Yu Qing spun around.
Just Plain Rude was slowly getting to his feet. He lay sprawled on the floor for a moment longer before pushing himself upright, his mouth splitting into a grin.
"It's no use. That won't kill me. You can't kill me."
He appeared to be smiling, but the smile never reached his eyes.
Yu Qing frowned.
He was admittedly less adept at dealing with ghosts than with living people. But when he said he was "less adept," he meant ghosts that existed only as spirits, things he could neither touch nor grasp.
Just Plain Rude was different.
His appearance was grotesque, his body horribly distorted. He had long since ceased to be human. Yet although he was called a ghost, he possessed a physical body and was not a ghost in the purest sense, either.
Creatures that belonged fully to neither world often carried the burden of past wrongs and festering resentment. As long as that resentment remained, they could not die.
Sure enough, Just Plain Rude twisted his neck from side to side. His bones creaked and cracked as everything that had been bent out of place returned to its proper position.
Rubbing his neck, he said, "That really hurt. But it's been so long since I felt pain. I suppose it's nice to experience it once in a while."
Three Ks had retreated into the farthest corner of the room.
What kind of sick freak says something like that?
The more he thought about what had happened earlier, the more terrified he became.
"What the hell are you?" he cried, on the verge of breaking down. "How did you manage to imitate a player so convincingly?"
What exactly was he?
Just Plain Rude couldn't answer that question himself.
Years ago, he had taken a wrong turn and caused the deaths of Luo Yao and his family. He hadn't escaped the consequences, either. Trapped in the hotel as something neither human nor ghost, he had remained there for a very long time.
Long enough to become almost inseparable from the hotel itself. Long enough that nearly every employee feared him and acted according to his wishes.
It was as though he had taken the dead Luo Yao's place and become the hotel's new, invisible owner.
Had the duplication talisman worked after all, albeit in a roundabout way?
The irony was that he no longer wanted any of it.
All he wanted now was to get out.
Recently, countless groups of new guests had begun arriving at the long-abandoned hotel. They came and went, free to enter and leave as they pleased.
He watched them, imitated them, and tried to become one of them.
In every beginner instance, he disguised himself as one of the players. He watched the others complete their quests, screamed and fled alongside them, and eventually became so absorbed in the experience that he sometimes forgot who he really was.
He knew the instance's procedures better than anyone. Sometimes he even lent the players a hand, hoping to help them finish their quests sooner and open the exit.
Once the exit opened, the seaside equipment shop would begin renting out speedboats. He couldn't rent one himself, so each time, he kidnapped a team member and took their place.
The moment he looked forward to most was boarding that speedboat.
When the engine started and the boat pulled away from shore, he felt as though he had finally escaped.
Players who successfully left the instance always received a system notification upon exiting:
[Congratulations! You have successfully escaped the instance. The assets and special items you obtained have been deposited in your personal vault and may be freely exchanged at the applicable conversion rate.]
They would also receive another notification:
[Hidden Side Quests "Escape to Freedom" and "The Ferryman of the River Styx" — Incomplete.]
Countless players had asked what those two quests were and how to unlock them. But the game had only been online for a few days, and not a single team had managed to complete either quest.
As for Just Plain Rude, whose presence had caused their hidden side quests to fail, he would fall asleep at the very instant the speedboat broke through the horizon, just as freedom seemed within reach.
When he awoke, he would be standing at the entrance to the hotel once again.
The cycle repeated, over and over.
*
"I hate these mechanics," Just Plain Rude said, looking at Yu Qing. "But if they mean you can't kill me, I suppose they're not so bad."
Yu Qing regarded him coldly. He did not dispute the claim. Instead, he abruptly asked, "Can you experience death?"
Just Plain Rude froze.
"You said it hurt," Yu Qing continued. "It must feel almost like dying once."
Just Plain Rude had no idea what he meant. His expression darkened as he waited for Yu Qing to continue.
Yu Qing looked at him, tilted his head slightly, and said without a trace of emotion, "I can make you die as many times as I like."
Just Plain Rude went rigid.
The next instant, the same hands that had already made him experience death closed around his throat once more.
*
Just Plain Rude had never experienced death so profoundly.
It was more agonizing than truly dying, and far more drawn out.
The man before him was more ruthless than any vicious ghost.
Few people could watch a life end in their hands with such utter indifference, again and again.
Even Just Plain Rude had moments of regret. Yet the man before him seemed to possess neither a heart nor emotions.
As he approached death once more, Just Plain Rude fixed his bloodred eyes on Yu Qing.
"Your hands are so steady. You must have killed a lot of people. Don't you think you're more frightening than I am? I'm trapped here by resentment. What gives you the right to come and go as you please?"
Yu Qing's hands faltered for an instant.
Just Plain Rude seized the opening. His sharp claws dug into Yu Qing's wrist, carving three deep, bloody gashes.
Just Plain Rude saw a glimmer of hope.
He had tried to injure Yu Qing before, but it had been extremely difficult to leave even a mark on him. The fact that he could do so now meant that both their Physical Strength and Spiritual Power were being depleted.
And Yu Qing was exhausting his reserves much faster!
"Are you really going to keep killing me over and over?" Just Plain Rude laughed. "I told you, you can't kill me. This hotel is practically my territory. You're the one who has to deal with certain restrictions here."
Yu Qing straightened and flicked the blood that continued to stream from his wrist.
There was one thing Just Plain Rude had said that was true: Yu Qing had taken more lives than anyone.
Countless vengeful ghosts hated him. He had killed so many people, and because he could not help their souls pass on, the accumulated resentment could indeed leave him weakened.
But that was different from the rapid depletion he was experiencing now.
He was beginning to find it strange when Three Ks suddenly shouted, "His level is higher!"
Yu Qing looked at him in confusion.
"He's used two Wish Slips! His actual level is way higher than ours. What level are you again?"
The moment the question left his mouth, Three Ks thought, Holy shit, I've really got some nerve! I actually dared to ask Smiley what level he is!
Yu Qing did not understand what he was getting at, but he remembered the figures he had seen on his phone earlier.
"Level 4."
Three Ks fell silent.
"How the hell are you so many levels below even me?" Three Ks stared at him in shock. "Don't tell me you haven't done any of the Beginner Guide quests apart from checking into the hotel! No wonder your health and mana bars are so short! Of course you're burning through them so quickly!"
Yu Qing was even more confused.
Three Ks desperately wanted to shout at him to stop wasting his strength. If this kept up, Just Plain Rude might turn the tables and kill him instead!
But he didn't dare say it aloud, afraid he would inadvertently alert Just Plain Rude to the possibility.
Besides, the only way to end the fight quickly was to kill the boss, and he had no idea how to do that.
Just Plain Rude had evidently reached the same conclusion. Spitting out a mouthful of bloody saliva, he smiled at Yu Qing.
"Looks like you can't outlast me after all. And like I said, you can't kill me."
Yu Qing looked into his eyes and suddenly said, "I've killed many people. I've heard plenty of people make threats just before they die."
Taking it as a provocation, Just Plain Rude's face darkened.
But Yu Qing was not trying to provoke him. He was simply stating a fact.
He had heard too many such threats. He knew the fear, the forced bravado, the concealment, and the resentment hidden within those words, and he was acutely sensitive to them.
Just Plain Rude had said twice that you can't kill me.
You.
Not no one can kill me.
"If we can't kill you, that means someone else can," Yu Qing said with certainty.
Just Plain Rude's expression turned ugly, and Yu Qing caught a flicker of nervousness in it.
During their earlier quests, he had not had much contact with Just Plain Rude, but the man seemed to have worn that same expression whenever he looked at him—a subtle mixture of unease, resistance, and fear.
It was different from his theatrical screaming and fleeing.
Previously, Yu Qing had assumed that his own overwhelming ghostly aura and ruthless manner had frightened the other players.
That might have been true of Three Ks, but it was not true of Just Plain Rude.
Just Plain Rude was neither human nor ghost himself. Such things should not have frightened him.
Whatever he had feared back then, it had been something else.
Yu Qing carefully recalled the only difference between his appearance then and now.
The skin he had been wearing.
Back then, he had been wearing Luo Yao's skin.
*
At that moment, Painted Skin, the Ghost Deity, let out a sigh.
These were the things he knew best: debts of blood, lingering resentment, blood repaid with blood, and vengeance exacted in kind.
Most of his believers had died unjustly, and what they offered him was the deepest hatred they had felt at the moment of death.
He was probably the most contradictory deity in the entire island city.
He had become a deity through a single moment of compassion, yet the deeds he carried out on behalf of his believers were steeped in the most extreme hatred and vengeance.
Over time, he had become the heartless figure of rumor.
But it hardly mattered. He would soon cease to exist anyway.
Before that happened, he wouldn't mind helping one more person.
Or killing one more.
*
Just Plain Rude had originally intended to wait until Yu Qing had exhausted himself before killing him in return.
After all, the one thing he did not fear was a battle of attrition. Time was something he had in abundance.
But just as he raised his hand, blue-green and golden dust swirled around Yu Qing's body.
Beginning with his right hand, his flesh gave way to white bones. Wherever the swirling dust passed, his original appearance faded, and a new skin took its place.
That face was one Just Plain Rude knew all too well.
Luo Yao.
Just Plain Rude's expression changed instantly. His bloodred eyes remained fixed on Luo Yao's face, but he addressed Yu Qing.
"...He wandered this hotel for so long and still couldn't kill me. He can't kill me, and neither can you. You can take on his appearance, but you're still you."
"That's where you're wrong," Yu Qing said. "I am Painted Skin."
The moment Painted Skin, the Ghost Deity, donned another person's skin, he became that person.
He could experience everything its owner had felt at the moment of death: bewilderment, despair, pain, and... hatred.
He seized Just Plain Rude by the throat and dragged him close, until their faces were mere inches apart.
Then, calmly and distinctly, he said, "Luo Yao wandered this hotel for so long without killing you because you weren't the person he came back to see. He didn't want to waste a single second on you."
Time was precious. He wanted to spend it with his treasures.
"But I can," Yu Qing said.
Just Plain Rude stared at Luo Yao's face, now so close to his own.
For an instant, the present seemed to merge with a night many years ago.
Back then, he had lived with his grandmother in a low-rent apartment in the Lower City. The building housed all sorts of people, good and bad alike. Because he was ugly and scrawny, he was often surrounded and beaten.
Only once had a passing neighbor stepped in to help him.
That neighbor was Luo Yao, who was about ten years older than him and lived in the same low-rent building.
In the twenty years that followed, they had virtually no contact.
He had worshipped the Martial God devoutly, hoping to grow taller, more handsome, and better built. The Martial God had taken pity on his believer and granted his wish.
Later, he had wished to become stronger and better able to withstand a beating. That wish had been granted as well.
Then came more wishes...
Perhaps people were simply like that. Their greed was never satisfied, and they always wanted more.
Yet he had always believed that his own desires were perfectly reasonable. He had endured such a miserable childhood and worked so hard to improve his life. Why shouldn't he be allowed to have a better one?
When he was twenty, he began seeing his former neighbor's name frequently in the Rose Daily. Again and again, the newspaper described Luo Yao's bright, successful life.
He had envied him terribly.
Eventually, that envy had almost turned into hatred.
He resented never encountering the same opportunities or receiving the same helping hand. He resented the fact that two people who had started out equally poor could end up living such vastly different lives.
People did not generally feel that way toward things utterly beyond their reach.
But he and Luo Yao had come from similar beginnings. In Just Plain Rude's eyes, that was a connection between them.
And so, he had made a wish to the Martial God.
...
It became the last wish of his life.
He had been trapped in this hotel for so long that he had passed through confusion, resentment, bewilderment, and rage.
Yet now, standing face-to-face with Luo Yao, as all those emotions swept through him, Just Plain Rude found that he could say only one thing.
"...Thank you for helping me that day when you happened to walk past."
Yu Qing frowned and tried to sense the will of the skin's owner.
After a long while, he spoke.
"Luo Yao says he doesn't know you."
If he could turn back time and return to that long, dim corridor in the low-rent apartment building, and if he encountered the same scene again, Luo Yao would still step in to help.
But he wanted no such gratitude.
He held that kind of gratitude in contempt.
Under Yu Qing's steadily tightening fingers, Just Plain Rude's face turned bright red, then gradually darkened to a deep purple.
He struggled frantically, only to discover that when Painted Skin wore Luo Yao's skin, he really could kill him.
Wherever Yu Qing's fingers touched him, his flesh blistered and rotted as though it had been burned. Shrill howls forced their way through his constricted throat.
He truly had become inseparable from the hotel.
As he screamed, the entire building began to shake and shudder violently. Bricks and rubble rained down from the walls, scattering across the floor as clouds of dust billowed through the air.
At the very end, he heard Yu Qing's calm voice, each word clearly enunciated.
"And what you should have said to him, more than anything else, was 'I'm sorry.'"
In an instant, Just Plain Rude disintegrated with a bang amid the searing heat, reduced to a cloud of dust.
Fire sprang up from the pile of ashes.
The hotel filled with shrill wails. The cries of countless ghosts echoed through the corridors.
What followed was a scene of chaos and madness unlike anything Three Ks had ever witnessed.
"Quick, quick, QUICK! IT'S ON FIRE! SMILEY! RUN!"
Three Ks screamed as he fled, somehow managing to create the impression of an entire crowd scattering in panic all by himself.
His holographic screen went wild with notifications amid his screams.
[Congratulations! You have completed the side quest "Escape to Freedom." The quest result has affected the instance outcome.]
[Congratulations! You have unlocked the instance's hidden exit.]
[On the vast, fog-shrouded shore, where the mist is thickest, lies a long-abandoned marina. That is where the ferryman docks his boat.]
[According to legend, the ferryman disappeared long ago because he had unfinished business in the mortal world.]
[But have faith. You can summon him.]
[Call him back, and let him ferry you home.]
Then there was Sushi Bar, who had spent practically the entire instance lying unconscious. The fire finally woke him, and he came bursting out of Room 1811, cursing furiously.
As he sprinted down the corridor, he shouted at Three Ks, "For fuck's sake! Don't you know you're not supposed to use the elevator during a fucking fire?!"
"And where the fuck is that asshole who knocked me out?!"
"And who the fuck is THAT?!"
He kept glancing back at Yu Qing, but the flames were too high and the smoke too thick for him to make out the other man's appearance.
All he could see was a faint haze of blue-green and golden threads drifting through the dense smoke. Within it stood a tall, slender figure dressed in a pure black suit.
"Why do I get the feeling he didn't look like that just now...?"
Sushi Bar shook his head, convinced his eyes were playing tricks on him.
"RUN!" he shouted.
Then he turned and fled without looking back.
*
Yu Qing remained standing in the corridor.
Perhaps because the instance was nearing its end, the various restrictions imposed upon him were beginning to lift, and he was gradually returning to his original appearance.
As on the countless nights when he had fulfilled his believers' wishes, the moment the borrowed skin fell away and the consuming hatred dissipated, the world sank into a strange silence.
A silence utterly at odds with the chaos actually unfolding around him.
Someone had once comforted him by saying, "That's actually because ghosts are hundreds of times louder than people. When you help them, they scream, and then they suddenly quiet down."
That person had called this silence "a little gift from the vengeful ghosts."
This time, the little gift lasted unusually long.
So long that Yu Qing began to wonder whether he had gone deaf.
He shook his head and headed toward the stairs. As he walked, he reached into his pocket and pulled out the remaining rubbish from the instance: the two Martial God talismans that had been used to create the duplicates.
He was about to throw them into the fire when one slipped from his hand.
The fallen talisman was swept up by the smoke and dust and stuck to a mirror in the corridor.
Yu Qing glanced at it, intending to leave it there.
But then he suddenly noticed that his reflection in the mirror was no longer moving in sync with him.
He stopped abruptly.
For an instant, the person in the mirror looked startled.
Then he smiled at Yu Qing.
Yu Qing realized who it was.
Mi Xiaobai.
Mi Xiaobai raised a hand, seemingly about to say something, but when he turned his head, he saw that the fire had already spread toward them.
As waves of scorching heat swept over him, he arched an eyebrow, turned back to Yu Qing, and said softly, "Run."
It was the first sound Yu Qing had heard.
The floor beneath his feet shook and trembled, smoke and dust filled the air, and behind him, crimson flames clawed and surged.
In the deathlike silence, Yu Qing strode toward the stairs.
And in the vast expanse of mirrors stretching along the corridor beside him, someone ran alongside him, smiling.
At the corner, Yu Qing came to an abrupt halt.
He suddenly turned to Mi Xiaobai with a frown.
"Your voice is different, but you really remind me of someone I know."