Welcome To The Nightmare Game Chapter 2

It was deadly silent.

Qi Le Ren unblinkingly stared at the ghost, the ghost similarly stared back at him, expressionlessly.

The ghost should be an old woman. In the dim white light, her face is vague, but the cold and gloomy feeling oozing from its translucent body and those empty eyes without pupils "watching" him, made his blood run cold1 while looking at it.

It didn’t move.

Qi Le Ren carefully retreated backwards one step at a time, like before, it still didn't move.

The only sound that existed in the silence was his heartbeat rapidly increasing and pounding in his eardrum, thump thump.

Qi Le Ren began to slowly move to the side to avoid the ghost's gaze. The ghost quietly sat in the iron chair, very, very slowly twisting its head to follow his movements. At about ninety degrees, its head stopped, no longer turning.

Qi Le Ren's footsteps became faster, he moved completely around behind the ghost's body, then sighed in relief.

In the next second, the ghost suddenly forcefully twisted its neck a full 180 degrees and wordlessly2 watched behind itself at Qi Le Ren! Without any warning, its entire head just twisted like that and looked at Qi Le Ren, closely watching his every move!

Qi Le Ren gasped and took a step back. The ghost gradually stood up, its back was facing him, its face was also facing him, with a contorted posture, it walked toward him step-by-step.

What do I do? What do I do? The transfusion hall is completely locked, unless…

Qi Le Ren's eyes roamed around the room, looking for an object to break the gla.s.s doors. At that moment, a loud scream came from the corridor outside and then the sounds of urgent running: "Don't kill me, don't…who are you? I don't even know you! Why kill me if we don't even have any grudges between us?!"

The gla.s.s doors were hit hard, as if someone crashed straight into the door. Qi Le Ren quickly ran to the reception desk, hiding in the empty s.p.a.ce underneath the desk.

The narrow s.p.a.ce gave people a sense of security, one could be isolated from the not-too-far-away merciless killing. The man on the other side of the gla.s.s door struggled, his tears overflowed, his begging for mercy did not move the killer. The rusted, jagged chainsaw creaked and groaned, the sound of the chainsaw cutting into meat was dull, reeking of blood. The shrieks became mournful, the screams hoa.r.s.e, something heavy fell to the ground. The gla.s.s door was knocked against, as if someone used up all of their strength struggling to crawl inside. The sounds of the chainsaw stopped. In the stillness of the vast place there was only a slight moan, gradually fading, finally silent.

Just outside the door, someone murdered another with a chainsaw.

This awareness is even more horrifying that the ghost that's nearby, Qi Le Ren can almost imagine how the electric saw cut into the human body, the man's limbs being dismembered, blood splattering everywhere,  the killer just coldly watching all of this, watching the victim die on the ground.

"Worthless thing."

A deep male voice sounded outside the door, someone pushed on the transfusion room's door, found it was locked, then the sound of footsteps went away.

Qi Le Ren was shaking all over, his heart rate steadily calmed down, the killer had already left, he was safe…

"Crash!" The gla.s.s door was suddenly smashed to pieces, Qi Le Ren's entire body trembled—that homicidal maniac simply didn't leave! He just went looking for something to break the gla.s.s door!

The gla.s.s crashed to the ground in fragments, the man entered the transfusion hall.

At this moment, Qi Le Ren's breathing stopped. Every sound in the air was pressuring like a death sentence.3 His entire body was stiff, he was motionlessly curled up in the s.p.a.ce under the reception desk, less than three meters away, the killer was coming with a chainsaw. Currently, the two people were only separated by a thin layer of wood, then the footsteps stopped.

Creak4—the chainsaw started up.

Impossible! He couldn't have found me here! How could he know I was here!

Qi Le Ren nearly fainted, how could he possibly fight a cold-blooded killer unarmed?! The resounding shrill of the chainsaw hovered overhead, as long as he lightly cut downwards with the saw, he can kill him on the spot!

Run, or die here? Qi Le Ren forced his brain, which was unable to think because of fear, to work. The distance to the door from here was less than three meters, moreover, it had already been smashed open.  If he ran out of here right now, what's the probability of escaping?

"Dead old woman, get out!"

The man shouted loudly, the chainsaw creaked as it waved in the air. A sharp scream that didn't appear human was heard, the blood on the chainsaw was flung all over the place, a few droplets splashed on the interior wall of the reception desk, winding down into several ferocious, dark red blood stains, it just so happened to fall into Qi Le Ren's eyes. This should be the blood of the man who died tragically outside the door.

Do I want to run? Qi Le Ren struggled in his heart. That ghost seems to be no match for the man, its shrieks were already becoming weaker and weaker. If he wants to run, then now is the best time. But if he ran, the killer is bound to know someone was hiding here, he will catch up, and then…

No, there's no need to escape. He only stopped just now because he saw a ghost in here. After he kills the ghost, he will soon leave, it's completely unnecessary for him to face dangers of being caught by taking the risk of coming out.

Trying his luck5, Qi Le Ren continued to curl up in the desk, his heartbeat was like a drumroll, waiting for the killer to leave.

The chainsaw's sound once again stopped. It seems that the killer has killed the ghost as well. Qi Le Ren thought, so this evil-spirited person can unexpectedly even kill a ghost6? The chainsaw has been turned off, the man should not be aware that there's another person alive here.

But it was too early to celebrate for his lucky fortune7, the footsteps sounded again, the killer stepped with a pace that wasn't light or heavy…and rounded the reception desk!

Qi Le Ren's brain was washed into a blank by the threat of death.

Swish! The first drawer on the left side of the reception desk was pulled open, the person crudely rummaged through the inside, closed the drawer, and then pulled open the second one…

After being absent-minded for a brief moment, Qi Le Ren desperately forced himself to regain his ability to think. He remembered that this huge reception desk had a total of six individual drawers, underneath each drawer was an empty s.p.a.ce separated by wooden planks. Due to his instinct of trying to hide as much as possible, he was hiding under the drawer furthest from the door, even once the drawer is opened, the person standing and searching still shouldn't be able to see the s.p.a.ce below!

The killer opened the fourth drawer, only one drawer away from where he was. He felt himself smelling the strong, b.l.o.o.d.y odor on the chainsaw.

The fifth drawer opened, and Qi Le Ren saw the killer's shoes, a pair of dark blue shoes that didn't conform to current trends, it was old-fashioned, and there was a strange symbol on the top surrounded by a ring of small characters under.

Manufactured by the Bureau of Prisons.8

These are a pair of prison shoes!

Qi Le Ren looked up along the man's trousers, vaguely glancing at the corner of the opened drawer, it was precisely with this glance that his death was declared—the inside of the drawer of the reception desk turned out to be made of transparent plastic!

Qi Le Ren stiffly raised his head, looking at the drawer above his head. The transparent plastic bottom clearly exposed all the contents lying inside the drawer, several ink pens, a pack of notepads, and box of paperclips.

As long as the killer walked half a step further and opened the drawer, he'd be able to see him hiding under the reception desk through the transparent bottom of the drawer, pathetically and absurdly waiting for death to come.

In the face of death, time is infinitely stretched. The sounds of rummaging became indistinct and distant. Fear, resignation, resentment…countless emotions emerged in Qi Le Ren’s heart. For the first time, he hated his own weakness and indecisiveness, if he could just take advantage of the time the killer and ghost were fighting to run out, perhaps at this point, he would have already escaped from ascending to heaven9.

The sound of a bag being torn open was heard, Qi Le Ren spent a few moments before being able to react. The mix of various sounds and smells allowed him to piece together the killer's current actions. He found the nurse's mini cake in the drawer, ripped open the package to eat it, picked up the steaming cup at the reception desk to drink, he was relaxed, even humming a few words of an unrecognizable tune in pleasure, without even the slightest unease after unrestrainedly slaughtering others.

The short meal provided Qi Le Ren recovery time to think. Escape. He must run away. The only advantage he had at the moment was that the other party didn't know of his existence. No matter how psychotically perverted10 a maniac killer is, suddenly seeing someone hiding here will stun him in place for a brief amount of time. This brief moment, he's afraid, is his last chance.

He mustn't miss this opportunity! Absolutely not!

The package dropped to the ground, the killer stepped forward and stood before the drawer Qi Le Ren concealed himself with. He stretched out his hand and pulled open the final drawer…

1毛骨悚然 - Máo gǔ song rán. Idiom: "To have one's hair stand on its edge" or "to feel one's blood run cold"
2无声无息 - Wú shēng wú xī. Idiom: "Wordless and uncommunicative"
3空气中每一丝声响都像是在催命一般 - Better translation, anyone?
4吱 - Zhī. Onom. of creaking/squeaking/groaning noise. I seriously have no idea how a chainsaw is supposed to sound, so I just left it as 'creak'.
5怀着这份侥幸心理 - Huáizhe zhè fèn jiǎoxìng xīnlǐ. "With this luck, with wishful thinking, with his trust in luck, etc…"
6原来煞气重的人，竟然连鬼也能杀吗？ - Yuánlái shàqì zhòng de rén, jìngrán lián guǐ yě néng shā ma? Help! I messed this part up so badly because I didn't understand a single thing! MTL kept giving me "Original/ly evil spirits/heavy person, even the ghost/demon can kill?" Like whaaaa?
7劫后余生的庆幸还未蔓延开来 - Jié hòu yúshēng de qìngxìng hái wèi mànyán kāi lái, jiǎobù. Something about fortune, luck, not spread, etc. Contexts clues are telling me one thing, but reality is telling me I'm completely wrong…
8监狱管理局监制。- I've been guessing and trying to decipher pretty much this entire chap, but one of the smallest lines got me stuck LOL
9也许此时他已经逃出升天了- "Yěxǔ cǐ shí tā yǐjīng táo chū shēngtiānle" is the full sentence. Escaped death, escaped ascending to heaven, opinions?
10心理变态 - Mentally perverted. Psychotic. Psychotically perverted. Mentally unfit. Abnormally mental. Etc. It was a tough choice to choose between psychotically perverted and just psychotic. But, seeing as the situation was kind of serious, why not, am I right?

Who else thought of Corpse Party while reading this? (｡•̀ᴗ-)✧

Well, if you did, you’ll probably be thinking about it even more as the story progresses. Except unfortunately, there’s no Sachiko, Naomi, or even Seiko (And speaking of Seiko…‧º·(˚ ˃̣̣̥⌓˂̣̣̥ )‧º·˚ Ugh! I was seriously depressed with her death!). On the bright side, there is Qi Le Ren and co. which is just as fine  (─‿‿─)