Chapter 12 What Does It Mean?

"What does it mean?" Fatty asked Jiang Cheng, seemingly seeing a chance for himself.

"Are Zhang Junyu, Lei Mingyu, and Abiao really dead?" Jiang Cheng asked, "In just over an hour, three high-level players were killed. What level of difficulty is this task?"

"We haven't reached the end of the mission yet, our identity as corpse捞尸人 (lāo shī rén, corpse retrievers) hasn't been activated, and we haven't had direct contact with the River Goddess. If it's this difficult now, I can't imagine any way for us to survive later," Jiang Cheng analyzed.

Hearing this, Fatty's eyes lit up. "So...Doctor, you're saying the first three aren't dead?"

"I'm not sure, but it's highly likely." Jiang Cheng frowned, thinking aloud, "I think... the three of them are trapped, waiting..."

"Waiting for what?" Fatty was anxious and urged him to speak.

Jiang Cheng looked up at Fatty's worried face. "Waiting for you to go, to start the real mission."

...

Wu Family Ancestral Hall.

Fatty looked at the paper face he had drawn, almost crying. It was not even remotely similar to the corpse's face.

"Creak—"

A strange sound suddenly echoed inside the ancestral hall, like someone walking, stepping on rotten wooden planks.

Despite what Jiang Cheng had said, hearing it and experiencing it firsthand were two completely different things.

Even more frightening, a gust of wind blew the curtain next door open, allowing him to see the situation in room number 3.

He saw Abiao's face, eyes wide open in death.

Abiao was lying on the ground, surrounded by incense ash.

His mouth was wide open, his eyes bulging, as if he had seen something extremely terrifying.

There were no visible injuries on his body. Fatty guessed he had been scared to death.

He couldn't help but swallow. To be able to scare someone like Abiao to death, he couldn't imagine how terrifying the scene must have been.

And based on Abiao's fate, he could imagine that the people in rooms 1 and 2 had suffered the same fate.

Fatty noticed the incense ash around Abiao. It didn't look like it had been spilled, but rather that Abiao had scattered it himself, as the incense burner was still in place.

On the ground covered with incense ash, there was a series of strange marks.

They looked like footprints, but much smaller, only about half the size of an adult's.

Fatty immediately thought of the thing outside.

The doctor had a high opinion of Abiao, calling him a smart man. The reason he scattered incense ash on the ground was likely because he knew it would make the thing visible.

So Fatty followed suit and scattered incense ash on the ground as well.

Sure enough, after scattering the incense ash, the footsteps outside disappeared.

But Fatty didn't relax his vigilance, after all, Abiao and the others were all dead.

He stared at the white curtain. No shadow was cast on the curtain, but he was sure that something was standing behind it.

A moment later, a burst of footsteps suddenly exploded behind him, rushing towards him at an extremely fast speed. Fatty subconsciously turned his head...

...

After an unknown amount of time, Fatty groggily opened his eyes, his head spinning.

The feeling beneath him told him he was lying on a wooden frame.

When he sat up, his vision gradually cleared. He was still in the previous room number 4, with corpses placed on another frame next to him.

Suddenly, something caught his eye, and he froze.

On the ground... on the ground, there was another corpse lying face up, mouth wide open, eyes bulging, looking scared to death.

What made him most despairing was that the corpse... was himself!

Fatty seemed to realize something. He lowered his head to look at his current body.

That's right, his current body was a paper figure.

The paper figure he had drawn!

What was going on?

His soul had left his body and entered this paper figure.

Was he really dead, or had he transmigrated?

An indescribable despair enveloped him. He tried to move his paper body, but it was stiff, and he could only make some basic movements.

Speaking?

He couldn't even think about it. He couldn't even open his mouth, and could only make a muffled sound like a whimper.

It was completely different from his previous voice.

He heard a sound outside, so he hardened his heart, got off the bed, and hesitantly lifted the curtain and walked out.

The scene before him shocked him again. Standing in front of him were four paper figures.

All four paper figures could move, moving clumsily.

Including Fatty himself, five paper figures looked at each other.

Suddenly, one of the paper figures rushed out, heading towards the Wu family mansion along the way they had come.

A moment later, more and more paper figures seemed to react, one after another running out, all heading for the Wu family mansion.

Fatty was the last one. The movements of the paper figures were almost the same, all light and飘飘 (piāo piāo, ethereal), taking one step and floating three or four steps.

The movements were so strange that if they were encountered by pedestrians walking at night, they would probably be scared to death.

On the way, Fatty's confused thoughts gradually cleared up. Combining what the doctor had said before, he had a rough idea.

The doctor's previous guess was correct. Abiao, Zhang Junyu, and the others were not dead, or not completely dead, but were trapped.

These paper figures were his teammates. Their souls had left their bodies and were trapped in these paper figure bodies.

And to survive, they had to return to the Wu family mansion.

Fatty's thoughts had never been so clear. He tried to recall what the night watchman had said: "The souls have been wandering outside for too long, they need a new body."

"These paper figures will eventually be handed over to the relatives or friends of the corpses. If the people the corpses trusted most in life are willing to accept them, then the mission is considered complete."

So... what they, these "paper figures," had to do now was to get back to the Wu family mansion as soon as possible, gain the trust of their respective teammates, recognize their identities, open the door, and let them in.

As long as they entered the room, they would pass tonight!

And the time... Fatty's heart suddenly sank. The night watchman had also hinted at the time.

Before the fourth watch!

It rained during the fourth watch, and their current paper bodies couldn't withstand the rain at all. If they were soaked in water, their lives would be over.

Before the fourth watch, gain the trust of their teammates and return to their rooms to avoid the rain. That was the real mission for tonight!

At the same time, Fatty also realized the danger of this mission. He looked at the other paper figures running wildly not far away with some hesitation.

Including him, there were five paper figures, but only four of them were participating in the mission tonight.

This meant that a real paper figure ghost had混 (hùn, sneaked) in.

And this paper figure ghost would use every possible means to trick the teammates left in the room into opening the door.

Truth mixed with lies, lies hidden within the truth, this... was really dangerous.