The Corpse in Alice's Hell (13)

Do you have any shame?

For any living person, there is only one answer to this question: yes.

But White Face didn't answer; his whole body was trembling slightly.

It was obvious that he was afraid.

He crouched in the corner, listening to the soft voice close to his ear, asking in a probing and malicious tone, "Huh? Wearing a mask?"

"In that case, I can only conclude that you have no shame..."

There seemed to be a hint of regret in his voice, and the suffocating oppression slowly faded away, as if he was being let off the hook for that reason.

White Face, clinging to life, waited another minute, but the sound didn't come again.

He relaxed a little, reached out and pushed the door open, wanting to leave as soon as possible.

I'm starting to regret it. I should have followed someone like that gambler. No matter what, he would never maliciously cheat a complete stranger.

Even though... he's on the Fallen Path.

Since the gambler wouldn't know this anyway, he's no different from anyone else.

Just as he was thinking this, White Face's hand had already touched the door. With just a gentle push, he could escape this place that left him with no will to resist.

Indeed, it was only after he hid inside the closet that he belatedly realized the ghostly things there belonged to him—corresponding to his sins.

But he couldn't go out, because the ghosts outside seemed to have exceptional eyesight, which he couldn't handle either.

Because of his poor eyesight, he couldn't see clearly and would have a hard time escaping if he encountered ghosts.

Hateful.

He wasn't originally this weak.

If it had been a week earlier, he would never have been in such a passive position during the Struggle Level simulation.

But now...

With a firm push of his fingertips, White Face was about to open the cabinet door.

However, the door had barely opened a crack when it was bounced back by a tremendous force!

Hehehe...

Laughter echoed in the cabinet. White Face shuddered and slumped down as if all her strength had left her.

"Others can live without shame, but you..."

A chilling aura enveloped him again, as if a pair of hands had covered his mouth and nose, making it impossible for him to breathe.

"You're no good! You'll die even if you have no shame! You'll die too!!"

Brush--

The mask on the White Face was lifted by an invisible force. At the same time, the cabinet door was shaken open, creating a crack. Bright light from the bathroom seeped in through the crack, illuminating a face more terrifying than a ghost.

The face was deathly pale, just like a skinned ghost. There was a stark color difference between the jaw and the neck. If the skin below the neck was normal, then the skin above the neck looked like a corpse.

A pair of eyes widened in surprise at the sudden turn of events, but it was no use. The area around the eyes was covered with red and black stitches, which bound the eyelids and eye sockets together, leaving only two black pupils visible.

Even so, the eyeballs were not completely spared. If a medical professional were to examine them up close, they would quickly conclude that the eyes were nearly blind.

White Face Mian let out a rapid hiss, shielding his eyes from the oncoming light with his hand, his teeth clenched tightly, making a series of sharp, clanging sounds.

Above his head, a face emerged from the wood, its eyes exaggeratedly curved.

Face: "Oh dear, who turned you into this?"

White Face:"..."

Face: "Why aren't you saying anything?"

White Face:"..."

He finally opened his mouth, as if trying to explain himself.

"Ah..."

The face moved from the wooden dome on top of the White Face head to the front, looking at him curiously.

All that could be seen in the White Face's open mouth was no tongue!

Everyone thinks White Face is a withdrawn person who doesn't like to talk, but is he really that quiet?

No, he just couldn't say it!

With its simple lines, the face managed to conjure an exceptionally complex expression. It seemed momentarily stunned, then burst into a series of gleeful, schadenfreude laughs. "Haha... hahahahahahahaha... hahahahahaha... you've finally met your match! Who!? Who did this!"

White Face shut his mouth, overwhelmed by humiliation, fear, and despair.

He thought to himself, "I can't escape."

Because even the offerings had been taken away by that person—the ones for attack, the ones for defense, the ones used to skin others and then put on themselves... all gone. Now he has no ability to protect himself.

In fact, if this simulation hadn't forced him to come, he would probably be preparing for surgery in a private hospital right now.

Or rather, if he hadn't been captured by that horrible person a week ago and had his entire face and organs destroyed, he wouldn't have been able to wait until the time limit was almost up before entering the new deduction, thus entering this deadly deduction Yugi without any preparation.

The ghost's excited laughter seemed to accompany its death. The mask detached from the wood, covered the White Face, and then began to tear apart.

"Ah!!!"

Without his tongue, White Face could only utter these monosyllables. He curled up, unable to resist the pain that seeped into his bones.

Perhaps, a week ago, he had already lost most of his will to survive.

Before his flesh and brain were torn apart, the words that person had spoken to him echoed in White Face's mind.

"Do you like laurel flowers? I'm giving you this one; I hope you won't throw it away. The meaning? Haha... it refers to temptation. The sins committed under temptation will eventually return to you, and today, I'm just helping that day come a little sooner."

"You're not completely useless; at least you can help me deliver a message. Hmm... for that reason, I'll leave you with a pair of intact ears."

The last image in his mind was a withered laurel petal and a smile with an ambiguous meaning.

Twenty minutes later.

"That's fucking amazing! This thing can run faster than me! Luckily it's not very smart, or I really can't guarantee I'd make it back safely."

Zeng Lai stubbornly held onto the bath towel wrapped around her waist, panting heavily, but at least she managed to maintain her dignity in front of Huai's "audience" and avoid the wind chilling her to the bone.

In fact, Huai had already begun to consider not uploading the video of this simulation, because he himself was in a sorry state, wearing only a bath towel, his hair soaked with sweat, showing no semblance of the dignity of a "master of the Mutation Path".

Only Yu Xing seemed somewhat composed, after all, he was neatly dressed and his physical activity level was not as high as Zeng Lai's or Huai's.

As they were talking, the three returned to the bathroom door and ran into Huang Bai, who had just finished drying his hair. Huang Bai was immediately shocked to see them like this. Forgetting who was the veteran and who was the newbie, he took a step back, his face filled with astonishment. "Why aren't you two dressed?!"

Zeng Lai was also shocked. "Why are you still here?"

Huai remained silent; only the hand covering his forehead conveyed his despair.

They thought the two girls had finished showering before they came back, how did they end up running into each other like this?

It's been twenty minutes already.

Huang Bai's tone was full of self-righteousness. "Girls are supposed to take this long to shower and wash their hair, any objections?"

She couldn't help but suspect that neither of them had ever had a girlfriend.

After thinking for a moment, Huang Bai added, "That girl went back first, so I dried my hair a little longer. Wait, wait a minute, why do you guys seem to have come from outside? What were you guys doing?"

Regarding this matter... Zeng Lai sighed.

It's a long story.

Huang Bai: "Make it short."

Huai: "... Let me confirm first. Xing said that the voice that told me to hide earlier wasn't actually yours, right?"

Huang Bai was completely bewildered. "Hide? What do you mean, hide?"

Okay, now we can be sure.

After glancing at Yu Xing, Huai silently passed the buck to Zeng Lai to handle.

Zeng Lai then briefly explained to Huang Bai what had happened in the bathroom and briefly described what happened after they escaped from the bathroom.

It's not complicated in theory.

After Zeng Lai and Huai escaped, they heard a sound of something being kicked over behind them, followed by a vulgar curse directed at Yi.

Even a fool could tell that the hysteria was intentional.

But the Headless Man had already caught up with them, and it was too late to settle scores. They could only run wildly down the corridor, barefoot and carrying towels, using various cover to avoid the Headless Man's sight.

There was good news, though. During the escape, Zeng Lai discovered that the Headless Man had a very limited field of vision. It could not see people more than ten meters away and could only rely on its hearing to determine direction.

Fortunately, the Absurd World didn't design the Headless Man too perversely.

Thanks to the curved design, Zeng Lai and Huai successfully made their way down to the second floor via the side path outside the bathroom, while Ye ran towards the bedroom.

Just as Yi separated from the two, for some reason, the Headless Man who had caught up seemed to have identified Zeng Lai and Huai, and continued to chase them almost without stopping.

So the two of them ran around on the second floor and finally found the first closed loop route. They ran around the loop and returned to the stairwell, where they met Yu Xing seemed to be taking a leisurely stroll.

Zeng Lai's booming voice was consciously suppressed, leaving only the volume of a whisper, "Great, you're not lost!"

Yu Xing: "..." I can't lose it.

"Then come run with us!"

Yu Xing: "?"

Yu Xing was dragged along without explanation, felt helpless. After running around in a maze with Zeng Lai and Huai for a while, Huai waved his hand and said wearily, "I've shaken them off."

He crouched down, caught a small, finger-length, green snake in his hand, and guided it to the pendant on his chest.

Yu Xing was hugging her knees and panting heavily to relieve the irregular heartbeat caused by running. It wasn't until the small green snake on the locust tree coiled up on the pendant that Yu Xing noticed the jade snake decoration on the locust pendant was missing.

Are they sacrificial offerings for reconnaissance purposes?

Yu Xing guessed that was the case, and after getting rid of the Headless Man, Zeng Lai and Huai finally realized how "uncool" they looked at the moment, and hurriedly went back to the bathroom to change their clothes.

So the three of them headed back to the bathroom, and Yu Xing took the opportunity to tell them her guess about the wardrobe.

"The bloodstains in the wardrobe earlier were actually a warning that something had died inside. After passing the blood-stained wardrobe, we should have been more alert, but then the ghost mimicked Huang Bai's voice, urging us to hide. We could easily overlook other cues because of the immediate danger. So I guess the ghost in the wardrobe must be intelligent, able to mimic our voices and know the location of certain ghosts, which is why it could take advantage of the situation when the Headless Man arrived."

It was only after meeting Huang Bai that this matter was finally confirmed.

Huang Bai expressed sympathy for the three's plight, then looked at the two big shots with a serious expression. "Forget about the gambler big shots, Huai, you're too thin, not what I expected."

Huai Mu wore a blank expression, not wanting to continue the conversation, and went straight into the bathroom.

Since they had run into each other, Huang Bai didn't plan to act alone. She waited outside after Zeng Lai and Yu Xing went inside.

In the three people's imagination, there should be no one in the bathroom at this time. Even if there are ghosts in the closet, they shouldn't be able to kill people directly, since the divination offerings can be of great help to them.

They've been gone for so long, Han Zhiyong and White Face, who were in the bathroom at the time, should have left by now.

Zeng Lai and Huai found their lockers and started changing clothes. Only Yu Xing, who had nothing to do, looked around and saw the lock that had fallen off Han Zhiyong's locker. A smile appeared on his lips.

He hadn't expected Han Zhiyong to die here, but the current outcome was already quite good.

Then, a faint smell of blood wafted into his nose.

"Um?"

Yu Xing looked for the source of the smell with some surprise, and soon found himself standing in front of the White Face cabinet.

The wardrobe door was ajar, with only a narrow gap revealing nothing.

Upon closer inspection, the smell of blood became noticeably stronger.

Yu Xing pushed open the cabinet door with her fingers, and to her surprise, she saw a scene of utter devastation.

A corpse was lying in the wardrobe.

These aren't the kind of ghostly corpses used to scare people; they're fresh, warm, and familiar corpses.

Blood splattered, staining parts of the wooden wall red. The corpse lay limp and powerless on its back, a bath towel wrapped around its waist, also soaking in the red liquid.

If the body is still relatively intact, then the head... is a rather unsightly sight.

The entire head was stripped of its skin, leaving only tendons, bones, and some nauseating brain tissue, emitting a strange odor.

It's unclear what kind of wicked pleasure this unknown ghost has, but it actually hung the thin skin it peeled off on the clothes rack inside the wardrobe. Yu Xing could feel the ferocity of the face just by glancing at it.

White Face died, and his death would be considered gruesome anywhere.

This is truly unexpected.

Yu Xing originally thought that this person was just keeping a low profile, but she didn't expect him to be so weak that he couldn't even escape.

Zeng Lai changed her clothes and saw Yu Xing standing there motionless. Curious, she leaned over and asked, "What are you doing? What's wrong? -- Holy crap!"

Huai heard the commotion and came over. "...?" How could this be?

All three were taken aback by the result.

Yu Xing sensed something was wrong and reached out to move the corpse, wanting to see if there were any man-made wounds. However, she didn't see any wounds, but she did find a flower-shaped mark the size of a little fingernail on the back of White Face's neck.

His pupils contracted for a moment, then quickly returned to normal as he identified the type of flower.

It looks like laurel.

"... How could he... have it printed specifically for me to see?"

Yu Xing subconsciously smeared some blood on the mark, took a step back, and stopped touching the corpse.

Zeng Lai and Huai did not notice anything unusual about Yu Xing, because after Yu Xing moved the corpse, something even more attractive was revealed.

Fragments of the White Face Persona Mask lay quietly behind the corpse.