“Although the clues are a bit sparse, this kind of thing isn’t uncommon in the real world. It’s actually quite easy to guess.”
Lin Jianguo was the first to speak. Having lived more than half his life, he had seen plenty of similar situations.
“Judging by these clues, Old Lady Huang’s death must be related to her four sons. Looking at the bigger picture, it might even involve the entire village. The old lady’s corpse was so emaciated; she either starved to death or died of illness.”
In reality, there was no shortage of “filial sons” who refused to treat their sick parents, dragging things out until the elderly passed away.
“Exactly. Didn’t the previous announcement say a player got the first kill on a human-headed rat? Those rats all have proper names, and they sound like members of the Huang family.”
Yang Hexuan chimed in eagerly.
“It’s such a cliché script. The biological sons are unfilial to their mother, and then she either starves to death or is abused to death. The whole village knows about it, but not a single person speaks up. Then, the old lady’s big black cat turns into a spirit and transforms the entire village into rats.”
“They say there are no filial sons before a long illness, let alone beasts who were unfilial to begin with.”
Lin Jianguo sneered.
“They think the elderly are useless burdens and can’t wait for them to die so they can split the inheritance. This kind of thing happens all the time, not just in the countryside, but in wealthy families too.”
“So, the black cat came back for revenge and turned some of the villagers into human-headed rats.”
Su Ya suddenly remembered something. Someone in her family was a Buddhist, so she knew a bit about folk rituals and customs.
“Have you noticed? The elements of the shrouding—pressing a coin into the mouth, offering the funeral rice, dressing her in the shroud, and covering her face with white cloth—all have the nuance of appeasing the dead. I think the old lady...”
Lowering her voice, she cast a swift glance toward the coffin. “I think the old lady might also turn into a ghost.”
“No way, how are we supposed to survive that?”
Yang Hexuan grimaced. “There are already so many bizarre things going on, from turning into rats to cats eating rats. Why do we have to deal with an old lady ghost too?”
At this, he let out a chuckle and gave Yang Asha a flattering look.
“Shasha is so powerful. Even if a ghost appears, she can just beat it to death with one swing of her staff. Besides, it’s just an old lady ghost—”
“Shut up. Haven’t you learned that the more you talk, the more mistakes you make?”
Lin Jianguo glared at him. The latter sheepishly slapped his own mouth. “My bad, my bad. It’s my fault. I won’t say it again.”
“The villagers have all turned into human-headed rats.”
Ignoring Yang Hexuan, Su Ya continued her analysis. “The black cat’s curse turns people into rats to be eaten by wild cats. That’s why the villagers said someone was eaten by a cat.”
It was only natural for cats to catch rats.
Turning enemies into rats, destined to be hunted by cats generation after generation, never to be reincarnated.
This curse was incredibly vicious.
“If we don’t complete Old Lady Huang’s wish as soon as possible, will we also completely transform into rats and be hunted down by cats?”
Lin Jianguo’s face darkened as he touched three new scabs on his arm.
“No wonder wild cats attacked us of their own accord when we were digging the grave today.”
Helping the villagers complete quests would draw the black cat’s resentment, leading to gradual rat transformation, turning them into human-headed rats to be hunted by cats.
This logic seemed perfectly coherent.
Yang Hexuan scratched his head and suddenly gasped, as if a light bulb had gone off in his head.
“I’ve got it! This is a faction system!”
He slapped his thigh in excitement, his voice rising a few decibels. “It’s exactly like an online game! The two factions are opposed to each other.”
“The villagers are one faction, and the black cat is the other! Just like the Alliance and the Horde, they’re natural enemies!”
“We help the villagers with quests—handling the old lady’s funeral, digging the grave, shrouding her, putting her in the coffin, and appeasing her ghost. That means we’ve joined the villager faction. So, the black cat views us as enemies, sends packs of cats to hunt us, and curses us with rat transformation!”
“If we did the opposite and helped the black cat deal with the villagers, we would be joining the cat faction. Maybe we wouldn’t grow rat fur then, but the villagers might attack us instead!”
The more he spoke, the more excited he became, gesturing wildly as he connected all the previous anomalies.
“No wonder Huang Facai was so polite to us the moment we entered the village! He gave us lime, pointed out the safe house, and actively assigned us quests—because we’re on his side!”
“Xiao Ding and the others didn’t do any quests, so they’re in the neutral faction. That’s why they didn’t turn into rats.”
His explanation actually made perfect sense.
Su Ya’s eyes gradually lit up.
Yang Hexuan’s gaming theory happened to explain every single anomaly.
She recalled that during the shrouding, pressing the coin, covering the face with white cloth, and offering the funeral rice were all steps in traditional funerals to appease departed souls and put them to rest.
The villagers wanted to hold a funeral not because they genuinely wanted to send the old lady off, but to appease her departed soul and suppress the black cat’s resentment so they could survive.
And they, the players, were merely “hired hands” brought in by the villagers.
Helping to appease the ghost and fight the black cat naturally came with a price—being cursed by the black cat and slowly transforming into rats.
This was the cost of choosing a faction.
...
...
“You’re right. This is terrifying.”
Su Ya took a deep breath, having completely figured it out.
“The obvious path of this Instance is to help with Old Lady Huang’s funeral and survive until the end of the birthday feast on the seventh day. But in secret, it’s actually forcing us to choose a faction.”
“The choice began on the very first day we entered the village, when the village chief gave us the lime and pointed out the safe house. Accepting the villagers’ help and doing their quests meant standing on their side.”
“Refusing quests and rejecting the villagers’ items makes you neutral, or you could even lean toward the cat faction.”
Lin Jianguo also understood. “It’s cats catching rats.”
Yang Asha had remained silent, tilting her head as she listened to them. Now, she suddenly spoke up:
“Then what happens in the end to those who help neither the villagers nor the cat?”
The young girl’s question was straightforward and sharp, instantly piercing to the core of the matter.
—After Xiao Ding and the others moved out of the western side room, they had moved directly into the little Western-style building next door, where the lights stayed on day and night.
Su Ya was about to speak, but the words died in her throat.
She didn’t know.
Without clues, she had no way of predicting the fate of neutral players out of thin air.
But she had a faint, ominous premonition in her heart.
“There’s no such thing as a free lunch. If you don’t do quests and don’t take a side, neither side will treat you as one of their own. When the time comes, you won’t even know how you died.”
Lin Jianguo saw through it clearly.
“Not siding with either means both sides can kill you.”
The business world was exactly like this. Choosing the wrong side was fatal, but if you didn’t choose a side, both parties would make you the first target of their reckoning afterward.
It seemed safe, but in reality, it was the fastest way to die.
...
...
As the few of them were in the middle of their heated discussion, a sharp, screeching howl suddenly echoed from near the threshing ground: “Meow—uuuh!!”
The sound was both shrill and hoarse, deep yet grating.
It sounded like an old lady screaming at the top of her lungs, yet also like an old cat driven into a corner.
“Meow—uuuh—”
All four of them recoiled in unison, their eardrums throbbing with pain.
Immediately after, a dull thud echoed, as if something heavy had landed in the center of the yard.
The snow crunched underfoot as the sound slowly shifted.
The flame of the ever-burning candle suddenly shrank with a soft whoosh, plunging more than half the room into darkness.
The four of them raised their heads in unison, staring outside the mourning canopy.
The light from the white lanterns filtered in from the outside, casting a shadow onto the window paper.
It was not the shadow of a cat.
It was a hunched human silhouette.
It was short, with a severely bent back and a large, round head.
Pointed ears stood erect, and there were whisker-like shadows on both sides of its face.
It was bent over, its claw-like hands dangling at its sides. Its long, sharp nails cast a grotesque outline on the window paper.
A cat’s face, a human’s body.
Hunched over like an old lady.
It stood right on the roof, lowering its head and peering down through the tiles, as if staring at the people inside.
Gulp.
Yang Hexuan swallowed hard, his voice trembling. “W-What is that... the Cat-Faced Old Lady?”
No one answered.
Everyone froze in place.
It was even worse than they had imagined.
The black cat had possessed a human body, becoming the Cat-Faced Old Lady.
...
...
“No, no, that’s wrong.”
Su Ya suddenly seemed to realize something. Her face grew paler and paler, and her lips trembled.
“We were all wrong.”
She muttered to herself, her voice shaking violently. “Do you remember what Huang Facai told us on the first day?”
Outside stood the Cat-Faced Old Lady, while the ever-burning candle flickered inside the mourning canopy.
Su Ya turned her head. Her expression was a terrible mix of a smile and a cry, looking incredibly grim.
“He said, ‘My mother passed away three days ago at seventy-nine, and in seven days it will be her eightieth birthday.’”
Lin Jianguo’s expression instantly changed. Yang Asha and Yang Hexuan had yet to react, their eyes glued to the shadow outside.
“On the day we entered the village, Huang Facai said the old lady had already been dead for three days. Then, the fourth day was the encoffining, the fifth day we searched for clues, and the sixth day—which was today during the day—we dug the grave—”
His fingers trembled as he calculated, muttering under his breath:
“Once it passes twelve o’clock tonight, it will be the seventh day. It’s already the seventh day since her death!”
It was as if mustard had been poured into Su Ya’s brain; a cold chill shot straight to the crown of her head.
They had all been misled by the prompts given by the Instance!
The camera crew’s schedule was seven days, but that didn’t mean the old lady’s birthday feast would take place on the seventh day after their arrival.
Old Lady Huang’s eightieth birthday feast was calculated starting from the day she died—which was today!
Today was both her Seventh-Day Return and her eightieth birthday!
So today was the final day!
Damn text trap! Damn word games!
They had all been fooled!
Rate on N.U.
