Chapter 435 - 379: Chaisi: Not a Hallucination and Concave

Chapter 435: Chapter 379: Chaisi: Not a Hallucination and Concave

To go downstairs, you take the elevator, right?

Our daily lives are full of muscle memory built from repetitive habits.

Without much conscious thought, the brain defaults to the most familiar path, the one of least resistance, and makes a decision. It’s a perfectly normal phenomenon—how many times have you suddenly realized you were already holding your phone?

It’s the same thing.

It’s the same thing.

It’s the same thing.

A faint breeze stirred his disheveled hair, tickling his brow. Chaisi squeezed his eyes shut and combed his hair back with one hand, just as he heard Han Liuyue say, "...it’s the same thing."

"What did you say?"

Perhaps it was because he turned his head too quickly, his expression too grim, that Han Liuyue was startled. She stood up straighter, her voice tense. "I was just saying, I can’t remember getting into the elevator at all, or who walked towards it first. It feels... it feels like how sometimes you don’t even realize it, and by the time you do, you’re already holding your phone, scrolling through social media."

’Was that her talking just now?’

’No... The words were similar, but the intent was completely different.’

’...What’s going on? So it wasn’t her decision to get in the elevator, either...?’

Chaisi also had no memory of "walking into the elevator"; in fact, whenever he tried to recall it, his mind would fill with a rising fog.

"If the floodwaters rising in Blackmoor City are connected to the unexplainable ’weirdness,’ then the hospital has most likely flooded as well."

As he spoke, Chaisi knocked lightly on the elevator door. "We have no memory of deciding to enter the elevator or even walking into it. It’s probably because the hospital has been corrupted by the anomaly... If this is all related to a Nest, then we’re in luck. There are always ways to handle a Nest."

Han Liuyue nodded, her expression resolute, as if she were about to pledge her life to show her determination—the next second, a loud SQUEALING GROWL echoed through the elevator.

Both of their gazes fell on Han Liuyue’s stomach.

"I... I’m so hungry," Han Liuyue said.

"I can hear that," Chaisi said.

"It’s fine. It’s a small thing," Han Liuyue declared again, though her face was pale. "I’m not even—"

Her stomach immediately let out what sounded like a mocking laugh. It went on for so long that Chaisi was tempted to start timing it before the sound finally died down.

He had personally experienced the same kind of hunger just this morning. He knew very well that this was no ordinary starvation.

It was a deep-seated instinct, magnified a hundredfold, that could not be suppressed by willpower or reason. It was as if the sole purpose of millions of years of animal evolution had been compressed and then utterly detonated. It was a blood-red desire, one that would shatter the world just to suck the marrow from its broken bones.

"For the safety and convenience of our passengers, please resolve your hunger issue as soon as possible," an electronic voice suddenly announced in the elevator. "Hunger leads to a decrease in stamina. Passengers with excessively low stamina cannot operate, ride in, or exit the elevator."

’...This has the feel of a Nest, all right.’

Mai Mingle once said that the "Nest Dominance Game" seemed to have some design for the human world. Apparently, it was moving far faster than he’d imagined, and its plans were unfolding today.

Chaisi pressed his lips together tightly.

’If I had known this was coming, I never would have given the target Illusion to Uncle Kai... If this is a plan by the Nest Dominance Game, will the Hunter carrying the target Illusion be the first to face danger?’

Regardless, he had to get out of this elevator as soon as possible and get Uncle Kai out of Blackmoor City.

"If you wish to sate your hunger, please take the elevator to the third floor." The electronic voice’s next words made Chaisi freeze. "The third floor is the hospital’s self-serve cafeteria for the public and patients."

’We can get out?’

Chaisi wasn’t the only one surprised. Han Liuyue was dumbfounded, too. Neither of them had expected the elevator to actually arrive smoothly at the third floor and for the doors to open without a hitch.

Across a corridor was an open dining area. The cafeteria was brightly lit. Patches of condensation clung to the dark windowpanes, and crisscrossing puddles of water covered the floor, steam rising from them in the warmth of so many bodies.

Many people had crowded into the cafeteria. They sat there like disaster refugees, their eyes vacant, but their lips were constantly opening and closing, as if talking enough and asking enough questions would grant them answers and lead to their rescue.

Amid the noisy drone of the cafeteria, a mother sat at the nearest table, wiping her tears while gently rocking a child in her arms and feeding them a spoonful of mashed potatoes.

Han Liuyue’s eyes suddenly lit up. She lunged past Chaisi with a frantic quickness, as if treading on fire and wind, and even with his reflexes, Chaisi barely managed to grab her.

"Get back here!" he hissed.

Chaisi was profoundly grateful that he had eaten his fill today.

The moment Han Liuyue turned her head, it wouldn’t have been an exaggeration to say her eyes were filled with hatred. A second later, she realized who had grabbed her and managed to stop herself. "Brother Chaisi, why can’t I go?" she asked.

"Neither of us pressed the button for the third floor," Chaisi said.

Han Liuyue stared at him, panting a few times, seemingly unable to understand. She looked at the elevator buttons, then turned back to the elevator doors.

The elevator doors were still sealed shut, a single slab of iron gray. The display screen glowed with a bright red "1".

The only reason Chaisi could sense something was wrong while Han Liuyue couldn’t was that Chaisi had eaten.

He watched as Han Liuyue, unable to control her disappointment, slammed her fists heavily against the elevator door. She panted, wiped her mouth, and said, "Was that a hallucination just now?"

"I don’t know, but it shouldn’t be."

"Huh?"

"Because a hallucination would be pointless." Before Han Liuyue could be driven mad by the lure of food again, Chaisi explained, "It makes us believe we both saw a cafeteria, so we rush out. And then what? We slam our heads into the door and snap out of it? What would be the point of creating a hallucination of a cafeteria? It can’t be just to mess with us."

Han Liuyue nodded, though she seemed reluctant.

"There’s something else. I can’t be sure... because when I try to remember, even things that happened seconds ago feel like they’re submerged. The scenes and details are all a blur," Chaisi said in a low voice. "I can only rely on logical analysis to make a judgment."

"What logical analysis?" Han Liuyue asked, to the rumbling accompaniment of her stomach.

"You charged out so fast just now, I almost didn’t catch you. I remember that much. That means you must have at least reached the door. Now look at me... I’m standing right by the door, aren’t I?"

Chaisi gestured at the distance. From where he was standing, he didn’t even need to stretch out his arm; he could knock on the elevator door just by lifting his hand.

This elevator car wasn’t spacious. It was a standard elevator for regular visitors, not one of the large, specialized ones that could fit gurneys and wheelchairs. It was already a little cramped with just Chaisi inside.

"In other words..." Han Liuyue understood. "I should have slammed into the door just now."

And yet, she hadn’t.

Even though Chaisi had lunged forward, stretching out his arm to grab the back of her shirt at the last second and yank her back to his side.

"So you most likely plunged right out," Chaisi said, "straight through this solid, closed door."

"But... why?"

She didn’t ask "how," which showed that no matter how much she was tormented by the fires of hunger, she still had a sliver of reason left. She knew "how" was a pointless question.

"I think," Chaisi said, mulling it over, "that any ’scene’ or ’action’ we accept without question will then become the next ’reality’ we find ourselves in... Just like when we got in the elevator."

Han Liuyue was stunned for a few seconds. "So... you’re saying if I had actually gone out, I really would have found food?"

Chaisi rubbed the bridge of his nose.

"We’re in the elevator right now, and our situation hasn’t changed. That proves we’re standing on ’neutral ground.’" Having experienced that hunger himself, he explained patiently, "We don’t understand what kind of setup this is. Acting rashly could trigger consequences far more disastrous than hunger."

Han Liuyue acknowledged him.

She seemed to want to use her head and analyze a way out, but her body was far more honest than her mind. She had already grabbed her backpack and was rummaging through it frantically. But despite having two bags, she couldn’t find a single thing to eat.

"Let me," Chaisi said, taking the two heavy backpacks from her. "You can’t waste your stamina right now."

Han Liuyue didn’t refuse. She looked up, dazed, and asked, "What do we do next?"

’Ever since she woke up, she’s been hit with one crisis after another. Her stress levels keep climbing while her blood sugar keeps dropping... Even if she is a Hunter, she’s still human, and her body will affect her.’

’I can’t trust her judgment right now, as unfair as that feels.’

’Simply put, she can’t be trusted.’

’Simply put, she can’t be trusted.’

"Let’s start with the rules announced by the electronic voice. That’s the only information we can rely on."

Chaisi blurted the words out, realizing his voice was unnecessarily loud. "Let’s go over them. The first rule was not to force the doors open because of the invading moisture, right?"

"Yes," Han Liuyue said, sitting down decisively. She had to conserve her stamina.

"The second rule was..."

As soon as he tried to remember, Chaisi felt like he had plunged underwater again, searching through the thick, dark currents and shadows for a blurry, wavering strand of seaweed. From the look on her face, Han Liuyue was experiencing the same thing.

This time, perhaps because the elevator, like a Nest, had to maintain a sense of fairness, he finally remembered.

Chaisi pushed his disheveled hair back into place and said, "The second announcement, I remember it was, ’Some floors remain dry. The dry floors are randomly distributed throughout the hospital building. Please proceed to a dry floor to take shelter.’ Right?"

Han Liuyue stared at him.

"No, that’s not right," she said softly. "Brother Chaisi, you must be misremembering. The second message was very strange, so I remember it clearly, too. The second message was only a single word."

For a moment, Chaisi thought he understood the answer.

"Did I just miss that one word?"

But Han Liuyue was clearly not convinced by this explanation at all.

"Impossible." When it came to things she firmly believed, she wouldn’t back down or doubt herself, not even in front of Chaisi. "The original announcement went like this: ’The second message will now be broadcast. It is only one word. Please listen carefully so as not to miss it.’ After saying that, it even paused, as if to make us focus."

’...This was the first time Chaisi had heard that sentence all day.’

Even if his memory was getting blurry, it was hard to mistake a strange message he’d never heard before.

"What was the word it said?" Chaisi asked.

"’Concave.’"