Giving Interstellar Players a Horror Ghost Game Shock - Chapter 35

Even the scariest games have certain mechanics.

One of them is that after narrowly escaping death, players are usually granted a brief safe period rather than being immediately hit with a game over.

Two minutes had already passed since the ghost’s last attack.

Realizing she was temporarily in a safe zone, Liu Yuling forced herself to stay composed and took pictures of everything within her line of sight.

Using the method Qiu Zi had taught her, she clumsily reviewed the photos. As expected, the world in the pictures was starkly different from what she saw with her eyes.

In the photographs, every structure was vividly outlined, with no trace of the mist. Instead, there were pools of black liquid, varying in depth and density.

The liquid coated every visible surface and even floated in small amounts in the air, making Liu Yuling feel profoundly uneasy.

At the center of all the black liquid was the area beneath the stairs she had passed when entering this eerie space—the path leading to the bridge.

After pondering for a moment, Liu Yuling grabbed the camera and flashlight and strode in that direction.

[Wait, Sister Yu, what’s wrong? Are you too scared to think straight? That place is so dangerous! The camera even showed you that, yet you’re walking straight into it? Are you trying to get yourself killed?!]

[Calm down, calm down! I think Sister Yu has her own plan. We all know that the dangerous spots are often key points in games. If you avoid danger entirely, how are you supposed to progress?]

The second comment resonated with most of the viewers. Indeed, if she simply ran away from danger, what would they even watch?

Besides, they doubted this game could be cleared by endlessly avoiding risks. To escape this place, the solution likely lay in the rumored talisman-covered bridge pillar.

Cautiously, Liu Yuling descended the steps.

Though the mist had thickened to the point where she could barely see the stairs beneath her feet, she quickly discovered the camera’s utility—

By looking through the camera lens, she could see the mist-free world of black liquid. Visibility improved significantly in comparison.

Before long, she spotted the bridge pillar that supposedly bore the mystical charm. Sure enough, a yellow talisman—similar to the one she carried but with slightly different markings—was hanging there, barely clinging to the surface.

Upon closer inspection, Liu Yuling noticed that the talisman looked aged and was on the verge of falling off. It dangled precariously, swaying as though it might drop at any moment.

“So, as long as I stick this talisman back in place, the ghost won’t be able to chase me anymore, right?”

Instead of acting immediately, Liu Yuling stood there mumbling to herself, much to the viewers’ dismay.

[Girl, you’re one step away from clearing the stage! If you want to chat, save it for after you win. Hurry up and fix it already!]

[Exactly! What if the ghost suddenly shows up again?]

Almost as if the comment had jinxed it, a faint, eerie white figure appeared at the top of the stairs.

This was what the players and viewers saw. Through the camera, however, the ghost was almost entirely submerged in black liquid.

The specter looked like a corpse wrapped in viscous slime, almost cocooned within it.

The only area with a density of black liquid rivaling the ghost’s was the bridge pillar, where large quantities of the substance gathered around the talisman, extending slowly outward.

Oddly, the ghost didn’t immediately attack her. It merely stood at the top of the stairs, motionless.

Liu Yuling tore her gaze away, took a deep breath, and suddenly reached out to rip the dangling talisman completely off!

[?!]
[Are you out of your mind?!]

Before the chat could erupt into chaos, the entire space twisted violently.

The mist abruptly dissipated.

Liu Yuling barely had time to process what happened. She blinked, and in the next instant, she was back where she had been before entering the eerie dimension.

Standing beside her were Wen Qian and Li Hua.

She looked like she’d been pulled out of water, drenched in cold sweat, gasping desperately for air as she stared blankly into the distance.

Xu Yi didn’t vanish into thin air but instead stood before them, his face pale with terror, utterly devoid of his earlier composure.

“What did you do?!” he shouted.

The black cord strung between his hands had somehow snapped in two and fallen to the ground, yet he didn’t even glance at it.

He darted his eyes around nervously, as though something deadly might leap out at him at any moment.

“It seems I made the right choice,” Liu Yuling said, now completely calm. As long as she wasn’t forced to battle the ghost directly, she was willing to do just about anything.

“Although I don’t know the exact details, that talisman on the bridge pillar was probably meant to shift the danger onto four unlucky scapegoats, wasn’t it? It didn’t protect us at all—it only protected you.”

Xu Yi’s face twitched violently.

“You’ve ruined everything! It’s pointless! You’re all still going to die!”

“So what if we die? At least we’ll drag you, the one who set us up, down with us!” Liu Yuling shouted with righteous fury.

Yet no sooner had she finished her bold declaration than a dark shadow began to materialize, and she immediately chickened out, retreating several steps in fear.

Xu Yi’s terror grew even more evident, confirming that Liu Yuling had hit the nail on the head.

With a sharp intake of breath, Xu Yi turned on his heel to flee. But before he could, a figure suddenly burst out from the bushes and delivered a powerful kick, sending him hurtling toward the ghost.

“Run, Senior!”

The unexpected intruder was none other than Qiu Zi, who had been lying in wait for the perfect moment.

According to their original plan, she was supposed to move in response to the seniors’ screams. But after waiting fruitlessly, she decided to creep closer and investigate, just in time to overhear the conversation that revealed Xu Yi as the mastermind behind everything.

Seething with anger, Qiu Zi didn’t hesitate to take action. Seeing Xu Yi try to escape, she immediately kicked him toward the ghost, forcing him to face its terror firsthand. Then she grabbed both seniors by the arms and bolted.

Li Hua, finally snapping out of his daze, looked back to see the ghost in white lunging at Xu Yi. Horrified, he screamed and scrambled after them.

“Wait for me!”

They sprinted for a good distance before realizing that the ghost hadn’t pursued them. What’s more, the once-desolate campus was now filled with the sounds of people.

Crossing the arched bridge, they even spotted scattered groups of students walking by, some casting curious glances their way.

Though the campus was still sparsely populated, these were undeniably living people!

“We made it out!” Qiu Zi exclaimed in relief.

As her words sank in, Liu Yuling abruptly lost control of her character’s body. The game transitioned into a forced cutscene with accompanying text.

The truth behind everything was finally revealed:

Years ago, Xu Yi’s grandfather had abused his authority to assault a female student. Fearing exposure, he drowned her body in the lake to cover up the crime.

What followed largely aligned with what Xu Yi had mentioned earlier. The Xu family, haunted by a curse, had conducted two cruel sacrificial rituals over three generations. Each time, they exploited their influence to target students from the school as offerings.

Unable to oversee the rituals themselves, they bribed a student with money to act as their agent. The survivor of the spirit summoning ritual incident 20 years ago and Li Hua this time were both such agents.

As for the ghost that led them to the archive room, she was one of the unfortunate victims from 20 years ago.

Having died unjustly and unable to rest, she roamed the campus, bearing witness to the truth. Seeing the current sacrifices, she guided them to the archive room to uncover everything.

Regarding the timing of the ritual, while the previous two sacrifices took place in May—the month of her death—this year’s had been delayed by several months due to the pandemic.

Perhaps because of this delay, the talisman meant to redirect the ghost’s hatred had weakened over time, making it fragile enough for an ordinary person to tear off.

With the truth fully revealed, the game displayed the final outcome achieved by the players:

“Congratulations, players, on achieving the Normal End — Evil Receives Retribution.

Number of surviving friendly NPCs: 3. Unlock the Perfect Ending by ensuring all friendly NPCs survive.”