chapter 126

The noise coming from inside the drawer grew louder and louder, and the desktop began to tremble along with it.

The Medicine box on the table tipped over.

That wildly hopping Rabbit mouth clamped down on the Medicine box, trying to pry it open.

The girl set the Felt Rabbit down. Another layer of the cocoon wrapped around her was peeled away, and dead, brittle twigs rattled down onto the tabletop, revealing her whole face.

She was so emaciated that her skin and flesh seemed caved in.

“It’s time to take Medicine.” The girl stuffed the tablets into her mouth while glancing toward the wall, as if checking the time.

Then she blinked, as if struck by a thought. “The clock’s Battery is dead. No wonder the time hasn’t changed for so long-like it died. Everything in this room is dead and stale.”

“You’re such a tiny Rabbit, and you actually have a sense of time.” The girl smiled for a moment.

But the smile vanished, replaced by pain.

She lifted both hands to her cheeks. Her fingernails lengthened, sharpening into points, and she stabbed them into the flesh of her face, gouging until bloody holes opened up.

The Medicine she had just swallowed slid back out through those holes, dropping onto the desk.

The Rabbit mouth bounced anxiously across the tabletop.

It caught the tablets as they fell and offered them back to the girl.

She swallowed again.

And again, the newly swallowed Medicine fell out through the holes.

Over and over, the same useless cycle.

The girl said quietly, “Taking Medicine doesn’t seem to help at all.”

“I don’t want to eat. I don’t want to talk to people. I just sit here spacing out, and a whole day passes.”

“Like a hollow tree that’s already withered.”

“So what, exactly, is keeping me alive?”

Something inside the drawer seemed to be kicking the underside of the desktop without stopping. The entire desk-along with the dream itself-began to sway.

Lu Li glanced at his Wristband. It showed the nightmare had entered its final countdown.

They had to wake the Nightmare Holder as soon as possible.

He walked to the edge of the tabletop and leaned down.

Near the top of the drawer was a long handle.

He grabbed it and yanked hard.

It opened.

Inside was pitch-black.

Once the drawer was pulled out, the sound coming from the far end became much clearer.

Luo Jia Bai crawled over and lay beside him, shining the Flashlight into the darkness.

But the beam seemed to be swallowed whole. It couldn’t illuminate anything.

He frowned and smacked the Flashlight a couple of times. “Out of power? Why isn’t it lighting up?”

“It’s an always-on Flashlight. It can’t be out of power,” Gu Yu Chu said coolly. “You should be questioning the stage mechanics, not whether my props are faulty.”

Lu Li let go of the drawer.

The massive rebound snapped it back with a gust of wind.

“There’s a third Item inside,” Lu Li said. “But someone has to go in and take it.”

Luo Jia Bai hurried over to pull the drawer as well.

His face turned red from the strain. He used every ounce of strength he had, and only managed to pull it open to about one-third of the width Lu Li had opened.

After holding it for a few seconds, he released it and collapsed to the floor, panting.

He stared at Lu Li-who had just yanked it open and still looked completely composed-and wheezed, “Holy… Lu Li, you’re seriously strong.”

Mirella tried too.

She could pull it open halfway.

Without Lu Li doing the pulling, it would take multiple people working together just to open a gap wide enough for someone to squeeze through.

Mirella removed her band. “I’ll go in. I can see in the dark.”

“We don’t know if the thing making that sound is a Monster,” Lu Li said, stopping her. “It’s too dangerous. I can also tell my way around in the dark.”

Then he looked at Luo Jia Bai. “You two, help me hold the drawer.”

Six hands hauled the drawer open.

Gu Yu Chu stepped in to help as well. With an extra person, the load on the other two eased considerably.

Lu Li slipped through the gap and entered the drawer.

He tried closing it once, then knocking on the drawer wall so they could open it again from the outside.

In the end, he abandoned the idea-because once the drawer shut, no sound could be heard from within at all.

The three of them had to keep holding the drawer open, ensuring this narrow path back would always exist for Lu Li.

Inside the drawer was absolute darkness.

Lu Li took a deep breath and walked forward.

Because of certain experiments, he had a very bad association with complete darkness.

It was also why, after entering the game, he needed some kind of light every night to fall asleep.

Back in those experiments, a Researcher had said, “Under these conditions, the upper limit for an ordinary human is four days. How long can he last? Today is already the eighth day, and his brain activity is still normal.”

The Researcher had also said, “We should try cutting off sound as well. Put him in an even smaller space-total sensory deprivation. Only then will the data be accurate.”

A distant voice overlapped with the Researcher’s voice, twisting together.

Luo Jia Bai called from outside, “Be careful! Is it deep in there?”

When Lu Li didn’t answer, Luo Jia Bai stuck his head into the gap and shouted into the darkness:

“It’s fine, no rush-take your time and look! Don’t let Gu Yu Chu being short fool you, he’s pretty strong. I think we can hold out for a long time!”

The ringing in Lu Li’s ears-like a hallucination-was drowned out.

His senses returned.

In the total black, his eyesight even seemed to sharpen a little.

He took another step forward.

His foot hit something.

Lu Li crouched and reached out to feel it.

From the point of contact, a gentle glow bloomed.

It was a Photo Frame.

It was made up of two handprints and some writing he couldn’t understand.

The light from the Photo Frame spread to every corner of the drawer-also illuminating the “Monster” that had been making noise all along.

It was a Rabbit’s foot.

Pressed against the top panel, it kicked again and again.

The instant the Photo Frame was found, the girl triggered the final segment of dialogue.

Her voice sounded much lighter now:

“Why are you always lying on the windowsill?”

“I haven’t gone out in a long time. I didn’t even know there was a patch of grass in our neighborhood.”

“The sunlight is really nice today. Do you want to go play on the grass?”

“I asked Dad to buy a leash this month. Then I can take you for a walk around the neighborhood.”

Her grandmother’s furious voice cut in abruptly.

“So it was in your hands! Isn’t this the Rabbit I bought for my grandson to play with?”

“You’ve been cooped up in your room all this time. If you hadn’t come out on your own today, I wouldn’t even have known you stole the Rabbit!”

“Give it to me!”

“This is outrageous-how dare you fight back?”

“Hand over the leash!”

“You steal my grandson’s things and you still think you’re in the right?”

“All these years I haven’t hit you. I’ve been enduring your existence-dragging me down, dragging this whole family down!”

“Do you believe me when I say I’ll really hit someone today?!”

As the argument erupted and escalated, the drawer began to shake violently.

Cracks spread across it.

“Lu Li!” someone yelled. “Get out, now! The drawer’s going to collapse!”