For a moment, the illusion of calm was like a softly spoken lie, stripping the intricate truth from one's own mind, leaving only reluctance, fluke, and numbness.

I didn't dare to hold my trembling shoulders, and even breathing became a luxury. Fear distorts everything in front of me into fragmented abstract paintings, and finally paints them with filthy and grotesque colors, telling me that this is the bottomless quagmire of the world you live in————.

The intermittent moans of the great man and the cautious sobs of the girl pulled me back from my unrealistic subjective fantasies, and I gathered my somewhat broken mind and sat back in my seat as calmly as I could, lest I make any more unnecessary noises.

Finally, no one had any more objections.

Although I kept trying to keep an eye on Jue's every move, the friction between the table and chair and the floor kept piercing my brain like needles, tearing at my already weak emotions.

Half a minute later, everyone was once again sitting around the wooden table.

I glanced sideways at the big man, who was holding his arm, which had just been broken by Jue's bare hands, trying to restrain his expression. Looking at the corners of his mouth twitching from time to time, a desperate thought came to my mind,

Maybe we never escaped from danger in the first place, and we were just playthings wherever we were.

"Ladies and gentlemen."

In the quiet room, Jue's voice appeared without a trace of abruptness,

"I think you must have a lot of questions, and it was a real pleasure to meet you. But alas, time is running out. ”

He smiled, unbelievable.

"What time?"

As soon as the words fell, the big man asked with gritted teeth, while marveling at his strong psychological quality, I also concentrated and waited for Jue's next explanation.

However, he did not seem to be in a hurry, but leisurely walked around, and then announced in a meaningful tone,

"Your time here is coming to an end."

Suddenly, as if all the air had been drained away in an instant, the cramped room was filled with the only sound of the crackling of wood in the fire.

"That'...... Where are we going?"

Half an hour later, from the corner of the square table, the girl's cold voice came.

Ke Jue just smiled, and an imperceptible blue light floated under his eyes,

"I'm afraid that only one person is qualified to ask this question. But don't be nervous, it's just a game. ”

As he spoke, Jue turned his elusive gaze to me, more precisely, on the metal ball placed in front of me.

"Deal, do you remember?"

At this moment, it dawned on me.

With Jue's just right prompt, I began to feel a little more glad in my heart for this inexplicable metal ball. But before I could be happy, a difficult choice soon made me sad again———— what should I ask?

Jue never explained the details of the deal, not even a symbolic price, what if I couldn't afford the next question? Or is it that even how to trade is so-called intelligence, and it has been clearly marked? And he said that time was running out, and maybe before I could ask the point, we would have been kicked out, and I don't know what the hell we were thrown into.

As I pondered, the sharp gazes of the other three were unabashedly cast through, the suffocating pressure and responsibility made me a little breathless, cold sweat ran down my cheeks, dripping on the surface of the smooth wooden table, but I could only stare at the sparse lines on the surface of the metal ball, and my anxious face reflected in its silvery white surface.

"Hey."

Suddenly, the big man's voice abruptly squeezed into the frozen air,

"Take it easy, no one will blame you."

"But—"

I looked up eagerly, and saw the big man leaning back in his seat, his well-defined face with no superfluous expression, but the trust in his eyes shot straight into my swaying soul, sweeping away all the worries that were hidden in it.

Finally, I didn't hesitate anymore.

With borrowed courage, I asked the man who had been standing behind me for a long time in a rather firm tone,

"Jue, how can we live?"

I don't know if it's an illusion, the smile on Jue's face disappeared.

Suddenly, there was a terrible silence in the cramped low house, as if everything had stopped moving at this moment.

The oppressive atmosphere made me nervous, and I looked anxiously at the other three, who also expressed a similar emotion - unease.

After a long time, Jue slowly walked up to me and raised his hand to gently press my left shoulder. At the same time as the cold touch of his fingertips came, a voice also sounded to himself, but the source of this sound was surprisingly strange, it didn't feel like it came from Jue's mouth, but appeared directly in the depths of my mind, subtle, but with an irresistible attraction.

Although I was surprised, I hurriedly calmed down and carefully discerned the contents.

“...... Fifth from left...... Right 15....."

The voice was surprisingly hoarse, and it didn't sound like a normal person, but like an antique appliance with poor signal reception, and all the words were drowned in a rustling noise.

I closed my eyes hard, frowned, and focused all my energy on the whispering voices in my head. As the number of repetitions increases, the content narrated by the voice becomes clearer and clearer.

(murmur) ...... Fifth from right, first fifteen, fifth from left, bottom five, right fifteen, lower ten, right tenth...... (Murmur)"

What is it?

I cupped my forehead, the confusion in my heart unattached, but just as I was about to listen again and find any useful clues, the voice disappeared without warning.

"Uh...... That ————"

With intense doubts, I reopened my sore eyelids.

But before I could speak out about my bizarre experience, the world took the lead and inexorably stacked its cruel façade in front of me.

"What about people......

I subconsciously muttered, letting the flickering candle flame cast its fading light everywhere, and finally converged into a single point to break into my eyes, destroying all my common sense and knowledge in turn.

I haven't reacted until now———— whether it's my hallucination, or if the three of the big man, the girl, and the girl have really evaporated out of thin air.

Fear crushed me to the back of my chair with a great sense of disobedience, and I couldn't help but begin to wonder,

Is this world real?

Perhaps trying to find some comfort, I twisted my neck with difficulty, not knowing whether I wanted to see Jue or not—even though I knew I had no choice.

When I looked behind me, I was surprised or surprised, I couldn't describe how I felt, and looking at the empty wall, I was simply afraid that I would be the next one to disappear.

But soon, even this insignificant fear dissipated.

I was immersed in the shock, and I twitched inexplicably, as if something disturbed the peace around me when the function of my five senses had not yet been restored. I slumped back in my chair, sore spine, shoulders and neck aches coming over me, and my tired and sluggish brain couldn't find the slightest motivation to see where the disturbance was coming from.

But soon, I regretted it.

For the sound has not faded away, but has become clearer, like a wooden brush sweeping, or a heavy object dragging on the ground. I pricked up my ears and held my breath, reassuring myself that maybe it was just the sound of old furniture cracking,

But I heard a gloomy, heavy sigh, the crash of the beastly molars,

"Hah...... Click......"

Suddenly, the temperature in the house dropped to freezing! The flames of the candlestick writhed strangely, mixed with the dust, and frantically burrowed into my consciousness.

"W-who?"

I asked weakly, but what responded to me was ghostly breathing, and the sound of crawling in the back of my head!

"Lean ......"

Fear and the will to survive were in a difficult game, and I stretched out my trembling hands and firmly grasped the chair, intending to run out if something went wrong.

"Gollum...... Goo ......"

The thing just crawled and made some scalp-tingling noises. I slowly shifted my weight away from my chair, mentally estimating the distance between it and me.

It's close, it's close......

I heard the empty wooden chairs being pushed away, the noisy knocking and the scraping of blunt objects against the ground, and a real chill instantly lingered around every corner.

Then, the sound stopped abruptly.

Stuck less than half a foot away from me, the fear of the unknown brewed and curled up, as if the abyss was only one step away from me.

"Ah————h

When a low roar that sent chills down my spine sounded, I couldn't hold back anymore and jumped backwards with both legs!

Before I could hit the ground, I twisted my waist hard! In the air, he turned his head back, his eyes wide, and he stared at the place where he was sitting just now! And a bright red hand just grabbed the chair surface with residual warmth!

"Holy!"

The adrenaline rush rushed through the musculoskeletal body, and the constricted lung lobes and trembling lips and teeth made my voice weirdly shrill and thin!

And all the sounds I could make were instantly silenced when the demonic creature was reflected in my pupils!

Because what appeared there was a complete monster!

I saw withered claws hanging from the shadows of reddish-purple minced flesh, and swaths of skin clinging to shards of entrails slid to the ground; I saw Mori's bones in the air, his powdered clothes mixed with snow, melting into foul-smelling dirty water, stretching from the half-open door all the way to the table, where the "man" with only the upper body was left entered.

I panicked and sat down on the ground, forgetting to breathe for a long time. But in spite of all this, I could not take my eyes off the skeletal skeleton that was almost shapeless, and the dark yellow sunken holes, because I could not accept what I was seeing————

On the neck of that filthy monster is my face.

Although there was not much flesh left on it, this withered face was no different from what I saw in the mirror when I first woke up!

"Who are you?! Say! Say! ”

I couldn't keep my sanity anymore under the repeated bombardment, I roared and roared, like a beast, not seeking answers, just wanting to vent the mountain of stress, before it was on the verge of collapse.

"Don't ...... Goo ......"

The "monster" stopped, and it was really responding to me, even though it was just a fragment of words, something that was hard to decipher, but it was really trying to respond to that disgusting face.

"Don't?! Don't want what?! What don't?! Don't say? Don't ask? Or don't do anything?! Yes?! ”

I was half-on my knees, hoarse, and the fear and the remnants of courage rolled desperately, crying like a weeping baby, and my expression was almost pleading.

"No ————"

Suddenly! The monster shook its head up! Push your arms hard! Draw an arc from half a meter away and rush straight to my front door!

"Ahh!!h

Screaming, I kicked my legs backwards in despair, but to no avail, leaning against the corner, I had no way to retreat.

The blood-red figure in my eyes flashed in front of my face in the blink of an eye! The maggot-ridden, flesh-and-blood head was clinging to me! The smell of fishy and disgusting turbidity choked me and I could only retch!

The monster grabbed me by the collar and almost lifted me off the ground! I saw it open its mouth, its cracked palate lifted beyond the reach of ordinary people, and a rotting tongue squirmed between its burnt teeth.

Anger, sadness, and even panic all over it, or rather on my face! It was as if a hoarse voice from eternity, accompanied by the spray of blood, rushed out of its throat that should have festered! Converge into a curse-like familiar word!

"Nope! Want! Appearance! Letter! He! Guys!! ”

Click!

The picture freezes on this distorted face.

I struggled to shake my arms, and only realized it when the afterimage in my eyes had cleared————

The light is gone.

then

It's a monster,

wall

ground

air

temperature

It's all gone.

I curled up, like a feather in the sheer darkness.

Gravity became the only signpost, and I clung to the ethereal illusion in the wilderness,

Begin to fall.