Chapter 76

The ring of light lit a few faceless monsters — some standing, some crouched, their limbs twisted as if fixed in place, eerie and yet a little comical.

Liu Zhiyi thought of the light that had shone on her just now.

This light didn't tell friend from foe — it froze them all.

Shen Songyue: "Honestly, I don't much want to fight you."

Liu Zhiyi said nothing.

She saw the ring of light swing left and right, and the direction of its swinging followed the run of the red thread.

Liu Zhiyi found Shen Songyue's vision seemed poor now; the light had passed over the red thread several times and Shen Songyue hadn't seen it.

But Shen Songyue clearly knew where the cat's body was buried; even if she couldn't find her for the moment, in the end she could just lie in wait near the cat's body and catch her.

After thinking a while —

Liu Zhiyi searched through her props for something that could trap Shen Songyue for a time.

A pity — she had only the hanger prop to open up distance, with the side effect of being certain to be caught next time.

Shen Songyue: "I know you can locate the cat's position, and I definitely won't let you past. I'll give you back that line of yours: if you want to get past, then kill me."

That was the bad thing about knowing someone.

You both understood, perfectly well, that neither of you could bring yourself to.

But the words were the words, and the ring of light sweeping the ground left and right hadn't slowed.

Not only that — a rising and falling chorus of "ah" sounds came out of the dark.

Honestly, these sounds were a little funny.

But the white rings spreading one after another in the dark, and the gray-white humanoid monsters drawing near, closed inward in an encircling ring.

Shen Songyue: "Finding you is only a matter of time."

Liu Zhiyi got up off the ground.

She turned her head and looked ahead along the beam of light, and saw a glowing phone screen.

The beam shooting straight out of the phone screen lit only a narrow ring.

Was this Shen Songyue's field of view?

Liu Zhiyi first quickly confirmed the positions of the monsters around her; they moved slowly, but on hearing a sound she made, they moved extremely fast — the last few times she'd been surrounded were because she'd made a sound.

But their eyes were very poor.

So was Shen Songyue — maybe because the phone was rectangular, it wasn't easy to lower her head, and the screen faced forward the whole time.

Liu Zhiyi crouched.

However careful you are, walking makes some sound, but those monsters were always shrieking "ah, ah," and besides, Shen Songyue really did talk a lot.

Shen Songyue: "Did you quit your job? Looks like you've been off a good while."

Liu Zhiyi began moving as she spoke, closing the distance; hearing that line she rather wanted to shoot something back, but held it in.

As she drew nearer, Shen Songyue was still chattering, but the beam thrown from the phone screen swung back and forth faster and faster.

Shen Songyue was getting anxious.

Watching from this angle was rather interesting — like entering a ghost's point of view to frighten someone.

Approaching without a sound, treading in Shen Songyue's blind spots, she stepped up bit by bit until she stood right before her.

The whole approach went so smoothly it was almost unbelievable.

Liu Zhiyi crouched in front of Shen Songyue and looked up.

From this angle, she could see the neck joined to the phone screen had taken on a metallic sheen.

Liu Zhiyi hesitated; Shen Songyue was right, the two of them weren't at a life-and-death point — their relationship could even be called good.

But while she hesitated, Shen Songyue's screen flickered, an image showing.

It seemed to be some TV channel playing news.

Army-green vehicle after vehicle driving into Yiling, the scene cutting to volunteers gathering in the city.

Shen Songyue: "Looks like a lot of people have come."

As her words fell, glowing threads fell from above; Liu Zhiyi could see some of them joined to the gray-white monsters.

Shen Songyue: "But it's no use."

The monsters' cries broke off, and then a faint air-sound came out of their holes.

"…Help."

The monsters crying help suddenly turned their heads and scattered, running off.

Shen Songyue: "Guess — will these people 'see death and not save'?"

In that moment, Liu Zhiyi felt an enormous anger; she raised the scissors and stabbed hard at the phone screen.

—Crack.

The sound of the screen splitting rang out; Shen Songyue, wearing the phone with its cracked corner, threw the light onto Liu Zhiyi.

"A pity — you still couldn't bring yourself to be ruthless."

Held in the light, Liu Zhiyi couldn't move at all.

Shen Songyue covered the crackling, sparking phone screen.

"They're all good people. In this world, only good people are so easily fooled."

Liu Zhiyi wanted to speak, but with the light on her she couldn't even move her tongue.

From somewhere, Shen Songyue produced a strip of tape and stuck it over the break in the screen, then bent down and gripped Liu Zhiyi's arm.

She dragged Liu Zhiyi back a stretch; the sidewalk was uneven, and even through her trousers it scraped Liu Zhiyi until she hissed in a cold breath.

The screen on Shen Songyue's head burst out several strings of static, showing a crying face.

She stopped dragging.

Then Liu Zhiyi heard "ah" sounds from the dark, along with the pat-pat of feet on the ground; out of the corner of her eye she saw gray-white figures drawing near.

Liu Zhiyi tensed at once; she tried to move her body, but except for her clear mind, her body was leaden and wouldn't budge.

Shen Songyue: "I should have brought a rope."

As her words fell, Liu Zhiyi felt her body lift up off the ground.

She couldn't turn her head, but roughly guessed it was the monsters hoisting her up.

Shen Songyue: "I don't want to kill you, and I can't let you go, so just come with me."

And so Liu Zhiyi was carried along as Shen Songyue ran ahead.

The posture was rather funny — she was carried out front while Shen Songyue followed behind, the phone screen's light shining on her.

By this faint light Liu Zhiyi could actually see a little, though very blurred — only some outlines.

Cars parked by the roadside flashed past, gray-white monster figures now and then entering the lit area and vanishing fast.

Liu Zhiyi worked to roll her eyes left and right; at this stage the only part of her whole body that could move was that organ.

The dungeon had grown lively; Liu Zhiyi heard sounds coming from every direction, near and far.

The monsters opened their mouths, cries of "help" carrying outward one after another.

And mixed into the cries were outside men's and women's voices.

Shen Songyue let out a long sigh.

Liu Zhiyi knew the rescue teams outside had come in.

"Don't be afraid, we've come to save you."

"It's so dark here."

"Can you tell us any landmark buildings nearby?"

Out of the corner of her eye Liu Zhiyi caught many gray-white sound-wave rings, ring merging with ring into wave after wave, surging toward the cries for help.

Bastards! Bastards!

The fury in Liu Zhiyi's heart churned as if it could spew from her mouth.

How she wanted to open her mouth wide and shout at the rescuers coming in — tell them not to come.

And the light on her tilted a little; Shen Songyue's phone screen turned slightly aside, as if she couldn't bear to watch what came next.

"What is this?"

"A pig?!"

"That thing's a person! Does anyone look like this?"

Men's and women's voices mixed together; a crackling came from the dark, as if a clash had broken out.

Liu Zhiyi's eyes went wide, her eyeballs rolling up, staring hard at Shen Songyue.

Shen Songyue's phone screen faced entirely at the ground, leaving only a small strip turned toward Liu Zhiyi to keep light on her, as if she didn't dare meet her eyes.

Shen Songyue said softly, "They won't hurt them, just take them."

After she said it, the screen suddenly flickered a few times, breaking into snow.

Shen Songyue: "Sometimes, honestly, I can't understand it."

Liu Zhiyi saw her screen flicker between black and white — the white was some news channel.

It was an overhead view, a drone probably, the lens slowly climbing, gathering Yiling's streets into frame.

Liu Zhiyi saw black dots walking into frame from outside — people.

Person after person converging, until they became a stream of people.

And in the pulled-back shot appeared a great black shape, like a black bowl overturned across Yiling's streets.

Liu Zhiyi knew that was Shen Songyue's dungeon.

Shen Songyue: "By rights, the first troops in all went missing — they ought to be more on guard."

But in the shot, the converging stream of people still drew toward the overturned black bowl.

Shen Songyue murmured, "Some people just love doing useless things. You too."

As she spoke, her tone was low, and it sounded, of all things, a little choked.

But the next second, Shen Songyue saw a point of light.

A flashlight beam suddenly broke through the dark and stabbed out.

Liu Zhiyi heard someone say —

"The flashlight works! Everyone, come to me, we'll go find survivors!"

It was like a kind of bugle-call.

Flashlight after flashlight lit up in the dark.

And the gray monsters ringed around, struck by the flashlight beams, steamed up a cloud of white — like ice melting in the sun, the layer of gray-white skin on them melting away, that skin seeming alive, giving off wave after wave of cursing as it melted.

[I've got that video of Shen Songyue — want to see?]

[Nice body.]

[Can't you be more careful? Whose fault is it you let photos like that get taken?]

Liu Zhiyi startled; listening to the sound of the gray skin melting, she turned her eyes to Shen Songyue.

Shen Songyue's screen flickered fast, now and then flashing a Weibo comments page, now and then surfacing a photo of tears.

At the same time, the flashlight beams in the dark joined into scattered starlight, so that the whole pitch-black dungeon suddenly turned starry.

Besides the sound of the gray skin melting, Liu Zhiyi heard other sounds too.

"Over here — there's another survivor here."

"Come shine a light over."

"Can you move?"

All sorts of human voices rose, gradually drowning out the filthy words.

Until a beam swept over and landed on the ground not far from Liu Zhiyi.

A rescuer whose face she couldn't make out gave a shout.

"Anyone there?"

The rescuer seemed unable to see clearly ahead, but still comforted her in a low voice.

"Don't be afraid, try not to move, we'll come save you in a moment."

Liu Zhiyi tensed at once.

But Shen Songyue didn't move at all, the phone screen on her head aimed at the ground.

Liu Zhiyi found she could suddenly move; she took out the scissors, flipped over, and kicked off the monster gripping her.

But Shen Songyue still didn't move, keeping her phone screen bowed low.

So Liu Zhiyi lowered her head too, following the direction of the screen.

She saw two candle flames.

No wonder the rescuers could find their way here.

The candle flames stood between the panels of a shrine, and at the shrine's center was placed a statue of a two-faced Buddha.

Liu Zhiyi realized this was the safe room provided for novice players.

But unlike the single-faced statue she'd seen before, this time the statue's other face had fully turned around — like a person who'd turned their head ninety degrees, bringing the side of the face and the back of the head onto the same plane, except the back of the two-faced Buddha's head was also a face.