Excessive ferocity due to caution

"Church...Pray!"

"They went to pray!"

Li Qi immediately realized what was going on.

She immediately began to worry about herself... She had just received the blessing of the Sixth Miracle, so should she pray now?

If I don't pray... will the fourth miracle happen to me?

Zhao Yi glanced at the church and said to Li Qi:

"Let's go take a look."

Li Qi was quite uneasy:

"But...but that ghost is inside too!"

Zhao Yi replied:

"It's controlled by the bell, so it shouldn't attack people for the time being."

"Now that we know about the Sixth Miracle, the key is to find out about these orphans' pasts and what the sixth rule of the institution is..."

"Perhaps... we can get something from the church."

The two arrived outside the church, where the doors were wide open, emanating a golden glow that was not dazzling but sufficiently intense.

The light quickly dissipated after touching the darkness outside the church.

However, those outside cannot see the interior of the church.

If you want to see what's going on inside, you have to go inside the church!

The problem was that Zhao Yi, who was about to step into the church, found himself blocked outside by the golden light!

Zhao Yi was unable to enter.

They couldn't even get close to the church doors.

However... Li Qi could.

She turned to look at Zhao Yi, and clearly noticed the problem as well.

Zhao said to her:

"Go in and take a look, gather as many clues as possible."

At this point, even though Li Qi felt a deep fear of Xiao Hong, he also understood that if they did not solve the mystery they faced as soon as possible, the danger would only escalate!

She was lucky today, as she happened to run into Zhao Yi.

Although Zhao Yi had ulterior motives, he did indeed save her life.

But what about next time?

Will she have such good luck again?

Having gone through so many dungeons and life-or-death trials, Li Qi knew that fear could not solve the problem.

She gritted her teeth and walked into the church, disappearing into the golden light...

Zhao Yi waited in a cemetery on the west side of the church.

The cemetery is a landmark building adjacent to the church.

This seems to suggest that churches possess the magical power to bring peace to the departed.

An inscription on a monument reads:

"Human knowledge and language are too limited to describe even a fraction of this wondrous world. We should always be in awe, respectful, and restrain our curiosity."

"Don't think that darkness is scary; sometimes... light can also burn your eyes."

"..."

Just as Zhao Yibai was idly reading the inscription, the system notified him again:

Player Wu Daquan is dead.

The second player to die.

Zhao Yi frowned.

If Liu Mang's death was an accident, then what about Wu Daquan's?

The threat they are currently facing has led Xiao Hong into the church to pray, guided by the sound of the bells. So... what killed Wu Daquan?

His eyes gleamed, as if he had thought of something.

The prayer did not last long.

About ten minutes.

Then the children walked out of the church like puppets, left the church, and returned to their dormitories in an orderly manner under the dark night.

Xiao Hong also reunited with her human skin.

She walked numbly toward the cemetery.

He walked past Zhao Yi, but it was as if he didn't see Zhao Yi at all.

Until Xiao Hong disappeared deep into the cemetery.

The last person to emerge from the church was Li Qi.

Unlike the other orphans, she showed no signs of confusion or dazedness; she remained clear-headed.

"Where...did it go?"

Li Qi carefully approached Zhao Yi, nervously gazing in the direction where Xiao Hong had disappeared.

Zhao Yi shook his head:

"Where it goes is not important."

"It's certain that Xiao Hong will come out again."

"Just not tonight."

"And the next time it comes out... it will be even more terrifying!"

Li Qi shivered upon hearing this.

Could it get even worse?

Wouldn't that mean wiping out all the players?

"Were any valuable clues found inside the church?"

Li Qi nodded:

"During the prayer, there was a certain chanting sound in the church, coming from a nun's robe."

"But inside the church, there were no priests or nuns praying."

"The children stood motionless in front of the nun's clothes."

Zhao Yi thought for a moment, then said firmly:

"It's a psychological influence."

The two started walking back.

Li Qi asked, puzzled:

"Psychological impact?"

"Then why don't I have...?"

Zhao smiled and asked in return:

How do you know you haven't been affected?

"Don't those children whose minds are being influenced and controlled actually realize that their minds are being affected and controlled?"

A cold sweat suddenly broke out on Li Qi's back!

"But you don't need to worry about that."

"The influence of the church is not necessarily negative... At least judging from Xiao Hong's behavior, the church has a positive influence on these children."

Zhao Yi told Li Qi that there was no need to be pessimistic.

With nowhere else to go, they had to return to their apartment.

Meng Huo and Bai Zhanji had already cleaned up Liu Mang's body.

The atmosphere was somber, both cold and oppressive, reflecting the gloom of summer.

In the past hour... they lost two teammates!

This is only the first day!

Meng Huo sat on the sofa smoking, the smoke acrid and pungent.

Upon seeing Zhao Yi, he looked up.

"How's it going with the female manager?"

Zhao Yi recounted what he had seen and heard to everyone, and Bai Zhanji exclaimed in surprise:

"So... this orphanage is using the church's influence to control the children?"

"But why would they do that?"

Meng Huo exhaled a smoke ring.

"If they don't do this, all the children will turn into Little Red...and perhaps it will be even more terrible!"

Mentioning Xiao Hong, the white-skinned chicken couldn't help but grab his curly hair and mutter curses:

"Damn Little Red...we didn't kill it, what's it doing here in the middle of the night?"

Zhao Yi sat on the sofa and said:

"Perhaps what she's looking for... isn't us."

The poached chicken was stunned:

"Not us?"

Zhao Yi explained:

Just as midnight struck, Xiao Hong entered the church to pray, guided by the bells, just like the other children.

"Wu Daquan died at around 12:03."

"This shows that it was not Xiao Hong who killed Wu Daquan."

"But it's someone else entirely."

Everyone fell silent. The white-cut chicken asked in confusion:

"Could it be that Wu Daquan has offended something terrible at the orphanage...?"

Zhao Yidao:

"It's possible, but unlikely."

"Compared to this possibility, I'm more inclined to think... it's Wang Kai and Xu Xiaocheng."

Li Qi was unfamiliar with these two names. She glanced at the system panel and exclaimed:

"Isn't that our teammate?"

Meng Huo said indifferently:

"They're just players matched together."

"When did we become teammates?"

Li Qi opened his mouth, but could not utter a word.

The poached chicken standing to the side also looked unwell.

"When people die, they have the opportunity to legitimately take up positions at the orphanage."

"This idea must have been born from the moment they were rejected by Liu Meimei."

"They just didn't dare to make a move because there were more of us."

"Xiao Hong's appearance...is a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity for them."

"This ghost... was most likely lured here on purpose."

Hearing this, the white-cut chicken clenched his fists and said angrily:

"These bastards..."

Zhao Yi crossed his legs and said lazily:

"You don't need to be so self-righteous."

"If you were in their shoes, you might have gone even further than they did."

The poached chicken froze, turning to look at Zhao Yi:

"You don't believe me?"

"Zhao Yi, let me tell you, even if I die, even if I die outside, I will never lay a hand on my teammates!"

Zhao smiled and didn't dwell on the matter, only saying:

"If they did indeed do it, then they will visit Liu Meimei tomorrow, and we will have two new colleagues."

The poached chicken stared wide-eyed, feeling slightly dizzy.

"No!"

"Working with this kind of person, you never know when you'll get screwed over!"

"They'd even kill their own people for their own benefit; they have absolutely no bottom line!"

Zhao Yi poured himself a cup of tea and smiled slightly at the poached chicken.

"So you're going to fight them to the death?"

The poached chicken froze, then forced a smile and said:

"If everyone works together... we should be able to easily subdue them both!"

Zhao Yi's lips curled up:

"If we have to take action over this, then you'll be the one who gets hurt, not them."

The poached chicken had a dull complexion and bluish lips.

"Zhao Yi, what do you mean?"

Zhao held the tea to his nose and smelled it, looking quite pleased.

That's the idea.

"Their value...is greater than yours."

The boiled chicken snorted coldly:

"You'll realize how stupid you were when they put a knife to your throat!"

Meng Huo patted him on the shoulder and comforted him:

"What Zhao Yi said was unpleasant, but it made a lot of sense."

"Being righteously opposed to evil is not a good thing in this cruel game."

"At the moment, we certainly can't remove them from our team... we just need to be on guard against them."

"Considering the costs they paid, their gains are disproportionate!"

Zhao stood up and patted his clothes:

"Alright, time to sleep... If those two join our team tomorrow, perhaps we can get more information out of them."

"Also... although you're stupid, I can give you a piece of advice because you're so honest..."

The poached chicken looked furious, and began to feel dizzy and lightheaded; its lips were turning even bluer.

He felt he was doing something wrong, but he still desperately wanted to refute Zhao Yi:

"I also have a piece of advice for you!"

Zhao Yi glanced at him:

"you say."

White-cut chicken pointed at Zhao Yi's chest with his finger, gritting his teeth:

"A person like you, who only knows how to pursue profit, will ultimately die because of profit!"

Zhao Yi scoffed:

"You better hurry up and stop your bleeding! You've spilled blood all over the floor, and you're still standing here getting all worked up?"

"I really don't know how a self-proclaimed righteous and morally bankrupt freak like you has survived this long..."

Upon hearing this, the poached chicken looked down.

Depend on!

The wound on his chest had reopened at some point!

The blood that flowed down pooled on the ground...

No wonder I got more and more dizzy the more I talked!

hateful!

What could cause my body to suddenly feel weak...?

Don't fall down!

Boiled chicken, you can't be so disappointing!

It would be so embarrassing to collapse while you're arguing with someone!

You have to stand up!

Don't fall!

Don't tip it over!!

Don't!!!

boom.

The poached chicken rolled its eyes back and collapsed onto the ground.

Clenched fists.

corner of the eye

A single tear of humiliation sheds.

...

Day two.

When Liu Meimei brought Wang and Xu to the crowd at noon, it confirmed Zhao Yi's guess from the previous night.

Liu Meimei seemed unconcerned about the deaths of Wu Daquan and Liu Mang.

Seeing the harmless smiles on Wang and Xu's faces, and their feigned sorrow and regret for the deaths of Wu and Liu, Bai Zhanji almost clenched his fists to pieces!

Shameless!

Shameless!

How can there be such shameless people in this world?

You are the ones who killed people, yet you're still here pretending to be sympathetic.

Nausea!

vomit!

Li Qi's complexion was also not good.

Only Zhao Yi and Meng Huo behaved normally.

By the second day, Zhao Yi and Meng Huo had completed the first main quest.

It was easier than they had expected.

In fact, more than three children have developed a sense of "respect" and goodwill towards Zhao Yi and Meng Huo.

This made Zhao Yi increasingly certain... that he had overlooked something very important!

Something that concerns their life and death!

...

night.

The players began exchanging messages.

Wang Kai and Xu Xiaocheng did not hold anything back.

They all knew this instance was no pushover, and that unity was the best option.

After all, their goal is to clear the level and obtain a lot of rewards, not to fight amongst themselves to the bitter end.

"We found a discarded roster in a very old, run-down storage room at the orphanage..."

Wang Kai took out a dusty roster and placed it in front of everyone.

The roster recorded the names of all the orphans and their brief information.

For example, date of birth, home address, basic information about one's family background, etc.

It's basically impossible to tell anything from this.

But what's interesting is that... this roster is incomplete.

Although it records information about 360 orphans in six classes.

But the last page... was torn out.

Why was the last page torn out?

"Could it be... that the Miracle Orphanage has taken in more than 360 orphans?"

The group felt their minds were completely blank.

If there are other orphans in the orphanage... where are they now?

Zhao Yi's eyes shone brightly as he asked Wang Kai and the other man:

"Is there anything else in that storage room?"

Wang Kai thought about it carefully.

"And... a skeleton."

"For a child?"

"No, it's for adults."

Wang Kai described it from memory:

"The remains were severely decomposed."

"It's impossible to tell the gender, but judging from the size of the skeleton, it's more likely to be female."

Zhao Yi was silent for a moment, then asked:

"Where's your hair?"

Wang Kai was stunned:

"What hair?"

Zhao Yi:

"The corpse's hair."

"I didn't see any... hair, nails, nothing at all."

Wang Kai didn't understand why Zhao Yi was asking this.

"Does this matter?"

Zhao Yi shook his head and muttered to himself:

"As expected... no hair or nails..."

The terrifying thought from before became clearer and clearer in my mind.

Various speculations have emerged.

After a long while, Zhao Yi's expression became unusually serious.

"Listen, if you don't want to die, then when you try to gain the children's favor later... it's best to catch them one by one!"

"Never cast a wide net!"

Upon hearing this, the others immediately became alert.

When it comes to life and death, it's hard for them not to take it seriously!

"Zhao Yi...did you discover something?"

Meng Huo stubbed out his cigarette, his heart racing.

Zhao Yi... he's really putting on a consistent performance!

Meng Huo considered himself to be quite capable, but so far, he only felt passive.

The extremely difficult dungeons are not meant for them to just brute force their way through.

Although his strength was among the top of the remaining six players, he had no ability to fight back against dungeon NPCs, such as fierce ghosts like Xiao Hong!

So in this instance, what matters is the items, the mindset, the courage, and the ability to adapt to changing circumstances!

Strength... has become the least important thing.

He was calm enough, but he still hadn't figured anything out.

Zhao Yi looked at Meng Huo and asked:

"On the first day, when Liu Meimei took us to class, who was the most abnormal?"

Meng Huo blurted out:

"Little Red".

"That's not right. Actually, she's the most normal one."

"At the time, all the children were very excited to dissect the rabbit, but Xiaohong showed the resistance that is typical of children..."

Zhao nodded:

"right!"

"That's the crux of the matter!"

"Think about it carefully...aren't those children who have gained your favor gradually becoming more normal?"

Meng Huo's body jolted violently!

Many images flashed through my mind like a silent film...

When the player hasn't gained favor, these children show considerable malice towards the player!

Their cruelty, their behavior, their way of speaking...

They are completely unlike any normal child!

But when they initially gained the player's favor... their attitude changed extremely quickly!

They no longer attempt to harm players.

They will interact with players normally, lie, and boast...

They will exhibit both fear and respect for the teacher...

Players will subconsciously think that this is a good change.

This shift changed the player's situation from "unstable" to "stable".

However, the instance had already given players a hint in the very first lesson of the first day—

A child who appears normal is more likely to break the rules.

It makes it easier for miracles to happen!

"The existence of the church and its rules is like a tool to protect children's minds at regular intervals."

"It bound the child, making them behave abnormally and strangely... but in fact, it perfectly prevented the first five miracles from happening and prevented the child from developing in a more dangerous direction."

"And we outsiders are like... a virus."

Zhao Yi's words made some players frown.

"We...are gradually undermining the mental defenses of these children."

"The higher the children's affinity with the player, the more attention they will pay to the player."

"At this point, when you tell a story to a child, or talk about something that interests them... you may find that they forget to smile at some unexpected moment."

"Imagine... in a couple of days, a dozen, or even dozens, of vengeful ghosts, just like Little Red, have appeared in this orphanage, blessed by a miracle..."

"Does anyone here believe they are confident they will survive?"

Zhao Yi's words instilled great fear in all the players present!

Their faces were pale, and their fingers were trembling uncontrollably...

The vengeful ghost that flew its own skin like a kite last night has left them with a deep psychological scar!

If dozens of such vengeful ghosts came...

Oh shit!

Is this the dungeon with the highest difficulty level?

The system's mission is clearly designed to kill them!

Generally speaking, ordinary players will subconsciously think that since the main quest requires gaining the "respect" favorability of at least three children, the more "respect" favorability they gain, the higher their completion rate of the quest will be, and the richer the rewards will be...

But after Zhao Yi's analysis, these players suddenly felt a chill run down their spines...

If they really insist on playing like this, they'll probably be wiped out before the seventh day!

Meng Huo and Zhao Yi, in particular, had already clearly realized...

Winning over these kids' favor... isn't difficult!

The system has dug a huge pit, just to lure players into jumping in like crazy!

Seeing their surprised expressions, Zhao Yi shook his head inwardly.

This is actually... just one of the scary things about this instance.

There was something even more terrifying, more dangerous, and more desperate that he didn't say.

It will cause panic.

This could cause the situation to spiral out of control.

This would deprive him of the possibility of delivering the final blow to the mastermind behind the scenes.

Based on the clues we have obtained so far, and the information given by Wang and Xu, Zhao Yi has roughly simulated in his mind the two most likely overt and covert crises in this instance.

Regardless of which one.

For most players... it's an unavoidable fatal blow!

However, Zhao Yi couldn't be 100% sure that his guess was correct.

He needs more clues.

"Once tomorrow... after this orphan's file comes out tomorrow, the truth will gradually begin to surface..."

"However, how to get through tonight's crisis... is truly a headache..."

Upon hearing Zhao Yi's words, the other players immediately panicked:

"Tonight's crisis?"

"What do you mean?"

"Is that Little Red girl going to knock on the door again?!"

Just as Li Qi finished speaking, a dull thud came from the apartment door:

Bang bang bang!

Everyone jumped up from their seats like startled cats, staring nervously at the apartment door!

Bang bang bang!

Three more sounds.

No one responded. Apart from Zhao Yi and Meng Huo, who remained calm, the other four players ran straight to the window, ready to run away at any moment!

A brief silence...

Their eyes were bloodshot, and their hearts were pounding in their throats!

What exactly is outside the door?

Little Red?

still is……

Slightly——

Just when everyone was extremely tense, the sound of a key being inserted into the lock came from the doorway.

agitation.

The door opened.

Liu Meimei's familiar face appeared before the players' eyes.

The six players finally relaxed.

"...Manager Liu, you knocking on the door so late at night scared us to death!"

Li Qi was panting, and reached up to touch the sweat on his forehead.

My body is shaking violently!

Liu Meimei said helplessly:

"Didn't you say this place was haunted at night?"

"I also saw Little Red without skin wandering around, so I thought I'd come and check on you guys."

"After all, if you guys mess things up again, I'll have to put up the job postings all over again..."

Although Meng Huo's hand holding the water glass was trembling slightly, he still smiled and said:

"Thank you for your concern. Nothing strange has happened tonight."

"Perhaps it's because you came?"

"Why don't you stay here tonight? We'll give you a room."

Liu Meimei shook her head:

"That won't do. I have other work to do at the dean's office building tonight."

"If I don't finish what I need to do today, I won't get any sleep tomorrow."

"Stop being so superstitious... The orphanage has been open for so many years, and there has never been any talk of it being haunted."

Seeing that everyone was alright, she prepared to leave.

As she was leaving, Liu Meimei suddenly said something strange.

"The mausoleum outside the church is quite quiet."

After saying that, she closed the door and left in a hurry.

After Liu Meimei left, Wang Kai said with a wry smile:

"I thought it was that vengeful ghost without skin again..."

Li Qi was still shaken:

"Me too……"

"But thankfully, the security guards are here tonight. Does that mean we're safe?"

Zhao Yi squinted:

"Safety my ass."

"Didn't you notice... there's someone else in our room?"

PS: A long chapter of 6500 words.

I'm not in good shape.

The lines are almost all buried; now it's time to start preparing to collect them.

I went downstairs today and found that the guy on the first floor was keeping a few big turtles.

The more I look at it, the more I like it.

All right!

That's all for today.

I feel like I've been overthinking things these past few days.

Once I finish this book, I'm definitely going to switch to a less messed-up subject to write about.

Goodnight in advance!

Kids, remember to poop today too!