Nightmare Strikes

Translator: Cinder Translations

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There was nothing behind them.

But this did little to ease the fear in the Fatty's heart, for he followed Jiang Cheng's gaze and saw a shadow appear on the wall.

He wasn't sure how to describe the shadow.

In any case, it was very tall, extremely tall.

It looked as if it was being pulled up by some force, hanging in mid-air.

The shadow swayed slightly.

"Creak—"

His pupils suddenly constricted as the Fatty realized what the shadow was—it was a person who had hanged themselves!

But there was nothing around the shadow.

It was Chen Yao. 

Chen Yao had left the dance classroom from ten years ago and had come to the current room.

Through a mirror.

What was even scarier was that he couldn't see her with his naked eyes.

"Creak—"

The shadow swayed again, and strangely, it seemed to have gotten closer to them.

In such extreme conditions, the Fatty couldn't be sure if it was his illusion or if it was indeed happening.

In any case, Chen Yao's appearance had directly propelled the already murky plot into a climax.

"Creak—"

"Creak—"

The frequency of the shadow's swaying increased, and the Fatty was drenched in cold sweat, unable to even blink.

He could confirm that the shadow was indeed approaching them in an incomprehensible manner, and the end result was undoubtedly that they would be killed.

Just like the person in the mirror.

Thinking of this, the Fatty subconsciously glanced at the mirror behind him, and a terrifying scene unfolded.

The people who had already died in the mirror unexpectedly turned around without him noticing, and they approached the mirror, their lifeless eyes staring at him.

Resentful, twisted, insane— 

As if they could reach out and pull him in at any moment.

The Fatty was so frightened that his eyes bulged out of their sockets, almost popping out, but Jiang Cheng covered his mouth, allowing only helpless whimpering sounds to escape.

Jiang Cheng clearly also noticed the abnormality behind them; his gaze constantly scanned the surroundings.

According to other players' accounts and his own understanding of nightmares, there would never be a certain death situation in nightmares—there would always be a way out.

Yet as time passed, the hope of survival became increasingly bleak.

Where was the way out? 

The shadow was now less than three meters away from them, and its speed was increasing, the sound of "creaking" alternating like a death knell.

At most half a minute— 

No! At most twenty seconds, and the shadow could reach out and touch them.

The Fatty couldn't hold back any longer; his survival instincts overwhelmed everything.

He frantically signaled Jiang Cheng with his eyes.

The shadow was moving in the opposite direction of the door; as long as they were fast enough, they could burst out.

But Jiang Cheng remained unmoved; it seemed he didn't care at all about what others thought. He was an extremely self-centered person, and this could get him killed, or at least, that's what the Fatty thought.

As Jiang Cheng's gaze swept over one direction, it suddenly stopped.

There was a large wooden box.

But at this moment, the lid that should have been closed was turned outward, and inside, Zhen Jianren was nowhere to be found.

A thick trail of blood was left on the ground, starting from the box and extending to the front of the mirror.

It was as if Zhen Jianren had been dragged into the mirror by something.

A glint passed through Jiang Cheng's eyes.

"Creak—"

The tangible sound of friction echoed again, coming very close. The Fatty broke free from Jiang Cheng's grip and grabbed his wrist, intending to use his own strength to drag Jiang Cheng away.

But to his surprise, he couldn't move Jiang Cheng at all; Jiang Cheng's body felt like it was rooted to the ground.

On the contrary, 

The immense force he felt on his hand was pulling him back, and he fell directly onto the mirror.

He didn't hear the sound of the mirror shattering, nor did any ghostly figure come to snap his jaw; in a daze, he opened his eyes and found himself back outside the room.

Beneath him was a patch of sandy ground.

He pushed himself up, scrambling to his feet.

"Hmm?"

After getting up, the Fatty froze for a moment and slowly looked down at his palms, which were covered in sand and thick blood.

He stared in horror at the sandy ground, discovering that a mangled corpse lay next to him.

His first reaction was that the doctor had been secretly attacked by a ghost while trying to save him.

Just as he was about to crouch down and see if he could rescue the body, Jiang Cheng's voice came from behind, "It's Zhen Jianren."

"Doctor!" The Fatty exclaimed in delight.

At that moment, even he, no matter how foolish, understood that the doctor's choice was the right one. The mirror looked terrifying, but it was actually the only way out.

If they had chosen to break through the door, both of them would probably have lost their jaws by now.

Having figured this out, the Fatty stared at Zhen Jianren lying on the ground, his eyes momentarily vacant, and asked, "Doctor, how did he end up dead here?"

Jiang Cheng was silent for a while. "He crawled out by himself."

The Fatty widened his eyes in disbelief. "He could still crawl out in this state?"

"It's precisely because he's like this," Jiang Cheng said calmly, "that he was able to escape."

Gradually, the Fatty seemed to understand something. "Doctor," he said with a strange expression, "you mean because he lost his eyes and couldn't see those scenes, he was able to choose the right path and ultimately escape?"

"Yes," Jiang Cheng turned around, looking at the room they had just escaped from.

Following his gaze, the Fatty was surprised to find that the door was wide open, not closed at all, and there were no traces of the dark red curtains being pulled back in the room.

His massive body began to tremble, and the Fatty swallowed hard, finally speaking, "So… what we saw before… were all illusions?"

A clear trail of blood spread out in front of the door, left by Zhen Jianren's crawling, looking grotesque.

The Fatty realized late that Luo Yi was a ghost, and that Zhen Jianren had somehow come along with Luo Yi to the perilous machinery center and had not died, which needed to be deeply investigated.

It now seemed that the ghost's method of killing involved using mirrors to create illusions, ultimately killing those trapped in those illusions.

He recalled carefully that there was a dusty mirror in the dormitory where the cheongsam girl died, Long Tao died in front of a mirror in the men's restroom, and there was also a square mirror hanging on the wall in the file room where Luo Yi died.

So it was. 

The mirror was the biggest taboo in this mission.

"Doctor," the Fatty said with a pained tone, "does that mean in order to survive, we also have to… have to…" He glanced fearfully at Zhen Jianren lying on the ground.

"You can dig out your eyes if you want," Jiang Cheng replied, "but I won't."

A few seconds later, he added, "My eyes are beautiful; many customers come just for my eyes. They say my eyes shine like their dream man, and they want to have children with me…"

"Doctor!" The Fatty, having narrowly escaped death, felt his head buzzing and wished he could sew Jiang Cheng's mouth shut. "Zhen Jianren is still here; can you at least respect him a bit?"

(End of the Chapter)

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