Escaping Death

The sound drew closer. As the splashing footsteps approached, the two girls could clearly feel the ceiling dripping faster.

The children's laughter that had been ringing in their ears fell silent, replaced by screams.

Yukino felt as if her eardrums were about to burst. The piercing noise left her dazed, and the sheets already felt noticeably damp beneath them. The two girls were now caught between a rock and a hard place.

Rip!

Something attacked the sheet covering them. The moment it tore, Yukino hurriedly pulled Yuigahama Yui into another room.

It was so dark that Yukino had no idea where she had barged in until Yuigahama Yui turned on her phone's flashlight. Only then did Yukino realize how serious a mistake she had made.

The two girls clamped their hands over their mouths, instinctively holding their breaths. Neither wanted the creature before them to take a bite out of them.

In the room, alongside the two girls, who were too terrified to move, was a canine creature chained up with iron links.

It was about the size of a human. One bite from it would be enough to kill them—not to mention whether they could even withstand its cavernous jaws, the bacteria in its mouth alone could prove fatal.

Yukino reached out to cover Yuigahama Yui's phone. She was afraid its light would wake the canine monster before them.

But before she could touch Yuigahama Yui's phone, the door behind them began to thud. The louder the knocking grew, the clearer it became that whoever was outside meant them harm.

"What do we do, Xiaoxue? This thing looks like it's about to wake up..."

Yuigahama Yui was panicking. She only kept small dogs, and this was the first time she'd seen a canine this big. But she certainly didn't want to become the first meal of a dog she'd just met.

Yukino stared at the vicious dog with its eyes closed. Its brow furrowed in rhythm with the knocking: one knock, one twitch.

Yukino knew that sitting around and doing nothing would only mean waiting for death, so she decided to strike first.

"The Male Corpse from Room 102 is outside. He must be looking for this knife." As she spoke, Yukino waved the Scalpel at Tuanzi. "That's why I need your help."

"I understand. What exactly do you want me to do?"

"Open the door!"

"Huh? Are we going to give the knife back to him? No, no way! With this knife, at least we have a chance to fight back. If he gets it back, we'll have nothing!"

Yuigahama Yui couldn't help warning her. From her point of view, Yukino really did seem to be planning to hand the knife over, so she hurriedly told her not to do anything foolish.

"Do you think I'm that stupid?"

Yukino was at a loss for words, but now wasn't the time to dwell on it.

"Trust me, just as I trust you."

Seeing Yukino's resolute gaze, Yuigahama Yui swallowed the words she'd been about to say.

"Are you ready?"

As Yukino spoke, she tightened her grip on the Scalpel.

"Yeah!"

The two girls exchanged a glance. Yuigahama Yui flung the door open, and Yukino seized the opportunity to stab the sleeping dog viciously with the Scalpel.

Thud!

"Run!"

As the Scalpel plunged in, a chilling gaze slowly opened. Yukino and Yuigahama Yui took the chance to run out, leaving the Scalpel embedded in the dog's eyeball.

"Grrr!!!"

Because of its size, Yukino had aimed for the dog's eye. The pain shooting from its eye woke it instantly.

The pain made the dog furious. Then its one remaining eye spotted the Male Corpse in front of it.

Since Yukino and Yuigahama Yui had run out, and the Scalpel was stuck in the dog's eye, the Male Corpse didn't chase after them. Instead, he slowly walked up to the dog... and reached out...

Zing!

The Male Corpse pulled the Scalpel straight out of the dog's eye. The agony of having its injured spot struck again was unbearable for the dog.

It couldn't speak, but it could certainly repay the benefactor who'd treated its eye by beating him to a pulp!

The dog pounced on the Male Corpse and tore into him, biting him frantically. The pain in its eye continued, and each fresh stab of pain made it bite even harder...

"Pant, pant... We should be safe if we hide here, right?"

Yuigahama Yui and Yukino gasped for breath in the hallway. They were now some distance from the room they'd just fled.

"It probably can't catch up. I think we should find a room and rest. We'll have to think carefully about how to escape. We only have one chance, and now we can only go forward. There's no turning back."

"Yeah! You're right. We really do need to come up with a detailed plan."

Yuigahama Yui agreed. At that moment, both girls silently hoped they would find somewhere to stay for a while.

At that moment, their surroundings changed. The way out remained the same color, but all the other rooms turned into one of three colors: red, yellow, or green.

"Hmm, there are three colors. Which one should we choose?"

"I just looked at the room we escaped from. It was red, which means red rooms are somewhat dangerous. As for the yellow and green ones... I'm not sure."

"But every room along the way was yellow, except for that one. That means we came out of a yellow room too. Does that mean yellow is relatively safe?"

At a crucial moment, Yuigahama Yui offered her guess, and Yukino nodded in agreement.

"That makes sense. There's a Yellow Gate right beside us, while the Green Gate is too far away. It wouldn't be good if drops from the ceiling got on us along the way."

So although it looked like they had three choices, in reality, they only had one.

"Let's go!"

Yukino took a deep breath and pushed open the Yellow Gate.

To Yukino's surprise, the lights inside were on. This made her wary. All the previous rooms had been dark, and this was the only one with the lights on. That meant there were two possibilities.

One: the light was affected by the supernatural phenomenon. The darker the room, the more likely it was to contain something supernatural.

Two: something was living in this room...

"Hey! Xiaoxue, come take a look! There's a photo here!"

Yuigahama Yui found a clear photograph on a nearby table. It showed a group of people wearing different expressions, with a young man standing front and center. He looked rather haggard, like a corporate drone working nine to nine, six days a week.

"This person seems familiar." Yuigahama Yui turned the photo over. Some photographs had the names of the people in them written on the back, so she decided to start there and see if she could find any clues about the people in the picture.

The first name she saw left Yuigahama Yui stunned.

It read...

[Yang Peng]