Ch 20: I Run a Food Shop in an Escape Game

Hot Spring Bathhouse (8)

【Pet Collar + Leash Set】

【Quality: B Rank】

【Condition: 90% New】

【Description: Place the collar around your pet’s neck to carry it with you and bring it along into game instances. Current number of bound pets: 0. Maximum number of pets that can be bound: 2.】

【Note: Types recognized by this item as pets include: domesticated animals, wild animals, living humans, corpses, ghosts, fairies, ghouls, summons…】

Probably because this item had dropped from an NPC, the manual also listed the previous owner’s employee ID at the end: cy72099.

So the male ghost from earlier had used this item to bring the two female ghosts along into the instance…

Unexpectedly, they were not merely coworkers. They apparently had that kind of relationship too. No wonder they were willing to accompany him all the way through promotions and revenge.

Yi Han was extremely satisfied with this unexpected gain.

This truly was a good item.

Right now he was only in one-star instances, yet he had already encountered several ghosts with special abilities.

And judging from the item description, the higher the level of the instances, the more bizarre creatures he would encounter.

When that time came, if he captured a couple of powerful ones to keep at home as hired muscle, his future path of earning points would definitely become much steadier.

Contentedly storing the item and his recovered iron pot back into the system inventory, Yi Han finally returned to the corridor.

Coming back indoors from the outdoor area, he finally no longer felt so cold.

He removed the thick bathrobe and returned to the hot spring hall, only to discover the place in complete disarray.

Water stains covered the floor, and blood had splattered in some places.

The enormous indoor hot spring hall was empty and silent.

Everyone was gone.

The teammates had disappeared somewhere, and strangest of all, the woman who had died in the hot spring pool earlier…

Before Yi Han had left, the others had already moved her body out of the pool, laid her on the floor, and even covered her with a towel.

But now the spot where she had been lying was empty too.

The corpse had vanished.

…What had happened here while he was dealing with those three ghosts outside?

Yi Han took out his phone and checked the messages.

Only then did he discover that not long ago, two more players had been eliminated.

Which meant that in this game, aside from himself, only four players remained.

After giving the hall one final sweeping glance with a dark expression, Yi Han turned and left.

It was still not midnight yet.

The remaining four players could not leave the instance, so they had to still be somewhere in this area.

Life and death depended on fate. Original translation at HololoNovels dot com. If something had truly happened to them, it could only be blamed on their own strength and luck.

But for something to happen here, and even for the corpse to disappear…

That perhaps indicated there was still some hidden danger in this instance that Yi Han did not yet know about.

What exactly was that danger?

Besides the two “ghost players” hidden among the team and the three ghosts he had already eliminated, were there other ghosts as well?

That was what Yi Han most needed to figure out right now.

He passed through the corridor and the still-dark restaurant, arriving at the final unexplored area:

The water park.

The visitor rest area was also here.

Yi Han believed the remaining players would most likely be resting somewhere in this section.

The water park occupied the largest area in the entire hot spring resort.

The moment he entered the hall, he felt how bright the lights were here.

The ceiling was astonishingly high, and all sorts of amusement facilities were distributed throughout the massive pools.

The empty hall echoed with the sound of rushing water.

Yi Han walked in and quickly spotted several teammates seated on lounge chairs meant for guests.

Naturally, none of them were actually lying down to rest.

Nor were they talking.

They simply sat together, brows tightly furrowed, eyes dull, looking exhausted.

The couple saw him first.

The first expression that flashed across their faces was not joy, but disbelief and shock.

Although it lasted only an instant, Yi Han still caught it.

…Shock that he had not been killed by those three ghosts?

Yi Han walked over slowly, merely giving them a calm glance without speaking.

“You’re back. That’s great.”

At that moment, the pair of best friends finally noticed him too.

Yan Yan seemed somewhat recovered. Seeing him return, she immediately straightened up and revealed a weak smile.

“Thank you for saving me earlier. If not for you, I probably would’ve been eliminated in the sauna room.”

She still retained some memory of being trapped earlier, so she knew it was Yi Han who had broken down the wooden door to save her.

Now that she had recovered somewhat mentally, she immediately expressed her gratitude sincerely.

Yi Han politely nodded and told her not to worry about it.

“What happened after I left? What happened to that father and son?”

Indeed, only four people were sitting here now:

The pair of best friends and the couple.

The dead woman’s husband and son were nowhere to be seen, meaning the two people eliminated according to the app notification had indeed been them.

Unexpectedly, the moment he asked this question, before anyone answered, all four of their faces turned pale.

The four exchanged glances.

No one answered immediately.

The pair of best friends looked as though they did not know how to explain, while the couple seemed inexplicably unhappy.

“Before asking that, maybe you should first explain where you were just now?”

The man from the couple frowned and questioned him instead.

“Hm?”

Yi Han turned to look at him, momentarily not understanding why he sounded displeased.

“The six of us were risking our lives over here, while you hid away by yourself and abandoned us there.”

“Exactly. We almost all died just now, yet you were hiding outside alone. You clearly knew you were the strongest fighter on the team. How could you run off without even saying a word and only care about yourself?”

The woman beside him also spoke resentfully.

Yi Han: …???

So you all know I’m the strongest fighter here, yet you still dare come at me with this lotus-language nonsense. Are your skulls itching?

Yi Han immediately pulled out the pot in reverse grip.

The ones causing panic earlier in the hot spring hall had been these two.

Yi Han had not even had time to deal with them yet, and now these two “ghost players” had voluntarily delivered themselves to his doorstep…

“How can you say that… Why are you doubting your own teammate?”

“Yeah! That’s way too much!”

Before Yi Han could act, the two best friends became upset first.

Yan Yan was clearly on Yi Han’s side.

The other girl also had a normal moral compass, though unfortunately neither of them seemed very good at arguing. It was obvious they had rarely quarreled before.

“Then explain why you insisted on acting alone. Anyone normal knows that separating from the group is the worst taboo in an instance, yet during the most dangerous moment, you secretly left by yourself. Isn’t that suspicious?”

“And after you left, something happened to us again. There were six of us, and two people died in the attack, while you, the one who went off alone, came back perfectly unharmed. Does that seem normal?”

“I think either you discovered some crucial information and deliberately kept it to yourself because you were jealous we had sightseeing tickets and didn’t want us clearing the instance… or you’re outright a ghost infiltrated among the players. Maybe that thing from earlier was brought by you!”

The two spoke one sentence after another, utterly righteous and confident.

“If you don’t explain yourself clearly, we absolutely won’t trust you.”

That was their final conclusion.

“…”

Yi Han could not help admiring their courage in “fearlessly provoking the strong for the sake of completing a divide-and-conquer mission.”

Then he reached out and grabbed the man by the collar of his bathrobe, hauling him up first.

“What are you doing?! Let go of me!”

The man jumped in fright and immediately screamed.

“Let him go!”

His girlfriend also started shrieking.

The atmosphere was about to explode.

Yet just then, footsteps suddenly sounded behind them.

“What are you all doing?”

A cold voice rang out from behind.

Before even turning around, Yi Han had already frowned.

That voice was far too familiar.

So familiar that hearing it now felt deeply eerie.

It was Yi Han’s own voice.

Turning around, Yi Han saw another version of himself.

That person stood there with slightly furrowed brows and a dark gaze, even holding an identical iron pot in his hand.

Behind him stood three extremely familiar figures.

Two adults and a five-year-old child.

The three teammates who had already died.

The four of them stared together at the real Yi Han and the others, as though they themselves were the living humans and the others were the dead.

“I’m ‘Y.’ Who are you?”

The fake “Yi Han” calmly reported the name.

Yi Han raised an eyebrow.

Only now did he understand what the registered personal information at the beginning of the game had been for.

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