Chapter 318 - 315: Nightfall

Chapter 318: Chapter 315: Nightfall

Inside the Block, Mo Ling stared anxiously at the electronic screen.

Time passed agonizingly slow, every second an eternity.

The one hour and forty minutes were an agonizing wait. Mo Ling began to pace anxiously inside the Block.

’This should be when the white light is at its strongest,’ Mo Ling calculated. It was around this time last night that he’d been unable to fight off the drowsiness and had fallen asleep.

But now, hidden inside the Block, the white light naturally couldn’t penetrate the solid metal walls. Mo Ling felt no drowsiness at all.

However, being unable to extend his vision outside made Mo Ling feel incredibly cooped up. His gaze kept darting to the electronic screen on the bed.

...

’It’s almost time.’

After an anxious wait, the timer was finally about to hit zero. An hour and a half had passed, with only the final ten minutes left.

This was the waiting period Mo Ling had set for himself to ensure the white light outside had completely vanished.

The ten minutes passed quickly. Mo Ling cautiously extended his vision through the metal wall.

Pitch black. He let out a sigh of relief.

’Looks like the white light has completely disappeared.’

After waiting a moment longer, no drowsiness assailed him, so Mo Ling grew bold and expanded his field of vision.

Although it was dark outside, Mo Ling could still make out objects within the gloom.

Li Luo was slumped in her chair, fast asleep. She was sleeping so soundly her head had lolled to one side.

A brass gong sat quietly on the table. The moment Mo Ling’s vision finished expanding, he maneuvered the Block to strike it.

CLANG!

A deafening noise reverberated throughout the studio.

But Li Luo, slumped in the chair, didn’t react at all. Not even an eyelid twitched.

’Just as I thought. Sound won’t wake her.’

Mo Ling then turned his attention to the bucket of water suspended from the ceiling. The ice cubes inside had mostly melted, but the water was still chillingly cold.

’I hope this works.’

The teleportation frame took aim at the rope on one side of the bucket and swiftly severed it. The water in the bucket came splashing down, landing squarely on Li Luo’s head.

Not only that, but the remaining bits of ice even slid down into her clothes.

However, this method also seemed to be ineffective.

After a moment’s wait, Li Luo’s head remained lolled to the side. She was still dead to the world, showing no reaction whatsoever. The ice shards had done nothing.

’Time to try the last method.’

Mo Ling was starting to worry. ’If this last method doesn’t work, I’ll have to explore this darkness on my own.’

The outer wall of the Block gently pressed against the back of the chair. Mo Ling carefully began to tip it backward, and Li Luo’s feet slowly lifted off the floor as the chair tilted.

Once it passed the tipping point, the chair fell backward violently. With her back to the ground, Li Luo plummeted toward the floor.

It was all happening so fast. Just as Li Luo was about to crash onto the ground with the chair...

...her tightly shut eyes suddenly snapped open. She twisted her body in mid-air and rolled to the side. Although she still hit the ground, she managed to brace her fall with her hands, avoiding injury.

Li Luo remained on the floor for a long moment, panting heavily. She clearly hadn’t gotten her bearings yet.

The bits of ice still on her made her shiver uncontrollably, but the shock also snapped her fully awake, allowing her to recognize her situation.

"Did it work?" she asked, overjoyed.

Then, she reached out, fumbling in the darkness beside her.

"Block, are you there?"

Mo Ling maneuvered the Block to touch her hand. With its support, Li Luo struggled to her feet in the pitch-black darkness.

The electronic screen on the table was still emitting a faint glow. Li Luo fumbled her way over, picked it up, and switched on its flashlight mode.

She let out a sigh of relief as her immediate surroundings were faintly illuminated.

Li Luo looked at the still-swaying gong and the overturned chair, then touched her own ice-water-soaked clothes.

"So it took the last method to wake me up? That sleep really is deep... abnormally so."

Using the faint light from the screen, Li Luo looked around again. The hypnotic white light had completely vanished, and the studio was now frighteningly dark.

"We really made it into the darkness..."

She gave the Block a thumbs-up. "The plan was a success. Now we just have to find what’s hidden in this darkness."

"The innkeeper said that many figures can only be active at night. We need to find someone to ask; they’re bound to know something."

Li Luo had the Block follow her as she slowly walked out of the studio.

The street outside was still pitch-black, so dark you couldn’t see your hand in front of your face. Li Luo’s screen was like a lone island in the darkness, emitting a feeble light.

"How is there no light at all?"

Li Luo tilted her head back to look at the sky.

"Where are the moon and stars?"

For some reason—perhaps the cloud cover was too thick—the moon was nowhere to be seen, and neither were any stars. This made the street seem even blacker.

On top of that, the surroundings were completely silent, without a single sound.

"It’s so dark... unnaturally so," Li Luo said gravely.

Mo Ling’s vision slowly expanded as he observed the surroundings.

What he found strange was that there was no one around. Not just on the street, but even inside the houses. The beds that should have been occupied were all empty.

’Where did everyone go?’

His vision extended to its maximum limit. By now, Mo Ling’s field of view was immense, yet he couldn’t see a single person within that vast range. The buildings were all completely empty.

Li Luo held her screen, at a complete loss.

"Wasn’t it supposed to be lively at night?" she asked in confusion. "Was the innkeeper lying? Or did everyone just fall asleep?"

Just as the two of them stood there, unsure of where to go, a Black Shadow suddenly shot into the edge of Mo Ling’s vision.

As the only moving object in the darkness, it immediately captured Mo Ling’s attention.

’What is that thing?’

Mo Ling could vaguely make out what looked like a person riding something. It was moving incredibly fast, shrouded in a black mist that made it blurry in the darkness.

’It’s coming this way!’

Although he couldn’t see it clearly, Mo Ling could tell that the Black Shadow was rapidly approaching Li Luo’s position.

Mo Ling quickly had the Block tap Li Luo’s shoulder, then moved to block the direction from which the Black Shadow was approaching.

As if reading his mind, Li Luo quickly backed away, placing a hand on her purple wrist strap as she stared warily ahead.

The Black Shadow was too fast. Before Mo Ling could get a good look, it had already dashed right up to them, screeching to a halt.

As the Black Shadow stood before them, Li Luo and Mo Ling finally got a clear look at it.

It was a person riding a bicycle.

"The cyclist!" Li Luo couldn’t help but exclaim.

It was indeed the cyclist, but his appearance was strange.

His protective gear and cycling suit were tattered, and his helmet was covered in all sorts of strange stains. Even his bicycle, which had looked pristine white during the day, was now pitch-black.

A jet-black mist billowed from the bike’s frame, creeping up onto the cyclist’s body.

Most terrifying of all, through the bike’s broken frame, they could see its internal structure. It looked like some kind of living, black flesh, constantly throbbing. The billowing black mist was escaping in time with the pulsing of that flesh.

The cyclist raised his hand. His arm was covered in wounds, and through the gashes, they could see the same black mist churning within his body.

Furthermore, his arrival was accompanied by a sudden "SHH... SHH... SHH..." sound, like something coarse being scraped together.

’Wait a minute.’

Mo Ling quickly focused his vision on the "black mist."

Now, he could finally see what it was made of.

’That isn’t mist! It’s sand!’