Assassin, Don't Be Too Arrogant [E-sports] - Chapter 13

After saying this, Wen Zhe immediately entered combat mode. He had intended to summon “Dang,” but unexpectedly, the female ghost was no match for him at all. With just his normal spellcasting attacks, he could easily take her down.

[Female Ghost: Don’t you want to save your master?]

Hearing this, Wen Zhe stopped.

[Wen Zhe: I’ll give you a chance to live.]

Trembling, the female ghost crawled to the coffin and softly chanted a spell. At that moment, Jian Yao’s perspective shifted from third-person to first-person.

【Player mechanism restrictions have been activated. Identity switched to: Immortal.】

The female ghost collapsed to the ground, her eyes fixed on a patch of grass outside the cave. Unnoticed by the two, she instantly teleported to the grass.

[Female Ghost: You’ve finally come to see me… Xu Lang…]

The two looked over as the female ghost used her magic to pull the person hiding in the grass out into the open.

The person from the grass looked horrified, but Jian Yao could see sorrow deep in his eyes.

[Female Ghost: I shouldn’t call you Village Chief Xu…]

[Village Chief Xu: Miss Qi…]

The female ghost let out a self-mocking laugh.

[Female Ghost: Miss Qi… Xu Lang, you’ve grown so distant from me. Why don’t you look whose blood flows in your heart?]

She pressed her fingertip against the village chief’s chest.

[Female Ghost: Xu Lang, how does my heart feel?]

In an instant, her fingernails embedded themselves into the man’s flesh, forcibly extracting his heart.

[Female Ghost: Using my heart, and then making me abandon our child… Xu Lang, do you hate me that much?]

Child…

Jian Yao suddenly thought of something and turned to Wen Zhe just as Wen Zhe was looking at him. “Could this child be…!”

Wen Zhe nodded, recalling the guardian spirit mission the four of them had undertaken during their battle against FG.

At that time, the four of them had dodged enemy attacks while moving closer to the guardian spirit.

The closer they got to the guardian spirit, the gentler the wind and snow became. Eventually, they found the guardian spirit swinging on a swing under a large tree.

Aside from killing the guardian spirit, there was actually a faster way to clear the level—fulfilling the guardian spirit’s wish.

The guardian spirit had no concept of whether players were good or bad. The first group to appear near it would be considered the “defending side,” and it would choose to help them by revealing its wish.

The only difference was that the defending side didn’t need to complete tasks, while the attacking side had to fulfill the guardian spirit’s wish to remove its protective mechanism over the defenders.

If the defending side interrupted the game at any point, the guardian spirit would immediately erupt…

The form and wishes of the guardian spirit were randomly generated. To this day, no guide had compiled all the possible questions or forms of guardian spirits. Players flooded the forums with complaints, but the official response was: “To prevent the game from becoming monotonous, it’s highly unlikely for the same wish to appear twice. The number of random possibilities equals the number of hairs our designers have lost.”

The guardian spirit Wen Zhe and his team encountered was in its child form. Dressed in a cotton-padded jacket and holding a pinwheel, it played carefreely on a swing hanging from a large tree by an icy river. Faint traces of bloodstains were visible on the swing’s ropes.

The guardian spirit looked at the four approaching players and blinked its large eyes. “Are you here to play with me?”

“Yes, we’re here to play with you,” Su Ze crouched in front of the guardian spirit. “Little one, what’s your name?”

“My name is ‘Mei,’ as in plum blossom. Mother said the five petals of the plum blossom symbolize the five blessings, hoping I’d be auspicious and happy.” The guardian spirit “Mei” introduced her name. “Can you help me find where Mother went? She was playing ‘One, Two, Three, Wooden Man’ with me, telling me to hide behind the tree and count slowly. But when I finished counting and looked ahead, Mother was gone…”

Mei stared at the small pinwheel spinning in her hand. “She was the one who said it—’One, Two, Three, Wooden Man, no talking, no moving’…”

[Suddenly remembered I’ve played this before…]

[Upstairs, elaborate—I haven’t played it yet.]

[Back then, this guardian Mei wasn’t fully explored. I played with a team based on intuition and didn’t really understand it.]

[Listening to your words is like listening to your words…]

The barrage of comments scrolled up too quickly for Jian Yao to read carefully. “So, what should we do now?”

“Since she said she wants to play, let’s play with her,” Wen Zhe replied.

“Mei, what do you want to play?” Su Ze asked again.

But Mei remained motionless, continuing to stare at her pinwheel without a word.

Su Ze waved a hand in front of her eyes, but Mei ignored it—

“That’s strange!”

“Probably hasn’t triggered a response yet,” Zhong Yuyi replied in the game, ruffling Su Ze’s hair.

Jian Yao stayed silent, pondering Mei’s words over and over in his mind. Could it be…?

“Wooden Man.”

He and Wen Zhe spoke at the same time.

“Wooden Man? I’ll give it a try,” Su Ze spoke up again. “Mei, let’s play Wooden Man together.”

“Wooden Man?” Mei looked up at Su Ze. “You want to play Wooden Man with me?”

“Yeah, how about we big brothers play Wooden Man with you?” Su Ze replied.

“Then let’s pinky promise!” Mei jumped off the swing and walked up to Su Ze with a smile. “One, Two, Three, Wooden Man, no talking, no moving.”

“Mm-hmm, no talking, no moving,” Su Ze cheerfully linked pinkies with Mei.

[Don’t you think that smile is creepy?]

[Feels like she’s going to devour you the next second…]

Watching the barrage, Wen Zhe reminded the other three, “Stay alert, everyone. Be careful—there might be a trick.”

“It should be fine, right? We’re just playing a game with her,” Su Ze said, half-convinced.

“Not necessarily. Keep your guard up,” Zhong Yuyi tapped the table as a warning to Su Ze.

“Got it, got it. If you keep nagging, Xiao Yi, I’m gonna rebel!”

“Try rebelling and see what happens?”

Amid their playful bickering, the scene before them shifted. Everyone was teleported to a position some distance away from Mei. Mei stood with her back to them in front of a large tree, while the system’s eerie voice echoed in the ears of the four:

“The Wooden Man game is about to begin… Players must use the moments when the guardian spirit turns her head to move closer, until they successfully tap the guardian spirit’s shoulder…”

“Zzzzt—zzzzt—”

An indistinct sound drifted over.

“That’s strange. What is that sound?” Jian Yao tried to listen more carefully but was interrupted by the system’s voice.

“Remember, once players step out of the safe zone, there is no turning back! Do not let go of your hands on the keyboard… Do not entertain any wishful thinking… If you let go, immediately return your hands to the keyboard.If the game is interfered with by the defending side, the guardian spirit will immediately enter a berserk state. Three… two… one… The game begins.”

“Feels like the console is burning out,” Su Ze replied. “That zzzzt-zzzzt sound, right?”

“You do have a point there.” Zhong Yuyi didn’t argue further. “Captain, what do you think?”

“The specifics aren’t clear yet,” Wen Zhe quickly glanced at the system subtitles. “Keeping hands on the keyboard at all times—now that’s interesting.”

They didn’t have much time to think, as the guardian spirit had already begun…

“One… two… three… freeze!”

Mei turned around and saw the four of them hadn’t moved. He turned back and continued counting: “One… two… three… freeze!”

He turned again but still saw no prey, growing impatient. “One… two… three… freeze!”

“If you don’t come out soon…” Mei’s mouth stretched to his ears, his eye sockets becoming uneven. “I’ll have to invite you out myself…”

Mei’s laughter echoed across the empty snowy field, eerie and unsettling—

“I want to see what happens if I don’t come out.” Su Ze’s rebellious streak kicked in. “You three go first. I’ll stay here and distract him.”

“Are you sure?” Zhong Yuyi looked at him skeptically. “He did say he’d find a way to make you come out.”

“One… two…”

Mei’s countdown had already begun beside them. Su Ze pushed Zhong Yuyi toward the safe zone, muttering under his breath, “Stop nagging.”

Only after receiving a sharp glare from the person beside him did he remember his microphone was on. He quickly blinked, trying to look innocent and well-behaved.

[Hahaha, sweating bullets, bro!!]

[Little Yi, you’re just spoiling him!]

“Who’s spoiling him?” Zhong Yuyi retorted to the comments, but his eyes unconsciously drifted toward Su Ze.

“Freeze!”

The joking stopped the moment Mei turned around. The boy’s gaze fixed directly on Su Ze, who was still in the safe zone, his mouth stretching wide. “Why is there still someone who hasn’t come out?”

Mei exhaled a gust of wind that blew toward Su Ze.

“Did he miss?” Su Ze instinctively turned his head, only to be hit by the suddenly curving wind and slammed heavily to the ground.

Just as Su Ze was dazed, Mei’s laughter grew increasingly sinister. He stretched his neck, his mouth revealing a bloody grin as he lunged toward Su Ze. “It seems someone isn’t following the rules.”

“No way?!” Su Ze stared at the incoming attack on the screen, recalling the system’s warning. He immediately controlled his character to stand up, keeping his hands firmly on the keyboard without moving. “That scared me. How can he attack from a distance?”

“Pretty clever, not forgetting what the system said.” Zhong Yuyi adjusted his tone, having nearly let go to shield Su Ze earlier.

“I’m not old enough to forget things yet.” Su Ze retorted angrily.

“Yeah, yeah.”

“Such a half-hearted response!”

Su Ze fussed around Zhong Yuyi, but the latter pretended not to hear him.

“Why did you stop? What a pity…” Mei sighed, retracting his neck and rolling his eyes. His previously cute appearance had completely vanished. “Next… the real fun begins~”

After that, the opposing team surrendered.

After logging off, Wen Zhe went to the forum and found a note titled “About the Boy ‘Mei’.”

The beginning of the forum post only described what Wen Zhe and the others had experienced since encountering Mei, followed by a few large, eye-catching words:

[The Truth of the Matter—]

Wen Zhe continued scrolling down.

“I heard this guardian spirit is a flawed creation. Its narrative was deemed too oppressive and was supposed to be removed, yet for some reason, it appeared after this update—as if someone tampered with the system, allowing it to persist and be randomly encountered by players.”

“And regarding what Mei said about his mother, the truth is hidden within his very name.”

Mei—wood and every.”

“His mother was found hanging from the branch of a large tree.”

“Why does Mei enjoy playing ‘One, Two, Three, Statue’? It’s because the murderer played that very game with him while killing his mother.”

“So, in this game, more than one person disappeared—not only his mother, but others as well.”

“Do you know why he holds a pinwheel?”

“The pinwheel has four blades…”

“Thus, the murderers are the four of you players.”

“Originally, there was no swing under the tree.”

“So, I ask you… where did this swing come from?”

The two snapped back to reality, and Jian Yao once again marveled at the brilliance of the plot design before continuing the storyline.

The village chief’s wife rushed out from somewhere, embracing the chief, whose clothes were stained crimson with blood and who clung to the last shreds of life, weeping bitterly.

[Village Chief’s Wife: My lord!]

Blood continued to flow from the chief’s mouth, yet his gaze remained fixed on the female ghost, as if he had something to say.

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