Ordinary Chapter 15: Children’s Obsession

Translated by Addis of Exiled Rebels Scanlations

Editor: KarateChopMonkey

 

A mental playfield, unlike a ghost-like one, was an internal struggle type, and being inside this playfield would interfere with the thoughts of the Survivors.

So far, there were only five recorded mental playfields; amplifying obsession, killing intent, hunger, happiness and pain. These five playfields left psychological shadows on countless Survivors, because there were no ghosts, no enemies, and no targets in there, and they could only make unthinkable moves under the influence of the spirit, even committing suicide or attacking others.

Most of the surviving Survivors would eventually fall into self-loathing, and wouldn’t be able to function during the next game, losing the desire to keep on going and then die.

“Flower? This playfield can amplify obsession?” Ning Yangze pondered, “If it’s obsession…”

Xia Leyu stared at the computer screen, “There it is! The Inspection Unit has sent over the characteristics of the playfield!”

“Good!” Ning Yangze hurriedly looked over, and the file titled Flower was opened, containing the characteristics of this playfield.

The death rate of this playfield was extremely high because there was a three-hour deadline, those who were affected mentally during the red flower issue would be pulled by obsessions and do what their heart most wanted to do. After three hours, the red flower would change to a black flower and those who didn’t act during the red flower period would die from the toxin of the black flower. That is if they didn’t escape first.

The more obsessions and desires people had the longer they lived, the greedier they were the more they could continue to live on.

Those who were born with few desires and did not think about it often would die because they had no obsessions to act on.

“It is true that we still need to seize the time.” Ning Yangze sighed, “The longer we take the more people will die, the most we can get them to go through is one round of obsessive actions, and that round is enough to stain some people with psychological shadows.”

Xia Leyu blinked, “That serious?”

“Everyone will have something in their heart that they want to get, or an abnormal obsession. They will press these in their hearts for emotional or other reasons, but will be bare naked in the playfield.” Ning Yangze closed his eyes and pressed his temples.

“For example, a wife. Her husband is only eating, drinking and playing all day. She will be more and more discontent with him. In our ordinary life, this wife will choose to fight or divorce. She’d restrain her thoughts when she’s angry, but in that playfield, she’ll choose to pick up the knife and kill him.”

Xia Leyu hand started shaking after that explanation, “If so, that wife will have a breakdown when she comes to her senses, right?!”

“That’s for sure, that’s why we have to get them out!”

“Since it’s a mental playfield, maybe let a mental ability Survivor try?” Xia Leyu looked to Ning Yangze, “Can a mental ability Survivor interfere with the game inside from outside the field?”

“Let’s treat a dead horse as an alive one to cure it ¹ , I’ll go contact the top right away.” Ning Yangze hurriedly made a call with anxiety on his face.

On the other hand, inside the playfield, most people had gradually calmed down, especially those who had already done the deed of their deepest obsession. Most of them stood blankly in place, the scene was completely quiet. A moment later, the sound of a girl crying broke the dead silence.

The girl sat on her knees shouting for her mother, and in the bloody flowers, a woman in a white coat lay there, her coat covered in blood, and a man standing next to her was clutching a knife with blood on it.

“No, I didn’t do this.” The man’s hands were covered in blood, and he stared at the woman with wide eyes, “It’s not my fault, it’s this place, and I’m a victim! And… and it was this woman who was out of line! I just couldn’t stand it…”

The girl was still crying, she held her mother’s hand and kept wailing loudly.

“Stop crying!” The man’s face was fierce, “Damn girl, you don’t even know how cheap this woman is! Cry again and I’ll send you to meet the King of Hell!”

The girl didn’t know what was happening, she just felt scared, her mom couldn’t wake up no matter how, and her dad became very scary; she was so scared that she could only keep crying. In a blur of tears, she saw her dad walking over with a bloody knife and a scarier expression than the bad guys in the cartoons she had seen on his face.

With a bang, the man was kicked out so hard that he flew backwards and fell to the ground with a mouth full of blood.

“Deciding that your wife cheated on you based only on rumors and even become obsessed with killing her. You didn’t even intend to spare the child. I do think you are very suitable for the unlimited flow world.” Shen Si’s voice was reticent, but his eyes were faintly indifferent. He and this man were from the same neighborhood. Of course, he knew very well that his wife was just being gossiped about.

The man coughed and squirmed in place, his teeth knocked on the ground, until his mouth was full of blood. The blood-stained knife in his hand fell in the flowers, making sure that the man could not get up again to attack others, Shen Si turned to leave.

If a Survivor would be left with a psychological shadow from this mental playfield, then the effect on an ordinary person trapped in here would double. Countless human-to-human disputes and suspicions were magnified, until the point of attacking each other. He walked over whend the number of people dying of serious injuries had increased.

“Mama!” The girl’s scream came from behind him. 

Shen Si slightly froze, then jerked his head around, and the girl was still standing in the same place, but the woman in the white jacket had moved.

She took the knife that the man had stabbed her with and stabbed viciously into the man’s body, her eyes full of hatred that bordered on horroristic.

Shen Si watched the woman stab again and again until the man stopped moving. She sat on the ground and paused for three seconds, then slowly fell to the ground, covered with the blood of the two of them, mixing in with the surrounding red flowers, looking particularly bizarre.

It was like something from a horror movie.

Shen Si turned his head to look around, those who have acted on their obsessive urges expressionlessly looked around, the indifference in their eyes the same, like watching a movie.

He didn’t know if the person on the ground was dead or alive, so Shen Si went over and picked up the little girl who had been crying and was almost out of breath. He pulled open his jacket, wrapped the child in his clothes and took her outside. The people around him were staring at Shen Si with dead eyes, they were either stained with blood or something else, everyone resembling silent beasts.

Complicit thinking, self-psychological comfort.

In an environment where several people were doing terrible things, the person who did those things would gradually reassure himself that it was normal, that he was being forced or even that he would be harmed if he didn’t do it, and that those normal people would instead be attacked because they were not their fellow accomplices.

Carrying the small child all the way back to the building, where there was no one and no sound, only bright red flowers blooming all around the building. Shen Si put the little girl down, the girl was still sobbing and went limp.

“Are you okay?”

The girl gave Shen Si a timid look, then shook her head carefully.

Shen Si wasn’t quite sure how to deal with small children; he was a tour guide and was responsible for tours that favored adults, and basically no adult would be stupid enough to bring a child to climb a mountain.

“Have you ever wanted something so bad that you’d do anything for it?”

“Ice cream.” The girl’s voice was very small, with a subtle crying tone, “I especially wanted to eat ice cream, and just kept tugging on mom’s clothes.”

The child’s obsession was to eat ice cream.

Shen Si gave a slight pause, “So did you eat it?”

“Mom said it’s not the time to eat ice cream and wouldn’t buy me any.” The girl cried, “But I wanted ice cream so badly, what’s wrong with mommy and daddy? They are so scary.”

Shen Si glanced outside, everywhere was chaotic as hell, both stores and restaurants were completely suspended and not open at all. The world was in dead silence like a diseased beast, they stared around with sickness, not allowing a single person to be different from them.

Trying to turn to the store clerk to buy ice cream for the girl to get her through the black flower period wouldn’t work, and the environment was now so chaotic that the child wouldn’t be pitied.

There were people crying, people laughing, and people intending to take advantage while they couldn’t be blamed. Such a large-scale mess would take a long time for the Special Unit to clean up, right?

He picked up the girl and headed upstairs. He saw Bai JunYi standing in the corridor, his face was unusually without a smile. His dark eyes had turned completely golden, and right then, he no longer looked like the gentle and kind flower shop owner, but more like a cold and ruthless overlord.

“It’s Xiao Si.” Bai JunYi turned his head at the sound of footsteps and smiled slightly at Shen Si, and in a second the coldness in his body seemed to be smoothed out quite a bit by this smile.

Shen Si walked over with the girl in his arms, “How is it?”

“Very bad.” Bai JunYi sighed helplessly, “The relationship between humans is very complicated, especially since this playfield circles several neighborhoods nearby, which means that all kinds of relationships are trapped in this confined space, and with the effect of these flowers, the consequences are quite frightening.”

Shen Si nodded, “Yeah.”

“On my way here, I’ve seen employees who attacked their bosses, husbands who tried to strangle their wives, parents who threw their children to the ground, people who stole, people who looted, and even some who were running around naked.” Bai JunYi let out a bitter laugh, “I think that even if these people get out alive, they will still create countless social problems.”

“…It is indeed scary.”

Bai JunYi turned his head to look at the girl in his arms, “Xiao Si, who is this?”

“A child whose parents killed each other.” Shen Si put the girl on the ground, who was still sobbing, while she sat motionless on the floor.

“What do you mean?”

“Little children, none of their obsessions are being fulfilled.” Shen Si’s voice looked at the little girl, “Three hours are almost up, if we don’t find a way, almost all the children in this area will be poisoned by the toxins of the black flower stage.”

Bai JunYi was slightly stunned, and, in the next instant, he understood.

This playfield appeared randomly and at least tens of thousands of people were trapped. There was no shortage of children, and in a child’s underdeveloped mind and body, this made it difficult for them to act on their obsessions. This was a situation that would not occur at all in the unlimited flow world… 

That meant that if they couldn’t leave the playfield during the three hours of red flower period, the small children would die in large numbers. They must find a way to break this playfield as soon as possible!