Lanterns

This was Su Wu's fourth time entering the game.

The moment he heard the electronic voice announce that the game had loaded successfully, he stood up.

His "Dark Walker (green)" talent activated automatically, revealing a black-and-white image identical to what he would have seen through infrared night-vision goggles.

He quickly picked up the notebook on the desk, his powered-off phone, the remote control beside it, and the key to the main breaker box.

After the previous simulation ended, Su Wu had begun training himself to keep important items in fixed places so he could find them easily.

That habit carried over into the future simulation.

He put the items away and looked around, but still saw no sign of the Gang Cave or the Imperial Bell.

He opened the door and walked into the living room. Neither item was there, either.

Su Wu reached a conclusion. It seems mysterious items like the Gang Cave and the Imperial Bell won't be "copied" into a second set in the future simulation.

Since the Imperial Bell had not been copied either, that meant it, too, was a ritual implement with supernatural powers.

Both his judgment and his luck were pretty good.

As he thought this, an electronic voice faintly sounded in his mind. "You have acquired a temporary talent: Koi Blessing (white)."

"Koi Blessing (white): Among ordinary people, you are one of those more likely to obtain mysterious items."

Did I acquire this talent because I obtained two mysterious items in a row?

Su Wu nodded inwardly and stopped at the living room door. He peered through the peephole into the corridor outside-no lights shone in the black-and-white view.

He then turned the door handle, switched off the sound-activated light, and carefully made his way downstairs.

With the experience from his first attempt, he reached the ground floor without trouble this time.

Nothing unexpected happened along the way.

Although each escape from the Shadow Fiend earned him an extra reward of 3 Origin Jade, attempting it still meant gambling on the odds.

If he was lucky and the Shadow Fiend failed to appear instantly and kill him, he could claim the reward.

If he was unlucky and the Shadow Fiend appeared instantly, he was certain to die and waste another simulation attempt.

Su Wu deliberately waited a while at the turn in the stairs.

Only after hearing no movement from the ground-floor apartment did he go down, cut the power at the breaker, push open the building's main door, and sprint outside!

Thud, thud, thud!

Rapid, pounding footsteps echoed through the alley.

Daylight spilled into the passage between the two apartment buildings, mingling with the streetlight at the corner to cast a jumble of overlapping, fragmented shadows.

The light stretched Su Wu's shadow to an immense length.

It bounced constantly as he sprinted.

A trace of corpse stench curled around Su Wu's nose. In the space of a single breath, it grew overpowering, as though a rotting corpse lay right beside him!

At the corner ahead, a streetlight shone orange.

Behind him, viscous black liquid surged from his own shadow and the shadows of the objects around him, rushing in from every direction to engulf him in an instant!

At the first hint of the corpse stench, Su Wu had already pressed the Gang Cave to his lips. Now he blew into it!

"Waaaaah-"

A sound like a ghost's wailing emerged from the Gang Cave, and an icy wind swept over Su Wu's skin.

The wind instantly turned crimson and swirled around him. Just as the Shadow Fiend closed over him, a skeletal hand entwined with gleaming silver sinews burst from the wind and thrust forward!

Riiip!

The skeletal hand tore a huge opening in the Shadow Fiend!

Su Wu charged through with his head down!

Unlike last time, the skeletal hand summoned by blowing the Gang Cave followed Su Wu for two steps before the viscous black liquid behind him engulfed it!

The light fell on the skeletal hand, now coated in a black film. It swelled into a ten-fingered black hand dozens of yards long, filling the entire alley.

Its ten fingers clenched viciously toward Su Wu, who was only inches away!

"Come on!"

The words burst from Su Wu's mouth.

Fine beads of sweat covered his forehead, yet a strange madness shone in his eyes.

He clutched the Imperial Bell, covered in green corrosion, in his right hand and shook his wrist violently!

"Clang, clang, clang, clang!"

The bell's deep, resonant peals carried a hint of clarity as they rang through the alley. Invisible sound waves spread in every direction with Su Wu at their center!

The ten pitch-black fingers reaching for Su Wu abruptly froze in midair!

The hand had been immobilized!

The Imperial Bell was incredibly useful!

Not daring to hesitate, Su Wu gripped the Imperial Bell, turned, and fled toward the corner!

Last time he had fled along this road, the simulator's assessment had said, "A path to survival was right before your eyes." That meant he might escape by taking this route!

Yet he had barely taken a few steps when he suddenly felt a chill closing in from behind-

"Clang, clang, clang, clang!"

Su Wu shook the Imperial Bell again while turning to look back. The black hand was now less than two meters away.

When he had stopped ringing the Imperial Bell, it had broken free of his control and nearly reached him, ready to crush him to death in its grip!

Fortunately, he had reacted a fraction faster!

That was close!

No longer daring to turn his back on the black hand, Su Wu faced the enormous arm two meters away and slowly backed up while ringing the Imperial Bell.

Invisible sound waves continued spreading outward, enveloping the black hand.

The black hand moved like a short video dropping frames, advancing in rhythmic, stuttering bursts while remaining two meters away from Su Wu.

Only when Su Wu backed out of the alley did the black hand finally stop pursuing him.

It spread its ten fingers futilely at the alley's entrance, but could only watch Su Wu recede into the distance and leave the apartment complex.

Daylight spilled into the dark side lane, giving the ground a faint sheen.

Standing beside several garbage bins with the Imperial Bell in hand, Su Wu watched his shadow overlap with theirs behind him. No more viscous black liquid surged out of it, nor did it rise as the Shadow Fiend to kill him.

Only then did he feel certain that he had escaped!

He had made it out alive!

It didn't seem all that difficult...

After a few nervous chuckles, Su Wu walked out of the side lane and saw a street that felt both familiar and strange.

All kinds of shops lined both sides of the street, their illuminated signs glowing with neon. It still looked like a bustling scene of worldly life.

Yet here, cars had crashed into a heap; there, another cluster had plunged diagonally into the planted median. Black smoke billowed everywhere, and uncontrolled fires burned all around, lending the bustling scene a strangely absurd air.

Su Wu looked toward a barbershop across the street.

Behind its glass door, a barber was cutting a customer's hair.

The barber held scissors in one hand and steadied the customer's neck with the other.

The customer's head was missing from his neck, and the barber's scissors opened and closed uselessly in midair.

The barber's neck was bare as well. His head was gone.

Su Wu's heartbeat, which had only just settled, began racing again.

His eyes darted around. In every shop he could see, people sat, stood, or lay down, but every one of them was missing their head!

Not a single living person!

Where had all their heads gone?!

A chill froze the blood throughout Su Wu's body!

Before Su Wu could recover, the lights in the surrounding shops, the neon signs along the street, and even the flames from the burning cars all went out.

Red lanterns slowly rose from behind the tall buildings.

Crimson light fell over Su Wu.

His perspective rose endlessly, looking down upon the crimson, desolate street.

On that crimson street, no more than fifty paces from him, a small temple stood incongruously beside the Cake Shop.

Orange firelight spilled from the temple, barely claiming a small patch of space in the street shrouded in red.

The orange glow felt warm and safe.

Su Wu continued looking down.

He saw his own body standing stiffly at the mouth of the side lane, its neck bare.

So it was even less safe outside the apartment building...

One final thought flashed through his mind.