CH 12

Decai Middle School

The two stumbled up to the fourth floor at the fastest speed.

They didn’t know if it was because of a psychological reason, but this floor is much darker than the other three floors. The darkness was like a sponge, sucking up all the sounds, leaving only a disturbing boundless silence.

Wen Jianyan stopped for a while and did not continue to rush forward.

“What, what’s wrong?” Su Cheng panted heavily and turned his head to look over.

Wen Jianyan shook his head, took two steps towards the stairwell, put one hand on the handrail, and looked down cautiously.

“……”

There was no sound on the stairwell.

Whether it was the clicking sound of the utility knife, or the strange humming sound of the old witch, all of them disappeared, as if they were isolated in another dimension.

“They didn’t catch up.” Wen Jianyan looked back and frowned.

Su Cheng stood beside him blankly, his chest still rising and falling rapidly, and he looked at the young man in front of him with some puzzlement.

Isn’t this a good thing?

But why… the other party’s face didn’t have the slightest sense of ease, instead, it seemed to be more solemn?

Seeing that Wen Jianyan didn’t seem to be ready to continue to move forward, Su Cheng said in horror:

“Wait, you, do you want to go back?”

Looking at the dark stairwell, he thought of the two NPCs just now who were chasing after them, Su Cheng couldn’t help shivering and proposed:

“How about we go down the stairs at the back? That way, we might be able to bypass those two.”

Not to mention whether they can go down now, even if they can, they might fall into the same situation as before.

Now, there was only one last way left in front of him.

——keep going.

“…Well.”

Wen Jianyan sighed and nodded weakly: “Let’s go.”

There was a stale smell of dust in the air, the temperature was very low, a bit colder than downstairs, and the needle-like chill penetrated into the thin clothes and gradually invaded the skin.

There was no light source in the entire corridor, and everything was shrouded in increasing darkness.

The closed doors swept past.

The silence in the ears was frightening, and they could only hear the slight friction between the soles and the ground when walking.

Going forward in the darkness, the concept of time seems to be distorted, every second is almost stretched into a century, and the space seems to be stretched infinitely, making people almost fall into a strange daze.

“Deng—”

A dull bell rang from downstairs, and the dusty air vibrated, making people shudder subconsciously.

“Deng——Deng——”

The bell continued to ring, ringing twelve times.

It’s twelve o’clock.

At this moment, a familiar mechanical voice sounded in their ears at the same time:

【Ding, it has been detected that the anchor’s live broadcast has reached three hours, do you want to start the point settlement?】

The sudden voice startled Su Cheng, and his shoulders trembled.

He secretly glanced at Wen Jianyan and saw that the other party didn’t seem to notice his gaffe, so he felt relieved, and secretly replied in his mind:

“Open.”

At the same time, Wen Jianyan was also doing the same thing.

His expression was calm, he looked ahead, and replied in his mind as he walked forward: “Open.”

【In the E-class live broadcast room 789326qwk, the average number of viewers per hour is 7000, which can be redeemed for 700 points.

It is detected that the anchor is a novice, so the points you earned for this live broadcast will be doubled, and 1400 points have been settled into your account for you. There are still 3200 points left before your live broadcast room upgrade, please make persistent efforts and create greater glories!】

【In your live broadcast, a total of 226 people gave a reward and you got a total of 4150 reward points.

It is detected that the anchor is a novice. Your live broadcast system will not take any points, and 4150 points have been settled into your account for you.】

【The remaining points in your account: 28450】

【Next point settlement time: 3:00】

Immediately afterwards, Wen Jianyan exchanged two hours of survival time again to ensure that he survived until the next settlement.

After the purchase, the voice sounded again:

【The remaining points in your account are: 10450】

Wen Jianyan’s steps suddenly stopped.

At the moment when the sound fell in his ears, his peripheral vision caught the presence of a door not far away.

The yellow paint on the door was peeling off, the door shaft was rusted, and the room number hung crookedly on it.

「408」

In the darkness around him, the three half-rusted characters seemed extremely dazzling and abrupt, as if some invisible force had attracted his attention.

“……”

Fuck.

Wen Jianyan’s eyes twitched slightly.

He was expressionless and walked straight forward without looking sideways.

After a few seconds.

Room 408 appeared again.

Wen Jianyan didn’t even look at it, and once again speeded up his pace silently—

Soon, room 408 appeared hauntingly in front of him again.

Wen Jianyan: “……”

His feet were flying, and the doors of the room were quickly left behind him, but 408 still appeared in the field of vision again.

Su Cheng was tired, he was panting, barely keeping up with Wen Jianyan’s pace: “Brother, Brother XiaoWen, don’t you think the time we walk… is a bit too long?”

The corridor was stretched endlessly into the darkness as if it didn’t have any end.

Based on the size of the building, this corridor should have been finished by now.

He doesn’t know when it started, but the lights in the stairwell have long been engulfed by the darkness and disappeared without a trace.

Only darkness remained behind.

The bedrooms on both sides of the corridor were not numbered, the doors were closed tightly as if they had been welded to death, and the dark windows stare at them intently.

It seems as if there was only this endless corridor and the two people in the corridor left in the whole world.

…the ghost built the wall?

Su Cheng shivered involuntarily.

Wen Jianyan: “…..”

Do you think I don’t know!

I just don’t want to know!

He finally gave up the struggle, stopped slowly, and said weakly:

“Ah, it seems to be true…”

Su Cheng stopped and managed to straighten his breathing.

He didn’t seem to notice Wen Jianyan’s strange reaction but began to probe the surrounding environment very cautiously. Suddenly, he seemed to have found something:

“Hey! Speaking of which, room 408… Did we pass by it before?”

Wen Jian said dryly, “Oh, I didn’t notice.”

Unexpectedly, he was the first to discover the clues this time. Su Cheng was suddenly full of energy, and felt that he had finally come in handy:

“This room is definitely not ordinary!”

He said firmly.

Su Cheng approached cautiously, gently pushing the door with his fingertips, only to hear a creaking sound, and 408 opened a small gap.

He said excitedly: “This door can be pushed open!”

The other doors passing by on the road are all locked, and only this door could be pushed open.

What does this mean?

This means that there are clues they have been looking for!

Su Cheng’s eyes lit up and he turned his head: “Brother XiaoWen, let’s go, let’s go in.”

Wen Jianyan: “……”

…Help.

“Don’t worry, if there is any accident,” Su Cheng raised his chest and said firmly, “I will definitely protect you!”

Wen Jianyan’s mouth twitched: “…Thank you.”

Although he was very sure that there was danger inside the door, even Wen Jianyan had to admit that in the current situation of ghosts building the wall, running around in the corridor like a headless fly could only waste his physical strength, and would not help to improve the current situation.

No matter how reluctant he is, judging from the current situation…

Walking into room 408 has become his only choice.

Su Cheng took the lead in pushing the door and walking inside.

Wen Jianyan raised his hand and pinched his eyebrows. He sighed for a long time, bit the bullet and followed.

He raised his hand and slowly pushed open the half-open door in front of him.

Darkness, boundless darkness enveloped his vision.

“…Hey.”

Wen Jianyan frowned and whispered.

No one responded.

“Where are you?”

Still no response.

The room in front of him was pitch-black and deadly silent, and the only response to him was the endless sound of the wind in the empty space. The person who had entered the room only a dozen seconds before him, disappeared without a trace at this moment, as if he had been swallowed up.

The rotten and cold air poured into the nasal cavity, causing the body temperature to drop slowly.

A strange shudder slowly climbed up his back.

Wen Jianyan took a deep breath, forced himself to open the system mall calmly, and spent 20 points to buy a flashlight.

“Snap.”

A beam of light appeared in the darkness, illuminating the scene in front of him.

…lots of mirrors.

Wen Jianyan was stunned.

In front of him were several huge floor-to-ceiling mirrors, each reflecting the light of the flashlight and his own expressionless and nervous face.

The mirrors are arranged together in a random pattern, and a path is divided in the middle, extending into the depths of the endless labyrinth.

As far as the eye could see, there was no second person.

Wen Jianyan swallowed his saliva and turned his head to look behind.

He doesn’t know when the door had disappeared, leaving only countless mirrors standing quietly behind him, quietly reflecting his own figure.

“……”

There was no way out.

Wen Jianyan had no choice but to settle down and walked toward the mirror labyrinth.

The flashlight in his hand is reflected by the mirror, forming countless light sources.

Countless mirrors reflected the young man’s figure from all directions, and when he moved, countless shadows moved at the same time, as if he was surrounded and monitored by countless mirrors himself, which was simply creepy.

Although each mirror contains the same face, after looking at it for a long time, it will give people a strange and eerie feeling.

Wen Jianyan was already intuitive and sensitive. Surrounded by countless mirrors, every nerve was kept in a state of extreme vigilance. A slight noise at the edge of his sight would instantly make him nervous, but after walking for a few minutes, he felt physically and mentally exhausted.

Until—

Under the light of the flashlight, the figure of a little girl appeared not far away.

Wen Jianyan was startled.

Xiao Jie?

He took a few steps forward but stopped just before hitting a mirror.

Wen Jianyan stopped his steps.

He suddenly realised that what he saw was just an image in the mirror.

In the image, the little girl is holding a baby tooth which has just been replaced, sending it to a huge mirror that looks very strange, and makes a wish in an innocent and childish voice — I hope I can help my mother.

The little girl’s figure disappeared.

Wen Jianyan continued to move forward.

In the next mirror, the old witch wailed and knelt in front of the mirror, cutting off her waist-length hair with the knife in her hand—let my daughter come back, I am willing to be your slave.

Wen Jianyan paused and continued to move forward.

In the next mirror.

The drenched old witch stood in front of the mirror, her facial features twisted and ugly, like a ghost.

She cut out her own eyeballs with a knife—I gave my eyes in exchange for more eyes so that the man who pretended to be a trainee teacher and took my daughter away from men had nowhere to hide.

The skin cracked, and vicious eyeballs grew out from beneath the flesh.

Wen Jianyan: “……”

This section should have happened after he entered the instance.

That is “NPC Alienation”.

He stepped forward again.

This time, all the footage disappeared.

Only the sharp knife lay quietly on the ground, reflecting a cold lustre.

His own face was reflected in every mirror, and in the pale light of the flashlight, it looked very strange.

Wen Jianyan took a deep breath and turned to leave—

But the next second, his movements suddenly stopped.

He turned around, but the man in the mirror… was not really him.

Wen Jianyan slowly turned his head and looked into the mirror.

Wen Jianyan in the mirror smiled and looked back at him.

To be precise, Wen Jianyan in all the mirrors showed the same expression and movement—

“Wen Jianyan” stretched out his hand with a smile.

Make a wish.

Wen Jianyan heard his own voice ringing in his mind.

Countless shadows gradually surrounded him.

Make a wish.

The voice was getting louder and clearer, as if it sounded from all directions, revolving in his mind.

Wen Jianyan saw his own reflection in the mirror bending down slowly.

“…!”

Could it be that—

Wen Jianyan sucked in a breath of cold air and watched helplessly as he picked up the knife that the old witch used to gouge out her eyes, and then slowly put it across his thumb.

There was a tingling pain at the end of his thumb.

Wen Jianyan looked down and found a fresh bloodstain on his thumb.

Wen Jianyan in the mirror smiled, the corners of his mouth stretched even more, looking almost malicious—

But Wen Jianyan moved even faster.

Almost without thinking, he pushed the pulp of his fingers upward.

With a “click” sound, the flashlight went out.

The light source disappears.

All that was left was endless darkness and tranquillity.

Wen Jianyan panted slightly, his stiff fingers still numb.

Without the light source, the mirror lost its effect.

Fortunately, it seems that the rules here and in classroom 408 in the teaching building are the same.

But… Now the same question arises, how does he get out of this room?

While Wen Jianyan was thinking hard, a familiar touch suddenly came from his feet.

Wet and sticky, like a skinned cat rubbing against his ankle affectionately.

This is… Xiao Ju!

Is it not just the rules, but the space between these two rooms is also the same!

When Wen Jianyan destroyed the altar according to the contents of the booklet and released this little thing, he really didn’t expect this cat to play such a big role.

He breathed a sigh of relief and walked forward with Xiao Ju’s guidance.

In the pitch-black darkness where he could not even see his fingers, Wen Jianyan stepped forward with difficulty and even bumped into the mirror walls from time to time.

Stumbling away for an unknown amount of time, the surrounding space suddenly opened up.

“Meow.”

A faint cat meow sounded.

Immediately afterwards, the sticky touch that had been around his feet disappeared.

…arrived?

Wen Jianyan hesitated for a moment then covered the flashlight with one hand, leaving only a gap between his fingers, and then turned the flashlight on again.

Faint light spilt out from between his fingers, barely illuminating the front.

What appeared in front of him was not a door, nor a corridor, but endless darkness. In the darkness, a huge mirror stood silently in front of him.

This mirror looks heavy and strange, with strange patterns carved on the edge, wrapping around the entire mirror like vines.

Pulled by some kind of weird force, Wen Jianyan took a step and walked toward the mirror.

Strangely, his face was not reflected in the mirror.

Instead…

Wen Jianyan frowned and slowly moved closer.

The phantom of a man lay in the mirror, submerged in the shadows, the long soft jet-black hair spread out under him, and on the pale skin, there were weird and eerie dark lines like tattoos or incarnations.

So peaceful, so serene.

And so terrifying.

A layer of cold sweat broke out on Wen Jianyan’s back.

— It’s a biological horror.

It was like staring into the abyss in which you were falling, and you could only watch in horror as the endless darkness engulfed you.

The nature of animals that perceive danger was trembling frantically, every cell in the body was screaming to flee, and the limbs could hardly control the urge to escape —

This feeling was expressed in accurate words, but one thing Wen Jianyan was very clear about.

Although that phantom fully conformed to the standard of “human-like”, it was not ugly, and there was not even the slightest distortion, but for some reason, the sense of pressure he brought far exceeded any ghost he has encountered in the entire instance, and even the mirror itself was terrifying, almost completely surpassing his own cognition as a human being.

The inhuman, almost ghost-like, primitive sense of terror emanating from the other party made Wen Jianyan instinctively horrified.

Run away!

While there is still time!

Wen Jianyan made a decisive decision and turned around to run!

However, in the instant, before he could move, the strange force that attracted him here suddenly intensified!

“This…?!”

Wen Jianyan was shocked to find that his limbs had lost the power to move, he was being drawn into the mirror uncontrollably, and the man in the shadows was getting closer and closer to him—

Wen Jianyan’s eyes widened suddenly.

Fuck, fuck, fuck!

Aaaaahhhhhhhhhhh I’m going to be dragged in!

Don’t come here aaaaahhhhh!

The mirror surface swayed slightly, like an extended membrane, swarming towards the young man, whispering softly.

Come on.

Beautiful offering, offer your body and soul.

Come on.

Bow down to God and be the nourishment for His awakening.

From the tip of the toes to the calves, to the knees, to the thighs—

Wen Jianyan felt his body being pulled and quickly sinking as if he was being swallowed bit by bit into the mouth of a giant beast. The strange and frightening feeling made his hair stand on end.

Looking at the phantom of the man who was getting closer and closer to him, Wen Jianyan took a deep breath.

“Backpack! Open the backpack!”

Although he cherished his hard-earned points, each life-saving item was ridiculously expensive, but if he continued like this, he would be doomed!

However, for some unknown reason, the system seemed to be malfunctioning, and no matter how Wen Jianyan called, he couldn’t get it out.

It was just like being disconnected.

Wen Jianyan: “…..”

Garbage!

The man in the shadow is getting closer and closer, and Wen Jianyan can almost see the other side’s pale, sharp chin and beautifully curved lower lip, and as the distance decreased, the creepy and terrifying aura on the other party became more and more distinct, approaching him slowly.

Wen Jianyan: “……”

No, right?

He’s not going to end like this, is he?

He gritted his teeth, crossed his heart, and shoved the back of his hand to his mouth.

Hit his upper and lower teeth hard!

The next second, blood splattered, and the hot scarlet liquid dripped down.

Plop

A bright red and bloody piece of flesh rolled to the ground.

Wen Jianyan spat the excess blood in his mouth to the ground, and shouted in an extremely calm voice:

“I want to make a wish!”

The speed of the subsidence stopped.

Wen Jianyan saw that his face finally appeared in the mirror.

“Wen Jianyan” in the mirror smiled and asked, “So, what sacrifice are you willing to make for your wish?”

Wen Jianyan raised the corners of his blood-stained mouth, revealing a bloody smile. He looked even more terrifying than the person in the mirror, and said decisively:

“My soul.”

“…Your soul?”

“Wen Jianyan” in the mirror was slightly startled, and a flash of greed quickly flashed in his eyes. The next second, the curvature of his lips rose even more, and he commented in a tone of admiration:

“Ah, the condition is very good.”

“What is your wish?”

The person in the mirror became solid, and his tone even became somewhat urgent.

Wen Jianyan calmly pointed to the sleeping phantom in the mirror:

“I want him.”

Please consider supporting me on ko-fi!