Jiu’er had only lightly tapped twice without putting her full force into it, and she easily punched a hole through the wall.
At a glance, it was clear that it wasn’t a hole one could chisel out of a wall panel.
It was more like a tear in "paper"—
The moment Jiu’er saw that hole, she suddenly felt a wave of dizziness.
After a brief lapse of consciousness, the corridor was left in dimness. But it wasn’t pitch black... She could even make out the light of the setting sun filtering through from outside the paper.
It was as if the screen of a television had been punched through.
The sea of blood that had just been gushing from the cracks of the door, already halfway submerging her, had disappeared without a trace at some point.
"...What the hell is this?"
Jiu’er turned to look back at the door from which the blood had flowed.
But she froze the next moment.
Because she finally saw what it really was—
Yes, it was indeed a door painted on the wall.
The bloodstains that had appeared to flow out were also painted on the edge of the door!
But it seemed to be made with a strange paint that could only be noticed when the gaze quickly swept over it, and almost invisible when stared at directly.
The picture frames lining the corridor were also painted on; the bloodstains on the floor were also painted on.
Even the rows of lights had been painted on...
This wasn’t a narrow corridor at all, but a space formed by two rows of massive, upright sheets of paper!
Jiu’er’s first instinct was to look down at her own fingers—they had touched the bloodstains on the ground when she first stepped out, confirming the blood’s warmth.
By then, she should have some bloodstains on her hands. Even if she had smeared it on her body, there should have been some left in her fingernails...
But there was nothing.
Instead, she could see faint traces of red paint on her pants...
—Without a doubt, all of it was fake.
Everything she had seen after the three vagrants had left was an illusion.
Yet just these few simple daubs of paint were able to immerse Jiu’er in an incredibly realistic fantasy.
She could even feel the temperature of the blood!
She could truly touch and grasp the doorknob, feel the blood gushing from the door cracks... She could even sense the texture of the walls.
It wasn’t until she started to doubt her surroundings that she touched it again and confirmed that it wasn’t a wall... but a sheet of paper.
But if all of this was fake, all illusions, all special effects... all nonexistent things.
People... should be real, right?
Where had those three people gone?
Jiu’er looked down the way she had come, lost in thought.
"—666666, Divine Brush Amos!"
"—Master Amos, please draw me a girlfriend..."
"—Master Amos! Quickly draw me a dozen girlfriends (voice breaks)"
"—Master, you truly are a master, I fo you, please do me a few favors..."
"—Master Amos, do you have plans to join I Company?"
"...I’m telling you, you guys are delusional," she said.
Finally alone, Jiu’er couldn’t help but complain, "It’s just that there’s no mod here..."
Nonsense, how could there not be!
Seeing this, Annan couldn’t help but want to raise his arm and shout, "I am the mod!"
Unfortunately, this mod had been rather busy...
So after giving it some thought, he closed his mouth again.
Nothing else in the recording particularly caught Annan’s attention after that.
Jiu’er didn’t turn back, but instead broke through the "wallpaper" and escaped.
It wasn’t until ten minutes later that Amos realized his barrier had been broken. He let out an angry cry, drew a silver revolver, and started searching for Jiu’er’s whereabouts.
——In fact, Jiu’er didn’t actually escape far but was right nearby.
She realized that since Amos had to use illusions to scare them, it meant he didn’t have the ability to completely control them; and after she broke through the wallpaper, Amos didn’t notice for a long time, which also suggested he couldn’t constantly watch them.
So after running away, Jiu’er doubled back.
And hid in a cabinet nearby.
Luckily for her, Amos was quite oblivious.... After he took out his gun, he hastily ran up to the fourth floor.
This also made Jiu’er realize that the stairs to the second floor and below might have disappeared.
After Amos left, she hurried over there.
The spatial layout of the hall was completely inverted and chaotic.
She ran around a couple of times but couldn’t find the stairs leading downstairs... They must have been hidden by an illusion, but Jiu’er still couldn’t figure it out for the moment.
In the end, when Amos went downstairs, she found another place to hide.
"——WDNMD, is this really like Dead by Daylight?"
"——No, isn’t this ghost too weak? With such heavy footsteps, I think even I could do it."
"——Brother bear, this ghost has a gun though..."
"——emmmm that’s true..."
"——No worries, we just need to buy time, right? Just hide in a cabinet and it’s over."
"——We usually call this kind of game hide and seek in academic terms..."
Everything from this point onwards was the same as the beginning——
After Amos went downstairs, Jiu’er quickly ran up to the fourth floor.
Panting heavily, she leaned against the wall and cautiously looked back... fearful that Amos would circle back again.
Annan glanced at the time.
It was already 5:35 AM, and Jiu’er was adeptly hiding and seeking... Amos had started to suspect that Jiu’er might have already escaped.
If nothing unexpected happened, he would probably search until nightfall.
—— Is that why the victory condition is to survive until nightfall?
"Not bad, seems like Jiu’er might actually clear the game tonight."
Annan murmured approvingly and sent his first message in the chat today:
"—— Keep it up! Big bro with the fake leg!!"
"This is a picture frame, not a fake leg!"
Jiu’er retorted with annoyance and embarrassment: "Do you want to see me chopping off a fake leg?!"
But by then Annan had already turned off her livestream.
Because he was multitasking, browsing the forum while watching the livestream...
And suddenly many posts started flooding the forum, stating that Delicious Wind Goose was making rapid progress in his strategy and might clear the game with one life... He might even achieve the first clear!
...He started later than Jiu’er but his progress was even faster?
Are the tips I gave you that good?
Annan clicked on Delicious Wind Goose’s livestream with great interest.
The title of his stream was arrogantly worded and to the point:
"Won’t stop streaming until I clear it"
"Okay, that’s gutsy..."
Annan commented with admiration, "I didn’t expect to still see players competing in a speedrun in this world..."
He noticed that Delicious Wind Goose did not choose the second layer of the nightmare, which was a newly discovered and simpler strategy.
Instead, he followed the old path of the Wandering Child and headed to the third layer of the nightmare.
"Let me tell you first... how to enter the fourth layer of the nightmare. I’ve been studying it for a day, and I’m positive I can get through. If I die in the fourth layer, don’t say your Uncle Goose is unskilled, this is a new map... Next time I do a run, remember to remind me that I’ve already shown it once."
Delicious Wind Goose muttered confidently.