The first thing that River saw when he woke up was Aspen’s face above his, turned upside down. The youth was squatting at his head and seemingly waiting for him to wake up, showing a toothy but emotionless grin when River blinked his eyes.
How surprising. What a very suspicious coincidence this was.
“Good”, Aspen said with a sense of honest satisfaction, despite the feeling not quite reaching his facial expression. “Today won’t be boring.”
River was always one of the last people to wake up. He would always struggle to adjust to the colourless reality around him and often needed minutes to truly regain his wits. Aspen waited patiently but behind him, the rest of the group was looking at him with stern eyes.
There were three this time. Two men and one woman, all quite young but looking like the dominant types. The girl especially managed to stand out with her muscles flexing as she crossed her bare arms under her chest. Her long hair was braided tightly along her back.
Both men were showing signs of familiarity around each other and might be young soldiers-in-training. With their backs straight they watched River and Aspen like predators.
“Let’s go, let’s go”, Aspen happily called once the other was up. “I haven’t yet looked at what the puzzle is this time.”
“Puzzle?” The woman spoke up and walked closer to them. Her frown was deep and along her left arm, you could see her mark – Honey. “What puzzle?”
She was met with two blank gazes. One was with a complete lack of interest and the other felt somehow formless, as if her presence was acknowledged but nothing above that. The hair on her arms stood up at the creepy looks.
“You two know each other?” One of the guys stepped closer. River wondered if maybe they had talked about something before he woke up with how the three looked like a group but he did not feel like asking. “Well, doesn’t matter. What is your plan?”
“We will be leaving this room. It won’t be dangerous for you even if you stay here”, the other man kindly explained. “We are searching for a way out. If you want to help us, you’re welcome.”
River pursed his lips. The group he held no interest in but it was advantageous if they did not mind them going out.
Aspen was the first to act. He already jumped towards the door and pulled it open curiously, revealing what looked like an old, eastern-style house that opened to a visible garden. There was a pond in the middle with fish swimming around and from here you could see that the area contained various other buildings. It was a whole court.
Aspen whistled.
The atmosphere was gloomy but that didn’t dim the artistic style of the setting. If not for the white flowers and banners everywhere, you wouldn’t have been able to tell that something was up.
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.
“Vbwfbcf wera tjnf vlfv”, Elnfg ktlrqfgfv jr tf kjixfv atgbeut atf vbbg jcv ibbxfv jgbecv. Lf xcfk atf agjvlalbcr. Vlcmf rbwfbcf kjr vfjv, atja wfjca atja atf ygfjxlcu qblca wluta yf flatfg jcbatfg’r vfjat – tlcalcu ja j qegqbrfoei xliilcu – bg la vlvc’a tjnf ab vb klat vfjat ja jii. Ktja wluta yf qbrrlyif, abb.
Honey brushed a finger against one of the banners and looked over to River. “You’re eastern? What can you tell us about this?”
“Why care about details like that”, the ruder man mumbled and rolled his eyes. “Let’s find a way out of here instead.”
“I’m just asking. Sheesh, what’s so bad about knowing a bit?” Honey snapped back at him. “Stop being such a stuck-up ass, Rhythm. We might die here tonight. At least let me enjoy myself a bit.”
Rhythm tensed at her words and turned his face away in a scowl. Judging by her behaviour, they were acquainted in some way.
Since he was asked, River answered without making a fuss. “There must be a funeral wake going on here. Back then, it was tradition to keep the corpse around for a while so everyone could say their goodbyes. The whole house would be decorated in white – it’s the usual colour.”
“Not black?”, the western-looking Rhythm asked with suspicion.
River shook his head. “No. In eastern tradition, white is used for mourning.”
“Feels weird when we have something like white dresses for marriages”, the man muttered under his breath.
Ultimately, it wasn’t that weird that he didn’t know. While there were lots of eastern people in the city and even the whole country, it was placed pretty much placed in the middle of the continent and had taken over mostly western customs.
It was common to hear eastern names but most traditions were western. Even the Qiao family was generally following the western way despite being an old eastern line. That was adapting. If there was a funeral, everyone would be clothed black as it was common in the west.
“Shall we find the murderer?”, Aspen asked him with bright eyes. River looked over in confusion and the man grinned. “I bet it’s not a normal death. Won’t it be interesting to find out?”
“It might have nothing to do with the puzzle”, River warned.
Aspen shrugged. “So what? It sounds fun.”
River felt one side of his lips twitch. It would be. If there was a murderer around, he wanted to find him. Whether it was linked to the puzzle or not – if this place had several things to be uncovered, even better.
He would love a life like those detective stories. Like Sherlock Holmes – weird cases and truths to be uncovered, hidden behind layers of cover-ups and with obscure reasonings.
To tell the truth, it would be even more interesting with Aspen around him. That insane mind of his was not something he understood and that made him happy.
“What murderer? Where are you going?”, Honey asked. “If you plan on finding a way out, shouldn’t we plan, or something?”
“I don’t think they intend to work together with us, but maybe an introduction would be good”, the kinder man said, stepping forward. “My name is… Crisis. These are Honey and Rhythm, as you might have heard.”
The name seemed unusually dark for such a gentle man, but as River had noted, the marks didn’t have anything to do with the person they were on.
“River.” The youth lowered his head a bit. He did not introduce Aspen along with him, he did not feel he had the right to take away another’s introduction.
Aspen only responded after they stared at him for a while. He had been looking out at the yard. “Hmm? Aspen.”
“That’s an interesting piercing you have. How does it hold under your skin? It looks heavy”, Crisis tried to break the ice.
River moved his eyes to the rings around Aspen’s hands. They did not look like piercings.
The murderer snickered. He didn’t respond at first, only brushing a finger over the metal and showing a dark grin. When he spoke, they broke out into shivers. “…Do you want them, too?”
“No, thank you”, Crisis hurriedly rejected. He had a feeling he wouldn’t like that.
Although Aspen and River were the youngest of the group, the three others couldn’t help but feel that they were the scariest.
One was like a robot with hardly any fluctuations when he talked and the other looked at them as if they weren’t humans.
Who knew what kind of strange people they had gotten grouped with.
All of a sudden, Aspen’s head whipped around. He grabbed River’s arm and pulled him to the side and one second later, Honey shouted: “Watch out!”
From right around the corner, a childish shadow ran around and right through where River had been standing a moment ago.
River felt the nauseous discomfort bubble up in his stomach at the sudden contact but before he could fully register it, Aspen had already let go of him and taken a step back to increase their distance.
Breathing out shakily, the youth rubbed over his wrist.
It wasn’t a phobia or a trauma. It was just that due to his family, he had never gone out a lot and he could count the number of times they had given him a hug on one hand.
If his family initiated contact then it was either to be degrading or possessive, neither possibility nice.
He felt like a dog that was being abused. He didn’t like contact at all and after years, he had developed a heavy aversion to being touched in any way, no matter the intent. After all, he wasn’t used to being touched and his only memories associated with contact were negative.
“That was close”, Honey whispered between clenched teeth. Her chest was heaving.
River guessed she must have seen what would happen if a shadow ran right into you – they’d notice you instantly and devour you. The process wasn’t pretty to look at.
The shadow would grow into a shadowy blob while time would be halted and cover the person. You could run, but some were fast.
If they caught you, you’d be enveloped and literally crushed into mush. Audibly. The blob would slurp up all the blood that would leak and once things were cleaned up, return to being the humanoid shadow and time would resume.
River stared at the shadow with wide eyes.
A distinct design. An Actor?
Author’s Notes
We will be at one chapter weekly for a while! (Mostly because I’m kinda taking a mentally forced break and want to make sure my backlog lasts long enough that I can return before it’s gone ahaha. I’ll resume a double weekly pace if it’s possible next year)
Wuwuwu River has touch aversion 😔😔😔 poor bb
Who was the ass that attacked him >:C 🔪
Thank you for the chapter qaq
T_T gives river hot chocolate to make him feel better
Thank you for the chapter!! ❤️❤️
Thanks for the chapter ❤️
I love the novel really and it’s so much fun to read 😁
It’s my first novel of this type so I’m glad if it’s enjoyable! ╰(°▽°)╯
I like that one is just a murder who doesn’t see a problem in killing people and the other one is a genius who is only in thinks where he need to use his brain (ʘ‿ʘ) I’m happy every time a see there is a new chapter ♥ you make a good job 👍
Thanks for the chapter.
You make me curious about what will happen. My curiosity increase everytime i read new chapter. Good job. 😁
Thank you for the chapter~~❤❤
What happened to the previous instance??? Like was there a rerun once more where they succeeded the barking dogs??? Or is it, once you fail to solve it, you have no choice but to gamble whether you can woke up from the ‘dream’ instance?
When the time is up, the time is up. You gotta leave the dream and hope you survive.
As for what happens to the instance afterwards… the characters don’t know ¯_(ツ)_/¯
Oh😲…do the characters keep on reappearing at same instance if they didn’t ‘solve the puzzle’? Or is it completely random whether someone comes to the same instance once more? Because I remember at the beginning River being in that instance before with another group (the one in which he gambled whether he can wake up or not) and the second time, he came once again in that same instance but with Aspen???
The same instance (if unsolved) can reappear, but not necessarily 🙂
Oh! Has it been mentioned how many instances he has been to??? Did I miss it?
I can’t directly reply to your last message for some reason… Anyway, it’s not directly stated, no, only that he’s been called in several times already. He never did more than glance outside and take a short walk, though.