Meng Jinfeng had lived in Joy Garden for many years.
In her early years, she had a major surgery and recuperated at her son and daughter-in-law's home.
At that time, Meng Jinfeng's partner had passed away, and her daughter-in-law's parents had also died early. As the only elder in the family, her spirits were still relatively good. The elderly lady felt embarrassed to trouble the young couple, so she actively got up early to cook and do some housework. When she had nothing else to do, she would look around at the affordable neighborhoods nearby, thinking about buying a small apartment close to her family.
Property in City A retained its value, so she thought that when she died, she could leave some assets for her family.
However, on a sunny and breezy weekend, her son, daughter-in-law, and grandson, who had just started elementary school, went out for a trip, and all three died in a car accident on the spot. Meng Jinfeng inherited the expensive property in Joy Garden, becoming a true widow.
The originally talkative old lady gradually became silent, and from silent to noisy. Her TV was on 24 hours a day, to facilitate conversations with the people on the screen.
Xu Yue moved into Joy Garden during that period.
To say he moved in—in fact, Granny Meng didn't notice the move. She only saw it mentioned in the homeowners group chat and held some hostility towards this young man she had never met—room 701 was still a bare apartment, and young people liked to make a fuss about renovations, which meant she feared she wouldn't have peaceful days for the coming months.
However, the sound of renovations never came.
In the empty room, Granny Meng looked up at the ceiling as if waiting for its judgment. A day passed, a month passed, yet there was no noise from room 701, nor had she seen the supposedly busy young man.
No matter when she went out, taking the stairs or the elevator, she never ran into "Xu Yue". But from the homeowners group chat, it was clear "Xu Yue" had definitely moved in.
Meng Jinfeng went up to the seventh floor to check on room 701, which now had curtains on its windows, but they were hung too high for her to see clearly.
But the grass on the ground didn't like her peeping, glaring at her with their numerous tiny eyes and intentionally letting her hear their whispering.
Meng Jinfeng went to the door of 701. It still had the community-installed door, with no doormat in front. The peephole was pitch black, and no sound could be heard from inside.
But spring couplets were pasted on either side of the door, all upside down. The familiar characters, once inverted, looked more like gibberish. Even the usual "upside-down blessing" decoration seemed odd. Ink dripped down towards the floor, crawling like snails, leaving behind fine, long traces.
It seemed someone lived there. If the door hadn't been used, the peephole on the inside wouldn't have blinking obstructions.
Do young people just live in bare apartments like this? Granny Meng huffed at the door and rolled her eyes as she walked away.
Fine. At least she knew someone lived there. That Xu Yue would have to renovate sooner or later!
One night, just like always, Granny Meng was staring at the ceiling when she suddenly heard strange noises.
Shuffling, shuffling.
It was as if someone was dragging a sack filled with heavy objects across the floor. In the silent night, the sound was clear enough to be like sandpaper on the eardrums.
The TV's sound couldn't cover up that weird noise.
Shuffling, shuffling, shuffling.
The sound grew clearer, piercing into her head like needles.
'That new neighbor must be up to no good,' Granny Meng thought. Making noise in the middle of the night, she had to make him quiet down.
Granny Meng ran out in her slippers, straight up the stairs to the seventh floor. A strange smell wafted through the hallway, like ink mixed with blood, faint and bitter.
'Who's throwing things away again,' Granny Meng thought angrily.
The shuffling sound became clearer and clearer, rooting itself in her brain. The difference between 501 and 701 was just two floors, but the stairwell was oddly twisted and damp, making it difficult for Granny Meng to navigate, reminding her of the water from slaughtering pigs during the New Year.
Still, she bravely reached the door of 701 and started banging on it. "What are you doing? What are you doing? Can't you let people sleep in the middle of the night?"
Her screams were almost drowned out by the shuffling noise. She had to shout louder and bang harder. The peephole blinked at her, and from inside came the squishy sound of raw meat being squeezed as shadows flowed out from under the door, nibbling at her feet.
No one opened the door.
Instead, the resident of 702 came out. "Auntie Meng, what's going on?"
"His place is making too much noise!" Granny Meng stomped her feet to shake off the shadows on them, ignoring the increasingly pale face of the 702 resident. "Making noise on the floor in the middle of the night, and there's a smell! I can't sleep. Even if you don't care, I do."
"I didn't hear any noise, nor did I smell anything," the resident of 702 said with a pale face. "Noise from the top of the building doesn't necessarily come from upstairs. It's very late. Shall I help you contact the property management tomorrow? My child has school tomorrow…"
Meng Jinfeng stopped knocking, rolled her eyes expertly, and shuffled back down the stairs in her slippers.
The next day, the shuffling noise continued non-stop. She dragged the property management up to knock on the door. The busy Xu Yue seemed not to be home, and after half a day of knocking, there was no response.
In front of Meng Jinfeng, the property management staff contacted Xu Yue, who, unsurprisingly, was at work. Meng Jinfeng relentlessly grabbed the property staff and dragged them to her own home, pointing to the ceiling that occasionally made shuffling noises.
"Listen for yourself!" She frowned sternly and turned off the TV.
The property manager's expression turned sour. "Auntie, it's quite quiet."
These people must be deceiving the elderly. Meng Jinfeng fumed. The sound was incredibly clear, and the strange smell in the corridor even drifted into her home!
Faced with Meng Jinfeng's persistent complaints, the property manager initially responded but later bluntly told her to call the police. However, when the police came, their conclusion was the same as the property manager's.
It was very quiet here, the corridor was clean, and there was no strange smell.
And the door of 701 had never been knocked open from beginning to end. Several times after, Granny Meng was so furious that she kicked the door. The police asked Xu Yue to come out and deal with it in person. However, Xu Yue was always on a business trip, conveniently absent.
Later, Granny Meng also got tired of calling the police. She found a new hobby—carrying a stool, she would sit at the staircase entrance every morning, cursing until the hallway was quiet.
She had to curse until the hallway was quiet.
Unsure if her efforts were effective, 701 no longer had curtains, and she saw an eye by the window.
Even with her poor eyesight, she could make out the general outline of "that thing".
A blue-red mucous membrane split open, revealing a huge eye pressed against the glass. The pupil of the eye was deformed, merging like rain flower stones, almost occupying the entire floor-to-ceiling window. A thick black-blue liquid flowed down the window crack, gradually disappearing into the air.
No bird dared to approach here, the trees trembled, and the grass screamed non-stop. Earthworms lined up to jump into the pond, while ants crazily circled in a perfect circle.
Meng Jinfeng knew it was watching her.
She finally saw Xu Yue! This kid was indeed hiding at home and peeping, Granny Meng cursed even more fiercely.
Xu Yue didn't go to work at all. From Monday to Sunday, he was always there.
A lying neighbor, an annoying neighbor, a neighbor who never went out. Meng Jinfeng told the elderly in the community, the gatekeeper, the property management, and the police. But no one believed her.
Spring went and winter came, but only that giant eyeball pressed against the window remained.
She seemed not to be the only one who discovered Xu Yue was home.
A little girl from Building 8 was playing with snow in front of Building 7 and was somehow attracted to 701, looking up at its window. Meng Jinfeng saw the girl make eye contact with that eye, which narrowed slightly. The girl then suddenly fell straight down, prompting an ambulance call.
That child was hospitalized for a long time, and Xu Yue didn't even know to apologize. Who made his eyes so big? Not polite at all.
Meng Jinfeng waited for more people to see him, and then together they would protest to the property management. Year after year, she waited and waited, but it was always only she and that little girl who noticed something wrong.
Just when she was considering whether to find another way to oppose the noise, disaster struck suddenly.
The night sky suddenly turned blood red, and a flaming meteorite fell from the sky. Meng Jinfeng indifferently watched the dark TV screen, the exploded window glass pierced through her cheek, and the deformed security door crashed onto the floor, as Joy Garden seemed to plunge into a burning hell.
It was over, but it was fine. She wasn't afraid of death in this world.
The shuffling noise from the ceiling finally stopped. How nice.
At that moment, something burst through the broken door and rushed out. The room was filled with smoke, and Meng Jinfeng could only make out a general outline—a blue-red deformed claw, with joints slightly split open, revealing eye-like structures. For some reason, it looked tattered, like a repeatedly sewn patchwork doll.
It grabbed Meng Jinfeng, crushing her body like a rotten berry.
The old woman's shattered skull fell to the ground.
Shuffling, shuffling.
The familiar friction noise echoed in her ears. It was Xu Yue. Xu Yue had broken into her home.
Truly a neighbor with ill intentions.
This narrative, which was neither too long nor short, was "Meng Jinfeng's entire impression of Xu Yue".
With that, the narration ended.
Dawn completely filled the small room, and the "Bystander's Tongue" fell from Granny Meng's claws. Teest pulled at the wriggling tongue, casually throwing it back into the jar, which made a light gurgling sound.
Granny Meng turned her face, showing a trace of smugness.
"Hee hee, finally someone speaks the truth!" she said with a shrill laugh.
Nol sat quietly in the armchair, looking expressionlessly at Granny Meng in front of him. Teest sat down next to Nol, holding his chin and looking at the people around him.
Nol's judgment was absolutely correct.
Perradat's protection was still in effect, and now he had a natural barrier to the information about "Xu Yue", like listening to someone else's story. On the other hand, the information that could be conveyed by language was limited.
With such a double defense, as long as Nol didn't personally recall, the third-party description would not trigger Nol's memory seal.
The "Bystander's Tongue". Extracted from the target memory, produced by the system as an "absolute narration". Teest and Granny Meng's sanity may not be normal, but their objective memory couldn't be faked.
Nol gripped the armrest of the chair.
"From my understanding, you created 'Tahe' alone in that room," Teest muttered thoughtfully. "In some form, um, we currently don't quite understand."
"Teest."
"And you did indeed kill that crazy old lady, but, I believe you had your reasons."
"Teest," Nol murmured.
"Hm?"
"The blue-black liquid described just now, it's very similar to the 'essence' we brought back." Nol rubbed his lower lip. "The 'Supplement Demon Potion' it produces has effects very similar to the 'Fallen Death' skill."
"If the 'essence' really came from 'me', and Star Stealer Sol holds a large amount of the essence, it definitely intervened in the matters of Joy Garden on a physical level."
Teest looked at Nol somewhat surprised.
He thought Nol would be a bit shaken, but his Nol was just pale now, with an exceptionally firm tone.
"Suppose I just wanted to destroy Joy Garden, the order should be to kill everyone first, then destroy everything centered on me. The sky turns red, meteorites fall from the sky, and then I kill people during the destruction process—that's too unnatural."
Nol said, "Even if I really went mad, I wouldn't use such strange methods."
"Indeed." Teest leaned in closer. "And I always feel the situation is somewhat familiar… Ah!"
Teest clapped his fist into his palm, his golden eyes lighting up with pleasure.
"In Night of the Hunt, you used this method—at the moment of environmental collapse, you collected the heads and connected them with your flesh, turning them into beautiful, desecrated creations."
Afraid of not being detailed enough, Teest extended a finger, darkness swirling at the tip. They drifted in the air, forming lines, sketching a corner of Teest's memory—
At that time, Nol was carrying a giant skull, a net of flesh protecting the heads of the survivors of the dungeon, fleeing from the dungeon that was being obliterated.
"I was thinking at the time, how could you have such a wonderful idea? If you had done something similar, it wouldn't be strange to have a subconscious impression." Teest flicked his fingertip, and the pattern dispersed like a dream.
"But after that, I immediately applied a major healing spell to those people, and they woke up in the same place. My neighbors, however, woke up in different places, and turned into monsters."
Nol didn't immediately deny it.
"That kid Piel was once dying, and you didn't immediately apply a major healing spell for him. To save his life, you sealed him in the system, waiting for the right moment."
Teest shook his finger. "As for why your neighbors woke up as monsters, I don't know. What I do know is that, looking at it now, your initial intention must have been to save people."
Nol pursed his lips.
Those inconsistent details gradually linked up.
Why did only the neighbors appear as "non-players" in Tahe?
Why, when saving Piel, could the system pull out the "system custody", a solution unrelated to the game?
Why did Star Stealer Sol say he had already killed him once?
Dropping the fire of destruction on the entire Joy Garden, the target was definitely not the innocent neighbors, but the strange Creator imprisoned in room 701.
That monster might knew it implicated the innocents and also knew it was hard to save humans from the explosion on Earth. So, it escaped with everyone into the world it created in its own way.
Nol stretched out his hands, gently covering his eyes.
It made sense. The initial guess became reality. The neighbors were indeed implicated by him.
Now only two damning questions remained—
What did Star Stealer Sol do?
…What exactly am I?!
The author has something to say:
In a way, this could also be considered a God of Creation in a box (.
The fake Joy Garden lunatic: Xu Yue
The real Joy Garden lunatic: Granny Meng