Chapter 44: Three People Entered

Bai Yan walked through the exit but was once again transported back to the haunted house’s entrance.

Wang Ziwen was standing in the dusky passage when she saw Bai Yan come out, impatiently asking him, “Did you happen to see my close friend Xu Xiaojing? When I passed through, I saw that she was nowhere to be found. For such a huge person, how could she suddenly disappear like that?”

“Someone went missing?”

Once he met up with her, Bai Yan abruptly came up with a theory. The first person to go missing was the tour guide. The second person who went missing was Xu Xiaojing. Then, the next time they go through that exit, will another person go away as well?

Every time they exited the haunted house, a person would suddenly disappear. What did this peculiar occurrence signify?

This time, Su Yize had also come over since a while ago and was standing at the entrance, pondering over the mystery.

This level’s route to life was extremely vague. They didn’t find a lot of clues when they were inside the escape room and when they passed through the haunted house twice. Moreover, every round they had inside the haunted house resulted in a person going missing. In this situation, it seemed that their chances of escaping were slim.

Because Wang Ziwen was still with them, the other two players found it hard to bring up certain topics.

“Xiaojing, can you hear me? Xiaojing!”

Wang Ziwen quickly strained her throat from all her shouting, but fearing that she would attract more unpleasant entities to them, Bai Yan quickly advised, “Going missing in a ghost’s den like this, I’m afraid that your friend is…”

“That’s utter nonsense. Surely nothing has happened to Xiaojing. She just suddenly lost her way!”

The ashen look on Wang Ziwen’s face indicated that she was unwilling to believe the hard facts presented to her. She stubbornly said, “Xiaojing must still inside this haunted house. Maybe she’s even ahead of us. You guys are making me scared for no reason. Anyway, I’ll be sure to find Xiaojing!”

After saying what she had to say, Wang Ziwen didn’t care what was up ahead and started running away from them fast. Seeing their important NPC leaving their sights, Bai Yan and Su Yize had no other choice but to quickly follow her.

Wang Ziwen was a considerably brave person who was able to gather important information in their steed, so they naturally didn’t want to miss this opportunity to gather more clues.

After jogging behind Wang Ziwen for a bit, they saw her catch her breath and slow down her pace, so Bai Yan also put a pause to his chase, leading his running to turn into walking.

On their path, Bai Yan didn’t abandon his need to observe every inch of the haunted house and how it was laid out. This round, the pitch-black walls had started to move in a flowing fashion, and numerous strands slowly started protruding out of the walls. The more they moved forward, the more strands of hair appeared, as if the wall was actively blocking their path.

Since Wang Ziwen got away with yanking off the ghost’s broken hand as well as violently kicking away the human head beforehand, Bai Yan suspected that these ghosts weren’t able to kill them unless they fulfilled certain conditions.

So, he consequently gathered his courage and extended his hand to touch the wall’s surface, wanting to personally know for himself what the strange movements on the walls were. Just before his hand touched the wall, two ghostly hands emerged from the surface and tightly held onto his arm, trying to drag him in. In a blink of an eye, half of his body was already dragged into the wall.

“F*ck! Are you trying to die?”

Su Yize was alarmed when he saw the densely packed strands of hair wrap around most Bai Yan’s face. He had never seen such a tactless player before. He knew perfectly well that there was a ghost on the wall, but he persisted in taking on the risk. Could it be that this person was mentally ill?

Bai Yan ceaselessly struggled between the strands on the walls. Su Yize saw this but didn’t have any intentions of lending a hand and getting him out of there. Pulling him out didn’t take that much effort, but if he did, Su Yize would also be taking on considerable risk, so there was no way he would help Bai Yan.

Su Yize didn’t call out to Wang Ziwen and just silently stood in front of the wall, observing the movements of the threads. His heart became even more vigilant towards their path that was lined with hair.

But, he didn’t expect that after ten seconds, Bai Yan would struggle free from the wall’s strong hold. Besides the part of his face that had turned red because of the wall’s hair,  there were no traces of cuts and wounds anywhere.

“As expected, right now, the ghosts can’t directly harm us. Just like when Xu Xiaojing had a ghost’s hand on her shoulder and nothing happened, I’m also fine now.” Bai Yan gave Su Yize a quick look. This person didn’t even call over Wang Ziwen and was just admiring the interesting show playing in front of him.

Although the app’s forum advocated helping each other out and even unbridledly deleted several posts to build a positive environment, humans were innately evil. In the twisted circumstances of the game’s world, no one could count on the gaming community to selflessly offer their assistance.

Bai Yan didn’t mind that Su Yize just stood there like a detached bystander. If their roles were reversed, Bai Yan reckoned he’d also do the same.

As if nothing happened, Bai Yan casually patted away the leftover follicles of the wall’s hair away from his body. Bai Yan then quickly tried to catch up with Wang Ziwen. After tiredly running for quite some time, the three people managed to reach the halfway point of the path in less than three minutes. Wang Ziwen was deeply worried about Xu Xiaojing, but when she was halfway through the path, she suddenly stopped in her tracks.

“Come look. There’s a real corpse up ahead!”

Not far from the three people, there was a dried-up corpse placed on the nook of the wall. The mummy’s body was so thin and yellow that it looked like it was starved to death.

The mummy silently laid on the wall’s corner with its eyes containing a lifeless gloom. Its hands were holding a piece of paper with something written in blood. Even in this dark lighting, the note was able to catch the three people’s attention.

“Is it also a ghost?”

“I don’t know. When we pass by it, let’s take a closer look, maybe we can find some clues to escape the haunted house.”

At the halfway point of their path, Wang Ziwen was already on the verge of giving up on finding Xu Xiaojing. In this endless cycle inside the haunted house, the chances of Xu Xiaojing still being alive were slim to none. Wang Ziwen looked at the mummy with a stiff face. As she moved closer, the mummy didn’t move, like it wasn’t some sort of abnormal cadaver.

Seeing that the mummy didn’t attack Wang Ziwen as she drew nearer, Bai Yan and Su Yize also promptly walked towards it to search for clues.

Beside the mummy were a notebook and an already used up ball pen. The three felt that after the pen was used up, the mummy must have used blood to write.

“What’s written on the piece of paper?”

Su Yize was the last to get near the mummy, but his snatching speed was quick. He rashly pulled away from the mummy’s hand and was the first to grab the page filled with the writing in blood from its hand. Seeing the other two send out curious gazes at him, he couldn’t hog everything to himself and so, he dryly read the contents of the parchment out loud…

“‘Me and my five other friends all entered here together. But all of them are already dead, and I am the only one remaining. In reality, the haunted house’s exit is a trap. Only the entrance…’ This part is covered in blood, so I can’t make it out clearly.” After saying this, Su Yize continued to read it aloud, “Being stuck here for five days made me too weak to escape this wretched place. I hope you…”

“That’s all the words. There’s nothing written at the back.”

Bai Yan didn’t completely trust Su Yize’s dictation, so he ignored Su Yize’s slightly indignant look and moved in closer to see the contents himself, reading it over again. It was as Su Yize had said, the key point on the note was completely muddled in blood and was simply impossible to read.

“This person… He also made the mistake of playing in the haunted house!” Wang Ziwen flipped through the notebook and roughly browsed through its contents, her face getting paler by the second, “Five days ago, he and his friends entered this haunted house, and in the end, they couldn’t escape due to the haunted house repeating its cycle over and over again. The disappearances kept increasing, so he was the only left inside the haunted house, leading him to not dare go further. As a result, he starved to death, and we… we’ll also be the same?”

Wang Ziwen was generally an optimistic person, but seeing that there were other guest players also trapped in this haunted house, she couldn’t help but sink into depression.

Six guest players had already died here before. With her friend and that group of friends disappearing off, everything seemed to be headed to disaster. Will she truly be able to get out of here?

A little part of Wang Ziwen crumbled from her hopeless thoughts. Bai Yan wanted to quickly sweep through the notebook, his heart having second thoughts, “He lived without food and water for five days. What did he eat during these five days?”

Moreover, the most vital part of the note was smudged in blood. No matter how he looked at it, it was like it was done on purpose.

Mr. Mummy didn’t say what the entrance had, it only said that the exit was a trap. Bai Yan raised his head and looked straight ahead. The strands of hair grew thicker the further the path went along, but to add to the hairs, the walls also concealed white glossy arms and legs.

He turned his head back, the strands of hair behind him were more sparse. It also wasn’t as intimidating as the walls that they needed to walk through next. As Bai Yan gazed at the path in front of him, he could vaguely see specs of blood on it. Perhaps it was just as the notebook said, the path leading to the exit is hell.

“He was also a guest player in this haunted house, so he wouldn’t deceive us.” Wang Ziwen believed her own lies, “Let’s go back to the entrance. Maybe the entrance was covering up the exit all along, but also Xiaojing… Xiaojing might also be there.”

“I don’t think it’s the right move to go back.” Su Yize said, “The things written on this note may not necessarily be true. I can’t say for sure, but it could also be a real trap.”

“I also agree with this. The path to the exit is treacherous, yet the way back is less dangerous. Regardless if the notebook says so or we base it on the haunted house’s surroundings, it seems that the note wants people to go back to the entrance, like it’s intentionally driving us there.”

Bai Yan proposed, “It would be better if we first reach the exit and look around. Depending on the situation, if nothing unusual happens, we can change our direction and go back.”

“I agree.”

“Fine, I don’t have any problems with that.”

Wang Ziwen lightly bit her lip. There were no signs of Xu Xiaojing on the way they had just passed by. Maybe Xu Xiaojing was at the end of the path and was waiting for her there. Holding on to this small light of hope, she stubbornly made up her mind and continued walking forward.

The road leading to the exit became increasingly more sinister. When they reached the end, the dense layer of ghostly hair had fully covered the entire path. Countless broken limbs on the wall twisted and turned, and with every step they took, numerous strands of hair wrapped around their legs, trying to hold onto them.

Reading the notebook had delayed the three people for a considerable amount of time, but because of the obstruction caused by the ghostly hair, they simply couldn’t increase their speed. They also had to dodge and be careful around the broken limbs that could pull them into the wall.

They still had to walk a short distance before they reached the exit. Bai Yan snuck a peek at the current time. They had already used up 10 minutes during the third round in the haunted house.

The hairs under their feet grew more difficult to deal with. Wang Ziwen even had to violently struggle free from the hairs’ grasp before her legs were free. She strode forward, step by step, until she reached a corner. But all of a sudden, she stopped in her tracks, not caring about the fine hairs wrapping around both of her entire legs. Her whole person seemed distracted.

“What’s the matter?”

“Xiaojing, I saw Xiaojing!” Wang Ziwen didn’t dare believe her own eyes, “Xiaojing is up ahead!”

Seeing her missing friend, Wang Ziwen immediately regained her strength. She exerted all her might to break free from the hairs’ entanglement and quickly dashed forward. The girl held her head as she cried, and from the back, her figure and clothes looked exactly like Xu Xiaojing.

Without waiting for Bai Yan and Su Yize to catch up, Wang Ziwen walked up to the girl’s side and gently patted her shoulder.

“Xiaojing, I’ve found you.” Wang Ziwen expressed a heartfelt smile.

“Wenwen, it’s you.”

The girl slowly turned her head, and when she saw her face, Wang Ziwen’s smile froze.