Spring Banquet (12)

The Days I Clear Escape Games Pretending to be an NPCCh46 - Spring Banquet (12)

"..."

It was dawn, and the daylight shone onto the world without prejudice. ZnuORv

Saman sat up and found that his back was covered in cold sweat.

He dreamt that they were in a dimly lit corridor. The dim light of the oil lamp drew out a golden border and two white-robed demons stood in front of him. One of them was powerful and indifferent to the world, while the other one, although he was arrogant, he was more like a youth who had just come out of seclusion.

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The two faces shook and suddenly turned into the heads of giant black flies.

The giant fly had a needle-like mouth that pierced straight into his skull. However, it was as if he was being controlled in the dream and was completely unresponsive. B49SUe

"What goes through your mind during the day will go into your dreams at night?"

He lifted the quilt and got up. He first inspected all the small traps in the room one by one. These small traps were the ones he made using dust and hair to see if someone, or something, had come in.

Saman scrutinised the windowsill, the corners of the door, the side of the bed, and so on. None of the small traps had been triggered. However, he still wasn't sure whether something hadn't come in or something had avoided all of his traps.

After reworking the traps, he went to take a cold shower.

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The room has a small bathtub which he likes to stand naked in and let cold water rush down from his head. Only after that would he become completely awake.

Once he was sober, Saman prepared to go out to eat.

Unlike the silence from the previous night, people were walking back and forth outside of his residence. Saman opened the door and found a lot of players had gathered outside. They were all talking about the people who died the day before.

"Hello," he greeted everyone with a smile and looked for someone to trade information with. taTzN8

In the game, information was also a commodity.

As it was about to be 2 am, all the players' cards were updated for the second time. This time, it was for the number of players killed.

When the number of players is small, the cards will update every time there is a death. However, in a larger group of a hundred players, it would usually be notified at 2 am.

[28 players have died on the first night, 28/99 of the 'ghost' seal is unlocked.] ujkVKH

It was awkward to read and even more shocking to see.

Although they knew that many players would die on the first day, no one had expected that this many players would die; the number of deaths was more than a quarter.

The strength of the 'ghost' increases as more players die. Twenty-eight players had given away their lives and now the little ghost became a big ghost. If they were tonight head-on, the outcome would be unpredictable.

"I knew that people were going to die, but I didn't expect the situation to be so serious. Everyone here are all players with at least one R-rank card." pkD8Ey

It has been only one night and several familiar players had disappeared.

"It's not just the players," one person said, "Haven't you noticed that there are fewer NPCs?"

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Everyone was astonished and they all looked around. Sure enough, a few familiar NPCs were gone.

"Why do you still pay attention to the NPCs?" sPzhFl

The player sighed, "My character quest was related to that NPC. Tsk, it's probably impossible to complete it now."

When the others heard it, they also sighed.

Some of them had already given up on finding the 'ghost' because it was too difficult to search through a hundred players. They only wanted to complete their character quest and get a few props. But now, even this seemed unlikely.

"Has anyone managed to go out and come back?" A player asked.

Saman opened the door and passed them silently.

He was definitely not the only one who went out and came back safely last night. But how could he give out the clues he got from his adventures so easily?

"I don't know if what happened to those players has also happened to the missing NPCs," the players were still discussing about the missing NPCs.

If the NPCs are also missing, then it could only mean that this was in accordance with the plot and there are things hunting this mansion at night. It may or may not be the ghost. P8Vh6f

But whether it was or not, this gave them some inspiration.

"If that is the case, then maybe we can get some help from the NPCs."

The players tentatively asked a group of passing maids. One of the maids thought for a while and smiled, "Maybe they left early yesterday." These maids were from the ones that appear during the daytime and there were also a few players mixed into this group.

"We don't know anything regarding this matter," a player who acted as a maid said and then left in a hurry to do their duties. u0Vo21

"It seems that the night is not only dangerous for us players, but also for the NPCs too," after the maids left, they all gathered to discuss and exchange some clues.

Their goal was to stay alive until the end of the game so there was no need to compete— this of course only applies if their character quests don't contradict each other.

Cooperation was also a good option.

There were also those who preferred to work alone. Most of these people possess powerful props, have several available skills on them, have experienced high-end games and are confident in themselves. 7abu4W

Saman was somewhere in between, he doesn't mind exchanging information with other players, but only if it is of equal value. He didn't think that there were any clues worth exchanging with these players who only stayed in their rooms and didn't come out.

In contrast to the hustle and bustle of the players' residence, the place where Ren Yifei resides has been very quiet.

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He had woken up three or four times in between throughout the night.

The suddenly drowsiness made him unable to trust the security here. He slept very badly and would wake up at the slightest noise. Rd1mOH

After falling asleep for a while, he finally completely woke up when it was already around eight or night o'clock which was the exact time when the ancient people would eat their 'morning meal'.

Yesterday's fatigue and exhaustion had been healed by sleep and he was now full of energy.

After washing up, breakfast was brought from the kitchen.

Because he had made a fuss yesterday, the kitchen naturally didn't dare to send in food that he does not like. The food served to him were light foods, such as fish fillet porridge, scrambled eggs with shrimp, small fried fish and so on. NEziml

"He Jun does not like to eat any meat dishes, so all the pots and pans that were used for cooking are all new and have never touched meat before. Please be at ease when eating, He Jun," the maids who came in with the food all knelt in a row on the floor. From his angle, all that could be seen was the top of their head.

What Ren Yifei noticed was not the food, he asked, "Why didn't I see you last night?"

Although they all have the same makeup, the vibe they give off was completely different. The maid during the day were like living people, while the maids during the night were like puppets.

The maid bowed her head and replied respectfully, "We are on duty during the day while another group of sisters are on duty after nightfall." fgHr5

"Does the same apply to all the guards?"

"Yes."

Ren Yifei nodded and waved for them to leave, "You may withdraw."

The maids got up and left. Once there were no outsiders in the room and the feeling of being watched from the night before was gone, he took out his card. MRvFjq

In addition to the death toll, there was an update on the information: [ When having a chance encounter with a devil acting as a boundary, the ghost walks at night. ]

This information was actually quite easy to comprehend. The so-called 'chance encounter with a devil' is during nightfall. As legend has it, nightfall is the time when the human world and the demon world merge and certain visions can be seen.

Does this prompt imply that after nightfall, this place will enter another world, that is, the world of ghosts?

Or does it imply that the 'ghost' only appears at night? 6xdnf0

If it is the latter, then the identification of the 'ghost' is very simple.

Ren Yifei shook his head, he felt that this instance would not give such a simple prompt. If the players were directly told that the ghost is only active at night, wouldn't it be easy to find 'it'? How could this instance still be considered as a mid-end game?

Story translated by Chrysanthemum Garden.

Shaking his head, he left the matter behind for the time being. Ren Yifei has no intention to identify the 'ghost', he just wanted to be able to coexist with the other until the end. Compared to the former, it is more important to complete the character quest and retrieve the three drops of blood.

To complete that task, he would need to find Qing Hong's weakness, that is, the secret that the other party wanted to hide. HCDoJ1

"What's the secret that he's keeping?"

He remembered something and took out an object from his sleeve.

He was holding the very same glowing flower that he inadvertently took away yesterday.

It no longer glows during the day, and thus revealed its true appearance. The flower has six petals that are folded together to resemble a small lantern. It is turquoise, almost transparent and there was nothing in the place where the stamens suppose to be. mIg30P

If memory serves him right then the centre should be the source of the flower's glow.

The sweet scent was gone.

Ren Yifei pinched the little flower and sniffed it carefully, the scent from yesterday had disappeared.

Is the fragrance gone because it's no longer glowing? CkrOxz

With some doubts, he tentatively put away the petals.

In front of him was the food delivered from the kitchen, the food was bubbling with the aroma of carefully cooked food. He sniffed it carefully and didn't find any peculiar smells, but he still felt uneasy.

"Put it away first," in the end, he still didn't move and put all the food away into the storage space in his sleeves.

The body of a demon is different from that of a human being. Nothing would happen to them if they go without food for a few days, they wouldn't even feel hunger. b0jJAu

However, as a human, he felt awkward about skipping a meal.

Ren Yifei took out a small fried fish from his sleeve and chewed on it. He sighed and took out another small dried fish.

Huh, it actually tastes good?

Fortunately, the original owner brought his own dry food. He had stored a variety of small dried fish, fish fillets, dried fish, but also some shells, snails and other things. Dtm2XT

He used a small needle to pick out the operculum and pierce it into the snail meat. He swirled it and pulled the meat out before putting it into his mouth, Ren Yifei's eyes slightly brightened.

The original owner was an expert at eating snails, all the snails that were selected were succulent, plump and delicious. Because the snails tend to have a muddy and fishy smell, it was fired with spicy seasonings, not with chilli, but with coral cherries which gives it a slightly bitter taste.

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"Phew," he sucked in sharply, the snail meal and a little bit of hot spicy soup inside the shell entered his mouth. The snail meat was cooked perfectly and the soup was delicious. It tasted fresh, fragrant and spicy; it was extremely satisfying.

Ren Yifei narrowed his eyes. kBGSrM

He directly sat cross-legged on the ground and rolled his long sleeves up to his elbows. He was originally picking the snail meat bit by bit with the needle, but now he just took off the operculum and sucked on the shell, consuming the entire snail in one bite. To be able to eat the meat with a mouthful of chilli oil was very fulfilling.

As Ren Yifei was enjoying his morning, Saman, like most level-breaking players, got up to explore the instance diligently.

While the performing player has the thrill of almost being strangled to death by an NPC, the level-breaking players also suffered from being unable to control anything and being unable to make sense of anything. Currently, there was no other way to look for clues except by searching every nook and cranny.

It may seem counterintuitive, but clues don't just fall from the sky. pk8q7m

He left the player group and went all the way to the place where the banquet was held yesterday. Once there, he retraced the route he took after he left the banquet.

Saman clearly remembered that there was only a corridor that went straight forwards, but there were two routes in front of him. One was a staircase which led to another corridor on the second floor, and the other was a garden path paved with cobblestones.

However, he still remembered the general direction of the small garden, Saman followed the direction in his memory and found it. It was neither a circular luminous garden nor another independent building.

This side was unexpectedly a lotus pond, and beside the pond was a fragrant willow tree. On the pond was an awning boat, just like the ones in the Jiang Nan water town. iPXOQR

The season in this instance was spring so the lotus flowers have not yet grown, but there are many round lotus leaves anding in the pond. Saman snapped off a lotus leaf, both the texture of the leaf and the lotus root silk pulled out from the break proved that this was a real lotus leaf.

It's just that he couldn't quite believe his eyes.

Last night, that NPC performed a technique called 'illusion' in front of his eyes, and he suspected that everything in front of his eyes was an illusion.

"It was not an illusion?" OD2J1U

After enjoying his breakfast, Ren Yifei once again washed his face and rinsed his mouth before changing into a new set of clothes to go out. Last night, he thought what he saw during the day was an illusion and what he saw at night was the real thing, but not today.

Ren Yifei was an expert at using Phantom Play to deceive others, however, he wasn't good enough to make it so that you couldn't tell what was real and what was fake.

It was interesting that, contrary to what one might've expected, the night was real and the day was also real.

He walked all the way to where the little old man had broken off his arm yesterday. It was under a rain porch with a garden on one side and a white wall on the other. On the white wall was a wooden carved openwork window with a small courtyard outside. xSRgMZ

The holes they made yesterday are gone, and there were no traces of repair.

The corners of the white walls have stains left by moss and mould, this was very natural and did not seem to be fake.

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Looking out at the small yard on the other side, he saw that there were bees and butterflies flying in the flowerbed, which was completely different from yesterday when there was no living thing.

He couldn't help but wonder, apart from the players, were the NPCs also aware of the difference between the day and night? g34xV0

Ren Yifei was about to go back to the NPCs' gathering place when a beautiful woman with a slender waist and curvy body walked out in front of him.

She was dressed in clothes made out of brocade but her head was very plain, there was only a turquoise flower diagonally inserted into her hair. This person was none other than the first wife he met yesterday, who might also be the original owner's junior sister.

"Senior brother, you're here."

dFkPnH