Chapter 126
The two were not far from the NPC Area. Just as they reached the border, Jiang Liu heard a loud shout from not far away. “Sister Jiang, over here!”
Following the voice, she saw Xu Meng standing by the roadside, waving at her from afar. At the same time, she quickly pointed to the right. “It’s over by Sister Yang’s house, fighting with Xiao Rui!”
Xu Meng spoke very quickly, worried about Tang Rui’s safety. Jiang Liu noticed some bruising on her neck; she must have also encountered the Zombies that had appeared earlier.
“Are you hurt?” As she passed Xu Meng, she couldn’t help but take a closer look, afraid that they didn’t know the trick to dealing with them.
Fortunately, Xu Meng shook her head to indicate she was fine. She just pulled her along and succinctly described what the three of them had encountered after splitting up.
“There are fewer monsters around here. We split up to be more efficient, and A-Ruo was the first to run into it.”
Although they had separated, the three were very cautious, always maintaining a close but not too close distance as they advanced together, precisely so they could support each other if a situation arose. After Tang Ruo encountered the target, she didn’t act rashly. Instead, she immediately called out for the other two to come and help.
“That thing is too fast. The moment it saw things weren’t looking good, it turned and ran,” Xu Meng said, taking a moment to catch her breath as she was getting tired from running.
Tang Rui first contacted Jiang Liu and the other to come over, then they launched a pincer attack on the target. To their surprise, the monster was as slippery as an eel, squeezing through any gap and moving incredibly fast. They could only barely keep up. Strangely, it didn’t show any aggression toward Xu Meng or Tang Ruo, but instead specifically targeted Tang Rui to fight.
As they spoke, they had already arrived at Yang Caisi’s residence. Before they even got close, they could hear the sounds of fighting from inside, occasionally mixed with a few of Tang Rui’s pained cries. The main door was open, and they could see two figures locked in combat inside, with Tang Ruo helping from the side.
With just one glance, Jiang Liu confirmed it was the same thing she had seen before. She frowned slightly, and before Xu Meng beside her could react, she had already rushed in with a few quick movements. Tang Rui noticed her footsteps and his face lit up with joy.
“Sister Jiang is here! You’re dead meat!”
He chuckled, preparing to redouble his efforts, but unexpectedly—the monster, which had been resisting him with all its might just a moment ago, seemed to freeze. It stopped moving its hands and feet and quickly turned to run upstairs.
“Catch him!” Tang Rui was startled and shouted in frustration, about to follow.
But Jiang Liu was faster. Before he could even take a step, he saw a figure shoot up the stairs with a swoosh, as fast as a gust of wind, and disappear around the corner in a flash.
“Who are you?” Jiang Liu had no time to deal with the astonishment of the people below. She followed the monster’s footsteps without stopping, her tone questioning.
The creature ignored her and instead kicked open the door to Yang Caisi’s room. Seeing this, Jiang Liu tilted her head, a trace of confusion in her eyes.
There were many of them now. It would only have a chance to escape if it ran outside. Why was it running into a dead end right in front of her? Was it panicking? But looking at the speed of its movements, it didn’t seem to be fleeing aimlessly.
Puzzled, Jiang Liu still followed it in and blocked the door, coldly watching the monster that had squeezed into the corner. “You should be able to understand me, right? Who are you?”
At her question, the monster suddenly stopped. It was standing in the space between the headboard and the wall. Hearing her words, it turned to look at Jiang Liu, its misplaced features seemingly trying to form some kind of expression for her. Before Jiang Liu could understand what it was trying to convey, she witnessed a shocking scene—the creature seemed to smile at her, then its entire body squeezed into the wall, disappearing in an instant.
“What the? Is it cheating?”
Tang Rui, who had arrived a little later, happened to see this and was completely dumbfounded. Even monsters should follow some logic, right? What was the meaning of such a large thing drilling directly into a wall?
He was still standing at the door marveling when Jiang Liu had already rushed forward to examine the wall. After knocking on it repeatedly, she finally confirmed that it was a real, solid wall. But this was indeed the location of Xiao Si’s secret door. That thing had looked at her before it left. What was it trying to convey?
Jiang Liu recalled its expression, and a flash of inspiration shot through her mind. This thing ran so fast, it could have easily shaken off Tang Rui. Why did it specifically wait until she arrived to leave? Did it choose this wall specifically to give her a hint?
“Where’s the thing?” Xu Meng and the others also arrived. When they rushed in and saw the empty room, they couldn’t help but be surprised.
“It ran,” Jiang Liu said, pointing to the wall, her tone unreadable.
After chasing for so long with nothing to show for it, the group looked at each other, momentarily at a loss for words. It was Tang Rui who came to his senses and looked at the wall thoughtfully. “It escaped through the wall. Could there be another space here?”
They had encountered such Instances before, so it was indeed a possibility.
Tang Ruo nodded, but her tone was hesitant. “So what do you want to do? Run into the wall and see if you disappear?”
Tang Rui scratched his head and fell silent. The atmosphere in the room instantly froze, leaving only the sound of their ragged breathing.
A moment later, Jiang Liu suddenly spoke. “At this spot in Xiao Si’s room, there’s a secret door.”
Her tone was thoughtful, and it sounded less like she was waiting for their reply and more like she was talking to herself. The others understood Jiang Liu’s meaning and didn’t speak, just waited for her opinion.
Jiang Liu balled her fist and knocked on the wall again, her eyes slightly downcast as she felt the sensation under her hand. She had come here on the first day and had also discovered this wall because of the monster. It was precisely because it was completely different from her memory that she was convinced this was an Instance. But would a game really have such a nonsensical Instance? No quests, no conditions for clearing it—it simply couldn’t constitute a complete environment.
She voiced her doubts, and the others’ hearts skipped a beat. Xu Meng swallowed cautiously, her voice very soft. “Sister Jiang, you don’t think this is real, do you?”
After going through all that trouble, to find out it was all real—wasn’t that a joke? Fortunately, Jiang Liu quickly shook her head. “Of course not.”
She kept frowning, as if she didn’t know how to describe it for a moment. After a while, she finally said, “It’s not the real world, but it’s not an Instance either.”
“What were you muttering just now? Logic, right?” Jiang Liu turned to ask Tang Rui and casually found a chair to sit on.
Seeing Tang Rui nod, Jiang Liu unconsciously fiddled with her ring and analyzed, “The situations in the Instances may seem nonsensical, but they all operate on a corresponding set of logical rules. But this place clearly doesn’t.”
No NPCs, no background, full of loopholes. She had discovered this long ago and had always been suspicious of this so-called Instance. It wasn’t until she saw those familiar monsters just now that a thought suddenly ignited in her mind.
“First, we can confirm one thing: this is targeted at me.”
Jiang Liu’s voice calmed as she analyzed step by step. On the first day, she had inexplicably lost her appetite, but the ‘Zhao Ziming’ who was feeding her hadn’t forced her. Looking back now, his occasional offers of food seemed to be saying—it doesn’t matter if you eat or not, but I need to repeatedly remind you that there’s a problem with the food here, and there’s a problem with me.
After that, he created conflict among them. The abnormal behavior of Xu Meng and the others quickly made Jiang Liu believe that something was strange here, and at the same time, made her want to leave even more. As soon as she proposed her theory, she received Tang Ruo’s agreement.
Tang Ruo stroked her chin and continued along Jiang Liu’s line of thought. “According to you, he was deliberately guiding you to realize that something was wrong here?”
Jiang Liu nodded lightly and tapped her fingers on the table. “I just thought of it. I realized something was wrong when I saw this wall on the first day, but what if he did it on purpose?”
Jiang He was a bit dazed from listening and scratched his head in frustration. “Then what’s his motive?”
Before Jiang Liu could answer, Xu Meng had already figured out the key. “The more things that are wrong, the more Sister Jiang will be convinced that this is an Instance and the more she’ll want to clear it.”
“But there are no quests here, so no matter how many monsters we kill, we’ll never get a clue.”
Jiang Liu snapped her fingers, something vaguely surfacing in her mind. “He wants to trap me here.”
For her, facing food every day but not being able to eat, fighting desperately but not being able to leave, was definitely a form of cruelty. Even if she could endure it for a short time, what about a year, or three years? Jiang Liu couldn’t help but shiver, her resentment for Qiao Ke reaching a new level.
The longer she stayed here, the more obsessed she would become with this strangeness, and the less likely she would be to discover the real problem. After clarifying their line of thought, Xu Meng and the others fell silent for a moment, then asked the million-dollar question, “So how do we leave?”
Even if they figured out the mastermind’s purpose, they still couldn’t return to reality, could they? Jiang Liu got up from her chair, her gaze looking out the window. She could vaguely see two or three monsters circling outside.
She suddenly let out a sigh of relief, her tone intriguing. “A person can’t imagine something they’ve never seen.”
At first, she wondered about Qiao Ke’s purpose in placing these monsters here, but what if they weren’t arranged by Qiao Ke? What if everything that was happening here didn’t exist, the monsters were just something Jiang Liu herself had imagined, and this was all a dream?
As this thought in her mind gradually became clearer, Jiang Liu suddenly felt the ground beneath her vibrate. The entire world began to shake, and countless specks of dust clouded her vision. Jiang Liu closed her eyes, quietly waiting to wake up.
With a sinking feeling, she seemed to fall into a soft embrace, surrounded by a familiar scent that instantly soothed her tense emotions. She deflated like a popped balloon. She didn’t even need to look up to confirm the person’s identity. She just buried herself in the embrace, her voice uncharacteristically hoarse. “I’m so tired.”
Yang Caisi patted her on the back, her tone so soft it was almost melodic. “My sister is so amazing.”
She gently stroked Jiang Liu’s long, flowing hair, her voice filled with unconcealed heartache. “You’ve worked so hard.”
Jiang Liu didn’t speak, just wrapped her arms tightly around her, enjoying the momentary peace. Not far from the two of them, a strangely shaped alarm clock suddenly rang, and a cold, robotic system voice stuttered out a reminder.
[Player Jiang Liu, please enter the Instance at the north gate at 3 PM…]
For once, Jiang Liu didn’t find the voice annoying. She just rested her forehead on Yang Caisi’s shoulder and smiled silently. “Last battle. We’ll go home together.”
There was no longer any need to confirm how many more Instances she needed to leave. Qiao Ke’s desperate reaction this time had already given her the answer. This was probably Jiang Liu’s final journey in the Instances.