Chapter 172: Oil Painting |
Bai Mu approached the oil painting hanging on the living room wall. Positioned in an extremely conspicuous spot, the artwork measured about half a meter wide by a meter long and was encased in an elegant mahogany frame.
The painting depicted a girl of about ten years old wearing a light green sun hat. Long black hair cascaded over her shoulders, and she was dressed in a dark blue, Western-style dress with green ribbons folding over the skirt in intricate layers. At a single glance, anyone could tell she was born into a wealthy family.
However, it was the girl's expression that made Bai Mu uneasy. A child of her age should have been brimming with youth and vitality, wearing a bright smile. Instead, her face was devoid of emotion as she cradled a pure black cat in her arms.
The eyes of the girl in the portrait lacked any white; they were pools of profound darkness, giving the eerie illusion that she was monitoring every movement through the canvas. The black cat was not simply resting in her lap, but rather half-crouching with its head turned, peering out from the frame. Both subjects stared directly at anyone observing the oil painting, creating a deeply uncomfortable sensation of being closely scrutinized.
"Brother Great Northern, do you think the girl in this painting resembles the boss from the Village of Mist?" Bai Mu asked.
Great Northern Wilderness paused and scrutinized the oil painting. He furrowed his brow, examining it carefully for over ten seconds before replying. "They do not look alike at all," he stated. "Even just looking at their clothes, there are zero similarities. That boss wore common work clothes and an apron."
"On top of that, her hair was blonde, and if I recall correctly, her eyes looked completely normal."
"However..." Great Northern Wilderness paused, his gaze drifting back to the girl's face in the portrait. "The atmosphere is somewhat similar." "Atmosphere?" Yanyu questioned.
"How should I put it? They both give off this creepy feeling that makes your hair stand on end," Great Northern Wilderness explained. "It is just incredibly sinister."
"Let us look around first," Bai Mu suggested. "This Ancient Manor is massive, and there are still plenty of places we have not explored."
"Brother Bai is right. As long as we search through every single room in this manor, we will find a way to clear the Script," Great Northern Wilderness said with a hearty laugh. "Besides, there is no time limit for this mission. We will just stick to our original plan: maintain our formation and explore the rooms one by one."
"Let us start by investigating the first floor." Great Northern Wilderness drew the knight sword from his waist. "No matter how vast this place is, it will only take us two or three hours tops to sweep it. There are five of us. If we run into a monster and each land a single blow, it will be left groveling on the floor begging for mercy."
"Brother, we still need to watch out for traps," Nancheng Port warned, speaking up for the first time. "Those candles on the table earlier ignited completely on their own." "Well..."
Great Northern Wilderness did not immediately grasp his younger brother's point. The two siblings perfectly complemented each other. Great Northern Wilderness was highly sociable and outgoing, but he had a careless streak and often overlooked the finer details. In contrast, Nancheng Port possessed exceptional perception and a keen eye for spotting hidden dangers.
Bai Mu had noticed that exact detail much earlier, so he seamlessly picked up on Nancheng Port's train of thought.
"We definitely need to be careful. If candles can light themselves, it is entirely possible that the walls can shift and move as well. We are better off treating this Ancient Manor like a living, breathing entity. Its internal structure could change at any given moment."
Even if Nancheng Port had not spoken up, Bai Mu had been planning to issue that warning himself.
The hints were rather glaring. Between the heavy front doors sealing themselves shut upon their arrival and the spontaneously igniting candlesticks, the Script was practically screaming at the Players that this manor possessed a mind of its own.
"Are the walls going to suddenly cave in on us and crush us into meat paste?" Scattered Fireflies shuddered, her imagination conjuring up a particularly gruesome death.
"I wouldn't rule out the possibility of a trap like that," Bai Mu noted. "However, this is only a D-grade difficulty. It shouldn't present an inescapable dead end. So far, the Script has provided us with plenty of hints, and it has already been five or six minutes since we arrived. Aside from the self-lighting candles, absolutely nothing threatening has occurred."
"Honestly, those candles felt like they lit up specifically to provide us with illumination. It is incredibly overcast outside; without those flames, we wouldn't even be able to see our own feet."
"So, this manor is actually being quite hospitable to us?" Yanyu asked, casting a skeptical glance at the candlesticks.
"I lean more toward the theory that it wants us to accomplish something here that it cannot do itself," Bai Mu replied, turning his gaze back to the oil portrait. "For instance... it might want us to eliminate someone it cannot kill directly. Or, borrowing a classic horror movie trope, maybe it needs to lure us to a specific location and murder us there before it can consume our souls."
"To figure out exactly how to clear this Script, we have no choice but to explore further," Bai Mu concluded. "If the Ancient Manor really needs us to do something, standing around doing nothing will only provoke it. It might resort to forceful measures to drive us out of this spot. For example, exactly like Scattered Fireflies suggested, it could cause the walls to rapidly close in and compress our space."
Scattered Fireflies vividly pictured herself being crushed into an unrecognizable, bloody pulp and violently shivered once again.
"T-then... let us hurry and move on." Scattered Fireflies anxiously shuffled a little closer to Bai Mu.
It was an entirely instinctive reaction, done without a second thought. Her intuition simply told her that sticking right beside Bai Mu was the safest place to be.
"Wait a moment..." Bai Mu pulled a Guard Mushroom from his inventory and handed it over to Yanyu.
Yanyu stared at the tiny mushroom prop resting in his palm. Since Bai Mu had not bothered to conceal the item's attributes, every member of the team could clearly see its function.
"If you pin this mushroom to your shoulder, I will be able to share your field of vision," Bai Mu explained. "I will not be able to hear any audio, but it can serve as a makeshift surveillance device."
"With this, we won't need to crowd tightly into every single room together. We can afford to branch out and search adjacent rooms."
"And if the manor forcefully separates us somehow, I will still have a basic understanding of your situation. It might just save our lives." "Understood," Yanyu agreed without hesitation, attaching the mushroom firmly to his shoulder.
"Um... Brother Bai, do you happen to have any extra mushrooms? Could you give me one too?" Scattered Fireflies asked with a pitiful, pleading look. "I do not have any more," Bai Mu replied flatly. "The Guard Mushroom simply allows me to tap into one additional person's line of sight. If you believe you are better equipped for solo exploration than Yanyu, you are welcome to discuss trading places. After all, whoever holds the mushroom must be prepared to split up from me." "Never mind then," Scattered Fireflies hastily replied, instantly abandoning the idea of carrying the mushroom.
The five members of the team had already exchanged basic information before entering the Script.
Bai Mu and Yanyu were undoubtedly the two most skilled Players in the group. Naturally, handing the Guard Mushroom to Yanyu was the most tactical and efficient choice. Furthermore, it was glaringly obvious that Bai Mu and Yanyu had a much higher degree of mutual trust than she and Bai Mu did.
For a fleeting moment, Scattered Fireflies couldn't help but feel that joining this team had been a massive mistake. The others had seamlessly partnered off into pairs, leaving her as the odd one out.