Sweet Candy Sky's scream caught the attention of Caleb and Ginger. Before long, the four of them gathered again outside the ruins of the dilapidated house.
"What happened? Huh? You... were also scared by that ghost?" Because she was the first to be startled, Ginger was the first to be released from the 'Soul Weakness' state.
"Sigh... I was careless" Hard Candy Hank sighed dejectedly. Then, from the tattered pocket of his jacket, he pulled out his iconic broken bowl. He extended the broken bowl towards the other three survivors. "Great sirs, please have mercy on me"
"..." Caleb was speechless. Ginger's expression was stiff. Sweet Candy Sky's anger soared.
—Your teammate 'Hard Candy Hank' has activated his identity ability 'Begging' towards you. With a burst of kindness, you generously bestowed him 5 survival points.
"Oh yeah~ 20 survival points in hand, so satisfying~" The broken bowl in Hard Candy Hank's hand flashed, and the sound of coins clinking rang out. He immediately beamed with joy. His 'Begging' skill had already refreshed its cooldown.
"But... why is it 20 survival points this time?" Hard Candy Hank immediately noticed the discrepancy in his 'income'. His begging ability could only forcibly demand 5 survival points from each player present at a time. With only 3 players present, he had inexplicably received an extra 5 survival points.
"Did my skill crit?!" But before he could delve deeper into this situation, he was knocked to the ground by his girlfriend's 'Discipline' iron fist.
"The current situation is that all three of us were startled by that ghost." Ginger paused here and glanced at Caleb beside her. "Only this ice... oh no, Caleb, was unaffected. To be precise, he wasn't scared by that guy."
"That's impossible, right?" Hard Candy Hank sat up from the ground, rubbing the large bump on his head. "That ghost, it clearly knows how to pinpoint human fright points. Its scares follow a pattern; the visual fear it creates is secondary. It's more about the suddenness of it. Scaring people when they are focused but unprepared, isn't that impossible to defend against?" Hard Candy Hank looked disbelieving.
"But the fact that he doesn't have the 'Soul Weakness' status is undeniable." Ginger put on an expression that indicated she had no choice but to believe, and spread her hands, saying, "Normally, if you get scared, you're 100% pulled into the 'Real Fear' state by the system, right?"
"That's true." Hard Candy Hank scratched his head and innocently asked Caleb, "How did you do that? Is there some trick to it?"
"It's natural." Caleb's answer was not wrong.
"Let's talk about the clues we've gathered instead," Caleb didn't want to continue the topic of not being startled, so he changed the subject: "Regarding the 'ghost' you mentioned, I suspect he is also a game player, just like us!"
At these words, the other three people all showed surprised expressions. "You mean, this game actually has 5 players, and 1 player was assigned to be our opponent?" Ginger was the first to question: "How is that possible? He's completely different from us. He can't be seen, and he appears very suddenly, as if he has some kind of invisible displacement ability... How long has the game been open? If a player has already mastered such a buggy ability so early, that would be too unreasonable."
"So I'm only suspecting this for now." Caleb was actually already certain that the Ghost-faced Man was a game player.
"May I interrupt?" At this moment, Hard Candy Hank suddenly raised his hand and said: "Now that Caleb mentions it, I think I've figured something out." He scratched his head and recounted the anomaly that occurred when he activated his 'Begging' skill earlier. "I thought the skill had crit, but now it seems the skill really did affect 4 players. Which means... the player who was playing the Ghost-faced Man was standing near us at that time!" Hard Candy Hank shrank his neck after speaking. Then he added: "Maybe he's still here now."
"..." The two players present immediately felt a chilling cold, as if a pair of eyes were staring at them.
"Oh, right, have you encountered those red treasure chests?" Hard Candy Hank quickly changed the subject with a strong desire to survive. "I found one and opened a toolbox from it." Saying that, he pulled out the green [Portable Toolbox]. "It has usage restrictions; only its owner can use it."
Before he finished speaking, he noticed Caleb across from him pulling out a map and a syringe, and Ginger taking out a flashlight.
"So everyone has found something."
"There are a total of 4 items, which just happen to correspond to the 4 of us. Let's try exchanging them," Ginger said, then swapped the flashlight in her hand with Hard Candy Hank's toolbox.
"Huh?!" As soon as Ginger touched the toolbox, she felt her mind suddenly clear up a lot, as if a long-forgotten memory was being reawakened.
In her memory, she became a Military Factory worker named Amelia Woods.
In a dimly lit small room, including Amelia, four men and women were sitting around a table.
A man wearing a baseball cap was swaggering and yelling: "He actually ignored Cliché Pierson's words, damn it! He didn't even go out on the street to ask about my name!" As he spoke, he excitedly slapped the table. "I think it's time we showed that old stubborn man a thing or two."
"Even legal action has little effect; the director of this Military Factory is an unyielding person." Next to him, a man in a white shirt and glasses clasped his fingers together, resting them on his nose, and said in a deep voice: "Amelia, in this situation, only you can help us. How long are you going to hesitate?"
Ginger heard herself weakly reply to the man in glasses: "So... what do you need me to do?"
"You've finally made up your mind, my little Amelia!" The scoundrel who called himself Cliché Pierson heard this, immediately uncrossed his legs, straightened his posture, and said, "Since that old stubborn man refuses to leave, I think we should just burn down his broken factory. Doing this for you, little Amelia, should be easy, right?"
"That's not good, the director... has always treated me well."
"Hmph! Watch your stance!" The man named Cliché Pierson immediately reprimanded sternly: "Don't forget how you escaped from that hellhole!"
"We are the closest people to you." The man in glasses also reminded her grimly from the side.
Another woman dressed as a doctor, who had been silent all this time, now reached out and pressed Amelia's arm, a gesture that carried a sense of comfort.
"Then... alright." Awed by her companions' authority, Amelia could only agree to Cliché's proposal to burn down the Military Factory.