Volume 1: Breaking the Cage
Escape 14
Legal Hunting
Shen Shuiyan’s heart suddenly leapt, feeling that even if the ghosts in this game didn’t kill people, they would scare them to death.
In comparison, she still felt that the previous game was a bit friendlier to them, at least there wasn’t a bunch of ghosts running out to kill people.
“Go up.”
Xin Lan immediately made a judgment. According to her intuition, that big door didn’t look like an exit at all. Seeing that Wang Wen, who had jumped to his death, was about to crawl in, Xin Lan decided to go back instead.
The two people went up the stairs again, this time without delay, directly to the third floor.
The lights in the third-floor corridor were on, and a figure was standing there.
“Why are you only coming now? I’ve been waiting for you here for a long time.”
The young man’s voice was a bit impatient. He turned around, and it was Teng Lin.
“Why were you waiting for us?”
“I found the exit. We’re all human after all, so I’ve been waiting for you here. Hurry up, don’t you want to get out?”
Teng Lin urged, waving at Xin Lan and the others.
“Don’t go over, something’s not right.”
Shen Shuiyan said in a low voice, gripping Xin Lan’s hand tightly.
Xin Lan tapped Shen Shuiyan’s hand with her finger and slowly walked closer.
“Where’s the exit?”
“It’s right in here.”
Teng Lin pointed to the classroom in front of him.
Xin Lan glanced at it; the classroom was locked.
“Come on, hurry up! Why are you dawdling?”
Seeing that Xin Lan and Shen Shuiyan were still quite far from him, Teng Lin couldn’t help but urge them.
Xin Lan stood still, coldly looking at the waving young man.
“Come over, why aren’t you coming? I’m about to leave.”
Xin Lan and Shen Shuiyan still didn’t respond, and Teng Lin’s expression suddenly twisted.
“I’m telling you to come over!”
“Why can’t you walk over here?”
Hearing this, Teng Lin’s expression became a bit strange.
He laughed a few times, but that laughter made one’s scalp tingle involuntarily.
Shen Shuiyan stared at his feet, where the area illuminated by the light was bright.
He had no shadow.
The three people they saw when they came in were all dead. Perhaps there was still a possibility that from the beginning, this wasn’t a game for five people, but just a game for the two of them.
Teng Lin took a step forward, but suddenly fell to the ground.
He stuck to the ground, his body seeming to melt and become flat, as if it was just a layer of human skin, softly adhering to the floor. But the facial features on that layer of skin were still there, the eyeballs rolling, the corners of the mouth still bearing an eerie smile.
In Xin Lan’s eyes, it was as if something originally three-dimensional had suddenly become two-dimensional.
Shen Shuiyan covered her mouth with her other hand, her stomach convulsing.
This scene was disgustingly excessive. Even Xin Lan found it hard to look at, feeling physically uncomfortable.
Ling Jiu huddled, shivering and holding back tears, silently reciting the core socialist values for protection.
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“I’m coming over.”
That layer of skin said with a giggle, inching towards Xin Lan and Shen Shuiyan.
Xin Lan didn’t even want to touch it, afraid of dirtying her hands.
Shen Shuiyan was stunned by the visual effect, but after calming down, her brain started working rapidly.
“If it’s really a game where people have to die, then why would this punishment game set up a non-existent exit? To give hope and then make people despair?”
From the start of the game until now, Shen Shuiyan had calculated various possibilities. Sometimes she would think that everything was just a nasty joke, and even if they had all the clues, they might not be able to escape from this horrifying campus.
Just like what they were experiencing now.
The human skin on the ground heard Shen Shuiyan’s words and let out another strange smile.
Xin Lan wasn’t afraid, but she was annoyed.
Xin Lan originally had some post-traumatic stress reactions, and after becoming a villain, her personality became increasingly ruthless and indifferent. Although her memories were diluted after leaving the mission world, she inevitably became more irritable, sometimes showing two extremes in her personality.
Xin Lan felt that her mood, which had been relieved after beating up Zou Yunfei, was becoming irritated again because of these successive ghosts.
Teng Lin, who was now just a layer of skin, was getting closer and closer, almost at Xin Lan’s feet.
Shen Shuiyan took a step back, but didn’t pull Xin Lan along.
Xin Lan still stood in place, her head slightly lowered.
She stared expressionlessly at the human skin on the ground, her fingers unconsciously twitching.
“Tell us where the exit is, or I’ll stomp your face flat.”
Xin Lan’s tone was flat, but her appearance was very serious.
The sliding human skin froze, not expecting this reaction from her.
He quickly wrapped around Xin Lan’s foot. Xin Lan shook him off and stomped back at the same time.
She pushed Shen Shuiyan away and quickly grabbed the human skin on the ground.
The touch was slimy, with an indescribable nauseating feeling.
The human skin was very agile, trying to wrap around Xin Lan’s body after being grabbed.
Xin Lan wouldn’t give him such an opportunity. She stepped on the face part of the human skin with one foot, the other foot on the belly area, and one hand tightly gripping the part she had caught, stretching the human skin like a piece of cloth.
The scene of tearing a ghost apart with bare hands was too shocking. Shen Shuiyan pressed her temples, feeling that tonight had been a bit too stimulating.
The ghost let out a piercing howl, but the strength in Xin Lan’s hands was growing stronger and stronger.
When she hit people before, she didn’t use her full strength and didn’t dare to use her full strength. If someone died, it wouldn’t be good. But ghosts didn’t matter, they were already dead and couldn’t die again.
In terms of combat power, Xin Lan felt that the human skin ghost was not even as strong as the female ghost on the second floor.
As Xin Lan’s pulling movements became larger and larger, the facial features of the human skin ghost being stepped on became more distorted.
The whole piece of human skin was extremely resilient, generally impossible to tear apart by hand. Xin Lan took out a small pair of scissors from her pocket, and the cold tip of the blade slid across the human skin.
“Tell me where the exit is, or I’ll cut this skin of yours into pieces. Let’s see how you put yourself back together then.”
“Mmm mmm mmm!”
Teng Lin’s mouth was being stepped on and couldn’t speak.
You’re the real ghost! You’re a psycho! Ahhhhh!
Shen Shuiyan was already a bit numb from the stimulation. This is fine, this is fine, much better than waiting to die.
“If you don’t speak, I’m going to start cutting.”
“Mmm mmm mmm mmm mmm!”
Sister, you’re stepping on my mouth! How can I speak! Wuwuwuwuwu!
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“Xin Lan, your foot, you’re stepping on his mouth.”
Shen Shuiyan reminded her, arms folded, with a complex expression.
Xin Lan understood and lifted one foot.
“The exit, the exit is inside the door, I’m not lying to you.”
Xin Lan looked at the locked door and let go of her hand, lifting her foot.
The human skin immediately slithered onto the wall, still a bit nauseating to look at.
Xin Lan couldn’t pick locks, and obviously neither could Shen Shuiyan.
Xin Lan raised her long leg and kicked the door open.
Behind the door wasn’t a classroom, but something like a vortex.
Xin Lan stared steadily at the human skin stuck on the wall. The skin, not understanding her intention, revealed an ugly and horrifying smile.
“Bye… bye?”
The human skin ghost didn’t know what else Xin Lan wanted. When Xin Lan threatened him earlier, she had actually cut a bit of his skin.
Xin Lan withdrew her gaze and nodded at Shen Shuiyan.
“Let’s go.”
The two of them stepped into the vortex one after another, and the next moment they appeared on the small path outside the boys’ dormitory.
“We’re out.”
Shen Shuiyan saw the familiar scenery and breathed a sigh of relief.
“Don’t you find me strange?”
Xin Lan looked at Shen Shuiyan, knowing she had completely broken character.
When doing missions, maintaining character was actually a basic requirement, but it wasn’t a very rigid one. It depended on the person and the nature of the world.
For example, in this world she had entered, the original character was love-brained but not very emotionally intelligent, with a somewhat arrogant personality. In the original plot, she was also afraid and timid, always following the original team, still thinking about her ex-boyfriend.
To ask Xin Lan to maintain that crying and scared character would be like asking Xin Lan to eat shit.
She could be cool, she could be ruthless, she could be villainous, she could go dark, but she really couldn’t cry. That would violate a soldier’s will.
Better to bleed than to shed tears.
“You’re different from the Xin Lan I’ve seen and heard before. You’re very strong. I apologize for my previous perception.”
Shen Shuiyan didn’t care whether the soul of the person in front of her was still the previous one. After experiencing such a bizarre game, even something like soul exchange didn’t seem strange.
For her, this situation was more advantageous.
If it was the previous one, Shen Shuiyan might not have been willing to team up with her.
But this one, Shen Shuiyan knew, was ‘out of her league’.
Given Xin Lan’s abilities, she could have gotten out by herself.
“I do prefer talking to smart people.”
Xin Lan smiled gently.
The cold wind brushed her face, soothing the irritation in Xin Lan’s heart.
Xin Lan thought that after this mission was completed, she might need to rest for a few days. Why did she keep losing her temper? She needed to cultivate her mind and nature.
Perhaps it was still the influence of too many previous missions. After all, being a villain didn’t require restraining one’s temper.
But now that she had changed departments, it was time to change. She couldn’t just hit people right away; she should at least try to reason first before hitting.
“Do you have any other clothes?”
Xin Lan looked at Shen Shuiyan’s torn down jacket and asked with some amusement.
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In the two times Shen Shuiyan had been with her, Shen Shuiyan’s jacket had met with very unfortunate fates.
“I didn’t bring many. I washed the dirty part of the one from last time, but in this weather, that spot probably hasn’t dried yet.”
Xin Lan looked at her own down jacket, which had almost no fabric left on both arms, and felt helpless. She hadn’t expected something like this to happen, so she hadn’t brought many clothes.
“Then wear mine. I have more in my wardrobe.”
They were similar in size, so it should be fine.
“Okay.”
Shen Shuiyan looked at her phone, 22:37.
The hunt was still continuing.
“Stay in the same dorm with me. You’re alone, too far from me. It’s not safe.”
Shen Shuiyan was naturally willing and nodded.
As they were about to reach the dormitory, Xin Lan remembered something and pulled Shen Shuiyan back.
She took out a small card from her pocket and silently used it.
The card disappeared in the air, and at the same time, two clue fragments fell into her palm.
LP: Re-translated on November 12, 2024