Upon sensing the appearance of that invisible ball, the atmosphere instantly became exceptionally heavy.
Everyone's actions halted, and no one dared to make any reckless moves.
In the silent room, only a few faint breathing sounds were noticeably clear.
Jiang Xiuxiu involuntarily held her breath and glanced towards the direction where the ball's sound had come from.
The empty corner only had a dark carpet and a threshold.
Apart from that, there was nothing.
"Big sister, did you see my ball?"
As Jiang Xiuxiu looked over, a soft voice suddenly came to her ear.
Jiang Xiuxiu was slightly taken aback.
A ball? Seeing a ball?
It was the voice of a little boy, clear and childish, light and ethereal, yet also elusive.
It appeared quietly behind Jiang Xiuxiu's ear, echoing in the silent air, abruptly and eerily.
"Big sister, where's my ball? Did you see it?" it asked softly.
A ball?
But there was nothing on the ground over there.
Jiang Xiuxiu, in a daze, moved her lips, instinctively wanting to respond, "I didn't see it."
But in the next second, she couldn't help but recall the lines she had seen on the abandoned courtyard walls earlier:
"Do not listen, do not respond, do not turn around."
Jiang Xiuxiu suddenly came to her senses.
She lowered her head and quickly withdrew her gaze.
She pressed her lips together, remaining silent, pretending not to have heard anything.
This was different from the first game; she couldn't respond to the ghosts here.
She couldn't listen, couldn't look, couldn't turn around, and couldn't respond.
"Big sister, big sister."
Seeing Jiang Xiuxiu's silence, the ghost asked a couple more times.
Noticing that Jiang Xiuxiu was already wary, it didn't persist. After a strange laugh, it stopped asking.
Feeling the cold presence behind her gradually retreat, Jiang Xiuxiu let out a sigh of relief.
Though she barely passed the test, someone in the group still responded with a quick "no."
She glanced over and saw that the responder was a male player.
Most players' expressions were wary and cautious, and many who almost spoke showed signs of lingering fear.
But the male player who had responded remained in a daze, as if bewitched by something.
"Hee hee hee."
"Ha ha."
Following the male player's response, the laughter of two children echoed in the room again.
Their footsteps thudded on the wooden floor, leaving a trail of "thump thump thump" sounds.
"Big brother, pick up the ball and come play with us," they said.
After their voices appeared, Jiang Xiuxiu saw a red ball near the threshold.
"Pick it up, pick it up."
"Follow us."
Under their urging, the male player wobbled towards the ball.
He squatted down, picked up the ball, and then slowly walked towards where the children's voices came from.
In the dimly lit room, Jiang Xiuxiu seemed to see two indistinct white shadows, resembling two children holding hands.
The shadow appeared briefly at the edge of the corridor and then vanished, acting like a guiding signal, firmly capturing the male player's attention.
The male player followed them, holding the ball.
In no time, his stiff figure disappeared at the end of the corridor.
Jiang Xiuxiu knew that he was essentially eliminated.
Losing a team member so soon after starting seemed rather inauspicious.
"Should we go in?" someone asked.
"Could those two kids be the children of the couple who set fire to themselves three years ago?" someone else speculated.
Looking at the empty corridor, the remaining players glanced at each other.
No one dared to make a move, fearing unexpected incidents and becoming the first to fall.
Standing among the crowd, Jiang Xiuxiu was already somewhat inclined to enter.
But seeing no one else willing to take the lead, she decided to stay at the door with the others.
Maybe the other players were too fixated on the prize, Jiang Xiuxiu thought their reactions were a bit overly cautious.
Being careful was fine, but in an escape game, she felt that the bolder ones might survive longer.
As Jiang Xiuxiu was pondering this, someone stepped forward.
"All of you just standing outside, how boring," he glanced at the others, a slight smile on his lips, "I'll go in first, you do as you please."
Jiang Xiuxiu was speechless.
What a provocative remark.
Curiously, she saw that the one who spoke was the game newcomer from the beginning.
His words were quite blunt, causing several players to frown.
But with his good looks and warm smile, the others were at a loss for words.
As Jiang Xiuxiu looked up at him, he coincidentally met her gaze.
In that brief moment of eye contact, the newcomer smirked at her before turning to stride into the house.
Jiang Xiuxiu was left puzzled.
What did that smile mean? Was it a challenge?
Nevertheless, she was genuinely surprised by the newcomer's boldness.
Initially, when he wanted to team up with her, she had silently dismissed him.
But now, Jiang Xiuxiu had to admit that the newcomer had some courage, making her see him in a new light.
Not dwelling on it further, Jiang Xiuxiu soon followed the other players into the old house.
Someone turned on the lights, illuminating the previously dim room.
Like its exterior, the interior of the old house blended modern furniture with a vintage aesthetic, reminiscent of the early 20th century Republic of China style.
Since the couple had renovated the house when they moved in, there were still some lights and such.
The old house had two floors. The first floor had a hall, kitchen, dining room, and storage rooms, with many long corridors in between. The second floor had guest rooms, bathrooms, a study, and a children's playroom, among other spaces.
In the large hall on the first floor, there was a particularly large clock showing the current time as 4:30 PM.
Jiang Xiuxiu looked around and found everything here quite immaculate, with even the vases free of dust, as if someone had carefully cleaned the place.
According to the system's information, the couple "set fire to themselves," but she saw no traces of fire damage.
It was as if nothing had ever happened here.
She put this suspicion aside for now, planning to investigate later.
Following the newcomer's lead, the other players began to explore more freely.
Entering the old house, experienced players started looking for rooms, while many others began searching the house for useful information.
Having gone through the first game, Jiang Xiuxiu had a vague understanding of the underlying conditions to clear the survival horror game.
Only by fully grasping the situation could players devise appropriate strategies.
Like her, if she hadn't explored the school's secrets and sealed the boss, she wouldn't have been able to dress the boss in a cat costume in the end.
Thus, she had to start her investigation.
With this in mind, Jiang Xiuxiu looked towards the children's room on the second floor.
Since the ghosts that appeared earlier were two children, she decided to start with them.
Adults often know how to deceive and conceal, sometimes, the information left by children is more accurate.
Jiang Xiuxiu always acted quickly, and once she made her decision, she moved immediately.
She went up to the second floor, claimed a room for herself, and then went alone to the two children's bedroom.
The children's bedroom was very close to their playroom, with only a door separating them.
Jiang Xiuxiu first looked at the bedroom, finding it to be a common setup: a bed, a wardrobe, and a desk.
Judging by the decorations, the two children of the homeowners were a boy and a girl, both around five or six years old, not older than ten.
However, there was a noticeable difference: the girl's room was cluttered, with a crumpled bed showing signs of recent use.
Her toys also appeared to have been recently played with, and there was a half-completed puzzle on the floor.
In contrast, the boy's room was clean and tidy.
Although it was equally well-equipped, it looked completely uninhabited, which was unusual for a boy of that age.
The boy's room seemed prepared in advance, just waiting for him to move in.
This seemed odd.
Jiang Xiuxiu thought to herself.
The system mentioned there were two children in this family, so there shouldn't be any problem with that.
But why was this the case? Where did it go wrong?
With these doubts in mind, Jiang Xiuxiu looked at the playroom, noticing that most of the toys were Barbie dolls and plush animals that girls would like.
There were also some small toys like robots, dinosaurs, and toy guns, but they were mostly placed in the corner, evidently not played with often.
Jiang Xiuxiu narrowed her eyes.
It didn't seem like favoritism towards girls.
This time, she returned to the girl's room for a closer look.
Jiang Xiuxiu noticed the puzzle the girl was working on depicted a little girl holding hands with a little boy.
If the girl's parents had bought this, then the little boy should exist, she thought.
She rummaged through other items and found that the girl had a coloring book.
Jiang Xiuxiu opened the coloring book and saw, besides some drawings of flowers and plants, images of her parents and herself.
In a "family portrait," Jiang Xiuxiu clearly saw that after the girl drew herself in pink crayon, she used a blue crayon to draw another child of the same size.
In the blank space beside the picture, the girl had written in wobbly handwriting:
"Daddy and Mommy are crying again. When will my brother come home?"
Because she didn't know all the characters, the girl had used pinyin for some words.
But the message was clear.
Jiang Xiuxiu was slightly stunned.
The brother of this family was missing?
But the shadows that had appeared earlier were indeed those of two children.
As Jiang Xiuxiu was deep in thought, suddenly, a high-pitched female scream came from the corridor on the first floor.
"There's a ghost!"
Jiang Xiuxiu immediately grabbed the coloring book and stuffed it into her backpack.
She left the room and ran towards the source of the sound.
Other players also moved quickly, joining her.
They hurried to the screaming female player, only to find her retreating in fear, her face pale.
Opposite the female player stood a person.
It was none other than the male player who had picked up the red ball and followed the two children.
Seeing him, Jiang Xiuxiu was dumbfounded.
How could he be here? How could he still be alive?
"What ghost? I'm clearly a human!" he said.
At this moment, faced with the frightened female player and the wary others, the reappeared male player looked confused.
He looked at the female player and then at Jiang Xiuxiu and the others, puzzled, "What's wrong with you all? What's wrong with me?"
He acted as if he were still a normal person.
Jiang Xiuxiu tried to probe, "Do you remember what just happened?"
"Just now?"
The male player answered without much thought, "What could have happened? After the door of the old house opened, I came in with you guys."
He had no memory of the ghostly children.
Hearing his words, Jiang Xiuxiu concluded that he had no recollection of the ghost children.
Others seemed to share her thoughts.
One player couldn't help but ask, "Are you sure nothing else happened?"
"What else could have happened?" The male player was getting impatient, "What's wrong with you all? Why are you making a fuss about me?"
Jiang Xiuxiu frowned and remained silent.
Watching the frightened female player, she walked over and quietly asked what happened.
The female player quickly answered, "Those two kids ran into the corridor, and I got curious, so I came to check."
She glanced cautiously at the male player, "Then I saw him standing still, and I thought he was dead. But he turned out to be alive."
Clearly, the female player had no more information.
Meanwhile, the "revived" male player was arguing with other players.
His teammates from before entering the game had decided not to team up with him anymore.
Jiang Xiuxiu could understand this decision; who knew if the male player was still human or had turned into a ghost?
But for the male player, this was hard to accept.
If not for the others around, he would have almost resorted to physical confrontation.
Watching the argument, Jiang Xiuxiu pursed her lips.
It was all too real—from expressions to actions, there was nothing off.
But the scene of the male player leaving with the ghost children couldn't have been faked.
Jiang Xiuxiu didn't believe he could have escaped unscathed, but she couldn't find any evidence for now.
"Why don't you want to team up with me anymore? We agreed before the game started, and now you want to ditch me? What am I supposed to do?"
The male player, facing his teammates, couldn't control his anger.
"You—"
"Are you looking for a teammate?"
Just then, a calm voice interrupted.
After asking the question, the person smiled and said, "I don't have a teammate either. Want to team up?"
Teaming up?
The male player's angry rant stopped, and everyone turned towards the voice.
It was the player who had first entered the old house, the pure newbie who had never played an escape game before.
He leaned against the wall, watching the angry male player with interest.
Though he wore a smile, it was clear he wasn't lying.
He was genuinely making the offer.
He actually wanted team up with this male player?
Was he out of his mind?