Chapter 120
A feeling he couldn’t put his finger on enveloped Mo Yi for a moment and he quietly looked at Jiang Yuanrou in the darkness.
Back to -3F…
Although this conclusion seemed absurd, it was unexpectedly reasonable.
He lowered his voice and asked, “Do you know how to go back?”
Jiang Yuanrou paused in surprise. She stared at Mo Yi in the dark for a while, then said in a low voice, “…I thought you would ask me a lot of questions.”
Mo Yi let out a low chuckle, the deep sound wave fleeting in the silence.
“Even if I ask, can you answer it?”
Jiang Yuanrou’s tense face relaxed slightly, showing a small smile.
“I’m afraid I can’t…”
Everything in this instance was still relatively unknown, every step taken was full of uncertainty, and they were unable to guarantee if all decisions they made were completely correct. It was akin to walking in complete darkness, where one could never be sure whether their next step would lead to the light or into the abyss.
And in this game, hesitation would mean death.
The only thing they could do was to put all their eggs in a single basket and bear all the consequences it brought to them.
Mo Yi understood this, and Jiang Yuanrou understood it too.
Everything went without saying.
The atmosphere between the two relaxed a little, no longer as suffocatingly tense as it was before.
Mo Yi straightened his waist and pushed away from the wall behind him. He glanced around the dark room he was in then exhaled slowly.
“And… in any case, we couldn’t stay on this floor any longer.”
The consequences of Edwin being released from this room would be disastrous. Mo Yi was not? naive enough to believe that he was locked deep in his consciousness only because he was unwilling to join forces with the other two personalities. Not to mention that since he’d tricked Edwin previously, staying on the third floor now would be courting death.
Jiang Yuanrou nodded solemnly, then lowered her voice, and abruptly said in the dark.
“I know how to go back.”
Mo Yi was stunned into silence for half a second before realising that she was answering his question just now, only to have Jiang Yuanrou use the silence to continue speaking .
“It’s… It’s not exactly counted as knowing, but I have a hunch.”
Mo Yi nodded. “Then where are we going next?”
Jiang Yuanrou put the flashlight back into Mo Yi’s palm. His cold fingers and the cold shell of the flashlight almost merged into one, as though it had never left his palm.
Her voice rang in Mo Yi’s ear.
“Go to the elevator.”
The two walked out of the twisted and deformed door frame one after the other. The moved carefully through the cracked and rugged corridor, trying not to let their footsteps make a slight sound.
However, cracked flooring and broken carpet would always make a soft rubbing sound, and that soft sound echoing through this silent and long corridor, was enough to make one’s scalp tingle.
They walked towards the room where Mo Yi found the key. Jiang Yuanrou took a step forward, reached out and grabbed the door that was firmly stuck in the twisted door frame. Putting one foot against the corner of the door frame, she yanked at it forcefully. .
The fragile wooden door let out a hoarse groan, then it suddenly collapsed under Jiang Yuanrou’s strong force.
She surveyed the dark and quiet corridor vigilantly, and only after confirming that her actions just now did not attract any undue attention, did she walk in with Mo Yi.
The dark and closed room was filled with a thick smell of dust, and the sound of gravel and sawdust falling to the ground was clear and vivid in the extremely quiet room.
Mo Yi’s pace stalled, and he frowned.
Jiang Yuanrou, who was walking in front, realised that something was wrong with Mo Yi. She came to a stop too, turned her head and asked in a low voice, “What’s wrong?”
Mo Yi didn’t answer. Instead, he kept his brows were tightly frowned, and his dark eyes were stained with a trace of solemnity—
Something was not quite right here.
He clenched his icy fingers subconsciously. He flicked them lightly on the surface of the flashlight twice, then seemed to have finally made up his mind and slowly pushed the switch of the flashlight by one notch—a dim beam of light instantly spread across the room, dispelling the darkness.
Jiang Yuanrou was startled by the sudden light. Her lower lip quivered, as if she wanted to say something to stop Mo Yi’s daring behaviour, but decided against it in the end, swallowing her protest back down into her throat.
Standing at the same spot, Mo Yi slowly rotated his body, sweeping the beam of light across the room—
The interior was in a mess. The cracked ceiling and ground looked as though it was the victim of a huge earthquake, while the dirty carpet and wallpaper had a dull, brassy hue in the light. However, other than these, everything else seemed the same as before…
Except the fact that the room was completely empty.
There were no broken dolls and soft toys, no disembowelled animal corpses, and no corpse of a man whose internal organs were exposed while the flesh and blood of his upper body were arranged into the shape of outspread butterfly wings—
The trophies previously displayed in the room have all disappeared without a trace, and not even a single trace of blood remained on the floor.
If it wasn’t for the semi-solidified blood still between Mo Yi’s nails, he would almost have thought that those corpses he’d previously seen were just his hallucinations.
But now, he identified what the incongruity was—
That bloody and rancid smell in this room which nearly suffocated him, leaving behind only a dusty smell in this old room.
Mo Yi’s brows were furrowed tightly, and a faint sense of uneasiness surfaced in his heart.
Jiang Yuanrou also looked around in shock before exclaiming in a low voice, “This… how could it be?”
Mo Yi lowered his eyes to cover up the contemplation in his eyes. Pursing his lips, he interrupted Jiang Yuanrou.
“I don’t know, but now is not the time to worry about this. The most urgent thing now is to leave this floor.”
Jiang Yuanrou restrained her exposed emotions. She nodded slowly, and changed the topic.
“Yes, let’s go.”
Mo Yi cast a last glance around the whole room, as if he wanted to imprint the scene here in his eyes, then finally switched his flashlight off and continued to walk forward with Jiang Yuanrou.
After opening the door, the familiar corridor appeared in front of them.
It didn’t seem to have been damaged that badly, and still looked similar to its previous state.
The few remaining small wall lamps on both sides of the wall flickered faintly. However, all the other lights had completely disappeared in a heavy and thick shadow, leaving the depths of the corridor ahead shrouded in darkness.
The dirty wallpaper covered some parts of the cracks on the wall underneath it, which resemble veins extending into the far distance.
The two moved forward in the dark, into the depths of the corridor.
Since this corridor was one complete path without any branches, and there was no illusion making them walk around in circles, the two soon came to the end.
In the dark depths, the familiar metal gate of the elevator was embedded in the wall. There was a dark gap between the slightly twisted metal door. The walls to either side of the door had several deep cracks which reached up into the ceiling. Dust fell from the ceiling, which made people feel slightly uneasy.
There were no card slots on the wall next to the elevator.
Jiang Yuanrou let out a long exhale. She handed the flashlight to Mo Yi, and then took a few steps forward.
She squeezed her fingertips into the gap between the metal doors, and exerted force with her two arms. As several teeth-stinging squeaks of metal sounded in the cramped and closed corridor, the gap between the two doors slowly widened—
Mo Yi was a little uneasy. He took a few steps forward. “Do you need my help…?”
Jiang Yuanrou sneaked a glance back at him, and said in a low voice with a smile on her lips.
“No need.”
As soon as she finished speaking, she heard a hiss from the metal doors, and they slowly separated until there was a gap large enough for one person to pass through.
“…”
Mo Yi looked at Jiang Yuanrou’s slender arm, then silently looked away.
Jiang Yuanrou took a few steps back. She took the flashlight from Mo Yi’s hand, switched it on and shone it into the crack of the door, only to see that it was pitch black inside, and the metal walls of the elevator were reflecting the light—the elevator itself was on this floor.
She took a deep breath, then turned sideways, and deftly got into the elevator.
The elevator made a slight tremor and a hoarse hissing sound with her movements, which made Mo Yi’s heart clench involuntarily.
Jiang Yuanrou stood still in the elevator, her voice muffled through the crack of the door. “There is nothing wrong inside.”
Mo Yi followed her into the elevator as well.
The air in the elevator was turbid and stuffy, and the dim light in the corridor shone into the dark space through the door crack of the elevator.
The iron sheet under his feet was trembling slightly, making one feel uneasy just standing on it.
Jiang Yuanrou turned the flashlight on to the maximum. She groped around for something beside the small black screen in the elevator. Mo Yi did not know what she pressed, but she froze suddenly, then deeply sunk her nails into the corner of the iron sheet, and forcefully lifted off a small piece of metal plate next to it—
Jiang Yuanrou breathed a sigh of relief, then pulled a magnetic card out of her pocket.
Under the light of the flashlight, Mo Yi saw the appearance of the magnetic card—it was covered entirely in dark red, and it was unclear if that red was blood or its original colour.
Jiang Yuanrou swiped the magnetic card using the small metal plate that she dug out, and the elevator roared to life.
A bright red number suddenly lit up on the darkened screen: -1
The elevator door slowly closed and a small scarlet inverted triangle appeared next to the bright red number.
There was a slight vibration in the elevator, and then it began to head downwards. Unlike the previous few times, there was no sound in the elevator this time, only the friction sound of the elevator moving, and this silence made people feel uncomfortable.
The air in the enclosed space was heavy and dull.
Jiang Yuanrou let out a long breath. She wiped the fine beads of sweat on his forehead with his hands, and said with a sigh of relief.
“I almost thought my conjecture of its use was wrong…”
Mo Yi took the scarlet card from her. He flipped it back and forth under the light, studying it carefully. There was no information on it, only a rich blood red which covered the entire card and exuded a scent of rust.
Jiang Yuanrou, who was standing by the side, spoke.
“I found it in a room full of dead bodies. When I found it, it was on a note with several lines of nonsense written on it, and I inferred its purpose based on those words.”
At this moment, Mo Yi suddenly thought of something, and asked, “By the way, you mentioned something earlier regarding the timing of you opening the side storyline. You said that you didn’t want to at that point in time… What did you not want to do?”
Jiang Yuanrou was surprised by Mo Yi’s sudden question. After she realised it, her face couldn’t help but turn a little gloomy. She pursed her lips.
“After I came out of the room with corpses, I entered an illusion, and you were in the illusion.”
Mo Yi was startled, only to hear Jiang Yuanrou continue in a low tone.
“You asked me about the clues of this instance. I had yet to figure out that I was in an illusion, so I told the whole story—”
She lowered her eyelids, and continued speaking.
“So the subplot of the instance was opened. However, your name was not in it, and it was only then that I realised I was in an illusion. After which, that fake you showed a terrifying smile and disappeared.”
Jiang Yuanrou added, “Then I went to see the room where Edwin was locked, and found that he had disappeared. After that, I heard your footsteps, so I hid in the empty room and waited for you to come.”
Mo Yi’s face was gloomy.
He stared at the slowly moving inverted triangle on the screen thoughtfully, sorting out the new clues that appeared in this floor:
The purpose of the illusions in the other two floors were all to confuse them and lure them into being trapped in this instance forever, and their bosses were all low in intelligence.
But that was not the case on this level—the illusion on this level could be manipulated by Edwin. He controlled the illusion to let the player see what he wanted the player to see, then use the player to achieve his goal.
However, the only question is…
When he first saw the illusion, he happened to be next to the room where Edwin was locked up, and saw Jiang Yuanrou being controlled.
Meanwhile Jiang Yuanrou entered the illusion in the room where the corpses were…
If the purpose of showing her an illusion was because Edwin wanted to lure her to start the side plot so he could gain freedom through the transformation of the interior of the instance—
Then, at that time, Edwin should still be locked up, and should not have been able to let Jiang Yuanrou, who was so far away from him, fall into an illusion.
Mo Yi’s eyebrows were deeply creased with contemplation, and he couldn’t think of a reasonable explanation even after a while.
As if on cue, the speed of the elevator under his feet gradually slowed down. There were a sudden shake before it came to a stop.
Mo Yi couldn’t help being startled, and subconsciously raised his head to look at the small screen next to the elevator door.
The blood-red inverted triangle had stopped flashing, and the bright red and dazzling -1 had also changed to -2.
And in the next second, the elevator door opened slowly and silently.
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