CH 179

The rose had a slender stem and gorgeous petals, bright red and delicate, as if they were watered with blood.

Ge Xiu was stunned for a moment, then he looked up to watch closer the room in front of him.

The room was empty, the lights were as bright as before and the furniture in the room was still worn out and warm.

On the dusty sofa, two people sat side by side, like a family, leaning close together— if you ignored their unnaturally stiff and straightened up bodies.

Ge Xiu went around to the sofa and looked at the two sitting on the sofa.

——Those were the two players who rushed into the room earlier.

The corners of the mouths of them both stretched to the base of their ears, showing a strange cheerful bloody smile. The almost identical expressions looked particularly creepy in the current environment. One had his left eyeball gouged out and the other had his right eyeball gouged out. The gouged out eyeballs were placed in their respective palms. The only remaining dull eyeballs were bloodshot and motionless, staring straight at the dark TV not far away. Blood slid down the deformed eye sockets, looking extremely glaring on their deathly pale faces.

There were two dolls neatly placed on the small bench beside them, with sweet and innocent smiles on their slightly worn out faces.

The dolls’ eye sockets were empty, one missing the left eye and the other missing the right eye.

Such hints couldn’t be more obvious.

Ge Xiu stepped forward and put two soft slippery eyeballs of the two players into the eye sockets of the doll respectively.

One of the dolls let out a stiff “hee hee hee” laugh and slowly opened its pale and faded little hand, revealing a mottled brass key laying quietly in its palm.

Ge Xiu picked up the key.

This was a completely different key. It was not hung with a marked iron plate like the keys drawn by the player downstairs, it’s design was also completely different.

It’s hard to guess where it could be used.

Ge Xiu slipped the key into his pocket.

Immediately afterwards, he lowered his eyes and looked at the blooming delicate rose in his hand again.

It looked so beautiful, out of tune with the bloody and weird scene in front of me, but somehow blended in strangely.

Ge Xiu hesitantly brought the rose closer to his nose and sniffed carefully.

The strong fragrance of flowers intertwined with a faint smell of blood, as if it had been grown with flesh and blood, gave it a cruel and odd beauty.

Ge Xiu pondered for a while, but finally did not throw it away.

At this moment, the door that had been tightly closed until now slowly opened, revealing the players waiting outside, bating their breath and waiting anxiously.

Seeing Ge Xiu appearing behind the door in good condition, several players who seemed to be more experienced ones showed a look of astonishment—the first successful acquisition of the prop can be explained by good luck, but for it to happen twice was really unimaginable.

They looked at the strangely dressed but overly good-looking young man in front of them in disbelief, their eyes apprehensive.

Was he… really a novice player?

When Lin Xue saw Ge Xiu appearing unharmed, the tense expression on her face finally relaxed, she was so relieved that she began speaking incoherently:

“Good, that’s good, I couldn’t hear any sound from inside just now, I, I almost thought…”

At this moment, Cheng Cheng, the player who had encouraged Ge Xiu to enter the room, noticed the rose in Ge Xiu’s hand. His eyes lit up and he took a step eagerly, reaching to take it: “Is this the floor’s special item?”

Unexpectedly, Ge Xiu, who was not stingy about special items and clues on the first floor before, took a step back, swiftly avoiding his extended hand. The meaning of rejection was very clear.

Cheng Cheng’s hand froze and stayed in mid-air awkwardly.

Ge Xiu looked at him with a half-smile: “If you want special prop, go for it yourself next time.”

Being ridiculed so mercilessly, the expression on Cheng Cheng’s face couldn’t hold back anymore. He looked a little embarrassed, but he still argued loudly: “Wasn’t I being in a hurry because I want to complete task earlier as well, don’t you also want to go out of this ghostly place!”

Lin Xue rolled her eyes at this shamelessness:

“Don’t you feel ashamed saying that? Who pushed others to go up just now and then cowardly shrank behind? Now you still have the face to ask someone for clues?”

After being ridiculed twice, Cheng Cheng’s expression was completely gloomy, he took two steps forward in annoyance:

“You fucking…”

At this moment, Chen Jian’s voice came from behind: “Just try it. “

Cheng Cheng froze.

Obviously, Chen Jian still had some prestige in the eyes of these players, he narrowed his eyes slightly and said coldly: “What they said just now makes sense, since you want to get clues, you can go ahead of others next time. If you want to gain clues and props you must be prepared to take risks.”

This sentence was clearly said to protect Ge Xiu.

The other players sensed the direction of the wind sensitively and followed suit to persuade him.

Cheng Cheng retreated to the side with an ugly expression and gave Ge Xiu a covert glare with resentment.

Ge Xiu didn’t change his expression, lowered his eyes calmly and casually twirled the blooming flower with his fingertips.

Someone on the side suggested: “Let’s search for other openable rooms on the second floor now. After all, everyone how urgent is the task. What if there’s no prop at all on the first floor?”

Others nodded in agreement.

Players spread out, looking for any special items that might be game props.

Ge Xiu also slowly followed behind the crowd, looking coldly at the interior of the rooms that could be opened.

Almost every room had traces of children’s aged five to ten lives, with toys, crayons, dolls scattered everywhere. It could be seen from various details that these apartments belonged to families with children, while those on the first floor seemed to belong to couples who had been married for a long time, but had no children.

—Was there any connection here?

Ge Xiu narrowed his eyes thoughtfully.

Everyone had thoroughly searched this floor, but it was  of no surprise that they returned without success.

At this moment, the ringing of an old-fashioned clock sounded from downstairs.

The heavy sound spread down the corridor to everyone’s ears—“Dang—dang—”

the players were all taken aback for a moment.

A few bold players went downstairs together and after a few minutes, they ran back upstairs out of breath. The leading player gasped breathlessly with his hands on his knees, then proceed to hurriedly say: “The, the downstairs clock is ringing, showing six o’clock in the afternoon.”

Another person added: “I just saw the residents’ schedule posted next to the clock and the closing time at night is nine o’clock in the evening, I think that by that time we have to go back to our rooms.”

Suddenly aware of the passage of time, everyone’s expressions turned serious.

Someone suggested: “Since the time is limited, why don’t we search separately, if someone finds something that may be a prop, call others.”

The players all agreed.

Although bigger groups could give players a sense of security, in this type of dungeon, the number of people and the degree of danger were actually irrelevant, everyone needed to know beforehand whether the props on their floors were in the rooms they got assigned, so splitting up was  the best option now.

Everyone quickly found players on the same floor as their companions.

Lin Xue was on the third floor, so she could only bid farewell to Ge Xiu reluctantly.

Ge Xiu looked down at the key he had drawn earlier on the first floor, the dark red numbers engraved on the iron plate were particularly glaring under the dim light.

Top floor.

And it seemed like…he would be the only one living on the fifth floor.

Ge Xiu raised his eyebrows calmly and stuffed the key back into his pocket again.

He walked up the dark stairs and there were fewer and fewer players walking beside him, but there was always a faint sound of deliberately hidden footsteps following behind him.

Ge Xiu didn’t look back, but just walked upstairs steadily.

Soon, he turned a corner, and his figure disappeared at the end of the stairwell.

Cheng Cheng and his partners, who were sneaking behind Ge Xiu, were taken aback for a moment. They looked at each other, rushed up the stairs in three steps at a time and hurriedly looked into the corridor on the fifth floor.

Just happening to meet Ge Xiu’s calm gaze.

The young man in front of them was leaning against the wall with his arms folded, his slender fingertips pinching the blooming rose, which contrasted with that face that looked as if it had the creator’s favour. Under the flickering light, there was a breathtaking sense of beauty, seeming like looking at a masterpiece among art. Even though it was not the first time they saw him, Cheng Cheng and the others couldn’t help being stunned for a few seconds.

Cheng Cheng quickly recovered from the shock.

A fake smile hung on his face as he said,

“It’s fate that we entered the same instance, you should share the clues and help out a little, don’t you think?”

He slowly took a step forward, showing clear intimidation in his attitude.

Ge Xiu smiled softly:

“What if I don’t?”

Cheng Cheng’s face changed and his expression suddenly became gloomy:

“Don’t refuse the toast only to be forced to drink a forfeit, if you’re not discerning of the situation you will have a hard time.”

Ge Xiu looked at the three people in front of him with great interest, and raised his eyebrows:

“For example?”

Cheng Cheng was irritated by the other party’s almost contemptuous attitude and he said without hesitation:

“Don’t motherfucking think that everyone obsessed with you like that idiot Chen Jian, believe it or not, I can sell your ass—”

Before he could finish speaking, he got a kick in the stomach.

That kick was so hard and fierce that it almost dislodged his internal organs.

Cheng Cheng’s eyes darkened and he fell down, rolling down the stairs until he hit the wall in the stairwell. He curled up like a shrimp, his brain was buzzing, and he couldn’t stand up for a while.

The others didn’t expect that Ge Xiu would take action so decisively at the slightest disagreement and they didn’t react at all.

It wasn’t until Cheng Cheng, who was lying at the bottom of the stairs, started coughing heart-piercingly that he woke up from a trance. His face twisted fiercely and he was about to rush forward to teach that ignorant novice a lesson.

Ge Xiu gave him a sideways look.

Those narrowed eyes only glanced lightly, but one could almost feel the coolness brought by the glinting blade brushing past their throat. The two men stopped abruptly, subconsciously freezing in place as a layer of cold sweat oozed down their backs.

Ge Xiu casually withdrew his gaze, stroking the delicate and tender petals of the beautiful red rose with his fingers.

“Be careful what you say.”

There was a smile on his lips and the corners of his brows and eyes seemed to hide sharp poisoned blades, giving others a chill down their backs:

“Otherwise, I can’t guarantee what will happen.”

All three of them were shocked and flinched back.

Ge Xiu sneered, raised his eyes and glanced at the three of them lightly.

His gaze passed over the three of them condescendingly, as if sweeping through an insignificant garbage dump, then turned and walked into the corridor.

The sound of even footsteps gradually faded away.

It seemed that the two people who had been immobilized in place finally regained their senses. They looked at each other with lingering fear, both seeing an incredulous shock in each other’s eyes— he obviously didn’t do anything out of the ordinary, but they just didn’t dare to do make a superfluous movement, the instinctive fear dominated them both.

Obviously they are all people who had experienced more than one game.

Why were they still intimidated by one glance from a novice?

At this moment, a hoarse voice came from the bottom of the stairs: “… idiots! Come and help me!”

The two of them hurried down the stairs as if they had just woken up from a dream, and helped Cheng Cheng, who was still coughing up his lungs, stand up straight.

Cheng Cheng spat out bloody saliva, his eyes were dark and resentful: “Bastard… just you see, Laozi will play him to death…”

He vomited down while being supported by the two people and scolded with dirty words, as if wishing to use his own language to cut that newcomer who didn’t know the difference of heaven and earth into pieces.

At this moment, Cheng Cheng suddenly felt that the two people who were supporting him abruptly stopped walking.

He almost lost his balance and fell.

Cheng Cheng frowned: “You two are fucking…”

Before he could finish speaking, he noticed the two people’s pale complexions, sweaty foreheads, and suddenly constricted pupils.

Cheng Cheng was taken aback and followed their gaze to look down the stairs.

A woman with a kitchen knife in her hand was standing at the bottom of the staircase, her face was pale and unclear, her eyes were cloudy and gray and the lower half of her face was still stained with black and red blood and minced meat, as she spoke slowly:

“I’m hungry.”

“Although the smell isn’t very good, the taste should be just fine.” She giggled happily, the kitchen knife in her hand gleamed sharply under the flickering lights in the stairwell, as she walked up step by step.

The several people reacted suddenly and ran upstairs as if they had seen a ghost.

However, as soon as they raised their heads, they saw two little girls holding hands standing at the end of the stairs.

They were wearing fluffy dresses and the two little girls who were only half the size of a person were each holding a doll in each hand. The dolls had one eye socket empty, but the other eye socket was stuffed with an eyeball that clearly belonged to an adult. Viscous blood flowed down the doll’s face and the eyes that belonged to a living person fixedly stared at the three people standing at the bottom of the stairs.

The two little girls look exactly the same, even their voices were indiscernible from each other.

“Uncle, would you like to play a game?”

The sweet laughter of children sounded in the empty corridor.

“He agreed to let us came to find you.”

The two little girls walked down hand in hand, even the rhythm of their steps was exactly the same, and the two blank faces were facing the three terrified players as they said happily:

“Uncle, Uncle, come and play hide-and-seek with us.”