Chapter 183 Ferryman Dungeon (VI)
The players had no houses to live in and could only rest on the boat these days. At this time, everyone else had returned, but there was no sign of the ship that had first sent the Ghost General there. Except for Chang Chujing, many people felt that Ning Hanqi might be in danger.
After the gathered ghosts left, the wild beasts in the mountains and forests began to appear again, and their howling could be heard from time to time, whether far or near.
Suddenly, a small boat floated on the river. People who saw this scene became subconsciously alert because similar things had happened before. The souls of players who died tragically were unwilling to be lonely and rowed the boat back, trying to pull a few people away.
When Ning Hanqi stopped the boat at the shore, she instantly felt several pairs of eyes on her. She looked around and saw that all the boats, including the old boatman's, were there. It seemed that there would be no new passengers for a while.
Chang Chujing's boat was right next to her. The little girl stuck her head out and asked Ning Hanqi quietly if she was in danger. Otherwise, she wouldn't be coming back so slowly.
"It's a small problem, it has been dealt with." Ning Hanqi said softly.
[Host, you must swear not to kill the hero! Otherwise, I won't take you there no matter what you say!] The small system's voice was trembling. Today, it had a good re-acquaintance with the power of the Great Demon King. To be honest, it suspected that the Great Demon King could strangle the hero to death with one hand!
It no longer expects the big devil to complete the task, but at least it allows this world to run warmly and steadily!
"Okay, okay, I swear, why are you so timid, little thing?" Xia Yingnuan glanced at it with disgust, then raised three fingers and swore to the sky.
"You really won't kill the hero?"
"I keep him because he's useful." Xia Yingnuan showed a gloomy smile, which made the system shudder.
[……]Okay, no matter what the host's plan is, at least this world is temporarily saved. The system was heartbroken to find that its bottom line had been lowered again.
[Where is the hero now... Huh? Why is he running to an abandoned factory so late at night?] The system used the location it had left on the hero to find a certain nook and cranny. As soon as it reported the location, Xia Yingnuan felt that it sounded a little familiar.
After searching through her past memories, Xia Yingnuan suddenly realized something. Wasn't that the secret base where the male protagonist loved to do his dirty work? It seemed like she might have an unexpected gain on this trip.
In order to prevent any supernatural phenomena from being captured on surveillance, Xia Yingnuan temporarily took off her props and hailed a taxi.
Hearing about that place, the kind-hearted driver couldn't help but glance at Xia Yingnuan through the rearview mirror. "That place is so desolate. There are not many people here at night. Is the girl going to meet some friends?"
It was already dark, and the little girl ran to the suburbs alone. The driver was a little worried that she had been cheated by some "netizen".
"No, I'm just going to look for... my family." Xia Yingnuan smiled generously. In order to divert the driver's attention, she chatted with him about everything. After a while, they became familiar with each other.
When we arrived at our destination, the driver reminded us, "Be careful! Remember to take the main road, not the side roads!"
"Okay!" Xia Yingnuan waved to the driver, then quickly disappeared in the swaying shadows of the trees.
"Alas, her family didn't even show up to pick her up. It's so easy for such a pretty girl to run into bad guys at night." Thinking of this, the driver felt that he should have driven the girl a little further, at least to get her into the residential complex...
Residential complex? Yeah, the residential complex here should be on the east side. Why did that little girl just walk west? Isn't that... a tomb on the west side?
The driver gasped, feeling the coldness in his car. The swaying shadows of the trees in the night wind were like ferocious ghosts, scaring him so much that he stepped on the accelerator and turned around to run away.
Xia Yingnuan didn't realize how much of a scare she had given others. She climbed up the hill and soon saw the desolate factory building not far away.
This factory was built right next to someone's cemetery, and for some reason rumors of it being haunted spread. The original owner was so scared that he wanted to sell it. Later, someone took the opportunity to buy it at a low price, but the new owner did not develop or renovate it, and just let it sit there abandoned.
The new owner is the male protagonist Long Chendong.
Xia Yingnuan put on the props and hid in the darkness. She nimbly flipped over the wall and made almost no sound when she landed.
As she got a little closer, she heard faint sounds coming from inside the factory.
"You're just a dog I raised, yet you dared to bite me back? If you have the guts, you can just hide away for the rest of your life. What? Have you spent all your money? Even if you did, you shouldn't have come back. It's better to beg on the streets abroad than end up in my hands!"
"Bang!" Something hit the ground, followed by a scream.
"Beat him to death! But don't kill him."
There were screams in the factory, but because the place was large and remote enough, no one outside the factory could hear them.
Xia Yingnuan quietly looked inside from a window. Several dim light bulbs were on, and with the help of the weak light she could clearly see the atrocities inside.
Several strong men kicked a tall and thin man to the ground and punched him hard. A man lit a cigarette next to him. His figure was very familiar. It was Long Chendong.
The person who was beaten was surrounded by several strong men, and the lighting was very poor. The light bulbs here seemed a bit old-fashioned. No matter how good Xia Yingnuan's eyesight was, it was difficult for her to see the other person's face clearly in such an environment.
"System, can you confirm the identity of the person who was beaten?"
[It's a bit difficult. If he's not even cannon fodder, he won't be in my records.]
"It's okay, just take a picture of his face and share it with me." Xia Yingnuan wanted to know if the other person was an old acquaintance.
"Zhao Guangxu, I have a question for you." Long Chendong took a deep puff of cigarette.
"The system is back, no need to go." Xia Yingnuan smiled, making the system shudder. "What a coincidence! Today is such a good day."
Zhao Guangxu, Ning Tiantian’s biological father.
"I want to live! I want to live! Mr. Long, please let me go! As long as you forgive me, I will do anything for you! Please let me go! It was Song Qinuan who tricked me in the beginning! I don't want to betray you! It was that woman who played me around, so I did this stupid thing!" Zhao Guangxu crawled to Long Chendong's feet like a maggot, begging him regardless of his dignity.
"I'm Yingdao." Long Chendong sneered, "Otherwise, do you think you can still be alive today? I would have chopped you up and thrown you into the sea to feed the fish!"
"Thank you, President Long! Thank you, President Long!" Zhao Guangxu said hurriedly, "What do you want me to do for you? I, I will definitely do my best!"
"Hmph..." Seeing this man's utterly undignified and cowardly look, Long Chendong snorted coldly, "Ning Hanqi's sister, Ning Yutian, your ex-wife, is in a mental hospital. I've bribed the people there, and I'll arrange for you to go in when the time comes."
"Why? She's gone crazy..." Zhao Guangxu saw Long Chendong's gloomy eyes and immediately said tremblingly: "Okay, okay."
"I want to make Ning Yutian go crazy even more completely, so crazy... that he might die if he's not careful." Long Chendong threw the burning cigarette butt at Zhao Guangxu's face. The man lying on the ground shivered from the burn, but didn't dare to scream.
Who made her Ning Hanqi's sister?
"And your daughter, if there's a chance to catch her together, I'll give you some money to go abroad. How about that?"
"Okay, okay! I will definitely help you get things done and bring that little girl to you!" Zhao Guangxu agreed without hesitation as he could save his life and get the money, regardless of whether the child was his biological daughter or not.
It's over. The system quietly glanced at Xia Yingnuan's expression. She was laughing, and her laugh was super scary!
"This is the male protagonist you want to protect." Xia Yingnuan's voice was extremely cold. She said that Ning Hanqi had gone crazy in the end and wanted to kill Long Chendong. If it were her, she would have skinned him alive long ago!
[Ahem, don't get me wrong. We only want to preserve the functions in him that keep the world running, even if it means he becomes a vegetable for the rest of his life.] The system coughed dryly twice. There are so many worlds, and there are always going to be eccentric protagonists, but we can't give up the entire world just because of one person, right?
Xia Yingnuan laughed coldly and stopped arguing with the little system about the male protagonist's problem.
"System, what kind of death do you think would be most suitable for Zhao Guangxu? How about lighting a sky lantern?" Xia Yingnuan's expression was very serious, so serious that the small system went out of its way to check what a sky lantern was.
The system's database contained everything, even some of the predecessors' experiences. It was inexplicable that there was even a video introduction to the punishment of burning the sky lantern. The frightened little system retreated after just two glances.
[Host, although this scumbag deserves death, killing people like this will cause social panic! We can't cause trouble for the police, and we don't want to scare the flowers, plants, and children! You, you are kidding, right?]
Xia Yingnuan reached out and flicked the small system's smooth head. "As expected of a system from the Ministry of Redemption. If you were my senior, you would have thought of 100 ways to dispose of the body without leaving any trace."
[I, I will try my best to be like my seniors QAQ!] What the hell! It will never learn this in its lifetime!
"No need. It's fine to be silly like this. Forget it." Xia Yingnuan held her chin. After all, the victim was someone else. How could he vent his anger if she dealt with him?
You weren't really thinking about it just now! The system program was garbled for a moment, and the small system seemed to have a new understanding of the terrifying degree of its host!
[Ah! Host, don't go down yet! There are surveillance cameras here!]
"Is there surveillance? That's even better." A particularly malicious idea emerged in Xia Yingnuan's mind.
"System, do me a favor."
The dim light bulbs in the factory flickered as if they had poor contact. A cold wind blew in from nowhere, and it was a summer night, but people were shivering from the cold.
"Snap!" All the lights suddenly went out, and there was no sound of something being blown.
"Fuck! Bad luck!" A strong man was startled. It was not his fault that he was sensitive. The main reason was that there had always been rumors that this place was haunted. It was scary enough to come here late at night. If the boss had not offered a high enough price, he would not have come here.
"It's unclear who built this factory. Why build it right next to the Ningjiao Cemetery? Isn't it creepy at night?"
Ningjiao Cemetery? Long Chendong's heart skipped a beat. He seemed to have heard that Ning Hanqi buried Song Qinuan in Ningjiao Cemetery. So it was the one next door?
In an instant, he got goosebumps all over his body.
unlucky!
"Let's go and talk somewhere else." Long Chendong walked out with his head held high. Suddenly, a gust of wind blew by, and with a loud "boom", the door of the factory closed by itself.
It was unclear whether it was shaken or not, but a light bulb that was originally dim suddenly flickered again. Zhao Guangxu fell behind because of his mobility problems. When he tried to get up, he suddenly found that there seemed to be something in the corner.
With the help of the flickering light, Zhao Guangxu squinted his eyes and looked into the corner. When the light came on, he saw a pair of legs in the corner, and then he subconsciously looked up.
“Ahhhhhhhhhh!!!” Zhao Guangxu suddenly started running, crawling and running towards the door for his life.
"What the hell are you doing?!" Long Chendong had him arrested. He hadn't expected this hotel to have such a character besides the ghosts. It was Ning Hanqi's first encounter with an ordinary NPC who had tricked him into thinking he was a fool. It was a rather novel experience, but he mentioned taking her out...
Things are definitely not that simple. That NPC has bad intentions. Ning Hanqi certainly cannot expect him to take him out, but the key clue of the branch line should be on him, so he can only deal with him for the time being.
Ning Hanqi held the talisman paper given to her by the madman in her hand. It was really useless. The madman told her that the talisman paper had a short validity period because this place was full of ghosts and the power of the talisman paper would be depleted quickly, so he asked her to come and get a few new ones after every meal.
I still don’t know what that madman is planning, but as long as we keep dealing with him, he will definitely show his hand.
This was only their second meeting, and the madman was still very wary of him, so Ning Hanqi did not continue to ask other questions. Since the other party had already taken the initiative to ask for three meals, if he did not accept it, it would be a waste of the ladder that the other party had offered to him.
Ning Hanqi was methodically continuing to contact the lunatic, while Xia Yingnuan's plan had reached a crucial stage. The supervisor had previously stewed and eaten the foreman's most capable subordinate, then distributed the food to everyone in the restaurant. Was this out of kindness? No, it was a warning.
The supervisor was warning the foreman and other "people" that he was the person in charge of the restaurant, and that all "people" who disobeyed him would suffer the same fate, even the foreman.
It thought that it could use its strength to intimidate other employees and make them obey, and then suppress the discordant voices in the restaurant, but it forgot where its identity and strength came from.
No, maybe it didn't forget, and it was precisely because it remembered that all these things were given to it by "others" that it was extremely afraid of losing them, and afraid that what it had obtained would be taken away by "people" again. It was just that it was not very smart, and not only were its methods inferior, but it also had the opposite effect.
"What right do you have to tell me what to do?!"
When Ning Hanqi was pushing the food cart back after dinner, he heard the supervisor's hysterical scolding again. When the other side heard the sound of the wheels rolling over, it glared at him fiercely. Unfortunately, before it saw Ning Hanqi, it saw Jiang Man who was sneaking over.
"You! What are you doing sneaking around? If you have nothing to do, go take out the trash!" The supervisor couldn't do anything to the foreman for the time being, but he could still vent his anger on an ordinary human player.
Jiang Man's mouth twitched. She had no choice but to put on her raincoat and go take out the trash. It was all her bad luck.
However, when Ning Hanqi passed by the supervisor, the supervisor looked like he wanted to cause trouble, but the foreman changed the subject, and the supervisor was busy arguing with him and had no time to cause trouble for Ning Hanqi.
Ning Hanqi looked up at the foreman, who was looking at the supervisor madly with an expressionless face. After noticing the gaze not far away, she glanced at Ning Hanqi. There seemed to be a hint of smile in that glance, as if she was hinting something to Ning Hanqi, but in an instant her face turned expressionless and indifferent.
"Ningning, how many clues do you have about how to get out?" When Ning Hanqi was about to leave, Jiang Man suddenly grabbed her hand with all his strength.
"...The girl in Room 505, Building 1, should be the key clue. There are other guests like her in this hotel, but they're most likely a trap. I just recently confirmed that the car they were riding in last night was fake. They'll be back tomorrow morning. They've been absent from work for a day without reason, and their fate will be terrible when they return."
After hearing Ning Hanqi's last words, Jiang Man felt cold all over and shivered involuntarily.
Fortunately, it was difficult to ask for leave because their supervisor was a fussy person, otherwise she would have become one of that group of people. By the way, Sun Peng was the most active in the group at the beginning, and actively encouraged other players to leave together. However, when it was really time to leave, he encountered many problems and was ultimately unable to leave.
Haha, she said that bastard was afraid of death, so how could he be so proactive in something he wasn't sure of? He probably encouraged other players in the group just to get them to explore the way for him.
Zhao Guangxu was so terrified that it took two big men to suppress him.
"Let me go, Mr. Song, Mr. Song, please forgive me. Your death has nothing to do with me! I won't dare to do it again. Don't come over!"
Zhao Guangxu was talking nonsense, and Long Chendong kicked him. "What are you talking about?"
Zhao Guangxu knelt down and kowtowed in one direction. Long Chendong looked up and the dim light bulb happened to light up again for a moment.
A girl in a white dress covered in blood stood there quietly. She raised her head slightly, and the faint light outlined her bleeding face.
Although the light only lasted for a moment, that face had appeared in Long Chendong's nightmares countless times.
Yes, it’s Song Qinuan!
"This is also good. It doesn't require too much trouble. It's probably hard to get some rest at night these days. It's better to find a chance to sleep for a while during the day."
"Then get a quilt first. It's cold here at night. If you don't sleep with a quilt, you will get sick sooner or later!" Xia Yingnuan thought about it and decided that she could put off buying other things, but she had to have a quilt!
"Okay, then let's go ask tomorrow to see if there are any quilts for sale." Ning Hanqi adjusted his position, then reached out and hugged Xia Yingnuan's waist.
"Don't think too much. I'll be keeping an eye on that place. Take this opportunity to take a break. You don't know if there will be any more ghosts coming here tonight." Xia Yingnuan tidied up her messy hair, then patted the back of the person in her arms, like coaxing a child.
Before this dungeon, Ning Hanqi spent half a month finally cultivating a habit in Xia Yingnuan. She leaned over and gave her a kiss. "Okay, goodnight kiss. Go get some rest."
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