The man in the suit turned around and met Mu Anqi's gaze with a blank expression.
Mu Anqi remained awkwardly silent for a moment, then raised his hands and tentatively clapped, "Wow, that's amazing?"
No, wait!
This is an illusion! She should be struggling in the escape game, waiting for Greed to come and take her life! Is this... this comedic man in the suit really Greed himself?!
The moment she realized this, Mu Anqi finally came to her senses. She wasn't in a hospital room or surrounded by mountains of gold and silver; she was just lying in a hotel bed! Mu Anqi struggled to free herself from the pile of pink RMB banknotes, and upon seeing the man in the suit, she instinctively blurted out countless blessings she remembered: "Wishing you all the best, smooth sailing, peace, and joy—"
Each heartfelt "Blessing " expressed Mu Anqi's most sincere wishes. Every word uttered was imbued with Mu Anqi's genuine blessing. After all, she hadn't forgotten the note for this "Blessing Curse."
Note that blessings cannot be repeated during a single game session. (After all, blessings require sincerity and cannot be mass-produced.)
Blessings must be given sincerely!
She climbed out of the pink sea of light and saw the man in the suit in front of her doing the second set of national broadcast gymnastics. Considering that there was still some time before the exercise started, she couldn't help but ask, "Why are you showing me being crushed to death by RMB, or even a hundred-yuan bill?"
"This is your deepest desire!" The man in the suit found Mu Anqi unreasonable. "You clearly want those 300 million RMB so badly, so why were you unmoved when I aroused your greed in the illusion?"
"..." Mu Anqi thought, maybe, perhaps... subconsciously, she really couldn't forget about the 300 million lottery winnings. However, the prize money hadn't been received, and Mu Anqi had never even seen how much 300 million RMB was. She had quite no concept of such a large sum of money. "Mainly because the way your illusion was woven... it was quite like 'I, Qin Shi Huang, send money'."
"Besides, even if you filled the entire house with a hundred-yuan bill, it wouldn't amount to three hundred million." Seeing that the man in the suit was about to finish, Mu Anqi quickly added, "I wish you all the best!" Then he continued, "Why don't you just crush me with a bank card? A black card, or a check, would do."
"Isn't that even more fake!"
"Eh? Look at what you're saying, you even made a Mount Everest out of gold, what could be more fake than that?" Mu Anqi said sincerely, "You still need to learn more new knowledge... It seems that being a Ghost on this continent isn't so easy. I wish you a long and healthy life, boundless happiness, and longevity!"
"...Living to a hundred years old counts as a blessing?" The man in the suit clearly wanted to swear, but his body was controlled by an invisible force, forcing him to neatly lie down and do twenty squats. As he began his backflip, he saw Mu Anqi pull out a piece of paper covered in blessing phrases. "Wait! Don't say a word! You've passed, you're safe tonight!"
"May you always be smiling and have good luck!" Mu Anqi continued reciting two more blessings, then asked in confusion, "What do you mean I'm safe tonight, but you're coming again tomorrow night?"
"If you want to ask questions, that's a different price." The man in the suit smiled wickedly, a hint of Greed in his eyes for Guan Si on his face... Of course, it would be even better if you ignored the fact that he was doing frog jumps right now.
"Are all you NCs this intelligent?" Mu Anqi muttered under her breath, even though she now guessed that the Ghosts on this continent were probably not NCs; this might be a continent unique to demonic Ghosts. "I don't have many guansi, I don't want to give them to you."
"Don't you want to understand the true nature of Shattered Mirror Continent? Don't you want to know what Ghost and the game are all about? Don't you want to know what we need, and what the game needs?" The man in the suit said seductively in a deep, magnetic voice while doing a one-handed push-up, "Just a little bit of 'guansi' and I can tell you..."
"Obviously, I'll learn these things as my gaming experience deepens." Mu Anqi nodded. "Now that you mention it, I know these aren't really big secrets anymore. Best of luck and prosperity to you!"
The man in the suit froze, his eyes flashing with malice. He lunged forward, intending to strangle Mu Anqi, but after taking only one step, he froze, standing still. After a brief pause, his body stiffly stretched out—a robotic dance?!
Wow, you Ghosts are really multi-talented!
Wearing a suit and dancing a robotic dance...it's actually quite cool.
The dance ended, and the man in the suit vanished instantly. Mu Anqi hesitated for a second before uttering the word "Blessing," but... it didn't work.
They're gone? That's it? Dude, is it really that bad? This game's Ghost is incredibly unprofessional. Ghost can play with players, but players play with Ghost and then they go on strike? Double standards!
Mu Anqi jotted down where she left off in her blessing, then looked at the room full of pink banknotes and was speechless. Was this stuff not going to reappear? Honestly, she wasn't surrounded by RMB in the illusion. What if other players saw this tomorrow and developed a bad prejudice against her? She wasn't someone who was greedy for money!
The crisis was over. Mu Anqi, carrying his room key and backpack, and clutching the blessing slip of paper, stepped out of the room. The motion-sensor lights in the corridor came on, casting a stark white light on the empty space. All the doors on both sides were tightly shut… Mu Anqi glanced at room B across the hall, then walked past each of the players' closed doors…
The soundproofing in this hotel room was top-notch; of course, it wasn't impossible that the room was practically another "little world." Mu Anqi went downstairs and found the night shift worker, whose eyes were vacant, face pale, and who looked like a walking corpse. "Hello, could you please clean my room?"
Mu Anqi thought of the 888 guansi in his backpack, hesitated for a moment, and then used his ability to put the eight guansi into the red envelope. "This is a tip."
"..." The staff stared straight at her, then their gaze slowly moved down to the thin red envelope. Silence was always awkward.
But as the saying goes, if you're not embarrassed, it's others who are embarrassed. Mu Anqi thought to himself, even Greed couldn't get the guansi from her, yet she was willing to give eight as a tip—she's really generous enough!
The staff member stared at her for a while, and after confirming that Mu Anqi was unwilling to offer any more money, he gave a stiff smile and said, "It's a pleasure to serve you." He took the red envelope, turned around, and went upstairs to help Mu Anqi tidy up her room.
At the same time, Mu Anqi also received the reminder that money can make the devil turn the millstone, and the mission was successfully launched.
Mu Anqi discovered that her abilities... seemed to have a wide variety of uses. Mu Anqi didn't want to return to the room that had turned into a pink "ocean" for the time being. She hesitated for a long time at the stairwell, unsure whether she should take the risk.
This Shattered Mirror Continent... seems quite different from the randomized escape games in novels. No, it's not exactly different, it's just that there are too many mysteries.
However, other novels also warn that the more you know about the unknown, the faster you die. This is especially true when you explore things you don't yet know; that's often the most dangerous time.
...Wait, what's that sound?
Is that... footsteps? Footsteps coming from the first floor? Mu Anqi felt a sudden panic. Why would there be so many footsteps in the hotel at midnight? Players are human and check in during the day, while Ghosts appear at night.
Calm down, Seven Nights Hotel. Since it's a hotel, there must be guests. This hotel on Shattered Mirror Continent can't just be a training ground for players, right? The Ghost General who forcibly checked in is a prime example. If it's an ordinary guest, that guest must be a resident of Shattered Mirror Continent … As long as he's not too fierce or terrifying, then 800 Guansi should be able to ask him some basic questions about Shattered Mirror Continent!
...But wait, that's not right. Didn't they say the game would end during playtime? So what's the background of the ghost that's moved in now?
The more Mu Anqi thought about it, the more conflicted she felt. She hesitated for a long time at the bottom of the stairs, but finally carefully and quickly went upstairs back to her room.
...It's better not to take the risk.
Nirvana Space is also a trading platform; perhaps she could use points to obtain some information? However, whether the player's information is accurate is another matter... cough, well, no one says ghosts have to tell the truth.
Mu Anqi opened the room with her key card and found that her room had been completely renovated, returning to its original ordinary state. She had just breathed a sigh of relief when she suddenly felt a chill behind her ear.
Do you need the collected coins?
Mu Anqi clutched her chest and stumbled back two steps. She stared in disbelief at the staff member who had suddenly appeared behind her. Did the ghosts here all have some kind of twisted sense of humor? "No need, no need. Just handle it however you like."
"Okay." The staff member left in a very formal manner.
Mu Anqi regained her senses, took a quick shower, and then went back to bed. She figured she could get another two or three hours of sleep, right? After all, staying up until dawn wasn't a solution.
...
"Hey buddy, it's rare to see you fail a mission." In the dimly lit restaurant, a round, fat man was eating and drinking heartily. "But you got a lot of emotion points... Is this player a coward?"
"..." The man in the suit loosened his tie with slight annoyance and embarrassment. He was too embarrassed to say that most of the emotion points he had received were anger, and that emotion... was generated by himself. He had originally wanted to complain to his colleagues about encountering a difficult player, but after being asked by Gluttony, he didn't know how to start the conversation.
" Greed, say something!" At the other table, a woman touching up her makeup couldn't help but speak up. "The player you chose has the ability ' Old Lady Has Money.' What exactly is that ability?"
"...She blessed me." The man in the suit was silent for a long time before he spoke with difficulty, "She sincerely blessed me, and then...I performed hurdles, frog jumps, squats, backflips, cartwheels, calisthenics, robot dance...etc."