Chapter 51.3
Xiao Tangqiu couldn’t believe it, but it was true.
In order to delay time, he used all his remaining low-level exorcism talismans and even grabbed the other five from Tang Mianmian.
In spite of this, he only managed to delay her for less than ten seconds.
And they still hadn’t found a way out.
Tang Mianmian slammed his shoulder so hard it started to bleed, but the bathroom door still didn’t budge. They were almost on the verge of despair. Seeing that the last low-level exorcism talisman failed, the female corpse descended upon them again. Xiao Tangqiu grit his teeth and put the useless key into the keyhole with his last glimmer of hope.
Click.
The door opened.
Xiao Tangqiu, “……”
Tang Mianmian, “……”
f.u.c.k! Why didn’t they think of it just now?
The two had no time to moan about their grievances. They quickly escaped from the bathroom but they didn’t rush out too far because of their fear. After all, the bitter experience from countless horror games and horror movies told them that they must close the door behind them.
As soon as they ran out of the bathroom, they immediately turned around and closed the door, locking it again!
Bang! Bang! Bang!
There was a burst of loud noise from the bathroom which sounded frightening. However, this bathroom door was as impossible to open as it was earlier and was still intact so the female corpse inside shouldn’t be able to get out.
The crash in the bathroom sounded quieter and quieter until it disappeared completely. Only then did they breathe a sigh of relief.
They exchanged a look and smiled bitterly at the same time.
“f.u.c.k! That key could obviously open the door. Why didn’t we think of such a simple thing?” Tang Mianmian was very puzzled.
Xiao Tangqiu gave a wry smile. “I’m to blame for this. I’ve been subconsciously thinking that the way out isn’t so simple, so I can’t help thinking about it at in a complicated manner. My thoughts have been circling round and round till I ended up at a dead end and couldn’t think of anything else.”
Tang Mianmian didn’t let himself off either, “I also blame myself for thinking too simply earlier. But the result was, I ended up complicating matters when it was really so simple.”
Xiao Tangqiu said, “In fact, there’s nothing wrong with us thinking to open the door with the key. At first, we couldn’t open the door because we didn’t fulfil the conditions. Later, when the conditions were met, naturally, we could open the door with the key.”
Tang Mianmian was puzzled. “Then what were the conditions we fulfilled to open the door? Was it when we brought the woman back to life? Or did we have to be hunted down by female corpses to open the door?”
Xiao Tangqiu speculated, “Maybe both.”
What they were playing now was not a scary puzzle. There were no strategies or hints at all. They could only guess by themselves. Even if they finally got through, they might never know all the answers and the truth.
But now was obviously not the time to lament. They had just wasted a lot of time in the bathroom. Now the water was going to reach their necks. If they still didn’t escape, they would probably be drowned alive in this water dungeon.
Because of the buoyancy and friction in the water, it was difficult for them to keep their balance, so their movements were very difficult. Fortunately, all the furniture in the house were fixed to the floor. They could still walk as long as they held onto the furniture and the walls.
However, as the water level in the house got higher and higher and the oxygen in the air got less and less, both of them were beginning to feel that their breathing wasn’t as smooth as before.
Not only that, they also hadn’t yet found the key to open the iron gate, not even a shadow of it. Just now, the bathroom was most likely just a trap. They found nothing in it and also wasted precious time.
Just as they were returning to the living room to look for the key, they finally met the other two head-on. Tang Mianmian immediately shouted, “Where have you been?”
The other two players expressionlessly looked at Tang Mianmian. Although the situation was critical, their expressions were almost numb and they didn’t seem to realize that their lives were in danger… Or perhaps he should say that they didn’t seem to care.
“What the h.e.l.l are you doing?! Why aren’t you helping?”
Tang Mianmian pursed his lips. If he wasn’t so anxious that he could dig three feet into the ground, he would have rushed over to teach the two men how to be human beings. Everyone was on the same boat. Did they want to watch the boat sink?
Xiao Tangqiu frowned slightly. He didn’t see the two people look for anything since just now. Compared with the two of them who were looking hard for the key, the two players seemed to be wandering aimlessly in the room from beginning to end… Didn’t they want to leave here at all? Or were they unconcerned with whether they lived or died?
Because Xiao Tangqiu and Tang Mianmian had unluckily partic.i.p.ated in all the events before, they had gotten to know the other players. The two people before them were a man and a woman. The man had entered the haunted house with them before and the woman had “won” the lottery for the first time.
In theory, Xiao Tangqiu had only met this girl for the first time in the game but he always felt that the girl seemed a little familiar. Yet the strangest thing was that she had wrapped herself up tightly, not only putting on the hat but also an overcoat. She wore her hat low, burying her head deeply and not looking at them.
The water level had almost reaching their chins.
“Forget it, let’s look in the bedroom again!” Tang Mianmian started to get impatient.
Just then, the girl suddenly said, “Are you looking for the key? We found the key.”
Xiao Tangqiu and Tang Mianmian immediately froze. They looked at each other subconsciously. Tang Mianmian was the first to ask, “What? You actually found the key?” Were these two people in no hurry because they had already found the key?
The girl bowed her head and said, “Yes, we just found the key…”
“Where did you find it? We’ve been looking for a long time, but why haven’t we found anything?” Tang Mianmian asked. But he soon reacted and knew that they had to solve the urgent crisis first. “Forget it, it doesn’t matter now. Bring out the key so we can quickly get out of here!”
The girl whispered, “I’ll give you the key and you can open the door.”
Xiao Tangqiu subconsciously felt that something was wrong but he did not know what.
Logically speaking, it should be safest for them to hold the key. After all, if the two people had malicious intentions, they could lock them in the house after opening the door with the key… Unless, they knew that the first person to open the door would suffer.
On the other side, Tang Mianmian wasn’t thinking too much. He immediately reached out for the key.
The girl held out her hand underwater and was about to give the key to Tang Mianmian when Xiao Tangqiu suddenly cried out, “Don’t touch it! That’s a fake key!”
Tang Mianmian got a fright. He hadn’t even properly reacted to his words but his body had subconsciously taken a step back and he didn’t grab the key that was handed by the girl.
In the next second, the thing that looked like a key turned into a black worm that was as big as a thumb!
The black worm’s body flashed a cold metallic light and suddenly jumped toward the Tang Mianmian!
Fortunately, Tang Mianmian had responded in a timely manner and took out the multifunctional Swiss Army knife that he had exchanged before. The side of the knife popped up and the black worm flew away with one slash!
When the knife came into contact with the sh.e.l.l of the black worm, a loud ka-boom sounded! The sh.e.l.l of the worm was obviously very hard.
“f.u.c.king h.e.l.l! My hands are numb!” Tang Mianmian let out a cry, but held the knife tightly to prevent the black worm from coming towards him again.
As the water level got higher and higher, the girl’s hat was finally washed away by the current. Xiao Tangqiu and Tang Mianmian couldn’t help but shiver at the same time. The girl… actually looked exactly like the female corpse that they had just discovered!
“s.h.i.t! Aren’t you dead?”
Tang Mianmian was very agitated but he soon remembered something.
“…No! You didn’t look like this just now!”
The four of them came in together just now. At the time, they had seen the girl’s appearance. Earlier, the girl didn’t look like she did now.
The girl looked at Xiao Tangqiu and Tang Mianmian with a straight face, not saying a word.
Xiao Tangqiu said lightly, “If I didn’t guess wrong… you should be from the last group of players, right?”
Tang Mianmian was shocked. “What? ！”
Xiao Tangqiu continued, “Like us, they’re players who came to this instance from outside.”
On the other side, the other two looked at Xiao Tangqiu expressionlessly, still not speaking.
“Are they also players?” Tang Mianmian couldn’t digest this amazing information.
“Yes, but they’re dead. They died in the instance…” Xiao Tangqiu laughed coldly, “If I didn’t guess wrongly, their goal is to kill us and take over our ident.i.ty!”
Tang Mianmian was shocked silly. “…What the f.u.c.k!”
Xiao Tangqiu said coldly, “Could it be that if you kill us, you’ll take over our bodies and then return to the city of the abyss as us?”
Still no one answered.
“I’m afraid one of them killed the man in the haunted house before and took over his ident.i.ty…” Xiao Tangqiu continued to speculate, his tone slightly chilly. “As for the female corpse in the bathroom, it really was your body before. But because you killed the girl, the dead person became her and you reappeared with her appearance and ident.i.ty.”
“As long as us players are killed and replaced by you, others will forget everything about that person…”
So when he was in the haunted house, the man had suddenly forgotten that he had a girlfriend. At the time, the girl must have already been killed and replaced by someone else.
Although the man was replaced, the others didn’t notice anything wrong with him because they were all strangers.
But G.o.d knows why, only he and Tang Mianmian didn’t forget her. Perhaps it was because they had already experienced two instances?
Just then, the girl finally spoke.
She looked at Xiao Tangqiu coldly, her eyes filled with chilly resentment.
“Since you know, then stay… Stay here forever with your companion…”
~~~
P.S. The horrifying truth is revealed! How many of you saw this coming? I totally didn’t!