This time, Tong Yang did not resist.
Regardless of whether any unforeseen events occurred in between, the plan she had set for herself was to die at least once, to enter the time loop.
Even if she only went back to ten minutes before her time of death, still inside Screening Room Sixty-One.
Fortunately, "Tao Bai" acted swiftly and cleanly, not allowing Tong Yang to feel much pain.
After losing consciousness, time began to rewind.
The first thing to reach her ears was a faint rustling sound, followed by a wave of dizziness in her head and darkness before her eyes.
Tong Yang slowly opened her eyes and saw her surroundings—a dim, deep corridor.
"Tong Yang?"
She suddenly stopped walking, causing the person behind her to voice their confusion.
Tong Yang turned to look. Seven people were watching her with tense expressions. The screening room number on the corridor was thirty-four.
At this moment, they had not yet split up to act.
In other words, before the loop, they had not left the parallel world under He Jingjing's guidance. Instead, they had died within ten minutes of entering Screening Room Thirty-Seven.
Why?
Could it be that Chu Shiyu hadn't left with them? Instead, she died within ten minutes?
"Tong Yang? What's wrong?"
"Hurry up! They're almost caught up!"
Tong Yang fell silent for a moment. Regardless of whether they ultimately left or not, what was done was done. The priority now was to get out of here. After all, when the time of death arrived, Chu Shiyu would recover the memories from her moment of death.
"Follow me," Tong Yang said, then directly led them running into Screening Room Thirty-Seven.
Now she knew there was no exit from the eighth floor at the end of the corridor, so there was no need to split up and act separately anymore.
Although everyone was puzzled, they still entered Screening Room Thirty-Seven with her.
Tong Yang casually subdued the person lurking in the darkness waiting to strike, signaled for them to close the door, then told Chu Shiyu and the others to use an iron rod to barricade the door to the emergency exit, which could hold it temporarily.
"There's no staircase at the end of the corridor. It might be behind the other door."
Tong Yang didn't waste time explaining. She directly turned and walked towards the opposite exit. Like the emergency exit, this door could only be opened from the outside. If they wanted to get out, they could only break this door.
"Don't just stand there, come and help," Tong Yang reminded them. "Xu Junyue, take two people and guard over there, buy us some time."
"Understood."
Although unclear about how Tong Yang suddenly knew there was no staircase at the corridor's end, given the critical situation, they didn't press for answers and worked together to break down the other door.
But the emergency exit door was too sturdy. Using all their might, they only managed to pry open a corner of the metal sheet. By then, footsteps were already audible outside the entrance—the order maintainers had arrived!
"Have you opened it yet? Those things are here!"
"Hold it! Don't let them in!"
Hu Shuo and Tao Bai, each holding an iron rod, pried up the metal sheets on both sides and finally created a gap at the bottom.
Tong Yang grabbed the metal sheet with her bare hands and pushed outward with force. This thing was incredibly solid, barely budging.
"Kick it."
Hu Shuo stood up and delivered several fierce kicks. The metal sheet finally showed signs of loosening.
"Boom! Boom!"
Loud banging sounds came from the other side where the door was being rammed. Tong Yang told them to keep kicking the door, then quickly returned to Xu Junyue and the others.
They had barred the door from inside, and the order enforcers couldn't open it from the outside. They began slamming their bodies against it. There were too many of them, driven by a reckless ferocity, and the security door was already buckling inward from the impact. It looked like it wouldn't hold much longer.
"Ah!" He Jingjing suddenly screamed as a hand shot through the gap in the door and grabbed her hair.
Tong Yang raised her knife and brought it down, severing the hand at the wrist. But once a gap appeared in the security door, those things poured in through every opening. Even as the sharp metal edges of the door sliced their skin and scraped off large chunks of flesh, blood flowing freely, they didn't care at all. Their eyes were wide and fixed, frantically squeezing through the crack.
"Got it!"
Hu Shuo shouted with relief. The other security door had been pried open just enough for a person to slip through, and on the other side of the opening was indeed a passageway!
"Go!"
"Hurry!"
The three boys ran over to brace the teetering door, signaling for the girls to leave first.
Tong Yang didn't hesitate. She led the others through the opening first, then turned and shouted to them, "Come over!"
"Hurry!"
Seeing they could no longer hold back the oncoming tide of order enforcers, the three boys turned and ran for the exit.
Once they were all through, Tong Yang wedged the last two iron rods behind the door. There were too many order enforcers; it wouldn't be easy for them to get through the narrow opening. It could buy them a little more time.
"Let's go."
After that, Tong Yang immediately led everyone away.
The exit from Screening Room 37 led to another faintly glowing corridor that seemed to stretch on endlessly. The two corridors, inner and outer, were like two concentric circles. The outer corridor led to the seventh floor; this inner one probably led to the ninth.
Thud. Chu Shiyu, who was following behind her, legs gave way and she nearly collapsed to the floor.
"Ah!"
"Help!"
"Get away! Don't kill me!"
...
Immediately after, it was as if everyone had been bewitched, screaming frantically.
Tong Yang stared at them in stunned silence. No way? Did they all die in the end? Did no one escape the parallel world?
Chu Shiyu was the first to regain her composure. Pale-faced, she looked at Tong Yang and said, "You entered a loop?"
"Yes."
After the terror of reliving their death memories, the others also gradually came back to themselves.
"I... I'm not dead?"
"Weren't we all killed?"
"How can this be?"
"Was everything Tong Yang said true?"
"She really can..."
[Huh?? What loop??]
[What do you mean really died?]
[You're all still alive, but you might die for real if you don't run now!]
[Hurry up and go! Those people are about to catch up!]
Tong Yang said, "Let's go first. We'll talk when we reach a safe place."
"Go, go, go!" Xu Junyue urged.
She ran up to Tong Yang, her expression excited. "What a weird feeling! I clearly saw myself die!"
"This is so fun!"
"Fun my ass! I was scared to death!"
"I'm still covered in cold sweat!"
The Order Keepers had already smashed open the emergency exit of Screening Room 37 and were squeezing into the passageway where they were.
Tong Yang led them forward in a continued run. This place felt more like a completely enclosed passage; there was no staircase leading to the ninth floor at all. Looking at the screening room numbers on the back wall, she realized that even after reaching Screening Room 61, there was still no end in sight.
As they pressed on, they suddenly saw the screening room number change to 01. They had actually looped back to the rear of Screening Room 1!
"We can't keep going forward," Tong Yang came to an abrupt halt.
"We've returned to Screening Room 1. Going further will just loop us back around to Screening Room 37."
The corridor behind the screening rooms must be a complete closed loop, with no other exit besides the screening rooms themselves.
"What do we do then?"
"If this continues, we'll eventually run straight into those things."
Tong Yang pondered for a moment. When they were chased into the main corridor by the Order Keepers earlier, the entrances to almost all the screening rooms had been opened. These double doors could only be opened from the outside. If they entered Screening Room 1 now and left through its entrance, then closed the door, the pursuing Order Keepers wouldn't be able to open the entrance door from inside the screening room.
However, if there were Order Keepers in the corridor outside Screening Room 1, the situation would be dire. With both the main and rear corridors blocked by Order Keepers, they would be trapped in a pincer attack with nowhere to escape.
But, if there were no Order Keepers in the corridor outside Screening Room 1, they could leave from the front, directly return to the seventh floor, and, guided by Sister He Jingjing, leave this parallel world from the rest area.
"Tong Yang! There are more up ahead! What do we do?"
Faint, scuffling footsteps actually echoed from the front of the circular passage too. There was no time to hesitate! Even if they stayed here, they would be completely surrounded. They had no choice but to gamble one more time!
"Go!" Tong Yang pulled open the emergency door at the rear of Screening Room 1. The others followed closely behind her, scrambling to take shelter inside.
Entering Screening Room 1 and seeing no movement outside the other wide-open emergency door, Tong Yang knew her gamble had paid off!
No matter how many Order Keepers there were, their numbers were finite! They had now completely passed through Screening Room 1 and were gathering at Screening Room 37, then entering the rear corridor through Room 37 to chase them in a loop back to Screening Room 1. However, the barriers of several doors in between would slow them down considerably, buying Tong Yang and the group more time to escape!
"Back to the seventh floor."
Tong Yang quickly crossed the aisle and exited Screening Room 1 through the entrance. After the seven people behind her had all run out, she closed the entrance emergency door again. This way, the pursuing Order Keepers wouldn't be able to open it from the inside and would have to resort to breaking it down again.
Seeing the empty corridor, the hearts lodged in everyone's throats finally settled back into their chests.
"We're safe for now."
"I can't go on, I feel like I'm going to drop dead!"
"I can't walk another step!"
"It should take them a while to loop around. Let's rest for a bit."
It wasn't just the others; after that intense, desperate sprint, even Tong Yang's legs felt weak. She didn't stop the group, leaning against the wall with her hands on her knees, taking several heavy breaths.
"Why didn't you leave?" Tong Yang asked in a low voice. "I waited for..."
"Only fifteen minutes before the cycle begins. If you leave the parallel world before then, you won't get pulled back in."
"I don't believe you're all really foolish enough to want to keep me here, so you've decided to die with me."
Want to read Jiao Yang's "Horror Gossip Group [Infinite]"? Please remember the domain name [()]?『Come to [] for the latest chapters complete chapters』()
Hearing her say this, the group immediately objected: "Why don't you believe us?"
"We're a team. How could we just abandon you here and leave by ourselves?"
"That's right, that's right!"
"We are prepared to die together!"
"See how much we value the bonds between teammates!"
Tong Yang wrinkled her nose in disgust. "You didn't actually understand how to leave, did you? Is that why those people broke in and killed you?"
Hu Shuo, flushed with anger and shame, retorted, "Nonsense! We, we of course know! We just didn't want to leave you alone! That's all!"
"Y-yeah! We definitely know how to leave!"
Tong Yang said meaningfully, "Is that so?"
Chu Shiyu mercilessly exposed them: "We have no idea how to leave."
Xu Junyue said, "He explained it so vaguely. He Jingjing guides us, chaos and order, and then what?"
Tao Bai said, "I didn't understand the meaning of those words either."
He Jingjing nodded. "Me neither."
Hu Shuo: "..."
He Jingjing: "..."
Alright, they really hadn't understood.
Who could blame them? The "Tao Bai" on the broadcast had been so brief. Who knew what it specifically referred to? Could they just leave because He Jingjing told them to?
Tong Yang, not understanding, asked, "Xu Junyue, if they can't figure it out, surely you can?"
Xu Junyue looked utterly confused, pointing at herself. "Understand what?"
Tong Yang narrowed her eyes, looked at the clear stupidity on her face, shook her head in disappointment, and said, "Never mind."
"Let's go if you're rested," Tong Yang said.
"It's only been a minute!"
"Give us another minute to recover. They probably won't catch up that fast."
"Stop wasting time. Let's go." Tong Yang stated decisively, taking the lead and heading towards the exit.
At the same time, they heard crashing sounds from Screening Room One. The Order Keepers had probably already broken into the theater.
Without further delay, the group hurried through the theater corridor, past the concession counter and the adjacent waiting area, arriving at the escalator entrance.
Tong Yang glanced down. The oval-shaped corridor on the seventh floor was now empty.
They directly descended the escalator back to the seventh floor.
But now the seventh floor was lit up, which didn't meet the conditions for world-shifting.
The lounge area was a public space, the lights were too bright. They needed to find a quiet, dark space.
Tong Yang suddenly remembered the corridor outside the changing room where Tan Wanqi had died. It was a long, narrow passage with closed dance studio doors on both sides. Perhaps they could create the conditions needed to leave the parallel world there.
"To the ballet studio."
They sprinted down the corridor, the screeching sound of their shoes against the floor echoing in the empty environment.
"Thud, thud, thud—"
Several dull thuds came from the escalator. The group turned back in panic to see an Order Keeper, armed with a sharp blade, tumbling down the escalator.
Then came the second, the third... They practically jumped from the eighth floor, bodies piling on top of each other, limbs and torsos twisted, blood pooling everywhere, like zombies.
But it seemed they wouldn't catch up immediately.
Tong Yang ran into the ballet studio, entered the small door beside the reception desk, and saw the corridor lit up, with several people standing there with numb expressions.
"Find a way to kill them and destroy the corridor lights."
"Understood!" Xu Junyue, gripping her butterfly knife, charged forward.
Tong Yang returned to the ballet studio's reception area, locked the glass door, and had the others move objects to barricade the entrance.
Then, Tong Yang quickly stepped behind the reception desk, pulled out a piece of paper at random, and wrote down the steps Dr. Wu had used to navigate the spatial shift last time, but in reverse order.
"Tong Yang, ready!"
Looking at the steps on the paper—the reverse of the "Elevator Game"—Tong Yang turned and walked back through the small door, handing the paper to He Jingjing.
Actually, if the goal was just to create chaos, reversing the steps wasn't strictly necessary. But since they had returned to the real world by going backwards last time, it was safer to do the same.
"Memorize the steps. You just need to guide us, then perform them together with us."
He Jingjing took the paper and nodded solemnly. "I understand."
Tong Yang then addressed the others, "Once we begin, everyone close your eyes. If you're prompted to choose between moving forward or backward during the process, always choose to move backward. Only open your eyes when you're specifically told you may do so. Understood?"
The group looked anxious but replied, "Got it."
Tong Yang added, "If there's a mistake in the middle, or if our choices aren't consistent, we'll probably have to start over from the beginning."
Back at Hailin International School, the three of them had been on different corridors. Because their choices differed, they entered the parallel world at different times. Now, all eight of them were in the same corridor. If their choices diverged, it was impossible for all of them to return to the real world. They had to maintain the same choice.
"Remember?" Tong Yang asked.
He Jingjing took a deep breath and nodded. "I remember."
"Good. Close the door."
Xu Junyue had already destroyed the corridor lights beforehand. Once the door was shut, they were plunged into darkness again.
Banging sounds came from outside the ballet studio. The Order Keepers had arrived. They had to leave immediately, or they'd be trapped with nowhere to go in the narrow passage!
"Close your eyes. Let's begin!"
The eight of them lined up single file, with Xu Junyue at the front and Hu Shuo at the rear.
"Please do not turn around. Take ten steps backward." He Jingjing's voice rang out, tinged with slight hesitation.
After Hu Shuo at the back moved, the others slowly stepped back. To maintain the formation, they kept about half a meter between each person.
Tong Yang had roughly measured this corridor earlier; it was long enough for all eight of them to perform the "Elevator Game."
The first round of movement passed without incident. The banging outside the ballet studio continued; the Order Keepers hadn't managed to break in yet.
"Please take four steps forward."
In the line of eight, Xu Junyue at the front moved first for forward steps, and Hu Shuo at the back moved first for backward steps.
Everyone tried to avoid bumping into each other. The sound of rapid breathing filled the corridor.
"Please do not turn around. Take twelve steps backward."
Hu Shuo once again led everyone to retreat. At the same time, a loud crash came from outside the ballet studio, and the glass door was shattered.
Their breathing grew more ragged.
"Please take four steps forward."
Xu Junyue led them forward. From beyond the small door came a series of "bang, bang, bang" collision sounds.
The Order Maintainers were right on the other side of the door!
"Please do not turn around. Take twenty steps backward."
Perhaps because of the noises outside, everyone's footsteps became hurried, and the line grew disorderly.
"Please take ten steps forward."
Amidst the sounds of panting breaths, the banging from outside the door grew fainter and fainter.
Tong Yang realized they had returned to the interstitial layer between the two worlds.
Within this chaotic layer, some areas belonged to the parallel world, while others were part of the real world.
However, the increasingly faint impact sounds from outside the passage indicated that the corridor they were in was the real world, while the area beyond the door was the parallel world.
They were temporarily safe!
Not only Tong Yang sensed this, the others did too, and they all let out sighs of relief.
But just then, the closed doors of the dance practice rooms lining both sides of the corridor slowly began to open.
In the silent darkness, a clear "creak" echoed—the sound of doors swinging open.
Tong Yang felt the person in front of her tremble and take half a step back, accompanied by a sharp intake of breath.
"Hehe..."
A child's playful giggle sounded right by her ear. As they stood in the middle of the corridor, someone dashed past them quickly, their body bumping into Tong Yang's arm hanging at her side.
"What are you all doing?"
"Won't you play with us?"
"Big sister, I can dance a very beautiful ballet. Would you like to see it?"
"I really want to go home. Can you take us home?"
He Jingjing said, "If other people appear around you, please do not engage them in conversation."
"Because they are most likely not human."
Tong Yang wrote this sentence down on paper.
Back at Hailin International School, after the space had become chaotic, other people had appeared around them.
"Big sister, let's go home together, okay?"
In the darkness, Tong Yang felt a small, ice-cold hand take hold of hers.
"Whimper..."
Someone let out a choked sob.
At the same time, a warm liquid soaked through Tong Yang's calf. Something soft, sticky, and slippery wrapped around her knee, dragging at her steps.
"Take us with you."
"Can I go home with you?"
The others were likely facing the same situation as Tong Yang.
He Jingjing's voice trembled noticeably as she said, "Please choose to either move forward, or take twenty steps backward."
Having been reminded earlier by Tong Yang, everyone naturally chose to retreat.
However, as they moved, strange sounds arose from under their feet.
The sensation underfoot was very odd—they were stepping on something soft and utterly uneven, like the corpses of small animals.
"Waaah..."
Before they could figure out what was beneath their feet, sharp cries suddenly erupted around them.
"It hurts! It hurts so much!"
"Don't step on us... it hurts..."
"Please... it hurts so much... sob..."
The children's piercing wails seemed to come from right under their feet. Everyone froze.
Those uneven, soft things... were all children?!
Realizing this, everyone, including Tong Yang, stopped in their tracks.
Tong Yang felt an overwhelming sense of disgust. Her understanding of the parallel world was reinforced again and again, and her loathing for this world grew with each repetition.
"There's someone behind me... I can't move..."
Amidst the tense silence, Hu Shuo spoke, his voice filled with trepidation.
Tong Yang let out a breath and said, "Open your eyes now."
They had entered the interstitial layer between the parallel world and the real world. The Order Keepers were in the parallel world, while the corridor they were in belonged to the real world. They were safe, for now.
"Fuck! What is this?!"
"So disgusting..."
Tong Yang shook off the hand gripping her and opened her eyes. Sure enough, the doors to the dance practice rooms lining both sides of the corridor were now open. Some rooms even had their lights on, the faint glow spilling out enough for them to see the scene around them.
Children covered in blood, their bodies twisted, were crawling out of the practice rooms, gathering around them.
These children didn't look very old. They were completely naked, with almost not a single inch of unblemished skin on their bodies, as if they had suffered unspeakable torture. They crawled on the floor, leaving behind one shocking pool of blood after another.
"My God..." He Jingjing let out an incredulous sigh.
"How can this be?"
"Are they all children from the parallel world?"
"This is too horrible..."
Tong Yang pressed her lips into a tight line and glanced into the open dance practice rooms. Inside, countless children's corpses were piled up. Some were covered in wounds but still alive; others lay limp with their eyes closed, already dead.
"What do we do? We still haven't returned to the real world."
"There are too many bodies here; we can't proceed."
"But it seems like the parallel world is right outside; we can't get out at all!"
"Tong Yang, what should we do?"
Tong Yang looked at the children's bodies covering the floor, leaving no place to step. Some were still alive, lying face-down with tears streaming down their faces, whimpering, "It hurts, it hurts so much."
They were currently in the interstitial layer between the two worlds, only one final step away from leaving the parallel world.
Unless they now stepped over these children's bodies to perform another round of the "Elevator Game," they would have to think of another way.
Thud—
The small door was slammed open, yet no Order Keepers rushed in. They had been completely separated into two different spaces now.
But why could these children enter the corridor that existed in the real world?
Because of the dance practice room doors?
When they entered the interstitial layer, the practice room doors had opened, effectively creating a connection, a channel between the two times? So these children could traverse it?
Similarly, when they entered the interstitial layer, the Order Keepers hadn't managed to break the door open in time, so they couldn't traverse the space?
One visible, the other invisible.
[Tong-jie, I looked it up for you. Xili Mall has a hidden staircase.]
A hidden staircase?
"What's that?"
[Some buildings conceal their staircases, leaving only elevators. I went through all the news reports on this incident and found that the mall's person in charge suggested a possibility: the missing person might have left via a hidden staircase.]
[Hidden staircase? I think I've heard of that.]
"Hidden staircase..." Tong Yang murmured.
In the parallel world script, Tan Wanqi was killed by the murderer just minutes after entering the changing room. During that time, there were no other students in the ballet studio, only the cleaning lady who discovered the body had entered that area. However, in the murder mystery game, the killer must be one of the eight players. Therefore, within the missing script information, the character represented by Tong Yang might hold crucial information.
For instance, there is a hidden staircase in this shopping mall.
The murderer did not enter the changing room through the main door but instead accessed the interior of the ballet studio via a hidden staircase within the building.
"There might be a hidden staircase here. Let's split up and look for it," Tong Yang said.
If they could find the hidden staircase, they could directly go to other floors, or even perform the second round of the "Elevator Game" right within the hidden staircase to return completely to the real world.
"A hidden staircase?"
"Is there a hidden staircase here?"
"Everyone, be careful. Let's search separately."
"If we find the hidden staircase, we can go to the ninth floor!"
"Should we search inside these dance practice rooms too?"
"Yes."
The eight of them split up to search, doing their best to avoid the bloody, gory mess on the floor, looking in every corner.
Tong Yang entered the changing room. Tan Wanqi's body had been moved against the wall, and the bloodstains on the floor had long since dried.
She carefully inspected the changing room and noticed that all the private lockers were single-door, except for the one near the corner, which had double doors.
The locker space was narrow. The combined width of the two doors was less than that of a normal single door, making such a design seem completely unnecessary.
Furthermore, Tong Yang discovered a faint, but noticeable, bloody smudge on the locker's handle.
Following the normal flow of a murder mystery game, the killer moving in and out of the ballet studio via a hidden staircase would inevitably leave traces, allowing players to find the real culprit from these clues.
"I found it," Tong Yang called everyone over.
The double-door locker wasn't locked. After pulling the doors open, Tong Yang reached in and knocked on the back panel. Sure enough, it was hollow behind!
"Found it?"
"Where is it??"
Tong Yang gave the back panel a hard push. It felt slightly loose but didn't open directly.
Bracing one hand on the doorframe and leaning her body to the side, Tong Yang lifted her right leg and kicked the back panel forcefully. With a loud "clang," the panel cracked open a gap, spilling out some dim, yellowish light.
"Whoa? It's really here?"
"Let's go, let's go!"
"Let's get out of here quickly! Staying here makes my skin crawl."
"Those people in the parallel world are all lunatics, torturing children like that!"
Tong Yang delivered several more kicks, completely breaking open the back panel to reveal what was behind it—indeed, an enclosed staircase with a dim, motion-activated yellow light bulb hanging above.
She was the first to crawl through, immediately hit by a pungent, damp smell. She looked up and down; it was pitch black.
"Come over."
Tong Yang helped them from the other side. The echo of their footsteps landing was very clear.
After everyone had entered the hidden staircase, while Tong Yang was considering whether to perform the "Movie Game" right there or find a more open space, the sound of footsteps abruptly echoed in the stairwell.
"What was that sound?"
"Did any of you move?"
"No!"
"No one moved!"
They looked at each other in fear. Was there someone else in the hidden staircase?
"Thud—"
"Thud— Thud—"
As the sound echoed, the motion-sensor light below the staircase flickered on.
In the empty stairwell, something seemed to be hopping and jumping its way upward.
The eight people exchanged glances, confirming the source of the sound was below them.
"Thump—"
"Thump-thump—"
"W-who's going to take a look?"
"Not me, you look!"
Tong Yang shot them a sidelong glance, walked over to the railing, and looked down.
"Thump—"
"Thump-thump—"
"Tong Yang, i-is there anything?"
Tong Yang's expression was calm, her tone indifferent. "Nothing much."
"Really?"
"Don't believe me? See for yourselves."
Half-doubting yet intensely curious, they slowly shuffled over to the railing and peered down.
"Thump—"
A little girl in red clothes, with disheveled hair and her legs bound together with black cloth, hopped up one step.
"Thump-thump—"
A little boy with twisted limbs, crawling on the stairs, his head dragging on the ground. With every upward crawl, his head thudded against a step, emitting a dull sound.
His forehead was already a bloody mess, leaving a trail of bloodstains on the stairs he passed.
"Holy crap…"
Hu Shuo gasped, a shiver of terror running through his entire body.
Perhaps hearing his sound, the little girl and little boy simultaneously looked up at them.
The little girl's face was deathly pale, one eyeball dangling precariously on her cheek, yet she pulled back her lips, revealing a row of crimson teeth.
The little boy's face, however, had been smashed into a pulp from the impacts, with no discernible features left.
"Thump—"
"Thump-thump—"
They moved up another step.
"Ah!!!"
"Help!!!"
"Mom! I want to go home!!!"
Piercing screams erupted around them. Hu Shuo started running upstairs like a madman, and the others, caught in his panic, immediately sprinted after him.
Tong Yang was speechless. "Is it really that bad?"
"Yes!!!"
"I want to go home!!!"
"I'm never coming to this damn place again!"
"Help!"
"I'd rather they came at me with knives than show up looking all twisted and weird!"
[I mean... but lololol]
[So curious! What on earth scared the guys like that?]
"Want to see?" Tong Yang asked.
[Yes!]
[Sister, take a picture!]
[Please, sister!]
[Oh right! Can't do video, but can take photos!]
Tong Yang fished her phone from her pocket, took a picture of the little boy and little girl, and sent it to the gossip group.
After two or three seconds of dead silence in her earphones, screams even more horrifying than Hu Shuo's erupted.
[Ah!!!!!!!!]
[Help!!!]
[Holy crap ahhhhh I'm done for!]
[Tong Yang!!! You bastard, run already!!!]
[They're about to come up! You run now!!!]
[Dammit!!! Are you insane? You're still not running?]
[Oh my god! I almost cried from fright!]
[Please, just run!]
"Tong Yang!!!"
"They're coming up!!!"
The screams came from above. Tong Yang rolled her eyes and bounded up the steps two at a time to catch up.
"Open it open it open it! To the ninth floor, the ninth floor!"
"I'm not kidding! I'd rather die outside than stay in this place!"
Reaching the exit door of the hidden staircase on the ninth floor, Hu Shuo was sobbing with fear, frantically kicking at the door panel, terrified the two from below would catch up.
"Bang bang bang—"
Just then, a bloody, spherical object rolled down from the staircase above.
Everyone looked down to see a round, rolling head staring directly at them.
"Brother, can you help me pick it up?"
At the corner above the staircase, a deathly pale face appeared.
"Ah!!!!"
"What kind of hellish place is this!!!"
Hu Shuo let out a blood-curdling scream and crashed through the door panel, throwing himself onto the ninth floor.
Because Hu Shuo was so panicked, the others' emotions didn't swing so wildly; they even felt somewhat amused as they followed him out of the hidden staircase.
Entering the ninth floor, Tong Yang looked around and was surprised to find it was nothing but ruins.
Neon lights glowed in the distance, illuminating their location.
The vast ninth floor of Xili Mall was laid bare before them—only concrete flooring and a few rough load-bearing walls. A cold wind blew from all directions, making them shiver involuntarily even on this midsummer night.
"This place..."
"There's nothing here?"
Everyone stared blankly at the familiar buildings and neon lights in the distance, saying in disbelief, "Have we returned to the real world?"
"That can't be. How could the ninth floor of Xili Mall in the real world look like an abandoned building?"
"Is the ninth floor of Xili Mall a parallel world? And the outside is the real world?"
For a moment, Tong Yang was also stunned. As if guided by an unseen force, she turned her head to glance behind the door of the hidden staircase.
A grimy little boy picked up the bloody head from the floor, lovingly patted the dust off it, and said, "Mom, I'm sorry, I didn't hold it steady."
At the same time, the little girl in red and the boy who could only crawl on the ground also arrived at the hidden staircase entrance on the ninth floor.
"Brother, we just met a big sister," the little girl said with a bright smile. "She took a photo of me and my brother."
"Mhmm..."
The boy on the ground whimpered in agreement.
"Brother, do you think it's safe outside now? Can we go out?"
"I miss Dad so much. He always secretly brings us food."
The little boy shook his head. "Let's go, we're going back."
"Oh..."
"Thud—"
"Thud, thud—"
Watching the three disappear from sight, Tong Yang's gaze lowered.
Why would the parallel world...
"Tong Yang, what do we do now?"
Tong Yang snapped back to attention, walked over to the group, and said, "We just need to perform the elevator game one more time."
The ninth floor was much safer than she had imagined, completely open with no possibility of hidden dangers.
"Okay!"
"Finally, we can go back!"
"This place is more spacious. Let's stand in a row. Someone stepped on my foot earlier!"
"There shouldn't be anyone else appearing, right?"
To prevent any accidents midway, Tong Yang blocked the door to the hidden staircase entrance. Aside from that, there were no other entrances to the ninth floor.
"He Jingjing(Sister), let's begin," Tong Yang said.
He Jingjing(Sister) heard the voice, her expression dazed, her eyes downcast as she nodded. "Okay."
Everyone stood in a row. To avoid getting too close to the edges during the movement, they deliberately chose a very central spot.
"Please do not turn around. Take eight steps backward."
Without the half-meter gaps between them, everyone's footsteps became considerably lighter.
The unrestrained wind from the high floor scattered much of their weariness.
With no orderlies in relentless pursuit, in the quiet and gentle night, their nerves, strained and stimulated for hours, finally found a moment of respite.
They closed their eyes, savoring the hard-won peace.
"Please take four steps forward."
They followed He Jingjing's guidance, moving slowly.
He Jingjing was different from any other parallel world being Tong Yang had ever encountered. Although she was never a person from the real world, her mindset was unlike those from the parallel worlds. Furthermore, there could not be more than fifty people like her who had been sent to the real world since childhood. At the very least, she posed no threat to Tong Yang or the real world, and could occupy one of those slots.
"Please do not turn around. Take twelve steps backward."
After leaving this place, Tong Yang needed to ask Ye Huai whether he still had contact with Ye Tianlin from the parallel world, and if he was one of the fifty people sent over, just like He Jingjing. She would also ask him when he planned to give her the reward, though it wouldn't matter for now if he didn't.
"Please take four steps forward."
He Jingjing's voice, for some reason, began to tremble slightly, as if she were crying.
"Please do not turn around. Take twenty steps backward."
"Please take ten steps forward."
The strong wind scattered her voice, making it hard to hear. Tong Yang frowned, a vague sense of foreboding washing over her. She felt she had overlooked some crucial piece of information.
"Where are you going?" An unfamiliar voice sounded, right beside them.
"If another person appears beside you, please do not speak to her."
"Because she is most likely not human."
"Where are you headed? Let's go together!"
He Jingjing said, "Please choose to either take two steps forward, or twenty steps backward."
All eight of them chose to move backward, as Tong Yang had warned them earlier.
"Please..." He Jingjing's voice became choked with sobs.
[Sister Tong, your news report has changed!]
[On the early morning of August 13th, police in Tianyuan District received a report. A player surnamed He at Xili Mall, participating in a live-action murder mystery game, had mysteriously disappeared and remains missing to this day. Later, an insider revealed on a forum that the player surnamed He had already fallen to her death that very night, and her body had vanished without a trace...]
"Please choose whether to open your eyes."
Tong Yang shuddered violently and snapped her eyes open.
During their movement, their positions had long since shifted away from the same horizontal line.
At the edge of the building, about a dozen meters away from them, stood a familiar figure.
Her body trembled in the cold wind, tears rolling down her cheeks and falling to the ground, as she took a step towards the bottomless abyss.
"He Jingjing!"
