CHAPTER 657: LITTLE SKELETON AND BLACK CAT (1)

Part 1: Little Skeleton and Black Cat

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"P-Please don’t... don’t do this!"

Obscure moonlight spilled in through the window, barely illuminating the art room of a certain haunted school.

Various clay statues depicting human heads and torsos were scattered across the room, bearing witness to the bullying that was happening at the moment. In front of the ajar door, two rough-looking men were forcibly pushing another man forward despite his will and resistance, the snickers on their faces oozing with unconcealed cruelty and malice.

"Didn’t you promise you will make yourself useful?"

"Yeah, we’re not even asking for much— just search for a clue in this room. We will even keep watch for you here. How about it? Haven’t we been kind enough to a newbie like you?"

The oppressed man kept shaking his head again and again, tears and snots streaming down his face. Intense fear permeated from every inch of his body. Alas, he was just an ordinary elementary school teacher in the real world; even his age was not young anymore. His physique was no match against one Intermediate player, let alone two. All he could do was beg again and again, pleading for a smidgen of pity and conscience from the two players before him. "Please... anything but this! I-I... I will die! This is my first time here, I will really die! Please spare me!!"

Under normal circumstances, he wouldn’t have been so terrified. After all, he was familiar with similar art rooms due to his occupation.

But the main problem was... this world was clearly far from normal!

After spending a day here, trapped in this haunted school, he had quickly come to learn that law and order did not exist here. This was a place beyond human comprehension, a place where monsters and ghosts ran rampant.

And the worst thing was, they had just discovered a corpse here earlier in the day!

The corpse had been dismembered and hidden inside the clay statues, even missing a head and right leg. Other players treated it as an important clue, but the man, who had never witnessed such a horrid scene before, seemed to see himself as the next victim.

Oh, how he regretted it! He regretted so much trying to ingratiate himself with these two players out of fear and desperation. He thought he could secure a chance of survival this way, but look at them right now. How were they any better than the so-called nightmare creatures who went around killing humans as they pleased?! No, they were even worse than that!

Unfortunately, there was no medicine for regrets, and he had to bear the consequences for his impulsive decision.

"Spare you?" The player with ears full of piercings scoffed. "What are you talking about? It’s not like we’re forcing you to die here."

"Tsk, newbies are so troublesome. We’ve been nothing but kind and generous here, but why are you treating us like villains?"

Despite their laments, their expressions showed not even a shred of remorse or indignation. Instead, they seemed to take pleasure in watching the man’s pathetic struggle, their eyes gleaming in cruel mirth.

"No, please... I beg you!"

The man was so terrified that he nearly passed out, but there was no one who could save him now—not even himself.

With a flick of his hand, the Intermediate player threw him roughly into the room like tossing a piece of garbage, sending him rolling across the floor and crashing on the cabinet behind.

The tall cabinet shook as if it’s going to topple down, but in the end it remained standing, though something suddenly rolled out of the bottom compartment with a loud clatter. The elementary school teacher just happened to be facing it, and with the help of the dim moonlight, he saw it clearly.

It was a... a dried skeleton!

"Ah... ah..."

Frightened out of his wits, the man even lost the ability to scream and could only sit tremblingly in place with his glasses skewed, a wet patch spreading on the area around his crotch.

He, a full-fledged adult in his late thirties, had pissed his pants out of fear.

The two Intermediate players burst into laughter at his embarrassing state. "We will be counting on you!" "See you tomorrow, okay? Don’t disappoint us!"

After leaving those cheerful sentences that sounded like a death knell, they decisively left and closed the door behind them. A loud click echoed in the air, and the man felt a wave of despair washing over him, as if it wasn’t just the door that had been sealed— but his fate as well.

Out of frenzied desperation, he stumbled to his feet and leaped toward the door, banging on it. "Let me out! I beg you, please... PLEASE LET ME OUT!!!" he cried out in a shrill voice.

Much to his dismay, the other two couldn’t care less about his life and death. They replied with a muffled chuckle, "Of course, we will let you out after you’ve gathered the clues there."

"Please work hard, oh!"

A mix of anguish and resentment bled through the man’s bloodshot eyes.

If, at this point, he still had no idea that the players were simply using him as bait to pave their way, then he would truly be a fool. He knew that he had stepped into a trap, knew that he had been doomed the moment he was forced into his room. Alas, whatever could he do? No matter how angry and resentful he was, he was still a weak and helpless newbie whose strength wasn’t even enough to truss a chicken, let alone going against two Intermediate players. He did not even dare to curse them out loud!

The man slid down powerlessly to the floor, his shoulders wrecked with silent sobs.

After a brief mental breakdown, he seemed to gather a semblance of composure upon realizing he had no choice but to grit his teeth and persist. Taking a couple of deep shuddering breaths, he raised his head, squared his shoulders and turned around... only to jump in shock when he was met with a pair of green ghostly fires burning inside the skeleton’s hollow eye sockets!

And this skeleton... hadn’t it been lying on the ground just now?!

When did it manage to sit up and—how?!

The man’s nerves were already stretched thin with tension, and with this sudden fright, something abruptly snapped inside his mind, causing him to spiral into madness.

"G-G-G-GHOST!!!" a spine-numbing shriek tore out of his throat and, driven out of mindless desperation to flee, he rushed straight toward the window!

He actually jumped down... from the fifth floor...

The skeleton stared blankly at the billowing curtain and the shards of glass scattered on the floor, left behind from the man’s escape attempt.

A gust of wind blew in through the broken window, carrying a faint whistle as though the clay statues inside the art room were giggling and reveling in the newbie’s tragic misfortune.

After a few seconds of stunned silence, the skeleton slowly moved toward the broken window. Its bones, seemingly as if it had not been used for a long time, creaked and groaned with each step it took, making its movements appear particularly stiff and jerky.

The dim moonlight revealed the skeleton’s full appearance, which was only half of the man’s height, indicating that it belonged to a child. Had the man been a little calmer, he would have soon realized that the little skeleton posed no danger to him, given how it struggled to even take a couple of steps forward.

Alas...

Reaching the window, the little skeleton grabbed the sill and pushed itself up to its toes, peering at the ground below. Its ghostly gaze lingered on the crimson flower blooming on the stone pavement, which had come from the man’s broken skull. His limbs were twisted into an odd angle, reminding it of a gecko.

Another player has died, it thought without a single wave in its mind.

"You scared someone to death again?"

An arrogant and disdainful voice rang out through the night, and the little skeleton turned its neck with a creak, its gaze zeroing on one of the tree branches that loomed tall outside the art room.

There, hidden amidst the lush leaves, was a cat with a fur darker than the night, almost merging into the background.

The cat was leisurely licking its paw, its long tail swaying behind its butt. A pair of feline green eyes narrowed, indifferently glancing at the bloody corpse below.

The skeleton paused and, after a moment’s thought, opened its bony jaw.

An unpleasantly hoarse voice echoed from the hollow of its throat, unknown whether it belonged to a man or woman, old or young. It sounded jarring and discordant, reminiscent of piano keys that were slammed haphazardly, as if just hearing it was enough to pollute someone’s mind.

"We...ak..."

It’s not the little skeleton’s fault; this player was just too weak.