Chapter 284: This round is a guaranteed win, so I’m not going out there to feed!
It was broad daylight inside the villa, and the sunlight was fairly strong.
Sunlight streamed through the windows, dappling the villa’s rooms and hallways in patches of light and shadow.
It added a touch of life to this ancient mansion.
But in the perception of the Chosen Ones, daytime actually felt even more eerie.
Even during the day, cold drafts still drifted through the corridors.
Not only were the Chosen Ones shrouded in total darkness, but they could also feel strange, unsettling gazes constantly sizing them up.
The breathing, the rustling, even the faint hissing of those bizarre creatures around them—all of it reached their ears with crystal clarity.
These sounds made quite a few Chosen Ones uncomfortable, because they simply didn’t sound like anything a human could produce. Yet they had no way to avoid these entities.
After all, these creepy beings were most likely the maids and servants around them.
The scariest ones were those that had breathing but no footsteps—as if they were floating through the air.
The Chosen Ones couldn’t even begin to imagine what kind of things these cold, silent maids really were.
Perhaps because of their blindness, the Chosen Ones clung tightly to their guide dogs’ leashes, relying on them to lead the way.
The guide dogs could sense their owners’ tension too. They let out soft whines and made deliberate footstep sounds on the floor, constantly reminding their owners that they were still there—that there was no need to be afraid.
Hearing that, the Chosen Ones felt some of the pressure lift.
In their hearts, the guide dog was a beacon of light in the darkness.
When a person entrusts a part of their fate to a guide dog, a bond forms between them.
To boost their guide dogs’ combat abilities, the Chosen Ones put in a great deal of effort.
But when viewers looked at Zhang Yangqing’s screen, many felt like something was missing.
: Wait a minute, why don’t I see Heavenly Master Zhang’s dog? I seriously suspect he can actually see!
: Now that you mention it, I hadn’t noticed—but yeah, his guide dog hasn’t appeared on screen in a long time.
: If I remember correctly, isn’t that dog just lying around in the room?
: Guide dog: This round is a guaranteed win, so I’m not going out there to feed.
: Those maids are way too creepy. Their skin looks like it’s just plastered on—I can even see things wriggling under their faces. If I saw that, I’d never be able to eat. And that long-haired onee-san—her eyes are bleeding, you know! Doesn’t she even wipe it off? And if I’m not mistaken, she’s floating, right?
: Good thing the other Chosen Ones can’t see any of this, or they’d get the scare of their lives passing by. And good thing Heavenly Master Zhang can’t see either—otherwise, whether these creepies could even survive would be an open question.
Zhang Yangqing’s casual attitude had the audience completely baffled.
But the expert panels from every country knew—Zhang Yangqing followed the exact same route every time. If you looked closely, you’d even notice that his footsteps could perfectly overlap with where he’d walked the previous time.
That was an absolutely terrifying level of spatial awareness.
Inside the Papal Palace, a particularly dense cardinal asked the Pope, “Your Holiness, what do you call this technique of the Dragon Nation’s Heavenly Master? Could you teach us? I think it’s incredibly practical.”
The Pope, seated on his throne, honestly wanted to walk over and smack that cardinal over the head with his staff.
You’re asking me? Who am I supposed to ask?
If I knew how to do that, I’d be in there myself! I wouldn’t be sitting here watching the show with you people.
Popes and the so-called top-tier Transcendents—they were simply people who had pushed a single ability to its absolute limit.
The stronger ones had mastered a few.
Even the abilities they hadn’t pushed to the limit were still at the top level.
Because bringing one ability to perfection took ten, twenty, even decades.
Some experts spent their entire lives without ever reaching that peak.
The Pope also couldn’t understand it. What kind of skills had this Dragon Nation’s Heavenly Master learned? How had he trained? How could he have maxed out everything?
Only someone like the Pope, who had also reached perfection in his own domain, could truly understand Zhang Yangqing.
Because he knew—once certain skills reached their apex, they broke through a critical threshold. And after that breakthrough, these skills underwent a qualitative transformation.
Here, the Pope explained to those in the hall: “Take the Dragon Nation’s Heavenly Master’s Golden Light Curse, for example. It’s different from ordinary Golden Light Curses. It’s already approaching the realm of divine abilities—to some extent, it wields power beyond this world. That is the pinnacle of transcendence.”
Hearing this, the clergy in the hall finally understood why.
The Pope had said all that simply to steer them away from asking ridiculous questions.
He had neatly diverted the conversation.
Back in the horror game world, Zhang Yangqing skillfully found a maid and asked her to take him to see the villa’s owner.
The maid was more than happy to oblige, and before long, she had led him up to the seventh floor.
The villa owner was busy with something in his room. He seemed surprised to see someone, but still greeted him warmly.
“Is there something suspicious in my room?”
The owner assumed Zhang Yangqing had found a clue, hence the question.
After all, as long as the treasure was found, it didn’t matter if they tore his room apart.
“No. I heard the previous owner collected the heart of a ferocious beast. Could you give it to me?”
Zhang Yangqing cut straight to the chase.
“What do you need that for?”
“To feed my dog.”
“Will that help find the treasure?”
“No.”
Zhang Yangqing’s stance was crystal clear.
Either you give it or you don’t. No more nonsense.
It’s not like I’m here to fetch things for you anyway.
The villa owner stared wide-eyed, stunned by Zhang Yangqing’s bluntness.
Wow. Other people at least come up with some excuse when they ask me for something.
But you? You just ask straight up, huh?
Still, he had made a big promise, and now he had to swallow his pride.
He instructed the maid to fetch the item from the next room and handed it to Zhang Yangqing.
It felt like a glass jar, though he couldn’t tell what was inside.
After a brief thank-you, Zhang Yangqing left the seventh floor.
Seeing how easily Zhang Yangqing had gotten it, viewers from Britannia felt a bit miffed.
Their own noble Transcendent, Earl Campbell, had searched half the day for it—and this guy just asks for it?
But then, thinking it over, the viewers realized—the rules never said you couldn’t ask. It just depended on how bold the Chosen Ones were.
Because Earl Campbell felt that asking the villa owner for something required a valid reason. Without one, it would be awkward to bring up.
The natives in the horror game world did have a certain level of intelligence; doing the wrong thing could easily arouse their resentment.
Campbell’s approach wasn’t wrong, really. He wasn’t sure if he could handle the villa owner while blind, so playing it safe was the smart move.
Once you offended the villa owner, this level might not be so easy to clear.
Only someone like Zhang Yangqing, who was fully aware of his own combat prowess, could ask without fear.
Even if he was wrong—so what? You can’t beat me anyway.
The Chosen Ones’ guide dogs, meanwhile, were busy as ever. As they walked, they recorded the scents of everyone around them, memorized the terrain, and more.
So that in case of an emergency, they could help their owners escape danger—that was a guide dog’s mission.
Viewers also noticed that the closer the bond between the guide dog and its owner, the more proactive the dog became.
Some even cleared obstacles for the Chosen Ones, ensuring they had a smooth path.
Zhang Yangqing’s guide dog, on the other hand, was basically AFK—sleeping when fed, eating when awake.
And sure enough, after just waking from a nap, its owner brought it another tasty treat.
The guide dog barked twice in thanks and started chowing down.
The audience all felt that if Zhang Yangqing stayed here long enough, this guide dog would turn into a total chonk.
While the dog was eating, Zhang Yangqing told it that there would be a hunting mission tonight, so it should be ready.
The dog seemed to understand human speech—it let out an excited howl, as if to say: Don’t worry, master! Leave it to me tonight—I’ll slay gods and buddhas alike!
After being empowered, the guide dog was brimming with confidence.
Since the rules said the guide dog needed to kill a guest, and the settlement rules weren’t known yet, Zhang Yangqing had to follow the process.
At this stage, the Chosen Ones were doing all sorts of things.
Some of the Transcendents, in particular, seemed quite interested in the villa’s treasure, having picked up information from the NPCs they’d gotten close to.
South Korea’s Chosen One, Kim Jeong-ki, had been dealing with the gravelly-voiced old man, and he was now in a tough spot.
In the gallery, the old man told Kim that something felt off about the villa’s owner, though he couldn’t quite put his finger on it.
Kim sensed this might be valuable intel and jotted it down for later verification.
One thing puzzled Kim, though—whenever he chatted with the old man, he kept hearing something drop to the floor.
Then the old man would pick it up and wipe it clean.
When Kim asked about it, the old man just said it was his personal belonging, and Kim didn’t think much of it.
But the viewers could see—what the old man dropped was his own eyeball.
Perhaps because of his age, the skin and flesh on his face were rotting and caving in.
His eyelids could no longer hold his eyeballs in place, and whenever he focused intently on a painting, they’d fall out.
He’d pick them up, wipe them clean, press them back into his sockets, blink a few times, and everything seemed fine again.
It gave the viewers an unsettling feeling, but the Chosen Ones truly couldn’t see it, nor could they imagine what kind of monstrosity they were dealing with.
For Chosen Ones playing through the gravelly-voiced old man’s storyline, there were three options:
First—find a way to corrupt the old man. Once corrupted, his combat power would drop, and then they could kill him.
Second—raise his favorability and make him stir up trouble with others, so they could use him to help eliminate other guests.
Third—abandon him when no other guests are watching and find a killable target instead.
Once successful, they’d recover, and the heads in their bedrooms would finally find their bodies.
Kim Jeong-ki’s approach was rather clever—he chose the second option. He wanted to keep the thigh he’d latched onto while also solving the mystery.
Since he didn’t have all the information yet, this was a reasonable choice.
He’d managed to meet the gravelly-voiced old man without being seen by others. So once he’d farmed enough favorability there, he’d head to the weapon collection room on the second floor to build rapport with the raspy-voiced middle-aged man.
In short, he had a busy day ahead, but he’d already gotten some good news—namely, intel about the treasure.
Another ordinary Chosen One, however, was far more ruthless. Argentina’s Chosen One, Ramirez, had only made contact with the raspy-voiced middle-aged man.
After that, he went straight to the head chef and the old butler, gathering a lot of useful information.
His goal was simple: kill whoever the rules told him to kill, and survive.
Finding the treasure was secondary—his main priority was completing his mission.
Among all the surviving Chosen Ones, he was the one closest to Zhang Yangqing in terms of mission progress.
Even the Holy Knight Sidney from Ramen Nation was still far behind Zhang Yangqing.
The expert panels could tell that Ramirez might actually be the one most likely to trigger the hidden quest this time, because he could distinguish between main and side objectives.
As for whether Zhang Yangqing could complete the hidden quest—well, that no longer seemed in doubt.
All expert panels and transcendent organizations now regarded Zhang Yangqing as the definitive answer, regardless of what the horror game world threw at them.
Any Chosen One who performed similarly to Zhang Yangqing was undoubtedly among the top-tier.
Back on Blue Star, talent poaching had become rampant. Chosen Ones with S-rank or higher clearances were in hot demand.
Especially Rahmán from the Pyramid Nation—he had three clears under his belt and had even earned cultivation resources.
The Bear Nation’s Goncharov, who had taken a risky unconventional path in the last round and also scored cultivation resources, had become a prime target for major transcendent organizations.
As for why they didn’t go after Zhang Yangqing and Gregori—well, the others certainly wanted to.
But Gregori was already the Pope’s heir, and Zhang Yangqing was the head of his own sect. Neither was someone you could just poach.
So the transcendent organizations settled for the next best options.
Back in the horror game world, Zhang Yangqing wasn’t idle either. He returned to the old butler’s quarters.
He asked whether there were any old maids who, like the butler, had served since the previous owner’s time.
A maid who had survived from that era would naturally be a true maid.
Since Zhang Yangqing wanted to verify the villa owner’s real identity, this was the approach he came up with.
But at this stage, the old butler didn’t answer directly. Instead, he made a request: Zhang Yangqing had to help him trim the plants.
Only after finishing the trimming would the butler give him the answer.
This wasn’t necessarily a bad thing—such a request meant he’d hit the nail on the head.
Only key intel came with a task attached.
If other Chosen Ones came here, they’d have to work like gardeners, being ordered around.
While blind, they’d also have to be careful not to accidentally cut the hidden rose bushes.
Zhang Yangqing, however, took a much simpler route. He called the loli girl over.
“What is it? Can’t we talk in the room?”
“Hey… I’ve got a bad feeling about this.”
This girl still couldn’t keep her mouth shut—right off the bat, she was chattering away.
“Congratulations, you guessed right. I’ve got a nice little task for you.”
Hearing that, the loli girl knew something was up.
And when she found out she had to trim plants, she was immediately against it.
This time, Zhang Yangqing didn’t resort to force. Instead, he said, “Just finish the trimming first. I’ll tell you why afterward—I promise you’ll be satisfied with the reason.”
“Fine! You said it! If you dare lie to me, I won’t let you off easy!”
And so, Tool Number One for this horror game session got to work.
Thanks to his keen hearing, Zhang Yangqing could hear her cursing from a distance.
Things like “Cut you to pieces, you bad thing!” “Making me do this!” “Ugh, this is so infuriating!”—since she was the one doing the work, he just pretended not to hear.
Meanwhile, Zhang Yangqing was lounging on a nearby chair, resting. Unlike the other Chosen Ones who were running themselves ragged, he looked like he was enjoying an afternoon nap after a nice meal.
That should be enough progress for today. Rushing too fast could backfire—even if he got out, he’d just have to work anyway. Why not enjoy the downtime here?
Now, he not only missed his snake-eyed sidekick, but also that one-eyed kid.
Those two were hard workers—never a word of complaint.
This loli girl needed a whole explanation for everything—such a pain.
Alas, NPCs in the horror game world were getting harder and harder to boss around.
Only someone like Zhang Yangqing could afford to slack off and still complain.
The reason he could cooperate and communicate with the NPCs in the horror game world was simple—his strength.
Once he’d chosen a tool person, he’d show off his abilities right in front of them.
Then the tool person would come crawling to him, eager to please.
Just like how many ordinary Chosen Ones clung to the gravelly-voiced old man’s coattails—because he was strong.
And this time, the rules said you could interact with guests, unlike the last horror game.
After a busy afternoon, the loli girl saw Zhang Yangqing lying there sunbathing, and she was so furious she was grinding her teeth, her twin tails practically standing on end.
Only now could the viewers see—her teeth were jagged, like a shark’s, sharp as razors.
If she bit down on someone, she’d leave horrific wounds.
Right now, she wished she could bite Zhang Yangqing to death.
After the task was completed, the old butler told Zhang Yangqing that behind the villa grounds, there was a pond.
Every day, an elderly maid would come on time to feed the fish there.
She had lived here for decades, doing the same thing day in and day out.
If Zhang Yangqing wanted answers, he could go find her.
Hearing that, Zhang Yangqing understood. He now knew how to determine whether the villa owner was truly the master of the house.
And there was even a clue here—what a hidden gem of information!
By yesterday, the Chosen Ones had basically figured out that the villa owner and the old butler had a conflict.
The butler had hidden a rose bush. The owner couldn’t find it, but could smell the roses, which made him angry.
Those roses were the butler’s leverage against the owner.
As for that elderly maid—she’d been caring for the fish in that pond for decades, day after day. She must treasure them dearly.
And at this point, the rules came into play.
[Rule 14: A true maid will obey the villa owner’s commands, no matter what they are.]
All Zhang Yangqing had to do was get the villa owner to order the old maid to poison the fish. That would be a terrible demand for her, wouldn’t it?
If the old maid secretly disobeyed—then the villa owner was fake.
But if she actually went through with poisoning the fish—then the villa owner was real.
