CHAPTER 14: GHOST ANIMAL (11)

When Ning Su finished showering, it was already five in the morning.

Su Wangsheng was very tired, but with the little ghost here, he didn’t dare to close his eyes until Ning Su came out.
Ning Su’s figure inexplicably gave a sense of security, and as soon as Su Wangsheng saw him, his eyelids immediately drooped.

The child had walked with difficulty to the bedside table on Ning Su’s side, looked up at him quietly, and reached out a hand to him.

In the small gray-white palm was a piece of candy.

It took Ning Su a moment to remember which candy this was.
In the warehouse at the slaughterhouse, in order to see the child hiding in the darkness, Ning Su had used a candy to pierce through the wall, and the candy flew somewhere he didn’t know.
At the time, Ning Su didn’t have time to go find it and was quite distressed.

Busy since morning until the early hours of the next day, Su Wangsheng fell into a deep sleep as soon as he closed his eyes, and the room was very quiet.

Ning Su picked up the candy, squatted down to look at the child, and his slightly stiff face softened.
“Not bad.
You know to bring gifts when you come knocking on someone’s door.”

He took the candy from the child’s young palm, peeled off the wrapper, and stuffed the candy into the child’s mouth.

The child looked at him blankly.

Ning Su lifted the child onto the bed and got under the covers.
This guest room only had one large bed, with Ning Su and Su Wangsheng each having their own blanket, and there was a wide gap in the middle where two children could easily sleep.
However, the child climbed onto his chest again.

Ning Su ignored it; it was better to have the child lying on his chest, or else Su Wangsheng would be scared out of his wits when he woke up in the morning.

As he was about to fall asleep, Ning Su murmured to the child in a daze, “If I turn into a pig, you must find me a good home with excellent food.”

The child hugged his neck and said something incoherent.

Ning Su’s last words before falling asleep were, “Pigs are great, they just eat every day and get fat…”

That night, every player slept for less than three hours.

Driven by strong subconscious and survival instincts, Su Wangsheng only slept for two hours before waking up.

When he woke up, just like yesterday morning, Ning Su was already awake and had folded the sheets into tofu blocks.

At this moment, the other was sitting on the edge of the bed, holding a needle and thread that Su Wangsheng didn’t know where he got from.

His brain was a little unclear just after waking up, and it took Su Wangsheng a few seconds to realize that Ning Su was actually…sewing clothes?

Su Wangsheng was a bit stunned as he watched.

It was already a bit bright outside on a spring morning at seven o’clock.

Ning Su faced the light outside the window, sewing a small piece of clothing with a needle and thread.

Beside him sat a small child, snuggled up to him.

The child had fine, soft hair, which was a bit curly and messy after sleeping.
He was thin and small and looked like a normal child from behind.

He stayed close to Ning Su, looking up at him all the time.

Ning Su occasionally pushed his head away and joked with him.

As he watched, Su Wangsheng’s mood became somewhat complicated.

From the funeral car until now, although Ning Su went from being initially reticent to being willing to talk to people, Su Wangsheng could still feel that there was always a thin layer of barrier between him and the others.

He separated himself from them.
As if he were not human.
Sometimes his thinking was also different from that of normal humans.

But when facing this little ghost, Ning Su was a bit different.
When talking about the little ghost, he would talk more and his tone would be different.

At this time, he was still making clothes for him.

Su Wangsheng got up from the bed and walked in front of Ning Su.
“You still know how to make clothes.”

Ning Su sighed, “Times are hard.
Children from poor families have to mature early.”

Su Wangsheng: “……”

What’s so hard about these times?

Ning Su also noticed last night that the child looked like he was wearing a performance dress in this white T-shirt.
When he woke up this morning and saw Su Wangsheng still sleeping, he waited for him while he changed the child’s clothes.

He turned the loose-fitting white T-shirt for adults into a small white T-shirt, plus a pair of little shorts.

Ning Su put it on the child, replacing the clothes that looked like they came from a beggar.
The child looked more like a person now.

After he finished dressing the child, Ning Su looked up and asked Su Wangsheng, “Are you feeling better?”

Su Wangsheng: “What?”

Ning Su said, “Last night when you were taking a shower, I said I had something to tell you, and you said you needed to slow down a bit.”

Su Wangsheng: “……”

“You can tell me now.” He rubbed his forehead, feeling that Ning Su was going to say something beyond human understanding again.

“Okay.” Ning Su sat up straight, looking somewhat serious.
“I think Zhu Shuangshuang’s speculation is correct about the outer and inner worlds.”

Su Wangsheng never expected that he would start discussing the dungeon seriously.

“What do you mean?”

“Because I almost entered the inner world, I saw it, and I also know how to get there.”

“What!” Su Wangsheng immediately stood up straight.
“Why didn’t you say so earlier?”

Ning Su raised his beautiful peach blossom eyes and looked at him innocently.

Su Wangsheng: “……”

He coughed, “I’ll go tell Chen Tian and the others right away.”

He walked to the door, then turned back in confusion.
“Why are you suddenly being serious? Yesterday, you voluntarily brought up the different understanding of ecology, and today you voluntarily said you know about the inner world.”

Was his actions before that just a whim?

Ning Su sighed again, “It looks like we won’t be able to have the best of both worlds in this dungeon.”

In fact, he was a bit conflicted.
He looked out the window, “But this house is really beautiful.”

In the end, he made his choice between the house and the meat, deciding to seriously complete the dungeon early for the reason that “you can only sleep for two or three hours a day in this house, and you can’t have meat for every meal.”

Su Wangsheng: “……”

Once again, he lost the desire to chat.

***

After Su Wangsheng told Chen Tian about this, Chen Tian immediately called an emergency meeting for them.

The inner world was not to be underestimated.
They all knew that to truly decrypt this dungeon, the inner world might be necessary.

Ning Su said, “Yesterday, I was stuffed into a crematorium by the butcher and found a passage inside.
I crawled to the other side of the furnace door and pushed it open.
It was the same slaughterhouse, but the moon was blood-red and eerie.
I felt like I was on the other side of Huaiyang Village.”

Chen Qing exclaimed, “If that’s true, this copy is too abnormal.
Who would willingly go into a crematorium and discover the inner world?”

If they can’t discover it, they may never be able to decrypt this dungeon and would be stuck here forever.

Zhu Shuangshuang said, “In the eyes of ordinary people, the crematorium is a place of death, but here it leads to another chance at life.
It’s interesting.”

Chen Tian immediately said, “It seems that the inner world is the key to decrypt this dungeon.
It’s already the third day today, and we need to prepare to go there immediately.”

“At the same time, the bride’s side is also important.
We need to keep up with her funeral.” Chen Tian continued, “The inner world is probably very dangerous.
We’ll send more people to explore it, while Zhu Shuangshuang and Su Wangsheng will stay with the bride.”

Zhu Shuangshuang agreed without any issues.

She shuddered when she heard about the crematorium.
She was too sensitive and even felt uncomfortable in the slaughterhouse.
Chen Tian’s arrangement was perfect for her.

Su Wangsheng also had no objections.
He said, “Be careful.”

Chen Tian nodded and said, “If we can come back, we’ll definitely come back tonight and exchange clues.”

“If we don’t come back.” Chen Tian paused and said, “You need to be mentally prepared.”

The oppression and heaviness of the game suddenly weighed on the two of them.

Now, they truly realized that in the game, they could be separated from their loved ones at any moment.

Zhu Shuangshuang tied her hairband on Ning Su’s wrist and said to Chen Tian and Chen Qing, “If Ning Su turns into a pig, you must find him.”

Ning Su: “……”

She almost pleaded with Chen Tian and Chen Qing again and said, “Please.”

Ning Su looked down at the silk hairband on his wrist, black with a white edge, and a simple brand logo embroidered at the bottom.

When Ning Su opened his eyes on the bus, the first thing he saw was this hairband, which was almost torn by the muscular man later.

Zhu Shuangshuang cried and struggled under the muscular man’s grasp, desperately hitting him, but never begged him.

Ning Su pursed his lips and said, “You two go quickly.”

Chen Tian nodded to Zhu Shuangshuang, “You guys go quickly, and we have to prepare quickly too.”

After the two left, Chen Tian said, “We need to wear long-sleeved and long pants to climb the incinerator.”

He turned his head and asked Ning Su, “What’s inside the incinerator?”

“It’s a little cold, very dark, and pitch-black that it’s hard to see properly,” Ning Su thought for a while and added, “It’s a bit sticky, the kind that can absorb human fingers.”

Several people shivered after hearing this.

The cold and sticky conditions did not match the incinerator’s settings.
The incinerator was a place where human and other animal remains were burned at high temperatures, turning them into dry ash.
How could it be cold and sticky?

This strange contradiction made people feel creepy.

Li Yin said, “The cold is because of the yin energy, and who knows how many living creatures were burned alive inside? Then why is it sticky?”

Wang Ming was not very sure, “Maybe it’s accumulated corpse oil?”

“Damn it! Shut up!”

Regardless, they all have to climb into the incinerator.

***

The five of them quickly got ready and arrived at the slaughterhouse.

At 7:30 in the morning, the butcher had not yet appeared at the slaughterhouse, which gave them the opportunity.

The five of them jumped down from the wall and quietly approached the incinerator.

Chen Tian said, “I’ll go first, Ning Su follow me, then Chen Qing behind him, followed by Li Yin.”

Originally, in their plan, the five of them, Ning Su, Chen Tian, Chen Qing, as well as two other members of their club, Li Yin and Wang Ming, were all going to climb into the incinerator and enter the other world together.

Chen Tian changed the plan to make it a bit safer on the spot.
“Wang Ming, you stay here and watch the furnace door in case someone locks it and ignites the incinerator.”

Just thinking about this possibility made the group’s hair stand on end.

Chen Tian instructed, “The incinerator must not be used for at least half an hour.”

Wang Ming immediately said, “Don’t worry, club president.”

Chen Tian nodded and climbed into the incinerator first.

Thanks to Ning Su’s tip about the incinerator being black, cold, and sticky, the best thing to use was a torch.
Chen Tian was holding a small torch in his hand, as a larger one might cause problems in the enclosed incinerator.

Ning Su and Chen Qing were holding flashlights, and Li Yin was the last one to enter, holding a torch.

After Chen Tian climbed in, Chen Qing asked him, “Brother, what’s it like inside?”

Chen Tian’s voice came from inside the incinerator, “It looks normal for now.”

After about ten seconds, he said, “It’s exactly as Ning Su said, there’s a passage ahead, I’m going in first.”

Chen Tian climbed into the passage with a small torch and extended it to illuminate the way ahead.

In that moment, despite having experienced many dungeon instances before, even Chen Tian, who had a strong mentality, couldn’t help but feel his scalp tingle.

As the others were preparing to climb in, Ning Su had already placed his hand on either side of the furnace door.
At this moment, Chen Tian’s unsteady voice was heard from inside the incinerator.

“Be mentally prepared and be careful.
The furnace walls in here are full of…
faces with twisted expressions and ghostly hands.”

“What?”

Ning Su immediately crawled in.

“Ning Su, be careful!” Chen Qing hurriedly followed with her untied scarf.

Chen Tian closed his eyes tightly and looked back at the passage.

The passage was not large, and only one person could crawl through at a time.

On the circular furnace wall were distorted faces with facial features twisting endlessly.
There were faces of humans, dogs, pigs, cows, sheep, and cats.

They varied in completeness and size, as if they were bound by a thin membrane on the furnace wall.

The membrane contained blood and oil, as well as unknown fragments.
They struggled inside, their facial features distorted like the people in the famous painting “The Scream”.

In the gaps between the faces were countless small, unimaginably tiny hands.
Because they were so small, they appeared even more eerie amidst the twisted faces of different species.

Moreover, they were constantly reaching out with sticky fluid, penetrating the membranes, trying to grab something.

Chen Tian suspected that the sticky substance that Ning Su mentioned seemed to be absorbed by these tiny, eerie hands.

 

He also thought of what Zhu Shuangshuang had said – the incinerator was a place leading to hell.