Chapter 5: Missing

Source: https://www.gongzicp.com/novel-1388844.html
This translation was originally posted on https://love4baihe.blogspot.com

But unlike in her "dream," Qin Su was no longer willing to kill.

She found that she could temporarily break free from control and help those so-called "players."

After breaking free, she not only didn't have to kill anymore but could also help them survive and successfully escape this place.

To achieve this, she inevitably needed to possess great power.

At some point, Qin Su discovered she could communicate with the entire prison.

The prison seemed to have a soul, and Qin Su, in a very accidental situation, sensed the soul of the prison.

Qin Su and the prison's soul were connected; the prison could understand her inner thoughts and sometimes helped her with tasks.

But most of the time, the prison did its own thing—Qin Su knew it killed people, but she couldn't stop it.

Her relationship with the prison was more like equals rather than superior and subordinate.

Qin Su could ask the prison to help her with some tasks, but whether it was willing to do so depended on its own mood.

Qin Su could only try her best to prevent it from harming those "players."

While helping those players successfully clear the levels and escape, Qin Su also wanted to find a way to leave herself. She wanted to break free from control forever, but she ultimately found nothing.

Qin Su continued to suffer in the prison, trying to extract information from the visiting players.

However, those players didn't know much. It took a long time before Qin Su managed to extract a key term—Regulator.

This is the most special role in the entire game. Although their duties are similar to a Boss’, they have more authority.

The player who told Qin Su about this didn't know what other permissions the Regulator had.

Qin Su's intuition told her that the Regulator could help her escape from here.

….

Before Shu Yushuang returned home for the holidays, Shu Ya completed another dungeon—her first official one.

This time, the dungeon scene was a very dilapidated prison with many strange rules.

Shu Ya's task was to avoid being killed by fierce ghosts and to find out the reason her character was imprisoned.

In "Hell Online," dungeons are divided into two main categories: role-playing and free exploration. In role-playing dungeons, players become part of the story's background, and their actions affect the story's direction. In these dungeons, players must follow a set pattern and explore within a fixed area to complete tasks. In free exploration dungeons, the players and the story background are separate. Players explore the dungeon scene as themselves, and their actions do not affect the story's direction.

Shu Ya's first dungeon was a role-playing one.

For Shu Ya, the first task wasn't difficult.

Although the talismans she usually carried weren't with her in the dungeon, there were paper and pens available. She could draw the talismans in the dungeon.

Although the effect of drawing talismans with ordinary paper and pens would be weaker, it was enough to keep her alive—at least, that was her initial thought.

However, after experiencing several dangers, Shu Ya discovered that talismans drawn with ordinary paper and pens had their effects significantly reduced, and within the dungeon, this reduction was even greater.

Fortunately, the boss of this dungeon was Qin Su, and she was already awake.

With Qin Su's help, Shu Ya narrowly escaped death multiple times.

After experiencing several dungeons, Shu Ya understood that it wasn't unusual for dungeons to have fierce ghosts like Qin Su who had awakened and didn't want to harm people.

What puzzled her now was why this game had so many bugs.

It would be understandable if a Boss occasionally lost control, but Shu Ya had encountered more than one awakened Bosses.

Although this wasn’t a bad thing for Shu Ya, the unreliability of this game still made her uneasy. 

What if those out-of-control bosses had malicious intentions?

Despite her concerns, Shu Ya had no solution.

With Qin Su’s help, Shu Ya quickly completed her second task. However, the dungeon required her to stay for thirty days, so even after completing the second task, she couldn’t leave.

Shu Ya found that the management of this prison was extremely lax. The entire prison had only one guard, and no guards were supervising the inmates while they worked.

But Shu Ya knew that she couldn't judge anything in the dungeon by common sense.

Since no one was monitoring whether they were working seriously, Shu Ya simply sneaked out during work hours and ran to the playground to find Qin Su. She felt safer around Qin Su.

When bored, Shu Ya would chat with Qin Su to pass the time.

Most of the time, Shu Ya did the talking while Qin Su would just stare blankly. 

Shu Ya didn’t have many friends, and there were things she couldn’t discuss with Shu Yushuang. Now that she had finally met a perfect confidant, she didn’t want to miss the opportunity.

However, Shu Ya didn’t talk much about herself; she mainly talked about Shu Yushuang.

“My little apprentice is really pitiful. Her family treated her badly when she was young. I couldn’t bear to see it, so I took her home and raised her. She managed to get into a good university, and then I got dragged into this damn game. What worries me the most is her. She has seen ghosts before, so I’m afraid she’ll get pulled into this game too. If—just if—she gets pulled into this game and enters this dungeon, could you take care of her?”

“I’ll take care of every executor. I don’t want to see anyone die in front of me again.”

“That’s good, thank you. It’s a pity we can’t bring phones here, otherwise, I could show you her picture…”

“What’s her name?”

“Shu Yushuang.”

At that time, Qin Su didn’t realize how deeply she would bond with this executor's apprentice in the future.

Qin Su was indeed very diligent in protecting the executors. During these thirty days, Shu Ya hardly encountered any major dangers.

With Qin Su's help and her half-baked ghost-catching skills and the remaining barely effective talismans, Shu Ya managed to leave the dungeon safely.

Shu Ya found that the ghost-catching methods she learned outside the dungeon were also applicable inside, though, like the talismans, their effectiveness was significantly reduced.

After completing this dungeon, Shu Ya earned fifty thousand yuan.

Before Shu Yushuang came home for her vacation, Shu Ya bought some materials, renovated the house herself, and made some new furniture.

Not long after Shu Ya left the dungeon, Shu Yushuang came home for her first university vacation. However, she didn’t stay at home for long. After celebrating the New Year with Shu Ya, she left to work.

But the few days were enough for Shu Yushuang to notice the huge changes in their home.

All the leaks in the house were fixed. Some of the almost unusable furniture that Shu Ya had been reluctant to throw away was now gone and replaced with new ones.

Moreover, the food for this New Year was not just the usual vegetarian dumplings but included a lot of meat and fruit.

In the end, Shu Yushuang was unable to suppress her curiosity, and asked Shu Ya, "Master, have you recently come into money?"

Shu Ya hesitated for a few seconds and quickly made up an explanation: “Mm, a distant relative I hadn't been in touch with left me a large inheritance. We won't have to live in hardship anymore."

Although the lie sounded incredibly fake, Shu Yushuang, being simple-hearted, actually believed it.

Shu Yushuang was genuinely happy for Shu Ya.

Even though she knew the family had money now, Shu Yushuang decided to stick to her original plan and go to work after the New Year. She hurriedly left home before the fifteenth day of the lunar New Year.

What she did not see was that Shu Ya's smile, which had been maintained for more than ten days, disappeared the moment she left.

Shu Ya looked at Shu Yushuang's receding figure with a bitter expression in her eyes. “Shuang'er, I just hope that when the day comes that I truly leave, you won’t resent me for deceiving you."

After Shu Yushuang left, Shu Ya focused again on studying her "Comprehensive Guide to Ghost Hunting."

Before Shu Yushuang returned, Shu Ya spent each day doing the same thing: relearning ghost-catching methods and drawing talismans. Although these had limited use in the dungeon, they were better than nothing.

Shu Ya found that outside the dungeon, she never encountered any supernatural events again. Occasionally, people would ask her to catch ghosts, but she realized these were all caused by human or psychological factors, not real ghosts. It was as if, since the No. 3 Elementary School supernatural incident, all ghosts had vanished from the real world.

Shu Ya also investigated it later but never saw a ghost in the real world again.

She couldn't help but start doubting whether the blackened woman Shu Yushuang had mentioned ever truly existed. 

Even though Shu Ya had experienced the world's largest supernatural event, she preferred to think of it as just a game. It had to be just a game; otherwise, the world would be too terrifying.

Shu Ya used similar words to comfort herself.

Every time she completed a dungeon, she needed a long rest.

Although entering dungeons early could earn more rewards, Shu Ya clearly understood her own limits. She knew she couldn't take risks because of greed.

Getting more rewards was certainly a good thing, but one needed to stay alive to enjoy them.

So, Shu Ya stuck to entering only one dungeon a year. By the time Shu Yushuang graduated from college, she had completed four dungeons.

Shu Yushuang attended a sports university and, after graduating, worked as a martial arts instructor at a nearby dojo.

Her salary was considerable each month, but correspondingly, Shu Yushuang was very busy. After starting work, she rarely had time to spend with Shu Ya.

Despite this, Shu Ya was still very pleased. After all the hard work, she managed to raise Shu Yushuang and even got her a good job.

Everything seemed to be moving in a positive direction. But this was only Shu Yushuang's perspective. For Shu Ya, her life could end at any moment.

Although they no longer had to worry about food and clothing, Shu Ya could not escape from that strange game.

Source: https://www.gongzicp.com/novel-1388844.html
This translation was originally posted on https://love4baihe.blogspot.com

And all of this was unknown to Shu Yushuang.

She only knew that since she started college, her master had been going away for a period each year. The duration was irregular; sometimes she would return home after just a few days, and sometimes she would be out of contact for three months.

Although Shu Yushuang had been in school before, she naturally grew suspicious when she couldn’t reach Shu Ya.

When Shu Yushuang asked what Shu Ya had been doing, Shu Ya only said she was traveling.

Shu Ya didn’t think she was lying. Traveling to dungeons was still traveling, wasn’t it?

It was just that this kind of travel was a bit more dangerous.

Though Shu Yushuang thought that Shu Ya wasn’t the type to spend money on travel, she figured that after working so hard for many years, it was time for her to relax.

Seeing that her master had found her own way to unwind made Shu Yushuang happy, so she no longer suspected anything.

Such a "peaceful" life was broken two years after Shu Yushuang graduated.

In the summer, Shu Ya disappeared as in previous years.

Shu Yushuang initially thought she was traveling again, so she didn't take it to heart.

But three months had passed, and Shu Ya still hadn't come back. At this time, Shu Yushuang began to really worry.

In the past, Shu Ya could only stay away from home for three months at most, and then she would return home.

Shu Yushuang began to feel uneasy. She called Shu Ya countless times, but all the calls came from were "out of service area" prompt.

After putting down the phone, Shu Yushuang didn't know where to look for Shu Ya.

Shu Ya never tells Shu Yushuang her travel destinations, and Shu Yushuang doesn't know where Shu Ya likes to go.

And in her memory, Shu Ya had never had close contact with anyone else. In other words, Shu Ya had no friends at all.