The Trial Game of Life

Tang Cuo remembered Jin Cheng once mentioned that he had many enemies. Once they learnt that he was punished back to Zone F and that he needed to go through the missions once again, most of them would want to cause trouble for him in the dungeons. As such, he recruited Chi Yan as a ‘temporary staff’ of the team to help them get through the trouble.

For now, it couldn’t be concluded that there were enemies in this dungeon, but in a mission of such a high difficulty, having idiotic teammates posed more dangers than ever.

But was Tang Cuo scared? No, he was totally not.

He was a real warrior who didn’t like to talk much; whatever he said, he would do it. And the target right now was ― still the basement.

In Jin Cheng’s year 1926, Yu Mansion had become a house occupied by ghosts. There were ghosts wandering in the kitchen, the corridor and, in fact, everywhere. The only safe zone was next to the phone, but if they stayed there for too long, the ghosts would start attacking.

Luckily, the path from the phone to the built-in cupboard was unobstructed, so the three quickly turned on the mechanism to enter the basement.

Tang Cuo didn’t have to use a candle this time, because Jin Cheng pulled out the glass lamp he got in the dungeon of [Kingdom Hidden In The Moonlight]. This thing wasn’t very useful and could only be used for lighting, but because it was a mission item that could be stored in the Inventory Bar, it was very convenient to access.

The basement door was locked and Qi Hui still had the key from the other dimension in his pocket, but Tang Cuo seemed to think of something and asked Jin Cheng: “Are the butler’s keys still there?”

Jin Cheng: “I used three to open the attic. There’s still one left.”

Tang Cuo: “One only?”

Was it because the time and space changed, so the corresponding clue also changed? Tang Cuo thought for a moment and gave up his spot to Jin Cheng. Jin Cheng took out his only remaining key but couldn’t open the door.

In other words, the key to the basement that used to be in the butler’s hands was no longer in his hands in 1926.

Not saying another word, Tang Cuo opened the basement with the key he had. Qi Hui became alert the second the door opened, but since he had already got into the basement once, he wasn’t much scared.

But the scene he saw the moment they entered the place still had him surprised.

In the basement, besides the coffin, there were now two dead bodies lying on the ground.

Jin Cheng knelt down and turned over a corpse that had his back facing upward. With a single glance, he revealed this corpse’s identity as ‘the butler’, then he looked at the other corpse and said ‘Yu Wangnian’.

Meanwhile, Tang Cuo opened the coffin. He glanced over the corpse in the coffin that was even more shrivelled than before but still recognisable and said calmly: “Yu Wangyue.”

Qi Hui stuttered: “…A family massacre?”

Tang Cuo turned around and asked Jin Cheng: “Are the bodies of the lady and the others also here?”

Jin Cheng: “At least not in the rooms where I managed to open the door.”

Tang Cuo nodded and went to check the corpse on the ground. Very soon, his eyebrows furrowed: “These two died very recently. There were only small bumps on their bodies and no fatal injuries.”

Jin Cheng stretched out his hands: “It means they were killed by a ghost. Mrs. Lin Wan died in hatred, so she killed her husband. A typical ghost story.”

But this was no typical ghost story.

Tang Cuo was about to speak when he caught a glimpse of a ghost flashing by from a secluded corner and his expression quickly tensed up. Jin Cheng reacted faster than him and sprayed a handful of glimmering dust at the ghost while pushing it back, at which point they could clearly see its face.

“Yu Wangnian.”

Qi Hui’s whole body shook up and he rushed to hide behind the two big bosses. Tang Cuo swiftly searched the two corpses, thinking to find whatever clues he could. He rummaged through their pockets then rapidly retreated.

Five minutes later, the three returned to the telephone in the living room.

Tang Cuo now had time to ask Jin Cheng: “What did you spray at the ghost just now?”

Jin Cheng smiled: “The ash from the incense pot in front of the Buddha. It may not be very useful, but it can drive away ghosts. But I only have one bag of this stuff. If we want to leave here alive, I’ll have to rely on you, my great detective.”

Tang Cuo ignored his nonsense and just went to inspect his harvest from the trip to the basement. In total, he found three things from the butler’s and Yu Wangnian’s corpses, including a key, a gun and an old notebook the size of his palm.

Both the key and the gun were found from Yu Wangnian, and two bullets were missing from the gun.

The old notebook belonged to the butler. He flipped through to find a few notes on the butler’s daily works, but he couldn’t yet locate any important clues.

“We have to go to the second floor. Yu Wangnian’s key may be able to open his bedroom or his study.” Tang Cuo said. When he said this, his eyes were fixed on Jin Cheng.

Jin Cheng folded his arms and said: “You’re really giving me a difficult task.”

There was only one way of doing this: While Jin Cheng restrained the ghosts on the second floor, Tang Cuo would try to find clues. As for Qi Hui, both Tang Cuo and Jin Cheng turned to look at him.

Qi Hui shuddered, for he was frightened by the perfect coordination of the two big bosses.

Tang Cuo: “You stay on the phone and keep calling until you get through.”

Qi Hui didn’t want to be alone, but he glanced at the dark second floor, thought of the scary female ghost, then thought of Zhou Dahai and finally agreed to this arrangement.

“But if the phone gets through, what should I say?”

Tang Cuo said without even thinking: “Tell them Jin Cheng is dead.”

Jin Cheng: “???”

Tang Cuo turned around to look at him but didn’t say a word.

Jin Cheng: “Don’t you want to explain a bit?”

Tang Cuo asked back: “Aren’t you seeing my face now?”

This is the explanation. Look at my handsome face full of integrity.

Jin Cheng laughed angrily, raised one hand and fiercely rubbed Tang Cuo’s head till his hair was all messed up and even his body was swayed to one side under the force. Tang Cuo glared from the corner of his eye ― Is this a horrible habit of yours? And how can you do it with such a guilt-free face?

Qi Hui hurriedly jumped in to persuade them: “You two, please don’t argue. Keep cool, we can talk.”

Jin Cheng threw him a glance as sharp as a knife: “Are we arguing?”

Qi Hui: “You are not???”

Jin Cheng thought that he wouldn’t want to talk to someone who never had the eyes to spot the unspoken details, so he grabbed Tang Cuo’s wrist and dragged him away: “You come with me.”

Tang Cuo’s expression remained blank, but he didn’t resist at all.

Qi Hui was even more worried now, afraid that they would fight, but he really didn’t have the nerve to persuade them further.

Stepping onto the dark staircase leading to the second floor, Jin Cheng let go of Tang Cuo’s hand. He wanted to hold on for a while, but it wouldn’t help with fighting the ghosts.

Tang Cuo had already taken out his Sword of Judgment.

“Are you thinking of tricking the remaining two players?” Jin Cheng asked.

“Dynamite fishing. Isn’t it your specialty?” As they spoke, the two had already reached the last step on the staircase. In the dark corridor drowned in a ghostly atmosphere, an eerie wind was blowing and the sound of a woman’s sobbing was coming from the front.

Jin Cheng lowered his voice: “These ghosts have different triggers. The lady is an angry ghost, so whenever someone walks into her territory, she’ll attack. She’s also the strongest here. Most of the rest are just minor ghosts that are easy to handle. The patched-up ghost stands somewhere in between, but his attack isn’t as fierce as the lady. One more thing, the ghosts on the first floor won’t come to the second floor since they’re afraid of the lady.”

This was what Jin Cheng found out in the first two hours of actual battles with the ghosts, and Tang Cuo noted them down one by one.

The two of them stayed close to the wall and walked forward. Because they both had received professional training, their footsteps were almost inaudible and even the sound of their breathing was muffled to the minimum. In the whole mansion, there was now only the wailing of the female ghost and the sound of Qi Hui making phone calls from the first floor’s living room.

Qi Hui was very nervous. He saw ghosts floating in the kitchen door, in the corridor and on the ceiling, then there was Yu Wangnian in the basement.

“Pop!” The chandelier above his head exploded, leaving only three lights twinkling feebly.

On the second floor, Tang Cuo had begun to test the first door. His movements were very light but very fast; if this door didn’t work, he would immediately jump to the next without wasting any second.

Jin Cheng stayed beside him. In the darkness, their bodies occasionally brushed against each other, feeling like a tiny spark of fire that suddenly flickered amidst a frosty snowfall.

But now wasn’t the time to think about such things.

Jin Cheng listened carefully to the female ghost’s wailing, then suddenly he pulled out the small harp and played his ‘Requiem’. There was only half a bag of incense ash left, so they needed to save it.

At the same time, Tang Cuo moved faster. He rushed to the next door, precisely inserted the key into the keyhole, and “click”, it worked!

This was a study room.

Tang Cuo quickly glanced at the surroundings and headed straight to the desk. He flipped through the books, opened the drawers and tried to locate any hidden compartments. All his actions were as smooth as flowing water, fast yet steady.

A fight was going on in the corridor.

Tang Cuo didn’t have time to look at it. He caught a glimpse of a cloth bag in the corner and immediately swept everything he found useful into the bag. At this moment, his eyes landed on the first photo he had ever seen after entering this mansion.

The black-and-white photo taken during an old era wasn’t very clear, but it could be seen that the subject was a family of four. The photo was taken on the lawn outside the mansion. Yu Wangnian sat beside his wife Lin Wan, Lin Wan held a sweet smiling girl in her arms, and behind Yu Wangnian’s back stood a gentle-looking Yu Wangyue.

Tang Cuo pulled out the photo from the frame and saw the date behind the photo: 3rd January 1923.

Judging from the photo, in early 1923, the family still looked happy.

Putting away the photo, Tang Cuo turned his gaze to a small door deep in the study that led to another room. Tang Cuo carefully observed the keyhole and a flash of light crossed his mind.

He rushed back to the door: “The keys!”

Jin Cheng understood. As his sound wave attacked the female ghost, he turned around and tossed the butler’s keychain over. Tang Cuo firmly caught it and quickly returned to the small door, then nicely opened it.

Behind the door was a small bedroom. It wasn’t difficult to see that this was where Yu Wangnian usually lived. The room carried a dark tone and no decoration, fully exuding its master’s rigid and strict nature.

“Clang.” Tang Cuo kicked something and looked down to find that it was a key.

The key to the basement.

This dungeon was getting more and more interesting. The key to the basement was in the small room inside the study. Although the key to the small room was on the butler’s keychain, they must enter the study to open the small room. And the key to the study was in the basement.

If Tang Cuo didn’t bring the key to the basement from another dimension, this would be a roundabout puzzle with no way to solve.

No wonder the teams who entered the dungeon all perished one after another.

Time was running out, so Tang Cuo wasn’t allowed to think much about it. He swiftly started to look for clues, and when he walked over to the bed, there was a corpse — it was a maid dressed in a cheongsam with wide slits, with a collar button already untied. It seemed that she intentionally dressed up and even had lipstick on. She hugged her chest and her eyes opened wide, as if she hadn’t expected to meet her end until the very moment she died.

The cause of death was a bullet in the chest, which killed her in a single blow.

Tang Cuo thought of Yu Wangnian’s gun with two missing bullets, then thought of the old fountain pen that the young maid hid in her room. The messily scattered clues had begun to connect together, revealing a corner of the story.

There were very few things in the bedroom. Tang Cuo quickly turned around and returned to the corridor with the cloth bag.

Jin Cheng had led the female ghost to fight with the patched-up ghost, perfectly applying the very same method he used the last time. Although the process wasn’t as plain sailing as the last time, he still contained both ghosts at the other end, far away from Tang Cuo.

Tang Cuo hurriedly glanced over to gauge the situation before rushing towards Yu Wangyue’s room. Before coming to the year 1926, he had already obtained the key to this room and encountered the ghost of Yu Wangyue inside.

In 1926, the moment the door opened, Tang Cuo had a second encounter with him.

Yu Wangyue sat by the window with a blank expression and calm demeanour. He looked back again, his movements still slow and his expression unflinching.

“Yu Wangyue?” Tang Cuo tried to talk to him, but Yu Wangyue was like a tightly closed bottle that was neither trying to attack people nor interested in any sort of talking.

Tang Cuo simply ignored him and went to search the room instead.

With much struggle, Jin Cheng managed to push back the two ghosts. He breathed a sigh of relief, then poked his head into the room to check how things were going. What he saw was a scene where one person and one ghost each occupied one side of the room, both living in harmony.

“Have you become friends?” Jin Cheng mumbled in his mind, I’ve been fighting with ghosts for three hundred rounds since entering this dungeon, yet you’re here making friends?

Today, Jin Cheng felt his luck running out and his head turning a bit green头上有绿色, lit. translated as ‘have some green on the head’, or 戴绿帽子, lit. translated as ‘wear a green hat’, is a Chinese slang which means that you’re getting cheated on by your romantic partner..

Tang Cuo explained: “If you find it hard to believe, try attacking him, he won’t attack you back.”

Jin Cheng: “…”

Tang Cuo said again: “Have you noticed that the lady isn’t attacking you anymore.”

Jin Cheng: “…”

He looked back. Indeed she wasn’t.

In the dark corridor, peace had come again. The patched-up ghost was afraid of being beaten by the female ghost and had temporarily retreated into the toilet, while the female ghost started at Jin Cheng standing at the entrance to Wangyue’s room but didn’t come forward.

Hatred was like a tide. It came and went, leaving only grief on the sand. She looked at this side with such an indescribably sad expression, then turned to hide into the wall.

There was really something going on between Lady Lin Wan and Yu Wangyue.

As Jin Cheng was thinking, Qi Hui’s shocking shout suddenly came from downstairs: “It goes through! Is it Dahai? This is Qi Hui!”

Qi Hui screamed at the top of his lungs to inform the two upstairs. Jin Cheng turned around and exchanged a look with Tang Cuo, then the two quickly headed downstairs.

“Stay calm first, what’s happening over there?” Qi Hui tried to pacify Zhou Dahai and winked at Tang Cuo to give a sign.

Tang Cuo didn’t answer, instead, he took out the notebook found in the study and used the young maid’s old fountain pen to write down questions for Qi Hui to ask.

Qi Hui understood, made an ‘OK’ gesture and asked on the phone: “Are you alone on your side? Now I’m the only one here. Tang Cuo just suddenly disappeared, it scared me to death!”

Zhou Dahai didn’t doubt him one bit and asked nervously: “Then what shall we do now?”

Qi Hui: “Now we can only rely on ourselves. Dahai, let me ask you, when you saw Yu Wangyue in the basement, does he look like he died recently? Have you found who the murderer was?”

Zhou Dahai: “How can I know who the murderer is? But he seems to have died recently. Is everything okay over there? I found that Yu Wangyue’s ghost doesn’t seem to want to attack me. I’m hiding beside the phone now. It should be okay for the time being.”

Qi Hui: “When is it on your side? What year and what time is it?”

Zhou Dahai: “I saw the newspaper on the table, 25th December 1923. It’s 9 o’clock in the evening. But what I read from the newspaper seems wrong. Isn’t Yu Wangyue dead? The newspaper says he’s gone to study abroad!”

As Zhouhai’s gasping voice came from the receiver, Tang Cuo heard it and finally determined three points in time for each of their dimensions.

Zhou Dahai: On 25th December 1923, Yu Wangyue died.

Qi Hui and he: In 1924, a corpse was dismembered in the bathroom.

Jin Cheng: In 1926, the whole family was massacred in the mansion.

There were three homicides at three different times. It was worth noting that based on the number of 正 characters under the bed in the attic, the time of Yu Wangyue’s death seemed to coincide with the time at which the person started being locked up in the attic.