It Came

Inside E-566's temporary containment chamber.

"Don't get up! Roll to your right!"

Old Yang's voice rang in Zhou Ze's ear again.

Huh?

Zhou Ze froze in confusion for a split second, but his survival instinct drove him to act immediately. He threw everything he had into rolling frantically across the floor.

Just then, the game box in the center of the chamber suddenly stopped flashing. The light throughout the room seemed to be crushed into a ball by an invisible hand, twisting and warping. In an instant, streams of dark, black light shot from the box like a mass of ink exploding in midair.

The ghostly shadows on the chamber walls took fright and scattered as though they had seen a ghost, vanishing without a trace in the blink of an eye.

The black light sprayed in every direction without any pattern, effortlessly piercing the chamber's sturdy metal walls and leaving smooth, clean cuts. Through those long, narrow openings, there was no end in sight; the entire temporary containment area seemed to have been pierced by the eerie black light.

Zhou Ze rolled frantically amid the storm of black light, death dogging his every move. The beams grazed him several times, their searing heat almost burning through his skin.

In truth, he barely made any deliberate attempt to dodge. He had no ability to predict the beams' paths, either. He simply followed Old Yang's instructions and kept rolling to the right.

But with the world spinning around him, how could he tell which direction was which? He rolled through the chamber along a crooked, instinctive path, yet somehow narrowly avoided every sweep of black light.

The chamber's structure proved unexpectedly sturdy. Despite the ferocious attack and the countless cuts riddling its walls, it still showed no sign of collapsing.

After an unknown stretch of time, the black light gradually faded. The game box in the center of the room returned to its original state, leaving utter devastation in its wake.

Amid the drifting dust, Zhou Ze staggered to his feet, trembling and gasping for breath. He looked around at the chamber, now changed beyond recognition.

Only after a long while did he manage to squeeze a single word through his teeth.

"Fuck..."

Just then, the brightly lit chamber suddenly went dark. A shrill alarm tore through the silence, and flashing red lights bathed the area in an eerie atmosphere.

Faint wails drifted over from far away, sometimes piercing, sometimes low, like cries of agony from another dimension.

Footsteps came through the openings the black light had cut in the chamber walls. In the dim light, Zhou Ze could only see a vague shadow moving slowly, unable to make out who was approaching.

In the darkness, he held his breath and felt his way along the wall, pressing close to it as he turned to look toward the opening.

The flickering red light cast shadows across his face, each flash outlining his pallid features.

The footsteps drew closer. Zhou Ze's heart pounded like a drum, adrenaline surging through his veins. Fear seemed almost tangible, stirring in the darkness, threatening to swallow him whole.

But the instant the footsteps reached the chamber, they suddenly vanished without a trace. The entire area sank into a deathly hush, with only the alarm continuing to echo in his ears.

Zhou Ze's heart clenched, but he had no idea what had happened.

Then a gaunt face poked through the opening. A pair of crimson eyes fixed on Zhou Ze as though trying to see straight through his soul.

Zhou Ze jolted and instinctively raised a fist to strike, only to lower it again halfway.

"Old... Old Yang?!"

Once he recognized the newcomer, Zhou Ze's taut nerves relaxed, but a moment later, he was gritting his teeth again. "You fucking..."

"What did I do?" Old Yang stepped into the chamber, his face expressionless.

"You're fucking... amazing." Zhou Ze forced an ugly smile.

"Right?" Old Yang's bloodshot eyes brimmed with amusement. "When have I ever screwed you over?"

"Fair point..."

"But we've caused quite a bit of trouble saving ourselves..." Old Yang turned to look into the darkness outside the chamber, his gaze flickering. "Something strange got out."

Zhou Ze's breath caught. "What do we do?"

"Keep your voice down. Most of the cameras and listening devices were destroyed, but there are still living people out there."

Old Yang held a finger to his lips, paused, then continued, "I'll go play with it. You get out of here first. If you don't know what to do, play dead."

"Play dead?" Zhou Ze lowered his voice, looking utterly miserable.

Anyone who regularly played dead would know it was actually a skill, nowhere near as easy as television made it look.

What if someone listened for his heartbeat or checked his pulse? It wasn't as though he could reach in and squeeze his own heart to a stop.

"You can at least pretend to faint, right?" Old Yang turned his head again. "It's here..."

Zhou Ze followed his gaze but saw nothing in the darkness. When he looked back, Old Yang had already vanished without a trace.

Once again, Zhou Ze was alone in the dark.

He took a deep breath and braced himself before cautiously feeling his way through the nearby opening.

The moment Zhou Ze stepped out of the chamber, two dazzling flashlight beams shone straight into his eyes, blinding him. He instinctively raised a hand to shield them.

"Don't move!"

"Hands up!"

Zhou Ze immediately raised both hands, struggling to open his eyes and adjust to the light as he shouted, "Don't shoot! I'm one of the good guys!"

Before him stood the two guards who had escorted them there. They were now wearing night-vision goggles and aiming rifles fitted with tactical flashlights at Zhou Ze, their muzzles gleaming with a cold metallic sheen in the gloom.

After hearing Zhou Ze shout, the guards clearly confirmed his identity.

But they did not approach rashly. The one on the left demanded in an urgent, cold voice, "D-87465, answer my questions immediately! What exactly happened in there?!"

How the fuck should I know what happened?

Zhou Ze cursed inwardly, but outwardly answered at top speed. "That box went crackle-pop and sprayed a bunch of lasers, and then everything ended up like this!"

"Then how did you survive?" The guard's voice was full of suspicion.

"How should I know..." Zhou Ze blurted out, then quickly added, "Maybe I got lucky?"

Zhou Ze felt thoroughly wronged. What the hell did that burly man suddenly losing his mind and causing all this have to do with him?

Even though innocence and confusion were written all over his face, the guards still did not lower their rifles. Clearly, they did not entirely believe his explanation.

The guard on the right was about to say something else, but suddenly froze, turning around at the same time as his partner.

"Tap-tap... tap-tap..."

Deep in the darkness, something seemed to be approaching rapidly.

"Tap-tap... tap-tap..."

In the flashlight beams, they saw a pair of bright red women's leather shoes appear in the distance, stepping lightly across the floor. Every step was elegant, yet the shoes approached at an eerie speed that did not match the rhythm of their steps.

What made their skin crawl was that no one was wearing the shoes. They moved through the air on their own, as though controlled by an invisible ghost.

The bright red leather shoes stood out sharply in the dim corridor, each step accompanied by a crisp, hollow sound.

"Tap-tap... tap-tap..."