Task Begins

The control room door seemed to be locked.

After enduring more than twenty years of wind and frost, the lock was still steadfastly holding its post, never loosening or giving up.

Lu Ban felt a genuine surge of respect.

Then he decisively pried the door open with his crowbar.

Clang—

Accompanied by a deafening crash, the lock that had persevered for more than twenty years finally met its end.

Lu Ban entered the control room.

The control room was responsible for opening and closing the stage curtains, projecting the lights, playing music, and operating the controls. Jiangcheng Grand Theater had three of them, located above both sides of the stage and directly opposite it.

There should have been plenty of instruments in the room, but now there was nothing.

Still, the control room was not dark.

Through the transparent windows, he could see the theater hall. Since half the dome had collapsed after being burned by the fire, light from outside was able to shine in. The control room had clearly gained a faint glow from it, but it was only the slightest illumination.

The sky was already growing late, and the last trace of sunset quickly dimmed. The sky visible from here had already turned dark, and nightfall was about to descend.

From his elevated position, Lu Ban saw the stage shrouded in twilight.

Unexpectedly, aside from some charred marks, the stage looked remarkably empty. Although the seats were vacant and utterly disorderly, the stage alone stood in isolation. Dim light fell upon it like a spotlight during a performance, stubbornly dressing up its lost splendor.

His gaze shifted. At one side of the stage stood a piano.

"A piano?"

How could a piano still be here?

The instant Lu Ban had that thought—

Ding—

The ancient-looking piano suddenly gave off a crooked, uneven note, but Lu Ban clearly saw no one beside it!

The hairs along his spine rose. Lu Ban leaned forward slightly and tightened his grip on the crowbar, trying to see more clearly.

Crash—

At that moment, his foot suddenly stepped into empty air. His entire body rapidly lost its balance, and he was about to fall.

Click—

Lu Ban's crowbar hooked onto the edge of the broken window, and he ultimately managed not to fall.

Looking down, Lu Ban saw that beneath his left foot, which he had just stepped forward, was now nothing but empty space. The floor beneath the protruding control room had perhaps exhausted the last of its lifespan because of the arrival of a guest who had not visited in years, breaking apart and collapsing.

If Lu Ban had not had the crowbar just now, or if he had taken one more step forward, he might have fallen straight from the control room and broken at least one leg.

He hurriedly backed away several steps, wanting to leave the room.

But Lu Ban's back soon bumped into something. Through the sensation against his back, he could make out its contours—it was unmistakably shaped like a person!

Lu Ban's heart skipped a beat. He hurriedly turned around, and as his flashlight illuminated the area, he raised the crowbar in his hand.

He saw several pale human figures standing in a corner of the control room, in a place the sunlight from the theater hall had not yet reached.

They were mannequin figures.

The mannequin figures were still dressed in tattered tailcoats, dresses, and the like, as though they were guests about to attend a grand banquet.

"Why would someone pile these things up here?"

Lu Ban looked the mannequin figures over from top to bottom.

He saw that, as part of some unknown person's prank, crooked eyes had been drawn onto the mannequins' originally blank faces.

Those eyes seemed to be gazing toward the theater hall, carrying a strange air.

Lu Ban tapped the one at the front with his crowbar.

Motionless.

He then shone his flashlight over the other parts of the control room. It was empty, save for these several mannequin figures placed here so incongruously.

He turned to leave, then uneasily shone his light at the mannequins once more.

Not moved in the slightest.

Only, the eyes of those mannequins seemed to have already turned toward the doorway where Lu Ban stood.

"...There really is something seriously wrong."

Lu Ban withdrew his flashlight and quickly returned to the front hall.

It was completely dark by now. He glanced at his phone. It was seven-thirty, and he had somehow already spent more than an hour exploring the corridor.

At the same time, the words on the phone screen twisted and transformed into cold notification text.

Task started

Find the performer: 0/1

Survive until dawn: 10:29:43

"Ten hours. Until sunrise at six tomorrow morning?"

Lu Ban set an alarm on his phone for six the next morning, put it in his pocket, and then pushed open the creaking door to the theater hall.

Even in its current dilapidated state, Lu Ban could still sense the theater's former grandeur. It could accommodate more than a thousand people, which had been a considerable size at the time.

However, the fire had burned away half of the audience seating, while the second floor had nearly turned to charcoal. Even after all these years, Lu Ban could still smell the scorching, suffocating air.

The once-glorious dome had shattered, and starlight spilled through the gap, casting a hazy white glow over the stage.

Lu Ban came to the first row and tapped the stage with his crowbar to confirm its sturdiness before leaping onto it.

His shoes struck the wooden boards, producing crisp clacking footsteps that echoed through the hall, which, though ruined, still possessed an amplified acoustic structure.

He proceeded cautiously to the piano. The beam of Lu Ban's flashlight brushed over the piano shrouded in night.

He did not understand piano maintenance and could not recognize its brand, but while the piano gave him an ancient, timeworn feeling, it also possessed something fresh and new. When Lu Ban directed the light onto the keys, he found not a speck of dust.

Not only the keys—even the strings inside the open piano were free of dust.

At that thought, Lu Ban finally realized what had seemed wrong just now.

He bent down slightly and rubbed the backs of his fingers against the floor.

Spotless.

The stage floor was spotless.

After being abandoned for so many years and left unswept, this place should, by all rights, have been covered in dust.

But—

"Wait a moment."

Lu Ban came back to his senses.

The clothes on those mannequin figures in the control room just now, aside from being tattered, seemed not to have been covered in dust either!!!

Tap—

At that moment, a faint sound came from the direction of the control room on the other side. Under normal circumstances, it would have gone completely unnoticed, but it was so quiet now, and the hall's echo was so strong, that the sound clearly reached Lu Ban's ears.

He glanced over and saw a human face peering at the spot where he stood from behind the control room's glass.

"!"

The flashlight's beam quickly swept over, and Lu Ban saw that it was another mannequin figure, with the same eerie eyes drawn on its face.

"...Don't tell me there are some on the other side too?"

He shone his flashlight toward the control room opposite the stage. Unfortunately, there were no mannequin figures there.

Lu Ban stepped down from the stage and looked around. There did not seem to be any further anomalies.

He stepped down from the stage, found an undamaged chair in the first row, and knocked the dust off it with his crowbar before setting down his backpack.

He took out self-heating rice and water. Lu Ban planned to eat dinner first.

*

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