Outside the mourning canopy, it was as if someone had spilled ink; the night was so thick it couldn't be dispersed.
The white banners fluttered and rustled loudly in the wind.
The leaves of the old locust tree rustled loudly, looking from afar like countless pale hands clawing wildly in midair.
Su Ya and the other three huddled in the corner of the mourning hall, their backs pressed against the cold altar.
Everyone held their breath as low as possible, yet they still couldn't drown out the spine-chilling sounds coming from outside the canopy.
“Crunch... crunch...”
It was the crisp sound of bones being crushed, mixed with the satisfied purring of a feline feeding.
Over and over.
It entered their ears with terrifying clarity.
Occasionally, it was interspersed with weak cries for help, faint and thin, like a rat having its neck squeezed.
“Help me... squeak... help...”
“No... it hurts...”
But those voices quickly came to an abrupt halt, leaving only the sound of wet, viscous chewing.
Cats eat rats.
It was only natural.
Su Ya's face was deathly pale as she shielded Yang Asha behind her, both of their palms drenched in cold sweat.
Yang Hexuan's calves were cramping, and tears were already welling up in his eyes.
Lin Jianguo, standing beside them, was in no better shape.
Outside the tent, the shadow of the Cat-Faced Old Lady stretched incredibly long.
【Announcement: The Vigil quest has failed.】
【Reason for Failure: Rat blood from the Second Mirrored Instance entered the coffin, triggering a corpse awakening.】
【The Cat-Faced Old Lady has awakened. The current Instance has entered Hunt Mode globally.】
【Global Announcement: All surviving players in the rat faction across the three mirrored instances have been targeted for hunting by the Cat-Faced Old Lady.】
...
...
As the four announcements rained down, all four of them began cursing in anger.
“...The Second Mirrored Instance...”
Lin Jianguo's throat tightened, his voice extremely low. “Our quest didn't fail. It was the other players—”
“Are the three mirrored instances interconnected?”
Su Ya's fingertips were icy cold. Staring at the shadows of cats and rats darting around outside the mourning canopy, she felt a chill run down her spine.
“The Second Mirrored Instance must have taken the Vigil quest too...”
But she hadn't expected that a quest failure in one mirrored instance would actually affect the others.
Was it because today was the birthday feast?
“Then aren't we screwed?! Why should we suffer for their mistake?!”
Yang Hexuan almost jumped up, but quickly covered his mouth.
“The announcement said 'Hunt Mode globally'? Are the people in the Second Mirrored Instance complete trash?!”
Didn't the rules say that rats and cats were not allowed near the coffin?
Just how stupid did someone have to be to let rat blood drip onto the coffin?!
“This Instance is full of traps.”
Su Ya gave a bitter smile, her voice somewhat weak and powerless.
“The Seventh-Day Return fooled us once, and the birthday feast fooled us again. We thought it was the finish line, but maybe it's just gathering all the rats from all the mirrored instances together to serve as dishes for the Cat-Faced Old Lady's birthday feast.”
Their hearts sank, filled with utter despair.
They had risked their lives to complete quests and choose a faction, finally making it to the day of the birthday feast, only to be dragged down by another team in the end.
A cat was celebrating her birthday. What could a bunch of rat-people like them do there?
At most, they would just be an extra dish for the old lady.
“******* Instance designer...”
Lin Jianguo cursed under his breath, the veins on his temples throbbing. “It's full of traps. A trap at every step. They never had any good intentions; they just want us dead.”
Yang Asha didn't speak, only gripping the door bolt in her hand even tighter. “Since we're rats, do we just need to kill the cats?”
“In theory, yes.”
Su Ya took a deep breath, forcing herself to calm down, and looked up at the other three.
“Don't panic. Although the 【Vigil】 quest failed, the Instance didn't say we're guaranteed to die. The announcement said 'hunting', not 'instant death'. As long as we survive tonight and last until the birthday feast ends, the rules should allow us to leave.”
“But... there are cats everywhere outside...”
Yang Hexuan's voice trembled, on the verge of a breakdown.
On the roofs, walls, and haystacks around the threshing ground, there were dense crowds of wild cats of various colors.
Their glowing green eyes stretched out in a continuous sea.
Sharp, piercing cat meows rose and fell, accompanied by the chewing sounds separated only by a single layer of tent fabric.
Cats eat rats, and rats fear cats.
Their group of "rat-people" faction players was the fattest prey.
“Survive tonight... can we really do that?”
Lin Jianguo spoke in despair, his tone entirely lacking confidence.
If he could do it all over again, he would absolutely never make a wish in that damn livestream room.
Just as despair began to spread, in the next second, the chaotic sounds of cats, rats, and chewing outside the tent suddenly stopped without any warning.
It was like a television show currently playing had suddenly been muted by someone.
The wind stopped, and the white banners hung limp.
The four of them exchanged glances, seeing the fear in each other's eyes.
What was going on?
Had the Cat-Faced Old Lady left?
Or... was she preparing an even bigger move?
The dead silence lasted for about half a minute.
Suddenly, the sound of a suona abruptly burst outside the tent. It was no longer a weeping, mournful funeral dirge, but a lively, almost deafening rendition of "Hundreds of Birds Paying Homage to the Phoenix."
The tune was cheerful and festive, drifting into the sky amid the lively sounds of gongs and drums.
But at a time like this, a festive tune was even more spine-chilling than a funeral dirge.
“Shh.”
Su Ya pointed at the tent and whispered, “She's gone.”
The shadow on the tent had disappeared at some point, leaving behind only a patch of blood.
“What's going on?” Yang Hexuan was dazed. “The birthday feast is starting?”
Su Ya's heart skipped a beat. Keeping her footsteps light, she walked over and gently lifted a corner of the curtain.
The originally lifeless Wenshan Village had transformed in the blink of an eye.
The white lanterns at the doors of every household had been replaced with round lanterns made of red paper.
The red paper was dark in color, resembling dried blood.
Quite a few crooked characters for "Longevity" were pasted on the walls. The edges of the red paper were a dull grayish-white, looking as if they had been peeled off grave mounds.
Red silk ribbons hung along both sides of the street, rustling loudly whenever the wind blew.
Eerily, white cloth strips hung beneath the silk.
The intertwining of red and white brought an inexplicable chill to their hearts.
...
...
...
The village was full of people.
The villagers of Wenshan Village were wearing red funeral shrouds, attending the birthday feast in a bustling, joyous manner.
At the continuous banquet on the threshing ground, some were serving dishes, some were slicing meat, some were moving tables, and some were playing the suona—
The bustle was so intense that it almost gave one the illusion of being in the mortal world.
The entire threshing ground was set up with the continuous banquet.
Steam rose from the dishes, mixing with a heavy, sickly-sweet scent of blood that drifted through the entire street.
“Are they holding a birthday feast?”
Yang Asha pursed her lips. “My grandma said that celebrating a birthday at night... is very inauspicious.”
Red represented celebration, while white represented mourning.
Mixing celebration and mourning together was completely incongruous, so absurd that it made one's scalp tingle.
In the crowd, Huang Facai was wearing a dark red longevity robe and a skullcap, welcoming the guests.
“Welcome, welcome.”
“Congratulations to us both.”
A dramatic smile was plastered on his face as he bowed and exchanged pleasantries with the empty air, constantly muttering under his breath as if greeting invisible guests.
Spotting the four of them by the mourning canopy, he immediately waved and walked over with a chuckle.
“Ah, my four guests! Thank you for your hard work. I've finally found you. The birthday feast is about to begin. Quick, follow me to your seats.”
He was overly enthusiastic, reaching out to grab Su Ya's arm, while other villagers crowded around to usher the four of them inside.
Su Ya instinctively dodged, feeling completely bewildered.
Something was wrong.
Very wrong.
Where was the Cat-Faced Old Lady?
“I think this is just a cutscene before the boss appears,” Yang Hexuan said with a miserable face as he was pushed forward by the villagers. “We're dead meat.”
But at this point, there was no hiding from it.
The mourning canopy was no longer safe. Participating in the birthday feast might actually offer a sliver of hope.
The four of them exchanged glances and followed Huang Facai toward the threshing ground at the center of the village.
Along the way, many "guests" were already seated at the continuous banquet tables on both sides.
There were paper dolls.
Half-human-tall white paper dolls with red cheeks and black eyebrows painted on their faces sat upright on stools, their hands resting flat on the tables.
Whenever someone passed by, they would raise their arms and clap twice, their paper-pasted palms making rustling noises as if they were watching a wonderful performance.
There were also cats.
Cats of all sizes squatted on the stools like humans, their front paws resting on the edge of the tables, their glowing green eyes staring intently at the empty plates.
There wasn't a single living human guest in the entire venue, nor were there any villagers sitting at the tables.
It was entirely filled with paper dolls and cats.
...
...
Huang Facai led the four of them to a table near the front and greeted them warmly:
“Please, sit! My four distinguished guests, take any seat you like. The food will be served shortly, and my mother will be out in a moment!”
Having said that, he hurriedly ran off to greet other "guests."
In reality, he was bowing and scraping to the empty air and the paper dolls, a sight both comical and terrifying.
The four of them sat down hesitantly.
The stools were freezing cold and hard.
On the table were empty porcelain plates, coarse porcelain bowls, and pairs of bamboo chopsticks.
The tips of the chopsticks were black, stained with some unknown substance.
The paper dolls at the neighboring table clapped their hands rustlingly, their heads slowly turning to face them.
The cats at the nearby table also turned their heads, their green eyes staring fixedly at them as long trails of drool dripped down.
“They're... all looking at us.”
Yang Hexuan whispered, his back pressed tightly against the table, his entire body stiff. “Rats celebrating a cat's birthday—isn't it obvious what the birthday gift is? We're literally delivering ourselves to our deaths!”
“Running now will only enrage these cats.”
Su Ya felt the shovel head hidden in her clothes and exchanged a look with Yang Asha next to her, who also had one hidden.
The number of cats was far greater than they had imagined—there were at least several hundred.
If a fight really broke out—
Su Ya bit her lip anxiously, trying to steel herself.
Suddenly, a loud clang of a gong rang out.
“Serving the dishes—!”
A villager drawled in a high-pitched, shrill voice.
Over a dozen villagers dressed in red funeral shrouds entered in a single file, delivering dishes to each table.
The plates were covered with red cloths, steaming hot.
The sickly-sweet, bloody scent grew even stronger.
The person who walked up to their table was a middle-aged woman. With an expressionless face, she placed the plate on the table with a thud and whipped off the red cloth.
A wave of bloody stench rushed over them.
All four of them gasped in unison.
Resting on the plate were three human-headed rats.
They weren't large, arranged in a circle like roast chickens with their heads facing outward, directly toward them.
The human-headed rats still retained their human facial features, their eyes tightly closed, but the corners of their mouths were curled up in a bizarre smile.
Their fur had been plucked clean, and their skin gleamed with oil, looking as if they had been steamed or braised, still emitting hot steam.
One of them had a round face with a mole on its chin.
Su Ya's heart sank heavily.
Yang Asha vomited on the spot. Yang Hexuan shuddered violently, leaning under the table to retch.
“Urgh... urgh...”
It was Xiao Ding and her group.
The teammates who were still alive yesterday had been made into dishes today, served on the birthday feast table.
“Urgh...” Su Ya's face was deathly pale, her stomach churning violently.
“This is... the dish for the feast? They made players... humans, into dishes?”
“We are also rats now.”
Lin Jianguo's voice trembled.
“Cats eating rats is only natural. We sided with the villagers, making us half-human and half-rat. In the eyes of the cats, we are just food. At today's feast, we are all meat on the table.”
He finally understood. Choosing the rat faction meant they had to help suppress the Cat-Faced Old Lady.
Otherwise, if the quest failed, all the players in the rat faction would have to "serve as dinner."
As for how they would be served, there was no doubt.
“They... they're all dead...”
Su Ya gripped her chopsticks tightly, forcing herself to look away and scan the other tables.
A human-headed rat was placed on the plate of every single table.
Some were large, some were small; some faces were familiar, while others were strangers.
Some were not even fully dead yet, their bodies twitching slightly, their mouths opening and closing as they let out faint squeaking sounds.
The wild cats stared at the plates, purring in their throats, seemingly waiting for the host at the head table to pick up their chopsticks first.
The paper dolls maintained their clapping posture, their paper hands rustling as if applauding this grand feast.
Absurd, cruel, and eerie.
Rate on N.U.
