Rules of Horror: Survival Begins in the Haunted Harem - Chapter 14

Xie Nuange avoided the crowds, took several detours, and finally returned to her room.

She pushed open the door. Just as she was about to enter, the nameplates hanging on the frame caught the corner of her eye.

Her pupils contracted.

The first name was Zhao Ning.

Xie Nuange stepped back and read the rest.

Zhao Ning… Zhang San… Li Si…

Every nameplate had been switched.

She studied the room before her. If she had not slept here for two nights, she would have thought she had come to the wrong place.

Everyone was finding her own way to compete.

Xie Nuange immediately searched for her nameplate.

Once she found it, she took it down and returned to her own door to remove Zhao Ning’s.

Both wooden plaques grew warm in her hands, almost as if they were alive.

After taking down both misplaced nameplates, she began searching for the names of her roommates.

[Palace Candidate Rankings: Rank 14 has died.]

[Palace Candidate Rankings: Rank 14 has died.]

Xie Nuange stopped and opened the rankings.

Thirteen’s name was still lit. Fourteen and Fifteen were both gray.

Meng Shi was Rank Sixteen.

After the next update, she would become Fourteen.

Xie Nuange restored every one of her roommates’ plaques.

Not out of kindness.

She knew their skills and factions. Letting their nameplates be stolen would be the same as planting a mine beneath her own feet.

Who knew what an unfamiliar palace candidate might do?

Back inside, she filled a basin and endured the pain while washing the blood from her hands. She sat on her bed and studied the half-open door, then rose and opened it all the way.

Her wounds throbbed.

Cuts scored her arms. Bruises darkened her ribs. The slash across her cheek burned.

People were more frightening than ghosts or rules.

Xie Nuange sat on the bed directly opposite the door and rested.

Footsteps approached. She opened her eyes.

Ye Wan checked the nameplates before entering.

Cheng Luo’s attention, however, went straight to Xie Nuange’s injuries. She walked in without looking at the door.

“Big Sister Xie, you…”

Xie Nuange cut her off.

“Someone switched the nameplates outside our room.”

Cheng Luo stared. “The nameplates?”

“When I returned, every one of ours had been replaced,” Xie Nuange said calmly.

Only then did Cheng Luo realize that Xie Nuange’s injuries had distracted her so completely she had forgotten to check the plaques.

She bit her lip, her expression darkening.

“Someone wanted us to enter the wrong room.”

Ye Wan gave a cold snort. “If a ghost came at night, anyone in the wrong room…”

Xie Nuange nodded, then looked between Cheng Luo and Ye Wan. “Do either of you have medicine? Or a healing ghost item?”

Cheng Luo studied the bloody cut on her face. After two seconds of silence, she drew a glass bead from her sleeve and tossed it over.

“Now we’re even.”

Xie Nuange caught the bead. It felt smooth and warm. Information surfaced before her eyes.

[Ghost Item: Glass Bead]

[Effect: A childhood toy with healing properties. Can be used three times.]

[Uses Remaining: 2/3]

Xie Nuange closed her hand around it. Warmth flowed from her palm through her body.

The cuts on her arms closed visibly. The bruises beneath her ribs slowly faded.

Several breaths later, she opened her eyes. Apart from the blood on her clothes, most of her injuries had healed.

Opening the door on purpose to catch Cheng Luo’s attention had been worthwhile. It had made the other woman repay the favor she owed.

Xie Nuange rose and held out the bead.

Cheng Luo waved her off. “I gave it to you. I said we’re even, so we’re even.”

Xie Nuange paused, then drew back her hand. “Thank you.”

“Why isn’t Meng Shi back yet? It’s already dark.”

Unwilling to dwell on the subject, Cheng Luo looked outside. Many of the candidates had returned.

Had they noticed their own nameplates had been switched?

Or had someone targeted only the top ten?

Xie Nuange saw Zhao Ning stop outside her room and begin searching for the correct plaques.

She opened the rankings. Eight minutes remained before the next update.

Meng Shi still had not returned, and Thirteen’s name remained lit.

With three minutes left on the countdown, the system announced another death.

[Palace Candidate Rankings: Rank 13 has died.]

Silence filled the room.

[Palace Candidate Rankings updated.]

[Current Palace Candidate Rankings (32 Total)]

[Rank 1: Zhao Ning]

[Rank 3: Ye Wan]

[Rank 9: Cheng Luo]

[Rank 10: Xie Nuange]

[Rank 13: Meng Shi]

“Meng Shi is impressive,” Ye Wan murmured. “She killed two people and finally reached a relatively safe rank.”

Xie Nuange’s eyes flickered.

It made no difference whether Jiang Fan’s ghost had restarted its order and killed Fifteen, Fourteen, then Thirteen—or whether it had continued last night’s sequence and killed Thirteen before moving to Twelve.

Either way, Rank Thirteen was temporarily safe tonight.

The door opened.

Meng Shi stumbled inside.

She was drenched in blood, her face almost colorless. She had to brace herself against the frame to keep from falling.

Several rents in her clothes exposed torn, curling flesh.

Cheng Luo hurried over. Genuine admiration entered her voice for once.

“Big Sister Meng, you’re incredible. You killed two people?”

Meng Shi sank against the head of her bed and closed her eyes. She neither confirmed nor denied it.

Xie Nuange studied her face. Meng Shi was so pale that even her lips trembled.

Her skill focused on freezing and control. Its offensive power was limited.

Killing two people in one day had probably pushed her to the limit.

Xie Nuange remembered that Meng Shi had been injured during the first lesson. She must have owned a defensive ghost item.

Why had she not used it now?

Had it been exhausted, or was she saving it for a future rule violation?

Before lights out, Cheng Luo lay on her stomach and kicked her legs, changing the subject.

“Do you think anything interesting will happen tonight?”

“I heard a lot of people tried bribing palace maids and eunuchs with ghost items today. Some even went to the matrons for clues.”

Xie Nuange lay in bed. It was Ye Wan’s turn to extinguish the lamp.

She remembered the reminder from their first day in the palace.

No one in the palace was useless…

The fourth day of the scenario began.

The first thing Xie Nuange did upon opening her eyes was check the rankings.

[Current Palace Candidate Rankings (30 Total)]

[Rank 1: Zhao Ning]

[Rank 3: Ye Wan]

[Rank 9: Cheng Luo]

[Rank 10: Xie Nuange]

[Rank 11: Grayed out]

[Rank 12: Liu Feng]

[Rank 13: Meng Shi]

Eleven had died overnight. Two lower-ranked women had died as well.

Xie Nuange’s pupils tightened.

If Jiang Fan’s ghost continued killing by rank according to its own rules, the other two must have died after entering the wrong rooms.

Two Rank Fifteens had died yesterday. The first had been killed by another candidate. Xie Nuange had killed the second.

Then why had Jiang Fan skipped Twelve and killed Eleven during the night?

Xie Nuange sat up, her heart heavier than before.

Whatever the reason Twelve had survived, would the ghost’s next target be Rank Ten—her?