The night had grown deep.
The white lanterns hanging in front of the village houses were all lit. Their pale light shone on the bluestone paths, casting an unsettling chill over anyone who looked at them.
With every gust of wind, the lanterns swayed back and forth, and the shadows on the ground swayed with them like countless people walking on their tiptoes.
In the distance, the faint sounds of suonas, gongs, and drums echoed, accompanied by waves of cat meows.
The sounds drifted closer and then farther away, making one's skin crawl.
“Why is there still the sound of suonas?”
Ouyang Qiu leaned closer to Zhou Hui. “Sis, if you're scared, I'll walk in front of you in a bit.”
“Alright.” Zhou Hui was also a bit nervous.
At this moment, every household had its doors shut tight. If one ignored the incredibly eerie music, the place felt almost like an empty village.
The main hall of the ancestral hall was locked. Huang Facai had previously warned Lin Hao's team not to enter the ancestral hall without permission.
The wooden doors of the main hall were tightly shut, secured by a large lock. Ouyang Qiu gave them a gentle push, but she could only catch a glimpse of light through the narrow gap.
“It's locked.” She frowned and turned to Lin Hao. “There's no key.”
“Look around for any broken windows or doors.”
Lin Hao searched around the main hall. In the end, it was Zhou Hui who found a hole at the corner of the eastern side room that was large enough for an adult to crawl through.
Though it was called a dog hole, no one would put a dog hole inside a house. It actually looked more like a rat hole—
“A rat hole this big... just how huge are the rats? It's practically a mini door,” Ouyang Qiu muttered.
The pitch-black rat hole gaped wide like an open mouth. No one knew what might crawl out of it the next second.
Lin Hao gasped as the umbilical cord around his neck began to tear violently again. His expression shifted. Crossing his arms, he gestured for the two of them to go first. “If there's danger, I can pull you out if you go first. Besides, I can't be the one taking all the risks all the time.”
There was nothing wrong with that logic. Zhou Hui and Ouyang Qiu exchanged a look, and in the end, they decided that Ouyang Qiu would go in first.
Due to her illness, Ouyang Qiu had very little flesh on her bones. Even when squeezing into the hole, she only had to lower her head slightly to squat and move forward.
She quickly sank into the darkness.
Only after a long while did her muffled voice drift out from the hole: “There's no one inside. Come on in.”
Zhou Hui and Lin Hao looked at each other, then followed her lead, squeezing themselves in with great effort.
The rat hole was unexpectedly spacious, even lined with straw. However, as they crawled, thin, stiff animal hairs kept brushing against their faces.
...
The main hall was lit.
A heavy stench of incense ash, mold, and a faint, pungent animal odor rushed over them, making their noses tingle.
“What a horrible smell.” Ouyang Qiu covered her nose. “Does he not clean the ancestral hall? It feels like a rat died and rotted in here.”
“Stop wasting time talking.”
Lin Hao turned his head to scan the surroundings. “Don't forget what we're here for. Find the clay sculpture first.”
The clue said there was a Clay Sculpture Ghost covered in a red cloth inside the ancestral hall.
The three of them searched around by the light of the ever-burning candles on the altar. The place was much larger and far eerier than they had imagined.
The altar stretched from the entrance all the way to the very back, densely packed with memorial tablets stacked layer upon layer, row after row.
The wooden memorial tablets were piled high, nearly reaching the ceiling.
At first glance, it looked like a wall built entirely out of memorial tablets.
They were densely packed, countless in number.
“Why are there so many memorial tablets...” Zhou Hui murmured. “The village isn't that big. How could there be so many dead people?”
“Who knows.” Lin Hao reached out to take a candle and brought it closer to inspect them.
The next second, his brow furrowed.
Something was wrong.
These memorial tablets were all blank.
The dark wooden tablets didn't have a single character on them.
There were no names, no dates of birth or death—completely bare, with nothing carved at all.
Thousands of blank memorial tablets were stacked layer upon layer just like that.
“Wordless tablets?” Having seen them clearly as well, Zhou Hui gasped.
“How can there be no names? Who would put these in an ancestral hall? It's so unlucky.”
“It's weird,” Ouyang Qiu said, leaning in for a look. “Then again, this entire village is bizarre. They can even hold a birthday feast and a funeral at the same time.”
The three of them discussed it for a moment, then slowly made their way further inside along both sides of the altar.
The fact that a player had claimed the first kill seemed to have given Zhou Hui and Ouyang Qiu a significant boost of confidence.
The candlelight spread through the darkness, and the shadows of the blank memorial tablets swayed along with it.
Ouyang Qiu walked on the far right, her heart pounding wildly.
She constantly felt as if something was staring at her.
That icy gaze clung to her back, refusing to go away.
She didn't dare to look back, focusing solely on searching for the Clay Sculpture Ghost. Occasionally, she glanced at the upper right corner of her vision, a trace of shocking, hidden joy flickering in her eyes:
【Player: Ouyang Qiu】
【Class: Silkworm Raiser (Yellow-Tier)】
...
Unaware of her companion's inner thoughts, Zhou Hui simply walked forward step by step, her gaze scanning the altar for anything covered by a red cloth.
She searched very carefully, checking bit by bit, refusing to overlook any corner.
If the other players' reason for wanting to leave was nothing more than "not wanting to die," her reason was that she "could not die."
Her daughter was still waiting for her outside, waiting for her to bring back the money for the surgery.
As Zhou Hui thought of this, her feet unconsciously took a turn.
The back of the memorial tablet wall was up against the innermost wall. Under the candlelight, a square, half-human-tall object resembling a miniature shrine could be seen standing there.
It was covered with a brand-new red cloth.
The Clay Sculpture Ghost covered by a red cloth!
She found it!
Joy surged in Zhou Hui's heart. She was just about to call Lin Hao and Ouyang Qiu over when she instinctively raised her head. As her gaze swept across the back of the memorial tablets, she felt her scalp instantly go numb.
The backs of the densely packed memorial tablets were not smooth wooden boards; instead, they were riddled with fist-sized holes nestled side by side, resembling a honeycomb. Inside every single hole crouched a large rat with a human head.
With a rat's body and a human's head, they squeezed inside the holes, revealing only their heads like human swine. They were like queen ants trapped in a nest—their upper bodies slender, while their plump lower bodies were wedged tightly inside the holes.
The eyes on these heads were all wide open, staring straight at her in unison.
Their gazes were dull yet tinged with greed, remaining completely motionless as they watched.
Zhou Hui even recognized a few of the faces. They were the two players who had gone missing last night, along with several villagers they had seen. They had turned into human-headed rats, hiding inside the holes of the memorial tablets like offerings dedicated to someone, or perhaps guards watching over the ancestral hall.
Zhou Hui's pupils dilated instantly, and a scream was about to burst from her throat. Right then, a hand reached out from the side and clamped tightly over her mouth.
“Mmph—!”
“Shh,” Ouyang Qiu whispered, gritting her teeth as she shook her head. Her eyes were also filled with terror, yet she firmly gestured for Zhou Hui to stay quiet.
If they alerted these things, they would be completely finished. Zhou Hui slowly calmed down, though her entire body was still trembling. Covered in goosebumps, her back was completely drenched in sweat. She nodded to show she understood, and only then did Ouyang Qiu slowly release her hand.
The two of them exchanged a look, both seeing absolute terror in each other's eyes. This was no ancestral hall; it was clearly a massive rat nest.
So those blank memorial tablets weren't set up for the dead at all—they were built for these human-headed rats to live in. Did that mean there really were rats as large as humans in that rat hole? A fresh wave of goosebumps broke out all over both of them.
Lin Hao had also spotted the rat holes on the back of the memorial tablets, as well as the densely packed human-headed rats inside. Recognizing the missing players, his face instantly darkened, and a terrifying, covert thought suddenly arose in his mind.
The missing players had not been declared dead by the system. Furthermore, his quest points were calculated based on the number of surviving new players remaining when the Instance ended. Those idiotic teammates of his might drag him down at any moment. What if they turned into human-headed rats too? Once this thought took root, he couldn't suppress it at all.
...
The missing players had turned into human-headed rats. They weren't dead, but they might as well be. Having become rats that were neither human nor ghost, locked inside the memorial tablet holes of the ancestral hall, they were practically prisoners.
None of the three spoke, simply staring at the two missing players inside the holes. The creatures stared back at them, their eyes hollow, just like real rats. A wave of revulsion washed over the three of them. Turning into something like this... a quick death would have been far more merciful.
“Should we... save them?” Ouyang Qiu asked in a low voice, her tone as quiet as a mosquito's buzz.
Lin Hao shot her a cold glance. “Save them how? Do you have a way to turn them back?”
Ouyang Qiu fell silent.
“They brought it on themselves,” Lin Hao said, withdrawing his gaze. “Our target is the clay sculpture. Don't disturb them.” Saving them was out of the question. They couldn't do it anyway, and there was no point. It would likely be a waste of time and might even get them killed in the process.
Zhou Hui sighed. Though she felt a pang of pity, she didn't say anything either. She could barely protect herself; how could she possibly have the strength to save others?
The three of them bypassed the swarm of human-headed rats, holding their breath and treading lightly as they slowly made their way to the miniature shrine covered by the red cloth. The human-headed rats in the holes remained motionless, merely watching them without any intention of coming out. This was good news.
Lin Hao tentatively reached out, grabbed a corner of the red cloth, and yanked it off. The red cloth fell, revealing the object inside. All three of them froze; the jumpscare or terrifying scene they had anticipated did not occur.
What was enshrined inside the miniature temple was neither a divine statue nor a memorial tablet. It was a clay sculpture—one so incredibly ugly that it was an absolute eyesore.
Rate on N.U.
