The air in the corridor was dry and warm. The walls on all sides seemed to be closing in on them, squeezing and condensing the darkness into the entirety of this long corridor.
Mo Yi tried to take a few steps forward. The carpet under his feet was greasy and thin, and he could almost feel the hard and cold touch of the floor below when he stepped on it.
He turned his flashlight onto the wall beside him. A circle of bright spots lingered on the dull green wallpaper, illuminating the pattern on it.
On the wall slightly above the ground was a strangely shaped oil stain. The colour of the pattern under and around the stain was deeply sunken, looking like an unhealed wound and at the same time, also a half-lidded eye.
Mo Yi’s gaze remained on the stain for several long seconds and he seemed to have noticed something.
Frowning, he leaned closer to the wall and carefully studied the patterns on the wallpaper, only to see that the dark green lines forming the edges of the grid above were actually composed of densely packed small butterflies when he looked closer.
Mo Yi pursed his lips and moved away.
Jiang Yuanrou turned to look at him and asked in a low voice, “What’s wrong?”
Mo Yi hesitated for a moment, then slowly shook his head: “It’s nothing…”
The two continued to walk forward. The corridor was completely silent. The only sound that could be heard was the rustling of their soles against the surface of the carpet.
The corridor was long and narrow, and the light of the flashlight was completely absorbed by the deep darkness ahead, as if the space before them was a bottomless abyss with neither light nor sound.
On the wall beside them was a monotonous and repetitive pattern which slowly changed as the two walked deeper, which resembled undulating waves when illuminated by the flashlight.
There was a dead silence all around them.
As if affected by this oppressive atmosphere, Jiang Yuanrou and Mo Yi were also silent as they moved side by side.
Then, suddenly, the corridor ahead turned sharply around a corner, with a dim wall lamp for illumination. The two of them rounded the bend and found that there was still a long corridor ahead.
Mo Yi felt a faint sense of uneasiness rising in his heart.
Although the previous two floors were full of dangers, they were still predictable since the route and routines were similar, but there was such a complete and huge change on this floor.
It made it almost impossible to predict what would happen next.
This feeling of being out of control made him very uncomfortable.
Mo Yi tightened his hand around the flashlight. There was a dull pain at the base of his thumb, and the sensation was akin to a physical manifestation of a bout of anxiety which sought to pry open his heart and sneak into his thoughts.
The corridor ahead took another turn in a completely different direction.
Mo Yi and Jiang Yuanrou exchanged a look. They hesitated for a few seconds before continuing to walk forward again.
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.
The atmosphere in the air was so heavy and solemn that it was almost hard to breathe.
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“Yuanrou.”
Jiang Yuanrou turned to him with a questioning look on her bloodless face.
Mo Yi opened his mouth yet did not continue to speak. Jiang Yuanrou asked in a low voice curiously. “What’s wrong…?”
This time, it wasn’t that Mo Yi didn’t want to say anything, but there was some kind of strange force strangling his throat, preventing him from saying the words he had conceived in his mind—
“In the instance of this membership test, you are the one being tested, so the key point of this instance would be on you.
And if you can’t solve it , you would become the same as Yuanbai, failing the instance and be trapped here forever.”
Jiang Yuanrou’s complexion darkened. She realised that Mo Yi’s current state was not because he didn’t want to say anything, but because he couldn’t say it—this meant that Mo Yi had discovered some key information.
Mo Yi took a deep breath. He pondered for a few seconds, then spoke again after deliberation.
“Thank you for the clues about this instance. I still have to count on you in the future as well.”
Jiang Yuanrou stared at him for a long while, then nodded lightly and then gave a low ‘mn’. “Okay, you’re welcome.”
Mo Yi averted his gaze. Bursts of burning pain came from deep inside his throat, as if there was a flame burning in the pit of his stomach straight through his oesophagus and into his mouth.
He knew that this was the limit of what he could hint at. According to Jiang Yuanrou’s experience, she should be able to understand that he was hinting at a certain key information, but she likely still had no idea what he wanted to mention specifically.
Mo Yi let out a long sigh internally… Now he could only hope that Jiang Yuanrou would be able to grasp his hint soon. The key point this time was definitely in the instance Jiang Yuanrou experienced last time, and it was extremely likely that it was one of the pieces of information she wasn’t allowed to tell him..
The two continued to walk forward along the corridor.
Subtle footsteps resounded in this silent semi-enclosed space, rustling against the ground at regular intervals, and when accompanied by the dimness and monotony of the corridor, would make any person feel drowsy.
However, Mo Yi’s nerves were slowly tensing up.
He felt as though the atmosphere in front of him was akin to a bow that was being drawn to its full capacity, and the gradually increasing force tightened the bowstring into a trembling straight line that felt just as if it would break in the very next second.
He swallowed slowly, his dry throat aching.
Suddenly, Mo YI caught something from the corners of his eyes—there seemed to be something on the wall beside him…
He came to an abrupt stop and glanced at the wall. Dark spots were lining the crumpled wallpaper, and the green lines on it were extending monotonously into the distant darkness.
And there was a small but deep oil stain on the boring pattern, its clear edge starting at a location slightly higher than the ground, and looking like an unhealed wound or a half-lidded eye.
Mo Yi momentarily froze. A huge sensation of unease rose from the bottom of his trembling heart.
He could hear his own stiff and monotonous voice as he spoke, and he could hardly recognize his own tone. “We are going around in circles.”
Jiang Yuanrou was also surprised, and quickly whirled around to look at him. “What?”
Mo Yi illuminated the odd stain with his flashlight. The glint of gloominess in his eyes surged.
“I saw this spot about ten minutes ago, not long after we left the elevator…”
What about the elevator then? Did it also…?
Mo Yi stopped speaking, and turned his head to look behind him.
All he could see was a long and deep corridor leading straight into a deep and dense darkness. There was no way to see the end at a glance, and the monotonous and repetitive wallpaper was blurred in the darkness, showing an odd shade of dull green.
The sense of surreality in my heart seemed to be sprouting from the fertile soil at the bottom of his heart, emerging slowly into the front of his mind.
There was a small whisper in his mind, asking him questions softly.
Was everything in front of him real?
Were the corridors real? Were they really going in circles? Was that stain real? Or did it exist just to mislead them into thinking they were going around in circles?
Mo Yi gritted his teeth. He clenched his wrist with his other hand, mercilessly plunging his fingertips into his wound.
Pain sprung up his nerves like a series of vicious bug bites, slowly penetrating the depths of the brain.
He knew that his current state was not normal. He had gone through one floor more than Jiang Yuanrou, and as such, also experienced several more illusions. Therefore, this mental asylum had a much deeper impact on him than on her.
The tiny voice continued to ask him.
“Is Jiang Yuanrou real?”
Mo Yi’s heart froze slightly, and he realised belatedly that those words were not spoken by the voice in his heart, but came from beside him.
A soft female voice.
Jiang Yuanrou’s voice.
He whipped his head over in the direction of the voice. Along with his sudden movement, the thin layer of ice sweat slid down his back, making him feel as if he was cold from the top of his head to the bottom of his soles.
There was no one around.
Jiang Yuanrou was gone.
Mo Yi heard his heart thundering loudly in his chest, resonating with the sounds from his lungs and chest, to create a buzzing white noise which enveloped the silent corridor.
He was standing alone in the cold and dark corridor. He was holding a flashlight in his hand, and there was only a solitary beam of light shining into the darkness.
Mo Yi’s fingertips turned white from exertion. A wave of sharp pain rose from the depths of his mind.
Inhaling deeply, he took a few steps backwards slowly and pressed his back against the cold wall, as if he could regain some sanity and strength by leaning against the wall.
Logic and reason were akin to a sturdy arm, re-steering the wheel in his mind.
Mo Yi closed his eyes, sorting through his chaotic thoughts.
If this Jiang Yuanrou was fake from the beginning, then he never left -2F from the beginning. If Jiang Yuanrou was real, then they must have lost each other after entering -1F.
In the absence of more evidence, Mo Yi had nothing he could confirm, especially while in this environment which was deliberately engineered for the players in this instance, the only thing he could trust now was his own intuition.
Perhaps.
The scariest thing about this instance was how it could drive players to the brink of madness.
A player who was not determined enough may be driven crazy directly inside this instance..
Mo Yi exhaled deeply, calming down his emotional ups and downs just now. Then, he moved his heels back another half a step, and pressed his whole body tighter against the wall behind him.
At this moment, he felt that the wall behind him seemed to have moved slightly, imperceptibly.
Surprised, Mo Yi snapped open his eyes. He stood up straight then turned to look behind.
Due to the pressure he exerted just now, there was a shallow gap on the wall, as if a deep mark was carved on the wall with a knife.
And the strangely shaped oil stain happened to be right next to this dark crevice.
Mo Yi paused. He stretched out his hand to press against the wall and slowly applied force, only to hear a slight ‘crack’. The gap widened, then slid inward.
It was a door.
That lone section of the wall slid further and deeper inward, first revealing a clear outline then the shadows and darkness behind it—
The door opened.
Thanks for the update
This arc makes me so anxious; i really like it so far.
So it’s not just me😭 the way it’s described and the wording has me sitting with my back to a wall hunched up and tense as if I’m there too😭😭😭
This atmosphere is 🤌🤌🤌
Thank you for your translation 🤍🤍🤍🤍🤍🤍🤍🤍🤍🤍🤍🤍🤍🤍🤍🤍🤍🤍🤍🤍🤍🤍🤍🤍🤍🤍🤍🤍🤍🤍🤍🤍🤍🤍🤍🤍🤍
Your translation is amazing💙 I feel like I’m slowly losing my mind along with Mo Yi. You’ve somehow managed to capture the atmosphere perfectly with your translation
….I’d be too paranoid if I didn’t have a wound if I didn’t feel pain I’d deem it fake !! Think about it ever time he’s been injured he felt the pain BUT when he was in the one illusion and cut his palm the author never mentioned pain or him flinching in pain or anything of the sort it just mentioned the color of the blood flowing on his skin so if you’re in an illusion as long as you feel pain you know you’re alive and it also helps clear the mind at times