Chapter 7: The Madmen’s Pantomime (6)

【Item Details: The Seed of Deception and Lies.

Item Effect: Full control over a target for a limited duration of five minutes.

Remaining Uses: 1 (Non-reusable item)

Note: A small gift from someone or other. Congratulations, your inventory is no longer completely empty.】

Nan Lin looked up at the ceiling and did a rough calculation in his head.

【Announcement: Player Nan Lin has successfully used an item…】

—

The item announcement was broadcast to every player in the dungeon. Ruan Yu stood in silence at the elevator entrance, and with the smile gone from his eyes, something unexpectedly sharp surfaced.

Successfully used an item…

Brother has been sent somewhere else by the dungeon.

The elevator currently displayed the third floor and had stopped running.

Ruan Yu shot it a glance, rolled up his sleeves, and his tall figure disappeared down the stairwell.

He did not care for long, deep spaces, such as the battered old staircase beneath his feet.

The stairwell was utterly quiet. Nothing could be heard but the faint sound of footsteps and… the sudden, tinkling giggle of a girl.

[Welcome to my territory. You can call me Teresa.]

[Ten years ago, shortly after the city transferred the first batch of patients here, I became very good friends with them.]

[We played house in the bathroom, and played hide-and-seek in the stairwell.]

[After I lost the last game of hide-and-seek, they threw me down from the sixth-floor stairwell.]

[Let me say one more thing. Hide-and-seek is one of my favorite games. Quite a few people have come through over the years, and most of them played this game with me.]

[I think you’ll like it too.]

The instant Teresa’s words ended, the dim stairwell lights went out completely, and visibility dropped to almost nothing.

[The game begins~]

[120… 119… 118……]

The darkness was like a hunter’s hands clamped over his eyes, waiting out the countdown before going in search of prey.

[Hide well now~ Later, if I find you, hmph, I’ll throw you down from the sixth floor too.]

Ruan Yu glanced upward without a shred of interest. There was no panic or fear in him at all, only a dull, numb indifference.

He climbed one step at a time, paying no mind to the murmuring in his ear.

[60… 59… 58……]

Just like the elevator that had risen without end before, the staircase now had no top. It wound upward in a constant, repeating spiral.

[3… 2… 1… all hidden?]

At the very end, the girl’s playful voice gradually shifted into Nan Lin’s warm, low laughter.

Ruan Yu’s step faltered. He kept climbing.

Brother wouldn’t smile at me like that.

He thought this, then added with stubborn conviction: Not now. But he will.

[Ruan Yu, where are you going?]

Still Nan Lin’s voice. Gentle and sorrowful, as though sighing over a lover who had left him behind.

Teresa, trapped in the stairwell, would imitate the thing a player could least let go of, and once the player responded, she would destroy it utterly.

Which was why seasoned veterans always warned the new recruits in their guilds: never answer Teresa’s call.

Answer, and you lose everything. You become a madman in the truest sense, and you fall from the sixth-floor landing.

As long as you stayed silent, the blind Teresa could not find you, and this game of hide-and-seek became one the player was certain to win.

But for Ruan Yu, how could such a clumsy imitation fool him?

A few more flights and he would be out.

Brother, I’ll wait for you right here.

The corner of his mouth curved. He even began considering how to phrase things later so it would show just the right amount of panic at being suddenly separated.

The climb went remarkably smoothly, and Teresa’s voice faded a good deal.

But just as Ruan Yu stepped onto the final landing, he suddenly heard a clear click.

Crisp. Faint. Nearly inaudible.

In the pitch dark, he pinpointed the source with perfect accuracy.

Lin Yi was propped against the wall at the landing between two flights of stairs, hair disheveled, eyes squeezed shut. Cold sweat kept beading on his overly pale forehead and sliding down his cheek.

That loud, patterned scarf was riddled with holes. It looked like he had clawed at it himself, completely out of control.

Ruan Yu glanced at him, and the smile on his lips carried a certain knowing edge.

Lin Yi naturally noticed the look. With trembling fingers he cinched the scarf tight, as though the wind were blowing through him from every side, then staggered upright and climbed on.

Ruan Yu followed behind him, and the gentle, bewildered demeanor he’d worn at Nan Lin’s side was gone entirely.

This one called Lin Yi. He remembered who he was now.

A doll the High Inquisitor had once gifted to the king. A liar obsessed with spinning in circles.

He watched the man’s unsteady gait ahead, a flicker of boredom crossing his eyes.

Ten minutes without Brother. Missing him already.

–

【Five-minute countdown begins now. Players, please watch the time.】

Nan Lin watched Teresa walk into the cafeteria. Leaning against a withered tree, expression calm, his fingertips tapped out the count again.

This time it didn’t go smoothly. Heavy footsteps approached. A hard light flashed through Nan Lin’s eyes, and he rose to dodge.

Behind him, “Lin Yi” came at him again with a wooden face, rolling his wrists.

Nan Lin: “Who are you?”

“I’m Lin Yi, of course.” The man smiled faintly, visible madness churning in his eyes.

Nan Lin’s brow shot up. He twisted Lin Yi’s right arm up behind his back, stripped the razor blade hidden between the man’s fingers, and in one motion sliced through the loud, garish scarf.

The whole sequence flowed like water. Not a single wasted movement.

With the cover gone, Nan Lin’s face showed surprise for the first time.

On Lin Yi’s pale neck sat a ball joint, like a doll’s. A darker seam ran across the slender throat, giving it an uncanny sense of life.

Nan Lin didn’t push further. He looked at the clearly abnormal man before him and knew he wouldn’t get anything out of him.

And his time controlling Teresa was nearly up…

So he stopped tangling with Lin Yi and turned to leave without hesitation.

Back from the shadowed cafeteria entrance. Across half the green field. Around the jutting Nightingale Statue. Back to the elevator.

With the passage of time, the elevator seemed to have returned to normal. At least it looked usable again.

“It didn’t follow me. But I’ve forgotten something…”

A flicker of doubt crossed Nan Lin’s eyes, then cleared at the next blink.

The cabin doors groaned as they closed. At the very moment his line of sight was cut off, Nan Lin heard a harrowing scream rise from the cafeteria.

“Aaah—!”

“Chong Jiu! One of these days I’m going to kill you with my own hands!”

【Player Nan Lin’s item—The Seed of Deception and Lies (Expired)

Item duration ended. Permanently destroyed.】

【Congratulations, Player Nan Lin. You have obtained—

Teresa’s Loathing (Congratulations on becoming Teresa’s primary target).

The Trap Beneath the Tunnels (The man on the phone wasn’t lying. The tunnel under the cafeteria is not, in fact, a safe escape route).】

Inside the elevator, Nan Lin stared blankly at the floor numbers.

In his head he muttered: Aggro? More aggro. What am I supposed to say next time?

Forget it. I probably won’t manage anything human anyway. Next time we meet, I’ll just cut her down first.

【Player Nan Lin Sanity decreased: 45→44.】

The floor number on the display leapt from [-18] back to a normal [4]. When the doors opened, the asylum had returned to its original state of decay.

Nan Lin knew he was back in normal space.

Just as he stepped out of the elevator, he couldn’t help a look back.

The dim cabin was deeply uncanny. It linked two utterly different asylums.

One brand new and whole. One old and falling apart.

And then there was that Lin Yi, who had appeared out of nowhere and was utterly out of his mind.

Nan Lin mused: “If that’s really how it is…”

“Brother?”

Before Nan Lin could fully untangle his thoughts, Ruan Yu’s careful call reached his ears.

Nan Lin turned toward the sound, and found Ruan Yu covered in a scattering of fresh cuts. His clothing was torn in several places, blood spreading out from the ragged openings. He looked every bit the pitiful sight.

Just then, Lin Yi came stumbling up. He took in the strange scene and fell silent.

He looked at Nan Lin, who had clearly just stepped out of the elevator, then at Ruan Yu, eyes lowered gently, wounds all over him.

Lin Yi: Where did this guy get torn up like that?

But Teresa had gotten to him in the stairwell, and his head was pounding fiercely. He couldn’t be bothered to untangle Ruan Yu’s transformation. His voice was weary. “The ward number he gave was B-301. We don’t have much time.”

“Chong Jiu,” Nan Lin said suddenly.

Lin Yi: “Huh?”

“The one who stepped on Song De in the cafeteria earlier and offered up his own room number. His name is Chong Jiu.” Nan Lin added.

Lin Yi kept his doubts to himself but didn’t argue. He only said: “Fine. Chong Jiu. We need to find him now. Any objections?”

Nan Lin shook his head. Ruan Yu’s expression was unchanged, though his gaze, when it landed on Nan Lin, softened considerably.

They walked the length of the corridor to the ward. A conspicuous [301] hung on the door.

Lin Yi stepped forward and knocked.

Behind him, Nan Lin stood with his arms crossed, looking down the deep, dim hallway. Dozens of tightly shut doors lined both sides. One look, and there was no telling what might be locked inside.

A full minute passed without a sound.

Then Lin Yi seemed to catch something. He took several steps forward and pressed himself to the gap in the door, and his expression changed bit by bit as the seconds wore on.

Someone inside was speaking, in broken fragments…

No. It was more like a radio, or some cheap recording playing back—

[We’ve returned to that abandoned green field again. Just like a year ago, the place has barely changed. Standing here, I feel dazed. I don’t know why I ran away only to come back again. The life on the run felt like a dream, and yet it was so precise and real.

If all of this is a dream…

I think it’s time I woke up.]

“That voice…” Lin Yi’s brow knotted tight.

Nan Lin, pressed to the door beside him, gave his verdict: “It’s Chong Jiu.”