While Song Gui and the others were staring at Sun Haoran, 7 walked out, holding Lu Chu’s hand.
Upon seeing them, Yuan Kejie immediately made a hand chop gesture towards the two of them, her expression serious: “Are you human or ghost?!”
Lu Chu: “…”
The others looked at Yuan Kejie as if she was an idiot.
Yuan Kejie laughed awkwardly and scratched her head: “Well, I was just being cautious. What if a ghost sneaked in among us?”
Song Gui looked at her and said, “Your imagination is too rich. Watch less TV dramas.”
“Hey, listen to you,” Yuan Kejie sighed, “I feel like it’s been hundreds of years since I last watched a TV drama. The last time I watched one was when I was in the real world.”
As for the time spent in the “game,” they were too busy surviving to even think about watching TV.
“You’ll soon have the chance to watch TV again,” Lu Chu said, then turned to Sun Haoran, who was lying on the ground, and asked, “I might consider cooperating with you, but first, you need to tell me your purpose.”
“What purpose?” Sun Haoran, lying on the ground, looked at Lu Chu through his dusty and bloodstained hair with his crimson eyes. “What other purpose could I have? I want to go back.”
“That’s it?” Lu Chu asked.
“That’s it,” Sun Haoran struggled to get up, kneeling on the floor with his head down. “Otherwise, do you think anyone wants to live in this world forever?”
Lu Chu thought about it and realized there indeed was such a person—the man who had deliberately crashed into Song Gui in the illusion.
That man enjoyed everything he had, relished peeking into others’ lives, and controlling their fates. He believed he was the chosen one, the master of every world he had been to because he capriciously took their lives and brought humiliation to the players, thus satisfying his own twisted desires.
This was just one person Lu Chu encountered, and surely there were many players with similar thoughts.
Sure enough, after Sun Haoran answered Lu Chu’s question, he laughed self-deprecatingly and said, “Even if there are people who want to live forever in this world and control others’ lives, they will regret it one day.”
Just like he did.
Lu Chu nodded: “Alright, I personally agree to cooperate with you.”
With Lu Chu’s statement, Song Gui and the others also nodded in agreement.
Song Gui, after Lu Chu agreed to cooperate, said to Sun Haoran, “Since we are temporary teammates now, you should tell us how to quickly pass this ‘game.’ From your previous remark to Lu Chu, ‘You are indeed different,’ when you saw the skeleton in his hand, I conclude that this is not your first time entering this ‘game.'”
Sun Haoran, sitting on the floor leaning against the wall, shrugged and looked at Song Gui sideways: “Yes, including this time, it’s my third time entering this game.”
“Let me guess,” Song Gui stroked his chin, “One time as a ‘player’ during a mission; one time as a ‘cleaner’ to eliminate deviants; and this time, deliberately following Lu Chu’s footsteps to get here.”
Sun Haoran gave a nonchalant hum from his nasal cavity, acknowledging Song Gui’s guess.
Having confirmed the cooperation, even someone as unruly and uncooperative as Sun Haoran answered Song Gui’s question: “To pass this game quickly, you need to exorcise the most powerful ghost here. Once it’s exorcised, the curse on this house will be lifted.”
Yuan Kejie, upon hearing this, asked, “The man who built the house in the beginning, dismembered his family, and sacrificed them to the demon for immortality?”
Sun Haoran shook his head: “No.”
Yuan Kejie was curious: “Then what?”
Lu Chu said, “I think I might know.”
Yuan Kejie exclaimed: “Wow!”
Lu Chu smiled: “Didn’t I say I had entered a game with the same world background as this one before? Although the scope of activities was limited, and the ‘rules’ didn’t require uncovering the truth, I did get a glimpse of part of the world. If I’m not mistaken, the true boss behind the scenes should be a little girl about six or seven years old.”
Song Gui looked at Lu Chu in surprise: “The owner of the teddy bear.”
Lu Chu nodded: “Yes, the owner of the teddy bear.”
“Exactly,” Sun Haoran’s lips curled into an evil smile. “It’s her.”
Yuan Kejie was puzzled: “Why not the demon summoned by the original owner? Which generation is this little girl from? Is she the child of the first owner?”
“No,” Sun Haoran shook his head. “The little girl’s parents were the third generation owners of the house. A child’s resentment is always more direct and persistent. Therefore, the witch originally summoned by the first owner was devoured by the resentments of the girl and her teddy bear.”
Yuan Kejie suddenly understood: “Yes, that’s right. A child’s resentment is often the purest, so the vengeful spirits they become are the most terrifying and hardest to deal with.”
Song Gui asked: “What caused her death? Why such deep resentment?”
Lu Chu speculated: “Based on my previous experience, the little girl suffered long-term abuse from her mother. Initially, only her teddy bear, dismembered by the girl, felt her despair, absorbed the house’s inherent evil spirit, and became the form we first saw. Later, the teddy bear seemed to gain its own consciousness and, following its little master’s wishes, killed everyone in the house, dismembered the girl too, and her pure resentment became the house’s strongest presence.”
Sun Haoran laughed lightly: “Absolutely correct.”
Hearing all this, everyone was processing the information.
Yuan Kejie turned her attention elsewhere and looked at Lu Chu’s hands, questioning: “By the way, Lu Xiaochu, where’s your spiritual medium?”
Lu Chu replied calmly: “It might have been stolen.”
When he heard 7 was injured for him, he focused all his attention on 7, unknowingly putting the skeleton aside. By the time he realized it, the spiritual medium had disappeared.
It was likely the little girl’s doing.
