Chapter 38
Chapter 38
Everyone quickened their pace and rushed to the first floor.
Only one studio had its lights on: the one marked with a picture of a white house, which belonged to Tang Weiqi and Aunt Wang.
That was where the sound was coming from.
“Holy shit! Stay away from me!”
The swish of Old Mo’s baseball bat and his panicked screams echoed through the hallway.
When the others arrived, they found Aunt Wang crouched on all fours in a grotesquely twisted posture, chewing ceaselessly on something in her hands.
Her hair was not long, but its black strands trailed across the floor like raven feathers in the night, radiating a sinister chill.
The corners of her mouth curled into an eerie smile that made their scalps prickle and cold run down their spines.
“What’s wrong with her?” Tang Weiqi asked, breathless as he ran to Old Mo’s side.
Aunt Wang seemed not to notice him. She kept clutching something to her chest and eating it, chewing so loudly it sounded as if her teeth might shatter.
Old Mo sagged with relief at the sight of the others. The burly man looked ready to burst into tears right there.
“I don’t know. She was already like this when I got here. She keeps eating something, and whenever I go near her, she thinks I’m trying to steal it and attacks me. As long as I stay back, she leaves me alone.”
Only Old Mo and Aunt Wang were inside the studio. Xiao Huai was nowhere to be seen.
Just as Tang Weiqi was about to ask where he had gone, Xiao Huai entered from behind them.
His eyes were lowered, and he carried a black bag in one hand.
“Xiao Huai? Where did you go? Lu Yuanshi said you’d already come downstairs,” Tang Weiqi asked hastily.
Xiao Huai looked at Aunt Wang on the floor and answered lazily, “To get something she likes, of course.”
“What?” Tang Weiqi looked bewildered. Lu Yuanshi, however, watched Xiao Huai with keen interest from beside him.
His gaze never left Xiao Huai for a moment.
Aunt Wang’s eyes were lifeless, glowing with an unnatural gray light.
Xiao Huai had seen eyes like those before.
Liu Tongtong’s eyes had glowed gray just before she died.
He drew a soft breath and, sure enough, detected the faint scent of sea salt.
“She’s been contaminated,” Xiao Huai said quietly.
The others froze. “What did you say? She’s been contaminated? When? How?”
Old Mo could not help blurting out the questions. He had no idea what was happening.
Aunt Wang had been with them throughout the journey. If she had been contaminated, what about the rest of them?
Were they at risk as well?
Xiao Huai crouched down and regarded Aunt Wang calmly, his eyes cold and devoid of emotion.
He opened the black bag and took out a black diamond. Everyone stared in surprise.
This was not one of the rough diamonds Victoria had given them. Those had been transparent, while this rough stone bore the color she had called the most beautiful in the world.
And Xiao Huai had an entire bag of them?!
The instant he produced the black diamond, Aunt Wang’s eyes blazed. She lunged at him like a madwoman.
Xiao Huai shifted slightly to the right, evading her charge. Rather than engage her, he simply tossed the black diamond onto the floor.
Aunt Wang had never been after him. Her target was the diamond.
Like a survivor in the desert who had finally found water, tears streamed from her eyes the moment she seized it.
Her face radiant with bliss, she stuffed the black diamond into her mouth and began chewing furiously.
Crunch. Crunch. The noise was excruciating.
As she bit down again and again, blood began pouring from her mouth. She paid it no attention, devouring the diamond as though it were the finest delicacy in the world.
Uncle Li frowned and said in disgust, “That’s a diamond. The hardest substance in the world. How can human teeth possibly bite through it?”
“No, look at her teeth. They’ve changed,” Tang Weiqi said, noticing that Aunt Wang’s teeth no longer resembled those of an ordinary human.
Xiao Huai rose to his feet. “She should return to normal soon.”
He had just started toward the door when Tang Weiqi grabbed his arm. Xiao Huai frowned, but a figure was already standing between them.
Lu Yuanshi clamped a hand around the wrist with which Tang Weiqi held Xiao Huai. His grip was so powerful that Tang Weiqi hissed in pain and immediately jerked his hand away.
“If you want to ask something, then ask. There’s no need to grab me,” Xiao Huai said coldly, his gaze flicking almost imperceptibly toward Lu Yuanshi.
Lu Yuanshi looked no different than before, his expression still careless and languid.
Tang Weiqi had come off worse but could hardly protest. He had been the first to lay hands on Xiao Huai. He simply had not expected the two men to be on the same side after pretending not to know each other before.
Would a stranger have used that much force on him?
“Sorry.” Tang Weiqi apologized first, then returned to the matter at hand. “Xiao Huai, fate put us on the same team. If you know something, why not share it with us? We’re all human, at least.”
A cold smile touched Xiao Huai’s lips, lending a sinister edge to his refined features.
“Then let me ask you a question. Which is worse: living as a monster, or dying as a good person?”
Tang Weiqi was baffled. “What does that have to do with what I asked?”
“Everything.” Xiao Huai chuckled. “She chose to live as a monster. So did Liu Tongtong. Those are the same two choices we’ve been given.”
He tipped his chin up, his smile at once self-mocking and defiant.
“We’re called temporary workers, but are we really here to design jewelry, or have we been imprisoned? Don’t tell me you haven’t figured that out. It’s not that we’re forbidden from entering the town. The townspeople are afraid of us because we’re monsters, or monsters in waiting.
“From the very beginning, any one of us could have become a monster: one of the diamond fiends Victoria mentioned. Every diamond fiend in this instance was once a player.”
[Ding! Congratulations to player Xiao Huai for discovering True Worldline Fragment I.]
[Fragment I Note: Are those locked inside an asylum madmen or geniuses? Am I the one who’s insane, or is everyone else abnormal?]
Every player’s system interface sounded with the notification congratulating Xiao Huai on uncovering part of the world’s truth.
Tang Weiqi, Old Mo, and Uncle Li stared at the handsome man before them in disbelief.
While they were still confused by everything in the game, unable to make sense of what was happening, Xiao Huai had already uncovered a clue to the true worldline…
He had even obtained a key item.
“Handsome, are you really a player from a second-floor instance?” Old Mo could not shake the feeling that Xiao Huai was far too capable to be a novice.
Xiao Huai was about to toss out some casual answer when Lu Yuanshi spoke.
His rich, magnetic voice fell upon their ears.
Quietly, he asked the same question. “And you? What would you choose: living as a monster, or dying as a good person?”