Rules of Horror: Survival Begins in the Haunted Harem - Chapter 13

Cheng Luo tried to give chase, but Xie Nuange stopped her.

“Dismiss her. We still have the whole afternoon. Don’t waste your skill.”

Cheng Luo knew she was right. She reluctantly sent Mom away.

Xie Nuange searched the room until she found a teapot. She smashed it, selected one ceramic shard, and tucked it away.

Then she picked up a larger piece and handed it to Cheng Luo.

“Come on. Keep that for protection, in case someone tries to fight you up close while Mom isn’t there.”

The corner of Cheng Luo’s mouth twitched. “Why do I feel like you’re taking advantage of me?”

“You’re imagining things.”

They had barely rounded the corner when Rank Two appeared beside them.

“Cheng Luo, come with me. I need to speak to you.”

Then she looked at Xie Nuange. “Wait here for a moment.”

“What is it?” Cheng Luo asked, confused, but Rank Two quickly led her away.

Xie Nuange remained where she was.

Footsteps approached from behind.

“We meet again, Xie Nuange…”

She turned slowly.

Rank Fifteen stood there.

“I warned you. You really shouldn’t… let yourself get isolated…”

There was no longer any doubt. Cheng Luo had not been called away by chance.

Someone had deliberately removed her so Fifteen could attack Xie Nuange alone.

A smile curved Fifteen’s lips. Murderous intent burned openly in her eyes.

“Yesterday we were still trading clues. Who would have thought you’d die by my hand today?”

Xie Nuange wasted no words. She activated Datafication at once and inspected every detail of Fifteen’s skill and weakness.

[Participant: Zhu Miao]

[Skill: Medusa. After one second of direct eye contact with a target, the target’s movements will become rigid for five seconds.]

[Weakness: Direct eye contact is required. The user cannot move while activating the skill.]

Five seconds of paralysis.

Long enough to kill Xie Nuange ten times over.

“If you want someone to blame, blame the last two Fifteens for being so useless!”

Zhu Miao triggered a ghost item’s ability. Countless thorny vines burst from the earth.

Their spikes writhed like snakes and closed around Xie Nuange.

She dodged the thorns erupting beneath her feet. One grazed her cheek and buried itself in the tree behind her.

She vaulted away, but a second wave of vines was already sweeping toward her shins.

She could not avoid them.

Xie Nuange gritted her teeth and jumped. A thorn still ripped across her arm. Blood ran down her elbow, the wound burning.

Xie Chaoyang.

When I find you, I’m going to beat your head in.

If she had not been searching for Xie Chaoyang, why would she have sold every ghost item she owned?

Why would she be left without a single decent weapon?

Xie Nuange fixed her gaze on Zhu Miao’s chest.

She could not meet the woman’s eyes, but she had to close the distance.

She bent low and sprinted forward.

Zhu Miao sneered and sent the vines twisting after her again.

Xie Nuange wove through the thorns. More cuts opened across her body, but she did not so much as furrow her brow. Her eyes remained lowered, fixed on Zhu Miao’s throat.

Zhu Miao grew impatient. She could not understand why Xie Nuange refused to look up.

Then Xie Nuange raised her upper body slightly.

Zhu Miao’s eyes sharpened. Her skill gathered, ready to fire.

But Xie Nuange was only adjusting her balance. Their gazes never met.

A second time, Xie Nuange seemed about to look up. Again, Zhu Miao prepared her skill.

Again, it failed to trigger.

A third time.

A fourth.

Every time Xie Nuange seemed ready to raise her eyes, she slipped away from Zhu Miao’s gaze at the final instant.

Zhu Miao primed her skill again and again, only for it to fall flat. Like a cat being taunted, her patience wore thinner each time.

“You have a death wish!”

Before she finished speaking, Xie Nuange crossed within three paces of her.

Zhu Miao’s pupils contracted. She reached instinctively for another ghost item while staring straight at Xie Nuange’s eyes.

Nothing.

This time, it was not her skill that had failed.

Xie Nuange had vanished.

Zhu Miao froze, then immediately activated a defensive ghost item.

A cold edge touched her throat.

Ceramic.

The moment Xie Nuange triggered the Invisibility Ring, she swept past Zhu Miao and sliced open her throat with the shard.

In case Zhu Miao possessed a healing ghost item, Xie Nuange circled behind her, locked an arm around her neck, and drove one knee against her spine.

Using her arm and leg as leverage, she folded Zhu Miao downward.

Crack.

The spine snapped. Zhu Miao’s body went limp.

But she did not die. As she activated a healing ability, Xie Nuange kept moving.

Her left arm clamped tightly around Zhu Miao’s neck. Her right hand drove the shard into the exposed flesh of her throat.

Once.

Again.

Again.

Hot blood sprayed across Xie Nuange’s hands, face, and eyes.

The world dissolved into red, but her gaze remained fixed on Zhu Miao’s throat.

The flesh had become a mangled ruin.

Zhu Miao convulsed. Her mouth opened, but no sound emerged.

The fifteen seconds of invisibility ended.

Xie Nuange slowly reappeared, kneeling behind Zhu Miao with both hands covered in blood. She panted as she continued to stab.

The Invisibility Ring faded, then disappeared completely.

Zhu Miao’s eyes bulged. Her pupils had begun to spread.

Even at the moment of death, she could not understand why she had failed to use her skill once.

Xie Nuange watched the rankings and kept striking to make certain.

At last, an announcement sounded.

[Palace Candidate Rankings: Rank 15 has died.]

[Palace Candidate Rankings: Rank 15 has died.]

[Palace Candidate Rankings: Rank 15 has died.]

Only after hearing the system did Xie Nuange bend close to Zhu Miao’s ear. Her voice was soft as a sigh.

“Fifteen…”

She paused.

“That number really is unlucky.”

Zhu Miao’s body went completely slack.

Xie Nuange released her. The corpse began to fade after a few seconds, then vanished, leaving several objects scattered on the ground.

Zhu Miao’s ghost items.

Xie Nuange took a deep breath and reached for them.

[Jade Pendant: Hold this pendant and state the name of the person before you, or one piece of information about them. They will regard you as an ally and tell you one secret. Uses Remaining: 2/2.]

[Divination Coins: When uncertain, toss three coins. If they land heads, receive a 200% buff. If they land tails, why aren’t you running? Uses Remaining: 10/15.]

[Thorn Entanglement: Command thorny vines at will. Consumes mental power while active. With sufficient mental power, the skill may remain active indefinitely. Uses Remaining: 1/3.]

Xie Nuange marveled at the collection. No wonder Zhu Miao had relied entirely on Thorn Entanglement.

She found no healing ghost item. Either Zhu Miao had never possessed one, or she had exhausted it.

Xie Nuange collected every piece of loot and was about to leave when another line appeared.

[The system has detected that Player Xie Nuange used Datafication on Zhu Miao and personally killed her.]

[Player may choose to delete Zhu Miao’s data.]

[Alternatively, Player may extract the skill Medusa.]

Xie Nuange’s hand stopped in midair.

She stared blankly at the words, her mind empty.

Extract… a skill?

Datafication could be used like this?

“Extract the skill,” she answered silently.

[Extraction successful. Player has extracted Zhu Miao’s skill: Medusa.]

[Skill Description — Medusa, Level 1: After one second of direct eye contact, the target’s movements will become rigid for one second.]

[Weakness: Direct eye contact is required. The user cannot move while activating the skill.]

[Uses: Unlimited. Consumes mental power.]

[Skill extraction complete. Zhu Miao’s data has been deleted…]