A disgusting stench of corpse rushed towards Chen Yang. He was caught off guard and inhaled a large mouthful of it. The choking made him cough a few times uncomfortably, as if his lungs were filled with that rotten smell.
Zheng Zhiqin, who was standing next to him, turned his head towards the elevator entrance and asked, "Why aren't you talking? Are you flirting with the corpse?"
Chen Yang: “…”
"There are four bodies inside." Chen Yang did not enter the elevator. He stood at the entrance and looked directly at the two faces closest to him. "Xiao Yao, Brother Yu."
He looked past them and looked back: "Xiao Huanyu, Wang Hao."
"There are a lot of spots on the exposed skin of the corpse. It has been a few days since he died. 'Brother Yu', that is, He Rong, was holding something... It smelled so bad. Something in the bag had green hair. Pancakes? Tea eggs? There was an oil stain on his clothes in front of him."
Chen Yang didn't dare to rush into the elevator, so he just looked around, "He's the only one who doesn't have a work ID around his neck..."
Four faces and eight eyes were all facing Chen Yang, like dummies in a wax museum. He quickly examined the corpse, not daring to shift his gaze even a little, for fear that the surrounding water would break into his field of vision. After the examination, he closed his eyes, and his breathing was suppressed to be very light and slow.
Zheng Zhitan said: "You didn't use the camera on your phone to see it?"
"I've used it, but I'm not used to it." Chen Yang's back was covered in sweat. Even though he had prepared himself mentally before coming down and guessed what would be in the elevator, he still felt a chill in his heart when he saw it with his own eyes. He was afraid that the more he tried to concentrate on staring at the camera, the more distracted his vision would become, and he would end up making things worse, so he put down his phone unconsciously just now.
Chao Jian grabbed Chen Yang's clothes and shook them gently, saying coldly, "Don't discuss here, go up first."
"Okay." Chen Yang carried Chao Jian on his back and knelt in the water before he could even stand firmly.
The blow at the elevator entrance made Chen Yang's muscles tense up violently. He didn't have enough time to buffer and now he felt a little weak.
The cold water soaked through Chen Yang's clothes, and the chill flowed into his open pores, as if countless water snakes had wrapped around him, their slippery bodies constantly tightening. He almost jumped up as soon as he knelt down, holding his breath and holding Chao Jian on his back, and ran towards the corridor entrance with all his strength, keeping his eyes tightly closed the whole time.
The person who wanted to help stood up and ran away, not forgetting to carry the dog he had raised with his own soul and flesh on his back. Zheng Zhiqin withdrew his hand that was stretched out in the air, and slowly walked across the water and up the stairs.
Zheng Zhitan followed the heavy breathing sounds in the corridor and climbed up step by step. When he stopped at the stairs on the second floor, he leaned on the handrail.
Chen Yang used wet clothes to wipe the water off his face. The more he wiped, the wetter it became. His eyes were still wet, but his damp eyelids were trembling.
There was a "ding" sound next to his ear, and a bitter smell of cigarettes filled the air. Chen Yang groped his way to Chao Jian, and a pack of tissues was stuffed into his hand. He quickly opened it and took a few sheets of paper to wipe his face.
His mind was blank for less than three seconds before Chen Yang gasped: "Cellphone!"
His pocket was wet. He took out the case and a drop of water fell down, making a small splash on the ground.
The corridor was too quiet.
Chen Yang silently put the phone in Chao Jian's arms, rubbed his forehead and said: "My phone is running out of battery, and yours is..."
Chao Jian touched the edge of the case to open it and wiped it with a tissue: "It's okay."
"Does your knee hurt?" Chao Jian asked.
"It doesn't hurt." Chen Yang finished speaking one second ago, and the next second a hand reached out and pressed his knee, and he hissed.
The lie was exposed on the spot, and Chen Yang took the initiative: "It won't hurt if you don't press it, but if you press it..."
Chen Yang didn't say anything else, because the hand on his knee was kneading him with such light force that it seemed as if dust was being removed from a piece of fine porcelain. He felt a little uncomfortable, and the heat on his face continued to rise.
"Alright, alright." Chen Yang grabbed Chao Jian's wrist, "It doesn't hurt anymore."
Chao Jian continued to wipe the case.
It was dark all around, and Chen Yang opened his eyes: "I thought the mission started when people on the street began to run wildly." He adjusted the frequency of his heartbeat, "Now I think it started earlier." The mission started very early.
Zheng Zhiqin glanced at the silent Chao Jian and slowly responded to Chen Yang: "When the elevator broke down?"
"Yes." Chen Yang said, "The mission started the moment Xiao Huanyu and the other three died in the elevator."
The starting point of the mission is the elevator!
Chen Yang's heartbeat, which had finally calmed down, started beating wildly again. It was just as he had guessed, the four monsters were not transformed from humans, they were monsters from the beginning.
It's just that their memories were injected and modified, making them think they were human. It was not until they went to work that they knew their identities and understood their jobs and rules.
Chen Yang recalled "Brother Yu's" breakfast and the dirt on his clothes, and combined with the information that Changxiang Technology started work at 8 o'clock, he deduced that "Brother Yu" He Rong first came to the company to punch in, and then went downstairs to buy food. He did not bring his work ID.
So when he turned into a monster, he used other people's things at will.
Chen Yang suspected that during the few minutes between the time the fire alarm sounded and the time it went out, the monsters blended into the crowd of office workers.
At 9:20, Qiao Qiao and others went to the elevator. The "Brother Yu" who was complaining while pressing the elevator button had turned into a monster.
"Back and forth, up and down..." Chen Yang's body was covered with goose bumps. "The starting point is the elevator on the first floor, and the end point is the elevator on the fourth floor?" "No."
Chen Yang denied himself: "The two elevator cars were parked on the third and first floors respectively. The fourth floor was empty even after I pried it open."
"How about we go to the fourth floor and pry open the elevator and have a try?" Chen Yang turned to discuss with Chao Jian again, his eyes shining brightly, as if he was halfway through solving a problem, his mind suddenly opened up and he came up with an algorithm, which he was eager to verify.
"Go if you want to." Chao Jian closed the phone cover. He did not discourage Chen Yang's enthusiasm, nor did he directly reveal the verification results. He let the other party do everything in person.
Zheng Zhitan raised his eyebrows. Not everyone can be a student, and similarly, not everyone can be a teacher.
The mission world can actually have such high teaching quality.
Chen Yang did not run to the fourth floor in one breath as planned. Instead, he, Chao Jian and Zheng Zhiqin stopped on the second floor. What greeted them was a corpse with a bloody hole stabbed in it.
Pan Lin is dead.
The bloody hole was on Pan Lin’s stomach, the same place where Xiao Yao stabbed himself, and it was covered in blood.
Chen Yang just took a look and didn't look again. He asked the little mute what was going on.
The mute picked up a pen and wrote down what happened on the sticky note pad. He didn't write a few words for a long time. In the end, Qiao Qiao told Chen Yang: "He looked into the water downstairs."
Chen Yang's eyebrows knitted together, and he asked in confusion: "Hasn't the taboo been lifted?"
Qiao Qiao shook her head in a daze. She had no idea why Pan Lin did that.
Pan Lin's will to survive was much stronger than hers, and his goal was clearer. He would not have sought his own death. He must have been possessed by a ghost.
"Ah" the mute made a hoarse sound in his throat and tapped the notebook with his pen in a chaotic manner.
He was affected by the illusion!!!
The three exclamation marks are filled with the dumb man's fear.
Chen Yang's face changed slightly. Illusion? His heart sank. The last monster killed him and went to work early. It was different from the first three and had different abilities.
The illusion was covered with a shell of sweet, sour, bitter and spicy flavors, inside was an invisible blade and a visible abyss. Chen Yang knew how terrifying it was after experiencing it once. He saw the little mute touching his neck, and when he got closer he found several bruises with blood.
"How did you do that?" Chen Yang asked in a low voice.
The mute pointed at herself, her head drooped, and after a few seconds she wrote a sentence on the notebook.
If I could speak, maybe I could call Pan Lin in time...
Chen Yang understood the little mute's intention of pinching his neck, as well as her powerlessness and frustration. He rubbed her thin and soft hair.
If you can't wake up, once the illusion gets a chance to invade your soul, you will be confused and it will not be easy to wake up.
I didn't dare rush over to pull him back. I was afraid of accidentally seeing the water downstairs, and even more afraid of accidentally bumping into him and falling down with him. The ground was very wet and slippery, and the light was dim...
It happened so fast, in less than ten seconds, while I hesitated, he had already violated the taboo. The mute's pen stopped, and the tip of the pen poked a small hole in the paper.
"I am also responsible." Qiao Qiao lowered her eyes to look at her hands on her legs. Her white skirt was dirty, her long hair was messy, and she looked terrible. She choked slightly, "If I hadn't fallen asleep..."
Chen Yang comforted the two little girls with a few words, then he walked over to Chao Jian and sat down, feeling a throbbing pain in his head.
Pan Lin is quite smart, and his ability to react on the spot is above the passing line. What did he see or hear that made him run to the guardrail and look down in a delirious manner
Chen Yang seemed to be thinking about something. There were only three people downstairs at that time, him, Chao Jian, and Zheng Zhitan. Among them, only Zheng Zhitan was closely related to Pan Lin.
The protagonist of that illusion is Zheng Zhitan.
Chen Yang thought that Pan Lin was attracted by the illusion and couldn't resist falling into it, which meant that the material used in the illusion created by Xiao Yao was not his inner fear.
Just the opposite.
Perhaps it was something that fell into the deepest part of his heart at some unknown time, and he couldn't even remember it, but it was used by the monster.
Chen Yang glanced at the figure standing next to the corpse with his back to him and smoking. He was afraid that for Pan Lin, who had suffered secular persecution for a long time, Zheng Zhiqin was the only one who pulled him out of the swamp.
Even though Zheng Zhiqin's kindness to him was not pure and was mixed with many impurities.
Pan Lin died with his eyes open.
Zheng Zhiqin looked down at his death through the smoke, his expression indifferent, as if he was looking at a document, a report, or a street sign or traffic light. It was a very ordinary object.
The smoke was rising more and more, floating in front of Zheng Zhiqin's eyes. He squatted down, and touched the hole in Pan Lin's stomach with the hand holding the cigarette. His hand was covered in blood.
A distant scene popped up in his mind. There were body parts and internal organs all over the ground. Someone was saying "stay alive" in Zheng Zhiqin's ear with blood foam at his mouth. The cigarette between his fingers trembled, and his throat seemed to be blocked by a piece of warm and fishy flesh.
After a second or two, Zheng Zhiqin made a strange chewing motion, raised his hand to cover Pan Lin's eyes, and wiped them downwards.
Zheng Zhiqin took his hand away, leaned closer, put his lips on the boy's slanted eye, and gave him a kiss.
"Goodbye, little friend."
After a moment, Zheng Zhitan got up and left.
Pan Lin lay quietly, with a cigarette butt next to his body, gradually cooling down.
At around nine o'clock in the morning, Chen Yang and his four companions went to the fourth floor. They opened the elevator on the right, but found it empty and nothing was found.
This result was both unexpected and expected for Chen Yang.
When there are not many possibilities, the process of elimination is very useful.
The sea water above is misleading, it is not the exit, and now it is confirmed that the elevator on the fourth floor is not the exit either. So what is left...
Chen Yang chewed his fingers as he faced Chao Jian. His mind seemed to be still, yet also seemed to be running at high speed.
Chao Jian didn't move or say a word, just letting Chen Yang stare at him in a daze.
When people are thinking about a problem, their eyes should not move around. Keeping them in one place helps them concentrate.
Chaojian is that “place”.
Chen Yang never realized this. Subconsciously, when he couldn't think of anything, he would look at Chao Jian. Not really looking, but to be precise, he was looking for a place to store his sight.
Time passed by every second. Chao Jian did not make any noise to disturb Chen Yang, and neither did the other three. They were in their own world.
The corridor on the fourth floor was even dimmer than the two floors below, and the lights of the two flashlights were flickering.
Chen Yang's dry lips moved slightly, and he muttered to himself: "The elevator is the starting point of the mission. There are corpses first and monsters later. The elevator represents death..."
"Elevator... Corpse... Death... Front and Back... Up and Down... Death..."
Chen Yang's eyes suddenly opened, his breath became extremely disordered, and he murmured in a breathless voice: "Isn't death the opposite of rebirth?!"
"The exit is the elevator on the right side of the first floor!" Chen Yang spoke quickly and clearly, his fingertips trembling with excitement, "The place where the four bodies are stored!"
Except for Chao Jian, all three gazes moved over.
The mute pulled Qiao Qiao, who looked at her and asked the question in her mind: "Are we going to take the elevator home?"
After hearing the last two words, Chen Yang's thoughts slowed down for a few seconds before he said, "I'm not sure yet. I won't have an answer until six o'clock in the evening."
Qiao Qiao blinked: "Six o'clock?"
"Well, that's our time to get off work." Chen Yang smiled a little.
The taboos and solutions are laid out clearly, and all that remains is to wait.
Time moves forward slowly, as if it is deliberately going against the workers in the building. You want me to go faster, but I won't.
Chen Yang experienced the torment of office workers waiting to get off work. He cleaned his backpack and dozed off against the wall. His hair was messy, his chin was blue, and he smelled bad. He looked disheveled and haggard.
Chao Jian was bending over with a bag of milk tablets in front of him, counting them for fun in the dark.
Chen Yang shuddered and looked at Jian. He forgot where he had counted to. He took out his cell phone and opened it. He frowned and felt that time was passing too slowly.
It was at this time that Qiao Qiao came closer. She came with a request and went straight to the point without beating around the bush.
Since the mute did not accept her request, she had to find someone else.
After listening to Qiao Qiao's request, Chen Yang shook his head and said, "Things brought in from the real world can only be taken out by the corresponding tasker, no one else can."
Qiao Qiao's face fell: "Is that so..." She cheered up again, holding on to a glimmer of hope, and said, "Mr. Chen, I still want to give you the book."
Chen Yang reminded helplessly: "Even if you can't take it out?"
"Even if I can't take it out." Qiao Qiao said with a smile.
Chen Yang sighed: "It's only a few hours before I get off work. The distance from the corridor to the elevator door is not far. As long as I close my eyes..."
The girl wasn't listening. The curve of her lips was still there, but there was no life in her body. It was as if leaving get off work was like going to die, without any hope.
Chen Yang couldn't even figure out Chao Jian, who had lived and eaten with him and had shared many hardships with him, let alone someone he had only known for three or four days. He said no more and accepted the constellation book that he could not take with him.
Qiao Qiao sat back down. She had done everything she could and felt very calm.
The mute patted Qiao Qiao's hand and said, "Don't worry, you will be fine."
Qiao Qiao smiled at her and said, "Let's leave it to fate."