Chapter 293 is us

Just a few minutes later, the faces inside the shop had vanished. In that short time, the place resembled an ordinary shopping mall walkway—bright and inviting lights, a harmonious and warm scene—but An Ru felt only nauseous.

At the same time, Gu Heng suddenly stood up and walked inside, saying, "Come with me, I've remembered something."

She could only hurry to catch up, just as they left the shop filled with faces and the chair that kept crying out how miserable it was.

Along the way, An Ru saw many similar creatures, forced into the testing grounds—they hadn't retained their human forms, but still bore many marks, despite their previous severe injuries and mangled appearance. But now, appearing here, those wounds had begun to heal, and the goods quickly returned to normal, without any crying or complaints. Like a scale carefully adjusted to finally achieve balance, the concept of fairness and bias was instantly restored—except their habitat was made of flesh and blood.

No one wanted to know what lay beneath this seemingly peaceful scene. She thought to herself, "This is not what they said at the beginning. Everyone knows this is a death zone, but people keep coming in—and once they step in, they are destined not to come out alive. What they have to contribute is to become one of those countless commodities."

And judging from the current situation, the resistance of those experimental subjects has long since ended.

Regardless of how terrifying or bizarre the participants were, the fact that they all ultimately failed is not a good sign.

They continued forward, crossing a creeping, growing wall of people—similar to the one they encountered at the entrance to level B1. No one retreated; they simply kept moving forward.

The journey took a very long time, and it felt as if continuing on that path would truly mean leaving Sunset Hill.

Gu Heng stopped midway, staring at the bulletin board on the wall, and then moved closer—An Ru Shi naturally glanced at it as well, but found nothing. The contents on it were completely illogical, mostly meaningless quotes, and news reports.

The first thing she saw was the prominently displayed message in bold: "To celebrate the 1221st anniversary of Sunset Hill, we've prepared a huge celebration! All items are 20% off! What are you waiting for?" It was such a damn good deal, it almost made her cry.

They didn't stay long, then turned another corner and left the area of ​​shops, turning into a corridor that looked like an office—this mall really does have a wide variety of categories.

The scene inside the corridor was very peaceful, with no deformed creatures or faces peeking from the corners. The floor tiles were laid flat on the ground, and the walls were also white, with some product introduction pictures hanging on them—the best-selling products of the month—and a row of chairs.

If you look closely, you'll see that the textures on the furniture's surface reveal countless blood vessels and pulsating pupils—behind this seemingly peaceful walkway, there are still countless souls and organs tormenting themselves.

Could everything in this testing ground be an experiment, originally intended for humans, that couldn't escape?

Ahead of An Rushi, Gu Heng began walking on his own, then turned a corner and ventured deeper into the area.

Now that things have come to this, the latter has no choice but to bite the bullet and move forward.

At the end of the passage, there was only a door with a sign on it, standing alone—it looked no different from the door of an ordinary office area, made of simple and worthless materials.

The door was half-open, and one could even see the darkness inside. Everything was so quiet, but An Ru Shi's brow twitched wildly, as if she was about to fall into the gaping mouth of some monster.

Gu Heng continued walking forward.

She had no reason not to follow.

The nameplate on the door was inlaid very exquisitely, with "Dream Research Lab" printed on the outside and a line of smaller print below that read, "After many experiments, we have obtained very accurate data."

"Ah, the Dream Research Lab." Gu Heng stared at the door for a long time, then chuckled.

"What, is this what you remembered?" An Ru asked, thinking that it wasn't surprising. It wasn't strange that people who controlled time would know all sorts of random things.

“No, it’s not that, but I remember it.” The other person shook their head and replied absentmindedly, “Yes… I remember it, everything we encountered came from that room.”

"Haha, what a useless piece of nonsense."

An Ru was truly helpless, but at this moment the person probably couldn't understand what she meant, so she simply walked forward quickly and pushed open the door to enter the room.

Gu Heng followed them inside, and the moment they saw the interior of the office, An Ru thought—if you really had to give an evaluation, this place was truly a phenomenal office, it felt like something that appeared in someone's nightmare after a week of staying up all night and finally falling into insomnia.

This is a huge office with an area of ​​over 300 square meters. It is very modernly furnished. A deep red desk faces the door and is covered with various items, some of which Anru has never seen before—like a path used by the ancients for sacrifices—a few feathers, some skulls covered in paint, and some miniature human models that look like they have shed their skin.

On the right side of the house stood many display cases containing documents with complex wording. On the other side were various blueprints, and the walls were covered with certificates of honor and banners.

They stood there dumbfounded for a while, then noticed that the floor of the room was starting to sink inwards, making it difficult to stand.

An Ru quickly realized the problem.

In a corner on the far right of the office... there were many faces with various expressions, wrinkled like old people, covered with wrinkles, protruding blue and red veins, and many dark spots.

Gu Heng seemed not to have seen the scene at all, and walked into the room without hesitation. An Ru Shi wanted to say something, but the man was too fast, so she could only follow him.

In this place, she didn't want Gu Hengmeng to do anything; she just wanted her to stay alive.

The floorboards sank deeper and deeper, to the point that no one dared to step into them, as if they were no longer inanimate objects but were beginning to come back to life—they could almost hear the faint groans emanating from the assimilated floorboards, walls, and furniture, like the sounds of a group of dying old people affected by the intrusion of outsiders.

"ah."

"That's it, do you see?"

“If you observe those people closely, you will find out…”

"They are us."