Curse

Chapter 5: The Curse

Truly haunted?

Zhou Li's phrasing made Bai Yanliang's heart skip a beat.

The young woman, whose mental state had been unstable, also widened her eyes.

"Zhou Li... what do you mean by that?" Shen Changrong had met Zhou Li once before, and at this moment, he was the one to ask the question.

Zhou Li nodded, turning slightly to gesture toward the dozens of people standing silently behind him. He gave a bitter smile. "We are just like you. It was an ordinary door, but after opening it, we inexplicably appeared here. And... just as you guessed, there are people here from all over the country and all walks of life. Counting you, there are forty-nine in total."

Shen Changrong's face turned ghastly. Deep down, he refused to believe in such an illogical event, but... he had indeed arrived in this bizarre space.

He had long since tried to call the police on his phone, but there was not a single bar of signal here.

Strangely, the young woman had stopped crying and making a scene. She kept her head lowered, lost in her own thoughts.

The only one whose expression remained unchanged was Bai Yanliang, though his heart was not as calm as his exterior suggested.

It was not fear or unease, but rather... he had discovered something wrong with himself!

Neither Zhou Li nor Shen Changrong had mentioned a key. They had opened the doors of their own volition, and their bodies hadn't suddenly lost control!

It seemed that... he was different.

Bai Yanliang desperately wanted to take the key out of his pocket to examine it, but he could only think about it for now.

"Then... is it possible to leave this place?" Shen Changrong asked again.

This time, Zhou Li nodded. He looked at the three of them and said, "After completing its mission, we can return to the real world unscathed. However, it isn't an active choice we make; we are instantly ejected, much like a swim ring pushed underwater—the moment you let go, it immediately bobs back to the surface."

Zhou Li's explanation was simple and easy to understand, but he wasn't finished yet.

"However, although we cannot choose to leave, we can choose whether or not to enter."

Having said this, he glanced at the three of them again and smiled. "But I suggest you do not choose to evade. Whenever its summons arrives, you will feel a strong sense of palpitations and suffocation in your heart. At that moment, you had best find a door within three minutes and open it."

"And if we don't?" Unexpectedly, it was the woman who had been so emotionally volatile who asked this.

"That is what I meant by us having a choice. If you remain indifferent at that time, it means you have abandoned the mission, and the punishment is... a month of something truly terrifying."

Something truly terrifying...

This description was deeply unsettling. What kind of terrifying things were they talking about?

"What happens after a month?" Bai Yanliang suddenly asked.

His voice was not loud, but in the silent space, it was heard clearly by everyone.

"Heh..."

A laugh, dripping with sarcasm, drifted from somewhere in the crowd.

Then, a charming woman's voice emerged from the group: "If you can hold out for a month, perhaps you might even be able to leave this hellhole forever. How about it? Want to try it next time?"

Bai Yanliang followed the voice and saw a young woman stepping out from the crowd. She scanned him up and down, then suddenly covered her mouth and giggled. "Oh, sorry, I forgot. You have to survive this time before you can even have a next time~"

"Li Yuejun, that's enough."

Zhou Li looked at her calmly, then turned back to Bai Yanliang to explain: "In truth, it's not that no one has chosen to resist the summons of this place, but so far, the person who held out the longest only lasted three days."

Bai Yanliang nodded, understanding what Zhou Li meant.

Forcibly resisting its will was a death sentence. He still didn't know what the "terrifying things" Zhou Li spoke of entailed, but he couldn't help but associate it with his older brother... Bai Yanren.

The key was a memento left behind by Yanren. Did he... have some sort of connection to this place all along?

While Bai Yanliang was deep in thought, the atmosphere in the space shifted abruptly.

Even Zhou Li, who had been speaking calmly, wore a grave expression as he looked into the depths of the mist.

"It's here."

Under the wary and uncertain gazes of the three newcomers, a bizarre phenomenon occurred.

The gray mist twisted and tangled in the air, gradually taking shape until it filled a large expanse of space.

Bai Yanliang looked closely and realized they were names!

Li Mu, Feng Xiuxue, Du Shangjing, Lin Yan, Yang Xiu, Zheng Jiajia, Yu Hanzhou, Niu Ping, Li Dayou, Zhou Li, Huang Yourong... Qi Nian, Shen Changrong, Bai Yanliang!

Seven names per row, seven rows in total.

All forty-nine names were formed from the gray mist, hovering eerily in mid-air.

Li Mu was at the head, and Bai Yanliang was at the end.

Bai Yanliang's heart stirred. Was it because he was the last to enter this space that he was listed last?

Then... was Li Mu, who was at the top, the first of the forty-nine to enter?

The hypothesis was logical, but he would need to find an opportunity to verify it.

As everyone watched with bated breath, the forty-nine names that had just formed suddenly changed.

A blood-red hue began to crawl over the gray mist, spreading rapidly. One name quietly turned blood-red—Wei Xiu!

Following the change in his name, five more names gradually turned blood-red!

Qin Siqiao, Yuan Pengfei, Jin Wen, Lv Shuang, Shen Changrong!

Three men and two women, five people with varying expressions, stepped out from the crowd. Then, a sturdy man in his thirties glared at Shen Changrong and barked, "Get over here!"

As the president of Baisheng United Group, when had Shen Changrong ever been subjected to such a harsh shout? Yet, he understood better than anyone that the situation dictated the terms. With an unchanging expression, he stepped forward to stand with the five others.

As the six of them stepped out, the next round of changes began to unfold.

This time, the first name to turn blood-red was... Yu Hanzhou!

After his name turned red, Bai Yanliang clearly sensed a stir within the crowd, though he remained unsure of the reason behind this transformation.

Next, seven names turned blood-red simultaneously.

Dong An, Hua Xiaoxiao, Lu Guo, Sun Wenjie, Zhou Changfeng, Ma Zirong, and... Qi Nian!

Seeing this, Bai Yanliang confirmed that he would definitely appear in the third round. It seemed that so-called newcomers were destined to appear in the missions?

After two rounds, most of the people whose names had not turned blood-red let out a sigh of relief. Generally speaking, the third round was the final mission, and relatively speaking, the one with the highest survival rate. It was better not to be picked, but if one were, there would be a greater chance of survival.

After Qi Nian also tremblingly stood with the other six, the final round began.

Is it my turn?

Bai Yanliang cast his gaze toward his own name, located at the very end of the last column.

The blood-red hue appeared quietly, wisps of it spreading upward. In almost an instant, the gray mist was completely stained by the blood-red color.

However, this time, everyone's eyes filled with disbelief.

Because the name that had turned blood-red first was... Bai Yanliang!