The singing was soft and penetrating, floating in the dense forest, eerie and strange. It was obviously a children's song full of childishness, but it made people feel creepy for no reason.
Chu Xiuzhi had suggested that everyone drive away, but now he ran into Lu Yanli for some reason. He hesitated for a few seconds between splitting up and trying to see if the other party had any good ideas. He decided to take a gamble and jogged a few steps to catch up with the other party.
Lu Yanli is thinking about how to break the impasse.
It's not that he doesn't suspect that Chu Xiu in front of him might be a ghost in disguise, but at the moment he has no clue. Even if it's a ghost, he can get some useful information from him before triggering the killing mechanism.
What's more, I have already made a wish to that god, wanting to live a complete life, and this wish should still be valid.
"Do you have any ideas?" Chu Xiu asked from a few steps away.
Lu Yanli walked and said, "Why are you forced to play horror games all the time? What are the rules of your game this time?"
Chu Xiu answered without hesitation: "Once you arrive at Yinming Road, you will play a hide-and-seek game for no less than thirty minutes after midnight. You will choose one person to be the ghost by drawing playing cards, and be responsible for catching the other participants. When the ghost catches more than half of the participants, the ghost wins..."
At first glance, it sounds like the rules of a normal game of hide-and-seek, which is why Nie Yunzhen decided to select more people to participate. The more people there are, the harder it is for the "ghost" to catch half of the participants. He never expected that this move would almost put him in a dead end.
"The game lasts half an hour?" Lu Yanli fell into deep thought.
It doesn't sound long, and it's in the player's favor, but the condition is... there is only one ghost, not eleven.
I'm still thinking about the disappearance of the twenty-four bodies in the police station.
Twenty-four skeletons... the results of the skull tests on some of them were the same, indicating that they belonged to the same person. It was easy to associate the two with the "god" who made the wish. Instead, they were constantly resurrected, which led to an infinite crisis of death. There was even a strange phenomenon of two people existing in the same time and space.
After making a wish to God, he restarted many times, but no matter which choice he made, it ended in a dead end. In the end, Chu Xiu had to go back to the beginning and avoid Wen Qing and Yun Qian before he could continue.
Now an identical skull has appeared... Could it be that one of them is also trapped in this cycle
Who are they
There were eleven students playing hide-and-seek, three of them were Chu Xiushi, Yan Nie Yunzhen, and including myself, there were four of them. No matter how I counted, it didn't seem right.
Lu Yanli expressed his guess, and Chu Xiu was also thinking hard.
I have also made wishes several times, and even killed myself while playing the Four Corners game in the abandoned factory on Yinming Road. After thinking about it, this is the only answer.
Who is trapped in the cycle of reincarnation
The authorities were in the dark. They had not asked the other two people about the list of students, and subconsciously thought that Wen Qing and Yun Qian were included in the eleven. This led to their inability to understand why there were twenty-four corpses.
Whose are the two extra ones
The "dead" students were still singing. Their clear and childish voices were everywhere, which made their attempts to locate them by the singing fail, and they could only walk blindly.
In another direction, Zhang Dan separated from the others and continued to speed up his pace.
Don't... don't come after me!
Although there is only one Yinming Road, the area it covers is very wide. Zhang Dan has a good memory. He remembered the route clearly when he came here and ran in one direction without looking back.
As she was running, she vaguely saw a figure in school uniform standing not far away. Zhang Dan was startled. She was not sure who it was, so she immediately turned around and ran in another direction.
The figure was originally planning to run, but when he saw the other person running, he thought he was the same person, so he hurriedly chased after him, shouting as he ran: "Don't be afraid! It's me, I'm not a ghost."
Zhang Dan recognized his voice. When they got on the bus, his voice was the loudest. He didn’t hear his scream just now, so he guessed... it shouldn’t be that, right
It is not a pleasant feeling to escape alone. Zhang Dan could have held on originally, but now it seems that it would be nice to have a special partner to give him courage.
Thinking of this, she slowed down her pace.
Seeing that there was a play, the other party quickly quickened his pace: "How about we go together?"
The moment he was about to get close, the temperature dropped suddenly, and Zhang Dan suddenly felt a palpitation for no reason. She subconsciously chose to trust her intuition. Before her mind was fully clear, her body had already rushed towards him. The distance between them widened again.
"Hey, why are you running? I'm not a ghost! Wait for me!" The boy was anxious and chased while shouting.
Zhang Dan was also anxious: "Why are you shouting so loudly? Are you afraid that we can't attract them?"
The boy immediately lowered his voice: "I'm afraid you'll run away. Wait for me. I've lost you."
Hearing him say this, Zhang Dan was skeptical. No matter how he looked at the other party, he didn't look like a ghost. He suspected that the momentary palpitation just now might be caused by something else. He was afraid that shouting and attracting people, so he stopped helplessly: "Don't shout, I'll stop and explain it to you."
"Okay." The boy trotted over to her and said, "You are really too brave. I can't handle this alone."
It was pitch black at night and Zhang Dan couldn't see clearly at all. He only vaguely saw the other person's face. Now that he was getting closer, his outline became clearer and clearer, and Zhang Dan's breathing suddenly stopped.
His face was smiling at him, but his entire body below the neck... was clearly facing away!
It's like a person's head turned 180 degrees.
Is it possible for a normal person to do this
Zhang Dan wanted to run, but found that her legs were so weak from extreme fear. If it weren't for the last few moments of consciousness, she would have collapsed to the ground.
"You run too fast. I can't catch up with you at all." The boy was still laughing, and he seemed to have realized something was wrong. He let out a cry and quickly turned around, facing her with the back of his head. Then, he bent his head with both hands, straightened it, and looked at Zhang Dan again.
He stared at Zhang Dan with a smile, his face gradually turning blue and white, and blood seeped out of his school uniform.
"Found another one, hehe..."
The next moment, the girl's scream echoed throughout the forest.
"Another one has been found." Chu Xiu felt solemn.
After hearing the screams, Lu Yanli seemed to be thinking: "Have you seen those students?"
Chu Xiu shook his head: "I was unconscious and didn't see it."
"Those students should appear normal in front of Nie Yunzhen and Shi Yan, otherwise they wouldn't believe it. Now there are several possibilities. One is that the screams are their disguise, trying to make us believe that they are still human, but just met ghosts, so as to guide us to find those students and let us protect them."
"The second possibility is that these students have not yet recovered their memories of death. They will only truly remember them after they are caught. In this case, protecting them is actually the way to survive."
Chu Xiu nodded in agreement, and thinking of the nature of the mission, he couldn't help but add: "There is another possibility."
"What?"
"In order to balance the difficulty, the dead students screamed. This way we can hear where one of the ghosts is and know that the number of ghosts has increased by one."
Since ghosts can increase their number by "killing" classmates, they will probably be weakened in other aspects, otherwise the game will not be able to proceed at all. Chu Xiu recalled the balance points of previous tasks and guessed that the weakness of this game was that ghosts could not find themselves like real ghosts.
Otherwise, it could easily teleport, read your mind, or confuse you, and there would be no chance of your side surviving.
Of course, if they encounter them head-on, the possibility of their escape is also very low, so they must now avoid all the "students".
"So, do we need to find those students?" Chu Xiu asked.
The subtext of: Trying to reduce the number of ghosts
Lu Yanli thought for a moment and said, "Let's not take the risk. Who knows what mechanism might be triggered to make them remember?"
He looked up at the sky covered by dark clouds and asked, "How long will it take you to finish?"
Chu Xiu: "Eighteen minutes." But their expressions did not ease as the time was shortened. Instead, they became more solemn.
The ghosts now can't play a big role directly, and can only be found like ordinary people. When the game is declared over, what will happen to these ghosts without the constraints of rules
Can they really escape
On the other side of the woods, the other students who were still hiding felt the same way.
What to do? Zhang Dan is dead too!
You guys shouldn't be playing hide and seek! You're just asking for death!
What they didn't see was that after Zhang Dan screamed, the boy walked over and gently touched her head. Then, Zhang Dan's head fell off his neck and rolled into the darkness.
Without a head, Zhang Dan was not in a hurry. She walked side by side with the boy, humming a song.
We changed to another nursery rhyme and sang happily.
On the other side, Ling Weiwei heard the screams and was so scared that her legs went limp. She fell directly onto a tree beside her. She couldn't hold it in any longer and sobbed, "I don't want to run anymore. How long will we have to run?... Why is this happening..."
No matter how much Huang Yuanwang liked Ling Weiwei, it had come to this point, and he must have valued his own life. What's more, it was just a little bit of teenage love that had sprouted because of the other person's good looks. It was impossible to say that the feelings were deep. His already anxious and frightened mood became even more anxious because the other person stopped crying.
"No, what's the point of crying? Go away quickly. It's already this time and you still expect others to coax you?" he said impatiently.
"But... Zhang Dan is dead." Ling Weiwei burst into tears, "I'm so scared... I miss her so much..."
"If you miss her, just stay and accompany her." Huang Yuanwang cursed softly and turned to leave.
These ghosts can actually sing. Normally, the songs we listen to are nothing special, but when they sing to us, it really makes our scalps tingle. It’s really strange... Huang Yuanwang kept thinking of other things to give himself courage. He didn’t walk a few steps until he arrived under another tree. At this moment, he suddenly realized that something was wrong.
Why... the singing seems to be coming from above
What's on the tree
Raise your head and look upward.
A pale head looked at him and smiled at him. Then, the head fell to the ground and jumped onto him.
"Run... Run!" Huang Yuanwang's brain buzzed, he stretched out his hand to grab Ling Weiwei and ran. He didn't know why, he clearly intended to escape by himself, but subconsciously pulled Ling Weiwei with him.
Ling Weiwei also knew the importance of the matter, and she wiped her tears while running. The singing was still haunting them, singing non-stop near them.
The cold and damp wind at night passed by the ears of the two people running at full speed, and rows of trees retreated behind them. Ling Weiwei was very tired, but she didn't dare to stop. She was afraid that if she stopped, she would look back and see the head.
They ran for an unknown amount of time before the singing gradually faded away and Huang Yuanwang could no longer run. The two of them slowly changed from running to walking, moving towards the destination, panting.
"Should, shouldn't he be chasing her anymore?" Ling Weiwei gasped for breath. She felt her throat was dry and painful. If Huang Yuanwang hadn't supported her, she would have fallen to the ground.
Huang Yuanwang was still frightened: "Gone, right?" He turned his head to look at Ling Weiwei. This glance made his heart suddenly tighten and his whole body stiffen.
Ling Weiwei was bending over to catch her breath. In this position... one could clearly see that Zhang Dan's head was attached to her back, but for some reason, she didn't notice it. She was just gasping for breath and kept looking back to see if he had caught up with her.
As soon as Ling Weiwei turned around, the head was smiling at her.
At that moment, Huang Yuanwang understood why they no longer heard the singing nearby, because Zhang Dan bit Ling Weiwei's hair and hung behind her without opening his mouth.
Huang Yuanwang held his breath, goose bumps quickly spread from his arms to his back, and he called Ling Weiwei's name in a trembling voice. The other party turned around in confusion. Huang Yuanwang hardened his heart and pushed the other party hard. The defenseless Ling Weiwei was pushed to the ground by him and could only watch the other party run away.
"What are you doing? Wait for me!" Ling Weiwei wanted to get up, but found that her ankle was sprained. She was angry and anxious, and tears fell.
The soft singing sounded behind me again.
“Looking for a friend… Found a good friend…”
Ling Weiwei froze.
No, that voice... was right next to her ear!
She turned her head away.
On her shoulder, the pale and blue head gave her a sinister smile.
The screams echoed again in the forest.
"Another one died." Chu Xiu calculated, his brows furrowed even more tightly.
It was only less than five minutes.
Lu Yanli also kept thinking and deducing a solution to break the deadlock.
We turned a corner and were stunned.
Actually ran into Shi Yan
Shi Yan subconsciously ran away, but Chu Xiu stopped her: "Don't run away. Don't worry, we are both human beings. Now we need you to explain the details of what happened. Otherwise, we can't think of a solution at all."
Shi Yan also knew that the sudden increase in the difficulty of the game was caused by herself and Nie Yunzhen. She couldn't tell whether the other party was a human or a ghost, but the tone made her feel familiar. She gritted her teeth and started from the beginning.
"So, you gave each of us a poker card, right?" Chu Xiu thought thoughtfully.
didn't have any playing cards, and neither did Lu Yanli. Chu Xiu asked again, "Where are your cards?"
Shi Yan took it out of her pocket, handed it over, and pursed her lips: "I wanted to throw it away, but I couldn't throw it away or tear it off. I even buried it in the soil, and after running away for a while, it returned to me without knowing when."
Lu Yanli suddenly interrupted: "Did you encounter those things just now?"
Shi Yan nodded.
Naturally, she also guessed that if those classmates had not died, they would not have remembered that they were once ghosts, so she had just deceived someone to ward off disaster for herself.
"That makes sense. Chu Xiu and I have never encountered this before." But if they go with Shi Yan who has the playing cards, it will be a different story.
Shi Yan shook her head: "No, that's not right. If you, Brother Chu, don't have any playing cards on you, it means you haven't participated in the game." We all know what terrible punishment we will face if we fail to complete the task.
Chu Xiu frowned when he heard this: "Did you give me any playing cards?" He fumbled around on his body while saying this. Shi Yan shook her head again: "No, I only gave me thirteen." As soon as he finished speaking, Chu Xiu took out a playing card from his body.
"What? How is this possible? I didn't give you any cards at all!" Shi Yan's eyes widened.
Chu Xiu tried to tear it, but found that it was just as Shi Yan said, and it couldn't be torn at all. He said casually: "Maybe it was given to me by the game."
Perhaps, it was because of this card that the ghosts were able to find them. The reason why I haven't met them yet is purely because of luck.
Seeing this, Lu Yanli also looked for it on his body. Fortunately, he didn't find it. Seeing the two people around him frowning about the card, something suddenly popped up in his mind, and he immediately said, "Wait, repeat the rules again!"
Shi Yan saw that the other party seemed to have an idea, and hurriedly repeated the rules. When she said "those who are caught must voluntarily hand over the playing cards", her eyes suddenly lit up. Looking at Chu Xiu again, she also showed a relieved expression.
This may be their way of survival!
"The problem now is how to hand the playing cards to the ghosts."
In front of living people, would they choose playing cards
This question troubled them. Lu Yanli was also thinking about the 24 bodies missing from the police station. He remembered two key figures and asked, "Chu Xiu told me that you chose Yun Qian to be the ghost. What about Wen Qing?"
"Wen Qing? What Wen Qing? There is no one named Wen Qing among those students?" Shi Yan was puzzled.
This sentence made both of them look over.
"You don't know Wen Qing?!"
"I don't know." Shi Yan spoke softly.
"Who are the students? Tell me."
As she repeated the student list, Chu Xiu and Lu Yanli looked at each other again and saw confusion in each other's eyes.
Wen Qing didn’t come
Half an hour is almost over.
The ghosts couldn't wait any longer, and screams rang out in the dense forest. Then, the students who had just been killed by their classmates also turned into pale and stiff ghosts, looking for others.
Wen Qing ran along the path in the woods, looking back as she fled. No matter how brave she was, she couldn't help but feel scared when facing a dozen ghosts who were once her classmates.
She had never expected that all those classmates would become...
What to do? What should she do?!
Am I the only one alive
The more Wen Qing thought about it, the more anxious he became, and suddenly an idea came to him.
No, what those classmates said was that there were two people who were afraid to play games, so they asked us to accompany them.
Who could these two people be
Is it possible that they are still alive
With this in mind, Wen Qing felt that her immediate goal was to find those two people, so she ran and looked around. Little did she know that those people were also talking about her.
At this time, the killing in the forest had entered its final stage. Wen Qing didn't know that the only ones still alive were himself and four other people.
The eleven ghosts finally gathered together, and now their target was Wen Qing! They wanted to reunite the last classmate with themselves.
"Give the playing cards to the ghost... let the ghost get the playing cards..." Lu Yanli thought hard.
You can only win by handing over your poker cards, but you will almost certainly die when facing ghosts. After the time is up, the rules of the game no longer exist, and the ghosts will no longer suppress you, making people powerless to resist.
What is the way out
Repeat, twenty-four bodies...
Lu Yanli raised his head suddenly and looked at Chu Xiu: "Do you still remember the Four Corners Game?"
"Of course I remember." As soon as the words fell, also reacted.
In the factory where the Four Corners game is played, if nothing unexpected happens, Chu Xiu who plays the Four Corners game... might still be playing inside!
Shi Yan was confused when she heard this: "What four-corner game? Haven't we played it before?"
"Never mind, let's go find that factory first. Once we find the factory, we might find some clues."
Seeing that the two were anxious, Shi Yan did not object. She trotted beside them and ran towards the factory.
"You said, is it feasible to use the inner self to replace the current self?" Chu Xiu said whimsically, "I know myself very well, and I will definitely fight to the death."
"Then kill them." Lu Yanli said without blinking, "By the way, remember to kill a few more and replace us."
As I was running towards the front, a figure appeared at the intersection on the other side, running in the opposite direction.
It’s Wen Qing!
Wen Qing saw the three people opposite her. She didn't know whether they were human or ghosts. She held the amulet tightly and ran over to ask, "Excuse me, are you guys playing hide-and-seek?"
"Yes, who are you?" Shi Yan replied.
"My name is Wen Qing, I'm here to look for my classmates." Wen Qing finally stopped running and waved his hands tiredly, "You better be careful, all my classmates are dead."
She took a deep breath, her eyes full of sadness: "You shouldn't have come to Yinming Road. You should go back quickly."
Lu Yanli lowered his head to look at his watch.
Time was running out, and it was only a few minutes away from half an hour. He no longer had much patience to ask questions, so he went straight to the front and looked into Wen Qing's eyes: "Don't be impatient, tell me, what did you see just now?"
's voice was very gentle, and his eyes were staring straight into the other's eyes, with an indescribable confusion in his eyes.
Wen Qing soon became confused and blurted out everything he had seen.
Twelve skeletons... Playing cards placed on the corpses...
Lu Yanli breathed a sigh of relief.
Finally I got some ideas.
"Now, lead us to the place where you saw the bones."
Wen Qing nodded in confusion: "Okay."
Unexpectedly, we didn't encounter even a single ghost.
It seems that these ghosts are waiting for the moment when the rules completely become ineffective.
The four of them quickly came to the place where Wen Qing had just checked. Before they got close, Wen Qing had already reached out to touch the poker card he had taken away, but found nothing, and instead took out a new poker card from another pocket.
"This, this is..." She hastily explained, "I didn't lie to you, I just took out four playing cards."
"You didn't, and we know that."
Because those eleven playing cards were neatly placed in the center of each skeleton.
Only one missing.
Twelve corpses, twelve students, they correspond.
The last one is Wen Qing himself.
No, that's not right.
What about the four of them
In the factory, perhaps you can still see another Chu Xiu playing games in the chaos of time and space, but what about the others
Where to find alternatives
This question also lingered in Chu Xiu's mind.
He didn't mind facing the death of his teammates, but as Lu Yanli was a special existence in the mission world, he didn't want to see them die. Of course, he didn't know that his thoughts in this regard were influenced by Lu Yanli's hypnosis.
In short, we must find a way to allow everyone to escape.
There are only three minutes left before half an hour.
Lu Yanli looked suddenly towards the intersection.
He suddenly recalled the four skeletons he saw in an identical SUV when he drove past it.
It just so happens that the quantities match.
This is the way out that the mission provides us!
"Quick! Let's go to the intersection now!"