Chapter 7

Xiao Chen wordlessly waited for a few minutes before cautiously walking out of the corner. He arrived at the back door of the first year teaching building again.

But in the second his foot crossed the entrance, he unexpectedly found himself at the school gate outside the walls. He turned around, dumfounded, and tapped the wall. It really was the concrete wall.

He had actually returned to his original location!

And the shadow under his feet was being hugged by another human-like shadow. At first glance, Xiao Chen saw this scene. He suddenly felt dissatisfied in his heart as he asked, “You brought me out?”

The shadow that was embracing him paused for a moment, slightly embarrassed for being caught. Although Xiao Chen couldn’t see anything different, he could sense the shadow’s arms around him. The contact was light and hard to detect, but possibly because he lacked the visual stimulus, he was extra sensitive and couldn’t ignore it.

Mr. Shadow hesitantly manipulated the shadow of the large tree nearby and said, ‘En.’

Xiao Chen was somewhat amused. He didn’t know why, but he thought that Mr. Shadow was trying to act cute.

“Why don’t you want me to go in?”

Perhaps even Xiao Chen didn’t notice that his tone was very similar to that of a boyfriend’s coaxing when his girlfriend was being naughty.

Mr. Shadow regained control of the tree shadow and said, ‘Dangerous.’

Xiao Chen was stunned. “You mean, it’s dangerous inside?”

The shadow continued to cuddle him, but it nodded vigorously, worried that Xiao Chen would not understand.

Xiao Chen nodded as well to show that he knew, his expression solemn.

In his heart, he secretly said, ‘I’m afraid Xu Sheng really came back.’

Bai Qiaoqiao was now dead, so who would be next?

Would it be him?

Xiao Chen abruptly felt cramps in his stomach, and it was a bit difficult to breathe.

Then, why didn’t Xiao Chen suspect that Mr. Shadow was Xu Sheng?

The reason was actually very simple. From his perspective, he was also an accomplice in Xu Sheng’s death. Xu Sheng would definitely not let him go, but Mr. Shadow was full of goodwill towards him. Since Mr. Shadow had tried to keep him safe, he didn’t connect him with Xu Sheng.

Xiao Chen’s face was the color of ash. He grit his teeth and looked at the wall behind him once more. He stared at it intensely for a long time. As if he had made up his mind, he took a deep breath and walked forward several steps to assure himself. He suddenly jumped onto the tree trunk, intending to climb up.

Before Xiao Chen’s legs could reach the campus’s wall, they were unexpectedly entangled with the tree branches. The branches began to move as flexibly as vines. They even tied his legs together so that he couldn’t use them.

Xiao Chen was shocked. He attempted to pull the branches away, but his hands were soon bound by another bunch of branches which emerged from behind him. Now, he was only hanging on the tree.

A numbing sensation invaded Xiao Chen’s heart as he felt his neck being continuously rubbed, someone’s breath brushing against his skin.

It seemed like a thousand ants were nibbling his neck. It didn’t hurt, but it was itchy.

Xiao Chen unconsciously wanted to break free. The invisible being appeared to understand his rejection, so it carefully dropped something on his forehead and gently comforted him.

That something was a pair of lips

Xiao Chen struggled even more fiercely. “Quickly let me go!”

The lips that were pressed to his forehead moved away. The branches that were wrapped around his hands and feet loosened their hold, retreating to where they came from.

Xiao Chen was puzzled for a while, but he couldn’t spare the time to think about it. Immediately, he flipped over the wall, into the school campus.

The black shadow smiled.

Senior.

I will protect you.

Since entering this world, this was the first time Gao Xuhan truly met with the threat of death. Her tears flowed without pause, and her face was pale from fear. Her mouth refused to open, like it was sewn shut, as she let out whimpers.

What was even more terrifying was that the surrounding environment was being swallowed by a mass of black things at a speed visible to the naked eye. The walls, blackboards, electric lights, and the doors and windows decomposed as if they were dipped into sulfuric acid. They all disappeared into a bottomless pit.

Gao Xuhan’s cold sweat poured out, and she cried with everyone else as their legs were attacked by the black mass. It slowly proceeded upwards.

It went from their legs to their waist, to their neck, all the way until their entire body had completely vanished within the darkness.

Xiao Chen drove a light car on a familiar road and returned to the back door of the first year teaching building.

He lightly pushed open the door and put one leg inside as a test. He made sure that he was not sent back outside the campus walls. It was only after this that he walked in vigilantly.

What happened?

As soon as Xiao Chen was in the building, he noticed something was wrong.

Xu Sheng was a first year student, and his class was precisely the one closest to the back door. Therefore, Xiao Chen had chosen to take the back entrance.

However.

Xiao Chen swallowed. The whole classroom was actually empty!!

He inexplicably headed to another class. In this state, Xiao Chen was extremely alert, to the point where he could even hear the husky sound of the wind.

Wrong! There is no one in this classroom either!

Xiao Chen’s heart beat irregularly, and he almost forgot to breathe. He immediately had some regrets, and decided to leave. But at this moment, he surprisingly discovered that the door behind him was gone without a trace!

It had become a wall!

A chill ran down Xiao Chen’s spine. He squeezed his hands nervously, before he abruptly spotted something.

The words on the placard of Class 4, Xu Sheng’s class, looked strange, but Xiao Chen couldn’t put his finger on it.

Xiao Chen forced himself to calm down and observe the situation.

Then, he realized it. The words were completely opposite from the ones in reality!

Xiao Chen felt ridiculous now. Was he in the real world?

His memory was very good, so he remembered all the details in his life freshly. He examined all the paintings hanging outside the various classrooms on the first floor. Although he had only visited the first year teaching building a few times, he was confident that the paintings were different!

His gaze was cold as he frowned.

But next, Xiao Chen’s eyes widened. Yes, even the directions of these paintings were reversed!

He had a wild speculation in his mind. Could it be that this was the Otherworld?

Xiao Chen once read a book in the library with the title of “Real World”. In this book, the author divided the world into three parts: the Fog World, the Otherworld, and the Real World. The Fog World and the Otherworld were both illusory, but the Fog World was much less hostile than the Otherworld. The Otherworld was different! It symbolized evil, bloodshed, darkness, and violence. There were countless wicked monsters.

Anyone who was pulled into this world would never survive.

Xiao Chen looked out the window and was shocked. He had entered the building at noon, but currently the sky showed that it was dusk, with a faint glow of red light.

“AH!” An ear-piercing shriek resounded through the air, making Xiao Chen almost lose his balance.

Xiao Chen peered behind him. At this time, he saw two or three girls on the staircase. They stared at him with horror-struck expressions. When they recognized Xiao Chen, they somewhat relaxed. “Senior Xiao Chen?”

The girls wore Chong Guang High School uniforms, so it wasn’t weird that they knew who he was. But to his alarm, there were actually other people in this world! How many people were there in total?

Xiao Chen strode in their direction, but the girls unconsciously shrank together and took a step back. At this moment, Xiao Chen observed that the girls were pale, and there were numerous patches of dirt on their clothes. It didn’t seem like they had just got here. What made him speechless was that one of them was covered in blood. If it wasn’t for the girl hiding in the back, Xiao Chen wouldn’t have needed to get closer to see the blood.

“What happened to you guys? Why are things like this?” Xiao Chen said, wanting to advance a little more towards the girls.

“Senior Xiao Chen, don’t come over right now!” The girl standing at the front appeared to be the leader of the group. Although she looked embarrassed, her eyes were firmly locked onto Xiao Chen. It was almost as if she would attack him if he went near, just like a mother eagle guarding her children.

Xiao Chen instantly stopped.

The girl explained, “Senior Xiao Chen, I will tell you the story briefly. This is not the real world at all. When night falls, monsters will surface!” After she said this, the other girl behind her couldn’t help but tremble.

“It’s Xu Sheng who has returned for revenge!” The leader clenched her teeth, but she abruptly thought of something. Her sight focused on Xiao Chen. When Xiao Chen heard the two words ‘Xu Sheng’, he secretly said in his mind, ‘As expected.’

“Monsters will not show up during the day, but they will at night! And two people must die every night if the rest want to live!”

“How do you know?” Xiao Chen was astonished and asked a question.

The girl let out a self-deprecating laugh. “There is a broadcast.”

How laughable! Everyone in Class 4 was an accomplice who led to Xu Sheng’s death. Xu Sheng would not have mercy on any of them. He crafted a ghastly game to force them to kill each other!

They would murder their own classmates in exchange for the possibility of survival. If they didn’t do it, the monsters would do it for them. But the number of people killed by the monsters was not counted towards the two people who had to die!

Last night, the group of girls had watched with large eyes as a bunch of evil classmates murdered two students who had no friends and a low sense of presence in the class.

Everyone was expressionless as it all occurred, and no one had dared to stop those perpetrators.

And the girls knew females were viewed as the weaker sex, so they would most likely be the next ones to be eliminated!

So, they had to hide.

But nevertheless! In the end, all the people will die!

T/N: Things are getting spicy! I’ve included descriptions of the three worlds below. I think the author drew inspiration from Silent Hill, so I can tell you more about the worlds. Silent Hill is a VERY graphic horror game, so I suggest only 18+ people go check out the wiki pages for more information.

While the Otherworld is based on a person’s subconscious, the Fog World represents the unconscious. The Fog World appears to be an almost exact copy of the Real World, except that there is always a thick fog in the environment and it seems almost completely uninhabited and in disrepair. Monsters roam freely.

The Otherworld may be viewed as a cancerous disease slowly infecting reality until it becomes Hell on Earth, or a dimension invading another dimension. It is shaped by the minds and the psyche of those present, usually to the effect of creating their own personal nightmare.

Keep in mind that the Otherworld in this novel will be quite different.

Look around you. That’s the real world.