CH 519

Ever since he entered the orphanage, the essence of the game appeared to have changed. The evil within humanity was evoked and losing here meant dying. When the oldest boy wanted to ask the wolf what time it was again, the only light in the canteen flickered. There was something hiding in the darkness.

The thin boy was seated on the ground. He was too afraid to move. Han Fei held the little boy’s hand and they didn’t move either. Only the oldest boy took steps forward until the strange voice said again, “1 o’clock…”

This time Han Fei heard clearly the voice came from the other side of the canteen, or rather from the headless fatty. After that, Han Fei started to retreat, he wanted to return to the kitchen. Sharing his thought was the only girl there. After she saw fatty’s head was eaten, she was so afraid she cried. Her face was covered in tears but she didn’t dare to make any sound. They slowly moved backward. The kitchen door was right before them when suddenly there was a strange sound coming from the other end of the canteen. It sounded like bugs crawling. At that moment, the fatty slowly turned around.

The little girl didn’t notice this and was still moving towards the kitchen. Han Fei had a very bad feeling. He took a big step towards the girl and used his body to block the fatty’s ‘sight’ of her. Blood leaked out of the headless fatty’s neck. It soaked his shirt. It looked like something was controlling him from the darkness. The chubby arms rose and the pudgy finger pointed at Han Fei. Han Fei didn’t move, he froze to the spot. However, the girl behind Han Fei clearly didn’t realize the problem. She wanted to continue to move, the kitchen door was very close.

The girl took a step when suddenly she fell. She looked at her left leg with fear. A maw seemed to open in the dark. Her slender left leg stepped into the darkness and it was munched off. The girl lost her balance and she fell forward. Pain numbed her mind. The girl hugged her broken leg and cried loudly. The fatty turned around. The oldest child looked at the girl emotionlessly. There was no human emotion in his eyes. He continued, “Mr. Wolf, what’s the time?”

Han Fei dragged the girl and the boy to the kitchen door. He tried to open the door but when he touched the wall, he realized the door had melted into the wall! There was no door there, only an oil painting of a door!

“There’s no escape?” There was no door or window. The canteen was turning absurd. The nightlight was still flickering like it could go out at any moment. The oldest boy continued to move forward.

“The games here are not for children, they are death traps.” When Han Fei started the game, the maddening laughter echoed in his eyes. The mad laughter in the blood-red orphanage appeared to be excited by these ‘games’. “I wonder what will happen if I continue to drive up his excitement.”

Since there was no retreat, Han Fei had to push forward. The oldest boy said that to win, the player had to touch the wolf and return to the starting point but Han Fei had a feeling the boy was lying. He looked at the boy and Han Fei could think of 2 solutions. One was to kill the other players but it was very risky and he didn’t have the heart to do that. The second solution was simpler, it was to kill the wolf. This was simple logic, since the wolf wanted to eat the players, then the players should kill the wolf. The wolf in the dark was the key to winning or losing this game.

“I should try to approach it first.” While Han Fei moved, he kept his eyes on the oldest boy. The boy would glance at the small nightlight on the wall. He would only ask the wolf for the time when the light was on.

‘What would happen if one asks for the time in the dark? The wolf would only call for lunchtime in the dark?’ The girl rolled on the ground in pain, the thin boy was still a few meters from the fatty, the oldest boy had reached the middle of the canteen.

“Mr. Wolf, what is the time?” The boy asked when the light flicked on again. After the light turned off, a voice came from the darkness. “It’s 4 o’clock…” Han Fei listened closely and the voice was a combination of many children’s voices. It was sharp and chilly. ‘Could it be the amalgamation of all the children souls who have died here?’

The unknown was the scariest. After Han Fei understood the rules, he hugged the urn with one hand and held the little boy with another as they moved forward. In the dark, the few people played this crazy game. The oldest boy had covered 3/4 of the way. He was about to speak when the thin boy before him suddenly shook his head like he had seen something.

“Stop asking! I will die, it will eat me!” The thin boy pleaded but the oldest boy didn’t care. His eyes glowed with glee. When the light came on, he asked the question again. The light flickered like it was dying. The canteen sunk into darkness. Then with a munching sound, the voice echoed in everyone’s ears. “It’s midnight…”

When the wolf said it was midnight or lunchtime, the players had to run back to avoid being captured by the wolf. However, Han Fei didn’t hear any footsteps. The oldest boy stood where he was and he didn’t move. ‘Why didn’t he run back?’

This time the darkness lasted for a long time. Just as Han Fei thought the light would not come back. The light returned. Han Fei looked down the canteen. Only a pool of blood and two legs remained of the fatty.

‘He’s caught again?’ The thin boy’s face was pale. He clamped his mouth with both his palms. He crawled under the table as the fatty’s blood flowed towards him.

“Stop, I don’t want to play anymore!” The girl who lost her leg screamed. She crawled with her one leg and a trail of fresh blood followed behind her. It seemed like bad things would happen if one was left at the back of the group.

The oldest boy clearly didn’t want to stop. He was about to speak again when he saw Han Fei approach him. “When the game has started, it can’t be stopped until someone wins. It’s no point stopping me, you wanted to play the game so you can’t blame me!” The boy was crazy. It was hard to tell what he had been through that his eyes were filled with such malice.

“Mr. Wolf, what’s the time?” The oldest boy called nervously at the 2 legs when the light came on. When the light went off, he waited for the wolf’s reply.

Something expanded in the dark. The voice came from all directions. “It’s lunchtime…”

The thin boy screamed and the munching began. No one knew what happened in the dark. “Save me, 24, save me!” The thin boy’s voice echoed in the darkness. It chilled Han Fei’s heart. The scream stopped 3 minutes later. The light came back on. The fatty and the thin boy were gone, in their places were 2 pools of blood. The boy stared down the end of the canteen, he frowned like he was calculating something.

Han Fei thought back to what the thin boy said before he died. He called out the number 24. The white orphanage had the door number of 24. ‘Does this mean the oldest boy is the owner of this orphanage? The first clue is that the child I’m looking for has a brain problem. That is true of the boy. His brain is definitely not right. And he is evil.’

Now that the two children before him had died, the oldest boy knew his chance had arrived. He asked the wolf for time as he charged forward. Han Fei noticed this. Both Superspeed and Night Patrol were triggered, he carried the boy to chase after the other boy. Just as the oldest boy was about to reach the other end of the canteen, Han Fei took out a chain covered in animal fur from his inventory and threw it at the boy. After the chain touched the boy, it grabbed the boy like a claw. The boy was only a few steps from the finish time but he was held in place by Han Fei. After this temporary hurdle, Han Fei and the other boy caught up to him and the 3 of them stopped at the same line.

The oldest boy looked at the chain around his neck. He was so angry his eyes were red and his forehead pulsed with black veins. He was close to the finish line but he was stopped by Han Fei. He had no idea where the nurse got such a thick chain!

His fingers grabbed the chain and he glared at Han Fei. His eyeballs appeared to pop out of the sockets. “You don’t play fair!”

“Such is the way of the world.” Han Fei didn’t show any pity. He was teaching the boy a lesson.

“Let go of the chain!” The boy was desperate. He grabbed the chain and slowly peeled the chain covered in animal fur off his flesh. Han Fei didn’t show it but he was shocked. He couldn’t sense any Yin energy from the boy. The boy was trying to use pure force and malice to pull off the chain.

Just as the boy was about to escape, the light went out again. By then Han Fei and the 2 boys were close to the other end of the canteen. Before they were the two pools of blood. Since he was much closer, Han Fei could sense the change in the dark. He and the oldest boy didn’t dare to move but at that moment, the girl on the ground suddenly shouted, “Mr. Wolf, what’s the time?” Her young voice echoed in the corridor. Han Fei and the oldest boy’s heart chilled. The darkness around them thickened. The ‘Mr. Wolf’ was appearing!

Shadow moved through the pools of blood. The darkness was shifting into the form of a large wolf. The wolf head was covered in children’s headless bodies. When it moved in the dark, all the dead bodies bounced against each other, creating this death music. The fear of the orphans turned the game into this giant monster. The sharp jaw grew out of the mouth. The giant wolf opened its mouth. The voices of many children mingled together as they escaped the wolf’s jaw. “It’s lunchtime…”

The monster formed from fear opened its maw. It bit at Han Fei’s head. At that moment, it felt like the darkness of the canteen surged at Han Fei. He reached towards the urn’s lid but at that moment, the maddening cackle came from deep inside his mind. His lips curled upwards. His eyes were dominated by red. When the wolf bit down, endless strange memories appeared in Han Fei’s mind.

Inside an orphanage, at midnight, the child Han Fei stood at the end of the red canteen. He was facing away from everyone else. When someone asked the question, Han Fei slowly turned around. He held a sharp knife. His cheeks and clothes were covered in dripping blood.

“It’s lunchtime…”

The pain shook the lock inside the orphanage gate. The cackle compelled Han Fei to utter, “It’s lunchtime.”

When he uttered the statement in that unique tone, the monster morphed from fear dissolved instantly, and escaped into the darkness. The real ‘wolf’ had returned.

Han Fei fell to the ground. He felt like his brain was about to explode. At that moment, one of his submerged memories was awakened.

“I’ve played this game before and I am Mr. Wolf!”