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Chapter 6: Human Skin Manor (Part 5)
“Please note that scoring points and triggering side quests require players to explore on their own. Although this is a supernatural instance, everything follows a logical pattern. Using your brain is a good thing—this applies everywhere.”
Even at the end, this emotionless system still managed to throw in some sarcasm.
As soon as the voice stopped, a score panel popped out in front of everyone.
Out of the twelve people present, four of them had zero points. The man in the jacket had 1 point, the girl who asked the initial question had 2 points, and four others actually had -5 points.
Xiao Muyu glanced at Shen Qingqiu, who surprisingly had 5 points. She was stunned for a moment. Didn’t they just get 10 points after achieving something together?
The group grew restless at the score reveal.
A bespectacled boy called Xiao Sun1 asked in a panic, “What’s going on? Why do those two have points, those few have zero, and the four of us have negative points?” Both he and his girlfriend had been docked 5 points. No one could stand losing 5 points right at the start for no apparent reason.
Xiao Muyu glanced at the penalized people, and then at Shen Qingqiu. Those with negative points all seemed to have gotten injured, likely because they had rushed in at the last moment, like her. And Shen Qingqiu? Her gaze fell on the other’s face, then she looked her over again, and had a rough idea why.
“You used up your amulets.” Xiao Muyu casually threw out this remark, and then looked down again at the old lady at her feet.
After the quest was just triggered, the NPC old lady had remained in her kneeling position, with tears frozen on her face, unable to fall. It seemed the system had just paused her.
Xiao Muyu’s words served as a reminder to everyone. At this moment, a tall man and a shorter one in the group exchanged glances and then somewhat uneasily moved further inside.
“Then why do those two have points?” The others all looked at the girl with the ponytail, and the man in the jacket.
The system had already mentioned that they needed to figure out how to score points on their own, so everyone was desperate to understand the reasons behind the deductions and additions.
“Hey, brother and little lady, did you do something special? Any explanation for those points?”
Everyone started talking all at once. The man in the jacket and the girl were also a bit puzzled, but they didn’t hide anything and carefully went over what they had said and done.
While they were immersed in their discussion, Shen Qingqiu moved closer to Xiao Muyu and whispered, “You don’t seem very interested? Have you already figured it out?”
Xiao Muyu gave her a sidelong glance. “I’m listening. I’m not entirely sure why they got points, but I’m very clear why you only have 5 points.” If it weren’t for Shen Qingqiu, she wouldn’t have been able to draw that conclusion.
She had been injured and a human skin had caught her, so if Shen Qingqiu hadn’t taken her amulet, it should have activated at that moment.
Like those caught by the human skins, Shen Qingqiu had 5 points deducted. It seemed her amulet had activated. This coincidence explained things quite well. Since everyone basically experienced similar things at the start of the game, there were very few factors that could give or deduct points.
Shen Qingqiu didn’t deny it and thoughtfully said, “So, does this mean I helped you out? Otherwise, those 5 points would have been deducted from you. I also ended up saving you, so that should make up for taking your amulet, right?”
Xiao Muyu pursed her lips. This was logical, but it was really hard to stay calm after Shen Qingqiu had messed with her for no apparent reason. If Shen Qingqiu hadn’t saved her twice, she definitely wouldn’t have wanted to say another word to her.
“Do you like me less now?” Shen Qingqiu posed a very self-conscious question.
Xiao Muyu, showing little emotion, responded, “No, thank you for saving me.” Regardless, Shen Qingqiu going out of her way to save her in that situation was indeed incredible, and involved a lot of risk.
“That’s good. Xiao Muyu, right? I had a feeling you wouldn’t dislike me, especially since our names go so well together. Like the verse, ‘The drizzling evening rain sprinkle over the river and sky, cleansing the autumn air.2‘ It’s quite fitting.”
Heh, so this woman wasn’t just strong but also cultured.
Seeing Xiao Muyu’s expression, Shen Qingqiu secretly smiled to herself. In this boring world, she finally found someone interesting.
Meanwhile, the others had mostly finished their discussion. They concluded that the girl named Cui Xiaoxuan had been the first to suggest searching the house to see if anyone was there, and the man in the jacket, Liu Wei, was the first to agree. The system awarded them each a point for that. Although it was a bit absurd, it seemed like the most reasonable explanation.
The bald man, known as Leopard3, listened with a face full of regret.
After some discussion, everyone gave a brief self-introduction. There were twelve people in the group, including Xiao Muyu and Shen Qingqiu, with five women and seven men. Some of them knew each other, like the couple, and the two men who hadn’t spoken yet—one tall and one short.
They were going to spend the next three days together, so it was indeed necessary to get to know each other. Although Xiao Muyu didn’t join in, she had been carefully observing them from the side. Even though the two men from before had their faces covered, their body shapes were too different to miss. Xiao Muyu recognized them as soon as she came in, but she pretended not to know and didn’t make a point of it.
“Did you notice anything?”
Shen Qingqiu had always maintained a certain detachment from the group, but she could always sense what Xiao Muyu was doing, and seemed to understand what she was thinking.
Xiao Muyu shook her head and spoke to the others: “Time is tight, so we should continue with the quest.”
The two of them didn’t participate in the conversation, but since the system had already announced their names, everyone knew who they were.
Liu Wei had clearly become the leader of the group now, but he also noticed that Shen Qingqiu and Xiao Muyu seemed a bit unsociable. However, he could tell that these two were not ordinary, so he nodded and asked, “May I ask which of you is Shen Qingqiu and which is Xiao Muyu?”
Xiao Muyu replied, clear and simple, with three words, “Xiao Muyu.” This left Shen Qingqiu to enjoy her peace and quiet.
At this point, the countdown on the panel was nearly over. Xiao Muyu tapped ‘continue’, and the paused old lady finally started moving.
She reached out to help the woman up, saying, “Ma’am, we really want to help you, but we don’t know what’s happened yet. Could you tell us what’s going on here? Where did those human skins come from?’
Everyone nodded in unison, their eyes all eagerly fixed on the old woman.
Upon hearing of this matter, the old woman became extremely frightened. She said shakily, “This is a long story. Everyone, please follow me to the second floor to rest, and I will slowly tell you.”
The house was very old, with debris cluttering the ground floor hall, and the furniture in disarray. As the group made their way to the second floor, they had to carefully avoid the fallen potteries and furniture.
Xiao Muyu followed behind, ascending the wooden staircase. The stairs, worn from years of neglect, creaked underfoot, making one cautious with every step.
Xiao Muyu observed everything in front of her, brushed her hand lightly along the banister, and then rubbed her fingers together.
They finally reached the second floor without incident. Compared to the first floor, the second floor was a world apart. Although it was still somewhat old, it was clean and tidy, with well-maintained furniture and belongings, indicating that the old lady usually lived here.
The three-story house was quite large, with a spacious hall. In the center stood a large, long table, and a dim chandelier hung from the ceiling. The outdated electrical wiring caused the light to flicker intermittently, giving the room a slightly spooky atmosphere.
Shen Qingqiu walked at the back of the group by herself. Although she didn’t want to interact with anyone, she knew the limits of her own abilities. To survive, one couldn’t be too stupid or careless.
Before they had a chance to fully take in their surroundings, the old woman was already asking everyone to take their seats. Shen Qingqiu and Xiao Muyu noticed that there were twelve chairs arranged around the table, with the old woman seated at the very center. However, there was only one unoccupied chair left, and neither Shen Qingqiu nor Xiao Muyu had sat down yet.
The old woman seemed to notice this too, as her cloudy eyes swept over the faces of the group. Then, she grinned, a smile that struck Xiao Muyu as somewhat unsettling, especially when the old woman looked at her.
In a hoarse voice, the old woman said, “It seems we’re short one chair. More guests have arrived than I expected. I’m afraid you two will have to bear with it.” Her tone carried a hint of malice.
Shen Qingqiu glanced at the empty seat, which was in the fifth position from left to right. Then she surveyed the room’s layout. The walls were adorned with numerous paintings, and the most striking was the one in the rear left—a portrait of a woman smiling gently, the famous “Mona Lisa”. She was also familiar with the other ones, and she counted eleven paintings in total.
“You’re too kind, we can stand and listen,” said Xiao Muyu.
“Miss Xiao, why don’t you both come and sit? I don’t mind standing,” Liu Wei offered, starting to get up so they could both sit.
Xiao Muyu didn’t want to waste time on this, and was about to refuse when the old woman spoke: “You two young ladies are slim. That chair is a bit bigger, you can squeeze in together. You can listen to me once you’ve sat down properly.”
Her fingers were bent at the joints, her skin dry and covered in brown cracks due to old age, and the base of her thumbs were rough. Only the tips of her index fingers and thumbs were faintly white, still visible even in the dim, flickering light.
At that moment, she was pointing to the chair beside her, which was originally occupied by a middle-aged woman, who had appeared panicky throughout. Xiao Muyu remembered her name: You Qiaolian.
She seemed very afraid of the old woman. Under her gaze, she hesitantly stood up and quickly moved to another seat, leaving Xiao Muyu no time to stop her.
Shen Qingqiu’s previously lazy expression disappeared, and she stepped forward. The old woman had clearly made up her mind—she wouldn’t start talking until they both sat down.
“Let’s go,” Shen Qingqiu said quietly as she passed by Xiao Muyu, tugging on her sleeve.
As the human skin had wounded her arm, the tug had caused her some pain, but it also sobered her.
Although she was reluctant to sit next to Shen Qingqiu, the old woman was insistent, so she had no choice but to huddle herself as far away from Shen Qingqiu as possible.
The old woman had already begun her story.
Over fifty years ago, she married into this house, which belonged to her husband’s family. After moving here, she had a daughter, and their life was relatively stable. At that time, there were many families living here, all sharing the same ancestral surname.
“But everything changed one night, eighteen years ago. Someone massacred a family of five in the village, and that family died very miserably.” Her voice unconsciously lowered, and her face twisted, seemingly terrified.
Everyone in the room held their breath as they listened to her, and she continued in a sinister tone: “The five people had their skins peeled off, and the killer hung the five human skins at the entrance, dripping with blood. It was horrifying.” She widened her eyes in terror, pointing towards the veranda outside the second-floor window, as if that was where the human skins had been hung.
Shen Qingqiu’s expression hadn’t softened since she arrived on the second floor, and now her brows furrowed slightly as she kept a steady gaze on the old woman.
“They were skinned? That’s just sick.” Perhaps now that the group was all safe and sitting together, everyone was gradually regaining their courage. Among them, Xu Ran, a boy around sixteen or seventeen years old, was unable to hold back his comment.
The old woman suddenly shot a glance at the boy, before she continued tremulously, “Who wouldn’t agree? That massacre left everyone in a state of panic. But for some reason, the villagers didn’t dare to send someone to investigate. They just quietly buried the entire family. But on the seventh night after the burial, someone who returned late at night saw… saw the five human skins crawl out of their graves. And those human skins… they became those things outside!”
Everyone shuddered at the thought. Liu Wei’s expression grew serious as he asked, “But shouldn’t there be only five… five human skins?”
The old woman lifted her drooping eyelids slightly. “Haven’t you noticed that there are no people left in this village?”
Footnotes:
Author had something to say:
Xiao Shen is very good at connecting the dots.
There are many details in this chapter, all of them useful, and there might be lots of foreshadowing in the beginning. I might not have handled them well, so please bear with me.
D[Translator]
Newbie translator and long time yuri fan. I can handle CN/JP to EN translations. I have ko-fi if you want to support my work. **Check out the new series I've posted on SF: Players Please Take Your Positions**