A Ghost Story Unfolds: The Cannon Fodder Went Mad by Burning Ghost Money

Chapter 2 Who Am I 1[instance Name: Who Am I?]

[instance Difficulty: ★★]

[Number of Participants: Five]

[Time Limit: Five Days]

[Clear Condition: Find me, find me, find me]

She had been lying down comfortably just a moment ago, only to be forcibly snatched up and tossed into a strange place in the blink of an eye. This completely defenseless landing left Lin Xiangjun seeing stars, and it felt like her buttocks had split into eight pieces. She sat there for a good while before finally coming to her senses.

Next time, she wouldn’t enter an instance while asleep even if it killed her.

Lin Xiangjun cursed a few times in her heart, quickly adjusted her state, and stood up, patting the dust off her clothes while curiously surveying her surroundings.

There were five people at the entrance in total, three men and two women. The first man was around twenty years old, wearing a gray hoodie; the second male seemed to be only in middle school, barely reaching her shoulder, still wearing a school uniform and carrying a backpack; the third man wore a navy blue undershirt, was in his forties or fifties, and had half a burning cigarette dangling from his mouth.

The other woman wore a brightly patterned, old-fashioned blouse with an old towel draped over her shoulder, looking as if she had been working just a second ago.

The expressions of the four people were all filled with fear and panic, followed by helpless questioning.

“Where is this? I was clearly just standing at my front door!”

“F*ck, who’s pulling this ** prank? Let me out of here right now!”

“I don’t know...”

Lin Xiangjun spent half a second considering whether to fake it to blend in with them, then spent another half second dismissing the idea.

Her acting skills were limited to playing dumb with an expressionless face. For a complex expression like this—three parts dazed, three parts anxious, three parts fearful, and one part annoyed... joking aside, if she had that kind of acting talent, she would have entered the entertainment industry already.

Besides, everyone was a novice, and there was no useful information to be had. In the time it took to act, she might find useful clues or rules in some nook or cranny, push the instance plot forward a big step, and then leave early to go home and eat.

Lin Xiangjun decided not to participate in their exchange, turning instead to examine the surrounding environment.

They were currently at the entrance of a residential community. Behind them was a road, and further back were shops, but when Lin Xiangjun tried to walk a few steps toward the road, she found an invisible air wall blocking her.

It seemed the instance’s boundaries only included the interior of the residential community.

Lin Xiangjun looked toward the community’s main gate.

The gate was the kind of automatic telescopic gate commonly used in schools, and next to it was a small, locked iron side door.

This was very strange.

At a community entrance like this, because vehicles enter and exit frequently, they usually use barrier arms—the kind that lift up and down with a button press. These automatic telescopic gates used by schools are very slow; schools use them to prevent students from sneaking out.

So why would a residential community use this?

Was it also to prevent something from sneaking out?

To the right of the iron gate was a Security Room, and on the Security Room window, a piece of A3-sized paper was taped with clear adhesive tape.

While thinking, Lin Xiangjun walked up to check the paper.

It was the rules.

The difficulty of a two-star instance isn’t very high, so the rules are all true. Only in instances with a difficulty of three stars or higher is it possible for there to be a mix of true and false rules.

[Ronghua Community is a harmonious family, but a harmonious family also needs rules for support. When you step into the community, please abide by the following rules:]

[1. Your family loves you very much, and you love your family very much. Therefore, if they ask you for help, do not refuse.]

[2. There are many elderly people in the community. To ensure they can rest, please keep quiet and do not make noise from 11:00 PM to 7:00 AM the next day.]

[3. Please consciously maintain the community’s hygiene. Do not litter. If you see trash, please throw it into a green trash can. There are no black trash cans in the community.]

[4. If you encounter trash you cannot handle, you can call the community Cleaners. They wear yellow vests and military-green rubber shoes.]

[5. Stray cats may gather in the community gardens, but the Property Management has already neutered and dewormed them. There are no bugs in the community. The cats are all clean and cute; if you encounter them, give them a ham sausage.]

[6. There are many children in the community. To prevent them from picking up bad habits, please do not use any indecent language within the community. Children need a clean environment to grow up in.]

[7. Children will always make mistakes, and parents should provide appropriate guidance. After all, who hasn’t made a mistake? He’s just a child.]

There were seven rules in total. Lin Xiangjun recited them twice to memorize them and took a photo with her phone as double insurance.

At this moment, someone among the panicked group of four finally noticed the calm Lin Xiangjun, who seemed out of place among them.

“Hey, you there, do you know something?”

The one speaking was the middle-aged man with the cigarette, but by now his cigarette had finished burning, leaving only a butt thrown on the ground.

Lin Xiangjun glanced at him and ignored him.

She had zero desire to talk to people who lacked manners.

“I’m talking to you! Are you deaf or something!” Being ignored, the middle-aged man felt his male dignity was being challenged, and his panic from entering an unfamiliar realm suddenly found an outlet.

The four of them huddled together to discuss things, and it wasn’t without result. That student had suggested a possibility, saying they might have been pulled into an instance.

Today was Monday. Originally, 8:00 AM sharp was the time to return from morning exercises for the first class. But as soon as the 8:00 bell rang, Wang Zixuan saw classmates who were already in their seats suddenly vanish!

Out of fifty people in the class, four who had been sitting there one second disappeared into thin air before their eyes the next.

The Chinese teacher was also very scared but barely managed to maintain order. Once the class finally quieted down, the four missing students suddenly reappeared in their seats.

Three of them were already dead.

The student sitting in front of Wang Zixuan was one of those four.

The two of them had a decent relationship, often heading off to play basketball together after class. But now, the front student’s head was tilted back at an unnatural angle, and he could clearly see that face, which no longer had any familiar features...

The muscles on the front student’s face were twisted together like fried dough twists, and his nose was split down the middle, pulled apart as if by something to reveal broken cartilage, muscle fibers, and a hole that went straight through his entire head.

He could even see the front student’s back through that hole...

Wang Zixuan’s legs still trembled at the memory.

Only a layer of skin connected the front student’s head and shoulders. This layer of skin completely snapped after Wang Zixuan kicked the desk forward in fright. The front student’s head rolled onto the floor, those terrified eyes seemingly still staring fixedly at him—