CHAPTER 356: CHAPTER 339: ANGRY TAO TAO_1

Keke also whirled around and ran out.

Just as they turned to flee, the crawling sound behind them continued to echo.

Keke faintly heard someone behind them cry out in a sharp voice, "Don’t go!"

But no one paid him any mind.

Pan Yue ran incredibly fast. In an instant, she rushed out of the pitch-dark floor and, without any hesitation, darted upstairs. She ran up several flights before stopping, panting as if she had run out of strength.

Panting heavily, she looked behind her.

She saw Keke had also desperately caught up.

Keke tightly gripped the flashlight in her hand, an uneasy expression on her face as she looked behind her, as if terrified that the horrifying person would catch up.

Fortunately, no humanoid figure with a bizarrely contorted body appeared crawling up the stairs behind them.

Keke clutched her collar tightly and asked in a trembling voice, "That... what was that just now?"

Pan Yue took a sharp breath, her gaze fixed intensely on the dark staircase below. Her voice was urgent. "Didn’t you recognize him? That was Li Wentao!"

Li Wentao. One of the twelve game participants, and a classmate of 007 and Yue Nu. He was also the only native of the instance Keke hadn’t met. She had initially worried she wouldn’t recognize Li Wentao, but that wouldn’t be an issue now.

Because he was dying.

Even if he wasn’t dead yet, judging by his earlier appearance, he definitely wouldn’t last much longer.

Pan Yue’s expression was still one of utter terror. She suddenly grabbed Keke, "You were right! People really die here! It’s really connected to that game. Everyone who came here has played that game! The ghost killed Li Wentao!"

Keke looked equally panicked. "But we just ran... Is it really okay to leave him there?"

"He won’t make it!" Hearing this, Pan Yue suddenly released Keke. "Even if we were there, he wouldn’t survive. Besides, we don’t have our phones. We can’t call the police or an ambulance. Are you going to wait there and watch him die?!"

"Besides..." As she said this, the agitated Pan Yue suddenly lowered her voice. "Don’t you think there was something wrong with him? Very wrong!"

Keke looked at Pan Yue’s agitated face, her own expression fearful.

Pan Yue continued, as if to herself, "Didn’t you see it? The way he looked at us just now... it was like he wanted to kill us. I couldn’t bear to stay there any longer."

Indeed, that was true. Keke still remembered those blood-red eyes. They definitely weren’t the eyes of a dying man begging for help, but more like those of a malevolent ghost from hell, intent on dragging everyone down with him.

Was Li Wentao the player killed by the ghost on the first night? But why would he look at them like that as he was dying—so terrifyingly, so hatefully?

Just then, the two of them suddenly heard footsteps coming from the darkness above.

"Who is it?!" Pan Yue snapped her head up.

Keke also quickly looked up.

The area instantly fell silent.

The two waited nervously in the strange silence for several seconds before a response came from above.

"It’s me..."

Keke instantly recognized the voice. It was Li Yibai, one of the twelve participants, a native of the instance, and her classmate.

She aimed her flashlight up the stairs. The beam instantly dispelled the darkness, illuminating a small landing.

Pan Yue had apparently also recognized Li Yibai’s voice, as she let out a sigh of relief.

Moments later, Li Yibai’s figure appeared from around the bend of the stairs above. He looked down at the two of them with a strange expression. "What are you two doing here too?"

Keke looked up at Li Yibai on the landing above, slightly wary.

She didn’t know if this person was human or ghost. Even though the first night’s victim had already appeared and the ghost couldn’t kill again, it was still best to be cautious.

Pan Yue quickly ascended a few steps. "You were also inexplicably sent to this place, right...?"

Keke, flashlight in hand, followed Pan Yue.

"Yes, that’s right." Li Yibai nodded quickly. But just as he finished nodding, a peculiar expression crossed his face, as if he wanted to say something more.

But Pan Yue had already cut him off. "This place is dangerous! People die here!"

"What?" Li Yibai’s face retained its peculiar expression, his eyes darting about. His gaze towards Pan Yue also seemed somewhat strange.

Keke nodded as well. "Pan Yue isn’t lying. Just now, the two of us..."

But before she could finish, Li Yibai interrupted her in a strange tone, "Aren’t there three of you?"

As he spoke, he looked behind the two of them, but it was still silent back there; no one made a sound.

Keke and Pan Yue froze simultaneously.

Three... of us?

In an instant, an icy chill surged up from the soles of their feet, rapidly spreading throughout their bodies.

Keke, at the very back, stiffened abruptly.

"Run!"

Pan Yue, at the front, suddenly choked out the word, grabbing Keke and the still-confused Li Yibai, and desperately ran upwards.

As Keke rounded a bend in the stairs, she caught a glimpse of what was below out of the corner of her eye.

In the darkness, half a deathly pale face emerged from around the corner. Its crimson eyes darted about before finally fixing on them.

It was Li Wentao!

Keke’s scalp tingled. She immediately sped up, running upstairs for dear life.

The three of them ran in the darkness for an unknown amount of time, only forced to stop when they reached the end of the stairs.

Pan Yue had no strength left; she finally stopped when they reached the top floor.

On the top floor landing, there was, unusually, a window.

Pan Yue leaned against the windowsill, bent over and coughing incessantly, then gasping for air, unable to speak.

Li Yibai, who had been dragged along, flopped onto the ground, too exhausted to even ask what had happened.

Only Keke, with her enhanced physique, was still holding up. She just took a few deep gasps for air but wasn’t exhausted.

"You... you two... what on earth is going on?" Li Yibai, being male, had better stamina than Pan Yue. He could now speak intermittently. "And... what’s with Li Wentao?"

Keke also pretended to be out of breath. "That game... the ’Close Your Eyes’ game... it’s become a real-world game! The three people playing the ghosts are trying to kill us!"

"Are you kidding me?!" Li Yibai was clearly stunned by her words, even forgetting to pant.

"I’m not kidding," Keke took a deep breath. "Before we met you, we saw Li Wentao. He was a few floors below, completely immobile, and about to die! He’d been impaled by two iron rods! There’s no way he could have followed us upstairs!"

"How is that possible?!" Li Yibai’s eyes widened. "Then what did we see just now? Don’t lie to me."

Just as Keke was about to speak again, Pan Yue, who was bent over the windowsill, suddenly cried out, "Gu Mian! I see Gu Mian! There’s another building across from us, and he’s on the top floor of that building! He sees us too!"

Gu Mian?

Keke immediately turned to look out the window.

Sure enough, just over a hundred meters away, there was another building. The distance was close enough that they could see the opposite building clearly.

Gu Mian was also on the top floor of the opposite building, where there was also a window. He was currently behind that window, waving at them.

Could it be that the people who disappeared when they went downstairs were moved to another building?

"Gu Mian?" Panting heavily, Li Yibai climbed up from the floor and walked towards the window. "How did he end up in this godforsaken place too?"

But as he neared the window, he noticed the expressions of the two girls beside him suddenly stiffen, as if they had seen something terrifying.

Puzzled, Li Yibai looked across.

Gu Mian was standing behind the window of the opposite building.

And in the darkness behind him, a horrifying face was faintly visible, appearing and disappearing.

It was Li Wentao!