Paintings of Terror

Chapter 145: Huang Pi and Ke Xun

Laoshan Taoist — god, book, moon, Chang’e, dog

After sorting these out, Qin Ci asked everyone to make a copy to keep for themselves and told them, “Wei Dong, Wei Miao, and I will each enter our own world. We’ll try to use each item listed next to our world on the paper and see if we can trigger a hidden world. For those of you who correspond to a hidden world, if you’re willing to enter these primary worlds to try and trigger your own hidden world, you can also try it. Remember to come back before 11 o’clock at night.”

The last sentence was for the newcomers. After he spoke, there were no more delays, and he and the others entered their corresponding worlds.

Ke Xun stared at the content listed on the piece of paper in his hand and carefully surveyed the string of words behind Hailibu.

There were too many animals in Hailibu. Because the focus of the story was that Hailibu could understand animals, he surmised that it must be an animal who will trigger this hidden world.

But with so many animals, which one was the key?

There wasn’t time for him to try each out one by one. Mu Yiran’s movements this morning were no longer as flexible, meaning that the abnormal changes in his body were still ongoing. Therefore, Ke Xun must find the critical trigger point for Mu Yiran’s hidden world as soon as possible, all in one fell swoop.

Calm down, be calm, and think carefully about the details of Hailibu’s story.

He remembered that, at the beginning of the cartoon, Hailibu rescued a squirrel from a wolf’s jaw, only to find out that the squirrel was the daughter of a god. In order to thank Hailibu for saving his daughter, the god decided to give him a gift.

So, would the squirrel be the key?

Which cartoon in the known world had squirrels?

After thinking about the worlds behind these six doors, it seemed that only the Tiger Learns a Skill world had squirrels, but the Tiger Learns a Skill world had already triggered the world of Good Kitty. Could one world trigger multiple hidden worlds?

Ke Xun thought so, and entered the world of Tiger Learns a Skill without hesitation.

“Hello Auntie Cat!” a group of animals, large and small, called out to him in unison.

Ke Xun: “…” Meow, he hated rigid NPCs. Couldn’t they be flexible and change his name to Uncle Cat?!

Ke Xun glanced at the squirrel in the group of animals. He was about to call out to it when he suddenly saw a huge tiger within the group.

What was going on? Hadn’t this tiger already fallen into the river? Why was it here again? And from the look of it, it didn’t seem to have any conflict with the cat and was instead watching the excitement with a simple face.

—The plot had been reset?!

Ke Xun thought for a moment, and then realized that the backstory of this world would be reset every night. In fact, it was equivalent to letting the player repeatedly swipe a copy in the game, and with every swipe it was possible to discover new equipment or new hidden bosses.

So even if he advanced the story to the end, he might not level up, but in the process of repeatedly viewing the story, he might gain key information.

The ending wasn’t important; what was important was the process.

After figuring this out, Ke Xun ignored the big tiger. Since the ending wasn’t important, there was no need to get this guy into the river again.

Ke Xun pointed to the squirrel. “Meow, let me ask you, can you take meow to the door of the new world?”

Squirrel’s expression became dumbfounded, and it looked at him in confusion.

Ke Xun refused to give up and cross-examined every animal present, but found nothing.

He decisively left and returned to the initial room.

Since this path was temporarily unavailable, he must change to another path and no longer waste time in this fight to the death.

Right now, Huang Pi was the only one left in the room. Ke Xun looked at him in surprise and said, “Meow, where did the others go? Why don’t you go into your own world, meow?”

Huang Pu ignored him and continued sitting against the wall. It seemed as if he had no intention of doing anything at all, as if he had given up struggling and had admitted his fate. However, from the look on his face, there was no sign of pessimistic despair or collapse.

Ke Xun wanted to pick another world to enter so he could look for clues about triggering Hailibu. He had just taken a step forward when he had a sudden thought, and so he withdrew his foot. He walked over to Huang Pi instead and squatted down, tail swaying behind him. Looking at him, he said, “Brother Pi, since we’ve been through two paintings together, we can be considered as acquaintances. Although we still don’t have much friendship with each other, as long as we don’t die in the painting, it’s possible that we’ll become companions in this battle through the paintings, perhaps even for the rest of our lives.”

“Meow, in a situation like this, it’s impossible for people to fight alone. Even while traversing a muddy path, you still have brothers that you’re good friends with, am I right, meow ?”

“In the end, everyone will eventually die. There is only today and no tomorrow, and so it’s still important to have some care whether compatible or not. If you have any thoughts, don’t just hold it in and instead say it out. If you hold it in, you’ll feel uncomfortable. Do you agree, meow?”

Huang Pi finally glanced at him and said in a dull voice, “I heard that your instinct is very accurate.”

“It’s not always accurate. You also saw, meow, that I wasn’t able to help Qi Qiang guess correctly yesterday,” Ke Xun said.

“Then guess what I do for a living?” Huang Pi gave Ke Xun a dark look.

“I think that what you do involves money, and the money that you take in isn’t small either. The things you do aren’t trivial. There should be, meow, at least a few lives in your hands.” Ke Xun curled his lips faintly, looking at him calmly and confidently.

Having failed to frighten Ke Xun, the muscles on Huang Pi’s face twitched, and it was unknown whether he was laughing or making some other expressions.

“Why are you talking nonsense with me?” Huang Pi asked him.

“Meow, I think that you may know some clues that people like us don’t know,” Ke Xun said bluntly.

“What makes you think so?” Huang Pi was noncommittal.

“Just by relying on two very vague clues, the scarf of an ancient scholar and the body’s transformation into a puppet, you can guess that the world you correspond to is Laoshan Taoist, meow. This gives meow the idea that you might have a bashfully irascible intuition,” Ke Xun said. A naughty expression appeared on his face and he added, “Brother Pi, you must have been a cartoonist when you were a kid, right, meow?”

“Fuck your meow XX,” Huang Pi cursed in a hoarse voice. Although he had a fierce look on his face, he didn’t plan on killing Ke Xun at once.

“Since you’ve guessed the world you correspond to, why don’t you think of a way to trigger it?” Ke Xun asked.

The world of the Laoshan Taoist, which corresponded to Huang Pi, was a hidden world, which needed to be triggered through one of the worlds behind the six doors.

“It’s none of your business,” Huang Pi said harshly.

“My guess is that you don’t want to go back to the real world, you want to die here.” Ke Xun looked into his eyes.

“Scram, dickhead. Don’t talk drivel in front of me.” Huang Pi was expressionless, but he looked at him with a cold gaze.

However, Ke Xun didn’t retreat. Instead, he hunkered down in front of Huang Pi, his tail smoothly wrapped around his hip and thigh.

“I’m very familiar with this kind of state, so don’t pretend,” Ke Xun said. “Meow, in the first few months when I became an orphan, my daily mentality was just like yours now. I had no desire for food or water. Meow, on the surface, my emotions seemed stable, but there was one sentence that kept repeating in my heart: Just die like this. What’s the use of living? It’s better to just die.”

“Meow, in those first few months, the thing that I did the most was to look at old photos. I looked at every photo I’d taken with my family since I was a child. I studied every one of them, meow, or I just watched old cartoons and old TV shows on the internet, because…”

“I was pretending to be a little child again, meow. Old photos, old cartoons, old TV shows, all of them represented the most carefree and the best memories I had with my family as a child, meow.”

“Meow, when I was suffering the most, when I was the most desperate, the most depressed, meow, I always thought that it was better in my childhood. Every day, when I was happily watching cartoons, my whole family was around me, neat and tidy. How nice it was.”

“Your state now was the same as me at that time, meow. My guess is that you’re bored with life, meow. Is it easy to become bored after having spent such a long time on the path you’re on?”

“So there’s nothing wrong with dying while surrounded by your best childhood memory, right, meow?”

Huang Pi didn’t respond, only lowered his eyelids, revealing a shallow scar. He stared down at his hands that were covered with the dirtiest things in the world.

Many years ago, he’d been a little boy who’d sat on his own chair and watched cartoons on TV, happily and unblinkingly. Never would he have imagined that, when he grew up, he would become a scum who was like a cancerous tumor.

But who would have imagined this for themselves?

All happy childhoods were similar, but complicated and hard lives were all different.

No wonder the author of this painting set up such a theme.

Maybe he also had a life of failure, and so he missed his carefree childhood.

“Brother Pi, in your opinion, which cartoon behind these six doors is more likely to trigger the hidden world of Hailibu?”

The man in front of Huang Pi brazenly asked him this, as if he wasn’t an outsider at all. What gave him the gall to think that he would tell him?

“You go to Ma Liang’s Divine Brush,” With a frown, Huang Pi threw out these words in disgust.

Yes, he ought to hate this kid. As a man, he wanted to engage in relationship with another man, so fucking nausiating.

“Meow? Why Ma Liang’s Divine Brush?” The disgusting kid continued to ask shamelessly.

–Why the fuck would I tell you?!

“Are you stupid?” Huang Pi glared at him fiercely. “Black Cat Sheriff, Tiger Learns a Skill, and The Snow Child are all animal worlds, and Nezha and the fish child aren’t even ordinary mortals. Ma Liang’s divine brush was given by the gods, and the fruit that Hailibu ate to allow him to understand animals was also given by the gods. These two films are similar!”

“…” Ke Xun’s tail swayed lightly. “Big Brother, you analyzed these cartoons so fiercely. You must get along well with your subordinates, meow?”

“…You fucking want to die,” Huang Pi said harsely between gritted teeth and made as if to get up.

Ke Xun jumped up from the ground, tails flicking, and rushed to the door of Ma Liang’s world. He let out a meow and, without looking back, said, “Thank you! I’ll keep your cute performance just now a secret!”

“…Fuck,” Huang Pi cussed, veins popping along his neck.

Ke Xun ran into Ma Liang’s world and thought about the similarities this world shared with Hailibu’s world.

Ma Liang’s cartoon had cattle, sheep, chickens and rabbits that looked as if they were painted on stone.

Could it be an ox? Ma Liang was a cattle-herding baby and didn’t the old master tell Ma Liang, who was watching him from outside the window, to go home and herd the cattle?

Ke Xun rushed to the location of the county government seat, and he saw Wei Dong being mocked by the old master.

Since the plot would reset every night, Wei Dong had to start the script all over again.

“Dongzi, don’t bother about him!” Ke Xun stepped forward and pulled Wei Dong into a run.

Wei Dong was shocked. “What are you doing here?! Aren’t you afraid of changing even more?!”

Ke Xun dragged him toward Ma Liang’s residence and said, “Hurry up! We need to go back to search your house, meow!”

“Look for what?” Wei Dong asked hurriedly.

“For meow meow!” Ke Xun yelled angrily.

“Why the fuck do you keep saying ‘meow’? I have no idea what you’re even saying!” Wei Dong was also startled and anxious.

“Meow–” Ke Xun wanted to learn how to emulate the sound of an ox, but what came out was the sound of a cat.

Shit, Ke Xun thought to himself. Because he entered a world that wasn’t his own, his anomalies were intensifying, and he was now almost…unable to speak.