01.
“Welcome, players, to the instance [The Yin Escort Agency].
Mission: Successfully deliver the goods three times.
Mission difficulty: SS rank.
The instance is about to begin. Players, please prepare yourselves—”
The cold electronic voice vanished.
A few dozen other players and I appeared at the same time in an ancient courtyard.
Compared to how lost and panicked I’d been when I first entered the horror world, I was much calmer now.
Darkness shrouded the place.
In the fog, a towering locust tree stood rooted in the middle of the courtyard.
Its thick branches hung over our heads like razor-sharp iron claws.
As if it might plunge down at any moment.
My brow suddenly twitched.
I raised a hand and touched the ice-cold necklace around my neck.
The handsome, mature face of my boyfriend, Cố Mặc Trì, came to mind.
No matter how scary the monsters were, they couldn’t possibly be as intimidating as my boyfriend, the big boss.
If those tentacles came out, they’d probably be a lot more terrifying than these branches.
I wasn’t afraid of my big boss. What was there to fear from this freaky tree?
With that thought, my gaze steadied.
Someone shouted.
“What the hell? An SS-rank instance?”
“What the fuck? I’ve only cleared an A-rank instance. I haven’t even done an S-rank one yet. Why the hell am I being thrown into an SS-rank instance now?”
“Even the big shots on the newbie leaderboard might not make it through an SS-rank instance. Why pick me? I only got carried by my teammates in the last few instances—I’m a total newbie!”
“What are you people talking about? What instance? I was at the beach just now, and the moment I opened my eyes, I was here. Take me back right now!”
There was a newcomer, too.
I was a little surprised.
Someone had it even worse than me—he’d stumbled into an SS-rank instance right from the start.
The other players looked at the man sympathetically, too.
If this were an ordinary instance, perhaps some kind soul would explain the basics to him.
But in this SS-rank instance, everyone had enough trouble looking after themselves.
The man was already bewildered, and when he saw that no one was paying attention to him, anger immediately crossed his face.
“Bringing me here is unlawful kidnapping! You’re not answering me? Fine, I’m calling the police!”
He pulled out his phone, but there was no signal. A flicker of panic crossed his eyes.
Still, he pretended he had a signal, faking a phone call as he ran toward the courtyard exit.
“Don’t go outside!” someone kindly warned him.
The man hesitated for a moment, then ran even faster.
My heart pounded. Something felt wrong.
I could hear a rustling by my ear.
It sounded like wind blowing through leaves.
But there wasn’t any wind.
“I-it’s moving!”
Someone cried out.
The branches above us moved jerkily, like an old person, and a series of eerie, scraping rustles rang out.
The branches sharpened and reached toward the man about to leave the courtyard.
Just as he was about to step outside, someone pulled him back.
The branch slammed into the doorway with a grating sound.
If he’d been one second slower and the man had taken one more step, that branch would have pierced right through him.
Everything around us suddenly fell silent.
The others and I backed away a few steps, cautiously watching the locust tree in the courtyard.
The man, having narrowly escaped death, seemed to have lost all his strength. He collapsed onto the floor and couldn’t get back up.
Just then, a smiling paper figure emerged from deep inside the courtyard.
Its eyes were two roughly drawn dots.
It stared at us for a while, its pupils seeming to move.
“Esteemed escorts, it’s late. You should collect the goods and be on your way.”
The instance officially began now.
In this instance, the players had the identities of escorts responsible for transporting goods.
The road ahead was full of danger, with evil spirits lurking all around.
Compared to the goods we were transporting, we were probably what the monsters really wanted to eat.
Some of the others silently went to collect their goods, while others sought out players to discuss traveling together.
I was busy watching the paper figure.
The little paper figure had its back to me. The next second, its head suddenly spun around.
Its two pitch-black eyes, dark as a cave, stared straight at me.
Someone had drawn a cheerful expression on its face, but its voice was cold as ice:
“Why haven’t you collected your goods?”
I asked, “Who drew your eyes?”
Perhaps no one had ever asked it that before. The paper figure froze for a moment.
It glared at me darkly. “That’s none of your business.”
I looked at its face and, for some reason, thought it was kind of cute.
I was about to ask another question when a pair of hands reached out from beside me and pulled me aside.
It was a young woman.
She put her index finger to her lips and shook her head, signaling that I shouldn’t ask anything else.
After the paper figure left, the young woman finally breathed a sigh of relief. “Why would you go and provoke a monster like that? I hear this instance is really dangerous, especially that paper figure. It holds a grudge, and if it takes an interest in you, you’re in for it.”
It wasn’t that I was trying to get myself killed. That paper figure just looked like the memes Cố Mặc Trì used to draw.
They were ugly and bizarre.
I’d taught him to draw before, but no matter how I taught him, Cố Mặc Trì developed a truly bizarre aesthetic all on his own.
In the end, he nearly drove me crazy with how irritating he was.
It had been so long since I’d seen one. Now that I’d run into this wonderfully strange paper figure again, I couldn’t help finding it adorable.
That was why I couldn’t help asking it a question earlier.
When I didn’t say anything, the young woman thought she’d been too harsh and patted my shoulder.
“Don’t be scared. You must be new, so I’ll help you through this instance. I’m Lư Y.”
02.
What I had to deliver was a box of rouge and powder.
Lư Y’s delivery was a pair of embroidered shoes as red as blood.
As it happened, our customers were the same person.
In the thick darkness, we collected our goods and cautiously stepped out of the courtyard.
This time, the locust tree didn’t attack us.
Lư Y talked a lot.
“With rouge and powder and embroidered shoes, the recipient must be a girl who likes dressing up.”
“These embroidered shoes are so red. They’re downright terrifying to look at.”
“Do you think we’ll manage to deliver everything?”
“I don’t even know your name yet. How many instances have you been through? Have you ever played an SS-rank one?”
“I heard some veteran player say there are tons of monsters in this instance. They hide in the dark, and who knows? The next second, one could appear right behind us.”
At that, Lư Y pulled a face to scare me.
I suddenly drew the longsword issued to me as a courier and thrust it toward her.
Lư Y cried out, “Okay, I talk a lot, but that doesn’t mean you have to kill me to keep me quiet!”
The longsword moved so fast that it made a terrifying whoosh as it cut through the air.
Then, with a whoosh, the longsword barely skimmed past Lư Y’s shoulder and plunged into the dried corpse that had suddenly appeared behind her.
Lư Y finally reacted. “That was badass!”
My brow twitched. “Draw your sword! There’s another one!”
03.
Night crept in. The clouds dispersed, and a green moon gradually emerged.
Countless dried corpses crawled out of the ground, wriggling like bamboo shoots after a rain.
No matter how many we killed, they kept coming.
After a long while, when the clouds covered the eerie crescent moon again, the two of us finally managed to escape them.
“These corpses are pretty strong, too. Ow~”
Lư Y stood with her hands on her hips, then raised a hand to gingerly rub the cheek a dried corpse had just slapped.
I quietly plucked a tooth that was still tangled in her hair.
Strangely, the dried corpses had only targeted Lư Y. They hadn’t attacked me at all.
I’d only been in such a sorry state because I was protecting her.
My eyes dropped to a spot, and I asked Lư Y:
“Do you like wearing embroidered shoes?”
Lư Y said, “Who’d want to wear those? They’re bad luck.”
I said, “Look at your feet.”
The embroidered shoes we were supposed to deliver were now on Lư Y’s feet, and no matter how hard she tried, she couldn’t take them off.
“Ahhhhh! What the hell!”
Lư Y suddenly lost control of her body and ran forward.
I chased after her.
In the end, we ran all the way to an abandoned hill.
A red-robed female ghost sat there, facing a makeup mirror.
“You’re finally here.”
The female ghost had a gloomy voice and a willowy figure.
But her face was bruised purple, and her body was covered in whip marks from the neck down.
Seeing us gasping for breath, she kept giggling prettily.
My calves were about to give out, but as soon as I saw the female ghost, my voice came out strong and clear.
“Excuse me, are you the one who ordered the embroidered shoes and rouge and powder?”
“I am.”
The female ghost waved her hand, and the powder box in my bag and the embroidered shoes on Lư Y’s feet flew toward her.
I checked the quest bar and saw that one-third of it was complete.
I wiped the sweat from my forehead.
That had been terrifying, but at least we were safe.
We were about to head back when the female ghost, having finished applying her powder, suddenly spoke as she gazed into the mirror:
“It seems like something’s still missing.”
I sensed something was wrong and dragged Lư Y away as fast as I could.
But we were still too slow.
In the blink of an eye, I turned into a rabbit and was cradled in the female ghost’s arms.
Lư Y, meanwhile, turned into a hairpin and was stuck into the female ghost’s bun.
The female ghost stroked my rabbit ear.
She smiled prettily at herself in the mirror, looking bashful:
“Now I’m all set. His Majesty the Ghost King is about to wake up. If I dress up like this, I’m sure I’ll catch his eye.”
We were taken to a strange, eerie palace.
The place was lavishly and intricately carved from end to end.
But it was also terribly gloomy.
Ghostly winds blew in gusts. The surroundings were dark, and the walls glimmered with colorful, bizarre shadows.
Many monsters dressed to the nines were huddled together, whispering as they waited for something.
It seemed we’d stumbled into a place we didn’t belong.
I peed all over the female ghost. She was furious, but still wanted to maintain her composure.
While she straightened her clothes, I kicked off and leaped down from her.
The enormous palace was like a maze.
Quite a few dried corpses spotted me, a living creature, and immediately gave chase.
I had to squeeze into a narrow little hole to escape them.
With no way back, I had no choice but to take a chance and keep crawling deeper into the hole.
I didn’t know how long had passed, but at last I reached a wider space.
But there was no light. It was pitch-black, and the place felt even colder and gloomier than the palace I’d just left.
The ground was uneven.
My rabbit feet seemed to be standing on someone.