"Are you sure this is going to work?"
After listening to Ming Po's plan, Ai Shiping was sowhat hesitant.
It wasn't that he didn't trust Ming Po—
It was mainly that the plan was a little too absurd.
Simply put, Ming Po would follow closely behind him, ensuring Ai Shiping was always visible in the cara's fra.
Then, Ming Po would do absolutely nothing. He would treat himself rely as a cara.
Yes, absolutely nothing.
He wouldn't speak. He wouldn't help carry things, open doors, or scout the path, and he certainly wouldn't protect him. It would be exactly as if Ai Shiping were entirely alone.
And when Ai Shiping genuinely believed that Ming Po wasn't going to do a single thing, fear would begin to set in.
His fear would attract anomalies, and those anomalies would breed even more fear.
This escalating terror might just draw out the monster's main body. Assuming such a monster—such a core entity—actually existed, Ming Po could then crush it directly.
If they managed that, they would never have to be afraid again.
On the flip side—
If, in the end, it turned out that this monster didn't possess a physical form that could be defeated, it ant they had no need to fight at all.
Since the ghost couldn't directly kill you anyway, what was there to be afraid of?
Regardless of which path it ultimately went down, it would signal the end of the incident and the dissipation of their terror.
"Co on, brothers—"
Ai Shiping's voice trembled slightly. "Let's head to the next room and take a look."
He didn't look back even once, constantly visualizing in his mind that Ming Po wasn't following him, or had accidentally lost track of him.
Walking ahead all alone, Ai Shiping felt more than a little uneasy.
But since he had already regrouped with Ming Po, that deep-seated dread in his heart had largely vanished.
Now, ironically, Ai Shiping found himself constantly needing to use psychological suggestion to reinforce his own fear.
For Ai Shiping, this was surprisingly not too difficult.
Because they hadn't walked far before a strong sense of anxiety flared up in his chest: 'What if Ming Po really did lose track of by accident?'
However, he couldn't turn his head.
If he turned around right now and ended up seeing Ming Po, the fear he had worked so hard to cultivate would vanish instantly. Therefore, he absolutely couldn't look back. But if he turned around right now and actually failed to see Ming Po...
Thinking like this, the dread within Ai Shiping only grew stronger.
"We still have to find two more rooms, and I don't even know where they are."
Ai Shiping sounded a bit sluggish. His tone beca much more serious and routine, his previous unbridled energy significantly dampened. "One is the room where the fire broke out, and the other is where soone slit their wrists. Once we check out these two rooms, we're getting ready to retreat—"
"—The Master? Uh—it's fine, it's fine. The Master is a Master after all, he can find his own way ho—"
Ai Shiping replied to the stream chat with weak enthusiasm.
Just then, a door to a room up ahead slowly swung open.
Creak—
The hinges, un-oiled for a long ti, let out a teeth-grinding screech.
Without a doubt, this was an invitation.
Ai Shiping's footsteps halted instantly.
He subconsciously pricked up his ears, trying to listen for footsteps behind him.
After all, he had stopped abruptly. No matter how fast Ming Po's reflexes were, even if he reacted perfectly, there should have been the sound of staggered, out-of-sync footsteps.
But—
—Why—why didn't he hear anything at all?
Ai Shiping drew in a sharp breath of cold air.
His heart rate spiked violently, and an inextinguishable fire of terror ignited in his chest.
In the end—he still decided to cheat just a little.
"I—I'm coming in now—"
He walked up to the door that was cracked open and reached out to grasp the handle.
And at that very mont, he pretended to casually glance backward.
In that instant, a bone-deep chill washed over him.
Ai Shiping sharply aborted his motion to push the door open, snapping his gaze back toward the path they had co from.
Yet he saw nothing.
Ming Po—had truly vanished.
Did he really not follow him?
Or was it that, even though Ming Po had been following behind him, the mont fear took root in his heart—he had disappeared in the blink of an eye?
Did that an their fishing plan was a failure?
What if the fish took the bait and ran?
—More importantly, what was going to happen to the bait!?
Ai Shiping suppressed the chaotic thoughts swirling in his mind, swallowed hard, and pushed the door open to enter.
Unexpectedly, everything inside this room was perfectly normal.
There was a bed with no signs of use, rolled-up towels, and a spotless bathroom. Even though there was a thin layer of dust on the floor, there was absolutely nothing else out of the ordinary.
It seed this wasn't one of the rooms where sothing had gone wrong.
"—Since everything is fine, I'll just—"
Ai Shiping forced a dry laugh and prepared to retreat.
Creak—
—Thud.
But right then, the door behind him slamd shut on its own.
Ai Shiping violently shuddered, his pupils contracting sharply.
He quickly reached out, trying to pull down the door handle, producing a frantic clattering sound. But he found that the door seed to be deadlocked from the outside—no matter how hard he pressed, the handle wouldn't go down.
"This—"
Ai Shiping felt a cold sweat breaking out.
In that fleeting second, countless thoughts raced through his mind.
He even wondered: 'Could that third Ming Po still be a fake? Was his entire goal to trick into entering this room?'
Or perhaps he really was the true Ming Po, and he had just arrived at the doorway...
But the instant the door closed on its own, Ming Po had already lost line of sight on him. At this very mont, had he already been teleported to another space?
If that was the case, when Ming Po broke the door down—he would discover that they were no longer in the sa spatial layer!
Suddenly, Ai Shiping slled sothing scorching.
The next mont, billowing thick smoke rushed straight at his face. "Cough, cough cough—"
Caught entirely off guard, Ai Shiping choked violently.
The speed at which this thick smoke appeared was completely illogical.
He had only just caught a faint whiff of burning, as if a fire had only just ignited. Imdiately after, thick smoke, as dense as if the fire had been raging for an hour, completely obscured his entire field of vision.
"What the fuck—"
Ai Shiping was sowhat dazed.
He knew for certain now that this was definitely the room where the fire had occurred.
But the problem was—how was he supposed to get out?
The person who originally burned to death in here died of smoke inhalation precisely because the door couldn't be opened.
Well, since the door wouldn't open, what else could he do??
Open the window?
He probably had to open it, otherwise he'd choke to death. But opening the window would likely feed oxygen to the fire, making it even fiercer—
'Let's see if I can just jump straight out the window.'
'A fall from the second floor shouldn't be lethal—'
Ai Shiping gritted his teeth and charged inward against the billowing smoke.
He coughed incessantly, his eyes dry and stinging from the smoke. The faucet here obviously couldn't be turned on either—otherwise snakes might slither out. So he couldn't even wet a handkerchief to cover his face.
Consequently, Ai Shiping simply squeezed his eyes shut and, relying on his mory from scanning the room earlier, swiftly fumbled toward where he rembered the window being. Yet, right at that mont.
He felt a sudden tightness on his arm, rendering him unable to take another step.
It felt exactly as if soone had grabbed him. The instant Ai Shiping opened his eyes, he saw a charred corpse staring right back at him.
"Hehehe—hahahaha—"
The pitch-black, charred corpse opened its mouth wide, revealing a terrifying smile.
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