Author: Robot Wall-E

Lei Yue's mind was confused for a moment, as if an old-fashioned tape recorder had jammed, and then it clicked and became clear again.

"!?"

Suddenly he felt the strong wind blowing against his face, and his eyes were no longer dim but bright.

I don't know when he went up to the second floor and stood next to a floor-to-ceiling warehouse window. The window was pushed open and he stepped out with one foot.

Above the window is the neon sign of "Hometown Bar", and below is the narrow and dilapidated alley.

"Jump down, jump down, jump down, complete the challenge..."

As he gradually regained consciousness, he was still muttering inexplicably, unable to control his body.

But suddenly, there was a pain in the flesh of my shoulder as it was being torn open by the sharp claws of the crow.

This pain grabbed his other foot as he was about to step out, and an image flashed in front of his eyes as if played at ten times the speed:

…

The boy with the rotten face jumped out of the second-floor window of the warehouse without any expression, and after flying out, he showed a frightened and sober expression.

A loud bang!

Blood spattered, black hair flew, and something ball-shaped flew out.

It was the boy's head, which flew out and rolled onto the dilapidated alley full of puddles. The skin on his face was all rubbed to pieces, and the purple scars on his face reopened.

This face covered in blood was extremely distorted, and its eyes that could still move were looking at a headless corpse in the distance, or a blur of flesh and blood on the ground.

All images suddenly disappeared, and there was only black at the end of the image.

…

"Ah, ah...!"

Lei Yue screamed and came to his senses completely. He immediately took a few steps back in a hurry, away from the large window that was pushed open.

"This? When did I come up to the second floor? Wasn't I breaking the door lock of the back door on the first floor...

"Why did the film suddenly seem to be broken, and it became like this in the blink of an eye?"

He was at a loss and felt a little chilly all over. If he hadn't been caught by the crow in time, would he have jumped down and been smashed into pieces?

The sharpness in the crow's black eyes remained unchanged, as if telling him that there was still danger, but its posture was calm, as if it had seen through everything.

As soon as Lei Yue stabilized his steps, he immediately checked his pocket. It had not been touched and the pistol was still hidden inside.

He took out his cell phone that was still in his sweatshirt pocket and looked at it. The time was 7:36, which was only a few minutes after he last checked his cell phone downstairs.

"I should have lost my mind when I saw the subtitles on those TV screens, and then walked up on my own...

"But, how could this happen? How could I suddenly lose my mind like this?"

The more he thought about it, the more confused and frightened he became. Lei Yue walked to the iron railing and glanced at the dim warehouse bar again from the second floor. There was still a rustling white noise coming from downstairs.

His heart was pounding, heavy and chaotic.

It's weird, and it's not weird like a fairy dancing.

He thought of the garbage dump on that rainy night, those divorced things, and the weird and inexplicable feeling at that time, just like this moment.

"Mohawk, Lucky, Ginny, Ayasha...who are they?

"Or it wasn't them, but the big policemen who followed me, and what happened? But if that's the case, why didn't you arrest me directly?

"Still, am I having a nightmare? How can I wake up..."

Lei Yue couldn't tell whether it was a nightmare or reality. In the past, he would only suddenly "jump" back and forth like this when he was dreaming.

No matter what, he knew he could never jump out of the window, no, no.

Lei Yue turned around and walked away, his forehead and back already covered with cold sweat.

Walking towards the iron staircase, he would pass by the black leather sofa. Lei Yue couldn't help but look at it. That was where Mohawk and the others were sitting last night.

Now the sofas are empty, with no people and no clothes. There are only a lot of empty wine bottles, beer cans, snack bags, a fruit knife, and... scattered on the glass coffee table.

His eyes widened, "That DV camera."

The old machine Lackey used to shoot last night was thrown into the pile of debris on the coffee table, as if something happened suddenly and there was no time to take it away.

"Friend, I'll go up and take a look...it should be okay, right?"

Lei Yue asked, the crow on his shoulder kept silent and did not respond to his question, so he walked over cautiously.

Not long after, Lei Yue picked up the old-fashioned video camera from the coffee table. He had only seen pictures of this decades-old machine but had never operated it before, so it was unfamiliar to him.

But because the DV machine only has a few buttons, which are not much different from the later models, it is not difficult to figure out how to turn on the machine.

Soon, a rustling sound sounded, and Lei Yue watched the small screen of the DV player play the video of the tape, which was the footage shot last night.

In the grainy tape footage, there is a close-up of his own face, serious and a little nervous. Lackey smiled behind the camera and said:

"Well, this movie is called "Dongzhou Night", and it tells the story of a boy who made a negative choice and participated in a life and death game. The game is not only a battle royale, but also has elements of adventure and puzzle solving..."

Lei Yue was looking at the image, thoughtfully, when suddenly there was a click, like a cassette.

The DV screen turned into a snowflake, and a line of bloody words scrolling from right to left:

[Pick up the fruit knife on the coffee table, aim it at your neck, and stab it, right now!]

Lei Yue suddenly became dazed and confused. He turned to look at the fruit knife on the coffee table and slowly stretched out his hand.

His blood is coagulating, his internal organs are rotting, and his skin and flesh are freezing.

But... this is just a dream, he will wake up soon and truly live.

Suddenly, the crow clawed hard again, and Lei Yue suddenly felt the huge tearing pain in his shoulder again, and he came back to his senses in horror.

He found that he had picked up the fruit knife at some point and was holding the knife to the side of his neck.

"Ah, ah..." Lei Yue hurriedly threw down the fruit knife, and the knife fell on the tile floor with a crisp sound.

He took a deep breath, a little shocked.

If the crow hadn't stopped him, he didn't know if he would have actually slit his throat with a knife.

Why? Why do you lose your mind instantly when you see those subtitles?

Lei Yue turned around and looked around, only to see darkness enveloping him, not a trace of the bar's glare.

"Suicide to escape a nightmare? No, no."

He shook his head, driving away these unknown thoughts, and continued to think about his previous thoughts: What Lackey said is that this game is not only a battle royale, but also has puzzle elements.

Isn't the current situation very similar to an escape room...

"If you solve a puzzle and escape, there will be puzzles and answers, doors and keys."

Lei Yue pondered, and some ideas gradually became clear.

If the current puzzle is how to leave the bar, the door is the back door on the first floor - for the door, the crow friend had a sign language prompt before.

So, jumping out of the window and committing suicide are obviously not the key.

Not even breaking the lock. Although the door lock is old, it is very strong and cannot be broken open, at least not in a short period of time.

So the answer is probably to find the key to the door lock and open the door.

"How did I get up to the second floor and how did I almost commit suicide twice?"

Lei Yue thought about it again and saw those magical command subtitles three times.

The first time I watched it was on TV, but there was no "right now", maybe because of that, my thinking was not greatly affected.

But the next two times there were "right now", which seemed to increase the intensity when he saw that he was not fascinated.

These two times, he was fascinated as soon as he saw it, and then as soon as the camera turned, he was executing the suicide order, only missing the last step.

"You can't read those command words..."

Lei Yue analyzed it in his mind and tried to figure out the puzzle, "You will be fascinated by it as soon as you see it, and you will lose control.

"Command texts all come from some kind of electrical appliance, and they all appear on the screen of electronic products.

"So, I can't just check these cameras, mobile phones, etc. There are mobile phones left on some wine tables on the first floor below. If I open it and check, there will probably be this kind of text. Every time I see it, it is a danger of death.

"But to look for clues and find the key, I had to search around the warehouse.

"However, those TVs and stereos were all on and being operated in the background. With these electrical appliances present, it was impossible for me to explore the environment safely.

"If I turn them off one by one, I will probably see and hear that order again at such a close distance...

"Who knows if it happens next time, I might actually commit suicide?"

Lei Yue was thinking about it, and a thought suddenly flashed across his mind:

I have to go and pull down the switch in the warehouse, so that all the TVs, stereos, etc. that are playing automatically in the warehouse can be turned off at once.
Chapter completed!