Chapter 35: I might collapse anytime, anywhere.
The rainbow potion continued to spray continuously, indicating that they couldn’t go to the next room to investigate clues without facing the consequences of distortion.
The story told by Yang Erci evoked sighs from everyone, and a solemn silence fell over them.
War existed not only in the moments of initiation and conclusion but also in the lands that had once witnessed rivers of blood, carrying the lingering poison of deep wounds to this day.
The poison seeped into the ground, blossomed into flowers, bore fruit, and ultimately used generation after generation of flesh and blood to metabolize and cleanse.
An Wujiu lowered his head, his eyes fixed on his own toes, the image of the child they had just encountered replaying in his mind.
He had not harmed anyone, nor had he acted as an NPC, guiding or assigning quests. He simply appeared suddenly and disappeared just as abruptly.
He seemed more like a ghost trapped in an old place in a movie than an NPC arranged to wait for them.
The last words of the little bear echoed in their ears.
Not just the recent statement, but everything it has said since entering the second level.
Especially the one it said to Josh, “There’s a circus performance tonight; Mr. Clown, please open the gate on time.”
An Wujiu rolled up his sleeves and checked the digital watch on his wrist, still frozen at 3:20:41 in the early morning.
Except for him and Shen Ti, no one else had a watch, and there were no clocks hanging in the corridor, not even a window.
How were they supposed to know whether it was day or night?
There had to be something showing the time.
“How many of the rooms did you guys try to open just now?” An Wujiu asked Josh.
Josh thought for a moment. “Only three, all locked; I couldn’t open them, and it said the children were out.”
An Wujiu pondered for a moment. “Our ultimate goal is to escape from this containment center, but on this level, we need to find the door to the next level and obtain the fragment.”
“The door on the previous level appeared after the nine-grid puzzle was solved, meaning it was Nan Shan who broke the spatial illusion, and the door appeared in my and Shen Ti’s space.”
“As for the fragment, it is obtained after deciphering the work log and breaking the door. So, this time, there might be different illusions, but the work log is likely to exist, and finding the log gives us a chance to get the fragment.”
After listening to An Wujiu’s analysis, Josh’s understanding of his task became clearer. “So, my work log must be hidden in these rooms.”
“I believe so.”
Zhong Yirou leaned against the wall, her face unusually pale, perhaps due to the recent intense pain. “How do we find the door, then?”
Shen Ti, looking a bit tired, stretched lazily and spoke in a seemingly nonchalant tone, leaving everyone puzzled.
“How about splitting into groups?”
“Splitting into groups?” Josh didn’t understand. “But in the first level, we separated, and that’s why we ended up in different spaces; doesn’t that increase the difficulty of the game?”
An Wujiu shook his head. “I think splitting into groups might work.”
It was a risky proposition, but An Wujiu wanted to give it a try.
“I want to take a gamble,” he said. “Different levels may have different obstacles to finding the door. The first level made us disperse, like wandering in a maze without finding a way out.”
“But on the second level, everyone has passed the first test and found a way to break the illusion. The Holy Alter might set up different challenges.”
“But that’s not necessarily the case.” Yang Erci voiced her concerns.
“Of course,” An Wujiu replied calmly. “In fact, I would prefer that after we split up, we find ourselves unable to locate each other, just like last time. It would indicate the same illusion, and then we would have to trouble Nan Shan again.”
Nan Shan, who had been smiling all along, seemed a bit less spirited at the moment but still responded to An Wujiu’s words. “No problem.”
“How should we form the groups?” Wu You went straight to the next question.
An Wujiu thought for a moment. “We shouldn’t spread out too much. There are two themes on this level, so let’s split into two teams. It will make the search for work logs more efficient.”
Zhong Yirou suggested, “Why not do it this way? On Rainbow Babies side, we have already checked three rooms, and since we’ve all been through them once, the task is relatively smaller on our side. Three people are enough, and the remaining four can go to the side of Double Perfect Angels.”
Yang Erci nodded in agreement, then pointed to their positions. “The four of us will be in one group, An Wujiu, you three in another.”
When she referred to “you three,” she meant An Wujiu, Shen Ti, and Josh.
“I want to be with Wujiu-ge,” Wu You expressed dissatisfaction.
Facing him, Shen Ti stood and teasingly pulled down the lower eyelid of his left eye. “Your Wujiu-ge only hangs out with me.”
An Wujiu was somewhat helpless in the face of his childishness but reassured Wu You, “You go with Nan Shan; I feel more at ease with him. If you find any suspicious information, let Josh know; he should have the necessary permissions.”
Due to being separated into different spaces on the first level, information couldn’t flow freely.
“After separating, call out each other’s names after a while, and both sides respond to ensure everyone is still in the same corridor.”
Zhong Yirou nodded. “This time, we might encounter NPCs pretending to be players. If someone ends up alone again, don’t trust them immediately; test the waters first.”
“Got it.”
And so, they split into two teams. Zhong Yirou, Yang Erci, Nan Shan, and Wu You headed to the other side to search for clues.
Watching the other four heading toward the “Double Perfect Angels” on the other side, Josh also approached An Wujiu. “When should we return to the rainbow corridor we just passed?”
An Wujiu was standing on the other side of the corridor, against the wall, which was the front of the “return” structure. Like the other walls on this level, it was adorned with a mural of various small animals—monkeys, tigers, elephants, and rabbits.
“Let’s wait for a while.” An Wujiu tapped the wall in front of him, emitting a dull sound like a broken drum.
After he tapped, he heard another tapping sound. Turning around, he saw Shen Ti’s fingers poised, knocking on the wall on the room’s side. He knocked several times, and the wall in front of the room had a muffled sound, while the walls between the rooms had a solid sound, devoid of spatial illusion.
Shen Ti raised his chin towards the wall in front of An Wujiu, directly expressing An Wujiu’s thoughts. “Behind that wall is probably the circus.”
“But there’s no door now.”
Shen Ti smiled, “Maybe it’s still not nighttime.”
The words between the two left Josh bewildered. He couldn’t grasp the situation. “Are you saying this is a circus?”
“I think it’s a possibility.” An Wujiu turned around, leaning against the wall. “Although the building area has decreased on each level, the layout is unlikely to change much. So, the middle of this level should also be a large space. Besides here, I can’t think of any other place suitable for a circus, especially since there is indeed space behind this wall.”
As they spoke, the corridor on the Rainbow Babies side suddenly stopped spraying the potion, and the mini airplanes made from cans disappeared in an instant.
Everything reverted to the way it was when they first entered this level.
“Are you waiting for them to stop spraying?” Josh didn’t understand. “How did you know when it would stop?”
An Wujiu said softly, “I guessed.”
He didn’t explain the reason, feeling that stating it outright would be somewhat harsh.
But Shen Ti behind him spoke up directly, “Because of guiding mistakes and punitive education.”
“Guiding mistakes?” Josh’s face showed a puzzled expression.
Shen Ti touched his earring casually. “If they only spray continuously, everyone will know that they will experience distortion once they touch the potion. But because everyone would hide in the safe area, this kind of distortion would quickly disappear. This process is not enough.”
“Experiencing pain once is far less profound than repeatedly going through it.”
Josh’s chestnut-colored hair was messy, and his brows furrowed, displaying a worried expression.
An Wujiu’s steps also came to a halt because he was curious why Shen Ti always seemed to grasp his thoughts immediately.
He wasn’t someone who wore his emotions on his face.
While Shen Ti continued to move his fingers, he explained further, “But if they spray for a few minutes and then stop, everything returns to normal. Players will definitely attempt to walk into this half-corridor again because there are still incomplete tasks. At this point, they will hold a bit of a hopeful mentality, along with a little bit of trepidation. However, the longer the normal time lasts, the less trepidation there will be, and the originally hopeful hearts will become more and more secure.”
As he spoke, he clapped his hands together, startling the contemplative Josh.
“At this point, if you spray the potion again, causing players to distort and undergo pain once again, wouldn’t it be more profound?”
Josh stood still in shock.
“You’re being too scary,” An Wujiu’s eyes stared at Shen Ti. A slightly resentful expression appeared on his usually calm face. “You scared Josh.”
Shen Ti, on the other hand, smiled brightly. “I just said what you were thinking.”
He casually draped his arm around An Wujiu’s shoulder, speaking in a cheerful tone, “Let’s do this; next time, I’ll tone it down a bit.”
“Josh.” An Wujiu turned his head, calling the distracted Josh over, his tone soothing. “Stick close; it’s safer that way.”
“Are we under the guidance of the Holy Alter now?” Josh’s light brown pupils slightly trembled, showing signs of nervousness.
An Wujiu stepped into the end of the rainbow. “We just saw through their guidance in advance and turned it into a clue.”
He pulled Josh’s hand, prompting him to try opening the nearest room, but the same prompt as the first few rooms still appeared.
[D03, today is a play day; the children are not at home.]
Not at home? Does that mean these rooms are the children’s residences?
Why aren’t they at home? Isn’t this a closed containment center?
Shen Ti looked at the other end, raised one hand, placed it near his mouth, and shouted.
“Lit-tle—ghost—”
Not long after, an unpleasant response came from that end.
“Annoying, shut up.”
Josh tried another nearby room, but it also couldn’t be opened.
An Wujiu reminded, “The interval for spraying the rainbow potion shouldn’t be very long. Once the rainbow tin cans appear, escape to the other side.”
“Does it harm us?”
“I just noticed that Yirou and Nan Shan don’t seem right. I don’t know if it’s because of this reason.” An Wujiu thought for a moment, feeling a bit unreasonable because his own condition was actually fine.
On the other side, Zhong Yirou did indeed feel as An Wujiu described. Her whole person felt off, as if the previous illusion was still in effect. At this moment, she could still smell the rotting odor from the first level. Her breathing was also abnormal, with a strange suffocation preventing her from catching her breath.
Nan Shan was relatively better, but he stopped Wu You, and from somewhere, he produced a syringe, handing it to Wu You.
“What are you doing?” Wu You looked wary.
“If I accidentally fall asleep, give me an injection.” Nan Shan rolled up his sleeves. “Just on the arm.”
“Why would you fall asleep?” Wu You couldn’t understand. He looked at the syringe in his hand and then back at Nan Shan.
Nan Shan confessed, “I have central hypersomnia. I might faint anytime, anywhere. I need someone to inject a central nervous system stimulant to wake me up immediately; otherwise, it takes a long time.”
For a moment, Wu You didn’t know what to say, but he still collected the syringe with a cold face.
“Dare to lie to me, and you’re dead.”
Yang Erci was skeptical. “If you have this condition, how did you survive the last round?”
Nan Shan grinned, “Speaking of which, it’s a bit regrettable. In the last round, I happened to encounter a Chinese horror game. I was quite excited, thinking I could show off my skills. As a result, I fainted midway, and no one knew. Even the NPC that killed many players thought I was dead. I only woke up during the settlement, so I settled with everyone else. However, my final score wasn’t very high. In such a professional and matching game, I only got the lowest score level. It was a bit of a loss.”
This can happen?
Wu You’s face drooped, and for a moment, an evil thought arose about throwing away the syringe.
Indeed, he’s not a serious Taoist; he’s just a scoundrel.
On this side, several rooms were also locked, and unlike the Rainbow Babies on the other side, the walls here were not ordinary paintings. It looked more like an anatomy-related picture book—a beautiful forest with lush vegetation. But upon closer inspection, one could find depictions that looked like flowers resembling a uterus and other subtle reproductive organs.
“So strange,” Wu You, who had been observing the walls, concluded. “These are all boys on here. Why aren’t there any girls?”
Zhong Yirou also looked at the wall, her lips turning paler. The scene in front of her became dizzy, and her surroundings seemed to have a double image. However, she still tried hard to focus. Just with a glance, she found a girl hiding behind a red maple tree. She was wearing a red dress, peeking out from behind the tree, looking very cute.
“Isn’t this a little girl?” Wu You, who came over after hearing, said, approaching to take a look.
“Clearly, it’s a boy with short hair and overalls.”
How is that possible?
Zhong Yirou looked again.
This time, the child on the wall unexpectedly stepped out from behind the tree. Her right side had loose, long hair and was wearing a red skirt, while the left half was short-haired and wearing blue overalls.
Not only that, this child also opened a smiling mouth, with small lips opening and closing in the painting.
“Sister, do you like boys or girls?”
Chapter 35: I might collapse anytime, anywhere.
The rainbow potion continued to spray continuously, indicating that they couldn’t go to the next room to investigate clues without facing the consequences of distortion.
The story told by Yang Erci evoked sighs from everyone, and a solemn silence fell over them.
War existed not only in the moments of initiation and conclusion but also in the lands that had once witnessed rivers of blood, carrying the lingering poison of deep wounds to this day.
The poison seeped into the ground, blossomed into flowers, bore fruit, and ultimately used generation after generation of flesh and blood to metabolize and cleanse.
An Wujiu lowered his head, his eyes fixed on his own toes, the image of the child they had just encountered replaying in his mind.
He had not harmed anyone, nor had he acted as an NPC, guiding or assigning quests. He simply appeared suddenly and disappeared just as abruptly.
He seemed more like a ghost trapped in an old place in a movie than an NPC arranged to wait for them.
The last words of the little bear echoed in their ears.
Not just the recent statement, but everything it has said since entering the second level.
Especially the one it said to Josh, “There’s a circus performance tonight; Mr. Clown, please open the gate on time.”
An Wujiu rolled up his sleeves and checked the digital watch on his wrist, still frozen at 3:20:41 in the early morning.
Except for him and Shen Ti, no one else had a watch, and there were no clocks hanging in the corridor, not even a window.
How were they supposed to know whether it was day or night?
There had to be something showing the time.
“How many of the rooms did you guys try to open just now?” An Wujiu asked Josh.
Josh thought for a moment. “Only three, all locked; I couldn’t open them, and it said the children were out.”
An Wujiu pondered for a moment. “Our ultimate goal is to escape from this containment center, but on this level, we need to find the door to the next level and obtain the fragment.”
“The door on the previous level appeared after the nine-grid puzzle was solved, meaning it was Nan Shan who broke the spatial illusion, and the door appeared in my and Shen Ti’s space.”
“As for the fragment, it is obtained after deciphering the work log and breaking the door. So, this time, there might be different illusions, but the work log is likely to exist, and finding the log gives us a chance to get the fragment.”
After listening to An Wujiu’s analysis, Josh’s understanding of his task became clearer. “So, my work log must be hidden in these rooms.”
“I believe so.”
Zhong Yirou leaned against the wall, her face unusually pale, perhaps due to the recent intense pain. “How do we find the door, then?”
Shen Ti, looking a bit tired, stretched lazily and spoke in a seemingly nonchalant tone, leaving everyone puzzled.
“How about splitting into groups?”
“Splitting into groups?” Josh didn’t understand. “But in the first level, we separated, and that’s why we ended up in different spaces; doesn’t that increase the difficulty of the game?”
An Wujiu shook his head. “I think splitting into groups might work.”
It was a risky proposition, but An Wujiu wanted to give it a try.
“I want to take a gamble,” he said. “Different levels may have different obstacles to finding the door. The first level made us disperse, like wandering in a maze without finding a way out.”
“But on the second level, everyone has passed the first test and found a way to break the illusion. The Holy Alter might set up different challenges.”
“But that’s not necessarily the case.” Yang Erci voiced her concerns.
“Of course,” An Wujiu replied calmly. “In fact, I would prefer that after we split up, we find ourselves unable to locate each other, just like last time. It would indicate the same illusion, and then we would have to trouble Nan Shan again.”
Nan Shan, who had been smiling all along, seemed a bit less spirited at the moment but still responded to An Wujiu’s words. “No problem.”
“How should we form the groups?” Wu You went straight to the next question.
An Wujiu thought for a moment. “We shouldn’t spread out too much. There are two themes on this level, so let’s split into two teams. It will make the search for work logs more efficient.”
Zhong Yirou suggested, “Why not do it this way? On Rainbow Babies side, we have already checked three rooms, and since we’ve all been through them once, the task is relatively smaller on our side. Three people are enough, and the remaining four can go to the side of Double Perfect Angels.”
Yang Erci nodded in agreement, then pointed to their positions. “The four of us will be in one group, An Wujiu, you three in another.”
When she referred to “you three,” she meant An Wujiu, Shen Ti, and Josh.
“I want to be with Wujiu-ge,” Wu You expressed dissatisfaction.
Facing him, Shen Ti stood and teasingly pulled down the lower eyelid of his left eye. “Your Wujiu-ge only hangs out with me.”
An Wujiu was somewhat helpless in the face of his childishness but reassured Wu You, “You go with Nan Shan; I feel more at ease with him. If you find any suspicious information, let Josh know; he should have the necessary permissions.”
Due to being separated into different spaces on the first level, information couldn’t flow freely.
“After separating, call out each other’s names after a while, and both sides respond to ensure everyone is still in the same corridor.”
Zhong Yirou nodded. “This time, we might encounter NPCs pretending to be players. If someone ends up alone again, don’t trust them immediately; test the waters first.”
“Got it.”
And so, they split into two teams. Zhong Yirou, Yang Erci, Nan Shan, and Wu You headed to the other side to search for clues.
Watching the other four heading toward the “Double Perfect Angels” on the other side, Josh also approached An Wujiu. “When should we return to the rainbow corridor we just passed?”
An Wujiu was standing on the other side of the corridor, against the wall, which was the front of the “return” structure. Like the other walls on this level, it was adorned with a mural of various small animals—monkeys, tigers, elephants, and rabbits.
“Let’s wait for a while.” An Wujiu tapped the wall in front of him, emitting a dull sound like a broken drum.
After he tapped, he heard another tapping sound. Turning around, he saw Shen Ti’s fingers poised, knocking on the wall on the room’s side. He knocked several times, and the wall in front of the room had a muffled sound, while the walls between the rooms had a solid sound, devoid of spatial illusion.
Shen Ti raised his chin towards the wall in front of An Wujiu, directly expressing An Wujiu’s thoughts. “Behind that wall is probably the circus.”
“But there’s no door now.”
Shen Ti smiled, “Maybe it’s still not nighttime.”
The words between the two left Josh bewildered. He couldn’t grasp the situation. “Are you saying this is a circus?”
“I think it’s a possibility.” An Wujiu turned around, leaning against the wall. “Although the building area has decreased on each level, the layout is unlikely to change much. So, the middle of this level should also be a large space. Besides here, I can’t think of any other place suitable for a circus, especially since there is indeed space behind this wall.”
As they spoke, the corridor on the Rainbow Babies side suddenly stopped spraying the potion, and the mini airplanes made from cans disappeared in an instant.
Everything reverted to the way it was when they first entered this level.
“Are you waiting for them to stop spraying?” Josh didn’t understand. “How did you know when it would stop?”
An Wujiu said softly, “I guessed.”
He didn’t explain the reason, feeling that stating it outright would be somewhat harsh.
But Shen Ti behind him spoke up directly, “Because of guiding mistakes and punitive education.”
“Guiding mistakes?” Josh’s face showed a puzzled expression.
Shen Ti touched his earring casually. “If they only spray continuously, everyone will know that they will experience distortion once they touch the potion. But because everyone would hide in the safe area, this kind of distortion would quickly disappear. This process is not enough.”
“Experiencing pain once is far less profound than repeatedly going through it.”
Josh’s chestnut-colored hair was messy, and his brows furrowed, displaying a worried expression.
An Wujiu’s steps also came to a halt because he was curious why Shen Ti always seemed to grasp his thoughts immediately.
He wasn’t someone who wore his emotions on his face.
While Shen Ti continued to move his fingers, he explained further, “But if they spray for a few minutes and then stop, everything returns to normal. Players will definitely attempt to walk into this half-corridor again because there are still incomplete tasks. At this point, they will hold a bit of a hopeful mentality, along with a little bit of trepidation. However, the longer the normal time lasts, the less trepidation there will be, and the originally hopeful hearts will become more and more secure.”
As he spoke, he clapped his hands together, startling the contemplative Josh.
“At this point, if you spray the potion again, causing players to distort and undergo pain once again, wouldn’t it be more profound?”
Josh stood still in shock.
“You’re being too scary,” An Wujiu’s eyes stared at Shen Ti. A slightly resentful expression appeared on his usually calm face. “You scared Josh.”
Shen Ti, on the other hand, smiled brightly. “I just said what you were thinking.”
He casually draped his arm around An Wujiu’s shoulder, speaking in a cheerful tone, “Let’s do this; next time, I’ll tone it down a bit.”
“Josh.” An Wujiu turned his head, calling the distracted Josh over, his tone soothing. “Stick close; it’s safer that way.”
“Are we under the guidance of the Holy Alter now?” Josh’s light brown pupils slightly trembled, showing signs of nervousness.
An Wujiu stepped into the end of the rainbow. “We just saw through their guidance in advance and turned it into a clue.”
He pulled Josh’s hand, prompting him to try opening the nearest room, but the same prompt as the first few rooms still appeared.
[D03, today is a play day; the children are not at home.]
Not at home? Does that mean these rooms are the children’s residences?
Why aren’t they at home? Isn’t this a closed containment center?
Shen Ti looked at the other end, raised one hand, placed it near his mouth, and shouted.
“Lit-tle—ghost—”
Not long after, an unpleasant response came from that end.
“Annoying, shut up.”
Josh tried another nearby room, but it also couldn’t be opened.
An Wujiu reminded, “The interval for spraying the rainbow potion shouldn’t be very long. Once the rainbow tin cans appear, escape to the other side.”
“Does it harm us?”
“I just noticed that Yirou and Nan Shan don’t seem right. I don’t know if it’s because of this reason.” An Wujiu thought for a moment, feeling a bit unreasonable because his own condition was actually fine.
On the other side, Zhong Yirou did indeed feel as An Wujiu described. Her whole person felt off, as if the previous illusion was still in effect. At this moment, she could still smell the rotting odor from the first level. Her breathing was also abnormal, with a strange suffocation preventing her from catching her breath.
Nan Shan was relatively better, but he stopped Wu You, and from somewhere, he produced a syringe, handing it to Wu You.
“What are you doing?” Wu You looked wary.
“If I accidentally fall asleep, give me an injection.” Nan Shan rolled up his sleeves. “Just on the arm.”
“Why would you fall asleep?” Wu You couldn’t understand. He looked at the syringe in his hand and then back at Nan Shan.
Nan Shan confessed, “I have central hypersomnia. I might faint anytime, anywhere. I need someone to inject a central nervous system stimulant to wake me up immediately; otherwise, it takes a long time.”
For a moment, Wu You didn’t know what to say, but he still collected the syringe with a cold face.
“Dare to lie to me, and you’re dead.”
Yang Erci was skeptical. “If you have this condition, how did you survive the last round?”
Nan Shan grinned, “Speaking of which, it’s a bit regrettable. In the last round, I happened to encounter a Chinese horror game. I was quite excited, thinking I could show off my skills. As a result, I fainted midway, and no one knew. Even the NPC that killed many players thought I was dead. I only woke up during the settlement, so I settled with everyone else. However, my final score wasn’t very high. In such a professional and matching game, I only got the lowest score level. It was a bit of a loss.”
This can happen?
Wu You’s face drooped, and for a moment, an evil thought arose about throwing away the syringe.
Indeed, he’s not a serious Taoist; he’s just a scoundrel.
On this side, several rooms were also locked, and unlike the Rainbow Babies on the other side, the walls here were not ordinary paintings. It looked more like an anatomy-related picture book—a beautiful forest with lush vegetation. But upon closer inspection, one could find depictions that looked like flowers resembling a uterus and other subtle reproductive organs.
“So strange,” Wu You, who had been observing the walls, concluded. “These are all boys on here. Why aren’t there any girls?”
Zhong Yirou also looked at the wall, her lips turning paler. The scene in front of her became dizzy, and her surroundings seemed to have a double image. However, she still tried hard to focus. Just with a glance, she found a girl hiding behind a red maple tree. She was wearing a red dress, peeking out from behind the tree, looking very cute.
“Isn’t this a little girl?” Wu You, who came over after hearing, said, approaching to take a look.
“Clearly, it’s a boy with short hair and overalls.”
How is that possible?
Zhong Yirou looked again.
This time, the child on the wall unexpectedly stepped out from behind the tree. Her right side had loose, long hair and was wearing a red skirt, while the left half was short-haired and wearing blue overalls.
Not only that, this child also opened a smiling mouth, with small lips opening and closing in the painting.
“Sister, do you like boys or girls?”
