Ye Yuzhi felt strangely calm, colder and steadier than he had ever been before. His mind, dulled only moments ago by sleep, began to run fast and sharp. His eyes fixed on the window as he sat up abruptly, reaching under his pillow with practiced precision.
Before going to bed, he had hidden his pistol there. It wasn’t because he expected danger, he simply wanted to keep it out of sight. After all, Ye Yuzhi was a law-abiding man, the sort who wouldn’t draw a weapon unless absolutely necessary. Or at least, that was what he had thought before tonight.
But now, he didn’t know if it was that eerie voice moments ago that rattled him or a fear so primal it clawed its way out from deep inside him. Either way, his instincts screamed for him to arm himself.
Without a second of hesitation, he drew the gun, released the safety and fired directly toward the window.
The glass shattered instantly. The deafening crack of the gunshot split through the night, sharp and violent enough to wake the entire floor.
Ye Yuzhi thought he heard something, a wet, flapping sound, like something outside was scrambling to get away. His arm trembled faintly from the recoil but he steadied his hand and fired two more times into the dark.
From the next room came hurried movement and muffled voices. The strange noise beyond the window fell silent.
Ye Yuzhi gripped the pistol tightly, stepped off the bed and approached the broken window. Cold air rushed in, carrying flakes of snow that glimmered faintly under the moonlight. The dim light revealed nothing but a white blanket of snow on the ground, no tracks, no blood, no shape.
Did he miss? Or perhaps he had hit it but the thing left no trace at all. He didn’t know.
As he was still trying to make sense of it, the door behind him burst open with a loud crash.
He spun around, muscles tense, only to see that it was his so-called “teammates.”
………
Xia Jienan and the others hadn’t changed clothes when they went to rest, prepared for the possibility of an unexpected battle. Yet instead of monsters, it was the gunshots from Ye Yuzhi’s room that pulled them from their half-sleep.
Weapons in hand, they rushed in, only to stop short.
The man standing by the shattered window looked almost unreal, a figure sculpted from moonlight and cold air. The glow fell against his profile, illuminating the fine curve of his cheek and the pale tips of his hair. For a second, even Xia Jienan forgot to breathe.
In that moment, he could finally understand why Du Yun had been so obsessed with flirting in a place like this.
But he quickly forced his mind back on track and stepped forward, his voice filled with tension, “What happened? Mr. Sean, I thought I heard gunfire from your room.”
Ye Yuzhi blinked, looking down at the gun in his hand as though only now realizing what he had done. His voice came out flat, almost dazed, “I fired a gun?”
“Was there a thief?” Xia Jienan pressed, testing.
Ye Yuzhi shook his head and looked up, meeting his eyes with a strange, distant focus, “There was something outside,” he said slowly, “but I don’t know what it was.”
Jiang Xing moved up beside Xia Jienan, muttering under his breath, “I’ll perform a search check.”
Meanwhile, Xia Jienan was studying Ye Yuzhi closely. His expression was pale, his gaze unfocused, his pupils unfixed, like someone half pulled between this world and another. Something about his reaction didn’t sit right.
“What kind of thing did you see?” Xia Jienan asked quietly.
“I didn’t see it,” Ye Yuzhi replied. His tone was strange, too flat, too detached, “I don’t know.”
Then his hand suddenly trembled. He dropped the pistol, his fingers pressing weakly to his forehead.
“I don’t know,” he whispered. “I don’t even know how to shoot… I didn’t hit it… and there was a voice…”
Xia Jienan frowned, his eyes narrowing. “I’m using psychoanalysis on Sean.”
A faint dice roll echoed in his mind.
[You used Psychoanalysis on Sean: 72/50 , Failure.]
His brow furrowed. He was about to call Jiang Xing over when something suddenly fell forward against his chest. Reflexively, he caught it, realizing with a start that it was Ye Yuzhi, who had collapsed.
For a moment he hesitated, then tightened his hold and lifted him up in both arms.
Unlike them, Ye Yuzhi wasn’t used to danger. He had gone to bed like a normal person, not expecting to wake to gunfire. His clothes were thin, hardly enough for a night with snow falling outside and his body felt almost fragile against Xia Jienan’s chest.
Du Yun soon came running in after finishing her inspection of the room. She picked up the pistol from the floor, eyeing it briefly before glancing toward Ye Yuzhi, unconscious in Xia Jienan’s arms.
“Should we bring him to our room?” she asked.
“Yes,” Xia Jienan said simply. “We’ll talk after.”
The three of them returned together, laying Ye Yuzhi on one of the beds. As soon as they settled, Xia Jienan turned to the others, “Did you find anything?”
Jiang Xing nodded. “There’s some kind of residue on the broken glass. Sticky. Whatever it was, it definitely existed before he fired.”
“The room’s spotless,” Du Yun added. “Nothing actually entered and there are no tracks outside either. So whatever it was, it could fly and from the impact marks, it wasn’t small.”
She paused, thinking aloud. “I’ve seen something similar before but I can’t be sure.”
“Then why attack Sean?” Jiang Xing asked. “Why not us?”
Xia Jienan’s eyes drifted to the sleeping figure on the bed, “Because Sean carries something important,” he said quietly. “Something it wanted.”
He paused, then rose to his feet. “Du Yun, step outside for a bit.”
“What? Why?” she frowned. “You don’t trust me to hear this?”
“It’s not that,” Xia Jienan replied evenly. After a brief hesitation, he changed his mind. “Forget it. Jiang Xing, go with her. Bring Sean’s belongings from his room and check every inch of it.”
Du Yun opened her mouth to argue but Jiang Xing was already on his feet.
“Let’s go,” he said.
She glared at him, sulking. “Fine. But when we’re back, you’d better tell me what you found.”
The moment the door closed behind them, silence returned to the room. Xia Jienan looked down at Ye Yuzhi again, then gently pulled back the blanket.
When he had carried him earlier, he’d already noticed something strange. It might not be a usable clue but it was definitely something Du Yun didn’t need to see.
There was something on Sean’s back.
Xia Jienan placed one hand beneath his head and another on his shoulder, carefully turning him onto his side. But as soon as his fingers brushed against the back of his head, he felt something else, a ridge beneath the hairline.
His mouth tightened. He turned Ye Yuzhi fully and lifted the back of his shirt slightly.
There they were: old scars, jagged and uneven, twisting across his skin like pale serpents. They weren’t recent, some of them had clearly healed years ago yet still stood raised and angry against his skin, as if time itself had failed to erase them.
Already guessing what he might find, Xia Jienan brushed aside the soft hair at the back of his head. Hidden beneath it was another scar, a long, ugly seam of surgical stitching, thick and dark like a centipede crawling across his skull.
He inhaled slowly, then lowered the shirt and laid him back down. For a long moment he stared at that flawless face, so calm, so deceptively peaceful and felt an urge for a cigarette he hadn’t had in months.
Those scars were no coincidence. He was certain now: Sean wasn’t just some side character. He was the key, maybe even the heart, of this entire scenario.
He leaned back and began piecing the information together.
Sean was a local but he’d left the town when he was very young. The scars suggested something had happened before that. Since he’d only now returned and even needed a map to navigate, he clearly had no remaining ties here.
If that was true, his return couldn’t be simple. He claimed it was for “personal reasons,” yet he’d received the same mysterious invitation. Back when he’d left, the Anthony Manor hadn’t even been built.
Why would someone come back to a place filled with pain and memories they’d long tried to escape? That question burned in Xia Jienan’s mind. It had to mean something.
And the creature tonight, it targeted him first. Either Sean had never seen those things before or worse, he had seen them once, long ago and they had scarred him so deeply that even the memory broke him.
Everything, he reasoned, was connected. In games like this, nothing existed in isolation. Sean’s return, the invitation, the manor, the monster, all threads of the same web.
The banquet at Anthony Manor would not be an ordinary gathering. It was far more likely a ritual, a summoning ground for something terrible. And the invited guests? Carefully chosen sacrifices.
So where did Sean fit among them?
For a fleeting instant, Xia Jienan pictured the scars, the way the moonlight had brushed his back. He sighed softly, resting his chin on his hand. An uninvited thought crossed his mind, quiet and unshakable: he wanted to help him.
A while later, Jiang Xing and Du Yun returned. She tossed Sean’s neatly folded clothes and a small bag onto a chair.
“Nothing special,” Jiang Xing reported. “He only had a single bag. Inside it was just the invitation, wrapped in a piece of parchment. Strangest thing? With all that noise, no one else in the inn even came out.”
“Expected,” Xia Jienan said calmly. “At night in a place like this, no sane NPC comes running toward gunfire.”
Du Yun leaned forward, narrowing her eyes. “So what did you make us leave for, huh? You didn’t do anything to my beautiful NPC, did you?”
Xia Jienan gave her a long look.
Jiang Xing snorted. “Do you think he’s as shameless as you?”
Xia Jienan arched an eyebrow. “And when did he become yours exactly?”
The room went still. Then Du Yun slammed her hands on the table, “Comrade Xia Jienan, the beautiful NPC belongs to the whole team!”
“Quiet,” Xia Jienan said, frowning. “He’s still asleep.”
She flinched, ducking her head and whispering, “Fine, fine. So what did you find?”
He told them everything, what he’d seen, what he’d deduced, every piece of reasoning he had so far.
When he finished, he turned to her again. “Tomorrow, check the town records. Focus on anything from before the Anthony Manor was built. Look for reports of missing children, especially large numbers. That’s your priority.”
Du Yun was silent for a while before nodding. “Got it.”
Then she looked up, squinting at him. “You sure you’re not planning anything shady, Brother Xia?”
His reply came dry and distracted. “Do I look like you?”
✦ ✧ ✦
Nycreth
[Translator]
☕ A LITTLE SOMETHING FOR THE TRANSLATOR
Please distract the translator from abandoning everything with coffee. (ง •̀_•́)ง
☕ BUY THEM A COFFEE →
✧ (づ｡•ㅅ•｡)づ ☕ ✧
✦ thank you for reading ✦
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ChaptersChapter 1 · Guerrero’s Lair (1)Chapter 2 · Guerrero’s Lair (2)Chapter 3 · Guerrero’s Lair (3)Chapter 4 · Guerrero’s Lair (4)Chapter 5 · Guerrero’s Lair (5)Chapter 6 · Guerrero’s Lair (6)Chapter 7 · Guerrero’s Lair (7)Chapter 8 · Guerrero’s Lair (8)Chapter 9 · Guerrero’s Lair (9)Chapter 10 · Guerrero’s Lair (10)Chapter 11 · Guerrero’s Lair (11)Chapter 12 · Guerrero’s Lair (12)Chapter 13 · Guerrero’s Lair (13)Chapter 14 · Guerrero’s Lair (14)Chapter 15 · Guerrero’s Lair (15)Chapter 16 · Guerrero’s Lair (16)Chapter 17 · Guerrero’s Lair (17)Chapter 18 · Guerrero’s Lair (18)Chapter 19 · Guerrero’s Lair (19)Chapter 20 · Guerrero’s Lair (20)Chapter 21 · Guerrero’s Lair (21)Chapter 22 · Guerrero’s Lair (22)Chapter 23 · Interlude (1)Chapter 24 · The interlude (2)Chapter 25 · The interlude (3)Chapter 26 Part 1 · Calling in the Wind (1)Chapter 26 Part 2 · Calling in the Wind (1)Chapter 27 · Calling in the Wind (2)Chapter 28 · Calling in the Wind (3)Chapter 29 · Calling in the Wind (4)Chapter 30 · Calling in the Wind (5)Chapter 31 · Calling in the Wind (6)Chapter 32 · Calling in the Wind (7)Chapter 33 · Calling in the Wind (8)Chapter 34 · Calling in the Wind (9)Chapter 35 · Calling in the Wind (10)Chapter 36 · Interlude (4)Chapter 37 · Interlude (5)Chapter 38 · Interlude (6)Chapter 39 · Interlude (7)Chapter 40 · Interlude (8)Chapter 41 · Interlude (9)Chapter 42 · Welcome to Doville (1)Chapter 43 · Welcome to Doville (2)Chapter 44 · Welcome to Doville (3)Chapter 45 · Welcome to Doville (4)Chapter 46 · Welcome to Doville (5)Chapter 47 · Welcome to Doville (6)Chapter 48 · Welcome to Doville (7)Chapter 49 · Welcome to Doville (8)Chapter 50 · Welcome to Doville (9)Chapter 51 · Welcome to Doville (10)Chapter 52 · Welcome to Doville (11)Chapter 53 · Welcome to Doville (12)Chapter 54 · Interlude (10)Chapter 55 · Interlude (11)Chapter 56 · Interlude (12)Chapter 57 · Interlude (13)Chapter 58 · Interlude (14)Chapter 59 · The Tunnel in the Dark Night (1)Chapter 60 · The Tunnel in the Dark Night (2)Chapter 61 · The Tunnel in the Dark Night (3)Chapter 62 · The Tunnel in the Dark Night (4)Chapter 63 · The Tunnel in the Dark Night (5)Chapter 64 · The Tunnel in the Dark Night (6)Chapter 65 · The Tunnel in the Dark Night (7)Chapter 66 · The Tunnel in the Dark Night (8)Chapter 67 · The Tunnel in the Dark Night (9)Chapter 68 · The Tunnel in the Dark Night (10)Chapter 69 · The Tunnel in the Dark Night (11)Chapter 70 · The Tunnel in the Dark Night (12)Chapter 71 · The Tunnel in the Dark Night (13)Chapter 72 · The Tunnel in the Dark Night (14)Chapter 73 · The Tunnel in the Dark Night (15)Chapter 74 · The Tunnel in the Dark Night (16)Chapter 75 · The Tunnel in the Dark Night (17)Chapter 76 · The Tunnel in the Dark Night (18)Chapter 77 · The Tunnel in the Dark Night (19)Chapter 78 · The Tunnel in the Dark Night (20)Chapter 79 · The Tunnel in the Dark Night (21)Chapter 80 · The Tunnel in the Dark Night (22)Chapter 81 · The Tunnel in the Dark Night (23)Chapter 82 · The Tunnel in the Dark Night (24)Chapter 83 · The Tunnel in the Dark Night (25)Chapter 84 · The Tunnel in the Dark Night (26)Chapter 85 · The Tunnel in the Dark Night (27)Chapter 86 · The Tunnel in the Dark Night (28)Chapter 87 · The Tunnel in the Dark Night (29)Chapter 88 · Tunnel in the Dark Night (30)Chapter 89 · Interlude (15)Chapter 90 · Interlude (16)Chapter 91 · Interlude (17)Chapter 92 · The Promise of Hamelin (1)Chapter 93 · The Promise of Hamelin (2)Chapter 94 · The Promise of Hamelin (3)Chapter 95 · The Promise of Hamelin (4)Chapter 96 · The Promise of Hamelin (5)Chapter 97 · The Promise of Hamelin (6)Chapter 98 · The Promise of Hamelin (7)Chapter 99 · The Promise of Hamelin (8)Chapter 100 · The Promise of Hamelin (9)Chapter 101 · The Promise of Hamelin (10)Chapter 102 · The Promise of Hamelin (11)Chapter 103 · The Promise of Hamelin (12)Chapter 104 · The Promise of Hamelin (13)Chapter 105 · The Promise of Hamelin (14)Chapter 106 · The Promise of Hamelin (15)Chapter 107 · The Promise of Hamelin (16)Chapter 109 · The Promise of Hamelin (18)Chapter 110 · The Promise of Hamelin (19)