When Lin Sanjiu lowered her head along with Wu Yiliu and saw the shoe in her hand, the shock nearly made her soul explode—she instinctively wanted to jump up, but she was restricted by Wu Yiliu's body, as if his skin had become her prison, and she couldn't escape.
The momentary terror caused by her inability to escape was quickly drowned out by another type of horror produced by Wu Yiliu himself, drowning it without a trace.
"Wh—when did," Wu Yiliu said, as if scalded, throwing the shoe in his hand far away. He watched it tumble and land on the floor, subconsciously stood up, walked two steps towards it, then stopped again. "Did I... did I pick it up?"
Cuining was sitting on the sofa; looking at her from a different direction now, she appeared as a shadow in the dim light. "Don't you remember?" she asked.
This was definitely not a memory problem.
Wu Yiliu took a breath and replied, "It's not that I forgot; I fear that the act of picking up the shoe wasn't even noticed by my brain."
If he didn't recognize it at all, then naturally, it could not be a matter of forgetting.
Cuining's shadowy head turned from side to side, and she said softly, "So, you mean... Some kind of power made you do it unconsciously?"
Wu Yiliu couldn't answer that question; he just wiped his forehead a few times but without feeling much relief. Abby and Pence, who were checking the bedrooms, seemed to be drawn out by the noise outside. Abby came in first, holding the brim of a hat with her fingernail, as if refusing to touch it. "What happened?"
After Cuining explained the situation, Abby hurriedly threw the hat away—it landed with the lone shoe, while the other shoe and a pullover remained on the chair.
"Is this what you just found?" Wu Yiliu knew he was asking an obvious question. "Are they all... personal clothing items?"
"Yes," Abby said. She seemed to want to say something else but swallowed it back in uncertainty.
Pence walked into the living room and said in a deep voice, "I didn't find anything. What about you?"
It seemed that the whole wooden house had only three additional items: hiking boots, a pullover, and a hat. They appeared without rhyme or reason and obviously were not necessities prepared for posthumans. Even the number of items didn't match. Wu Yiliu couldn't figure out what they represented.
"What would have happened if you had put on the shoe earlier?" Abby asked.
Wu Yiliu couldn't answer such a question. He looked back at the TV, where there were no hints or rules. "I couldn't have worn them," he replied ambiguously. "They're women's shoes."
At that, he reminded himself that the pullover was men's, the hiking boots were women's, and the hat was adjustable for both... they didn't seem to belong to the same person, but rather were prepared for three different individuals.
"Anyway, we better stay away from these things," Pence said, putting on a glove. He packed the items into a plastic bag, carefully watching the TV's reaction throughout—it was also a way to probe the pocket dimension, but there was no movement on the screen even when he picked up the bag to throw it out.
"Don't open the door yet," Abby said, wrapping her arms around herself, looking a bit uneasy. "Let's throw the things away in daylight. What if that thing Wu Yiliu saw is still outside?"
Pence snorted dismissively, but after thinking, left the bag by the door.
"Nobody should touch it again," Abby immediately said. "It's best for the four of us to stay together tonight, never be alone."
As a pocket dimension reconnoiter, this approach would be too conservative and passive, more suitable for survival rather than discovering the rules of the pocket dimension. But no one pointed that out. Interestingly, even if the pocket dimension was filled with dangerous obstacles, causing them to lose an arm if they failed, it probably wouldn't make their behavior suddenly so conservative and cautious—but now, a few items of clothing and shoes had achieved this.
In a dim darkness, the four people moved the sofas and chairs in the living room to the center and found places to sit, facing each other in pairs. This way, they could ensure that they could keep an eye on all four directions. Cuining had night vision goggles with her, previously unused due to an expected "rest", but now she took them out and distributed a pair to each person—suddenly, the dark room was permeated with a shade of green, and furniture, shadows, and the room all took form in varying shades of luminescent green. Aside from the unusual color tone, they could see their surroundings quite clearly.
Wu Yiliu was facing the front door, staring at the quietly closed door, but his heart felt as if it was being held by a string. Facing him, with her back to the door, was Abby; Cuining and Pence were to his left and right respectively.
"What guesses does everyone have about this pocket dimension?" Cuining asked softly.
"It's an adventure type," Pence said confidently, as if he had read the script. "Didn't the television say earlier? Light attracts unwelcome creatures, and any scenario with these kinds of supernatural dangers is usually an adventure or combat type game."
Wu Yiliu would have agreed with him in another situation, but he couldn't nod now.
"Or," Cuining whispered, as if thinking the same, "it might also be a puzzle or escape-room type of game..."
After discussing for a while without any conclusion, and after one or two uneventful hours, Pence seemed a bit weary and frustrated. He stood up, walked to the washroom, removed his glasses, and washed his face. The washroom was in a corner of the living room, and Pence left the door open, never leaving his companions' sight. Even when bending down to wash his face, Cuining could still see his bent back and the mirror above the washbasin—from her angle—until the sound of the water stopped, and Pence straightened up, standing in the washroom, silent for a moment.
"What's wrong?" Cuining asked.
Pence peeked out, looking around. "Did you guys talk while I was washing my face?"
Wu Yiliu immediately became alert. "No, did you hear something?"
"Actually, I didn't hear much, maybe I was mistaken," the tall man said as he walked towards the door. "I'm going to check the door, just to confirm..."
Just as Wu Yiliu abruptly leaped from his chair, Pence also lunged towards the plastic bag like a hungry tiger attacking its prey—since he was ultimately half the distance closer to the target, he grabbed the bag first and tore it open with a "swish" sound.