Lakeside Ghost Story 3

The message written in blood was terrifying, but Zhuo Yu's expression did not change. He even let out a cold laugh. The amiable look from moments ago vanished completely, like a chameleon finally revealing its true colors.

Too interesting.

If the first task had not made it clear enough, then this new announcement was blatantly telling Zhuo Yu: You are a villain.

And a villain with unclear motives who had led these students to their deaths.

He did not believe that someone who had specifically come to Golden Lake on vacation would not know about the tragedy that had happened here. Yet after getting into a car accident, he had insisted on coming here instead of calling 911.

The students could be excused by ignorance, fearlessness, and stupidity. But what about him? From the beginning, his target had been these four people. This had never been a trip.

As a bestselling author, Zhuo Yu had always maintained one very good habit: placing himself in the situation, imagining himself as a character in his own work, and then considering whether that character's next actions would make sense.

And whenever he imagined himself as the antagonist in one of his stories, he would tremble.

Tremble with excitement.

That was why most of his stories were somewhat dark, twisted, and brutal. The protagonist was not always the winner, and antagonists were not merely stepping stones to make the protagonist shine. They, too, could possess lofty ideals, noble character, or simple pathology, with absolutely no attempt to whitewash them.

This was Zhuo Yu's distinctive writing style.

So when he had first seen his task, he had known that the System had already seen through him. He was not some harmless old man sitting in a wheelchair and smiling foolishly. He was a composite of the many horror characters he had created, with countless projections of them within him.

"Baby, you'd better not disappoint me."

Zhuo Yu murmured to himself.

The veterans knew nothing of this. The cabin was so dusty that, with nothing else to do, they lit the kerosene lamps inside and knocked down the cobwebs everywhere, allowing the air to circulate much more freely.

Strangely, although the place looked dilapidated, it showed signs of habitation. They even found canned food in the cupboard that had not expired yet, along with some beer, probably left behind by the previous group of campers.

Their fear gradually faded. They returned to the living room, and with drinks and food in hand, conversation slowly began to flow.

"This is hard mode? It doesn't seem that dangerous. The first time I entered the Studios, I ran into a werewolf within five minutes," Zhou Wu bragged. "Of course, I beat him off."

He flexed his biceps for Mu Ying, then glanced at Zhuo Yu. "Your legs really can't move, right? It's not some character setting or anything?"

Zhuo Yu paused for a few seconds. When he looked up again, he wore a shy expression and rubbed his nose awkwardly. "Yes. That's how I am in the real world too. I was born with paralysis in my lower body. It's a genetic disease. But don't worry. I'll do my best not to hold everyone back."

Zhuo Yu's compliant attitude pleased him greatly. Zhou Wu patted Zhuo Yu's shoulder with his large palm. "Stick close to us. The most important thing about surviving a horror movie is sticking together. Besides, with looks like yours, if you make it out alive, you'll definitely become a star in the Studios. Hahaha."

Zhuo Yu nodded earnestly and began asking the veterans questions. In just a few exchanges, he got a clear sense of their backgrounds. In the real world, these people were all perfectly ordinary civilians, with utterly unremarkable life histories.

"You've said so much, but you still haven't introduced yourself," Zhou Wu said.

The young author lowered his eyes and said flatly, "My name is Zhuo Yu. I'm a horror writer. My strength is probably that I know horror-movie conventions well, and I'm fairly brave."

The moment he finished speaking, Fang Hao let out an incredulous cry. "Zhuo Yu?! You're that famous author? Right, Zhuo Yu is disabled. His legs can't move either!"

The second time.

Zhuo Yu's nerves gave a violent twitch, and the smile at the corner of his mouth stiffened for an instant.

The excitable college student failed to notice the chill in Zhuo Yu's eyes and remained immersed in his disbelief. "I've even watched TV dramas adapted from your work! They scared me so badly I didn't dare get up to use the bathroom in the middle of the night. How is this possible? You're so young?"

As Fang Hao kept talking, he gradually calmed down. His fervor faded, leaving behind an unpleasant aftertaste. He spat inwardly. How many of those famous people were any good? They could casually make more money than ordinary people earned in several lifetimes. They must have done something shameful.

Zhuo Yu had no interest in what others thought of him. He took a drink of water to suppress his emotions, then hid a fork he had found in the gap of his wheelchair seat.

Outside, the wind grew stronger and stronger, howling across the surface of Golden Lake and making the windows creak.

"Did you hear that?" Fang Hao shuddered all over and said nervously, "It sounded like... someone wailing."

"You heard wrong. It's the wind," Li Mingfeng tried to reassure everyone, but they all knew danger could descend at any time.

As if infected by Fang Hao's ominous tone, the feeling of dread rose again in every veteran's heart.

"All right, all right. It's only one in the morning. We should sleep and restore our energy." Good-guy Li Mingfeng played to his character traits. "Based on my survival experience, we should all sleep together and have one person keep watch."

Mu Ying, however, refused. "No. The living room is too dirty. I don't want to sleep on the floor, and I don't want to squeeze onto a couch either. Who knows how long it's been since that couch was cleaned?"

Li Mingfeng was dumbfounded by that conclusion and explained helplessly, "But this way, we can..."

Zhou Wu waved a large hand. "We'll listen to Nina... uh, Mu Ying. What if she gets sick?"

Li Mingfeng still would not give up. "Being alone is dangerous. You can't possibly not know something that simple, can you?!"

"Are you the captain, or am I the captain? Why are you talking so much nonsense? If there's a monster, I'll be the first one to beat it off, all right?!" Zhou Wu was furious, his eyes bloodshot like an enraged lion, unable to tolerate anyone telling him what to do.

This was genuinely interesting. Resting his chin on his hand, Zhuo Yu observed these "teammates." It really was developing just like one of those idiotic horror movies. He could tell that Mu Ying was a cautious woman, but her will seemed weak, which was why her character had influenced her to this extent.

The same went for Zhou Wu. Rationally, he surely knew that people in horror movies must never split up, but his character liked Nina too much. He was willing to be blinded by love.

What exactly were these characters? How did they control their actors? Through the nervous system? Zhuo Yu had no interest in the undercurrents between them, but he was intensely curious about the characters themselves.

Perhaps their dramatic changes in temperament should not be blamed on their characters at all. Could some supernatural force be controlling them?

If so, why was he unaffected?

Or perhaps... he had already been deeply affected and simply did not realize it?

Zhuo Yu thought about many things, then silently ate the last bite of canned luncheon meat.

Once the argument was over, no one else could outargue Zhou Wu. They could only let Mu Ying and Zhou Wu sleep in separate rooms, while Li Mingfeng chose to share a room with Fang Hao so he could feel a little safer.

No one cared where Zhuo Yu would go. He had become a solitary figure again.

He sighed and helplessly took up residence in a guest room on the first floor.

He could not really blame them for wanting beds. Ever since entering Golden Lake's domain, he too had felt overwhelmingly drowsy, like the exhaustion catching up after a long journey. He urgently needed a good night's sleep by the lake to recover.

He dusted off the bed and quietly lay down on it without changing clothes.

The cabin was very quiet, but the audience was discussing things with great enthusiasm.

[I've seen this one. Hehehe, no spoilers, but those whom the gods would destroy, they first make mad!]

[The betting pool is closing soon. Who did everyone bet on?]

[Definitely Zhou Wu. He's a veteran, and he can heal quickly! He'll absolutely survive until the end!]

[I picked Mu Ying. Her instincts are strong, and her character setting says she's Zhou Wu's girlfriend. Maybe Zhou Wu will sacrifice himself for her?]

[Zhou Wu's will is pretty strong too. He won't be affected that deeply. I'm betting 500 Flame Points!]

The audience could see the character-information panels that the actors chose to share, but everything else was private. The comments could only speculate based on the information available. Many people bet on Zhou Wu, but there were a few exceptions.

[Are you all rich or something? Crying. Zhuo Yu has the highest odds. I'll put down a tiny bet of 10 points.]

[+1]

[Why are you throwing your life away? Ten points are still Flame Points. Betting on a useless cripple is just throwing them into the water.]

[Stop arguing. The danger of the first night is coming!]

But no matter how much they argued, the betting pool was open only briefly. Soon, their attention returned to the movie itself.

The playback rate the audience saw had been adjusted by the debugger, unlike what the actors inside the Studios, or rather this small world, experienced. Only a few seconds had passed for the audience, but half an hour had already gone by in the cabin.

Creak, creak... Creak, creak...

Zhuo Yu was awakened by the strange sound. He had always been a light sleeper, and he quickly became alert.

The sound was coming from the corridor outside the door.

There was no peephole in the door, but the wood had lost moisture and shrunk, leaving a wide gap between the wall and the door panel. Zhuo Yu quietly lowered himself from the bed and inched his body forward. After great effort, he finally made it to the gap.

Peering through it, he saw wet tracks all over the hallway floor, stretching all the way to the room opposite, where Mu Ying was sleeping.

There came a sound of someone rummaging through things, followed by a woman's terrified whimper. It was as though her mouth had been covered. About several seconds later, every sound stopped.

Only beneath the gap under the opposite door, a large pool of bright-red blood mixed with chunks of flesh was steadily flowing out.

In those few short seconds, Zhuo Yu had no time to do anything. He understood that if he woke his teammates, the first thing they would do would not be to fight the monster and save her, but to run away, leaving him behind as someone with impaired mobility.

More and more blood flowed out. It was nearly seeping into Zhuo Yu's room when there was finally movement across the hall again.

The door was pushed open, and a huge shadow appeared at the other end. By the moonlight, Zhuo Yu saw a human figure, deathly pale and swollen, almost bloated to the point of grotesque distortion.

Its blue-green eyeballs were like a dead fish's, with threadlike parasites swimming inside as they turned stiffly. Compared with a corpse buried in the earth, it looked more like something that had been soaked in lake water for a long time, carrying the dank, clammy quality of an aquatic creature.

It scanned the blood on the floor, then dropped to the ground and lapped it up like a wild dog that had been starving for years. Crunching as it chewed the bits of flesh, it leaked from its rotting abdominal cavity even as it ate.

[Monster update: drowned revenant.]

[Drowned revenant: A person drowned in Golden Lake, awakened by the evil force that shrouds this land and turned into a guardian of the lake. Any human who dares enter this forbidden ground will become the drowned revenant's target. It is said that drowned revenants have an extraordinary thirst for blood.]

The System's voice was cold and mechanical, as though reminding Zhuo Yu: You're finished.

The heavy stench of blood and dampness made him want to retch. The monster seemed to notice something. Its sausage-like swollen fingers trembled as it pushed aside its mottled, shedding hair and sniffed the air hard.

It whipped its head around.

In that instant, the monster met Zhuo Yu's eyes.

Its cloudy, bulging, unfocused dead eyes met Zhuo Yu's slightly widened almond-shaped ones.