Su Nian sharply caught the key point in the old man's words.
Him.
Not “it.”
And not “those things.”
A single, separate existence.
Just then, the System spoke again.
【Scenario mutation.】
【Unknown factor interference.】
【First-night difficulty increased.】
【Warning: Do not look directly at Him.】
As the final line appeared, a heavy footstep sounded outside the ancestral hall.
Thud.
Thud.
Thud.
The footsteps were slow.
Yet each one seemed to land directly on everyone's heart.
With every step, their heartbeats grew more erratic.
The girl with glasses suddenly clutched her chest.
“I... I can't breathe...”
Another middle-aged woman dropped straight to her knees, blood beginning to flow from her nostrils.
Su Nian felt an equally indescribable pressure.
It was as if what stood outside the door wasn't some kind of monster.
It was a mountain.
A mountain that could breathe.
The old man suddenly turned around.
For the first time, he barked in an almost commanding tone,
“Everyone, close your eyes!”
“No one look at the door!”
No one dared disobey.
Su Nian immediately shut her eyes.
The next second, the ancestral hall's doors opened on their own.
No wind blew in.
There wasn't a sound.
But Su Nian could clearly sense it.
Something...
was standing in the doorway.
It didn't come in.
It simply stood there.
Yet that alone was enough to drive everyone to the brink of collapse beneath the suffocating pressure.
“Don't look...”
The old man's voice was low.
“Whatever you do, don't...”
Just then, a young man suddenly spoke in a trembling voice.
“What... what exactly is out there?”
No one answered.
A few seconds later, he couldn't hold back any longer.
He secretly opened a narrow slit between his eyelids.
Su Nian heard the old man roar,
“Don't look—!”
Too late.
The man's body abruptly stiffened.
He stood there like a statue.
No scream.
No struggle.
Only a crisp cracking sound.
Crack.
Crack-crack...
The next second, his skin began to split.
More and more cracks spread across him.
And then—
Bang!
His entire body shattered into gray-white fragments scattered across the floor.
Not a drop of blood remained.
【Current survivors: 6.】
The cold notification sounded again.
Only heavy breathing remained inside the ancestral hall.
Su Nian kept her eyes shut tight.
But just then, an extremely faint voice suddenly sounded beside her ear.
It didn't sound like the old man.
It didn't sound like the System.
And it sounded even less like any of the players.
The voice was low and calm, yet carried an indescribable chill.
“You...”
“Can see the rules.”
Su Nian's entire body jolted.
Those words...
They were exactly the same as what the old man had said earlier.
She didn't answer.
Because she knew the being outside the door was very close to her.
So close that...
it seemed to be right beside her ear.
“Interesting.”
The voice gave a soft chuckle.
There was no malice in it.
Yet it sent chills down her spine.
“Finally...”
“I found one.”
Su Nian's heart suddenly clenched.
Found one?
Found who?
Her?
Before she could figure it out, the old man suddenly slammed the kerosene lamp onto the floor.
Boom!
Yellow flames instantly surged upward.
The entire ancestral hall was swallowed by firelight.
At the same time, the oppressive feeling vanished.
“Now!”
The old man shouted.
“Run!”
Su Nian's eyes flew open.
Outside the door, it was still pitch-black night.
But the being that had stood in the doorway was gone.
Without a moment's hesitation, she turned and bolted.
The other five players desperately followed.
They rushed out of the ancestral hall and sprinted along the deserted street.
No one dared look back.
Only after they had run several hundred meters did the sound of the ancestral hall's doors slowly closing come from behind them.
Creak—
Gasping for breath, Su Nian looked back.
The entire ancestral hall had sunk back into darkness.
Only the kerosene lamp by the entrance was still lit.
The old man stood beside it.
He watched her from far away.
Then he raised his right hand and lightly pointed at his own eyes before pointing at Su Nian.
As if reminding her of something.
The next instant, the old man and the ancestral hall vanished together into the night.
As if they had never existed.
A new line of text automatically appeared on Su Nian's System panel.
Jian Nian Awakening Progress: 2%.
Ability Description (Incomplete): When rules appear, you are more likely than others to notice anomalies.
Before she could examine it carefully, a blood-red lantern suddenly lit up at the end of the street.
Beneath the lantern stood a man dressed in a black robe.
His face was completely hidden in shadow.
Only a pair of pale-gold eyes slowly opened in the darkness.
He merely looked at Su Nian in silence.
The next second, he turned and disappeared at the end of the street.
Su Nian's pupils contracted.
She didn't know why.
But the voice that had sounded beside her ear just now...
and the figure of the black-robed man...
made her feel as if they came from the same person.
Su Nian stood where she was, staring for a long time without looking away.
Those pale-gold eyes...
They had appeared for only an instant.
Yet they were branded deeply into her mind.
Strangely, she hadn't sensed any killing intent from him.
Instead, she felt...
as if she were being watched.
“Su Nian!”
The girl with glasses hurriedly tugged at her sleeve.
“What are you looking at?”
Su Nian came back to herself.
The end of the street was already empty.
The blood-red lantern was gone too.
As if everything that had just happened had been an illusion.
She didn't mention the black-robed man. She only shook her head.
“Nothing.”
Just then, the System displayed another notification.
【Time remaining on the first night: 01:17:43】
【Please proceed to the safe zone.】
【Hint: Do not let the light go out before dawn.】
A safe zone?
Everyone froze for a moment.
“Did the System just mention a safe zone?”
The middle-aged woman hurriedly opened her panel.
“It did... it really did!”
“But... where is the safe zone?”
As soon as she finished speaking, an ancient streetlamp suddenly lit up in the middle of the street.
Then the second.
The third.
The fourth...
The streetlamps along the entire long street lit up one after another.
The dim yellow light stretched into the distance, laying out a path through the darkness.
At the end of that path stood an old two-story inn.
Its sign was battered and nearly ruined.
Only three large, blurry characters remained legible.
—Ping'an Hall.
“Is that it?”
The girl with glasses asked softly.
Su Nian didn't answer right away.
She crouched down and touched the base of the streetlamp.
It was cold.
It had no warmth at all.
It didn't feel like a real lamp.
It was more like...
light formed by some kind of rule.
She stood up and looked down the entire street.
“We don't have any other choice right now.”
“Let's go.”
The six of them stayed alert as they moved forward step by step along the lit path.
Strangely, as long as they remained within the light, that suffocating, bone-chilling cold disappeared.
But the moment a foot stepped outside the circle of light, faint whispers would sound beside their ears.
As if many people were whispering among themselves in the darkness.
Su Nian deliberately extended one foot half a step beyond the light.
The next instant, an icy chill suddenly wrapped around her ankle.
She withdrew her foot without hesitation.
The chill vanished instantly.
“Just as I thought...”
Her certainty grew stronger.
“Light is the rules' protection!”
A few minutes later, they arrived at the inn's entrance.
The wooden door was half-closed.
A dim oil lamp burned inside.
Behind the front desk sat an old woman.
She kept her head lowered, an abacus in her hands clicking softly.
It was as if she had no idea anyone had entered.
Su Nian didn't approach recklessly.
Instead, she swept her eyes across the lobby first.
The tables and chairs were arranged neatly.
The floor was unnaturally clean.
A wooden plaque hung on the wall.
Several lines of small writing covered it.
She moved closer to read it.
Her pupils narrowed slightly.
Ping'an Hall Rules for Guests:
1. After checking in, guests may not leave the inn before midnight.
2. If you hear knocking, do not open the door immediately.
3. If someone calls your name, do not respond.
4. This inn has only two floors. If you see a third floor, close your eyes immediately.
5. All guests are living people.
6. If you discover otherwise, notify the manager immediately.
Su Nian silently committed every rule to memory.
She didn't overlook the final line.
All guests are living people.
If the System had gone out of its way to write that...
then it meant...
there would definitely be a guest who wasn't alive.
“Welcome...”
At some point, the old woman behind the desk had raised her head.
Her face was covered in wrinkles, but her eyes were unusually bright.
Her kindly smile was strangely eerie.
“Looking for a room?”
Her gaze swept over the six of them one by one.
At last, it stopped on Su Nian.
Her smile seemed to deepen.
“Little girl...”
“The scent on you...”
“It's different from the others.”
Su Nian's heart tightened.
What had the old woman smelled?
The Night Watcher identity she had just acquired?
Or...
The aura of Jian Nian beginning to awaken?
The old woman didn't continue.
She simply took six brass keys from a drawer and placed them on the counter.
“Second floor.”
“One last reminder.”
The smile vanished from her face.
Her voice turned hoarse and icy.
“If someone knocks on your door at night...”
“Whatever you do, don't verify whether the person outside is one of your companions.”
“Because...”
The old woman raised her eyes and stared straight at Su Nian.
“They...”
“love imitating the way people talk.”
Su Nian didn't reach for the keys.
First, she glanced at the old woman's hands.
They were thin and withered, covered in age spots.
The tip of her right index finger was missing, as if something had bitten it clean off.
When she had handed over the keys just now, Su Nian noticed that the old woman had never stepped even half a pace beyond the counter.
As if...
she couldn't leave that spot.
“Six rooms?”
Su Nian asked calmly.
The old woman grinned.
“Of course.”
“One room per person.”
Su Nian's gaze darkened slightly.
One room per person.
According to the rules, everyone would have to face the night alone.
And Infinite-World scenarios...
were usually never that generous.
She didn't take the keys immediately. Instead, she looked up at the second floor.
The entire inn was unnaturally quiet.
So quiet that even the sound of wood contracting could be heard.
Just then—
Thud.
A footstep suddenly sounded upstairs.
Very soft.
Like someone was slowly walking barefoot across the wooden floor.
Everyone looked up at the same time.
Thud.
Thud.
The footsteps stopped in the second-floor hallway.
Then a head slowly emerged from behind the railing.
It was a little girl.
She looked about seven or eight years old.
She wore a red floral dress.
In her arms, she held a battered cloth doll.
Her head was lowered.
Long hair covered her entire face.
“Grandma...”
she called softly.
“Do we have guests?”
The smile vanished from the old woman's face.
For the first time, she looked gloomy.
“Go back to your room.”
The girl didn't move.
She only slowly raised her head.
Her hair fell apart, revealing a pale little face.
Her eyes were entirely black.
There wasn't a trace of white in them.
She looked at Su Nian.
The corners of her mouth slowly curled upward.
“Sis...”
“You have...”
“His scent on you.”
Su Nian's pupils narrowed slightly.