Playing the Foolish Beauty in a Deadly Game - Chapter 54

Lin Qiao handed the phone back to Dao Zhang and suddenly remembered something: “If Yatagarasu is still in the live-stream ranking, that means Little Snake is fine.”

After checking, Lin Qiao let out a sigh of relief. Yatagarasu’s name was still there, and he was still ranked second.

Nelson reached out and tousled Lin Qiao’s hair: “Brother, can you relax now? If I were gone, you might not even worry about me.”

Dao Zhang struck a pose as if he had a toothache and sighed, “Ah, love-struck and wronged, hiss… No, it should be ‘dragon yang weeping for fish.'”

“Dragon yang weeping for fish” originates from “Strategies of the Warring States·Wei Strategies IV.” It is later used to describe someone who has lost favor, but it also implies a complaint about being overly sentimental.

Dao Zhang’s intention was clear: he was subtly mocking Nelson for being overly sentimental and insinuating that Nelson had lost favor and was less important to Lin Qiao than Yatagarasu.

Nelson didn’t understand, but Lin Qiao did. He quietly defended, “We’re not like that.”

Dao Zhang didn’t deny it: “But he likes you, doesn’t he?”

Lin Qiao was speechless, and in Dao Zhang’s eyes, that was embarrassment.

Bian Yi, who was following behind, couldn’t get a word in and was ignored again.

He heard whispers in his ear: “You’re being looked down upon again. They’re all experienced players and don’t take you seriously. You have no status.”

“How pitiful. No one listens to you. The three of them will soon stick together, and you’ll be left all alone.”

“You need to do something to earn their respect, or you’ll just be cannon fodder.”

Bian Yi’s face turned paler and paler. He deliberately interrupted Lin Qiao and the others, saying: “What do we do next? Do we keep going?”

Dao Zhang’s live-stream soared to third place, the Audience-Eatable Delicacies Live Stream, also known as the Perfumer’s live-stream, was fourth, and Qiao’s live-stream was fifth.

So far, the top five were all players. If Bian Yi wanted to get in, he had to bring one of the players down.

He couldn’t afford to offend any of them, except for Lin Qiao.

But Lin Qiao had already attached himself to Nelson and Yatagarasu. How could he bring them down easily?

Dao Zhang glanced at the time and saw it was only midnight: “Keep going. It’s only been a few hours. Come on, audience friends, you decide where to go next.”

The names that often flooded Lin Qiao’s live-stream had diminished significantly, probably because they had been “lost” in the classroom of Class 4 just now.

An audience member was “sobbing”: “I went to find Qiao Qiao’s wife, but I got beaten up by the smelly Daoist. I didn’t even get to kiss Qiao Qiao’s face.”

“I’m even worse. My arm got eaten. It’s all because the white-faced ghost tempted me, saying something about group slaps and wanting to use up Qiao Qiao’s protection value first, then do this and that to Qiao Qiao. Haha, it’s impossible to use it all up.”

Lin Qiao felt helpless: “Don’t come. I’m well protected.”

While speaking, Lin Qiao stealthily looked up at Dao Zhang and Nelson. When the two weren’t paying attention, he lowered his voice and said: “You two are not what I thought.”

He deliberately left the sentence unfinished, piquing the audience’s curiosity, but then refused to say more.

He held the black cat and the calico cat, staring thoughtfully at the teaching building: “Green face and white face…”

Lin Qiao had a suspicion that needed verification. The evil spirits in Nelson’s live-stream realized that it was hard to break through the group, so they started giving likes to demand that they split up.

As everyone knows, in horror stories, the most taboo thing is “everyone splits up.”

Bian Yi and Dao Zhang had never split up during their live-streams before, and this was the first time they had encountered such a request.

Dao Zhang wasn’t afraid, but Bian Yi hesitated: “This can’t be right. We didn’t say we would split up before we came. How can we change our minds halfway? I only have a thousand protection points left. This is like asking for my life.”

Since Bian Yi disagreed, he wasn’t afraid of offending the audience anymore and firmly refused.

Nelson, however, said: “Is it hard to predict this situation?”

In the past, there were only two people live-streaming. Now that there were more people, naturally, things would happen.

So Nelson deliberately used Bian Yi’s own words to provoke him: “If we don’t do what the evil spirits say this time, they will definitely think it’s boring. How can we continue to live-stream in a gambling way next time?”

Bian Yi cursed in anger: “You f***ing hell! Is this on purpose?”

Lin Qiao looked up and said: “There’s nothing wrong with splitting up. I agree to split.”

Bian Yi’s eyes widened, shifting his anger: “Are you crazy? What good would it do to kill me? Or do you think you have the ability to protect yourself?”

Lin Qiao shook his head: “What I mean is that you can go with Dao Zhang, which is exactly what you wanted just now when you tried to drive a wedge between us.”

Bian Yi didn’t object anymore: “This is what you said yourselves.”

Lin Qiao nodded, then glanced at the live-stream: “My audience wants me to go to the art classroom.”

Nelson shrugged: “Let’s go, brother. We don’t need to stay here all night like Dao Zhang and the others.”

Dao Zhang didn’t stop them, but before Lin Qiao left, he gave him a talisman.

This caused Bian Yi to mutter incessantly: “Why are you giving them this? They’re like dogs biting Lv Dongbin, not recognizing a good heart. Wouldn’t it be better to keep it for ourselves? These things are getting rarer and rarer.”

Dao Zhang cleared his throat: “Alright, haven’t you noticed? Since we split up, the number of evil spirits in our live-stream has been halved.”

Bian Yi checked and indeed found it to be true. He complained discontentedly: “Good looks really are popular. I didn’t expect that even after death, those ghosts still like to look at faces.”

Dao Zhang hesitated but couldn’t help saying: “Did you forget? The ghosts in this city can only watch live-streams from this city. What we’re doing is called ‘riding the coattails of popularity.'”

Bian Yi was stunned, but he quickly adjusted his attitude. Fewer viewers were okay.

As long as he and Dao Zhang could survive this time, it was fine. There was still time before the next passing line was announced. It was better than losing his life.

Dao Zhang, however, walked while opening his phone. There was a message Lin Qiao had sent when he returned the phone: “The white face is following Bian Yi.”

Bian Yi was still chattering away, mostly disparaging Nelson and Lin Qiao.

Dao Zhang let it go in one ear and out the other. Although he wouldn’t stand by and do nothing, he wasn’t going to be confused about right and wrong either.

“Bian Yi,” Dao Zhang sighed, “Don’t underestimate any player in the game. Lin Qiao is definitely not what you think.”

Bian Yi wouldn’t listen: “So you’ve been charmed by Lin Qiao too?”

Dao Zhang almost slapped Bian Yi. He was furious and exclaimed: “What did you say?”

Bian Yi instantly became humble, even hitting himself: “I’m sorry, I’m sorry, I speak without thinking.”

Both insecure and arrogant, both unwilling to accept it and cowardly, both lacking the ability to protect himself and yet considering himself superior.

Dao Zhang had seen through Bian Yi’s nature long ago. The only reason he brought Bian Yi along was a moment of kindness that turned into a big trouble for himself.

Bian Yi also found it strange. Just now, when Dao Zhang spoke urgently without lowering his voice, why did he sound so young?

On the other side, Nelson couldn’t help but hum a tune. His voice was deep, pleasant, and extremely magnetic, and the melody he casually hummed was also touching.

Nelson was very happy, visibly so. It seemed that being alone with Lin Qiao, even among evil spirits, could be taken in stride.

“It’s just the two of us, which is great. I’ll just pretend we’re on a date,” Nelson sighed.

The black cat disdainfully “meowed” and was then picked up by Nelson and placed on the ground. Nelson said bluntly, “Don’t always let brother hold you. Get down and walk by yourself.”

Lin Qiao was not only accompanied by his own cat, the cat of Yatagarasu, but also his own dog and Nelson’s dog. Knowing that pets could turn into humans in this scenario, Lin Qiao inwardly retorted that it wasn’t a date for two, with so many people around.

Nelson quietly took Lin Qiao’s hand, pretending not to care, but his voice betrayed his pleasure: “What will we see later, moving plaster statues or paintings that can blink?”

Lin Qiao didn’t respond, trying to pull his hand out but it was firmly held.

The art studio was in the experimental building. The iron lock on the main door of the experimental building was open, and the walls inside were covered with red text.

Nelson, with a hypocritical expression, refused to let go and tried to divert Lin Qiao’s attention: “Brother, look, there’s writing.”

At a glance, most of the text was warning people to leave quickly.

However, in one place, the red paint seemed to have been freshly applied. The paint was still wet, dripping down the wall.

The newly written message was a hint: “The art studio is this way, oh.”

Then there was a big arrow and a smiley face.

Lin Qiao and Nelson followed the direction of the arrow and successfully found the art studio, which was on the left corner of the second floor.

Inside, instead of plaster statues, there were easels, more than ten of them neatly arranged.

Nelson shone his flashlight over, and his expression became subtle.

With the courage of his cats and dogs, Lin Qiao pushed the door open and went in. When he saw the paintings on the easels, he was also taken aback. They depicted Lin Qiao himself.

It was Lin Qiao being bullied, with scenes of him being pressed on the sofa by someone in a priest’s outfit, being violated. However, the one violating Lin Qiao seemed to be an evil spirit, with an unrecognizable face, only showing the removed pants and the underwear thrown on the sofa.

Some of the Lin Qiaos had cat ears, being lifted by their tails and hung on an evil spirit.

Others showed Lin Qiao naked, surrounded by several ghosts who were unceremoniously doing as they pleased on Lin Qiao’s body.

The most exaggerated one showed a ghost swallowing Lin Qiao whole, then contentedly narrowing its crimson eyes.

The ghost’s stomach was depicted as transparent, and the swallowed Lin Qiao hadn’t turned into limbs and fragments but remained an intact body, pitifully squeezed in the narrow space, gasping for breath.

The most detestable ones were the paintings of Nelson and Lin Qiao, Dao Zhang and Lin Qiao, and Yatagarasu and Lin Qiao.

Lin Qiao’s face turned from white to red. He went over, tore the paintings down, and threw them away, complaining to the live-stream: “Did you bring me here to see this?”

The black cat’s fur stood on end, and it jumped onto the drawing board to tear the paintings to shreds.

Nelson, however, picked up the one with himself and Lin Qiao and whistled.

“Brother, don’t throw it away.” Nelson picked up the painting and arranged it properly, explaining: “Brother can take a closer look. There’s something behind the paintings.”

Unfortunately, the black cat had damaged a part of it, but it didn’t affect the viewing.

Behind the paintings were some news reports, all related to “Dawn Middle School, No. 458 Chaotian Road.”

Nelson arranged the news by time, and it was roughly possible to deduce what had happened to the entire school.

“A college female teacher found a male and female student spending the night in the classroom during evening study, corrupting the school’s atmosphere.”

“A toilet fight at Dawn Middle School resulted in the death of the victim on the spot.”

“The experimental building caught fire, and a firefighter went missing in the blaze.”

“Dawn School renovated the sports field and discovered the remains of the missing firefighter.”

“Orphanage children were adopted one after another. Did the ghost tide arouse people’s kindness?”

“How to avoid being haunted by ghosts in public places. Experts suggest building a pet house for schools.”

These reports seemed unrelated and nonsensical.

Nelson wondered, “Do they want to tell us something?”

Lin Qiao thought it was unrealistic: “These ghosts can manifest. If they want to tell us something, they can just say it directly. Why be so secretive?”

“Whether it was the students and teachers we met in the afternoon, the dozens of ghosts in Class 4, or the green-faced ghost, they all had intelligence and were not crazy.”

This was also why Lin Qiao felt that the evil spirits in the scenario were different from what he had imagined. These ghosts were too rational and did not follow the horror rules mentioned by Dao Zhang.

It seemed as if they were playing hide-and-seek with Lin Qiao, or even hiding from him.

Lin Qiao had also suspected that it might be because he had too many pets with him, which was why the evil spirits did not appear.

Nelson reminded, “The live-stream is starting to brush likes again, asking us to continue to the music classroom.”

Lin Qiao’s live-stream was the same. The audience seemed determined to have Lin Qiao tour the entire campus.

There were no red-painted arrows outside the art studio originally, but after Lin Qiao came out, the arrows pointed in the direction of the music classroom.

This time, Lin Qiao and Nelson walked quickly. As soon as they passed, they saw the door of the music classroom open. There was no music coming from inside, but it was in disarray, with human footprints everywhere.

Lin Qiao suddenly asked, “When we were in the art studio just now, wasn’t it very clean, with no dust?”

Nelson replied, “Not really. Only the floor was swept, but the windows and tables were dusty.”

Lin Qiao’s expression was not very good. He took out his phone to check Dao Zhang’s live-stream. The latter was in the cafeteria, engaging in a battle of wits with the evil spirits, which was hard to separate.

Lin Qiao quickly scanned all the live-streams and found that only a few of them were live-streaming in this school. The people Yatagarasu chased should all be non-live-streaming hunting players.

Something was wrong, something was wrong. Lin Qiao became anxious and uneasy.

Nelson said again, “The likes are starting to brush again, asking us to go to the dormitory building.”

“No,” Lin Qiao refused, “Do you remember the class we mistakenly entered in the afternoon? Let’s go there.”

“I remember some students said they would come out to eat people at night, but we haven’t seen them yet. I want to go and have a look.”

Nelson, of course, would not refuse Lin Qiao: “Sure, I’ll go with you, brother.”

While Lin Qiao and Nelson were talking, the Doberman walked around the music classroom, and the black cat kept looking around after jumping onto the balcony.

The calico cat stretched and wanted to sleep, lying on the head of the Czech wolf dog and dozing off intermittently.

Lin Qiao and the others wanted to go to the class where the female teacher was teaching. Either they had to walk across the campus to the classroom damaged by the tree tops, or they had to go through the corridor of Class 4.

Lin Qiao unhesitatingly chose to pass through Class 4. The ghosts inside either fled or dispersed, leaving the room empty.

Lin Qiao pondered, “Usually, pets get very excited when they encounter ghosts. But the pets we brought were only vigilant in Class 4. They were very calm in the art studio and the music classroom.”

“My audience just said that there was a white-faced ghost in the campus who called them to a group slap party, and they almost got wiped out when they gathered in the classroom of Class 4.”

“The art studio was cleaned, but the music classroom wasn’t. There were footprints everywhere in the music classroom.”

“Could it be other players? I checked all the live-streams. The only ones who came to ambush us were the players from the enemy hunting faction.”

Nelson curiously asked, “Brother means that, besides us few live-streaming players and the players who came to hunt us, there are other people here?”

Lin Qiao followed this line of thinking and immediately frowned. Yes, if it were the players who came to hunt them, why would they run away upon seeing them?

The art studio and the music classroom were so clean. There were ghostly rumors and even paintings by the evil spirits, but it seemed that the ghosts inside had already been dealt with.

In this world, besides players with props, only the Church and humans could achieve this. If it were the latter, why would they appear in this school and collide with the players, yet not show up in the live-stream镜头中.

Nelson stopped in his tracks, and Lin Qiao, too engrossed in his thoughts, collided with him directly.

After knocking off his hat, he quickly put it back on and stretched his head to look into the dark classroom.

Lin Qiao walked over to open the door, but it wouldn’t budge.

Nelson, with his greater strength, directly forced the door open with a “bang.” The door was flung open, revealing an empty room.

Lin Qiao shone his flashlight around: “Hello, is there a ghost here?”

No one responded, and the evil spirits did not show themselves.

Lin Qiao probed, “Because the protection value in my phone has been continuously and significantly consumed, I know for sure that you must be here.”

“Everyone, my friend and I have just turned off the live-stream. Can you now come out and meet me?”

As soon as Lin Qiao finished speaking, the lights in the classroom flickered.

With the lights flickering on and off, Lin Qiao suddenly noticed a person standing on the podium wearing a pink mask.

Lin Qiao was startled. It seemed that the essence of horror movies was indeed to suddenly appear something that startled people.

Lin Qiao tried to keep his mindset balanced. Upon closer inspection, he saw that around the person with the pink mask were students wearing black masks.

During class, Lin Qiao had paid attention to the number of students, which was about forty or more. Now, only half of them, around twenty or so, were wearing black masks.

The one with the pink mask was the female teacher. She was dressed in a professional suit, and her mask had no facial features: “You shouldn’t have come.”

Lin Qiao quickly said, “We’ll leave soon and won’t cause any trouble.”

“Your masks likely represent different meanings, just like in Peking Opera. I was once frightened by the ghost of a taxi driver whose face was extremely pale.”

“So I boldly guess that the ghosts in this world have colors. It’s not just the school ghosts that have masks, right?”

The female teacher did not respond, nor did she refute this statement, which meant that Lin Qiao’s guess was correct.

Lin Qiao continued, “We turned off the live-stream, and you appeared. So the Church and humans are monitoring the live-streams.”

“The missing students probably went to eat other players. Did they turn into white faces?”

“It’s quite a coincidence. In Peking Opera, the white face represents treachery and cunning, sly and suspicious, just like the stereotypical ghost in human minds.”

“If we think about it this way, the green ghost represents bravery and recklessness. Pink in Peking Opera masks represents virtuous loyalty, and the black mask represents uprightness and selflessness.”

So far, Lin Qiao had almost completely understood the entire scenario.

In his original understanding, Lin Qiao’s mind was full of concepts about NPCs and the Church, and his impression of evil spirits was limited to two notions: eating people and being dangerous.

But upon reflection, if evil spirits were merely tools to promote the scenario, they would seem rather thin in this complete world.

The teacher wearing the pink mask warned, “Do not sympathize with the evil spirits. You are a smart child.”

“Do not try to reason with the ghosts, nor try to use love to reform them.”

“You’ve seen what’s in the art studio, haven’t you? If you are captured by a ghost, that will be your fate.”

The female teacher with the pink mask scolded, “Leave now. Do not stay here.”

Lin Qiao nodded and then exited the classroom. The door slammed shut, and the room fell back into darkness.

Lin Qiao lamented, “I forgot to ask about the news behind the paintings. I’ve never seen those news reports online.”

When he had searched for information on “Dawn Middle School, No. 458 Chaotian Road,” there indeed hadn’t been much material.

Lin Qiao was certain that the newspapers behind the paintings had been posted by the female teacher. Her words just now indicated that she had been to the art studio.

Lin Qiao covered his face: “Nelson, our live-stream has been watched by the Church and NPCs all along.”

Nelson was nonchalant: “It’s okay, brother. We won’t remember anything once we’re out.”

But the entire scenario would remember, and it wouldn’t restart.

Lin Qiao’s expression became serious: “Nelson, did you hear what I just said? We can distinguish the temperament of the ghosts based on their colors.”

“Be cautious around white, yellow, green, and blue. White is the most dangerous. The remaining three might be neutral.”

“That is, white will kill people, while yellow, blue, and green might not kill people, or they might, and they might even kill ghosts.”

“Red, pink, black, and purple are relatively safe.”

Nelson smiled: “Alright, brother, I’ve got it.”

Lin Qiao nodded, and Nelson asked again: “So, brother, where do you think the missing ghosts have gone? And about the meanings of these colors, didn’t your pets mention anything? I mean, did your pets give any hints?”

Lin Qiao stopped in his tracks, his tail flicked. The black cat couldn’t speak yet, so it hadn’t mentioned this matter.

The Doberman could speak, but for some reason, it hadn’t given any reminders either.

Lin Qiao turned around, standing in the pale moonlight, with rosy lips and white teeth: “Did your pets give you any hints?”

Nelson shrugged: “Brother, you’re so sly, throwing the question back at me. No, my pets haven’t hinted at anything. That’s why I’m curious to ask you.”

Lin Qiao suddenly laughed. In the dilapidated corridor, he seemed more like a ghost than the ghosts themselves.

Nelson was momentarily dazed, then clenched his fist: “Brother, why do you think that teacher told us all this, hinted at these things? What was her purpose in doing so?”