~~A lollipop~~

“Little brother Su, wait for me!”

Just as he had stepped on the first floor, he heard Chai Gang’s voice from behind him. Su Mo’s eyebrows lifted, as if he was surprised by his appearance.

Seeing as Chai Gang was able to successfully complete two scenarios already, it was clear that he had to have something that would make him a formidable opponent. Upon seeing Su Mo showing such an expression, he patted his shoulder and said in a pleased manner, “Do you take me for a meathead? If I go with them I will definitely have a bleak future!”

However, Su Mo didn’t enjoy engaging with other people, so after avoiding Chai Gang’s touch he looked behind them with an expression that was barely smiling. “Are you sure?”

“Huh?”

Turning his head to look back, he saw that the stairs behind them had suddenly disappeared!

“Oh Fuck!”

Exploding into a tyrade of swear words, Chai Gang’s courage wavered. “Shit, this is just too god damn strange!”

Even though these magical instances were illogical and to be expected, it still made them nervous. That being said, the size of Chai Gang’s nerve was originally not very great.

“Whether or not it’s strange I wouldn’t know, but it’s obvious that there are some problems here.”

Su Mo didn’t really believe that the staircase had disappeared. It’s similar to how it is in a dream, and seeing how it had come to this it felt as if there were ‘people’ behind the scenes intentionally changing things.

Thinking back on the sister’s diary and the photo, Su Mo couldn’t help but feel extremely doubtful…..

“Is the family photo on your phone?” Su Mo asked suddenly.

“Huh? Right! It’s here with me!” Chai Gang withdrew the photograph and asked,
“What, is there a problem?”

Su Mo shook his head, “Make sure not to lose that, it’s possible that it’s the key to get us through this.”

Not willing to delay any further, Su Mo ceased talking and began walking forward.

Chai Gang’s eyes bulged, after which he hastily put away the photo…..

Actually, Su Mo had already realised early on that Chai Gang was a lot smarter than he was letting on. That’s why he hadn’t thought of tricking him by taking the photo.

Also, the reason that Chai Gang had abandoned so many people, the safety of the crowd, and followed Su Mo, is because what he had in his possession. —— The sister’s diary.

With the photo and the diary, ‘Pandora’s box’ only had two items in it. If the system prompt was to be believed, “The key is within Pandora’s hand”, was extremely possible to be either of those.

Of course, there was another reason besides that. —— Chai Gang is the only person who knew it clearly, the true culprit resposible for driving over the older sister.

“Brother Su, I discovered early on that you are different!”

Su Mo had neatly killed He Wanzhou and was the careful yet courageous type that you could rely on. However, his acute reaction, ruthlessness and the resolution that he previously displayed when he had run over the older sister, was at it’s core not something that the average person could display.

Although Chai Gang might have been a kind-hearted person, he wasn’t stupid. He at least understood who he should stick with to be able to pass these trials. Of course these are words that are better left unspoken and since he had already taken the fall, he obviously wouldn’t bring that up at this moment.

While keeping pace with Su Mo, Chai Gang thinking himself clever, spoke up. “Right now, there isn’t anyone else here besides us two going up the stairs…. Dude, quickly say, did you discovered something new?”

This is exactly the third reason as to what provoked Chai Gang to choose Su Mo. He knew Su Mo would rather have himself be seperated from the group, then would stubbornly go to the first floor. After which he’d definitely get the clues that the other people don’t know about!

Only thing is….

Su Mo turned back to glance at him and said something unexpected, “I only got here a little bit before you, where would I even hide the clues?”

“Huh?”

Comming to a stop, dumbfounded, Chai Gang suddendly came to the realisation that he seemed to have been ‘cheated’…..

When the two of them were scouting around the first floor, the four people on the ground floor had also stepped into action. They decided to go to the right side by the corridor, but the instant that they stepped into the corridor, the four people all felt like the atmosphere had become gloomy and cold.

Halfway through the corridor there was a slight curve. The lighting was dimmer than that of the main hall and on both sides of the corridor were hung up strange looking oil paintings. —— Like that of a child’s scribbling.

Xiao Ya didn’t know if it was her mistake, but upon looking at the painting, it seemed to be the image of a woman’s twisted face, with fresh blood pouring out. Steeling her nerves, she drew closer to the oil painting, only to realise that the fresh blood was just an illusion.

But there seemed to be something odd on the floor below the painting. A lollipop.

“Huh? Guys look….”

She turned her head to look behind her, only to discover that in this long and narrow corridor, there was no one else besides herself!

Where did Dai Xing Zhang and the other two people go?

A shiver went down her spine, as her surroundings seemed to become colder.

Feeling surprised, but not wanting to lose the lead, she picked up the lollipop. What she didn’t know was that when she picked the lollipop up, there seemed to appear the shadow of a child behind her….

“Weird, sister Ya is gone!”

The first person to discover that Xiao Ya was missing was unexpectedly Lu Lan Lan.

Dai Xing Zhang and Mark instantly looked back. The corridor was empty except for the three of them, without even the shadow of Xiao Ya to be seen.

“Wasn’t she always behind us? How did she suddenly vanish?

They felt a cold sweat appear on their foreheads. Mark who felt himself growing agitated, couldn’t help but to curse, “Fuck! This is too wierd!”

They had just entered the corridor and a person had already vanished. If he had known earlier that it would turn out like this, he wouldn’t have hesitated and would have quickly gone with Chai Gang and Su Mo up to the first floor!

“Don’t worry, Xiao Ya has anyways completed a scenario before, so she won’t easily find herself getting into trouble.”
Dai Xing Zhang tried to sound calm and composed as he spoke, “Come, we’ll go back and look for her!”

However, even when they went back to the main hall, they were still unable to find her.

Another strange thing was that the stairway that lead to the first floor had also disappeared!

With no other choice the three people had to return to the passageway.

To ensure that they wouldn’t get seperated again, the three people decided to be cautious and continued forward hand-in-hand.

“pitter patter”……

Their ears picked up light sounds of something falling to the ground. Mark turned his head to look and discovered that by the corner of the left wall was a lollipop.

“Huh? Wait a second!”

Pulling at Lu Lan Lan, Mark hurriedly walked towards the corner of the wall and picked up the lollipop.

There didn’t seem to be anything strange about the lollipop, but the fact that it had suddenly appeared here, was something that one shouldn’t dare to overlook. Mark grabbed the lollipop and turned around exitedly, “Guys look…..”

Look at what?

In an instant, his voice was paralysed as if someone had transfixed him. Not a single word was able to pass his lips.

Because….

His pupils dilated and a cold feeling rushed over his back; Mark who was originally holding onto Lu Lan Lan with his left hand, saw that she had suddenly changed to a little boy who was sucking on a lollipop!

“Big brother, do you also like eating lollipops?”

The little boy revealed a sweet smile, a smile that scared Mark.

The scariest part is that reflected in the little boy’s eyes he could see Xiao Ya’s face twisted and distorted as she ran around manically….

“Ah!!!!”

His miserable wail was transmitted into the ears of Su Mo and Chai Gang causing them to come to a stop.

“Are they succeeding?”

Swallowing his saliva, Chai Gang replied uneasily, “Do you think that sound just now was one of success? They, they haven’t been attacked have they? Should we go down and look?”

“How would we go back down?”

Su Mo spoke apathetically. “The staircase has already vanished, and we are in an equally difficult situation.”

Right, this was already the third time that the two people had returned to the original site, after having been able to get to the first floor with difficulty.

However, although they might be in a difficult situation, they weren’t in a labyrinth. This, Su Mo was certain of.

“However, however I am the older person, so to just ignore it, wouldn’t that be too….” Chai Gang hesitated.

Su Mo raised his eyebrows in surprise.

He didn’t know whether he was a bully, or a gangster. But not only was he responsible, he also had a good and honest personality.

Such a good person ey. The only problem is…. Good people don’t live very long.

After thinking that, Su Mo showed a mysterious smile. “Do you think yourself invincible?”

“Hm? What do you mean?”

“What I mean is, even if you wanted to go and save people, it’s not your place to do so.”

Saying nothing further, Su Mo turned around to leave.

“Wait!”

Chai Gang hurriedly came to walk beside him, aghast. “Are you trying to say that those four people in there have a guide?!”

The main cause for no guide having appeared in the beginning was because Chai Gang was anxiously, running amok. Although, in the end Chai Gang took on the role and responsibility of the ‘guide’, but the gods know that he was actually full of nerves.

“Right, the guide was always with us. It’s just that they were clearly very good at concealing their identity.”

Unless a man looks out for himself, Heaven and Earth will destroy him.^[1]An idiom that means one must look out for oneself, lest they fall upon misfortune Su Mo didn’t think there was anything wrong with the guide hiding himself. If it was him, he also wouldn’t hesitate to hide his identity.

The problem was that that person’s acting skills needed to be improved upon. That person early on did something that gave them away to Su Mo.

“Wtf! There’s actually a guide? Why didn’t he come out and say it? So irresponsible!”

Chai Gang flew into a rage. He seemed as if he desperately wanted to get his hands on that guide to beat him up.

“And then there’s you! Since you had discovered it why didn’t you tell us earlier? So who is the guide?” Chai Gang was grabbing Su Mo’s elbow in a mad fervour.

Su Mo gave him a cold stare as he quietly spat out two words, “Let go.”

“Eh……”

Feeling as if he had been doused with cold water, Chai Gang found himself subconciously loosening his grip.

“Who that person is isn’t important. First of all, you can’t even go downstairs and even if you could you wouldn’t be able to beat him……”

He would only be courting death.

Finishing what he wanted to say, Su Mo took a step forward to continue walking ahead.

Although he knew what Su Mo had said wasn’t wrong, Chai Gang couldn’t shake his suffocating anger. But thankfully he wasn’t an idiot, he who had already passed two scenarios also knew that being blindly honest wasn’t worth it.

Anyhow, there wasn’t anything that he could do at present. He had to suppress the worries in his heart and like a wiltering aubergine^[2]don’t know why they used this comparisonwith a frustrated expression, continued on with Su Mo.

After circling the place twice, Chai Gang once more couldn’t endure any longer and grumbled, “Is this a winding corridor? How has no door appeared leading into anywhere! Who designed this? It’s so underhanded!”

Having finished speaking, his hand went to bring out his axe.

Su Mo stared at him baffled. But seeing him rubbing his hands along his sleeves with the look of itching to have a go on his face. “Clearly we need to break down this wall! What do you think?”

Forcefully demolishing this house actually wasn’t a bad idea.

The corner of Su Mo’s mouth lifted into a slight curve, “You can try.”

Having said that, Chai Gang brandished the axe and ferociously brought it down on the right wall!”

‘Doof!!’

Followed by a loud sound, a large hole was cut in the wall.—— They actually succeeded.

Upon seeing this, Chai Gang felt quite pleased with himself. “What? This man’s strength must be at least two times the strength of the average person!”

What he meant by this is that, he had thought of this method, Su Mo never would have thought of it so….. as expected, he is actually very smart.

“So awesome.”

Chai Gang who had been praising himself in a perfunctory manner, gritted his teeth. Su Mo had already walked through the hole without even waiting to hear what he had to say.

Cursing under his breath, Chai Gang also went and entered with him. —— But on the other side there was another passageway that looked exactly the same!

“My god! How are we supposed to figure this out? Is it another ghost built wall?”^[3]A pathway meant to make you lose your way or be unable to find your way out

Not being in the mood to correct Chai Gang’s mistake, Su Mo spoke without even blinking, “Alright, let’s continue.”

Somewhat dumbfounded, Chai Gang grabbed a hold of Su Mo’s left arm, “Continue? What if we find ourselves back where we started? What would we do then?”

“Okay then, what do you think we should do?”

Chai Gang raised his axe with an eager appearance.

Su Mo showed a faint smile, “Should we continue to smash the walls?”

Feeling frightened of Su Mo’s smile, Chai Gang looked away whilest putting away his axe and astutely spoke, “I’ll conserve my strenght! Hehe, let’s continue walking!”

Su Mo wasn’t angry and took a step to continue walking ahead into the passageway with Chai Gang following closely behind him….

After ten minutes the two people found themselves returning to their original position; Chai Gang feeling incredibly angry, “FXcking God! I said we should continue to break down the walls, but you wouldn’t listen!”

Su Mo stared at him dumbstruck.

“Huh?”

After seeing Su Mo’s expression, did Chai Gang only realise that there was something strange.

But seeing Chai Gang give a jump in fright, Su Mo loudly said, “That’s not true! I remember at that time the wall that we broke through was on the right, how is the hole still on the right?”

So, not only did they return to their original position,they also returned to the passageway that they were originally walking through.

“This time you can try and break through the wall on the left,” Su Mo suggested.

“And if I’m made a fool of again?”

Chai Gang said disdainfully, “If the left wall is the external wall, we will be out once we break it down?”

“Are you certain?”

Confused by his answering a question with another question, “May, maybe?”

“Should we try it then?”

“Fuck! I’ll just give it a try!”

Brandishing the machete, with a resounding ‘boom’, the wall to their left was broken down.

Sure enough, when the wall was broken down, they didn’t find the abandoned residence on the other side of it, but rather the exact same passageway.

Only thing was, that on the outer wall of the passageway that was on their left, was also a hole. —— It was exactly the same as the one they had just made.

Su Mo turned the torch on and shone it towards the hole, after which…. they saw an innumerable amount of passageways. These innumerable amount of passageways were also the exact same as the one they were currently standing in, with the same hole!

“My my my….. God!”

Chai Gang stepped back in horror, sounding as if he were about to start sobbing, “Mamma Mia! What is this ghostly place? Will we, will we still even be able to get out?”

After thinking of something, Chai Gang grabbed ahold of Su Mo’s arm. “Little Su, big brother Su!^[4]He is putting Su Mo above him by calling him someone older than himself. Shame, he’s probably desperate Didn’t you speculate this earlier? Quickly tell me, what’s going on here, how do we get out!”

Chai Gang seemed as if he would soon collapse, but Su Mo just shook his head silently. He then took out the flashlight and tossed it into the hole in the left wall!

“Huh?!”

Chai Gang jumped in fright and hastily stretched out his hand to grasp it. But Su Mo threw it too fast and too unexpectedly, so he could only helplessly watch as the torch fell into the other passageway, grinding his teeth as he yelled out.

But he didn’t hear any sound, but rather felt a pain at the back of his head. —— The torch had actually come back! And it came from the hole behind them!

The stupefied Chai Gang only discover it when he picked up the torch, that behind them is also an innumerable amount of holes.—— With the exact same hole as the first hole that they had made.

Feeling thoroughly dumbfounded Chai Gang took the torch and blankly looked at Su Mo.

“Ever heard of the Mobius strip?”^[5]In Mathematics it’s a band that is attached to itself at both end with a twist in it so that it becomes a non-orientable surface

Chai Gang immediately shook his head.

“A world on one side.” Su Mo gave a brief sentence to explain, “You take a small slip of paper, turn it 180° and attach the two ends to each other. The front and rear surfaces then become a single sided surface.”

So on one hand, the two surfaces become a single surface, an infinite loop without any boundary.

They could see the left and the right side of the passageway in one glance. The corners of Su Mo’s mouth ticked upwards slightly. “This place is similar to Morbius’s ring, only slightly more complicated.”

Then Chai Gang had the nerve to say, “I don’t understand!”

~~~ * ~~~

Author has something to say:

PS: In the next chapter Uncle Chu will appear!

PPS: I’ll relieve everyone’s worries. Next time Chu Han will definitely have a body!

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TL Smol Aries has something to say:

Hello everyone! Thank you so much for supporting me, even though I take so long to update! I’m even doing this now in between studying for my June exams at university, because I feel bad making you guys wait for so long.
So please enjoy and once more, thank you so much and keep fighting!