Chapter 61 Circle (Nine) The game isn't over yet.
Xia Zhu restored all the opened drawers one by one.
They are not exactly the same.
These bodies should be sorted by time of death. Although there is no explicit code, reasonable guesses can be made based on the degree of damage to the bodies.
From left to right, the damage to the corpses gradually decreased until the two drawers Xia Zhu initially opened appeared to be completely asleep. The corpse on the far left was likely the one left from the very beginning of the cycle.
Because these corpses not only had varying degrees of mutilation, but their facial expressions were also filled with grotesque and terrifying expressions.
Perhaps at the beginning, this dream was still a nightmare for the dreamer.
As for what happened later, perhaps due to the excessive number of cycles and being trapped in nightmares for too long, the demons eventually took shape and began to use the death trigger conditions to play a looping game, until finally an unknown official entered the dream and trapped them to death in the dream.
The cycle may not be able to directly kill the unknown official, but the mental torment can keep them trapped in their dreams forever with self-doubt. This is the purpose of the spirit, which is why it is willing to kill itself again and again.
Xia Zhu sat down again below the pool, where Number 2 was already waiting.
"Do you know who Liang is now? You'll only be truly amazed when you see it for yourself."
"That's right, so the most crucial question now is how we can get back to that time loop."
Although the two morgues are exactly the same, this mental hospital is a completely independent space, outside the cycle.
"Number 1 said that every time a loop begins, the entire dream world will overlap for ten seconds. She reminded me of that first time by pressing the elevator button during those ten seconds of darkness. So, we have to make the most of those crucial ten seconds."
So that's how it is. Before each cycle begins, there's a ten-second reset period. Number 3, clutching the prescription, suddenly seemed to remember something and drew a circle on the paper with a pen.
“I saw a map on the wall of the lobby on the first floor of the circular space before. The map marked the location of the morgue with a circle. Now we know that one of the emergencies is that the survivors return to the starting point via the elevator. So, can we imagine it like this?” She drew three circles from top to bottom on the paper.
"Each cycle forms a circle in this dream. For example, at this moment, the three cycles have created three circles that exist simultaneously in different spaces. And what connects the three circles is the elevator."
She drew a rectangle representing an elevator between the three circles.
"Since the sole survivor in each timeline takes the elevator to the next timeline to trigger the loop, even if these circles still exist in the dream, they are essentially useless and can be ignored because there are no players participating in the game."
She wrote her guess on the prescription and passed it through the hole.
While waiting, Number 3 stood up, walked out of the bathroom and into the ward. She turned her head and looked around, her gaze finally settling on the window.
When she returned to the bathroom, the prescription was already placed at the entrance of the room.
"Neither Number 1 nor I had ever reached the lobby on the first floor before, so this is a crucial piece of information. If we can reach the elevator on the -1 floor within those ten overlapping seconds, we might be able to take the connection to the newly started loop, find the monster, and kill it."
Number 3 wrote down his ideas on how to use those ten seconds on a piece of paper and sent it to the cave entrance. After a while, he received a reply from the other side.
"This cycle hasn't even started yet. It seems that Xia Zhu, number 4, has gone further than us. What did you do?"
Number 3 remembered the green cloth that was tucked into the gap of the drawer.
“I left her a clue.” She simply drew a cloth bag embroidered with maple leaves after the text.
She knew that whichever version of herself emerged from which cycle would instantly understand what she was trying to say. So, on the returned prescription, she simply wrote four words.
"As expected of me."
Xia Zhu No. 3 put the note away. Although she still couldn't fully understand the logic of the split, she always believed in herself. Now all she had to do was wait for Xia Zhu No. 4 to wake up in the other bed next door and wait for those ten seconds of overlap.
No matter how many hints are given, Liang is still the mole with the memory loop, so he will definitely try to make the other players die until only one person is left.
So the next cycle won't be too long. Number 3 locked his own ward from the inside and, following the refresh order given by Number 1, climbed out the window into the ward next door and hid under the bed.
No matter how realistically this world is portrayed, those doctors and nurses are nothing more than a bunch of walking corpses under the command of demons, pseudo-humans woven by programs.
The patient escaped and disappeared. No matter how hard you search, you won't find the room where Xia Zhu was hiding.
Because in the setting, this empty room is reserved for the next unlucky soul who is about to be deceived by the false world.
While lying on the floor waiting, Number 3 covered his eyes with a piece of cloth torn from his clothes, trying to slow his breathing and clear his mind of all distractions. Time would pass unnoticed, and stopping thinking would actually sharpen his senses.
So, when the surroundings were plunged into darkness and nothingness, and the weight of another person appeared on the bed directly above, Number 3 instantly opened his eyes.
She slid out from under the bed, rolled over, and grabbed the wrist of the person on the bed.
Even though the world is now pitch black, just in case, she made a pact with Number 1 and Number 2 to each blindfold themselves, leaving only Number 4 as their eye.
The person in bed woke up the moment they were touched.
Her very first words made Number 3 realize that the clues she had left behind were useful enough that Number 4, Xia Zhu, had figured out the truth before any of them.
That's the question she asked.
Who is Liang?
They were not afraid of their current situation, nor did they question the person who looked exactly like them.
Number 3 didn't answer her, but instead pulled her out of bed and led her to the window. Surprisingly, she didn't suspect anything and stood on the windowsill with Number 3.
Even without a ray of light, the night wind still blew generously against their faces. On the windowsill, just a window away from the two of them, stood two other Xia Zhus, also blindfolded with strips of cloth.
"Now, you are our eyes."
The voices of the three Xia Zhus came at the same time. This No. 4, who had just woken up, had not participated in any communication. When she heard her own firm voice in her ear, she also felt a strange trust and courage. Holding that all-too-familiar hand, she jumped into the night wind.
The wind whistled in their ears, and the ten seconds seemed to stretch out infinitely during the descent. Number Four, acting as the eyes, perhaps felt a strange sense of responsibility, and desperately opened his eyes during the rapid fall, trying to glimpse the truth for the others.
Darkness distorts in the wind, the sun, moon and stars rotate in an instant, and time and space are stretched to the extreme like a clump of mixed cotton candy, while the light symbolizing hope pierces out like a sharp sword from behind the curtain.
Four people landed simultaneously. Perhaps their internal organs were crushed and deformed, perhaps most of their bones were shattered. Indescribable pain rose from every limb and bone. The mortal body is so fragile, yet the mortal body…
They stood up; success or failure was a matter of life and death, and there was no time to be afraid.
"Go to the elevator!" someone shouted, though it was unclear which number it was.
"No need to go to the elevator."
Number Four pulled his own hand to the person next to him and pointed his finger toward the sunrise in the east.
Sunlight touched her fingertips.
"We have arrived in a new cyclical world."
What is a miracle? It is something that is absolutely impossible according to the laws of nature and statistics. It is the ability to rewrite the predetermined outcome with a faith that transcends the mortal body; it is the courage to do the impossible.
It is human courage.
The four summer candles, supporting each other, dragged their broken, withered bodies over the windowsill, through the cold ward, and out of the familiar corridor.
Number Four, the only one whose eyes weren't covered, saw the figure with his back to them from afar. Number Five stood in the morning light, a small sword in her right hand and Ying Huo's hand tightly in her left, ignoring his terrified expression. She stood resolutely in the pool of blood, as if waiting for something. Familiar figures lay at their feet.
Number Four remembered that after seeing the mugwort sachet left by her other self, she quickly sorted out everything, leaving only a sentence in red ink on the wall at the corner of the third floor.
"Let him live."
The fact that Ying Huo was standing perfectly fine in the hall at this moment meant that Number 5 understood his meaning.
In any case, as long as two people are alive, this round of the game will not end.
Even when facing herself, Number 4 couldn't imagine what kind of courage it would take to firmly believe in a vague and ethereal guidance from an unknown world, watching helplessly as her companions fell one by one before her eyes, and all she could do was trust and wait.
Number 4 released the hand of the person next to him and said softly, "This is it, right in front of us. Run there like your life depends on it."
With unparalleled tacit understanding, the four of them ran towards the retreating figure of Number 5. The closer they got to their fifth selves, the fainter their figures became, eventually transforming into a hazy, smoky silhouette under the sunlight.
Standing still, Xia Zhu seemed to sense something. She forced herself not to turn around, and instead gripped the sword and the man's hand tightly once more.
Like a track and field competition, four well-deserved champions would touch the finish line of hope together under the dazzling morning sun. They all grasped Xia Zhu's shoulders, and in an instant, the four figures turned into particles of light and scattered into the sunlight, while the memories of the first four cycles flooded into Xia Zhu's body like a tide.
"Go."
In a daze, she heard a voice speaking in her ear, a voice that was both familiar and firm.
Xia Zhu blinked, readjusting the lens to its position in her pupils. She released her grip on Ying Huo's hand, grasped the sword hilt with both hands, and strode straight toward a corpse lying quietly in a pool of blood.
She raised the sword above her head, and that familiar yet serene face made her feel utterly disgusted.
"The game is over," she said calmly, then plunged the small sword into Liang's chest.
The sunlight outside the window suddenly surged, and huge shadows seemed to sweep across the window again and again, leaving shimmering light and shadow in the hall. The thick blood on the ground began to divert and reverse, returning to their respective bodies. Blinding spots of light flew through the corridor and into the empty hall, hurriedly finding the correct body and finally being injected into it.
Even the stitched-together corpse lying on the floor slowly shrank and differentiated in the stream of light, eventually turning into three ordinary little animals.
A fluffy little dog, a rabbit with long ears, and a tiny mouse the size of a palm.
The warm sunlight shone on their lifeless, limp bodies.
"What...what's going on?" Feng Feng was the first to wake up, her voice sounding like she had just woken up. Before she could get an answer, all the memories of being killed in the loop returned. After a moment of stunned silence, she angrily crawled to Xia Zhu's side and kicked the monster on the ground hard.
The others gradually regained their memories and woke up, and the NPC corpses on the ground turned into dust and emerged from the windows.
Everything is gradually returning to normal.
"That's not right." Feng Feng stared at the monster on the ground. "Without the stone, is the dream still not over?"
Just as Xia Zhu was about to speak, the corpse on the ground suddenly opened its eyes, and a disgusting and eerie smile appeared on its lips.
"You still managed to find it."
The voice of the demon was eerie and cold, as if it were breathing into your ear.
-----------------------
Author's Note: I tried it with a timer, and ten seconds is really a bit short. It feels completely impossible to do so much in such a short time; it's a bit exaggerated, but! That's the exaggerated part!
Continue read on readnovelmtl.com
