Horror Castle (2)

Horror Castle (2)

The room's door was literally unlocked. Pei Renli used the short stick to lift the latch, pressed lightly against the door, and the crude wooden door swung open, making the faint commotion clearer.

He cautiously poked his head out. The first thing he saw was an exceptionally wide corridor, easily seven or eight meters across, likewise built from hewn gray stone bricks.

Besides being wide, it was also far too long. Torches flickered at intervals to provide lighting, but under such dim illumination, he could see neither the left nor right end of the corridor.

And Pei Renli was not the only one peeking out to investigate.

The entire corridor resembled a hotel hallway, with identical rooms lining both sides. Quite a few people were looking toward the source of the noise, while others simply stood in the corridor. Some looked human, while others were far too bizarre to describe in a few words...

The commotion grew louder and clearer.

"Run!"

"Get out of the way! Move aside!"

A series of shouts mixed with curses came from afar, accompanied by a deep rumbling sound. In the dim light, he could vaguely make out many people fleeing down the corridor like unleashed wild dogs, prompting some of those who had come out to look to join them.

Seeing this, Pei Renli thought for less than half a second before turning and running with them.

There might have been some herd mentality involved, but Pei Renli felt that anything capable of making so many people run without looking back was unlikely to be some simple malicious prank.

For a moment, everyone nearby who had been watching the spectacle poured into the corridor and surged farther away. The once-spacious hallway immediately became packed.

Pei Renli's physical abilities were utterly ordinary. Though his youth and energy meant he would not collapse after a few steps, he had never trained in track and field. And whether they looked human or were strangely shaped, everyone around him was somehow faster than he was. More and more people joined the fleeing crowd in the corridor, but whether they had started earlier or joined later, no matter how hard Pei Renli ran with his head down, he could only watch helplessly as person after person overtook him.

"Move!"

While gritting his teeth and sprinting forward, Pei Renli heard the shout and felt someone shove him hard. He was already running too frantically to spare time to look back, and the push directly threw him off balance.

As his body tilted, Pei Renli saw a hand that looked as if it wore a crocodile-skin glove retract. That bastard had just shoved his shoulder, but he had not seen who it was.

As luck would have it, there was a stairwell to the right where Pei Renli fell. If he had fallen sideways normally, he might have merely hit the wall. Instead, he tumbled straight down the stairs.

The loss of balance and sudden sensation of falling were terrifying. As Pei Renli rolled down the stairs, his hands could only flail wildly. One happened to grab something like a railing, and he hurriedly clenched it hard, stopping himself in an awkward half-reclining position on the stairs.

His back and butt, which had just slammed into something, throbbed with pain. Pei Renli was about to curse whoever had shoved him, but when he looked up, he saw something sweep past the entrance to the stairwell he had fallen through.

It looked like a layer of dim gray smoke, yet also like flowing darkness, advancing down the corridor like a tide.

It was not especially fast, visible to the naked eye, but although it was gaseous as it passed through the corridor, it produced a deep rumbling boom, as if some tremendously heavy object were crushing its way along the hallway. The vibration shook dust loose near the stairwell.

The flickering torches were swallowed by it, their bright flames seeming veiled by an unpleasant gauze, turning hazy and refracting vast stretches of bizarre lines and terrifying shadows.

Those unable to escape the pursuing smoke began to flicker in and out of sight once it caught up to them. Their movements slowed more and more until they finally froze in place, either collapsing or dropping to their knees.

Their bodies seemed to shatter, disappearing bit by bit from the outside inward within the gray mist, until they finally merged with it.

Pei Renli immediately swallowed the exclamation that had nearly burst from his mouth. Clutching the stair railing, he did not dare move at all as cold sweat silently formed on the back of his neck.

—Scared!

Just how terrifying was this so-called "Horror Castle"? Pei Renli had not had any accurate guess. After giving the room a simple search, he had thought it would probably be something like a horror movie.

On top of that, all six hundred participants were "new Demon Kings." Though Pei Renli felt it was best not to have too much contact with the others for safety's sake, with so many people around, even if ghosts appeared, it should not have been that frightening.

Instead, reality had slapped him hard in the face...

If he had taken even one wrong step, Pei Renli might have become "human residue" just like those unlucky people who had run too slowly. Thinking about it that way, being pushed down here had actually saved his life. His luck had finally bounced back from rock bottom.

The gray mist that had swept through the corridor like a flood did not enter the stairwell, but it showed no sign of disappearing either. The deep rumbling continued in his ears, and Pei Renli did not dare go back the way he had come.

Staying where he was was not safe either. Pei Renli had only one path left: go down the stairs and take a look.

The stairs spiraled downward, with no way up. Pei Renli tried removing a torch from the stairwell wall, then held it up as he descended unsteadily.

The staircase was not particularly long. After descending what felt like more than ten meters, he reached the end, where another crude wooden door was secured with a bolt.

He lifted the bolt and pushed the door open. Beyond it was nothing but thick darkness. Even the torch in his hand could not provide any illumination. The light cast by its flame seemed confined in place by some inconceivable force, able at most to illuminate the hand holding it, as though it had been swallowed by the darkness.

This extremely abnormal sight made Pei Renli's palms sweat. The cold air felt like someone blowing an icy breath against the back of his neck, sending chills down his spine.

Humans were creatures drawn to light. Being in darkness naturally inspired fear, much less such unusual darkness.

Steadying himself, Pei Renli could only repeat to himself, Don't scare yourself, and force himself to walk forward.

Walking into that darkness was not a good choice, but Pei Renli had no choice.

Since it was pitch-black, Pei Renli could only keep sweeping the hand holding the short stick back and forth in front of him to avoid walking into a wall. The darkness seemed to cover a large area; even after several steps, he had not encountered an edge.

Bang!

The sound of the door being slammed shut came from behind him. It made every hair on Pei Renli's body stand on end. He was certain there had been no one behind him. Those who had run quickly had already fled down the corridor, while those who had run slowly had become human residue in the blink of an eye beneath the gray mist.

Then who had shut the door?

The cold air clung to his skin through the openings in his clothes like a parasite attached to bone, seeming more like some living thing crawling inside. Pei Renli felt as though an invisible iron band had been placed around his forehead. His skin tightened involuntarily, while goosebumps rose in endless waves like autumn wheat.

Should he retreat or continue forward?

Retreating might mean running into whatever had shut the door.

But moving forward...

In this completely black environment, who knew where he was supposed to go?

No matter what decision he made, Pei Renli had to make it quickly. He had only walked a few steps from the door. If there really was some monster or ghost, remaining still would get him killed horribly.

As misfortunes never came alone, just as Pei Renli was about to hurry forward, the torch in his hand gave two soft sputters and abruptly went out.

The torch's range of illumination in this darkness had been extremely limited, but holding a light still provided some psychological comfort. Now even that comfort was gone.

Fear gripped his nerves like an invisible hand. A chill shot straight from his tailbone to the top of his head. Pei Renli hurried forward in panic, literally running blind through the darkness.

"Ugh!"

Amid the chaos, Pei Renli seemed to crash into someone. He was sure it was a person, because he could feel the other person's body heat through their clothes.

But he had been running too urgently, and it was pitch-black. The moment he unexpectedly collided with someone, Pei Renli and the person he had hit immediately rolled into a heap.

Almost at the same time, Pei Renli, whose forehead had been struck, clearly felt a dense, unpleasant gust pass above him. Only then did a thin, sharp whistle of cutting air reach his ears, as though an extremely sharp weapon had been swung with great force.

Ignoring the pain where he had been hit, Pei Renli held his breath in fright. He could tangibly feel the threat to his life. Even the sound of his heartbeat seemed exceptionally piercing, growing faster and faster as if it were about to leap from his throat.

Then, a flash of light suddenly appeared.

It was as quick as lightning, illuminating the utterly dark space for an instant before darkness returned.

Lying on his side on the ground, Pei Renli stared wide-eyed. In that instant of light, he saw that there were actually quite a few people nearby. Some gathered in groups of two or three, while others stood or crouched alone.

Even after darkness covered everything again, if he listened carefully, he could hear faint breathing and footsteps from people shifting around.

Realizing this made Pei Renli feel slightly more at ease. Even though he did not know any of them, at least he was not facing this situation alone, and that was a good thing.

His body, stiff with fear, regained a little ability to move. Pei Renli supported himself against the ground and tried to stand with the smallest movements possible. Since they were close, he could sense that the person he had collided with seemed to be doing the same.

Or rather, both sides felt slightly reassured by the discovery that the other was human. Even so, in such a bizarre environment, neither spoke.

But just as Pei Renli had straightened his upper body, something extremely cold approached him. That coldness was not merely low temperature; it felt more like an extreme chill seeping into his marrow and nerves.

At the same time, the flash that had just illuminated the darkness lit up again...