Mo Yi froze. He stared intently at Jiang Yuanrou with a pair of dark eyes, his pale complexion looking more and more bloodless under the weak light of the flashlight. His dark pupils, which were focused on Jiang Yuanrou, seemed to hold the desire to see through her to the truth.
Jiang Yuanrou’s pale, bloodless face was overcast, her lips were tightly pressed into a tight line, her overall appearance seeming very solemn.
The strong smell of blood and rancidity permeated the cramped room, fermenting into an unsettling smell in the vague darkness.
Back in the real world, Jiang Yuanrou didn’t actually give Mo Yi the details about what happened to her in the last instance.
Firstly, there was no precedent for the same person to enter the same instance twice, and secondly, players had limited freedom when it came to discussion about the instance in real life—though you could talk to other players who entered the instance with you, but if your intention was to divulge details of the instance to other players, the game would either forcibly stop them or punish them.
Mo Yi speculated that it was probably because the game wished to continue using the instances which have yet to be cleared. In order to prevent the exchange of clues, the game exercised very strict control over the circulation of information about each instance.
This was also why he didn’t ask Jiang Yuanrou about the details of her last instance.
Mo Yi frowned tightly, and a deep line was carved between his brows. He turned his head to look at the corpse nailed to the wall, carefully observing its bloody and miserable appearance, then asked suspiciously, “Then why would there be corpses of other players here?”
He originally thought that what he had entered was the instance Jiang Yuanrou and Jiang Yuanbai had experienced last time, and this would explain all the abnormal phenomena he had encountered thus far.
After all, according to what Jiang Yuanrou said, Jiang Yuanbai was trapped in an instance, and she had props which could teleport the two parties into the same space—although whether it worked was another matter.
But now she had personally denied this possibility!
Mo Yi tightly furrowed his brows. A trace of solemnity appeared on his face.
Jiang Yuanrou shook her head slowly. She followed the beam of light from Mo Yi’s flashlight to look at the corpse, her light brown eyes also full of doubts. She replied in a slightly low voice, “I don’t know either…”
The atmosphere between the two sank in an instant. The thick and bloody darkness surrounded them, quietly gathering as though it was solid, tugging their hearts into a bottomless abyss .
Jiang Yuanrou covered her abdomen which was still oozing blood and slowly moved several steps towards the wall. She leaned more than half of her body weight against the wall behind her, and exhaled slightly.
She withdrew her gaze from the miserable corpse, averted her gaze and peered at Mo Yi.
“When I first came in, I thought it was a brand new and normal instance.”
Jiang Yuanrou put emphasis on the word ‘normal’.
“However the longer I stayed in this instance, the more I realised something was amiss…”
Her eyelashes drooped, her slender fingers slowly tightened, and her knuckles turned slightly white due to the force.
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.
“Ktfgf kfgf wbgf jcv wbgf atlcur ktlmt lcvlmjafv atja atlr lcrajcmf kjr ecereji… P, abb, kjca ab yfilfnf atja atf gfjrbc kts kf kfgf rfa ab jc ecolclrtfv lcrajcmf kjr vef ab atf foofma bo atf qgbqr, yea…”
Aljcu Tejcgbe abbx j vffq ygfjat. Lfg ygfjatlcu kjr j ilaaif ecrafjvs. Valii, rtf mjiwfv vbkc tfg wlcv, jcv mbcalcefv.
“But, even if I lie to myself, it’s useless, because my last instance was certainly not a mental asylum.”
Mo Yi was currently studying the corpse in front of him. After hearing Jiang Yuanrou’s words, he turned his head and looked at her.
“Then what was your last instance about?”
Jiang Yuanrou’s gaze fell. She tried to summarise her previous experience without including too many details.
Mo Yi listened silently.The flashlight in his hand flickered in the dark, sweeping by the exposed internal organs of the corpse nailed to the wall, which had a greasy and odd texture.
The instance that Jiang Yuanrou and Jiang Yuanbai experienced last time was a half-open old mansion.
Since they have yet to clear the side missions of that instance, they did not have a deep understanding of its hidden plot so she could not share much useful information.
Mo Yi lowered his eyes. There was still a deep furrow between his brows—
According to the clues thus far, their current instance seemed to be completely unrelated to the Jiang siblings’ previous instance.
He subconsciously fiddled with the cold and hard edges of the metal flashlight while deep in thought.
In this narrow room, only their suppressed breathing could be heard, which resounded one after another. The smell of blood has permeated the entirety of this semi-enclosed space, pressing down on their hearts like a huge stone.
At this moment, Mo Yi’s breathing halted.
He heard the looming footsteps and crying coming from outside the door—it seemed to be walking in their direction!
Mo Yi glanced at Jiang Yuanrou, and their eyes met in the blink of an eye as they quickly exchanged a look.
His fingertips sank slightly. His movement was followed by a soft ‘click’, and the beam of light from the flashlight disappeared instantly. The whole room quickly plunged back into darkness.
The darkness sharpened their other senses.
All of Mo Yi’s mind was drawn by the faint sobs and footsteps in the corridor separated from them by a thin door.
He held his breath in the darkness, subconsciously clenching his slender cold fingers into fists.
The voice echoing in the empty and narrow corridor, approached bit by bit. The whimpers seemed to be amplified countless times in their ears, accompanied by the rapid heartbeat in their chests, reverberating hollowly—
Fortunately it was not the first time Mo Yi had experienced this in this instance, so he quickly found his bearings and stood quietly in the dark, waiting silently.
The footsteps were especially clear in the dark, accompanied by the subtle rustling of cloth against the ground. They approached slowly, coming closer, and closer, and then came to the door of the room they were in—
A layer of cold sweat broke out on Mo Yi’s palm. His bright eyes were glued to the door panel in the darkness.
At this moment, he heard a slight creak from the door panel…
It was akin to the sound made by long fingernails scraping against the door—
Mo Yi’s heart leapt to his throat instantly. He wanted to do something, but he was too far away from the door and there was no chance for him to act!
Jiang Yuanrou who was standing near the door reacted instantly. Her body which was leaning against the wall slid sideways, and she lowered her body at the same time too so her figure was just hidden from the iron railing on the door.
Mo Yi didn’t have time to react properly, but his body subconsciously moved to the corner away from the door, and his whole body instantly melded into the dark shadows in the room.
The scratching sound of fingernails against the door sent tingles down one’s scalp.
The tiny sobbing sounded like they were being amplified infinitely, passing through the iron railing on the door into Mo Yi’s eardrums directly, as if they were ringing right next to his ears.
Goosebumps rose all over Mo Yi’s body.
He covered his nose and mouth with his cold and stiff palms to prevent the sound of his breathing from revealing his position.
The sound of footsteps stopped outside the door. The scraping sound of nails also vanished, as if waiting for something.
Mo Yi’s Adam’s apple bobbed. There was a burning pain from the dryness and lack of water in his throat, as if there was a fire extending from his stomach to his oesophagus.
The sound of footsteps outside the door sounded again, accompanied by low whimpers and thin rubbing sounds on the ground, as they drew away slowly into the distance.
Mo Yi’s tense heartstrings relaxed slightly. He let out a long breath, but his stiff body was still unmoving, pressed against the cold wall behind him as he listened quietly in the dark…
The footsteps seemed to turn around a corner, and the sound instantly became quieter. Soon after, only a few faint echoes could be heard.
The muscles on Mo Yi’s body relaxed slightly, and his five senses that had almost disappeared slowly returned. Only then did he realise that the corpse nailed to the wall happened to be right beside him, and his palm was pressing into its mangled flesh.
The cold and sticky touch slowly climbed up along the point of contact. The pungent odour of blood lingered in his nose, making Mo Yi’s stomach churn involuntarily.
He inadvertently took a step to the side, putting some distance between them, and it stepped on something soft.
Mo Yi raised his eyes and glanced at Jiang Yuanrou, and saw that she was still squatting at the door in the same posture as before, with her back pressed against the door panel tightly. Since the noises in the background had faded away, it was likely that there wouldn’t be any pressing threats for the time being.
He took out his flashlight, put it on the dimmest setting, and then shone at his feet.
It was a backpack.
It was smeared with the blood and mud on the ground, looking so dirty and worn that it was hardly possible to discern its original colour.
Mo Yi crouched down and put the flashlight aside. He grabbed one side of the backpack with one hand and with the other, and slowly pulled it open.
The contents of the backpack were revealed before his eyes.
Mo Yi reached out and searched through the backpack, careful to not make any unnecessary noise when leafing through the contents.
Similar to before, there were not many useful items. Everything it contained were general items which were a necessity to be brought into any instance, and Mo Yi was not running low on them at the moment.
He rummaged through the things inside, then opened the outer side pocket.
To Mo Yi’s surprise, he found a small wallet in the outer pocket. Surprised, he reflexively opened the small wallet.
Under the flashlight, Mo Yi saw half a corner of the ID card stuffed in the wallet.
He hesitated for a moment, then reached out and pulled out the ID card, only to see a photo of a girl with short hair printed on it, smiling slightly at the camera.
Mo Yi was startled. He picked up the flashlight that was tossed aside and shone it on the corpse nailed to the wall.
Its upper body was no longer covered by muscles and skin, only its internal organs were exposed, and its lower body was also in neutral sweatpants. The distorted and mutilated face could hardly distinguish the facial features, but the hairstyle could still be matched.
Mo Yi’s gaze sank, and his fingers tightened while holding the ID card.
He suddenly found a clue that he hadn’t noticed before.
On the negative third floor, all the corpses of dead players were male, and the ghostly figure dragging a long knife should also be male based on his hasty glance.
This floor… He was sure that the shadow of the ghost in the corridor earlier—she had long hair.
And Jiang Yuanruan, who was stuffed by the game into this floor, as well as dead player, both happened to be women.
Thanks for the update
So, male players were put on floor -3(and die there) and female players on floor -2 (and die here)? Do mental hospitals segregate based on gender?
Thanks for the chapter.
I’m not sure if irl mental hospitals do that, but there is plot relevance in this arc as to why this particular institution segregates patients based on gender!
Maybe there is gender differentiation in good psychiatric hospitals (which is absolutely correct, since mentally ill people are impulsive and often aggressive, so all kinds of violence are almost inevitable), but in my country psychiatric hospitals are in such a bad condition that there is not even this…
Thank you for your translation 💛💛💛💛💛💛💛💛💛💛💛💛💛💛💛💛💛💛💛💛💛💛💛💛💛💛💛💛💛💛💛💛💛💛💛💛💛
Thank you so much for the chapters! It’s escalating very nicely now, can’t wait for the climax of this Arc PogChamp
Oh? If -3F is for males and -2F is for females then Jiang Yuanbai must not be in this instance then? Or are they going to explore other floors too?
Thank You, Reina-qianbei. Goodnight y’all, sweet dreams for today bcz it’s 1am rn and I should definitely sleep haha- shudders ( ≧Д≦)