Chapter 958: 956: Convenience Store
Hoo~
Crouching low with a forward lunge, Yi Chen,
though his eyes are covered and not distracted by the outside scene, and his ears are covered to prevent disturbance from external sounds, a restlessness, a trace of unease lingers within him.
"Okay."
As Yi Chen whispered, the woman’s hand withdrew.
When he opened his eyes again and looked behind, the one wearing the white skin mask, sentenced to death by being cut in half, lay on the ground, the upper and lower halves obliterating rapidly.
As Yi Chen instructed the nearby dead minister to retrieve the scattered white skin mask,
the mask disappeared along with the murderer’s physical body, and all the malice that pervaded the Sunken Death Temple vanished, crisis averted.
Yet, Yi Chen’s heart remained suspended, the portion of unease growing stronger.
"Why was the physical body so easily severed, but the mask on the head only left a slight mark?""The effectiveness of the second script was noticeably stronger than the first,
and by breaking the script again, even cutting the murderer in half, could it lead to more severe issues? Is the essence of malice truly the murderer, the script, or the entire crew?"
Reflecting on various abnormalities prior to the murderer’s actions,
1. At noon under the bright sun, it was forcibly changed to pitch-black night, seemingly as if the crew members temporarily set up a backdrop to block the sun.
2. Classic movie music surrounding the streets, apparently due to multiple crew members going to residents’ homes to switch music sources.
3. During the confrontation, Yi Chen could distinctly feel the compulsory effect brought by the script, needing to perform not just within the bindings, but according to actions within the script, even vaguely feeling the director’s beat and criticism.
"The essence of evil has never been a whole! The dormant malicious thoughts manifest through the literary medium, the murderer being the most prominent, the most obvious part... Even if the murderer’s actor perishes, the director can easily find someone else, give him the mask, and he can play the murderer again."
Yi Chen quickly left the Dead Sea, returning to reality.
With the murderer’s death, the script seemed to scatter, and the crew appeared to halt shooting. The night backdrop was removed, returning the scene to normal noon.
As Yi Chen appeared, Lene promptly stepped forward to attach his left arm.
"Simpler than last time, your severed hand is just beside you, only needing a cycle within my body to be reused... Hang on, Mr. Yi, your ear!"
"The ear is fine, we’ll talk about it once we escape back."
"Escape?" Lene looked puzzled, "Hasn’t Mr. Yi already resolved the malicious?"
"Not that simple, only securing a temporary rest period. Reagan, can you contact Lorrian? Is the passage ready?"
As soon as he finished speaking, a beam of light directly shone down.
At the moment it fell on Yi Chen and Lene, without even feeling any obvious ascent, they arrived at the Moon Inner Hall directly.
A silvery star-shining inverted triangle gate had already opened in the inner hall, with Lorrian maintaining this [Teleportation Gate] capable of transcending planes, directly reaching adjacent worlds.
Reagan was already waiting here,
seemingly not needing Yi Chen to explain anything, knowing very well that disaster couldn’t be killed so easily, and just from Yi Chen’s awful expression, they could see the situation wasn’t optimistic.
"Let’s go!"
Everyone stepped into the inverted triangle gate,
this gate wasn’t as stable as the World Gates constructed by gods, there was a feeling of sailing amidst a roaring tide.
Buzz!
With a flash of light and shadow, everyone arrived at a pristine Moon surface, cold and desolate.
Cutting the murderer in half and transcending worlds should generally be safe enough, all they needed to do was stay on the Moon surface waiting for the call from below.
But considering they had heard the phone ringing on the Moon last time, and upon rushing down found the emergency passage aligned with the phone already destroyed by the murderer, this time they planned to guard right at the public phone.
Moonshine descended, buzz!
Everyone landed in front of a 24-hour convenience store, where a public phone was set at the entrance.
They waited a moment but no calls came, causing Yi Chen to silently curse, "Such a multidimensional plane crossing should be obvious.
Disaster’s appearance should draw the attention of the Main Material Plane, and that old Deng as the person in charge should be informed immediately of the specific situation.
Yet the passage hasn’t opened, is it because our few’s value doesn’t match up to Disaster’s risk?"
At this moment, the blonde guy from within the convenience store walked out amicably.
"It’s cold outside, won’t you all come in and have a seat if you don’t mind, the phone out here hasn’t worked in ages, but the one inside still works."
Though Reagan could easily fix the phone, he wasn’t aware of the underlying logic of the [Emergency Passage], perhaps only the phone that the world originally carried and hadn’t been modified by outsiders could function as the [Passage].
Once inside the convenience store, the socially skilled clerk started chatting away with everyone.
Reagan used a small portion of processing capability to engage in normal dialogue.
Yi Chen immediately located the red telephone inside the store, yet his gaze drifted sideways to a corner of the store.
There hung various horror masks, one was the exact same white skin mask as Disaster.
[Consciousness Slash]
The mask was effortlessly cut in two, obliterating upon death.
Watching the mask gradually dissipate, the unease within Yi Chen grew ever stronger.
"Lorrian, stay by the phone, I will take a look around."
Yi Chen circled the convenience store, confirming there was only the night shift’s young guy, the surroundings completely normal and not seeing any more white skin masks on sale within the store.
Seeing Yi Chen continuously watching the horror masks, the store clerk also cast his gaze.
"Halloween is almost here, are you planning to buy any masks? Ah~ why is the[Halloween Killer - Michael Myers] mask missing? Hold on, I’ll check the warehouse.
That’s the most popular model for Halloween, sells best here."
As the eager clerk was about to head to the warehouse,
Slam! His shoulder was grabbed by Yi Chen, with a killer’s gaze making the clerk shiver and retreat back into the counter.
"No need, just stay put here."
The clerk seemed to realize this group were not benevolent, opted not to say more, settling quietly behind the counter.
Not receiving any phone calls, Yi Chen’s thoughts remained on the white skin masks. Considering the warehouse might still have mask stock, he intended to use this time to clear them out, eliminating any potential threats.
As he approached the warehouse door, reaching to open it.
Unexpectedly, his reaching hand grabbed at nothing.
The so-called door to the warehouse had no ’doorknob’, it was just drawn on.
Not just this door, but even the nearby shelves were finely crafted three-dimensional perspective drawings, perfectly combined with the walls, making it look like shelves and doors existed, while in reality, it was merely a realistic backdrop.
Just like a movie shooting backdrop.
Yi Chen was suddenly startled, immediately turning to look outside the convenience store.
The opposite street showed no signs of any disturbance, even the mosquitoes buzzing around the streetlights were frozen.
Yet another backdrop,
A strong sense of discord led him to feel his supposedly missing ear, discovering it had unknowingly grown back. It wasn’t due to Lene’s regeneration, but for another reason.
His gaze shifted back to his three companions, observing carefully and felt they became somewhat unfamiliar, ’Lene’ was even pulling at her facial skin, as though wearing a human skin mask.
Slam!
At this moment, a rolled newspaper knocked on Yi Chen’s head.
"Alright! The actors are in position! This time there must be no mistakes, the second act - Convenience Store Thriller Night officially begins!"