Congratulations on Your Successful Escape

Chapter 1

Warning: This novel contains dark themes and has horror elements (corpses, blood, murder, etc.).

He was falling.

The heavy darkness wrapped in icy silence rushed to his mouth and nose like a tide. The sense of suffocation was crushing his chest while the deathly stillness drowned his breaths and shouts.

There was nowhere to escape.

His heart felt weak, dropping like a stone as his last breath faded away. Then, all the sounds and colours slowly disappeared, leaving behind the endless darkness that seemed to be bewitching him to sleep forever. The eternal silence gently embraced him and whispered softly in his ear:

“Stay…”

Mo Yi opened his eyes, quickly but silently gasping for breath as he squinted at the dazzling light.

The thin sweat drenched shirt clung to his back, the cold sensation penetrating straight into his nerves.

It was this dream again…

Slowly, Mo Yi rose, stiff soreness spreading from his neck. He blinked slowly after having adapted to the harsh white light, his sight refocusing.

He was stunned at the sight in front of him.

It was an old empty classroom.

An ordinary, old school classroom. The blackboard on the wall was not very clean. In the corner, there were faint remnants of chalk while several mathematical formulas were written in the middle. Simple sketches were drawn in another corner of the blackboard, which at a quick glance, seemed to be a deformed bird.

Wooden tables and chairs were neatly arranged, each table was piled with stacks of papers and exercise books. The walls were painted white and on them were the words “208 days before the college entrance examinations.”

The energy saving lamp on top of his head made a sizzling sound.

The whole classroom was filled with an eerie silence.

…What was going on? Where was he?

Mo Yi frowned and racked his brain to remember but it seemed that his memory was blank. He could only recall that he was at home and had accidently fallen asleep. But why did he wake up in an empty classroom?

He looked down at the desk he was lying on and saw simple drawings which were carved on the wooden desk with a knife. Pen and pencil scrawled words overlay one another on the desk, an exercise book spread on top. On the side was a pen without a cap. The elegant handwriting in the exercise book looked as though the writer was interrupted in the middle of writing.

He lightly touched the handwriting, leaving blue ink on his fingers. Only then did he realize the source of wrongness he sensed.

In this classroom, it seemed that everything was only half finished, as if the teacher and students all suddenly vanished at the same time.

Mo Yi got up in a panic.

The back of his waist slammed into the corner of the table; the sudden sharp pain rushed up his back, causing his numb senses from sitting for too long to wake up.

His sudden movement had also knocked one of the exercise books off the table and onto the floor. Mo Yi bent down to pick it up. On the cover, written in soft handwriting, were the words “Senior Class 3, Zhao Qiulan.”

Just then, a noise from afar suddenly came from outside the door, vaguely sounding like someone was arguing. Mo Yi was surprised, put the exercise book back onto the table, and then headed towards the door.

Upon opening the door of the classroom, an unpleasant moist smell filled his nose. The odour was reminiscent of a sealed room that had not been exposed to sunlight for months. There was not a trace of wind in the stagnant air, creating a sense of suffocation.

Mo Yi followed the sound.

Under the dim light, a shadowy figure could be seen at the end of the corridor. Mo Yi was also able to roughly make out eleven to twelve other people gathered together.

The voice became clearer. It belonged to a man whose voice was hoarse from his panicked shouts “…Who the hell are you people?! Where the hell is this?! If no one tells me, I’ll call the police!”

The chaos was mixed with the low sobbing of girls.

Suddenly, a person standing at the edge of the crowd raised his head, looked at Mo Yi with eyes like burning torches, and then raised his voice and said, “Newcomer?”

After speaking, he raised his left hand and held the cigarette from his mouth in between his fingers. Smoke drifted out from his mouth, obscuring the outline of his face.

Then, he lowered his voice and added in a half sarcastic and half indifferent tone, “Tsk, I hope you don’t have the same psychological quality as that one.”

Mo Yi, “…”

Mo Yi suddenly had an ominous premonition in his heart.

He quickened his pace and walked over. Before he could say anything, he heard a beautiful female voice: “Hello, welcome everyone for coming to the large-scale live escape game: STAY ALIVE.”

The girl’s voice was very beautiful and if it was not in this lifeless and strange campus, people would have even felt very happy. But here … there were no other adjectives to express except eerie and ominous.

Just now, the man who was shouting… His pale face was soaked with sweat as he turned around in panic and threatened the air loudly, “What kind of program is this? Let me tell you! You’re breaking the law! Believe it or not, my lawyer can sue you into bankruptcy!”

The girl’s voice was still calm and pleasant, as if she had not been affected at all, “Your only mission is to survive on campus for five hours. The following are prompts for you: 933, footless swallow, 712, unnamed mist. I wish you all a happy game.”

When she finished speaking, she did not wait for anyone to react when suddenly, a blue countdown appeared in the air outside one of the corridor windows: 4:59, an ominous light in the dark.

The ominous premonition came true.

Mo Yi looked at the scene with indifference.

There were countless things in his mind that he did not know what to think.

Although he liked to play horror games, he never thought he could experience it in 3D one day.

It was not exactly his fucking specialty.

At this time, a girl who looked no more than twenty-three to four suddenly stepped forward and reached out the grab the cuff of the man who had just spoken to Mo Yi. There were tears on her face, making her look pitiful. Her voice trembled as she said, “Big Brother … what’s going on here? It’s a joke, isn’t it? Please, tell me.”

The man coldly shook off her hand, looked up at the crowd and said, “This is not a joke. If you die here, you will die in the real world. I suggest you take the hints seriously and think about them. Maybe it can save your life.”

After that, he pinched his temple impatiently. Although his voice had become eight degrees lower, the anxiety could not be hidden as he added, “Let’s separate into groups of two or three to find clues that are related to the hints which may help us to survive.”

The man and the two people near him obviously knew one another. He nodded to the other two and they took the lead to go out. The rest of the crowd also looked at each other and began to look for people to form a team. The scene became a bit chaotic and noisy.

Mo Yi stood in the same place, his eyebrows slowly wrinkled as he thoughtfully gazed outside the window.

From his position, there was no light outside the window except for the fluorescent countdown floating in the air.

The thick darkness was like an entity, tightly enshrouding the whole building. The campus was like an island floating in the boundless darkness, just like … a grave.

The strange metaphor flashed through his mind like a lightning bolt without warning, startling him. Mo Yi shook his head with some self-deprecation, as if to throw this idea out of his mind.

Suddenly, someone pulled his arm. Mo Yi was stunned and looked at the person.

He saw a man with a gentle face standing beside him. He looked ill at ease. Seeing Mo Yi looking at him puzzled, he quickly showed a slightly reserved smile.

“Hello, … do you want to form a team?”