Chapter 54: Chapter 54: A New Weird Tale
After letting the Mask sleep off to the side, Duan Fei was about to discuss the situation with Bald Qiang when he noticed Jinghong staring at him, looking annoyed.
"What are you looking at me for?" Duan Fei asked, confused.
"I’m considering whether I should just lock you up. It would save you the trouble of hanging out with shady characters." Jinghong said quietly, her eyes completely devoid of light.
"Jinghong, I have to say, you’re getting better at telling jokes," Duan Fei remarked.
"I don’t think she was joking," Little Fatty said timidly.
"Get outta here. Jinghong and I have been childhood friends for years. You think I can’t tell when she’s joking?"
"Duan Someone, you’re so damn smart about everything else, so why are you a complete idiot when it comes to Jinghong! Get a clue, already! Otherwise, you’re going to go missing one of these days!"
"You’re exaggerating, right?"
"That was the toned-down version!"
Duan Fei patted Little Fatty on the shoulder, telling him he was overthinking it, then turned to strategize with Bald Qiang.
Based on the Mask’s previous behavior, changing its name also had a significant effect on its relationships.
If he changed his name to "Mask’s Father" or "Mask’s Mother," then this boss, an entity born from a horror film, would be affected and would genuinely believe Duan Fei was one of its parents.
"Names carry great significance in many cultures," Bald Qiang, the genuine Daoist, explained. "This is especially true for entities born from horror films; they place immense importance on names. A name change wouldn’t affect us, but these fictional beings are easily influenced by them."
"Master, do you have to be a student of philosophy to be a Daoist?" Duan Fei asked, perplexed.
"Not really, it’s a personal hobby. A guy has to have something to do up on the mountain," Bald Qiang said with a laugh.
"You could play video games."
"Sigh. I used to, but after I dragged the abbot through a ten-game losing streak, he won’t let me play anymore. If I hadn’t argued that *Abyss* is full of all sorts of supernatural creatures, and that playing it would improve my professional skills, the abbot would’ve confiscated my helmet."
At that moment, Duan Fei felt that the life of a Daoist was surprisingly eventful.
After discussing the Mask’s effects, Duan Fei opened his mission panel and saw that his Weird Tale completion count had happily ticked up by one.
Learning this, Bald Qiang nodded and said that the next time a Weird Tale appeared, he would call the others. Maybe they could piggyback off it and get a completion count too.
Just as he agreed, Duan Fei noticed the lights in the screening room begin to flicker. The movie that was playing sputtered, then stopped altogether.
In the darkness, Duan Fei pulled out the Fluorescent Agent he had acquired in the first instance dungeon and smeared it on the wall.
Once the room was illuminated again, Duan Fei said to Jack, "Probably a problem with the generator. I’ll go check it out. Where is it?"
"In the basement. Just take the stairs down," Jack said, munching on a chocolate bar.
"I’ll go with you."
Jinghong stood, walked over to Duan Fei, and naturally took his hand, pulling him along toward the stairs.
The moment they entered the stairwell, she plastered herself against him and said in a monotone worthy of a poorly dubbed film, "Wow, it’s so dark and scary."
Duan Fei reached out and felt Jinghong’s forehead. "You don’t have a fever, do you?" he asked, puzzled.
"..."
"You usually watch horror movies with a complete poker face. Sometimes, you don’t even get which parts are supposed to be scary. I thought you might be sick or something."
"So... you’ve been watching me all this time?"
In the darkness, Duan Fei felt Jinghong’s hand soften in his. A light sheen of sweat had formed on her palm, betraying a hint of nervousness.
"Well, yeah. You’re my childhood friend, after all."
Jinghong’s hand instantly grew hot, and her whisper echoed in the darkness. "...Like."
"Yeah, yeah, I like you too."
"Not that kind of like... But never mind."
"Right, right. Never mind, never mind."
Even without the power outage, the elevator in the abandoned hospital was unusable.
The two made their way down the stairs. They encountered no obstacles and smoothly arrived at the basement, which also served as the morgue.
A chill washed over Duan Fei the moment he stepped inside.
The air conditioning system had been defunct for years, but a psychological dread still sent a shiver down his spine.
After smearing some Fluorescent Agent by the entrance, Duan Fei saw that the morgue’s freezer doors were open. Inside were corpses that had no business being there.
They were floating in mid-air, their upper torsos phasing through the ceiling to the floor above, leaving only their lower bodies dangling here.
[The bizarre scene has impacted your Spirit. Your Spirit Attribute is temporarily reduced by 1.]
’Damn it, if only I still had that gift from before. I wonder what this place would look like if it were "beautified"? Would we get black stockings or white ones?’
At his side, Jinghong squeezed his hand and whispered, "I can do both."
"Thanks, bro, but I’m not really interested in seeing you in them."
"...Give me back my ’like’ from before."
The scene before them was bizarre, but not overtly hostile.
Realizing they had been targeted by some kind of Weird Tale, Jinghong told Duan Fei to close his eyes, then took his hand and started leading him forward.
As they advanced, the floating bodies began to slowly turn. Then, with the speed of a clock’s second hand, they whipped around 180 degrees to stare down at Jinghong and Duan Fei, now upside down.
They all had the exact same face. Their skin was shriveled like a mummy’s, and their eyelids had been cut away, leaving bloodshot eyes to stare unblinkingly at Jinghong and Duan Fei below.
Any normal person witnessing this would have at least wet their pants, and their Spirit would have dropped a few points. Anything less would be an insult to the zealous performance from the ceiling.
But just as Duan Fei had said, Jinghong showed absolutely no Reaction.
She frowned at the scene before her, completely unable to understand what was so frightening about it.
They weren’t attacking, they weren’t causing any negative side effects, there were no strange rules to follow, and no mysterious assaults.
’They’re just a bunch of textures. How could that possibly scare someone?’
Frowning at the creatures, Jinghong continued forward, only to find the door to the power distribution room blocked by a pile of bodies.
They had entangled themselves like pieces of a jigsaw puzzle, their complex poses forming a solid barricade that blocked the doorway.
Drawing her Yo-Yo, Jinghong said in a low voice, "Get shattered or get out of the way. Your choice."
Stared down by the expressionless Jinghong, the corpses hesitated for a moment before finally choosing to make way.
For some reason, they had a feeling it was best not to provoke her.
Leading Duan Fei into the power room, Jinghong took the automated repair kit from his hands, found the blown fuse, and simply replaced it.
On her way out, she even politely said, "Thank you," to the corpses that had made way, leaving them to watch in even greater speechlessness as she and Duan Fei departed.
Back in the screening room, in response to everyone’s questions, Jinghong simply commented, "I don’t get it, but I thought it was pretty boring."
Weird Tale completion count: +1.
Comments