Top Horror Novelist - Chapter 3

At the beginning, Chi Yiyin was surprised that the housekeeper called everyone miss, but when he saw that the vehicle the housekeeper came to pick them up was a big carriage, he guessed what role they were playing as. In fact, they were all ‘elder sister.’

He, the female student, Tong Yao, and the male player who temporarily changed into women’s dress on the train.

All of them were “elder sister.”

Chi Yiyin didn’t know who Tong Yao was playing as. He only saw the letter that the female student opened in a panic, but the similar identity was enough to disprove one of his two guesses.

And the coat he gave Tong Yao was not only to see that Tong Yao’s character was good for him to collect information, but also to test her.

Tong Yao didn’t deny it, but wrapped the coat on her tightly.

While this confirmed Chi Yiyin’s guess, it also gave him a new gain.

The content of the others’ letters may be the same as his.

At the very least, he wasn’t the only one at a disadvantage at information gathering. It seemed that this can be used to win over the other disadvantaged players.

Sometimes, the information may seem small and harmless, but it can be of great use.

Chi Yiyin thought so in his heart, but the polite smile on his lips was still light and appropriate, as if he had already associated himself to the role of “miss.”

Only his fingers hanging by his side subconsciously made the movement of turning a pen while thinking.

And of all people, the housekeeper knew best.

No matter how many people get off the train, to him, each one of them is a “miss.”

Even the one who broke his foot.

Although the housekeeper looked weird and intrusive, he dutifully put on the appearance of a housekeeper in front of the eldest lady, and respectfully invited everyone to get on the carriage.

Although there were people wearing uniforms on the old-fashioned train station, in the eyes of the players, these people were all faceless. Their voices came from their faces that was without any facial features, and their cold eyes float in the air, peeping at the players maliciously.

These people’s actions were also like puppets on strings, stiff and not like living people.

The female student was trembling with fright, and instinctively wanted to get close to Chi Yiyin. But remembering how the other could still laugh when he saw someone dying in front of him, she hesitated and dared not go forward.

Finally, she clenched the corner of her skirt, and cautiously leaned towards Tong Yao.

Tong Yao didn’t refuse the female student’s approach, but gave the newer a sympathetic look, pulled the other to her side, and said in a low voice, “Are you a newer? Don’t be afraid, e with me.”

The female student looked at Tong Yao gratefully.

But not far away, Chi Yiyin and the bearded man glanced at the female student almost at the same time.

Chi Yiyin frowned, and put a bright red question mark behind the “inexperienced and naive” in the note within his mind to the female student.

The man wanted to say something, but was grabbed by his panion: “It’s time for us to get in the carriage.”

The old players who had already gotten into the carriage were indifferent to what was going on outside. They were either fiddling with the things in their hands, talking to the air with a smile on their faces, or taking their time to close their eyes and rest their minds.

Seeing this, the player who was lying on the ground hugging his feet and howling, knew that no one would help him despite being terrified. Hence, he could only crawl on the ground desperately, trying to get close to the carriage.

The housekeeper drooped his eyelids and stood motionless outside the carriage. He didn’t respond to the screams and the blood that was dragging all over the floor.

Tong Yao looked at the player with a broken leg, and couldn’t bear to step back a bit: “Get in the carriage first.”

Before the player could thank Tong Yao, the housekeeper who had been silent all this time stepped forward and stood in front of him.

The housekeeper wasn’t tall, his body was dry and thin, wearing the long gown he appeared like a skeleton.

But for the player crawling on the ground, the shadow cast by the housekeeper was extremely tall and terrifying. When he raised his head and looked up, fear seized him firmly.

“Miss, why did you put yourself into such a mess?”

The housekeeper looked the player up and down, as if he was choosing a piece of pork, his eyes were cold: “Do you still look like a member of the Ma family?”

The sudden turn of events by the housekeeper attracted everyone’s attention, and they watched over with bright or dark eyes.

Tong Yao couldn’t help but wanted to step forward to help the player, but before she made the move, she subconsciously glanced at Chi Yiyin next to her without knowing why.

Chi Yiyin lowered his eyelashes and looked at the housekeeper intently, but he had no intention to step forward.

At that moment, Tong Yao suddenly remembered what Chi Yiyin had said in her ear when he put the coat on her.

——The housekeeper has requirements on appearance, which must match their identity.

She realized something, and followed Chi Yiyin’s choice and retreated.

And the player who was crawling on the ground with a broken leg and covered in blood obviously didn’t fit the “elder sister” setting.

The housekeeper looked down at the embarrassed player, snorted and said, “Miss, you also know that the most important thing for master and madam is the reputation and status of the Ma family. You have reached the age of marriage, how can you look like this? You want to go back looking like this? If the master gets angry… Heh.”

“In our Ma family, even the carriages are gilded.”

The housekeeper glanced at the carriage behind him, and spoke with a half-smile: “Miss, please don’t dirty the Ma family’s carriage. I think you should find another way to go home.”

As soon as the voice fell, two robust uniformed personnel came out of the station immediately.

The housekeeper casually pointed to the player with a broken foot on the ground, and they walked directly towards the player, their footsteps so heavy that even the ground was trembling.

They have no face nor voice, and were even more ruthless. Like tool people without independent thinking, they immediately bent down to lift the player’s arms on the left and right. They lifted him up like a chicken, and then dragged him outside the train station.

The player was so frightened that his teeth were chattering. He turned his head and looked back desperately, his voice screaming for help was full of despair, and the begging eyes looking at everyone like a deer that already knew it was about to die.

“Tong Yao, is it Tong Yao! Help me, please!”

“The gentleman next to her, save me, save me! Don’t let them take me away! There’s no such thing as outside the station, who doesn’t know that there is nothing outside the instance location, and you will die if you go out!”

“Help me, I don’t want to die!”

But Tong Yao herself was covered with blood, and didn’t meet the requirements of the housekeeper at all, so how dare she appear in front of the housekeeper.

She turned her head aside in embarrassment, holding back her tears and listening to the players’ shouts getting further and further away, her shoulders trembled.

Even the player with the broken leg asked Chi Yiyin for help, but he didn’t respond, he just watched on indifferently. At this moment, he still caught the information that the other party spat out when he was panicking.

Except for the instance, there is nothing…

Chi Yiyin turned around and looked in the direction of the train.

So before the train entered the station, were the windows full of mosaic-like color blocks?

Because there was no such thing as outside the train.

And Tong Yao, who was standing behind Chi Yiyin’s side, was so flustered that she didn’t dare to look at others, thinking that Chi Yiyin was looking at her and was kindly reminding her.

So she immediately tightened the long coat on her body, covering up the blood under the coat in a panic, not daring to take a step forward, lest the housekeeper also notice her problem.

It wasn’t until this time that Tong Yao realized belatedly that Chi Yiyin gave her a coat, which obviously saved her life!

Tong Yao looked at Chi Yiyin with gratitude, and the previous fear of Chi Yiyin’s crazy character had been suppressed. He only remembered that Chi Yiyin was the benefactor who saved her life, and she could not bite the hand that fed her.

The housekeeper turned his gaze back, and looked at Tong Yao inch by inch, full of oppression.

When he saw the bloody footprints left by Tong Yao, he squinted his eyes, but didn’t say anything, just snorted and stepped out of the way, making a “please” gesture with a fake smile: “I’ve scared the miss. Please get in the carriage.”

Tong Yao breathed a sigh of relief, nodded quickly, and led the female student to the carriage together.

Only Chi Yiyin, who had been paying attention to the housekeeper, found that the housekeeper had clearly seen the flaws in Tong Yao’s body, but ignored them as if he hadn’t seen them.

He narrowed his eyes slightly and looked at the housekeeper thoughtfully.

“I haven’t asked you yet, what’s your name?”

Tong Yao deliberately slowed down her pace, keeping the same pace as Chi Yiyin, and whispered: “Thank you for saving me this time, if you need my help, e to me anytime.”

Chi Yiyin nodded casually. After seeing two deaths with his own eyes, his voice was still calm and clean: “Chi Yiyin.”

But in the eyes of Tong Yao and others, this tranquility turned into the depth of still water, and the evaluation of Chi Yiyin in their heart rose again.

“By the way, Chi Yiyin, are you going to start the live broadcast after getting into the carriage, or do you plan to wait until at the house?”

Tong Yao persuaded with concern: “This is the last appearance of [Dear Home] before it is pletely destroyed. The attention is very high, and the points and rewards you gain will be very considerable. If you choose the privacy mode to close the live broadcast, it will be too great of a loss.”

Tong Yao couldn’t imagine that Chi Yiyin didn’t understand everything she said.

But he didn’t show it, he just chose an ambiguous answer that wouldn’t reveal himself: “depends on my mood.”

But Chi Yiyin had already thought that when the system appeared before, it did mention the novice live broadcast room and briefly described the situation in the live broadcast room.

If you were to be connected to the live broadcast hall…

He looked thoughtfully at the other players on the carriage who were talking to the air, knowing that they were now broadcasting in their respective live broadcast rooms, and the purpose should be the reward in Tong Yao’s mouth.

Chi Yiyin raised his eyebrows with interest, and asked in his mind: [System, how to open the live broadcast room?]

The system responded to him immediately: [Survivor number Z1001, I am glad to see that you successfully triggered the novice live room, congratulations.]

The mechanical voice said congratulations with a straight face. Not only did it not have any joy, but instead, it seemed to be full of sarcasm.

However, the system was not ambiguous about the rewards that should be given.

The next second, Chi Yiyin could feel that there was a sudden increase in weight within his suit pocket.

He calmly reached out and touched his pocket, and it felt like a pocket watch when he touched it.

[After the survivors get the novice live room, they must activate the live room in an instance. Otherwise, they will permanently lose the live room permission, and will not be able to gain points, rewards, and audience reminders through the live room.]

[Survivor, what you see is the controller of the live broadcast room. The corresponding shape of the controller is automatically generated based on the survivor’s characteristics. Through it, you can freely set up and explore the live room – but according to the mortality rate of newers, it is remended that you save the initial settings temporarily, I sincerely hope that you will survive.]

The system asked in a straight-forward manner, as if it was really a conscientious newer guide: [Do you need me to help you open the live broadcast room for the first time?]

Chi Yiyin thought for a while, then nodded happily: [Open.]

[Received. Live Room: New arrivals, officially opened in the instance [Dear Home], automatic access to the free area… Automatically set the initial value… Currently, the number of viewers is 0. Survivor, please make persistent efforts.]

After the system’s voice disappeared from his mind, Chi Yiyin held the pocket watch in his hand and became familiar with it by touch.

His pace was slow and graceful, as if there was nothing to be anxious about, even if the sky was torn apart, it would not break his calm.

In order to seize the time, Tong Yao chatted with Chi Yiyin more before getting in the carriage, and followed his pace and walked beside him.

But at this moment, another figure slanted in from behind, knocked Tong Yao aside and squeezed in front to get on the carriage.

The corner of Chi Yiyin’s eyes caught the movement, and when he looked up, he saw a sturdy figure wrapped in a woman’s long dress.

“…”

Chi Yiyin twitched the corners of his eyes and turned away silently.

 He never imagined that a man disguised as a woman would be such a spectacle for the eye.

It was the male player who had been arguing with Tong Yao on the train, who had jumped in front of them and was eager to get on the carriage.

The male player held up his dress, and when passing by Tong Yao, he whispered disdainfully, “I know you like to huddle together, but you shouldn’t be bound to such an unidentified person, right?”

 The male player glanced at Chi Yiyin with contempt: “Do you think that you can pass the instance smoothly this way? You are still as innocent as ever, Tong Yao. Later, you will realize that there are no panions in the game field, only petitors.”

“I’ll give you a piece of advice, stay away from this kind of babbling little white face, or you won’t know how you die, hehe.”

The male player sneered and walked towards the carriage: “You want to hug thighs, but don’t choose a good one. Do you think that guy is such a talent?”

Tong Yao twisted her nose in anger, and immediately wanted to rush up.

But was blocked by Chi Yiyin.

He stood within the backlight and looked at the back of the male player. He smiled and said to Tong Yao, “It’s the first time that I’ve seen someone who can be so ugly in a dress – do you feel it’s like a fat turkey getting on a carriage?”

Chi Yiyin didn’t deliberately lower his voice, and the male player in front obviously heard his remarks. He almost slipped and fell down. He wanted to hold the door, but grabbed nothing. Instead, with a “Bang!” He got stuck on the door of the carriage.

Tong Yao was dumbfounded.

The big bright pink dress was wrapped around the male player. At first glance, it really looked just like a pink turkey ball…

“Pfft… ahahaha!”

 Tong Yao couldn’t hold back, she was laughing until her body shook back and forth. The male player was already unfortable wearing a dress, but now he appeared so ical, Chi Yiyin’s words were like a slap to his face, and Tong Yao’s laugh made the male player blush until it was so red.

The male player was already unfortable wearing a dress, but now he appeared so ical, Chi Yiyin’s words were like a slap to his face, and Tong Yao’s laugh made the male player blush until it was so red.

His appearance now was so ridiculous that the other players were amused as well, but he could only be in a dilemma because the dress was stuck on the carriage door, making him look like a clown.

Because of this clown, people in the live broadcast hall began to click in curiously, and then they were also amused and laughed.

[Hahahaha this pink is too coquettish, a bright pink flesh ball.]

[What? Is this a newer’s broadcast room? The grade is so low.]

[The anchor doesn’t look like a newer, he’s too steady, could it be some old monster is ing back?]

In Chi Yiyin’s mind, the situation in the live broadcast room was also broadcasted in real time.

[The current number of viewers is 19, and the number of followers is 2. Survivor, please make persistent efforts.]

And an unexpected surprise?

Chi Yiyin raised his eyebrows, walked over with his long legs, grabbed the male player by his dress and threw him off the carriage.

With a sound of “Bang!” the male player was almost smashed into pieces, groaning and screaming in pain.

Chi Yiyin turned around, looked down at the male player and said, “Knowing you have no strength, so you want to rely on such a small trick? If anyone is going to die here, it will only be you—you should know better than anyone else the danger of this instance, right?”

“Oh right. Sorry, I forgot.”

His polite smile was impeccable: “If the customs clearance condition is to be inpetent, then you must be ranked first.”

“You!”

The male player’s expression changed drastically, he pointed at Chi Yiyin and wanted to continue scolding.

But Chi Yiyin had already turned his gaze back, the smile on his face disappeared in an instant, and it was bitingly cold.

The male player accidentally met Chi Yiyin’s eyes, and immediately trembled in shock, and shut his mouth instinctively for survival.

At that moment, he felt as if he saw countless ghosts dancing wildly behind Chi Yiyin. And when Chi Yiyin, who was standing between the light and the dark, looked at him, his eyes were like looking at a dead thing. Cold with no temperature.

Is, is it an illusion?

When the male player hesitated, Chi Yiyin had already calmly got into the carriage.

It was as if the trash on the side of the road was not worthy of him to take another look, and should be taken for granted.

Tong Yao suddenly felt angry, rolled her eyes and muttered in a low voice: “I was wondering what kind of bullshit information has to be bought with so many points, and the result is wearing woman’s clothes to get close to the role of ‘elder sister?’ Bah!”

Chi Yiyin glanced at Tong Yao, surprised that she seemed to know a lot about the game field, but at the same time, was also very satisfied with this walking information provider. He did not save her in vain.

After all the players got into the carriage, the housekeeper immediately closed the door, followed by a metallic sound.

Chi Yiyin found out that the housekeeper took out a heavy iron lock and locked the carriage’s door from the outside, and seeing the housekeeper’s expression, the other thought this was a normal thing.

Who would treat a lady like this, afraid that the lady would run away?

Chi Yiyin was thoughtful.

The carriage started to run slowly, and began to bump.

The male player, who had just been humiliated in front of everyone, was now huddled in a corner into a bright pink flesh ball, refusing to face anyone. He sat the farthest from Chi Yiyin.

It seems within a short time, Chi Yiyin had bee his psychological shadow.

A few of the other players were focused on running their own live broadcast rooms, while the female student who was a newer stuck close to Tong Yao like a frightened bird.

Another young man who was obviously a newer, after seeing other people’s deaths, his mental state became worse. Now he was grinning stupidly in a daze while sitting in the carriage, with saliva flowing down the corner of his mouth without knowing it.

It seems that his collapse was not far away.

No players cared about a person who was destined to die. At most, they lament that this instance was as dangerous as the rumors say.

After Tong Yao laughed, she became worried as the instance started.

Sitting next to Chi Yiyin, she lowered her voice and expressed that she wanted to add his contact information and chat in private.

Chi Yiyin saw her uneasiness, so as a newer under the guidance of the system, he took out the munication terminal equipped for each player.

Tong Yao, who had already regarded Chi Yiyin as the backbone, also explained to him the truth about herself and this game field under his intentional guidance.

Tong Yao could be regarded to have been a survivor of The Carnival Game Field for many years. Although she was not parable to real bosses, she had survived by being cautious and trying her best to go in group for safety.

Because of this, she memorized the rules of the game field thoroughly, and strives to find a way to survive from the rules. Not only does she have a precious title of “intermediate intelligence expert,” but she could also be called as a living instruction manual.

After she was unlucky enough to be randomly assigned to [Dear Home], she immediately looked up all the information related to this instance in the live broadcast hall.

But the result surprised her.

As for [Dear Home], an E-level dungeon that no one had cleared for 12 years, she certainly knew of its bad name.

The instances of the game field are generally divided into A to F, and the difficulty is in sequence.

A-level has the difficulty of hell, and often there would be no return with all the players wiped out. Only the survivors in the top 100 leaderboards of the game field will choose to go in order to pass the game field or for its high rewards in return.

But unfortunately, it had been 12 years since the carnival game field, but no one had cleared it.

(T/N: Regarding the A lvl instance clearance. My understanding is there are 2 ways to get out of an instance normally. To pass & clear it. The top players have only passed the A lvl instances, none have cleared an A lvl instance.)

A-level was already scary enough, not to mention the four S-level anomalies [World Dungeon] that would be automatically triggered after clearing level A instance.

No one knew what those four mysterious S-level instances were, they had always been hidden in the dark.

The only information available is——

Want to leave the game field and return to reality?

Go and clear the S-level [World Dungeon.]

(T/N: The ‘dungeon’ in [World Dungeon] uses the same word as ‘instance.’ I just chose to use dungeon this time because [World Dungeon] sounds better imo.

At that time, whether it be a healthy body, prominent status, or countless treasures and honors, they will all be presented to you.

The winner’s reward is the whole world.

However, when Tong Yao saw this description of S-level instance while collecting information, she smiled and threw it aside after being shocked. She thought it was a player who had stayed for too long who was driven crazy to have such an unrealistic idea.

What a world, it’s ridiculous.

And F-level instance was monly known as the newbie’s round.

From the real world, newers who were pulled into the game field because of dying, vegetative state, obsession, were cursed, or have too many sins were usually matched to F-level newbie’s rounds.

There, they can trigger the system smoothly, learn about the game field step by step, pass the newer protection period, and increase the probability of surviving.

But there were also many newers who would randomly fall into the instance and started running at that moment after entering the game field.

Without novice guidance, these newers couldn’t even figure out the status quo. If you couldn’t guess the keyword of the game field, you couldn’t trigger the system, and newers who couldn’t even get an ID number and the many permissions in the game field.

In this case, the probability of death of newers is as high as 99.9%.

The other players joked that they didn’t know whether these newbies who fell into other levels of instances had multiple sins or were cursed by the whole world.

And the remaining 0.1% of it belonged to a legend of female player many years ago, and now she had already reached the top of the game field.

There were rumors that she was preparing to clear the S-level instance, and is considered to be the most likely person in history to break through the game field.

Therefore, there was also a joke among the players, “If a newer does not go to the novice game, they are either unlucky or a god.”

Speaking of this, Chi Yiyin looked at the news on his mobile phone and couldn’t help but pause.

His luck was super unlucky as always, tsk.

In order to show his sincerity, Tong Yao still introduced him without saying anything, without realizing that Chi Yiyin, whom she regarded as a hidden boss, was a newer.

It never occurred to her that this young man who seemed to be more skilled than the old players, calm and steady without any flaws, knew nothing about the game field before.

However, the reason [Dear Home] was so vicious was not just because no one has cleared it so far.

It’s because of the players who entered this instance…not one of them had survived.

This was a mere E-level instance, and the story background was very simple.

In that era a century ago, in Gushu Town, which was located on the outskirts of a prosperous metropolis, there lived a well-known wealthy businessman, the Ma family.

In order to follow the trend, the Ma family sent their eldest daughter to Shanghai to study and receive a new type of education. Suddenly one day, the head of Ma family and his wife called their daughter home urgently.

But the eldest daughter who returned home couldn’t adapt to the old-fashioned habits of the family, so she had frictions and quarrels with her three younger siblings. The mother’s persuasion was fruitless, and she shed tears all day long. The father also sighed because of the endless quarrels at home. He went out to do business all day to escape.

This made the home cloudy and there was no peaceful day.

The contradictions between the four children became more and more serious, and finally the siblings fought against each other and killed each other.

When the sick mother heard the voice and walked out of the door, what she saw were four corpses lying in a pool of blood with grim faces. She was stimulated, went pletely crazy, followed her four children, and hanged herself on the chandelier in the hall.

At dawn, when the businessman’s father returned home, he opened the door and saw his wife’s feet dangling in the air.

And… there were corpses strewn all over the ground, which had already gone cold.

The player played the role of the elder sister, who had just returned to Ma’s house.

Through the information prompts in the initial letter and the instance, the players believed that the key to clearing the level of this instance was the father who is the head of the Ma family, also known as the instance boss.

As long as the father’s wish was fulfilled and the family is happy, this instance could be cleared.

But the players soon discovered that no matter what they did, they won’t be able to bring the family back together. In the end, the elder sister will either be killed by her siblings, or she will mit suicide by jumping off a building.

Some players even triggered the most tragic ending. After the crazy father killed the whole family, he killed half of the town.

Everyone couldn’t figure out what was wrong with this noisy home all day long, and it would bee what it is today.

This instance had also been suspended for 12 years and has bee a death legend in the E-level instance.

For many experienced veteran players, even if there was no way to pass the level, they can use points or props to forcibly leave the instance.

Although they didn’t get the instance reward and a lot of points, at least they were still alive.

But the problem was, even if these players return to the game field, they would all die from ghosts one by one in less than a few months, and their deaths were miserable.

At first, when players started dying for no reason, everyone was in panic.

It was later discovered that these dead people all had one thing in mon, that was, they had all participated in the instance [Dear Home].

From that day on, [Dear Home] became notorious, and the players’ faces changed when they heard about it. As a result, no one dared to enter this instance for a long time.

Therefore, the game field also issued an announcement that the instance [Dear Home] will be run for the last time, and would be pletely closed from then on.

If anyone can clear the level in [Dear Home] for the last time, then all the property and props in the entire instance, and even the instance itself, can be given to the one who cleared it.

Because of this announcement, most of the game field became restless.

All the players who have the strength and confidence, changed their previous detours, and chose this instance voluntarily. They were gearing up for the too generous rewards, and they want to fight with their lives.

Tong Yao knew the news, but she was not tempted at all, she just wanted to continue to live.

Unexpectedly, she who had chosen other instance was randomly thrown into this instance by the system.

What you’re really afraid of will really e true.

Tong Yao couldn’t help but smile wryly, feeling that she was also quite unlucky.

She now just hopes that she can go back safely.

If it’s Chi Yiyin… Maybe there’s still a chance?

Tong Yao looked at the calm Chi Yiyin, and her eyes slowly lit up.

The carriage drove on a bumpy road, and outside the shaking windows were faces without facial features. Everything in Gushu Town was like melted blocks of color, and it was impossible to tell who was who.

Those faceless people looked in the direction of the carriage, and grinned silently at them all the way to their ears.

The female student turned pale with fright after just one glance, and quickly retreated to Tong Yao’s side.

The carriage finally stopped, and a small sound came from outside.

The carriage door was opened, and the housekeeper asked everyone to get out of with a half-smile: “Miss, you’re home, e quickly, the young miss and young masters are waiting for you at home. It’s been a long time, they should be getting impatient.”

Impatient younger siblings who were eagerly waiting for their eldest sister to e home?

Chi Yiyin chuckled and raised his eyes, looking outside the carriage.

An imposing old Hui-style house, black and white, clean and quiet, like a landscape painting.

But when it stood within the silent mist, all the faceless people look at the old house, all its beauty…

It all became weird.

It seems that they were not going home, but actively walking into the grave of death.