Chapter 215 – Nightmare from Ten Thousand Years Ago – Change of Color (11)
Bi Xinzhi was proud and arrogant—when had he ever been threatened like this before? Yet now, he had been captured, thrown into the Nightmare Space, and was even being threatened by people inside it.
He took several deep breaths to suppress the urge to strangle the woman in front of him.
Xiao Dong wasn’t anxious at all. She was confident that Bi Xinzhi would agree—after all, given the chance to survive, who would choose to die?
“Fine, I’ll cooperate with you,” Bi Xinzhi said.
“Pleasure doing business.” Xiao Dong extended her hand.
The two of them had barely managed to reach an agreement. After that, whenever Xiao Yu appeared, Bi Xinzhi would use his own body to block her line of sight or use props to shield Xiao Dong. When Xiao Yu couldn’t find her target and time was up, she disappeared on her own.
“She only appears on the hour,” Xiao Dong said.
“What do you know?” Bi Xinzhi asked.
Xiao Dong glanced at him. “More than you. Xiao Yu struck at exactly 4 PM. After she became a remnant shadow, she also came under the restrictions of the time laws.”
She patted Bi Xinzhi on the shoulder. “Stick with me, and you won’t lose out.”
Damn it… Bi Xinzhi cursed silently. Sure, he wouldn’t lose out—but he might lose his life.
With Han Nian as an example, Xiao Dong had zero credibility in Bi Xinzhi’s eyes. He had his own plans—once the time was right, he would get rid of her.
Meanwhile—
Bai Tang woke up. After hearing about what had happened in the haunted house from Mu Quyan, he felt a lingering sense of fear.
At the time, he really thought he was going to die. The scariest part was that, after being separated from Mu Quyan, the two systems couldn’t reach each other. He couldn’t even enter the space to hide.
“Don’t take off this red string until it breaks on its own,” Mu Quyan instructed.
Bai Tang didn’t understand, but he didn’t ask. If Mu Quyan didn’t say why, he must have his reasons. Bai Tang trusted him.
“Okay~”
The boy nodded obediently.
Mu Quyan gently ruffled his hair. “You’re not going to ask why?”
“Is it something scary? If it is, then don’t tell me~”
The boy replied in a soft, childlike voice, his face practically spelling out the words “I’ll be good.”
Mu Quyan thought it was just as well that Bai Tang didn’t ask—better that he didn’t get scared. If Tang Tang knew that the red string came from a dead person, he’d probably be too frightened to wear it. But wearing it had its benefits; at the very least, it could act as a one-time life-saving charm.
Mu Quyan’s concern was justified. More than once, he had sighed at his own foresight.
Because they saw a girl—a girl holding an axe.
She was wearing a school uniform. Judging by the style, it was the same school as Xiao Yu’s, and she looked to be around the same age.
She blocked their path, her eyes fixed on the one who seemed easiest to bully: Bai Tang.
Bai Tang: Unless it’s something extremely terrifying or completely irrational, I don’t really get scared.
Mu Quyan stepped in front of him protectively, only to be pushed aside in return. “Ah Yan, step back. It’s dangerous here.”
Mu Quyan: Wait… isn’t that supposed to be my line?
Despite being the smallest in their group of explorers, Bai Tang was actually the one you really didn’t want to mess with. With a system in hand and abilities at his disposal, if he weren’t so cautious by nature, none of the remnants here would be a match for him.
He had already confirmed earlier that powers could be used in the Nightmare Space.
He summoned a vine and, when the axe-wielding girl was still a meter away, used it to bind her.
The girl struggled violently, and Mu Quyan seized the opportunity to disarm her.
“Tang Tang, you’re amazing,” Mu Quyan said, surprised—he didn’t know Tang Tang’s powers could be used like this.
“Of course~” Bai Tang beamed with pride. Ever since the apocalypse, his powers had only grown stronger as he traveled from one world to another.
Suddenly, something darted out from the side and lunged at Bai Tang. Out of nowhere, a group of people appeared and surrounded Mu Quyan.
Caught off guard, Bai Tang was shoved to the ground by Xiao Yu. The spring-loaded knife was raised high, ready to stab down.
In Bai Tang’s eyes appeared Xiao Yu’s twisted, ferocious face—and the glint of the knife blade catching the sunlight.
It turned out that Bai Tang had used his vine ability to control the axe-wielding girl. Xiao Yu and the girl were enemies—back then, the girl was one of the people who used to bully Xiao Yu. Xiao Yu had lured those who bullied her to the amusement park and eliminated them one by one.
The girl had tried to resist. She ran to the utility room and got an axe, but in the end, she was no match for Xiao Yu and her mother. She died under Xiao Yu’s blade.
Since Bai Tang’s vine was connected to the axe girl, Xiao Yu assumed that Bai Tang was on the girl’s side.
In one swift motion, the knife came down—Mu Quyan burst through the crowd just in time to witness this moment. Time seemed to freeze.
The tip of the knife stopped right next to Bai Tang’s hand—right above the red string. Bai Tang, trying to shield himself from Xiao Yu’s attack, had raised his hand to cover his face.
The red string was sliced through by the spring-loaded knife—and Xiao Yu vanished.
Mu Quyan hugged Bai Tang in fear and relief. “Tang Tang, are you okay?”
“I-I’m fine.”
The feeling of nearly dying still hadn’t faded. Bai Tang’s heart was racing, thudding so hard it felt like it might leap out of his chest.
Mu Quyan didn’t say anything else. He just held him tightly, silently calming the lingering fear in Bai Tang’s heart.
…
Inside the little white room—
Qiu’er had been watching the entire harrowing scene unfold. He was so stunned that his takoyaki (octopus ball) fell to the floor without him noticing.
“Oh my God, that scared me to death… Thank goodness Tang Tang’s okay.” Qiu’er patted his chest to comfort himself.
“That remnant shadow seems really afraid of the red string… Too bad it broke.” After the fright passed, Qiu’er looked regretfully at the severed red string. “I wonder if there’s a second one somewhere…”
Usually, life-saving items like that only exist as a single piece—after all, it’s their rarity that makes them so valuable. Though Qiu’er said he wanted a second one, he knew it was unlikely. He figured he might as well head to the system shop and get Tang Tang a new protective item.
“Actually, there is a second red string,” said System A.
“There really is? Where is it?” Qiu’er was intrigued. Were anti-remnant props really that common now? No way—he’d better go update his system.
“It’s in Xiao Yu’s hand. That red string represents the mother-daughter bond between Xiao Yu and her mom.”
“What a pity. We can’t get the red string from Xiao Yu either. If we could, Tang Tang wouldn’t have to go on the run with the male lead,” Qiu’er said with regret.
“From here on, things are likely to get even more dangerous,” Mu Quyan said to Bai Tang. “Tang Tang, you’d better turn back into a squirrel.”
Xiaoy Yu’s tragedy wasn’t just the result of school bullying—it also stemmed from her single-parent household. With no man in the family, the woman in the red dress had to become strong to raise her child, going out to earn money. Naturally, this led to her neglecting Xiao Yu. Her temper grew more volatile, and she often scolded Xiao Yu harshly.
The red string symbolized the last remaining mother-daughter bond between Xiao Yu and the woman in red. Now that the string had been cut, their relationship was severed. If their guess was right, Xiao Yu’s humanity would soon be overtaken by hatred. She would no longer only kill those she held grudges against—she would start attacking everyone indiscriminately, just like she stabbed random people at the amusement park before.
Not long after Bai Tang turned back into a little squirrel, the amusement park suddenly changed—just as Mu Quyan had predicted.
The sky turned blood-red, casting a crimson haze over the land. The long-idle amusement rides suddenly roared back to life, looking especially eerie in the scarlet light.
The little squirrel buried his head, not daring to look. Don’t look, don’t look…
Mu Quyan grabbed the axe and ran toward the Ferris wheel.
At the same time, Wei Kexin and Qi Jiu, who had been forced to bring along a faceless little girl, also returned to the entrance of the Ferris wheel.
Xiao Dong and Bi Xinzhi, who had come up with a plan, arrived there as well.
The three groups converged.
“Where’s Bai Tang?” Wei Kexin asked.
Mu Quyan replied, “He’s in my heart.”
Xiao Dong and Bi Xinzhi, unaware of the truth, thought Bai Tang had died. Xiao Dong secretly felt pleased and stepped closer to Mu Quyan. “My condolences.”
Suddenly, a small head poked out of Mu Quyan’s chest pocket.
“Squeak squeak squeak—”take your hand off or I’ll bite you~
Xiao Dong’s skin was broken by the little squirrel’s teeth. “What the—?” She showed a fierce expression, but quickly realized others were watching and returned to her usual composed self.
At the same eye level as Xiao Dong’s face, Bai Tang clearly saw her ugly expression—and nearly threw the pine nut he was holding in his paws out of sheer shock.
“Squeak squeak squeak—”R-Remnant… shadow…
Mu Quyan poked the little squirrel back into his pocket, not letting him look outside. He asked, “Did you find anything?”
Wei Kexin and Qi Jiu shook their heads. “No.”
Their expressions didn’t look good. To avoid frightening the others, Wei Kexin had loosened the little girl’s braids, which helped conceal most of her face.
It wasn’t anything unusual for Wei Kexin to bring someone back—after all, she had brought Xiao Dong into the team too. A little girl more or less didn’t make a difference.
“This is a little friend I know,” Wei Kexin introduced, deliberately hiding the girl’s information.
It wasn’t that she didn’t trust Mu Quyan—it was Bi Xinzhi she didn’t believe in. From the moment they entered the old city gates, she’d disliked him. And somehow, Han Nian, who had been following him, had ended up dead. That man was just too unreliable.
Mu Quyan and Bi Xinzhi didn’t show much reaction, but it was Xiao Dong who became visibly uneasy. After catching a glimpse of the girl’s featureless face beneath her hair, she forced a smile and said, “I see… well, we didn’t find anything either.”
Suddenly, the little girl spoke. “Big sister, have you seen my mom?”
No one knew how she could speak, considering she had no facial features—not even Wei Kexin understood it, nor did she want to.
Afraid the girl might say something else, Wei Kexin quickly interrupted, “The sky’s changed color… who knows if that’s good or bad…”
The topic shift was so awkward that even both systems felt secondhand embarrassment for her.
Qiu’er, stuffing food into his mouth, mumbled, “Typical dumb-and-naive female lead in a horror movie. The sky’s that freaky color—obviously something terrible’s about to happen. She’s the kind of person who can’t do anything right but always manages to stir up trouble. I really don’t get it—she’s just ‘dumb and naïve,’ while my Tangtang is ‘dumb, naïve, and sweet.’ He even has an extra ‘sweet’! So why is my Tangtang stuck with the role of the evil male side character?”
“Because you’re the ‘evil dumb-sweet side character’ system,” System A added.
Qiu’er erupted, “Whose side are you on?!”
System A patted Qiu’er on the back to keep him from choking. “I’m on yours.”
Qiu’er instantly turned pink and stammered, unable to speak properly.
“You said it yourself…” he mumbled, turning his head away shyly.
System A, watching Qiu’er’s reaction, secretly tucked away Qiu’er’s Complete Book of Love Lines, determined to memorize it well—it might come in handy at a crucial moment.
Author’s Note
If your mind went somewhere else after reading the title, go reflect in the corner yourself (′-ω-`)—I was talking about the sky changing color!