"Hey? What are you doing upstairs, kid?!" Mother Lu asked behind him.
Lu Yanli didn't care. He ran to the attic regardless and tried to go back.
Here... It's too scary.
He would rather face the ghosts outside the apartment where he lives alone than face the pretending of a peaceful scene before anything happened, which would make him want to stay regardless.
When he ran upstairs, he was stunned.
It was just an ordinary small attic. The long corridor and elevator that I came here with were gone.
He turned around abruptly, holding a shovel, and followed Mother Lu upstairs. Seeing his expressionless face, she was shocked: "I told you to go back to your room and change clothes, why did you run up to the attic?"
After saying that, seeing that he didn't move, she reached out to pull him down: "Come down quickly, what's fun in the attic? It's so dirty..."
Lu Yanli didn't say anything, just looked at her and followed her obediently.
He wanted to know what was so strange about this world.
Also, where is the exit
Lu Yanli didn't believe it and searched the whole house carefully, but still couldn't find it. He didn't change his clothes as Lu's mother asked.
The more involved you are in this world, the harder it is to get out of it.
He stood in the living room, trying to compare it with his memory and find the difference.
"What are you doing?" Mother Lu smiled and brought out a dish from the kitchen, wondering.
Lu Yanli didn't say anything to her.
"Why are you acting so strange today? You don't even want to talk? Did something happen to you?"
Indeed, in the past, Lu Yanli's style was completely different from the name his parents had spent so much effort to give him. He had always lived very arrogantly and recklessly, fearless of everything, but he was also very smart, and he was even more lawless because of his intelligence. But now, unless it was necessary, he could stay silent for a whole day, even if he still had flamboyant red hair on his head. His temperament had become calm, like the heavy ashes left after a fire burned out.
He looked straight at the image of his mother in his memory, as if remembering it for the last time, and then resolutely stepped out of the door, ignoring the panicked shouting behind him, and walked towards the street.
The man in the house came back.
A car stopped in front of him, and it was his father.
Lu Yanli was not surprised. He wrote down the route and quickened his pace to walk outside.
"Where are you doing, kid?!" his father shouted from behind.
But he had already walked away without looking back.
The street was still the same as he remembered, but the flow of people was getting less and less, and in the end there was no one left. Lu Yanli wrote down the distance and walked straight out. After walking about a kilometer, he stopped and walked back.
Although there was no turn on the way here, the road in front of him became more and more strange. The bright sky gradually darkened, the middle of the road was bulging, and a long arc bulged high at the bend, causing the buildings above to rise and fall, and some lines appeared on the ground.
He could sense that those disappeared people were looking at him through the window, as if they had seen something strange.
Instead, Lu Yanli felt a strange sense of security—this world was indeed unusual and not just an illusion.
The next step is to find the way back.
This place is too dangerous. Although it is relatively peaceful now, the deathly aura lurking in the silence still makes him feel uneasy.
Lu Yanli quickened his pace and ran forward, trying to find the entrance he came from, but before he took two steps, the sky darkened rapidly at a speed visible to the naked eye.
There were no stars or moon, and everything in sight was dark, making it impossible to tell where one was.
Kongming lanterns rose from the ground, and there were also many paper lanterns. The paper was thin and trembled slightly in the cold wind. On the white background, there were all smiley faces like children's graffiti, but those faces were still somewhat vivid after a long time. Dots of lights were lit, barely illuminating the dim night sky.
The people who had been hiding in the house just now poked their heads out one by one, their eyes full of obsession and happiness. They stared stupidly at the white Kongming lanterns in the sky. They reached out in vain to catch them, but could not reach them. They could only stretch out a pair of pale arms from the window and wave them continuously.
After passing a small upturned slope, the road cracked into a huge gap. The scene when he came was completely unfamiliar, and Lu Yanli had to choose one of the paths to continue running down. As the road became narrower, he had to avoid the arms stretched out on both sides to avoid being scratched by those fanatics.
Suddenly, a sound came from above.
Lu Yanli could not describe the sound that entered his ears, as if someone was talking. No, that kind of sound was hard to describe with human language, it was definitely not within the range of sounds that humans could produce, hoarse, cold, and unclear as if separated by thick fog, with only one or two fragments of sound penetrating the distant distance.
That is a language that humans cannot understand.
Upon hearing the sound, the already obsessed crowds in the houses on both sides of the road became even more enthusiastic, with one wave of cheers higher than the other, as if they wanted to penetrate the brick and tile wall in front of them and rush over.
Lu Yanli stood at the end of the road, staring coldly at the crazy crowd.
He had reached the end, and at the end was an abandoned house. It was difficult to see clearly in the darkness, and it was about two or three stories high. At the back was a pitch-black metal door without a trace of pattern. It was rusty and exuded an extremely cold and evil aura.
Lu Yanli did not push open the door for the time being, but inevitably moved closer to avoid the crowd that suddenly and frantically rushed out of the house.
At the other end of the street, there was a faint sound like ding-dong-dong music coming from a music box, clear and soft, but in the endless night and strange streets, even the beautiful music seemed strange.
Gradually, a huge white thing emerged. The road was too long and it was too late to see the color. Lu Yanli could only see it clearly from a distance. It seemed to be a huge spherical object, and its surface seemed to be still wriggling.
As it got closer, the crowd once again burst into thunderous cheers and ran desperately towards that place.
That is… what
The thing gradually came closer, and Lu Yanli's eyes widened little by little—
It was a huge ball made of human bodies, just like a group of ants will spontaneously wrap themselves around a ball when encountering a fire. The ball was made of densely packed human bodies and rolled forward. New people kept joining in along the way and entangled with it. Then, the huge ball of flesh rolled bigger and bigger until it gradually rose higher than the houses on both sides.
The monotonous music from the music box continued, and the people entangled in the huge ball of flesh were still laughing, laughing happily, with smiles on every face.
Just by looking at it from a distance, one can feel how huge this lump of flesh is, not to mention when it gets closer.
Lu Yanli stared for a while and saw two familiar faces from the outside of the human body. At this moment, they were like the others, with silly smiles on their faces, and their limbs were entangled with the others.
Behind him was the building. Lu Yanli glanced again at the mass of human flesh that was already within a hundred meters in front of him.
He didn't want to open the door, as he couldn't face the monster that was about to roll in front of him and occupy the entire width of the street.
Until this moment, he was still very calm. Lu Yanli looked at the houses around him and found the alley from the two houses next to him that were also shaky due to the arched road surface.
He rushed straight into the alley, and just as he entered the alley, the huge, strange meat ball made up of human bodies rolled over with a joyful laughter like a tsunami.
When the thing passed through the alley, several faces on it stared at him and laughed. After it passed, Lu Yanli rushed out of the alley again and ran to the other side of the road, which was exposed due to the damage of the house.
The strange patterns on the ground became clearer and clearer, and the color of the road gradually emerged. It was a deep red, as if it was covered with old blood.
He ran for a long, long time, and finally reached the end. Lu Yanli stopped.
Because there is no road ahead.
At the end of the road was a slope of nearly 60 to 70 degrees. It was pitch black ahead, and he had no guarantee that he would not get hurt if he rushed down the slope in such darkness.
But the situation behind him was not optimistic. The monster rolled to the end of the road and then rolled back. He gritted his teeth and rolled sideways.
It was not a pleasant feeling to roll over, and Lu Yanli tried his best to protect his head, but even so, he still had multiple injuries on his body. After he rolled for who knows how long and how far, the long and steep slope finally came to an end, and then he fell off a platform that was about half a meter high, fell down, and landed on the flat ground.
Lu Yanli discovered something.
His eyes suddenly widened, then he immediately got up and ran out like crazy. A car appeared in front of him, and he picked up a brick and smashed the window without hesitation, then pulled the driver out with a terrified face, and drove forward himself, stepping on the accelerator to the bottom.
No... No, it's too scary.
The vehicle drove at high speed for a long, long time, and ran a long way, almost across a city, and finally stopped. Lu Yanli still hadn't regained his composure. Since the great changes in the world, he rarely lost control like this. It was rare for him to be so uneasy as he was now.
But... if it is true, if what he saw is true...
Lu Yanli opened the car door and walked out. He slowly turned his head.
He had had some vague guesses since he started running, and now, each guess has finally been confirmed.
On the other side of the city, there stood a huge statue that towered into the clouds. It was so huge that the surrounding houses looked like a toy model for children to play house. Even though Lu Yanli drove very far, he could not see its full appearance for a while. He could only barely see its waist and abdomen. Above it, it was all covered by layers of clouds and could not be seen clearly.
The shadow it casts is large enough to encompass the entire city, so the city never sees the sun.
It turned out that the place where he had been running just now... was the instep of a huge statue!
Lu Yanli couldn't help but feel a chill in his heart.
Is it another world? How can he go back
When people are faced with huge things, they easily realize how small they are. Sometimes they even have extreme fear or even faint. Lu Yanli does not have the so-called giant phobia, but deep down in his heart, he can't help but feel a little desperate.
How could he find clues in front of such a huge statue
Where is the way we came here
Just when he didn't know where to go, a long team came from a distance.
The leading woman was wearing a red robe, with a holy and gentle smile, and the followers were all wearing red or white robes. They were chanting something and walked at a moderate pace. After a while, they came to Lu Yanli.
"Sir, are you worried?" asked the leading woman.
Lu Yanli didn't say anything, which the woman saw as her tacit agreement. She ignored Lu Yanli's movement as he took a step back and raised her hand, and someone behind her immediately brought a red statue. The woman looked at him with compassion and mercy: "If you believe in me, you will never fall into the sea of suffering, and you will never be bothered by worldly affairs. All you want is what you want."
Omniscient God
Are there gods whose names span two worlds? Could they really be the same
Lu Yanli's eyes suddenly focused on the red statue.
A statue... exactly the same as the one that Wen Xinxin lost.
A guess suddenly popped up in Lu Yanli's mind, and this guess tore a hole in his mind that had been foggy for many days. He finally spoke: "What is it that you are thinking about?"
Seeing that he was interested, the woman smiled more gently: "Yes, anyone who trusts me will get what he wants."
"What if... I want to bring the dead back to life?"
The woman's smile widened a little, no longer as sacred as before, but with a bit of weirdness, she said: "God is omnipotent."
"What is the price for resurrecting a person?"
"Although we are tolerant, we cannot be greedy and waste the favor of God. We must offer tributes that God likes." The smile on her lips rose again.
That means there is a price to pay.
Lu Yanli knew when to stop and didn't ask any more questions. He said thank you and turned to leave.
The woman was left silently watching his departing back. After a long while, she turned around and led the team to continue moving forward to spread the gospel of God.
On the other side, Chu Xiu was still standing in the darkness.
He felt the body getting closer and closer to him, and for some reason, the scene seemed familiar.
is… where
He already had the knife clenched in his hand.
Don't shoot easily, even if you have a silencer installed. Especially in the dark, it is like a signpost for something to identify the direction.
That person... is closer to me.
Chu Xiu cleared his face.
The man looked at Chu Xiu, and both of them stood there in a daze.
At that moment, his rationality almost broke down, and countless information flashed through his mind. Chu Xiu stayed there for no more than a second. He immediately realized something, and the knife in his hand had already been inserted into the man's neck. He held the man with one hand and gently lowered him to the ground.
Perhaps he was too shocked, and before he could react, he died with his eyes wide open. But before he died, he muttered a wish to something in the dark.
Then, Chu Xiu dragged the man to the side a little, and then he continued walking down in the direction that the man had just walked.
He remembered! In a flash, he finally realized where his sense of familiarity came from.
He returned to the factory at the intersection of Yinming Road, and he returned to the time when he played the Four Corners game!
If he was in the open air at this moment and turned on the lights, someone would find that the dead man lying on the ground and the man walking around looked exactly the same!
Yes, that is Chu Xiu.
After Chu Xiu played two more rounds, he immediately said, "Game over!" according to the rules of the game, then ran out and met Lu Yanli who drove over to check.
Before they left, they saw Chu Xiu in the rearview mirror. It was not a ghost, but Chu Xiu who came out of the elevator and ran out of the factory again. However, he did not meet Lu Yanli, so they could only find a way to leave by themselves.
The one who left with the three last night was Chu Xiu! It was just Chu Xiu who left early because he noticed something was wrong.
The people in the other corners who were still playing the four-corner game in the room were still Chu Xiu! It was Chu Xiu who confused their minds and continued to walk down in circles. Soon, they would be killed by the new Chu Xiu.
The first time Chu Xiu saw him, he went over to kill him without hesitation. He believed that if he encountered the same situation in the future, he would go over to kill him. Only in this way could the Four Corners Game really go on, and he could get out and find a real way to break the vicious circle of reincarnation.
What Chu Xiu didn't see or realize was that more and more corpses of Chu Xiu were piled up in the house.
However, no matter how Chu Xiu died, there would be a constant stream of new Chu Xiu filling in. Unless... he could avoid that elevator, otherwise, whether he chose to go with Lu Yanli or with his three companions, he would be teleported there.
Then, he would kill his past self, escape using his past identity, and try a new plan.
What he didn't know was that every time someone tried to kill themselves, before they died, they would suddenly think of the omniscient and omnipotent God, and then they all made a wish, hoping that they could do it again and really escape.
God's transactions are never fair and just. If he can start over again, he can do it in many different ways. Perhaps, disrupting time and space and making a few ants crawl in a Mobius strip that is twisted several times can bring him a little happiness.
It's a pity that Chu Xiu hasn't fully understood this truth. He is thinking about how to start over again so that he can get through the elevator game safely.
That night, he held Lu Yanli hostage and entered the elevator. After going up and down repeatedly according to the rules, a strange woman entered the elevator.
Both of them held back, not saying anything or moving. Later, they did not choose to leave the elevator, but stayed inside.
But it is a dead end.
The figure outside the door kept approaching, and when they reached the 12th floor, he finally stretched a hand into the gap of the elevator door that was about to close.
As the elevator descended, the hand was cut off and fell to the ground, revealing a bloody cross-section.
Then, the hand quickly split in front of the two people, revealing deep red and almost brown cracks. Then, the cracks expanded, and blood-red tentacles stretched out from the cracks. Those twisted and waving tentacles easily killed the two people in the elevator.
Before he died, Chu Xiu made another wish, hoping to start over. He returned to the small dark room again, killed himself again, and held Lu Yanli hostage to continue playing the elevator game. This time, he left the elevator...
"What should we do? Should we leave now?" The air in the elevator was getting colder and colder. Ye Shengke couldn't stop shivering. He felt his neck getting heavier and heavier and he could hardly support himself.
"It's better not to do that. It is said that there is another world outside the elevator. If we step out, it will be difficult to come back." Shi Yan comforted him, "If it's very uncomfortable, let's bear it for a while. We can go back in a few minutes."
Chu Xiu beside him also nodded: "You can't go out."
Nie Yunzhen was also worried.
"Come to think of it, I really don't know what the other world is like. Hey, where do you think that old man has gone?" Nie Yunzhen said.
Shi Yan glared at him and said, "Don't try to kill yourself."
Nie Yunzhen shrugged nonchalantly: "Don't you think he's weird? The smell in his room clearly indicates someone has died, and he looks so guilty, maybe he killed someone, but we don't know who he killed."
We all deal with blood and corpses for a long time, so of course we can smell the smell of rotting corpses. It's just that we didn't say anything just now because we didn't have any evidence.
When Nie Yunzhen mentioned this, Shi Yan recalled it again. She shook her head and decided not to think about this doubt anymore.
"Let's talk about it after we get out. What's the point of talking about it now?"
As soon as the voice fell, the elevator door opened again. Outside the door, it was still dark. In the darkness, the long corridor exuded an endless deep and evil atmosphere.
Every time the elevator door stopped, they remained silent and didn't say much. They continued chatting only after the door closed.
Shi Yan stood in front of Ye Shengke. She suddenly felt an itch on her neck. She turned around in confusion and saw that Ye Shengke kept his hands still and did not move.
Shi Yan immediately thought of something uncomfortable. She swallowed her saliva and asked tremblingly, "Did you touch my neck just now?"
Ye Shengke's neck had been lowered to an angle that made an ordinary person look like he was hunched over, as if he was carrying something heavy and couldn't bear the burden. He wanted to shake his head but couldn't, so he could only say, "I didn't touch you."
"So what was that thing that touched my neck just now?"
Shi Yan's soft, trembling voice rang out in the elevator. Suddenly, the already cold air seemed to become even colder. Nie Yunzhen was a little panicked, and stammered, "Don't make fun of me just because of what I said just now, don't scare me on purpose."
"Who scared you? I really felt something on my neck."
Chu Xiu asked: "What does it feel like?"
Shi Yan recalled: "It's like... human hair."
As soon as he finished speaking, Nie Yunzhen immediately thought of a female ghost hanging upside down, with her long hair touching her neck. He was frightened by his own imagination and rubbed his arms: "Maybe it's your illusion?"
As soon as he finished speaking, Shi Yan's eyes widened and she looked straight behind him. The other two did the same. They gathered together in an instant, leaving Nie Yunzhen alone standing in the middle of the elevator.
He turned his head slowly, and what came into view was... a pale face. In his imagination, the long hair was hanging upside down, falling on his neck, making him feel itchy.
The elevator door opened with a ding.
Needless to say, they all rushed out.