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墨書 Inktalez
"Ah!!!" I painfully lifted a nearby bench and smashed it towards it.
"Bang—" With a loud noise, the hard wooden bench was shattered into pieces by the elongated crimson nails.
From a distance, it looked like a decaying piece of wood covered in writhing, twisted red petals, creating a bizarre scene that sent chills down my spine.
The Thousand-Handed Guanyin was very difficult to attack; its densely packed, hard red nails served as its strongest shield.
No matter what we threw at it, it would always be torn to shreds.
But this was also its weakness; its nails were only about one meter long, with an attack range of one meter around it.
It moved slowly, like a crawling creature, relying on the multitude of fingers at its base to slither forward.
It seemed to sense our helplessness and began to move towards us, intent on attacking.
Han Tianlin gave me a knowing glance. I understood his intention immediately.
"Roar—" It opened its gaping maw and lunged at us. Han Tianlin raised a nearby single sofa to block its mouth.
Seizing the opportunity, I grabbed a blanket from the sofa and threw it at Han Tianlin. He quickly caught it, and together we wrapped it around the creature.
The sharp nails pierced through the blanket, poking out like those of a hedgehog.
Han Tianlin and I pulled tightly on the blanket, trying to strangle it.
"You murderous beast! Die!"
The Thousand-Handed Guanyin let out a pained howl; the sofa stuffed in its mouth had already been bitten to pieces. We grew increasingly anxious; if this continued, it would surely attract the monster next door.
Just as Han Tianlin prepared to step forward with his knife to strike, a familiar voice rang out.
"Tighten it up! I'm coming!"
With that, a liquid with a peanut scent splashed onto the struggling Thousand-Handed Guanyin.
With a loud "boom," a fireball was thrown in along with a crumpled piece of paper, igniting flames that erupted from the tattered blanket.
The bright red nails began to melt, twist, and shrink under the high temperature. The painful screams had not yet escaped when a flying pillow blocked them.
Hong Jingtian, holding a fire extinguisher he had found somewhere, quickly sprayed it at the spreading flames.
In the end, the Thousand-Handed Guanyin was left as a charred pile in the glow of the fire.
Han Tianlin stepped forward and picked something up from the gray-black remains.
He raised his hand and handed me what he was holding: "My condolences."
I looked at the familiar ring in his hand and sadly accepted it: "Thank you."
Day Six
Han Tianlin drove as the three of us, fully armed, headed to the location recorded in the diary.
"It's been so many years; I wonder if it's still there," I sighed.
The organization's location was in a remote mining area on the outskirts, showing no signs of past habitation.
In front of the mine was a large open space, now overrun by waist-high reeds.
A gust of wind blew through, and the howling sound echoed in the empty mining site, like a guarding monster warning those who dared to trespass.
To enter the mine, we needed to pass through this patch of reeds. I swallowed hard as I looked at the "dense forest" before me.
"Are we really just going to walk straight through?"
Han Tianlin opened his backpack and took out a bottle filled with yellow liquid, pouring it into the grass.
I wrinkled my nose: "So it's peanut oil; I thought..."
Han Tianlin raised an eyebrow, "You think so little of me with such a small bottle opening?"
I: ...
After pouring out the oil, Hong Jingtian struck a match and tossed it in.
The dry kindling and the assistance of oil caused a spark to quickly grow into a flame. With a loud "boom," the red flames shot up into the air.
The dried reeds crackled in the firelight.
"Ow!" Suddenly, a howl came from the thicket of reeds.
Then, a man in a black coat jumped out from inside.
"Damn! Who the hell is setting fire to the mountain!"
We immediately went on high alert as the man approached us, cursing.
"Are you all crazy or something?"
After getting a good look at his face, we exchanged glances and slowly lowered our weapons.
He was a Normal Person.
I said, "Sorry, we didn't know you were in there."
The man looked us up and down. "What are you all dressed up for?"
Han Tianlin replied, "We were planning to check out the mine on the other side."
I added, "It's better to burn everything clean just in case there's something hidden in the grass."
The man looked back at the area that was about to be burned out with confusion. "What could possibly be in this grass?"
"You guys aren't here to mine, are you?" He pointed to the mine behind him. "That mine has been completely emptied; there's nothing left but a pile of scrap metal."
I frowned at him; it seemed he was unaware of the changes in the world after the Red Mist.
According to him, there was a lake behind the mountain, and he had been fishing here for the past few days, setting up his tent in the mine at night.
Han Tianlin asked, "Haven't you seen anyone else around here these past few days?"
The man immediately retorted, "Last night I ran into some lunatics who were lying on the ground catching mice to eat! They were gnawing on them raw!"
"I was so scared that I quickly changed to another spot."
We exchanged a glance, thinking that things were going to be chaotic today.
We made up an excuse about exploring here to get past it; the man showed no interest in that.
"I'll just go fishing; there are plenty of good catches in this lake!" he said, waving his hand as he walked away.
"You... if nothing's wrong, don't go back. It's not safe outside," I subtly reminded him.
The man glanced at us strangely and said, "You guys are crazy."
We headed in the direction the man referred to as "junk."
The mine was deep and dark, with only the echoes of our footsteps in the long tunnel.
We walked along, lighting the kerosene lamps on the walls.
Eventually, we reached a relatively open area, and as light filled the space, we gradually saw what was before us.
This place seemed to have been lived in for a long time, with broken tents and rusty pots and pans scattered around.
We split up to search the ground for any useful information.
"Ah!" I covered my mouth, startled by a skeleton inside one of the tents.
Suppressing my unease, I touched the clothes on the skeleton and found a wooden stick tied with a rope under the collar.
A wooden stick?
I examined the stick closely; no matter how I looked or smelled it, it appeared to be just an ordinary piece of wood.
Feeling a bit strange, I untied the rope and put it in my pocket.
I crawled along the ground searching until I bumped into a wall.
Just as I was about to get up, my head hit something.
I covered my head and looked up—there was a desiccated corpse.
I pressed my hand against my wildly beating heart and stumbled back a few steps, only to realize that this was a person who had hanged themselves.
The body hung in the air like a piece of dried meat, having been desiccated by time.
I called Han Tianlin over to bring the body down.
The moment the body hit the ground, I noticed a small wooden stick hanging from its neck.
"Another wooden stick..."
I told Han Tianlin about my discovery, and just as we were discussing it, we suddenly heard a gasp from behind us.
We followed the sound and saw Hong Jingtian standing in front of the stone wall, looking dazed.
I looked up in the direction of his gaze and was immediately stunned into silence by the scene before me.
On the two-meter-high stone wall, there was an endless expanse of bright red,
Dried blood and flesh fragments were stuck to the wall, forming a long scroll inscribed with warnings in blood.
The most shocking three words at the forefront of the wall read—"Go die!"
"My God, how much blood did it take to write such a long message?" Hong Jingtian said as he walked to the end of the wall, estimating it to be about twenty or thirty meters long.
"This should have been written by the owner of that diary," Han Tianlin said, taking out the diary to compare the handwriting.
The phrase "Go die!" was surrounded by some strange doodles.
I glanced at them; they seemed to record events that occurred during the Red Mist period involving this organization.
A group of monsters surrounded a dozen or so little people, chasing and devouring them. Some of the little people were torn apart by monsters after being injured and shared among them.
However...
The architectural environment depicted in the drawings was quite strange.
The tall buildings are not straight; they are actually curved. Some houses have windows filled with teeth, dark and ominous, resembling the entrance to the Abyss of the Evil Dragon.
In the flowerbeds by the roadside, clusters of "flowers" are sprouting, exuding cores. The chaotic roots dance wildly, and the five-petaled flowers open and close rhythmically, with something in the center that is either a stamen or a core, long and thin like tendrils.
They twist their bodies like fairies, enticing passing creatures.
There is also a strange painting; the arrangement depicted in it should be the very mine we are currently in.
However, their campsite in the painting is not a mine but a gigantic mouth.
At the entrance of the mine, the ground is densely packed with glistening fangs. The entire interior wall of the mine exhibits regular undulations, resembling...
Pig Ladder!
From a distance, this is no mine! It is clearly inside the mouth of some enormous monster!
In an instant, the space before me suddenly twisted. The candles flickered erratically, and a faint stench wafted through the air.
The stone wall in front seemed to ripple, presenting regular undulations...
"Qingling! Qingling!" A familiar call echoed.
I blinked, and the world before me returned to normal. I met Han Tianlin's worried gaze and shook my head.
"It's nothing; I might just be tired."
Yet deep down, I felt an inexplicable sense of foreboding.
I held my phone, taking pictures of the content on the wall as I looked at it.
Preface: When reality and illusion overlap, when the Inner World merges with the Surface World.
What you see is no longer what you see; what you hear is no longer what you hear.
I hope that when you witness the truth, you can still believe in it.
1990.5.13
Stench, darkness...
The sky is filled with bloodstains, a twisted world, the Full Moon Eye, the Eye of Sin...
The Eye of Truth...
On the day you see the truth, do not look up...
You will be discovered by "Truth."
In this world, gazing at the divine is not as good as staring into the abyss...
1990.5.14
After putting on the Hub, my world finally returned to "normal."
I can no longer see those disgusting things!
At this moment, I feel a bit of hatred towards myself; I don't even have the courage to accept "Truth."
The Hub is the small wooden stick that hangs around each of our necks; it can "blind" our eyes and allow us to live in hypocrisy.
Don't call me cowardly; when you see "Truth," you will want to live in hypocrisy even more than I do.
1990.5.15
I met X today; there was too much information to process, and my mind is still not quite clear.
But there is one major piece of good news!
Everything here is fake!
We can return to reality!
As long as we go to the Red Mist Center when the next Red Mist appears!
There are 5 days until the next Red Mist, which is on 5.20.
The Red Mist containing the passage only appears during the Crimson Illusion Year; you can deduce it using the following formula.
If we miss this time, we will have to wait another twenty years for the next opportunity.
...
May 16, 1990
To be honest, the Red Mist Center is really easy to spot.
We saw it at a glance without any effort.
As long as you take off the "hub" and stand on a higher floor, you can almost see where the center is.
But I guess once you see it, you won't want to go there.
After all, it can be described as "sheep entering a tiger's den."
We will set off tomorrow. If there are no more entries in the diary afterward, it means we succeeded...
If...
May 20, what a wonderful day. Let's hope we can reunite with our loved ones on that day.
Reading this, I took a deep breath and couldn't bear to look further.
But the endless blood red had already foreshadowed what was to come.
May 25, 1990
Are you happy to see my diary? Another way to pass the boring time.
It is obvious that we have failed.
Out of a team of 78 people, only 6 remain now.
There are still twenty years until the next Red Mist reboot.
Haha.
The following diary entries record the increasingly frantic descriptions of the diary's owner, who seems to be gradually losing sanity in what appears to be an endless wait day after day.
Eventually, only some strange, shapeless graffiti remained on the stone wall.
It was not until my toes kicked something that I looked down.
It was the corpse of a girl.
Dry and thin, it was nothing but a skeleton, cradling something in her arms.
A small wooden stick hung from her neck as well.
Her ten fingers were worn down to the bone, shortened.
The owner of the diary turned out to be a girl.
She was small, curled up in the corner with her knees hugged, looking like she weighed no more than 80 pounds.
I couldn't imagine what she had gone through in those past few months.
While I felt heartbroken, an overwhelming sense of respect surged within me.
We gathered the bodies in the cave and dug a few holes to bury them.
We erected a Nameless Monument.
"Hey? What is this..." A voice came from behind me.
I turned around to see the man I had encountered at the cave entrance earlier.
"Wow! There are mummies here!"
"What does this writing on the wall say?"
The man approached the stone wall to examine the Blood Writing before us.
We ignored him and, after searching the camp one last time to ensure we hadn't overlooked anything important, prepared to leave.
The mine was filled with a chilling wind and corpses, making it quite uncomfortable to stay for long.
"Red Mist? Monsters?"
"Hey! You can't be serious!"
After reading the inscriptions on the stone wall, the man pieced together a bit of the truth.
Recalling the madman he encountered that day, who was gnawing on a rat on the ground, his face turned pale with fear.
I handed out the small sticks I found, one for each of us: Han Tianlin and Hong Jingtian.
We hung them around our necks like the corpses, although I wasn't sure what purpose they served.
As we walked out of the mine, the man behind us kept muttering nervously, both scared and skeptical, insisting on following us to see for himself.
A gust of wind blew by, extinguishing the kerosene lamp in my hand. To make matters worse, the flashlight had run out of batteries.
A faint stench of decay lingered in the air.
Tick-tock—
Tick-tock—
The familiar sound of dripping water sent chills down my spine.
Pat—pat—
Footsteps echoed from the entrance ahead.
I tightened my grip on the knife, every muscle in my body tensed.
A beam of light from behind illuminated the path ahead.
It also revealed the figure of the newcomer.
"Ah!!!! A monster!!"
The man behind me shone his flashlight on the monster across from us.
A skinless rat filled the entire entrance, its three-meter-high, plump body topped with a basketball-sized head that was tucked into a neck full of rolls, revealing a pair of green bean eyes glowing red.
Its body, exposed without skin, displayed fresh, red flesh in the air, with veins and blood vessels writhing like maggots.
There was a large gash in the middle of its belly, with intestines and organs spilling out, swaying in the air with its movements.
At the center, surrounded by its fat entrails, was a pulsating, petal-like mouthpart that slightly protruded, fluttering in the air.
Following the sound, that crimson mouthpart crept past me, slowly approaching the man behind me who was terrified and trembling.
I dared not move an inch and quietly exchanged glances with the other two.
The exit was completely blocked by the Rat Monster in front of us, and fighting in this pitch-black cave would not be a good idea.
I could only pray that the person behind me wouldn’t cause any trouble.
"Ah!!! Don't come over! Go die!"
With two loud thuds, I slowly turned my head to see the man behind me kicking wildly with his eyes closed.
His aim was surprisingly good; each kick landed precisely on the probing mouthpart searching for prey.
It was as if he was loudly declaring: Come at me!
"Whoosh—" A flash of blade light appeared as the drooling mouthpart was severed and fell right onto the man.
"Ah ah ah!!"
That transparent, slimy saliva flowed out again with remarkable precision from the severed mouthpart, dripping directly into the screaming man's open mouth without missing a drop.
"Mmm!" The detached mouthpart instantly shrank to the size of a fist, perfectly blocking his noisy mouth.
"Shut up!" After Hong Jingtian swiftly cut off the mouthpart, he quickly dragged the man and tossed him into a corner.
I watched as the man's mouth quickly rotted into a pool of blood, silently lighting a candle for him in my heart.
May he still be able to eat in the future.
Turning around, I noticed that the Rat Monster was healing at an astonishing rate; the mouthpart that had just been severed was restored in an instant.
Enraged, its small head trapped in its neck emitted angry squeaks.
Its snake-like mouthparts expanded like balloons, growing larger and thicker.
The tip blossomed into three petals, revealing sharp teeth hidden inside and uncontrollable drool.
"Run!" Han Tianlin shouted ahead.
I turned and exerted all my strength to run, passing by Hong Jingtian, who was charging forward with a large machete.
"Are you crazy? Hurry up and run!" I glanced back.
I saw Hong Jingtian climbing like a rock climber, stepping on the indentations of the stone wall, swiftly reaching the top.
Seeing this, I shouted loudly, "Come chase me!"
The enraged Rat Monster swung its mouthparts and pursued me closely.
"This way!" Han Tianlin's voice rang out ahead.
I ran over and saw it was a stone forest; I immediately understood his intention.
We moved like little monsters in a game of Snake, continuously luring and provoking it among the densely packed stone pillars.
As long as this monster's mouthparts did not grow infinitely, they would have a chance to escape.
After running for about ten minutes, the mouthparts chasing us finally came to a halt.
Looking back, I saw that the entire stone forest had been entangled into a ball of yarn by the mouthparts.
The Rat Monster right behind us was completely enraged by the easily reachable prey; its mouthparts wrapped around the stone pillars were taut, and flesh began to tear and bleed under the strain, revealing the writhing Flesh Bud inside.
"Hong Jingtian! Are you ready yet!"
I was a bit anxious; if it got torn apart, it would be troublesome since we had no place left to escape.
"Okay, okay! Almost done! Just hold on a little longer!"
"Damn! Where's my lighter?!"
I looked at the half-torn flesh still connected to the mouth, feeling desperate.
Han Tianlin stood in front of me, holding a knife and waiting.
"Boom—" With a faint explosion, a burst of fire came from the cave entrance.
"Roar—" A deafening howl erupted from the mouth in front of us.
A wave of warmth hit me, and I covered my ears.
I leaned against Han Tianlin, feeling the strong vibrations coming from his chest.
Stepping over a patch of foul-smelling black blood, we prepared to find a high ground as mentioned in the diary to look for Red Mist Center.
As soon as we exited the cave, we heard a wail.
"Ahhh!! Where is this?!"
"What happened to the world?!"
I looked in confusion at the lucky man sitting on the ground who had just escaped death.
His eyes were wide open, staring fixedly at the sky as if he had seen something terrifying, his hands and feet retreating frantically.
"Full Moon Eye..."
"That's Full Moon Eye!"
He shouted, pointing at the moon in the sky.
In the next moment, something incredible happened.
A tentacle appeared out of nowhere and pierced through his wide-open eyes.
Before he could react, he exploded before our eyes.
Warm blood mist splattered onto my arm.
I didn't understand what was happening to the moon.
Instinctively, I looked up at the large, round moon.
Everything seemed normal.
Han Tianlin looked down at the stick on his neck, deep in thought.
We had climbed to the highest mountain near the mine.
At the foot of the mountain, the city lights twinkled like stars; everything appeared normal.
I pondered, this was different from what was written in the diary.
Suddenly, I noticed the stick around my neck.
In an instant, I understood.
I slowly removed the small stick...
As it moved away, the world began to flicker and distort.
The lights and blood red began to alternate,
And the truth gradually emerged...
When I opened my eyes again, the world had undergone a tremendous transformation.
The world was shrouded in red mist, with buildings twisting and bending, windows filled with sharp fangs, and roads bubbling with lava...
The summit beneath my feet gently undulated, and a whiff of blood wafted through the air.
The nearby pine trees began to sway, their green needles glinting coldly as they engaged in a fierce battle.
With a crackling sound, the defeated needles fell to the ground, disappearing into the black soil mixed with flesh and blood.
In the distance, where the horizon met the sky, a red line spread out, resembling veins extending from the horizon to the heavens.
I looked up, wanting to see where the red line ended.
"Don't look up!" A sharp reprimand halted my movement.
I recalled what was written on the stone wall: "Don't look up; you will be discovered by the Truth..."
I lowered my head and suddenly noticed a small lake at the foot of the mountain.
On the calm surface of the lake was an eye...
An eye with bloodshot veins and a red pupil.
That was the
Eye of Truth.
Day Seven
Using the formula from the diary, we calculated that the next appearance of Red Mist would be in two days.
Time was extremely urgent.
If we missed this chance, we would have to wait another fifteen years!
But what worried us most was that we hadn't seen Red Mist Center at the summit yesterday.
The diary clearly stated that it could be seen from a high vantage point...
Why was that?
Is the terrain not high enough?
We decided to go to the highest point in the city—the Central Television Tower.
Although that place doesn't look too good right now.
I looked at the distant television tower, covered in cobwebs, with black creatures writhing on it.
Han Tianlin was driving while I sat in the back seat, looking at the scenery outside.
The wide road, shaded by trees, and a driver wearing human skin.
Everything seemed normal.
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