Chapter 163
Chapter 163
Kojima rushed upstairs just as Cheng Miao finished setting the fire. Rage had burned away his reason. Without considering whether he could defeat the three people before him, he charged with his knife.
Cheng Miao already held the Kun-Bone Dagger. With a beautiful parry, she blocked Kojima’s blade, then delivered a textbook front kick directly into the wound on his abdomen.
Time was short. Cheng Miao did not prolong the fight. She grabbed Qiudong and Qi Jiajia and ran downstairs.
Qi Jiajia looked back as she ran. Thick black hair surged from her hand and entangled the terrified Kojima. She gave him a twisted smile.
Only when Cheng Miao reached the living room did she discover that Lin Zhu had already opened the gate. But countless oil paintings blocked the doorway, while Qin Musong and Jiang Chen were locked in an evenly matched battle with Yuko.
Cheng Miao’s thoughts raced. She looked back at Qi Jiajia. “Is Kojima dead?”
Qi Jiajia sensed him. “He’s still breathing.”
Cheng Miao nodded. “Bring him down.”
Qi Jiajia jerked the hair in her hand. Wrapped in a dense cocoon of black strands, Kojima fell from the third floor.
Without the slightest hesitation, Cheng Miao told Qi Jiajia to withdraw Shen Xin’s hair. Then she gripped the frame of the living room painting Yuko had possessed and removed the original work.
She slammed the entire painting down over Kojima’s head. By the time Kojima understood what had happened, he was sitting amid the torn canvas, painful cold surrounding his body.
Inside the castle, no one understood Yuko’s killing taboo better than Kojima.
Not once in three years had he violated it, leaving Yuko unable to kill him.
After the players arrived, their role as sacrifices placed them ahead of Kojima in the order of death, allowing him to escape again and again.
Now Cheng Miao had smashed the original painting, the one filled with Yuko’s most intense resentment, directly onto Kojima.
In an instant, Yuko disengaged from Qin Musong and Jiang Chen and glided like a shadow to the still-stunned Kojima’s side.
Crack… Crack… Crack…
The sound of bones shifting out of place jolted Kojima’s fleeing wits back into his body. He raised his head blankly and stared at Yuko inches away. His face contorted for a long moment before a shriek finally forced its way out of his throat.
Kojima’s scream gradually became an agonized howl. Cheng Miao did not look back. Nor did she bother with Gu Jian, who remained seated to enjoy an up-close view of a ghost tormenting a scumbag. She led her people toward the exit.
The gate stood open. Once Yuko’s attention shifted to Kojima, the paintings blocking it fell away.
But outside lay complete darkness, with none of the light or instructions that usually appeared after an instance. Yun Su and Xiao Wen remained at the entrance, afraid to step outside.
Cheng Miao had never encountered this situation either. She looked at the group gathered by the gate.
Other than the two experts, Qiudong and Jiang Chen, who remained perfectly calm, Qin Musong was steady by nature and Qi Jiajia cared little about life or death. Everyone else was more or less panicking.
In a flash, Cheng Miao remembered their arrival. They had only found the castle in the dense forest by following the lights hanging in the trees.
Perhaps they needed to leave the same way…?
Cheng Miao narrowed her eyes and leaned into the darkness. Sure enough, she saw a speck of light in the thick blackness.
Silently cursing the instance’s deviousness, she told Qin Musong to carry Qi Jiajia on his back, then charged out of the castle first.
Yun Su and Xiao Wen stared as the group ran outside without looking back. Afraid they would truly run out of time if they hesitated any longer, Yun Su gritted her teeth and rushed into the darkness too.
Hearing the screams behind her grow steadily more agonized, Xiao Wen feared being abandoned. She glanced back at Gu Jian, the only person left alone with the ghost, and found him utterly unruffled.
There was no time to admire him. Xiao Wen ran through the gate after the others.
Only after plunging into the darkness did Xiao Wen discover that she could still see.
She could make out the people ahead and hear scraping sounds, some distant and some close, coming through the blackness.
It sounded as though someone was crawling across the ground, dragging a broken body as it drew steadily nearer.
Yun Su was directly ahead of her. Farther forward, a dim lamp did indeed hang nearby. Cheng Miao’s group had not run far, and everyone soon gathered together again.
Xiao Wen forced herself to keep up. Just as the taste of blood rose in her throat, she saw Yun Su stumble and fall ahead of her.
Without time for further thought, Xiao Wen immediately bent down and used all her strength to help Yun Su up.
There was no time for thanks. The moment Yun Su regained her feet, she continued running.
They were close!
Almost there!
Suddenly, Xiao Wen screamed from the back of the group.
Everyone turned. A bruised, purplish hand had reached from the darkness. Its arm was broken backward at the elbow, and it clutched Xiao Wen’s ankle in an iron grip.
Tears streaked Xiao Wen’s face. She reached toward Yun Su, the nearest person, hoping the woman would help.
Yun Su’s heart pounded violently. She looked at the hand around Xiao Wen’s ankle, then turned toward the light just ahead.
Gritting her teeth, she turned away and plunged into the light.
Xiao Wen stared in disbelief as Yun Su resolutely abandoned her and left the instance. The hand around her ankle was unnaturally strong, and without an Item, she had no hope of escaping.
Despair filled Xiao Wen’s face. Just as she prepared to close her eyes and stop resisting, a rapid volley of gunshots exploded through the darkness. The hand around her ankle instantly loosened.
Still dazed, she looked up and saw Qin Musong aiming his gun at her, while Cheng Miao shoved Lin Zhu into the light first and prepared to turn back for her.
Qiudong saw Cheng Miao’s intention and frowned. “Stay there. I’ll go.”
Her safety might be threatened, so contribution settlement no longer mattered.
Qiudong reached Xiao Wen in two strides. Without the slightest gentleness, he seized one of her hands and dragged her toward the light.
Xiao Wen stumbled along with his pull. Even after entering the settlement space, she could hardly believe she had survived.
“Whew. It’s finally over.”
Only after everyone returned to the settlement space did Lin Zhu breathe a sigh of relief. They could not see one another in the darkness, but they knew everyone was present.
“Sister Miaomiao, did Xiao Wen make it in at the end?” Lin Zhu had been shoved into the light first and had not seen what followed.
“She’s here.”
Cheng Miao waited idly in the darkness for settlement, wondering how Gu Jian would escape once the entire path was packed with severed limbs.
But Gu Jian hardly needed her concern.
“That Yun Su… I even saw her fall and Xiao Wen help her up, but she still left so decisively.”
Cheng Miao was quiet for a moment before answering. “Everyone makes their own choices. She didn’t deliberately hurt anyone, so we can’t say she was wrong.”
Qin Musong added in an instructive tone, “As long as they don’t harm anyone else, people have to ensure their own safety first. Yun Su’s choice was inhumane, but we have no right to condemn her.”
“I know, I know,” Lin Zhu hurried to explain. “It just makes me a little uncomfortable.”
Qi Jiajia and Qiudong remained silent in the darkness.
They were actually the same kind of people as Yun Su. The difference was that if Xiao Wen had helped Qi Jiajia, Qi Jiajia would certainly have repaid the favor.
Qiudong, on the other hand, would never need anyone’s help.
But without Cheng Miao and the others, neither of them would have been kind enough to extend a hand.
“Ding! Settlement complete.”