Chapter 124 Avoidance "Please stay away from the people in black uniforms...they..."

"run!"

Sang Li gripped Lu Jin's hand, not daring to look at the red-clad employee with the stiff smile.

Forget the rules, just run!

She pulled him along as they ran.

Sloan could draw anything, but he drew something that looked like a horror world!

The employee in red remained standing in place, maintaining a perfectly curved yet extremely eerie smile. His eyes seemed frozen in place, not moving at all, with only the corners of his mouth stiffly turned up.

It was completely dark outside.

There was no sunset, no moonlight; the entire sky looked as if it had been splashed with ink, heavy and dark.

The wind remained still, but both of them stopped at the same time.

The atmosphere was a bit off.

A faint "shadow" seemed to float in the air, like mist or a drifting ghost.

They wriggled slowly, as if ready to pounce and drag people into the darkness.

It's like an invisible piranha.

“This place is more thrilling than any horror game I’ve ever played.” Sang Li shrugged and took a step back. “Based on my experience, it doesn’t look very safe.”

Lu Jin: "Weren't you playing some kind of horror otome game?"

He has already mastered Sang Li's vocabulary.

Sang Li: "My life has been pretty much a journey, thank you."

"Go back," Lu Jin said in a deep voice.

It's likely that Slow imposed even more dangerous rules on the outside world in order to keep people confined in the aquarium.

The two decided to take no further risks and retreated back to the main building of Ocean Park, entering through a side entrance.

Pushing open the heavy glass door, all I saw was deathly silence.

The huge aquarium hall was empty, and there was no one there either, not even the staff member in the red shirt from earlier.

The ground was slippery and cold, and the air was filled with a damp, musty smell.

There is a statue in the lobby that looks like a medieval prince.

The Prince of the Deep Sea.

But the color has already faded.

The two huge fish tanks on either side had completely dried up.

The glass walls were riddled with cracks, as if they might shatter at any moment. Inside lay the dried-up carcasses of fish, their scales rolled up and their eye sockets hollow, as if they had been struggling in their final moments.

They moved between the fish tanks.

With each step, the water underfoot splashed out with a very faint "squeak" sound, like rotting flesh being trampled.

Sudden.

Sang Li stopped in her tracks.

She could hear a faint "click-clack" sound.

"The right side," Lu Jin said.

The sound came from a giant ornamental tank on the right.

Inside, a withered shark that had been lying limply suddenly twitched, its cracked skin and skeleton scraping against the glass with a piercing sound.

"Click".

The shark's empty eye sockets suddenly turned towards them.

Sang Li felt a chill run down her spine and shrank into Lu Jin's arms: "Slo, Slo is absolutely finished. When I find him, I will definitely give him a piece of my mind!"

"It seems like it might come back to life," Lu Jin said.

According to the rules, something big will happen at 8 PM.

Having escaped the "dead but not dead" shark, we need to find a safe house, since we are still in a dangerous situation.

Finally, they found the children's play area in a corner of the lobby.

There is still a small, two-story plastic building there, a "children's house" with bright colors but dulled by time and dampness, its surface covered with a layer of cold dust.

Sang Li shifted the topic from the cabin to the inside, leading Lu Jin inside.

The small house was extremely cramped, with circular pipes connecting the top and bottom. The walls were thick but cold. Several protruding circular glass windows were embedded in the plastic walls, offering a view into the dimly lit hall outside.

The two huddled inside, their breaths mingling. The surroundings were eerily quiet, save for the rustling sound of debris dragging across the floor outside.

Lu Jin leaned against the wall, his dark eyes sweeping over the round window of the small house, and a smile suddenly appeared on his lips.

"It's quite interesting."

"Interesting?" Sang Li rolled her eyes, staring intently at him. "You're not about to do anything like that, are you?"

"..."

Lu Jin chuckled softly, his low voice muffled in the cramped space, sounding a little hoarse: "I admit, being squeezed into such a small place with you does make it easy for people to overthink things."

Sang Li's smile was forced and insincere.

Lu Jin looked at her, then suddenly leaned down to kiss her.

He braced one hand against the plastic wall and wrapped his other arm tightly around Sang Li's waist, trapping her in his embrace.

The air was almost frozen, with only their rapid breathing as the only sound.

Sang Li was clearly unaware that Lu Jin had suddenly become impulsive. Her heart skipped a beat, but she didn't back down the next second. Instead, she slightly raised her chin and went to meet him.

Their lips met, an irrepressible heat rising within them.

Lu Jin's aura was domineering and fiery, as if he wanted to completely engulf her.

Sang Li was enveloped by him, her back pressed tightly against the cold plastic wall, her heart pounding wildly out of control.

The brief kiss sent her blood rushing through her body and made her breath quicken.

No, no, no.

Her brows furrowed suddenly.

"wrong."

etc!

She reached out and pressed against Lu Jin's chest, forcefully pushing him away: "Don't move."

Lu Jin paused, his dark eyes narrowing slightly, his voice low and hoarse: "What's wrong?"

Clearly, they didn't get to enjoy themselves enough.

Of course, he couldn't possibly think that this was some kind of coy refusal by Sang Li.

Sang Li did not answer immediately.

She stared at Lu Jin, but her fingertips slowly reached up and poked at his chest, then unbuttoned his shirt.

"..."

Lu Jin raised an eyebrow, a meaningful glint flashing in his dark eyes: "What are you going to do?"

Sang Li ignored him and continued her actions, slowly tearing open his shirt until his firm chest was revealed.

Her gaze was frighteningly serious, devoid of any allure, simply scrutinizing him as if searching for something unusual on every inch of his skin.

Lu Jin was puzzled and looked down at her.

Sang Li didn't stop. After discovering something, she raised her hand, pinched his chin, and carefully examined the lines of his cheeks. Then she reached into his temples and lifted his sleeve to examine his arms.

Her movements were extremely meticulous, much like a doctor checking on a patient's recovery.

"..."

A moment later, Sang Li's eyes darkened, and she shrank back, trying to create as much distance as possible: "Stay away from me."

Lu Jin was taken aback for a moment, then chuckled and asked sarcastically, "You think I'm ugly?"

Sang Li glared at him fiercely, her tone serious: "I'm seeing if you'll mutate."

Lu Jin paused for a moment: "Mutation?"

Sang Li repeated the rule: "If you encounter someone in a black uniform, hide until they leave. The rule says you are now a black uniform employee. I should hide."

"Do you think I've changed?" Lu Jin asked.

The children's play area in the aquarium was dark and unlit; to be honest, it was too dark to see anything.

Sang Li didn't speak.

In the cramped space, only the sounds of their breathing and heartbeats could be heard.

Creak, creak.

Footsteps came from below, and the wooden planks crunched underfoot.

Sang Li and Lu Jin looked out through the round bay window, and the beam of a flashlight was slowly sweeping across the corridor.

An employee in a red uniform stood there.

His face always wore a stiff, unnatural smile, the expression plastered to his skin like a rotting corpse stitched up. Under the light, his eye sockets were hollow, black as empty shells.

The sound was dry and mechanical, playing repeatedly from a broken loudspeaker.

Sang Li dared not move; who knew what kind of monster Slo had conjured?

The red-clad employee raised his flashlight, the beam grazing the outer wall of the small house, pausing for a moment as if gazing.

Sang Li quickly dodged.

I don't know if it has been discovered.

The footsteps stopped abruptly.

It seems the person on the other side is also waiting.

But they didn't get close.

It seems it hasn't been discovered.

But suddenly.

The mechanical sound came again.

"Please stay away from people in black uniforms... They are dangerous."

"Please stay away from people in black uniforms... They are dangerous."

"Please report this promptly."

The sound echoed repeatedly in the empty aquarium.

The employee in the red shirt didn't step inside.

Why?

Are you afraid to contact them?

Or perhaps they simply didn't find anything.

The employee in the red shirt walked to the side and reached out to turn on a switch.

Snap!

The jellyfish tank next to the children's playground suddenly lit up.

The light pierced the darkness, illuminating the scene inside the water tank.

There are no jellyfish there.

There was only a vat of thick, murky liquid, with an eerie dark red hue. Bubbles churned in the viscous liquid, as if countless broken organs were dissolving within it, floating and sinking. A stench permeated the plastic walls, assaulting the nostrils.

The light fell faintly on the two people through the small window.

She froze.

Under the light, that familiar face... seemed to be covered by something.

The skin was abnormally smooth, with a very fine slit faintly visible at the edges of the cheekbones and jawline, like some kind of "human skin mask" pressed tightly against real bones.

A chill ran down Sang Li's spine, and her blood felt frozen.

Her breathing quickened, her throat tightened, and she nudged him: "...Lu Jin?"

Inside the small house, the man did not respond immediately.

He just slowly turned his head.

His cervical spine made a soft cracking sound, like an old gear. The light shone on his face, revealing Lu Jin's features, yet with an eerie incongruity.

His skin was too smooth, like a wax seal, just peeled from a mold. A very thin slit appeared where his cheek met his cheekbone. With his movements, that slit opened and closed slightly, like a breathing plug.

What the heck is going on?

You'll start yelling at yourself if you look like that!

Sang Li watched as the face seemed no longer to "fit" the bones, with one corner subtly lifting up to reveal a deep and cold blackness beneath.

In the darkness, something seemed to be slowly wriggling.

"What's wrong?"

The person on the other end finally spoke, his voice still Lu Jin's, but with a very slight off-frequency, as if a second voice was overlapping.

Sang Li felt a chill run through her body.

Isn't this Lu Jin?

No.

Only staff in red uniforms are our employees; you can ask one of them to show you around.

If you encounter an employee in a black uniform, please hide until they leave.

Could it be that the person who entered the aquarium with me from the very beginning wasn't Lu Jin?

Sang Li's brain was working at lightning speed.

Even in the darkness, the voices of staff in red uniforms still echoed.

"Please stay away from people in black uniforms... They are dangerous."

"Please stay away from people in black uniforms... They are dangerous."