Seconds felt like years.
Her heart pounded chaotically, her breath stopped.
She didn't know how much time had passed before the octopus-faced creature lumbered away without noticing anything unusual.
An extremely obvious sigh of relief sounded in the room.
Jian Jing lowered her voice and said, "The light for plants should be green, and the light for trees is red – the most famous tree in the Bible is the tree of good and evil, which is the apple tree. Now the colors have changed. If they see the light, they may come over at any time."
"Are these sensor lights?" Coco asked.
Jian Jing said, "Yes, there are light strips next to the beds. If we get out of bed because of strange noises, we may end up attracting the monsters patrolling outside because of the green light."
Han Bo asked, "But the sound is very close. Won't they come over?"
"There should be a secret passage," Jian Jing said slowly. "Also, the door seems to be locked."
Everyone was shocked.
Coco was agile. Taking advantage of the bedsheet blocking the light source, she swung her leg over and jumped down, scurrying to the door. She reached out and pushed, and as expected, it didn't open.
"Huh, how did this get locked? I remember this door didn't have a lock!" She said in surprise.
Jian Jing reminded her, "There's a metal statue across from the door. Check to see if there's a lock."
Coco squinted for a moment, and admitted, "It looks like there is. Someone locked the door from the outside."
"So we can only leave here through the secret passage?" Cao Yu also got out of bed and listened carefully. "The sound seems to be coming from underground."
"Let's look for it."
The guests busied themselves, first using bedsheets to block the door cracks and glass windows, then pushing the beds aside and kneeling carefully on the floor to listen.
The sound meandered between Jiang BaiYan and Han Bo's beds.
Pushing the beds aside, they could see in the dim green light that one of the floor tiles looked slightly different in color, with faint slime seeping out of the seams.
"We should be able to open this," Cao Yu directed. "First we need to set a trap, put a sheet over it to catch it."
Jiang BaiYan handed the gun to Jian Jing, "I'll help catch it."
"You and Han Bo can use it," Jian Jing declined the real one and was indifferent to the fake. "Remember what the coach said, keep your hands steady, don't point the barrel down, and pull the trigger between your fingers, holding it with both hands."
Boys never dislike playing with guns. Han Bo hesitated for a moment, but didn't decline.
Jiang BaiYan was even less likely to disagree with her. He obediently nodded, "Oh."
Coco then said, "Then I'll open the mechanism. How do I open it?"
"The creature is very strong, but it hasn't been able to get in. It should be a reverse action door," Jian Jing said. "Just press it once and try."
Coco reached out and pressed down firmly.
The secret door immediately sprang open.
In the next moment, a foul stench assaulted them as a huge creature burst out of the passage and crashed into the layers of sheets.
Jian Jing, Zheng Keyan, and Cao Yu each grabbed a corner and bundled it up tightly. They quickly swapped places, interweaving and locking the corners of the sheets.
Jiang BaiYan and Han Bo fired at the creature under the bed, shooting rapidly.
At such a close range and with such a large target, their aim could hardly be that bad.
Bullets shot out with a "biubiu", splattering everywhere.
The creature thrashed under the sheets for a few moments then lay still.
Untying the sheets revealed the lifeless creature as it tumbled out. Jian Jing swung her flashlight, illuminating the passageway below. This secret passage was a little wider than the previous one, barely allowing an adult to crouch and enter.
"I'll go down and take a look," she jumped down first.
"Wait for me," Jiang BaiYan followed right after.
The next was Coco.
Han Bo looked at Zheng Keyan and Cao Yu, smiling, "I'll bring up the rear."
"Ladies first," Cao Yu was quite the gentleman.
Zheng Keyan did not stand on ceremony with them either, going down fourth. Cao Yu went next, and Han Bo was last. He carefully barricaded the big door with beds and wedged the passage with chairs before following them down.
The passage was narrow and dark, and forked every which way. It also had a peculiar smell that was not exactly pleasant.
"So scary," Zheng Keyan said softly, but echoes reverberated around them – "Scary," "Scary," making it even more frightening.
Coco also said, "If a monster rushed over in this situation, we wouldn't even be able to run away."
Cao Yu laughed bitterly, "We were too hasty. We should have found a map of the secret passages first."
Speak of the devil.
In the midst of their chatter, familiar roars sounded from the forked passage.
"The monster is coming!"
"Turn off the flashlights, quick!"
"Shh—"
--
After broadcasting.
In infrared vision, the guests plunged into darkness appeared like headless flies. They only remembered to turn off the light sources and reflexively dodged into the side passages they saw.
By coincidence, there were many forks here. Some people went left, some didn't notice the person in front was gone, vaguely saw someone further ahead turning right, and hurriedly followed, thinking they had fallen behind.
The program team superimposed a simple map in the lower right corner, marking each guest's path.
Jian Jing and Jiang BaiYan were right next to the original passage.
Coco, Zheng Keyan and Han Bo hid in the right fork.
Cao Yu was alone in the left fork.
The monster gradually approached, crawling and writhing.
Then it chose the right side.
In night vision, the audience could clearly see the monster was only ten centimeters away from the three. Zheng Keyan hid completely behind Han Bo, eyes closed. Coco carefully hugged her legs to minimize her presence.
Han Bo bravely shielded the two girls in front of him, although his expression was also quite twisted.
Bullet screen 1: Han Bo's likeability up
Bullet screen 2: After three seasons, I like Little Han Bo more and more
Bullet screen 3: So brave and righteous, great
...
The monster lingered for a while, then went straight to attack Cao Yu.
Cao Yu was very calm. As the monster slowly approached, he slowly retreated. The two were engaged in guerrilla warfare.
Bullet screen 1: Haha, it's like doing the Cha Cha dance
Bullet screen 2: Shoulder to shoulder, advance and retreat, going to disturb my sleep tonight
Bullet screen 3: Lol, singing it out
...
The monster was busy for half a day but couldn't find anyone, so it slowly exited again, looped back to the straight line, and targeted Jian Jing and Jiang BaiYan's group.
Bullet screen 1: Is the NPC doing this on purpose?
Bullet screen 2: Too hilarious
Bullet screen 3: Little brother, show some guts, look at Han Bo!
Bullet screen 4: Little White: Trembling.JPG
...
Indeed, compared to Han Bo's valor in protecting the two girls, and Cao Yu's composure in skirmishing with the monster, Jiang BaiYan's performance could only be described as utterly dismal.
He was crammed behind Jian Jing, as if wanting to hide himself, with his face completely buried in her shoulder and head lowered, not daring to look up at all.
The fans were either resentful of his uselessness or overflowing with maternal love. The bullet screens were full of cheerful vibes. No one had given deeper thought that if he had been as brave as Han Bo, would they still remain indifferent to his intimate actions?
--
Jian Jing's shoulders shook as she struggled to bite her lips to avoid laughing out loud.
The monster drew near.
This time it approached extremely close, nearly touching Jian Jing's face.
Her heartbeat raced out of control.
How strange. Her rational mind clearly knew this was fake, just a simulation robot, yet logic was completely useless in such pitch darkness.
Fear, incredibly real fear.
So real it made one feel unsettled - were these so-called simulated NPCs really necessarily fake?
Maybe everything was real, and the haunted house had lied that it was fake.
Such thoughts were extremely terrifying.
Yet amidst the boundless fear, another strand of excitement was born. The two simultaneously stimulated the cerebral cortex, like the sweet and sour tingling of popping candy on the tongue, bringing peculiar pleasure.
In the silent confrontation, the monster finally retreated, slowly crawling away in another direction.
Jian Jing covered the flashlight, using only the seeping weak light to illuminate.
Seeing the team scattered, she was too lazy to reassemble them. She patted Jiang BaiYan’s arm, pointed at the monster, then directly followed it.
The monster was very familiar with the terrain, turning left and right, and crawled out of the passage through a ventilation opening into the basement below.
Jian Jing lay at the edge, poking her head out to look.
This seemed to be an experimental lab in the basement, with many large mysterious looking machines. One of them was a huge cage of lab mice, litters constantly squeaking and breeding.
The monster lingered around the cage for a while, as if patrolling something.
"What is it doing?" Jiang BaiYan whispered to her.
Jian Jing whispered back, "I suspect it is following ingrained living habits from when it was alive."
Jiang BaiYan: "Ah?"
But Jian Jing didn't elaborate further.
After a while, the space in front suddenly lit up brightly.
The room was illuminated with red light, and the monster seemed to have been injected with some tranquilizer as it fell asleep on the spot.
Jian Jing raised her eyebrows and sat up, ready to jump down.
"Wait," Jiang BaiYan grabbed her sleeve, "It's too high, let me go first."
The passage entrance looked like the original air vent and was located at the top of the room. The ceiling was about 2.7 meters high, and the exit was at least two meters away from the ground.
"It's okay," Jian Jing said and jumped down. When one takes off, they should immediately change postures and roll when landing to dispel the force, without any harm.
Jiang BaiYan peeked out pitifully, "What about me?"
"Wait a minute."
She moved a chair over and stacked them together, "Come down and try, with your back facing me."
Jiang BaiYan did as told. He knelt halfway and put his legs down. This showed the advantage of having long legs. As he groped lower and lower, he finally stepped on the chair and landed safely.
"Being tall is great." Jian Jing said with some envy.
"Hehe," Jiang BaiYan touched the back of his head shyly, "That's my only merit."
She casually said, "That's not the case. You're also good-looking."
Jiang BaiYan: "How good-looking? The best-looking or second best-looking?"
Jian Jing: "This is not a beauty pageant. Why make rankings?"
"Just curious," his tone was casual, without any hint of ulterior motive. "Among all the people Teacher knows, who's the best-looking?"
Jian Jing: "Many people are good-looking."
He looked disappointed, "You're so perfunctory."
"No, it's the truth." She smiled.
-- After the broadcast --
Comment 1: The little white face has "It's me, it's me" written all over him, so cute!
Comment 2: What's with this random sense of competitiveness?
Comment 3: These two are kinda weird.
Comment 4: Doesn't matter! Little brother is the most good-looking!!!
...
--
Jiang BaiYan's question came abruptly, but after asking, he naturally switched back to the main topic, "Here's an observation report."
Jian Jing leaned over to take a look.
Parts of the report were burnt, but the remaining pages could be read:
"After observation, the infected like green light environments and easily fall asleep under red light. The doctor speculates this is related to... Discussed with the hospital and decided to change the lighting settings. Red light will be used from 9 pm curfew to 12 pm, researchers must complete their work quickly.
"24:00 is observation time, full green light... The attackers...new infections appeared...
"The experimental results are not optimistic. They are especially active under green light to ensure researchers' safety. We must change the lighting, alternating red and green lights every hour from 0:00-6:00... Use the secret passage to escape in case of sudden attacks...
"Almost got caught, but the risk was worth it. I found they still retain some pre-infection states... Could what they said be true?
"Oh no, this is big trouble!"
Jiang BaiYan scratched his face, "It mentions 'infected' here, and the hospital is studying them? This is completely different from the previous clues!"
