Chapter 13
Mo Yi’s voice was very soft, like the wind sweeping past his ears, disappearing in the next second without a trace.
But the content of his words made Jiang Yuanbai freeze on the spot as if he had been struck by lightning. A sudden chill in the air made his whole body go ice cold and his hair stand on end.
He uncontrollably turned his head bit by bit and it was as if he could hear the rusty rattling of his neck bones. His ears were filled with a buzzing white nose. Jiang Yuanbai seemed to be trapped in a nightmare, and he could hardly restrain himself from casting his eyes to Shen Lei behind him …
A hand suddenly fell on his shoulder.
Strong fingers grasped his shoulder blades, and the cold palm didn’t have a hint of warmth, passing through the thin shirt, like ice.
Jiang Yuanbai shivered, subconsciously looked over, and then bumped into Mo Yi’s eyes.
Calm and dark.
He only heard him say in a steady voice, “Thank you.”
The tone was sincere and calm, as if he really were just thanking Jiang Yuanbai for helping him up.
However, from an angle not visible to the people behind him, Mo Yi shook his head slightly, as if to remind Jiang Yuanbai not to act rashly, and then naturally withdrew his palm.
Jiang Yuanbai also came to at this moment, so he hurried to remedy it. He adjusted his stiff facial nerves, and forced open the corners of his mouth, revealing a distorted smiling expression. “…It was nothing.”
Mo Yi, “…”
— It was better not to remind him.
His face was still calm and collected, and he glanced back as if by accident.
The thing that looked like Shen Lei happened to be facing away from them and didn’t appear to be paying attention to them.
Only then did Mo Yi slightly relax his collapsing heartstrings.
Although Jiang Yuanbai had calmed down a lot, he still hadn’t recovered from the explosive news that “Shen Lei is a fake.”
He took a deep breath, and then peeked at Shen Lei. His back was still turned to them with no intention of changing his posture for the time being. So he turned his body sideways and silently mouthed to Mo Yi, “How can it be! You didn’t lie to me, did you?”
“Shen Lei is left-handed.”
Mo Yi scanned the surroundings under the residual light, and mouthed, “But the traces from smoking are on his right hand.”’
— The image in the photo was reversed.
The meaning was self evident.
Jiang Yuanbai only felt a layer of sweat appear instantly on his back. Although he had already expected it before, now that he had really found out that the person in the photo was by his side, no matter what he thought, it was still chilling.
In fact, there was another reason for his suspicion, but Mo Yi did not say it:
Just now, “Shen Lei” said that the reason for the formation of this dead spot was that “we had the most people die here.” So the question was, what on earth was it that caused the team to be almost completely destroyed?
Even experienced players, like Shen Lei, got caught?
At the moment, Mo Yi’s heart was extremely heavy. The unknown and fear were like an enormous lead block heavily pressing down on his heart, making it almost hard to breathe.
But this was not the time to be scared.
He forcibly closed his eyes, exhaled a deep breath of turbid air, drove out the deep negative emotions from his mind, and then opened his eyes to secretly observe the so called, “safe zone.”
They were in a corner of the edge of the stairs, which seemed to be a buffer zone in the winding stairs, floating in mid air like a platform: much like the place where he entered from.
Mo Yi pondered for a few seconds, then walked forward slowly.
He was careful not to expose his body outside the platform and turned his head to look at the place where he was previously before he ran:
The long staircase extended down into a vast white space as if there was no end to it. Densely packed large and small photo frames were silently suspended in the void beside the staircase. The peace and quiet revealed a subtle cunningness, as if peering around and waiting for the opportunity to move.
Mo Yi analyzed the place where he had initially come in. As expected, it was almost the same as here. Both were a platform in the middle of a staircase, just like a flat buffer zone.
It was like: the shape of a stairwell.
Mo Yi was shocked, and his eyes lit up and he quickly turned to look at the photo frame hanging on the side which was communicating with the space outside the illusion. Sure enough, the scene in the photo frame showed a corner of the stairs, so this should be a stairwell!
As if he saw the moon shining through the clouds and fog, Mo Yi’s whole body was filled with excitement as he suddenly realized:
The space inside the illusion and the space outside the illusion should be interlinked!
Therefore, in the illusion world, when they ran from the first platform to the second platform, it was equivalent to in the reality world, of running from the staircase on the second floor to the staircase between the second floor and the third floor!
So now, they were trapped in a different dimension within the staircase, and although this different dimension was not in the slightest bit similar to the outside world, it was still in the same geographical space as it.
Mo Yi took a deep breath, pushed down the emotions of excitement to the bottom of his heart, and tried to calm down his mind.
He turned his head, but suddenly met Shen Lei’s gaze. His eyes were so dark that he couldn’t clearly see his emotions, and he was quietly looking at him.
Mo Yi’s heart tightened.
He forced himself to calm down, and his face remained calm. “What’s the matter?”
The face that was identical to Shen Lei’s was directly facing him. Suddenly, he lifted the corners of his lips and cracked a smile. The pitch-black pupils were full of sinister intent.
The strange smile aroused fear from the bottom of his heart. Mo Yi’s heart quivered, and a dangerous premonition instantly caused his hair to stand upright on his back, and fine beads of sweat broke out from his forehead.
— Not good!
He saw the thing that looked like Shen Lei slowly approaching, his smile getting bigger and bigger, almost splitting to the tips of his ears, revealing sharp white teeth. “You’re very smart.”
Mo Yi calmly revealed a polite smile. “Thank you. I think so too.”
Shen Lei’s smiling expression paused. “…”
Jiang Yuanbai’s nerves had already been tense enough to burst, but the scene before him accidently squeezed a laugh from his throat.
“Shen Lei” had completely torn off its disguise now. It looked at Jiang Yuanbai viciously, and a more terrifying smile appeared on its twisted and deformed face. “Since you’re not soft enough to eat, I’ll have to work hard.”
As its voice fell, countless pale hands stretched out from the distance, blocking the whole platform and path leading up and down the stairs.
Yu Li, who had been sitting on the ground, also stood up now. Her face was expressionless, and her joints were stiff like a puppet. She reached out with her remaining cold palm and tightly hugged Jiang Yuanbai’s arm, who was standing near her. Even when he struggled desperately, he couldn’t move half a step.
“Shen Lei” slowly approached. Its face was completely deformed now. A bright red mouth nearly occupied more than half of its face, and its eyes were squeezed into two narrow and thin white slits.
As if playing with its prey, it approached them steadily and slowly, as if enjoying every ounce of fear from its victims.
Mo Yi’s mind was in a mess, and every cell in his body was screaming danger, but there was nothing he could do.
All the exit points were blocked.
There was no possibility of escape.
He was forced to retreat step by step, and finally, he retreated to the end of the platform.
Half of his heel was suspended in the air, and gravel and dust fell into the abyss. Mo Yi turned his head and looked at it blankly.
A bottomless abyss.
But the moment he lowered his head, out of the corners of his eyes, was a beam of silver.
It was a familiar silver photo frame, hanging upright in the air. A small corner was missing in the lower left corner, and the cut seemed brand new.
A photo flashed before Mo Yi’s eyes:
In the stairwell, in between the second floor and third floor, was a photo of a man hanging on the middle of the wall and placed in a light silver frame. Thick black and smelly blood dripped down the frame.
It was the photo of the best teacher of the year!
And the mouth that once chased them was coming out of this photo frame!
… Wait, mouth?
Mo Yi turned his head and looked at the deformed mouth and familiar sharp teeth on “Shen Lei’s” face.
A bold idea gradually took shape in his mind.
He turned and jumped at the photo frame!
Unexpectedly, it was taken down with ease by Mo Yi, light as a feather, as if really was just floating in mid air.
.
Mo Yi raised the photo frame and smashed it at Yu Li who was holding Jiang Yuanbai’s arm.
A sharp scream erupted from Yu Li’s mouth. When the photo frame touched her arm, her whole arm became weak and difficult to move.
Jiang Yuanbai took the opportunity to break free from her hand.
He also noticed the unusualness of the photo frame, so he rushed to the fire axe that was thrown aside, swung it upwards and smashed it down!
But at this moment, Mo Yi’s eyes caught sight of “Shen Lei” standing on the sideline.
It stood to one side and quietly watched them struggle with a sly smile on its face.
Mo Yi’s heart abruptly shrank. He subconsciously reached out to hold the photo frame and rolled to the side to avoid Jiang Yuanbai’s sharp axe blade.
— His finger happened to be stuck in the brand-new crack in the frame.
Jiang Yuanbai was still in shock. “What are you doing?! I almost cut you!!”
Mo Yi didn’t reply. He just stared at the photo frame for a second. Then, his eyes lit up and he seemed to have made up his mind. Without looking back, he yelled at Jiang Yuanbai, “Follow me!”
After speaking, he picked up the photo frame and rushed to the dense arm wall with a kind of unflinching posture. But what was shocking was that the arms, as if afraid of it, shrank back and made way for Mo Yi.
Mo Yi’s raised heart finally fell back into his chest.
He made the correct gamble.
The small bright silver thing that “Shen Lei” threw into the group of arms before was indeed a corner of the photo frame. Since the hands from the photos were afraid of it, naturally, they could open up a path for their escape.
As he and Jiang Yuanbai ran away, “Shen Lei” had already cast away its current appearance, revealing another face: it was the man in the photo in the corridor.
Unlike in the photo, its lips were split to its ears, revealing sharp white teeth, looking strange and terrifying.
It looked at Mo Yi’s fleeing figure. Its pitch-black were cold and deep, unable to perceive happiness, anger, grief, and joy. Then, its eyes moved, and its figure slowly dissipated in the air, leaving only a soft whisper, like the hissing of a poisonous snake. “Escaping? I don’t think so.”
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