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墨書 Inktalez
The broken window wailed in the wind, leaving only a solitary lighting fixture. A spiderweb clung to the flower board, and dust covered the old furniture.
Inside the house, it was dim. Xu Nuan could only rely on the sunlight filtering through the dilapidated window to observe her surroundings. It must have been the orientation of the house; even in the blazing desert sun, this place felt dark. The wind howled in from outside, enveloping the entire house in a mournful sound.
There was indeed a ghostly vibe to it, but Xu Nuan was an avowed skeptic of the supernatural. She avoided horror films due to their special effects and music, yet she often visited haunted houses at amusement parks. Knowing that ghosts didn't exist in real life gave her the courage to walk alone at night.
Rather than being frightened by the eerie decor of this house that resembled a haunted attraction, Xu Nuan was more concerned about the significance of having such a place in this town.
Those within a story cannot escape it, while those outside can find solutions. This was a lesson Xu Nuan had learned from previous experiences with traps. Although these two traps were different, everything placed within this game base held meaning. Whether as tools for attack, hints for players, or clues for guidance, anything that existed had its necessity.
Amidst the strange wailing, Xu Nuan wandered around the multi-story building before slowly making her way downstairs. However, upon returning to the hall, she suddenly felt a sense of dissonance; it seemed that the arrangement in the hall had changed.
If there were ghosts in this world, her first instinct would be to think that this house was haunted. But since she was in a game base and considered herself an experienced player, her initial reaction was to wonder if she had triggered some mechanism. In this game, many traps were capricious and activated without giving anyone a chance to react.
"What's different?"
Xu Nuan squinted slightly; her light brown irises deepened like a precision instrument, scanning everything in the hall and analyzing it one by one.
"It seems brighter!"
Unlike sunlight, the light stimulated Xu Nuan's eyes differently. When she looked up, she noticed that the previously unlit lighting fixture had turned on; the bulb had returned but emitted a dim glow that made Xu Nuan miss this subtle change at first.
"When was this installed?"
Xu Nuan felt a jolt of surprise and instinctively took a step back. The presence or absence of light could serve as a hint or trigger for a mechanism, possibly indicating two entirely different environments.
As this thought flashed through her mind, Xu Nuan hurried down the stairs and rushed outside.
The street was still as wide as ever, with a fierce wind carrying yellow sand, leaving the entire town of Silence in a state of desolation.
"It's still the same place," Xu Nuan sighed in relief, glancing back at the interior of the house. To her dismay, it had returned to its previous dimness. Instinctively, she looked up at the Flower Board and gasped.
The Lighting Fixture now had only a solitary lamp left, while a large patch of blood suddenly appeared on the Flower Board, its deep color strikingly stimulating Xu Nuan's eyes.
No one likes to see blood, especially when it looks as if it has just been spilled, frozen in that moment of flow. This gave Xu Nuan an illusion that the blood was freshly smeared, still in motion.
Flower Board, second floor!
Xu Nuan dashed into the house and ran upstairs, but the arrangement on the second floor remained unchanged; nothing had happened as she had imagined.
"Suddenly lit lamps, suddenly appearing bloodstains."
Xu Nuan kept muttering to herself, trying to find the reason behind the changes in the house.
"There must be something I've overlooked."
Feeling anxious without the clues left by Qin Yaojie, she was bewildered by everything that appeared before her. She was eager to prove her own abilities, wanting to show that she could reach this point not because of Qin Yaojie. She was desperate to shake off the shadow cast by Qin Yaojie; she couldn't admit these feelings. Benefits and harms always came hand in hand, and she wasn't strong enough yet to accept it all calmly.
Suddenly, she thought of Gu Ze. In her eyes, Gu Ze was a powerful and tolerant man. What would Gu Ze do in this situation?
Xu Nuan stood there feeling lost, her toes unconsciously spinning on the floor. In doing so, she accidentally kicked an object that rolled away and came to a stop against a dusty mirror covered in cobwebs.
She saw her reflection in the mirror—disheveled and vacant-eyed. What caught her attention was not just her appearance but the background behind her: a barren expanse of yellow sand.
“Mirror Surface.”
Xu Nuan suddenly felt a sting in her eyes. How foolish she was; hadn’t she discovered the peculiarities of this level through her own abilities? It would be too weak to deny herself now. This game did not need fragile individuals, and she would not allow a weak person to be by Gu Ze's side.
Even though she wasn’t crying, Xu Nuan looked up and wiped the corners of her eyes. She found a piece of glass transformed from a mirror and peered through it at the environment on the second floor. What she saw left her stunned once again.
It was yellow sand and white bones.
Before her lay a human Skeleton. With only the skeleton remaining, she couldn’t discern the gender or cause of death based on her knowledge.
What concerned her was whether this skeleton was related to the bloodstains on the Floorboard.
After pondering this, Xu Nuan hurriedly descended the stairs. When she stood still in the hall, she looked up at the Flower Board and noticed that the bloodstains formed a shape. It resembled an eye shedding tears—a red eye, Red Tears. A chill ran down Xu Nuan's spine, causing her to shiver involuntarily. She quickly used the glass to observe the Flower Board, seeing only yellow sand and bones.
“What does this mean?”
At that moment, Xu Nuan had no one to consult with. After mumbling a few words, she noted down the pattern of the bloodstains and left the room. Unbeknownst to her, as she exited, the Lighting Fixture began to illuminate again, and the bloodstains on the Flower Board vanished.
There were many houses on this street. Having just checked one, Xu Nuan thought for a moment and decided to enter another house.
The dilapidated building had been uninhabited for years, with dusty furniture that bore little difference from what she had seen before. Xu Nuan deliberately stood inside for a while but saw no sign of the Lighting Fixture lighting up again, nor did she encounter any bloodstains or other frightening things.
After several similar experiences in different houses, Xu Nuan increasingly felt that the first house she entered was very strange. Always inclined to complicate matters, she began to wonder if that house was indeed special or if it became special simply because it was the first one she entered.
There was a significant difference between these two possibilities. According to Xu Nuan's understanding, if it were the former, that house could very well be an important place for leaving this mechanism. If it were the latter, it meant that she might have inadvertently triggered something, and she could face other dangers ahead.
Now, Xu Nuan was pacing outside one of the houses, her instincts telling her that even if she went inside, there would be nothing to discover. However, given the nature of this game, overlooking even minor details could lead to fatal consequences. Having learned from past mistakes, she began to feel anxious over shadows that weren’t there.
As she hesitated, a sudden scream pierced the air ahead.
"Ah!"
The voice was sharp and filled with fear. The pitch was so high that Xu Nuan couldn't immediately tell who it belonged to; she instinctively ran toward the source of the sound. After running several meters, she heard the voice again.
"Ah, don’t come over! I don’t want this either!"
"Amin!"
This time, the voice was much weaker, and its tone became clearer. Xu Nuan instantly recognized who was screaming.
"Amin, is that you?"
She called out while running. It was good to encounter someone familiar; if she kept going, perhaps she would soon reunite with Gu Ze.
The wind carried yellow sand into her collar, but Xu Nuan hardly noticed. She was more concerned about He Min's condition.
"Amin, where are you? If you're there, just answer me!"
Aside from the initial scream and some indistinct words afterward, He Min had fallen silent. Coupled with the terror in He Min's earlier voice, Xu Nuan feared that He Min might have been attacked by a formidable creature. Although she knew He Min was nearby, all Xu Nuan felt at that moment was an overwhelming silence, as if she were the only person left in the entire town.
Thinking about the peculiar nature of this place made Xu Nuan anxious that He Min might have accidentally triggered a trap, perhaps just by dropping a piece of glass or something similar.
Quickly, Xu Nuan fumbled around until she found the piece of glass and held it up before her eyes. All she could see was a vast expanse of yellow sand, with only a few plants whose original colors were indiscernible. Looking around, there was no sign of any humans.
"Amin is still here."
Xu Nuan hurriedly stuffed the glass into the bag attached to her clothes, relying on her previous memories as she continued to run, calling out He Min's name.
“Amin, where are you?”
“If you’re here, just answer me!”
“Don’t look for me, I don’t want to kill you.”
“Don’t come any closer, ah!”
As Xu Nuan paused to catch her breath, she heard He Min's voice again, this time very clearly. Although she was concerned about what He Min had said, she prioritized following the sound to find He Min, temporarily suppressing the questions bubbling up inside her.
Xu Nuan found He Min in an open space behind a low building. When she rushed over, she saw He Min sitting on the ground, clutching her own neck. The veins on the back of her hand were bulging, and she was leaning back while muttering continuously.
“Don’t kill me, don’t kill me!”
He Min's features were twisted in fear and panic; her eyes, usually bright with laughter, were now filled with terror. This was a side of He Min that Xu Nuan had never seen before.
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