Welcome to the Yellow Room
"Did they make it back to reality?" Chen Yu's voice held uncertain hope.
"The game's over, and we've got our rewards. So if we walk out, we go home?"
"Not necessarily," Jiang Yu'an said.
"Then do we go or not?" someone asked.
Silence. No one could make that decision for anyone else.
Then someone stepped forward. It was the college student with glasses.
He walked to the gate and glanced back at Lin Yang, his eyes saying urgently, "I don't want to wait anymore."
"If we stay here, we'll just starve to death, and who knows? This gate might close again tomorrow! Brother Lin Yang, thank you. Take care."
He gritted his teeth, nodded at Lin Yang, then turned and stepped out.
He vanished!
Someone took a deep breath, someone pressed a graduation certificate against their chest, and someone closed their eyes.
Each person wore a different expression as they stepped out: fear, anticipation, or reckless resolve. But they all did the same thing. They walked forward!
Lin Yang was the last one!
Fatty, Shen Yue, Jiang Yu'an, Liu Jialiang, Chen Yu, Zhao Yao, and a few others who had been following him all watched him, waiting for him to make his decision too.
Lin Yang glanced back at the school building behind him.
Dim gray daylight shone through the corridor windows, falling on the hallway covered in bloody handprints.
It fell on the door of the classroom where they had spent countless days and nights, and on the rooftop, where Liu Yan's body still lay, the black blood already dry.
He turned around and stepped out!
The instant his foot met empty air-
Whoosh!
Lin Yang felt his body plunge downward.
It was like stepping into a bottomless pit!
Wind rushed past his ears, like a damp current of air carrying the smell of mildew!
He landed hard on a floor.
He clutched his aching head! It was like the first time he had entered the Faceling school.
He opened his eyes again.
His vision was swallowed by yellow, a pure, overwhelming yellow that filled everything.
He looked around.
There were lights on the ceiling, old-fashioned incandescent bulbs, and aged, yellowing wallpaper all around.
A repeating pattern was printed on the wallpaper, blurred by damp.
The floor was soft. It was the kind of beige carpet that had been laid in an old hotel for more than a decade. Underfoot, he could feel that the padding beneath it had collapsed.
The air was thick with the smell of mildew, along with a faint trace of disinfectant drifting from some unknown corner.
Lin Yang stood where he was, not moving right away.
He turned to look behind him. There was no door, no exit, only corridors stretching in every direction, and yellow walls at their ends.
A muffled thud came from beside him!
Fatty fell from above and landed on the carpet. Clutching his lower back, he cursed, "Fuck."
Then came Jiang Yu'an and Shen Yue.
Chen Yu followed. His knees buckled when he landed, but he quickly straightened up.
Then came Zhao Yao and a few others who had been following him.
One after another, they appeared out of thin air, as if something had squeezed them out of that world and thrown them into this yellow hall!
Besides the familiar faces, there were some strangers among them!
"Fuck, where are we?"
Fatty's voice sounded muffled in this space, with no echo. The walls absorbed the sound completely.
No one could answer him.
The broadcast sounded.
A male voice like Belial's seeped from some unseen corner of the yellow corridor. It wasn't loud, but it was especially clear in the echo-free hallway.
"Welcome to Level - Yellow Room."
"Current survivors: 18. Facelings: 4."
"Besides the Facelings, there are some other strange fellows here. Remember to stay safe."
"Please stay alive and leave this place. Have a safe journey."