Chapter 288: Other Levels Are About Gambling on Luck—This One Is About Burning Through Your Lifespan!
“Huh, why are these oil stains getting drier and drier?”
In the gallery, the Chosen One from the Land of the Rising Sun, Kim Jeong-ki, noticed something off while going about his daily routine of sucking up to the husky-voiced old man.
The first day he’d come to the gallery, when he touched the paintings, he could feel a layer of moist liquid on them.
Many corners of the villa had a damp smell, even his own room.
The maids had all said it was a special material to prevent decay.
Kim Jeong-ki hadn’t thought much of it at the time. But after carefully studying the rules, he started to sense something amiss.
As if struck by an idea, Kim Jeong-ki listened for a moment to make sure no one else was around, then said to the husky-voiced old man, “Does this paint have fireproof properties too?”
The husky-voiced old man had lived quite a few years in this world and had outlived a whole batch of people—of course he knew these things.
“This is good stuff. Not only is it fireproof, it’s waterproof too. Be gentle when you touch them—don’t scratch these paintings. These were back when I…”
Old people are all like that—they start rambling on about their glorious past again.
What he craved was recognition and admiration.
Kim Jeong-ki, while bad-mouthing the loli girl for being clueless, bowed and scraped while listening.
At the same time, his mind was racing.
You could say he was multitasking on three levels at once.
He was thinking: could it be that when the paint dries, that’s when the rules say a fire will break out?
This seemed like what they called “hidden information.”
Realizing this, he felt he needed to pick up the pace. Otherwise, once the fire started, even if he didn’t die, a lot of valuable intel would be destroyed.
As for where to take shelter after the fire broke out, all the Chosen Ones already knew the answer—their own rooms.
The rules had explicitly stated that only the rooms were safe places.
After other Chosen Ones from different countries caught on to this, they too accelerated their progress.
The sooner they got out of this godforsaken place, the sooner they could breathe easy.
Back on Dragon Country’s big screen.
The loli girl was still pondering in the villa’s backyard, with two conflicting voices battling inside her. Meanwhile, the instigator of it all, Zhang Yangqing, had already made his way—like a pro—to the old butler’s quarters.
At this moment, the old butler wasn’t asleep inside; he was outside trimming the nearby trees—part of his daily routine.
Zhang Yangqing greeted him politely, and the two started chatting.
“Old butler, do you know how one can own a villa in these parts?”
He didn’t directly ask how to become the owner of this villa—that might prompt the old butler to tattle to the villa’s owner.
Instead, he asked indirectly if there were other ways.
He also mentioned how much he longed to have a big villa of his own.
The old butler didn’t seem suspicious—after all, it was only natural for a young person to have dreams.
He replied, “If you want a villa, you first need land. Land is distributed by the king…”
According to the old butler, Zhang Yangqing got a general idea of the process and of the world’s structure.
The world he was in had many islands, each with its own king.
The king had the authority to allocate land. When the owner of a territory died without an heir, the land reverted to the king, who could then appoint a new lord.
Generally speaking, only those with outstanding merit were granted territories.
It seemed that to become a lord, you’d first have to get out of here—which sounded like a real hassle.
Maybe it was a hidden quest, but Zhang Yangqing wasn’t too keen on doing anything that troublesome.
After all, he was still blind, and wandering too far felt exhausting.
He’d decide whether to bother with it after the settlement rules appeared.
That was just his style—laid-back, never deliberately chasing a particular outcome.
Finally, as he was about to leave, Zhang Yangqing made sure to dangle a carrot in front of the old butler.
He said, “Too bad there are no flowers here. I actually really like flowers. If I ever became a lord, I’d definitely plant roses in my villa. I wonder if you’d consider jumping ship to help me manage it?”
Without waiting for the old butler’s reply, Zhang Yangqing walked off.
It sounded like he was joking, but it did get the old butler’s heart stirring.
That was just who Zhang Yangqing was—he understood human desire perfectly. As long as he could exploit that, he’d be unstoppable in the Horror Tale world.
As the Chosen Ones continued gathering intelligence, a few special pieces of information emerged.
In other Chosen Ones’ worlds, the loli girl and the long-haired femme fatale had been studying the old villa owner’s relics.
The Chosen One from the Noodle Country, Sidney, was playing it very steadily this round. He tried getting close to them and building up some affection, which allowed him to extract a key piece of information during conversation:
The details of the Key Demon’s contract—specifically, the price of summoning demons.
Demons were so useful, but after signing a contract with the Key Demon, you’d definitely have to pay a price.
Otherwise, why would a demon work for you for free?
Not only did you need physical sacrifices, but you also had to offer up your own life force.
In other words, the more demons you summoned, the more your lifespan would be drastically shortened.
That was also why the villa’s old owner had died so young.
It seemed the Key Demon was a double-edged sword—you couldn’t summon an endless demon army.
And if the master died, the demons would be freed from all restrictions, able to do as they pleased—that was one of the costs of summoning them.
Upon learning this, Sidney felt it made sense. If you suddenly gained that much power without earning it through your own training, of course there’d be a price to pay.
Quite a few Chosen Ones obtained this news, surprising the audience.
Had the top-tier Chosen Ones all made a mistake? The vast majority of them had signed contracts with the Key Demon.
If they kept summoning endlessly, they could very well end up killing themselves within the Horror Tale world.
Other levels were about gambling on luck—this one was about burning through your lifespan!
If you wanted more safety, you’d have to trade your life for it.
Some viewers, however, pointed out that Dragon Country’s lifespan bonuses were already quite high, so the Celestial Master could afford to summon a few more.
But as soon as that argument was made, it was shot down by many others. Other Chosen Ones summoned demons to survive—why would the Dragon Country Celestial Master even need to?
For all we know, in a while that guide dog of his might get fed into becoming a divine beast!
Maybe next to Celestial Master Zhang, even a dog could turn into a qilin.
Besides, Zhang Yangqing was the only one among the top tier who hadn’t signed a contract.
And anyone watching Zhang Yangqing’s feed knew—he seemed to be encouraging the loli girl to sign one instead.
This left the awakened audience once again stunned—even the expert panel found it hard to believe.
They couldn’t understand: had the Dragon Country Celestial Master foreseen this all along, which was why he hadn’t signed?
If you were talking about anyone else, it would most likely be luck. But when it came to the Celestial Master, they’d rather believe he’d actually figured it out.
Inside the Horror Tale world, dinner time arrived.
The guests were once again discussing today’s progress. But this time was different—although the villa’s owner was trying hard to control his emotions, Zhang Yangqing could still detect a hint of impatience in his voice.
He seemed to sense that everyone was playing their own little games, and he started urging them along.
After all, as the master of this estate, he’d been providing them with good food and drink and doing his best to meet all their requests. If they still couldn’t find the treasure, he had every right to lose his temper.
The other guests seemed to pick up on it too, and said they’d speed things up and crack the old master’s secret.
After dinner, Zhang Yangqing followed today’s plan and headed to the backyard.
Just as expected, an elderly maid was there tossing food into the pond.
She stopped when she saw Zhang Yangqing approach.
He went up and started chatting with her. These conversations required a certain finesse—you couldn’t just jump straight into talking about the pond. You had to start with your identity and purpose.
He told her he was a guest helping the villa’s owner search for the old master’s treasure.
As a guest in that capacity, it was perfectly reasonable for him to ask her a few questions.
She wasn’t new to being questioned by guests—there was a certain progression between the NPCs as well.
The two chatted about all sorts of trivial, meaningless topics.
Then, suddenly, Zhang Yangqing shifted the conversation to the pond.
He pretended he’d heard that “other guests” had persuaded the villa’s owner to poison the fish inside.
As someone who loved small animals—especially fish—he expressed his regret for not being able to stop it in time, and strongly condemned the villa owner’s disregard for life.
If the villa owner had heard him say that, he’d probably have cursed: What the hell—YOU’RE the one who told me to do it!
These words struck a deep chord with the elderly maid.
It gave her the feeling of “a kindred spirit is hard to find.”
In fact, the elderly maid’s personality was similar to the loli girl’s—both were the big-hearted, compassionate type.
It’s just that Zhang Yangqing had stolen the loli girl’s lines.
For all his smooth-talking, Zhang Yangqing actually did love small animals—that part was true.
Let’s put it this way: back in the day, he couldn’t go a single meal without them!
By this point in the conversation, the elderly maid had let her guard down around him, treating him like one of her own.
There were some topics she hesitated to bring up.
But Zhang Yangqing knew what she wanted to say, so he feigned curiosity: “Huh, why do I smell fish? And I think I hear splashing—like fish swimming. If they weren’t all poisoned, that’d be wonderful.”
The elderly maid was overjoyed—her affection for Zhang Yangqing clearly rose another notch.
She confessed that the old butler had used magic to hide the fish. She was surprised Zhang Yangqing could hear them.
This move of Zhang Yangqing’s left the audience utterly baffled. Even some of Blue Star’s previous clearers were staring intently at the screen.
“Strange—when I go to the city in a Horror Tale world, the NPCs give me quests, and I have to complete them to get intel. How come the Dragon Country Celestial Master gets info without even doing quests?”
“What’s so strange about that? In past Horror Tales, there were plenty of NPCs too. When you figure out what they want or need, everything falls into place.”
“That doesn’t make sense. If that’s the case, why do other Chosen Ones who try the same thing still get asked by that old maid to find fish feed for her?”
“I… I don’t know. Maybe the Celestial Master’s looks are just off the charts?”
When the outside audience couldn’t figure it out, they’d always chalk it up to the Celestial Master’s strength and good looks.
What they didn’t understand was that Zhang Yangqing was essentially working backward from the answer—of course it seemed easy.
Everything was already within his grasp.
He even knew exactly what the elderly maid was going to say and what she was thinking.
Ask Zhang Yangqing to do a quest? Hadn’t the audience noticed that it was usually Zhang Yangqing getting the NPCs to do quests for him?
To get out of work, he’d practically mastered the Horror Tale world to perfection.
After chatting a bit more, Zhang Yangqing suddenly said, “I feel like there’s something off about the villa’s owner, but I can’t quite put my finger on it.”
This question hit the nail on the head.
You see, in the Horror Tale world, there were many ways to boost an NPC’s affection.
Doing quests was the most standard method. Others included looks, or even just conversation.
Zhang Yangqing had raised the elderly maid’s affection to new heights purely through dialogue, bypassing the need to do quests to unlock intel.
That was the art of language.
A lot of outside clearers, watching Zhang Yangqing’s run, thought they could just copy his approach if they went in.
But once inside, the eerie environment made them too scared to pull off all those wild stunts.
Because “wild stunts” meant cutting corners and saving time—and if one failed, the price could be death.
There’d been Chosen Ones in the past who’d been killed by aberrations just for saying the wrong thing.
When the atmosphere got really heavy, the Chosen Ones just didn’t have Zhang Yangqing’s composure.
So they obediently stuck to doing quests—it was safer.
Zhang Yangqing had no such concerns. Even if he messed up, so what? What were they gonna do about it?
And just like that, Zhang Yangqing effortlessly obtained intel that other Chosen Ones had to work their butts off for.
According to the elderly maid, she’d once seen the villa’s new owner by the pond at night.
Before, everything had seemed normal. But a few days ago, she’d accidentally caught his reflection in the water—and saw that his body had turned into a skeleton.
A skeleton with no flesh whatsoever. At first, she thought she’d imagined it and tried to look again, but by then the villa owner had already left, so she couldn’t be sure.
After that, she’d also noticed that his personality had changed a lot. Things he used to love, he no longer cared for.
He’d even ordered the old butler to throw away all the flowers.
With the story at this point, Zhang Yangqing already knew how to unlock the vast majority of the villa’s quests.
There were actually two hints here. First: mirrors could reveal people in disguise. Second: flowers—did the villa owner hate them, or was he afraid of them?
How you used these two clues would be the key to clearing this stage.
To leave this villa, there were a few people you had to kill—or rather, the more, the better.
Did this fake villa owner also want to keep the Chosen Ones from leaving?
Anyone who didn’t want them to leave had to die.
Just because the other guests didn’t have that intention didn’t mean the residents didn’t.
Once the plot reached this point, Chosen Ones had two must-kill targets.
The Chosen One from Argentina, Ramirez, started planning after learning this.
He could use mirrors to stir up conflict between the other guests and the fake villa owner.
Then use the other guests to kill the imposter—but first, he’d have to take out the head chef.
He could even dig deeper to figure out the connection between the villa owner and the flowers.
But this raised a new problem.
According to the Key Demon, if the master of the demons died, they’d regain their freedom and no longer be controlled.
At that point, Ramirez figured he should start a fire to keep the villa’s occupants busy; otherwise, the rampaging demons would attack him directly, making escape even harder.
These steps had to be executed in one smooth sequence—the order couldn’t be messed up. Even one mistake would mean instant death.
Most importantly, this stage’s biggest asset was still the husky-voiced old man.
The villa’s owner was too strong; the guide dog wouldn’t cut it.
Only by persuading the guests—their strongest fighter—could they stand a chance at killing the imposter.
And this had to happen at night. If he didn’t transform, he wouldn’t be strong enough.
But whether the fake villa owner would transform at night was anyone’s guess.
To increase his odds, Ramirez had a lot of prep work to do.
He could rally the other guests to join in—after all, the imposter wasn’t planning to let them go anyway. Might as well fight back together.
Or he could slip slow-acting poison or contaminants into dinner.
After all, the head chef could be used to a certain extent—use him first, then find a way to get rid of him later.
That was Ramirez’s ruthless approach—everyone was a tool.
There was still some time before nightfall. Ramirez kept gathering intel and planning for tomorrow.
If he started now, it’d be too late—he needed to delegate these tasks first.
On his way back to the villa, Ramirez smiled bitterly to himself. “No wonder the Dragon Country Celestial Master always acts like such a scoundrel—the Horror Tale world always makes us Chosen Ones do this kind of arson-and-murder stuff.”
He was right—Ramirez felt that this time was purely about arson and murder.
Maybe the true identities the Chosen Ones were playing weren’t good people at all.
In fact, the moment he thought that, he’d taken one step closer to Zhang Yangqing.
Maybe it was just one step out of dozens, or even hundreds—or thousands.
But any progress was cause for celebration, because he’d actually started anticipating moves.
Meanwhile, most Chosen Ones had only just begun plotting their kills today and figuring out how to get their hands on a Key Demon.
The Noodle Country’s holy knight, Sidney—the most cautious player in this Horror Tale—truly didn’t treat himself like a Transcendent. He was so steady that even Gregori outside was impressed.
By now, he’d naturally gathered most of the intel, having made contact with the head chef, the other guests, the old butler, and the elderly maid alike.
He’d reached one conclusion: “If I’m not mistaken, the key to clearing this stage is increasing the husky-voiced old man’s affection.”
As the strongest fighter among the guests, even though many Chosen Ones disliked him and looked down on his arrogant, self-righteous attitude, they still had to kiss up to him to boost their survival odds.
Even Sidney forgot his own identity and started catering to the old man’s preferences.
His faith was his bottom line—this was just him clearing the stage for resources. This was the Lord’s test! That was what Sidney told himself.
After all, even Gregori used to cling to his pride when he first entered.
Later, he realized that only a few Transcendents actually had an edge, so it was better to forget about status.
In the Horror Tale world, whatever identity you were given—that’s who you were.
As the audience watched the other Chosen Ones frantically boot-licking the husky-voiced old man, someone suddenly remembered—one Chosen One had already taken the old man out.
That meant he’d lost his strongest asset in this stage, dramatically increasing the difficulty.
When the audience went to check which poor soul had killed the husky-voiced old man…
They opened the big screen and saw it was the Dragon Country Celestial Master.
Oh. Never mind then.
