Chapter Fifteen: The Vacation Villa 15

“My mother is still waiting for me at home. She’s getting on in years—what will she do without me? I even argued with her before entering the game. If I’d known that was the last time I’d see her, I never would have fought with her.”
“If she knew I realized my mistake, she’d be so happy, but now she’ll never see it.”
Hu Meili rambled on, as if reciting her final words, sinking despondently to the ground. She went from heart-wrenching sobs to silent tears, murmuring, “I can never go back.”
“I… This… It’s too pitiful, I don’t think I can do it.” Xiaoliang scratched the back of his head in distress, glancing over at Su Man.
Su Man approached, dagger in hand. Hu Meili looked up at her through tear-filled eyes, sorrow etched deep within them.
“It won’t hurt. I’ll make it quick.”
With those words, she struck. A thin line of blood arced through the air. Hu Meili’s body slumped to the ground, her gaze slowly dimming.
“You… You, I—” Xiaoliang stared at Su Man’s decisiveness, looking quite shaken.
“Don’t you feel sorry for her? Could you really do it? Do you feel nothing at all?”
He was incredulous. Was this some kind of cold-blooded monster?
To feel nothing at all—of course that was impossible. Su Man was human too.
But she had simply made the right choice. “I don’t need your understanding. I am responsible for myself.”
She gave Xiaoliang a glance. “Can you guarantee you could defeat a fully transformed horror entity?”
Xiaoliang hesitated, then shook his head.
“Then I’m also being responsible for you.”
“What if the one consumed and reshaped was your closest loved one…”
“There are no what ifs. I have no one close.”
“But if, just hypothetically?”
“Then I would stand by their side, and become the enemy of all of you.”
“…Su Man!”

With the clue about the ex-girlfriend, Su Man was able to connect some previously overlooked hints.
For example, in some letters she had found earlier, she realized now that they weren’t just Zhou Bin’s confessions to Xin Ling, as she had assumed—they seemed more like Zhou Bin’s confession to someone else.
In one such letter, Zhou Bin had written, “You are as beautiful and confident as the first love I imagined.”
“The moment I saw you, I thought of her…”

Such phrases were buried throughout those lengthy letters. Had Su Man not read them over again, letter by letter, she would have missed them entirely.
She even discovered that Xin Ling was aware of this.
For instance, Xin Ling’s reply: “I will be better than her, and you deserve better.”
“Perhaps my purpose in appearing before you is to help you forget her.”
Young lovers’ confession letters—each more cloying than the last.
Coupled with what Hu Meili had told her, it was highly likely that the “her” in those letters referred to Hu Meili.
Afterward, it seemed probable Zhou Bin had been unfaithful, which explained the depth of Xin Ling’s resentment toward Hu Meili.
Perhaps these letters were the very reason Xin Ling had invited her here.

She opened the quest submission panel and submitted the diary along with the letters.
The shimmering panel flickered, as though evaluating the items.
Only, after a long while, the screen seemed stuck, unable to provide an answer. When it finally did respond, it displayed: “Insufficient items submitted.”
Insufficient—so her direction was correct, but something was still missing.
But…
If that was the case, wouldn’t she have to search for a whole slew of items? In the end, the system might still judge her submission as incomplete.
“Am I supposed to submit myself for the quest?”
Su Man muttered, searching to see if such an option existed.
“If you think about it, my very existence is the reason she invited me.”

[Congratulations, Stage Two complete.
5 Horror Coins or 500,000 World Currency.]
This time, Su Man chose the 500,000.
“So this works? Or was my quest always meant to be like this?” Although she received the money, Su Man still found the quest somewhat baffling.
She then sought out Xiaoliang to ask about her confusion, though she didn’t mention the Horror Coins.

“Actually, the game lowered the difficulty for you,” Xiaoliang explained, like a walking encyclopedia. “This is your first scenario, right? Honestly, the first scenario for new players is just an introductory one—to teach you about the game. It’s not all that hard, though for you newcomers, it can still be quite challenging.”

He also brought up Hu Meili. “She’s an exception—just unlucky. Cases of consumption and transformation aren’t all that common. Horror entities in this world have certain privileges. I can’t tell you more yet. Don’t look at me like that—it’s the rules of the game. You have to discover things for yourself. Everyone’s path is different.”
He looked at Su Man with a hint of awe in his eyes. “I believe you’ll go far.”

Having completed her objective ahead of schedule, Su Man slowed down, focusing once more on searching for revival cards.
Her last resurrection had further improved her physical stats.
Her stamina had reached 50, agility was now 30. While these numbers didn’t seem to mean much, she could clearly feel the changes in her body—they were proof of her growth.
She spent the morning searching the second floor, then went downstairs in the afternoon.
It was then she noticed something intriguing.
She saw another glowing point of light.
It was in a room at the end of the first-floor hallway.
She remembered that room—she’d checked it the first day. It was a study, filled with books. Worth noting, her current favorite dagger was found in that very study.
At the time, the dagger had been embedded in a book, wedged in so tightly she’d struggled to get it out. Strangely, once she’d retrieved the dagger, the book had vanished.
So Su Man privately believed the dagger was a treasure, even if it didn’t seem particularly powerful yet.

Entering the study again, she could see the whole room at a glance. She sensed no danger here. The point of light was right beside where she’d found the dagger—a torn page from a book.
This revival card really was capriciously placed.
Su Man carefully picked up the page—luckily, nothing happened.
With that, she now had two more chances at resurrection.

Leaving the room, she noticed another glowing spot in the corridor opposite.
What was going on? She was sure she’d passed by that place before—why hadn’t the light appeared earlier?
It felt as if she was on the verge of some realization.
But before she could figure it out, Xiaoliang came rushing down from upstairs, shouting, “Help! Su Man, the man you saved is awake—he’s trying to kill me!”