The puppets lay scattered and torn.
Everyone searched frantically, like headless chickens, with no clue.
Lin Mu Ci lowered her head, gazing at the red liquid on her palm. As she looked down, the building beneath her feet suddenly began to shake.
Lin Mu Ci's eyes widened.
"Damn it!"
"This floor might not be safe either. We need to go up, to a higher place, that's the safe haven. Let's go."
Ou Ruo La was very nervous.
"How do we climb up?"
Lin Mu Ci's gaze swept across the surroundings.
"There are ropes over there. We won't go through the door; we'll climb up. There are central air conditioning ducts there."
Fortunately, all four girls had experience with dancing, and their bodies were very agile.
Ou Ruo La and Han Jiu Zhen supported Lin Mu Ci's body. She directly opened the ventilation shaft and climbed up—making her way to the floor above.
She pulled Yang Wei Yang up, then slowly hauled Ou Ruo La and Han Jiu Zhen up as well.
Ou Ruo La and Han Jiu Zhen had initially worried if the next floor would be outside the escape room's designated area.
But after climbing over, they realized their worries were unfounded.
The floor above was indeed part of the storyline, and compared to the floor below... it was even more terrifying.
Discarded newspapers were everywhere, and the lights in the offices were a dim, eerie red.
On the wall, a large group photo had a face conspicuously cut out. A youth stood silently in the corner of the photo, his expression gloomy. Only that face was handsome and sinister, impossible to ignore.
"Who is the one whose face was cut out?"
Yang Wei Yang's heart pounded.
Even though she knew it was just part of the game, she was still somewhat drawn into the scene.
"The one whose face was cut out should be a young girl. Look, the middle-aged couple on either side of her are likely her parents. The newspapers below already provided the information; this Dr. Z was burned to death for killing the master's daughter back then... I suspect the one whose face was cut out is that girl."
Han Jiu Zhen frowned, a thought suddenly striking her.
"The puppet is still downstairs... that thing should be important. I'll jump down to get it."
Lin Mu Ci looked at her.
"Let's go down together. Didn't we agree to go in and out together?"
Han Jiu Zhen nodded, but the door suddenly creaked open!
Then the mechanical lock on the door began to turn. Lin Mu Ci walked over to look and felt a pang of anxiety.
"We might be running out of time! This mechanical lock seems to be timed... but I can unlock it."
She was about to act when Han Jiu Zhen glanced at her and made a swift decision.
"I'll go get the puppet. You stay here and unlock the door!"
"Don't worry, I remember where the puppet is. I'll be back soon."
Han Jiu Zhen hurried downstairs. Lin Mu Ci focused on unlocking the door. Just as the lock was about to open, a scream suddenly reached her ears!
Then the scream abruptly stopped.
Lin Mu Ci's eyes widened.
This is...
Her breathing became rapid.
"Did something happen to Han Jiu Zhen?"
Ou Ruo La and Yang Wei Yang rushed over, but Han Jiu Zhen was nowhere to be seen downstairs. Only a half-assembled puppet lay within their line of sight.
Ou Ruo La and Yang Wei Yang carefully picked up the fallen puppet, their faces etched with distress, on the verge of tears.
"Xiao Ci, Han Jiu Zhen is gone. What do we do now? Should we go look for her?"
Lin Mu Ci wanted to go downstairs, but a cold, emotionless mechanical voice echoed from above.
"Han Jiu Zhen, eliminated!"
Lin Mu Ci took a deep breath.
Her eyelashes trembled violently.
"Let's keep moving forward."
Self-reproach was useless now. The only thing they could do was clear this escape room.
...
Pushing open the door with the mechanical lock, the small room behind it seemed like an entirely different world.
It appeared to be decorated like a princess's room, with a pink background, a pink princess bed, teddy bears, and a pink vanity table – everything was complete.
Lin Mu Ci frowned as she looked at the vanity table. The mirror suddenly reflected a pale, bloodless face. Startled, she quickly got up, only to realize that the vanity's lighting was faulty.
"Xiao Ci, look quickly! There's a drawer here, and a diary!"
Ou Ruo La directly picked up the diary, examining it with surprise.
"Huh? This diary isn't locked. The contents... what kind of font is this? I don't recognize it."
Lin Mu Ci walked over.
"This is a classic script font. It uses Greek letters as identifiers. I'll read it."
"My dearest young lady. This is the thousand and first day I have seen you. You told me sorrowfully that your father was going to marry you off, and we would never be able to see each other again. I told you not to worry, because I would stay by your side forever. Your dearest... the gardener's son."
Yang Wei Yang's eyes widened as she listened.
She felt an overwhelming sense of fear.
"So he killed her?"
"Just because she was going to marry someone else? This gardener's son, he's a pervert, a demon!"
Lin Mu Ci's fingers slowly traced the diary.
"It seems a few pages have been torn out. Oh, there's more later."
"When the flames burned my body, I felt not pain, but a deep, hidden pleasure."
"I took the immortality potion I obtained from the witch. She said I could sleep underground for three to four hundred years. How wonderful. When I open my eyes, I should be able to see you."
"My dearest young lady, where my soul yearns... my master."
Ou Ruo La swallowed hard.
"So creepy! So yandere!"
"Immortality potion... does such a thing really exist? Isn't this setting too bizarre?"
Lin Mu Ci's eyelashes trembled slightly, and then she said.
"There should be other things. Wait, let's look around again."
On the vanity table, there was a small box containing a pendant.
Lin Mu Ci tightly clutched the pendant in her palm.
Yang Wei Yang and Ou Ruo La lifted the mattress together and found an arm of the puppet. They attached it.
Lin Mu Ci looked at the largely assembled puppet. Yang Wei Yang anxiously asked her. Although she was the youngest, she was the pillar of the team.
"Xiao Ci, what do we do next?"
Where to go next?
Lin Mu Ci looked around, her gaze falling on the enormous princess bed.
"Let's try pushing this bed."
It took the combined effort of the three girls to barely move the bed, revealing a dark opening.
"What, do we jump down?"
Just as Lin Mu Ci was about to speak, a withered hand suddenly reached out from the dark opening and grabbed Ou Ruo La by the ankle!
Ou Ruo La screamed, her high-pitched cry almost piercing the ceiling tiles—the lights flickered, an alarm sounded, and Lin Mu Ci rushed to pull Ou Ruo La back but was a step too late.
She disappeared into the dark opening.
Yang Wei Yang trembled.
"What took Ou Ruo La away?"
A cold, emotionless mechanical voice sounded from above again.
"Ou Ruo La, eliminated!"
Lin Mu Ci stared deeply into the opening and said.
"We'll jump down too."
Yang Wei Yang was terrified.
"But... but Ou Ruo La has already been eliminated. If we jump down and encounter that strange thing, won't we be eliminated too?"
She was so nervous she was close to tears. Lin Mu Ci's hand slowly stroked her back, and Lin Mu Ci said.
"Don't be afraid. This is a trap—but opportunity often hides within traps."
"There's only one path here. This should be the room of the girl who died. I guess if there's anything truly important, it must be hidden here. As for how to deal with that hand, how about this: I'll go first. If I get pulled down, I'll hold onto it, and you continue searching for clues."
"No matter what, we have to clear the game."
Yang Wei Yang nodded fearfully.
Lin Mu Ci walked to the edge of the dark opening and jumped down.
However, the terrifying pale hand did not reappear. This seemed to be a cellar, with a door on each side.
She didn't know where Ou Ruo La had been dragged to before her elimination.
A choice between two.
Yang Wei Yang looked at Lin Mu Ci. Lin Mu Ci looked at the red paint marks on the doors, her lips pressed together in silence. After a moment, Lin Mu Ci's fingertips slowly brushed against the left door.
"Let's go left."
Yang Wei Yang asked her.
"How did you know?"
Lin Mu Ci replied.
"Ou Ruo La went to the right. Look, there are scratch marks from her fingernails on the door. Do you remember her nail polish? She lost a piece of her nail polish on the right side."
"She was dragged to the right for elimination, so we choose the left."
It was logical and well-reasoned.
Yang Wei Yang followed behind Lin Mu Ci, carrying the puppet. Lin Mu Ci pushed the door open and paused slightly—Yang Wei Yang blurted out.
"This place looks like an underground prison cage. Hey, there are scattered puppet fragments here..."
She quickly assembled the puppet.
After being assembled, the puppet's eyes suddenly lit up! The puppet had special decorations, and after being put together, its lips slightly parted, and it actually started speaking.
"Take me home... take me back to our promised place..."
"Take me back..."
Yang Wei Yang was startled and accidentally threw the puppet.
Lin Mu Ci picked up the puppet and carefully examined its face, finding it somehow familiar.
Yang Wei Yang stammered, asking her.
"Where do we need to go next?"
Lin Mu Ci shook her head and said softly.
"Wait a moment, there are still a few things I haven't figured out—"
Before her words had even finished,
Suddenly, with a click, a cage rose from all sides, trapping her and Yang Wei Yang within.
Then, a cacophony of footsteps erupted from behind them!
The sound of footsteps seemed to pound against her heart.
The footsteps drew closer to her body. Yang Wei Yang's eyes widened as she looked behind her. She felt a pair of cold hands caress her back.
Someone approached her neck.
As if biting her neck.
"You have trespassed into my forbidden zone."
"Tell me, how should I punish you?"
"Should I throw you down to let those virus-infected bio-humans infect you, turning you into mindless carriers of the virus?"
"Or..."
"Should I let you watch each other's lives drain away little by little... forcing you to personally send each other on their way?"
His voice was as cold as ice.
Lin Mu Ci inhaled sharply in annoyance. She wanted to tell Ling Qian He to stop playing!
What was he trying to do now, get revenge?
But Ling Qian He's fingertips subtly dug into her neck skin. She gritted her teeth, hearing him say.
"You will never uncover my secrets."
Before he could say more, an alarm suddenly blared from outside.
He sneered.
"It seems the government rescue team has arrived. You shall be locked up here for now. After the government rescue team leaves, I will—punish you properly!"
He turned and strode away. Lin Mu Ci didn't even get a clear look at his face. Yang Wei Yang had a tearful expression again.
"He's so scary!"
Ling Qian He's acting was so convincing that it made people completely immerse themselves in the plot, fully believing he was the yandere pervert, Dr. Z.
Lin Mu Ci, however, scrambled to her feet.
"Let's figure out how to get out of here first."
She hadn't expected there to be a government rescue team in this plot.
It seemed there was still a chance to clear the game!
Yang Wei Yang's voice was tinged with tears.
"What do we do, Xiao Ci? We can't open the lock on the cage outside. It needs a key, but we don't have one."
Lin Mu Ci remained calm and collected.
"Who said we don't have a key?"
She pulled out the pendant she had obtained in the young lady's room from her pocket.
"This is the key."
Would she not play the game without a hint?
Hmph, he underestimated her abilities too much!
And that guy Ling Qian He better watch out.
He had set up such a terrifying escape room plot. Once she cleared it, she would definitely torment him until he cried!