..." he leaned in closer and sniffed it with a small smile.

"That sword was really useful, and so was that guy. I wonder if we'll have the chance to act together again tomorrow. But, I still have a character quest that is waiting to be completed," Ren Yifei pondered over this.

He wanted to unravel the secret that Qing Hong, the host of this banquet, was trying to hide. He had a hunch that if he unravelled Qing Hong's secret, then he would also be able to find the three drops of blood.

Finding another person's secrets was not easy.

OcJB6S

Although he had unlocked the power of 'Phantom Play', it still did not change the fact that he was a combat scum. He would need an assistant once he gets closer to the main part of the story. After thinking about it carefully, this dessert player was a suitable candidate.

Furthermore, he likes his scent.

Ren Yifei leaned against the smooth jade stone and closed his eyes as the warm spring water splashed into the pool.

At this moment, he was soaking in the hot spring located in the small courtyard that he had been assigned to. The bubbles in the spring massaged his body as they hit him. K2QU7B

The temperature of the water was just right. The steam rises up, wrapping him in warmth and relaxing him immensely, causing the unwarranted violent emotions to be suppressed.

In the shadows somewhere, a pair of eyes were staring at him greedily. Its gaze travelled from the top of his head to his shoulders.

He knew that this small courtyard was under some kind of surveillance. To be precise, the entire building was under someone's surveillance after nightfall. Everything they experience would be watched by that unknown being.

Was the house becoming sentient? kKm2C

This wooden house... let's just burn it down and be done with it.

His pair of eyes opened slightly amidst the steam. They were reddish-brown and resembled a predator's more than a human's.

Too many things had happened today.

Because of the concubine's provocation and Qing Hong's scrutiny, he was forced to act like he has multiple personalities which resulted in one-sixth of the seal being unlocked. In conclusion, his plan was completely disrupted. G8eLkN

Man proposes God disposes.

The resume only provided a short, vague description of the original owner's personality, and there was also a junior brother who knew the original owner very well— because of this, the outcome was obvious.

Please visit chrysanthemumgarden (dot) com

Fortunately, he remembered to act as if he had multiple personalities. Acting that way had saved him from the storm.

Ren Yifei touched his neck. The bruise from being choked had already healed, but he had not forgotten the pain of being suffocated at that moment.

Heh, a blackened junior brother?

It's a pity that NPCs couldn't be killed so casually; otherwise, killing them would come very naturally...

"Whoa."

A palm splashed onto the water's surface, and Ren Yifei bit his lip, causing beads of blood to form. If he was not careful, he would be affected by the side effects of breaking the seal; that's not good, not good at al

"You are He Jun," he told himself, "A demon."

Before the play was over, he was still He Jun.

No one can ruin his show, not even himself.

The water gradually calmed down, and the reflection showed a pair of gentle dark eyes. FWUZzR

Ren Yifei came out of the hot spring and put on the nightgown on the hanger.

The water from his body quickly soaked through the plain-coloured nightgown. The crystal water droplets ran down the curve of his calf and left a series of wet footprints on the ground.

His slender fingers combed through his long wet hair, from the roots to the ends. The white mist then rolled up, and all the water droplets on his body evaporated.

Ren Yifei put on a coat and walked barefoot towards the bedroom on the green jade floor. x32jLR

His reflection was shown on a yellow bronze mirror, causing him to stop and glance back; the person in the mirror appeared to be glowing.

"Your junior brother is very interesting," he said to the mirror.

After going offline for a few seconds, a more callous person came back online, "Don't do anything unnecessary."

"That would depend on my mood," Ren Yifei smiled and left the mirror: Joy or sorrow, I'll give it back to you. 5t0nI

The name of this instance is Spring Banquet, the same name that was written on the invitation card.

The host had stated that the banquet serves two purposes— one was for everyone to admire the flowers, and the other was to celebrate the birth of his child.

Please visit chrysanthemumgarden (dot) com

Let's believe that for the time being.

He doesn't want to have any rivalry with the 'ghost' if possible. However, to know your enemy is to know yourself; this could be advantageous to the development of his enactment. UXpRbr

The 'ghost' is an entity that is the most familiar with this instance and the one who is the most likely to see through his disguise.

According to his experience with the previous two games, the 'ghost' must have some connections to this banquet or the organisers, that is, his cheap junior brother, his cheap junior sister and the big-bellied concubine named Hua Li.

It could also be an invited guest, such as a demon similar to He Jun, who has many interests or emotional ties with the host.

The instances are due to the obsession of the ghost, and if there are no recent deaths, then the time that the instance was set in is likely to be when the 'ghost' was still alive. AKu1Wn

With this information in mind, the 'ghost' must know how the NPCs should react at this banquet and thus, would be able to differentiate the players from the originals.

The NPCs would not act exactly as the 'ghost' remembers, but the inner characteristics of these NPCs will not change and will still be the same as how the 'ghost' remembers.

Of course, the presence of the players was bound to interfere with the NPCs, thus affecting the judgment of the 'ghost'. But this only applies to things that the 'ghost' is unfamiliar with.

Just like the last instance, the 'ghost' was actually not that familiar with the character that Run Yifei played. The only contact it had with the original owner was when it was delivering food, which gave Ren Yifei more freedom when acting. uZvjqs

Due to the ghost's unfamiliarity with that character, the 'ghost' could not suspect anything even if that 'character' blackened at the end because everything would've been logical.

The situation this time was different. Ren Yifei has been forced to split his personality, so there was a clear gap between his performance and the original owner. Once compared with the original plot, it would be easy to identify him as a player in disguise.

From this point of view, the ghost would be the one to feel that there was something obviously wrong with Ren Yifei's performance.

But from beginning to end, only the original owner's junior brother was suspicious of him. CB8Ocf

If the 'ghost' had been the original owner's junior brother, the other party wouldn't have believed that he had multiple personalities and would've known that he was a fake in minutes.

It was evident that the original owner's junior brother was not the ghost.

He could also confidently exclude all those NPCs at the banquet who had contact with him but didn't find anything unusual. What remains are the players at the banquet and the demons and players who were not at the banquet.

Oh, there are still too many people. How do I find them? 6TDbsn

Ren Yifei sighed as he held his cheeks. No wonder the difficulty of the instance was linked to the number of people.

For players who only wanted to be a salted fish, the more people there were, the more advantageous it would be. For players dedicated to clearing the game and completing their tasks, the more people, the more difficult it would be to investigate. As for someone like him who only wanted to act, the stronger his presence, the more flaws there would be.

Read more BL at chrysanthemumgarden (dot) com

He was currently feeling the maliciousness of this instance.

Ren Yifei steeled himself. pxgNGF

For the sake of this game, he even had to remove a part of the seal. He has sacrificed too much and has to gain back something to make up for his misery.

Putting the matter of the 'ghost' aside for the time being, he moved on to the anomalies he had encountered that day; maybe he could even string together some clues.

The mysterious garden, the giant flies under the maid's skin, the labyrinth-like corridors and the little old man's abnormal reactions were all glowing fragments waiting to be logically lined up.

The small fragments flashed and fluttered in front of him, and suddenly, his eyelids became very heavy... ifNmjF

"?!" Ren Yifei opened his eyes. He was not in his room but in the small cement room in his mindscape. A white-haired, red-eyed 'him' was flipping through a book.

"Who gave you permission to come in?" Ren Yifei reached out and pinned it to the ground. His eyes narrowed, "This is my territory."

After splitting himself into two, the black and white side of his mindscape had also divided into two— a simple cement house here and a splendid palace over there.

The two of them have never visited each other. Bxmbdf

'He' looked at Ren Yifei and reached out to touch his face, "Why are you so angry?"

Ren Yifei did not speak.

"Look at the expression on your face right now; it's like you're itching to kill. Wasn't it Greed that was unlocked? If I hadn't known better, I would've thought that Wrath had run out."

'His' arms wrapped around him as he spoke in a seductive voice. The hot breath from his mouth blew into his ears, giving rise to a fine layer of goosebumps. hCUF3X

"When will you unseal everything?" 'He' buried his face in the hair on the back of his neck, inhaling his scent as he hugged him like a touch starved man, "I can't wait, I want to be one with you... don't you like it?"

Ren Yifei pushed him away with one hand and frowned. He said a little impatiently, "It's almost done."

Find someone else to tease; he can't get hard with this face.

'His' figure faded away, leaving with a low chuckle, "You will have to release 'me' sooner or later because I am you. Farewell, my dear." y3qvLk

Ren Yifei stood up and walked around the square cement house. He would only appear in this place when his consciousness was asleep. Had his body in the outside world entered a state of deep sleep?

This drowsiness is too sudden; what's going on?

Chrysanthemum Garden.

On the outside, not long after Ren Yifei fell asleep, the room began to distort, and a face grew on the curved wooden pillar, followed by another. All of these faces overlapped each other. Some of these faces cried while others laughed; some were male while others were female.

"Found it..." MRlXUY

A greedy sigh came from the dark.

Black tentacles as thin as a strand of hair crawled out from the gaps between the floor tiles. They covered the entire floor, from the door to the bedside, densely gathering there like twisting parasites.

They gathered at the bedside with their little tentacles eagerly probing around.

Anyone who saw this scene would've been shocked. dorUiq

The whole room was like the devil's cave; there were faces on the pillars, eyes hanging down from the ceiling and a layer of 'black hair' covering the floor.

There wasn't any draught, but the hairs swarmed around like aquatic plants in a river. On a closer inspection, one would discover that each hair strand is an extremely tiny tentacle. One end was desperately burrowing in the floor, while the other was greedily creeping toward the only living thing in the room.

What a powerful soul. What an abundance of energy. This body was emitting an irresistible 'scent'.

The tentacles couldn't wait to crawl inside. They desperately wanted to absorb all its energy and nutrients. They wanted to crawl inside every pore, through the skin, the fat, the muscles and gnaw at the internal organs. EiYvTF

"I want to eat... eat him..."

A tender voice came from the dark depths, resembling a small child's sheer hunger for milk.

"No," the voice changed its tone as if it was changing its personality, "Not him."

The hair-like tentacles beside the bed had crawled up onto the pillow. The 'black hair' swayed and was even more reluctant to give up. fvZbBp

"No," the voice reminded again, but with a harsher tone than before, "He will be angry."

The 'black hair' trembled momentarily before it continued to sway gently.

"Not yet," sensing sadness from the 'black hair', the voice softened slightly, "Let's go. It's time."

The tentacles curled up and slowly retreated with great reluctance. pSxt R

The black hair strands that had covered the entire room and surrounded the entire bed had just retreated and disappeared.

The hair went back through the gaps between the floor tiles, the faces disappeared, and the room returned to being quiet. There were no signs of anything abnormal; it was as if those things had never happened.