Chapter 9: The Great Philanthropist

"Nightmare World?"

"Little brother." The fake security guard spoke. At this moment, he, like everyone else around, had changed into a set of coarse cloth clothes, and his expression had softened significantly. "Come over here and look."

Arriving at the window and looking outside, the quaint street was filled with pedestrians wearing ancient costumes, both men and women. The style of the buildings and shops on both sides of the street had also changed, becoming antique and elegant. Looking out, this was clearly an ancient town that would only appear in movies or television dramas.

"We... have we traveled through time?" His breathing became rapid. The scene before his eyes brought a significant visual impact to Yang Xiao, who had just woken up.

The middle-aged man who had disguised himself as a security guard nodded, his gaze cast toward the mist-shrouded peaks in the distance. "You can understand it that way. Although the town has changed a lot, if you look at the surrounding mountain terrain, our current location is Fengmen Town, just the Fengmen Town of several hundred years ago."

"Like you, we all received a Ghost Script, and it was that thing that brought us here. Predecessors also call this place the Nightmare World."

"Of course, the scenes in every Nightmare World are different. It could be the ancient town we see now, or it could be a high-rise building, a school, a village, or even a forest, a beach, a snowfield, or a wilderness."

"Any scene that has appeared in our real world could potentially appear in the Nightmare World."

"What do we need to do?" Yang Xiao asked the key question.

"According to the scene that appears, cooperate with the other players, find clues to complete the task, and try your best to survive in the process," the middle-aged man said concisely.

"I... I don't want any Nightmare World! I want to go home. My wife and child are still at home, I... can someone save me?" The man in the corner was crying, his body curled into a ball. If he didn't lack a mobile phone, he would have already called the police.

After arriving here, not only were their personal belongings like mobile phones gone, but even the clothes they were wearing had been changed. Now, each of them had a set of patched, coarse cloth clothes; not only was the fabric poor, but it was also somewhat dirty.

"Fuck your mother, are you going to keep going?" The young man with the ear stud stood up abruptly, raised his leg, and kicked the man hard twice, knocking him to the ground. "If you cry out again and lure those damn things over, I'll kill you!"

The kicked man dared not make a sound immediately. After crawling up, his nose twitched, and there were faint tear stains at the corners of his eyes; he looked pitiful.

The man was about 30 years old, his face was clean, and his hair was well-groomed; he looked like an employee of some large company.

"Alright, don't make things hard for him; he is a newcomer after all," someone spoke up to persuade.

Yang Xiao was not interested in these things. No matter what kind of game it was, newcomers were always the type that were not welcomed. They didn't understand the rules and would always cause trouble, so he tried to speak less and listen more, only asking key questions. "Can we return to the real world after the task is finished, right?"

"That is the case." The middle-aged man nodded.

After the scene stabilized, the middle-aged man took the lead in having everyone introduce themselves. After all, as he said, everyone was grasshoppers on the same rope, fellow sufferers in the same predicament.

"My name is Kuang Hongyi, and I am a security guard at a real estate company." The middle-aged man looked at the others with interest. "What do you all do? It is fate that we can gather here."

"Xu Su, university lecturer." The woman who had previously helped Yang Xiao apply a cold towel to his head spoke first.

"Which subject?"

"Science and engineering, fluid mechanics." Xu Su maintained that somewhat cold attitude.

"University teachers as young as you are rare." The young man with the ear stud smiled meaningfully. "My name is Ke Long. I don't have a proper job; I work in a factory opened by my own family. Oh, a parts processing factory, for motorcycles."

"Shi Dali, seaman, working for an ocean shipping company." The one who spoke in a muffled voice was a dark-skinned man. He was not tall, but very lean and strong. A pair of small eyes examined everyone one by one. He was also the oldest among them, roughly in his early 50s.

"Su Tingting, I... I am a university student. Do you know the Rong City Academy of Arts? I study there..." The short-haired girl wearing light makeup had a voice as small as a mosquito's hum. Clearly, she was also terrified. Her face was pale, and her voice was trembling; she should also be a newcomer.

"I... my name is Shi Guanming, and I am a designer," the man in the corner said in a low voice.

"Designer? Designing what?" Kuang Hongyi seemed to have become interested.

"Lighting fixtures."

Kuang Hongyi shook his head, clearly somewhat disappointed, and then looked at Yang Xiao, who was the last one. "It's your turn."

"Chu Xi, my job is unstable; I am currently at a milk tea shop." Now that the situation was unclear and friends or foes were undetermined, he naturally could not reveal his true identity.

Among the 7 people, only Yang Xiao, Su Tingting from the Academy of Arts, and the lighting designer Shi Guanming were newcomers, arriving at the Nightmare World for the first time. The other 4 were all veteran players.

Before they could chat about idle matters, a burst of hurried footsteps came from outside the room. The next second, the door was knocked. "Guests? Are the guests awake?"

Several people looked at each other, and in the end, Kuang Hongyi went to open the door.

After the door opened, a waiter with a dark, dirty rag draped over his shoulder and a shrewd look appeared before everyone, his shifty little eyes looking into the room. "Oh my, all the guests are here."

"Is something the matter?" Kuang Hongyi looked at him.

The waiter gave a fawning smile, his eye corners full of wrinkles. "Honored guests, the Feng residence sent someone to invite you at noon. Knowing that you all slept late last night, I didn't let anyone disturb you, but now the sun is about to set, so you see..."

"Master Feng? Which Master Feng?"

"Oh my, you guests really know how to joke. Within a hundred miles, besides the great philanthropist Master Feng, who would dare to be the second Master Feng?"

"What does Master Feng want with us?" Xu Su also walked up and stood side by side with Kuang Hongyi.

The waiter was stunned for a moment, then gave a bitter smile. "Oh my, you guests are truly noble people who forget things easily. You are the honored guests invited by Master Feng. The Feng family sent someone to our little shop early to deposit silver. Could it be that you guests drank too much at the welcome banquet last night?"

"Don't mention that wine. My head is still dizzy now. Who knows if your wine had problems."

Shi Dali glared, and the little waiter immediately cowered. This also helped Kuang Hongyi and Xu Su smooth over their words.

"I ask you, where are the people sent by the Feng family?"

The waiter lowered his posture even more, accompanying it with a fawning smile: "Replying to you gentlemen, they are still waiting outside the door, and have urged us several times already."

Kuang Hongyi lifted his chin. "Lead the way."

"Understood!"

Following the waiter's guidance out of the inn's door, they saw two carriages parked not far away, along with several people standing to the side, dressed like servants of an ancient wealthy family.

"Go over and take a look. Remember, don't talk nonsense, and act according to the situation," Kuang Hongyi whispered a reminder.

But just as they left the inn, the waiter at the door changed his expression. He spat at the backs of the group and cursed viciously through gritted teeth: "Pah! What are they? A few town guests who are here today but gone tomorrow. If I coax them with a few nice words, do they really think they're masters?"

"They can even sell their own lives cheaply; I think they're not even as good as those low-class, cheap actors!"