Chapter 286: Your Opinion? I Think You’d Better Not Have One!
“What are you standing there for? Get in.”
Zhang Yangqing flicked the loli girl on the forehead.
That snapped her out of her stunned stupor.
Just now, she had been frozen in terror by the old man’s overwhelming presence.
When his gaze swept over her, she honestly felt like she was about to drop dead on the spot.
She had crossed him before, and he’d made it clear he wanted her dead.
But never in her wildest dreams did she imagine he could unleash an aura this terrifying.
Just as she was bracing herself to go all out, her partner casually flicked his finger—and the old man just crumpled?
What was the difference between that and squashing an ant?
When Zhang Yangqing made his move, the loli girl felt like the entire world had been frozen in place, locked down by him alone.
In that constrained space and time, it was as if her partner was a true god—able to kill anyone he wished.
That kind of overwhelming power left her utterly shaken.
Right now, she was clutching her head, her jagged teeth hanging wide open.
If the old man’s body wasn’t lying right there on the floor, she wouldn’t have believed it was over so fast.
She even gave the body a kick, just to confirm she wasn’t seeing things.
But if the loli girl was terrified, the guide dog was even more so.
Holy crap, this owner of mine is absolutely insane!
Following Zhang Yangqing’s orders, the dog delivered the fatal blow to the old man.
At least that fulfilled its purpose.
Right now, the guide dog was so moved it could cry. Thank you, master, for giving me a chance to actually feel useful.
Otherwise, this round would’ve been pure deadweight duty for the dog.
Zhang Yangqing had literally left just one HP for the dog to finish off.
Any more than that, and the dog might not have even been able to handle it.
Late at night, the feeling of being watched in the villa had vanished.
The two of them, plus the dog, slipped into the old man’s room and shut the door.
Zhang Yangqing had come prepared. He pulled out the severed head from his bag.
The moment it appeared, confused voices rose beside him.
“What’s that? It looks kind of weird.”
“It seems similar to what was mentioned in the old master’s belongings.”
“How did you get your hands on this?”
Facing the barrage of questions like cannonballs, Zhang Yangqing didn’t really want to answer.
But he was afraid she’d cause trouble while he was working, so he started explaining the three riddles.
[When you become aware of its existence, it will appear.]
[When you find it, you need not be afraid.]
[It is different from you, yet the same as you.]
These three lines were the key phrases left behind in the old master’s final notes.
Zhang Yangqing had already solved the latter two riddles—they referred to this head.
The first riddle, naturally, was about the key.
“When you become aware of its existence” meant telling the Chosen One: as long as this head found a body, it was the key.
The moment you realized it was the key, then the key existed.
After all, this was a horror world. Neither the old master nor the current owner had ever specified what the key looked like.
The old master had hidden the key’s information separately—part in books, part on the head.
So the Chosen One was the only one who could actually obtain it.
Hearing Zhang Yangqing’s explanation, the loli girl finally understood.
But the audience was marveling at the sight: other Chosen Ones waited for NPCs to feed them clues so they could figure out how to pass the level—while Zhang Yangqing was feeding NPCs clues, telling them how to get through.
He played by no one’s rules. The viewers couldn’t stop praising him.
It was crystal clear who the real heavyweight in the horror world was.
Now the audience understood why so many NPCs held deep respect for Zhang Yangqing. Without him, under normal story progression, they wouldn’t have survived—they’d have been nothing but dust in the plot.
Back in the horror world, after the dog finished off the old man, the strange status effect on Zhang Yangqing lifted.
He then opened the book in his hand and aimed its pages at the corpse.
A black mist seeped out from the book, beginning to erode the body before him.
When the timing was right, Zhang Yangqing closed the book. The restless head, like a demon, suddenly snapped its eyes open.
The Chosen One might not have been able to see it clearly, but the head devoured the one on the body that matched its texture, then grafted itself onto the body.
Then the eerie scene continued. Lines like tattoos began spreading from the head down across the body.
It looked like fusion.
After a while, the black mist in the room began to fade.
A figure resembling a horned demon appeared before them.
A total of eighteen fast-progressing Chosen Ones now had a demon standing before them.
And their guide dogs stood faithfully by their masters’ sides, on guard.
Even Zhang Yangqing’s guide dog did the same.
True, his master was outrageously overpowered and might not need protection.
But as a guide dog, loyalty came first. Even if it couldn’t win, it would fight for its master’s survival.
That was a guide dog’s duty.
When the demon—the key—opened its eyes, it saw the master who had summoned it.
It knelt on one knee and said, “I have come in response to your summoning. What is your command, master?”
This key demon wasn’t very strong—even weaker than the guide dog.
From that, one could infer it was a specialty demon, not a combat type.
Zhang Yangqing asked the key demon to introduce its abilities, and it gave a brief rundown.
As long as Zhang Yangqing signed a contract with it, he could open the demon gate and summon demons to serve him.
But summoning demons came at a price—a living sacrifice was required.
How many you sacrificed determined how many you could summon.
Simply put, demons needed physical bodies to cross over. No body, no summon.
The sacrifice had to be freshly killed—not long dead, and not alive and kicking.
So there were certain conditions.
Other Chosen Ones were now considering how to boost their combat power.
If they could have a demon army, wouldn’t that guarantee safety?
Maybe this round was telling the Chosen Ones that they needed to gather a certain number of allies to clear the stage.
But the summoning conditions were rather cruel, making the Chosen Ones feel a bit inhuman.
At this moment, the loli girl’s eyes turned fierce, her sharp teeth gleaming coldly. She was someone who hated evil with a burning passion—almost obsessively so—especially toward catastrophic acts like this.
So she moved to strike down the key demon and put an end to its wicked potential.
Perhaps that was her rule-given mission.
Just as she made her move, Zhang Yangqing grabbed her arm, stopping her in time.
“What are you doing? According to our agreement, I can help you with many things, but I must destroy this key demon to keep it from harming this place any further.”
The loli girl glared at him with venom. She seemed to despise betrayal.
She had done so much for him—how could he go back on his word?
That sense of betrayal made her furious.
“I’m not stopping you from destroying it. But now’s not the time. Maybe we need to use it to survive first. Once we’re safe, you can destroy it however you want—I won’t object.”
Zhang Yangqing rarely offered explanations. It helped soothe the fuming girl a little.
The key demon was confused. You two go back and forth, and not once do you consider my opinion?
The guide dog’s thought: Your opinion? I think you’d better not have one!
The loli girl let out a long breath, staring at Zhang Yangqing as if trying to read him.
“How can I trust you?”
“Because I always keep my word. If I wanted to go back on it, would you still be alive right now?”
Zhang Yangqing’s words were simple and blunt.
I’m not threatening you—I’m just telling you who’s in charge here.
Don’t believe me? Feel free to test it.
In any form of “diplomacy,” strength was always the ultimate standard.
It quickly brought the loli girl back to her senses.
With his level of power, if he had wanted to attack her just now, she’d already be dead.
Since he said that, maybe the time really wasn’t right.
The loli girl told herself she wasn’t scared—just, purely out of “friendship,” she’d listen to his advice.
After all, what other choice did she have?
She couldn’t beat him anyway—it was his call.
Zhang Yangqing’s words were already crystal clear: either you listen to me, or I send you to meet the old man. Your choice.
Before he had the full picture of the clear condition, Zhang Yangqing wasn’t about to destroy something the rules were hinting he should obtain.
“Fine. I’ll trust you for now. What do we need to do?”
The loli girl pulled her arm free and leaned against the wall.
“Haven’t you noticed we seem to be trapped here? We need to figure out how to get out first.”
Zhang Yangqing shared part of his speculation: mist had appeared around them.
That mist was likely some kind of special rule-based barrier. If you didn’t break it according to the rules, you might never escape.
Next, they had to figure out whether the villa’s current owner was genuine.
He didn’t tell her everything—just what she needed to know.
Tomorrow, she’d keep searching for secrets about the old master. She mustn’t tip anyone off. He’d handle the rest himself.
When it came to using people as tools, Zhang Yangqing had his own approach.
Last round’s one-eyed kid had been highly capable and rarely made mistakes, so Zhang Yangqing had entrusted him with important tasks.
This girl, though—hot-tempered and not too sharp—could only handle simple chores. Complex stuff, he’d do himself.
The guide dog was a loyal fighter. The key demon was just a tool, good for nothing else.
At this stage of intel-gathering, Zhang Yangqing already had a rough idea how to clear this level.
Whether the villa owner was real or not, he’d find a way to replace him—or take him out.
Since he could summon contract demons, the more the merrier.
After calming the loli girl down, Zhang Yangqing packed up and prepared to leave.
Since the key demon was already summoned, he’d take it back to his room and keep it in the bedroom, out of sight.
Not just Zhang Yangqing—other Chosen Ones were also weighing their next moves and predicting future plot developments.
Those whose thinking could barely keep up with Zhang Yangqing’s were already top-tier talents.
They had signed contracts with their key demons and could now summon the demon gate at will.
At this point, every extra demon increased their odds of survival.
The question was: how to boost their demon count? That was what the Chosen Ones had to figure out.
The remaining guests weren’t easy targets—let alone the villa owner, whose strength was unpredictable.
“First, I need to clarify everything. Then find an opportunity to wipe them all out at once—or I’ll lose my chance.”
After using his skill, Ramirez’s body had fully recovered.
That was the advantage of being an S-rank clearer. Skills that were useless to Zhang Yangqing were lifesaving miracles for other Chosen Ones.
Ramirez’s goals were similar to Zhang Yangqing’s—just more complicated.
Zhang Yangqing didn’t bother with poison or drugs; he could just kill outright.
He didn’t even need to find the substitute maid or bother with the pollution source.
Other Chosen Ones had to make thorough preparations before they dared to act.
Even one tiny mistake could mean instant death.
After mapping out his next moves, Ramirez locked the door and collapsed onto the sofa, exhausted.
The intense tension during the day meant that as soon as most Chosen Ones lay down, they were out cold.
At breakfast the next morning, the Chosen Ones only brought their guide dogs—leaving the key demons locked in the bedrooms, since they didn’t need to eat anyway.
Several seats at the dining tables were empty.
But nobody seemed to care. Death in this villa was normal.
The one who cared least was the villa’s owner.
Zhang Yangqing could sense from his tone that he was urging the guests to speed things up.
Almost as if he was saying: Either find it quickly, or just die already. Once you’re all dead, I’ll bring in the next batch.
That gave Zhang Yangqing a theory.
Maybe Rule 9 should be interpreted differently?
[Rule 9: When a fire breaks out in the villa, do not panic, and do not run outside—unless you started it yourself.]
Meaning: the Chosen Ones had to finish their tasks within a certain time limit—or the villa owner would set the fire himself?
Or maybe the owner was anxious because he knew a fire was coming?
“I can understand the fire angle, but where’s the clue about the mirror?”
The mirror had been introduced early on, yet most Chosen Ones hadn’t found any clue related to it.
Zhang Yangqing figured that Rule 2 said blind people don’t need to look in the mirror—so maybe mirrors were meant for sighted people?
Only mirrors could reveal people’s true forms.
But he was blind. Who was supposed to use the mirror? And how exactly?
Maybe that was today’s puzzle.
Breakfast conversation still revolved around clues—everyone saying their piece.
It was clear they were all seasoned players, always claiming they were close to finding it, just needing a little more.
But they never actually found it.
After breakfast, the Chosen Ones scattered in all directions.
Some headed to the kitchen to seek out the head chef. Others, after killing a guest, looked for someone else to latch onto.
But that required that no one had witnessed any connection between them and the dead guest, or they’d become suspects.
Most Chosen Ones planned to make their move today—using poisons and contaminants to ensure their survival.
The more cautious ones would also investigate the other guests’ abilities to judge their chances.
That was why the holy knight Sidney from Ramen Country hadn’t taken the risky plunge.
He wasn’t lacking in confidence. He was following Gregori’s advice—to think of himself as an ordinary person. That way, even if he didn’t get SSSS or above, he’d still survive.
According to the Pope, Sidney should aim for a steady SSSS clearance. SSSSS was something only the Dragon Country celestial master needed to worry about.
Those who struck yesterday were all hardcore players.
Ramirez’s logic: the faster, the better. Even if he hit snags along the way, he’d still finish on time.
If he took too long—like last time—the difficulty would keep rising, and NPCs would stop following the script.
By breakfast’s end, Ramirez was already on the move.
This was his third day in the villa. He was starting to get familiar with the layout.
But thinking about possibly having to go outside later and face new dangers made him uneasy again.
He wondered if coming to the horror world had been the right call.
After all, if luck hadn’t been on his side yesterday, he’d be dead.
But could he count on luck every time?
With that thought, Ramirez slapped his own cheeks.
“What am I even thinking? My only goal is to survive.”
Once doubt and fear crept in, death was near.
No one who made it here was a coward—but hesitation was a fatal flaw.
Seeing Ramirez snap out of it, the Argentine expert team breathed a collective sigh of relief.
If he had spiraled mentally, it would have been practically a death sentence.
The Dragon Country expert team was the most relaxed in the world—just recording and analyzing, day in and day out.
Hu Liuqi, who used to fight tooth and nail every day for his Chosen Ones’ survival, now had great sleep quality and no dark circles under his eyes.
Other countries’ teams were constantly pressured by various factions to pick their candidates next time.
The Dragon Country team was blunt about it: Last time, Celestial Master Zhang made such a huge scene—who still dares to come?
And if someone actually dared, Hu Liuqi would say: If you can get Celestial Master Zhang to agree, we have no objections.
That was using Zhang Yangqing’s reputation as a shield: Beat him if you can. If not, don’t come causing trouble here.
Back in the horror world, Zhang Yangqing once again made his way to the seventh floor—where the villa owner usually stayed.
Seeing this troublemaker show up again, the owner had no choice but to get up and receive him.
He already braced himself for whatever trick Zhang Yangqing was about to pull.
But this time, Zhang Yangqing claimed he’d picked up some intel: summoning demons required a large number of sacrifices. The pond in the backyard was full of live fish—and he told the owner to send the old maid to poison the pond.
Only freshly killed creatures could serve as the offerings demons needed.
Zhang Yangqing hit several key points. Even if the owner had his suspicions and didn’t see the point of summoning demons, he still chose to go along with it.
After all, the owner knew how to summon demons—but what did that have to do with finding the key to the gates of hell?
He didn’t care about anything else in this place anyway. He’d try anything.
He only cared about the result, not the process.
Zhang Yangqing had one more request: Don’t tell anyone I suggested this.
The owner agreed.
Zhang Yangqing was ready to find a good spot—and watch the show unfold!
