Chapter 292, B2 Floor

"I don't know why you suddenly became like this."

“I understand that what happens in the future… may not be able to be accurately described by you.”

“But I will take care of you, and I will protect you as much as possible until we escape from here.”

"If it comes to the point of no return, I will forcibly control your characteristics. You may suffer from mental exhaustion or age a few years, but it will be for our sake."

"Gu Heng, did you hear that?"

The space on level B2 was even more expansive than the area above the mall. Anru felt as if she had entered another space—because the layout here was similar to that of a typical bustling mall. She even saw an open shop. In just a moment, after passing through that endless scene, the outsider felt as if she were seeing a normal storefront, but it was actually built on this nightmarish hell.

It was a retail store selling dolls of all styles. There was a sign outside with red lettering that read "Official Supply of Sunset Hill." The store was very luxurious, with many gold-plated wallpapers. The designs were extremely exquisite and moving, making it look so prosperous and beautiful. In the corner of the store sat a person.

He was a silver-haired man in his early fifties, sitting there with a blank expression. His features were exquisite, and even in his old age, one could still see the beauty he once possessed. However, there was a twisted strangeness and disharmony within him, as if he had not grown naturally but had undergone some kind of post-processing.

For a moment, Anru felt that they were getting closer to the shop. Only then did she realize that the things inside weren't so terrifying, just somewhat... indescribably deformed.

The dolls displayed on the shelves were rather messy and unkempt, as if they had been haphazardly made from scrap by some temporary workers. Although the materials were unknown, they were full of a strong sense of strangeness and disharmony.

Gu Heng suddenly came to his senses—or rather, not entirely. He laughed and said that those things should actually look very familiar to them, because they were all imitations.

He paused, then continued in a gloating tone, saying that the dolls would replace any living or non-living things they saw and then mimic their current appearance.

An Ru suddenly remembered the notice boards she had seen at the entrance—she immediately recalled that when these things were brought here, this place was probably just a ruin, and all the decorations were non-existent nothingness, merely imitated by them—and the original place was originally a huge experimental field where those absurd and chaotic things did happen, but no one was able to record them alive.

In any case, the current setup resembles a once bustling shopping mall, where those who died... their experiences may have been predetermined, already happened, unknown to anyone, until they were completely engulfed by this hell.

In such a mad place, this was perfectly reasonable. Looking at the humanoid man, Anru thought—how pitiful. Was he also an operative from some branch? Was he confined here to work? Like those unfortunate souls who stumbled into Sunset Hill—just to obtain some Nightmare Penalty Kicks, and then unwittingly become commodities in the testing grounds. Or perhaps he was just incredibly unlucky, like them, suddenly arriving here.

And so the lives and memories of these unfortunate souls became an integral part of the decorations of these cages.

"We need to stay here for a while."

"That's the rule."

“They must comply, or they will suffer the consequences of their nightmares.”

An Ru had no choice but to stop and stare at the store across the street for a few seconds. As if sensing someone's gaze, countless human faces suddenly emerged from the shadows of the wall panels, signs, and floor-to-ceiling windows. They were all about the size of a thumb, densely packed together, including adult faces and those that looked like children, all staring at them with curious eyes.

She suddenly felt the hairs on her body stand on end and involuntarily took a step back, but those eyes were still staring straight at him, unable to escape.

An Ru suddenly bumped into the wall behind her for some reason. There were even a few park benches that were fixed in place, with cushions on them, as if they were specially placed there for the visitors to rest. Gu Heng let go of her hand and stopped in front of these things with a scrutinizing look on his face, staring at them.

"What's wrong?" An Ru asked. She glanced again at the shop covered with human faces. Those strange creatures were still staring at her intently, as if they wanted to crawl out and find out what was going on.

“They’re crying out,” Gu Heng said nervously. “The sound is very loud, didn’t you hear it?”

As Gu Heng spoke, he pointed to the chairs.

An Ru was stunned for a moment, then looked in the direction he pointed, and sure enough, it was crying—that stupid chair, it was crying.

As far as the eye could see, the surface of the chair was oozing a lot of transparent liquid. If you listened carefully, you could even hear some sounds like a baby crying, as if they were indeed trapped there, and those products were physiological tears.

Yes, tears.

"Tears are also a common element in testing sites—they are one of the essential records to understand," Gu Heng said. "When people are emotionally broken, seriously injured, or being executed, the most obvious human reaction is tears."

“That’s fucking humane,” An Ru Shi replied, feeling extremely uncomfortable.

Although he really couldn't understand this...the act of turning living things into solidified commodities, or living things tirelessly imitating dead objects, what did it all mean? In order to create chairs with a longer damn lifespan?

"Pretty much, but they will have new value... a kind of noble spirit of willingly becoming a commodity, which we cannot understand," Gu Heng added.

"Once the pre-sales reach a certain level, they can then be given a new life."

"A new, fucking life?" An Ru asked, somewhat horrified. This was too damn terrifying. Expecting a bunch of lifeless furniture to reproduce? It was utterly disgusting. "What other kind of future did you see?"

In the time it took to speak, the tears on the chair were wiped away—at first glance, it looked as if someone had left some special mark on it. She looked up and saw that the faces in the shop had disappeared at some point—they hadn't completely vanished, but upon closer inspection, one could see that most of them had only become smaller. They were still hidden in the shadows, still staring at them resentfully.

Just then, the silver-haired man who had been standing still in the shop suddenly turned his head and gave An Ru a smile.

She immediately looked away.