Chapter 58: Only One Ticket

    When they read the newspaper clipping about the discovery of two brutally murdered corpses in the secret chamber, they had expected to find a filthy space, a dark cave tinged with the air of death and savagery, a cold and dreary place where a murderer lived while enjoying the pain and suffering of their victims...

    But the room in front of them was a far cry from it.

    Compared to the neglected kitchen above, this room could be considered a sanctuary. It was a cozy bedroom with a single bed pushed to the wall, its mattress neatly laid without a single wrinkle. Next to it was a reading table where a candle was lit, casting a gentle golden glow to the room. The flooring was made of wooden tiles, while a partition screen stood in the inner part to separate the bathing space.

    Save for the extremely poor ventilation, this place looked just like any other bedroom and definitely not a scene where two murders took place.

    "What the hell..." Tang Ye blurted out in shock. "Whose bedroom is this?!"

    The same question also crossed Xinxin and Jin Jiuchi’s mind, except Nian. Because since the door opened, his gaze had been fixed on the books stacked on the table. He took a step in as if bewitched but he promptly halted on his tracks when Jin Jiuchi held his arm.

    "Nian’er, look," he pointed at the burning candle. "It’s just been lit, but there is nobody here. Who could have done it? Moreover, the floor is spotless like it is regularly cleaned..."

    Nian knew that something was off with this room, but at this moment, he could not see anything past the books on the table. His blood boiled, his heart thumped loudly like a drum and his breathing picked up its pace. Even though he had not seen what kind of books they were, he instinctively knew... the book he was searching for was among them!

    "Let’s search for the ticket first!" Tang Ye gritted his teeth and stepped inside fearlessly. And with him as the leader, Xinxin also followed suit.

    Seeing them rummaging through the room, Nian wasted not even one second to rush to the table and pulled the stack of books to him. His gaze scanned the first book – Introduction to the Animal Kingdom – and tossed it aside. Second book, about the species and classification of spiders, he also tossed it aside impatiently. Next—

    BANG!

    He raised his head sharply to see that the iron door was tightly shut with a bewildered Jin Jiuchi standing in front of it. Upon sensing everyone’s gazes on him, Jin Jiuchi hastily defended his innocence with a wronged look, "I–I didn’t do anything. The door suddenly closed on itself after I entered!"

    Nian’s heart sank and he dropped the book in his hands to move toward Jin Jiuchi, with the two others following behind him. When their eyes fell on the door, they instantly went silent.

    They were supposed to pull the door in order to open it, but... they could find no handle, only a smooth expanse of metal with a thin line in the middle.

    It was a door designed to lock a person inside, with no way for them to crawl their way out.

    "What the—" Taken aback, Tang Ye stepped forward and tried to peel the door open through the crack in the middle, but it was to no avail as the door remained motionless like a huge block of wall. In a fit of desperation, he lifted his leg to kick it. He had put all of his strength on that one kick, but he ended up almost injuring himself instead. Staggering, he hastily grabbed onto the wall for support and cursed under his breath, "Damn it, there’s no way to open the door!"

    Xinxin started to tremble in terror, "W–We are trapped here...?"

    Nian’s expression became grim, but he still retained his composure. "Search for the tickets first. We will think about the door later." If worse came to worst, he just had to waste one prop to break down the door.

    Everyone agreed with him. After all, it was their main goal when they entered this place. However, just as the three of them returned to their respective job, they heard Jin Jiuchi exclaim, "Uh-oh..."

    "What is it?"

    "Don’t you smell it?" Jin Jiuchi furrowed his brows. "Something is burning..."

    Everyone fell silent at his words. Soon, Jin Jiuchi’s words were proven true because the hazy smell of smoke started to permeate in the air. White smoke spilled in through the tiny crack on the door, and the temperature started to rise into an uncomfortable level.

    Nian’s face darkened. "Hurry up and find the ticket as soon as possible!"

    Snapping back to their senses, Tang Ye and Xinxin moved faster, almost turning the place upside down in their haste whereas Nian’s eyes flew across the books as he tossed them aside one after another. Then finally, his gaze landed on a certain book – The Tale of the Lost Civilization.

    Sucking in a deep breath, he grabbed the book and held it to himself as if cradling a treasure. Then he turned to see Tang Ye and Xinxin flipping up the mattress, and they cried out at the same time, "It’s here!!"

    Below the mattress, a dozen envelopes and newspaper clippings were strewn messily. However, the two players’ attention immediately flew to the stamp on one of the envelopes. It was no ordinary stamp but something they had been very familiar with and desperately tried to find – the return ticket!

    Tang Ye moved quicker. In a blink of an eye, he shot forward and snatched the envelope for himself, tearing the ticket off it and stared at it with longing in his eyes. "From Shishen Apartment to Jinhua City... 00.01 AM..." upon seeing the date displayed on the ticket, he snapped his gaze to the old fashioned clock on the wall and exclaimed in a mixture of shock and joy, "There is only a little more than an hour left!"

    Hearing that, Xinxin became more rejuvenated as he searched for another ticket among the envelopes.

    However, he was bound to be disappointed because he could find nothing there. With a pale face, he scrambled to search in another place – this time with the help of Nian – but still, he could not find any other ticket.

    "There’s nothing..." he stood in the middle of the room with his eyes bloodshot and manic. "Why is there only one ticket here?!"

    By now, thick smoke already seeped into the room and the temperature was high enough to make them sweat nonstop. Jin Jiuchi covered his nose and mouth with a palm, coughing, "Nian’er, are you done yet?!"

    "There is only one ticket in this place," Nian stated, his cold eyes brushing past Tang Ye who grew tense and wary as he hid the ticket on his body. But Nian was not interested in fighting it out with him. He clutched the book to himself and walked toward Jin Jiuchi who was waiting by the door.

    "It seems like we’re fated to face the nightmare creature," he told Jin Jiuchi with a sigh. "We have to go now."

    Jin Jiuchi nodded. "But how do we open the door?"

    "Where... Where am I supposed to get the ticket?!" Under the pressure of the locked room, the raging fire and the limited time, Xinxin finally broke down in tears. "There is only one hour left. We are trapped here and... the nightmare creature is out there waiting for us! What should I do... where should I search first..."

    Nian furrowed his brows at the sound of his miserable cries. He turned around and rebuked the timid man impatiently, "What’s the use of tears? Instead of crying, you should think of how to get away from this place. Let me give you a hint – you can obtain the ticket from the nightmare creatures. As for the rest, it will depend on you."

    He ignored the amused look Jin Jiuchi gave him, knowing that the man was going to tease him for being cold at one second then soft at the next. He turned toward the iron door and pulled out a tiny black button from his pocket.

    "On the count of three, get down and cover your ears!" He ordered the three others while fixing his gaze on Jin Jiuchi. "One, two, three—!" He threw the black button to the door and dropped his body to the ground, plugging his ears. In the next second...

    BOOM!

    The iron door was blasted to pieces, with scrap metal still clinging on the frame. It glowed red to show how high the temperature was.

    With his ears still ringing, Nian quickly rose to his feet and brushed the dust on his hands and clothes. On his side was Jin Jiuchi who was staring at him with a look of awe and admiration. Somehow, it made Nian feel very proud of himself.

    "Let’s go," he said with his chin raised high.

    Alas, his lofty act lasted until he stepped out of the broken iron door and caught sight of the familiar tiny creatures rushing down the stairs like a surging black flood.

    Nian’s cold mask instantly cracked to show the horror beneath as he quickly swiveled around and climbed onto Jin Jiuchi’s body again, clinging onto the man like his life depended on it.

    "Fuck fuck fuck!" Curses slipped off his lips in an unending stream, and his voice cracked to show the panic he was feeling within. "They’re here! They’re coming down here!!"