Congratulations on Your Successful Escape

Chapter 45

Mo Yi walked out of the hall.

The walls around them had become unbearably dirty, covered all over with dust and damp mold. Puffs of dust fell downwards, and the wall lamps hung crookedly on the wall, wanting to fall but unable to, emitting light that became increasingly weak.

Mo Yi turned on the flashlight, and with the dreadfully pale beam of light, strode across the bones and rubble that were blocking the path with difficulty.

Fortunately, the lights in the hall were still arduously shining, shining bright or dimly at times.

Mo Yi’s pace quickened.

As if hearing the sound of his footsteps, Song Qi and Wang Zezhi turned their heads to look at him at the same time.

The tips of Wang Zezhi’s eyebrows and the corners of his eyes were raised with a bit of joy. He nudged his glasses and said, slightly excited, “The side mission is complete! Then as long as we wait until the time ends, we can go out.”

Song Qi didn’t say anything, and merely took a slight step forward. A pair of light-coloured eyes closely gazed at Mo Yi, the sharp facial lines were faintly soft.

Mo Yi pursed his lips and said, “Do you still remember what I told you? That teddy bear that kept giving us clues.”

Wang Zezhi stared blankly, stumped for words for two seconds. Obviously, he didn’t understand why Mo Yi would possibly raise this question at this crucial moment, but he still nodded.

Mo Yi raised his eyes and looked at him deeply. “The owner of that doll … was not among these corpses.”

Wang Zezhi’s brows knitted, and subconsciously nudged the glasses on the bridge of his nose and replied, “En … But the side mission is completed, isn’t it? Maybe by default it’s enough for you to find most of the corpses? After all, this copy isn’t very difficult.”

What he said was reasonable.

Mo Yi faintly nodded, shook his head again, and didn’t respond.

He stood in place, eyebrows tightly locked, pitch-black eyes extremely heavy in thought, slowly scanning the entire hall. His pale cheeks didn’t have a trace of colour, similar to a ghost.

Wang Zezhi was stunned, about to say something, only to see Song Qi turn his head and indifferently glance at him. Although the other party didn’t speak, Wang Zezhi clearly saw a few words written in the other party’s eyes:

Don’t disturb him.

Wang Zezhi obediently closed his mouth, but still couldn’t help but cast a glance at Mo Yi who was still standing in place, traces of doubt deep within his eyes.

— The countdown to this copy was coming to an end, and the side mission had also been completed.

They uncovered the true appearance of this orphanage, and also found the corpses of the orphans … Could it be that it wasn’t over yet?

And Mo Yi was currently lost in thought.

As he mentally consolidated all the clues and doubtful points in this copy he had obtained along the way, he divergently thought and pondered.

What did he miss in the end?

Too many mysteries have not been solved. Too many questions have not been answered.

Therefore, even though this copy’s side mission was shown to have been completed, Mo Yi felt more and more deeply uneasy at the bottom of his heart.

It was as if an abyss called uncertainty had opened its gigantic dark mouth before him, grinning coldly at him, waiting for the prey to walk right into its trap.

Mo Yi subconsciously pursed the corners of his lips, and forced himself to focus on the most important issue at present.

— Why weren’t the bones of the brothers above the ceiling?

Why did the side mission show as completed when it was obvious that the corpses of the two weren’t found?

His intuition told him that this would be the breakthrough point for the whole problem.

Mo Yi mentally combed through every clue the teddy bear had left for him, as well as all the information he had overturned pertaining to the two brothers: a small poem, a record, and several puzzles.

Suddenly, Mo Yi seemed to recall something. He was momentarily taken aback and raised his head.

… Thanatos?

Whether it was Greek mythology or Hebrew mythology, all mythologies had countless pairs of famous brothers. So why did the person who wrote the puzzles choose Thanatos and Hypnos, twin gods who were not particularly well known even in Greek mythology, to give him the hint?

When he was underground before, he focused too much on the symbol behind Thanatos, instead of thinking about — why the other party chose Thanatos as a symbol.

Thanatos was more well known as the God of Death.

He and his brother Hypnos, the God of Sleep, were responsible for transporting the bodies of the dead when night fell.

A tremor suddenly surged from the bottom of Mo Yi’s heart.

His mind slowly drew the outline of a bizarre but perfectly logical and reasonable explanation.

Mo Yi’s gaze was somewhat complicated. He walked a few steps into the hall, then stood in front of Wang Zezhi, swallowed a mouthful of saliva, moistening his dry throat, and said, “The completion of the orphanages side mission was about finding the human remains of the rest of the victims, right?”

Wang Zezhi failed to understand and nodded, and uncertainly replied, “According to the current situation, this should be right.”

Mo Yi’s voice dropped a few more notches. There was a slight resonance in the air in the empty hall. “Supposing that the system judged that we completed the side mission, it was really because … it judged that the two brothers were the perpetrators?”

A cold sweat instantly broke out on Wang Zezhi’s back.

The more he thought about it, the greater the possibility of this inference: If the brothers really were judged to be the perpetrators, then what they found was precisely the dead bodies of all the victims, and the side mission would naturally be judged successful.

Just then, deep in the corridor, the sound of very steady and heavy footsteps rang out from afar, then drew closer.

Slow applause sounded, and a man’s voice came from the darkness, “Wonderful inference.”

Everyone was startled and looked at the source of the sound one after another.

A man unhurriedly walked out of the dilapidated and warped corridor, facial features illuminated by the dimly flickering lights in the hall.

Wang Zezhi involuntarily cried out, “Zhao Yicheng?!”

Mo Yi’s two eyes narrowed, long eyelashes concealing the gravity within his eyes — No, it was not Zhao Yicheng. Although the face and the clothing were the same, the expressions, movements, and even the temperament of the whole person had undergone tremendous changes. His face was an ashy grey, and his eyes had a lifeless look in them, looking just like the possessed newcomer.

The other individual following behind him verified Mo Yi’s suspicions.

Clothes covered in semi dried bloodstains with bloody scabs on half of his face, a man, changed beyond recognition, was holding a jet-black gun barrel in his hand, facial features apathetic and stiff. Shockingly, he was the “doctor” who was shut underground by him and Wang Zezhi.

The victims and the perpetrators finally officially met.

As well as the sinister hand behind the scenes.

Mo Yi grabbed Song Qi’s palm that was hanging by his side and wrote a few words on the hollows of his palm.

Then he casually let go of his hand and stared at “Zhao Yicheng” who was standing on the other side of the hall.

The corners of “Zhao Yicheng” lips twitched, and he said with a smile, “The group of little bugs who have been suppressing me, not letting me move, are finally … How do I say this? You’ve “liberated” me. I’m finally able to move now. Thanks a lot for your help.”

His voice was hoarse, as if scorched by flames, “Now, you’ll stay forever.”

At this moment, Mo Yi suddenly raised his voice and asked, “— Where’s Albert and Aaron?”

“Zhao Yicheng” moved his stiff head. A pair of lusterless eyes looked at Mo Yi, and then little by little revealed a viper like smile, “I couldn’t move. Naturally, I had to find a cover to make you complete the mission. Aren’t two helpless orphans the best bait?” Before the words were out of his mouth, thin figures of children appeared on both sides of the corridor.

Their limbs and heads seemed to be dangling from a string, standing in the dark like puppets. Their appearance and figures were not clearly visible, yet it made the people watching them couldn’t help but feel cold from head to toe.

Wang Zezhi’s mind was in a complete mess. It was as if the sky was falling down: The slips of paper and the teddy bear … were all traps? Were they all bait? They were designed by the ghosts in this orphanage from the beginning?!

At this moment, from his side came the cold, sober, and calm voice of Mo Yi. Even at this time, his tone was still steady and cool-headed, as if nothing could disturb his state of mind, “It wasn’t easy to clean up the mess after killing all of the orphans, ba? Even though you had an entire basement to carry out massacres and dismemberment, transporting so many dead bodies and hiding them in the ceiling was not a small project.”

“Zhao Yicheng’s” smiling expression slightly vanished, eyeballs swivelling to stare at Mo Yi, and didn’t answer.

Mo Yi continued to speak to himself, “In the files I flipped through, this pair of brothers have been here for the longest time and were also the oldest. Them helping with the dead bodies was the best option, right? What’s more, let alone the transporting, it could be directly dealt with afterwards, and there was no need to worry about the secret leaking.”

“Zhao Yicheng’s” facial features were dyed with anger. “So what? They were my puppets when they were alive, and after death too.”

Mo Yi smiled. “If that was really the case, how could they secretly ask us for help?”

The closer it was to the end of the time in the copy, the more frequent the slips of paper appeared. The person mentioned had also changed from “me” to “us”, and the same sentence appeared repeatedly with shorter intervals between one sheet of paper and the other sheet of paper — Until at last, on the back of the slip of paper, an explicit call for help appeared: “help us.”

Help us.

“Zhao Yicheng’s” appearance became more and more sinister. He smiled. “It’s just…”

Mo Yi interrupted his unfinished words and continued to speak in a cold, heavy tone, “If that was really the case, how could they secretly give me a hint about where their bodies were hidden in the end?”

As soon as his words fell, from behind came a clear and loud “ka ta” sound!

Song Qi had somehow managed to slowly move to the side of the door. He leaned down, and below the rooms beams where the dead bodies had been hung, dug his fingers into the already decaying floor, and suddenly lifted —

Dust flew upwards, and two eerily white skeletons below the ground were exposed.

— Until now, Mo Yi had been stalling for time!

“Zhao Yicheng” turned pale with fright, and said to the person standing behind him, “Kill them!”

The person behind him lifted the jet-black gun barrel with a numb expression. Just then, the strings controlling the souls of the two puppet like children seemed to have been severed. They stood up normally, and then suddenly pounced on the man holding the gun!

There was a loud “bang”, and the gunshot strayed from its original path.

With a hissing howl, large amounts of blood suddenly spread out from the doctor’s body. The whole person seemed to have been dehydrated, like the dust that had accumulated on the floor.

Unexpectedly, “Zhao Yicheng” had now calmed down.

He tidied up his somewhat dishevelled collar, showing a calm and unruffled smile in the midst of chaos. “You still haven’t found the spectator yet, have you?”

Mo Yi was taken aback.

“Zhao Yicheng” coldly stared at him, facial features seeming to be under control. “The moment you completed the side mission, you already were no longer able to escape.”

Before his words fell, the walls of the entire orphanage unexpectedly began to twist!

Pulsating like a living creature, a smiling face appeared on the wall. The soft laughter Mo Yi had heard before was amplified, eerily echoing in everyone’s ears.

— The orphanage itself was the spectator!

Before Mo Yi could get over the shock, he heard Song Qi loudly shouting not far away, “Open the door!”

“Zhao Yicheng” followed the sound and looked at the source, however the sinister smile on his face suddenly froze. He seemed to be seeing Song Qi for the first time in general, staring straight into Song Qi’s light-coloured eyes in fear, and uncharacteristically turned pale with shock. “… You?”

Song Qi showed him an arrogant, ice-cold smile.

Mo Yi had slowly arrived and rushed to the door!

“Zhao Yicheng’s” voice practically broke, “Stop him —!”

The wall split into innumerable tentacles, winding around Mo Yi!

But it was already too late.

The door suddenly opened wide, and a boundless mist, so thick that it was almost an entity, poured in.

The moment before his vision was engulfed by the mist, Mo Yi heard a small child’s voice in his ears:

“Thanks.”