Chapter 108

Shi Jian could put NPCs in just the right position to serve her, and her spirit pet could perform beyond expectations.

There was a moment of silence at the scene.

Nearby, not only the four-person team but also other streamers who were relatively close heard the commotion and gathered from afar to watch.

None of them had expected to witness such a scene.

The scene referred to Shi Jian posing like a fairy princess in front of fluttering paper scraps, and also to the ghost bride violently stabbing her own “master”—even though it was a fake.

Of course, most people online are bold and loud, but shy and reserved in real life. The former had little to say, but the latter began discussing.

After the silence, someone couldn’t help speaking up, “That was her spirit pet?”

“What kind of grudge was that?”

A nearby streamer responded with some uncertainty, “I think so?”

“She let it out from a spirit pet ball, didn’t she?”

In the public livestream, and in other streamers’ personal livestreams, viewers were equally baffled.

A viewer who came over from Shi Jian’s personal stream replied, “Oh, the grudge runs deep. So deep.”

Long story.

Public stream viewers immediately got interested.

【Tell us more!】

Meanwhile, Shi Jian’s personal livestream had an entirely different vibe.

【Shi Jian is so considerate. She saw the paper figure trying so hard to imitate her and even gave it her spirit pet. (dog head emoji)】

Even if the gift ended up killing the paper figure.

【The paper figure’s death was truly unjust. She even opened her arms to welcome the ghost bride. Never saw it coming that Shi Jian’s spirit pet’s ultimate goal was to kill her.】

【Would you say the paper figure used her own life to help the ghost bride fulfill her wish? Thank you for your sacrifice, paper girl!】

【Shi Jian is such a savage. She really unlocked multiple uses for the ghost bride. We all thought the ghost bride wanted her dead so badly she’d never help her.】

【I wonder if the paper figure would be so pissed by Shi Jian that she goes mad and ends up becoming her spirit pet too...】

Among all these comments, one particularly stood out:

【Wuwuwu, this ship is real, I’m all in. The ghost bride and Shi Jian are bound together. The ghost bride didn’t say anything wicked—she must have recognized it was a fake Shi Jian. The ghost bride can’t tolerate substitutes. It’s an insult to the superstar, so she killed the fake without hesitation...】

Below that were dozens of comments in unison:

【If I didn’t know the truth, I might’ve believed it.】

Shippers really are unhinged!

...

The ghost bride had been staring down at the scattered paper scraps. No one knew what she was thinking. Then, suddenly, she heard a familiar voice.

She swiftly turned, her gaze sharp as a blade, and looked toward Shi Jian.Tang Tian could already supply the ghost bride’s inner monologue.

How is Shi Jian still alive?!

Confused. Very confused. The ghost bride was waiting for an explanation.

Shi Jian, facing the ghost bride who was staring daggers at her, had to pause her posing.

Her face calm and heartbeat steady, with not a trace of panic at being caught, she spoke to the ghost bride seriously, “I already died just now, and now I’ve been reborn!” So the ghost bride was now seeing her reborn self.

Tang Tian: ?

Viewers: ?

Streamers: ?

Shi Jian kept going, “Look, you’ve already killed me once. That means our grudge is settled. From now on, you can peacefully be my spirit pet, and I’ll be your honorable master. I won’t hold it against you that you killed me once. Let’s live a good life together... If you don’t say anything, I’ll take that as a yes.”

Shi Jian’s expression was full of sincerity, her tone simple and touching.

What a magnanimous master. What a world-class peace ambassador. What a sly and theatrical streamer!

The ghost bride’s IQ must’ve been in the negatives—she probably couldn’t grasp something so complex and didn’t even have the ability to respond properly.

Which meant Shi Jian hadn’t left her any room to refuse.

But what Shi Jian hadn’t expected was that after three seconds of blank staring, the ghost bride suddenly blurted out like a broken record, “Bad bad bad bad bad…”

Then she screamed in rage and charged at Shi Jian.

Shi Jian was startled and quickly returned the ghost bride to the spirit pet ball, narrowly avoiding being stabbed for real.

Holding the spirit pet ball with the ghost bride inside, Shi Jian raised an eyebrow and asked Tang Tian, “Did she understand what I was saying just now?”

Why did she suddenly respond?

Tang Tian, “I guess?”

Tang Tian: Maybe the ghost bride’s IQ improved over time?

Otherwise, she’d probably help Shi Jian count the money after being sold.

Tang Tian hadn’t experienced the Happy Village instance with Shi Jian, but she more or less understood why the ghost bride called Shi Jian “bad.”

Shi Jian didn’t dwell on it. “If her IQ’s gone up, that’s fine too. Makes it easier to b—persuade her to cooperate with me.”

Viewers: No use covering it up, we heard you say “bamboozle.”

Jiejie you're so bad, I love it!

...

Shi Jian, as usual, fed the ghost bride a spirit pet treat. After all, she was her spirit pet. Even if her original intent wasn’t good, as long as she contributed, Shi Jian was still willing to treat her well.

Both Shi Jian and Tang Tian let out a breath of relief—another crisis dodged.

That paper figure had managed to make even the four-person team so miserable, she was clearly strong. Shi Jian and Tang Tian weren’t sure they could’ve handled her on their own.

Shi Jian had definitely shown off this time, stealing the spotlight—though the one who actually did the work was the ghost bride.But Shi Jian didn’t think it made a difference—after all, the master and the spirit pet were one and the same.

After showing off a bit, Shi Jian said, “…I’ll go pick up the paper petals.”

Even though they were in a horror game instance, the most basic manners still had to be observed—the place was a mess and needed to be cleaned up.

Tang Tian joined Shi Jian in tidying.

Shi Jian also made another discovery: a paper petal had stuck to her dress near the shoulder. It must have landed there earlier, and it was quite noticeable.

Tang Tian reached out her hand and gestured to Shi Jian, “Let me take it off for you.”

It was inconvenient for Shi Jian to reach.

“Okay.”

Shi Jian smiled and leaned slightly toward Tang Tian, a gesture with a touch of that unique closeness between friends.

But when Tang Tian removed the petal, she let out a surprised, “Eh?”

“There’s writing on it?!”

Shi Jian looked closely. Sure enough, there was a character on the paper petal—white background with red ink, twisted and contorted—

命! (Life/Fate!)

Blood-red.

Shi Jian immediately grew excited.

Was this a clue?

Related to a mission?

Meanwhile, the girl with the ash-blue hair and wolf-tail hairstyle also walked over to them. Her gaze fell on the petal in Tang Tian’s hand.

“You saw the writing?”

Without waiting for Shi Jian to answer, she continued,

“I’ve got one too.”

The girl showed them a paper petal she had found. It had something similar written on it, except this one said—

生. (Life/Birth)

She’d found the character-marked petal after she and her teammates had teamed up to kill the paper figure impersonating their flannel-shirted teammate.

These two characters seemed to carry some deep meaning.

It wasn’t just Shi Jian’s group—this didn’t seem like an isolated case. It looked more like they were meant to discover something important through these paper petals.

The ash-blue-haired girl said, “Don’t throw anything away yet—start searching quickly.”

Everyone was thinking the same thing.

Not only did the four-person team and Shi Jian’s group join the urgent search for character-marked petals, but the rest of the streamers also jumped in to look.

For a while, the atmosphere was buzzing with excitement.After all, they were finally seeing the light of victory.

Ever since arriving at the park, no one had found any proper reason why such a large, popular amusement park would suddenly shut down just three months later.

It wasn’t as simple as just completing all the attractions to clear the level.

But now, there finally seemed to be a lead.

…

Progress was going even more smoothly than Shi Jian had expected.

Everyone had mentally prepared for only finding part of the answer and needing to continue killing other paper figures.

But just from these two paper figures alone, they’d already found quite a few paper slips with writing. Later, a few other streamers teamed up to kill similar paper figures—

And they actually managed to collect a complete set.

Everyone was tense, waiting for the key clue to emerge.

Tang Tian and the ash-blue-haired, wolf-tailed girl pieced the slips together, while Shi Jian, as spokesperson, read it aloud.

Shi Jian cleared her throat, adjusted her posture. Let’s see what we’ve got!

Under everyone’s gaze, she read: “I’m sorry for being born human.”

“Gentleness? It was bought with my life.”

The more she read, the more confused she looked: ?

She was utterly baffled. “A collection of emo internet quotes?”

“……”

The streamers were completely speechless.

The progress had been smooth—but it led to nothing. This wasn’t a clue at all. It was pure emo nonsense from the internet!

Shi Jian’s face was blank. Couldn’t they report fake clues like this?

…

Though searching for the paper petals wasted a bit of time, Tang Tian and Shi Jian didn’t come away empty-handed on the first day besides completing attraction check-ins.

After parting ways with the four-person team and searching for suitable attractions, they saw a few people who looked like maintenance workers casually walking a circle around a ride.

Shi Jian instinctively thought they were about to start maintenance.

But the workers didn’t do anything at all—they just slapped on a “maintenance complete” tag and left.

After they were out of sight, the two crept over.

Tang Tian pointed at a screw that was about to fall off and remarked, “They’re just clocking in. That counts as maintenance?”

“So sloppy!”

Shi Jian was also amazed. “Now I think I know why people died on the rides. This kind of going-through-the-motions maintenance? No wonder something went wrong.”

To them, this discovery actually felt meaningful—at least more so than the emo paper petals. This seemed like a real reason why the amusement park went under.Shi Jian and Tang Tian recorded everything into their respective phone memos to avoid forgetting anything amidst all the chaos.

The first day of checking in at the amusement park finally came to an end, and the streamers were all arranged to stay at the hotel within the park.

Shi Jian and Tang Tian chose a double room.

The amusement park hotel was decently decorated. After reviewing the events of the day, Shi Jian and Tang Tian planned to wash up, do some skincare, and lie down to rest and recover.

Just as Shi Jian applied her face mask—

The electric kettle on the table, which no one had touched, suddenly began to boil by itself with a bubbling sound; the slippers started running chaotically across the floor as if they had grown legs; and the LCD TV facing the bed turned on.

It was on a late-night channel.

The TV was broadcasting a murder case, showing uncensored severed limbs nonstop, as if trying to mess with their mental state, accompanied by a slow and cold narration.

Shi Jian was so startled by the commotion that her freshly applied face mask nearly fell off.

The TV couldn’t be turned off—not even unplugging it worked.

Tang Tian cursed with a miserable expression, “Why won’t it ever stop?!”

Then came a knock at the door.

“Dong dong dong—”

Three very rhythmic knocks.

Who?!

Shi Jian and Tang Tian both nervously turned toward the door. Something was outside.

The voice sounded like a young man. He introduced himself, “I’m the hotel security. I heard some noise from your room. Did something happen?”

A hotel security guard showing up right when a series of eerie events occurred and offering help—it looked like a lifeline.

But neither Tang Tian nor Shi Jian had any intention of grabbing it.

Tang Tian looked at Shi Jian and whispered, “A ghost?”

Shi Jian nodded and whispered back, “When we actively seek help, NPCs never respond. This one showing up on his own? Definitely a ghost!”

Tang Tian: “Then we can’t open the door.”

The situation was still under control for now, but letting the guy in could change that.

They came to an agreement. The guard outside waited a bit longer but got no response. He continued speaking.

“Guests, are you alright?”

“Would you like to open the door...?”

He was relentless, as if he wouldn’t leave without a reply.

Shi Jian then spoke up calmly, “We’re fine. Nothing happened.” Please just go already.

Guard: “But I heard something…”

In the midst of the deafening background noise, Shi Jian shouted back, “No, you’re definitely hallucinating. Better get checked at a hospital—auditory hallucinations are a serious symptom of schizophrenia!”Former psychiatric patient Shi Jian, a gentle reminder.