Chapter 437 - 381: Chaisi: Congratulations, You’ve Made Your Entrance

Chapter 437: Chapter 381: Chaisi: Congratulations, You’ve Made Your Entrance

’Only one minute to solve this puzzle?’

The moment the elevator began its slow descent with a low hum, Chaisi almost laughed in fury.

A student with only one minute left on an exam at least knew what to do with that time—scramble to answer as many questions as possible.

’But what about them?’

Chaisi didn’t even know what problem they were facing.

’To stop the elevator’s descent, we have to take effective action. But what action counts as effective?’

He knew it was useless, but he still slammed his fist on the button panel. The hospital had six floors. They had come from the fifth, and the third was already damp, so he hit the button for "4." As expected, the elevator showed no sign of even pausing.

’...So, as I thought, such a simple method can’t stop the elevator’s descent.’

’This means that simply changing floors doesn’t count as a "significant change."’

seconds.

"Are you kidding me?" Ever since the elevator started descending, Han Liuyue had been raging at it. "I’ve already been invaded by the dampness, and that doesn’t count as a change? Am I not damp enough? Then let me go to the third floor and die completely soaked!"

Whenever a situation arose, her first instinct was to solve it by sacrificing herself. ’What a stupid-ass habit,’ he thought. Chaisi wanted to yell at her but couldn’t bring himself to do it—not because he was holding back on Han Liuyue, but because he couldn’t afford to waste a single second.

’How can I "take action" when I don’t even know what kind of game this is?’

Wait.

’In that case, if we go from "not understanding the situation" to "understanding the situation," would that count as a "significant change"?’

’The key must be in those messages we just heard...’

’Let’s start from the beginning. The first message was: "Do not force the doors open. Dampness is invading."’

seconds.

They hadn’t forced the doors open, yet Han Liuyue had still been touched by the dampness.

’Besides, the second message I heard was "you can take refuge on dry floors," but before I even remembered that, the elevator had already lured Han Liuyue into rushing toward the third floor, which is filled with dampness. Isn’t that completely unfair?’

The word "unfair" felt like poison gas, searing his chest with a dull ache and making him afraid to look at Han Liuyue.

Chaisi squeezed his eyes shut, trying to untangle the mess of information in his head and form a logical chain. But the messages were completely random and disconnected, leaving him with no idea how to interpret them. For instance, what did "Observation time is 15 minutes" have to do with "凸"?

’And not a single message mentioned a way to leave.’

He was so anxious he started resorting to intuition, the way a normal person might pray to the gods. ’Could the elevator be unresponsive because the fourth floor is also damp?’

seconds.

"We need to go to the second floor," Chaisi said as he pressed the "2" button. "The second floor is dry, right? We need to take refuge on a dry floor."

He was trying his best to connect the act of "changing floors" with one of the elevator’s messages, however tenuous the link. But a precious second ticked by after he spoke, and no matter how many times he jabbed it, the button for "2" remained dark and unresponsive.

’Is my interpretation wrong? Did I make the wrong connection? Is the second floor not dry?’

’...What in the world is the answer?’

seconds.

"I forgot to mention earlier," the elevator broadcast suddenly announced leisurely, "the deletion process will begin at the five-second mark. After all, deletion takes time too."

If he had the time to find where the speaker was installed, Chaisi would have smashed it with his fist.

’So, we actually only had 55 seconds. And 19 seconds have already passed—no, 26 seconds.’

’We only have 29 seconds left.’

He finally glanced at Han Liuyue.

Han Liuyue’s face was pale, her forehead glistening with moisture. She gripped a pen tightly, its tip hovering motionlessly over the "凹" character written on her other palm.

It was obvious she was just as clueless as Chaisi. Not knowing what to write, she could only hold the pen poised, ready to write something.

Whether in terms of mental reflexes or physical prowess, both were top-tier Hunters, yet in this elevator, their skills were almost entirely useless.

"Can you just delete me?" she murmured. "I have the dampness. Delete the dampness, and let Brother Chaisi go..."

Neither the elevator nor Chaisi paid her any mind.

seconds left.

Chaisi suddenly glanced at the "凹" character on her hand again.

’Right, "凹" is the one that’s caved in, like a pit. They look a little similar; I got them mixed up.’

’A moment ago, I was wondering what "Observation time is 15 minutes" had to do with "凸"—but the second message Han Liuyue mentioned was clearly "凹." Besides, their pronunciations are different. One is *ao*, and the other is *tu*...’

Chaisi suddenly froze.

’Wait, I don’t speak Chinese. How do I know the character is "凸," and how do I know its pronunciation?’

He turned his head; Han Liuyue, sensing something, also looked up and met his gaze.

"...*Tū*?" Chaisi tried to distinguish the sound from the English word "to." His tongue and palate formed a channel, and a puff of air from the back of his mouth shot through it, the syllable landing flatly in the air.

’When did the elevator plant that sound in my mind?’

seconds left.

"Oh," Han Liuyue, still with the same helpless and pale expression, nodded. "Yes, there was that message."

She understood him.

She didn’t just understand. It seemed she was trying to make an effort amidst the chaos and gloom. She drew a "凸" above the "凹" on her palm—it looked exactly like the character in Chaisi’s mind.

seconds left.

’What do these two characters actually mean? Why give us the shapes and pronunciations, but not the meanings?’

’Even if Chinese characters are pictographic, you can’t necessarily guess their exact meaning from their modern forms.’

Chaisi had read somewhere once that the Chinese character "一" meant "1." So when he saw "十," he confidently assumed it must mean "2." He was dead wrong.

’Since it’s so easy to guess the meaning incorrectly, and they’re not telling us... does that mean the meaning isn’t important?’

’If you disregard the meaning, all that’s left are the shapes, right?’

seconds left.

His usually orderly thoughts were being scorched in the fire of anxiety and despair, gradually turning charred, brittle, and breaking into pieces.

’Forget reaching a conclusion, I can barely keep my emotions in check. Deletion undoubtedly means death. How will I die? If I die, all hope for the Domination Game is lost. What will Uncle Kai do?’

Subconsciously, Chaisi’s gaze fell on Han Liuyue’s forehead, glistening with moisture.

’What if... what if, with the dampness invading her, she doesn’t even know what she’s doing?’

’In other words, does the "message" she mentioned really exist? Is it reliable?’

’Didn’t I just think that I couldn’t trust her?’

’What if all the messages she told me about were just meant to confuse me—’

’No. I can’t think like that.’

seconds left.

Chaisi took a deep breath, forcing himself to calm down by lowering his head, staring intently at the floor, and no longer looking at Han Liuyue.

’I did consider that, given her state, Han Liuyue might not perform at her usual level. She might make mistakes. But that absolutely does not mean she’s untrustworthy. There’s a fundamental difference between the two.’

’I don’t trust people easily, but when I do, I trust them completely. Hesitation and doubt are just forms of cowardice.’

’For that thought to even surface... it was as if a third will was whispering in my mind, trying to corrupt my trust in Han Liuyue.’

Wait.

seconds left.

’It did happen at the beginning, right?’

’There was another voice, wasn’t there? Constantly telling me that not remembering how I got in the elevator was normal, that I shouldn’t think too much about it. But the truth is, if I *hadn’t* thought about it, the scene or action we accepted would have become our new reality.’

’In other words, there really is a third will in this elevator. It’s not the broadcast—the broadcast is just a tool, not the will itself.’

seconds left.

Several pieces of information that had seemed utterly unrelated suddenly began to reveal their edges, swimming toward one another and slowly connecting.

It was just like "凹" and "凸." If written separately, they could be pieced together, like two special puzzle pieces.

"...Brother Chaisi?"

Han Liuyue seemed to call his name, but Chaisi was completely lost in thought. Her voice sounded as distant as if from another dream; he was deaf to it.

1. A third will has been trying to alter my thoughts.

2. The elevator’s maximum load is 15 minutes of observation time.

If there’s an observation time, then naturally there’s an Observer.

Logically, "altering" means actively participating, while "observing" means being a bystander who takes no action.

So... in this elevator, there isn’t just Chaisi, Han Liu, and the third will. There’s also a fourth entity: an Observer...

Yes. All the information—verbal, textual, contextual, analytical... all the information at his disposal could be paired up, just like "凹" and "凸." Each pair would complete the other, piecing together a single meaning, a single truth.

Isn’t that how the elevator broadcast delivered its messages, too?

One piece for Chaisi, another for Han... because their respective messages were meant to be pieced together and completed—

Wait.

Han...?

’Han what?’

"Deletion in progress," the elevator broadcast, which had started at some unknown point, finally registered in Chaisi’s ears and mind for the first time.

He turned around. A figure stood in the corner—what was left of Han Liuyue, her form partially erased.

...Chaisi understood.

He didn’t understand everything, and he certainly didn’t know what state the two of them—no, one person, and one person who was about to be completely deleted—were currently in.

But he finally understood what action would constitute a "significant change."

To shatter all illusions and reveal the "truth."

...The "truth" inside this elevator.

"Stop! I know now!" Chaisi roared. "The elevator doors have been open this whole time! They never closed—there might not even be any doors at all!"

The silence of that moment seemed to stretch on forever.

In the corner of the elevator, the partially erased form of Han Liuyue still lingered in his peripheral vision.

"Bring her back,"

Chaisi’s voice, trembling slightly, was both a command and a plea. He didn’t dare look toward the corner, fixing his gaze on the iron-gray elevator doors.

"There are no closed doors here. I know the truth now. Before you finished deleting her, a significant change occurred. According to your rules, you have to bring her back, don’t you?"

The elevator broadcast remained silent.

Chaisi didn’t even know who he was talking to.

After a few seconds, the elevator broadcast finally sounded again. "You say there are no doors there... What is there, then?"

This was it. Chaisi took a deep breath.

"Observers," he said in a low voice.

He didn’t dare to blink.

That single word was like a hand, gradually wiping away the iron-gray, tightly-shut elevator doors. In their place was a gloomy, impenetrable darkness.

In the gloom, countless faces floated, densely packed, faintly illuminated by the light of their phone screens.

Every single face was looking into the elevator.

Grass... Moon... BuysFortune... ShannanLiang... Kafu... Bouncy... Shark... Sakura... BM...

A host of words with incomprehensible meanings suddenly floated up in his mind for an instant before vanishing. There seemed to be hundreds of them.

Chaisi was stunned. ’The Observers... there’s more than one?’

"Congratulations, a significant change has occurred," the elevator broadcast said with what sounded like a regretful sigh. "Now executing Command+Z."

Han

Han Liu

Han Liuyue

When Chaisi turned toward the corner again, he saw Han Liuyue, whole and complete.

The moment she came to her senses, she was startled by the faces in the gloom by the doorway and cried out, "Brother Chaisi, what happened?"