Chapter 9: Night Terrors

Instead, there was a sticky sound, as if something was dragging across the floor, accompanied by the sound of knocking on the ground.
“Bang, bang, bang.”
Someone was knocking on a door.
The player inside the room groggily woke up, puzzled about who could be looking for him at this late hour.
“It’s me, open the door.”
Upon hearing the familiar voice, the player recognized it as one belonging to a fellow gamer he had completed several quests with, though this player ranked the lowest among their group.
Irritated, he opened the door, ready to scold him for disturbing his rest so late at night.
However, when he opened the door, the person standing outside was not who he expected.
He was frozen in place, his body completely forgetting how to react as he stood there stiffly.
Then, there was a muffled groan.
Bright red blood flowed from his abdomen as a claw pierced through his body.
The claw suddenly wrinkled, as if an inflatable toy had quickly deflated.
The lifeless player, however, opened his eyes.
The wound on his abdomen began to heal, until it vanished completely.
He crouched down and started to eat the skin off the floor piece by piece.
The sound of chewing filled the entire room.
Even though he was eating skin, the noise resembled the crunching of bones.
“Crack, crack——”
……
The next day, a female player asked the person beside her if they had heard any strange noises during the night.
“I heard it. I heard someone knocking on my door outside. It was so late that I thought it was impossible for anyone to be looking for me, so I didn’t open it. After that, nothing happened.”
The female player immediately chimed in,
“I also heard someone knocking on my door last night, but I didn’t pay attention. However, I think I heard the sound of the door in the room next to mine opening.”
After speaking, the female player started scanning the crowd for someone who lived next to her.
When she spotted someone who happened to be passing through the yard, she quickly tugged at the person beside her, “It’s him.”
“I heard it last night; he must have opened the door.”
As the two discussed the matter, Tuli arrived.
“There was unusual noise last night; my door was knocked on.”
“When I opened the door to check, I found nothing outside except for a puddle of water. I followed the water trail and found it disappeared at the entrance to the yard.”
“Someone knocked on my door last night too.”
“So did I.”
Everyone in the group had their doors knocked on.
“This must be the ghost of this quest.”
“There’s water on the ground; I suspect the monster in this quest might be in the water.”
“Then what about the person we are here to bury? Shouldn’t the monsters in a quest be of the same type?”
Tuli also had not fully understood the circumstances of this quest.
After all, this was not an ordinary quest; perhaps the quest, open only to the top one hundred players, had some properties they were unaware of.
“Let’s observe a bit longer; if the knocking happens again, we can check while ensuring we have the ability to survive or with the use of detection tools. Staying alive is the most important thing.”
After the group discussed it, the villagers came to find them.
Lin Yansheng was to be buried in the next few days, and the men needed to go with the villagers to dig the grave.
During the burial, all players had to go along to pay their respects.
They followed the villagers winding their way for a long time until they finally arrived at a pond.
“This is the burial ground chosen by the Lin family. Everyone put in some effort today to ensure the grave is dug, but be careful not to break through to the pond.”
Everyone took a shovel and began to dig.
“Uncle Zhang, why did the Lin family choose this place for the grave? Isn’t it normally not advisable to have graves so close to water?”
A more talkative and persuasive player asked curiously.
Uncle Zhang didn’t hide the truth and shared what he knew.
“We advised the old Lin family, but they insisted on burying Yansheng here. They said since he wasn’t married and died young, being buried here would have the Fish God bless him, and he would have a better life on the other side.”
“Fish God?”
“Uncle Zhang, why have I never heard my parents mention this?”
Uncle Zhang sighed, his tone filled with helplessness.
“You young people live in the city so much that you wouldn’t know these things. Even we old folks know very little.”
“The Fish God is a benevolent deity that protects our village.”
“Back during the famine, it was the Fish God that revealed himself and sent us many fish, helping our village survive; otherwise, the people in our village would have perished.”
“I just hope that the Fish God will bless Yansheng to have a good life over there; he was the most promising child in our village, and who would have known…”
“Sigh!”
After learning all this, they dug until nightfall and finally finished the grave.
The group walked back to their place of residence.
Meanwhile, Song Jinshi had not left his house all day; he was contemplating who the boss could be and how he should approach conquering him.
When he was playing the romance scenario, he had done extensive research on each target, perfectly embodying their ideal character.
Although in the end, they liked his true personality the most.
It was only when night fell that Song Jinshi realized he had wasted a whole day for nothing.