X
The next day, before dawn broke, Guan Miao and Lin Zhi’s group had already gathered in Lin Kuo’s room. Lin Kuo normally wasn’t one to sleep in, but perhaps because Sheng Wen had been beside him, he’d slept soundly; when he finally woke up, the room was already full of people.
In the room sat a carved, old-fashioned wooden table, and the other five people were seated around it, quietly discussing something. Lin Kuo hurriedly got up.
“I… overslept.”
Lin Zhi was about to greet him with a “Good morning, brother,” but Sheng Wen, resting his chin in his palms, beat him to it: “Morning, gege.”
Lin Zhi, whose line was stolen: “…”
“Why didn’t you wake me?” Lin Kuo quickly got out of bed to wash up. Guan Miao chuckled: “No rush. Sheng Wen wouldn’t let us.”
A faint blush bloomed across Lin Kuo’s cheeks. Afraid of delaying the progress of the dungeon, he quickly went to wash up. When he returned, Sheng Wen patted the empty spot beside him.
“Come here.”
Lin Kuo sat down next to him, only to notice Lin Zhi staring at him, as if searching for something.
“Do I have something on my face?” Lin Kuo asked, touching his cheek.
Lin Zhi shook his head, then shifted his gaze to Sheng Wen.
“No, I was just… looking.”
Zhang Mengnan, curious as well, asked what he was staring at. Lin Zhi lowered her voice to answer: “I was checking if there was anything… unsuitable for kids. Jiang Sheng is still here, after all.”
After speaking, she pinched Jiang Sheng’s face. Whether it was Lin Zhi’s heavy hand or something else, Jiang Sheng’s cheeks turned pink.
Zhang Mengnan caught on and covered her mouth, smiling.
Guan Miao slid a sheet of paper toward Lin Kuo.
“This is what we were just discussing…”
Lin Kuo glanced at the paper. It was a simple personnel distribution chart:
Wang Qing’s Team (22 people):
Wu Tingting’s Team (18 people):
Lin Kuo’s Team (6 people):
Guan Miao then pulled out the simple painting scroll from before.
“I just checked: Wang Qing’s team has already collected six ghosts — ‘Amanojaku,’ ‘Blue Woman of the Room,’ ‘Boat Wraith,’ ‘Plate Count,’ and ‘Mountain Spirit.’ Those five are ranked between 30th and 50th. The system hasn’t published the exact scores this time, so we don’t know their points yet.
“The last ghost they captured is ‘Reverse Pillar,’ ranked 10th on the Hundred Ghosts list. Zhang Yi captured it alone.”
Lin Kuo stayed silent. He hadn’t yet entered the scroll world, so he didn’t know the relative strengths of the ghosts and thus couldn’t gauge just how impressive Zhang Yi’s feat was.
“At dinner yesterday, I didn’t see him,” Guan Miao continued. “But when I went to check the outer wall later, I happened to see him stepping out of the scroll world. It took him about ten hours. For reference…” Guan Miao coughed lightly, “Even S God took five hours to capture Reverse Pillar.”
Sheng Wen added mildly: “Zhang Yi’s got some skill.”
Lin Kuo understood. If even Sheng Wen acknowledged his ability, Zhang Yi was indeed formidable.
Thinking back, Zhou Mu’s claim that “Zhang Yi left me behind because he was over his limit” was likely just an excuse. More likely, Zhang Yi simply found Zhou Mu a burden and abandoned him.
But, as the saying goes: “Helping you is kindness; not helping is my right.” Even Zhou Mu had no grounds to demand lifelong protection from a neighbor, much less Lin Kuo, an outsider, to pass judgment.
Lin Zhi, confused, asked: “Reverse Pillar… that’s a ghost’s name?”
“Yes,” Guan Miao explained. “‘Reverse Pillar’ is a wood ghost. Its manifestation medium is wood — typically, a ghostly face will appear on wood, and it often causes fires. Its damage potential is extremely high, which is why it’s in the top ten. I think Zhang Yi’s next target will skip number nine, ‘Sea Hunchback,’ and go for number eight, ‘Resonant House.’”
“Why skip ‘Sea Hunchback’?” Lin Zhi asked.
Zhang Mengnan answered: “Sea Humpback is actually a benevolent ghost. It helps fishermen find their way home. But if the fisherman is evil, it’ll drag them into the sea to eat them. The worse the person, the stronger the ghost.”
Jiang Sheng asked innocently: “If it’s a good ghost, why doesn’t anyone choose it?”
“Because people who enter the scroll world aren’t necessarily good,” Guan Miao said with a laugh.
That chilling statement made Lin Zhi’s group shiver. Jiang Sheng, still innocent, declared: “Then Brother Lin Kuo would have no problem capturing ‘Sea Hunchback’!”
“If Lin Kuo went in alone,” Guan Miao agreed, “it’d probably be easy.”
Sheng Wen narrowed his eyes.
“You trying to imply something?”
“I was just giving an example,” Guan Miao said quickly.
“I’m a good person,” Sheng Wen asserted.
Guan Miao wisely said nothing, while Sheng Wen leaned toward Lin Kuo for comfort.
“Right, gege?”
Lin Kuo, giving him full face, nodded seriously.
“Mm!”
Guan Miao pretended not to see Sheng Wen’s smug expression, instead tapping the paper.
“Let’s start with the lower-ranked ghosts. If Sheng Wen and Lin Kuo feel confident, they can go after the top nine. Jiang Sheng and I will scout for opportunities.”
“Okay,” Lin Kuo agreed.
With the plan decided, they went to the main hall for breakfast. As they ate, Guan Miao quietly pointed out: “Five-person table. Crew cut, black clothes — that’s Zhang Yi.”
Lin Kuo glanced over. Sheng Wen’s description was precise, and Lin Kuo immediately spotted him. Zhang Yi sat with Wang Qing and others from A Zone. They were speaking softly, intentionally keeping their voices low so others couldn’t hear.
Wang Qing said, “Yi-ge, you just got out of the scroll world. I’ll handle things for now. Rest up before going after ‘Sea Hunchback.’”
Zhang Yi didn’t respond, only asked, “What do the others think?”
“Lower Zone folks are timid,” Wang Qing said with a curse. “They insist on going in groups. Otherwise, with ten of them, we could lock down ten ghosts already.”
Zhang Yi’s face darkened.
Wang Qing quickly added, “With more people, maybe we can still score points.”
“Don’t rely on them for points,” Zhang Yi said coldly. “Find a way to split them up.”
Wang Qing looked embarrassed. “They won’t agree… It’s dangerous going in alone. One slip and it’s suicide. People in the lower zone are crafty now — they won’t even enter in small groups, let alone solo. Honestly, I think most of them are here just to coast.”
“I won’t carry dead weight,” Zhang Yi said. “If you can’t handle this, I’ll deal with you instead.”
Wang Qing choked on his words. Another man, Duan Qiu from Upper A Zone, smoothed things over: “If they’ve got the skill to coast all the way, I’d respect that. But those ten thousand points won’t distribute themselves. Even if I toss them a few hundred, I’d barely feel it.”
“I’d feel it,” Zhang Yi said evenly.
Duan Qiu smirked.
“Come on, your name’s already on the leaderboard. You really care about a couple hundred points?”
“Yes,” Zhang Yi said flatly, glaring at him. “Got a problem with that?”
Duan Qiu bristled — both of them were from Upper A Zone; there was no reason to back down.
Another teammate, Guo Huai, tugged on Duan Qiu’s sleeve. “Cut it out.”
Duan Qiu scowled and scoffed, “If you’re that desperate for points, just say so. I might not have your score, but I could toss you some. Call me ‘Dad,’ and I’ll give you some.”
Zhang Yi slammed his chopsticks down and grabbed Duan Qiu by the collar. “Say that again.”
Duan Qiu didn’t back down, ready to fight. Guo Huai quickly covered Duan Qiu’s mouth, while Wang Qing stepped in to soothe Zhang Yi. Guo Huai whispered urgently to Duan Qiu:
“Yi-ge’s got a younger brother in the Lower Zone.”
“So?” Duan Qiu muttered.
“Keep your voice down,” Guo Huai hissed. “Yi-ge’s hoarding points to send his brother straight to S Zone. Even one or two points matter to him.”
Duan Qiu muttered a few disgruntled words but stayed quiet. The points required to reach S Zone were astronomical — daunting even to look at. Transferring points to someone else would incur heavy system fees on top of that. It was a number ordinary people could only dream of.
“Not even S God could do that, right?” Duan Qiu murmured.
“I said shut it,” Guo Huai warned.
Zhang Yi silently resumed eating.
The table fell quiet.
Meanwhile, Guan Miao asked Sheng Wen,
“Did you catch what they were saying?”
“I’m not a dog,” Sheng Wen said dryly.
“Fair enough. Let’s just eat,” Guan Miao said.
After quickly finishing breakfast, they stepped outside the courtyard. Yesterday’s outer wall, once vivid and strange, was now duller. Several ghosts depicted on it had faded to a lifeless gray.
“That usually means someone died in there,” Guan Miao explained.
He pointed to Reverse Pillar. Its colors hadn’t dimmed, but there was a subtle change. Lin Zhi noticed: “The eyes are closed.”
“Right,” Guan Miao said. “When a ghost’s eyes close, it means it’s been captured. The goal in entering the scroll is to claim the ghost’s eyes.”
“How do we do that?” Lin Zhi asked.
Guan Miao glanced at Sheng Wen, who had clearly handed off all rule explanations to him. Even Lin Kuo watched intently.
“Dig them out,” Guan Miao said matter-of-factly.
“…” Zhang Mengnan.
“…” Jiang Sheng.
Much harder than expected.
“And once you dig them out,” Guan Miao continued, “you have to guard them carefully. The system doesn’t care how many you collect; what matters is how many you still possess at the deadline.”
He’d said it politely, but everyone understood:
Participants could steal each other’s ghosts’ eyes.
You think this chapter was thrilling? Wait until you read The Regressed Protagonist’s Condition Is Strange.! Click here to discover the next big twist!
Read : The Regressed Protagonist’s Condition Is Strange.
If You Notice any translation issues or inconsistency in names, genders, or POV etc? Let us know here in the comments or on our Discord server, and we’ll fix it in current and future chapters. Thanks for helping us to improve! 🙂