Conquering OtherWorld Starts With a Game

"Hehe…"

Yang Ying, who was at the front, paused.

"Did anybody hear anything?" Yang Ying turned around and asked.

Unceasing Entropy didn't quite understand. "What do you mean?"

"Um…" Yang Ying hesitated, then glanced at the others.

It seemed like no one else had heard anything, and they were all waiting for her to speak.

"Never mind." Yang Ying scratched her head, thinking it might have been her imagination, and continued leading the way.

The once grand courtyard, impressive from a distance, lost its charm up close. The cobblestone paths were overrun with vegetation, and even the dried-up fountain's base was covered in weeds. Most of the flower beds were barren, with only a few wilted flowers and fallen leaves remaining.

The luxurious classical castle-style building that had been so imposing from afar showed signs of decay upon closer inspection. Some room windows were broken, and the curtains flapped loudly in the wind. The blue-striped stone exterior walls were covered in moss, vines, and spiderwebs of various sizes.

"It's so eerie as if ghosts might jump out at any moment," Runaway Goldfish, the cosplay expert who had been waxing lyrical about Indahl's details just moments ago, clung to her friend's arm, feeling a bit nervous.

"There really are ghosts here," Orange Cat said gravely.

"Ehh?!!" Runaway Goldfish tightened her grip on her friend's shoulder.

"Us, you know. We aren't living beings but undead. Aren't undead ghosts? When we come here, aren't we the real ghosts?" Orange Cat chuckled.

Runaway Goldfish: "…"

Just as Runaway Goldfish was about to chastise Orange Cat, Yang Ying at the forefront abruptly turned around. "Say… Does nobody really hear that?"

"What are you talking about, Sis Ying?" Everyone didn't understand.

"Giggling. Since we entered, I've been hearing it nonstop," Yang Ying said with a perplexed expression.

"Really?" Blossoming Strokes and Unceasing Entropy spoke simultaneously.

"Don't scare us, Sis Ying! I can't handle horror games!" Orange Cat exclaimed.

"What the hell?!" Runaway Goldfish exclaimed. "And you tried to intentionally scare me?"

"Quiet down." Unceasing Entropy raised her hand to signal everyone to stop. "Sis Ying, can you determine the direction of the sound?"

"No. It's erratic, sometimes coming from the left and other times from the right," Yang Ying replied honestly. "I've been looking around, but I can't pinpoint it."

"Is the laughter you hear continuous or intermittent?" Unceasing Entropy pressed.

"Um… when we first stepped in, it only happened every half a minute or so. But by the time we reached here, the interval became every ten seconds. It's so annoying!" Yang Ying grumbled.

Blossoming Strokes glanced at the system's time display and said, "The in-game time was at 20:21, and now it's 20:26. In the past five or six minutes, the frequency has increased significantly. The situation has deteriorated compared to the investigation report provided by the night watchmen."

"Wait, so you're saying we've really entered a haunted place?" Orange Cat murmured.

"Is that a big deal? If there aren't any ghosts here, would we even have this quest?" Phantom couldn't help remarking mockingly.

"It's nothing. We've farmed quite a number of ghostly monsters already, and it's been a walk in the park," Study Obsessed chimed in. "All we have to do is cut them down once we find it."

"That's true," Orange Cat said, calming down considerably.

"It's not as simple as whether there's a ghost here," Unceasing Entropy stroked her chin and mused. "We all entered together, but Sis Ying can hear the giggling that we can't. According to the information provided by the night watchmen, this kind of laughter is likely some form of death forecast, an omen, or curse marker. And Sis Ying was the first one to be targeted."

"Uh… And so?" Yang Ying scratched her head in confusion.

Yang Ying wasn't afraid of being targeted by some unknown terror. After all, it was just a game; in the worst-case scenario, she would die and respawn in Weisshem which wasn't really a big deal!

"These monsters in Redwall Farm aren't like the ghost monsters we've encountered in the sewer that attack people straightforwardly," Blossoming Strokes took over the conversation. "In my opinion, which is the same as Qingyue's, the monsters here are likely to follow certain rules and procedures when killing. Um… Think of it as scripted deaths; just like when a supporting character in a TV series mentions that they'll go back home to get married being a death flag. In this scenario, it's hearing the laughter that leads to death."

"I roughly understand what you two mean. You're saying that the death forecasts in Redwall Farm are unexplainable, right?" Phantom said. "There's no way to avoid or defend against it. Once the flag is triggered, it means death for whoever hears the laughter, right?"

"That's right." Unceasing Entropy nodded.

"However, it's not entirely unsolvable," Blossoming Strokes said.

The two brainy players exchanged a smile, seemingly enjoying the fact that someone was on the same wavelength as them. Then, Unceasing Entropy explained the solution, "Sis Ying, log out for a moment and log back in after a minute."

Phantom: "…"

"That's possible too?!" Orange Cat jaw was left hanging.

Zhao Zhenzhen, who was staying close to the healers in the middle, gazed deeply at the two brainy players.

Yang Ying obediently followed the instructions and logged out, her skeletal frame clattering to the ground.

As soon as Yang Ying logged out, the Orange Cat jumped up as if someone had poked him in the butt. "What the hell! I hear the laughter! It's f*cking eerie!"

"It seems that logging out transfers it immediately. This makes things quite simple." Unceasing Entropy nodded. "Boss Orange Cat, you should log out after six minutes too."

"Can I log out now? This sound is just too gross." Orange Cat grimaced.

"It's okay. Just think of it as a unique BGM specially for you," Phantom said with a wicked grin.

"What goddamn unique BGM… Should I be proud of that?" Orange Cat's said with twitching lips.

The group waited in place for two minutes and then, when Yang Ying logged back in, they resumed their exploration.

The large main doors facing the fountain were very heavy, and players couldn't push it open no matter how they tried. Thus, they chose to enter through a nearby window.

Upon entering the building, what appeared before the players' eyes was a lavishly decorated mansion hall. The hall had a ceiling height of at least six meters and an area of at least two hundred square meters. It still retained the furniture and decorations from its prosperous period. Thick woolen coats and top hats hung on the coat rack near the entrance, and there were even some exquisite tea sets on the coffee table in front of the fireplace.

If it weren't for the thick layer of dust covering the furniture and the spiderwebs everywhere, it would be hard for anyone to believe that this mansion had been abandoned for over two years—it was indicated on Zhao Zhenzhen's exorcist credentials during registration that the year was 1032.

Players spontaneously began sweeping the hall, while Unceasing Entropy and Blossoming Strokes focused their attention on the Z-shaped staircase and wall facing the main hall.

Three large portraits were hung on the wall.

In the center, the largest painting depicted an elderly man with a square face dressed in formal attire and exuding an imposing aura as he sat on a high-backed chair.

On the right, a slightly smaller painting depicted a middle-aged man wearing an extravagant feather-adorned hat, draped in a red half-cloak, holding a riding crop, and with one foot placed on a low stool.

The smallest painting on the left depicted a young and handsome man riding a horse.ɴᴇᴡ ɴᴏᴠᴇʟ ᴄʜᴀᴘᴛᴇʀs ᴀʀᴇ ᴘᴜʙʟɪsʜᴇᴅ ᴏɴ NoᴠᴇFɪre.nᴇt

"It looks like… the second, first, and third generations," Unceasing Entropy's gaze swept across the three paintings from right to left, and she said to Blossoming Strokes.

Blossoming Strokes nodded in agreement.

In addition to the size of the paintings indicating the clear differences between the three generations, the demeanor of the subjects also followed the pattern of the three generations: the self-made and hardworking first generation, the second generation enjoying wealth but lacking discipline to some extent, and the elite third generation groomed with outstanding education since childhood, carrying the heavy responsibility of the family's heritage.

Besides the three portraits of the masters, there was a huge four-meter deity-like figure hanging on the wall next to the fireplace.

Unlike images of Lady Gold Coin that players occasionally saw in Weisshem, this statue was a robust male with long curly hair and beard. Bare-chested and standing atop turbulent waves in a fierce wind, the statue raised his arms high as if controlling the tempest.

At the bottom of the statue, the words "Storm Lord" were displayed.

Unceasing Entropy's gaze briefly paused on the statue before moving away, continuing to inspect the living room. While the indigenous people of this world might admire the majesty and sanctity of this Storm Lord's image, the Chinese players didn't share that sentiment.

"No portrait of the mistresses of the house," Blossoming Strokes remarked. "That's strange… Isn't it common to have portraits of noblewomen in paintings?"

"This might be a hint." Unceasing Entropy also noticed this. "We probably need to approach this task with a puzzle-solving mindset—"

Before she could finish, Orange Cat suddenly shouted, "I can't stand this noise anymore! Brothers and sisters, I'm Iogging out first!"

Then, this fellow clattered to the ground…

"The hell!" Phantom exclaimed a moment after Orange Cat disconnected.

"Six minutes, six minutes." Blossoming Strokes gestured toward Phantom.

"Orange Cat wasn't lying. This BGM is goddamn eerie!" Phantom grimaced.

"Unceasing Entropy, Blossoming Strokes, over here; we've found something!" a player that was searching the living room called out excitedly.

The two brainiacs ran over.

This player happily displayed her findings, and forcefully lifted the carpet between the fireplace and the coffee table.

On the back of the carpet were large, dark stains that appeared black from a distance but looked like maroon up close.

Blossoming Strokes crouched down to examine them carefully and exclaimed, "This is… blood!"

"You all think it's blood too, right?" The player who found the clue rubbed her hands together gleefully.

Phantom, who was searching a cabinet close to the fireplace, came over and commented, "It's just a dark and murky mess. How can you tell that it's blood?"

Blossoming Strokes and Unceasing Entropy pretended not to hear and the female player that had found the clue didn't respond either…

"This amount of blood exceeds two liters," Unceasing Entropy said. "Someone died here, and the scene was cleaned up."

"When a large number of people died here, did someone take the opportunity to commit murder?" Blossoming Strokes wondered.

"There's a possibility, but it could also have happened before the calamity," Unceasing Entropy mused. "Baby laughter as a death omen, missing portraits of the mistresses, deaths in the house… Hmm, there are too many missing pieces of information, and it doesn't add up."

Annoyed at being ignored, Phantom pulled out a diary he had been holding and threatened, "If you fellas don't pay attention to me again, I won't show you this thing."

As soon as he finished speaking, the carefully bound diary in Phantom's hand was snatched away by Study Obsessed, who had just arrived.

"Childish." Study Obsessed glared at the dumbfounded Phantom and handed the diary to Blossoming Strokes.

"I… You… Damn it!" Phantom had nowhere to vent his frustrations.

This diary, carefully bound with ribbons, seemed to belong to someone with a low level of education. Each entry in the diary was very short, and the handwriting was crooked—