IWOL Chapter 216: Make a Choice

Linhai used his ability to turn over the materials in the room and successfully found a dagger in the deepest part of the bed. The previous challenge task of [Killing the National Teacher] was marked as a failure, and then another new prompt appeared.

[Leave the room.]

With the dagger tucked in his waistband, Dong Linhai tried to pull the door open but discovered that it was locked from the outside. With a single thought, he melted the metal lock cylinder and was able to easily open the door.

Perhaps because of the rain, the hallway was a little stuffy. It was empty so he quietly walked out.

[Challenge Mission: Leave the room (Completed).]

[Mission Update: Get the key to the storage room.]

There were some sundries piled up in the hallway. The wooden floor and walls looked old, and all the doors were closed tightly with no sounds coming from within. A window was open and the morning light streamed into the hallway. Dong Linhai looked through it and saw the scene of wilderness after rain stretching on far into the distance.

Judging from this height, he should be on the fourth floor.

Since he had no hints as to the plot setting, Dong Linhai decided to look around for clues when he suddenly heard thumping sounds coming from the stairs.

Someone was coming.

Dong Linhai quickly stepped away and hid behind the two stacked boxes. Since he’d been knocked out and locked in the room, he must be on guard against other people.

Two older men were walking up the stairs and one of them said gruffly, “Where is the little one?”

“He’s knocked out. I guess he hadn’t woken up yet,” the other person replied. “What should we do with him? That stinky woman, she’d already found someone to determine the location of the gold mine.”

“Then just get rid of him. It’s easy to get into trouble if there are too many people.”

Dong Linhai gritted his teeth. These men were obviously not good people. After having gained some benefits, they wanted to get rid of the “other person” who’d lost his value to them.

Fortunately, he woke up in time. If it had been five minutes later, he would have been killed in that room.

The men walked straight to the room where Dong Linhai had woken up. As their steps got closer and closer, Dong Linhai made sure that his body wasn’t exposed and waited for the right time.

The room he’d woken up in was between the stairs where the two came from and the boxes where Dong Linhai was hiding. If he wanted to escape, he must get past those two people. Dong Linhai held the dagger tightly in his hands, ready to attack.

When they arrived at the door of the room and took out the key, they discovered that the lock was broken.

The taller man’s expression suddenly changed. The two men looked at each other, and the taller man took out the pistol from his waist. He whispered, “I’ll go in and take a look.”

The shorter man nodded and waited vigilantly outside. The tall man pushed open the door sideways, and at a glance, he saw that the place where the person was supposed to be lying was empty.

“Damn,” he scolded angrily. He quickly walked into the room and looked around, but he didn’t see even half of the figure he’d expected to see in the darkened room. “He got away!”

His companion didn’t respond, and when the taller man turned around, his pupils suddenly dilated.

His shorter companion was still standing outside the door and watching the room closely, but now his mouth and nose were covered by a tall, young man. There was blood around his neck, mixed in with air bubbles. His trachea and throat were cut, preventing him from making even the slightest noise. He could only hold the young man’s arms with both hands, his eyes bulging as death approached

That young man was the informant who was supposed to be lying on the floor and whom they were going to deal with!

When did he wake up? How did he break the door lock without disturbing anyone, and how did he gain the courage to act against them?

The taller man didn’t know.

But these questions weren’t important anymore. He cursed and raised his hand to shoot.

He pulled the trigger, but the muzzle didn’t eject as expected.

Stuck? The taller man was shocked. In the blink of an eye, the young man had already thrown aside the shorter, dying body in front of him and was charging forward. The taller man wanted to shoot again, but the young man grabbed the pistol, forcing it around with a terrifyingly explosive force so that the muzzle pointed straight at the taller man’s head. The triggered was pressed down andㅡ

Bang!

Firepower burst out, and the taller man’s head exploded like a watermelon. A second later, his body crashed to the ground.

Panting heavily, Dong Linhai took a few steps back and fell down on the bed.

Blood spread quickly, spilling over the wooden floor.

Still holding the sharp dagger that had been used to cut a human’s throat, he closed his eyes and swallowed hard.

This was his…first real killing.

In Hamelin’s kitchen, he’d once killed the lizard cook. At that time, it left him with a psychological shadow. But now, he’d just killed real people.

But…he didn’t seem to be too sad or too afraid.

Dong Linhai raised his hand and rubbed his face. Then, he forced himself to get moving. The sound of the gun discharging must have alarmed many people. Someone would come over to check out the situation, and so he needed to leave as soon as possible.

He put the dagger that was still dripping blood back into his waistband. Then he knelt beside the mutilated corpse of the taller man, rummaged quickly through his body, and finally found a brass key in his pocket.

[Task Update: Enter the storage room.]

He also took the pistol with him. Once done, Dong Linhai wiped the blood from his hands and the soles of his shoes on the sheets so as to avoid leaving behind traces. Then, he quickly left the floor.

He didn’t take the stairs in case someone was hurrying over, and they ended up bumping into each other.

Pushing open the window in the hallway, Dong Linhai climbed over, stepped on the pipes along the window, and climbed down.

When the taller man had shot at him, he’d deformed the metal firing pin in the pistol so that, once the trigger was pulled, the gunpowder wouldn’t be hit. But before the trigger was pulled the second time, he’d restored the deformation and killed the man.

Performing these two extremely small and delicate metal maneuvers without touch was already the limit of what Dong Linhai could do now. In the tense moment of life and death, he’d stretched his potential and managed to accomplish it. He estimated that he might have to practice a few more times in order to do it again with more ease.

When he reached the second floor, he heard a woman’s screaming coming from the fourth floor. It seemed that someone had found the bodies of the two men.

Dong Linhai jumped directly from the one meter height and landed in the backyard. He walked around the front and saw a brown horse grazing in the stall. It might belong to those two men. He quietly opened the front door, confirmed that there was no one at the front desk, quickly slipped in, and began looking for the storage room.

Was the storage room on the second floor or the ground floor?

——-

Haa…haa…

Wang Que finally threw off the thing chasing after her. She didn’t remember how long she’d been running, but she felt as if her lungs would burst at any moment. There was even a slight taste of blood in her throat.

A monster she couldn’t describe was chasing after her. In fact, from the moment she’d woken up until now, she still hadn’t been able to see the creature clearly. The moment she’d opened her eyes, she’d heard the horrible breathing sound it was making as it approached. The mission task told her to run, and an unreasonable fear assailed the very depths of her heart. Like a whip, it drove her down the straight road paved with black and white bricks, forcing her to rush into the unknown.

She desperately wanted to look behind her and see what it was, but she couldn’t overcome the overwhelming fear. She could only run forward helplessly, just like a clockwork puppet, or the greedy girl in red shoes. She couldn’t stop at all.

And no matter how fast she ran, the breathing behind her remained close at hand, telling her very clearly as soon as she relaxed even a little, her throat would be ravaged by that thing.

[You must not stop. You must keep running.]

A voice seemed to be urging her from the darkness.

No, she couldn’t bear going on like this anymore.

Wang Que swallowed, her throat hurting so much it felt like it was about to split. It felt 10,000 times more uncomfortable than the 800-meter school test she’d done in 2006.

Just as her brain was spinning and thinking about how to get out of this, a door suddenly appeared in front of her.

A door?!

As she was thinking about what she would do if the door won’t openㅡ

The door swung open.

She rushed in, and the moment she completely entered the door, it was as if an invisible pair of hands had slammed the door behind her, shutting out the panting creature that had nearly driven Wang Que crazy.

Finally…finally, she could stop.

[Challenge Mission: Escape ■■■■ (Completed)]

Wang Que raised her head just in time to see a familiar looking man enter through the door on the opposite side. Their gazes met 20 meters apart.

“Linhai?”

“Qui’er?” Dong Linhai was beaming. It’d been so long since he’d entered the box, and now he finally met a teammate. Seeing that Wang Que looked like she was about to faint, he hurried over to support her. “What’s wrong?”

“It’s okay.” Wang Que’s breathing gradually calmed. Nearly her whole body was in Dong Linhai’s embrace. Knowing that she couldn’t sit and rest so soon after such a strenuous exercise, she walked a few steps around the room. Finally, she leaned against the wall, raised her hand to wipe the sweat from her face, and asked, “Have you met the others yet?”

“No, what about you?”

Wang Que shook her head and said, “I’m not sure. I might have encountered Sister Xiao Xia before, but she seemed to have become a man.”

After she was caught by the man in black, Wang Que realized what the problem was with the word “Stop.” The box shouldn’t have arranged an identity for a prisoner such as Cui Zuojing. Aside from him, only Xia Qiongyun could do something like that.

After talking about it to Dong Linhai, she said, “Everyone in this box should have been given different appearances and identities, so that’s why we haven’t discovered each other. This shouldn’t be the case. After all, we’re all teammates.”

“I also think so.” Dong Linhai looked around the room. This completely enclosed space had no ventilations. The moment they’d entered, the doors had shut after them. There wasn’t even a metal door lock for him to melt off.

The room was completely empty, except for the two of them.

The task to enter the storage room was marked as completed. But to him, this place didn’t seem like a storage room at all. How could a storage room be so clean and so empty?

“Don’t you think something is off?” As soon as Dong Linhai’s voice fell, he saw the task interface changed.

[Task Update: Leave the Blue Room.]

Blue Room?

Dong Linhai looked at Wang Que and saw that her brows were tightly furrowed. A moment later, a paragraph appeared in his mind.

[Dear Challenger, welcome to the Blue Room.

Many people hated making choices, and so do I.

So, I will give you some time to choose.

Deadly poisonous gas will soon be injected into this room. When there is only one living person left in the room, the door will automatically open, and the remaining person can leave.

Inhaling poison gas won’t immediately be fatal. So long as you leave this room, your symptoms of poisoning will be immediately relieved.

In the end, who will leave?

I look forward to your choice.]