Chapter 44

Jiang Yuesheng looked at the room and instinctively blurted out, "Could this be SCP-002...?"

"What is that?" Long Aomin asked in confusion.

"Ahh!" Wang Tanzhi suddenly shouted, "Don't ask, he'll talk your ear off for hours!"

Jiang Yuesheng ignored him and replied, "It's a collection of sci-fi settings created collaboratively by enthusiasts on an online platform."

"Summarized in one sentence!" Wang Tanzhi exclaimed, "I remember it took you three hours to explain it to me!"

"Because at the time you looked like you were taking it seriously, so I wanted to see how far I could take it," Jiang Yuesheng said with a smile, walking into the room made of flesh and blood.

The other four followed him, none of them wanting to stay in the ever-changing corridor outside.

"Assuming this is the center of the curse's power in the House of Usher," Jiang Yuesheng walked straight to the two corpses, "the entire room is constructed from the souls or bodies of the Usher family's ancestors. Eventually, the bodies of Roderick and Madeline will become part of this room." He grabbed Madeline's foot and tried to pull it off, but the intestines were tightly wrapped, and pulling from below was useless.

Jiang Yuesheng took a kitchen knife from his bag and held it in his mouth, apparently planning to climb up the body and cut the intestines.

"I'll do it," Siyu placed her hand on Jiang Yuesheng's shoulder, stopping him.

Jiang Yuesheng turned to look at Siyu, who was staring directly into his eyes. Siyu didn't speak, but pointed at Jiang Yuesheng and then at the ground.

"Alright..." Jiang Yuesheng understood her meaning, knelt down, and leaned forward, his back facing her.

Siyu stepped forward, placing her foot just behind his shoulder, and with a light leap, she reached the top. She drew her sword in a half-circle, cleanly severing the two intestines holding the bodies, which then fell to the ground.

After landing, Siyu said to Jiang Yuesheng, "Thank you."

"No... problem..." Jiang Yuesheng felt as if he had troubled her.

At that moment, Roderick's ghost reappeared, standing behind Beiling outside the door.

"You... can't change anything..." Roderick said.

His sudden appearance startled Beiling, who immediately turned around, sweeping her flashlight towards the door, but saw nothing.

On the floor, Roderick's body began to move, the intestines around him loosening. As everyone's attention turned to the door, the ghost controlled his body to stand up and attack Jiang Yuesheng again.

Jiang Yuesheng was alert, looking at the door, but he immediately reacted to the movement behind him. He raised the kitchen knife and turned to block, the blade colliding with Roderick's arm.

Though the corpse had regained mobility, it was still made of flesh and blood. Jiang Yuesheng's knife cut into Roderick's right forearm, but got stuck in the bone, failing to sever it.

Long Aomin's reaction was also quick. Seeing the situation, he stepped forward, raised his shield, and slashed at Roderick's temple. The [Fragment of A.I.] was a high-quality item, and with Long Aomin's physique, the slash easily removed Roderick's skull.

The exposed brain was black and gray, looking like mashed tofu and emitting a nauseating odor.

Seeing that Roderick's head was half gone, Jiang Yuesheng quickly took a pipe wrench with his free hand and jabbed it into the corpse's chin several times, as if he was in a hurry to finish the job.

Siyu saw that the two could handle it and did not join in. Soon, only Jiang Yuesheng was "beating the corpse," using the kitchen knife and pipe wrench to pound the already fallen body until Roderick's body was a bloody mess, with internal organs exposed and major bones shattered. He then stopped, panting, "Phew... He shouldn't get up again."

Even Wang Tanzhi, who was used to seeing corpses, couldn't help but cover his mouth, "What's there to get up? In this state, can it even perform the action of 'getting up'? This mess could be used to make dumplings..."

With Roderick's body destroyed, his ghost reappeared in a corner of the room, "It's useless... My flesh will become part of this house. You... will be no different."

As he spoke, the door closed on its own, and the flesh on the walls began to wriggle. Mouths with sharp, outward-facing fangs appeared on the walls, large enough to bite off a face.

"Hey... Brother Jue, what do we do now?" Wang Tanzhi took out his kitchen knife but didn't know what to attack. Should he cut the flesh walls?

"If something like a tongue comes out of the walls, I'm not playing along..." Beiling looked at the mouths on the walls with disgust.

"Since we will eventually be swallowed, why did you bother to possess your own body to attack me..." Jiang Yuesheng muttered, shining his flashlight on Roderick's ghost, but the ghost seemed no longer afraid of the light.

"Oh... In this house, you're not afraid of light anymore?" Jiang Yuesheng said, walking to Madeline's body and squatting down.

Roderick's face showed surprise, "What are you doing?"

"Madeline's soul did not want to become part of the House of Usher. Her image briefly appeared in the cellar, calling for help," Jiang Yuesheng said. "I thought about it... The phrase 'let me out' was not about freeing her from the coffin, as she had already escaped it in life." Confirming Roderick's reaction, he stood up and smiled, "Madeline wanted me to take her body out of this room to prevent it from being assimilated by the house like you."

Roderick's face became increasingly terrifying, his features transforming into those of a demon, "Look around... How can you take her out?"

Jiang Yuesheng said, "Are these surroundings real? If this house can eat people so quickly, your bodies would have been completely consumed long ago." He walked to the wall and reached out to touch one of the large, fleshy mouths.

The others remained silent, not moving to stop him, his confident tone and steady movements giving them confidence.

Roderick could only glare at him, but could do nothing.

Jiang Yuesheng's hand passed through the fleshy illusion, touching the real wall, a simple wooden wall. "As expected... The illusion concealed the true appearance of the room. Now, I just need to find..." He paused, "Heh, I'm slow. Where else could it be?"

Jiang Yuesheng walked to the corner where Roderick stood. The ghost looked terrified and roared in anger, but Jiang Yuesheng ignored him, passing through his translucent form and exploring the wall behind Roderick.

A few seconds later, Jiang Yuesheng raised his hands to a height slightly above his waist, palms forward, and pushed upward, opening a window.

The system voice announced, "Current mission has changed, main mission updated."

In the mission list, the main mission [Explore the house, find a way to escape the mansion] was checked, and a new mission [Destroy the array, escape the house] appeared.

Red light from the blood moon shone through the window, and Roderick disappeared upon contact with the red light. The light also dispelled all illusions, revealing the true appearance of the room.

It was just an attic, entirely made of brick and wood, with no flesh, bones, or hair. The ropes hanging the bodies were just thick ropes, not intestines.

The room was empty except for a strange array carved into the center of the floor, possibly a randomly generated pattern in the game.

The only truly terrifying thing left in the room was the corpse Jiang Yuesheng had mutilated.

The other four finally breathed a sigh of relief. Wang Tanzhi wiped the sweat from his forehead, "I was on edge for so long, but this house can't actually hurt us."

Jiang Yuesheng approached the array on the floor, slashing it with his knife, "This room is like the 'head' of the house. After the Usher family members die, they are brought here and 'fed' to the house like food." He glanced at the mangled flesh, "Their bodies disappear, and their souls merge with the house, transforming into various strange things. Perhaps the distorted sculptures and ugly paintings are reflections of some family members."

After defacing the array, he put away his weapon and stood up, "Also... When I came in and saw these two bodies, I had some doubts... The phrase 'he knows' carved in the coffin, the 'he' might not be Roderick..."

"What? Could it be the protagonist of the novel?" Long Aomin asked.

"No, the protagonist is clearly innocent, but..." Jiang Yuesheng replied, "There are others in the House of Usher besides the two owners. The book mentions a 'stealthy, silent male servant' and a 'sly-looking, panicked family doctor.'"

"Are you saying the Usher family might also be victims?" Beiling asked.

Jiang Yuesheng looked around, seemingly searching for something, and replied absentmindedly, "Perhaps the Usher family was targeted by a strange religious group, becoming experimental... no, sacrificial subjects. After they die, they are offered to this house. Who knows what this house is... maybe its power comes from a fictional evil deity."

"Up there," Siyu suddenly said.

Jiang Yuesheng immediately looked up and saw the final segment of the ghostly palace on the sloping roof.

"Now the visitors step into the valley,

Through the windows that reflect blood,

They see the ghastly shadows

Dancing to the shrill music;

Like the terrifying Styx, surging,

Breaking through the pale palace gates,

The demons have arrived,

Their mad laughter fills the air, no more smiles of ease."

The system prompt announced, "Side mission completed."

Jiang Yuesheng sighed, "Alright, the array is destroyed. The house should be back to normal, and we should find a way out soon."

"Why don't we just jump out of this window? We finally found an exit!" Wang Tanzhi said.

"Go ahead, then." Jiang Yuesheng picked up Madeline's body and walked to the door, "Good luck."