Xi Yong'an cleared his throat, his previous arrogance as a wealthy young master vanishing into thin air. He lowered his head slightly, his face etched with visible awkwardness:
-"Sorry for bothering you two... and for my excessive misunderstandings."
Seeing him back down, I felt a twinge of guilt about that "earth-shattering" sand toss from the other day. Scratching my head, I spoke up:
-"Me too... Sorry for throwing sand in your face. At that moment, I thought you were approaching Yashu with bad intentions."
A stifled silence filled the room. The three of us looked at each other, none of us knowing where to put our hands and feet to feel less awkward. Finally, it was Yashu - the most composed among us - who spoke up to break the thick atmosphere:
-"In any case, everything is clear now. Since we've been assigned to the same room anyway, instead of being wary of each other, Xi Yong'an... what do you think about the three of us cooperating?"
I nodded in agreement. In this hellhole, having one more capable (if slightly goofy) companion was better than having one more enemy. Xi Yong'an remained silent for a few seconds as if weighing his options, then suddenly, he flashed a bright smile and reached out his hand:
-"Not a bad idea! I'm in. Hopefully, we'll all make it back alive."
Lowering my voice, I began to share what I had just observed:
-"Earlier, when passing the 'Guest Room' sign, I saw a faint inscription that said 'Cheap Rent'. It seems that before becoming this luxurious villa, this place used to be a budget hostel."
Yashu frowned, following up:
-"No wonder... The design here is strange. The number of guest rooms is unusually high for a private residence."
I nodded, the suspicion in my heart growing. Xi Yong'an, who had been silently observing the room, suddenly spoke up, his voice full of doubt:
-"Do you two see the strangest point? There are too many mirrors here. And what's odd is that every single one has the exact same size and pattern, as if they were cast from the same mold."
-"You noticed it too?" I looked deep into the mirror opposite the bed. "There must be a hidden catch. Who knows... maybe each mirror is a seal to trap something inside? Like a demon, for instance?"
Hearing this, Xi Yong'an shuddered violently. He waved his hands frantically:
-"Oh my god! Don't scare me like that! You're giving me the chills over here."
After some discussion, we realized that staying cooped up within these four narrow walls was no different from throwing away our chances of survival. To find a way out, we had to proactively gather more information. Once agreed, the three of us decided to conduct a "survey" around the villa and only return to the room at bedtime.
However, just as I peeked through the door into the hallway, I saw a few figures flickering about. It turned out we weren't the only ones with "guts"; the group consisting of Pham Bach Kha, Wu Mengqiao, Qinghe, and Xiao Shu had the same idea.
The moment they saw us stepping out, the pink-haired girl, Qinghe, hurriedly waved and signaled us over quietly. And so, the seven of us assembled in the silent corridor. The remaining four were likely too terrified or chose the safe route, staying barricaded in their rooms, not daring to take a single step outside.
We moved toward the main hall. Amidst the vast and terrifyingly silent space of the villa, the synchronized footsteps of the seven of us echoed clearly. Realizing that traveling in such a large group was both cumbersome and eye-catching, Pham Bach Kha - who seemed to be the most experienced - stopped and suggested:
-"Seven people moving together is too noisy; it'll be easy for 'something' to detect us. How about we split up? My group will scout the right side, while Tianxia's group checks the left corridor. Signal immediately if there's any movement!"
Everyone nodded in consensus. Since it was unclear what dangers lurked on the upper floors, we prioritized thoroughly checking the ground floor first to find an exit. After a tense nod of farewell, the two groups split, their silhouettes quickly fading on the other side of the hall.
The three of us began to move stealthily toward the left wing. Before our eyes stretched a long, seemingly bottomless corridor. What made my skin crawl the most were the mirrors hung closely together on the walls, creating an extremely symmetrical architecture, as if they were peering into the deepest corners of each person's soul
We moved cautiously, observing our surroundings, but a chilling sensation continued to envelop us. An indescribable unease surged; I felt dozens of eyes pinned to my back, tracking my every move. And hauntingly, the source of that feeling seemed to come from... those mirrors.
Amidst the thick atmosphere of fear, Xi Yong'an suddenly started flailing his limbs, muttering with an air of pure narcissism:
-"I know I'm handsome, but the owner didn't need to install this many mirrors just for me to admire myself. This is so embarrassing!"
In a moment where my nerves were stretched like piano wire, his "clueless" remark made my heart skip a beat, feeling as though all the seriousness from before had been blown away. I didn't know whether to laugh or cry; I wanted to turn around and scold him but had to suppress it to keep from bursting into laughter in this gloomy hallway.
Following Yong'an's joke, we relaxed slightly. But what the three of us could never have expected was that in the mirror we had just passed, an eerie face suddenly materialized. It didn't lung out immediately but merely watched our retreating backs with eyes full of resentment and fury, as if we had just trespassed into its domain.
The deeper we went, the greater my doubt became. This villa was luxuriously vast, yet there was absolutely no sign of any servants besides Butler Li. Everything was so silent that the sound of my own breathing became heavy.
As we walked, I suddenly froze when I spotted an anomaly near the hallway balcony. On the ceiling, right in the corner, there was a patch of paint that didn't match the rest. I immediately signaled Yashu and Xi Yong'an:
-"Wait a second!"
The two of them, who were moving, instantly froze upon hearing my call, looking around alertly. Yashu asked softly:
-"What's wrong, Tianxia?"
I pointed toward the ceiling, where the paint was lighter and marked by a square outline:
-"Look at this spot. The color is off, and there are grooves as if it was fitted in later. It looks like a... secret passage leading up."
Since the ceiling was quite high, Xi Yong'an didn't hesitate to crouch down, signaling for me to step on his shoulders. As he braced himself and stood straight up, I was finally able to reach that glossy but suspicious layer of paint. I used my fingernails to pry hard; the mismatched wallpaper peeled away, revealing a dark wooden trapdoor sitting silently in the shadows.
Yashu and Yong'an held their breath below, their faces turning grave. Clearly, this wasn't an accidental design; it was hiding a secret that the owner of this villa didn't want anyone to touch.
However, the joy of finding a path hadn't even fully formed before a three-digit combination lock appeared, making me freeze. A passcode? We didn't have any clues regarding numbers, did we?
A hypothesis suddenly flashed through my mind. Why did the system choose exactly 11 people? At first, I thought this odd number was just to make room assignments difficult, but if looked at from another perspective... 11 players, 5 guest rooms. 11 and 5...
I took a deep breath, my fingers trembling slightly as I entered the sequence 1-1-5 into the combination dial.
Click!
The sound of the mechanical bolt echoed dryly in the stillness. It opened! The wooden door slowly creaked open, emitting a smell of rotting wood and a cold draft that surged straight into my nose.
I had only gambled on the numbers present in my head; I didn't expect it to be accurate down to the millimeter. The sound of the lock clicking open made my heart feel a notch lighter.
Below, Yashu and Xi Yong'an were also stunned by my "one-shot" success, but they quickly understood the significance of the number 115. Curiosity mixed with tension was evident on both their faces.
Trembling, I grabbed the handle and exerted force to pull the trapdoor open.
What appeared before my eyes was a pitch-black void, deep and hollow like the maw of a waiting monster. Suppressing my hesitation, I mustered the courage to poke my head in. Immediately, a pungent, nauseating stench of decay hit my brain. It was a disgusting blend of long-decomposed animal flesh and the stale mustiness rising from dark corners that had never seen light.
"Cough... cough!"
I hurriedly pulled my head back, covering my nose tightly as a wave of nausea rose to my throat. Even standing below, Yashu and Xi Yong'an couldn't escape the "onslaught" of that horrific scent. Both of their faces turned pale as they covered their noses, eyes wide with horror.
I jumped off Xi Yong'an's shoulders. The moment my feet touched the ground, I scrambled to inhale the air in the hallway to wash away that foul stench. The three of us stood rooted to the spot, patiently waiting a few minutes for the foul air to dissipate before daring to continue.
Although the space still carried a lingering pungent odor, we could at least bear it enough to proceed with the inspection.
I climbed up again, sticking my head deep into the secret chamber. It was an extremely cramped and suffocating room, with nothing in the center except a single bed covered in a stark white cloth. In the dim shadows, the bed appeared like an open grave.
I narrowed my eyes and sniffed carefully. Yes, that smell of rotting flesh was emanating from the bed itself.
Applying experience from previous missions, I pulled a handkerchief from my pocket, balled it up, and threw it forward forcefully to test the area. From this angle, it looked safe, but in survival games like this, the careless are the first to die. Who knows if the moment I step on the floor, something will lunge out from under the bed?
The handkerchief landed with a thud on the wooden floor, silent. Once certain there were no traps or visible monsters, I leaned down to tell Xi Yong'an:
-"Stand on your tiptoes a bit and give me a boost so I can climb all the way up."
-"I got it, hold on tight!" Xi Yong'an replied, his voice cracking from the tension.
Leveraging the push from Xi Yong'an, I braced myself against the edge of the wooden floor, lunging forward with all my strength to climb completely into the secret chamber
The moment my feet touched the floor, I had to quickly cover the top of my head. My head almost slammed straight into the ceiling. This room was abnormally low, estimated at just over a meter high, making it impossible for me to stand upright. I had to maintain an uncomfortably hunched posture.
In the dim, flickering darkness, I was forced to crawl on my hands and knees toward the white-clothed bed. As I closed the distance, the stench became denser, mingled with the heavy, metallic tang of rust hanging in the air.
Reaching the edge of the bed, I suddenly froze.
Under the faint light, the white cloth wasn't as clean as I had imagined. The surface of the bed was spotted with dried bloodstains. They weren't scattered haphazardly but were small, round droplets, dark and scabbed over as if they had been there for a very long time.
Looking at those brownish-black bloodstains, my heart tightened. A chill ran down my spine, followed by a wave of dark speculations. Why was there a bed placed in such a cramped secret chamber? Were those blood droplets traces of a struggle, or the result of...
Thinking that far, I inwardly cursed myself for having such "revolting" assumptions.
Steadying my nerves, I continued the investigation: I decisively flipped over the white cloth of the bed. It was empty underneath; even the mattress pad bore no other marks. This result was within my expectations; after all, if clues were laid out so easily, this task wouldn't be considered a survival challenge.
Refusing to give up, I began to use my hands to feel around, scanning every inch of the secret chamber's walls. I checked from the ceiling to the smallest crevices, ensuring I didn't miss any other mechanisms or hidden compartments.
The wooden walls were naturally rough and covered in dust, but as my hand moved to a hidden corner at the head of the bed, the grainy sensation abruptly changed. I paused, my heart skipping a beat. There, I felt deep, elongated, and sharp grooves.
I tried to adjust my angle, squinting to see clearly under the dim light reflecting up from the opening. They were claw marks.
These weren't scratches from naturally rotting wood; they were deep gouges, clearly bearing the marks of human fingernails. They overlapped one another, some even biting deep into the grain of the wood as if the person who did this had been in a state of utter panic, or was trying to cling to a final hope of survival.
The metallic smell of blood from earlier seemed to intensify. I involuntarily shuddered, imagining someone trapped in this space less than a meter high, in absolute darkness, with nothing to do but use their bare hands to claw at the mindless wooden walls until they bled.
This clue was even more terrifying than the blood droplets on the bed. It confirmed one thing: this secret chamber wasn't a place for storage; it was a prison.
( I wonder how the other group is doing... ) - I thought to myself. I hoped they had found some useful clues as well.
After making sure there were no more clues in this secret chamber, I exhaled softly and crawled back toward the opening, signaling to Yashu and Xi Yong'an, who were waiting below:
-"Move aside a bit, I'm coming down!"
I let myself drop from that suffocating secret chamber. My feet touched the ground, but my mind couldn't stop dwelling on those brownish-black bloodstains on the bed.
Seeing me jump down from the mouth of the secret chamber with my hair covered in dust, Yashu quickly approached, concern evident on her delicate face:
-"How was it, Tianxia? Is there anything up there?"
-"There are a few quite useful clues, but also plenty of baffling things," I replied briefly, intentionally keeping my voice low. My gaze remained pensive, my mind swirling with the grotesque thoughts racing through my brain.
Xi Yong'an, standing nearby, saw my serious expression and started joking to lighten the thick atmosphere:
-"Where? What kind of clue makes my brother so contemplative? Tell me about it; you've got me so curious I can hardly stand it~"
We began walking back toward the main guest hallway. As we walked, I lowered my voice to tell my two teammates about the secret room with a height of barely over a meter, the strange bed, and especially the dried bloodstains that had changed color long ago.
Hearing this, Yong'an's footsteps faltered slightly, his usual playful demeanor vanishing. He clicked his tongue:
-"That sounds... truly insane. Who would put a bed in such a cramped place? It's as if that spot was used to imprison someone, or to do things they didn't want anyone to see."
Although what we had in our hands were still just scattered puzzle pieces, in my heart, I had begun to roughly outline the directions for further investigation. This villa, or rather the "cheap hostel" that was its predecessor, definitely held a history that wasn't exactly clean.
-"Now, the thing to do is regroup with Pham Bach Kha's group," I said. "Maybe what they found on the right side will help us connect these blood droplets to a specific story."
We stopped at a bend in the hallway, where we could overlook the path leading back to the hall. While waiting, I subconsciously reached out to touch a large mirror hanging on the wall. The mirrors here were exquisitely crafted but were mounted with strange sturdiness. They seemed to be bolted down, fused to the stone tiles inside, without a single gap to slide a hand through or move them.
Yong'an also tried to heave his shoulder against another mirror, but it remained as still as a rock. He brushed off his hands and muttered:
-"If it's mounted this securely, there's no hope. I was planning to try and remove one to see if there was a map or key hidden behind it, but it seems the owner here is excessively meticulous."
I advised him to stop:
-"Forget it. We're in the middle of a mission anyway. If we carelessly smash or damage the 'owner's' property without understanding the rules, it might not end well."