IWBL: Chapter 109

The white shadow was close to transparent and was different from ordinary pale ghosts. The translucency allowed them to see through to the opposite environment. It was a human form with long hair to the waist, wearing a white dress with the sleeve edges embroidered with pink patterns. Only the facial features were blurred. The sudden appearance of the white shadow rushing out of the house startled everyone.

Xiao Li stood at the front facing the white shadow. He reached out to the white shadow and grabbed it. However, his hand couldn’t touch the white shadow as it moved to the right, avoiding his touch. It floated to the right like a piece of paper and disappeared from their field of view.

Park Soojin took a step back. She had been standing next to Xiao Li and was the second person after him. She clearly saw the strange scene. The girl pulled out her phone and wrote: [What… is that?]

Thai, standing to her left, shrugged. [I don’t know.]

There were many strange creatures in this town. Fortunately, they didn’t seem to be hostile to the reincarnators before the taboo was violated. Even if they met each other head on, the creatures mostly escaped.

Park Soojin saw a lot but obviously didn’t see as much as Xiao Li. Perhaps he was the only one who saw something in the white shadow’s left hand. It was a flesh-coloured film. Since the white shadow gripped it so tightly, it was crumpled into a ball but a glimpse of the thin edge could be seen.

Xiao Li’s first thought was a face. There was a big possibility that the first contained the lost face of a plot character.

He pushed open the door and wanted to be the first to walk in, but stopped at the threshold. Xiao Li suddenly recalled his original intention when entering this world. Didn’t he want to lie down? Wasn’t his habit of rushing to the front wrong?

Xiao Li wanted to go in but the problem was the coffin ghost’s prophecy. He silently retracted his foot, stood aside and made a ‘please enter’ gesture to Shimizu.

Shimizu, “……”

He looked suspiciously at Xiao Li. [What’s wrong?]

Xiao Li: [Nothing, I’m giving you some opportunities to act. You go in first.]

Shimizu: ???

Was this mockery? He couldn’t keep up with Sherlock’s rhythm and didn’t know what the other side meant. He had a standoff with Xiao Li at the door before eventually scratching his head and entering the room first.

The room was the study Thai had previously looked in. He only glanced roughly inside and didn’t search through the books. A man was lying down near the desk. His face was made of flesh and blood and his clothing was drenched by last night’s heavy rain, forming a small pool under his body.

Shimizu recognized him as one of the plot characters from the CG. Judging from his shoes, the footprints outside had been what he left.

Lance wrote: [He was just killed by the white shadow…?]

[It is very likely.]

Xiao Li took his eyes off the character’s body and turned to examine the surroundings. The walls of the study were covered with paintings. It was as Thai described. The paintings were only landscape paintings without any people.

Hanging in the middle so that anyone who pushed open the door could see was a painting of the peach tree in the backyard. In this painting, the peach tree with slim with lush foliage and branches dripping with red and green peaches.

The surrounding paintings were of the town. It included the empty streets at dusk, the front of old houses, open red gates with corridors facing them and Xiao Li could even see the hotel. These paintings were lifelike. He stood in front of the corresponding painting and seemed to see through time and space to the original.

Xiao Li didn’t take himself as an outsider and directly sat at the desk. He picked up a brush on the desk and lamented: [The paintings are really good.]

Shimizu remembered the other side’s drawing on the ghost ship last night and made a strange expression. Unlike Xiao Li, Shimizu’s attention was focused on the body of the plot character. He speculated about the other side’s mentality. He must’ve entered the study to take refuse and found something that made him scream, thus violating the taboo.

Shimizu got to his knees and moved the man’s hand. He found a lot of writing on the ground. The writing was engraved on the concrete floor. It seemed the owner of this old house used it to alert himself.

[I… I know why more and more people have disappeared in the town lately. I know.. the answer is silence! Never talk, you can’t…]

[I also know why my little son died. He might’ve never talked during the day but he snores at night…]

[In the end, I don’t know what is going on here. Think about it carefully. Everything began that day, the day I got my grandfather’s legacy!]

[However, it is just something ordinary. How could it do this?]

[I couldn’t help crying when I saw Pinger die in front of me. I’m crying and no one can stop me. I know I’m going to die but it doesn’t matter. I can finally accompany them, being with my wife and son.]

[I accept everything, waiting quietly for death. It treats all people fairly and it came. I saw it.]

[Really beautiful…]

The handwriting came to an abrupt end. Shimizu translated it for the others. It could be inferred from this passage that the taboo of this town was related to the legacy of the old owner’s grandfather. In addition, the legacy was very ordinary. Unfortunately, there was no specific description about the legacy.

AK47 looked at the translated English and wrote in a somewhat scared manner: [I also snore at night. Fortunately, I thought of this habit in time.]

Lance said: [If snoring isn’t good, what about loud noises like sneezing or coughing…]

Thai inserted a sentence on their paper. [In addition, diarrhea.]

[It is terrible just staying here for a few days. What about a lifetime? Who can guarantee that they won’t make a sound in a lifetime? In addition, movement of the stomach is something that can’t be controlled.] Park Soojin sighed with a strange expression.

They didn’t wonder why the remaining residents of the town who didn’t escape. The common rule of these instances was that escape wasn’t possible or the residents were concerned about something.

Discussing this topic made the stagnant atmosphere more relaxed which was good for the team.

Shimizu also smiled and wrote: [I didn’t need to worry about physiological needs in previous instances. Here, I am worried the water is too loud when I go to the toilet.]

Park Soojin laughed silently and stood up straight. She had bent down to the table to write. This time, she had bent over for a long time and was a bit sore. She put the pen on the paper and her hand rubbed her waist.

However, it was unknown where a breeze blew from at this time. The wind was strange, like an invisible ghost was blowing at the edge of the table. It made the pen roll on the table towards the edge—

Park Soojin was stunned. Her body leaned to the right as she reached out to catch the pen. Unfortunately, this position made her feet slip on the pool of water under the plot character’s body! She caught the pen but her entire body fell to the ground, making a dull noise. Park Soojin lay on the ground, her eyes wet. She didn’t cry and instead bit her lips.

‘I… am I going to die?’ She thought in a trance.

Due to this noise, the other reincarnators stopped moving like the pause button was pressed. In the past, the way to identify violating the taboo was to speak. If they couldn’t speak then their voice had been taken away. However, Park Soojin’s situation was special. No one knew if this fall was considered making a sound.

She could only wait. This brought Park Soojin’s mood close to collapsing.

Xiao Li stood up, reached for Park Soojin’s hand and pulled her up. He took out the little yellow book and wrote: [Not necessarily.]

Park Soojin’s lips were pale as she silently stared at Xiao Li. [Really?]

Xiao Li closed the little yellow book. He just wanted to nod when he suddenly looked away from Park Soojin’s face, turning to look outside. Somewhere in the sky, black smoke appeared. It was like… somewhere was burning.

The black smoke grew and the wind spread it towards the old house. Xiao Li patted Park Soojin on the shoulder. He crossed the threshold of the study and came out to the corridor. He looked at the place where the black smoke came from and roughly estimated the distance.

[Let’s go and take a look.] Xiao Li held up the little yellow book.

His speed was fast as he ran down the corridor. The others closely followed Xiao Li.

Park Soojin touched her eyes and stood in the back in a low mood. She knew that she was in danger but didn’t want to give up. What if the noise from falling didn’t count? The noise was very dull and might not reach the volume of the taboo…

She gritted her teeth and followed.

*******

There was black smoke and they could quickly find the destination. Xiao Li took the team towards the black smoke and Park Soojin was at the end of the group. The town was still incomparably quiet. Despite something so big happened, no one came out to see the fire.

They turned a corner and found the place where the black smoke came from. However, in the middle of this path, Xiao Li suddenly stopped.

[What’s the matter?] Shimizu asked.

Xiao Li’s eyes gazed at the street stores, the sky and then finally on Park Soojin. Park Soojin was covering her mouth with her hands. Along the way, she was extremely restless but didn’t want to give up hope. She was afraid she couldn’t hold back her emotions and would make a sound, so she had to cover her mouth.

Her eyes met Xiao Li’s eyes. Then she realized something and put down her hand. It was because this place was exactly the same as the mirror from the coffin. This was the place where Park Soojin died in the prophecy mirror.