The World Below Surface

Chapter 90

The amusement park should have been dark and silent, but instead, it was illuminated by twinkling lights. They had brought them along for their own illumination.

The world tilted and twisted, and their consciousness shifted.

"Next stop, our destination - Spirit Vale Town. Once we get off, everyone remembers to stick close to me. The entrance to this town is hard to find, no driving allowed, only walking."

The voice of the tour guide snapped them back to reality. They looked around and realised they were on a bus. The tour guide stood near the door, holding a small megaphone. She smiled widely, showing her teeth.

Through the window, they could see the forest speeding past. It was thick and dark, too uncomfortable. It made them shiver.

They tried to make small talk to distract themselves from the impending dread. But then the driver slammed on the brakes, and the bus came to a halt. They had reached the mouth of a long tunnel.

The entrance to Spirit Vale Town.

"Everyone pay attention to the order, follow me off the bus!" The woman, who worked as the tour guide, exclaimed. She waved a little flag at them, beckoning them.

However, her smile was clearly forced. If you looked closely, you could see that her eyes were empty. There was no happiness in them. Her mouth was stretched so wide, it almost touched her ears. It was an uncomfortable sight.

Everyone on the bus had a mission, a bloody mission. They knew they had to follow the woman, no matter what. They got off the bus one by one, squeezing through the narrow door.

Yu Huai Yao stuck close to Lin Chu. He had many questions, but he also had some answers. He now saw this strange scene with his own eyes and understood. Yu Huan, his dead cousin, had gone through something similar, hadn't he?

So, that's how he ended up dying in such a bizarre manner.

He reconsidered his suspicion of Lin Chu, now that he knew the truth. But it didn't matter.

No one else cared. There were too many, too scared, too desperate. They clung to whoever seemed willing to cooperate, seeking some warmth in the cold.

Lin Chu and Yu Huai Yao were among the "newbies". The experienced ones avoided them, knowing they were doomed. There were several pairs like them.

Lin Chu resented Yu Huai Yao, especially when he approached and a few other nervous-looking newbies noticed and joined them. One of them was a girl in a school uniform, barely out of her teens.

Yu Huai Yao muttered an apology to Lin Chu. He couldn't say much, hindered by the crowd.

They disembarked from the bus onto a small road, where a damp, cold wind blew from the forest, carrying a chill that pierced their bones, a chill that only winter could bring.

The driver didn't utter a word. As the last person got off, he turned the car around and drove away.

"Follow me," the tour guide said. She didn't mind that no one spoke to her. She waved her flag and marched forward.

The path ended at a tunnel, black as night, devoid of light. The tour guide waved her flag and entered without hesitation. "It's quite dark inside. Everyone be careful and remain silent."

One of the individuals, Xi Men Yuan (), had found his teammate. He slowed down upon hearing the tour guide's warning. He walked alongside them and said, "Looks like we can't talk inside the tunnel."

( (Xmn) is a common surname that means west gate. (Yun) is a unisex given name that means far or distant. could be interpreted as a distant west gate or a faraway boundary.)

His teammate, Tan Xu (), nodded and kept an eye on his back.

( (Tn) is a surname that means talk or discuss. (X) is a unisex given name that means sunrise or dawn. could be interpreted as a talkative sunrise or a dawn of discussion.)

They had planned to discuss matters quietly, but now they had to wait.

However, not everyone understood this. Some experienced participants slowed down, pretending to allow the newbies to catch up. They didn't prevent them from talking.

Driven by curiosity, they had decided to test their theories. One of them had to be the sacrificial lamb.

The tunnel swallowed them whole, offering no sound or movement in return. It was a void of endless blackness.

Lin Chu followed suit, plunging into the abyss.

A wave of dread washed over her. As soon as she crossed the threshold, she felt a stark contrast between the inside and the outside, and a nagging sensation that something was lurking in the shadows, eyeing her with malice.

What was it?

The tunnel stretched on and on, seemingly without an end, and they trudged along for what felt like an eternity.

They became so immersed in their own thoughts that they almost forgot the purpose of their mission, almost lost their sense of direction. Then, the cheerful voice of the guide pierced the silence: "Everyone, we've reached the Spirit Vale. Hope you all have a good time in the town."

The mission participants shuddered in unison.

They knew they were not here for leisure, but for a dangerous task. Moreover, the guide's tone was so incongruous with the situation. Her words sounded more like a curse than a blessing, making them even more anxious.

But there was a faint glimmer of light ahead of them. The participant at the front muttered something under his breath and stepped out of the tunnel, only to be greeted by a sight that took his breath away.

Too beautiful.

The houses, the roads, everything was neat and clean. It looked like a picture-perfect town, a tourist's dream. It almost made them forget the horror that awaited them.

The sky was a pristine blue, as if it had been washed and polished by invisible hands.

With a loud clap of her hands, the guide drew their attention to her cheerful face. "I see you're all taken by the charm of Spirit Vale town. Well, if any of you fancy making this your permanent home, I have some lovely houses for you to choose from."

She reached into her bag and produced a bunch of keys, dangling them in front of the questers. They stared at her with a mixture of disbelief and envy. They had spent half their lives working hard to save up for a house, and here was an NPC casually offering them one...

Noticing the guide's friendly smile, Xi Men Yuan decided to ask her a question that had been bothering him. "Excuse me, guide, but have there been any reports of people going missing in this town? We've heard some rumours..."

The guide's expression changed in an instant. Her smile vanished and her eyes narrowed.

At that moment, a resident happened to walk by and saw the scene. He also looked angry and disgusted.

"What are you lot doing here, eh? If you're just here to sightsee, I suggest you keep your mouths shut and don't go spreading lies based on some outsider gossip! If that's what you're here for, then our town doesn't want you here."

His words only made the questers more curious and suspicious.

Xi Men Yuan wanted to press him for more information, but the resident turned his back on them and walked away. The guide also averted her gaze, refusing to say anything else.

A hushed murmur of speculation rippled through the crowd of onlookers, who stood at a safe distance from the ominous tunnel. Lin Chu scanned the faces of the group but refrained from joining the conversation.

How odd, she thought. She had distinctly heard a voice in the tunnel earlier, but now it seemed that everyone was present. Did speaking in the tunnel not trigger the curse?

Unbeknownst to Lin Chu, a few dark clouds had moved across the sky, completely obscuring the sunlight and erasing the shadows on the ground.

If she had noticed, she might have seen that some of the people had already lost their...

They continued their walk back to their lodgings.

Despite the eerie atmosphere, Spirit Vale was a picturesque town. The buildings on either side of the road had a quaint charm, with gracefully curving eaves and intricate carvings. The snow-white walls were adorned with exquisite murals depicting scenes of life and death.

Lin Chu found herself drawn to those murals. She had been fortunate enough to escape the last tomb unharmed, but she sensed that something was amiss with the paintings. She felt a strong urge to decipher their meaning.

She also noticed that the murals bore a remarkable resemblance to the ones she had seen in the tomb chamber. Clearly, they were the work of the same artist.

Who was this mysterious painter? And did they still reside in this town?

**

Abandoning the grotesque sight of his own decomposing body, Lu Yan ran as fast as his legs could carry him. He felt a surge of panic and dread, as if death itself were chasing him. Behind him, the street lights dimmed and died in a sinister sequence, as if a dark force were snuffing them out. When the last light reached the festering corpse, everything fell silent and still for a long, long time.

So long that Lu Yan had managed to escape the city limits.

He held the Pisces jade pendant in his trembling hand, examining it with a mixture of curiosity and fear.

They say the Pisces jade pendant wasn't a simple copy, but bought things from the future to the present. But what future did that corpse belong to?

And what horrors had he endured to end up in such a pitiful state?

The corpse's clothes were drenched in blood, as if he had been stabbed or shot multiple times. Lu Yan had no idea which version of himself from which timeline had spawned this replica.

And why had it sought him out? As he remembered his past attempts to bury his body, Lu Yan wondered if there was some kind of magnetic pull between the "replica" and the original.

He contemplated these questions for a long, long time, until he finally decided to wrap one of the pendants in a cloth and stash it away.

He placed another piece of jade on the ground and stepped back, waiting for the inevitable.

For a long time, nothing happened. Then, the air began to warp and ripple, as if a heatwave was passing through.

A figure materialised out of thin air.

It was a person... a person who looked exactly like him.

No, this was him.

Lu Yan stared at his doppelganger.

He could read his own mind, so he could easily converse with this "person", but he also knew his own flaws and secrets, so he could not trust anything he said. They both wanted the other to be the bait, to take the jade pendant and leave.

The fact that he was being hunted meant that he had stumbled upon something. Maybe his past had crossed paths with the truth, or maybe a version of him from another time and space had uncovered the truth. Either way, he had to retrace his steps and find out.

But neither Lu Yan was willing to concede or sacrifice themselves for the other. They were both too stubborn and selfish.

In the end, they both felt a sense of helplessness and frustration.

It was first Lu Yan who came up with the idea of using the jade pendant to create another copy of himself. "This is a dead end. Neither of us wants to be the sacrificial lamb, so why don't we make a third one? As soon as he appears, we'll overpower him and get out of here."

The other nodded in agreement.

They stood shoulder to shoulder, watching the air warp and twist as the jade pendant worked its magic.

A third Lu Yan emerged.

Without hesitation, the first two pounced on him and pinned him down. They exchanged a quick glance and then fled the scene, leaving the third one to his fate.

Anyone facing certain death wouldn't be looking rosy.

He looked out of the window, hoping for a glimpse of sunlight.

But it was dark.

Dark as night.

But it should have been morning.

He sighed, resigned to his fate.

If he had to die for "himself"...

With that thought, he opened the door and stepped into the darkness.

He had no idea what awaited him in the dark, but he walked on, feeling like he was trapped in a never-ending nightmare, unable to tell the difference between day and night, between life and death.

He drifted into a state of oblivion, becoming a walking corpse. He kept moving, driven by a primal instinct.

He knew he had to find someone.

But who?

Lu Yan, his clothes stained with blood, wondered vaguely.

Suddenly, the darkness that had engulfed him retreated like a wave, and he found himself bathed in sunlight again.

He lifted his head and gazed at the horizon.

Two paths beckoned him, each with a different allure.

What awaited him on those paths? He had no clue. He paused for a moment, then made his choice and headed towards one of them.

**

They had barely reached their lodgings when the sky turned pitch black. In a matter of seconds, the bright afternoon was replaced by a gloomy night.

The townsfolk seemed unfazed by this phenomenon; they quickly turned on their lights, and the town sparkled with faint glimmers.

The tour guide was tight-lipped and unhelpful. She flicked on the lights and left them to their own devices.

"This town is bloody strange, isn't it?"

As soon as she was gone, the group breathed a sigh of relief. They quickly agreed to meet in the lobby downstairs to discuss their situation.

"We all know this town is not normal. The darkness comes out of nowhere, and the locals get twitchy if you mention the word 'missing.'"

"But that also means we have no clue who's missing."

That was one of their tasks, to find the missing 'someone'. But it seemed like a hopeless quest.

Who the hell was missing in the first place?

"I have another question. There's only one missing person, and only Lu Yan who needs to die. But..." The speaker looked around nervously, "there are about fifty of us here, so how do we all kill him?"

"Shouldn't it be enough if one of us does it, and then we all get out of here?"

"I'm more curious about Lu Yan's identity. I asked the guide on the sly earlier, but she said she didn't know."

"Maybe we should talk to some of the other townspeople tomorrow."