The Unrescued Snow Disaster

After inspecting the Dark Star members' houses, the four were finally ready to begin searching the rooms where "people" lived.

Since there are only ten rooms in total, and none of them are very large, and they have plenty of time, there is no need to search them separately. Otherwise, if they gather them together, they would have to repeat the information they found, which would be more troublesome.

They went into the room of the woman who was holding the child, which was the nearest one.

As soon as they pushed open the door, the woman inside looked straight at them.

The woman's clothes were not thick enough; it seemed she was only wearing a sweater and trousers, and her exposed arms, neck, and feet were red with cold.

His empty gaze was fixed on the doorway, his face deathly still, as if he had imprinted their figures into his eyes.

Zhang Yu paused, a chill running down his spine. It took him two seconds to realize that the woman wasn't looking at them, but rather at someone who was actually facing this direction.

The woman remained motionless, like a sculpture, without even a breath, just as Yu Xing had described her to them—like a mannequin.

"Are you sure she won't move? Will searching the house disturb her?" Zhang Yu saw Yu Xing had already stepped forward, so he slowly moved over as well.

With the captain and Boss Hua around, there's a sense of security, but it's like going to a haunted house and finding a human-shaped figure sitting in the room—you never know when "it" will suddenly pounce and scare you.

Moreover, facing this woman, his Uncanny Valley effect was almost forced out.

Yu Xing reached out to check the condition of the baby in the woman's arms. He unwrapped the layers of swaddling clothes and saw the face of the dead infant.

Judging from the unfolded fabric, there was a thin quilt among them—but it was already torn.

There were also all sorts of tattered clothes, layers upon layers of torn fabric piled together, some new and some old; it's hard to imagine how long it took the woman to collect them.

This room felt more lived-in compared to the empty rooms they had drawn; apart from the wardrobe being somewhat empty, it had all the other necessities.

A kettle, a mouthwash cup, a washbasin, a rice bowl, napkins... Looking around, this must be a little home that has been lived in for a long time.

"If the previous scene was a replica of a real event that happened in the past, then the people in these ten rooms are indeed the guests of the Peaceful Sleep Inn," Yu Xing said in a voice that was neither too loud nor too soft, but loud enough for everyone to hear. "The old man in the lobby must have forgotten what happened in Nanshui Town before the anomaly."

"So, in the normal world, a devastating snowstorm struck Nanshui Town, and these people were residents of the Peaceful Sleep Inn at the time. Until some kind of anomaly occurred, the residents all died, but their bodies didn't decompose. Instead, they turned into these doll-like things that keep repeating the same scene?"

While responding, Zhang Yu pondered, "If this woman has stayed in this room for a long time, could we consider using this place as their home when it gets particularly cold?"

"I remember on the system page where we registered for the event, Nanshui Town was described as having not seen the sun for months," Lan Wu said, rummaging through the drawers of the cabinet as she asked, "If the anomaly only occurred a few months ago, wouldn't that conflict with the timeline you're seeing now?"

"The ratio of real to false flow rates is ten to one. Since there is such a time difference, perhaps there is also a time difference between the outside world and the inside of Nanshui Town?" Taking advantage of the fact that his loose clothes made it inconvenient for him to move around, Hua Subai stood calmly against the wall and openly paddled.

He watched the other three fiddling around, tinkering and turning things over, and squinted his eyes contentedly. "What others perceive as a few months is actually decades in Nanshui Town. It's not impossible for such things to happen."

Lan Wu hesitation, "I see."

"But there has to be a reason for the different flow of time. Either the environment is different, like the difference between above ground and underground tombs, where the accumulation of yin energy underground might cause a time discrepancy." Yu Xing pulled a necklace from under her pillow. "Or it's about reality and illusion; a difference in time would also be reasonable."

"But now we know that real time passes faster than illusory time, which gives us a chance to complete the mission and leave before the seven days are up."

"But if a few months outside is equivalent to a decade or more inside the town, then the normal outside world is slower than the mutated inner world. This wouldn't be a problem in other scenarios, but here, it's the exact opposite of the flow of time between reality and illusion."

"Without reason, I can't imagine why two completely opposite time outcomes could occur in the same place."

Yu Xing spoke, she glanced at the necklace in her hand.

The heavy necklace looked like it was made of gold, and the golden chain did not lose its luster even under these conditions. The pendant at the bottom was a small oval gold-cased photo frame that could be opened. Pressing the button made the cover pop open, revealing a photo of a family of three inside.

The photo has faded, losing its original vibrancy, and gives the people in the picture an air of hardship.

The man in the wheelchair is in the center of the photo, holding an infant in his arms. Behind him, a radiant woman rests her hands on the back of the wheelchair, and she and the man smile brightly at the camera.

Although the man has a leg ailment, judging from this photo alone, the couple has a very good relationship. Both the man and the woman are dressed exquisitely, and the woman is wearing a jade bracelet on her wrist.

Yu Xing remained silent for a moment, then looked at the photo in front of the woman sitting on the edge of the bed.

The woman's face gradually overlapped with the face in the photo. It was hard to imagine that this haggard and numb person in front of me had once dressed so elegantly, had her own love, and had money.

This gold necklace isn't cheap either.

But look at it now, the woman is living in a small hotel room, the pots and pans are old and worn, and many places are covered in dust and grime that have not been cleaned. It is dirty and messy.

"Captain, should we take this necklace?" Zhang Yu asked, leaning closer.

Yu Xing handed him the necklace. "Can you tell whether the man in the photo is important or not?"

Zhang Yu was taken aback, then chuckled, "Probably, but I won't be looking at the photo; I'll be searching for clues."

A data-like glint flashed in his eyes. "There are no items related to men in this room, indicating that the woman was not accompanied by a man when she stayed here; her husband was not with her."

"But she put the necklace under her pillow, which shows that she cherishes the photo very much. Based on this behavior, it's clear that she still loves her husband and misses him very much."

"Look here again." Zhang Yu pointed to a piece of fabric that clearly belonged to a man's trousers in the middle of the baby's swaddling clothes. "You see, this piece of fabric is the same color as the trousers the man in the photo is wearing, and the pattern is similar too. I guess it's the same piece."

"Therefore, the possibility of her husband cheating is extremely low, and the probability that he is already dead is 76 percent." Zhang Yu stroked his chin. "Furthermore, he died before the woman checked into the Peaceful Sleep Inn, so what happened in the hotel has nothing to do with this man. Overall, I tend to think that this man was not important to our mission, but merely a source of spiritual sustenance for this woman while she was alive."

"Since it's not important, then there's no need to take it. Besides, this thing..." Yu Xing silently stuffed the necklace back under the pillow. "The system didn't say that the scene that reappears every hour wouldn't change. Last time she didn't knock on my door, but if I take her necklace, it's uncertain whether she'll switch targets and knock on other doors next time."

Don't take things randomly if you have nothing to do. This is a lesson learned from many simulations. The main reason is that if the item is useless, taking it will only attract hatred, which is really unnecessary.

The three of them, along with Hua Subai who was just observing from the sidelines, quickly finished looking through the woman's room. With Zhang Yu, who had the expertise, present, they were pretty sure they hadn't missed any clues.

Besides the necklace, they also found an IOU for half a jin of rice borrowed by a man named Sun Yunyun from a woman, with the note specifically stating "not yet repaid."

Without wasting any time, the group went to Xiao Yangyang's room.

Frankly speaking, it's already quite unbelievable enough that a boy in his early teens is staying alone in a hotel, and the furnishings in the room only make one feel a little sorry for the child.

The children's room was much simpler than the women's room. Things were placed in lower places, and apart from some daily necessities, there were mostly various small toys.

All the clothes and blankets in the room were piled on the bed, turning the uncomfortable wooden bed into a small nest.

The child sat in the open space in the center of the room, and his intimidating presence was considerably less than that of the woman before him.

Moreover, they already knew that in the scene, the child kindly opened the door and even gave the woman some things, but unfortunately, he was strangled to death by the woman who was traumatized. It was a typical case of good people not getting good rewards.

"He should live with his parents." Lan Wu noticed several pairs of shoes at the bottom of the empty wardrobe, including men's leather shoes and women's cotton shoes, and a suitcase standing upright behind the door.

This likely means the child moved to the hotel with their parents, and that the parents probably prepared by packing some things.

"Even if there were any before, they're gone now." Hua Subai stood in front of the cabinet, looking at the many odds and ends that were piled on the floor rather than placed on the table, and casually picked up a small rattle drum. "The items are all at the bottom, a height that's easy for children to reach. It's impossible to do this if there are adults around."

As he turned the drumstick, the small balls on both sides of the wave drum began to strike back and forth with a thud.

Given the level of development in Nanshui Town, the children's toys are all old-fashioned things, such as rattles, bamboo dragonflies, or other strange and unusual gadgets that have been phased out elsewhere but are still considered novel and interesting in the town.

"Yes, Boss Hua is right. This child's parents must be gone. A teenager wouldn't still like a rattle drum; there are plenty of toys around that are much more interesting." Zhang Yu peeked inside. "The reason he put the rattle drum in the most conspicuous place is probably because he misses his parents."

The rattle drum might seem childish to a teenager, but it's just right for Boss Hua, who's probably quite old.

Once he started shaking it, he didn't want to let go, so the whole room was filled with the thumping sound.

Yu Xing, who was picking up the newspaper scraps on the ground, patiently pushed up his glasses. "The child's parents are indeed dead. A girl in the reenacted scene mentioned it. Didn't you even hear it?"

Zhang Yu: "..."

Lan Wu: "..."

Hua Subai: Winter winter winter winter winter.

"I'm sorry, Captain, you know what I was like back then. My brain was practically frozen solid. I really couldn't notice the sounds in the hallway, especially when there were more people in the back, it was so noisy." Zhang Yu coughed and picked up some transparent tape. "Should I stick some newspaper on it?"

No matter the era, newspapers are always items containing a huge amount of information because they are timely and contain a lot of text.

The child, bored, cut up newspapers and folded them into pieces to play with. Although his fine motor skills weren't great and he couldn't even tell what he was folding, at least it saved him the trouble of searching for a piece of paper among all the miscellaneous things in the room.

This was also the only newspaper in the entire room.

The newspaper had been cut into too many pieces, and it took Zhang Yu about five minutes to piece it back together little by little.

Once glued on, it's easy to flip through. The cheap feel, faded ink, and outdated layout all give it a sense of its age.

This is a "Morning News Daily," not a local newspaper in the town. It publishes news of all sizes from all over the world and the country, and even serializes a novel in the sidebar at the very end.

But that didn't matter, because reports about the snow disaster in Nanshui Town were prominently printed on the front page.

"... Currently, all roads leading to Nanshui Town are blocked by heavy snow, and residents have been out of contact for three days. Local authorities are racing against time to open up a safe evacuation route for the town's inhabitants."

"... There is no scientific explanation for the blizzard in this area. Because the snow disaster was limited to Nanshui Town and its surrounding mountains and forests, the meteorological department was unable to predict or estimate it in advance..."

"... The port located in the eastern East District Nanshui Town is currently closed. Due to the thick ice covering the waters around the port, ships have to detour..."

"... The only good news we have right now is that Nanshui Town has sufficient food reserves and will not face famine due to the temporary closure of the town by heavy snow."

The headline report was quite detailed, viewing the snow disaster from the perspective of other areas outside Nanshui Town. In addition to the front-page headline, Yu Xing also found several missing person notices about Nanshui Town in other parts of the newspaper.

He paid special attention, but there was no news about the tour group going missing in Nanshui Town.

In other words, the time their tour group entered the town and the time when the snow disaster occurred in Nanshui Town were not within the same timeframe.

This gave him a clearer understanding of the timeline.

The snowstorm and related news reports seem to be from the same era as Baibao Street; while the tour groups seem to be from the same era as the more modern towns outside Baibao Street.

The only thing that stands out in that modern town is the Fang Mansion. Besides the Fang Mansion, what other family in modern times would still call their house a "mansion"?

Moreover, the timeline regarding the Fang Mansion is the most ambiguous. When Fang Deming was young, that is, when his eldest son Fang Xiao was still a child, there were still gangs in the port. The patriarch could kill someone in Never Forget Dwelling if he was unhappy.

The dress worn by Sister-in-law Mingzhu, who came from the big city, was somewhat similar to the styles popular in the 1990s, or even earlier.

Of course, different worldviews mean it's hard to say.

Now, the town has a hospital, a school, and a bus stop outside the town. The residents wear modern clothes, which may seem old-fashioned, but they are definitely modern. Only the guide, Gao Yiling, is wearing her beloved Republic of China-era student uniform.

According to the letter and information revealed by the townspeople when they mentioned the Fang Mansion family, Fang Xiao had only been married to Sister-in-law Mingzhu for a few years, and Fang Deming was still alive.

Can a town undergo such dramatic changes in just a few years? Or, can the world's level of development leap forward in such a short period of time?

The timeline here at the Fang Mansion doesn't match up; it feels disjointed, like watching countless high-rise buildings suddenly spring up within two or three years during the Republican era—it's so jarring.

Ironically, the Fang Mansion in the minds of the townspeople seemed perfectly reasonable.

Yu Xing sensed that the contradiction lay here, but he couldn't connect the dots. He needed a key that could make all the conditions reasonable and smooth.

"Don't force yourself to think so much." Hua Subai walked up from behind at some point, put an arm around Yu Xing's neck and on her shoulder, and laughed, "Isn't it better to just let things take their course? You don't even know which evil god caused the current situation in Nanshui Town, so how could you possibly understand her abilities?"

Yu Xing was caught off guard when a large red moth appeared, its long Da Hong completely covering half of his body.

He frowned and pushed the person away. "... Don't get so close."

"What's wrong... are we still good friends? It's normal for boys to get physical with each other!" Hua Subai raised his hand with a teasing look, his shameless manner almost making Yu Xing's fist clench.

"Red is hard on the eyes." He patted imaginary dust off his shoulder, unmoved. "And, a sneak attack from a 'friend' is even harder to guard against, especially from you."

Not only does she harbor secrets related to the Lingren, making her likely to suffer his wrath, but she also has a history of tricking him into accepting flowers.

"So you admit we're still friends." Hua Subai proudly raised his chin. "Fine, nothing else matters. If you don't want me to come close, then I don't want you to come close."

Yu Xing: "Tch."

Lan Wu glanced at them both in surprise and whispered to Zhang Yu, "Weren't they friends to begin with?"

The whole trip was just like any other trip between friends.

Moreover, many of the people who participate in the simulations, who boast about their close friendships, don't even maintain that level of trust in the simulation scenarios; they even keep information from each other.

For some people, friends are worthless when it comes to survival.

But Lan Wu sees Yu Xing and Boss Hua differently. Doesn't that mean they have a deep friendship?

Zhang Yu dared not speculate. "I don't know, this is the first time I've heard of Boss Hua."

There were no other clues in Xiao Yangyang's room. The group put the pasted newspaper back next to the motionless child and then went to the third room.

The third small room was occupied by two brothers, who appeared to be twins. One was lying on the bed, and the other was sitting at the table. The one lying down had a thin bandage covering his leg, and a faint smell of medicine emanated from under the bandage, indicating that he was injured.

The one sitting at the table wore glasses and had a scholarly air about him. His usual posture was writing something in a notebook with a pen, giving him an innocent and harmless appearance.

But Yu Xing hadn't forgotten that in the reenactment, this bespectacled guy was indignant towards the woman, his face twisted with malice, and he was one of the most enthusiastic people when snatching the sweater.

These two people seemed to be from the clinic; many items in their room were related to the clinic, and there was even a bag of medicinal herbs hidden in a corner.

The bespectacled man was writing in the ledger. It seemed that the two brothers would continue to perform medical treatments for other guests after checking into the hotel—of course, at a higher price than before.

The ledger clearly listed everything: how many grams of medicine were used, what illnesses were treated, and what resources were exchanged. It must be said that this person had excellent calligraphy skills; the characters were not only clear but also neat and steady. It was hard to believe that this was written by someone in dire straits with sores on their hands.

"These two must be doing quite well; they even have ink stored away." Zhang Yu sighed as he opened the drawer.

The other cabinet contained a lot of food, including rice, noodles, and even frozen meat.

"Speaking of which, there's nowhere to cook in these rooms, so how do they prepare meals?" Zhang Yu scratched his head, answering his own question, "Oh, does the inn have a centralized cooking system? They give the ingredients to the old man at the door, and then the old man cooks."

Although it's true that elderly people nowadays have difficulty even moving around, it probably wasn't like that back then. If the owner of the entire hotel were truly so inactive, these guests would have turned the hotel upside down long ago if they were in dire straits.

"Look here, there's another ledger."

Lan Wu searched the area near the bed and pulled a notebook that was hidden very well from the person lying down.

Upon opening it, I realized it wasn't an account book, but a diary.

... A diary entry written rather casually.

The diary wasn't written with a brush, but with crooked charcoal pencils, the characters uneven in thickness. Although it was clear that the writer had practiced calligraphy, the person who wrote the diary didn't seem to have the steady hand and mind of his brother.

There were no dates on any of the pages; it seemed as if they were just scribbling down whatever came to mind. Each paragraph represented a day's worth of content, and the handwriting became increasingly messy towards the end.

"Sometimes I see him getting so many supplies, and I feel both happy and uneasy. The prices are just too high. Taking advantage of someone's misfortune like this goes against my father's teachings."

"Today, an old lady was refused treatment because she couldn't afford it. I really wanted to tell him not to be so heartless, but there's nothing I can do right now... I'm just lying in bed like a useless person, what right do I have to feel sorry for him? If it weren't for my injured leg, he wouldn't have to worry about the necessities for two people."

"The old lady died. I couldn't bear to look at her body; I could only watch as everyone buried her behind the hotel."

"I don't know if it's just my imagination, but last night I heard someone open the door and leave in the hallway. Today I saw the tailor making a new vest for his daughter, but the color of the vest looks a lot like an old lady's clothes... It shouldn't be like that."

"He treated Sun Yunyun's frostbite today and asked her for a pound of rice. I know Sun Yunyun doesn't have much food left. Several times when we went out to find supplies, she couldn't out-eat these grown men. A pound of rice! You can't be so heartless."

"It seems like people are dying every day lately, freezing to death. Counting the days, we've been here for about six months now. Our initial supplies are almost gone, the snow is getting thicker and thicker, has the town been abandoned?"

"The tailor's theft of the dead's clothes has been discovered, just as I suspected. His daughter seems to be going crazy. And rightly so, wearing so many things dug from graves for so long is hard to accept. But in times like this, just being alive is good enough; who cares about these things? At least I'm so cold every day; I'd wear them too if I were in her shoes."

"These people are insane!"

"Today, the tailor's daughter was running around in the corridor, acting crazy, and she was carrying a knife. These people got scared and together threw her out of the hotel... Ever since the tailor was beaten to death by the families of the deceased in the middle of the night, taking the dead's clothes has become an open secret, but you can't just strip the living naked!"

"He's gone mad! I saw him poison the medicine he prescribed for Uncle Huang! What is he trying to do!"

"He's not like my brother at all anymore. I'm afraid of him. I can only write secretly behind his back. I feel like the way he looks at me is strange. Is it because I'm hogging the bed that he's unhappy? Does he not want to take care of me anymore?"

"Everyone's gone mad, maybe I'm going mad too. They can still go outside to find supplies, but I can only stay in this cramped little room, like I've already been laid into a coffin."

"Ha ha ha ha..."

"He tried to smother me with a blanket, but the shop owner saw it. The shop owner's eyes were filled with sorrow, but I knew this day would come."

"How come I'm not dead yet?"

"How come I'm not dead yet?"

"How could I...?"

Then it just kept repeating that one sentence, the handwriting became more and more messy, and in the end the words were unrecognizable.

The atmosphere was somewhat suffocating; through these frantic words, one could almost glimpse that dark period.

"His brother ultimately didn't kill him for some reason," Zhang Yu murmured, looking at the back of the figure sitting at the table. "Was it a change of heart or simply that he couldn't bear to?"

"Human hearts are unpredictable. Didn't he originally buy medicine at high prices to provide better supplies for his injured brother? But later he felt his brother was a burden and that it wasn't worth it." Lan Wu sighed and closed his eyes.

Yu Xing said, "He was already begging for death, but his younger brother wouldn't let him."

The indifferent tone, devoid of any emotion, jolted the two young people out of their heavy mood. Yu Xing picked up the diary and flipped back a few pages.

The diary mentions Sun Yunyun, Sun Yunyun already had very little food and had to give up a pound of rice for medical treatment.

It's not surprising that she would borrow half a pound of rice from a woman.

The earliest instance of stealing clothes from a living person and throwing them out occurred with the tailor's daughter. This girl was quite pitiful; she unknowingly wore the clothes of a dead person and was terrified, and then her father was murdered in the middle of the night.

If a girl is driven insane, others can use the excuse of protecting their own safety to throw her out. But if they take her clothes and throw her into the freezing cold outside, they leave her no way to survive.

The residents at that time had their minds warped by the harsh living conditions, and began to go crazy and become perverted.

The reason why the younger brother poisoned "Uncle Huang" is currently unknown.

The twin brother, whose leg was injured, believes they have been living in the hotel for over six months without any outside rescue. Is it that this snowstorm, through supernatural forces, has permanently severed Nanshui Town's connection with the outside world, or has the outside world provided rescue for a few days while the residents have endured six months?

In addition, in the last few pages of the diary, the younger twin finally planned to attack his older brother, but failed. Afterwards, the older twin wanted to die, but the younger twin wouldn't let him die no matter what.

The turning point came when the shop owner saw the twin brother making the move.

Because they were seen, they couldn't let the older brother die no matter what? What was the younger twin afraid of? And what did the shop owner mean to these residents...?

Shop owner.

Unsurprisingly, the shop owner from back then is the same old man who's now in the lobby.

Unfortunately, the old man remembered nothing.

It's almost one o'clock!

Suddenly, the branch he had left in the hall to keep track of the time sent him a reminder in his mind.

[It's twelve fifty-seven, it's twelve fifty-seven.]

The three of them, who were watching Yu Xing turn the pages and listening to his muttering to himself, suddenly saw Yu Xing slam the diary shut, quickly shove it back into his twin brother's arms, and decisively say, "Back to the room."

"It's time!" Zhang Yu saw Yu Xing nod, and immediately ran out, rushed into his room, and closed the door in one swift motion.

This was something they had already agreed upon: once Yu Xing said she was going back to her room, the others should not hesitate to go back immediately, because Yu Xing didn't have much time for them, and they would have to bear the consequences if they were too slow.

Lan Wu and Hua Subai disappeared down the other side of the corridor, while An Xing's two independent companions seemed to have already returned to their rooms.

Yu Xing closed the door to the twins' room, went back to her room, lay down, and waited for the scene that would begin at one o'clock in the morning to be reenacted.

Time ticked by, the clock in the hall pointing to the hour. At that moment, the familiar chill spread again, and several breaths filled the empty room.

Those unknown "people," as if rewinding a video, staged the exact same scene: from the woman's weeping to the child's death, the spreading blood, the covering of cold, and then everyone pushing open the door...

"Who stole my medicine!"

The different roar from the previous one caught Yu Xing's attention. He released a branch to broaden his field of vision and saw a tall, burly man with a furious expression standing in the center before the crowd could begin to criticize the woman. His bloodshot eyes glared at everyone.

He had a large wound on his left arm, wrapped in bandages, with a faint red stain showing through.

"Who's been in my room! That's my medicine for my wound, it's infected! Who stole it?! Hand it over right now!"

Enraged, the burly man punched the wall next to him, cracking it in several places.

"Blacksmith, I think I saw..." Someone in the crowd hesitated, pointing to Chen Run's room, "... it seems your medicine was taken by someone in this room."

Upon hearing this, the burly blacksmith immediately strode off in that direction with a menacing air. The others resumed their scramble for the women's clothing, but the blacksmith strayed from the right path.

Little did they know that Chen Run inside the house was terrified.

He fought off the hallucination that felt like every part of his body was going to freeze away while trying to listen to the sounds of the outside world.

Last time, he was so focused on enduring the cold that he had no recollection of what happened in the corridor and missed a lot of plot developments. Now, he only has one reliable teammate, and the two of them must make the most of every plot development.

To everyone's surprise, a rough voice, filled with anger, asked where the medicine was.

His heart sank, and as he heard the blacksmith's undisguised footsteps getting closer and closer, until they stopped at his door, his heart was pounding at breakneck speed.

How can you mention him when recreating a scene?!

Shouldn't these people's memories be fixed?

At the point in time when the scene was recreated, there shouldn't have been anyone in that room. Besides, who said they saw him take the medicine? How could they have seen that? When he searched, these people were clearly unconscious!

Hold!

Unable to sit up, he could only manage to move his fingers with all his might, tossing a bloodstained glass ball to the door.

After the glass ball landed, it remained stationary as solid as a rock, creating a special field that made the simple room door and frame fit together perfectly.

The next second, the blacksmith slammed his hand on the door!

With a loud bang, the wooden door shook. Chen Run suspected that without his offering, the blacksmith would have smashed the door to pieces.

"Open the door!"

When his movements were restricted, the blacksmith's voice was like a demon's death knell. But if they were in a different place, how could he, as a strategist, possibly be afraid of a "person" who was just a bit stronger?

Even if the opponent is a ghost, any Struggle Level deducer with combat ability can deal with it!

It was precisely under these circumstances.

Chen Run finally understood why the rules imposed such strict behavioral restrictions on them.

The glass ball trembled behind the door with the sound of the blacksmith banging on it, but thankfully it could hold on for a while longer.

He silently prayed that the farce outside would end soon, just like the first time, and that everything would reset once the woman was pushed out of the corridor by the others.

Once he enters the free action phase, he will definitely return the blacksmith's medicine to its original place as soon as possible.

He found the medicine following a sticky note left by the blacksmith, which said it would help treat wounds.

The blacksmith's room was covered with sticky notes. He seemed to have a terrible memory, so he needed to write down everything he needed to do and where he put things to remind himself.

Chen Run sensed the aura of an artifact from the bottle of medicine and assumed it was one that the divination participants could take. After all, this had happened many times in the divinations; the artifacts they found would belong to them.

The system didn't give him any item hints, and he didn't pay attention. He wasn't unfamiliar with situations where the item or offering panel was only introduced after the mission was over.

I never imagined that taking the blacksmith's medicine would have such serious consequences.

"Faster, faster..." Chen Run chanted frantically in his mind. He could already hear the people pulling on the woman's arm because she kept crying out that her arm hurt so much and was about to be torn off.

The next move would likely be... snatching the woman's sweater, then dragging her along and throwing her out!

The previously unnoticed scramble for the clothes suddenly slowed down considerably, with people outside arguing amongst themselves about who should own them.

Everyone was saying they were cold.

Chen Run, who felt like he was about to freeze to death, also felt incredibly cold.

He almost forgot where he was, thinking he was a fish in a freezer, about to freeze to death and be slaughtered.

"Bang!"

The glass ball developed another crack, but the blacksmith's anger did not diminish at all; on the contrary, it burned even brighter because of Chen Run's silence.

The extremely dangerous crack jolted Chen Run awake from his illusion. He turned his head in shock, and as the glass ball shattered, a crack also appeared in the door!

He belatedly realized that the door couldn't hold up.

The blacksmith is coming in soon, and he'll definitely drag him out of bed. That'll be the end of him.

The noise in the corridor continued, and now it had come to the point where everyone was clamoring to drive the woman away.

"Kaka--"

The glass ball is cracking more and more; it might shatter into pieces at any moment.

Chen Run heard the sound of a group of people dragging something.

So close, so close!

"Card--"

As the sphere was about to shatter, Chen Run didn't care about anything else. If he could just hold on for about twenty more seconds, the scene would reset, and he could live!

"Wait!" he shouted, remaining lying down, "Stop smashing it! I'll give the medicine back to you right now!"

The banging on the door stopped abruptly.

Chen Run was overjoyed and continued to stall for time, "Please don't break my door! I'll freeze to death without it. I'm sorry, I'm getting my medicine right now. I'll give you some food as compensation, please, please don't break the door!"

The woman is being dragged down the corridor, about to reach the end of the scene being recreated.

The blacksmith outside the door suddenly burst into laughter.

"So you were awake."

There was a sound from the doorknob, and then, even though the glass ball hadn't shattered, the door to the room opened without any resistance.

The glass ball behind the door rolled back towards him with a clatter. Chen Run blinked and saw that the glass ball was as smooth as new.

There are absolutely no cracks!

There were no cracks on the door...

His mind, dulled by the cold, suddenly cleared in terror, and Chen Run realized—it was a hallucination!

It was a hallucination that made him think the door was about to crack open.

The system had told them that when doing this Side Quest...

[If someone is found not to be "asleep," it will be considered a violation.]

He spoke up first, and was noticed.

Because of the rule, the blacksmith opened his room without any hindrance; even his glass marble props couldn't withstand the rule.

The blacksmith's burly figure appeared behind the open door, and the corridor resembled a blood-red world.

"No, no, you can't..." Chen Run was on edge, even comparing the few steps the blacksmith took to get from the wooden bed to the time it took for the woman to be thrown out.

"You weren't sleeping." Unlike his earlier rage, the blacksmith's expression now seemed less like that of a blacksmith and more like that of a strange butcher approaching with a purpose after finding a lamb that had violated the rules.

Chen Run Runtong's eyes narrowed as he activated the life-saving offering on his body, but the blacksmith's hand passed through the offering's energy and grabbed his collar.

"No! Let me go!" Chen Run roared in despair, then was helplessly grabbed and lifted up by the blacksmith.

He was thrown to the ground.

At that moment, some kind of protection shattered, and the blood in the corridor rushed towards him.

"Ah--!

!"

He screamed in terror.

After the cry, all was quiet.

Chen Run stared wide-eyed as the blood, which had reached his feet, seeped into the ground. The burly blacksmith had vanished, and the corridor was now empty.

He stood there stunned for half a minute before realizing that the chill had somehow disappeared from his body.

I made it, just a little bit short.

He... he survived!

Yu Xing witnessed this scene and narrowly escaped death, seemingly lost in thought.

The branches were retrieved.

This person is lucky.

When this person suddenly spoke up and begged for mercy, was it because he was hallucinating?

It seems that freezing isn't the only type of hallucination.