Covering One's Ears

While everyone was searching, Yu Xing chose a corner away from the others to observe the overall situation, ensuring that he would not be accidentally injured. His face was deathly pale, as if he had lost too much blood, even more exaggerated than in reality.

He glanced discreetly at the bed placed in the corner, especially glancing at the shadows beneath it, before casually looking away.

There was a mirror on the desk in the secret room. He saw his reflection at a glance and guessed that this was the manifest state of the A-level pollutant. Presumably, once the plot related to the experiment and the contaminant was unearthed, the deducers would think of him first because of his abnormal appearance.

However, he wouldn't give anyone the opportunity to exploit his identity for personal gain. After all, he also had a fake patient identity as a cover. As for how many people would believe him, that would depend on his subsequent performance.

Yu Xing endured the pain radiating from his skin, which was clearly affecting his mobility. He really wanted to use his regenerative abilities to heal all the wounds, but unfortunately, his clothes were tattered. If the wounds suddenly disappeared, others would notice immediately. He could only hope to find a scene with new clothes so he could cover his skin.

He silently pressed his hand against the most severe cut on his arm, then looked up and surveyed the secret chamber in the mountains. Judging from the marks on the chamber, no one had lived there for a long time, but the reason why such a secret chamber existed in the first place was very intriguing.

First, there was a bed and a table in this secret room. On the table was a kerosene lamp that could still be lit. The kerosene lamp provided them with their entire view of this small secret room. When he came down, the lamp was already lit. Zeng Lai was the first to go down, fumbled to light it.

Apart from a door leading to the outside, the only connection to this secret room was the passage they had just slid down. There were no steps on the passage walls, indicating that it was a one-way passage with no exit.

Although the bed appears tidy now, and there's nothing on the table except for a kerosene lamp, the marks on the floor that look like fingernails suggest that at least one person was once imprisoned here—perhaps as a prisoner, or perhaps as someone who sensed their own transformation locked themselves up.

This could not be confirmed. The strategist knocked and tapped on the walls of the room for a long time but found no other secret passages, nor any information about the room's former owner.

Wen Qinghuai rummaged through the desk and found several newspapers covered with dense text that resembled English. He brought the newspapers close to the kerosene lamp and squinted at them for a while, discovering that some words and grammar did not match the knowledge in his mind, making it difficult to decipher the meaning of the text. At least, no one could do it at the moment.

"Do any of us have a background in literature?" Wen Qinghuai frowned as he looked at the several pages of incomprehensible text. He disliked this situation where he had the information but couldn't decipher it, so he looked at everyone.

"I am, but..." Bai Junrui replied, "Not every identity grants abilities right from the start. I am a literary scholar, but I just glanced at these characters, and I can't recognize them. Perhaps the relevant plot will allow me to gain reading abilities once I enter the city inside the Dead Silent Island."

"My brother can't decipher it now, but maybe he can later. Could you give him those newspapers to keep on his person? Once we can decipher them, we'll share the clues with everyone as soon as possible?" Bai Xiaobing smiled and, under the tacit gazes of everyone, began to ask for the source of the clues. But this reason was so plausible that even Wen Qinghuai couldn't refuse.

That's true. These newspapers weren't hidden very well; anyone could easily find them by searching the desk. Under these circumstances, Wen Qinghuai didn't have the right to keep such a clue to himself. Bai Xiaobing saw this, which is why she asked for them directly.

The newspaper was placed on her brother's person, in case it turned out to be an important clue. If they encountered danger later, the fellow psychologists would do their best to protect her brother. Of course, the more of this kind of thing she carried on her person, the better.

Only items that pose no real danger are acceptable. If it's something that could drive someone insane, then forget it. After all, having witnessed that fish, Bai Xiaobing was already mentally prepared for all sorts of strange and eerie items in this world.

Wen Qinghuai glanced at the brother and sister. Their vice president, Fei Jing, remained silent, but clearly supported them.

"Okay." Wen Qinghuai gave a perfunctory smile, readily agreeing as he handed the newspapers to Bai Junrui, then asked, "Is that the only one I haven't looked at?"

There were very few visible facilities in this secret room. Out of some tacit understanding, everyone first searched the walls, observed the scratch marks on the floor, and even found a few drops of dried blood in the corner, but so far no one had touched the bed.

The most important clue might be on this bed. The group's abilities are roughly equal now; any one of them could be a powerful divination expert with some reputation. Under these circumstances, they would agree to retrieve the important clue together when everyone is watching, to avoid any unnecessary misunderstandings.

"Let's search it." There was nothing else to see besides the bed, so everyone gathered around.

Carlos was closest to the bed, and since it didn't matter who searched, the task naturally fell to him. He chuckled, "Alright then, I'll reluctantly disturb this unknown person's sleeping sanctuary."

With so many people restricting his movement, Carlos finished speaking and reached out his hand. As soon as he bent down, he was accidentally bumped into by the person next to him. What was infuriating was that this person was stronger than him, and he was almost inevitably knocked aside, his precious hand nearly landing on a slightly protruding rock.

"Hiss!" Carlos gasped.

"Ah!" The person who hit him also let out a soft cry of innocence and pain.

Upon hearing that voice, Carlos's slight resentment at almost injuring his hand vanished instantly. His eyes flashed, he adjusted his expression, and looked back with some surprise, asking, "Yu Xing? You bumped into me... no, I didn't even cry out in pain, why are you acting like I bumped into you?"

Yu Xing had been standing in the corner, had somehow squeezed to the front. He had "accidentally" stumbled and bumped into Carlos. Carlos clutched his injured wound, his lips drained of color, and cold sweat poured down his face. "Sorry, it wasn't intentional. I'm a patient, and I sometimes feel dizzy. My vision went black for a moment and I bumped into you. It hurt a lot too, but you don't need to worry about me."

Although the words were normal and the meaning was roughly the same, there was always a faint aroma of tea permeating the secret room.

Carlos: "..." Now that things have come to this point, how can I just ignore it?

With a somewhat amused and surprised expression, as if he'd been scammed, he reluctantly replied, "Let me help you sit down over there. Goodness, you weren't this delicate last time we worked together. How about it? This time you got to experience the untouchable princess persona, wasn't it great?"

Yu Xing: "It's alright, this feeling of not being able to hit or scold you is really nice."

His reaction immediately dispelled the skeptical glances from the onlookers, as he seemed to be inconvenienced by his identity but skillfully defused the awkwardness with a joke.

Carlos sighed, resigned himself to the situation, and carefully "escorted" Yu Xing aside.

From an angle unseen by others, he and Yu Xing exchanged a glance, their eyes conveying a sense of mutual understanding.

Carlos knew that Yu Xing was risking being noticed by others to keep him away from that bed, at least the task of searching for the bed should not be his responsibility.

This means that Yu Xing sensed the danger associated with the bed.

This was just a minor incident. Carlos was framed, so naturally, someone nearby went to search for him. It turned out to be just a single bed. Cui Hui went over and messed up the neatly made bed, picked up the stiff pillow and felt it carefully, then shook out the quilt and lifted the sheet. Sure enough, he found a rusty metal key under the sheet.

The key head is cross-shaped with an emerald set at the base, making it look very ornate and clearly a style that ordinary people of that era, as indicated by their clothing, could not afford.

"Those who once lived here were either of noble birth or pitiful creatures imprisoned by those of noble birth." This thought crossed the minds of everyone present.

Cui Hui was a man of few words. He looked at the key, but instead of taking it directly with his hand, he cautiously planned to look under the bed. If there was any danger associated with the key, it would have to be under the bed.

Carlos's attention was drawn to Cui Hui's action, and he guessed that Yu Xing had come to stop him because there was something under the bed.

I hope everyone is alright.

Under everyone's watchful eyes Cui Hui took two steps back and bent down to look under the bed. Due to the very poor lighting and limited vision, he could only see that it was pitch black under the bed.

But even in this state, there wasn't a sound from under the bed, or rather, there hadn't been any unusual noises from the entire secret room since they entered. Cui Hui said, "There shouldn't be anything..."

He stopped mid-sentence.

Suddenly, a mask-like face emerged from the shadows under the bed. The face was deathly pale, with empty eye sockets, bright red lips, and frighteningly heavy blush. At first glance, it seemed as if the person had no hair.

The face had an exaggeratedly wide smile and crescent-shaped eyes, like the mask of a geisha in some Japanese culture.

Cui Hui stared into those two empty eyes, and suddenly felt his whole body stiffen, unable to move. He could only watch helplessly as the white face in the black eyes drew closer and closer. An uncontrollable sense of fear rose within him. Wu Kaiyun, who was close by, noticed something was wrong and immediately grabbed Cui Hui's arm, trying to pull him up. However, he was horrified to find that Cui Hui seemed to have gained several hundred pounds. Pulling him up was like pulling an object rooted to the ground; he couldn't budge him.

"Something's up! Pull him away!" Wu Kaiyun shouted instinctively, trying to alert those around him. But as soon as he spoke, Cui Hui saw the smile on the face under the bed deepen. At the same time, the limbs connected to that face emerged. Behind the mask-like face was a fat belly resembling a spider's shell. The arms and legs mimicked the crawling motion of a spider, with the limbs very close together on either side of the fat belly. When it moved, it looked like a giant spider with a human face.

The strategists were on high alert. Some reached out to help Cui Hui, while others retreated to avoid being implicated. Zhao Mou had already stood far away from Yu Xing when Yu Xing staged the accident. He knew how much his fragile body could withstand without special abilities, so he didn't go up and cause trouble.

The spider's hand still resembled a human hand, its five pale fingers grabbing Cui Hui's wrist. Cui Hui immediately let out a terrified scream. Xu Huan, noticing something was wrong, shouted, "Stop screaming!"

A deathly silent island, is shouting so loudly just asking for trouble?

In fact, they all knew in their hearts that as an experienced divination expert, Cui Hui would never scream as soon as he encountered a ghost. This was probably due to some special aura, or like when he saw that fish face, his mind was affected.

The fear in Cui Hui's screams was so intense that it permeated everyone's hearts, which was clearly abnormal.

Wu Kaiyun knew he might have caused trouble in his haste. He looked at the slender arm sticking out from under the bed, quickly grabbed the hard pillow from the bed, and smashed it down on the arm.

With a bang, the pillow cracked, but the arm that looked like it would break at any moment was completely unharmed. Not only that, the other arm also climbed onto Cui Hui's body. The people pulling Cui Hui from behind felt a suction force coming from Cui Hui's body, as if something inside was trying to pull Cui Hui to the bottom of the bed.

How could this be? The deduction has only just begun, how could such a ghost, so utterly powerless, have already appeared!

They have no offerings, no weapons, and no special abilities. Even hard objects are helpless against this thing under the bed. How are they supposed to rescue the person?

Ultimately, they were too careless. Several of the deducers thought of what Yu Xing had said to Fei Jing on the hill. Yes, they knew that this deduction had no system and that they should change their mindset, but they still couldn't shake off the subtle sense of security that the system had given them, that the deduction wouldn't be too difficult at the beginning, but would become more and more difficult as it went on.

But in this simulation, who said that the danger that could instantly plunge them into a deadly situation wouldn't be there at the very beginning!

A piercing, inhuman laugh emanated from under the bed. The laugh was incredibly penetrating, making their eardrums itch. Yu Xing clicked her tongue twice, raised her hand to cover her ears, and then said gently, "Cover your ears, don't listen. Otherwise, little arms might grow out of your ears!"