Chapter 220 Transforming Community Experience (Twenty-nine)
It was one feeling when I heard it in passing, and another feeling now that I realize I might be among them.
Guo Guo, who had heard the screams himself, naturally had the most complicated feelings. In contrast, Zheng Wanqing, who had only heard the music from inside, had no reaction at all. She only followed this line of thought and made a serious inference:
"Those villas are all on the ground, but we've been walking down all this time. Plus, there are many stairs in this house. Does that mean that if we keep walking up, we might be able to get out?"
If you really count, the entrance to the entertainment venue is a sewer, and the food street is another sewer, so they should be at least three floors underground now.
Guo Guo seemed to understand something: "No wonder, when Wanqing and I were walking on this floor just now, we found that the upward and downward stairs were separated. There are fewer ghosts near the upward stairs, but more ghosts near the downward stairs."
She was initially trapped by the phantom ghost and the human body splicing ghost. She was originally going to be imprisoned in a deeper place, but the phantom ghost seemed to have a problem. He hissed and gurgled something, and hid in the nearest stairwell. Because of this, Guo Guo was able to stay not far from the entrance.
The longer the time passed, the clearer her memory became:
"I remember now. The human body splicer initially only had a torso. It would keep searching for fresh limbs until it pieced together a body it was most satisfied with."
In her short memory alone, the ghost had changed its head three times, even more frequently than it changed clothes.
Where did these assembled limbs come from? They undoubtedly belonged to living candidates. The scars often appearing on them are the marks of struggle left after the candidates were dragged into this house .
So many disassembled, replaced or discarded limbs, like a large inventory of ghosts, must have a place to be placed.
Following this clue, a line of thought became clearer. Tang Xin Jue nodded and said:
"If all the candidates were dragged in by that splicing ghost, then it should have fixed [storage] habits and places."
By following the information it provides, we may be able to find the locations of other victimized candidates, including Bai Zhi!
Of course, most were completed in his mind. Time was limited, so Tang Xin Jue kept the deduction process simple and unexplained.
Thanks to their tacit understanding, Zheng Wanqing and Guo Guo were able to keep up with the flow of thought. Whether the other person was full of questions was not a consideration for them.
However, when she turned around, Awan had a solemn expression of complete belief, not questioning Tang Xin Jue's leaps of thought at all, as if she had already determined that he wouldn't make a mistake:
"So, all we have to do is check every place where the ghosts threw their limbs?"
Her eyes flickered slightly, and she spoke first, "That monster is elusive. There are four of us, so it's more efficient to search separately. I'd like to team up with this classmate."
She pointed at Guo Guo.
Guo Guo: ...Even you think I'm easy to bully?
Of course, even though Awan looked small and frail, Guo Guo didn't dare to look down on her. The next moment, he took a step back decisively: "I won't!"
A-Wan argued, "Tang and Zheng seem quite capable, and they'd be able to escape even if they were to encounter a ghost alone. But Guo and I are obviously less powerful, and we'd be more dangerous if we were alone. So, we can only split into three teams, and Guo and I would be the best fit."
Guo Guo thought for a moment and said, "You have a point, but I still refuse."
Awan: “…”
She tried to make a final struggle: "If it really doesn't work, I can act together with classmate Zheng..."
"I'm with you."
Tang Xinjue gently struck the final blow, shattering her last hope.
The movement trajectory of the human body splicing monster is not difficult to find.
Because it obviously hasn't found enough limbs yet, and it's getting more and more impatient as time goes by. Almost every other section of the road, you can see body parts that have been thrown away:
Arms, thighs, shoulder joints, half of the neck...
Tang Xinjue suddenly stopped in front of a bloodstained half neck and looked at the wooden door behind it: "There is something behind the door."
Awan's first reaction was that it was a ghost. Just as she was about to step back, she saw Tang Xinjue push the door open.
With a thud, the other half of the neck rolled out.
Above it, white limbs piled up like a mountain!
…
"Some candidates would rather destroy their bodies than let them become part of a ghost."
When the four men who had split into two groups reunited and compared their findings, they discovered that there were three or four such "limb storage rooms" in total, gradually spreading in a certain direction.
From these remains, it's easy to deduce the tragic situation at the time. The rebellious candidates had angered the ghosts, and their bodies were brutally cut into several pieces and thrown here like garbage.
Amidst the thick smell of blood filling the room, Awan walked into the pile of corpses with a calm expression and searched back and forth. After a while, she stood up and said:
"How lucky! Bai Zhi's body isn't here. He must still be alive."
Although she said so, the three of them did not hear any sense of relief from her tone. Instead, there was a hint of...subtle disappointment?
"Then let's keep going."
Tang Xinjue nodded.
Carefully avoiding the spider-men and ghosts that would appear in the corridor from time to time, the four of them discovered several smaller "storage rooms" in succession, but they were only filled with students in pairs.
Some had blurred faces, as if they had been dead for a long time, while others had warm blood, as if they had just died.
"They have escaped, but the ghosts have repeatedly caught them back."
The physical defects alone, combined with the damage caused by being imprisoned and attacked, would wear a person down here.
But judging from their condition, they seemed to have experienced some more inhuman torture, but no one knew what it was.
In the end, even though Guo Guo and Zheng Wanqing were already accustomed to the cruel scenes in the dungeon, they couldn't stand it anymore.
This is definitely more than just one or two batches. How many candidates have been sent in by the game?
Unlike the NPCs in dungeons, unlike the dormitories in friendly matches where defeat means elimination, they realized more clearly than ever that the countless cold bodies before them were college students who once lived in the same world as them. They might even be alumni, classmates who lived on the same floor as them, or online friends they had never met before...
They shouldn't be lying here in the cold.
Door after door opened and closed, and only Awan watched coldly from beginning to end. These candidates did not inspire her sympathy. Her drooping face was calm, and her emotions only fluctuated when she heard about ghosts.
Until one of the doors opened, she glanced away indifferently, her body visibly stiffened.
Tang Xinjue noticed her abnormality: "Do you know him?"
This time, there were two girls in the room. Their bodies were as thin as skeletons, and their faces were blurred. If you were not very familiar with them, you would not be able to recognize them at first glance.
After a moment of silence, Awan shook her head and said, "I don't know him. He just... looks a little scary, that's all."
After saying that, she quietly retreated to the corridor without even looking back.
However, before he could take two steps, his back suddenly felt tight and he was grabbed back by Tang Xinjue!
Awan: “??? I’m not running away! Why are you arresting me…”
The narrow door closed rapidly in front of her, and she was dragged to the corner of the room, facing the corpses of two girls.
“…”
After seeing Tang Xinjue and the other two hiding in the corner, Awan immediately realized what was going on and covered herself with the plastic film next to her without hesitation.
The next moment the room became quiet again, heavy and hurried footsteps were heard outside the door.
It came from far away, but just as it passed the door, it seemed to have discovered something and slowly turned back.
Finally stopped in front of the door.
The author has something to say:
Splice Ghost: There is something behind the door, it smells like incoming goods
