5 Strange Statue
◎Climbing, twitching, gathering together◎
The mask fell to the ground with a loud noise.
Li Yiqing was startled and subconsciously wanted to scream, but when she saw what was hidden behind the mask, the scream was instantly blocked in her throat.
Behind the mask... is a human skin, a human face.
The face was clean and intact, the lines on the skin were clearly visible, and even the pores were visible. The light in the exhibition hall was dim, and the various masks were already weird and terrifying, but no matter how scary they were, they were nothing compared to the scene before him.
Not only Li Yiqing, but even Liu Ge's expression changed. She stared at the face on the wall and murmured softly, "Axue, is this true or false?"
Qi Qiuxue shook her head, her expression very unpleasant: "I don't know."
Deep down, she hoped that the face hidden under the mask was just a realistic model. There were thousands of masks in the exhibition hall, and Li Yiqing just accidentally touched one of them, and there was such a horrifying scene hidden behind it. This made Qi Qiuxue start to wonder what was behind the other masks.
Could it be a piece of face skin? If it is fake, it’s fine. But if it is real, who are their owners? What happened to them? Who peeled them off?
Qi Qiuxue didn't have time to think about it. She bent down and picked up the mask as quickly as possible and put it back on her face.
After doing all this, Xiaoxiao, who was at the front of the team, happened to turn around and glanced in the direction of the few people, seemingly intentionally or unintentionally.
Li Yiqing remained silent, but quietly leaned towards Qi Qiuxue. When she turned her head, he spoke in a trembling voice, "That's real shamelessness."
Qi Qiuxue looked at her: "How did you know?"
"I worked as a special effects makeup artist for a while before I entered the game." Li Yiqing's lips turned pale, and he was obviously frightened. "I've come across so many facial models. I can tell if something is fake at a glance."
"These people on the island are not normal. Have you ever seen a normal person wearing a mask every day? The owners of these masks must have been killed by them. Now it's our turn!"
"Wow, we don't have many days to live." She muttered nonsense, sounding as if she was scared out of her mind.
Liu Ge's face became increasingly heavy, but he couldn't bear to see her like this. He gathered himself together and wanted to go forward to comfort her.
But before he could say anything, Li Yiqing suddenly raised his hand and quickly lifted up another mask. It was the same as the previous one, and what appeared in front of him was indeed another face.
Qi Qiuxue: “……?”
Liu Ge: “……?”
The two of them couldn't understand Li Yiqing's behavior for a moment and were silent for a moment. Li Yiqing on the side moved quickly. During the time when the two of them were silent, he opened one page after another, opened it, checked it, and then closed it again.
Until Liu Ge reacted and grabbed her wrist: "What are you doing?!"
Her tone was a little fierce.
Li Yiqing seemed frightened by her and blinked pitifully: "Anyway, it's like this. I want to take a look at the other masks to see if they are all just skin underneath."
Liu Ge felt a bit overwhelmed after hearing this. She originally thought that Li Yiqing was just a timid new player. Although she was a bit troublesome, as long as she was patient and gave her a few more instructions, she wouldn't cause any trouble. Who knew that her thoughts and actions were so uncontrollable, and she did whatever she wanted!
Liu Ge took a deep breath and tried his best to suppress his emotions: "Have you forgotten what the tour guide said before? Do you want to die here?!"
"I remember." Li Yiqing looked somewhat innocent. "It's precisely because I remember that I dare to do this boldly."
After he finished speaking, Qi Qiuxue beside him seemed to understand: "What do you mean?"
"Xiaoxiao said at the time that we must not damage anything in the exhibition hall," Li Yiqing guided the two people back to the scene. "She said this twice, once when we got off the car and once before entering the Mask Hall. She emphasized this sentence twice. I think this must be some important message, warning everyone to be cautious and not touch anything easily."
"But just now I accidentally knocked off the mask, but nothing bad happened. This obviously contradicted the information Xiaoxiao had given me before, so I carefully recalled what she had said, and I actually found a clue."
Li Yiqing said calmly, "I guess the emphasis of those two warnings isn't on the word 'touch', but on the word 'damage'. As long as you don't damage anything in the exhibition hall, there shouldn't be any problem."
After he finished speaking, the system's voice suddenly rang in the three people's heads.
[Congratulations to the player for achieving the achievement - The Truth Behind the Mask.]
Unexpectedly, Li Yiqing actually discovered something by accident.
Qi Qiuxue paused, looking around at the two people's faces: "Did you hear what I just said..."
Liu Ge and Li Yiqing both nodded: "I heard it."
Qi Qiuxue subconsciously observed the movements of other players and saw that they still looked normal, without any surprise or joy at having achieved something. It seemed that only the three of them heard the system prompt sound this time.
"I'm sorry." Liu Ge realized that she had lost control of her emotions. She immediately let go of his hand and apologized to Li Yiqing earnestly. "I was too anxious and lost my temper with you without asking any questions. I'm sorry. Did I hurt you?"
"Of course not." Li Yiqing patted Liu Ge's back generously: "It's okay, it's okay."
"But I was really lucky just now. Luckily, there's carpet here, and the mask I knocked off wasn't hung too high, so it didn't break. Otherwise, I would have been dead."
"It's also thanks to Ah Xue's quick reaction that she put the mask back on before Xiao Xiao turned around." She smiled, revealing her beautiful dimples again, "We are all the best~"
Li Yiqing's smile greatly eased the depressing atmosphere.
"Be more careful next time." Qi Qiuxue was inspired by her and breathed a sigh of relief unconsciously. She advised, "Don't take risks again."
Li Yiqing was very straightforward: "Okay~"
After a brief exchange of words, the few of them stopped talking and continued to visit under Xiaoxiao's guidance, but their mood was very different from before.
Qi Qiuxue stared at the various masks on the wall. Under each strange mask there might be a face, a woman's, a man's, an old man's, a child's... The owners of those faces must be in danger now, and have become a wisp of ghost wandering on the island.
At this moment, she suddenly remembered what the system warned her -
[Players please cherish your life. Once you die in any dungeon, you will be trapped in the game forever and will never be able to return to reality.]
“…”
No matter what, she will try to survive.
-
After the tour, everyone got back on the bus they came by.
The car started moving again, continuing to shuttle through the dense forest. The buildings on this island were extremely scattered. Even though it had existed for hundreds of years, it had not been developed too much, and many places still retained their most original appearance.
The deeper you go, the denser and thicker the trees become. Even the trunks are covered with moss. The branches hang high, blocking out the sun. Apart from the sound of the bus moving, the only sound you can hear is the occasional bird calls from afar.
It's eerily quiet.
Li Yiqing approached Qi Qiuxue silently, seeming a little nervous, but perhaps affected by the atmosphere, she did not dare to speak from beginning to end.
Qi Qiuxue didn't say anything either. She was concentrating on paying attention to every turn the bus made, trying to remember the route from the museum to the next attraction. However, it was too difficult. The field of vision was full of trees, which were almost identical and indistinguishable. It was difficult to find any key memory points. What's more, the human eye easily fatigues when faced with a single color, which greatly reduces concentration and makes it even more difficult to remember.
The bus drove for about another half an hour and finally slowly stopped by the roadside.
"This section of the road is quite narrow, so we need to walk." Xiaoxiao instructed the driver to open the door and blew the whistle on his chest, "Let's go."
"Why are you leaving again?" Li Yiqing's face turned grim as he began to grumble, "This place is almost like a primeval forest. There's so much grass and trees. There must be bugs everywhere, and maybe even snakes. What if I get bitten?"
She said pitifully: "Axue, I'm scared."
Qi Qiuxue sighed, still upset about not remembering the route: "Then be careful."
"Oh." Li Yiqing nodded, took a few quick steps and followed Qi Qiuxue out of the car, still like a little tail.
Liu Ge met up with the two people while walking. They followed Xiaoxiao's guidance and moved forward through a narrow tunnel. At the end of the road, they saw a temple.
It was a huge temple, covering a large area, with exquisite shape, carved beams and painted pillars. It was obvious that great care must have been taken in its construction. However, this temple was located in such a remote place, and the overall color was mainly dark colors such as black and gray. At first glance, it did not make people feel solemn and magnificent, but only weird.
"This is the place where we hold sacrifices on our island." Xiaoxiao introduced the temple to everyone as they walked. "The gods enshrined in the temple are those we have believed in for generations. According to the rules, every time a tourist comes to the island, they must come here and pay their respects sincerely."
"Pray to Buddha?" someone in the crowd muttered quietly, "But I don't believe in Buddhism."
The voice was not loud, but Xiaoxiao still heard it. The next second, Xiaoxiao suddenly turned around, staring at him straight in the eyes, with a scornful smile on the corner of her lips: "You don't have to worship, but if anything happens in the future, we will not be responsible."
This statement is almost equivalent to saying that if you don't worship, you will die.
The man shut his mouth and dared not speak anymore.
They all entered the temple together. The temple was indeed very large. Even though it could accommodate so many people, it did not feel crowded. The closer they got, the clearer the statues enshrined inside became.
Qi Qiuxue found that the statue was very strange, extremely strange. It had no face, but instead a pitch-black mask. The statue was sitting cross-legged, and except for the parts covered by clothes, the rest of the exposed skin was covered with inscriptions, line after line, densely packed, and extremely terrifying.
The temple was dimly lit and thick with smoke, which greatly affected vision. The longer she stayed, the blurrier her vision became. Qi Qiuxue's eyes were blurry, and she seemed to be hallucinating. She saw that the inscriptions engraved on the statues actually began to wriggle, like a group of disgusting insects, twitching, climbing, and gathering together...
Then, it suddenly shattered, turning into streams of blood gushing out.
【Author’s words】
qwq
Thanks to the little angel who threw the rocket launcher: Shi Yi 1;
Thanks to the little angel who threw the grenade: Shi Yi 1;
Thanks to the little angels who cast mines: Langli's Dog, Qiu Lang is a beautiful fairy, creeping grass, Internet addiction, spicy rabbit, and dog in arms;
Thanks to the little angels who irrigated the nutrient solution: 27 bottles of Sanyuyuyu; 1 bottle of Yikelongan;
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