V1C20

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The fear of death didn’t stay for long.

A moment later, Lin Jue suddenly found himself standing in front of the door to 6/13 again, a cold touch coming from his left hand holding the doorknob.

But his back was drenched in sweat.

Was it an illusion? But the feeling of a sharp weapon piercing into his brain was so realistic, the figure behind the door so familiar, the death that caught him unaware making every hair on his body stand on high alert.

Just what was behind the door?

Was the occurrence just then an illusion or an omen?

Zhou Yuxiu’s final words still circled in his ears.

Lin Jue hesitated for a few seconds then snickered, hiding behind the wall and twisting open the door.

There were no flying daggers, nor was there candlelight, nor figures.

Only then did Lin Jue walk in front of the door, pointing his gun at the darkened room.

Silence. Extreme silence, as if even the dust and air had stopped moving, with only the thick smell of blood pouring incessantly into Lin Jue’s nostrils.

With a light poof, a fire lit up in the dark room, and as if following some kind of command, one fire after another was lit until a complete circle was created.

It was a giant round table, with thirteen seats surrounding it.

What met his eyes first was… his own corpse.

Sitting unmoving on the chair, facing up, a surgery knife shining with a metallic light in his forehead, his wide eyes stared at the ceiling even in death, the expression on his face frozen with surprise and disbelief in the last minutes of his life.

Lin Jue unconsciously touched his forehead- smooth with no wounds at all.

His racing heart felt some relief, but another voice in his heart mocked him- was all of this really impossible?

Lin Jue stepped into the bloody room.

Around the thirteen-seated table sat six people, all of them familiar to him, and all of them having died a gruesome, mutilated death.

Song Hanzhang’s head lay on his knees, his hands placed tentatively on it, as if reminiscing about something. Lu Ren had been stabbed through his skull and down his spine by his own Tang dao, as if pinning himself onto the chair, the smile on his face still eerily open, his eyes staring at Lin Jue as if trying to show off his glorious death. Gao Yifei had lost half of her head, the parts above her lower jaw completely gone, her hands covered in brain matter and blood. Liu Shan was pierced through his chest by Lin Jue’s wooden pole, pinned against the back of his chair, glaring ahead of him. Zhao Liangsheng had lost his limbs and his eyes, his neck twisted at a strange angle, like a human stick still under torture.

Lin Jue took a few steps towards the round table and reached out to touch Song Hanzhang’s head. His expression was peaceful like he was asleep.

His finger passed through emptiness. Lin Jue retracted his hand in shock.

It was just an illusion.

“You’re still alive, right Xuezhang?” Lin Jue whispered at the head.

As expected, he received no response.

Glancing over his corpse which was pierced by a surgery knife, Lin Jue saw the card slot on top of the round table.

Carefully hiding his gun, Lin Jue took out the nine of hearts which was warm from his body and gently placed it into the card slot. The scenery around him yellowed like an old film and when he opened his eyes again, he was standing in another dim room.

Compared to the previous room, filled with blood and corpses, this room was much cleaner.

There was a small round table and six chairs. Gao Yifei was sitting in one, her expression perturbed as she looked around her. When she saw Lin Jue, she immediately stood up and called out in happy surprise, “Lin Jue! You… are you alright?”

“It’s you?” Lin Jue couldn’t help but take another good look at her. She seemed perfectly fine apart from her slightly mussed hair. On the other hand, he was covered in blood, looking quite scary at first glance.

“Did you see that room just then? That… the one with a lot of dead bodies?” Gao Yifei looked extremely spooked.

Lin Jue nodded.

The two told each other what they had seen in that room. Both of them had seen the deaths of six people, but the ways of death were different for each. The maze they went through was even more different. Gao Yifei only had to deal with a few normal zombies with her three of hearts. Lin Jue skipped over the parts with Zhou Yuxiu and only mentioned the extremely quick zombies which had lost all senses apart from hearing. As he was part of the broadcasting club, he was quite familiar with the school’s electronics, so after he found the broadcasting room in the languages building and opened the broadcast, he finished the monsters off one by one.

“I guess that the number on the cards has to do with the difficulty,” Gao Yifei murmured.

Lin Jue thought back to everyone’s cards. The most difficult card would have been Lu Ren’s queen of hearts, followed by Zhao Liangsheng’s ten of hearts, his nine of hearts, his Xuezhang’s seven of hearts, Gao Yifei’s three of hearts, and then for the easiest, Liu Shan’s ace of hearts. But that wasn’t the order that everyone arrived in. He had come second, but Lu Ren with the most difficult card had yet to enter.

Just as Lin Jue was looking down, deep in thought, Gao Yifei suddenly let out a low cry. “Song Hanzhang?”

Lin Jue turned around immediately, his eyes meeting with Song Hanzhang’s. Song Hanzhang nodded lightly and sheathed the dagger in his hand.

“Are you alright?” Lin Jue asked hesitantly.

“I should be the one asking you that.” Song Hanzhang wore an almost picky expression, looking over the blood covering his body and face.

Lin Jue laughed drily. “That’s not my blood. Ah, did you see…”

Song Hanzhang seemed to know what he wanted to say. “The room just then?”

Lin Jue observed his expression carefully and seeing that there was nothing unusual, nodded slowly.

“I was stabbed to death by you and Lu Ren chopped off your head. Is there anything wrong?” Song Hanzhang glanced at him and said calmly, “It’s just a type of psychological stressor. The moment we opened the door, our deepest fears were revealed, but they won’t necessarily happen.”

Lin Jue didn’t know what to say suddenly and nodded stiffly, a weight that had been sitting on his chest lifting slightly.

Just what was he troubling himself with? They were just things designed to confuse him, but he was still shaken so easily…

Through his peripherals, he saw Song Hanzhang discussing with Gao Yifei, still as calm and collected as ever.

He still hadn’t seen Song Hanzhang when he was panicked.

Compared to him…

“Ah!”

Liu Shan suddenly appeared. He looked around in panic and took a small step back when he saw the other three, the shovel in his hand falling with a clang onto the ground.

“Thank goodness, you’re alright. You got here so late, I thought…” Gao Yifei let out a long sigh of relief and sat back down into her chair.

“You thought what, hm?” a joking voice sounded. Lu Ren rested half his weight on Liu Shan, the hand holding his Tang dao across Liu Shan’s neck, hooked lovingly over his shoulders as he asked Gao Yifei with a grin on his face.

Gao Yifei’s face paled immediately but Liu Shan looked even worse than her, his face almost green from holding his breath.

“So we meet again. The number of people gone’s a lot smaller than I expected; it seems no one’s interested in a challenging game.” Lu Ren’s arm still hung around Liu Shan’s neck, the Tang dao swishing around, ready to pierce through Liu Shan’s body at any moment. As he moved, the half-dried blood on the dao dripped downwards, occasionally splashing onto Liu Shan’s pants. Liu Shan’s pupils dilated in fear with every movement.

“You’re shivering, little mouse,” Lu Ren whispered into Liu Shan’s ear, but his eyes were staring at Lin Jue and Song Hanzhang, his pupils reflecting the dim lighting like a snake’s.

Lin Jue could see Liu Shan’s legs trembling. It was the first time that he had ever seen someone shake like that.

“I don’t like mice at all; they’re short-lived and delicate little things, but they do look a little cute when they try to go around the cat to steal food. It makes someone look forward to seeing what they’ll do to survive.” Lu Ren grinned and pushed Liu Shan away. Liu Shan stumbled onto the ground, forgetting even his shovel and hiding himself behind the table.

Lu Ren bursted out into laughter as if he had just seen something hilarious. It was a smile without any trace of darkness or restraint, handsome and bright, yet in the darkened room it made everyone there feel nothing but fear.

“Don’t worry though, I don’t kill unnecessarily. Really,” Lu Ren said, honesty written across his face as he sheathed his Tang dao, pulled out a chair, and sat down. Song Hanzhang seated next to him didn’t even spare him a glance, making no comment.

Lu Ren didn’t comment either and smiled at Gao Yifei who sat across him before looking at Lin Jue.

“Looks like you’ve just gone through a battle between men, huh,” Lu Ren spoke through Song Hanzhang.

Lin Jue stared at him in silent alarm, his clothes soaked in monster blood.

During their stalemate, the last person arrived. Zhao Liangsheng looked at the half-full table, a stunned expression on his face.

“Not one missing.” Lu Ren smiled strangely and said to no one in particular, “But how long can this luck stay?”

Lin Jue suddenly remembered the words inscribed onto the door plate outside of 6/13.

“The lucky traveler who will soon leave the maze, place your card on the seat that belongs to you. The undead is reluctant to see you depart; if there are no sacrifices, there will be no peace. Remember to feed the poisoned apple to the extra friend and bring either fortune or misfortune, the choice will be yours.“

Was the extra friend Judas, or would any sacrifice suffice? Lin Jue felt something ominous ahead.

There was a polite knock and Lin Jue finally realized that there was another door in this room.

All six pairs of eyes focused on an inconspicuous wooden door.

With a click, the door opened, the dim candlelight lighting up the hand which had pushed open the door.

A girl with pigtails picked up the skirt of her dress and curtsied gracefully at them. “Good evening.”

It was her!

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