Chapter 9 - Midnight Mansion (7) (1/2)

“Clatter!”

Seeing the headless body swaying while crawling back up again, Cheng Zhi Chu’s hand trembled and the flashlight in his hands felled to the ground and rolled to one side. He was scared to the point that his heart almost stopped beating and even his fingertips went numb.

At this moment, he even had the urge to die ——— Rather than being alive and getting scared so often, it would be better if he just died and everyone could become evil spirits together. Like this, no one would be able to hurt anyone!!

But this thought only flashed through his mind very quickly. He is very self-aware. If someone as useless as him were to die, he knew that he would probably just become a corpse that the evil spirits can feed off rather than becoming an evil spirit himself.

But why is Ren Xue’s body still moving? Is that necklace still using its powers? Do they need to destroy it so that it would no longer control her?

Thinking of the emerald necklace, Cheng Zhi Chu immediately reacted. He grabbed the flashlight that had fallen to the ground and directed the light to the location be remembered seeing the necklace fall to but the moment he looked, his entire body went cold. With no one going over to retrieve the necklace, the necklace had disappeared on its own!

“Necklace—That necklace is gone……” Cheng Zhi Chu said with apprehension. “That definitely is not an ordinary prop…….It’s probably a cursed item!”

There is a type of item that is extremely dangerous in Infinite Escape that is collectively referred to as “Cursed Item”. There is a certain probability that it would appear in an instance and it would very rarely appear on the marketplace.

The cursed item can take the appearance of anything. It is filled with maliciousness, curses, madness and resentment from the dead and evil spirits. The moment it appears, it would inevitably result in a significant increase in death tolls in an instance.

But despite this, players still chased after these cursed items like crazy because only a number of them could be taken out of an instance and be kept in the possession of a player. Every cursed item contains a dangerous but extremely powerful energy. If used properly, it can become a powerful killing item or life-saving item.

When Cheng Zhi Chu browsed through Winter Branch’s posts, the godly player repeatedly emphasised the dangers associated with cursed items and warned beginners not to dream about getting their hands onto one and thinking that they can control the cursed item.

In fact, even if the cursed item can be used, most of them would have tremendous side effects that would counteract the user. There were many players who met tragic ends or turned crazy because they had it in their possessions so if you came across a cursed item, no matter whether or not you can take it out of an instance, the most logical course of action is to destroy it before it leads you to a disastrous end.

This post left a particularly strong impression on Cheng Zhi Chu because he was very scared of cursed items after reading about it. In the post, many beginners also expressed their fear and that they definitely wouldn’t take a cursed item. There were also a few people who didn’t want to accept this and asked Winter Branch if he had any cursed items himself.

That was a from a few years ago when Winter Branch was still actively posting on the forum. When someone asked him a question, he would give them a response.

Winter Branch: ‘I do.’

Beginner: ‘Great god, if you don’t mind revealing it, how many do you have?’

Winter Branch: ‘I didn’t count it this year. Last year a little more than thirty.’

Beginner: ‘…………..’

Winter Branch: ‘It is very dangerous holding onto a cursed item. You shouldn’t take it too lightly.’

Beginner: ‘………’

Following that response was almost ten thousand responses filled with ellipses. Cheng Zhi Chu couldn’t help but also post something under it when he saw that —- With you having more than thirty in your possession, your words are not persuasive at all!!

It was also because of this post that Winter Branch started becoming ridiculed with all sorts of rubbish nicknames like, “The most dangerous one is Winter god”, “Walking cursed item museum”, “Winter Thirty”, “That man who collects garbage” etc. The number of nicknames almost equalled the number of cursed items he had.

However, Winter Branch’s posting frequency then started to gradually reduce. Soon, there was no movement from his end and his final post was from two years ago. No one knew whether or not he was finally killed by his cursed items.

At that time, Cheng Zhi Chu had finished reading the post and, although he understood that cursed items are dangerous and he isn’t like Winter Branch so he wouldn’t go around picking up cursed items, he had underestimated how dangerous it could be. In just a low-levelled instance like this, it could actually silently kill a player and take control of their dead body!

“But if it is a cursed item, w-why didn’t the system tell us. They should tell us about it……..”

Lu Wenjing gripped tightly onto her crowbar and looked at the headless body while trembling. She was scared to the point that her eyes were filled with tears and her legs went soft. Even her words were a little incoherent.

“Can’t rule out one possibility.”

Bai Yi said quietly.

“Perhaps we were told that it is a cursed item, but the item itself threw the veil over us and altered our perceptions.”

Hearing the two converse, Cheng Zhi Chu felt his hairs stand up. What was even worse was that at this moment s weak groan could be heard not far away from where the headless body stood. Wang Jianming gradually woke up from his slumber and opened his eyes. Through his still blurry vision, he could make out a familiar figure that resembled his dead girlfriend.

“Xiao Xue……. Is that you?”

Wang Jianming extended his hands with excitement and warm tears fell from his eyes. Even his voice choked up.

But the next second, his tears washed away the blurriness in his vision allowing him to see its true form and he immediately froze.

The air went stagnant. Small amounts of blood were still pouring out of the neck of the body and it seemingly had heard Wang Jianming’s voice as it turned to the side and looked at him.

Wang Jianming didn’t know how to reaction; shock, fear, sorrow and surprise were all mixed together. His face distorted around as he looked at the body in daze. From his throat, a dull squeak was heard, and blue veins protruded but he still didn’t say anything.

The body however turned back around as if it didn’t recognise him and just turned to face Cheng Zhi Chu.