Lakeside Ghost Story 15

Zhuo Yu came to amid the stabbing pain in his head. He clutched his chest, feeling as though all those memories, all that hatred, had coalesced into a savage beast of fang and claw that would tear its way out of his chest at any moment.

He could not stop trembling. Strong-willed as he was, he could not help being affected by the character. All he wanted was to rip open the chests of those sanctimonious beasts in human skin.

The boss was a little frightened by the state Zhuo Yu was in. He gathered the man tormented by those memories into his arms and gently patted his back.

He had never expected his own jumbled account to provoke such a powerful reaction in Zhuo Yu. Zhuo Yu really had remembered.

"I'm fine." Zhuo Yu took a deep breath. "So what am I now, exactly? Human or ghost?"

Without hesitation, he took the fork from his grid space and swiftly cut his finger.

Zhuo Yu was bleeding.

"Human."

In truth, the idea of reincarnation was not unique to Asia. In America, where he now found himself, there had also been cases of reincarnation that caused a worldwide sensation. One man named Alan Lee, for example, claimed to remember sixteen past lives, in which he had been an Egyptian pharaoh, a Hebrew slave, a duke, and even an alien. There had also been a four-year-old boy who frequently recounted baseball stories from the previous century and was believed to be the reincarnation of a legendary player.

Could it be...?

Zhuo Yu thought back to his identity as "the Traveler." The System had not actually deceived him. Perhaps the Traveler truly was nothing more than a traveler. In the final, obsessive moments of his previous life, he had wished he could have simply been someone visiting Golden Lake. Perhaps that was why fate had brought him to Golden Lake as a sightseer in this life, where the supernatural power blanketing the lake had gradually restored all his memories.

[Character puzzle completion: 100%]

[Side Quest: Discover the Traveler's true identity. Complete. Rewards will be issued during settlement.]

[Current character panel updated: Actor Zhuo Yu, playing the role of "Zhuo Yu." (A)]

[Zhuo Yu: The true master of Golden Lake. After he was brutally murdered by the Church of the Fountain of Youth, a priest performed a rite to send his soul onward, preventing him from remaining at Golden Lake and forcing him into the cycle of reincarnation. Now that Zhuo Yu has returned, Golden Lake has helped him recover his memories. This time, he will bring the fury and hatred of two lifetimes down upon his killers and make them pay the price they deserve.]

[Traits: Intelligent, strong-willed, exceptionally attractive, possessed of a rare breadth of cinematic knowledge, and not easily frightened. His weakness is paralysis of the lower limbs, which prevents him from walking normally and severely limits his mobility.]

Zhuo Yu stared at the panel in confusion.

Actor "Zhuo Yu" playing the role of "Zhuo Yu"? What was that supposed to mean? He did not believe it was a coincidence, much less that anyone else who entered Tales by the Lake in the future would also have to play "Zhuo Yu."

After all, the character's appearance, traits, and personality were almost identical to his own. The role might as well have been tailor-made for him.

He suddenly remembered what Asha had said: "Zhuo Yu" was unique. Special.

Zhuo Yu immediately cast Asha a probing look, but Asha did not notice. With a trace of sadness, he merely took Zhuo Yu's hand, gently licked the bead of blood from his fingertip as he had fifty years ago, then pressed the unmarred half of his face into Zhuo Yu's palm.

"Are you trying to comfort me?" Zhuo Yu sighed. As far as he was concerned, Asha was the one who needed comfort more. Asha had spent half a century alone with a heart full of hatred, living in Golden Lake, a place that was vast in one sense and as confining as a prison in another.

How had he felt, living through each of those days?

"I understand now. I am the character, and the character is me. So that means you're mine too." Zhuo Yu knew perfectly well that he was being shameless. He also accepted this aspect of himself with remarkable tolerance and had no intention of changing.

He tipped the boss's chin up with one finger and declared with a smile, "Asha is mine!"

So whether it was the Church of the Fountain of Youth or some other actor, anyone who wanted to hurt the big wolfhound he had finally fallen for at first sight would find it anything but easy.

The boss froze for a moment. "I've always been yours."

[...Is this still a horror movie? Just asking.]

[Quietly sheds the tears of a lonely single.]

[I ship it. Beauty and the Beast is the freaking best!!!]

[Hey, you people are way too naive. Credentials first: I'm an actor analyst on Spark Forum, and in my opinion, what Zhuo Yu feels for the boss isn't romantic love at all.]

[? Go on.]

[Holy crap, an expert's here! The comment is red! An officially certified analyst!]

[I took an in-depth look at Zhuo Yu's published books and found that he displays strong signs of serious psychological issues. First of all, he's obsessive-compulsive and an extreme perfectionist. I think that's why he's so fixated on solving puzzles: he wants to raise the movie's completion rating. Second, it's obvious that Zhuo Yu has his own particular take on horror movies. Based on my analysis, the kind of character he most enjoys writing is exactly the boss's type. You could say this movie was made to cater to his tastes.]

[More, more! Keep going!]

[Wow, there are so many rookies in this movie, but it still managed to attract an expert. I thought analysts only covered big stars. I'm staying for this.]

[Personally, I think Zhuo Yu's reaction to seeing the boss is more like the delight of watching one of his fictional characters come to life. In his eyes, the boss is merely the embodiment of a perfect image. Would you fall in love with a character you created?]

[But the boss really does seem to like Zhuo Yu. I'm starting to feel bad for him.]

[Feeling bad for the boss +1]

[Just wait. With his twisted personality, Zhuo Yu will never allow the perfect image he adores to be harmed. You may be about to witness the first actor ever to protect a boss.]

In his apartment at the Studios, the officially certified analyst Luo Musheng adjusted his glasses and moved actor Zhuo Yu into the category of people most worthy of his attention. Not because Zhuo Yu was especially powerful, but because the man was simply too interesting.

Luo Musheng had uncovered plenty of other information through his analysis, but he had no intention of sharing it with the live comments.

[Private Chat]

[Luo Xiao'ou: Bro, I applied to go back to the real world. You were right. Before Zhuo Yu entered the Studios, he spent an astronomical amount every year trying to get his legs treated. He really can't accept being disabled. That isn't normal at all, considering he's been like that since birth. A normal person would've learned to accept their fate long ago.]

[Luo Musheng: Exactly. Because he's an extreme, atypical perfectionist.]

[Luo Xiao'ou: So his wish when he entered the Studios was to have his body restored!]

[Luo Musheng: That's valuable information. We could sell it for a good price later, though I'd rather put it to use myself.]

[Luo Xiao'ou: Aren't you going a little far, Bro? He's nowhere near as strong as Flying Sickle and the others.]

[Luo Musheng: Silly girl, you didn't see the movie. I just witnessed the first character in history modeled after an actor. That's far too unusual. My instincts tell me Zhuo Yu is carrying information of vital importance, perhaps even something connected to the chief judges. Only a chief judge has the authority to approve a completely illogical character, and someone approved this one. That isn't how those old fossils operate.]

[Luo Xiao'ou: You can't possibly be thinking...]

[Luo Musheng: That's right. The legendary Judge One. He's the only one who could pull something like this.]

[Luo Xiao'ou: Do whatever you think is best. You've never been wrong before, anyway.]

Luo Musheng ended his private chat with his sister and shifted his attention to the records of another team.

The Soul Hunt Guild.

Once rookie actors completed their first movie, they became eligible to form teams, more commonly known as Actors' Guilds. There were all kinds of guilds, but when it came to sheer brute force, none were more straightforward than Soul Hunt.

Every member worshiped personal combat strength, and everything they redeemed was combat-related. They specialized in hunting movie bosses to farm Flame Points, making them the quintessential embodiment of the saying "fortune comes from taking risks."

Soul Hunt had sent four members this time. Unless he was mistaken, they had to be the four exorcists.

That only made things stranger. It was not as if he had never seen Tales by the Lake before. Not only had the character Zhuo Yu never appeared in it, but he had never seen Marcus, the cult-leading mayor, seek out exorcists either. Under normal circumstances, after the four students died, the standby actors would have stepped in as replacement students. But Soul Hunt had been assigned entirely new roles.

He had heard that ordinary chief judges were not permitted to alter the settings of special movies. But no one had said they could not add to them...

Was it possible that these four exorcists, sent to kill Zhuo Yu and the boss, were actually a disguised form of antivirus software? Zhuo Yu had an anomalous role, and the boss had developed feelings for an actor. Did that not make them bugs?

"This is fascinating. Who would've thought that after so long in the Studios, I'd get to watch two chief judges make moves against each other?"

Luo Musheng could not help applauding. He wanted to see how the movie would end. Would Number One, who stood on Zhuo Yu's side, win? Or would it be the chief judge who had sent in the Soul Hunt Guild?

The time had come. Luo Musheng immediately switched the feed to the new actors' side.

"In that case, I leave this exorcism in the capable hands of you four." Marcus played the part of the kindly mayor to perfection, overflowing with gratitude and concern for his townspeople as he pumped each exorcist's hand again and again.

"Rest assured. It is a priest's sacred duty to banish evil and uphold righteousness."

The four exorcists gave the mayor their solemn assurance, then set off for Golden Lake under Zhou Wu's guidance.

"Uncle Ma, don't you think this is strange? Why would they assign us such powerful roles?" Once they were out of earshot, one of the members quietly addressed the Captain. "I've never used a character card this strong before."

The older Captain rebuked him. "Shut it. If you want to survive for long in the Studios, under the chief judges' rule, the most important thing is to do your job and ask no questions. The Crocodile Man is extremely powerful, and there's no record of anyone ever killing him. Stay on your guard."

"Tch. No one's killed him because the movie hasn't been shown very often, and none of the actors were strong. If it were us, we'd definitely score the first kill."

"Exactly. No matter how strong the Crocodile Man is, he's still just a humanoid monster. Can he really be scarier than a xenomorph?"

"Hahaha! When the time comes, you'd better leave the boss's head to me!"

Captain Ma Yuan'an glared at the unruly bunch, but the unease in his heart refused to fade. Something was wrong. Even the strongest bosses he had encountered in the past had never made him this nervous. Could it really be that he was getting old...?

At the same time, Zhuo Yu received a notification from the System.

[Prerequisite Quest: Survive until dawn. Complete.]

[Main Quest updated: Survive the four exorcists.]

Zhuo Yu frowned. He was only one step away. If he could uncover the truth about the Church of the Fountain of Youth and take revenge on the people who had killed him back then, he might be able to clear the movie. Apparently, the System was determined not to make this easy for him.

Since he had chosen the villains' side, it followed that he would fulfill his duties as a villain.

Zhuo Yu gently stroked the fearsome crocodile mask.

He would represent the evil power of Golden Lake in battle against the "innocent" townspeople and the "righteous" priests.

It seemed a fierce battle lay ahead.