Congratulations on Your Successful Escape

Chapter 14

The sound of the wind whistled in his ears as he ran and Mo Yi clenched his teeth, running to the top of the stairs.

As he ran, he thought hard in his mind.

Before the fake Shen Lei’s face was exposed, it was not prepared to do anything to them. Instead, it took them to the “safe zone,” deliberately letting them find the correlation between the passage of time inside and outside of the illusion, inducing them to think that they could successfully escape by “spending enough time in the illusion.”

Even after its true face was exposed, it didn’t immediately act, but gave them a chance to escape.

Why?

Just as Mo Yi was left perplexed despite much thought, suddenly, his ears were met with silence.

Mo Yi returned to his senses, only to realize that the arms that were attacking them had completely disappeared, and that the photos floating on both sides of him had turned into the same photo:

The man in the photo.

It stared at him with pitch-black eyes with a strange smile on its face. Then, thousands of photos opened their mouths together, and the cold voice echoed throughout the empty illusion, “You can’t escape.”

Mo Yi took a deep breath, forced himself not to look on either side, and continued to run up.

“What’s the point?” Thousands of voices converged into a poisonously bewitching sound current, assaulting his eardrums, “Since you have come in, you will never be able to get out, so why the need to struggle?”

Mo Yi forced himself not to be affected by the sound, and mechanically moved his legs and climbed the stairs.

If his inference was correct … if the spaces inside and outside the illusion were interlinked …

Then, this staircase was by no means endless. It was the same as outside the illusion: It had four floors.

It was just the distortion and lengthening of the space that made the whole journey longer, making the stairs look like there was no end.

Mo Yi didn’t know what was at the end of the stairs, but now, reaching the end of the stairs was his only choice.

The voice continued, “… Why resist? Is it not good to stay where you are? I promise you that your death will be painless, just like falling asleep…”

Stay where you are?

Mo Yi was stunned, and his mind was enlightened as everything suddenly fell into place.

The photo’s intentions were very clear from the beginning, but he was too blind and ignored it!

It needed Mo Yi and Jiang Yuanbai to spend enough time in the illusion!

In that case, they had a greater need to escape from this illusion!

Mo Yi was even more convinced now that if he and Jiang Yuanbai really stayed here until the end of the countdown, they would only be greeted with a more terrifying sight.

He clenched his teeth, changed the angle of the photo frame he was holding in his arms and clamped it under his left armpit, and continued to silently run up the stairs, ignoring the man’s voice.

All of a sudden, Jiang Yuanbai, who was next to him, let out a cry, “Look! Inside the photo frame!”

Mo Yi lowered his head with some doubt and followed the direction of Jiang Yuanbai’s gaze.

He saw that the photo in the photo frame in his hand had changed at some point …

The silver frame had turned completely jet-black, like ink that couldn’t be washed away. The dense darkness filled the entire space within, like a natural cage. And in the darkness, he could see two shadowy figures.

Mo Yi drew closer, narrowed his eyes, and took a closer look.

He saw one of the figures move and raise its head, revealing a familiar face.

Shen Lei?!

He looked completely exhausted. His clothes were in tatters and were stained with dark blood, as if he had experienced a great battle. There was a deep wound on the side of his face, dripping with blood, which looked shocking.

Shen Lei looked at him in a trance, as if he hadn’t yet figured out the difference between reality and dreams.

Jiang Yuanbai leaned his face close, smacked his hand on the photo frame, and shouted, “Shen Lei! Shen Lei! Can you hear me?!”

Mo Yi silently moved his face away and rubbed his trembling and pain filled ears with no expression.

Shen Lei was stunned, and his eyes became clear. His facial expression was cold and the sharp-edged look reappeared in his pupils. He supported himself on the ground with his hand as he struggled to stand up, but it seemed like he was trapped by something. He staggered back a few steps and didn’t let himself fall to the ground again with his hand.

Mo Yi stared at him without saying a word. His eyes stayed on the hand on the floor for a few seconds. After confirming that his dominant hand was really his left one, he secretly moved his gaze away.

He lowered his eyelids and slightly dispelled the vigilance in his eyes. After all, in this current situation, being more alert was by no means a bad thing.

He merely listened as Shen Lei anxiously shouted, “You must not stay here! Don’t trust that person!”

“Do you know how to get out?” Jiang Yuanbai leaned forward and asked.

Shen Lei’s eyebrows and the corners of his eyes were bitter, “… If I knew, would I still be here?”

Mo Yi’s eyebrows and eyes were coldly frozen, and he wordlessly sped up the pace, opening up his mouth to ask, “You came in earlier than us. Please tell me what you know. We might be able to rescue you.”

— We have a chance to survive.

The remaining words were tacitly understood by the three of them.

Shen Lei nodded solemnly, and then briefly and concisely recounted what he had learned.

After listening to Shen Lei, the atmosphere became particularly grim for a while, and Mo Yi also fell into contemplation.

According to Shen Lei, it appeared in the form of Yu Li at the beginning, and secretly led Shen Lei and the others to discover the correlation between the passage of time inside and outside the illusion. They then made the decision to “wait until the end of the countdown.”

Hence, when Shen Lei discovered that there was something wrong, it revealed its true face and confined him in this space.

As his life force slowly faded away, Shen Lei gradually merged with this space, and slowly learned some information that did not belong to him.

The whole illusion was actually under the control of the man in the silver photo frame.

Although Shen Lei was not yet clear about its objective, what he did know was that it needed to complete two steps.

The first was to swallow human limbs in order to reveal its true form. and the second was to trap two humans in order to acquire their souls.

Because, when the countdown was over, the entire copy of the game would close, and the remaining human souls within the illusion would forever belong to it.

It was already about to succeed: It trapped Yu Li and Shen Lei. However, Yu Li’s body was too weak, and the bitten off arm caused her to lose too much blood, and she died before the end of the countdown.

Therefore, it targeted Mo Yi and Jiang Yuanbai with its plans.

Mo Yi frowned, and he suddenly remembered something. He raised his eyes and asked, “So, it can take on your appearance, because …?”

“Blood and flesh,” Shen Lei replied, turning to expose the bloody wound on his cheek to Mo Yi.

Mo Yi was startled, and subconsciously reached out to gently touch his forehead.

There was a burning hot sting from the wound on his forehead.

He remembered that when had just entered the illusion, “Shen Lei” had treated his wound!

He quickly turned his head and was about to call out to Jiang Yuanbai, but his voice got caught in his throat: there was no one beside him.

He didn’t know when the photos on both sides of him had turned back to normal. The previous bewitching words had disappeared. It seemed that he was the only one standing alone in the middle of the stairs.

Shen Lei seemed to be aware that something was wrong. He sped up his words and said, “It can only attack you before it regains its form. After having its form, although it can’t cause real harm to you, it can manipulate the whole illusion. You must be careful.”

— So that was why it just used words to confuse them to stay behind instead of using force.

Not because it didn’t want to, but because it couldn’t.

“It’s too late. It has already taken Jiang Yuanbai away.”

Mo Yi looked somber and thought for a while, then bowed his head to look at Shen Lei again, and asked, “After I took down the photo frame, are you still under its control?”

Shen Lei hesitated for a moment and nodded, “I should be, because even now, I can still feel it constantly absorbing my life force.”

Mo Yi’s heart instantly sank.

Then: Shen Lei and Jiang Yuanbai. It finally got two living people.

Mo Yi’s fingers slowly tightened, and the fingertips holding the photo frame became abnormally pale because of the force.

He lowered his head again, wanting to ask more things, but found that the photo frame in his hand had become pitch-black at some point.

Now, even Shen Lei had disappeared.

There appeared to be no movement in the vast space. A deathly silence spread, and the whole illusion was as quiet as a tomb. Except for his slightly rapid heartbeat, Mo Yi couldn’t hear anything.

Mo Yi slowly stopped and looked around for a while in a daze. His mind was in a mess, leaving only some broken and scattered thoughts.

He subconsciously raised his leg, wanting to continue to climb up, but he stepped on air and fell to the ground.

The sudden sense of weightlessness made Mo Yi dizzy. The edges and corners of the photo frame in his arms were heavily lodged in his stomach. Sharp pain and nausea from the shifting of his internal organs instantly rose up, bringing him to his senses.

He propped up his upper body with his arms, his palms pressed against the cold ground, and his blurry shadow was reflected on the smooth stairs.

Mo Yi stared at his reflection on the stairs in a daze for a while.

An idea slowly surfaced in his mind.

There was a hint of light in the depths of his eyes, and he quickly got up from the floor and ran up the stairs three and two steps at a time.

As he drew near, the white mist shrouding the end of the stairs dissipated before his eyes.

At the end of the stairs was a wall standing before him.

Just like outside the illusion, there was no fourth floor, only a wall that seemed impenetrable.

Mo Yi slowly exhaled, raised his legs, and stood on the last step.

He turned around, his back pressed against the wall, and the ice-cold touch penetrated the thin clothed material on his back, seeping into his skin.

— Since the stairs inside and outside the illusion were interlinked with the number of floors, structure, and even space, he wondered whether the curse on the stairs would be the same?

He lifted one leg and went down a step.

His voice was steady and calm, as if he didn’t have the slightest hesitation or doubt, “One.”

Mo Yi counted as he walked.

The photo frame beside him shook, and the man’s face appeared in the frame. It looked stunned and at a loss. “What are you doing? Stop it!”

Mo Yi didn’t reply, calmly counting, “Six.”

Just then, Jiang Yuanbai’s face appeared at the end of the stairs. He held out his hand to Mo Yi. “What are you doing? Stop it! I know the way out!”

Mo Yi continued to climb down. “Nine.”

This time, Shen Lei appeared. He stretched out his bloody hand and yelled, “I’ve escaped! Come on! Come with me!”

Mo Yi smiled and did not stop. “Twelve.”

He raised his leg and went down the last step. “Thirteen.”

The stairs underneath his feet suddenly vibrated, and the step disappeared. A tremendous force grabbed Mo Yi’s leg and pulled him in.