Chapter 92: The Twisted House
The instant the rattle sounded, the world changed.
Dong.
Dong.
Dong.
The suffocating sea of blood receded as though an invisible force had swept it away.
The little girl’s sobs gradually faded.
Shen Yu slowly emerged from the crimson tide, his expression complicated as he looked around.
"Xiao Han... good girl..."
"Soon you’ll be able to go home."
"Didn’t your mom and dad tell you?"
"Shake the rattle, and they’ll come to take you home."
The memories echoed faintly in his mind.
Thud... Thud... Thud...
The crisp sound of the rattle reverberated through the air.
As Xiao Han’s cries disappeared, the blood-red world dissolved into a hazy mist.
The twisted wooden house melted away.
When the mist finally dispersed...
They were no longer inside the cursed village.
Instead, Shen Yu and the others stood inside an ordinary city apartment.
"...What?"
Emo Han opened his eyes in disbelief.
His clothes were still soaked with blood, but the terrifying cabin had vanished completely.
"Where are we?"
"Weren’t we trapped in that house just now?"
Lucian stared blankly at the surroundings.
"This... this is a city apartment."
She turned toward Shen Yu, confusion written all over her face.
"Shen Yu..."
"What did you just say?"
"You said if Xiao Han shook the rattle, her parents would come to pick her up."
"How did you know that?"
Shen Yu didn’t answer.
Instead, he quietly surveyed every corner of the room.
The rattle in his hand continued to shake on its own.
Dong... Dong... Dong...
The apartment was spacious and warmly decorated.
On one wall hung numerous certificates and medals awarded by literary associations and poetry societies.
An old-fashioned television rested on a wooden cabinet.
Beside it stood a tall bookshelf packed with collections of classical poetry, essays, and literary anthologies.
Shen Yu slowly exhaled.
"So that’s where it came from..."
Lucian frowned.
"What?"
Shen Yu looked at the shelves.
"Yun Han’s love for poetry."
"It wasn’t born inside the village."
"It started here."
"This is her home."
He paused.
"Or rather..."
"The world she imagined while desperately clinging to hope."
"The world she escaped into while enduring endless suffering."
Heavy footsteps echoed through the apartment.
Shen Yu instinctively examined the layout.
The master bedroom.
The guest room.
The living room.
Everything was simple.
Everything was warm.
Then—
His gaze landed on a framed family photograph hanging on the wall.
In the picture stood an elegant middle-aged man wearing glasses beside a gentle woman with a warm smile.
Between them...
A little girl.
She smiled brightly beneath the sunlight.
It was Yun Han.
The family looked genuinely happy.
For a long moment, Shen Yu simply stared.
His chest tightened.
"So..."
"You really did have a family."
He turned away from the master bedroom.
His destination had always been elsewhere.
The second bedroom.
The room that appeared repeatedly inside every Favorability CG.
The room that carried Yun Han’s happiest memories.
The door stood slightly open.
Pink curtains.
Small stuffed animals.
A warm blanket neatly folded.
Sunlight poured through the window.
Exactly as he remembered.
Emo Han stretched lazily.
"Well."
"Whatever happened..."
"We’re safe for the moment."
He looked around.
"So."
"Anyone figured out the main storyline of this dungeon?"
As he spoke, he wandered carelessly through the apartment.
Eventually...
He stopped in front of the pink bedroom.
Without thinking...
He reached for the doorknob.
Click.
The moment his fingers touched it—
Dong! Dong! Dong!
The rattle in Shen Yu’s hand suddenly shook violently.
His arm moved against his will.
His pupils contracted.
"What...?"
No matter how hard he tried—
He couldn’t stop it.
The drum continued shaking by itself.
Dong! Dong! Dong! Dong!
Then—
A faint sob echoed from behind the bedroom door.
"Xiao Han..."
"...Xiao Han..."
It was a woman’s voice.
Weak.
Broken.
Filled with despair.
Lucian’s face turned pale.
"Someone’s inside?"
Before anyone could react—
The apartment trembled violently.
The floor shook.
The walls twisted.
The entire living room began changing before their eyes.
The old television disappeared.
The comfortable sofa vanished.
The bookshelves dissolved into dust.
The poetry medals fell from the wall one after another before fading into nothingness.
In their place...
Countless pieces of paper appeared.
They covered every inch of the walls.
Every pillar.
Every window.
Every surface.
Missing person notices.
Every single one carried the same photograph.
Missing Child
Yun Han
Female
Eight years old
Last seen wearing a white dress.
If anyone has information, please contact...
One notice.
Ten notices.
A hundred.
Thousands.
The apartment disappeared beneath an endless sea of missing posters.
Lucian gasped.
"Oh my God..."
"They never stopped looking for her..."
The room continued shrinking.
From a spacious apartment...
To a cramped rental room.
From the rental...
To a shabby temporary shelter.
Then—
The walls disappeared entirely.
They found themselves standing beneath an old park pavilion.
The missing person notices still surrounded them.
Fluttering endlessly in the wind.
Shen Yu slowly clenched his fists.
He finally understood.
Each transformation represented another stage of Yun Han’s parents’ lives.
They sold the apartment.
Then the smaller house.
Then everything they owned.
Until...
They had nowhere left to live.
Only the park remained.
They had sacrificed everything searching for their daughter.
Lucian’s eyes reddened.
"So that’s what happened..."
"They weren’t people who abandoned her."
"They lost everything trying to bring her home."
Shen Yu remained silent.
His gaze lingered on the thousands of weathered notices.
Some were faded by rain.
Others were yellow with age.
But every one of them had been carefully posted.
Again.
And again.
And again.
Someone had refused to give up.
Even after years.
Even after hope should have died.
Lucian suddenly froze.
Her breathing quickened.
"I..."
"I think I know."
She looked toward Shen Yu.
"I’ve seen fragments of Yun Han’s memories."
"If every memory we’ve witnessed belongs to her..."
"Then I think the true objective of this dungeon isn’t simply surviving."
"It’s..."
She abruptly stopped speaking.
Her eyes widened.
Her lips remained open—
But no sound came out.
It was as though an invisible force had seized her throat.
She struggled desperately.
Not a single word escaped.
The air around them suddenly became deathly silent.