chapter 127
A Photo Frame was pushed out through the gap. Luo Jia Bai used his foot to shove it aside. Only after Lu Li had crawled out too did he finally let go, sagging with exhaustion.
“The countdown’s almost over.”
Up on the table, they had to squat and keep their bodies low just to maintain their balance. Cocoons slammed down from the ceiling one after another. Every time one burst, a sharp, grating chorus of belittlement and abuse screamed out from within.
“What does it say on the Photo Frame?”
“The one on the left looks like a human handprint. The one on the right-could that be a Rabbit’s paw? And there are two black dots smeared together at the bottom. It feels like the Rabbit’s name!”
Lu Li took out the lens and aimed it at the Photo Frame. The writing instantly became clear:
[Medication Compliance Agreement]
Party A: the girl’s handprint.
Party B: the Rabbit’s pawprint.
Party B also had a signature: Battery.
Lu Li stacked the Photo Frame, the Felt Rabbit, and the Grass Ball together and asked, “Your name is Battery, right?”
The countdown on the Wristband stopped. The nightmare shattered into fragments and ended.
This floor was terrifyingly empty as well. A strangely shaped girl lay on the ground. Two completely asymmetrical Rabbit ears sat atop her head. She rubbed her eyes as she pushed herself up, then looked at Lu Li. “You called my name? Other than her, you’re the second person to call me by my name.”
When she tried to stand, she staggered. Her left leg seemed to have no feeling at all. With a heavy thump, she pitched back to the floor.
One ear stood upright like normal. The other had been torn open at the root, leaving wounds and bloodstains, drooping down like a strip of skin with no sensation.
Luo Jia Bai crouched in front of her and offered a hand, helping her shift into a more comfortable seated position.
“Is the wish you want the Crown of Happiness to grant-no more wounds?”
“Of course not something that trivial. This little injury is nothing.” Battery fumbled under herself. With a clatter, she spilled pills all over the ground. Still searching, she finally yanked out several sheets of paper. “Everything I want to wish for-I wrote it down.”
Luo Jia Bai accepted them with a complicated look and read along with the others.
A flyer lay folded at the very bottom. On top of it were several Diary pages:
[?? Diary]
[Being with her was the happiest time of my life. I didn’t need to learn to spin in circles, and I didn’t need to learn to shake hands. She would still give me food, and all sorts of toys.]
[She’s always crying. I know she’s sick and needs to recuperate at home, so that’s why she has so much time to spend with me. Hurry and take your Medicine. Take your Medicine on time, and the illness will get better!]
[I really hate her family. One is a human child who only knows how to scream and cry, and the other is a bad woman who never stops nagging. The moment they speak, I can feel her negative emotions surging violently. Is this really a family?]
[Dad and Mom came home and stayed for a few days. Those two family members brought her lots of gifts. They’re actually not bad-just that they don’t stay by her side for long. Soon they leave again. The sunlight outside is wonderful today. I feel like lately, with me supervising her to take her Medicine on time, she’s recovered a little. She’s even smiling. Today she even took the initiative and said she wanted to go out for a walk. That’s great!]
[The bad woman shoved her to the ground and hit her. Then she grabbed my rope, cinched my neck, and sent me back to the room where I stayed at the beginning. The owner of this room is the little boy. I hate him. The high-decibel noise that comes out of his mouth makes my whole body hurt. He tore my ears to shreds. I bit him as hard as I could. His hand was covered in blood. Screaming, he threw me off the Second Floor balcony.]
[She rushed out and picked me up and took me back. She cried even harder every day, and she even started hurting herself. There was blood on her wrists and neck too! I stopped it once, but it kept happening again and again! What’s going on? Did the Medicine stop working? How can I make her illness get better? I’m worried every single day.]
[I found the world of happiness. The flyer described it so beautifully. Even though I didn’t pass the physical exam, I still have to make my wish come true! Dad and Mom came back these past two days. They’re with you every day, so I can leave for a few days too.]
[Now I’m only one step away from the Crown of Happiness. Wait for me. I’m coming back to find you.]
Lu Li flipped the flyer over and read Battery’s wish:
[Find Medicine that can completely cure the illness. If possible, please give me a few extra bottles! Sometimes when she’s in a bad mood, she refuses to take her Medicine, and she’ll even secretly throw it into the trash, so please-let there be a little extra. I’ll supervise her!]
“This is so damn hateful.” Luo Jia Bai handed the papers back to Battery, then furtively wiped his tears on his clothes. “If she can’t get out of that suffocating home environment, then her illness…”
It would never get better.
He couldn’t bring himself to say something that hopeless when he saw the bright, hopeful look in Battery’s eyes.
His Wristband buzzed with a notification, delivering good news that no one was in the mood to check:
[Key Item exploration progress: +1]
Mirella exchanged for two sheets of paper, bit her fingertip, and drew a sigil on each one.
Once the pattern was complete, the bloody bite on her finger vanished.
She crouched down and stuffed the two sheets into the little stack Battery was gripping so tightly. “If you ever get the chance to go back.”
“Put these two in the rooms of the two people you hate most.”
“They’ll get what they deserve.”
The more evil you do, the worse the backlash.
Battery clutched those two pieces of paper gratefully. “Thanks!”
Luo Jia Bai glanced back at Sun Hai and Xia Le, who were limping over, half leaning on each other. He turned to Lu Li, but before he could speak, Lu Li had already stepped forward to block their view for him.
“Let me take a look at your injuries. It won’t hurt.” Luo Jia Bai pressed his palms lightly to her ear and her leg. A glow of Ability flickered across his hands. He repeated, “It won’t hurt anymore. Ever.”
By the time Sun Hai and Xia Le finally reached them-
Luo Jia Bai let go. He lowered his voice to the wide‑eyed Battery. “You’ve got a hairline fracture. The way I heal, it’s a bit slow, but rest for half a day and you’ll be completely fine.”
“My ear’s standing up! And my leg doesn’t hurt as much… How did you do that? That’s amazing.” Battery brushed her long white rabbit ears against his matching pair, then whispered, “Are you a Rabbit? Or the god that protects us rabbits?”
Luo Jia Bai froze, at a loss for words for a long moment.
He hadn’t expected anyone to ask him that. It was the kind of conversation he’d always thought would only ever happen to Lu Li or Mirella.
Lu Li’s soft chuckle came from above his head as an arm wrapped around his shoulders.
Lu Li answered for him, taking on the question Luo Jia Bai had said would be hard to explain himself. “Yes, he’s the Protector God.”
The blunt answer hit him square in the chest. Luo Jia Bai’s face went hot in an instant. He scrambled to his feet, clapping his hands as if to shake off the embarrassment, and reached over to cover Lu Li’s mouth. “No, no, I’m not, don’t-”
“Thump, thump, thump!”
From the Players’ left came the same pounding noise they’d heard on the last floor. The wall of frosted glass-the only source of light here-was covered in countless hands, each one clutching a sheet of paper and hammering frantically.
Battery rubbed her still‑aching but slowly recovering leg, watching those hands with a sigh. “So many people want a Crown of Happiness. You’re here for it too, right?”
She raised an arm and pointed into the darkness overhead.
“Go up one more level and you’ll reach it.”
“I stayed on this floor a long time. There’s usually light shining down from the world of happiness above. But today, for some reason, it’s completely dark.”
“‘Missing Leg’ passed through here just yesterday. He didn’t rest at all, just kept climbing. I think he must’ve crawled into the world of happiness by now. He should’ve gotten a Crown of Happiness.” Battery’s eyes shone with yearning and envy. “Once I’ve rested and my leg stops hurting, I’ll keep climbing. I’m going to get the second one.”
The moment she finished speaking, more than half of the Black Mist on this level dissolved.
As she shuffled aside, a Pillar for climbing to the next level appeared behind her.
Luo Jia Bai walked forward a few steps before noticing Lu Li hadn’t followed. He looked back. “You’re not coming?”
“There’s something wrong with the glass.” Lu Li had gone to stand in front of it. He pressed his own palm against one of the hands on the other side.
For one or two seconds, his hand didn’t move at all.
The hand outside the glass, however, slid a short distance to the left.
Luo Jia Bai stared, utterly baffled. “What is that? It looks like the hand outside is moving backward.”
Lu Li pressed an ear to the glass, trying to make out what was being said beyond it. But every sound seemed muffled under a layer of dust-loud and noisy, yet not a single word distinct.
“Could be that the outside is moving backward.”
“Or it could be that we’re moving forward.”
After comparing several more handprints and getting the same result each time, he ventured a third guess. “Or maybe the entire space we’re in is drifting forward.”
His ear was still pressed to the glass when he suddenly heard two crisp lines of dialogue from the darkness on the next level up.
Two men were talking between yawns:
“Last toll station.”
“There’s a car that’s been on our tail the whole time. I think they called the cops. Step on it. Once we’re through this toll station, we’re free for good…”
Their voices cut off. Then Lu Li heard something crack.
He looked up.
The glass was spider‑webbing with hairline fractures, strained by the relentless pounding from the other side.