Feng Rui let himself fall onto the hard mattress of his room, both physically and mentally exhausted.
He felt as though he had consumed ten bottles of energy drinks. His body was filled with energy, but he was utterly fatigued. He didn't dare wander around at night when the ghosts were stronger and a vengeful demon might catch him.
He had placed several seals and scrolls made from his blood to keep intruders out of his room. A dagger lay nearby, along with several objects he could throw if necessary. Also, he had already examined his body, but his core was still damaged, and he couldn't cultivate as he once did.
Tomorrow, he would have to attempt to leave the mansion or at least venture out of his courtyard to search for more clues.
Time passed, and the darkness of night enveloped the Han mansion. Silence became oppressive, with the flickering flames of the candles dancing to a nonexistent wind.
At some point during the night, Feng Rui sensed that something was wrong. His mind woke up, but his body remained immobile. He tried to move a finger, an arm, anything, but it was in vain. An overwhelming pressure settled on his chest, stealing the air from his lungs.
'No… not again…' he thought as panic began to take hold of him.
He couldn't move.
The same feeling of helplessness washed over him like a tidal wave, dragging him into a pit of terror.
It was just like before, just like when his body had been damaged.
Feng Rui felt as though he couldn't breathe. A small voice in his mind told him it was impossible, that he was now in a different body, but the fear overwhelmed him, and his negative thoughts surged like a storm, drowning everything else.
His memories were mixed up and he didn't know what was the true reality.
Then the voices began. At first, they were faint whispers, barely audible, but soon they turned into screams and sobs.
"No… it can't be! It can't be!" His mother's voice was clear, filled with despair.
"Yun Chen, bro… you can't leave us…" One of his friends spoke, his voice cracking with pain.
"We tried everything… but there's nothing more we can do…" The voice of a doctor, cold and professional, one he despised. It seemed detached from the suffering of all his patients, all his experiments.
It was as though he was back in that hospital bed, hearing the voices of his loved ones while his body lay motionless, unable to respond. Despair engulfed him, reminding him that back then, he couldn't even cry.
"Love…"
His girlfriend's voice was the final straw.
He was back.
And he was dead.
He wanted to scream, but his throat produced no sound. The pressure on his chest increased, and every second felt like an eternity.
Suddenly, the voices changed. They were no longer family or friends, they were unfamiliar whispers, mocking and cold.
"Why are you fighting again?"
"This world was destroyed because of you…"
"You couldn't protect them."
The images of his sister in the game, of his friends, and of the people in his clan appeared one by one like flashes.
'Enough!' he wanted to scream, but his mind could only repeat it in silence, his heart pounding frantically.
Something dark was watching him from the shadows, and the worst part was that he knew that presence all too well. It was someone who shouldn't be there.
The Celestial Demon.
The being that ruled the evil clan, led the undead and sowed chaos and destruction wherever he went simply because it amused him.
A first-rate psychopath.
Like a rehearsed choreography, Feng Rui recreated the seal that had imprisoned him. He didn't know if it would work, but he imagined his other self, Feng Rui of the Xiao Clan—the character he had spent so long leveling up—and the image shifted to the final war.
Many had sacrificed themselves just to defeat the Celestial Demon.
Piles of corpses, rivers of blood staining the barren land, and their auras desperately attempting to claim victory.
In the end, at the cost of his own life, he sealed it all away, and just as if an invisible string had snapped, Feng Rui woke up with a jolt.
He sat up abruptly, gasping and drenched in sweat. His breathing was erratic, and his chest rose and fell rapidly as he tried to convince himself that he was awake, that he was no longer trapped in that place.
A trembling hand wiped the sweat from his face. The room was dark, but the familiar outlines of the furniture reassured him somewhat. Still, he couldn't shake the feeling of being watched, as though something invisible lingered in the room.
"It's not real… it was just a dream…" he told himself, trying to calm down. But his body trembled, and his mind kept replaying the voices and the terror he had felt. It was clear that the memories of his time in the hospital, paralyzed and trapped, still haunted him. And now, in this world full of ghostly energy and dark secrets, those traumas seemed to return with greater force.
He didn't dare lie down again. Instead, he chose to drop to the floor and do push-ups, even though physical training no longer had the same effect.
He needed at least sparring matches if he wanted to learn something new.
And he needed to find a new teacher.
...
The next morning, Feng Rui carefully opened the door and stepped out of his room, determined to speak with the general. They needed to discuss what was happening, but his path was blocked by the same doctor and servants from the previous day.
"Step aside. I need to speak with my father," he said.
"Young master Feng, the general is busy at the moment. We will call him for you," the doctor replied in a polite but firm tone. "It's better if you return to your room. You need to rest and take your medicine."
Feng Rui felt a stab of irritation.
What if I started raising the Kraken and feeding it to these ghosts?
"This is important. I need to speak with him now," he said, trying to sound authoritative.
The doctor shook his head, standing his ground.
"I'm sorry, young master. But the general's orders are clear. In the meantime, you must take this." A servant stepped forward, holding a porcelain bowl containing a dense, bitter-looking medicine.
Feng Rui eyed the dark liquid suspiciously. Where had it come from? He was certain the servants had been empty-handed when they arrived.
'Am I trapped in an illusion?'
"Is it poison again?"
The doctor frowned.
"Young Master Feng, it seems your illness is acting up again…"
Before he could finish, Feng Rui took a step back and let a small ceramic vase fall from a nearby table. The sound of it shattering echoed through the hallway as he grabbed a sharp shard and pointed it toward his wrist.
"Don't force me…" he said in a cold tone, though inside, he struggled to maintain the act. He even had a dagger, but for dramatic effect, he had smashed the vase, hoping to draw more servants to the area. "If you try to force me, I'll hurt myself."
The doctor and the servants exchanged uneasy glances, clearly taken aback. They hadn't anticipated this reaction. Finally, one of the servants took a step back.
"Please, young master, don't do anything rash…" one of them said, raising their hands in a gesture of peace. "We will leave."
One by one, they stepped aside, though guards gathered at a distance, watching him with a vigilant and hostile gaze.
It was clear they wouldn't let him escape.
Feng Rui sighed and turned back toward his room. He tossed the shard aside and collapsed into a chair.
No other servants came to bother him, and on his way back, the guards from the previous night were nowhere to be seen.
'Were they connected? Were only the ones who had already died haunting me?'
The walls of his room seemed to close in on him. The air felt heavy.
He was certain he was being watched, cornered like prey.
He needed to find a way to contact the general directly.
'What if I start a fire?' Feng Rui thought. Ghosts were weak to fire. He could also try to exorcise them… but would the herbs he needed even be in his courtyard?
'System are there more players around?'
[No]
'Can I send any other missions?'
[No]
'What good are you if you can't help me now? I resign from being an NPC! At least as a player, I could level up more easily!' he thought in frustration.
[Action cannot be performed. Feng Rui of the Han Clan is an NPC and cannot be controlled by a player.]
"..."
At least he got an answer other than no.
Desperate, Feng Rui decided to try something more radical: a reverse soul seal. Though the technique was dangerous and rarely used, he had spent years perfecting it in the game.
He was good at practically everything, but it was of no use in his current circumstances.
He stretched out his injured hand, grabbed a sheet, and quickly drew a circle of blood on the ground. He sat down, closed his eyes, and began to draw in ghostly energy.
The air around him began to ripple, and ghostly energy started gathering with ease.
Feng Rui felt the seal react, trembling slightly, but it wasn't enough.
The backlash from his failed attempt made him cough up blood.
"Damn it! I don't have enough power…" he thought, feeling the energy from the seal begin to dissipate.
He cleaned everything up before collapsing onto the floor. It would be worse if his blood attracted who-knows-what.
After some thought, he decided to escape through the window again and search for the source of the matrix, suspecting it might be the origin of all the anomalies.
However, when he tried to cross the garden and head toward the lake, he encountered an invisible barrier that prevented him from moving forward.
'Was this because of the Kraken? Did the general place it?'
He had no choice but to investigate other places.
Carefully, he began inspecting every corner, following the matrix patterns and searching for weaknesses.
After what felt like hours, he found a point where the energy was weaker.
Preparing to break it, he drew a new seal on his arm to condense the energy. But just as he was about to activate it, a voice stopped him.
"I wouldn't do that if I were you…"
The hair on his neck stood on end.
He recognized the deep, mocking voice.
Feng Rui spun around, and what he saw made his heart stop.
Standing before him was the demon, this time in the form of his grandfather. The old man smiled sinisterly, his eyes glowing with a blood-red light.
"There are far darker things in here than you realize…" the demon continued. "Breaking it would be your worst decision, and…"
"Is everyone inside already dead?" Feng Rui interrupted.
He couldn't trust the demon, but if this was a player, things might be different.
The demon's eyes widened in shock, and an expression of surprise crossed his face.
"What?! How could you possibly know that?! It took me months to figure it out! … Ahem, well, if you already know, it's better to leave it alone."
"I need to leave…" Feng Rui said, clenching his fists.
"You'll die out there."
"If I stay here, I'll die too."
"It's different. Here, you might revive like last time."
Feng Rui didn't miss the "might."
"How much do you know?"