Chapter 779: Dark Space
Dark Space
Just as Lin Ye had guessed, this place was indeed the well inside the haunted house. Lin Ye climbed out of the well with the Penguin Doll. Outside was a grove hung with dried bones, and the trees were blooming with pure white flowers.
The Penguin Doll trembled as it clung to Lin Ye’s thigh. The dried bones on the trees started to quiver slightly, and rotten arms pushed up out of the soil.
Lin Ye glanced at the Penguin Doll thoughtfully, then walked to a tree and pulled down one of the dried bones.
When Lin Ye approached, the bones stopped shaking and the arms froze in place.
“If I believe you, then you’re real demons and ghosts. If I don’t believe, you’re just scary props, right?”
Lin Ye stuck the bone back onto the tree and, holding the Penguin Doll, walked into the building entrance that connected to the backyard.
This was a composite structure made up of many elements. Inside, horror motifs were everywhere, and there were numerous secret passages. Unfortunately, none of this could scare Lin Ye, so there was no real threat.
After spending a little time searching, Lin Ye found a swollen corpse under the bed in a secret room. Beneath the corpse was a hidden trapdoor, and below the trapdoor was the passage that led out of the haunted house.
The Penguin Doll tugged at Lin Ye impatiently, leading him down the passage to leave the haunted house. Inside the house it had kept its eyes closed while Lin Ye dragged it forward.
The passage opened into the back kitchen of a restaurant. Some dolls were eating in the restaurant. Lin Ye helped a Boar Doll wearing a chef’s uniform prepare some food, and only then did the doll open a hidden door for Lin Ye to leave the restaurant.
After that, Lin Ye checked into several attractions in the amusement park. He found that none of those facilities overlapped with the ones on that card.
'So I have to check in at every attraction before I can leave here? If I open that door directly, where would it lead? Could it be another area where a near-god resides?'
Lin Ye thought of the black-shelled bug; that creature might have come through the door to get here.
'Huh?'
Lin Ye suddenly stopped. He realized that ahead was not the passage exit but a door.
'Why is there a door? Shouldn't I leave through the door near the rockery after finishing all the check-ins?'
Lin Ye didn’t know which door was the correct one.
“Do you know where this door goes?”
Lin Ye picked up the Penguin Doll and placed it beside the door.
The Penguin Doll shook its head. It did not know what place the door led to either.
Lin Ye thought for only a second, then reached out and pushed the door open.
Outside the door was the rockery tunnel, and on the opposite wall of the tunnel another door had appeared.
This opened door seemed to be the same one Lin Ye had not opened earlier; back then, the opposite wall had not had another door.
Lin Ye walked into the tunnel and opened the door on the opposite side.
Inside the door was a dark space. Lin Ye carried the Penguin Doll in and closed the door behind him.
The instant the door shut, Lin Ye returned to normal status and the surroundings suddenly filled with spiritual energy.
“Fuck!”
Lin Ye activated the World of Ashes and hid inside with the Penguin Doll. The spiritual energy in the environment felt very familiar to him — that inferior spiritual energy he had thoroughly experienced in simulations.
Lin Ye threw a chunk of high-level creature flesh outside, and it took him five minutes to alienate it into a grotesque Mutant.
The Mutant moved slowly in the dark space. A rain of ash fell onto Lin Ye and the Penguin Doll, turning them to ash and recombining them. Although they were exposed for less than a second, the inferior spiritual energy still affected Lin Ye’s body to some degree.
“You okay?”
Little Guardian glanced at the Penguin Doll with curiosity. It had been a long time since Lin Ye looked this disheveled.
“Fine... how much longer can we hold out here?”
The World of Ashes needed abundant spiritual energy to sustain it. If the outside inferior spiritual energy was allowed to erode the World of Ashes, it could suffer serious damage.
“...I’m not sure. This area feels off.”
Little Guardian wore a puzzled expression.
Lin Ye unfolded his mental energy to sense the entire World of Ashes. He discovered that the degree of external erosion was constantly changing, and the changes seemed to follow no clear pattern.
“...Why is the erosion weakening?”
Lin Ye didn’t understand the situation either. Could there be some substance in the environment that was repairing the World of Ashes?
“I didn’t sense any process of the World of Ashes being repaired. If we rule out all impossibilities, only one possibility remains.”
Little Guardian looked at Lin Ye, a conflicted expression on her face.
“You mean time here keeps changing? Then why aren’t we affected? Because we’re inside the World of Ashes?”
Lin Ye felt there might be some kind of information here he didn’t understand.
“I don’t know either. Maybe some force beyond our understanding is remolding the World of Ashes.”
Little Guardian considered another possibility.
“...That’s indeed possible.”
Lin Ye controlled the external Mutant to move through the dark space. The Mutant’s body structure was very unstable and would malfunction every few steps.
But Lin Ye had anticipated this, so he had alienated various body forms to maintain its mobility.
The Mutant quickly collapsed into a writhing mass of flesh, and as it moved farther the body grew increasingly bloated.
When the Mutant’s occupied area reached ten square meters, a huge swath of giant Flesh-and-Blood Mountain Range appeared ahead.
The giant flesh mountains were covered with mouths of many different kinds. The mouths opened and closed constantly, repeating two short phrases over and over:
“Leak... trap... leak-leak-leak... trap-trap-trap... leak-leak-leak-leak...”
Those sounds overlapped and merged like a grotesque ensemble.
“...Should we retreat?”
Little Guardian felt deeply uneasy.
“...I’ll try once more. If it fails, we run.”
Lin Ye took out the Spatial Ring and moved it outside the World of Ashes.
The Spatial Ring showed no change, so Lin Ye stowed it away.
“Looks like that friend really doesn’t want me to take anything from here.”
Just as Lin Ye was about to return to the Shelter, he saw Xiao Ling run to his feet.
“No way.”
Lin Ye picked up Xiao Ling. He had checked this black cat earlier and found nothing abnormal. It was an ordinary cat.
Xiao Ling turned her head to the left and stared in that direction.
Lin Ye guided the Mutant to move toward that side. A few minutes later, Xiao Ling turned her head to look behind them.
Following Xiao Ling’s lead, Lin Ye repeatedly changed the Mutant’s direction. After an unknown amount of time, a metal box appeared ahead with a seam that had been pried open.