HM Chapter 29

Before Andre became a ghost, he was the young master of this villa.

However, his status was vastly different back then. He was a complete outcast, unimportant and bullied, hiding behind a noble title for protection.

He had many "friends," but they were more like owners who found him amusing and used him for their own entertainment.

During his birthday party, they stuffed cold cake down his collar, made him crawl on the ground like a dog and rode him like a horse. The other young masters surrounded him, laughing and saying they wanted to play games with him.

Andre was the only one being humiliated in these "prank games."

He would eagerly approach them, like a puppy circling its master’s legs.

When the prank of hanging him from the balcony in the cold wind grew old, they stuffed him into a cramped wardrobe, saying they were playing hide and seek to see how long it would take to find him. Andre spent two days and nights in that coffin-like wardrobe, suffocating, dehydrated, his nails clawed to infection and pus. The visiting young masters laughed.

“Oh, we forgot about you!”

“Why aren’t you laughing? Isn’t this game funny?”

So Andre laughed along.

He once suspected he was an illegitimate child or an unknown bastard, which was why he was treated so poorly. Until his coming of age, when he was taken to the basement.

Andre overheard them describing him like a slaughterhouse animal: his unique physique and perfectly compatible organs made him an excellent donor.

His father didn’t lack children but needed a tool to network with other nobles, so he raised Andre like livestock until his organs matured.

The anesthesia was insufficient, and Andre woke up in pain, feeling his organs being harvested while someone nearby recorded who among the sickly nobles would receive them.

He died, but his hatred lingered.

In the chaos, he heard "its" voice.

“It” said, I will grant you one wish.

As long as you pay a small price.

Andre’s wish was granted.

He made everyone who had bullied him pay. Every corner of the villa was once stained with their blood and flesh. He gained the greatest power he had ever known, becoming a ghost.

Those who bullied him were turned into puppets, dogs, and walking corpses. If the story ended here, it would be one of karmic retribution. But he had to pay a price—

As the property of the dungeon, he was forever trapped in the villa, repeating all the pain he endured before death, welcoming the “players” who suddenly appeared in the villa, killing them with the prank games he once despised, until he forgot his past, forgot everything about being human, even deriving twisted pleasure from these games, becoming a complete ghost, both in body and soul.

A thin silver card was flipped over, placed on the table, the clear sound snapping him out of his humiliating past. Andre looked up at Yuan Yuxue.

Yuan Yuxue had started the next round of questions and had drawn the joker.

Unable to impose cognitive suggestions or know what Yuan Yuxue would ask, Andre faced him with a nearly passive attitude, slightly lifting his chin, “Ask away.”

Yuan Yuxue had a vast range of questions he could ask, countless obscure and difficult ones, any of which Andre likely couldn’t answer. The game would end, and the player camp would win. Thus, Andre’s attitude was understandably lackluster, resigned to the possibility of the players passing the dungeon unscathed for the first time.

But after long, silent contemplation, Yuan Yuxue lowered his eyes and said something strange, “I won’t ask a question yet. Let’s talk about something unrelated.”

Andre’s mocking smile was unrestrained, “Talk about what? How I acted like a dog when I was alive, or how I was dismembered after death and turned into a ghost? Yuan Yuxue, why is your curiosity suddenly so keen...”

“Do you regret making that deal?”

Andre stopped abruptly. He smoothly picked up the conversation, almost hiding that momentary pause, “Regret what?”

He said, “Yuan Yuxue, what a strange thought.”

“Because you look,” Yuan Yuxue calmly pointed out what Andre was trying to conceal, adept at exposing weaknesses, “very miserable.”

“…”

When Yuan Yuxue said “let’s talk,” he really meant just a few words. After Andre fell silent, he picked up the card again.

“My question is—”

Yuan Yuxue’s lips moved slightly, but no sound came out. He paused, seemingly changing his mind, and asked, “Will the Andre playing this game with me ever face the end of his deal, and truly ‘die’ someday?”

Yuan Yuxue’s tone was cold, but each word struck Andre’s heart heavily.

The questioner cannot ask something they don’t know the correct answer to.

The rules recognizing Yuan Yuxue’s question meant the answer he held in his heart was undoubtedly correct—

But why ask such a question?

According to the rules, Andre only needed to cover all possible outcomes to win this round.

But inexplicably, Andre spoke only one word: “...Yes.”

“I will face the end of the deal and truly die.”

Yuan Yuxue lifted his gaze to him. His look was extremely cold, with Yuan Yuxue’s unique sharpness, but in that moment, Andre’s nonexistent heart seemed to beat rapidly, pumping scorching blood—

“Okay.” Yuan Yuxue’s expression remained calm, “Correct answer.”

Yuan Yuxue was not punished by the rules. In other words, he had correctly judged Andre’s answer fairly.

His question, recognized by the rules, was the ultimate conclusion.

In that instant, Andre’s blood surged, his mind endlessly replaying the question and its answer.

It sounded almost like a ridiculous fantasy—

A player, through a question in a game, told him that the endless cycle of despair he was trapped in would one day end. Even if it ended with death, he would welcome true freedom.

The impact was so immense that Andre flipped the wrong card during the draw, missing the joker.

With a fifty-fifty chance, the joker fell to Yuan Yuxue.

Yuan Yuxue thought for only two or three seconds before asking a peculiar and obscure question.

Andre looked at him, still displaying that dismissive attitude.

“I don’t know.”

He answered lazily in the final seconds of the countdown and added, “Congratulations, the game is over.”

It was truly over; as a reward for the players’ victory, everyone would have a peaceful, safe night.

The butler would bring back the players undergoing punishment.

Yuan Yuxue remained in the hall—having just refused the servants’ offer to lead him to his room.

Andre did not linger. He left the hall, the corridor icy cold, the villa’s wind and snow drifting through the skylight. Through the open window, he saw the swirling clouds outside.

After an indeterminate time, Andre suddenly looked up, coldly staring at a specific spot.

“I want to end the deal.”