There was a dead silence in the deep and narrow corridor. There was not a single window all throughout the old and stained walls of the corridor from the beginning to end. There was only a heavy oppression emanated through the thick darkness, which made it suffocating.
The lights overhead gave off a faint light, but they were insufficient to dispel the darkness in the corridor. Thick shadows loomed between the corners of the walls, as if something dangerous was secretly surging in the depths.
Jiang Yuanrou’s face was pale. A pair of light brown eyes stared at Mo Yi in the darkness.
“What are you talking about? I don’t understand.”
Mo Yi was standing a few steps away. His silhouette was shrouded by darkness, and there was a blurry and dark bloodstain under his feet, extending into the room.
His cold voice sounded distant, but the tone was steady without any ups and downs.
“By calling out that clumsy phantom, you would gain the player’s trust. Next, you would then verify the authenticity of the player through the wound, and in turn, also prove your authenticity. Moreover, even if you knew the key is in my hand, you didn’t ask me for it…”
Mo Yi paused. When he spoke again, there was a hint of admiration in his voice.
“It’s really a superb technique.”
Jiang Yuanrou frowned at Mo Yi. After hesitating for several seconds, she slowly took a step forward.
“Wait… Do you think I am also a fake?”
She paled, and said with some frustration, “What else do you want me to do to prove my identity? Slash another wound?”
After speaking, Jiang Yuanrou pulled out the sharp piece of wood from her pocket again and held it out in Mo Yi’s direction.
“Or do you want to slash it in person?”
Mo Yi didn’t step forward to take it. Instead, he simply stood in his original spot and continued in a low voice.
“Did you know, all the clues that led to my suspicion were supplied by yourself since earlier, including the method of identification between the real and fake.”
The expression on Jiang Yuanrou’s face slowly dissipated, just like how the layers of ripples on the lake slowly settled. She stood quietly in place, her light brown eyes trained on Mo Yi, as if her gaze would be able to solidify into a sharp weapon which could penetrate his flesh and bones.
Mo Yi turned his head. His gaze landed in the room next to him. In the darkness, he could see the outline of blood which was extending into the deeper shadows like a living thing. Even without a flashlight, he could still picture that ugly and bloated butterfly on the wall in his mind.
He looked away as soon as his gaze landed on the general area, then turned back to Jiang Yuanrou who was standing not far away.
“You said you know the way to leave this building…”
We’re sorry for MTLers or people who like using reading mode, but our translations keep getting stolen by aggregators so we’re going to bring back the copy protection. If you need to MTL please retype the gibberish parts.
Mo Yi stroked his wounded wrist lightly with his fingers. With his eyes slightly lowered, he continued speaking slowly.
“Dea ogbw atf nfgs yfulcclcu, atf qijsfg’r ajrx lr ab regnlnf jcv cba ab ifjnf atf yelivlcu.”
Lbkfnfg atf jawbrqtfgf lc atlr ifnfi kjr gfjiis abb rmjgs jcv atfgf kjr cb kjs jcsbcf kbeiv kjca ab gfwjlc tfgf obg fnfc j wbwfca ibcufg—lo bcf kjr j qijsfg klat ibk nlulijcmf, atfs wluta yf mbcoerfv ys atf lcufcelas lc atf obf’r kbgvr, jcv ecxcbklcuis jrrewf atja atf gluta qjat ab ajxf kjr ab ‘ifjnf atf yelivlcu’.
Furthermore, ‘to leave is to stay’..
If he really followed Jiang Yuanrou to ‘leave’ the building, he might stay here forever instead.
Mo Yi raised his eyes, staring at the “Jiang Yuanrou” standing not far away from him, and said slowly.
“Besides, I haven’t heard the sound of water dripping since just now.”
The background sounds here were extremely quiet, so quiet that it almost made people think that they had arrived in another world.
And this corridor was dead silent.
There were no dripping sounds.
To be more precise, ever since the first fake Jiang Yuanrou, the sound of water droplets in the corridor had disappeared without a trace, as if there had never been any dripping sounds, becoming as silent as a grave.
As soon as he finished speaking, Jiang Yuanrou, who was standing before him, slowly showed a strange smile on her pale face. Her bloodless and deformed lips were pulled from ear to ear, looking weird and creepy.
Her face melted into dirty blood, and her body too, slowly dissolved into a pool of dark red blood.
Then with a dull ‘thud’, the sharp piece of wood also fell into the pool of blood, and some of the sticky blood was splashed onto the grey wall beside it, staining it.
Mo Yi closed his eyes. Yet, when he opened them again, the scene in front of him was completely different.
He was now standing at the fork in the road where he had seen Jiang Yuanrou for the first time, and not at the door of the room where he followed the second Jiang Yuanrou to.
There was a dark and bleak corridor in front of him. Only the flashlight in his hand was still on, leaving a slightly trembling halo of light on the wall in front of him.
Dripping sounds persevered in the background.
Mo Yi breathed a long sigh of relief. A tingling sensation slowly rose from his back, as if it was an ache from the overexertion of his muscles, and it caused a faint ache to climb up along his nerves.
Sure enough, he entered the illusion when he rounded the corner. These two Jiang Yuanrou did not actually exist. There were still traces of dried blood, drag marks, and footprints on the ground, but there were no broken chairs or dark and sticky pools of blood.
—So he had never actually took a step forward from this place all along.
Mo Yi moved his stiff wrist slightly. The beam of the light swayed with his movements, illuminating the opposite wall in front of him.
His eyes narrowed slightly. His movements widened, slowly moving the beam of the flashlight across the wall in front of him.
The dark mottled wall opposite was covered with dark red blood, forming a weird and strange imagery on the pale wall illuminated by the light—an ugly and huge butterfly on the wall, with deformed eyes on its wings. Those distorted eyes stared blankly at him as dark red viscous blood slowly oozed down the wall.
—Exactly the same as the room on the -3F.
Mo Yi squinted his eyes, carefully studying the pattern in front of him and subconsciously fiddled with the flashlight in his palm with his fingers.
He could see the pattern now.
Each of the illusions he’d seen in this instance so far had the purpose of leading him somewhere… and when he deciphered them, a similar butterfly would appear in front of him.
Apart from…….
The butterfly in the room where he woke up, which was etched out with fingernails, and the butterfly in the room where he found the brass key earlier.
Furthermore, after the illusion was broken on the -3F, he was shoved onto the bed—that was real and not simply an illusion.
Mo Yi let out a long breath slowly. He knew that the clues he had thus far were too few.
Compared with his previous instances, the number of clues he had found in this instance up until this point can be said to be almost scarce, and the fewer clues he had, the more dangerous the instance would be.
Besides… there were too many variables in this instance.
Not only was there a group of dead players who hadn’t cleared the level, but also… so far, he still hadn’t met any other players. Being able to locate Jiang Yuanrou under this circumstances was arduously difficult, let alone Jiang Yuanbai.
Mo Yi took one last deep look at the butterfly painted with blood on the wall. The glimmer of the flashlight reflected in his dark eyes, akin to two spots of bright lights in the darkness.
The sound of dripping water passed through the pitch-black space, into his ears. Drop by drop, there was a subtle echo all around the narrow space, matching the rhythm of Mo Yi’s heartbeat.
Mo Yi took a deep inhale. He tightened his fingers around the flashlight and slowly proceeded into the depths of the corridor.
The lights gradually became dimmer and dimmer, until there was finally no more light left at all, and all he could rely on to illuminate the path ahead of him was solely the flashlight in his hand.
The corridor was as cold as an ice cellar, and the gloomy air-conditioning penetrated into his flesh, causing Mo Yi’s exposed skin to quickly lose all traces of warmth.
Still, he continued to walk deeper into the corridor without any change to his usual expression. His steps were cautious and light, without making the slightest sound.
The walls on both sides of this corridor were peeling off slightly, revealing the darker brick walls below. Unlike the corridor just now, not only were there not any windows here but also no wards.
There were only two tall walls flanking him, like a tunnel leading into the bottomless darkness.
The light tube overhead was no longer on, and an unknown darkness stretched on before him.
More and more bloodstains covered the ground. Messy criss-crossing bloodied footprints led out from a puddle of dried blood in the middle of the dirty floor, accompanied by marks of dragging handprints along the peeling walls, as if there had been someone who was supporting themselves as they stumbled despairingly along this corridor.
Mo Yi tentatively reached out his hand and touched it—that same stickiness was similar to touching the slimy skin of a cold-blooded animal, causing an acute sense of discomfort to surge out from his pores.
Although the blood had dried up a bit, judging by the colour, it should still be rather fresh.
The air was filled with the familiar smell of rust. This cold bloody smell lingered at the tip of his nose while the sound of dripping droplets rang loudly in his ears—
Drip, drip.
The light in his hand caused the shadows of the corridor ahead to appear deeply sunken, their colour so dark that it looked nearly impenetrable.
Mo Yi took a few more steps forward before he could finally see it clearly—it was a room.
And… quite possibly the only room in this entire corridor.
Mo Yi’s expression shifted slightly. He walked over quickly, turning his head to hear better.
The continuous dripping sound seemed to be coming from this room, passing through the door and into Mo Yi’s ears.
Next, he put his face close to the small window framed by the iron bars on the door and squinted to look inside.
It was pitch black in the room. A thick and deep darkness enveloped the whole area, making it impossible to peek inside at all.
He tried to push on the door—it seemed to be stuck.
Mo Yi didn’t dare to act rashly, so he suppressed the sound of his breathing and gently turned the flashlight in his hand off.
Everything around him fell into darkness again.
And this darkness sharpened his five senses—
He heard… Besides the sound of dripping water, there was another sound inside.
Du du dun… Those butterflies seem to be the catalyst for the illusions, though I don’t know if they’re the cause or if the original inmates made them (or were used to make them).
Thanks for the chapter(s).
I don’t like butterflies. They can be beautiful, but they still insects
Thank you for your translation 💛💛💛💛💛💛💛💛💛💛💛💛💛💛💛💛💛💛💛💛💛💛💛💛💛💛💛💛💛💛💛💛💛💛💛💛💛
Asylums, butterflies (and by association cocoons), metamorphosis and the idea that you have to overcome a delusion each time in order to advance (get better)—
I definitely think there’s a theme here, haha.
Damn 😅
I decided to play a sinister atmospheric playlist while catching up on these chapters and it’s really increasing how enjoyable it is to read these chapters and get immersed in the atmosphere. Very nice! Thanks for the hard work as always!