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墨書 Inktalez
The end is just the beginning.
As Xu Nuan reached the entrance of the town, she realized that He Min's house was the same as the first one she had entered. This was not a coincidence, but rather a certainty. Special existences always possess a peculiar aura that draws people in, further confirming Xu Nuan's suspicion that the secret to leaving this mechanism lay within this house.
Xu Nuan and He Min stepped into the house as dusk fell. The interior was dimly lit, with tattered curtains fluttering in the wind, occasionally brushing against nearby furniture and producing muffled sounds that added an eerie quality to the sinister atmosphere.
Unfazed, Xu Nuan took out her flashlight from her backpack and shone it on the Flower Board. She noticed that the bloodstains had faded. To be absolutely sure, Xu Nuan asked He Min to take another look. However, when He Min turned to observe, she seemed lost in thought, staring blankly outside the door with a strange expression.
Following He Min's gaze, Xu Nuan saw an empty street devoid of any signs of life.
Could it be that He Min had fallen into another illusion?
With this thought in mind, Xu Nuan gently tapped He Min's shoulder to bring her back to the present. After a moment, He Min focused her gaze on Xu Nuan, offering an apologetic smile before asking.
"Nuan, what did you just say?"
Xu Nuan repeated herself, and He Min obediently turned her attention back to the Flower Board, examining it closely. From Xu Nuan's angle, she could clearly see He Min's profile. Perhaps due to the dim light and the sinister environment, Xu Nuan felt that He Min's profile appeared more severe than before, lacking her usual gentle warmth.
Her knowledge was limited, and given that this game utilized cutting-edge technology across various fields, Xu Nuan could only rely on her own experiences and intuition to navigate each mechanism. She understood that she had only scratched the surface. Thus, she realized that what He Min saw might differ from her own perception; perhaps this mechanism was not as simple as she imagined. However, with her current abilities, she could not delve deeper into its complexities.
Out of consideration and respect for her friend, she refrained from asking questions. When He Min turned back with a still gentle smile on her face, it seemed that the severity Xu Nuan had perceived earlier was merely an illusion. A voice inside her told her that she chose not to ask because she knew He Min would not answer.
"There's nothing up there."
He Min's naturally smiling eyes were fixed on Xu Nuan, who found herself unable to meet her gaze—not out of guilt but from uncertainty about how to address her friend's state.
Suddenly, she thought of Gu Ze and Xu Hang's recent interactions—were they similar to what she shared with He Min?
"Let's wait a bit longer."
Xu Nuan turned away from He Min and focused on the Flower Board again. She knew she had been prone to moments of distraction lately; however, when she first entered this house earlier that morning, she had seen the blood-red eyes on the Flower Board—eyes that ultimately froze in a scene of weeping blood tears.
In other houses, there was no such situation; thus, this particular house was special, and those blood-red eyes were special as well. A special existence would have its corresponding mission. Xu Nuan wanted to utilize this mission to leave the town.
She rapidly processed all of this in her mind, even simulating several scenarios and coming up with corresponding solutions. This was a skill she had developed when she first entered the workforce and began writing plans; it could be considered imaginative simulation. Generally, athletes continue to imagine and simulate competitions during their downtime to train their brains for the reactions required in their sport, while she used her free time to envision more plans and assess their feasibility. Perhaps because of this, whenever she encountered critical situations later on, she could always imagine numerous possibilities within a second and quickly find solutions.
However, everything has two sides; while it brings benefits, it can also leave hidden dangers, especially for someone like her, whose cranium had been injured and who had taken medication related to nerve repair.
In one moment, she was imagining various possibilities; in the next second, she was overwhelmed by a craving that left her crouching on the ground, groaning in pain.
"Nuan?"
She could feel He Min crouching down beside her, but a force blocked her from communicating with He Min.
Xu Nuan hugged herself tightly; the deliberately compressed organs could not alleviate this craving. She struggled to remain conscious amidst this desire. How could she describe it? It felt as if every cell in her body was clamoring to touch something specific, willing to fight against her as the host. Yet, as the host composed of these very cells, she had no power to resist them.
He Min seemed to be calling out to her from nearby, yet also felt distant. Her consciousness was gradually consumed by that craving, but biting down hard on her arm provided enough pain to keep her from completely losing herself.
"Ha... ha."
In that moment of relaxation, Xu Nuan gasped for air, only to be quickly submerged by another wave of craving. Her body yearned for something; it seemed that only that thing could relieve her suffering. It felt like being poisoned, needing an antidote to ease such a craving.
Suddenly, Xu Nuan realized something again, but before she could think it through, she began to dissolve once more.
Struggling to loosen one hand to reach for a short knife, perhaps bleeding and pain would bring her back to reality. However, the craving from deep within left her powerless; she couldn't grasp the knife at all. At that moment, she thought of He Min still beside her and hoped her friend would understand what she meant.
With a series of incoherent sounds escaping her lips, aided by the light from a flashlight rolling on the ground, she vaguely saw He Min moving toward the door.
"Ah... Min?"
Xu Nuan couldn't comprehend He Min's actions; the figure projected onto her retina was too blurry for her to determine if what she saw was real.
She shifted to grab at her hair, wanting to find something to hit her head against in hopes that such pain would wake her up. But after a short while, she was drenched in sweat. Her clothes were soaked through with sweat from this self-imposed struggle; the wind blowing in from outside quickly whisked away the moisture, bringing with it a chilling coldness.
Xu Nuan's pained murmurs echoed in her mind, as the faces of Gu Ze and the deceased flickered before her eyes. Amidst the haze, she heard a voice that sounded slightly mechanical.
"Get up, attack."
The phrase felt familiar yet too vague for her to recall clearly.
"Smack!"
Startled by the faint sound, Xu Nuan was jolted awake from her internal struggle. The hall suddenly brightened, and she gasped for air, her senses returning to her.
Her hands bore several bleeding bite marks, remnants of her subconscious battle against an overwhelming thirst. The sweat on her back had dried in the wind, but now it seeped out again. The desert night was cold, and with this, Xu Nuan trembled uncontrollably.
Yet she felt a sense of relief; she had been awakened at a critical moment by that sound. The sensation of her body not belonging to her was unbearable, and she had no idea how she had managed to endure it until now.
Crouching on the ground, she looked up at the source of light. Aside from the flickering lamp swaying in the breeze, all that remained was the blood-red eyes on the Flower Board.
Xu Nuan stared unblinkingly at those eyes, seemingly intent on etching their image into her heart. However, in the next moment, she saw those blood-red eyes slowly close.
A mix of horror, danger, and wonder washed over her. Sweating profusely, Xu Nuan rubbed her eyes and looked again, only to find that the eyes were still open.
"Was that an illusion?"
Xu Nuan murmured to herself, realizing how eerily quiet the room was. It dawned on her that she had come here with He Min. The absence of He Min's voice made her briefly believe she was alone again.
"Amin?"
She pounded her sore legs and struggled to stand, swaying slightly. The fact that He Min was not in the room filled her with panic. If someone had shaken or knocked her out earlier, she might have escaped that uncontrollable state more quickly, but He Min hadn’t done so.
"Amin?"
Xu Nuan stumbled toward the door just as He Min rushed back in a flurry of concern.
"Warm, what's wrong?" He Min asked, looking puzzled at Xu Nuan, who had suddenly stopped in her tracks. There was a hint of depth in his eyes.
He Min seemed very anxious as he pulled Xu Nuan's hand, eager to leave. "I just saw a shadow flash by. When I went to chase it, I found out it entered a house and then disappeared. Could that place be the way out of this trap?"
His words came out in a rush, filled with urgency, effectively cutting off whatever Xu Nuan was about to say.
So it was because he saw a shadow that he wanted to leave. Xu Nuan let out a sigh of relief but then immediately thought of Gu Ze. If it were Gu Ze, upon seeing her in such a state, he would never leave her side. The danger of his absence was far more terrifying than any immediate threat. Gu Ze would never allow her to be alone like this.
But where was Gu Ze now? Did he know that her body had become so strange?
After the initial shock, a long-buried longing surged within her. She had always concealed the bitterness of missing him, pretending that she could navigate challenges alone and even save heroes. Yet when faced with such overwhelming crises, she found herself wanting to rely on Gu Ze.
Having experienced the comfort of being protected by him, she felt weak without his presence.
Xu Nuan admitted her vulnerability and yearned to see the man who always watched over her.
However, this game would not grant them their wishes easily. She believed that while she desperately wanted to see Gu Ze, he was also searching for her with all his might.
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