There had been no movement outside the door for quite some time.
Number 4 looked down at the pool of blood by the door, moved a little further away in fear, and asked weakly, "Are they gone?"
"I don't know, maybe someone's willing to open the door and go out to see," Number 3 chuckled, egging him on. "Number 8, aren't you curious what you've attracted?"
"Then you'll be disappointed. I've never been a very curious person." Xiao Cheng's heartbeat gradually calmed down.
Fang He was standing next to her, seemingly lost in thought, still gripping her wrist tightly, almost pinching it until it turned purple. It was unclear how much force he was using, but the veins on the back of his hand and forearm were bulging.
"Hey, let go," Xiao Cheng reminded him, shaking his arm. "Have you held on long enough?"
Fang He was suddenly brought back to his senses. He loosened his grip, took a half step back without making a sound, and teased with a light laugh, "I thought you would thank your savior first."
"Of course, my gratitude is beyond words." Xiao Cheng said expressionlessly, "Especially that flying kick when you closed the door, it really hit me right in the heart."
Fang He: "..." Even a digital human would say this more truthfully than she would.
"Is today's game over?" Number 5 asked, lying on the ground with his hand raised, sounding a little aggrieved. "So... can I go back and rest now?"
"Ha, men, they really are all the same, forgetting their old loves once they find a new one." Number 2 blew a bubble bigger than his head, his skin stretched thin, and then it popped open.
Fang He: "..." His reputation has been unfairly damaged.
The atmosphere in the guardhouse gradually became suffocating. The first to break the deadlock was Brother Number 7. He didn't hold a grudge about being thrown off balance by Fang He earlier. Instead, he generously offered to help him out: "I'll go open the gate and see. It's late. Everyone should go back and rest."
As it turns out, things have returned to normal outside.
A piece of dark, slightly rotten leather was stuck to the door panel, emitting a particularly pungent smell. Filthy blood dripped down in a strange shape, like a sponge pad that had been slapped onto the door panel, the blood squeezed out and splattered everywhere.
Xiao Cheng pinched her nose to look at the piece of skin, which seemed to have some scattered hairs on it, so it didn't look like human skin.
"So what exactly was that just now?" She tugged at Fang He's sleeve, and only asked in a low voice after the digital figures had walked away.
Fang He frowned and pondered for a moment before speaking cautiously: "It's a good friend of humans, a lively, cute, and enthusiastic little black dog."
When she got back to her room, it was only a little past eight in the evening. Xiao Cheng checked several times to make sure the clock wasn't broken; she could only say that the game she had just played had really exhausted her.
This time, the diary wasn't updated with gibberish anymore; messy handwriting reappeared, and the content was as incoherent as ever, making the diary's owner seem a bit off.
"Has the game bug been fixed?" Xiao Cheng was slightly puzzled for a moment before focusing on the new diary.
"Finally, the last day has arrived! God knows what I've been through. They killed him! And the dog... that dog! I hope this all ends soon... Wait, am I alive again? God, please... wake me up from this nightmare."
The information about the dog matched, but the phrase "came back to life"...
Xiao Cheng tapped the paper thoughtfully, then closed the diary.
This time there was no forced sleep, but she was indeed tired. Moreover, tomorrow was the last day, and who knows what might happen, so it was essential to get enough rest.
So she took a quick shower, lay down on the bed that smelled strongly of formaldehyde, and closed her eyes.
The room was quite quiet, the numbers on the digital clock ticking away with a very faint click. Xiao Cheng clearly sensed that his consciousness was growing heavier and heavier, as if he were gradually sinking into a quagmire, eventually being consumed by chaos.
Then the scene before her suddenly changed. She was carrying a backpack and looking up at a building in the distance that was shrouded in thick fog, with only its top barely visible.
As if guided by an invisible force, she walked in that direction as if possessed.
The fog gradually thinned, eventually revealing the building in its entirety: a dilapidated six-story structure with walls that had changed color, turning slightly yellow and peeling paint.
In the very center of the first floor, a disproportionately large steel door is tightly closed, isolating the building from the outside world, as if forming two distinct worlds.
Suddenly, the heavy iron door was pushed open, and several people filed out. They stood at the doorway for a while, looked around, and then went back inside. Not long after, two boys carried out again, this time carrying a mangled, bloody humanoid object.
This time they didn't stop, but went straight to the back of the building. The others followed them out shortly afterward. Xiao Cheng watched them disappear from sight one after another, and it was quite a while before they came back.
A few indistinct barks came from afar, then the gate closed again, as if nothing had happened.
"Number 8, why are you standing here in a daze?" A strange voice sounded from behind, followed by a cold, bone-chilling hand that reached out and patted Xiao Cheng's shoulder twice.
Xiao Cheng forced herself to turn around, following the greenish-blue hand that was stiffer than a dead person's.
It was Fang He, or rather, a digital person with the same face as him.
A bold, black number 6 was prominently displayed on his forehead, and a strange, mask-like smile graced his face: "Number 8?" His tone was completely flat. "Weren't you looking forward to this event? Why aren't you going in?"
"Actually, I'm a fickle woman, and I'm not looking forward to it at all now." Xiao Cheng took a half step back, avoiding his outstretched, zombie-like hand. "Is it too late to withdraw from the event now?"
It turned out to be too late.
Number 6 moved stiffly but extremely fast, and in the blink of an eye, he had already knocked on the building door.
He smiled at the digital figures inside the door and said, "That's really not nice of you. We had a club activity planned, why did you arrive first?"
No one responded to him.
A frenzied barking erupted, and a black dog, half a person's height, pounced out from the corner, its sharp teeth dripping with saliva, and bit through Number 6's throat.
Brother Number 7 was standing closest and got splattered with blood. He bent down slightly, affectionately and gently stroking the black dog's back, then looked up at Xiao Cheng.
The black dog buried its head in the body of Number 6 lying in a pool of blood, purring contentedly. On Number 7's flat face, three holes had sunken in where his eyes and mouth should have been, and fleshy white maggots crawled out of the holes, falling to the ground one after another.
Come here.
He waved to Xiao Cheng, and two maggots peeked out from beside the hole in his mouth, making it look like he was grinning and showing a smile.
Number 6 didn't seem quite dead yet; his body twitched and trembled. Xiao Cheng opened her mouth, about to say something, when a thick fog suddenly rose, and the entire building vanished from her sight in an instant.
A hand reached out from behind and gently patted her shoulder, causing her to involuntarily shudder.
Then came Number 6's completely flat voice: "Number 8, why are you standing here in a daze?"
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