IGSB – Chapter 4
Chapter 4: Entering the New World (Part 4)
With the crushed servant on the ground below and a sinister ghost above, the atmosphere grew heavier than ever before.
Xia Zhiyi quickly snapped back to reality, preparing to flee for her life at top speed.
Jing Ruyu was a bit faster, already grabbing her hand and pulling her toward the exit.
This is no time to be dazed, my life is on the line!
But just as they took a step out of the storeroom, they saw the quest NPC, Xiao Qiao, suddenly appear at the doorway.
She was silent, like a phantom.
Their hurried steps came to a forced halt, and the two stopped just in time to avoid colliding with Xiao Qiao.
They exchanged glances.
Jing Ruyu tightened her grip on Xia Zhiyi's hand and calmly walked around Xiao Qiao.
Under the warmth of the sun, the lingering chill from the storeroom dissipated, and their taut nerves relaxed slightly, allowing them to regain their composure.
Xia Zhiyi looked back at the storeroom, trying to see if the ghost had followed them, but she saw nothing.
The spot where the ghost had appeared was now empty. If not for the shocking bloodstains on the ground, it would have seemed like a dream—a nightmare.
Jing Ruyu soon noticed the ghost had vanished as well.
Xiao Qiao glanced coldly in the direction of the servant, frowning and shaking her head, seemingly very displeased.
“I told you to be quick and tidy.”
Xia Zhiyi was momentarily speechless.
...So this was the consequence of not being quick and tidy?
Xia Zhiyi watched as Xiao Qiao walked straight toward the servant, reached out, and pulled the crushed body from under the wooden box as casually as if she were tearing a piece of old cloth.
Yet Xiao Qiao’s expression was serene, as if she were long accustomed to it. The calmer she appeared, the more shocking the scene became.
The sight made Xia Zhiyi want to vomit, and a chill spread through her body.
She even saw the servant’s fingers twitch slightly.
Then, a hand covered her eyes, and Jing Ruyu’s voice sounded by her ear, “I’m here, don’t be afraid.”
Xiao Qiao grasped the man’s limp hand and stood calmly in the cold storeroom. After surveying the surroundings, she fixed her gaze on them. “This place is tidied up, and it’s time for the lunch break. You two honored guests should go back and rest.”
“After all, there’s more work this afternoon.”
With that, she curled her lips into a smile, wearing the expression of someone enjoying a good show.
Xia Zhiyi sat in their room, lost in thought.
The room was furnished with extreme simplicity.
Upon opening the door, a table and chairs stood in the center. To the left, two beds were placed against the wall, facing each other, each with a pillow and a quilt. There was nothing else.
The overall space felt small and cramped, hardly a place to entertain honored guests.
Right now, Xia Zhiyi had no time to worry about such things. Her mind was replaying the events in the storeroom over and over.
Whenever she lowered her head, the bloodstains on her cotton slippers would stab at her eyes, reminding her of what she had just experienced.
Any previous sense of unreality had been shattered by the presence of death.
The specks of blood on her shoes dragged her crashing back to reality, and she became fully awake.
This was not a dream.
This was a death game, a fight for her life.
If she lost, she would be out of the game forever, with no second chances.
At this thought, her fingers slowly tightened, gripping her jacket. A surge of defiance erupted in her heavy chest.
She didn’t want to die. No one wanted to die.
Her life had just begun. Why should she have to sit here and wait for death?
She hadn’t even told her parents she had quit her job, hadn’t been their daughter long enough. How could she die just like that and let them bury their own child?
Why should she have to die just because this world wanted her to?!
Why? She refused to accept it!!!
Lifting her gaze past the food on the table, she looked at her former lover.
“As long as I can get out of here alive, I can live, right?”
Jing Ruyu nodded.
Xia Zhiyi asked again, “The trials here, there must be a way to survive, right?”
She wanted to live, but she didn’t want to waste her efforts.
If the New World never intended for them to leave alive from the start, then no matter how hard they struggled in this cage, it would be useless.
Jing Ruyu nodded again. “The trials of the New World have no dead ends.”
Seeing the faint glimmer in Xia Zhiyi’s eyes, she couldn’t help but add, “Zhiyi, this is a complex world. It is both merciful and cruel. It grants new life, but it is also merciless when death comes. This is the price of survival.”
“And our task here is to survive by any means necessary, for this moment, and for the future.”
At that moment, Xia Zhiyi gained a deeper understanding of those words.
Yes, they had to survive, by any means necessary!
Pulling herself together, Xia Zhiyi’s eyes shone with a new light.
She picked up her chopsticks and began to eat, replenishing her energy.
Since she had decided to live, she had to eat. Without food, she wouldn’t have the energy to think, let alone run!
Jing Ruyu was relieved to see her spirits lift and started eating as well.
Xia Zhiyi spoke as she ate, “You really know a lot.”
Jing Ruyu just smiled without saying a word.
With her cheeks puffed, Xia Zhiyi asked, “So, are we just going to stay in the New World and clear instances forever? Can’t we go home?”
Jing Ruyu shook her head. “After clearing an instance, we’ll return to the real world. When the time comes, the New World will send us back in.”
Hearing that she could go home gave Xia Zhiyi even more motivation.
The two ate in silence.
After finishing, Xia Zhiyi remembered Xiao Qiao’s earlier actions and asked one last question, “Will the quest NPCs harm us?”
“No,” Jing Ruyu said. “Under normal circumstances, they cannot attack players.”
In contrast to the chaos of the New World, the peaceful lunch break passed quickly, and Xiao Qiao came to assign new tasks.
“You two, go to the ice cellar,” Xiao Qiao said, looking at Xia Zhiyi and Jing Ruyu. “Some things inside are out of place. Go tidy them up, and place this in the very back. Be quick and tidy, and don’t knock it over.”
With that, she handed Xia Zhiyi a tray on which sat several ordinary-looking bouquets of flowers.
Xia Zhiyi held the tray and exchanged a look with Jing Ruyu.
Xiao Qiao finished assigning tasks to everyone else, then concluded, “After completing the afternoon tasks, you can come back directly. There’s no need to wait for dinner time.”
“Do any of you honored guests have any other questions?”
The crowd looked at one another.
Just then, a fair arm shot up high, drawing everyone’s attention.
Xia Zhiyi raised her hand and said, “I do.”
Xiao Qiao asked, “What question does the honored guest have?”
Xia Zhiyi said, “Get me a pair of shoes, the kind you’re wearing.”
Xiao Qiao: “?”
Xia Zhiyi lifted her foot, revealing her cotton slippers. “These shoes are inconvenient for work. The Gu Residence is so grand, surely you can afford to provide a pair of shoes for a guest?”
“…”
Xiao Qiao turned her head and ordered, “Go get the honored guest a pair of shoes.”
Xia Zhiyi shouted after the departing servant, “I want new ones!”
“And they have to fit! They must be comfortable, or I won’t work!”
Xiao Qiao: “…”
It felt like this person had changed a lot over lunch.
After calmly making her demands, Xia Zhiyi turned and whispered to Jing Ruyu, “I can’t run fast in slippers. A better pair will be good for running away.”
She was no longer the dazed Xia Zhiyi from the morning.
Before embarking on any journey, she first had to start her life of surviving by any means necessary.
Morals and manners could be temporarily cast aside. What use were they when dealing with ghosts and the New World?
Seeing her like this, a hint of a smile appeared in Jing Ruyu’s eyes. She said approvingly, “Our Xiao Xia is doing the right thing.”
The intimate tone was just like before they had broken up.
As soon as the words were out, they both realized. The smiles on their faces froze instantly, and an awkwardness arose. They tacitly averted their gazes, pretending to admire the scenery.
A short while later, Xia Zhiyi got her new shoes as she wished.
She tried them on. They fit perfectly, ideal for running away.
Very good. The quest NPC had some morals in this regard and hadn’t tricked her.
The person who brought her the shoes also led them to the underground ice cellar.
But this time was different from the morning. The person didn’t stay, only telling them where to place the flowers on the tray before leaving.
Facing the sealed wooden door, Xia Zhiyi held the tray and turned to ask Jing Ruyu, “Are you okay?”
Her ex-girlfriend was afraid of the cold, more so than most people.
She still remembered that.
Jing Ruyu’s brow furrowed slightly as she gave a very light nod.
Not really okay, but she couldn’t refuse.
She proactively reached out and pushed open the ice cellar door. The cold air that had accumulated behind it rushed out, sweeping over every inch of their skin and leaving a chill in its wake.
Alright, she was starting to feel not so okay.
Xia Zhiyi felt cold too.
She was still wearing shorts and a short-sleeved shirt inside, and the blast of cold air immediately gave her goosebumps.
Looking in from the doorway, the ice blocks stacked inside were covered with layers of straw, much of which had fallen to the ground, waiting to be cleaned up.
At the very back of the ice cellar stood a wooden cabinet with several vases on it. The vases held flowers that had already withered and lost their vitality.
Their task was to pick up all the straw from the ground, spread it over the ice, and then replace the flowers in the vases.
Xia Zhiyi couldn’t understand why anyone would put a useless flower in an ice cellar, but then she remembered this was the New World and stopped dwelling on it.
This place could create instances to kill people, so why bother with normal logic?
Most importantly, this time there wasn’t even an NPC to question!
The ice cellar was as quiet as the storeroom had been.
The moment they stepped inside, Xia Zhiyi felt Jing Ruyu move closer to her—not out of fear, but in search of warmth.
Neither of them wanted to linger. They went in, quickly gathered the straw and spread it out, and finally went together to change the flowers on the wooden cabinet.
Xia Zhiyi took a moment to observe her surroundings. It was a sealed space, with no other visible passages and no unusual sounds of water.
There’s probably no exit here, she silently concluded.
They approached the half-human-height wooden cabinet with extreme caution.
It was perfectly calm.
You could hear a pin drop.
They looked at each other, determined to finish quickly.
Jing Ruyu’s face was pale; she clearly detested this cold environment as much as possible.
She swiftly pulled out the withered flowers and prepared to place a fresh bouquet from the tray into the vase, only to find that it wouldn’t go in. The mouth of the vase seemed to be blocked.
“What’s wrong?” Xia Zhiyi asked.
“It’s blocked, I can’t put them in,” Jing Ruyu changed her approach, pulling out a single flower and trying to place it inside. The stem instantly slid into the vase without resistance. “It seems they want us to put them in one by one.”
Xia Zhiyi was speechless.
The New World really knew how to make things difficult.
“This damn place… let’s hurry. Aren’t you afraid of the cold? Let’s finish and get out of here to avoid any danger.”
“Mm.”
Jing Ruyu didn’t delay, speeding up to add the flowers one by one.
Xia Zhiyi knew that time was precious and was about to put down the tray to help when a strange sound suddenly reached their ears. In the blink of an eye, with a smack, something was grabbed.
Xia Zhiyi froze and looked down at her leg—
A pale, withered arm was reaching out from the wall, gripping her ankle tightly.
A smashed, yet familiar, face appeared before them.
The atmosphere instantly dropped to a freezing point.
In the cold air, the mangled mouth opened and closed, spitting out resentfully, “I’m not resigned…”
In an instant, they recognized this ghost—the servant who had been crushed to death in the storeroom.
“Hah…”
A ghostly whisper, no longer human.
“Go die, go die—”
The next moment, he suddenly tightened his grip!
“—Wait a minute!”
Xia Zhiyi suddenly shouted, catching everyone off guard.
The ghost servant was stunned by her shout.
Seeing that he was actually stunned, Xia Zhiyi very naturally handed him the tray and said casually, “Here, help me hold the young lady’s flowers.”
Hearing the familiar words, the ghost servant instinctively reached out to take it.
When he realized he had been tricked, he became furious, smashed the tray on the ground, and was about to attack again, but a white light suddenly flashed before his eyes!
“Clang.”
“Ah—”
Amidst the piercing scream, the tray crashed to the ground. Among the scattered flowers, a withered hand fell limply to the floor.
Jing Ruyu swiftly sheathed her knife. As she stood up, Xia Zhiyi grabbed her, and they turned and bolted.
With her new shoes, Xia Zhiyi’s running speed had clearly increased, and she pulled Jing Ruyu out of the ice cellar in a flash.
Only after they were out of the ice cellar did the two dare to relax.
They had figured out a general pattern—the side quests forced them into these places because the ghosts here couldn’t leave a specific area. They could only appear and kill within that range.
As expected, the ghost servant with the severed hand howled and chased them to the doorway, but was forced to stop, staring at them resentfully.
The ice cellar was underground, and the surroundings were dim. The light was faint, and the candlelight on the wall seemed particularly weak and small.
They kept their distance from the ghost, silently enduring its venomous gaze.
Then, they saw the ghost servant suddenly dodge to the side, as if it had seen something even more terrifying than itself.
The two turned around and saw Xiao Qiao standing right behind them, holding a candle lamp. Her youthful face was half in the light and half hidden in darkness, exuding a ghostly aura.
Xia Zhiyi was startled.
Jing Ruyu pulled her behind her, one hand secretly reaching for the short knife at her waist.
Xiao Qiao first glanced slowly at Jing Ruyu, whose color was returning to her face, before re-examining the two of them.
“You knocked over the flowers,” she said slowly. “I told you, you must not knock things over. The Gu Residence does not welcome clumsy people.”
Her tone was icy and tinged with a hint of cruelty, as if she were pronouncing their death sentence.
Silence instantly filled the cellar, the air thick with killing intent.
Just then, Xia Zhiyi suddenly turned and shouted into the ice cellar, “Hey ghost, did you hear that? Butler Qiao is going to deal with you! Soon you’ll be a homeless ghost!”
Xiao Qiao: “?”
The ghost servant behind the door: “?”
Even Jing Ruyu looked at her, confused.
Xiao Qiao said, “I was talking about you two.”
Xia Zhiyi turned back and frowned. “How can it be us? Did you see it?”
Xiao Qiao scoffed, “Of course I saw it.”
Xia Zhiyi retorted, “What did you see?”
Xiao Qiao replied, “You gave the tray to a ghost, and the tray was knocked over.”
Xia Zhiyi smiled slightly. “That’s right, the tray was knocked over in the ghost’s hands, so what does that have to do with us? The one who did it is responsible. We don’t take the blame for others, not even for ghosts.”
“…”
Xiao Qiao pressed, “Why did you give it to him? That was your task.”
Xia Zhiyi replied, “My hands were tired, so I wanted him to help hold it for a moment. I never said I wouldn’t take it back.”
To distract Xiao Qiao, she even began to unscrupulously stir up trouble.
“Xiao Qiao, I think you should go ask that ghost why he tried to hold the tray with only one hand, why he knocked over the tray knowing it was a task you assigned, and why he was muttering things like ‘not resigned’.”
“Oh! I know! He doesn’t respect you. He’s challenging your authority as a butler. He wants to usurp your position and become the butler—he has ill intentions!”
“Can you tolerate this? If word gets out, how will you maintain your standing in the Gu Residence?! Go, go deal with him now, beat him black and blue, until he doesn’t know if he’s human or beast!”
“We’ll keep watch for you outside. If the master or young lady comes, we’ll block them for you, don’t worry!”
The eavesdropping ghost servant: “???”
How can you shift the blame and slander a ghost like that? Does this person have any morals???
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