Bo Yi turned in the direction Zhao Wen Shan pointed.
When they had left this place earlier, the black mist had already begun spreading through the room. Now it had filled the corridor outside and was beginning to "attack" the gallery, writhing like a beast baring its claws.
"What do we do?" Bo Yu turned to ask Bo Yi.
They seemed to have reached a dead end-an endless stream of eerie "guests" attacking from the front, and corrosive black mist surging toward them from behind.
Bo Yi kept his hands moving. After a single glance, he turned back. "Keep going." Since they had already come this far, they were better off finding the crucial clue to break the deadlock than wasting time worrying about what lay ahead and behind.
Bo Yu nodded without objection, and the two of them went back to searching for clues.
As a result, neither noticed that the Red-Eyed Doll, who had been slumped in Bo Yi's pocket, had stood up again. He eagerly pulled down the edge of Bo Yi's pocket and craned his head out, gazing longingly toward the black mist.
Want...
An unmistakably human longing shone in his large, blood-red eyes.
He stared fixedly at the black mist for a few seconds, then ducked back into the pocket, immediately making a bulge in it. After a bout of barely audible rustling, the little bulge squirmed a few times, and the Red-Eyed Doll emerged again with an excited expression, clutching a Dissection Knife nearly as tall as he was.
With some difficulty, he climbed up the pocket and leaned halfway out, leaving his little body dangling over the edge. Then he carefully maneuvered the Dissection Knife out of the pocket, taking care not to let the blade cut the fabric.
Once he had "smuggled" the entire knife out, he gripped its handle and strained to swirl the tip twice in the direction of the approaching mist. Wisps of black mist wound loosely around the blade like strands of cotton candy. After a few more turns, a small black "candy cocoon" had formed on the blade. The Red-Eyed Doll examined it for a while, apparently assessing whether this serving of "cotton candy" was large enough. A moment later, he drew the handle back little by little, then-
"Ah-" The tiny mouth on the doll's face suddenly opened, becoming a gaping maw almost as large as his head. With a chomp, he swallowed the entire tip of the knife.
Mmm... The doll's red eyes narrowed again.
After chewing and chewing, he pulled the "cotton candy stick" out of his mouth with a pop-the Dissection Knife's blade was spotless again. Time to spin some more "cotton candy"!
While the Red-Eyed Doll enjoyed his peaceful little life, a barely perceptible safe zone had formed around Bo Yi as well. Elsewhere, however, although Bo Yu had taken down all the frames in advance and chosen the spot farthest from the mist to dismantle the paintings, the increasingly dense mist in the gallery still hampered her movements. Thin traces of blood gradually seeped through her skin.
"Hurry up!!!" Zhao Wen Shan kept glancing back toward the gallery. With their heads constantly bent over their work, Bo Yi and Bo Yu might not have realized how terrifying it was to watch the black mist creep closer to them! Sometimes she was genuinely afraid that the next time she looked back, both of them would have been completely swallowed by it.
"How much is left?!" Zhao Yi shouted as well. The nonstop fighting had almost exhausted him, and both siblings had already sustained quite a few injuries.
"A third." Even Bo Yi sounded anxious for once, fine beads of sweat forming on his forehead. He had already discarded the eyes that looked very new, but the number remaining still far exceeded his expectations.
Fortunately, Bo Yu had finished removing all the canvases. After setting the frames in the empty space beside Bo Yi, she went out to help the Zhao siblings. The pressure on the two outside immediately eased considerably.
By the time the mist had almost reached Bo Yi's back, there was finally only one painting left.
Seeing this, the three holding back the doll guests breathed a small sigh of relief. Thank goodness... We should still make it!
Even Zheng Rong, who had been nowhere to be seen, emerged from some unknown corner.
"Zheng Rong!"
Zhao Wen Shan called loudly, "Come help us!"
Bo Yu frowned and was about to stop her, but Zheng Rong had already approached.
"Where were you earlier?" Zhao Wen Shan kept fighting, but considerately shifted aside to make room for Zheng Rong, grumbling as she did. "Were you the one who took the doll my brother left in the corridor?! Do you have any idea how much trouble you caused us by sneaking off with it without saying a word?! If it weren't for you, we might have cleared this already!"
"Huh, come to think of it, you already took the doll, so why haven't you handed it in to clear the scenario-aaah-" Her scream rang out at the same time as Zhao Yi's furious shout of "What are you doing?!" Blood arced through the air, a few drops splashing onto Zheng Rong's eerily smiling face.
Bo Yu reacted swiftly and caught Zhao Wen Shan as she fell.
"W-why..." Zhao Wen Shan gritted her teeth, her head drenched in cold sweat. Blood poured from the wound, which was deep enough to expose bone. She did not even need to check to know that Zheng Rong's strike had severed her bone completely.
"I'll kill you!" Zhao Yi roared, lunging at Zheng Rong and locking him in combat.
"I didn't get a chance to tell you..." Bo Yu helped Zhao Wen Shan sit against the wall and tore strips from her clothing to bind the wound. "Didn't you notice that none of the dolls around Zheng Rong attacked him when he came over?"
Zhao Wen Shan tried to distract herself by talking as well. "O-oh, really... I just-sss... I really didn't... didn't notice that..."
With a thud, a figure crashed inside and landed a short distance from the two women, his blood spreading across the floor in a red smear.
"Brother!" Recognizing him, Zhao Wen Shan tried to sit up in agitation, only to pull at her wound and collapse back in agony.
"Wen Shan, d-don't come over... cough, cough..." Zhao Yi coughed, clutching his chest as he struggled to speak. "He... he isn't... Zheng... Rong..."
"Zheng Rong" flicked the blood from the tip of his knife and stepped leisurely into the corridor. Bo Yu immediately grabbed her weapon and moved to intercept him.
But "Zheng Rong" clearly did not consider her a threat. He toyed with Bo Yu as though playing a game, never stopping as he headed straight toward Bo Yi, who was testing the last few pairs of eyes.
"So this is where you are..." "Zheng Rong" mused.
Bo Yi merely glanced up at the Male Host before lowering his head and continuing his work. "You really did come back to life..."
"Yes..." "Zheng Rong" gently stroked his face with his free hand, his eyes, now light brown, fixed intently on Bo Yi.
The gesture might have looked fine on his original body, but on the already middle-aged Zheng Rong... it was rather painful to watch. Zhao Wen Shan was already in too much pain to move, yet she still managed to turn her head away after seeing what "Zheng Rong" was doing.
"Bzz..." The test of the final pair of eyes was finally complete, and Bo Yi stopped moving his hands. "Zheng Rong," who had been admiring himself, suddenly lunged at Bo Yi as though a switch had been flipped. "Give it to me!"
He reached for the pair of eyes pinched between Bo Yi's fingers. "Give me those!"
Bo Yi sidestepped "Zheng Rong's" lunge, then smiled at him as he glared back in fury. "Thank you..."
"Thank you for coming all this way to tell us-"
He shook the eyes in his hand, his own eyes curving into crescents. "This is the right answer."
With that, he abruptly raised his arm and hurled the object in his hand straight out, right in front of "Zheng Rong."
As "Zheng Rong" let out a heart-rending roar, the container holding the eyes traced a graceful arc through the air.
Clack.
It landed on the girl doll's lap.
Before you continue