Lakeside Ghost Story 23

"No! Noooo!" Liu Jingyun shrieked.

She threw herself at Marcus with all her might, but it was already too late. The dagger pierced Zhuo Yu's skin and sliced into his flesh. Another inch, and it would reach his vigorously beating human heart.

The tears brimming in her eyes finally spilled over. Unable to bear the sight, Liu Jingyun squeezed her eyes shut.

But the System's death announcement never came.

"What are you afraid of?" Zhuo Yu's voice sounded slightly weak. "As Captain, I have no intention of dying first."

The girl opened her eyes in disbelief and found Marcus frozen in place. The tip of his knife could not advance another fraction of an inch.

An ax blade had burst through his chest.

And this time, the ax was drenched in holy water.

The moment Marcus was drawn away by the scent of fresh human blood, Asha realized he intended to attack Zhuo Yu. He had followed close behind, hoping to stop him. Just as the dagger sank into Zhuo Yu's body, Asha brought down his ax.

Zhuo Yu had known Asha would come. Seizing that crucial instant, he smashed the bottle of holy water mixed with the priest's blood against Asha's ax.

The bottle shattered, coating the weapon as though enchanting it.

There would be no coming back from this blow for Marcus.

Smoke rose with an acid hiss. The ax blade had punched through Marcus's back and out his chest, and disbelief still clouded his murky eyes. He looked down. The keen edge jutted from his heart, foul blood burbling down it. He no longer had the strength to hold the dagger. The slightest slackening of his grip sent it clattering beside his feet.

Zhuo Yu and that crocodile-masked freak were only half a step away, but Marcus could no longer attack them.

Zhuo Yu had won their contest.

"You might as well die knowing the truth." Zhuo Yu sighed. "You didn't even realize you were a drowned revenant, did you?"

"When you watched the exorcist's throat being slit, the hunger in your eyes at the sight of his blood was unmistakable. Yet when you held the holy water and prepared to execute Asha, you were wary of it. You even instinctively backed away when the magic array lit up. I saw it all."

"Your behavior betrayed your weakness long ago, Mayor." Zhuo Yu smiled at him. "Now you can rest in peace."

The boss pulled out his ax. Robbed of its support, Marcus dropped to his knees. Holy water had eaten an enormous hole through his chest, one that could never heal. This time, he was dead for good.

Still dazed, Liu Jingyun shook her head. "I thought..."

"Until the very last moment, there's always room for a reversal." Zhuo Yu patted the girl on the shoulder. "You need to work on keeping your nerve."

Liu Jingyun flushed. Thinking back on her behavior just now, she really had lost her head completely.

"That said..." Zhuo Yu changed tack. "You're already stronger than most. Look, you're the only one from this film who survived."

"Ha... Hahahaha..." Liu Jingyun suddenly covered her face. She wiped her tears dry against her palms and burst into uninhibited laughter. It was as if a long nightmare had finally ended, leaving her with nothing but hope and the drive to keep living.

She had survived.

Zhuo Yu looked toward Asha. The boss's blue eyes were exceptionally gentle at that moment, as though they held fifty years of longing. He said nothing, merely pulled Zhuo Yu into a tight embrace as if holding the most precious treasure in his life.

"Hey, you're too strong." Zhuo Yu patted Asha's arm. "I'm still injured, you know."

His words snapped Liu Jingyun out of her relief at having escaped disaster, reminding her of Zhuo Yu's horrific injuries. Asha immediately released him as well and examined his right arm.

The entire limb had turned purple from severe subcutaneous bleeding. The farther down it went, the worse the skin damage became. By the time it reached his palm, bone was exposed, with barely a few scraps of good flesh left.

"All right. First my legs, and now my arm." Once Zhuo Yu pulled himself free from that overwhelming need to protect Asha, his perfectionism began to rear its head.

This really was unlike him. Since when did he sacrifice himself for other people?

His well-proportioned, powerful right arm, an arm he had been quite pleased with, was now mangled beyond recognition.

"There has to be a way to heal it at the Studios!" That was the only reassurance Liu Jingyun could offer.

[Plot milestone achieved: The Traveler who returned to Golden Lake was treated as prey by four exorcists. With the aid of the crocodile-masked monster, he defeated the priests and finally learned the truth of what happened all those years ago. The mayor of Springwater Town was no good man, but the leader of a cult. The Traveler resolved to deliver justice. On the fifth night at Golden Lake, he killed the murderer from long ago and fulfilled his deepest wish. The shadow hanging over Golden Lake has finally dispersed.]

[Storyline completion: 100%. Rating: S]

[Prerequisite Quest: Destroy the Church of the Fountain of Youth and restore peace to Golden Lake. Completed.]

[Final Quest: Fulfill Golden Lake's wish.]

Every audience member who saw this was filled with emotion.

[The storyline of Tales by the Lake has finally been cracked...]

[How do I put this? I have mixed feelings.]

[Yeah. Before this, I always watched the film from the students' perspective and thought it was just a gore flick about a serial killer indiscriminately slaughtering people. I never expected that, from another perspective, the serial killer was the real victim. Those seemingly innocent students were actually descendants of cultists. Even if they hadn't done anything themselves, they'd still enjoyed the Church's resources and lived off money earned in human blood. That was their families' original sin.]

[Yeah, and they were spoiled rotten anyway.]

[Did anyone else notice? Every person the boss killed was either a believer sent in by the mayor, someone who picked a fight with him, or someone greedy for immortality.]

[I'm the one who's watched this film six times. All I can say is that my wish has finally come true too. I finally got to see the whole storyline, and it was completely different from anything I'd imagined.]

[So everybody lost the bet, right?]

[Not me! Hahaha, I bet on Zhuo Yu surviving to the end. If only I'd picked Liu Jingyun too, I would've made even more.]

[Jealous. I can't believe Zhou Wu was that useless.]

[I'm seriously bullish on Zhuo Yu as a new actor now. He may be disabled, but he did what no one else could. Gotta go. I'm heading to Spark Forum to make a dedicated thread and recommend the replay to everyone.]

[Quietly starting a fan group +1]

[Wonder if the people who mocked Zhuo Yu and wanted to see him die are feeling that slap in the face now.]

[Fine, I got proven wrong. Hater turned fan.]

Inside the screen, Zhuo Yu fell silent as he read the System's new quest.

"A wish?" He sighed. "Golden Lake really can think. It looks like Seven-Day Tales isn't just a story. I'm afraid it's a historical record."

Golden Lake was the Fountain of Youth. People had searched for it and fought over it for a thousand years. Just when it had finally found peace, its master became embroiled in conflict again and died beside its waters. If it had neither thought nor emotion, it would not have transformed Asha into its guardian and Marcus into a drowned revenant.

In the end, if Golden Lake were human, it would surely be someone who wanted nothing more than to live a quiet life.

Zhuo Yu now understood why Seven-Day Tales had moved him so profoundly.

Because he understood Golden Lake.

His role was just an ordinary man living a peaceful life with Asha, but he possessed the deed to Golden Lake, just as Golden Lake possessed the power to grant immortality. Their only crime was owning something precious. It drew the covetous to them, leaving them helpless to control their own fates.

"I think I understand your wish." Zhuo Yu sighed. He felt his character calm down as well, for he had also promised "Zhuo Yu" that he would fulfill his wish.

Now that Marcus was dead and Asha was still alive and well, "Zhuo Yu" had no resentment left.

The present Zhuo Yu would no longer be influenced by his character's emotions.

"This film isn't over yet. Let's wait for the seventh day." Zhuo Yu tore off his tattered sleeve and rested his injured arm on the armrest. "Sigh. Looks like I'll have a new goal once filming wraps. I'll have to get this arm healed."

[Friendly reminder: Actors, please rest assured that any injury sustained during a film can be repaired by the System free of charge after the film ends. No Flame Points will be deducted.]

Liu Jingyun received the message too, and her eyebrows shot up with delight. "That's great! Your injury can be healed!"

Zhuo Yu relaxed slightly. He looked at Asha and said without concern, "In that case, cut this arm off for me. It's too much of a nuisance. If I leave it alone, it might become necrotic or infected. Amputation would be better."

It took Asha a long moment to process that. His hand grew awkward on the ax handle. He simply could not bring himself to do it. Rather than hurt Zhuo Yu, he would sooner cut off his own arm. Yet he had no grounds to argue, especially when Zhuo Yu was right.

He hesitated, lifting the ax and lowering it again, utterly torn. If he took off the crocodile mask, Zhuo Yu would probably see his whole face scrunched up in distress.

"All right. No matter how many people you've killed, you'll always be my good boy." Zhuo Yu could not help laughing. Then he signaled Liu Jingyun with his eyes. "You do it."

Liu Jingyun swallowed and nervously took the ax.

The following afternoon, all of Springwater Town descended into panic.

At the sign by the town entrance, residents found the mayor's body hanging on display. He had died horribly, frightening them into calling the police. Yet the police found nothing. After circling the town a few times, they had no choice but to leave.

The believers with guilty consciences understood that something momentous had happened.

The very idea that Bishop Marcus could die was unthinkable. Some believers packed their valuables overnight, intending to flee this cursed place. The Church mattered less than their lives. The bishop was dead; who knew if one of them would be next? The other half held their ground and had even begun fighting for power, each hoping to become the next bishop.

Unfortunately, none of these believers understood what the seven-day curse meant.

On the sixth night came the punishment of devouring flesh.

......

The Beers family was one of Springwater Town's "most distinguished families." It was a remote little town, after all, with pitifully few wealthy residents. To the townspeople, Morrison Beers's habit of buying luxury cars and real estate had made him the very embodiment of extravagance.

Mr. Morrison now sat on a leather sofa, his heart pounding as he made a phone call.

He swallowed nervously, his dialing finger trembling as he entered the number he had repeated over and over in his head, one digit at a time.

"Pick up... Come on, pick up..."

In his other hand, Morrison clutched a necklace bearing the symbol of a spring. He kissed it reverently, as though pouring his faith into it.

The call soon connected.

"Who is this?" a woman's voice asked from the other end.

"Allie? Is that you? You know what happened in town today, don't you?" Morrison demanded impatiently. "Tell me this is one of the bishop's little tricks. It is, isn't it?"

"Heh..." Allie's voice was distorted, but Morrison could still hear the chill in it. "You mean Mayor Marcus? No. He really is dead."

"You!" Morrison knew nothing of the mayor's family affairs, and anger went straight to his head. "Mrs. Allie, he was your husband!"

"What do you expect to hear from me? That he's still alive? Or that I'm crying my eyes out?" Allie sneered, but her laughter held more relief than anything else. "Sorry to disappoint you, but neither is true. He really is dead, and I'm very pleased about it."

The call ended with a series of beeps.

"That goddamn bitch!" A wave of dizziness struck Morrison, and his wife caught him.

"What are we going to do? It looks like Bishop Marcus really is dead. Then our Jack..." His wife's face was creased with worry. By the end, she was already sobbing.

Morrison clenched his back teeth and said bitterly, "Marcus promised he'd protect Jack. That's the only reason we agreed to let Jack go to Golden Lake. This is all his fault!"

His wife choked out, "Who cares whose fault it is? What if Jack is already... Boo-hoo..."

"Stop crying! The boy's probably dead. Nina never came back either, did she? I'm afraid they all died there. Fucking Marcus! He used our children as bait!"

Morrison slammed a fist onto the table. "He was always jealous of our family's wealth. Look! Even after we contributed our son, did he invite the Beers family to the ritual at Golden Lake? No! That old bastard hated seeing other families happy because his own son was gone!"

"You're still thinking about that stupid Church of yours? Jack is dead!"

"Yes, Jack is dead, but we don't have to die too." Morrison's eyes were red now. Losing his child had aged the middle-aged man by several years, and his face was etched with exhaustion and grief. "Pack our bags as soon as it gets dark. We can't stay in Springwater Town anymore. We'll leave first thing tomorrow morning."

His wife knew there was no other option. They did not dare approach Golden Lake, not even to recover their son's body. All they could do was put this terrifying place behind them.

She dried her tears and went upstairs, intending to pack clothes and bankbooks into a suitcase. But a rustling sound caught her attention and drew her gaze to the window.

Several twisted, bloated, inhuman monsters were staggering down the moonlit street.

In the next instant, those grotesquely swollen corpses spotted their prey through the window.

A scream tore through the night, and that was only the beginning.

Great numbers of drowned revenants poured out of Golden Lake. Following the guardian's whistle, they made their way to nearby Springwater Town. Some believers who fled quickly were intercepted and killed by the horde along the road. Many more were still packing their valuables, completely unaware of what was coming.

At first, only a handful of drowned revenants strayed into town. Within half an hour, more than a thousand were roaming the streets.

The drowned revenants had spent tremendous energy reproducing the night before, so every one of them was ravenous and ferocious, even more vicious than usual. They wanted nothing but a hearty feast, to fill their bellies with human flesh.

The records Zhuo Yu had taken from the mayor's house proved enormously useful. The drowned revenants also retained their own memories. Take the revenant who first infected Mu Ying: he was the businessman who had once paid an immense fortune for the chance at immortality, one of Mayor Marcus's business partners.

Even after death, he remembered that he had been swindled. That was why he sought revenge on Nina.

So far from Golden Lake, the drowned revenants' regenerative abilities and vitality were greatly diminished. Against ordinary humans, however, this remained a one-sided massacre.

In a single night, countless drowned revenants broke into the homes of every family recorded on the list. Not one resident involved with the Church escaped. Piercing screams and the reek of blood filled the entire town.

The residents who had never heard of the Church of the Fountain of Youth were spared, though many were so terrified by the strange sights outside that they hid beneath their beds.

They called the police, but their reports sounded absurd: "Hordes of corpses are flooding the streets and eating people," "The town is under siege by zombies," and "The dead have come back to life." To the police, it all sounded like prank calls.

At first, they ignored the false reports. Only after more than a hundred calls came in did the police realize something was wrong.

When the convoy of police cars reached Springwater Town, everyone was stunned by the scene before them.

They were already too late. The town looked as though a storm had swept through it. Blood nearly covered the streets. Severed human limbs lay everywhere, and chunks of flesh tangled with entrails hung from roadside trees.

Even hell could not have been more chilling.

The police in these small towns had never encountered a major case in their lives. At most, they handled the unusually large number of local disappearances. They had never seen anything this bloody. Every one of them vomited until they could barely breathe, bringing up even bile.

This was no longer a case a small local police force could handle.

The police captain immediately notified his superiors. He then evacuated the surviving residents and fought down his nausea while compiling a death toll.

More than two hundred people had died in Springwater Town overnight, with many others missing. An investigation found that those people had died on the roads while fleeing town. Everything about it was unbelievable, like a story that could only exist in a film.

The audience members who witnessed the slaughter also rediscovered the original reason they had come to watch this film.

[Wow, wow, wow. Zhuo Yu really knows how to take care of us gore fans, lol.]

[This is huge. I've never seen hundreds of people slaughtered alive before.]

[Hell yeah, I'm satisfied. I started Tales by the Lake for the gore, but talk about getting your money's worth. What's the fun in killing a few young actors? Just massacre the whole town. Zhuo Yu is even more ruthless than we are, hahaha.]

[You people are sick. Don't you find this disgusting and terrifying?]

[It's such a great stress reliever. Don't tell me you didn't enjoy it. Everyone who died was a cultist. They got what they deserved, so who cares how many were eaten?]

[That... actually makes some sense.]

[Zhuo Yu really is a strange guy. Normally, actors won't let a horror incident grow this big because it becomes almost impossible to wrap up. It's like the classic horror-film question: if the military bombarded Kayako's house in Ju-On with rockets, who would survive? It's a conflict in the world's underlying rules, one that's liable to trigger bugs. What he did is guaranteed to attract the military's attention in the film world. Could he be doing it on purpose?]

[The analysis expert is back! Everything you said before was one hundred percent right. Zhuo Yu really did sacrifice an arm to protect the boss.]

[Drop your ID, expert. I'll follow you on Spark Forum.]

[Follow me or don't, I don't care. Right now, I just want to know what Zhuo Yu is planning.]

The Zhuo Yu everyone was watching now sat atop the tallest building in Springwater Town, held tightly in Asha's arms. Together, they watched the slaughter for half the night.

"This should've been done a long time ago."

In high spirits, Zhuo Yu gazed down at the blood-soaked ground. "If these cultists had been killed sooner, Golden Lake wouldn't have so many drowned revenants. Most of them were probably lured here with promises of eternal life. They paid enormous sums of money, only to be turned into monsters."

He knew that if he had not returned to Golden Lake fifty years later, the Church of the Fountain of Youth's atrocities might have continued for another century. What could be more tempting than immortality? It was the most irresistible bait in the world, and the most dangerous trap.

If he had failed to see through the plot and uncover the mayor's scheme, Asha would never have learned that a church existed in Springwater Town or that he had died because of its conspiracy. He would not have used the drowned revenants to kill innocent townspeople.

Reality, however, was horrifying. Two or three hundred of the town's supposed "innocents" were actually among the perpetrators from back then.

As the villain of Tales by the Lake, Asha had probably killed only a fraction as many people as the Church of the Fountain of Youth.

"The drowned revenants have returned to Golden Lake, right?" Zhuo Yu asked.

Asha closed his eyes to sense them, then nodded.

"Once police reinforcements arrive, they'll check the security footage and discover the truth: thousands of drowned revenants did the killing. If word gets out, there'll be chaos. This is destined to be quietly buried. At most, they'll station troops at Golden Lake."

Zhuo Yu knew exactly how the government would clean up the aftermath. First, it would gather all survivors in one place and silence them. Next, it would destroy every piece of evidence to keep the existence of the drowned revenants from leaking out. Finally, it would send the FBI to investigate the truth, exploit anything useful, and conduct its own research.

If they learned about Golden Lake's power, the lake would never know peace again.

Zhuo Yu, however, would not allow that to happen.

"Someone's here," Asha said suddenly.

Zhuo Yu looked down. A man in a baseball cap had slipped into the town, which had long since been evacuated and sealed off. With the camera in his hands, he was plainly a reporter with personal connections at the police department, there to scoop the story.

The man had to be incredibly brave.

Such was the lure of fame.

"Springwater Town is taken care of. We should go." Zhuo Yu patted Asha's shoulder with his remaining arm. "Take me down. Before we leave, I want to give this world a little surprise."

The reporter named Poke was not fearless. His legs shook and his heart quivered, but the thought of breaking the Springwater Town massacre before anyone else excited him enough to cast his fear aside.

He knew the story would cause a sensation. Even if the report was suppressed, the government would pay him a hefty sum to keep quiet.

"Hey."

The clear voice made the reporter, already wound taut as he snapped picture after picture, jump violently.

The newcomer was Zhuo Yu.

"I think you need these." Zhuo Yu gave the reporter a reassuring smile and handed him all the documents stored in his grid space at once. Then he hinted, "Before you're a reporter, you're a human being with integrity. You know what you should and shouldn't do, right?"

"Th-these are...!"

The reporter instinctively looked down at the papers printed with sinister demonic patterns. His eyes widened. When he looked back at Zhuo Yu, all he saw was a pair of fathomless black eyes.

By the time he came to his senses, the Asian man who had given him the documents had vanished.

"Yes... I'm a man of integrity... I won't bow to authority." Dazed, the reporter put the documents away and muttered compulsively, "I'm going to expose the ugly truth of this place!"

With the matter settled, Zhuo Yu lay against Asha's shoulder and once again enjoyed the sensation of almost flying. He let out several delighted whoops before telling Asha, "What I gave him wasn't just Marcus's files. It also included the timeline I compiled and the Church of the Fountain of Youth's crimes, including the incident that killed us at Golden Lake all those years ago."

"I believe even the darkest world must hold a glimmer of light. As long as even one person believes us and prays for us, what I've done won't have been in vain."

Bathed in moonlight, Zhuo Yu and Asha returned to the gentle, silent waters of Golden Lake.

They had one final day left to carry out the most important final act of the entire film.

......

Watching the events on the screen, the debugger bowed his head as low as it would go and prostrated himself humbly on the floor, terrified that he might be implicated.

The chief judge's face betrayed neither joy nor anger. He merely sat in silence upon his silver throne, stroking his rather short beard.

"Excellent. Truly excellent." The old man heaved a deep sigh and switched off the screen showing Tales by the Lake, deciding that what he could not see could not bother him. "I lost this contest."

The debugger's heart was in his throat. He ventured, "It wasn't your failure. The Soul Hunt Guild was simply useless. At the end of the day, they're only a C-rank guild. It's perfectly normal for them to lose to a special boss."

The chief judge snorted, frightening the debugger back into silence.

"Number One, I've lost to you again. Why? Why should a man steeped in sin like you get to become a chief judge and stand as my equal?" The calm on the old man's face finally shattered. "And now you want to cultivate an actor for your own faction? Dream on!"

"Zhuo Yu. I'll remember that name."

The old man's piercing eyes swept over the debugger. "As an employee of the Studios, you accepted a private bribe. You know what fate awaits you, don't you?"

The debugger's eyes widened in shock. "But... you're the one who told me to..."

Before he could finish, the chief judge snapped his fingers. Towering flames sprang from nowhere and swallowed the debugger whole, carrying him back to the Flame Source.

Only after venting his anger did the old man turn the film screen back on. As an audience member, he intended to watch the film to its end.

After a moment's silence, he sent a floating comment.

[Actually, it's quite good.]

Replies soon appeared beneath his comment.

[Yeah. It's been ages since I've seen such a complete film. They cracked one hundred percent of the plot, and even the believers who never showed their faces got punished!]

[As a gore lover, I'm extremely satisfied. Great job, Zhuo Yu and boss.]

[That was awesome! If every film were this high-quality, who the fuck would watch those crappy ones where the whole cast gets wiped out on day one?]

[The actor list is at the bottom of the screen. Anyone interested can click to follow Zhuo Yu~]

[Wow, he already has fans?]

[Talk about celebrity treatment.]

[Isn't he already a celebrity? This film is number one in popularity across the high-difficulty zone. A few more views and it'll make the top-rated list. What other newcomer has ever blown up like this?]

[He's the breakout star of his generation.]

[What's the fan-group number? DM me. I have experience managing the Flying Scythe Team's fan site, and I'd like to try my hand here.]

[Damn, even Flying Scythe's fans are being poached.]

[Followed. Now I'll get notified the moment Zhuo Yu has a new film, hahaha.]

Inside the screen, dawn had broken. The sixth night had ended in an exceptionally bloody fashion. The drowned revenants, their bellies full, were all sleeping at the bottom of the lake.

Zhuo Yu stretched as Liu Jingyun pushed his wheelchair along the lakeshore to get some air.

"There's only one day left. We'll be able to leave without a problem, right?" Liu Jingyun knew Zhuo Yu had resolved everything, but the System still showed no sign of telling them to leave.

"There's no rush. Something remains unresolved."

"What?!"

Zhuo Yu smiled. "You'll know soon enough."

In stark contrast to the tranquility of Golden Lake, the municipal government was running itself ragged.

The police had clearly sealed off all information about the Springwater Town massacre, yet some paparazzo had appeared out of nowhere and taken perfectly clear photographs of the scene. He had also published information on the Church of the Fountain of Youth and a list of its victims.

The revelation attracting the most attention was the mayor's atrocity against Golden Lake's former owner: he had deliberately crippled him and later murdered both him and his companion beside the lake, all in an attempt to seize the land rights.

The reporter had exercised some restraint in what he published. He made no mention of drowned revenants, monsters, or the Fountain of Youth's effects. Had those things been made public as well, society would have become dangerously unstable.

Even so, the news spread like wildfire. The authorities could stop newspapers from printing additional editions, but they could not stop people from talking.

By early morning, numerous people across Florida had organized protest marches against the unchecked spread of cults. They laid flowers for all the dead and made placards. Word passed from one person to ten, then from ten to a hundred. Soon, people far beyond Florida knew what had happened.

The scandal even reached the governor's ears and spread as far as New York, causing a national uproar. People who had lived their entire lives in peace had never imagined that beings who preyed upon their fellow citizens still lurked in the dark corners of the world.

As for the authorities, they knew cults existed in many remote areas. But they considered the people there ignorant and incapable of stirring up much trouble, so they rarely bothered to intervene, leaving fertile soil for such evil to flourish.

But no church had ever lost so many members in a single night, much less had them... eaten by monsters.

The municipal government had contacted the military. It intended to send troops to eliminate the drowned revenants and retrieve samples of Golden Lake's water for testing. While searching for evidence, the police had found books and documents bearing the words "Fountain of Youth" in the homes of numerous believers. That convinced them Golden Lake possessed extraordinary power.

The matter was assigned to a captain with a distinguished service record. He assembled his troops that morning and advanced on Golden Lake in the afternoon.

The unit numbered around five hundred. They were well equipped, their armored vehicles tremendously sturdy, and each soldier carried an abundance of modern firearms. Faced with overwhelming firepower, those monsters would be nothing more than paper tigers.

This world did possess many supernatural forces, and this was hardly the captain's first time dealing with such trouble.

What he had not expected was to find humans inside a lair teeming with monsters.

Zhuo Yu seemed to have known they would come. He sat openly in his wheelchair, showing no intention of hiding. When the captain and his troops reached the lakeshore, they did not charge in like mindless brutes. Rather than open fire at once, the captain preferred to negotiate and extract intelligence.

"Who are you?" The man cautiously trained his gun on Zhuo Yu before asking the question.

Zhuo Yu was entirely at ease. He answered at an unhurried pace, "The former owner of this land."

"You're... Zhuo Yu?"

Naturally, the captain had files on the case. His nerves tightened. Unlike the civilians marching in the streets, the intelligence he had received went much deeper. The lake had a guardian whose sinister reputation had haunted Springwater Town for years.

"Where are your accomplices? Aren't you going to call them out?"

Zhuo Yu called out twice. Asha and Liu Jingyun, who had been cleaning up the remains on the lakeshore and burning the objects used to suppress it, came to his side.

The boss's abnormally towering physique shocked the captain. His grip tightened around his gun as he said gravely, "You must want something if you've shown yourself to me. Let me warn you now: this land belongs to the government. It is state property. If you try to obstruct our operation, I will have no choice but to order my men to open fire."

Zhuo Yu laughed heartily. "I'm not that shortsighted. Actually, I only want to play a game."

The captain sensed trouble. "What are you talking about?"

"You want Golden Lake's power too. You can't hide that from me. Since you want something, you must give up something in exchange. Do you agree?"

The man frowned. "You have no authority to make a deal. It would take me one second to kill you."

"Would it? Look at the lake." Zhuo Yu showed no fear whatsoever.

At his words, the captain carefully studied Golden Lake's surface. Something like an oil slick floated on the water, along with yellow fat and mangled limbs.

The drowned revenants had vomited everything they had eaten into the lake.

"Want to see a magic trick?" Zhuo Yu held a bottle Marcus had left behind, now filled with a fishy-smelling liquid. "How does setting water on fire sound?"

Not only could the fat vomited by the drowned revenants burn; rendered oil from their corpses was exceptional fuel. Zhuo Yu had already tested it.

After the drowned revenant he dissected disappeared, he had reasoned that the creatures must have a weakness. He had even planned to steal Zhou Wu's flint and see whether fire would work on them. The unfolding plot had delayed him, but that morning he had finally satisfied his curiosity.

His theory had been confirmed. Fire was the natural bane of drowned revenants because their bodies were extraordinarily flammable. Once lit, their corpse oil could not be easily extinguished. It would burn until nothing remained.

"The order to take Golden Lake's water came from higher up, didn't it?" Zhuo Yu tapped his cheek with his index finger. "Do you know this water can make people immortal?"

"What?!"

"Trade me your subordinates. Sacrifice every one of them, and I'll give you a bottle. How does that sound?"

Zhuo Yu's voice was low and captivating, as though this truly were a perfect bargain, one the captain would regret for the rest of his life if he passed it up. His obsidian-black eyes seemed able to draw out a person's soul, adding still more weight to the offer.

The captain was tempted.

He did not know what hidden cards gave Zhuo Yu the confidence to negotiate with such composure. If Zhuo Yu truly intended to oppose him, that unknown trump card alone would be a problem, to say nothing of the thousand-plus drowned revenants.

Just as he was about to answer, Zhuo Yu interrupted him. "Hahaha! I have no interest in watching an ugly display of greed. I was only joking. Did you really believe me?"

The captain snapped free of the temptation. Red-faced and furious, he realized that the soldiers behind him were already staring at him with suspicion.

The cunning bastard had just undermined his unit's trust in him!

"If one sip could make you immortal, every little animal around here would live forever." Zhuo Yu waved his copy of Seven-Day Tales at them. "Anyone greedy enough to take the lake water will suffer the seven-day curse. I'm saving you."

The captain no longer wanted to speak to this dangerous man. He feared that every word would further erode his composure. "What do you want?"

"I told you. I'm saving you."

Zhuo Yu produced a lighter he had picked up in Springwater Town. Thinking of how he had come to the Studios and then looking at the lighter, he could not help laughing. Things had truly come full circle.

"There are many places in the world that never see the light of day. Atrocities are constantly committed beyond the public's sight. Asha and I are the perfect example." Zhuo Yu flicked the lighter, and a flame sprang to life. "I was the one who gave the Church's information to the reporter. You can say I wanted to warn the public, or that I wanted to clear our names and let people learn the truth of our deaths."

"But really, I just hate how law enforcement in films is always useless."

"That shocked look on your face is quite entertaining."

With a cold laugh, Zhuo Yu tossed the lighter into the lake.

"STOP!" the captain roared, his eyes nearly splitting with fury. But the flame had already touched the film of oil. Black fire surged into the sky and spread across the entire lake in an instant, blazing amid his despairing shouts.

The inferno was so terrifying that the captain could not help thinking of the "Greek fire" of history. The Greeks had used a special incendiary compound that burned on water, making their navy nearly unstoppable.

That was precisely what confronted them now.

They could not approach the black flames by even half a step.

"You may be wondering how so little oil could ignite such an enormous area." Zhuo Yu spoke with malicious amusement. "I'm not telling you. When your superiors hold you accountable later, take your time coming up with an explanation."

Golden Lake's wish was to vanish from this world. It would willingly evaporate in these flames until nothing remained, Zhuo Yu reflected.

On the final night of seven days of suffering, kill the one you love most.

Once Golden Lake vanished, Asha would lose his powers as its guardian. In the end, he would return to dust and earth and go where he belonged.

Zhuo Yu had written an ending for this story.

"I'll miss you." With one hand, he removed the crocodile mask and stroked Asha's face. "After all, it's truly difficult to meet someone who suits me so well. If we meet again, remember not to treat me quite so well. I prefer a man who presents a challenge."

He raised his chin and kissed the half of the boss's lips that remained.

[Final Quest: Fulfill Golden Lake's wish. Completed.]

[Congratulations, actor Zhuo Yu. Filming has officially wrapped, and the projection screen has been closed. Please enter the flames. You will depart the Studios in five minutes.]

[Countdown: 4:59... 4:58...]

The boss lifted Zhuo Yu into his arms. Liu Jingyun followed behind, and all three walked fearlessly into the fire. Great clouds of steam billowed into the air. Amid the intermingling black and white, the lake steadily disappeared, turning to mist that drifted toward the moonlit sky.

As the System's announcement ended and the surrounding scene began dissolving into nothingness, Zhuo Yu's voice abruptly turned cold.

"Who are you, really?"

Asha froze. Then his azure eyes turned silver, and he gave a soft laugh.

"So you saw through me after all."