Everything has its traces to follow.

That girl who first appeared under the metal sheet revealed the entire truth.

She seemed to have been trapped there all along, wandering around, waiting there for the next person to enter the spider's web.

When he and Xu Zisheng had rummaged through the ghost mother and child's home and escaped, the one knocking outside was her.

Only the 'Real Ghost' in this game could have discovered them exploiting the rules' loophole to hide in the ghost's home, and only it could have the ability to make the dismembered ghost stick back together again.

Threads of spider silk connected everything tightly.

It was the same in the underground garage—she appeared last.

Surrounded by those Ghost Children, she showed no signs of fusion or mutation with spiders like the other ghost children, yet those dense spiders always followed her like a shadow.

"Go play... Xiao Qiao... be happy..."

The girl's shadow, reflecting black and red, was twisting abnormally, tearing at her hands, pounding on the floor again and again, desperate and helpless, wanting to break free from the earth.

She was trapped in that tiny space, the oxygen for survival being stripped away bit by bit, in the darkness, the knocking sounds growing fainter until they finally stopped completely.

The wishes from life extended beyond death.

Nimbly running, playing freely, those healthy legs stepping upon the earth, able to meet the direction of the wind—but none of this belonged to her.

It was what she had exchanged for.

It was what she had stolen.

If the girl holding the glass shard was the real 'Xiao Qiao'.

Then the identity of the short-haired girl in patient clothes inside the room naturally surfaced.

'Sister...'

'If... we... could exchange...'

'Give me your legs, I only want this, I want to run again too——'

So that short-haired girl trapped in the room roared over and over, "Give it back to me! Give it back to me!..."

That was never meaningless murmuring; it was her wanting to reclaim the legs that had been taken from her.

She had switched with her younger sister.

The legs that couldn't walk healthily, covered with ugly scars, disabled and atrophied, were not hers.

The 'Sister' couldn't bear becoming like that herself—bullied and humiliated, curled up daily in a small, dark room without sunlight.

How ironic—she couldn't endure the same pain, yet back then she could cruelly inflict it upon another girl without any remorse.

The wicked will eventually face punishment.

[Hint: Call its name, and there will be a response]

No hint from the game system should be ignored.

In the first round, when he uttered the name 'Xiao Qiao' under the metal sheet, the faint sound he heard wasn't an auditory hallucination or some other noise.

It was that child's extremely soft, almost subconscious response.

No wonder when he tentatively called the name Xiao Qiao in the room, the short-haired girl showed no reaction—because that nickname simply didn't belong to her.

What made her react, what stirred her from her closed-off world, was her real name—"Wu Yunqiao".

They had all been preconditioned.

They had directly equated 'Xiao Qiao' with 'Wu Yunqiao'.

But according to the current situation, the 'Real Ghost' name they assumed belonged to the older sister, not the younger sister who suffocated in the metal box.

That lonely, helpless soul wanted to exchange suffering.

So she erased her own name, replacing it with the former tormentor's, then lost herself in the illusory reality she had woven.

As long as the name written in the diary wasn't her own—

it seemed as if everything could be treated as though it never happened.

So, was Xiao Qiao that girl's full name?

He had to be more careful this time; having made one mistake, Xiao Gui'an leaned more toward this being the mother's nickname for her daughter, not the girl's real name.

He wondered how Xu Zisheng's investigation was going.

If nothing major went wrong, he probably also realized where the mistake was and would soon uncover the truth.

Indeed, as Xiao Gui'an thought.

After the name 'Wu Yunqiao' proved wrong, Xu Zisheng decided to return to 3B303 to check what was really going on.

He must have misjudged at some point.

Or, been too presumptive.

Thinking of the short-haired girl who seemed more like a marionette—indeed, she wasn't the initiator of this game instance, just a puppet pushed to the forefront.

Xu Zisheng placed a hand on the stair rail, stepped with his foot, and his entire body lifted into the air, directly landing on the next floor. Then he reached out with his other hand to support himself, repeating the motion, descending like a gust of light wind.

It was already the third round; if he really encountered those two 'Real Ghosts', it would likely be troublesome.

Speaking of which—

One clue pointed to Mr. [Writer]'s home.

Was it hinting that one of the 'Real Ghosts' was related to him? Or perhaps, [Writer] was one of the 'Real Ghosts'?

Xu Zisheng pressed his lips tightly together.

That wasn't worth delving into deeply.

If any of the present players faced [Writer] as a 'Real Ghost', which one could survive?

That was [S]-level—

possibly even higher—

If he made a move, it would be an utterly hopeless, crushing situation, making it impossible to even muster the will to resist. Just knowing of his existence was enough to inspire fear.

Thinking this, he suddenly recalled [Writer]'s occasional displays of youthful temperament, and Xu Zisheng felt somewhat uncertain again.

The psychology of such high-level entities was truly too difficult to fathom.

If [Writer] suddenly felt playful and wanted to join this cat-and-mouse game, it wasn't impossible.

For top-tier powerful beings, occasionally developing a bit of amusement out of boredom—such things happening from time to time was normal.

Acting on whims, ending when interest faded—they probably wouldn't care much about instance rules or anything like that.

So thinking about it, encountering [Writer] as a 'Real Ghost' might be slightly better than encountering the other 'Real Ghost'.

He didn't know what exactly awaited him at 3B303 now; perhaps the other real ghost was inside at this moment—not impossible—but to find the real ghost's true name, he had to take the risk.

Maybe the Writer was watching him, waiting for him to present a thrilling game.

For Gui Yi, no matter what, he had to try.

"Bang, bang, bang—"

"Mom... I'm back... open the door..."

Xu Zisheng lowered his voice several tones, straining his throat, uttering the words indistinctly.

He lightly knocked on the door of 3B303 again.

Thick, viscous blood slowly seeped out from under the door. The door's edges seemed covered in spider silk, looking even more dilapidated.

"Squeak—" The door opened slightly again, just a crack.

Without the slightest hesitation, Xu Zisheng immediately acted against the short woman.

Clean and efficient, rendering her incapable of movement before she could even make a sound.

"Watch her, guard the door." Xu Zisheng released the D-level Ghost again, ordering it to move her to the sofa, while he once again entered the short-haired girl's room.

The D-level Ghost nodded vigorously, appearing eager and diligent, seeming quite earnest.

Originally, it had thought about helping Xu Zisheng teach that black-haired kid a lesson, never expecting the guy would turn into a ghost and then run back.

Later, when fighting Chen Ze, Gui Yi's actions were even more beyond imagination.

Actually, at a time when none of the ghosts dared show themselves, he directly confronted that unspeakable power for Xu Zisheng, ending up completely annihilated without a whole corpse.

If it were itself, it could never do that no matter what.

Undoubtedly, Gui Yi's status in Xu Zisheng's heart had skyrocketed, far beyond what ghosts bound by interests like them could compare to.

But, now that the person was already dead, it hoped Xu Zisheng wouldn't hold a grudge.

After all, back then it just wanted to help Xu Zisheng regain some face—absolutely no personal desire to eat meat involved.

Inside the room, the yellowish-red walls were flaking off bit by bit, revealing clusters of spider eggs underneath.

The limbs of the incomplete doll originally placed on the bed had been forcibly torn apart; the cotton stuffing inside, mixed with something flesh-like, slowly flowed out, staining the entire bed and flooding half the room's floor.

Xu Zisheng tried to find the diary again but couldn't find it anywhere.

Check the other rooms.

He forced open another door and entered a different room.

Also a room a little girl would like, but similarly covered in dense spiderwebs everywhere, nothing particularly noticeable.

Except—

Xu Zisheng keenly noticed—

The bed, bookshelf, desk, and some other furniture seemed not at normal height; they were somewhat shorter.

A few books lay scattered on the desk and bed, most others neatly arranged on the bookshelf.

By the bedside, there was a very old stuffed rabbit with a pink bow tied around its neck. Its fur was completely curled up, but it still looked soft. Its right hand placed at its side seemed a bit shorter and deflated, as if it had been taken apart and resewn.

Xu Zisheng looked at the stuffed rabbit, and suddenly all the discrepancies and clues connected into a line in his head.

"Tsk—"

He knew what was going on.

Earlier, when he entered the short-haired girl's room, he had found it strange.

The furniture in her room wasn't suited for the height of someone moving in a wheelchair. He had thought it was because she wasn't valued, and no special furniture was bought. Who would have thought they had simply entered the wrong room?

And those piles of dolls filling the room—could a child who wasn't cared for possess those?

[...I shared Miss Belle with my new sister, said we could play afternoon tea games together, but she didn't seem to like Miss Belle very much, or maybe it's because she doesn't like me.

She said Miss Belle is ugly, that she has many more better ones, but I think Miss Belle is very cute, very comfortable to hold...]

Xu Zisheng walked over, picked up the pink rabbit with one hand, met its blood-red eyes, and said, "Miss Belle, shall we have afternoon tea together?"

As if pressing a switch, the pink stuffed rabbit seemed to come alive.

Its blood-red eyes fixed on Xu Zisheng, its stitched mouth tearing open, replying intermittently, "Okay... Qiaoqiao... Belle... and Qiaoqiao are best friends... Come have afternoon tea quickly..."

And just then, from outside the door came the D-level Ghost's warning—something else had arrived at the door of 3B303!!