He had survived, but it felt like he was about to die.
Now that it was certain he had temporarily shaken off the monster's pursuit, the male High School Student's attention suddenly converged entirely on the wound on his left hand.
Blood was still flowing, the red liquid spreading a faint stench of blood.
"Am I... am I going to die?"
The male High School Student wore a pale, self-mocking smile.
He slumped to the ground; the loss of blood was devouring his vitality and, increasingly, his will.
"You won't die,"
Lin Ye pulled down the male High School Student's clothing and wrapped it around his left arm to prevent further blood loss.
Then he took out a piece of chocolate—the Therapeutic 214 Chocolate from the Strange Game items.
"Eat it,"
"Chocolate? Thank you,"
The male High School Student didn't stand on ceremony and opened his mouth to eat it directly.
"I love chocolate. I always wondered whether, on Valentine's Day, I might receive chocolate from a girl. It's just..."
It was just that he had never received any. He was very sad, very miserable.
"But at least before I die, I suppose this counts as having received chocolate, hahaha..."
He laughed; he was happy.
Right away, he sensed something was off. The pain in his left arm was easing, warm and comfortable, and the strength he had lost seemed to be showing signs of recovery. This made him realize something.
"B-Brother Lin, I... I think I'm getting better,"
"There will be places later where I'll still need you to pull your weight. I won't let you die so easily."
At once, the male High School Student understood.
"Don't worry, Brother Lin, don't worry. I will definitely pull my weight, give my all, hold nothing back, and never let down the kindness you've shown me."
He could live—
the male High School Student was overjoyed!
In that moment he realized he had run into a true heavyweight. Thinking back to how he had been comparing himself with Lin Ye, even imagining surpassing Lin Ye to win the favor of the two beauties, he felt a wave of embarrassment.
Compared to Lin Ye, what was he even worth!?
Haruno had also guessed that the male High School Student's recovery was inevitably linked to the chocolate Lin Ye had just fed him.
If Lin Ye was willing to give a precious therapeutic item to a male High School Student he'd known for less than ten minutes, then toward her he could only be even more generous and willing.
A good person.
Although she really didn't want to describe Lin Ye with that word, Haruno felt that Lin Ye truly was a good person.
"Lin-kun, could you explain?"
She was fairly confident that the special shop on this third floor could trap that monster—it was definitely not pure luck.
Could the special shop on every floor trap and deal with one monster?
But how should one judge and match them up!?
Haruno began to think it over.
"Let's go to the fourth floor first; the fourth floor is safe for now,"
"Mm-hm, all right,"
Haruno naturally had no objection, and the male High School Student needless to say even less so.
"Miss Kurosawa ran off to the other side. Should we go find her first?"
Before reaching the stairwell, Haruno thought again of that female yoga instructor who had fled in the wrong direction.
"You two go up first; I'll take a look around the third floor,"
There were still monsters on the third floor,
so Lin Ye didn't want the two of them lingering here on the third floor.
"Okay,"
The male High School Student and Haruno went up one after the other to the fourth floor.
And Lin Ye walked alone down the third-floor corridor.
His eyes scanned around, searching for that figure.
Before long, a burst of hurried footsteps sounded up ahead.
It was abrupt, but Lin Ye already understood the basic conditions of this Strange mall—the transmission of signals like sound and light was all restricted.
Beyond the limited range, one could only see a hazy gray expanse, and only hear that unique, low droning sound that belonged to the mall.
But within range... such as that conspicuous shop with the orange-yellow light, such as the nearby corridor shops, and those steadily approaching footsteps—all of these he could see and hear.
"S-Student Lin, save me,"
It was the female yoga instructor. She ran in a panic, gasping for breath, and upon spotting Lin Ye, her eyes flickered with joy. Behind her was the monster active on the third floor, its tattered clothes flaring up as it ran.
Because she now had hope, the female yoga instructor ran even harder, even faster.
The monster chasing behind, on the contrary, slowed down a little, which widened the distance between the female yoga instructor and it even more.
Lin Ye keenly observed this point.
In the instant the female yoga instructor drew close, he immediately seized her hand and ran toward the stairwell—except he held back the pace, bringing the two of them down to a slower speed.
The female yoga instructor was utterly baffled and wanted to speed up. Although she was somewhat out of breath now and starting to run low on Stamina, faced with the threat of death behind her, she could still summon more of her potential.
It was just that, held back by Lin Ye's single-handed grip, she couldn't run fast at all.
"S-Student Lin, run faster, the monster's about to catch up."
Her tone was urgent, and she looked toward Lin Ye, only to find Lin Ye's expression perfectly normal, not changed in the slightest.
She was thoroughly puzzled.
Shouldn't they be escaping as fast as possible at a time like this?
The female yoga instructor turned her head to glance at the monster behind, only to discover that the distance between it and her had grown.
Her sense of urgency instantly dissipated by half.
She couldn't figure out the reason, but at least for now it seemed they should be safe.
Lin Ye brought the female yoga instructor to the stairwell, took a few steps, then stopped, and the third-floor monster in tattered clothes also halted its steps, with no intention whatsoever of chasing after them.
"Is it... is it unable to go up to the fourth floor?"
The female yoga instructor couldn't help offering her own guess.
"Let's go up first."
Lin Ye said.
By now, the clues and tests were already more than half complete.
"Mm-hm."
The female yoga instructor followed Lin Ye up to the fourth floor, and the moment Lin Ye let go, she unexpectedly felt a bit uncomfortable.
With her wrist gripped tightly by Lin Ye, she had felt a considerable sense of security, and now that security plummeted.
Instinctively, she leaned closer to Lin Ye.
"Lin-kun, are you hurt?"
Haruno cut in, naturally separating the two,
a subtle motion that made the female yoga instructor grit her teeth in anger.
A woman understands a woman best,
and the female yoga instructor realized her own thoughts had been seen through.
Damn it—this time, no matter what, she had to cling tight to this man's thigh.
She saw the male High School Student resting with his back against the railing. At this moment his face was pale, his injured left hand hanging limp, and a faint rusty smell of iron lingered in the air.
She realized this male High School Student was basically done for, no longer to be counted on.
But the fact that he was still alive in such a state, not yet abandoned, was enough to demonstrate Lin Ye's character—he was absolutely not a selfish, self-serving man.
Staying with this group was safe.
The female yoga instructor, Kurosawa Eiko, couldn't help but think.
After a brief rest,
Haruno asked once again,
and Lin Ye also gave a simple answer.
"What exactly are the special shops on the first, second, third, and fourth floors?"
The female yoga instructor and the male High School Student were not familiar with the special shops on the first and second floors.
"The first floor is a jewelry store, the second floor is a clothing store, the third floor is a buffet restaurant, and as for the fourth floor, it's a real estate agency."
"Then, what are the monsters on the four floors?"
"The monster that was just chasing me on the third floor had very tattered clothes,"
The female yoga instructor immediately said—she too wanted to demonstrate her value and presence, to avoid being deemed useless.
"The fourth floor is that monster from just now, the one with the gaping mouth, sticking out its tongue."
Haruno recalled and began, "The second floor is a naked monster. According to what Murakami Mamoru said, that monster opens up its clothes upon seeing a person. As for the first floor, that seems to be a long-haired monster,"
She still had a vivid impression of it; after all, the hair of the monster chasing behind would grow longer, stretching out to lunge at them.
Had Lin Ye not led her in running fast enough, they would likely have been caught.
"Then, is there some kind of corresponding relationship between the shops and the monsters?"
There was a corresponding relationship?
How could they even be made to correspond?
But Haruno thought of that long-tongued, big-mouthed monster that, after entering the buffet restaurant, had been unable to leave.
"Does the big-mouthed, long-tongued monster on the fourth floor correspond to the buffet restaurant on the third floor?"
Haruno remarked.
The buffet restaurant corresponding to the open-mouthed monster—this was... eating?
"Eating—the fourth-floor monster needs to eat, so what targets it is the third-floor buffet restaurant,"
Finally there was one barely-connected piece of information.
After Haruno realized this, joy welled up continuously in her heart.
It was as if this were the first useful information she had obtained in a Strange instance world, even though she also knew that Lin Ye had associated this information who-knows-how-much earlier than she had.
"You could put it that way. After you two went upstairs, while I was searching alone for Miss Kurosawa on the third floor, I discovered that the light of that buffet restaurant had already changed from orange-yellow to green."
Green—
in human common sense, this is a signal of safety.
In other words, it meant that the buffet restaurant on the third floor was already safe.
The method to clear this instance seemed to have already surfaced.
"Brother Lin, so what you mean is... as long as we lure the other three monsters into their corresponding shops, we can go back..."
The injured male High School Student grew excited.
How happy he was!
How could he not be happy!?
They had finally found the way home.
They could finally bring this nightmarish journey to an end.
"The likelihood is high,"
Even so, Lin Ye did not give a definitive judgment.
"Then, which floors' shops do the other three monsters correspond to?"
The male High School Student hastily spoke up,
The female yoga instructor said, "That monster with the tattered clothes on the third floor—couldn't it correspond to the clothing store on the second floor? That monster obviously needs a change of clothes,"
"I actually think the naked monster on the second floor is more likely."
Haruno said.
The two held different views,
and the two of them began to argue, each stating their reasons.
"What would the long-haired monster on the first floor correspond to?"
If there had been a barbershop, they could have determined it, but there wasn't—what there was were a clothing store, a jewelry store, and the fourth-floor real estate agency.
"This feels like it has absolutely no connection at all!"
The female yoga instructor griped.
The remaining three monsters and the remaining three special shops—it was hard to distinguish the corresponding relationships.
Haruno pursed her lips and thought. "Lin-kun, how about we just lure them all in and see? As long as the green color lights up, we can confirm whether it's accurate."
Since they couldn't determine it, then they would just run more experiments—at most six experiments and they could lure all the monsters into their corresponding shops.
"I think that works,"
The female yoga instructor immediately said.
She approved—after all...
"All right. Miss Kurosawa, you'll handle two,"
The female yoga instructor: ???
Making her do the luring twice—this, this was downright deadly!
She couldn't possibly do it.
The fear and terror of being chased by the monster earlier—even a slight recollection of it now surfaced in her mind.
She really didn't dare.
"I can do the first one," Haruno said directly.
Of course she was worried too, but with Lin Ye present, she felt at ease.
Yet for such dangerous action, even though Lin Ye was willing to shoulder it all, she didn't want Lin Ye to bear all of it—what if the monster displayed some special situation that caught Lin Ye off guard?
Lin Ye was very strong, but he was not invincible.
That was Haruno's thinking.
The female yoga instructor cursed inwardly—this woman's brain had short-circuited.
Yet she couldn't find any point to refute.
To refute at this moment would be to push herself to the opposite side of Lin Ye, and once that happened, what would the result be? She didn't even need to think it through in detail.
The gazes of the three quickly settled on the central figure, Lin Ye.
Now it was Lin Ye who had the final say.
"First, let's think about the characteristics of the three monsters,"
Characteristics?
Their outward characteristics were just like that.
"The third-floor monster has tattered clothes, the second-floor monster is naked, and as for the first floor, its hair is very long,"
As for other characteristics, Haruno also recalled a bit and listed a few points, but compared to the characteristics mentioned at first, these supplementary characteristics now were pitifully few.
"The third-floor and second-floor monsters are most likely connected to the second-floor clothing store,"
Lin Ye's thinking was the same—was it the naked monster that needed to go to the clothing store, or the tattered-clothes monster that needed to go to the clothing store?
"Then, the long-haired monster on the first floor should correspond to either the first-floor jewelry store or the fourth-floor real estate agency,"
Was the characteristic of hair connected to jewelry? Or connected to real estate?
Everyone thought it over but couldn't come up with the key point.
"What kind of riddle is this? It's way too hard for me. I'm just... a High School Student,"
The male High School Student couldn't help griping.
Coming here just to survive was already a difficult ordeal, and now they also had to match monster characteristics with shops—this was way too hard.
Asking him to think was simply too much for him.
The male High School Student had already given up thinking; now that there were others present, he had given up on thinking.
"Brother Lin's brain is clever; he'll definitely be able to find the key connection."
Lin Ye stroked his chin and pondered deeply.
What kind of person would have such long hair?
The fourth-floor monster had a big mouth and a long tongue, so it needed to go to the third-floor buffet restaurant, because it needed to eat.
And the first-floor jewelry could represent money, the second-floor clothing represented wearing, and as for the fourth-floor real estate agency, it represented dwelling.
What kind of person lacks a dwelling?
Thinking up to here,
Lin Ye suddenly realized.
"The first-floor monster corresponds to the fourth-floor real estate agency,"
"Huh!"
Faced with Lin Ye's affirmative answer, Haruno and the female yoga instructor were stunned.
"Lin-kun, why?"
"What's a very famous group in America? Japan has them too—those who drift about outside at night,"
"..."
Haruno vaguely thought of something. "It's the homeless."
As soon as these words came out, the female yoga instructor also had a sudden realization.
"The homeless have the longest hair—unkempt for ages—and the homeless lack a place to live,"
"Right,"
"Then of the remaining two, one corresponds to lacking money, and one corresponds to lacking clothing."
Which one was more in need of clothing?
Haruno naturally chose the 'naked monster'—without even any clothes, it naturally lacked clothing to wear.
As for the tattered-clothes monster, describing it as lacking money also seemed not to be much of a problem.
The preliminary analysis and judgment had been made; next came the matter of luring.
The third-floor monster needed to be lured to the first-floor jewelry store, and the first-floor monster needed to be lured to the fourth-floor real estate agency.
Considering the possibility of encountering other monsters during the luring process,
the priority for luring was still the second-floor naked monster, to draw it into the corresponding clothing store on the second floor.
"You'll stay here,"
Lin Ye said.
Hearing that, the female yoga instructor was overjoyed,
"Thank you, thank you, Student Lin, I'll wait quietly here for you all to come back,"
Staying on this fourth floor, which had no monsters, was the safest,
and she hadn't expected Lin Ye to look after her so much. Inwardly she was so delighted.
"Not you,"
But Lin Ye's next sentence made her wear an expression of astonishment.
"You come down with us; Makino stays here to recuperate,"
"Why? Just because he's injured?"
This was hardly the time to be tending to the wounded!
"It was he who lured the monster into the third-floor buffet restaurant."
A single sentence left the female yoga instructor dumbstruck.
If that was the case, she really had no grounds to object—it was just that she still couldn't fully accept it; going down with Lin Ye and Haruno, the danger factor was anything but ordinary.
"You can stay here."
Lin Ye tossed out that line and walked down the stairwell,
and Haruno followed with a slight smile.
Before leaving, she also cast a glance at the female yoga instructor.
If this woman were a bit smarter, she would know what she ought to do—if she didn't follow Lin Ye's arrangement and later ran into danger, Lin Ye would surely choose to ignore her, and then it would be perilous indeed.
From beginning to end, Haruno felt that only at Lin Ye's side was it safe.
Everywhere else carried considerable risk.
The female yoga instructor gritted her teeth and made her decision—she had to go; otherwise, once she ran into danger, she would be finished.
She quickened her steps and followed.
Before long, the three of them arrived at the second floor.
The second floor was silent,
a gray-black expanse.
With Lin Ye walking at the front, the three of them proceeded step by step along the corridor.
The faint footsteps were exceedingly clear in the dim corridor.
A minute later, the shop with the orange-yellow light appeared up ahead.
The clothing store.
"Shortly, we'll lure the monster here and have it go inside."
"We've walked halfway now and haven't encountered any monster,"
The monster ought to be in the latter half of the corridor.
The three of them set off again.
But after walking around two full circuits, they still hadn't encountered the monster.
"Could the monster no longer be on the second floor?"
If it had gone to the first or third floor, weren't they very likely to encounter two monsters at once?
How were they to guide them correctly then?
The difficulty had increased.
The two women's gazes once again converged on Lin Ye, waiting for him to make a decision.
"Let's split up. The number of people may affect the monster's appearance."
Lin Ye said.
Haruno suddenly recalled that when Murakami Mamoru had run downstairs, the second-floor monster chasing him had given up.
Perhaps this wasn't only because of going downstairs and changing floors, but possibly also because of the number of people.
But how should the people be split up?
Would she go? Would Lin Ye go? Or would Kurosawa Eiko go?
No matter who went, Haruno felt that either she or Kurosawa Eiko would inevitably end up in a dangerous situation—would Kurosawa Eiko be willing to go?
"You two wait here,"
Lin Ye made the decision.
"Lin-kun, I'll go with you,"
Haruno immediately said.
In that case, the female yoga instructor, Kurosawa Eiko, didn't want to stay here either—she certainly didn't dare to stay here alone.
She also stated her position,
and both women wanted to act together with Lin Ye.
In the end, Lin Ye made the decision, and under his compulsory order, the two women helplessly accepted.
Lin Ye set off alone.
"With just one person, the monster should appear, right!"
He thought to himself.
...
Near the special shop, the clothing store,
Haruno and the female yoga instructor waited, looking somewhat nervous and worried.
The two of them looked in two different directions, checking the surrounding situation.
"Do you think the monster will come looking for us?"
The female yoga instructor asked carefully.
"It will,"
Haruno said with great certainty. "When it does, we run, and we'll see whose luck holds out."
She glanced at the female yoga instructor, then glanced at the clothing store.
"Mm."
The female yoga instructor nodded.
'Tap, tap, tap...'
Crisp footsteps sounded.
Instantly, they drew the attention of the two.
"That fast?"
Lin Ye was back that fast?
Haruno immediately negated this guess and prepared to flee.
The time it would take for her and Lin Ye to walk through the second-floor corridor and make a full circuit was simply not enough.
Therefore, there was definitely something wrong with this.
The one coming could not possibly be Lin Ye.
The female yoga instructor also thought of something, so she cautiously got ready, prepared to bolt at any moment as well.
She only needed to run faster than this woman, and that would be enough.
'Tap, tap...'
The footsteps drew nearer.
The figure grew increasingly clear.
In the moment just before Haruno was about to step away and flee, she saw clearly. "Murakami Mamoru."
It was the man who had first encountered the first floor and fled ahead of them.
This man—shouldn't he have been caught by the monster and died?
Died?
That, too, couldn't be entirely confirmed.
"Yukinoshita... miss,"
The man's voice made Haruno relax her guard a little.
Monsters couldn't speak human words.
"Mm, what are you..."
"I've been... looking for you all this time."
"Looking for me?"
Haruno's heart filled with doubt; instinctively she felt something was wrong.
"Yes."
He nodded.
"You... you're so beautiful."
"Thank you for the compliment,"
The very instant those words fell, Haruno immediately turned and tossed out a single line, "Run."
The female yoga instructor froze for a moment, her reaction half a beat slow,
and in the blink of an eye, she saw the man who had just been speaking and conversing 'whoosh'—rip off his clothes, exposing his body.
A monster.
This man was that monster wandering the second floor.
She turned on her heels and ran,
only, watching Haruno running ahead of her, the female yoga instructor wept inside.
Her plan had been to run ahead of Haruno, so that she'd be relatively safe, but now, the turn of events was completely beyond her expectations.
If she were caught by the monster, her fate would absolutely not be anything good.
That naked monster was too terrifying.
It made her heart tremble without end.
...
...
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