Proofreader & Editor: Peter Pan

Such competition rules were certainly interesting.

 

But if the matches were to proceed one after another, even with only eight people and four groups remaining, it would inevitably waste a lot of time.

 

Faced with this situation, the referee, dressed in a crisp suit, wearing rimless glasses, and stepping in a pair of shiny leather shoes, gently snapped his fingers.

 

The venue automatically split into four sections.

 

Several tall walls rose from the ground, completely separating them, without any interference.

 

"Alright, let's get ready to start."

 

He clapped his hands, drawing everyone's attention, and said softly.

 

"Don't hold back when it's your turn."

 

Yu Anran said with a light laugh.

 

"Don't worry, I won't."

 

Chronicle, who was somewhat "soft-hearted," has always had trouble refusing others' requests.

 

Especially requests like this.

 

"First group…"

 

The "working-class" referee said, tossing a silver coin that flickered with a purple light gently into the air.

 

With a "Ding" sound, the coin fell back into his palm.

 

The side that remained facing up bore the image of the provincial flower of Qing Mountain, the Ghost Blood Bone Branch Plum.

 

"First group: Chronicle to attack first."

 

Chronicle nodded at the words.

 

It didn't really matter who attacked first.

 

If successful, it would put pressure on the opponent; if not, the pressure would be on oneself.

 

"Essentially no difference, the consumption of mental energy is much the same."

 

It's worth mentioning that for this round, the organizers had thoughtfully prepared a bottle of mental energy potion for each participant.

 

"First group, take your positions…"

 

Hearing the referee's words, Chronicle and Yu Anran each went to their respective spots.

 

As the phrase "start the match" was announced, Yu Anran smiled, revealing dimples and her bright eyes suddenly burst with blood-red light.

 

Chronicle felt the world spinning around him, and without resisting, when he opened his eyes again, he found himself at a dimly lit, cold and yin energy-filled bus stop.

 

The screen displaying the bus information hung in the center of the hall, flickering on and off.

 

The latest news scrolled slowly at the bottom: Due to the "Blood Moon," the number of buses in the city had been halved recently.

 

Turning his head, he saw the waiting hall was empty, save for a few primary school students who had come to enjoy the air conditioning and play games on the internet.

 

The faint light from their phones cast their faces in a ghostly pallor.

 

The mournful howls of monsters and the slightly sharp sound effects of combat echoed from the phones, reverberating in this empty world.

 

"Quite a ghostly scene."

 

Chronicle snapped his fingers, and Seven Brothers and Eight Brothers emerged from the void, silently standing behind him.

 

As a "veteran sixth brother," he certainly wouldn't make the rookie mistake of entering the field alone; what had just happened was merely fishing for a reaction.

 

Yu Anran, however, was unusually patient.

 

According to his expectation, the primary school students should have suddenly turned their heads and pounced on him screaming as soon as he peered over.

 

But none of this happened.

 

The kids were engrossed in their games, silent, which was quite eerie.

 

"Is it that I don't understand the underworld well enough, or has this girl gone beyond the current version?"

 

Chronicle thought to himself, walked up to the primary school students, and snatched their phones away: "Not going home late at night, playing games here, I'm confiscating your phones, go back and do your homework!"

 

As everyone knows, things in the field do not appear out of thin air nor disappear without reason; everything has its cause.

 

Just as he had prepared white silk, a coffin, and double happiness stickers for "The Death of Daiyu," these phones were real and purchased by Yu Anran to add detail.

 

"Top-of-the-line Sunflower phones? What grade? Even better than what I use."

 

He said, tossing the phones into his bag.

 

Yingtai recently has been earning money for the family and needed a better device.

 

Daiyu needed to take notes, read e-books, and learn various knowledge, so she also needed a phone.

 

He was a man who pursued progress, watching online classes every day, scrambling for red packets from the class teacher in group chats; a laggy phone just wouldn't do.

 

He had planned to splurge on a few good ones on a sale day, but who would have thought, without spending a dime, the phones came to him.

 

Wasn't this a windfall?

 

"Competitions are great, picking up phones for free."

 

After his reflection, Chronicle, leading Seven Brothers and Eight Brothers, turned and left.

 

Leaving behind a few ghostly children sitting on the cold seats, looking at each other in bewilderment.

 

Clearly, Yu Anran had not endowed them with the logic to deal with such an unexpected situation.

 

And Chronicle's action was also a lesson for her.

 

If he were really that greedy, he would have taken the little ghosts as well.

 

"I really am a good person."

 

Chronicle thought to himself as he walked through the hall, arriving at a cement-poured ground.

 

This was the starting point for all bus routes in the field, where only a few buses were scattered around.

 

Under the reflection of the blood moon, they looked like steel beasts crouching on the ground.

 

Chronicle stood still for a moment, which was only a few seconds, and three buses arrived together.

 

The one on the left was painted in warm tones of orange and yellow, with a LED screen on the roof scrolling through ads for a male science hospital.

 

The middle one was a classic school bus, with a comically long nose, playing creepy children's songs non-stop.

 

The one on the right was covered in rust and mud, with the number "444" painted in dark red.

 

"Quite the prankster."

 

Chronicle chuckled, raised his hand to summon Brother Zongzi to protect him as he boarded the middle school bus.

 

Seven Brothers and Eight Brothers, each armed, boarded the other two buses.

 

The three buses set off almost simultaneously, heading in different directions.

 

In the bumpy bus, Chronicle skillfully reset the newly acquired devices to factory settings, then logged into his own account and started playing games as if no one else was around.

 

The primary school students in dark red uniforms then cast their resentful gazes on him.

 

Weird, sharp music flowed through the bus as these "children" began to hum nursery rhymes in a strange tone:

 

"The big rabbit is sick, the second rabbit looks on, the third rabbit buys medicine, the fourth rabbit brews…"

 

As they sang, the primary school students stood up in unison, their cold eyes solidifying into something tangible.

 

"The fifth rabbit died, the sixth rabbit carried, the seventh rabbit dug a hole, the eighth rabbit buried."

 

The song continued, and they left their seats, moving towards where Chronicle was sitting.

 

"The ninth rabbit sat on the ground crying, the tenth rabbit asked why it was crying? The ninth rabbit said: The fifth rabbit never came back!"

 

As the song ended, the front seats, back seats, aisle, and even the roof and under the seats were crawling with dark red uniformed spirits with blue-black faces.

 

A massive tide of yin energy surged from all directions.

 

Brother Zongzi, sitting on the outer side like Eight Brothers, crossed his arms, his movements a bit stiff but his demeanor more wild.

 

"Ha!"

 

A dry syllable came from its throat, as if laughing and cursing.

 

The energy formed by the convergence of Corpse Qi, Yin energy, and Evil Qi dispersed in an instant.

 

The entire field began to "Crackle."

 

Countless purple-black electric arcs snaked through the air.

 

They intertwined above the bus, forming a giant net pressing down.

 

"Zzzt—"

 

The purple-black light flashed instantly, and Chronicle instinctively closed his eyes.

 

When he opened them again, he was already standing under a residential building, holding a dozen or so small backpacks.

 

It must be said, Yu Anran was a very meticulous girl; besides books, toys, and pencil cases, the backpacks were also filled with various snacks.

 

Chronicle took them all out, keeping them to coax Daiyu and the Nian Beast.

 

He also pulled out a few barely used workbooks, which might come in handy.

 

"Competitions are great," he remarked once more.

 

The next second, the other two buses appeared at the bottom of the building.

 

After all, this was a field hastily constructed, and even Yu Anran, exceptional as she was, would have difficulty creating three separate endpoints.

 

Therefore, Chronicle boldly surmised that all three buses were headed for the same destination.

 

The result was obvious.

 

He had guessed the girl's methods clearly.

 

"Shh—"

 

Two sounds like gas leaking were heard, and two bus doors slowly opened, the steps automatically descending.

 

Seven Brothers, holding the Ghost Banner, descended the steps gracefully, followed by a trail of small items like watches and necklaces.

 

Of course, they weren't valuable.

 

It's not that Yu Anran didn't have the money, but considering the details, people who take the bus are unlikely to wear expensive jewelry.

 

"For the first time, I feel that paying attention to detail isn't always a good thing." Chronicle thought to himself.

 

On the other side, Eight Brothers didn't take the usual path, lightly stomping his foot, turning the eerily strange "444" bus to ash, and landing firmly on the ground.

 

The gains were modest.

 

"Better than nothing."

 

Chronicle thought, walking straight to the nearest unit door.

 

The lights in the stairwell were dim, the walls slightly dirty with various small ads, and the stair corners were piled with cardboard boxes.

 

A typical old neighborhood look.

 

Just like the Happy Home where Chronicle had once lived.

 

"This little rich girl really has a life…" Chronicle chuckled.

 

From the bus stop to this stairwell, Yu Anran had provided more surprises than all the previous opponents combined.

 

It should be said, the top student from Yunding, whether in talent or attention to detail, was leagues ahead of the top students from Qing Mountain.

 

Except for himself.

 

"What an interesting province."

 

Chronicle walked through the dark gray corridor, with each step, the sound-activated lights on the floor above would light up.

 

He continued up to the fourth floor, where the stairs to the next level were blocked by cardboard boxes and pickled vegetable jars.

 

Turning his head, he saw the other two doors were tightly shut, only the rusty anti-theft door painted with the blood-colored number "401" was slightly ajar, leaking pale light.

 

"Click."

 

Chronicle yanked the door open.

 

"Is brother back?"

 

A little girl about one meter thirty-four tall, rubbing her eyes with one hand and holding a patched-up teddy bear with the other, walked out of the darkness.

 

At her feet followed a skinny black cat with glowing eyes.

 

"Is it Chronicle brother? Why didn't you come back with my brother?"

 

The little girl seemed not to see the three card-like figures behind Chronicle, peering into the corridor.

 

Seemingly not finding her target, she immediately looked down, a bit disappointed.

 

"Your brother went to buy you a gift, he'll be back soon."

 

Chronicle said softly, then looked down at the school uniform that had somehow appeared on him.

 

With a stroke of inspiration, he understood his identity and logic in this field, which was also the driving force to break this field:

 

The protagonists of this field were a family of five: grandmother, father, mother, brother, and sister.

 

And his identity here was the "brother's" deskmate, who had come over to celebrate the "sister's" birthday today.

 

He was to have a meal here.

 

"Without a doubt, this is the key to breaking the field."