Resentment Led To a Door

The receptionist did not care about either side's wishes and handed a key to each of the players.

They were normal silver keys that were mass produced for these kinds of buildings. But the dark air around them was far to tangible to look at it as anything but ordinary.

Wei Lan looked at the key in his hand with a hungry pair of eyes.

The key shivered, releasing more Yin energy out of fear.

He felt his mouth water and his canines elongate. Was he a vampire! What was the situation here!

Though his thoughts were messed up, Wei Lan still could not ignore the hunger in his stomach.

The receptionist uncle walked away after that without preamble.

"Thank you, LanLan," Xiao Mu said after the uncle had left.

Distracted from the key in his hand, Wei Lan looked towards her in confusion. "For what?"

"It is because of your current look that we are getting this opportunity."

Wei Lan gave her a complicated smile. "You are welcome?"

Xiao Mu rolled her eyes at him.

He suddenly wanted to talk to the people who raised her. The girl's ability to gain aggro from him was too high!

Wei Lan turned away from her. No need to bully children.

"So, do you think there is something sinister about the keys?" Wei Lan asked everyone.

"Isnt that ovious?" Xiao Mu asked.

Xiao Mei pulled her back. "Stop!"

The two girls fell into a hissy conversation after that.

Tyger cleared his throat. "Even if they are sinister, we could not do anything about them. But they are not. They are the props."

Wei Lan looked at him in confusion. "What are props?"

"They are items that are given by the system when the number of newbies in an instance is large. It is to give the players an advantage. I did not think that 3 would be considered large by the system though."

"It is not usually," Dr Ching explained. "It is just that there are three experts and three newbies. The two sides are equal. So, we need that edge. Especially since this instance also has that side task."

Wei Lan wanted to cry. He had hoped that they would forget about that!

"about that," Xiao Mu started. Wei Lan felt his insides twist in anxity already. Did this suspect him already?

She pointed to Wei Lan, "He could be the ghost!"

"No he could not," Fairy argued. "Escaping ghosts are special NPCs in large scale games who get mixed in with players. It is easy to guess who is an NPC among us if that was the case. The NPC's do not know about the system and do not hear its voice. He did."

Wei Lan looked at her in surprise. He had not known that was the case! Did that not mean he was safe?! They would never suspect him as he was not an NPC!

"Not necessarily," Dr Ching said, contradicting Fairy and gaining her hostility easily. Dr Ching sweated. His eyes went to Xiao Mu and then back to Fairy. Both were glaring at him. His new teammates were too much. One gained aggro easily and the other turned aggressive easily!

"There is a second type," Dr Ching powered through. "Ex-players. They are players who have died in an instance. Those players would be forced by the instance to stay there forever in an NPC role. The only way they could try to return to the real world is to possess other players. I don't think this would work though. The system likes to keep those dead in the instance there. How would it let a dead player to return to the life if they don't have any items? Most players believe this quest of stopping the escaped ghost is just a way for the players to understand the level of the Instance. If it exists, then the initial level of the Instance got upgraded."

Wei Lan blinked his eyes. These conditions…why did he feel it was so familiar? Where had he heard these conditions before?

Xiao Mu looked towards the Doctor with derision in her eyes. "Why would a game that is about going through horrors give you clues like that? What made you all think that?"

Dr Ching stared at her for a moment. "Fair enough. Don't believe it if you don't want to."

Xiao Mu waited for him to say more but he just walked towards the route that led to their residence.

"What? Is that it?" Xiao Mu called out to him in disbelief. "Is he not going to explain himself?"

"We like to think that it is the game's hint," Fairy said to her.

Xiao Mu looked towards her in confusion. "Why?"

"The alternative is not acceptable," Fairy said to her and followed after Dr Ching.

Xiao Mu stared at her back for a few moments, her eyes holding an understanding. She turned towards Tyger and Xiao Mei to talk to them about what their next step.

Wei Lan's face was bent down as he thought about what Dr Ching said. He understood as well. The alternate meant that they were preventing people who were just trying to survive one last time from surviving.

The only action that they could take in this situation was to not try to find the ghost. The instance itself would prevent the ghost from escaping. This was something that everyone of them knew.

Ting.

The sound of a metal falling to the floor echoed around them.

Wei Lan looked towards the sound, which was next to his feet.

He looked down to find that the silvery key had somehow fallen from his pocket.

He was sure that he had stuffed the key deep into his pant pocket though…

He stared at the key for few seconds.

The key seemed to shiver.

A curious look entered his eyes as he watched on with interest.

The key stayed still for a moment.

Then it vibrated, creating a faint metallic sound that would go noticed most of the time. The vibration let to the key moving forwards.

Wei Lan stared at the thing a moment before he took it off the floor and stuffed it back into his pocket.

The key seemed to vibrate harder.

Wei Lan patted the pocket.

The key stilled.

Wei Lan smiled and patted it like it was a pet. He even had the urge to say "Good boy."

"What are you doing?" Xiao Mu asked.

Wei Lan looked towards her to find that the three people had stopped their discussions some time ago and were now looking towards Wei Lan together.

Wei Lan smiled, his bloody face crinckling from the dried blood.

Xiao Mu wrinkled her nose as Xiao Mei and Tyger hid behind her. "Go take a bath! You are disgusting!"

Wei Lan stared at her for a moment and nodded.

He walked towards the area that the Doctor and Fairy had gone off to.

Xiao Mu looked behind him in suspicion for a few moments before she turned to Xiao Mei and Tyger to continue their conversation.

Wei Lan finally reached the corridor where their temporary quarters were.

It was a long.

The walls were painted in the standard cream colour and there were three doors on each side of the wall.

He looked closer.

Two of the doors, had the red occupied sign on the handle.

Wei Lan looked at the key in his hand.

The resentful Yin energy in the key was getting stronger, the closer that they got to the rooms.

Wei Lan wondered if the key got more powerful near doors. How weird.

He stood in front of the door with the number 666 on it.

He looked at the key again. 666 in was.

Wei Lan felt lucky that he was not a westerner. If he was, he would have thought the number was too damning. He was Chinese though. And in Chinese, 666 was a great number!

Wei Lan then looked at the key again.

Would the key become so powerful that he would be killed on the spot that he enters the room? If it did, he would loose dinner!

Wei Lan decided that he should eat his fill first! He can just snatch the keys of others later on saying he lost his!

A red haze entered his eyes at the thought, and he broght the key to his lips.

The sound of a group of footsteps echoed.

Wei Lan froze and looked towards the source of the sound.

Xiao Mu and the other two were coming his way.

With great regret, Wei Lan put the key away and inserted it into the door handle.

The key released all the Yin energy in its body.

The door flew open.

Wei Lan stared in surprise. The red haze of hunger dissipated as shock cracked through his heart.