Chapter 163 - 150: Escape

Yin Zhen picked up the butcher’s knife and searched both his body and the room, yet she still couldn’t find anything that could serve as an Explanation of her Identity. There was no phone either, making it impossible to call the police for help. She did have Zhang Yueqin’s phone on her, which she had deliberately brought along when she logged into the instance early. Yin Zhen took it out and, sure enough, there was no Signal.

Even if there was a Signal, she couldn’t use this phone to call the police. She currently had no memories and no idea what was going on here. Calling the police would only get her into trouble. The exclusive Copper Card event mentioned that if her Identity was suspected, it would be judged as an event failure.

"I’ll go out and take a look first," she muttered.

Yin Zhen put on the rubber boots left in the corner. Gripping the knife, she quickly found the exit to this place.

Pulling open the iron door, a blindingly intense light hit her face without any warning, instantly swallowing her entire field of vision. Yin Zhen instinctively closed her eyes. An intense bout of dizziness left her barely able to stand. When she opened her eyes again, she froze completely. Everything around her had changed.

She was standing in a dimly lit, dilapidated hallway of a residential building. The mottled walls were plastered with small flyers, and the air was filled with the musty smell typical of old houses. She was no longer wearing the bloodstained pajamas, but an ordinary set of summer clothes. She had clean canvas shoes on her feet and a heavy backpack slung over her shoulders.

Looking down, Yin Zhen saw that she was holding a set of keys, preparing to open the door in front of her. She quickly took a step back and scanned her surroundings. The hallway was narrow and cluttered with miscellaneous items. The handrails of the stairs going up and down were mottled with rust. The voice-activated light overhead seemed to be broken, BUZZING and flickering.

Yin Zhen took off the backpack and rummaged through it. Textbooks, workbooks, a pencil case... Finally, her hand brushed against a student ID.

[Name]: Qiao Mu

[School]: Beiling City No. 3 High School

[Class]: Grade 11, Class 4

The photo showed a pretty, long-haired girl with a hint of childishness, her expression appearing somewhat introverted and timid. But for some reason, Yin Zhen felt there was something incongruous about this face. She checked the new Character Card again. The information was still locked. Saving and Blood Source Resonance were still unusable.

Yin Zhen looked at the door in front of her. She could anticipate that something bizarre would happen inside. She turned and walked toward the stairs to see if she could leave this scene directly. She walked down the stairs. When she reached the landing that should have been the next floor down, the sight before her made her pupils tremble slightly.

She had returned to the floor she had just left!

There were the exact same mottled walls, the exact same corner piled with clutter, and the exact same security door with a faded "Fu" character plastered on it.

Yin Zhen’s heart raced. Refusing to believe it, she quickly walked down again. One floor, two floors, three floors... Whether she went up or down, there was only that door!

She was like being trapped in an endless M?bius strip. No matter how many floors she walked, she would ultimately return to the starting point. Yin Zhen understood that a physical escape was futile. To complete the "escape" event, she had to enter this home and face the horror head-on.

Left with no choice, Yin Zhen tightened her grip on the keys and opened the door to Qiao Mu’s home.

The lights in the living room were off. The lighting was extremely dim, with only the constantly flickering eerie glow of the TV screen illuminating the contours of the room. The furniture was of a typical older generation style, featuring heavy wooden sofas and an old-fashioned glass coffee table. Everything had a sense of age.

Two people sat on the sofa with their backs to the door, watching TV. They sat completely upright. A football match was playing on the TV, but the volume was turned extremely low. There was only an indistinct BUZZING sound and muffled snippets of commentary.

Yin Zhen stood at the door. She didn’t speak up immediately, nor did she change her shoes. The sound of her opening the door wasn’t quiet, but the two people remained motionless. Only the light from the TV screen flickered on and off across their bodies. A sense of eeriness permeated the air. Yin Zhen frowned and tentatively called out, "I’m back."

SWISH!

The two figures on the sofa violently snapped their heads around in a completely synchronized, stiff manner, staring intently at Yin Zhen in unison. Both faces were pale and stiff, the corners of their mouths pulled up into a standard curve, like eerie masks carved from the exact same mold.

The father said, "Mumu is back."

The mother followed up, "You must be hungry. The food is on the dining table."

After saying those two sentences, the two faces, still wearing their bizarre smiles, turned back in that completely synchronized motion, facing the TV screen once again.

Yin Zhen braced herself and spoke again. "I..."

The moment she opened her mouth, the two people on the sofa turned their heads again.

"Mumu is back."

"You must be hungry. The food is on the dining table."

They had the exact same expressions and the exact same tone. An intense, sickening chill instantly swept through Yin Zhen’s entire body, making her scalp tingle.

She clamped her mouth shut and stopped speaking, quickly walking into the house. As she passed the dining table, she saw that there was indeed a bowl of noodles resting on it. However, the noodles had been left there for an unknown amount of time. They had long since clumped together, covered in black mold and squirming with maggots. Flies buzzed wildly around the bowl.

Yin Zhen’s stomach churned as she looked toward the kitchen. A sour stench of long-uncleaned garbage wafted out from the kitchen. She glanced at the two people on the sofa, stealthily slipped inside, and took a knife from the block.

Yin Zhen found Qiao Mu’s room, went inside, and locked the door behind her. Leaning against the door, her heart pounded wildly. People could be killed; no matter how strong they were, she wasn’t afraid. But ghosts and monsters were inexplicable, and she couldn’t help but feel a degree of uncontrollable fear.

The real "escape," she feared, had only just begun.

Yin Zhen took a deep breath, gradually calming down. She thought to herself, "As long as I can hold out for six hours, I’ll obtain this Character’s memories of the last seven days and their basic common knowledge. By then, maybe I can find some clues." Thinking of this, she checked the system countdown. The system’s countdown wasn’t constantly hovering above her head now. She needed to focus her consciousness to see it, just like checking the forum.

[167:54:30]

"This..." Yin Zhen was shocked. From the time she woke up near the butcher until now, it felt like at least half an hour had passed, yet the system countdown had only ticked down by five minutes. Now, as she stared at the countdown, the seconds weren’t moving at all. This proved she was in a completely abnormal space.

She wondered if this was the Ghost Realm.

"Dog system, is this the difficulty of a Copper Card Level?" Yin Zhen really wanted to curse. The Red Corpse World had started on Hell difficulty, and now this was too? The system was giving her far too much credit!

Yin Zhen began to scan Qiao Mu’s bedroom. The room wasn’t large. It had a single bed, a desk, and a wardrobe. The curtains were drawn, making the lighting dim. She pressed her ear against the door and listened for a while. It was dead silent outside, without the slightest sound. She took out Zhang Yueqin’s phone. Unsurprisingly, there was still no Signal.

Yin Zhen walked to the window and tried to push it open. Even though it was clearly unlocked, the window wouldn’t budge. The world outside was a hazy sea of fog, which indeed bore some resemblance to the Ghost Realm. Dropping her backpack, Yin Zhen began a thorough, carpet-style search of Qiao Mu’s room.