“Qinqin, the pavilion is here, come over quickly!”
Just when the three people in the Lake-Center Pavilion were about to despair, Tan Moli's voice suddenly came from the fog, crying, anxious, and panicked.
Fu Qinqin and Tan Moli were back!
The water ghost did not pause, as if it couldn't even hear Tan Moli's voice.
“It's the candle! It's the light of the candle. As long as we are in the light, that thing can't see us!”
Zhao Weilai understood all at once, pulling Deng Ziwen toward the candle's range while sobbing.
So that was what the mission prompt meant!
The water ghost blocked the only entrance to the pavilion. The three people crouched on the stone table and stools, virtually leaning on one another, cried out almost simultaneously:
“Hurry! That thing is about to come in!”
“Watch out, it's right at the entrance!”
“Hurry, hurry!”
Two stumbling figures emerged from the fog. It was indeed Fu Qinqin and Tan Moli.
They looked even more wretched than Liu Guilan.
Tan Moli's jacket was torn, water weeds and mud clung to her hair, and her face was as white as a ghost.
Fu Qinqin was not doing any better. She had a bump on her forehead, and the candle she was shielding in her hands had burned down to a tiny stub.
That tiny, green-sized flame was their only path to survival at this moment.
The moment the green light swept over, Tan Moli and Fu Qinqin naturally also saw the massive water ghost blocking the entrance of the Lake-Center Pavilion, as well as the dense crowd of floating corpses under the bridge, packed together like a school of fish.
“!”
Tan Moli was so terrified her legs went weak, and she almost slumped to the ground.
Fu Qinqin's face was also deathly pale. She clutched the candle tightly and took two steps back.
The water ghost was blocking the very center of the pavilion, its massive body completely sealing off the entrance.
They couldn't get in at all.
“What do we do? Qinqin, we can't get in...” Tan Moli cried, desperately closing her eyes to avoid looking at the faces floating in the water.
Fu Qinqin bit her lip, her mind racing.
If they couldn't get in, they couldn't complete the mission.
If the ever-burning candle went out, the two of them wouldn't be able to escape at all.
“We have to rush in,” Fu Qinqin said through gritted teeth. “Only by bringing the candle inside can we survive.”
“But... that thing is blocking the way... I'm scared...”
“I'll lure it away, and you take the opportunity to rush in and light the candle,” Fu Qinqin said rapidly. “You hold the candle. It will chase me, and then you take the chance to rush into the pavilion and quickly light the ever-burning candle!”
“No, no, I can't do it.” Tan Moli grabbed her arm. “Let's go together!”
“The candle is about to go out.” Fu Qinqin pushed her hand away. “If we waste any more time, we'll all die!”
After saying that, she shoved the candle into Tan Moli's hands without allowing any argument and decisively stepped out of the area enveloped by the green light.
In almost an instant, Fu Qinqin felt a bone-chilling cold wash over her from head to toe.
Countless gazes cast down in unison, staring fixedly at her.
The lake water churned, more bubbles gurgled to the surface, and swaying long black hair bobbed up and down.
Did this many people really drown at our school?
Fu Qinqin's legs went weak. She barely managed to steady herself by grabbing the moss-covered railing, forcing herself to knock loudly against it:
“Hey! You over there—”
The largest water ghost was indeed distracted.
It looked at Fu Qinqin, let out a beastly low growl from its throat, turned, and vanished from the candlelight.
Splat, splat...
The next second, wet footprints suddenly appeared on the dry wooden bridge. The footprints moved extremely fast, appearing right in front of Fu Qinqin in just a few breaths!
“Hurry! Moli, hurry, now's the chance!” Fu Qinqin's face was filled with terror. The next second, damp water vapor enveloped her, and an overwhelming sensation of suffocation washed over her.
“Blegh... urgh... urgh...”
Her mouth was wide open, like a fish out of water. She half-knelt on the ground, struggling desperately, her fingers even reaching into her mouth to claw frantically—
Fu Qinqin began to vomit, but what came out was not blood, but clumps of hair and foul-smelling silt.
“Hurry, come over!”
Ding Feifan shouted at Tan Moli. Seeing Fu Qinqin's state, the latter instinctively took a few steps back.
Fortunately, her desire to survive overcame her fear. In the end, she still shielded the candle and rushed blindly toward the pavilion.
But Tan Moli had only run two steps when over a dozen hands suddenly reached out from the gaps between the wooden planks, firmly grabbing her ankles—
She fell heavily to the ground, and the candle in her hand rolled a few paces away, getting wedged right in a gap in the wooden bridge.
That pitiful speck of candlelight flickered incessantly, as if it would go out at any second.
“Get away! Get away! Wahhh, Mom! Save me, save me!”
Almost the instant she left the light, Tan Moli was completely submerged by a tidal wave of hands.
In the Lake-Center Pavilion, the despair on the faces of Deng Ziwen and Ding Feifan was practically overflowing.
At this critical juncture—
Zhao Weilai, driven by some unknown courage, bolted out like a rabbit!
【Player "Zhao Weilai" has awakened the class "Butcher (Gray)"】
【Basic Skill: Butcher's Touch】
【Skill Effect: When attacking spiritual or corpse-type targets, there is a 20% probability of triggering a weakness check, dealing massive damage.】
【Performing weakness check... Check failed.】
【Performing weakness check... Check failed.】
【Check failed—】
【Performing weakness check... Check successful!】
The moment the cold text rang in her mind one after another, Zhao Weilai's eyes turned virtually bloodshot—
Her limbs, which had been weak, were instantly filled with strength, and the scene before her eyes became incredibly clear:
On the water ghost's bloated, waterlogged face, a single point was faintly glowing.
It was its left eye socket.
She could even clearly see the turbid eye fluid sloshing beneath that thin layer of skin.
“Get lost, you ugly thing!”
Zhao Weilai let out a fierce roar. She lunged forward to pick up the candle, holding the mop handle like a knife. Leaping into the air, she stabbed it straight in!
—Almost simultaneously, Song Mo, outside the Instance, let out a satisfied exclamation of praise.
Squelch!!
The sharp wooden stick pierced the bloated skin. Blackish-green pus mixed with rotten flesh sprayed out with a splat, splattering all over Zhao Weilai's body and face.
“Aaargh!”
The water ghost let out a howl. Seemingly enraged, the entire Lake-Center Pavilion began to shake, and waves of black water surged across the lake.
Zhao Weilai quickly retreated, stumbling as she helped Tan Moli up.
Over on the other side, the nearly frightened-witless Deng Ziwen and Ding Feifan also approached, trembling, and dragged Fu Qinqin—who was still vomiting muddy water—back with sheer force.
The candle in Zhao Weilai's hand finally lit the ever-burning candle on the table right before it went out.
The moment the green candlelight expanded once more, the white fog dispersed, and the surroundings returned to tranquility.
The churning waves on the lake's surface also gradually calmed down.
Those pale faces floating on the water slowly sank, disappearing into the dark, deep lake water.
Everything returned to a dead calm, leaving only puddles of black, rotten mud on the ground.
Everyone was still immersed in the shock from just moments ago.
Tan Moli collapsed face-down on the ground.
Fu Qinqin could barely stand.
Deng Ziwen and Ding Feifan also stood with their mouths agape, their faces filled with disbelief:
Where did Zhao Weilai get such immense strength?
Zhao Weilai herself was also dazed.
Sitting on the ground, she looked at her hands, then at the half-broken mop handle in her grasp.
The end of the wooden stick was still stained with blackish-green pus.
Was this... her doing?
But the rancid stench lingering in the air, along with the rotten flesh, black water, and wet footprints on the ground, proved that everything just now was not an illusion.
【Player Tan Moli has completed the ghost story check-in: Water Ghost in the Lake.】
【Player Fu Qinqin has completed the ghost story check-in: Water Ghost in the Lake.】
【Players Fu Qinqin and Tan Moli have left the Instance 《Campus Ghost Stories》.】
The text prompts appeared one after another.
Tan Moli and Fu Qinqin sat and knelt by the stone table, their bodies and faces splattered with a considerable amount of corpse water and rotten flesh.
In the next second, their figures slowly dissolved.
The white fog surrounding the Lake-Center Pavilion also faintly dispersed, revealing the wooden bridge leading to the shore.
Zhao Weilai and the other two let out a heavy sigh of relief at the same time.
Although many questions remained, they decided to leave the artificial lake's vicinity first before making further plans.
...
Meanwhile, outside the Instance.
Jiangcheng University.
Rate on N.U.
