I Got My Cheat Skill by Acting My Way into a Horror Protagonist Role Chapter 15

Xiao Gui'an sniffled, feeling a faint ache returning to his arm. He could barely imagine the scene of that axe landing on his body.

Flesh and blood flying everywhere, bones shattering, skull cap being pried open on the spot.

As the saying goes, the strong change their environment, the weak adapt to their environment, and the dead become stiff.

He finally understood what Zero meant about ghost body safety being his own responsibility.

Speaking of which, what was the number for that Funeral Hotline again?

Could he pre-order a coffin first?

Oh, he probably wouldn't have a complete corpse left. An urn would work too...

Xiao Gui'an's heart was weeping rivers of tears. Just thinking about how his future would be terminated by the unscrupulous System if his acting failed made him feel utterly miserable.

When people get killed, they die.

Is this really okay? Xiao Gui'an had to reconsider the feasibility of this acting gig.

The System definitely hadn't told him everything.

If he faced Xu Zisheng as [Gui Yi] and got chopped by him, would he even have a complete corpse left?

Who knows if Xu Zisheng, as a Chosen One of Fate, has that special attribute where ghosts killed by him truly perish?

The kind that directly damages the soul?

Immediately turning to ashes and vanishing?

Maybe the previous workstation shortage was because of these reasons.

What exactly are Xu Zisheng's methods? He's completely in the dark about it.

『System! System, are you there?』

『Zero, come out, let's talk again!...』

Complete silence. It seemed determined to play dead.

Xiao Gui'an just felt his head aching. Why did he have to worry about so many things even after dying?

"What's wrong? Is there something unusual?"

Xu Zisheng noticed that Xiao Gui'an's emotions seemed somewhat off and stopped what he was doing, asking softly.

He awkwardly tried to hide his blood-stained axe behind his back, the madness and eeriness in his eyes suppressed beneath a calm and gentle gaze.

"St-still okay..." [Gui Yi] answered somewhat stumblingly, noticing that Xu Zisheng seemed to have returned from hell back to the human world, reverting to his originally calm and composed self.

"It's fine, you seem to have good physical condition, the bleeding has stopped..." Xu Zisheng observed the other's wound, stating the facts.

Thanks for your concern, buddy.

But when you find out what I really am, you won't be this friendly anymore.

Still, thanks for your concern.

Xiao Gui'an's thoughts took a sudden turn, his divergent thinking running in another direction.

Little Xu Zi seems like a really good person.

If he really gets discovered as a ghost and can't run far enough, he'll probably be directly chopped into mincemeat.

If that axe comes straight down on his neck for an instant kill, would it be painless?

Heard that when people get their heads chopped off directly, their brains remain quite conscious and don't die immediately.

Now that he's become a ghost, could this duration last a bit longer?

If he still has consciousness, switching to the [Writer] card in that instant might avoid certain death.

Of course, the above scenario is the worst-case, and doing this is quite dangerous.

To achieve a certain level of acting, [Gui Yi] can 'die' when necessary, but it's best not to 'die' at Xu Zisheng's hands.

It seems he needs to slightly adjust his acting route. Changing scripts and character settings on the fly is really deadly.

But to maintain his dignity, all difficulties are merely paper tigers.

When it comes to matters related to acting, Xiao Gui'an becomes extremely professional, operating even like the most precise machine, considering all possibilities.

While countless thoughts swirled in his heart, he showed a somewhat harmless smile on his face, "It's fine, don't worry about me, let's hurry!"

Xu Zisheng acknowledged, reached into the chopped-up door crack, twisted it from inside, and the door opened directly.

He was restraining himself a bit in front of Xiao Gui'an, otherwise he would have 'politely' kicked the door open directly.

Inside the room, the ghost mother trembled as she held the ghost child, hiding at the far end of the kitchen and shivering.

"You, don't come any closer!" The pale-faced middle-aged woman screamed, fear evident in her blood-red eyes, trying to intimidate the two again, but clearly lacking confidence with little effect.

Xu Zisheng dragged his right-hand axe along the ground, making sharp, unpleasant sounds, hissing like fingernails scraping against a glass window.

[Gui Yi] followed behind him, borrowing his authority to bully others, making a provocative expression at the eerie boy, running his hand across his neck, vividly acting out the look of a petty person temporarily on top.

The ghost boy saw Xiao Gui'an's expression and let out a light growl in his throat, appearing quite indignant.

"Hmm?"

Xu Zisheng shot a glance over, and the other immediately became much more obedient.

...

【Congratulations 『Seeker』 Xu Zisheng found 『Hider』 Current count 『4/6』】

【Congratulations 『Seeker』 [Gui Yi] found 『Hider』 Current count 『4/6』】

This efficiency is really high!

Xiao Gui'an thought to himself, if only he could meet such reliable teammates in real games too, then he wouldn't get so angry he'd have a myocardial infarction and die on the spot.

Xu Zisheng searched around the other's home, barely finding some not-too-dirty fabric, simply cut it, and helped bandage Xiao Gui'an.

During this time, he also gave a slight lesson to the ghost mother and son who wanted to send messages.

However—

Xu Zisheng slightly lowered his gaze, looking at Xiao Gui'an's wound that was healing much faster than a normal person's, gently raising an eyebrow, but didn't say anything.

To find more clues, Xu Zisheng claimed he needed to have a friendly exchange with the two ghosts, taking his blood-red book and blood-stained axe into another room.

Xiao Gui'an pasted some newspaper over the broken door, automatically closing his ears, not wanting to receive the unpleasant cries coming from the room.

He looked around the entire place—the whole house was dilapidated, with long-congealed dark bloodstains everywhere, knotted hair clumps scattered in corners, and some pale, rotting pieces of flesh.

Xiao Gui'an withdrew his gaze, ran to the balcony, trying to investigate from this broader perspective to see if he could find more ghost children.

But clearly, he was disappointed.

Didn't find anything.

He slightly raised his head, planning to see what his room would look like from here.

His apartment was on the sixth floor of the second residential building, now he was on the fifth floor of the first residential building. The distance between the two buildings wasn't far. Xiao Gui'an slightly stood on tiptoe, leaned out, and squinted toward the other residential building.

The feedback he got was that the sixth-floor balcony belonging to him seemed completely out of place among the other eerie ones.

Some balconies were sealed with black curtains, some balconies were dirty and messy with piled-up miscellaneous junk, some seemed to have human bones hanging, with dried flesh and blood.

Among the bunch of eerie and terrifying balconies, Xiao Gui'an's balcony was completely unclear what was inside.

Because the balcony where he lived was wrapped in a swirling mass of black mist, with vaguely visible writhing plant tentacles circling within, faces like those growing on man-eating flowers painfully twisting and emerging, accompanied by waves of low murmuring and muttering.

Xiao Gui'an: Huh?

This is his balcony?

『System, System, why did you put that kind of thing outside my balcony? It's blocking all the sunlight, my little darlings can't photosynthesize!』

The Zero System seemed to be absent, answering Xiao Gui'an was a rather dull, cold mechanical voice, 『That is precisely the host's 'little darlings', the System has made no adjustments——』

『Moreover, dead plants don't need photosynthesis.』

Xiao Gui'an: ? Not playing dead now?

Wait, what does that mean?

Could it be that when he died, he brought his flowers and plants along to this underworld place too?

He squinted hard, seemingly trying to identify what those constantly twisting things actually were.

After quite a while, he finally realized those ugly, terrifying plant tentacles, man-eating flowers, etc., actually seemed to be his beloved flowers and plants that he cherished every day.

Those writhing plant tentacles with barbed thorns were his several pots of thriving aloe vera.

Those flowers with human faces, opening sharp big mouths, were his favorite cute mixed-color succulents.

And on the other side...

"This underworld filter, what has it done to my little darlings..." Xiao Gui'an tutted twice.

The perspective belonging to player [Gui Yi] and the perspective belonging to [Writer] were just too different.

"Thirsty, water, water..."

"Listen to songs, want to listen to songs..."

"Master, where is master?..."

He strained his ears to listen carefully—those headache-inducing murmurs also seemed to be the primitive desires emitted by these silly, foolish plants.

Oh, they're so adorable! After knowing their true forms, Xiao Gui'an's gaze toward those twisted, eerie tentacles became gentle.

Xiao Gui'an calmed his mind, tried to look inward, divided his soul into two halves, slowly separated, left the [Student] body, then gradually condensed the [Writer] figure on the sixth-floor balcony.

"Hmm..."

"Can't see very clearly..."

Before his eyes appeared two overlapping scenes—on one side, the [Writer] looked at the familiar flower-filled balcony before him; on the other side, the [Student] looked up and saw those eerie, terrifying plants.

Xiao Gui'an shook his head, trying to clear his mind. The [Writer] on the sixth floor made the same movement.

It was a very strange feeling—two different perspectives, yet you could still feel you were one entity.

It was just a bit uncomfortable—forcibly splitting his consciousness in half and having to perform different actions. For a moment, Xiao Gui'an hadn't mastered it yet.

Xiao Gui'an manipulated his two bodies on the balcony, having quite a bit of fun for a while.

"Gui Yi, what are you doing?"

A calm, questioning voice came from behind Xiao Gui'an, startling him unexpectedly.

His heart almost jumped out of his chest. Xiao Gui'an took a big gasp, most of his consciousness rushing back to the [Writer].

"Found anything?" Xu Zisheng spoke as he approached, but saw Xiao Gui'an pale-faced, eyes wide, looking somewhat panicked and dazed at the upper side.

Xu Zisheng's eyes sharpened, and he looked up too.

Then, he met a pair of calm, water-like eyes, like clouds and mist washing over autumn mountains, unfathomable and untouchable.

The long-haired youth full of scholarly aura had black hair slightly falling, smoothly scattered over his shoulders.

The swirling, spreading black mist didn't hinder the clear energy around him, instead making him appear even more transcendent.

Beside him, those twisted, eerie giant plant tentacles intimately and obediently encircled his hand, seemingly gently kissing his fingertips, offering the most loyal, most fanatical devotion.

Xu Zisheng could feel his alert nerves screaming wildly, the blood-red book in his sealed space also restless. He was certain this time he had truly made eye contact with the other.

The other had truly seen him.

【Current Lonely Creation of Ghosts and Gods buff is activating——】

Even though Xiao Gui'an's heart had turned into a screaming chicken inside, he still struggled to maintain the faint smile on his face.

He slightly lowered his gaze to look at Xu Zisheng downstairs, his deep eyes tinged with flowing light.

Like a long-fallen deity slightly bending to look at an eternal believer.

[Writer] Yan Tingchen curled his lips into a shallow arc, raised his bony, slender index finger to his mouth, with a somewhat youthful air of being caught peeping, "Shh——"

『You saw nothing——』

The sandalwood box hidden in Xu Zisheng's sealed space trembled violently, as if something was about to break out.

【Current Writer acting degree: 5％】