Three Victims

Jin Jiuchi was extremely aggrieved. He truly had no idea what he had done to make Nian get so angry, resulting in him getting paralyzed with his two arms locked in a circle in front of him.

He tried to defend his innocence, only to find that his lips seemed to have been glued and he could only make muffled 'hm-mmf!' sound from his throat. Thus, he could only put on a wronged, pitiful look, almost squeezing out a few droplets of tears out of his eyes. Yet it only served to enrage Nian even more.

"Don't give me that face, you crazy pervert!" He seethed and settled on the floor a few steps away from Jin Jiuchi, out of the latter's reach. "Who told you to be so touchy-feely? You'd better stay like that until the effects of the needle wear off!"

'But Nian'er, you don't smell like you dislike it though!' was what Jin Jiuchi was saying, though what Nian heard was only a series of unintelligible 'mmmph'.

(It was fortunate that he was unable to say it out loud, otherwise Nian might really strangle him to death in a fit of rage and humiliation.)

With a harrumph, Nian smoothed out the newspaper clipping that had accidentally got crumpled due to his shock earlier. He placed it on the floor and pushed it in front of Jin Jiuchi so the man could read it. "This is what I found on the corpse earlier. I forgot to tell you that this is a low level Cycle. It means that the level of difficulty is low, and as long as you do not act out of line, then you won't die." He emphasized each word heavily as though wishing for nothing but to drill the sentence into Jin Jiuchi's hard skull.

"It also means that the main clues about the death condition in this Cycle will be spread here and there. So long as you find them, your survival will pretty much be guaranteed. This," he pointed at the newspaper clipping. "is one of the main clues. I suspect that the journal Zhi found in Old Guan's room is also another clue."

The newspaper clipping in front of Jin Jiuchi was old, yellowed and tattered on the edges, looking like it had braved through centuries to land in this apartment. He squinted his eyes and slowly read through them,

[A runaway serial killer is found hiding in Shishen Apartment? A joyous ceremony turns into tragedy!

Zhao (18) was found brutally murdered on the eve of her own wedding inside the bridal chamber. Her body was chopped and mutilated into pieces. The murder weapon is believed to be a cleaver or another similarly heavy and sharp tool. The nearest local station was quickly alerted, and only then did they discover two other murders that are suspected to be done by the same person. The two other victims – Liu (36) and Dong (45) – seemed to have been confined and tortured for days. On the other hand, Zhao's father (58) went insane right away after finding his daughter's body. In the end, he was sent to…]

The article was abruptly torn off after that, leaving Jin Jiuchi who was still reeling in shock.

Zhao's father? Old Zhao? He went crazy and was sent to… the asylum where Jin Jiuchi was? That's right, it must be it. But why did Miss Zhao say that her father was dead?

Jin Jiuchi's eyes then moved to the small monochrome picture attached to the clipping. It was the photos of the victims and Jin Jiuchi recognized all three of them at once. They were Miss Zhao whom he had just met last night, Madam Liu the landlady who had served Jin Jiuchi the delicious pot of meat sauce, and the last one was…

"Hmm-hmm-hmpph!" As Jin Jiuchi could not even move his head, he could only move his eyes like crazy to let Nian know that he had something important to say.

"What?" Nian shot him a suspicious look.

"Urgh!" Jin Jiuchi rolled his eyes exasperatedly, then he pointedly gestured at the clipping with his eyes. 'Take your needles out!' he tried to convey. 'I have something to tell you!'

Still skeptical yet also curious about what Jin Jiuchi wanted to say, he gingerly took out one needle so that Jin Jiuchi could at least move his mouth. Almost in an instant, Jin Jiuchi felt the force gluing his mouth shut faded away and he immediately took in huge gulps of air like a fish who had been hooked out of the water. "Puah! Ha… ha, Nian'er! How can you be so cruel?! You—"

"Get to the point," Nian brandished his needle with a threatening look. "Or else I will stab this into your body again and leave you alone for the rest of the night."

How cruel! How could there be such a bad kiddo like Nian'er in this world? With imaginary tears drenching his face, Jin Jiuchi sniffled and pointed at the faded photo of the last victim surnamed Dong. "Nian'er, he is the one! Do you remember me saying how I saw someone through the fourth floor window before we entered this place? This is the face I saw back then!" Then he put on a smug look as if saying, 'How is it? My information is important, right?!'

Alas, Nian did not even deign to give him a glance, leaving Jin Jiuchi to sulk on his own. "So that's how it is…" he stared at the newspaper clipping with a thoughtful look.

"Okay, hear me out," Nian told him seriously. "I think I have mainly figured out the main rules in this place. As I have told you before, the level of difficulty in this Cycle is low and the probability of survival is more than fifty percent." Of course, it was without the additional presence of the Nightmare, Nian added inwardly. "There are six of us—"

"Seven," Jin Jiuchi corrected with a pout. How could Nian leave him out?!

Nian took a deep inhale to curb his killing intent. "Seven," he said with extreme patience. "There are seven of us, divided into six rooms. We are spread into three floors and each floor will contain one victim – or in this case, nightmare creature. We, Sister Hong and Old Guan are the more 'unlucky' players because the nightmare creatures reside in our rooms, whereas Xinxin, Tang Ye and Zhi obtain the complete safe zone."

Jin Jiuchi nodded as understanding dawned on him. So that was why Xinxin, Tang Ye, and Brother Zhi did not show any signs that they had encountered anything last night. On the other hand, Old Guan… Jin Jiuchi clicked his tongue in pity. He could not imagine how that timid man must have felt when he encountered the spider version of Madam Liu. It was already good that he was not terrified to death.

Well, in the end, he was still dead though…

"Wait," Jin Jiuchi suddenly recalled something. "How about Sister Hong? She did not say anything this morning either."

"There are two possibilities. First, she stayed silent because she wanted to gauge our reaction. Or second…" Nian gave him a pointed look. "She did not stay in her room last night and thus did not encounter the nightmare creature."

Jin Jiuchi wrinkled his nose in disgust when he recalled the pungent stench on the woman's body. "It must be the second possibility, then."

Nian's face grew somber, making his purple eyes look darker and colder than usual. "That's where the problem lies. Do you know why that spider creature can go around the apartment freely tonight?"

"Why—oh!" Jin Jiuchi's eyes widened as he connected two and two together. "Do you mean to say that it's because Old Guan ran out of his room last night and hence, he accidentally let that creature free?"

Nian showed a pleasantly surprised look, not expecting Jin Jiuchi to figure out the rules so quickly. How rude! Did Nian think that he was an idiot or something?! Seeing that Jin Jiuchi looked affronted, the jade doll cleared his throat and resumed his lofty and dignified air. "You are right. Those creatures are freed because the players open the door for them, otherwise they can only show themselves with no way to harm the players. Do you remember the first rule the landlady told us? Never come out of our room past curfew. That rule is actually created to save and protect us. But now, in addition to the paper dolls, Old Guan has freed the spider creature, and Sister Hong has also set the creature in her room free. And worse still, they will get stronger and stronger as the days pass."

Jin Jiuchi tilted his head. The more he listened to the jade doll's words, the more confused he was. "Why is Nian'er unhappy? Going by what you have just told me, if we stay here when the night comes, then we will be completely safe and Miss Zhao can't get out of this room, nor can she harm us… right?"

For one long moment, Nian stared at him with an inscrutable look and then his lips curved into a grim smile. "Who says that I will just stay in my room until the last day?"