Grand View Garden Survival Rules [Infinite] - Chapter 4

Chapter 4: String Figures

Her head hung low as she followed Huainan Yue into the courtyard, only to find that the space which had been fairly lively the day before, was now completely deserted.

“Where did all the maids and matrons go?”

“Doesn’t that make it even harder to find her? We could have at least asked for directions before, now we’ve got nothing.”

Everyone chimed in at once, the atmosphere bordering on frantic.

The disappearance of NPCs was a double-edged sword. While the immediate threat from them had vanished, it also meant there were fewer clues left in the instance.

Among everyone, Xue Xi was the most anxious. Carrying the weight of the task to “find the NPC before 6:00 PM or likely drop dead,” she spun around the courtyard like a top until Rabbit caught her.

“Don’t panic, Xue Xi.” Rabbit jerked her chin toward Huainan Yue, who was standing under the veranda. “Let’s see if Sister Moon has a plan.”

Huainan Yue was staring fixedly at a rock not far away.

Under the murky darkness of the previous night, everything had been blurred, their silhouettes barely discernible. But that didn’t stop her from feeling that this rock was strange. The rock last night seemed slightly larger than this one.

Hearing Xue Xi and Rabbit approach arm-in-arm, Huainan Yue didn’t turn around. She stared at the rock for a moment longer before asking in a deep voice:

“In your last instance, did you ever have a situation where the NPCs disappeared?”

Realizing Huainan Yue was speaking to her, Rabbit lowered her head in thought for a while. “I think so.” She said softly, “During those three days, excluding the nights, there was a long stretch of time where we didn’t run into any NPCs. But we were busy with other things then, so I didn’t pay much attention to it.”

“How long? What were you busy with?”

“I can’t quite remember what we were doing… I didn’t track the time, but it wasn’t more than an hour, because the bell didn’t toll.”

The surroundings were as silent as a deserted mountain graveyard. Huainan Yue frowned.

Something was wrong.

She suddenly turned around and asked, “How long do you two think has passed from the moment we woke up until now?”

“It feels like a while…” Xue Xi calculated for a moment before concluding, “But definitely not an hour. The bell tolls every hour, and we haven’t heard it.”

Rabbit nodded in agreement.

Not even an hour? Huainan Yue idly tapped a corridor pillar.

She felt certain that time had passed. As everyone knows, motion is relative. If the NPCs had disappeared relative to them, then they had also disappeared relative to the NPCs.

So, was it possible… the NPCs hadn’t changed at all, but they had? Perhaps they had been transported to an identical copy of the place, one where there were no bells.

If that were the case—how could they get out?

Even worse, she had no idea how the flow of time worked in this world, and there were no bells to signal it. If they were trapped for too long and it was past six o’clock by the time they got out…

The sun was fierce today. Huainan Yue shaded her eyes with her hand, squinting as she scanned the courtyard, her gaze sliding along the perimeter wall. Nothing was out of place; it was exactly as she remembered.

The only oddity was that rock.

Did these changes occur because she touched that diary by the rock last night? Suddenly, she thought of the NPC Xue Xi had encountered—the one who looked like Yingchun.

“She played hide-and-seek with you, right?” Huainan Yue’s voice was very soft.

Xue Xi nodded.

“I suspect the solution lies in a few possibilities.” Huainan Yue never liked over-explaining, so she kept it brief. “Move the rock, break open the courtyard gate, or find that playful NPC.”

“The two guys move the rock. Xue Xi and Rabbit check the main house. I’ll head to the gate.”

The group had grown accustomed to listening to her and acted immediately. However, the rock was heavy and the men couldn’t budge it; the courtyard gate remained unyielding; the main house was empty.

After about twenty minutes, they still had nothing. The group was demoralized; Xue Xi hung her head, looking quite pitiful.

…What part was missed?

Huainan Yue suddenly recalled the opening of the diary from last night: Woke up a bit early today. The osmanthus tree at the door has bloomed, it’s very fragrant. Siqi and I gathered some so I can thread flower-chains.

A flash of inspiration struck. She turned to the four people looking at her expectantly and said, “Help me with something.”

There were no ladders or bricks in the yard; getting over the wall required manual labor. Huainan Yue stepped onto the shoulders of one of the men and vaulted onto the courtyard wall. Sitting atop it, she looked outward.

A person was standing under the osmanthus tree by the door.

She had guessed right.

Huainan Yue turned and asked Xue Xi, who had just climbed up, “Is that the ghost you met last night?”

Xue Xi squinted and stared for a while. “The height and build are similar, but their back is toward us and I can’t see the face, so I can’t say for sure.”

The rest of the group climbed up one by one, sitting in a row on the wall. Just as they were waiting for the NPC to turn around, the ethereal, long-absent electronic voice began to haunt them again, making everyone jump.

Triggered Side Quest: Please complete ten flower-chains within one hour.

Success Reward: Find the way out

Failure Penalty: None

Quest Points: 100 total, distributed based on contribution

Huainan Yue: “…”

What do you mean ‘None’? This clearly meant that if they didn’t finish, they wouldn’t find the way out and would be trapped here. Wouldn’t that lead to death anyway? How did the System have the nerve to say “No penalty”?

They had tried jumping off the wall earlier to see if they could exit the courtyard that way, but every time the thought of jumping outward occurred, their limbs went limp, making movement impossible. They couldn’t leave by jumping the wall.

Xue Xi’s voice shook slightly. “Did you all hear that mission?”

One of the men said nonchalantly, “Isn’t it just threading flower-chains? You just need hands for that. Besides, there’s no penalty for failing.”

“No, what kind of brain do you have?” Rabbit grit her teeth, her voice soft but sharp with frustration. “We can only find the way out if we complete it. If we don’t, we’re stuck. There isn’t a single NPC here except the one under the tree. If we can’t find the missing Yingchun, we’re all dead.”

Only then did the man become afraid. “Then let’s start. How do you thread these flower-chains?”

That was a good question. Since they couldn’t leave the yard, the raw materials had to be inside. Huainan Yue looked back; sure enough, the rock in the center of the yard had turned into a stone table, upon which sat a basket of osmanthus flowers and a bundle of silk thread.

Seeing a way to break the deadlock, everyone looked much more relaxed. They jumped down from the wall one by one and walked toward the center of the yard. One of the men reached out toward the basket, but Huainan Yue’s intuition screamed at her. Her shout of “Don’t touch it yet!” had barely left her throat when it was already too late.

The moment the man’s hand touched the basket, a sudden mutation occurred!

The surrounding scenery began to distort. In an instant, a gale howled, tiles were blown off the walls, and Huainan Yue once again saw the trees with legs, the three-eyed birds, and the waist-high crickets…

Rabbit was lunged at by a monstrous bird. Unprepared, she let out a scream, nearly losing her life to the shock.

“Get back!” Huainan Yue commanded sharply.

Following their instincts, everyone obeyed her. They watched as the mutated monsters rushed straight toward the stone table in the center of the yard, surrounding it so tightly that not even water could pass through.

A small portion of them turned to charge at Huainan Yue.

Huainan Yue opened her palm, showing the group what she was holding. Only then did they notice that she had somehow swiped a handful of osmanthus petals and a few silk threads.

It seemed the monsters were chasing the petals, like bees drawn to honey. Where there were more petals, there were more monsters. The petals in Huainan Yue’s hand were a mere drop in the bucket compared to what was in the basket. She could handle a few monsters.

While sprinting through the courtyard, Huainan Yue’s fingers danced incessantly. In a few flashes, she had threaded a flower-chain.

The electronic voice rang in everyone’s ears again: Mission Progress: 1/10

Then followed a steady stream of “2/10” and “3/10.”

Huainan Yue’s long dress had been torn into a short skirt to allow for movement. The soles of her feet were covered in tiny cuts. She moved like a whirlwind, her ink-black hair flying in the wind, with a pack of demons and monsters trailing behind her.

The others watched in a daze. Rabbit’s jaw nearly hit the floor.

Unfortunately, “3/10” was not followed by “4/10.” Huainan Yue’s speed slowed down abruptly. The monsters following her stopped their pursuit and scattered, surging back toward the stone table.

Huainan Yue had run out of petals. They needed more.

The group huddled together, looking at the stone table now fortified by monsters like an iron bucket.

“What do we do? We can’t push through that,” Xue Xi’s face crumpled.

Once the osmanthus was threaded into a chain, it clearly lost its attraction for the monsters. Huainan Yue waved the finished chain around the center of the yard, but the monsters ignored it completely. But to push directly into the swarm to grab petals… undoubtedly, the moment their hand touched a petal, the things surrounding them would tear them apart.

Huainan Yue suddenly thought of the previous night.

Last night, the monsters would appear and disappear. They appeared when she told the matron she was “relieving herself” and the shadow by the rock was a person; they disappeared when she told the matron she was doing something else.

The matron was the medium.

Since these monsters looked identical to the ones from last night… was it possible they could also be made to disappear? Was there a medium here?

What would the medium be?

Huainan Yue lowered her eyes and suddenly waved to the others. “Get on the wall.”

Outside the wall, the NPC was still standing under the tree. Once the five of them were sat in a row on the wall and all looked at the NPC together, Huainan Yue looked back into the yard. Sure enough, the monsters had vanished, and the surroundings were as peaceful as if nothing had ever happened.

She was right. The medium was the NPC under the tree.

The monsters appeared when the basket was touched; they disappeared when everyone looked at the NPC together. Last night, Rule 3 triggered after speaking to the matron; then, every time she went back to the matron, the creature by the rock refreshed. Now, the side quest began after looking at the NPC; then, every time they looked at that NPC together, the basket refreshed.

Different paths to the same end.

With experience now, everyone grabbed a handful of flowers. They ran and threaded the chains simultaneously in a frantic rush. Rabbit nearly got caught by a monster several times, her lips turning pale with fear, but in the end, it was a close call without disaster.

The electronic voice rang out again, sounding slightly distorted amidst the chaos.

Mission Progress: 10/10

Congratulations, mission complete. Points +80. Your total points: 80

The courtyard gate is about to open. The way out is about to appear. Please be prepared.

Huainan Yue: “…?”

One hundred points total, and she got eighty? This System was being very “generous” to her.