Counting Heartbeats

Thump—

Thump—

Thump—

In the darkness, every sound became exceptionally clear.

Lu Ban could hear the howls of feral cats in heat downstairs, the noise of some unknown household arguing, and the faint chirping of insects usually drowned out by the daytime clamor.

Clearest of all was the sound of his heartbeat.

A normal human heart beat sixty to one hundred times per minute. Five hundred heartbeats would take less than ten minutes—not exactly short, but not long either.

Lu Ban carefully counted his own heartbeats, focusing completely. Gradually, he realized that all the sounds around him had vanished.

Thump—

Thump—

Thump—

All was silent. Only his own heartbeat proved that he was alive.

Suddenly, Lu Ban realized that his heartbeat seemed to be slowing. He had only counted to one hundred, yet it felt as though several minutes had passed.

A heartbeat could slow as the body relaxed. That was normal. Lu Ban tried to convince himself of that.

Thump—

As his heartbeat slowed, Lu Ban felt his consciousness growing hazy as well.

Creak—

At that moment, the cabinet by the wall seemed to make a sound, as though something had slammed into the cabinet door from within, accompanied by a faint opening and closing noise.

What was that?

Lu Ban jolted in alarm, his attention snapping toward the cabinet. He nearly opened his eyes to check.

But after that opening-and-closing sound, the world fell silent again, as if it had only been Lu Ban's needless hallucination.

He tightened his grip on the crowbar, waiting for a possible attack, yet he felt nothing.

In the vast space, only Lu Ban's heartbeat remained, slowing without end.

Thump—

Was his heartbeat really this slow?

How long had passed already?

If his heartbeat kept slowing down, would he die?

It seemed that as his heartbeat slowed, Lu Ban's brain began to stop working as well.

Scritch—

At that instant, a sharp, shrill, heart-rending scratching sound erupted from the head of the bed above Lu Ban.

Scritch scritch scritch—

The scratching continued without pause, right beside Lu Ban's ear. It drew closer and closer until, at last, it intertwined with his nearly vanished heartbeat, as though it were scratching at Lu Ban's scalp!

It seemed to want to scratch open Lu Ban's skull and pull out whatever was inside!

Scritch scritch scritch—

To hell with this!

Lu Ban was no longer going to continue the task. At this rate, he was afraid he would never see tomorrow's sun.

Gripping the crowbar, Lu Ban prepared to open his eyes and figure out a way to smash whatever was surrounding him.

But only then did Lu Ban realize that he could not open his eyelids at all.

Not only his eyelids—even his hands, legs, and body could not move. It was as if something were pressing down on him with all its might, leaving him unable to make any movement whatsoever.

!!!

The scratching grew louder and faster.

Lu Ban tried to struggle, but he remained in the same position. He felt something beneath the bedboards behind and under him, scratching at the wood with something sharp, over and over again, endlessly.

Scritch scritch scritch—

In such an extremely bizarre and tense situation, Lu Ban suddenly found that his left hand could move a little.

He moved his fingers, trying to ease the tension throughout his body.

The next moment, he touched a warm, soft, delicate hand.

Lu Ban immediately felt his tension disappear. His entire body relaxed, as though he could awaken from this nightmare-like reality at any moment.

The scratching around him seemed to vanish as well.

Lu Ban let out a slight breath of relief.

The next moment, a horrifying thought coiled its way up from the depths of his heart.

I live alone. Whose hand is this?!

An even stronger sense of wrongness rose from where that hand touched him. Lu Ban trembled all over. As its fingertips gently brushed over his forearm, upper arm, neck, and cheek, the trembling became more and more pronounced.

Even in this state, something Lu Ban himself found admirable was that he was still accurately counting his heartbeats.

"Four hundred ninety-six, four hundred ninety-seven... five hundred!"

The instant he reached five hundred, Lu Ban felt all the pressure bearing down on him abruptly disappear.

The next moment, Lu Ban woke up.

He opened his eyes and found himself lying on the bed. The crowbar lay properly beside his hand, not clutched in it.

Lu Ban sat up.

Everything in the room was normal.

The cabinet doors were tightly shut, the head of the bed was spotless, and there was nothing strange beside him.

Lu Ban felt his heartbeat. It was fast, like he had just run a hundred-meter sprint.

Did I... fall asleep just now?

He had actually fallen asleep during such a dangerous and bizarre task?

Lu Ban had always considered himself cautious and deliberate, someone who planned before acting.

He had not expected himself to be so carefree.

Uh, but counting heartbeats in a dark environment really might be hypnotic... Right.

Lu Ban remembered the task. He picked up the flashlight, turned it on, and rolled out of bed.

The shadows beneath the bed grew darker and darker. Within that profound darkness, which even the flashlight could not disperse, something unusual seemed to be lurking.

The surroundings were quiet, without a single sound.

Lu Ban bent down. The floor was icy cold, and the bed frame creaked under the pressure.

He poked his head beneath the bed.

Under the empty bed, there was only accumulated dust, and—

That ridiculously dressed Lan Lan Lu doll!

The instant he saw those heavily made-up eyes, the scratching sounded again. This time, it came from inside Lu Ban's skull, churning his brain, eroding his sanity, and reaching straight to the end of the abyss.

Scritch scritch scritch—

Something bizarre was about to hatch from within Lu Ban's brain!

!

At the instant that thing burst forth, Lu Ban opened his eyes.

He heard insects chirping outside the window, the shrill howls of cats, and droplets from the not-quite-tightened bathroom faucet striking the sink.

He had returned to reality.

At least this was a world he knew.

Lu Ban had no idea what had just happened, what the source of those sounds was, or how he had somehow dreamed another dream within a dream.

He turned on the light.

Driven by curiosity, Lu Ban came to the bedside. He bent down, took a deep breath, and prepared to look beneath the bed again.

Courting death was indeed addictive, and curiosity was just as impossible to quit. Right now, Lu Ban only wanted to see what exactly was under the bed.

He shone the flashlight over.

Garlic, crosses, hundred-yuan bills, and lots of salt.

Other than that, there was only a thick layer of dust.

However, traces seemed to stretch across the dust, as though some creature had crawled across it with a staggering gait.

The traces looked as though something had struggled from outside the bed toward the place where it should have belonged. Yet they also looked as though something had tried to break free from the darkness and wriggle outward. Following them, Lu Ban discovered that they vanished beyond the area illuminated by the light. No one knew where they ultimately led.

Cockroaches? Rats? Or perhaps... that doll with the ridiculous smile?

Lu Ban's eighty points of sanity told him that it would be better to explore that area another time.

He sat up and checked his phone. It was twelve thirty.

That brief experience had actually taken thirty minutes?

He found it unbelievable.

Five hundred heartbeats in thirty minutes—if he had counted correctly, then his heart rate had been far too low.

After such a long time, his body should have been starved of oxygen. He should have died long ago. Lu Ban did not dare think too deeply about it.

Ghosts and monsters were all idealistic nonsense.

His own perceptions and consciousness were idealistic too.

So as long as he did not care about them, ghosts and monsters could not hurt him!

As expected of me.

Just as he thought that, he saw the words on his phone screen twist into cold system text.

Congratulations, you have completed the task.

Settlement will now begin.

Task Exploration Rate: 30%

Task Completion: Mediocre

With your eyes closed, you failed to glimpse the true nature of this room. But no matter what, after saying hello, you are friends now.

Obtained Silence Points: 100

Obtained Novice Guidance Task Reward: Inherent Skill: *All In*

Obtained Career Reward: A Video That Cannot Be Opened at Night

Settlement complete.

Now that inspiration has struck you, do you feel a powerful urge to create?

Choose to complete the Career Development Task to receive advanced rewards.

Welcome back to The Silent Land.

The words gradually faded away. Lu Ban subconsciously looked once more at the dark shadow beneath the edge of the bed.

At that moment, his phone suddenly chimed.

Lu Ban hurriedly opened it and saw that a video file had suddenly appeared in his phone's storage.

The filename was: A Video That Cannot Be Opened at Night.