Survive Until Dawn

The scorched marks behind the stage twisted, projecting faint text into Lu Ban's vision.

[Find the performer 1/1]

It was obvious this was the person Lu Ban's mission required him to find.

However, if only the mission were this simple.

Another line of text appeared beneath it.

[Survive until dawn: 05:51:16]

With over five hours left, every second felt like an agony for Lu Ban.

The scorched "person" in the tuxedo was also immersed in their own melody. The tune was bizarre and ever-changing, each note leaping with a will of its own, flowing from the keys and into Lu Ban's ears, pounding against his eardrums.

Lu Ban felt his thoughts becoming sluggish again, as if stuck in some semi-solid gel, making it difficult to form even a single idea.

This situation reminded Lu Ban of the suona.

When he played the suona, he seemed to enter a similar state.

Were the people listening to him play the suona experiencing the same thing as Lu Ban now?

"!"

The thought of his past experience instantly cleared Lu Ban's mind.

The piano music he was hearing now wasn't just ordinary music.

It was a melody with supernatural power, capable of interfering with people's consciousness.

Did Du Danping also possess a similar power?

The system had informed him he was the 233rd chosen one, meaning there might have been over two hundred before him?

Was Du Danping one of them?

".So that's how it is."

Amidst his sluggish thoughts, Lu Ban understood everything.

"Du Danping has some kind of talent or qualified to enter the Silent Land, thus gaining supernatural power, just like me. He might have… chosen the [Musician] path?"

"Using his supernatural power, Du Danping bewitched everyone in the theater hall with his piano music. That's why… even as the fire spread, these people remained… unmoved, because their consciousnesses have been interfered with!"

"But… if Du Danping caused all of this, if he truly possessed these powers, why did he… die here?"

Lu Ban's thoughts struggled to break through the barrier of the piano music, to regain control of his body.

But no matter how hard he tried, he became more and more sluggish, like a puppet, even the light in his eyes began to fade.

".I must break free from this control… Music can only be defeated by music…"

His thoughts crawled forward, and Lu Ban seized a flash of inspiration.

This melody clearly affected people through hearing, so as long as he disrupted his hearing, he could be freed?

Without further hesitation, a silver revolver appeared in Lu Ban's right hand.

With a thought, the cylinder of the revolver spun, and a silver-gray bullet aligned with the barrel.

In his mind's eye, this revolver aimed at Lu Ban's brain.

Bang—

A silent gunshot echoed in Lu Ban's ears.

The bullet easily pierced Lu Ban's skin, drilling into his brain. Accompanied by an invisible void, a force beyond reason began to ravage, altering Lu Ban's vocal structure.

From his open mouth, a melody emerged.

"Good Luck wishes you good luck, Good Luck brings joy and love, Good Luck, we wish you good luck, Prosper and develop in all directions with good luck…"

The impassioned singing of "Good Luck" echoed through the theater hall. This voice intertwined with the piano melody, surprisingly forming a bizarre harmony.

The melody in his ears was disrupted, and Lu Ban felt all his strength return. He continued to sing in a high-pitched female voice, repeatedly singing "Good Luck." For a moment, in the elegant theater hall, the demonic piano melody and the joyous folk song clashed, creating a strange atmosphere.

While singing "Good Luck," Lu Ban ran towards the stage, gripping his crowbar tightly.

As long as he could deal with Du Danping's spirit, the piano music would stop.

The next moment, several mannequin figures suddenly appeared.

These mannequin figures wore tattered formal attire, and the two painted eyes on their faces were strangely peculiar. Their movements were like those controlled by strings, slow and stiff, but there were more of them, almost blocking Lu Ban's path to the stage.

The mannequin figures reached out their hands towards Lu Ban. Their stiff palms were cold, hard, and possessed a chillingly slippery texture, about to grab Lu Ban's body.

"Good Luck wishes you good luck…"

Lu Ban didn't stop singing, and at the same time, he swung his crowbar.

Crack—

Something as light and dense as a spiderweb covered his brain, allowing Lu Ban to use the crowbar with precision and skill, as if he were naturally adept with it, as if his bones were made of crowbars.

With extreme force, the most precise angle, and the perfect direction, the crowbar struck the mannequin figure blocking his path.

The mannequin figure's head immediately flew off, soaring high. Before it even hit the ground, Lu Ban swung the crowbar again, smashing the forehead of another mannequin figure.

"Good Luck brings joy and love."

Lu Ban's mouth continued to play the joyous song. Within this festive and peaceful melody, another mannequin was sent flying by his crowbar.

Lu Ban was like a god of war, taking two steps at once, and arrived beside the piano.

At this moment, the piano's melody reached its climax. A kind of ancient, vast, and indifferent power seemed to be contained within the melody.

The crowbar followed close behind.

Clang—

The charred, decaying, and broken performer was struck by the hard crowbar and disintegrated with almost no resistance.

The performance abruptly stopped.

The mannequins' movements immediately halted, freezing into frames of terrifying horror.

"That's it?"

Lu Ban waited for tens of seconds before stopping his repeated singing and returning to normal.

He looked at the body that had already vanished with the wind, turning to ash. Lu Ban felt something was off.

If he didn't have [Last Words], then after hearing the melody, he would have had almost no chance to resist before losing control of his body, even losing consciousness and being at the mercy of others.

If he didn't have [Physics Holy Sword], even if he could break free from control, it would be extremely difficult to break through the mannequins' obstruction and kill the undead spirit of Du Danping.

Under these circumstances, a mission like this was still rated as [Mortal] difficulty, the same as [Friend Under the Bed]?

Was the mission evaluation flawed, or had Lu Ban encountered some deviation?

With this thought, Lu Ban looked around. It was silent.

The moonlight had become dim at some point.

He raised his head.

Beyond the broken dome was the deep night sky.

The moon had already passed the gap, and only the stars, visible in the wilderness, dotted the sky.

Among these stars, one was the most dazzling bright star, and its light was now shining down through the gap.

With the illumination of the starlight, a certain message poured into Lu Ban's mind, into his brain wrapped in a viscous, spiderweb-like knowledge.

It was knowledge transmitted through the melody that had already disappeared.

He knew that this bright star was one of the most brilliant stars in the sky throughout the year.

A kind of calling came from this star, crossing the distances of time and space.

Accompanying this light, a grand, indifferent, absolute power began to fill the entire theater hall.

Lu Ban finally understood the whole picture.

He understood what Du Danping had been resisting until his death, and even after his death.

He gazed at that spot.

At this moment, Aldebaran was clearly visible in Lu Ban's eyes.