Translator-Rhapsodite
Editor-PerpetualMreow, Proofreader-adjective
After approximately forty-five minutes, Ji Dong and his group arrived at the historical museum on the east side of the South Bridge.
According to common sense, museums should have security measures that are a hundred times tighter than places like abandoned hospitals or bridge tunnels.
However, the “activation card” given to them by the game turned out to be much more powerful than they had imagined.
For some reason, when Ji Dong took out that thin transparent card, the security guards mistook them for investigators from a special organization, shook hands with them, and then pulled out his keys.
“Ah, you know, the museum has been haunted recently, it’s so spooky!”
The security guard opened the main door of the museum for them but refused to go any further. “I’ll wait for you outside…”
Seemingly thinking of something, he hesitated for a moment before advising, “If you encounter anything strange, don’t be brave, quickly come out, okay!”
Thanking the kind security guard, the five of them confidently entered the museum through the main entrance.
Despite being at a museum that had been closed for several days late at night, it wasn’t as dark as everyone had expected.
On the contrary, although the lighting was dim, the emergency lights were still on in the corridors and main pathways of the exhibition halls. However, due to the high ceilings in the museum, even with this lighting, it still appeared slightly too dark.
“Ah, are we about to start our own ‘Night at the Museum’ adventure?”
Surprisingly, Teacher Dagen even had the leisure to make a joke.
“Come on, I’m ready. Whether it’s a resurrected pharaoh mummy or a moving Lincoln statue, bring it on!”
“Enough, stop boasting.”
Fan Luming raised his hand and gave Mo Tiangen a hit with his elbow. “Time is running out, we need to hurry!”
“You’re right, let’s get to work!”
Ji Dong looked up.
They were currently standing in the lobby of the museum’s main entrance.
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.
This historical museum was made of two symmetrical, identical buildings, the East Wing on the left and the West Wing on the right. Both were four stories high, with approximately fifty meters between them.
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“I am in a group with Mr. Ren. We’ll be responsible for the East Wing.”
Ji Dong pointed to Ren Jianmo next to him and said to the other three:
“Brother Dagen, Xiao He, and Xiao Lu will go together. You’ll be in charge of the West Wing. Is that okay?”
“Yeah, no problem.”
Mo Tiangen agreed readily:
“This is the most reasonable allocation, with a DPS and a healer on each side. Not bad, not bad!”
Although Fan Luming had no objections to this arrangement, he couldn’t help but make a sarcastic comment:
“They say Mr. Ren and I are healers! We’re not called ‘wet nurses’!”
Regardless of whether they were “healers” or “wet nurses,” the groups had been decided. The five of them agreed to stay in constant communication throughout the entire journey, exchanging information to support each other as it was convenient.
Then, in the lobby, two went left and three went right, walking through the corridors and heading toward their respective destinations.
—————————-
If you looked at the distribution of the exhibition halls, the themes of the east wing of this history museum appeared to mostly be of the natural sciences, while the west wing was mostly humanities.
Such bizarre and unimaginable incidents had occurred at this place. Not only had the individuals involved destroyed priceless exhibits, but there had also been a person—who was perfectly fine before spending a night in the museum—who ended up cutting themselves into a bloody mess and going insane. The outcome was horrifying, and the museum was under immense pressure. They had not only suspended public access but also locked away and moved most of the valuable items in the exhibition hall, especially the jars and vessels and other items that could be moved and locked. They were all put away, and now the items that remained in the exhibition hall were mostly cheap replicas.
Mo Tiangen, Fan Hemian, and Fan Luming entered the West building and found that the first floor didn’t have exhibition halls. Instead, there was a café, a restaurant, a resting area, a souvenir shop, and a comprehensive library. The three of them quickly circled through these areas, without noticing anything unusual. They didn’t want to delay any longer, so they climbed the stairs to the second floor.
“I checked the timestamps of those strange museum stories.”
As they walked, Fan Luming spoke while climbing the stairs:
“According to the records I found online, there have been a total of five incidents of self-harm and damage to exhibits since the disappearance of the mummy’s body. Four of them were caused by museum staff, and one was by a young woman in her twenties who visited the museum during the day.”
He paused and then continued:
“The time of these cases is quite regular, happening about every ten days or so.”
The younger brother raised nine of his fingers.
“According to the police’s case briefing, the most recent incident involved a night shift security guard. It happened on the 9th of this month. Originally, he was only supposed to patrol the courtyard and did not need to enter the museum. However, for some unknown reason, the security guard sneaked out of the duty room around 2 AM, quietly entered the West building, and cut off five fingers from his hand in the seal exhibition on the fourth floor. He then smashed a pen holder. It has been exactly eighteen days since then.”
“Um, do these incidents happen about every ten days?”
Mo Tiangen, stroked his chin and made a speculation based on his expertise as a biology teacher:
“Listening to what you’ve just said, it almost sounds like there’s something that wants to take a few bites of human flesh every few days…”
After Mo Tiangen finished speaking, he couldn’t help but shiver.
Although his speculation made perfect sense, just the thought of a flesh-eating monster possibly hiding somewhere in such a huge museum made one feel incredibly uneasy.
Moreover, everyone had already seen the surveillance video before – the zombie-like security guard cutting off the flesh from his arm, stuffing the pieces into a vase, and then smashing the vase.
The problem was that the ceramic vase that the guard destroyed was only slightly larger than a basketball and could be carried with one hand. A monster that could hide in such a small space must have a small body size!
So, for the monster, this huge museum has so many places to hide that it was almost unimaginable. Mr. Dagen and the others couldn’t just go around smashing every container they saw. It was incredibly difficult to find what’s hidden here!
“And don’t forget, there’s one very dangerous thing.”
At this moment, Fan Hemian, who had been quiet with a serious face, suddenly spoke up:
“Although we still don’t know what exactly is causing trouble here, judging from its ability to control victims to cut off their flesh, that thing must have the power to manipulate people’s minds…”
She raised her hand and pointed to her temple, her fingertip casually brushing over the hairpin on her forehead.
“Be careful, don’t accidentally fall into the clutches of that thing!”
As they were talking, the three of them had already reached the second floor and arrived in the corridor.
“The floor plan of the building was in the shape of a ‘U’, and the staircase opening also formed a ‘U.’ In front of us is a floor-to-ceiling window, directly facing the second-floor window of the neighboring East building.
At this moment, from Mo Tiangen and the Fan siblings’ perspective, the three of them could see that the lights on the second floor of the East building opposite them suddenly turned on with a ‘pop’, and the overall brightness of the window increased by a notch.
“Hey, hey?”
Mo Tian Gen fiddled with the Bluetooth earphones hanging on his ear. “Xiao’niao, you guys are on the second floor, right?”
“Yeah, we’re on the second floor.”
Ji Dong’s voice came through clearly in the earphones, “We’re currently preparing to enter the Geological Museum Exhibition Hall and haven’t found anything unusual so far. How about you guys?”
“We’ve made about as much progress as you.”
Mo Tiangen replied, and near the staircase, he found the power switch and turned on the lights in several lamps along the second-floor corridor.
“Likewise, we haven’t found anything yet.”
“Okay.”
Ji Dong, who was approximately fifty meters away from the three of them, replied, “Stay alert.”
However, for the next two hours, the entire museum remained calm and peaceful, without any signs of abnormalities.
Mo Tiangen and the Fan siblings, each holding a flashlight, meticulously inspected every exhibition hall, then painstakingly crossed the isolation zone and climbed into the artifact area, checking every vessel that could hold something inside.
They didn’t even dare to overlook the large vases and bronze tripods that were taller than a person, locked inside glass cabinets. Teacher Da Gen lifted Fan Hemian, allowing her to shine the flashlight from above, carefully examining if there was anything hidden inside.
But even so, they still found nothing.
And Ji Dong and Ren Jianmo in the opposite building were no different. The two of them practically turned the East Pavilion upside down, but they still couldn’t find any suspicious items.
It was already 3:30 in the morning, and they hadn’t caught head or tail of the strange supernatural event.
“Damn it, at this rate, we’re done for!”
Mo Tiangen anxiously grabbed his short hair, his thick eyebrows twisting into a knot. He kept looking down at his watch, showing signs of losing patience.
“If we don’t get the 3, we’re done for!”
“Don’t worry,” Fan Hemian’s face also looked pale, but she calmly reassured, “If we give up destroying ‘4,’ we’ll still have at least one hour and forty minutes left. Don’t panic, there’s still time.”
As she spoke, she raised her hand and patted Mo Tian Gen’s broad back twice to comfort him. “Don’t forget, our situation last night was similar to today. Don’t worry, let’s keep looking.”
“Yeah, you’re right!”
Fan Luming also chimed in, “After all, this is a supernatural [Film]. Maybe this good brother of ours is just being particularly stubborn, insisting on appearing at the perfect time, refusing to show up until the auspicious moment…”
As he spoke, he had his back turned to Mo Tiangen and Fan Hemian, shining his flashlight and inspecting a carved vase. Out of the corner of his eye, he unexpectedly caught a glimpse of a white figure swiftly passing by the window.
This chapter is haunted. I keep trying to delete it from my notifications and it keeps coming back…
This ending of the chapter is so spooky (@_@) thank you for translating!