Chapter 54
Chapter 54
Just as the players were itching to act, a game notification suddenly sounded in their minds:
[Grotesque Game notification: Player Number Five has been eliminated.]
[Players remaining: five.]
[Grotesque Game mourns its advance team. Please continue your efforts to open up the instance and spread the great game will throughout this barren, evil space.]
The players in the massage parlor jolted. Five had… been eliminated?
Number Two couldn’t believe it. She had known there was danger, but hadn’t expected him to be eliminated so quickly.
Number Four patted Number Two’s shoulder, wanting to offer comfort.
But Number Two shook her head, covered her face, and began sobbing through streaming tears.
Seeing this, Number Three said viciously, “Captain, let’s just attack.”
“Grab Huang Jinsheng. Whether he’s fallen out with Zhao Xiuming or not, we can use him as a hostage.”
Grief showed on Number One’s face, but he hadn’t lost his reason. “We do need to grab Huang Jinsheng. And we have to kill him in front of Zhao Xiuming!”
“Activate the anomaly detector!”
The remaining players worked in orderly fashion. Yet the moment they activated the detector, they found the anomaly was right before them.
“What’s going on?”
“There’s an anomaly nearby?”
“Look over there. What… what is that?”
Number Six pointed behind them. The massage parlor’s curtains were drawn, and pink lights illuminated the room.
In the dim, gaudy room, a new door had appeared in a wall covered with decorations. It was dark green.
The handle turned slowly. Then the door opened a crack.
A foul, bloody stench drifted out, along with faint howls.
No. The howls were coming from the surveillance item’s feed.
The players whipped around, turning their eyes to the feed in the middle of the room.
A melee had broken out in the tea room. Strangely, the fighting wasn’t between Huang Jinsheng and the two gangs.
It was the Tianding Society and Longhu Society fighting each other. The players could only raise their arms and keep a tense watch on the green wooden door that had suddenly appeared.
Number One took the opportunity to review the surveillance recording, looking for what had happened during the few minutes their attention had wandered.
In the recording, a green door appeared from nowhere in a corner of the tea room and silently opened.
Nothing emerged from it. For no apparent reason, the humans in the tea room became confused and began behaving like lunatics.
Everyone turned intensely angry and violent. The Longhu Society’s Incense Master had been holding his gun against the little girl’s head.
Enraged by the Tianding Society’s Incense Master’s hypocritical peacemaking, he raised his gun and shot the Tianding Society boss.
The two had been working together, one playing good cop and the other bad cop, to deal with Huang Jinsheng.
The Longhu Society’s Incense Master’s sudden attack betrayed all sense of loyalty.
In the footage, the Longhu Society’s Incense Master stared in surprise at the gun in his hand.
Then he hardened his resolve. Having gone this far, he might as well see it through, and attacked outright.
The two gangs, already enemies and constantly at odds, began attacking each other.
In the footage, the dark green wooden door gradually disappeared from the tea room. The instant it vanished completely was the instant the green door reappeared before the players.
It was as though the strange door knew someone was spying and had come looking for them.
The underlings waiting outside the tea room heard the commotion, rushed in, and joined the fight.
On the surveillance feed, Huang Jinsheng and the little girl were trying to get away unharmed under the bodyguards’ protection. Moving against the crowd, they had already reached the tea room’s exit.
Everything happening was so bewildering that the players hadn’t yet recovered from the mental scramble of piecing together their clues.
Now their teammate’s death, the anomaly’s appearance, and the gangs’ sudden brawl left them drenched in sweat.
Captain Number One ordered sternly, “Redeem protective items. Follow me out and grab them.”
Some players followed. Others stayed where they were.
Number Two was one of those who hadn’t moved at all. “Captain.”
“Don’t you have anything to say?”
Number One felt anger flare in his chest. At a time like this, she was still wasting time talking nonsense?
Number Two said sorrowfully, “If the captain hadn’t made a mistake, Five wouldn’t have died.”
“You don’t know, do you, Captain? Five and I were dating.”
“We were going to get married after we collected our rewards for opening up this instance.”
“I told you. He couldn’t win on his own.”
“Why did you make him face Zhao Xiuming all alone? He must have been so lonely when he died.”
“Captain, let’s go down and keep Five company. Shall we?”
Clearly, the green door’s influence had already left Number Two confused and irrational.
Number One redeemed a protective item to use on her, but Number Two evaded it.
He urged, “Stop talking for a moment. Something’s wrong with your state of mind. That green door has affected you. Use the protective item and you’ll return to normal.”
Number Two’s eyes were red. “I think I’m perfectly clearheaded.”
She raised her weapon and attacked. The skin and flesh of her arm split open, revealing a mechanical gun barrel inside.
Number One hurriedly dodged. The other players tried to intervene. “Number Two, have you gone mad? You’re attacking the captain! Are you trying to betray the team? I won’t let you ruin our work opening up this instance. Die!”
“Captain! Give us the order to kill Number Two!”
“Dating was never allowed in the team. I’ve been sick of you two for ages. Five was useless, and you’re blaming the captain? After you kill him, are you going to blame us for Five’s death too? Will you only be satisfied when you’ve killed us all?”
The players began fighting. Their bodies had all been modified, combining flesh and machinery.
The high-tech weapons tore through the massage parlor. Furniture and everyday supplies alike were reduced to wreckage.
The unconscious masseuses, unable to move their bound hands and feet, woke with a start. The moment they regained consciousness, anger began filling their eyes.
One masseuse broke her own hand to escape her bonds, then hurriedly cut the rope around her feet with scissors.
Once free, she neither fled nor attacked the players. She ignored the feed the players had summoned.
Instead, she drove the scissors into a struggling coworker. “Always throwing your weight around and bullying me, weren’t you? Now I’ve got you! Ha ha…”
More and more masseuses broke free, going after those they had clashed with in the past.
“Stealing my clients with that pretty face? Today I’ll slash it to pieces!”
“Why did you say I reeked of the countryside? I just wanted to earn money for my mother’s treatment. Why did you dock my wages? Die!”
Howls and screams. Death and slaughter.
The chaos spread farther and farther, like water heating until it boiled.
Bones served as firewood, blood as fuel, simmering humanity’s seething anger and loathing.
A delicious broth long in the making, awaiting an unknown taster.
Still clearheaded, Number One intercepted the players attacking one another, trying to rescue his companions. He had no time at all to put away the surveillance item.
Naturally, he didn’t notice the little girl beside Huang Jinsheng at the tea room’s entrance lift his head and stare at something through the feed.
The “girl” smiled in satisfaction and took Huang Jinsheng’s trembling hand.
In the rented room, Zhao Xiuming heard screams and commotion outside. He knew a player was standing there.
But why had the player been attacked? He hadn’t done anything.
Zhao Xiuming opened the door. A player in a silver-white uniform toppled down, his face full of disbelief.
Zhao Xiuming saw the slit across his neck. His attacker was the woman he had once encountered at the Spirit Medium Hall.
“Auntie Hong?”
Zhao Xiuming said her name. That fierce woman he had met before held a knife, her eyes bloodshot.
She muttered, “This man… this man must have seen me killing my husband.”
“Did you see it too?”
“Kill your husband too. Then we’ll be the same, and I won’t have to kill you.”
Zhao Xiuming: “…”
“I could do that.”
“It’s just that I don’t seem to have a husband.”