Chapter 7: Even the NPC Knelt Down

"Thank you for saving me and my mother." Meng Yuanyuan stepped forward, shaking Lu Xi's hand with deep emotion before bowing to her.

The situation had been desperate, and Lu Xi’s sudden dash backward had been purely an act of self-preservation to avoid colliding with the clown. She had only struck when the clown was fully occupied with his prey, catching him off guard. It had nothing to do with saving anyone. In truth, if she were actually expected to risk her life for someone else, she knew she couldn’t do it. She admitted that she wasn't a person of high moral standing, and she had never been able to feel any sense of belonging in this surreal world. She didn't belong to this fictional reality; in her eyes, everything here was merely a collection of data. Still, since they had crossed paths, she supposed she could consider them temporary companions.

The group moved forward one after another. Meng Yuanyuan had a flashlight, and with the light, Lu Xi could see the path, stumbling much less frequently.

"Lu Xi, are you really going to walk with them?" Jiang Chen stepped up beside her, lowering his voice as he spoke with his head bowed.

Lu Xi didn't answer.

Jiang Chen pressed on, "Are you crazy? That woman has a bad leg and can barely take a step without stopping. What if more vengeful spirits chase us down?"

"You don't want to walk with them?" Lu Xi finally looked up.

"Exactly." Jiang Chen reached out as if to grab her. "Following a dead weight like that—are you tired of living?"

Lu Xi dodged his arm, leaving him grasping at thin air. "If you want to leave first, then go ahead." She really found him irritating. Not only did he follow her constantly, but he was always getting physical.

"You're my girlfriend. Do you really want to break up with me?" Jiang Chen looked displeased; ever since they had met in this world, she had been giving him nothing but cold shoulders.

Hearing this, Lu Xi stopped in her tracks. She looked up, expressionless. "Jiang Chen, if I remember correctly, you and my best friend presented me with a very luxurious 'green hat' of betrayal. We broke up long ago, didn't we?"

Jiang Chen’s face went from pale to ashen. After a long silence, he finally spoke, "Lu Xi, I never agreed to a breakup."

"You’re a lunatic," Lu Xi replied.

The group continued for another half hour until a door finally appeared before them. Pushing open that door meant entering another plane, which also meant facing new perils. When the players had entered this game world, some had been notified that only by successfully reaching the final point could they have a chance to return to the real world.

Just as the pitch-black door began to creak open, a chilling wind roared from behind them.

"Run! The spirits of this plane are chasing us!" Meng Yuanyuan’s face turned pale. She had already survived three planes; this was her fourth, and she was clearly well-versed in the rules.

Whenever players successfully cleared a stage, they had to face one last ordeal before leaving. It was time to race for their lives. The door was narrow, barely wide enough for one person to pass through at a time.

"Yuanyuan, hurry!" Zhang Qiulan ignored the swelling and pain in her ankle, frantically pushing Meng Yuanyuan toward the door. Then, she turned to Lu Xi and offered an apologetic smile. "Little one, you go first!"

As a mother, it was understandable that Zhang Qiulan thought of her daughter first in a crisis. But what surprised Lu Xi was that, aside from her daughter, Zhang Qiulan had actually let her go ahead.

"Ah!"

Jiang Chen suddenly yanked Meng Yuanyuan aside just as she was about to reach the doorframe. He shoved the girl aside with force and squeezed through first.

"Yuanyuan!" Zhang Qiulan cried out, limping as she hurried to help the fallen girl.

At that moment, the NPCs that had been wandering the corridor seemed to catch their scent and began to swarm toward them. By the time Meng Yuanyuan got inside, the spirits were already drifting over, barely half a meter away. Just as she stepped through the door, Lu Xi reached back, grabbed the middle-aged woman by the wrist, and pulled her forward with all her might.

Lu Xi had her own principles; as long as it didn't harm her own interests, she was willing to lend a hand. Because of Jiang Chen’s interference, they had lost several seconds of golden time. By all accounts, the spirits should have been fast enough to catch them. In the panic, Lu Xi didn't notice that the moment the spirits saw her black ancient-style robe, they all shrank back—even the ones without heads shuddered—not daring to come any closer. They seemed to be afraid of something.

***

After passing through the door, a flash of white light blinded her. When her vision cleared, Lu Xi found herself standing in a village. The people who had entered with her were nowhere to be seen. With her bag on her back, she wrapped her black robe tight and began to walk at a brisk pace. Lu Xi didn't know where she was supposed to go; she only knew she couldn't stop. At the very least, she couldn't rest until she found another relatively safe place.

"Ah!!"

Dammit, why were there so many pits in this miserable world?! She had realized that since arriving here, she was either falling or on her way to falling. Bumping and tripping along the way, she was as disheveled as one could be. Before Lu Xi could recover from her daze, she heard a piercing, mournful howl. It was accompanied by a chorus of screams and cries, the cacophony feeling as if it were exploding right against her ears.

Lu Xi stood up from a pile of grass with her hair in a bird's nest, seeing a slightly hunched figure standing ahead. It was an old man in a blue tunic. He stood with his back to her, holding a peculiar "lantern." A nauseating, thick stench of blood filled the air. Lu Xi was slightly nearsighted, and as she craned her neck to look, she felt her insides churning. She wanted to vomit, but couldn't; she had already emptied her stomach while butchering the clown earlier. Now, there was nothing left inside.

Curiosity really did kill the cat. People needed to have less curiosity to live longer. The lantern in the old man's hand was made of human heads strung together. Amidst her shock, Lu Xi felt a misplaced sense of confusion and curiosity. How were those heads prepared, and why were they glowing? One of the heads even looked like the guy who had forced her to jump off the cliff—the short-haired boy with the fierce expression. It was hard to imagine what had happened to them after she had tumbled down the cliff.

"Lu Xi, you’re actually not dead?" A sharp-eyed girl in the crowd spotted the suddenly appearing Lu Xi. Ignoring her fear, her eyes were filled with astonishment.

Seeing this, Jiang Yanyan, who was shielded behind Ji Yunxuan, flashed a look. The current situation was extremely unfavorable for Lu Xi, as she was the closest to the old man. If her appearance drew the old man's attention, she would be the next to die and become a human-head lantern. But conversely, this would buy time and a chance for the others to escape. So... was that girl’s loud shout a genuine, accidental burst of surprise, or was it a malicious act driven by a sinister heart? Jiang Yanyan took all of this in, lowered her eyes, and said nothing, choosing to wait and see how things unfolded.

Sure enough, after the old man heard the noise, his head snapped around with a "crack." His chest instantly became his back, and a pair of glowing green eyes stared fixedly at Lu Xi. The old man had scruffy white facial hair, a face full of wrinkles, and cloudy, dead eyes soaking in blood, his mouth twisted into a bizarre grin. Being stared at by such a gaze would make anyone lose their nerve.

In fact, Lu Xi was indeed a coward. Her legs went weak, and she collapsed to her knees. But what happened next shocked everyone: the old man knelt down as well.