Translator: Pal.vi
Chapter 35: Hexie Cinema (8)
Xia Bai dumbly looked down at the Waitress; in fact, he had never clearly seen the Waitress’s face.
A strand of blood-stained, sticky hair, twisted and turned, divided her wet face in half. Her eyebrows were very dark, her nose was straight, giving her a neutral heroic look. Her not-so-large eyes were unfathomable.
Xia Bai felt his phone in his pocket heating up, as if it had recorded the Waitress’s information, indicating that his skill finally had an upgrade progress.
“Are you willing?” Xia Bai asked in a daze.
It seemed like an insignificant thing; she didn’t even ask what Xia Bai was going to use it for. “When the time comes, just take it if you want.”
Xia Bai asked, “What’s your name?”
Waitress: “You Yue.”
Gu Quankun was looking in their direction. Xia Bai didn’t say much more to her, saying “excuse me” before carrying her to a more secluded area by the lakeside woods to let her rest, leaving her a dagger for self-defense.
When he returned, he looked at Erwa differently. It was Erwa who helped him sign a corpse contract. “Erwa is amazing.”
The redness from Erwa’s ears spread down to his neck, his little head drooping helplessly, his fingers trembling with excitement.
Gu Quankun looked at the blushing Erwa, half-smiling, and said, “Xia Bai, let me give you some advice. In this game, relying on little tricks won’t get you far. This isn’t a prosperous era.”
Xia Bai dumbly nodded, “Oh, you’re right. I think so too.”
He tilted his head, and a group of zombies emerged from the bushes, standing behind him, glaring.
Gu Quankun: “…”
Xia Bai asked, “Can I have your corpse?”
Gu Quankun didn’t even think, “No way!”
Xia Bai: “Oh. When you’re about to die, I’ll ask again.”
Gu Quankun: “…”
Gu Quankun looked at the zombies behind Xia Bai and asked, “Is your skill corpse control?”
He then looked at the talisman on the zombie’s head and said, “Item skill?”
Xia Bai’s heart skipped a beat, and he said, “Yes, I can draw corpse control talismans. I’ve given many corpse control talismans to other players. Have you seen them?”
Gu Quankun stared at the corpse control talisman for a few more seconds, then shook his head.
Xia Bai wasn’t disappointed. Whether it was finding the Joy God or understanding his grandfather’s past, he was prepared for a long haul.
The fire in the forest above was getting brighter, producing smoke that even the night couldn’t block.
Two female ghosts appeared there again. It was obvious they couldn’t handle them, and they couldn’t approach rashly, not knowing what the current situation was.
Xia Bai tore the corpse control talisman off He Jiaxiu’s head and said to Ma Tongfeng, “Old Ma, go bury her.”
Ma Tongfeng wanted to kowtow to Xia Bai. Kowtowing was one of the things he was most skilled at in his life, and he didn’t think there was anything wrong with it. The only time he truly wanted to kowtow was rejected by Xia Bai. He left with Erwa.
Two zombies scouted ahead, Xia Bai walked on the left, and Erwa jogged beside him on the right, occasionally looking up at him.
Naturally, Gu Quankun followed them. He came into the movie because he knew he couldn’t handle the last wave of ghosts in the screening hall and hadn’t seen Xia Bai and his group in the movie. This suggested they might not be dead, indicating the movie was safe. They had come earlier, so they must understand the situation here better.
Gu Quankun: “Exchange information?”
Xia Bai was about to speak when a stone rolled to his feet.
Guo Yang was waving at them from the bushes ahead.
The two scouting zombies lay by the roadside, and the three followed Guo Yang into the forest.
Before they reached the inside, Guo Yang couldn’t help but ask Xia Bai, “What’s with those zombies?”
Xia Bai said, “My skill allows me to draw corpse control talismans and suppression talismans, to control and suppress corpses.”
Xia Bai decided to use his grandfather’s skill in the game. His skill indeed resembled his grandfather’s, allowing him to hide himself well. If someone recognized that this wasn’t his skill, it meant that person might know his grandfather, and he could wait for them to come to him with information about his grandfather.
Guo Yang, with an “I see” expression, said, “No wonder you asked me for corpses.”
He led them halfway up the mountain and said, “Those two female ghosts chased the islanders into the opposite woods, and the ghost schoolgirl also went in. The other members of the expedition team finally started to fight back.”
Guo Yang didn’t run away; he went to higher ground to secretly observe the scene.
The islanders, being chased by the three fierce ghosts, were at a disadvantage. However, they still had many people familiar with the deserted island, so the situation was unclear.
Xia Bai asked Gu Quankun, “What about you, what did you discover?”
Gu Quankun, who proposed exchanging information first, didn’t hide anything and described their situation.
After Xia Bai and his group were pulled into the movie by the ghost hand, Gu Quankun and his group quickly switched to another screening hall to watch the movie. During this time, they actually watched a major plot: the islanders captured the expedition team and tied them to the altar, selecting two girls as sacrifices to the evil god.
When the sacrifice began, the ghost hand appeared.
He said, “From my observations in screening hall 3, I feel that the main plot of the movie in hall 3 is the same as in our hall. The movie doesn’t seem to be composed of the lives of the players in our hall.”
“The male player in screening hall 7 said they also saw the scenes of the schoolgirl being violated and her revenge.”
Guo Yang: “Maybe desires like sex, sadism, and killing are common in people’s hearts? Under mental pollution, several people are always drawn into the plot?”
Xia Bai: “…”
Then why were there corpses targeting him? Was he overthinking?
Guo Yang added, “It could also be that while the main plot doesn’t change, there are more details targeting different screening hall players. For example, in our hall, targeting your companion, there are many close-up scenes of islanders eating meat?”
Gu Quankun: “Perhaps.”
But there was still a foggy feeling.
Not only him, but Xia Bai and Guo Yang also felt the same. It always seemed like there was something they hadn’t seen through, and it shouldn’t be like this.
“According to what the captain said at the beginning of the movie, the boat will come to pick them up tomorrow morning. The movie is about to end,” Guo Yang said. “Once we see the outcome, we can clear the game?”
Gu Quankun firmly believed that watching the movie to the end would clear the game. “Why not? We’ve already overcome so many difficulties and lost so many people.”
Guo Yang was still a bit uneasy. He asked, “How long had the movie been playing when you came in?”
As an experienced veteran player, Gu Quankun couldn’t possibly have not timed it. He gave an accurate time: “2 hours and 31 minutes.”
“It’s almost over.” Guo Yang nervously said, “When you came in, the sacrifice wasn’t over yet. This must be a key plot requiring many shots and duration. There are also three female ghosts chasing the islanders for revenge, and the expedition team’s uprising. The movie time point we’re at might only be a few minutes from the end.”
“Are we about to clear it just like this? But there’s still no hint from the game.”
This felt familiar.
Xia Bai had a similar unsettling feeling at He Ping Medical College.
Guo Yang: “Why don’t we go through the movie again and try to discuss all possibilities?”
Xia Bai agreed: “Sure.”
Because this was a clichéd, predictable movie, the story was easy to follow.
The plot, or at least 90% of it, was already clear.
The plot followed a group of college students who came to a deserted island for an expedition, only to find that the island wasn’t truly deserted; it was inhabited by a group of savage islanders.
That night, two native islanders violated the most beautiful schoolgirl in the expedition team. Two male classmates from the team saw it and, instead of stopping them, joined in. The schoolgirl died a humiliating and tragic death, her resentment and rage turning her into a fierce ghost who killed the four men. This was the first major conflict between the islanders and the expedition team.
The islanders retaliated by killing two students from the expedition team, intensifying the conflict between the two sides.
The islanders retaliated by killing two students from the expedition team, escalating tensions between both sides.
The islanders then captured the expedition team and used two girls as sacrificial offerings to the evil deity, pushing the conflict to its peak.
The two girls also turned into ghosts and joined the ghostly schoolgirl and the remaining four members of the expedition team, leading to the final battle against the islanders.
As for the outcome…
Guo Yang said, “The most likely scenario is that the expedition team won, and one or two students survived until a ship arrived to rescue them, aligning with the movie title ‘Escape from the Deserted Island.’”
Xia Bai added, “The surviving students finally wait for the ship, only to discover that the captain is from the island and allied with the islanders.”
Gu Quan Kun proposed, “The expedition team lost, and all the students died, but their ghosts remained on the island to torment the islanders forever.”
Guo Yang continued, “The expedition team lost, the ship arrived, and the captain and crew started a new round of survival on the deserted island.”
…
Each took turns presenting different combinations of survivors, discussing hundreds of possible endings, but the game offered no hints.
Slowly, the three fell into silence.
They realized the game wasn’t that simple; such a straightforward and clichéd movie plot couldn’t possibly support the main mission the game assigned them.
A round orange moon hung in the pitch-black night sky, clashing eerily with the island’s nighttime green, with the scents of the sea and blood intensifying the stench.
Under the orange moon, Ma Tong Feng sneaked into the islanders’ residential area, found an axe and other simple tools, and made a simple coffin for He Jiaxiu in the forest.
“Jiaxiu, see, my experience in doing all sorts of dirty and tiring jobs has its benefits; at least I can make you a coffin now.”
He gently placed He Jiaxiu in the coffin, hesitated to erect a tombstone, and instead carved “My wife He Jiaxiu” on the coffin. The letters were crooked and childlike, but filled with strength and emotion.
He sat by the coffin for half an hour, wiped his tears, buried He Jiaxiu, and then went to find Xia Bai with the axe.
Waitress You Yue slowly woke up an hour later, shielding her eyes with her hand. The moonlight wasn’t strong, yet she felt a piercing and surreal sting.
She felt her abdomen no longer cold, touched the dagger, and grasped it tightly, trembling and then laughing and crying.
Xia Bai and his team continued watching the movie, realizing that their earlier predictions might not work; they still needed to unlock the actual plot. While this seemed possible, they didn’t discuss its probability.
As midnight approached, the island quieted down, and the fighting ceased.
Two expedition members, a boy and a girl, remained alive, staying with the three ghosts.
At this point, they should head over to listen to what they were saying, as they were the main characters compared to the islanders and might have crucial information.
However, there were three ghosts over there.
They were unsure of the other two ghosts’ strength, but just dealing with the ghostly schoolgirl was beyond Gu Quan Kun. They might just end up as sacrifices if they went together.
It would have been better if there were still people in the screening room to cooperate from the inside.
Despite the danger, they hesitated briefly before cautiously approaching. They genuinely wanted to know what they were doing as the movie was nearing its end, and there wasn’t much plot left.
From a hundred meters away, they saw the living boy standing up angrily, while the girl faced the ghostly schoolgirl, crying.
It seemed that the schoolgirl had told them about her ordeal, and these two surviving students, rare good people in such a movie, were moved.
The boy, furious, ran towards the islanders’ residences.
The end came quickly.
This ending was among their previous discussions.
The movie earlier showed scenes of the students smoking and drinking, and several boys carried lighters. They had speculated that in the end, driven to desperation, they would use fire to go down with the islanders.
The enraged boy reached the islanders’ residences, setting fire to the thatched roofs that quickly ignited.
The fire spread rapidly to the forest behind the islanders’ houses.
Guo Yang shouted, “Hurry, to the forest on the other side of the lake!”
Before leaving, Xia Bai glanced at the sacrificial altar, seeing many corpses around it but unsure if Ling Changye was still there.
At the first sign of the boy setting the fire, they had run out. The islanders in the houses and forest weren’t as lucky.
The fire raged until the next morning, with significant casualties among the islanders, almost all in the thatched houses perishing.
The three female ghosts and two students stood by the lake, silently watching the raging fire.
Xia Bai and the other players hid in the forest on the other side of the lake, secretly observing them.
Shortly after dawn, the ship arrived to pick them up.
The movie ended predictably, with the last surviving boy and girl boarding the ship, successfully escaping. The most predictable and conventional ending.
The three ghosts, however, remained trapped on the island where they died, forever.
The two students, crying, watched the three female ghosts recede into the distance from the ship, then hugged and kissed each other.
“…”
“Is this the finale? The movie’s over; can we leave?” Ma Tong Feng asked.
Clearly, the movie had ended.
Clearly, they hadn’t completed the game and couldn’t leave.
Everyone was puzzled.
Guo Yang pondered, “Did we miss some plot, with key information or hints of an alternative ending?”
This was highly likely, as none of them had watched the entire movie, and in the movie world, they didn’t have a “god’s perspective” and could only see parts of it.
Everyone carefully recalled the movie scenes and plot they had seen, sharing and summarizing them together, yet still found nothing.
The feeling of a movie being over but having no clues was terrible.
Guo Yang couldn’t help but remember his English listening exam, the kind where you only got to listen once. He felt like he had heard something, but nothing at the same time.
Back then, it was just an ordinary exam, and even if he failed, the teacher wouldn’t dare to reprimand him. Now, they were putting their lives on the line.
Worse still, after the two students left, the three female ghosts started scouring the island, killing another surviving islander.
At this rate, it would soon be their turn, and they would all perish.
“What should we do? What’s the key to breaking this game?” Gu Quan Kun said anxiously.
Unexpectedly, he was the most anxious, but upon reflection, it was understandable. He had always believed that watching the movie would allow them to clear the game, preparing for that the entire time. Realizing his direction and method were wrong at the last moment naturally made him anxious and panicked.
Possibly even enraged with shame.
No one could answer him.
Guo Yang didn’t know if he was comforting him or himself, “The three hours are for watching the movie, not the game time. The system wants us to understand the movie’s story logic, so it should give us more time. Don’t worry, let’s search for clues now.”
“There won’t be much time either. How much time is given for answering a test?” Gu Quan Kun retorted immediately.
Guo Yang glanced at him, obviously in a bad mood, “Then you stay here and worry, I’m going to look for clues.”
Guo Yang walked a few steps, then turned back to look at Xia Bai, who quickly followed him, indicating he was on his side. As he joined, Erwa and Lao Ma also followed.
Guo Yang felt more at ease, but he was still anxious. They searched the islanders’ residences for clues, checking everywhere while frequently glancing at Erwa.
Xia Bai thought he was afraid of failing the game and dying, but also of failing to take Erwa out safely.
Seeing Guo Yang pacing by, Xia Bai said, “Guo Yang, don’t rush.”
Guo Yang pressed his brow, “Xia Bai, if I…”
“I’ll definitely get Erwa out,” Xia Bai interrupted, saying what he wanted to hear.
Erwa immediately looked up at Xia Bai. Guo Yang also stared at him in a daze.
Xia Bai’s skin had a cool white tone, different from Yang Mei’s milky white. The morning’s orange-yellow sunlight fell on his face, not affecting the cool white texture at all, with a cold tone that couldn’t be changed even by the midday sun.
His face looked dazed, but if you looked closely at his eyes, there was no ripple in them, like touching deep spring water that shielded disturbances, calming an anxious heart.
“Do you think the movie’s over, and we won’t find any useful clues?”
“No, it’s like the game giving humans abilities and weapons; it’s not just about killing us. There must be a way to survive, and not just one. Even if we missed clues in the movie, there must be anothErway. Don’t rush, look carefully.”
Guo Yang’s frantic heart gradually calmed down. He also looked at Ma Tong Feng beside Xia Bai, who had been through the struggles at the bottom of society, not understanding games or the internet. For some reason, he was equally calm.
Seeing such calm eyes, Guo Yang gradually composed himself, “You’re right; there must be a way out.”
He calmed down significantly, starting to search systematically and carefully.
Seeing that he had calmed down, Xia Bai squatted back down beside one of the islanders’ corpses.
He reached out to touch the face of the corpse. The islander had only recently died, and he could feel a bit of warmth; the body wasn’t stiff yet, still quite soft. He rubbed the corpse’s dark face hard, and his fingertip only picked up a layer of ash. Blowing off the ash, his fingertip was still clean and white.
Xia Bai then lifted the hem of the corpse’s shirt, revealing a greasy belly. The belly was much paler. He rubbed it hard as well, only picking up a bit of oil.
It was the same with several other corpses he checked.
“Guo Yang, their skin color…”
Guo Yang, much calmer now, turned to look at Xia Bai and the corpse beside him. He said, “What’s wrong with their skin color? They’ve lived on this island for years, exposed to the sun. They’re naturally darker, very realistic.”
Seeing Xia Bai staring at his hand, lost in thought, Guo Yang walked toward the altar to inspect the key locations.
Xia Bai: “But how realistic? Normal people wouldn’t… Ugh!”
Before he could finish his sentence, a red-brown worm wrapped around his waist and lifted him high into the air.
The first to notice was Erwa, who had been secretly watching him. He jumped up, ran towards Xia Bai with his little arms outstretched, and shouted, “Ah, ah!”
Next was Ma Tongfeng, who shouted, “Xia Bai!”
Guo Yang was the third to see it, and he cursed loudly, “Gu Quan Kun!”
Not far below, Gu Quan Kun was being chased by the ghostly school beauty, with a large bloodstain on his shoulder.
It was clear he intended to use Xia Bai to distract the ghostly school beauty. He recognized the ghostly hand as the same one from the screening room, where he had used others to secure his own safety.
Guo Yang immediately threw his black dagger at the ghostly school beauty, but it was no use. The dagger couldn’t stop her, and it was too late anyway.
Xia Bai was about to besmashed into the sharp ghostly hand.
Guo Yang’s eyes turned red, “Gu Quan Kun, you’re finished!”
Gu Quan Kun just laughed maniacally, his whole body trembling. The trembling wasn’t just from laughing but mainly from the pain.
It really hurt. The ghostly school beauty’s cold hand had torn his shoulder apart. Even so, what could he do? He had no bandages left.
Even though he was trembling in pain, he endured without using any other life-saving tools.
Did Xia Bai think those tools were easy to come by? Each one was obtained at the cost of their lives in the game, and with just one word, Xia Bai demanded he hand them over, even using Erwa’s threat.
Xia Bai saw it worked once and would likely use Erwa to threaten him many more times.
He needed someone like the waiter or the ponytailed girl to shield him from the ghostly hand. Xia Bai was the closest; even if he wasn’t, Gu Quan Kun would still choose him.
Suddenly, his laughter froze, his eyes widened in terror.
At the critical moment, Xia Bai tilted his head, ready to control the corpse, and saw a giant red-brown worm fly past his face, separating him from the ghostly hand.
The worm continued flying forward, wrapped around Gu Quan Kun, and slammed him into the ghostly school beauty.
Following the worm’s path, Xia Bai turned to see Ling Changye standing in front of them.
His chest wound was still there, his white shirt stained with blood, a deep red rose-like gash. Over it, he wore a black trench coat from who knows where. The coat draped down his tall frame, with only the right sleeve torn at the shoulder. A red-brown worm extended from it, swirling in the air like the pink dragon.
His face was still deathly pale, his lips bloodless. “Is this all you got?”
He looked at Xia Bai and smiled.
Xia Bai was stunned.
“Ling, Ling Changye!” Guo Yang exclaimed in shock, looking like he’d seen a ghost.
“Why are you looking at me? Run.” Ling Changye said, then his worm arm wrapped around the resisting Erwa and ran first.
After Gu Quan Kun’s chest was pierced by the ghostly hand, he spat out a mouthful of blood, and the worm arm disappeared. Xia Bai fell to the ground.
Seeing this, Guo Yang and Ma Tongfeng immediately followed Ling Changye and ran forward.
Before running, Xia Bai glanced back at Gu Quan Kun and asked, “Can I have your corpse?”
“…”
Xia Bai, too, was desperate. After asking, he ran. At the same time, he controlled several corpses in his mind, blatantly passing in front of the ghostly school beauty, running in the opposite direction.
After catching up with Ling Changye, Guo Yang, hands on his knees, gasped for breath. “What… what happened? What on earth… happened?”
The worm arm on Ling Changye’s arm had disappeared too. Without explaining, he asked, “Do you know where the first two islanders who were killed are buried?”
The first two islanders were killed in revenge by the ghostly school beauty.
The island still practiced traditional burial. After discovering the bodies, the other islanders buried them.
Without further questions, Guo Yang, knowing this might relate to Ling Changye’s skill, as a fan, respected his idol’s privacy and cooperated enthusiastically. “I know, I’ll take you there.”
Ling Changye said, “Good, let’s go dig up the graves.”
Xia Bai’s eyes lit up and he readily agreed.
They went to where the islanders lived and found some tools. Guo Yang and Ma Tongfeng each took a shovel, while Xia Bai and Erwa each grabbed a hoe. With the sun overhead, they started digging.
“Captain Ling, why are we digging up graves? Did you find something in the movie?” Guo Yang asked while shoveling.
“Let’s dig and see.” Ling Changye simply replied, his gaze falling on Xia Bai beside Guo Yang.
Following his gaze, Guo Yang saw Xia Bai digging skillfully, his eyes bright with excitement.
Guo Yang: “…”
Ma Tongfeng, a middle-aged man, silently followed Xia Bai’s lead.
Even Erwa was energetically wielding the hoe.
Seeing this, Guo Yang also started digging hard. He knew the situation was urgent; the ghostly school beauty might soon find them.
As they dug, they found that the graves were empty. Both graves, once dug open, were empty.
Guo Yang, puzzled and unsure, asked, “What’s going on? I’m sure this is the place. Where are the bodies?”
Ling Changye, unsurprised, looked at the empty graves with his dark eyes and said, “They aren’t dead.”
Guo Yang’s pupils trembled. Under the scorching sun, he broke out in goosebumps.
TN: hiieeee I am Palvi. I will be picking this novel that’s “Corpse Collector” from chapter 35 onwards. you can access the chapters 1-34 through novel updates. I hope you all like my translations.
