Chapter 499: Silently Counting for Ten Seconds

I sewed my fingernails and the white rice into the Plush Bear with red thread, then dragged it into the living room.

"The next step is to wait until three in the morning and soak it in a bathtub filled with water." I tossed the Plush Bear onto the coffee table and stared at the clock on the wall. "It's currently 2:55 AM."

I stepped into the apartment's bathroom. The faucet was halfway open, and the bathtub was already filled with water.

"The environment in this bathroom is incredibly detailed. It even includes the water droplets on the tiles and the specific brand of shampoo. It seems the owner of the Dream Realm has a deep memory of this place." I walked in a circle without spotting anything unusual. I held up my phone, dragging the Plush Bear with my other hand.

"Did I forget something? Right! The salt water." I placed the Plush Bear at the bathroom door and went to the kitchen to mix a cup of highly concentrated salt water. With everything prepared, I officially began the game.

"One-Man Hide and Seek... I really don't know what kind of trauma this child suffered to play a game like this." In a dream, a person has no control over themselves. To escape the Dream Realm, I had no choice but to follow along.

Muttering to myself, I stepped out of the kitchen. My heart gave a violent lurch as I stared blankly at the bathroom door.

The Plush Bear I had casually dumped by the bathroom door was now resting its back against the door. Its body leaned at a bizarre angle, not quite fully tipped over, and its head hung upside down against its chest. Those black button eyes were pointed directly at me, as if we were locking gazes.

Its tattered body was covered in knife wounds. Now that I had haphazardly stitched them back together with red thread, it looked even more horrifying.

"This thing isn't actually coming to life, is it? It's only a Shallow Dream Layer, let's not get too crazy!" I shivered and hurried over to straighten the Plush Bear's head. As the clock struck exactly three in the morning, I grabbed its neck and hauled it into the bathroom.

I recalled the steps of the game, fighting down the prickling sensation on my scalp. I lifted the Plush Bear's paws with both hands and said to it three times in a row, "Gao Jian is the ghost."

Then, I dropped it into the water-filled bathtub. The Plush Bear's body was stuffed full of white rice, so it quickly began to sink.

But to my surprise, while its rice-filled stomach sank into the water, the empty parts of its body floated on the surface. It formed a bizarre equilibrium, making the toy bear look like it was standing upright in the bathtub.

As its fur completely soaked through, the Plush Bear gradually sank entirely beneath the water.

"Did I stuff too much rice in?" Regardless, the first step was complete.

Next, following the rules of the game, I turned off every light in the apartment, leaving only the television on.

Inside the pitch-black, sealed apartment, the cold light from the television screen hit the walls. I stared at the constantly shifting black-and-white images, my Adam's apple bobbing. "Close my eyes and silently count for ten seconds in an environment like this? Whoever designed this game is a total psycho."

Sitting on the sofa, I confirmed there was nothing else in the room, then took out the Underworld Live Show Phone. I pointed the camera at myself and slowly closed my eyes.

Absolute darkness. The silence was maddening. My sense of hearing felt infinitely magnified as an inexplicable emotion took root in my heart.

'One, two, three...'

I timed myself by my heartbeat. Barely three seconds had passed when the sudden sound of dripping water echoed from the bathroom.

'In the bathroom?'

'Did I forget to turn off the faucet when I left? Or is the water overflowing from the bathtub?'

'Time is passing so slowly!'

Countless stray thoughts swarmed my brain. It was all too easy for a person's imagination to run wild in a special environment like this.

'Five, six...'

Half the time had passed. Suddenly, I heard the sound of splashing water from the bathroom again. I heard it perfectly clearly this time. There was no mistaking it.

'That Plush Bear didn't actually climb out, did it?'

'Has it already left the bathroom? Could it be right around me?'

A chill ran down my spine at the thought. It felt as if something was standing right behind me. I bit my lip, forcing myself not to open my eyes.

'Ten seconds will pass quickly. If I rashly break the rules of the game, I might suffer an even more terrifying punishment.'

'Seven, eight...'

The apartment suddenly fell quiet again. Then, a strange noise seemed to come from the study, like a rat scurrying under the bedboards.

'The study this time?' I recalled the layout of the entire apartment in my head. The bathroom was closest to the study, sitting directly across from the other bedroom.

'Nine, ten...'

The ten seconds were up, but I didn't dare open my eyes. I was terrified that the moment I did, I would find the Plush Bear's face pressing right up in front of me.

My eyes twitched as I lifted my eyelids, opening them just a sliver at first.

The black-and-white images played on the television screen in the pitch-black room. Nothing seemed out of the ordinary.

I slowly opened my eyes and let out a long sigh of relief. In those short ten seconds, a sheen of cold sweat had already broken out on my forehead.

Standing up, I grabbed the fruit knife from the coffee table and entered the bathroom. The rice-filled Plush Bear hadn't vanished; it had simply sunk completely into the water.

"This game really tests a person's psychological endurance, especially when playing alone."

I reached in and fished the Plush Bear out of the bathtub, telling it, "I found you."

Then, without hesitation, I plunged the fruit knife into its neck. The incision I had previously stitched up was slashed open, and some of the white rice spilled out.

"You're next."

After saying that, I didn't want to stay in there a second longer. I grabbed the salt water and walked out of the bathroom.

"According to the steps of the game, all I have to do next is wait." This game was incredibly important to the owner of the Dream Realm; he hadn't been able to forget it for a long time. Because of that, I was highly curious—what exactly did the Dream Realm's owner see at the end of the game?

"The game is called One-Man Hide and Seek. Do you play as the ghost and catch yourself? Or does it mean the participants of this game are one person and something else?" Unless I finished the game, there was no way to break the Dream Realm. All I could do was wait patiently.

After leaving the bathroom, I glanced at the television flashing its black-and-white images and didn't bother turning it off. I wanted to turn on the lights, only to tragically discover that all the switches seemed to be broken. They had entirely lost their function.

"One trap linked to the next. Fortunately, I have the Judging Eye. The darkness doesn't affect me too much." I hurriedly inspected all the rooms again, trying to figure out what had made those noises while my eyes were closed. "There are no water stains on the floor, and everything is exactly as it was before. Nothing in the apartment changed during the ten seconds my eyes were closed."

I walked a lap around the apartment. The interior wasn't large, so there weren't many places to hide. There was only behind the doors of each room, under the beds, and the wardrobe in the bedroom.

"When I first opened the wardrobe, I could smell a faint scent of mildew, and the patterns on the quilt were exceptionally clear. This all proves that the owner of the Dream Realm is incredibly familiar with this wardrobe. He must have hidden inside it back then." After thinking for a moment, I decided to hide inside the wardrobe as well.

I went into the bedroom. This room was directly opposite the bathroom. By leaving the door open, I had a direct line of sight straight into the bathroom.

The built-in wardrobe had limited space inside. It was more than enough to hide a child, but it was going to be cramped for an adult like me.

"I'll just have to make do." I opened the cabinet door and climbed inside, only to realize that this wardrobe could only be locked from the outside. It couldn't be locked from the inside at all. That meant if I hid in here, the cabinet door would constantly be left slightly ajar, offering absolutely no sense of security.

"This will have to do." I pushed the quilt to one side. Holding the Underworld Live Show Phone in one hand and the cup of salt water in the other, my eyes remained firmly fixed on the bathroom through the crack in the wardrobe door.

"According to the game's introduction, something should happen within two hours."

Hiding inside the wardrobe, the outside wasn't completely pitch-black. The flashing light from the television screen flickered bright and dim. All in all, it was incredibly eerie.

After waiting for half an hour, my patience was gradually worn clean. The air inside the wardrobe wasn't circulating, and it was simply too cramped for a grown adult.

"I can't hear any noises, and there's nothing unusual in the bathroom. Should I just go out and proactively end the game? This is only a Shallow Dream Layer; the difficulty won't be too high. For a child, a memory like this is actually profound enough." The Dream Realm was anchored in reality, especially the Shallow Dream Layer. Logically speaking, nothing too outlandish should appear.

"I'll wait another half an hour. If nothing happens, I'll just follow the rules of the game and end it."

Having made my decision, I turned my head to look at the livestream, only to suddenly realize that the livestream viewers were already spamming the screen like crazy.

"Streamer! You'll die if you play this game for a full two hours!"

Teletubbies Died of Murder tipped the Super Thriller Live Broadcast Room 99 Underworld Coins: "That bear is so fucking ugly!"

"I have a feeling the Streamer is going to die inside that wardrobe..."

Socrates Paradox: "Am I the only one who noticed? Streamer, you missed a step! You haven't given the plushie a name yet!"