CHAPTER 456: FOOTSTEPS

An incongruent sound interrupted their conversation. Kui Yi turned and realised it was the middle-aged woman who had caused them trouble earlier: Lee Kaifeng.

She was seated, and her body was unnaturally curled up. Her eyes were unfocused, and her shoulders were trembling. Under the dim light, her cheeks were unnaturally red. No one was kind to her, especially the middle-aged man called Wang Changguo.

Lee Kaifeng didn’t say anything because she knew she had caused them trouble. She kept her head lowered as the horrors from before kept repeating in her mind. The door… that appeared behind them inside the elevator. The door grew out of the cleaner. It was a black door covered in blood and flesh. The gaps of the door were overgrown with wiggling meat. It numbed her scalp. The strange thing was that she was curious about what was behind the door.

“How are you?” Yu Yu, who was closest to her, asked. She looked at the woman, and her eyes shone with pity. Lee Kaifeng shook her head and started to cough uncontrollably. She tried to stop, but some things she couldn’t control.

“Can you be quiet?” Wang Changgou told her. He was annoyed. “Do you want to get all of us killed?” His annoyance was due to the environment they were in. He was so agitated and used the woman as his target.

Kui Yi sighed. He had the same concern as Jiang Cheng. A newbie’s lack of experience could be accepted, but bad emotional control was horrifying. Emotions could spread. Once a newbie’s mind collapsed, other newbies might be affected. If the team lost control, then they would be slowly killed by the ghost.

During the last mission, he heard an old teammate say that he had been through such an experience. A team of ten was separated in the black forest and only two survived. They didn’t even see the ghost. With just some scare tactics, the team was blinded by fear. They left the team and charged deep into the forest. Then, the team collapsed and everyone went their separate ways. Only the two who stayed still survived. The old player who shared the story was one of them. The funny thing was that they eventually discovered the exit door was just 50 meters away from them, under an aged locust tree.

Kui Yi rubbed his face and walked to stand before Lee Kaifeng. He placed his hand on her forehead. This frightened her. Lee Kaifeng wanted to move away subconsciously. Kui Yi frowned and pulled his hand back. “She’s ill. Her forehead is burning.”

Cao Yang walked over. Then, he remembered something and searched through his pocket. Unfortunately, he failed to find anything. “I remember I put the medicine in my pocket.” He was confused. “Why can’t I find it?”

“We’re at the hospital.” Yu Yu offered, “Should we ask the nurse? She should have the medicine.” She added, just in case they misunderstood her. “I mean tomorrow morning.”

That was the only solution. They had just arrived at this place. If they moved around at night, the chance of running into those things was high.

Cao Yang picked up the heater from the ground. He realised it was full. He grabbed a mug and poured some hot water for Lee Kaifeng. Seeing how sick she was, they advised her to sleep and clear her mind.

Kui Yi stressed that since they were there, they had to work together to survive. “How long do we have to stay here before we can leave?” Wang Changgguo asked.

“Probably a few days.” Kui Yi answered, “Normally, it’ll not be longer than a week.”

After realising they would stay there for so long, their faces dropped.

“What if we can’t find the exit after one week?” Cao Yang asked.

Kui Yi pressed his lips as he looked out the window. Eventually, he said, “Trust me. If we still can’t find any clues by then, we won’t be leaving anyway.”

…

Different from the situation at Kui Yi’s room, Jiang Cheng’s room was so quiet that one could hear the pin drop. Five minutes ago, he was pinched awake.

When he opened his eyes, his heart chilled. The room… was dark. The lights had been switched off. The place was silent. Thankfully, the hand that pinched his face was warm. And he recognised it as Lin Wan ‘Er’s hand.

At the same time, he heard a soft rustling just outside in the corridor. He gingerly rolled out of bed. He noticed Weiwei and Du Feng were also there. They were curled up by the beds, their faces filled with fear.

Jiang Cheng wanted to get closer to the door to hear better. Lin Wan ‘Er made to follow, but Jiang Cheng stopped her. He signalled for her to stay with Du Feng and Weiwei. He came to the wall and knelt. Beyond the wall was the corridor. Jiang Cheng’s gaze shifted as he plastered his ear to the wall.

The rustling became clearer. It wasn’t the rustling of the wind. Someone was walking in the corridor, dragging their feet around. Jiang Cheng could imagine the person slinking about. The thing that confused Jiang Cheng was that the person had a fixed frequency to their gait.

Rustle

Rustle

Rustle

…

About twenty steps.

Then came ten seconds of silence.

This was being repeated ad nauseam.

Jiang Cheng counted the steps patiently. 23 steps. It was 23 steps every time. Not one more, not one less. Even the gait was the same. Plus, the sound… was getting closer.

Jiang Cheng instantly understood the person’s intention. The intermittent footsteps were exactly the number of steps needed to walk from one door to the next. The pausing time was when the person looked through the windows at the doors.

The person outside… was looking for someone! Maybe they were looking for them!

A chill ran up his spine. Jiang Cheng didn’t think the ghost this time would be so welcoming. They came to search for the players on the first night. He assumed the first night would be more peaceful.

Rustle…

The footsteps stopped before their door. Jiang Cheng knew that the person was glancing through the window covered in white paper.

A normal human couldn’t see through the paper.

So… the thing outside clearly wasn’t human.