V2C15

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To fight or to flee?

The giant spider blocked the door, its eight-legged body as gruesome as it was magnified, every vicious little detail made clear to the naked eye, a skull-numbing sight.

The terrifying pressure made Lin Jue’s hair stand on end and he could only gather the courage to face the monster by gripping his spear tightly.

With a screech, Song Hanzhang kicked over a wooden table, blocking the spider past the door. Its thick forelimbs clambered onto the desk as it squirmed, trying to squeeze in.

“Jump, quickly!” Song Hanzhang shouted at Lin Jue, pulling open a window and tearing through the vines outside.

“You first!” Lin Jue saw that the spider was almost on top of the table and grabbed his polearm to stab at it. The spider stretched out its claws angrily and Lin Jue rolled behind the other half of the door.

A bang, and the spider’s pincers pierced the weak timber, inches from Lin Jue’s face.

He broke into a cold sweat, not daring to think about what would have happened if it had been him being pierced by those claws instead.

Song Hanzhang had already climbed out of the window and urged him, “Block the door with another table! Get over here now!”

Hearing that, Lin Jue dragged another table to the door, ran to the window, and jumped out, crawling down the wall using the thick vines attached to it.

The spider had gotten past the blockade of chairs and desks and was now waving its legs angrily at them through the window. Thankfully, they were already outside of its attack range and searching for a window leading to a lower floor.

Song Hanzhang had found a window already and had jumped in successfully. Lin Jue scrambled towards it. With the polearm still in his hands and himself unexperienced with climbing, his movements were stiff and awkward.

Just as he shifted his weight, Lin Jue suddenly felt that there was something wrong with the vine in his hand. It didn’t hold onto his weight but rather fell with him… His body lost balance, arched backwards, then fell.

His eyes opened wide, the images in front of him slowing to a snail’s pace. The squirming spider overhead, the shock on Song Hanzhang’s face, the…

The overhead sky, covered with smog.

The world smothered in fog. Chaos.

“Lin Jue!”

It was Song Hanzhang’s voice. He recovered his senses.

He had to save himself. If he landed head first, he would definitely die!

Without hesitating, he released the polearm from his hand. His body had incredible agility; although the fall from nearly ten metres happened in just an instant, he was able to achieve an almost terrifying control over his muscles. Lin Jue flipped over midair. Even though he wasn’t able to land on all fours perfectly, the overgrown grass beneath his feet saved his life- he fell sideways into it, his elbow and thigh aching from the impact but undamaged.

Lin Jue let out a breath and waved to Song Hanzhang who had rushed upstairs. “Xuezhang, I’m fine! I’ll go up and find you!”

Saying that, he picked up the polearm and jogged towards the laboratory.

Song Hanzhang looked at Lin Jue who had survived a fall from the third floor without a scratch, and then had gotten up and began running, and started to doubt if Lin Jue had received some sort of physical strengthening boost from the plaza.

Lin Jue had fallen on the other side of the building which was fortunate as if he had fallen on the side facing the south plaza, he probably would have already been overwhelmed by spiders and ants.

The entrance to the building was covered with spider webs but Lin Jue was able to easily twist them away.

The first floor of the building was still covered in the same silence. Compared to the open black space from a few hours ago, the corridor was now filled with shade plants, even ferns growing out from the corners, the vines starting to cover the walls.

The corridor was more like a path invaded by plants and Lin Jue a traveller in a garden, lured by verdant fae, unable to find the way home.

Fog seemed to float everywhere, shrouding everything with a romantic haze.

Lin Jue turned into the stairwell and went up, following the broken concrete. His steps disturbed the residents of the building, small spiders scurrying into the protection of the new greenery.

Dark and moist, alone in a ruin. Spiders everywhere, with a hollow, constant tap of dripping water. And rustling that came from seemingly nowhere.

Every element made him feel ill at ease.

A dressing mirror stood at the turn of the stairs and Lin Jue couldn’t help but stop.

The him in the mirror stood in a hazy world, their expressionless face gloomy and cruel in the dim lighting.

Was that his expression now? Lin Jue couldn’t help but reach out to touch the stranger.

It smiled.

Lin Jue was taken back as he stared at his smile.

Naive, but cruel.

That familiar yet strange smile, where did he see it before?

Just… where?

He suddenly saw a flash of a figure reflected behind him. Lin Jue turned in alarm. “Who’s there?”

A crisp giggle sounded in the air.

Then nothing.

&&&

Lin Jue was shocked into waking.

He opened his eyes and panted. The blanket on him and the familiar bed- he was in his old dormitory.

He flipped the blankets and jumped up.

The room was quiet apart from the snores of his roommates and the occasional sounds of grinding teeth. The sky outside the window was pale; the sun would rise soon.

Lin Jue walked around the room in confusion. Did the second round already finish? No, that wasn’t right, the game had only just entered the second half of the night.

Where was Xuezhang? He should have moved with Xuezhang to the guest house so why did he wake up in his dormitory?

Lin Jue immediately grabbed his phone to call Song Hanzhang, only to see that no such name existed in his contacts. He scrolled through his entire list in disbelief but he still wasn’t there! Not even in the call history!

A soundless terror spread through him.

Without time to put on a jacket, Lin Jue ran out of his room in a singlet and shorts and ran to Song Hanzhang’s room.

“Xuezhang, Song Hanzhang, are you there?! Xuezhang!” Lin Jue shouted as he banged the door.

Panic shrouded his heart. Lin Jue had never felt as afraid as in that moment. He was scared that Song Hanzhang would vanish from the world just like the others who had died, forgotten by everyone but him. He couldn’t even imagine how he would survive by himself if Song Hanzhang was gone.

A man like him, sometimes he would get angry at his cold heartlessness, and other times, moved by the truth of his heart. Even though they were only friends for a few days, he had become the most important person to him in that nightmarish game of death.

If he were to disappear…

No, that wasn’t allowed to happen!

They were proof of each other’s existence in this world!

He was so, so, so important!

With a creak, the dormitory door opened. Song Hanzhang appeared from behind the door in his pajamas, his expression as calm as ever.

Lin Jue swallowed his heart back down from his throat. Whether it was thundering waves or stormy seas, they all calmed down the moment he saw him.

As long as he was there, there was nothing to fear, nothing to worry about.

That was what Lin Jue believed, but the next second, he was pushed back into the abyss-

“Who are you?” Song Hanzhang’s face showed a cold indifference, as if he was facing a complete stranger.

Lin Jue was stunned. “Xuezhang, do you not remember me?”

“Sorry, I don’t know you.” Song Hanzhang pushed up his glasses.

Lin Jue opened his mouth but not a single sound came out. Song Hanzhang’s indifferent expression with just a hint of alarm pierced his heart like a dagger.

He didn’t recognize him.

“How do you not recognize me!? The easter eggs, Lilith, the zombies, the spiders, did you forget all that?!” Lin Jue grabbed onto his arm and shouted.

“Let go of me. I don’t know what you are talking about, but I’m sure that you need a therapist.”

Lin Jue watched helplessly as Song Hanzhang pulled himself away from his grasp and shut the door with a sharp bang.

He stared at the door in despair, unable to move away.

A student from the neighboring room opened their door to swear at him, then closed the door heavily behind them.

He didn’t know how much time had passed when the door to the opposite dormitory opened. Someone came out from the room and walked towards the stairwell, a textbook in his arms.

Lin Jue’s peripheral vision met that silhouette and he suddenly turned around. “Shentu Ming?”

Shentu Ming stopped and looked at him expressionlessly. “Do I know you?”

Lin Jue stared at him with wide eyes from his head to his feet. Shentu Ming stayed standing there, calmly returning his gaze.

“Are you alright?” Shentu Ming asked, still in that gentle tone of his.

Seeing a dead man stand before him, alive and well, he wasn’t sure if he was more surprised or afraid1.

“You were in a car crash and someone saved you, right?” Lin Jue asked hesitantly. Shentu Ming’s final words still lingered in his heart, unable to be forgotten.

Shentu Ming stared at him, frowning. “No… Why do you ask?”

Lin Jue froze. Shentu Ming had clearly said just before he died that…

What had went wrong?

Shentu Ming gave him a strange look. “I heard you call for Song Hanzhang just then. Do you know him? But he said he didn’t know you, and I don’t know you either.”

He didn’t reply. His chest felt heavy.

Shentu Ming rubbed his temples as if he had a headache. Lin Jue completely ignored him, distracted by the fact that Song Hanzhang had forgotten him.

Shentu stopped paying attention to the odd stranger and said lightly, “I should go now, goodbye.”

Lin Jue watched his silhouette disappear into the stairwell, unable to regather his thoughts for a long, long time.

Life went back to how it was before he received the easter egg. Lessons, homework, basketball, games, eating, sleeping, then a new day to repeat.

Except he never entered that terrible game again, nor did he ever catch a glimpse of Lilith.

He met many people at school: the dead Zhou Yuxiu, passing him as she chatted happily with her friends; Liu Shan as he got food from the canteen, only to trip and drop everything; Gao Yifei passing out ads, smiling at him as she handed one to him; Gu Fengyi leading a dance at an assembly along with Liu Qingqing.

He even met Lu Ren, chatting with the aunties in the canteen with a grin, his plate always holding more meat than others.

They didn’t recognize Lin Jue, nor have any memories about the game.

But they were all alive.

Lin Jue felt lost. He couldn’t tell if he had fallen into some sort of illusion, or if everything he had experienced was just his imagination, but he didn’t know how to explain how he knew all of these things that he shouldn’t have known.

Liu Shan and Gao Yifei were high school classmates, Liu Qingqing and Gu Fengyi had a very good relationship, Song Hanzhang and Shentu Ming were currently classmates, and Lu Ren’s family ran a doujo. Even the details of places in the school that he had never visited, he remembered them clearly.

Apart from Shentu Ming. He was the only one who was different from his memories; he never experienced a car crash.

He couldn’t explain it.

He didn’t want to explain it.

Everyone was alive and he had returned to his life from the beginning. There was no need to startle awake from nightmares every night, no need to gamble with his life on the line, no need to see the pointless slaughter and deaths.

He had no way to escape the game. It was a devil’s playground, and he was just a human; he couldn’t fight against it.

So what if it was an illusion? Was there anything wrong with dying like this? Even if he left this place, how long would he be able to survive? So then why? Why not allow himself to peacefully, quietly, sink into this dream?

His previous memories faded, those details that used to haunt his dreams slowly forgotten. He continued with his peaceful life and wished to keep doing so.

To die in joy, or die a cruel, painful death.

He gave in to the former.

***

Vera’s Notes:

These uploads are just getting later and later…

***

1The phrasing here is “说不清是惊喜还是惊吓”. The ‘惊喜’ is a combination of surprise and pleasant/happy, while the ‘惊吓’ is surprise and fright, so it contrasts a happy surprise with an afraid/shocked one.

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