Chapter Ninety-Six: Midnight Horror 13

The next day, all nine people were present.

In the car, Lu Cen looked at Jiang Zhao and felt a deep sense of separation.

People who die at night are perfectly normal during the day.

This was their second day on their return journey. The car was filled with laughter and chatter, just like any other college students. They talked about gossip, celebrities, and funny things. Lu Cen tried her best not to reveal anything, blending into their atmosphere while thinking about how to break the ice.

He still hadn't come up with a good solution by the time they returned to the school gate on the morning of the third day.

He dragged his suitcase slowly back to his rented room, tidied up, lay down on the bed, and closed his eyes in the quiet night.

He fell asleep.

Saying he was asleep wouldn't be accurate, because his consciousness was immersed in a strange state. He said he was asleep, but he was actually still somewhat awake, like his soul had left his body and was floating away. His consciousness drifted and drifted in the void for an unknown amount of time, until Lu Cen himself was tired and his consciousness became increasingly blurred, until a voice woke him up.

"Welcome to the Level 5 Solo Dungeon, player Lu Cen."

"Instance name: Midnight Horror".

"Mission: Find the people who are truly dead. Successfully filling in the names of the deceased will complete the game."

Time: Unlimited.

......

"Your name is Li Yan, and you are a sophomore in college. Jiang Zhao died unexpectedly during your trip, and you feel very guilty..."

"One night, the supposedly dead Jiang Zhao came to you and told you that the person who died wasn't him, but Hu Si, and that you had remembered wrong..."

"After Jiang Zhao left, Hu Si knocked on your door and told you that the person who died was Jiang Zhao..."

"......"

Lu Cen felt extremely dizzy and stumbled, bumping into a nearby ornament. His body went limp, and he leaned against the cabinet, collapsing to the ground. As the dizziness subsided, the electronic voice in his head continued to broadcast. After feeling a little better, Lu Cen lifted his eyelids and looked around. It was a one-bedroom apartment.

The furniture is simple, and the layout is also simple.

Lu Cen was extremely tired, as if he had stayed up all night playing games the day before. He had no energy left, and his head felt like it was being pricked with needles.

He walked around the room, feeling a vague sense that the place seemed somewhat familiar.

It was as if he had been here.

But he just entered the instance, how could he possibly be familiar with it?

Lu Cen clutched his head in pain, his lips turning pale.

The phone rang nearby.

Lu Cen strained to look at the screen. It was a call from Jiang Zhao. His heart skipped a beat. Why was this guy calling him?

"Hello?"

"Meet at the school gate at 10 a.m. tomorrow. Don't be late."

"gather?"

"Don't tell me you don't want to go."

"No."

"What's wrong with your voice? Do you have a cold?"

"without......"

"It's alright, I'm hanging up now."

Looking at the black screen of his phone, the stabbing pain slowly subsided. Lu Cen let out a long sigh of relief. He seemed to be deep in thought. Had the trip not started yet?

He ordered takeout and opened his social media app. Half an hour later, Lu Cen finally figured out where they were going.

All five of them are members of a photography club and plan to go to the desert to take pictures of beautiful scenery during the National Day holiday. They agreed to set off tomorrow morning.

After packing his things, Lu Cen lay down on the slightly hard bed. He turned off the light and prepared to fall asleep, but he couldn't fall asleep for a while. He tossed and turned in bed. The faint light from outside shone in through the gaps in the curtains. Lu Cen suddenly felt that something was not right. The bedroom was very small, with only a bed and a wardrobe. However, there were three decorative paintings on the side wall, all of which were landscape paintings. One of them had a very long shadow.

It doesn't quite resemble the shadow of a picture frame.

In the light, the shadow moved slightly, as if blown by the wind.

The picture frame was fixed to the wall, so how could the wind possibly move it? Lu Cen stared at it for so long that he felt quite uncomfortable. He turned on the bedside lamp, and the glaring white light made him subconsciously shield his eyes with his hand. He looked at the picture frame again, and the snow mountain painting looked perfectly normal.

Lu Cen looked at it for a while, found nothing wrong, and then turned off the light.

Not long after lying down, Lu Cen fell asleep against the pillow.

The shadow under the picture frame gradually lengthened, reaching the ground, until finally it stood there like a human figure, with facial features clearly visible.

The sky was overcast, and it looked like it was going to rain.

When Lu Cen arrived at the school gate in a daze, there were eight people standing by the car door, four of whom were girls. Lu Cen became more awake and wondered why, but when he woke up in the morning, his whole body ached as if something had been pressing down on him all night.

Yang Jiali said, "Why do I always have to wait for you?"

Lu Cen: "...I wasn't late."

He's not the kind of person who takes a beating.

Yang Jiali wanted to say more, but seeing Lu Cen's face as white as a dead man, he shut up for fear that Lu Cen would try to extort money from him.

Lu Cen slept soundly on the bus. He was exhausted, more exhausted than ever before. He didn't recover until he ate a beef and pork rib and corn soup at noon. He ate slowly, his slender white fingers holding the pork ribs. He realized that he had a strong craving for food, and he even drank all the soup.

He attributed it to the lingering effects of the previous instance.

After finishing his meal, he went to the bathroom to wash his hands. When he straightened up, he noticed two dark, oval-shaped marks below his collarbone, like marks left by something pressing on him for a long time. Lu Cen observed them curiously for a moment, but couldn't remember what they were. He wiped his hands and walked out.

As dusk fell, the group arrived at the hotel they had booked in advance.

Jiang Zhao and the others went to check in first, while Lu Cen, feeling bored and restless, stood to the side.

The change happened in that very second.

A black sedan crashed through the gate, its headlights blinding. Everyone instinctively closed their eyes. The car was traveling at an extremely high speed. After smashing through the gate, it sped towards the group. With screams, Jiang Zhao and Xiao Wei, who were checking in, were hit by the front of the car and thrown into the air. The marble at the front desk collapsed, and Jiang Zhao and Xiao Wei lay among the rubble, blood gushing from their mouths—a horrific sight. Several front desk staff members were slightly injured because the marble cushioned their fall and they managed to retreat in time.

Lu Cen was completely bewildered and frightened. His panicked gaze fell on Jiang Zhao, only to find that the other man was also looking at him.

His eyes looked strange.

Lu Cen felt as if he was being watched, his scalp tingling. By the time he recovered from this strange state, Jiang Zhao was already dead.

His eyes lost their color.

Police cars with red and blue lights blared through the night as a group of people were dragged into the police station.

The driver was a middle-aged man who was driving under the influence of alcohol. When he was being taken away, he was still talking nonsense.

After giving their statements, they slept in a hotel arranged by the police. Lu Cen took a shower, and his shadow was cast long and thin on the wall.

His body was covered in thick foam, and he tilted his head back to rinse his face.

The square space now contains something else besides Lu Cen.

A gray-black shadow appeared in the corner and slowly moved towards Lu Cen. Soon it reached his feet. His snow-white ankles were constantly being washed by hot water, turning them pinkish-white. Lu Cen felt a little itchy on his feet and felt something touch him. He wiped the water off his face and looked down, but there was nothing there. He wondered to himself, "Could I have imagined it?"

The next second, a tremendous force gripped Lu Cen's waist.

Something fell on my shoulder, heavy and uncomfortable.

Lu Cen looked down and saw a pair of pale and bluish hands wrapped around his waist. His heart pounded uncontrollably, echoing in his chest.

His neck was stiff. He turned his head slightly to look at his shoulder.

Out of the corner of his eye, he caught a glimpse of a face. It was quite pretty, but there was blood in its mouth and on its cheeks. Most horrifying of all were its eyes—completely white—staring blankly at Lu Cen. When Lu Cen turned his head, the face actually spoke, "Li Yan, I missed you so much..."

Do you miss me?

Lu Cen screamed in fright and tried desperately to break free, but the strength was not something a human could withstand.

He was forced by a force to slam into the cold wall, his cheeks distorted by the pressure. In the steamy environment, Jiang Zhao felt as cold as ice. When he leaned against Lu Cen, the heat from the steam on his back cooled him down quickly. For some reason, Lu Cen seemed to have experienced this scene before. He had a vague idea in his mind that he knew what the ghost would do next.

This intuition came out of nowhere.

It has always lingered in his mind.

Jiang Zhao held him down, his hands moving with no mercy, as if he wanted to tear Lu Cen apart and then twist him into a ball. Lu Cen was dominated by that terrifying force, and his body trembled slightly. His breathing was heavy, perhaps because the bathroom was not well ventilated, or perhaps because of Jiang Zhao. Lu Cen felt that he was having difficulty breathing, and he felt that there was less and less air in the room, and that little bit was not enough for him at all.

His face turned red from holding it in.

Until it turns completely red.

That pale blue hand kept lingering over his body, showing affection and fascination.

Lu Cen didn't know how long he had been tormented, but when he woke up, he was in a big bed. He stared blankly for a long time before recovering.

My head started hurting again.

Lu Cen rolled around on the bed, curling up into a ball.

He was disturbed by the knocking and covered his head as he went to open the door.

Hu Si stood outside the door, looking impatient. Seeing Lu Cen's state, he frowned and asked, "What's wrong with you?"

Lu Cen couldn't speak and leaned against the wall, unsteady on her feet. Hu Si helped her to the sofa. "Stomach ache? Abdominal ache? Headache?"

Strangely enough, the pain disappeared during those few sentences.

Lu Cen was drenched in sweat and extremely weak.

He suddenly asked, "Is Jiang Zhao still at the police station?"

Hu Si didn't know why he brought this up, but he still responded.

I want to go see him.

Hu Si stared at him for a long time before finally nodding.

Jiang Zhao's body was placed in the police station's freezer. When the staff opened it, a wave of cold air swept out, like winter fog.

Jiang Zhao lay in a long, narrow, and cramped space that made people feel suffocated. A white cloth covered his entire body, resembling a scene from a horror movie. The staff bowed their heads in respect before lifting the small piece of white cloth from the top of his head to his neck.

Jiang Zhao's face hadn't changed much, except it was extremely pale and his lips were completely bloodless; it was a classic dead face, devoid of any vitality.

Lu Cen's heart pounded. This person had been touching him inappropriately in the bathroom last night, but now he was lying here motionless.

He was terribly bewildered, both by his intuition and by the disjointed and nonsensical nature of the situation.

As he looked around, he suddenly felt something move under the white cloth. It looked like a hand. Lu Cen's eyes widened. In his gaze, the hand actually reached out from under the white cloth. To his horror, Jiang Zhao actually sat up and looked straight at him.

"You miss me too, don't you?"

Lu Cen's chest heaved violently, and his eyes turned red.

A warm hand suddenly grabbed his shoulder. "Li Yan, Li Yan, what's wrong?"

Lu Cen snapped out of his reverie and noticed a hint of worry in Hu Si's gaze. He said, "What are you doing? Why are you daydreaming?"

Lu Cen then realized that Jiang Zhao was still lying inside, completely still.

What just happened seems to be his imagination.

As Lu Cen was leaving, he inexplicably turned back for a glance, only to see Jiang Zhao, who was half-sitting up, turning his head 180 degrees to look at him with gray eyes. Lu Cen quickly turned back, walked past Hu Si, and left, but the gaze behind him was like indelible ink, clinging to him.