Volume 1: Breaking the Cage
Escape 12
Legal Hunting
Everyone introduced themselves. Apart from Xin Lan and Shen Shuiyan, there were two males and one female.
The first young man to speak was called Teng Lin, the other male was called Wang Wen, and the remaining girl was called Zhou Liwen.
No one voluntarily mentioned why they came here. There was no need to.
“Are there any other rules mentioned?” Xin Lan asked. Why did Teng Lin know the game rules and reasons, while she and Shen Shuiyan were completely in the dark, without any hints?
“This isn’t from the rules, it’s what I’ve concluded myself.”
“Concluded? You’ve been here more than once?”
Xin Lan caught Teng Lin’s choice of words, somewhat surprised.
“Yeah, I can’t help falling asleep in class, so I’ve participated twice. This is my third time. The scene is different every time, always five people, and you can leave once you find the exit.”
“Is the exit hard to find?” Zhou Liwen asked.
“It depends on luck,” Teng Lin shrugged.
“Is there any reward for getting out of here?”
“Is your brain broken? It’s a punishment to begin with, being alive is good enough.” Teng Lin retorted, his expression somewhat intriguing.
“Stop wasting time, let’s get started.” Teng Lin stood up from his seat and walked towards the classroom door.
“It’s so dark outside.” Zhou Liwen saw the pitch-black corridor and couldn’t help but retreat.
Teng Lin ignored her and went out on his own.
Xin Lan surveyed the classroom again.
The classroom wasn’t large, with four fans. The doors and windows were tightly closed, and there was a faint smell of dust in the air.
There weren’t many good desks and chairs; most were damaged. The broom in the corner had accumulated a lot of dust, indicating how long this classroom had been abandoned.
Ling Jiu: Spatial dimension scan complete. It’s a three-story teaching building, we’re on the second floor.
Hearing this, Xin Lan looked towards the window.
Looking out the window, it was a dark night.
Xin Lan walked closer and touched the window.
“No dust,” said Shen Shuiyan, which was exactly what Xin Lan was about to say.
There was a dusty smell in the classroom, and dust on other things, so how could the windows be so clean?
Xin Lan: Can you detect any exits from this building?
Ling Jiu: There’s a main gate and a side door. The side door is on the right side of the first floor.
“Let’s go out and take a look,” Xin Lan said to Shen Shuiyan. After all, the exit couldn’t possibly be inside this classroom.
The corridor outside was indeed very dark, and strangely dark, as if it could swallow people.
“Why make it so complicated? If we want to get out, why not just go through this window?” Wang Wen tapped on the window, pushed it open, and looked outside.
There was moonlight outside, and the trees below were vaguely visible.
“Is this okay? Doesn’t the game rule say we need to find the exit?” Zhou Liwen hesitated.
“How is this not an exit? As long as we can get out, right?” Wang Wen turned on his phone’s flashlight and leaned out to illuminate the ground below.
“It seems to be only the second floor. It’s completely fine to go down from here. Are you coming?” Wang Wen put away his phone and looked back at the three girls.
Zhou Liwen shook her head. Xin Lan and Shen Shuiyan felt that things couldn’t be that simple, so they also cautiously shook their heads.
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“You girls are just cowards, afraid of this and that.” Wang Wen rolled his eyes, moved his ankle, and climbed onto the window.
The three silently watched him jump down from upstairs. The second floor should have landed quickly, but Xin Lan didn’t hear the expected sound.
Two seconds later, a loud “bang” made their hearts jump.
Xin Lan was startled and quickly looked out the window. The sound wasn’t right; jumping from the second floor shouldn’t make such a sound, nor should it take so many seconds.
But outside was pitch black, nothing could be seen clearly, only elongated tree shadows, like mottled ghost shadows.
“Did something happen to him?” Zhou Liwen’s face turned pale, not daring to approach the window.
Shen Shuiyan’s expression wasn’t good either. Why did she feel that sound was so… like someone jumping off a building?
Shen Shuiyan turned on her phone’s flashlight and shone it on the ground outside.
There seemed to be a figure lying on the ground, which should be Wang Wen who had just jumped down.
“How could this happen?” Xin Lan frowned. Theoretically, jumping from the second floor like this shouldn’t be fatal, at most it would result in injury, unless he landed on the back of his head. But judging from Wang Wen’s posture, he clearly landed feet first.
Unless this wasn’t the second floor.
The so-called ‘rule’ that could pull them into an alternate dimension space possessed the ability to extend spatial dimensions, such as elongated roads, or elongated high-rise buildings.
This looked like the second floor, but it could actually have been extended to the eighth or tenth floor.
That’s why it took two seconds to hear the landing sound, and why the sound was so loud.
Without a doubt, the person must be dead.
“Let’s close the window first,” said Shen Shuiyan. Xin Lan straightened up and let her close the window.
“Let’s go out and take a look.”
Teng Lin, who went out first, was the most experienced, indicating that the exit should be outside.
“Can I follow you?” Zhou Liwen asked timidly.
“As you wish.”
Xin Lan and Shen Shuiyan walked in front, leaving the classroom.
Shen Shuiyan raised her phone, but the flashlight’s beam couldn’t reach the end.
She unconsciously grabbed the sleeve of the person beside her. Feeling the pull, Xin Lan simply took her hand, sensing Shen Shuiyan’s nervousness.
“Are you very scared?”
“Aren’t you?” Shen Shuiyan gripped that warm, soft hand tightly and asked in return.
Xin Lan smiled in the darkness, her eyes obscure.
Shen Shuiyan, however, took her silence as confirmation and couldn’t help but squeeze her hand, as a silent comfort to each other.
— Drip
Xin Lan stopped, and Shen Shuiyan also paused her steps.
“Did you hear any sound?”
They were still in that long, dark corridor. Xin Lan heard the sound of a faucet dripping.
“No,” Shen Shuiyan shook her head.
— Drip
It wasn’t Xin Lan’s imagination; the sound was clear in the quiet night.
The air seemed to stagnate. Xin Lan continued forward, her ears judging the source of the sound.
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Ling Jiu frowned in the system space. She could only see a long corridor. Although it had boundaries, during Xin Lan’s walk, that boundary was infinitely extended.
Unable to provide support to the host, she was helpless.
As they walked, Xin Lan suddenly thought of something.
“The girl following behind us, did her footsteps disappear?”
Shen Shuiyan felt chills all over from her words. She turned the flashlight back, but it was empty, nothing was there.
“She’s gone.”
This unknown situation indeed made people feel terrible.
When exactly did Zhou Liwen behind them disappear?
Did she leave on her own or encounter something else?
No one could give them an answer.
Suddenly, the only light source disappeared.
“It seems to have broken,” Shen Shuiyan looked at her phone.
They stood in the pitch-black corridor, as if in a darkness without boundaries.
A wind blew over, making them shiver all over.
“There’s wind, there must be an exit ahead. Let’s go.”
Xin Lan felt the hand she was holding was cold; Shen Shuiyan must have been frightened.
She pulled the person forward, finally reaching the so-called end, which looked like a restroom.
The light in the women’s bathroom suddenly came on, the yellowish light illuminating the dirty walls.
As Xin Lan was about to turn her head, she heard Shen Shuiyan’s voice.
“Xin Lan!”
That voice came from behind, which also meant…
Xin Lan quickly let go of the hand she was holding, unconsciously rubbing her side.
Now she could clearly see the person beside her, or perhaps it couldn’t be called a person.
The girl’s face was pitted and sunken, as if gnawed by something.
But the familiar traces could still be seen in her features. It was Zhou Liwen, whom they had met in the classroom earlier and who had suddenly disappeared while following behind them.
Zhou Liwen smiled at her, making that face even more terrifying.
Xin Lan frowned, watching Shen Shuiyan run over from behind.
She had been holding Shen Shuiyan’s hand without letting go, when did the person beside her change from human to ghost?
Shen Shuiyan was a bit out of breath as she walked to Xin Lan’s side.
“When the light went out just now, you suddenly disappeared from beside me. I saw you appear in front of me, holding someone’s hand. I called out to you loudly, but you didn’t hear, so I had to follow behind.”
And the chase was exhausting. Shen Shuiyan had almost run the whole way because, for some reason, the person in front was moving too fast. She could only keep running to see Xin Lan’s back.
Xin Lan’s thoughts were a bit chaotic. She warily looked at the female ghost. Beside her was the lit women’s bathroom, which she didn’t know if they could enter. The corridor was still dark, and they couldn’t even see where the stairs were. The female ghost was only a few steps away from them.
Almost in the next instant, Zhou Liwen suddenly pounced towards Xin Lan.
Xin Lan instinctively raised her foot and kicked the thing that was pouncing over. The female ghost hit the wall, making a ‘bang’ collision sound.
Shen Shuiyan, who witnessed all this: ……
Zhou Liwen let out a shrill scream that pierced one’s head with pain.
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Her head hit the wall, the blood flowing out smeared on her gnawed face. Her eyes, almost all white, glared at Xin Lan.
Xin Lan calmly met her gaze, cracking her knuckles.
Zhou Liwen soon pounced over again, but this time she took a detour halfway and bit towards Shen Shuiyan.
Shen Shuiyan leaned back to dodge her ghostly claws, and Xin Lan, seeing the opportunity, kicked towards her stomach.
The space here was limited, and the female ghost kept approaching. Although Xin Lan could fight, it didn’t mean she wanted to be caught by a ghost, and there were no handy weapons nearby.
“She’s forcing us into the bathroom,” Shen Shuiyan spotted the ploy and called out while being pulled left and right by Xin Lan to dodge.
The place illuminated by the dim light seemed safe, but no one dared to enter rashly.
The female ghost was thrown against the wall and instantly disappeared.
Shen Shuiyan, sensing something, looked up and saw the female ghost preparing to pounce from the ceiling. Her pupils dilated, and she instinctively pushed Xin Lan to a safe place, while she herself was pounced on by the female ghost and knocked to the ground.
The author has something to say:
I’ve changed the update time. From now on, it will be fixed at 9 AM. Remember, everyone~
Today there’s no small theater, but the author is attempting to communicate♂ with the readers and herself!
LP: Re-translated on November 10, 2024