3: Chapter 3 The Key to the Second Floor

Wang Hu's headless corpse slammed onto the floor.

"Thud!"

The sound was so dull, like a heavy sledgehammer blow that directly shattered the tense nerves in the main hall.

"Run! Run quickly!"

"Murder! Someone was actually murdered!"

The newcomers, who had been trembling, finally broke down. They scattered and fled like headless flies from a disturbed nest. Rationality was worthless in the face of blood; the instinct for survival drove them away from the crystal lamp that was still dripping blood.

A boy wearing a red and black plaid shirt was closest to the main door. He was already terrified to the point of mental collapse, his face smeared with snot and tears. He was vaguely screaming, "I'm not playing anymore," and "I want to go home," throwing himself toward the heavy mansion door like a rabid dog.

As long as he could turn the handle... even if there was a bottomless abyss outside, it would be better than this man-eating ghost place!

His fingers touched the cold bronze handle.

In the livestream room, countless viewers' hearts jumped into their throats.

However, there was no expected "click."

"Whoosh—"

A plume of ghostly green yin-fire suddenly erupted from the top of the main door without any warning.

This fire had no temperature; instead, it carried a chilling coldness that seemed to drill into the crevices of the bone. The plaid-shirted boy didn't even have time to scream before he was instantly engulfed by the green fire.

In just two seconds.

A living person, like a piece of paper thrown into a fire, curled up, blackened, and finally disintegrated into a pile of human-shaped black ash, scattering onto the doormat with a "rustle."

In the air, the smell of scorching mixed with the scent of blood, causing a spasm in people's stomachs.

Those who had also intended to rush toward the door forcefully stopped their steps, their shoe soles scraping against the ground with a piercing sound.

An evil spirit ahead, a dead end behind.

This was an utterly sealed hunting ground.

"Creak, creak, creak..."

A grating sound of bone friction came from overhead.

Everyone looked up in terror. They saw the Red Matchmaker, who had been hanging upside down from the crystal lamp, had long lost the leisurely mood of eating just moments before. She released her inverted legs, and her entire body dropped heavily onto the floor like a giant blood-colored spider with a "bang."

The marble floor cracked like a spiderweb under the impact.

She ignored the newcomers who were already paralyzed with fear on the ground, waiting to be slaughtered like dead pigs. Her face, pale as paper and devoid of features, slowly turned, precisely locking onto Pei Duo in the shadow of the hall corner.

In the logic of this s-rank ghoul, the human who dared to look directly at her was the greatest provocation.

"Hee."

The wide mouth, split to her ears, curled open again, letting out a sharp giggle.

The next second, the Red Matchmaker was on all fours, her joints twisted backward. In a posture that defied physical common sense, she dragged a bloody afterimage across the ground and lunged at Pei Duo like she was insane!

Fast! Too fast!

Pei Duo's mind went blank. The stench of corpse breath rushing toward her made her almost suffocate, and fear glued her limbs like glue.

She clearly had the jade pendant from the stone box tucked in her pocket; her brother had solemnly sworn it could save her life. But when life-or-death arrived, her body simply would not obey.

Was she going to die?

Just as the ghostly claws, long as sharp blades, were about to pierce Pei Duo's throat—

"Swish!"

A golden light shot in from the side, cutting through the air.

"Ding!"

An ancient bronze coin, square in the center and round on the outside, struck the Red Matchmaker's shoulder with perfect accuracy. The golden light burst, sizzling and emitting black smoke, like a drop of hot oil hitting ice.

"Aooo—!"

The Red Matchmaker's movement abruptly halted, and she let out a piercing, painful shriek. The impact forced her body to stagger back two steps.

"What are you standing there for! Waiting to die? Run!"

A harsh shout came through.

The short-haired woman maintained the posture of having thrown the coin, her eyes filled with the anger of wishing iron would turn into steel.

Pei Duo snapped out of her daze. Her will to survive finally overpowered her fear. She didn't bother thanking anyone, scrambling and crawling into the shadow of the side corridor next to her.

The main hall descended into complete chaos.

Lin Sa did not linger in the fight, nor did she look at Pei Duo again. She gave the Glasses Man beside her a meaningful look. The two of them, like two slippery loaches, took advantage of the moment the Red Matchmaker was delayed and swiftly slipped into the corridor leading to the study on the other side.

As soon as they entered the study, the Glasses Man closed the door behind him and slapped a talisman onto the crack.

The screams from outside were instantly muffled by more than half.

The Glasses Man pushed up the frame of his glasses, his gaze cold: "That 'Demon-Dispelling Coin' was extremely hard to obtain, and it's a single-use consumable. Wasting such a trump card to save a newcomer, Lin Sa, this isn't like you."

In his view, showing compassion in an s-rank instance was no different from suicide.

Lin Sa leaned against the bookshelf, fiddling with the single coin left in her hand, and took a breath: "So many people just died, everyone was crying, but she didn't make a sound. My intuition tells me this girl has something about her. If she doesn't die, she might make a decent teammate."

"Heh, intuition?" The Glasses Man sneered and began quickly searching the bookshelves. "In an s-rank instance, intuition is the cheapest lie. Let's see if she can survive first."

His gaze was sharp, quickly sweeping over the rows of dusty books on the shelf.

"The arrangement of bloody handprints... 'Unofficial History of the Republic of China,' 'I Ching,' 'Immortal Through Corpse Decomposition'…"

The Glasses Man displayed extremely high professionalism. Even though the screams outside were continuous, his hands remained as steady as a rock.

Only ten minutes passed.

"Found it."

He hooked his finger around a book with a red cover titled 'Grand Wedding' and pulled it down forcefully.

"Click."

A sound of mechanical rotation came from behind the bookshelf.

The heavy mahogany bookshelf slowly moved aside, revealing a small hidden compartment behind it. Hanging inside the compartment was a brass key engraved with a complex 'Double Happiness' character pattern.

"The safe passage key to the second floor." The Glasses Man's lips curled into a self-satisfied arc as he snatched the key. "The Red Matchmaker is a ground-bound spirit on the first floor. As long as we get to the second floor, we will be temporarily safe. As for those newcomers..."

He didn't finish his sentence, but the meaning was clear.

Let fate decide. If they were lucky enough, they might make it to the second floor.

"Let's go."

Holding the key, the two quietly crept along the base of the wall toward the blind spot near the staircase, preparing to slip upstairs in the confusion.

However, as soon as they rounded the corner of the corridor, their steps abruptly halted, as if they had been paralyzed by a spell.

They quickly retracted their heads, pressed their backs against the wall, their faces turning ashen.

"Damn it... Why is she there?" Lin Sa gritted her teeth, her voice suppressed to a very low level.

In the blind spot below the staircase.

Pei Duo was pressed against the wall, curled up into a ball, trembling violently.

And the Red Matchmaker, clad in crimson, was blocking the way less than two meters in front of her.