Mo Yi stood up, his palms still pressed against the door. Narrowing his eyes slightly, he looked through the gap between the twisted door and frame.
There was a faint light through the crack of the door and it shifted as if there was someone walking around in the room. A shadow approached, followed by a light knock.
Yu Ran’s half-hesitating, half-cautious voice sounded muffled through the door.
“… Mo Yi?”
Mo Yi pushed the tip of his tongue against the roof of his mouth, feeling the familiar tingling pain spreading with that motion. The faint scent of blood permeated his mouth again, and his heart calmed slightly.
Even though some time had passed since he was nearly tricked by the voice earlier, he found himself becoming much more cautious instead.
Mo Yi responded with a low hum and withdrew his hands from the door.
The ill-fitted wooden door slowly swung open, revealing Yu Ran and the other two players behind her. They were looking at each other with complicated yet bewildered expressions.
Yu Ran supported herself with one hand on the door frame. She pressed her other hand against her forehead and stared at Mo Yi in a daze.
She blinked, taking some time to organise her thoughts.
“…What happened just now?”
The two players behind her also appeared a little overwhelmed. One of them interjected, “I remember… We were in the attic. After you jumped down… I heard a familiar voice, then I lost consciousness.”
Yu Ran and the other player exchanged a glance, then nodded hesitantly in agreement.
“Yes, that’s exactly the same as what I remember too.”
Mo Yi tapped on the dial of his wristwatch with his fingers, his neatly manicured nails making a light, crisp sound:
“Take a look at the time.”
The three of them glanced at their watches at the same time, and let out a loud, surprised gasp.
“—There’s only an hour left?!”
Mo Yi nodded and briefly concluded, “The monster in the past hour should have a restriction on its movements. It tempted the players with illusions, making them walk over by themselves. You were all hallucinating just now, so I locked you three in this room for an hour. Naturally, after the singing stopped, the hallucinations ceased as well.”
Frowning, one of the players scrutinised Mo Yi doubtfully. “Then why weren’t you affected?”
Mo Yi’s expression remained unchanged.
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.
“Probably because I have an iron will.”
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Yu Ran blanched. There was a rare look of helplessness on her face. In this instance, all of their lives were linked, and if someone died, it might bring about irreparable consequences to the rest.
Mo Yi took a step backwards, making room for them as he gestured towards one end of the hallway.
Yu Ran took a step forward, her eyes following the direction of Mo Yi’s finger, and saw two figures lying in the shadow of a pile of debris. Their blurred outlines were veiled by the large shadow, and it was hard to make out the two figures unless one looked carefully.
Yu Ran let out a long sigh of relief, then stepped forward determinedly. The flashlight in her hand swayed along with her steps, and the halo of light quickly illuminated the two limp bodies on the ground.
Mo Yi and the other two players followed behind her, and Mo Yi added, “There is less than an hour left before the end of this instance, and it will only become more dangerous from here on, so we must be even more careful.”
Yu Ran lowered herself into a squatting position. She placed the flashlight in her hand on the ground and patted the unconscious Zhou Yunchen lightly. “Hey, wake up.”
Zhou Yunchen still had his eyes tightly closed, his pale face showing no signs of waking up.
Both Zhou Yunchen and Wang Zhu were covered in dust and looked extremely pitiful.
The player, who’d asked the question just now, frowned. He opened his mouth and was about to interject. However, the words froze in his throat and only a few stuttered monosyllables escaped.
Before them, Yu Ran had grabbed onto Zhou Yunchen’s collar. She swung her arm back boldly, then vigorously slapped him several times across his face in succession. The brutal sounds echoed through the hallway, yet her voice was still soft and gentle when she spoke.
“Hey, wake up.”
The two players stared at the scene with wide eyes, taking in the sight of her violent aggression, all while subconsciously touching the back of their necks.
—somehow, it felt as though the back of their necks were hurting again.
Zhou Yunchen opened his eyes in bewilderment. He parted his lips to say something, but the motion tugged on his aching cheek, sobering him up as he hissed in pain.
He straightened his body on the floor, glanced around in a daze, and finally settled his gaze on Yu Ran who was the nearest to him.
“…Why did you hit me?”
Yu Ran rolled her eyes exaggeratedly. She didn’t answer, but instead, simply stepped over him to give the unconscious Wang Zhu several equally violent slaps until he woke up.
Then, after both men regained consciousness, Yu Ran rose to her feet and patted the dust off her body. She briefly repeated Mo Yi’s earlier explanation, and finally concluded, “There is less than an hour left now, and it is very likely that it will become more dangerous from here on. I suggest you two get up quickly and stop wasting time.”
Zhou Yunchen and Wang Zhu cupped their aching cheeks, looking as though they were still out of it as they slowly digested the slew of information Yu Ran had just thrown at them.
Mo Yi, who was standing by the side, turned to them with lowered eyes, and said lightly, “Get a grip on yourselves. The last nursery rhyme will come at any time.”
His voice was monotonous, his tone mild, and didn’t seem to hold any degree of intimidation.
Yet it was inexplicably daunting, perhaps even compelling.
Zhou Yunchen and Wang Zhu shuddered. They swiftly got to their feet, not even caring about the dust on their bodies. They staggered twice, then immediately straightened up.
Mo Yi lifted the corners of his lips slightly. He casted a glance over at his companions, then said, “When everyone was hallucinating just now, I read the human skin book from the attic and found some clues.”
The player who had asked Mo Yi for clues earlier, arched his brows high, and retorted in an odd tone, “Do you expect us to just take your word for it? If it’s true, then there is no reason not to show us the book, right?”
Mo Yi pulled the book from his backpack with a calm expression, and casually tossed it over to the player.
“Do as you please.”
The other party grabbed the book in a hurry. Restrained joy flitted across his face, but his expression instantly froze upon opening the book.
The two people beside him leaned over curiously too, and they all gaped at the handwriting with the same expression of bewilderment.
…they, they can’t read this…
Mo Yi raked his gaze over them. He didn’t tease them for it, but coolly changed the subject.
“In the last six hours, we were always passively waiting for the nursery rhymes. Now, I have some new ideas. Maybe… we ought to be more proactive next.”
Seeing that Mo Yi didn’t directly poke at their sore spot, that player coughed twice to hide his embarrassment and handed the human skin book back to Mo Yi, murmuring weakly, “…Then what do you suggest we do next?”
Mo Yi peered at his wristwatch.
There were 53 minutes left in this instance, but they had yet to hear the last nursery rhyme.
He stretched his hand to accept the human skin book, patting the dust off it and placing it back into his bag. Then, he turned his dark eyes back to the other party, who subconsciously averted his gaze.
Mo Yi pursed his lips and turned away too. With the suspicions in his heart gradually taking shape, he spoke.
“Let’s go downstairs first.”
Everyone exchanged a look. Before the spider appeared, they had almost searched the entirety of the second floor. Even if they stayed up here longer, they would probably not discover anything new, so they nodded in agreement with his suggestion.
Several people strode towards the debris piled up in the hallway, working together to move the broken boards and furniture, and cleared a path leading downstairs.
Holding a flashlight in his hand, Mo Yi illuminated the dark path ahead. He carefully avoided the small debris left on the ground, and quickly made his way forward cautiously.
There were still some white spider webs blocking the stairs, hanging down in the air like a curtain. Dust clung to the webs, and the coagulated mass emitted an odd stench.
Mo Yi brushed the cobwebs in front of him aside, carefully navigating his way onto the narrow and uneven stairs in the dark, and treaded down with everyone.
Under the halo of white light, Mo Yi could see Zhou Yunchen’s hair and broad shoulders in front of him.
Mo Yi hesitated for a moment, then reached out to brush the man’s shoulders lightly. A cloud of dust flew up, the particles reflecting the light as they danced freely through the air.
Zhou Yunchen craned his neck around, and commented evenly, “The dust probably got on me when I was moving things just now.”
Mo Yi’s brows pulled into a furrow. The pair of deep dark eyes on his pale face gleamed with heavy contemplation.
During the span of their short conversation, everyone had returned to the hall on the first floor. Everything here had remained unchanged. The twisted door was open, framing the gloomy darkness outside and the flickering fluorescent blue countdown timer which was still steadily ticking.
00:50:05
There was a large pool of bright red blood in the centre of the hall. Long drag marks extended from it, trailing across the floor out to the other side of the open door, as though it had been swallowed by the thick darkness.
This should be from the monster that appeared in the sixth hour.
The bloodstains on the floor were slowly seeping into the ground, as if it was being greedily sucked up by a sponge, and it didn’t take long before the glaringly huge bloodstain disappeared completely.
Although it wasn’t the first time the players had seen such a disturbing sight, a numbing sensation still tingled across their scalps all the same.
Yet unlike everyone else, Mo Yi’s attention was not attracted to the strange disappearing blood. Instead, he casted a contemplative glance around the whole room, and his gaze finally came to a halt when it landed upon his sleeve.
The folds of the clothes were covered in a thin layer of dust. His shoulders, however, were covered with a thick layer of dust.
Mo Yi’s gaze flickered. He swiftly took a step forward, strode to the wall and swiped at it vigorously with his palm.
A large cloud of dust instantly fell off of the seemingly normal wall. The solid and smooth surface was dented in an instant, as if a chunk had been forcibly dug out and scattered onto the ground.
Mo Yi felt a cold chill creep up his body.
—This house was rapidly crumbling into sand.
T/N: Dust and sand are used rather interchangeably in this chapter as Mo Yi thought of it as just dust previously, then realised that the ‘dust’ was actually sand.
Thanks for the chapter.
Oh damn! that’s creepy….
Buried alive, nooo
Thank you so much for translating! <3
And you can’t live! Scary
Thank you for your translation 💚💚💚💚💚💚💚💚💚💚💚💚💚💚💚💚💚💚💚💚💚💚💚