Congratulations on Your Successful Escape

Chapter 10

Jiang Yuanbai broke down. With red eyes, he swung the fire axe again and again and smashed it at the seemingly indestructible wall, “… Impossible, impossible!”

—— Watching hope crumble before their eyes, no one could withstand the despair.

Mo Yi took several deep breaths before finally suppressing his beating heart and surge of restless blood. He stretched out his hand and shook Jiang Yuanbai’s shoulder, trying to make his voice sound calm and reasonable, “Don’t chop.”

The axe slipped from Jiang Yuanbai’s weak palm. The area between his thumb and index finger was already bleeding because of the way he exerted himself. He covered his face in despair, and his voice was a little choked, “… Impossible.”

Suddenly, Mo Yi’s heart was stung by an impulse from nowhere. He stepped forward, stretched out his hand and pulled off Jiang Yuanbai’s palm covering his face, and forced him to look directly into his eyes, “You can’t change anything like this. If we stay here, once the bell rings and the mist appears, we will both die.”

Jiang Yuanbai was stunned by the look in Mo Yi’s eyes.

He was stunned for a while, and his eyes slowly changed. Jiang Yuanbai stopped his sobbing and stood up slowly. He wiped away the tears from the corners of his eyes and his voice had become calm again, “…Then what should we do next?”

“Go downstairs.” Mo Yi put down his hand and recovered his former cold indifference, but his white fingertips revealed that he was not calm at the moment. “We must have missed some important clues.”

“But …” Jiang Yuanbai wanted to speak but stopped.

But it was less than 15 minutes before the next bell rings … Even if they could find any important clues, what could they do? Wouldn’t they still die?

“So what?” Mo Yi seemed to know what he was going to say. A pair of cold and bright eyes seemed to penetrate his soul and see through him. Then, to Jiang Yuanbai’s surprise, the corners of his mouth slightly rose into a smile, “Would you rather sit and wait for death or die on the road of exploration?”

In the wake of his words, courage instantly poured into Jiang Yuanbai’s heart. He nodded and smiled. “Of course, it’s the second kind.”

With that, he picked up the fire axe he had dropped on the ground and walked to the stairs. Mo Yi followed him and was preparing to go downstairs when he heard a mechanical voice counting, “One, two …”

Mo Yi was taken aback and suddenly reacted. He stretched out his hand to grab Jiang Yuanbai and made him stumble. Jiang Yuanbai steadied his body and looked at him blankly. “What’s the matter?”

Mo Yi’s face was pale, and his expression was solemn. “… You were counting.”

Jiang Yuanbai’s face drastically changed and cold sweat instantly covered his whole back. “Impossible, I have no impression of it at all! And I’m still humming the song in my mind! It can’t affect me!”

At this moment, Mo Yi seemed to think of something, and his face became ugly. “The original version of the urban legend of the Thirteen Steps seemed to say that if a student counts when going downstairs, they would be transported into another world.”

And here, even when going upstairs, they were already susceptible to the influence of the stairs and counted them involuntarily —— let alone when going downstairs as in the legend.

Just now, the scene where Jiang Yuanbai seemed to be controlled by a Gu dwelling in his body and was unable to control the counting, was enough to make people realize how powerful the staircase was.

The situation fell into a deadlock for a while.

Jiang Yuanbai’s heart was still fluttering with fear and he took a step back. He couldn’t help but put his palm on the cold railing. The cold touch spread along his palm to his bone marrow, which made him shiver.

An idea flashed through his mind.

“Yes!” Jiang Yuanbai suddenly yelled and jumped up, shocking Mo Yi. “Since we can’t take the stairs and we can’t help counting when we do, let’s not take the stairs!”

Mo Yi’s eyes lit up and he cast his gaze on the railing.

That was right! Then let’s not take the stairs!

There was no way to go upstairs currently. Now, they could go downstairs by sliding down the railing! He didn’t know if it was feasible, but it was the only way.

The two looked at each other, then they each sat on the railing on one side and slid downstairs.

The staircase seemed to realize that someone wanted to take advantage of its rules and began to violently shake. The stairs turned over one by one, undulating. Mo Yi and Jiang Yuanbai couldn’t help shaking up and down along with the stairs and were almost thrown off.

The palm of a hand took shape from the melting staircase and reached out, pulling at their legs. They were already moving up and down, and now it was even more difficult to stabilize their bodies. Seeing that the ground downstairs was close to them, Mo Yi raised his voice, “Now! Jump!”

The two leaped up and once again, embarrassingly fell down onto the corridor of the third floor.

Mo Yi felt that all his bones were about to shatter into pieces. He got up in pain with his palms on the windowsill and he looked out the window:

There was still 6 minutes left.

Regardless of the pain in his body, he ran to the classroom of Class 3. There were only three words in his mind: Search for clues!

They must have missed something previously!

As soon as Mo Yi opened the door, a strong and disgustingly salty smell hit his face. When he gazed inside, he saw four more corpses of different shapes in the classroom, with pale and frightened expressions. Their bodies were full of tear marks and were dripping in blood as they lay slumped on the desks.

Mo Yi held the door frame with his palm and looked at the scene in front of him for a while, feeling a little stunned.

No …

These people clearly followed Shen Lei into the second-floor illusion, but they only appeared in the classroom now, indicating that they had just died.

When they first went to the third floor, Mo Yi thought that they should all be dead because the mist had already spread to the third floor. Even if they didn’t die in the illusion, they would have been swallowed by the mist.

So when he saw that there were no corpses in the classroom, he was not very surprised —— because the corpse after being dragged into the mist would not appear in the classroom.

However! Now, they were in the classroom!

What did that mean…?

A bold guess surfaced: they destroyed the photo, but they didn’t destroy the illusion which the mist was unable to invade. Only this way could he explain why the corpses appeared now!

—— So, the other people who were brought into the photo but did not appear in the classroom should not be dead!

Mo Yi felt that he was trembling with excitement. He turned around and pulled Jiang Yuanbai over. His voice was hoarse, “Let’s go to the second floor. I know how to escape from the mist.”

Although what awaited them may be a more miserable hell, nonetheless in comparison, it was better to make an effort than to sit still waiting for death.

Even though Jiang Yuanbai was puzzled, he didn’t ask any more questions. Time was running out now. Asking fewer questions was the best choice. He hastily nodded and followed Mo Yi to the stairwell.

The faint blue numbers outside the window reminded them: there was 3 minutes left.

The gloomy and cold breeze carried over the smell of blood from the stairwell. The energy saving light on top of the stairs flickered dimly, making a slight “zizi” sound. The entire corridor exuded a touch of unknown breath.

The memory of being chased by the monster just now was still vividly imprinted in their minds and looking at the pitch-dark abyss still made them shudder.

But this was the only way.

The two went downstairs. Under the faint light in the stairwell, Jiang Yuanbai saw that in the middle of one of the walls, was a photo hanging upright. It was a portrait of a man placed in a light silver photo frame. He looked about thirty or forty years old and was looking at the camera with a smile. Under the photo was a small line: The Best Teacher of the Year.

Unlike the other photos, dark and stinky blood was slowly flowing down the silver frame, as if seeping out of the photo.

——? The mouth that chased them in the beginning should have come out from there.

Jiang Yuanbai slowly swallowed a mouthful of saliva and walked cautiously as if he was afraid that the thing would rush out of the frame again.

Mo Yi’s low voice sounded in his ear, “I guess that only after the bell rings can these monsters leave their original environment,”

His words successfully calmed Jiang Yuanbai’s tight heartstrings. He frowned and recalled: It seemed that this was indeed the case. Hanako left the bathroom only after the class dismissal bell rang, and the mouth of the monster that had chased them before also appeared after the bell.

Jiang Yuanbai breathed out a sigh of relief and continued to walk downstairs.

However, in a place he didn’t see, the man in the photo behind him moved his eyes slowly, as if watching them go downstairs, and then revealed a strange smile.

They walked out of the stairwell. The corridor looked exactly the same as when they had left. The photo that was cut in half lay on the floor, and the corridor was filled with a rotten and cold smell.

Mo Yi looked out the window.

There was two minutes left.

He crouched down and picked up the photo that was split in two and put it together.

A strange scene occurred: the photos were slowly getting stitched together, and the smelly blood flowing on the ground was sucked back into the photo as if flowing backwards. Soon, the photo and frame were restored to normal, and the graduates in the photo showed a blurry and brilliant smile at the camera. It was as if nothing had happened.

“How did you know you could put it back together?” Jiang Yuanbai couldn’t help but interject.

“I didn’t know.” Mo Yi looked at the time outside the window. He eagerly stood up as quickly as possible and re-hung the photo on the wall, and said while hanging it, “… I just guessed.”

There was one-minute left.

Once the photo was hung on the wall, the scene before them seemed to change slightly.

Jiang Yuanbai turned his head to look, and the classroom behind him became Class 4.

The illusion reappeared.

Mo Yi and he looked at each other and took a deep breath. Their faces were solemn. Mo Yi nodded at Jiang Yuanbai, and then they stepped into the stairwell illusion together.

There was a strange ripple in the air, like a ripple on a waters surface when a stone gets throne in a lake. In the next second, there was no one in the long and cold corridor.

Meanwhile, the number outside the window counted down to 2:25.

The monotonous and harsh class dismissal bell rang.