Dirty walls framed a tiny, claustrophobic space which made it difficult for those inside to breathe.
A deep and thick undercurrent of darkness surged in the room. There was the scent of rot permeating the cool dampness of the room, mixing in with the thick smell of rust, making everything seem ominous.
The gloomy bone-chilling coldness of this place seemingly seeped into him, burrowing down through his respiratory tract and into the lungs, settling into the five internal organs and even the cracks in the bones.
Mo Yi shrank his shoulders subconsciously, feeling goosebumps rising on his back.
At this moment, he seemed to recall something. He lowered his head and opened the backpack he brought from the real world—the props he bought before the start of the last instance had disappeared, and that entire section of his bag was completely empty.
Mo Yi picked up the flashlight and hurriedly screened the whole room. After confirming that there was no second backpack in the room, he let out a long breath.
Thank God.
The product information of this game would not lie, but it would deliberately conceal some key information to mislead players, thus he had already prepared for the worst when he purchased this backpack, that is, for the game to give him a physical backpack for props—if so, then the 10,000 points spent were in vain.
After all, he bought the smart backpack so he could use items at any time in the instance. If the smart backpack was also a physical one, then it would have no difference from one he could simply bring from the real world.
Since there was no additional physical backpack next to him, it meant that…
Mo Yi controlled his faint excitement, and said silently in his heart: backpack.
Immediately afterwards, a row of grids appeared in his mind. Those bright and transparent glass beads were placed in the grids, along with their names and descriptions.
A thin layer of sweat covered the palm of his hand with the flashlight. The surging heat in his heart dispelled the coldness around him.
His eyes were astonishingly bright, and the corners of his lips were tightly pursed, revealing the rolling emotions in his heart.
Mo Yi tried to read the name of one of the props in his mind.
A small hard and cold bead materialised on his empty palm, clinging to it as if announcing its presence.
He tried to restrain his smile.
While subconsciously rubbing his fingers over the smooth surface of the glass bead, Mo Yi tried saying several common commands in his mind.
Finally, when he said ‘storage’, the glass bead in his hand vanished in the same way it’d materialised, then re-appeared in the grid in his mind.
Mo Yi felt a surge of enthusiasm and could hardly hide the joy in his heart. Even after he took a deep breath to force himself to calm down, the curvature of his lips still couldn’t be suppressed.
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.
Ktf 10,000 qblcar rqfca kfgf gfjiis kbgat la.
Xlnfc atf cjaegf bo atlr ujwf, olcvlcu j ufcelcfis erfoei qgbq lc atja wfrrs rabgf kjr jr vloolmeia jr olcvlcu ubiv lc rjcv, frqfmljiis obg rbwfatlcu ktlmt tjv atlr wemt njief—la kjr ilxf klcclcu atf ibaafgs!
Yg rtbeiv tf rjs… jr fzqfmafv bo j qgbvema lc atf wfwyfg rabgf!
Mo Yi finally realised the extent of benefits given to senior members, and deeply felt that his original decision was not wrong.
He suppressed the excitement in his heart, then re-examined the smart backpack with the eyes of rational evaluation.
—As a matter of fact, the space it had was not very large. There were only two pages, each with five grids, making up a total of ten grids.
Although it was a little regrettable, this was not considered a low-blow in this game.
Alternatively put, if the item did not come with any shortcomings, it would rouse Mo Yi’s suspicion instead, and he would be worried about what hidden pits the prop may have waiting for him.
Therefore, overall, this was Mo Yi’s most satisfying purchase item.
He casually flipped the backpack to the second page, and was surprised when he saw what was on the first grid on the second page.
There was a familiar prop in that grid.
It was a brown teddy bear. The old soft down was a little tattered, however there was no dust in its pair of dark and clear eyes, and the toy seemed to be well cared for.
Mo Yi was stunned for a good while before he remembered the description of the smart backpack in the store—’it will automatically store props of use in the instance’.
In this case, then… was this teddy bear also a prop which could be used in the instance? Was that why it was automatically stored in the backpack?
He glanced at the name and description under the grid containing the teddy bear, and was a little disappointed to see that while it said ‘Teddy Bear’ underneath, the brief introduction was three grey question marks, with no indication of what the prop could be used for.
Mo Yi pursed his lips and closed the smart backpack. After all, this mystery couldn’t be solved anytime soon, so there was no point for him to waste more time and energy on this for now.
He slung the physical backpack onto his shoulders. Squinting his eyes, he slowly moved the flashlight again and carefully observed the entirety of the room.
The whole room looked messy and filthy. In the narrow space, there was only the institutional bed where Mo Yi woke up. The floor, walls, and even the ceiling, were covered with weird and crazy graffiti, resembling a sinister face in the dark.
Crusty brown blood stains covered the room, appearing in a shade of odd dark red under the light. There were several bloody handprints vividly pressed between the graffiti on the wall, the sight of which made people feel chills all over.
Mo Yi went around to the back of the institutional bed. Lifting up the sign hanging there, he illuminated it with a flashlight and tried hard to identify the words on it.
The edges of the sign were yellowed and wrinkled. It was also covered with graffiti too, blurring most of the handwriting and the only words which could be recognised were:
“■■■ Mental Asylum.”
There was not much useful information.
Mo Yi frowned, putting down the sign again. It fell along with gravity, hitting the head of the bed and clattered against the metal. The slight collision sounded in the dead darkness, stirring up an ominous echo.
He strode away from the bed and towards the wall. Slowly, he moved his wrist, illuminating the pattern on the wall with the flashlight clenched in his hand.
After getting closer, Mo Yi discovered that the graffiti on the wall was not drawn by crayons or other materials, but was dug out deeply with fingernails.
Under the cold white light, these marks dug deep into the wall left a shallow shadow. Residues of flesh, blood, and the fragments of nails were embedded in the wall. The traces of blood flowed down the deep dents, solidifying into cold trails along the wall.
Everything in this room was ominously chilling.
The whole room seemed to be the embodiment of madness and despair, revealing a tragic but crazy smile in the dark, coldly precipitating a terrifying posture.
Mo Yi furrowed his brows, a ravine of contemplation surfacing in his mind, and a pair of dark eyes shone brightly on his pale face.
He seemed to have realised something. He stepped back slowly and thoughtfully, then raised the flashlight to illuminate the entire wall.
In the dim halo, the messy and unstructured lines on the wall seemed to slowly come together to form a complete image—
—a huge butterfly.
Mo Yi gasped, a chill suddenly rising from the soles of his feet to the top of his head.
Its huge and distorted body covered most of the room, and the huge patterns on its wings resembled lifeless eyes which were staring at Mo Yi, who was standing in the centre of the room, while its long and curved antennas were like tentacles stretching towards the ceiling.
This was deeply carved into the wall by nails and flesh, twisted and ugly.
A few crooked words were written in blood in the corner of the wall:
“STOP”
There was blood along the depression of the letters, as though there had been a wound made by a sharp knife and blood had gushed out of the wall.
Mo Yi’s hand with the flashlight tightened slightly. He took a deep breath, and after making sure there was nothing else worthy of his attention here, he turned and walked out the door.
He didn’t know why… but the instance felt a lot more quiet this time.
There were no sounds of players chatting, or any other noises. Although he knew that the instance would only be opened after all the players had arrived, Mo Yi still felt a sense of uneasiness which was hard to dispel.
It was like being completely isolated.
The silence and darkness around him gave Mo Yi the illusion of being on a deserted island.
There was no life, no sound, just the huge ugly insect on the wall of the room behind him, gazing at him with lifeless eyes in the darkness.
This instance made him feel…very uncomfortable.
Mo Yi pursed his lips. He pushed open the half-closed door and walked out—out into a corridor, where both sides were dark and bottomless, just like a huge gaping mouth quietly dormant, waiting for the sacrifice of the next victim.
Under the faint light of the flashlight, the messy appearance of the entire corridor was revealed. Tables and chairs were overturned in the corridor, and countless dirty documents and papers were scattered on the ground. There was a wheelchair with bindings left lying on its side, and the torn belts lay miserably on the ground.
Bloodstains covered the ground and walls. There were even dried bloody footprints on the ground, trailing towards the dark end of the corridor.
Mo Yi took a step to follow it and accidentally bumped into the fallen wheelchair. The hollow and piercing metallic sound resounded in the corridor, which was very distinct in the silence.
Suddenly, without any prior warning, the robotic female voice rang out.
“Hello, everyone, welcome to the large-scale real-life escape game—STAY ALIVE.”
Mo Yi’s train of thoughts was interrupted by the announcement, messing up his thinking processes. The uneasiness which he had been suppressing and ignoring just now surged up like mud from the bottom of the river, occupying his mind.
This time…
Before all the players were present—
The instance started.
The author has something to say:
Congratulations to player Mo Yi for winning the title—” Rebutted by a Flag Within Seconds“
Thanks for the update
This book always trying to scary me about my thoughts 😣
Thank you for your translation 💝💝💝💝💝💝💝💝💝💝💝💝💝💝💝💝💝💝💝💝💝💝💝💝💝💝💝💝💝💝💝💝💝💝💝💝💝
Butterfly is a terrifying image. Wow
It’s kinda cute how excited he got over the ‘smart backpack’ (´ω`)