C3 — Strange Tales by the Lakeside
by UntamedSThe information on the blo-od characters was too terrifying, but Zhuo Yu’s expression remained unchanged. He even sneered coldly, and his friendly expression disappeared completely, like a chameleon finally revealing its true colors.
It was so interesting.
If the first task still didn’t explain the problem, then this new announcement clearly told Zhuo Yu: You are a villain.
And he was a villain with unknown motives who led students into places of death.
He didn’t believe that someone who specialized in traveling to Golden Lake wouldn’t know about the tragedies that had happened here, and he even insisted on going there after a car accident instead of calling 911.
One could say the students were ignorant, fearless, or foolish, but what about him? His initial target were these four people; it wasn’t a trip at all.
As a bestseller author, Zhuo Yu had a good habit that had always been preserved, which was to immerse oneself in the scene, assume oneself as the character in the pen, and then speculate whether the character’s next actions were reasonable.
And whenever he assumed himself to be the villain in the story, he felt a chill.
—- an excited chill.
Therefore, most of his stories appeared somewhat dark and incomplete. The protagonist wasn’t always on the winning side, and the antagonistic characters weren’t stepping stones to highlight the protagonist. They could also have lofty ideals, a noble character, or simply be pathological, without any whitewashing.
This was Zhuo Yu’s unique writing style.
So when he first saw his mission, he knew that the system had already seen through him. He wasn’t a good person sitting in a wheelchair who could only foolishly laugh; instead, he was a collection of terrifying characters with numerous projections in his writing.
“Treasure, you better not let me down.”
Zhuo Yu murmured in his heart.
The senior players were unaware of this. The dust inside the wooden house was too heavy, and they were also idle, so they lit up the kerosene lamps inside and knocked down the spider webs that could be seen everywhere, allowing a lot of air to circulate.
Strangely, although it looked dilapidated, there were traces of life here. They even found cans that were still within their shelf life in the cabinets, as well as some beer, probably left by the previous wave of campers.
The fear gradually dissipated, and they returned to the living room. With wine and food, they gradually started conversing.
“Is this the difficult mode? It’s not very dangerous, either. When I first entered the set, I met a werewolf in the first five minutes.” Zhou Wu boasted, “Of course, I beat him away.”
He showed off his biceps to Mu Ying and then glanced at Zhuo Yu, saying, “Your legs really can’t move? is it not because of the character design?”
Zhuo Yu paused for a few seconds, then looked up and showed a shy expression. He awkwardly touched his nose as he responded, “Yes, I’m like this in the real world. I was born with lower-limb paralysis, which is a genetic disease. But please rest assured, I will try my best not to hold you back.”
Zhuo Yu’s attitude was very favored by him. Zhou Wu patted Zhuo Yu’s shoulder with a broad palm and said, “If you want to follow us closely and survive in horror movies, the most important thing is to act in groups. Besides, you look so excellent. If you survive, you will definitely become a star on the set.”
He nodded seriously and began to ask the seniors questions. Through a few words, he understood the details of these people. These people were ordinary people in the real world, and their life experiences were nothing but ordinary.
“After saying so much, you haven’t introduced yourself yet,” Zhou Wu said.
The young writer lowered his eyes and said lightly, “My name is Zhuo Yu, and I write horror novels for a living. My advantage is probably that I am familiar with the routines of horror movies, and I have a lot of courage.”
As soon as he finished speaking, Fang Hao let out an incredulous exclamation: “Zhuo Yu?! You’re that famous writer? Yes, Zhuo Yu is disabled, and his legs can’t move either.”
This was the second time.
Zhuo Yu’s nerves twitched fiercely, and the smile at the corner of his mouth stiffened for a moment.
The college student, who gasped, didn’t notice Zhuo Yu’s eyes becoming cold and was still immersed in disbelief: “I’ve even watched a TV drama adapted from your novel! It scared me so much that I couldn’t even get up and go to the bathroom in the middle of the night. How could that be? How could you be so young?”
Fang Hao calmed down as he spoke, and the enthusiasm faded away, but the feeling of returning to his senses wasn’t very pleasant. He spat fiercely in his heart. How many of those celebrities were actually good? They could easily earn money that ordinary people couldn’t earn in their lifetimes, so they had definitely done shady things.
Zhuo Yu wasn’t interested in other people’s opinions. He took a sip of water to suppress his emotions and hid a fork he had searched for in the crevice of his wheelchair seat.
The wind outside the window grew louder and louder, howling as it swept over the surface of the Golden Lake, making the windows creak.
“Did you hear anything?” Fang Hao shivered all over and said nervously, “It seems like… the sound of people howling.”
“You heard it wrong; it’s the wind.” Li Mingfeng tried to calm everyone, but everyone knew that danger could come at any time.
As if infected by his nervousness, the feeling of trepidation once again surged through the hearts of all the senior players.
“Alright, it’s only one o’clock in the morning now. We should go to bed to replenish our energy,” said the kind-hearted Li Mingfeng, using his unique character traits. “Based on the survival experience in my mind, everyone should sleep together and leave a person to keep watch.”
Mu Ying gave up: “No, the living room is too dirty. I don’t want to sleep on the floor, let alone squeeze on the sofa. God knows how long this sofa hasn’t been washed.”
Li Mingfeng was somewhat stunned by this conclusion and explained helplessly, “This is how we can…”
Zhou Wu waved his hand and said, “Just listen to Nina… ah, Mu Ying. What if she gets sick?”
Li Mingfeng still didn’t give up and retorted, “There is danger in being alone. You don’t know such a simple truth, do you?”
“Are you the captain, or am I the captain? Why’s there so much nonsense? If there’s a monster, I’ll be the first to beat him away, okay?” Zhou Wu was furious, and his eyes turned red like an enraged lion. He was unable to tolerate others pointing fingers at him.
This was really interesting. Zhuo Yu held his chin to observe these “teammates.” It was really developing like in a horror movie. In fact, he could tell that Mu Ying was a cautious woman, but it seemed that her mind wasn’t firm enough, which led to her being influenced by her character to this extent.
Zhou Wu was the same. In terms of rationality, he had to know that one couldn’t be left alone in horror movies, but his character loved Nina too much and he was willing to be a love brain.
[TN: (“”love brain”: mindset that is fixated on romance”)]
What exactly did a character exist for, and how did it manipulate actors? Was it through the nervous system? Zhuo Yu wasn’t interested in their turbulent undercurrents but was full of exploration towards the characters themselves.
Perhaps the reason for their significant personality change shouldn’t be attributed to the characters but rather to some supernatural force manipulating them?
Since that was the case, why wasn’t he affected?
Or perhaps he had been deeply influenced but was unaware of it?
Zhuo Yu thought a lot and silently ate the last bite of canned lunch meat.
After everyone finished arguing, the others couldn’t compete with Zhou Wu at all, so they had to let Mu Ying and the others sleep in their respective rooms. However, Li Mingfeng chose to sleep with Fang Hao, which gave him a sense of security.
No one cared about Zhuo Yu’s whereabouts, and Zhuo Yu became a loner again.
He sighed and reluctantly went into the guest room on the first floor.
It wasn’t surprising that they all wanted to sleep in bed. In fact, since entering the realm of the Golden Lake, he has also felt a strong sense of fatigue, like the fatigue of returning from a tiring journey. He urgently needed to sleep well by the lake to relieve his fatigue.
He dusted off the dust on the bed and laid quietly on the bed with his clothes on.
The cabin was very quiet, but the audience was discussing it enthusiastically.
[I have watched this movie; hehe, it’s not a spoiler anymore. If you want to destroy someone, you must first make them crazy!]
[The betting time is almost over. Who did everyone bet on?]
[It must be Zhou Wu; he’s an old hand and can heal quickly! He will definitely live to the end!]
[I chose Mu Ying. She has strong intuition, and the character is set as Zhou Wu’s girlfriend. Maybe Zhou Wu will sacrifice himself for her.]
[Zhou Wu’s mind is quite firm; it won’t be affected so deeply. I bet 500 flame points!]
The audience could see the character information board actively shared by the actors, but everything else was private, and the barrage could only be inferred based on existing intelligence. Many people bet on Zhou Wu, but there were also a few exceptions.
[What kind of tycoons are they all? Tears are streaming down my face. I think Zhuo Yu has the highest odds, so let’s bet by 10 points.]
【+1】
[Above, why can’t you think of somebody else? 10 points are still flame points. Ah, isn’t it wasted on a disabled person that might be a hit-or-miss?]
[Stop making noise; the danger of the first night is coming!]
No matter how heated the argument was, the gambling table only opened for a short while, and soon their focus returned to the film itself.
The flow of the film that the audience saw was adjusted by the adjuster and wasn’t the same as what the actors felt on the set or in the small realm; it was just a few seconds on the audience’s side, but half an hour had passed in the cabin.
Squeak Squeak Squeak Squeak—
Zhuo Yu was awakened by strange noises. He usually slept lightly and soon regained consciousness.
The sound came from the hallway outside the door.
There was no cat’s eye on the door, but due to the loss of moisture from the wood, there was a large gap between the wall and the door panel. Zhuo Yu quietly got out of bed and moved his body bit by bit, it took him a lot of effort to get close to the gap.
Looking out through the gap, he saw a wet patch on the hallway floor that extended all the way to the opposite room, where Mu Ying was sleeping.
A sound of flipping boxes and cabinets rang out, followed by the woman’s extremely fearful sobs, as if her mouth were covered. After about a few seconds, all sounds came to a standstill.
There was only a gap below the opposite door where a large pool of bright red blo-od mixed with minced meat flowed out.
In just a few seconds, Zhuo Yu had no time to do anything. He understood that if he woke up his teammates, the first thing they would do wasn’t to fight monsters to save people, but to run away and abandon him, the disabled person, here.
The blo-od flowed more and more until it was about to pass through Zhuo Yu’s room before there was a movement across from him.
The door was pushed open, and a huge shadow appeared at the other end. Under the moonlight, Zhuo Yu saw a pale, swollen, almost giant-like human.
Those green eyes were like the eyes of a dead fish, with long lines of parasites swimming inside them as they turned stiffly. Compared to corpses buried in the soil, it felt more like it had been soaked in lake water for a long time, and it had the dank aura of an aquatic creature.
It scanned the blo-od on the ground, then laid on the ground like a thirsty wild dog that had been hungry for many years, licking and chewing the minced meat. It leaked out of its rotting belly as it did so.
[Monster Update: Yin Corpse.]
[Yin Corpse: A person who drowned in the Golden Lake was awakened by the evil forces enveloping this land and became a guardian of the lake. Any human who dares to step into a forbidden area will be targeted by the Yin Corpse. It is said that the Yin Corpse has an extraordinary desire for blo-od.
The sound of the system was cold and mechanical, as if reminding Zhuo Yu: You’re about to finish playing.
The strong smell and moisture were enough to make people feel nauseous, and the monster seemed to have noticed something. Its swollen fingers trembled like sausages, and it lifted its mottled hair, sniffing the air hard.
It turned its head quickly.
In an instant, the eyes of the monster and Zhuo Yu met.
The dull and unfocused dead eyes met Zhuo Yu’s slightly widened apricot-shaped eyes.
TN:
See ya tomorrow 😁
Thank you translator for the update☺☺☺ Can’t wait for the next chapter💕💕💕
Thanks for the chapter!
Thanks for the chapter! 1💗💗💗