Chapter 1064: Open Your Eyes! [2 in 1]
The cat’s shrieks followed closely behind Chen Ge. They were so shrill that it was as if they were trying to drill past Chen Ge’s eardrums. He pumped all his energy into his legs, but he failed to increase the distance between them.
“Time… I need to create a window of opportunity for Ying Tong!”
Chen Ge was like a person at the edge of a cliff; his plan was extremely dangerous. The mistake of a single person would cause a chain effect of destruction that would cause every person in the string of consequences their lives. Ying Tong would lose his chance to open his eyes, and Chen Ge himself would be forever buried behind this door. The cats’ wailing bounced through his skull. Chen Ge felt like he was slowly being driven insane. However, the man had no other choice but to continue to run forward as fast as he could.
His time told him that he should never slow down under any circ.u.mstances. The chance of Ying Chen carrying a murder weapon was very high. The moment he was caught, it would be the moment Chen Ge had to accept death. And it would not be a quick death. If he tripped and injured himself in this chase, his speed would slow down, and he would end up in the hands of Ying Chen. The theme behind the doors had always been cruelty, absurdity, and despair. Ying Chen would slowly torture him like he had done with all the cats until Chen Ge slowly faded into nothingness.
Running at his top speed, there was only a brief layout of the building in Chen Ge’s mind. He remembered the length and width of the corridor, and he tried to keep his body as balanced as possible. But ultimately, the lack of sight was a horrible hindrance. Then again, he did not dare slow down. Even when he was about to reach the corner to the staircase, he kept up his speed. Every footfall was incredibly heavy. The footsteps that echoed on the corridor and when he was running through the stairs were slightly different. The footsteps had a much louder echo in the staircase. This was a detail that Chen Ge had observed earlier. At that moment, he would have to make use of this detail and remind himself to slow down, or else he might accidentally trip on the steps.
Holding his breath and focusing his attention, Chen Ge heard the echoes of another set of footsteps underneath the high pitch wailing of the cats. He had to slow down, or he might ram into the wall, and that would be a bad thing.
Doctor Skull Cracker’s Hammer was too heavy to lug up the steps. In those circ.u.mstances, it had become more of a deficit than an a.s.set. Therefore, Chen Ge did not take much deliberation and decided to abandon it. Once the sound of footsteps changed behind him, Chen Ge swung his body suddenly around and used the centrifugal force of that swing to throw the hammer behind him. It was pure hope that the hammer would slam into Ying Chen. Chen Ge only wished that this would at least slow the man down somewhat.
When the hammer left his grasp, Chen Ge slowed down. He opened his arms, and his fingertips touched the railing of the stairs. After confirming his location, Chen Ge continued to hurry toward the fifth floor.
Ying Tong should have reached the fourth floor by now. I won’t go to the fourth floor no matter what. I need to get to the fifth floor instead!
Chen Ge’s brain was spinning fast, and his nerves were pulled taut. Walking on the tightrope between life and death, he had unleashed his full hidden potential.
“Even with your eyes closed, you can do so much?” Ying Chen’s voice came from several meters behind him. He had seen Chen Ge when the latter turned around to swing the hammer at him. To be honest, Chen Ge had done very well. He had managed to hide from Ying Chen and did so much damage until the very last moment. If Ying Chen had discovered him earlier than this, he would have been tortured to his death through various methods by that demon in disguise. When they were both equally cunning and clever, how could a blind man with the lack of sight ever compete with a crazed murderer with a helper on his side?
This was practically a one-way mission, but Chen Ge had somehow fought his way through it. By earning the trust and aid from the tenants within the building, before Ying Chen realized what was happening, Chen Ge had initiated the final battle earlier than the man could ever antic.i.p.ate.
That was what Chen Ge had, the element of surprise. In other words, Chen Ge’s plan was very simple. He could not see anything, which put him at a great disadvantage, so he had to hide in the dark. If not absolutely necessary, he would not come into the open to face Ying Chen.
The cats’ meowing behind him was like a call from h.e.l.l itself. Chen Ge could hear the distance between himself and Ying Chen closely. The constant running drained him a lot physically, and he realized that he could not keep up this speed any longer. However, the monster did not seem to slow down at all. If this continued, it was only a matter of time until he was captured.
Moving from the sixth floor to the fifth floor, the distance between Ying Chen and Chen Ge drew ever closer. The cats’ meows numbed his skull. It felt like once he stopped, the monster behind him would chomp off his head instantly.
After running down the corridor of the fifth floor, I’ll be presented with two choices. I can either go up to the sixth floor, or I can go down to the fourth floor. I’ll always be slower than Ying Chen regardless of whether I go up or down the stairs. Every time I enter the stairwell, he can close the distance between us. The next time I have to use the stairs, he catch up to me already. That is an unavoidable problem. I will have to find a solution to that problem soon!
In just the time he spent on thinking on the problem, Chen Ge had already pa.s.sed through the fifth floor corridor and entered the stairwell. Going to the fourth floor might interrupt Ying Tong. To ensure that Ying Chen would be led away, Chen Ge grabbed the banister and ran toward the sixth floor. He was as crazy as the madman behind him. He took three steps at a time, but when he was between the fifth and sixth floor, he felt a pull on the backpack behind him. A cold wind drifted toward his neck. A chill numbed his skull. Chen Ge let go immediately.
Ping
The blade bounced into the metallic handrails, and it created a tingling sound. Chen Ge’s heart was pounding relentlessly.
Ying Chen is carrying a blade with him!
His backpack lost, Chen Ge did not stay. He charged down the sixth-floor corridor without hesitation. When he first entered this door and realized that he was unable to see anything, Chen Ge had already removed the comic from the backpack and placed it inside his pocket and placed the ballpoint pen in his s.h.i.+rt pocket. He already predicted this kind of accident where he would be forced to abandon his backpack. The extra caution that he had taken early in the scenario proved to be the key that might save his life at the most crucial moment.
Chen Ge had truly never been placed in such a dangerous position. He had not only lost Doctor Skull Cracker’s hammer but also his backpack, which had never left his side on any his missions so far. When Ying Chen lunged at him with the knife, Chen Ge slithered two steps back. When Chen Ge got onto the sixth-floor corridor, the cats’ howling had returned with its full force.
“Is Ying Tong not yet ready?” Chen Ge felt the wind escaping from his lungs. He was unable to see and was thus vulnerable. If he did not evade that knife earlier, then he would have died in the world behind the door already. “I cannot stop. The moment I do, it will be death for me!”
Cornered at such a difficult position, not even able to see where his feet were landing, Chen Ge was still racing at top speed. The thought of giving up had never crossed his mind. He had managed to survive for so long with this att.i.tude, and he was not going to start changing now.
The howling of the cats overwhelmed his brain, the noises were like stuck in his ear. They were like a sharp knife dangling over his head. The sound of footsteps started to change. Even in this situation, Chen Ge still needed to separate a part of his attention to determine whether he had entered the staircase or not. The echoes of footsteps came from beside his ears. He had raced down the full length of the corridor, and now had entered the fully enclosed stairwell. But just as he prepared to slow down, his hands that went to find the banister were suddenly grabbed by a ginormous force!
The force came from inside the stairwell!
Ying Chen is behind me, so the person on the staircase is not him!
When this thought crossed Chen Ge’s mind, a voice rang out before him.
“I’ve caught him!”
It was Ma Gui’s voice. Ying Chen’s helper had ambushed him at the staircase!
His hands were constricted and held against the wall. Ma Gui blocked his path forward, and Ying Chen was closing in behind him. Chen Ge was truly caught between a rock and a hard place. Chen Ge tried to struggle as hard as he could, but he was powerless against the surprising strength of a small boy. The cats’ calling was coming closer. He bit on his lips so hard that they started to bleed. In less than a minute, he made a decision. He threw all the energy that he had into the direction that Ma Gui’s voice came from!
Bang!
The two rolled down the stairs. Sharp pain came from every part of his body, but Chen Ge did not appear like he could feel it at all. The red in his eyes was burning. He gritted his teeth, got up from the ground, and continued running!
Unable to see anything, with the sea of despair surrounding him, Chen Ge should have given up, but at that moment, more light slowly appeared in Chen Ge’s world. The weak light was slowly expanding. As Chen Ge continued to run forward, he felt like he was chasing after the light at the end of the tunnel, and he was getting closer and closer to it!
Fear and darkness were chasing after him. With the cats’ shrieking echoing in his mind, Chen Ge abandoned himself to the light!
Open your eyes!
Layers of red started to spread with Chen Ge as the center. The darkness was slowly chased away. Before him was a corridor that was made up from pieces of dead carca.s.ses. Black threads that looked like maggots moved between the dead bodies. This should be the real appearance of the world behind Ying Tong’s door!
Covered entirely in wounds, Chen Ge stood at the spot and gasped hungrily for air. The cats had gone silent, and not far away from him stood two monsters.
One of the monsters had a boy’s head, but the body was like an adult’s. The scariest thing was that the boy’s face had no eyes, and where the eye sockets should have been were two smaller mouths instead. The other monster had a face that was similar to Ying Chen’s, and from the front, he looked just like the Ying Chen in the outside world. But there were another few faces that grew on the rest of his body. All of those faces were twisted beyond recognition, but the unifying similarity across all of them was that they had no eyes in their eye sockets, just two dark holes. They were eyeless. In this world behind the door, it was those who were not blind in real life that had been turned into blind people.
“Looks like Ying Tong has finally conquered the fear that you have instilled in him and managed to open his eyes.”
When he recovered his sight, Chen Ge became surprisingly calm. The color of blood underneath his feet started to spread. When he opened his eyes, the binding this would have had on him had already been broken. He could hear the Red Specters calling him!
“How did you get into this building?” Ying Chen stared at Chen Ge. Every face on his body had a different expression. Perhaps in his younger brother’s eyes, he was a monster with many different faces that he could present to the world. Chen Ge did not answer his question; he did not waste even one more second on Ying Chen. He just wanted to leave this place as fast as he could, and the most direct method was to make this b*stard disappear.
His body had reached its tipping point. Despair and pain had been torturing Chen Ge’s mind at every moment. This was thus far the most dangerous door that he had ever entered. Any bad decision would lead to death, and there was no salvation. With red floating at the bottom of his eyes, Chen Ge took out the comic that he had been carrying with him. Chen Ge, who had recovered his sight, noticed that the comic had been covered in red, and it was pulsing with endless blood vessels.
Ying Chen sensed the danger and hid behind his helper. His palm was holding an extremely sharp fruit knife. On the other hand, Chen Ge was completely unarmed. Even though Ying Chen felt slightly unsettled in his heart, but he felt like he still had the better chance of winning.
“Ma Gui, we will corner him together. His biggest mistake was not running when he first opened his eyes.” Ying Chen’s voice was cold, and there was not even an ounce of warmth in it. He and Ma Gui slowly moved forward as they approached Chen Ge. Ma Gui did not think that Chen Ge had a chance to turn the tables. There had never been a person who was able to escape from this building. They were either made into dolls or building blocks. With a creepy smile on his face, Ma Gui’s three mouths were grinning widely. It was truly the stuff of nightmares. In comparison, Chen Ge was just a normal guy who had ended up in the wrong place.
But when Ma Gui took the next step, the expression on his face changed slightly. Without announcing himself, amid a rolling sea of redness, a giant appendage about two meters long reached out from behind Chen Ge!
The wall that was made up from human bodies was torn down, and more devastatingly, as more blood vessels appeared, more and more appendages appeared to support Chen Ge’s body, which was about to fall. A giant spider about five meters in size tore open the staircase and appeared behind Chen Ge!
Compared to Ma Gui, the giant red spider behind Chen Ge was more like a monster that had walked directly out from the deepest recesses of h.e.l.l.
“Kill them all, we have to ensure that there is nothing left of them, not even a shred of their soul.”
The recorder and the red high heels were both inside the backpack, so the son of the Tunnel Lady appeared to help Chen Ge. This Red Specter was extremely strong. Perhaps because he had a door inside his own body, the oppression of Ying Tong’s door was not that strong on him. Before the other Red Specters managed to break through the binding, he could already make his appearance. The tips of his appendages were as sharp as chisels. All the faces on Ying Chen started to frown. He did not warn Ma Gui and turned to run.
“Ying Chen, what should we do now?” Ma Gui turned around, only to see Ying Chen’s retreating shadow. There was another word hanging on his lips when he suddenly felt a chill that came from the middle of his chest. Lowering his head to look, the b.l.o.o.d.y appendage was already slowly pulling back from the hole in his chest. The two were not even on the same level. “Ying Chen…”
His head rolled down the side of his body. Ma Gui saw his own body behind, wrapped up inside a blood red coc.o.o.n and pulled behind the giant spider.
Chen Ge stood where he was. He flipped through the comic and summoned one Red Specter after another. “The ghost fetus is probably hiding inside Ying Chen.”
The giant red spider crawled down the corridor, and he soon caught up to Ying Chen. Just as Chen Ge thought that Ying Chen was about to be killed, the building started to change again. The building that was made up from dead bodies started to s.h.i.+ver and moan. The doors were pushed open, and dead bodies walked out from within. They were all missing their eyes, and their eye sockets only consisted of two dark holes. These people were dressed in all sorts of clothing, and there were males and females of all ages. Some of them were even wearing the working ID from the neighborhood watch.
They seemed to represent the people that Ying Tong had once encountered. These people had all seen Ying Tong, but under Ying Chen’s cunning disguise, they were unable to see the truth; their eyes had literally fooled them. Black threads that represented the curse moved within these people’s eye sockets. These dead bodies that had no self-consciousness threw themselves at the Tunnel Lady’s son to block his back. Ying Chen had also stopped. He and Chen Ge each occupied one end of the corridor.
“This world is cruel and gory. If you do not open your eyes, you can still live in your own world and spare yourself the hurt. But if you insist on opening them, you will have to live in my world and under my rule.”
Every face on Ying Chen’s body was feasting on the black curse that leaked out from the wall.
“Everyone is helping me; you won’t be able to escape.”
There were indeed countless ‘people’ who were helping Ying Chen, but there were exceptions.
“Chen Ge!” Ying Tong’s voice came from the staircase behind Chen Ge. Beside him were Mr. Wood, who wore a pair of spectacles; Auntie Wu, who was heavily injured; and Miss Red, who wore a red dress. Mr. Wood, Auntie Wu, and Miss Red were probably Ying Chen’s victims in real life, and they had retained their human form in this world behind the door. Those who had been taken advantage of by Ying Chen appeared as dead bodies.