Nightmare Strikes

Translator: Cinder Translations

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The shadow looked slender, without the strange appearance of a dismembered corpse. Jiang Cheng stared at the shadow, frozen in place.

"Stand up," the voice said.

Jiang Cheng's body involuntarily trembled upon hearing the voice. It sounded like a relatively young woman, probably around thirty years old, with a muffled tone as if she was suppressing her voice.

Jiang Cheng slowly stood up but did not speak or turn around. He simply stood there, not moving an inch.

"You can turn around," the woman said.

Jiang Cheng hesitated for a moment. "You have to promise not to kill me."

"Alright," the woman replied. "I promise."

"Just a promise might not be enough," Jiang Cheng suggested, raising his hands in a practiced, careful manner. "How about you swear an oath?"

The woman started coughing violently, as if her throat was irritated. After the coughing subsided, she responded, "That's a bit troublesome. Perhaps I should just kill you."

Before she even finished her sentence, Jiang Cheng immediately turned around. "Forget it, you don't need to swear. Just by your voice, I can tell you're a beautiful woman. Beautiful women never lie because when they do, they meet terrible fates. I once knew a beautiful woman who was crushed by a steamroller for lying."

The woman was silent for a while. "Actually, you can open your eyes."

Jiang Cheng kept his eyes tightly shut and slowly moved over to where Fatty was lying. He kicked Fatty hard several times, and when Fatty started to stir, Jiang Cheng asked, "Fatty, how do you feel?"

"I…" Fatty mumbled in a daze, but soon his voice turned frightened. "Who is this woman? What happened to those three security guards?"

Jiang Cheng didn't answer. After a long pause, he spoke again, "Fatty?"

"Doc, I'm here," Fatty shakily stood up, too flustered to brush the dust off himself, and stared at the strange woman in front of him.

This was a woman they had never seen before.

"Fatty, are you okay?" Jiang Cheng asked for the third time.

"I'm fine, Doc," Fatty muttered, now looking a little resentful. "If you hadn't sold me out, I'd probably be feeling better."

"You're still alive?"

If it weren't for the strange woman standing in front of him, Fatty would have been shouting by now. He restrained himself and glanced at Jiang Cheng, "Doc, can't you act like a normal person? You're not even—"

Fatty abruptly stopped talking when he realized Jiang Cheng had kept his eyes shut the entire time. Only after Fatty answered him for the third time did Jiang Cheng finally open his eyes.

"Now I can rest easy," Jiang Cheng said, breathing a sigh of relief.

Fatty suddenly realized something and his face turned as sour as if he had swallowed a fly.

TL: Dang bro, this guy's a menace...

Jiang Cheng began sizing up the woman in front of him. She was wrapped in a beige trench coat, her figure average—not as striking as the woman in the qipao. Oddly, she was wearing an exceptionally large mask that covered most of her face, and it looked thick enough to make breathing difficult.

She also wore sunglasses, hiding the upper half of her face.

"Who are you?" Fatty asked.

The woman turned her head slightly in Fatty's direction. "You must be Fatty, then," she said, shifting her gaze to Jiang Cheng. "And you must be Mr. Hao Shuai."

"Who are you?"

As someone who often mingled in these circles, Jiang Cheng knew that observing a woman's hands could be more revealing than her face when guessing her age. But in this case, it didn't work. The woman's hands were partially hidden in her sleeves, and the exposed fingertips were rough, with calloused knuckles.

Despite this, it was clear from her attire and demeanor that she came from a life of comfort and privilege. Jiang Cheng had encountered a few people like her before. They carried a certain air of wealth.

"My surname is Li," the woman introduced herself. "Li Yanwei."

Jiang Cheng's expression subtly shifted. He glanced her over once again and suddenly asked, "You wouldn't happen to be the school's Academic Director, Director Li, would you?"

The woman nodded. Since her face was mostly covered by the mask, it was hard to gauge her expression. "That's me."

TL: Well, at least that's out of the way...

Her voice was unusual—not what someone her age should sound like. She was no more than in her early thirties, Jiang Cheng was sure of it.

"You're Director Li?" Fatty frowned, clearly doubting that someone so young could be the Academic Director.

Jiang Cheng wasn't entirely convinced either, but the logic fit. As part of their task, Director Li had to appear at some point. She had been mentioned by multiple NPCs throughout the mission, indicating her importance as a key figure.

With only a day left before the task ended, if Director Li didn't show up soon, things wouldn't make sense.

The first NPC to mention her was Feng Lan, so if they couldn't find Director Li near the archive room, Jiang Cheng would have to go look for Feng Lan to gather more clues.

Encountering Director Li here had been within Jiang Cheng's expectations, especially after the appearance of the three female security guards.

According to Luo Yi, who had been rescued from the guards, the woman in charge of the three security guards was Director Li.

Jiang Cheng's earlier conversation with the security guards was a ploy to escalate the situation beyond their control, forcing them to involve their superior, Director Li.

What Jiang Cheng hadn't expected was how cowardly the guards turned out to be. Though he had anticipated Director Li's arrival, the manner in which she appeared was surprising.

He glanced at her a few more times before shifting his gaze to the door of the archive room behind her. A suspicion began to form in his mind.

When had she arrived? Did she come with the security guards?

Jiang Cheng quickly dismissed that idea. If the guards had known Director Li was around, the situation wouldn't have ended so peacefully.

Diligent and responsible, they would have acted differently in front of their boss.

This led to another conclusion: Director Li had been inside the archive room before the security guards arrived.

But when exactly?

As Jiang Cheng thought more deeply, his expression darkened. Fatty, noticing Jiang Cheng's change in demeanor, couldn't help but shiver.

Could this woman actually be a ghost?

Unconsciously, a bold theory took shape in Jiang Cheng's mind:

Could she have arrived even earlier than he thought?

Earlier than the security guards, earlier than Yu Wen and Zhou Taifu—perhaps even earlier than Jiang Cheng himself!

Had she been quietly hiding in the darkest corner of the archive room, observing everything unfold?

Both the actions of the living... and the dead.

(End of the Chapter)

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