1TWITF[C Chapter 50

Chapter 50

The singing was soft and carried a penetrating quality, drifting through the dense forest, eerie and strange. It was clearly a childish nursery rhyme, but it inexplicably made people’s hearts flutter with unease.

Chu Xiu had previously suggested that everyone split up, but now he didn’t know why he had run into Lu Yanli. He hesitated for a few seconds between continuing to act separately and trying to see if the other person had any good ideas, finally deciding to take a gamble and jogged a few steps to catch up.

Lu Yanli was thinking about how to break the deadlock.

It wasn’t that he didn’t suspect that the Chu Xiu in front of him might be a ghost in disguise, but in the current situation where he had no clue, even if the person in front of him was a ghost, as long as he didn’t trigger the killing mechanism, he could at least get some useful information from him.

What’s more, he had already made a wish to that god, he wanted to live completely, and this wish should still be valid.

“Do you have any ideas?” Chu Xiu asked him from a few steps away.

“The game lasts half an hour?” Lu Yanli fell into deep thought.

It didn’t sound long, which was beneficial to the players, provided that… there was only one ghost, not eleven.

He was still thinking about the disappearance of the twenty-four corpses in the police station.

Twenty-four corpses… among them, the skull test results were the same, indicating the same person. He easily linked it to the previous wish to that “god”, where constant resurrection instead led them into an infinite death crisis, and even the strange phenomenon of two people appearing in the same space-time.

After he made a wish to the god, he restarted many, many times, but no matter which choice he made, the final result was a dead end. In the end, he had Chu Xiu return to the beginning, avoid Wen Qing and Yun Qian, in order to continue.

Now, identical skulls have appeared… Could it be that some of their members have also fallen into this kind of cycle?

Who are they?

Lu Yanli expressed his guess, and Chu Xiu also thought hard.

He himself had also experienced several wishes, even killing himself playing the four corners game in the abandoned factory on Yinming Road. After thinking about it, this was the only answer.

Who was trapped in the cycle?

Those involved were often confused. They hadn’t asked about the other two student lists, and subconsciously thought that Wen Qing and Yun Qian must be together, included in the eleven people, which is why they couldn’t figure out why there were twenty-four corpses.

Whose were the extra two?

The “dead” students were still singing, the clear and childish singing was everywhere, making their attempt to identify the location through the singing fail, and they could only walk blindly.

In another direction, after Zhang Dan separated from the others, she kept speeding up her pace.

Don’t… don’t find me!

Although there was only one Yinming Road, the area it covered was very wide. Zhang Dan’s memory was not bad, and she remembered the route clearly when she came, running forward in one direction without looking back.

As she ran, she vaguely saw a figure in a school uniform in front of her, standing not far away. Zhang Dan was startled. She wasn’t sure who it was, so she immediately turned around and fled in the other direction.

The figure had also planned to run, but when he saw the other person running, he guessed they were in the same situation as himself, so he hurriedly chased after her, running and shouting: “Don’t be afraid! It’s me, I’m not a ghost.”

The feeling of escaping alone was very uncomfortable. Zhang Dan had originally been able to hold on, but now it seemed that having a dedicated partner to boost her courage was not bad.

Thinking this way, her pace slowed down a bit.

Seeing hope, the other person quickly accelerated: “How about we go together?”

Just as he was about to get close, the temperature suddenly dropped, and Zhang Dan suddenly felt a burst of palpitations for no reason. She subconsciously chose to trust her intuition. Her mind hadn’t completely cleared up yet, but her body had already rushed forward. The distance between the two widened again.

Zhang Dan was also anxious: “Why are you shouting so loudly? Are you afraid they won’t be attracted?”

“Okay.” The boy jogged a few steps to her, “You’re really brave, I really can’t handle it alone.”

It was dark at night just now, and Zhang Dan couldn’t see very clearly, only vaguely seeing a little of the other person’s face. Now that he was closer, his outline became clearer and clearer, and Zhang Dan’s breath suddenly caught in her throat.

His face was smiling at her, but his entire body below the neck… was clearly facing backwards!

It was as if a person’s head had been twisted one hundred and eighty degrees.

Could a normal person do that?

He stared at Zhang Dan with a grin, his face gradually turning pale and white, and blood stains oozing out of his school uniform.

“Found another one, hee hee…”

In the next instant, the girl’s scream echoed through the forest.

“Another one was found.” Chu Xiu’s mood was heavy.

Lu Yanli listened to the screams, but was lost in thought: “Have you seen those students?”

Chu Xiu shook his head: “I passed out, I didn’t see them.”

“Those students should all look like normal people in front of Nie Yunzhen and Shi Yan, otherwise those two wouldn’t believe it. Now there are several possibilities. One is that the screams belong to their disguise, wanting us to believe that they are still human, just that they have encountered ghosts, thereby guiding us to find those students, and letting us protect them.”

Chu Xiu nodded in agreement. He thought of the nature of the mission and couldn’t help but add a point: “There’s another possibility.”

“What?”

“In order to balance the difficulty, the dead students are making screams, so that we can hear where one of the ghosts is, and know clearly that the number of ghosts has increased again.”

Since ghosts can increase their numbers by “killing” classmates, they would weaken in other aspects to some extent, otherwise the game simply couldn’t proceed. Chu Xiu recalled the balance points of previous missions, guessing that the weakness of this game was probably that the ghosts couldn’t find themselves like real ghosts.

Of course, if they met face-to-face, their chances of escaping would also be very low. Therefore, they must now avoid all the “students.”

“So, do we need to find those students?” Chu Xiu asked.

His subtext: Try to reduce the number of ghosts?

Lu Yanli pondered for a moment: “It’s better not to take the risk. Who knows what kind of mechanism we’ll trigger that will make them remember?”

The ghosts now can’t directly exert too much power and can only look for them like ordinary people. What will happen when the game is announced to be over, and these ghosts have no rules to restrain them?

Can they really escape?

On the other side of the forest, the other students who were still hiding felt uneasy.

What should we do? Zhang Dan is also dead!

They shouldn’t have come to play hide-and-seek! It’s just like coming to die!

What they didn’t see was that after Zhang Dan screamed, the boy walked over and gently touched the other person’s head. Then, Zhang Dan’s head fell off her neck and rolled into the darkness.

Without a head, Zhang Dan wasn’t worried, and walked side by side with the boy, humming a song.

They changed to another nursery rhyme and sang happily.

“But… Zhang Dan is dead.” Ling Weiwei was in tears, “I’m so scared… I miss her so much…”

“If you miss her, you can stay and keep her company.” Huang Yuanwang cursed in a low voice, turned around and was about to leave.

These ghosts can actually sing, and songs that usually sound normal make their scalps tingle when they sing them. It’s really strange… Huang Yuanwang kept thinking about other things to boost his courage. He hadn’t walked a few steps when he reached another tree. At this moment, he suddenly noticed something was wrong.

Why… does the singing seem to be coming from above?

What’s on the tree?

He raised his head and looked up.

A pale white head met his gaze, smiled at him, and then, the head fell to the ground, bouncing and jumping towards him.

“Run… run away!!” Huang Yuanwang’s brain buzzed, and he reached out and grabbed Ling Weiwei to run. He didn’t know why, he clearly planned to escape on his own, but he subconsciously pulled Ling Weiwei along.

Ling Weiwei also knew the importance of the matter, wiping away her tears as she ran. That singing was still lingering, singing endlessly near them.

The cold, damp night wind passed through the ears of the two running at top speed, and rows of trees retreated behind them. Ling Weiwei was exhausted, but she didn’t dare to stop. She was afraid that if she stopped, she would turn around and see that head.

She didn’t know how long they had been running, but the singing gradually faded, and Huang Yuanwang couldn’t run anymore. The two gradually changed from running to walking, panting and moving forward.

Huang Yuanwang was also still feeling lingering fear: “They’re not, right?” He turned his head to look at Ling Weiwei, and this glance made his heart clench suddenly, and his whole body stiffened.

As soon as Ling Weiwei turned around, that head smiled at him with its face.

Behind her, the soft singing started again.

“Looking, looking, looking for friends… finding a good friend…”

Ling Weiwei froze.

No, that voice… was right next to her ear!

She turned her head.

On her shoulder, the pale, blue-green head gave her an eerie smile.

Screams echoed through the forest again.

“Another one died.” Chu Xiu calculated, his brow furrowing even tighter.

Only less than five minutes had passed.

Lu Yanli also kept thinking, deducing the solution to break the deadlock.

They turned a corner and were stunned.

They had actually run into Shi Yan?

Shi Yan subconsciously turned to run, but Chu Xiu stopped her: “Don’t run, rest assured, we’re both human, and we still need you to explain the details of what happened clearly. Otherwise, we won’t be able to think of a solution.”

Shi Yan also knew that the sudden increase in the difficulty of this game was caused by her and Nie Yunzhen. She couldn’t tell if the other person was human or ghost, but the tone of voice made her feel familiar. She bit her lip and simply started from the beginning.

He didn’t have any playing cards, and neither did Lu Yanli. Chu Xiu asked again: “Where’s your card?”

Shi Yan took it out from her pocket, handed it over, and pursed her lips: “I wanted to throw it away, but I can’t throw it away no matter what I do. I can’t tear it, and even if I bury it in the ground, after running for a while, it somehow returns to me.”

Lu Yanli suddenly interjected: “Did you encounter those things just now?”

Shi Yan nodded.

She naturally guessed that if those classmates hadn’t died, they wouldn’t remember the fact that they were also ghosts, so she had just tricked someone into taking the disaster for her.

“That makes a bit of sense, Chu Xiu and I haven’t encountered them.” But if they walked together with Shi Yan, who had a playing card, then it wouldn’t be certain.

“What? How is this possible? I didn’t give you a card at all!” Shi Yan’s eyes widened.

Perhaps, it was because of this card that those ghosts were able to find them. He hadn’t met them yet purely because he was lucky.

This might be their way out!

“The problem now is, how to hand the playing card over to those ghosts.”

In front of a living person, would they choose to take the playing card?

“Wen Qing? What Wen Qing? There’s no one named Wen Qing among those students?” Shi Yan wondered.

This sentence made both of them cast their gazes over.

“You don’t know Wen Qing?!”

“I don’t know.” Shi Yan honestly opened her mouth in a small voice.

“Who are all the students? Tell me.”

As she repeated the list of students, Chu Xiu and Lu Yanli looked at each other again, both seeing the doubt in each other’s eyes.

Wen Qing didn’t come?

The half hour was almost over.

The ghosts were already impatient, and screams rang out from the forest. Subsequently, those students who had just been killed by their classmates also transformed into pale and stiff evil spirits, looking for others everywhere.

Wen Qing was running on a path in the forest, looking back as she fled. No matter how brave she was, facing more than a dozen ghosts who were once her classmates, she couldn’t help but be afraid.

She had never expected that those classmates would all turn into…

What should she do? What should she do?!

Could it be that she was the only living person left?

Who would those two people be?

Was it possible that they were still alive?

Holding this thought, Wen Qing felt that her current goal was to find those two people. To this end, she ran and looked around at the same time. Little did she know, those people were also talking about her.

And at this time, the slaughter in the forest had entered the final stage. Wen Qing didn’t know that the only people still alive were herself, and four others.

Eleven ghosts had finally gathered, and now, their target—was all Wen Qing! They wanted to let the last classmate reunite with them.

*

“Handing the playing card over to the ghost… letting the ghost get the playing card…” Lu Yanli thought hard.

What exactly was the way to survive?

The repeated, twenty-four corpses…

“Of course I remember.” As soon as he finished speaking, he also reacted.

The factory where the four corners game was played, if there were no accidents, the Chu Xiu who played the four corners… might still be playing inside!

Shi Yan was completely confused: “What four corners game, didn’t we play it already?”

“Never mind that, let’s go find that factory first. If we find the factory, we might have a clue.”

Seeing that the two of them were anxious, Shi Yan didn’t object, and jogged along next to them, running towards the factory.

“Do you think it’s possible to replace the current self with one of the selves inside?” Chu Xiu said fancifully, “I know myself very well, I would definitely resist desperately.”

Just as they were running forward, a figure running in the opposite direction appeared at the intersection ahead.

It was Wen Qing!

When Wen Qing saw the three people on the other side, she didn’t know if these three people were ghosts or humans. She squeezed the talisman on her body and still ran over to ask: “Are you people playing hide-and-seek?”

“Yes, who are you?” Shi Yan replied.

Lu Yanli looked down at his watch.

His voice was very gentle, his eyes staring straight into the other person’s eyes, and there was an inexplicable meaning of bewilderment in his eyes.

Wen Qing quickly became confused, and told everything she saw.

Twelve corpses… playing cards placed on the corpses…

Lu Yanli breathed a sigh of relief.

He had finally found a bit of a clue.

“Now, take us over there, to the place where you saw the corpses.”

Wen Qing nodded blankly: “Okay.”

Unexpectedly, they didn’t encounter even one ghost.

It seemed that these ghosts were all waiting for the moment when the rules completely disappeared.

The group of four quickly arrived at the place where Wen Qing had just checked. Before they even got close, Wen Qing had already reached out to touch the playing cards she had taken away, but touched nothing instead, and took out a new playing card from another pocket.

“This, this is…” She hurriedly defended, “I’m not lying to you, I really took out four playing cards just now.”

“You didn’t, we know.”

Because those eleven playing cards were neatly placed in the center of each white bone corpse.

Only one was missing.

Twelve corpses, twelve students, matched up.

The last one was Wen Qing herself.

No, that’s not right.

Then what about the four of them?

In the factory, they might still be able to see another Chu Xiu playing the game under the chaos of time and space, but what about the other people?

Where could they find replacements?

This question also lay in Chu Xiu’s heart.

He didn’t care about facing the death of his teammates, but as a special existence in the mission world, he didn’t want to see the other person die. Of course, he didn’t know that his thoughts in this regard were influenced by Lu Yanli’s hypnosis.

In short, he had to find a way to let everyone escape.

The last three minutes were left before the half hour.

Lu Yanli suddenly looked towards the intersection.

He suddenly recalled what he saw when he drove past the identical SUV, the four white bones in the car.

Exactly, the numbers matched up.

This was the way to survive that the mission had provided them!

“Quick! We’re going to the intersection now!”