PSP Chapter 33: Fail

The light in the basement wasn’t very bright.

Under the lamplight, Shen Qingcheng's eyes unexpectedly met Lu Qi's. The man's sharp¹ eyebrows drew together, and the black eyes under his arched² brows looked at him solemnly.

Shen Qingcheng was puzzled. "What's wrong?" He wiggled a little, but he was almost completely restrained.

After hearing this question, Lu Qi reined in his emotions. He took a step back, releasing him, and said calmly, "It's nothing."

Shen Qingcheng confirmed, "Really?"

Lu Qi: "Look at the announcement."

Shen Qingcheng: "Oh."

He opened the system prompt and read the system message:

【 Congratulations to players Indifferent³ and Lone Mountain Moon⁴ for clearing the hidden sub storyline: Faceless Ghost. 】

【 Sub Line Evaluation: Perfect 】

【Survival Point Reward: 50】

【 Players Indifferent and Lone Mountain Moon have solved less than 60% of the main storyline, their mission has failed. 】

【 The remaining game time is 11 days and 1 hour. Please play the game seriously and try to survive. 】

Shen Qingcheng raised his head and asked, "What happens if a mission is failed?"

Lu Qi: "Death."

Although he didn't want to encounter He Wei and Gao Shulin again, Shen Qingcheng couldn’t feel happy when the two died like that, he just felt conflicted.

In fact, if He Wei and Gao Shulin had calmed down a little and thought about it, they should’ve known that the copy wasn’t that simple.

The copy was called “Masquerade”. The masks hadn’t been lifted, and their functions hadn’t been clarified. How could it be over so easily?

Lu Qi seemed to know what he was thinking. "The higher the difficulty, the simpler the storyline."

Shen Qingcheng: "Did they think the strange NPCs were the interference conditions?"

Lu Qi: "En."

What was the use of brainwashing? It wasn’t as valuable as having intelligence. How embarrassing.

He Wei had left a few diary pages behind where the couple had disappeared, so Shen Qingcheng bent down and picked them up.

That afternoon, because he wanted to see how the NPCs would react to the disappearance of the two players--Shen Qingcheng had not forgotten the little girl's performance after Wei Tian's death--he and Lu Qi deliberately returned to the castle hall early for lunch.

His intuition told him that he would learn some important information there.

The state of affairs in the lobby was very bad. After receiving such a system prompt, could those players still not know what was going on?

They were deceived by He Wei and Gao Shulin!

Those two people had spoken very well, saying that everyone could work together to solve the storyline and pass the copy together. It was just like the saying that unity was strength⁵, there was no way to succeed on their own.

In the end, they worked hard to collect clues, but that dog couple submitted the task behind their backs!

There was a clamor in the hall:

"Damn, that woman is cheap! Laozi⁶ risked my life to find clues for her, but fortunately for her, she and He Wei had long been together⁷!"

"What do you mean? Did she tease you too?"

The two men looked at each other and felt their heads glow green⁸.

"When you know someone, you know their face but not their heart! Who could have known that He Wei, who greeted everyone with a smile on his face, was actually such a duplicitous person? Alas, I was blind."

"I might as well have chosen another customs clearance method from the beginning. I just had to be careful not to disobey the NPCs’ words and wait for 15 days to pass customs smoothly. How could there be so much shit!"

"By the way, which of you are good at reasoning?"

The scene suddenly fell silent, and the nine players looked at each other, but no one answered.

It seems that Gao Shulin’s trickery hadn’t been completely useless. As soon as they had disappeared, hadn’t these players automatically formed a group? Shen Qingcheng, who came in from outside the hall, thought this to himself.

"Shen Meiren!"

Shen Qingcheng was caught off guard and stared blankly at the tall, strong Hong Ganglie walking towards him. "Is something wrong?"

Hong Ganglie didn't talk nonsense, and asked directly, "Did you and Lu Qi refuse to join us because you saw their true colors?"

"Not really, I just prefer my two-person world." His expression was sincere. He didn't notice that Lu Qi had frowned and seemed to want to say something, but after looking at him, he didn't speak.

This pair of f*gs! Hong Ganglie cursed inwardly.

He endured the nausea in his heart. "How is your reasoning? We should cooperate, you and Lu Qi are responsible for the analysis. How about we share the clues we have collected with you?"

He didn't discuss this decision with the other players, and the remaining players were a little surprised, but they didn't immediately jump out to protest because their reasoning wasn’t very good.

Shen Qingcheng: "It’s not very good."

Hong Ganglie raised his thick eyebrows, "You’re rejecting me?"

Shen Qingcheng pulled out the diary pages He Wei had left and handed them over to him, "Don't bother, Lu Qi and I's customs clearance method is different from yours."

Hong Ganglie waved him away, "Do I look easy to fool? If it's different, what are you doing looking for clues? Don't try to deny it. I saw you and Lu Qi come out of the toy room yesterday!"

But you do look easy to fool~

He repeated his excuse, and after hearing it again Hong Ganglie's expression suddenly became indescribable, as if he had just eaten shit.

"Ahhh! You’re angering me to death! Angering me to death!"

The conversation between the two ended, and the little girl in the colorful dress screamed angrily and stormed in.

The big bear-like man with a beard like a savage was still following her silently, and the little girl swept her terrifying eyes over everyone present:

"Eleven! Only eleven left! "

After counting the number of remaining players, she lowered her head and bit at her fingers nervously, muttering to herself, "There are only eleven left, no more can die, no more can die!"

"If more die, there won’t be enough, Tu-gege will get angry, Tu-gege will get angry."

She raised her head suddenly, the pupils of her dark green eyes shrunk to the size of pinpoints, "You guys! Afternoon! All of you go do some of the activities! Go do activities!"

"There will be a ball in two days. You must all be there! All of you!"

Hong Ganglie wasn't afraid of this little girl. If it wasn't for that bastard He Wei stopping him, he would have captured that girl and tortured her long ago.

He took a step forward and said rudely, "Hey, what’s that shitty ball for?"

The little girl stared at him for a while, then suddenly blew out a breath and laughed strangely, "Hee hee, you'll know when the time comes."

She hummed again:

"Pork prices have gone up recently~ Prices have gone up~"

"Raising pigs~ raising pigs~ Only with exercise can you become white and fat~"

"Peel the skin, roast the meat, make the skin into new clothes, and feed the meat to the piglets!"

Hong Ganglie didn't pay attention at first, since he was used to this stinky little girl singing every day, but the more he heard, the wronger it felt. Peel the skin and make new clothes...

Xiao Liu was skinned, and the stinky girl had changed into new clothes the next day.

What she called pigs were the players?

Then, roast the meat and feed it to the piglets?

His stomach churned, and the sounds of retching started up in the hall.

"Hahahaha!" The little girl clapped her hands and laughed when she saw the miserable appearance of the players. She was so happy, she began jumping up and down, "Little piglets, grow up, I like new clothes, I like new clothes~"

The thought of having eaten human flesh disgusted Hong Ganglie, much more than seeing Shen Meiren stick to Lu Qi had.

He reached out to grab the singing, dancing, and gloating girl, wanting to teach her a lesson, but he was caught by a big black haired hand.

Click, came the sound of his bones dislocating.

Hong Ganglie screamed instantly, "Ah!"

More strength was still being applied.

"Da Xiong," the little girl said, "don't mess up the little piggy."

Da Xiong relented.

A circle of bruises had appeared on the wrist that he had grabbed, quickly becoming swollen.

Hong Ganglie held his trembling wrist and backed away, his face full of fear. He had thought he might actually lose his hand!

The little girl smiled and said, "Pigs have to be obedient, you know?"

Then she began to sing again:

"Little piglet, when he grows up, he can be skinned and made into new clothes~ Huh? What should I do when I’m done killing?"

She simultaneously sang and disappeared into the hall with Da Xiong.

Player vomit was everywhere, and the smell was horrendous.

A player said tremblingly, "I-I heard my window being forcefully opened last night, what should I do!"

He asked the people around him in panic, "Am I going to die? Am I going to be skinned and roasted like a pig and sent to the dining table?"

The players who were asked all looked away, and those with a bad temper just pushed him away, "Damn, I finally got it out of my mind and you’re mentioning it again to Laozi? Ugh⁹!"

Shen Qingcheng and Lu Qi stood at the door, where the smell was not quite so terrible. He pinched his nose and said, "You can sleep with someone else."

The man's eyes lit up when he heard it, and then he shook his head in fear, "No, no, the NPC said that I can't leave my room at night. If I leave, I’ll disappear, like Wei Tian. I can't leave my room."

Shen Qingcheng: "Ah, but there were six people who left together that day, and only Wei Tian is dead now."

Yes, it was Xiao Liu who died after Wei Tian, ​​and she wasn’t among the six people who had left.

Hope rekindled in the eyes of the players.

When lunch time came, the servants came to the hall with their plates. There was no roast suckling pig that day, but the food was still very rich.

It was a pity that none of the players could eat it.

When they smelled the aroma coming from the table, their faces paled, and their stomachs began to churn again.

Only then did they remember that someone had never eaten the food provided by the NPC from beginning to end, and had even said that it was not fit for people to eat.

That person was Shen Meiren.

After having taken a quick nap, Shen Qingcheng woke up in the afternoon, just as the servants summoned the players outside for more activities.

They now clearly understood the story of the family of four in the ancient castle, which was greatly helpful for solving the main storyline. Shen Qingcheng and Lu Qi decided to follow the NPC’s arrangements to see what they were trying to do.

NPC animal disguises: colorful birds, bears, foxes--what was the last one?

Also, even a bear could be used?

The venue of the event was still the same as last time. This time Shen Qingcheng didn't want to move; it was too cold, and his thick clothes restricted his movement.

Fortunately, the servants watching over them just made sure they stayed in the field, regardless of whether they were moving or not.

Shen Qingcheng found a position upwind and sat down. He patted the area at his side and greeted Lu Qi, "Lu Qi, sit."

Then he rummaged in his pockets and took out a palm-sized piece of wood, whose origin was unknown, from one pocket, and from the other pulled out a small knife. He immediately hunched and began carving into the wood.

Lu Qi glanced at it. The nicks on the wooden board were scattered and irregular, like they had been carved at random.

He noticed that Shen Qingcheng was using a kitchen knife. "That isn’t a carving knife."

Shen Qingcheng replied: "It's alright, I'm just engraving it casually, I just need to be a bit more careful."

Lu Qi: "What are you doing?"

"I'm preparing to get back to work, getting a feel for it. Oh yeah," Shen Qingcheng stopped and turned to look at the man beside him, "You have so many survival points, you must have renovated your game space, right?"

Lu Qi: "En."

Shen Qingcheng smiled ingratiatingly, his eyes curving into crescents, "Then do you have anything that you don’t want to keep, preferably antique, made of peach wood or something similar?"

Lu Qi: "?"

TLN:

¹ Literally “sword eyebrows” (剑眉).

² Not in the sense that he’s actively arching them, that’s just their shape. Literally, “mountain-like eyebrows” (山岳般的眉).

³ Literally “I don’t care” (无所谓), a phrase often used by netizens (shortened to wsw). Edited slightly to make it seem like an actual pseudonym.

⁴ Literally “high mountain solitary moon” (高山孤月). Not a reference to anything afaik.

⁵ Literally “only if everyone gathers firewood does the fire burn high” (人拾柴火焰高).

⁶ Arrogant way of referring to oneself.

⁷ Literally “met eyes” (看对眼), means they liked each other/had a relationship.

⁸ Reference to “wearing a green hat”, which means you’re being cheated on.

⁹ 呕 means “vomit”, but is also a vomiting onomatopoeia.

Honestly, if at any point in a horror story meat is mentioned specifically, it’s definitely some form of human flesh. Interesting that none of the players seem to be genre savvy--none of them should be rookies at this point.

Also, good god, why would Hong Ganglie even think to compare his homophobia to realizing he’s committed actual literal cannibalism??