Who says vengeful ghosts can't go on blind dates?

After getting up from the chair, Ren Zhizhe began to think about where to go next.

He knew a few good places to go around here. It would be best to discuss it with Song Yufei… hmm?

Seeing that Song Yufei was still standing there blankly, he went over and tugged at her sleeve.

"Let's go."

"oh oh!"

Song Yufei stopped paying attention to the bet between the players and the clown, and left the ghost casino with Ren Zhizhe.

Are you still thirsty?

As soon as Ren Zhizhe stepped out of the casino, he saw a very old-fashioned vending machine by the roadside.

Then, as if he suddenly remembered something, he asked Song Yufei this question.

Song Yufei was taken aback. After thinking for a while, she realized what Ren Zhizhe meant by asking that question.

"I'm fine now."

After getting away from the fly ghost, the nausea in her stomach gradually subsided.

"Then I'll buy you a bottle of water."

Ren Zhizhe walked over, holding ghost coins in his hand.

A moment later, the vending machine opened its door. A withered ghost hand reached out and took the ghost coins; the other ghost hand held a bottle of water and handed it to Ren Zhizhe.

That's really automatic.

Seeing such a bizarre scene before her, Song Yufei was so surprised that she couldn't close her mouth.

It wasn't until Ren Zhizhe came over with water that she slightly composed herself.

Drink water?

Song Yufei hesitated.

The food in this eerie world is imbued with the aura of ghosts. However, if players eat this food within an eerie game instance, they will not be harmed.

What now?

She is still alive, which means that the eerie game will still protect defeated players from most of the evil spirits.

But food... she really didn't dare to say.

Ren Zhizhe handed her the water. Having no other choice, Song Yufei could only reach out and take it.

She weighed it in her hand.

It doesn't seem to be anything special; it appears to be just ordinary water.

After a brief moment of thought, she unscrewed the cap and drank the water.

This was probably unavoidable.

It's impossible for her to go without food and water in this bizarre world indefinitely.

Since that's the case, and since we'll have to take this step sooner or later, if there really are problems, it's just a matter of dying sooner or later.

"Where would you like to go next? The park, or somewhere else...?"

"The park," Song Yufei suggested casually.

After drinking the water, she kept a close eye on her body to see if any unusual changes occurred.

She breathed a sigh of relief after confirming that she had no stomach pain, no bleeding from her seven orifices, and no organ failure.

It seems that even if the mission fails, the eerie game is still protecting these players.

"As for parks... the nearest one is the lakeside park in the northern suburbs, shall we go there?"

"By the lake in the northern suburbs?"

Song Yufei's heart skipped a beat.

Did you hear me wrong?

Isn't this a place in the real world?

If she remembered correctly, the lakeside in the northern suburbs was a park in the real-world Stone City.

When she was little, the Song family's servants even took her there to play.

But then something happened, and the lakeside in the northern suburbs was sealed off, and she never went there again.

The lockdown was reportedly lifted long ago. But the incident at the lakeside in the northern suburbs seems to be quite serious, and people have started walking around the park.

Over time, the park gradually fell into disuse.

Because she didn't care much about the matter, Song Yufei never bothered to find out what had actually happened there.

Now, she truly regrets it.

"There are often flocks of birds near the lake in the northern suburbs. If we buy some things in advance, we might be able to feed the birds."

"Feeding the birds?"

Song Yufei became alert.

She couldn't recall any flocks of birds at the lakeside in the northern suburbs. But this was a strange world, anything could happen... Or was it just a coincidence of names?

"Yes, there are always quite a few gray pigeons lingering there."

Do you go there often?

"Not really. I used to go quite frequently, but I got busy later and went less often." Ren Zhizhe actually thought about it carefully.

Ever since he learned that there were many grey pigeons there, he would bring some pigeon feed every time he went there.

At first, the pigeons were afraid of him.

But after feeding them for a while, the pigeons learned to come over and beg for food on their own.

"Maybe you could try feeding the pigeons," Ren Zhizhe suggested.

"Okay... fine." Song Yufei nodded in agreement.

She really wanted to refuse.

Based on my experience as a player, there is no normal place in this world.

When humans feed pigeons, aren't they essentially feeding themselves to the pigeons?

But Song Yufei was worried that if she refused, the other party would ask her to come up with the next "blind date activity".

Her understanding of the world was almost equivalent to complete ignorance.

If you step on a landmine, you could very well die here.

Therefore, Song Yufei had no choice but to agree.

"Okay. But we need to buy pigeon feed first..."

Ren Zhizhe stopped and thought about it carefully.

"Come with me. I'll take you to the nearest supermarket."

As soon as Ren Zhizhe finished speaking, a winding stone path suddenly appeared out of thin air in front of them.

The stone path was completely shaded on both sides. Something seemed to be wriggling in the shadows, which Song Yufei could see from a great distance.

Is it really okay to walk on this road?

Seeing that Ren Zhizhe had already started walking forward, Song Yufei had no choice but to follow.

Sure enough. As soon as they stepped out, the shadows beside the stone path eagerly surged towards them.

The shadows reached for Ren Zhizhe first. Countless black hands emerged from beneath the stone-paved street, eager to drag Ren Zhizhe off the road.

But the moment they touched Ren Zhizhe's ankle, all the hands that were reaching out froze.

"Bang!"

Any black hand that touched Ren Zhizhe exploded. Even so, the shadow continued its relentless attack.

The rules of killing are absolute.

A vengeful ghost is a creature driven by the rules of killing.

Even if doing so would lead to death, the rules of killing must never be violated.

Therefore, those culprits simply couldn't stop; they could only rush forward one after another to their deaths.

Because these dark forces are all part of the shadows, the dark forces that are backfired by Ren Zhizhe's rules are only unable to recover in a short period of time, rather than being completely eliminated.

Even so, Song Yufei managed to secure a moment of safety.

Behind Ren Zhizhe are the dark forces that have been destroyed by the backlash of the rules.

Therefore, as long as she stays behind Ren Zhizhe and keeps a certain distance to avoid being accidentally injured by those who are attacking Ren Zhizhe, she will be safe.

Following the stone-paved road, they arrived at a dark supermarket.

A lamp hung at the entrance of the supermarket. The bulb emitted a dim, yellowish light, as if it might go out at any moment, giving off a very ominous feeling.

Song Yufei was just about to observe and try to guess the murder rules of this shop when Ren Zhizhe pushed the door open and walked in, forcing her to immediately follow him inside.

The inside of the supermarket was even darker than the entrance. Some goods were scattered on the shelves, with distorted text and blurry pictures printed on the packaging.

The air was filled with a musty, stale smell, mixed with a kind of sweet, fishy odor that was hard to describe.

Song Yufei followed closely behind Ren Zhizhe. She still retained the habits she had when playing games, frequently glancing warily at her surroundings as she walked.

Her gaze fell on a shelf—where rows of "pigeon feed" were displayed. The packaging bags of pigeon feed were printed with gray and white pigeon images, and they looked almost identical to pigeon feed in the real world.

No, that's not right.

She took a closer look.

The pigeon pattern on the packaging bag looks like it's moving?

Song Yufei moved closer. As she got closer, the pigeons slowly turned their heads, staring at her with their empty eyes.

Song Yufei shuddered and immediately looked away, refusing to look any longer.

Ren Zhizhe didn't seem to care at all. He walked straight to the shelf, picked up a bag of pigeon feed, and turned it over to look at the back.

"This one will do," he said, walking towards the cashier.

A vengeful ghost was sitting behind the cashier.

This is a vengeful ghost that lies somewhere between deformed and human. To be precise, this vengeful ghost seems to be barely maintaining a human form.

But his face had no features, only a smooth expanse of skin, as if it had been ironed flat.

His hands were two constantly writhing lumps of gray flesh. The lumps swayed distortedly, and when a guest approached, they would tap the table intermittently.

Song Yufei's heart started pounding.

Why are you tapping on the table?

She had seen many vengeful ghosts. Generally, once a vengeful ghost starts acting strangely, it is very likely trying to lure its prey into fulfilling its murderous demands.

Normally, she would immediately have the players arranged by the Song family try to stop the other party.

Things are different now.

Now she has no bodyguards and no one to rely on. All she can do is quietly watch Ren Zhizhe pay.

"This one."

Ren Zhizhe placed the bag of pigeon feed on the table.

The faceless ghost behind the cashier didn't move.

Ren Zhizhe took out a few ghost coins and placed them next to the pigeon feed.

Only then did the faceless demon react.

A crack appeared on his "face," making a "clucking" sound like a mouth.

This is terrifying. The faceless ghost seemed to be laughing, or perhaps chewing on something, which scared Song Yufei so much that she dared not approach it at all.

"Welcome... to visit again." He used his two fleshy "hands" to sweep away the ghost coins and pigeon feed together.

Song Yufei noticed that the faceless ghost didn't give Ren Zhizhe anything—no change, no receipt, not even a nod.

But Ren Zhizhe seemed used to it and turned to leave.

What about pigeon feed?

Are you not going to take it? You even threw in a few ghost coins.

Song Yufei didn't understand. But she didn't want to linger in the supermarket alone, so she quickly followed.

As she walked out of the supermarket, she couldn't help but look back.

The faceless ghost behind the cashier was staring straight at her—even though this vengeful ghost had no eyes, Song Yufei could still feel the chill of being watched.

She quickened her pace, almost jogging, to catch up with Ren Zhizhe.

"Do you often come here to buy things?" she couldn't help but ask.

"Not often," Ren Zhizhe said, "but I feel that the pigeons prefer the feed from this shop."

Do pigeons like to eat this?

Song Yufei silently pondered the sentence in her heart, feeling that something was not quite right.

That doesn't make sense. She didn't see Ren Zhizhe take away any bag of pigeon feed.

Ren Zhizhe did not offer an explanation. Seeing this, Song Yufei naturally did not dare to ask any further questions and simply followed him.

They stepped onto the stone-paved street once again.

This time, the dark hand in the shadows did not attack again. Clearly, they had not yet recovered from the backlash of Ren Zhizhe's rules.

But at the end of the stone path, the scenery had changed.

They returned to the street where the casino used to be, but the place where the casino had stood was now a gray wall. There were no doors or windows in the wall, as if the casino had never existed.

Song Yufei was stunned for a moment, but quickly came to her senses.

That's how the architecture of the eerie world works. They are alive, they move and change, so their appearance and disappearance have no discernible pattern.

"Let's go," Ren Zhizhe said. "The park is this way."

He pointed in a direction. Song Yufei looked in the direction he was pointing and saw a straight road.

The roadside was lined with oddly shaped trees. Their branches stretched towards the sky like withered fingers, and there wasn't a single leaf on them.

At the end of the road, a patch of grayish-white light could be faintly seen.

She was both familiar with and unfamiliar with it—it was the headlight at the entrance to the lakeside in the northern suburbs.

She was deeply impressed by the large lamp that hung high in the park when she was a child.

So, does that mean the North Suburb Lakeside is the same as the North Suburb Lakeside in the real world?

Song Yufei took a deep breath and followed Ren Zhizhe over.

She didn't know what awaited her, but since she had already come this far, there was no turning back.

The oddly shaped trees lining the road swayed gently in the breeze, making a rustling sound, as if they were whispering to each other.

Song Yufei always felt that the trees were staring at her, but she didn't dare to turn her head to confirm it.

After walking for about ten minutes, the grayish-white light got closer and closer.

This is the park entrance.

There is a large lake right across from the entrance.

The lake is so large that the opposite shore is almost invisible.

The lake water was grayish-white, like a giant mirror reflecting the equally grayish-white sky. The surface was completely still, like a block of solidified white glue.

Upon seeing the large lake clearly, Song Yufei actually breathed a sigh of relief.

The park was completely different from what she remembered. Clearly, this was not the lakeside in the northern suburbs of the real world.

The lake is surrounded by an open space with some stone benches and tables scattered around, which looks like a place for people to rest.

But the most striking sight was the flock of birds circling above the lake.

As Ren Zhizhe said, there were quite a few gray pigeons lingering there.

Pigeons hovered in the sky. There were so many pigeons, they densely covered the entire sky. Judging by sight, there were at least a hundred.

If a cloud flies by, they will swarm it and frantically peck at it.

Although some pigeons did become prey while hunting the Cloud of Flesh, the Cloud of Flesh was eventually devoured because of the large number of pigeons.

"Although I don't know if these pigeons still remember me, or if this method will even work, I'll still try to call them down."