With just the removal of an iron chain's constraint, the prey had become the hunter.
Lin Sanjiu moved soundlessly between the deep red, towering platforms, like a predator in the jungle. The flattened rat crawled ahead in her line of sight, its large body making furtive, scuttling movements. Just when she thought it was going to slip away, it would poke half its head out from behind a display, signaling Lin Sanjiu and the tour guide to follow.
The entire floor was shrouded in near silence. The remains of the two shredded and sliced duoluozhong exuded an almost unbearable stench. The stillness and the foul odor combined to make the air feel oppressively heavy, like a weight hanging over them.
When Lin Sanjiu killed those two duoluozhong, it hadn't been abrupt. The humans controlling them had likely anticipated this outcome long before. So, logically, to save their own lives, they would have returned to their human bodies immediately.
In other words, there were still three people on this floor besides them.
According to the flattened rat, these three people had chosen different display platforms to experience. After the flattened rat's body was hijacked, it was like a passenger in a car, forced to watch as the driver decided where to go, with no say in the matter. Because of this, it had witnessed the entire sequence of events unfold.
It wasn't clear where the others were, but the staff member who controlled the flattened rat had clearly planned to wander around in the duoluozhong's body. Before the experience started, he had taken a risk and unlocked the internal panel of the display. Once in control of the flattened rat, he used its human-like hands to open the panel and squeeze out from the display next to his sleeping human body.
"No wonder he chose that disgusting dried-out skin sack," the tour guide muttered at the time. "He probably wanted those human hands."
Indeed. Even if someone unlocked the panel beforehand, getting out while inhabiting a flesh-tube duoluozhong would have been difficult. The body was covered with undulating flesh tubes, which would be useless for operating the panel.
The flattened rat clearly heard her remark. A few black dots flickered on its white, crescent-shaped eyes before disappearing. It didn't make a sound, but for some reason, every time it looked at the tour guide, Lin Sanjiu got the feeling it was holding back laughter.
What was so funny about being called disgusting?
Her instincts were usually sharp, so she didn't think she was imagining it. But no matter how hard she tried to figure it out, she couldn't imagine what about the tour guide would amuse the duoluozhong.
"After he got out of the display," the flattened rat whispered as succinctly as possible at Lin Sanjiu's request, "he went to a few adjacent rooms and opened three other display doors. Each one contained an unconscious human. He actually resisted messing with their bodies..."
So, it was the staff member inhabiting the flattened rat who freed the other three duoluozhong containing his colleagues' consciousnesses. Once they had entered the duoluozhong bodies, ideas like responsibility, safety, or consequences no longer mattered. Once the doors were opened, how could they resist coming out?
Lin Sanjiu didn't need the flattened rat to explain what happened next. Thanks to the effects of her [No Coincidence. No Story] ability, she and the tour guide had blundered onto this floor, encountering the four duoluozhong who were playing in the empty exhibition hall, making them perfect targets for testing their skills and indulging their hunting urges.
To save its own life, the flattened rat not only led the way dutifully, showing no intention of slipping away, but also took the initiative to help Lin Sanjiu track the humans. Every time they approached a corridor, it would lift its nose and sniff the air.
"If they sneaked out from under the platforms and headed for the exit, their body odor would mix with the hall's air," the flattened rat explained, as if it found the current smell delightful. Trying to use a metaphor humans could understand, it said, "Human scent is fresh and sharp. It's like... hmm, like suddenly getting a whiff of red chili pepper in a field of flowers."
But after several stops to sniff, the flattened rat still hadn't detected any red chili pepper scent.
"Are our body odors throwing you off?" Lin Sanjiu asked quietly.
"It's not that," the flattened rat said, its tone and demeanor unnervingly rational and composed. If you closed your eyes and listened, it wouldn't sound like a duoluozhong at all, but a posthuman with an unusually sensitive nose. "You're both covered in duoluozhong scent; it doesn't interfere with me. I can faintly detect a trace of human scent... but it's too faint to judge if it's from before or now." ŗÃƝО𝐛ĘＳ
When they arrived at the flattened rat's display, the floor was as silent as ever. Apparently, the scent in the air was the same.
The flattened rat's display had its red cloth removed, and the glass tube was empty. The inner panel was lifted, revealing the cramped space beneath used for the experience. They didn't even need to open the base door; a glance through the glass showed that no one was inside.
Lin Sanjiu, still unwilling to give up, pulled open the door. Naturally, there were no new discoveries.
The person had indeed slipped out quietly, but how did they manage it without making a sound or leaving a trace of scent?
The exit door was locked; in such a quiet hall, the sound of unlocking or opening the door wouldn't escape Lin Sanjiu's ears.
"Maybe we should just go," the tour guide said, growing increasingly uneasy. "We're safe now. Who cares about them? This isn't our business; we're victims here."
Lin Sanjiu shook her head.
"Three valuable exhibits are dead, one escaped, and a staff member is now a vegetable... If you were them, how would you explain that to your superiors?" Her voice held no illusions. "They know our names, they can describe our appearances, and pin the blame on us as the intruders. That's the only way they can save themselves."
The flattened rat clicked its tongue. "Wow, humans are worse than duoluozhong. Even I wouldn't have thought of that."
1
Lin Sanjiu shot it a cold glance, not even bothering to reply.
After jumping onto the ceiling and hanging from a light fixture to get a bird's-eye view, Lin Sanjiu still didn't see any signs of human activity. If those three had items similar to the [Chameleon Suit], spotting them with the naked eye would be impossible. And she wasn't sure how much she could trust the flattened rat's claim of detecting no suspicious scents.
"Do you remember where the other two display platforms are?" the tour guide asked the flattened rat, keeping her distance.
"I can try to find them by checking which glass displays are empty in that general area," it replied. "The longer he controlled me, the fuzzier my memory got. Toward the end, it felt like a dream..."
"Start searching," Lin Sanjiu interjected. She turned to the tour guide and asked, "You have an idea about those two people? But they probably aren't in their original displays anymore, right?"
Miss Bee lifted her golden-yellow eyes. For the first time since Lin Sanjiu had met her, she saw an expression that was hard to describe. It was like finding forgotten money in a coat pocket—but no, not money, something else. Lin Sanjiu couldn't quite put her finger on it.
"The person in the flattened rat's body seemed pretty clever. He was probably the first to go back," Miss Bee said, tilting her head. "If I were in his place, I'd go back first. Then, while you were busy dealing with the other two duoluozhong, I'd seal their platforms shut so they couldn't escape."
Lin Sanjiu froze.
"That way, when you found them, you'd definitely kill them. They wouldn't know where I went, so they couldn't reveal my location... And if they're dead, I'm the only one who knows what happened today, making me safer. As for where I'd hide, I'd figure that out later," the tour guide said, lowering her voice. "This plan feels so cruel. I don't even know why it came to me."