Chapter 502: Bad Friend

If you back out halfway, you need to hold a mouthful of salt water and go find the plush toy yourself. First, splash the water from the cup onto it, then spit the water from your mouth onto it, and shout "I win" three times. Only then will the game end normally.

I recalled this step, my eyes narrowing slightly. Ending the game according to the rules seemed simple, but actually pulling it off wouldn't be easy.

First, I had to pinpoint the Plush Bear's location. If it really could move on its own, this step alone would be incredibly difficult.

Anyone who has played hide-and-seek knows the hider must absolutely not be discovered by the seeker. In other words, I needed to find the Plush Bear before it found me, then complete the two steps of splashing and spitting the salt water.

Who found whom first—that was crucial.

The apartment was only so big; the hider didn't have much of an advantage.

Now there were only two options left. First, wait for the Plush Bear to find this place and splash the salt water before it opened the wardrobe. Second, leave the wardrobe and actively hunt for it!

'What did the Dream Realm's owner do back then?' I held the salt water in my mouth, my complexion pale as I struggled to make a decision.

Leaning against the wardrobe door, I peered through the crack, staring into the pitch-black apartment.

About ten seconds later, the living room TV screen flickered a few times before reverting to a black-and-white image. A faint, cold glow illuminated the walls, its pallid light reflecting off the coffee table.

'Where did it go?'

Sweeping my gaze around the apartment, I tried every possible angle and finally noticed something.

'It's under the wooden bed in the study!' Its tattered body dragged out a long trail of water, the matted fuzz plastered against the floor tiles. White rice mixed with leftover cotton stuffing spilled out from the ruptured knife wound.

The Plush Bear's head was facing directly under the bed. I had stabbed it in the neck earlier, leaving its head dangling halfway off its shoulder, looking like it could drop at any moment.

'Is it looking under the bed?' A cold sweat broke out over me. I had originally considered hiding under there, too.

'Should I go out now?' I was completely torn. With the salt water in my mouth, the bitter taste tormented me, and my tongue had already gone numb.

Compared to the unknown horrors outside and that bizarre Plush Bear, this wardrobe had become my only sanctuary.

The cramped, narrow space brought me a peculiar sense of security. It was like a hidden cage—it couldn't change a condemned prisoner's fate, but it could delay the arrival of danger.

Hiding in the wardrobe, my heart beat faster and faster. I had to make a decision. Sitting around waiting for death wasn't my style. I needed to strike first before the Plush Bear found me!

Veins bulged on the arm holding the water cup; it had been a long time since I'd felt this nervous.

Reaching out, I gently pushed the wardrobe door, but before I could push it completely open, that damn TV suddenly went black again!

I couldn't see a thing. My vision was completely useless. Amidst the pitch-black darkness, I only felt as if something was scuttling rapidly across the floorboards!

It was coming! It was definitely coming over!

All my courage completely crumbled. I didn't dare leave the wardrobe at a time like this. Reaching back, I pulled the half-opened door shut, pressed my body against the inner wall of the cabinet, and drew heavy breaths with my mouth shut tight.

'The first time the TV went black, it took a long while for it to recover. But the second time, the interval was much shorter. Is the Dream Realm deliberately targeting me? Or does it want me to see something, so it sped up the process?' I quickly calmed down. That scene just now had given me a massive scare, nearly causing me to swallow the mouthful of salt water.

'This difficulty doesn't feel like the Shallow Dream Layer at all, but nothing went wrong when I entered the dream. Could it be because Chu Men entered the dream before me and cleared the Shallow Dream Layer ahead of time? That's not right either. Our methods of entering the dream were entirely different. Besides, this is a closed dream; it should just be a unique dream constructed by extracting a portion of the Dream Realm owner's memories.'

At this point, I didn't even have the luxury of checking the comments from the livestream viewers. I moved my body as far away from the wardrobe door as possible, just in case.

My vision was useless, but my other senses remained sharp.

I adjusted my breathing and listened closely. Amidst the eerie silence, the sound of dripping water suddenly emerged.

"Drip, drop..."

It seemed to be coming from the living room. The sound started off far away, circling around out there for a while before gradually closing in on the bedroom.

'The sound of dripping water?'

Remembering the long trail of water dragged behind the Plush Bear, my heart clenched as if it had leapt right into my throat.

Closer and closer, until it finally entered the bedroom where I was hiding!

Time seemed to slow down. Every second was excruciating. I didn't know how long passed before I flexed my slightly stiff neck, leaned my upper body forward, and slowly pressed against the wardrobe door.

Bringing my eye up to the crack, I hesitated, terrified of seeing something horrific, or that the moment I got close, a fruit knife would thrust right through the gap.

I widened my eyes, but all that met my gaze was a thick blanket of darkness.

'My vision is completely jammed. Even if that Plush Bear was pressed against the other side of the wardrobe staring right at me, I wouldn't be able to see it.' A wave of regret washed over me. If I'd known things would develop to this point, I should have smeared something with a strong scent all over the Plush Bear's body beforehand.

'Regret is useless.' With the salt water still in my mouth, my expression contorted as I struggled to control the rhythm of my breathing.

'There isn't a single shred of light outside. If I aimed the Live Show Phone at the crack, I might be able to see clearly if there's anything outside the wardrobe door. But doing that would also expose my location with the phone's light. It's too risky.'

Just as I was deliberating, the TV screen in the living room flickered a few times, and the black-and-white image resurfaced.

That faint light rekindled my hope.

'Perfect timing.' Resting my fingers against the door, I was just about to push it open slowly when my gaze slipped through the crack and I suddenly witnessed a terrifying sight!

The tattered Plush Bear was lying right at the bedroom doorway. The red threads on its body had snapped, its fuzz and loose threads tangling together to wrap around the fruit knife I had plunged into its neck.

Its head was crooked, nearly severed from its body. Half of it slumped forward, while the other half remained attached only by a few scraps of torn cloth and cotton stuffing.

'It really found me.'

To say I wasn't afraid would be a lie. This damn thing was completely unlike anything I had encountered before; at this point, I couldn't even tell if it was a ghost or not.

'The next time the TV turns off, I'm afraid it's going to press itself right up against the wardrobe!' I never relied on luck or harbored naive fantasies, which was one of the reasons I had survived so many live broadcasts.

'I can't give it a chance to get closer.' Once the TV turned off, the apartment would plunge into total darkness. My vision would be severely limited, while the other party would be like a fish in water. Under such shifting tides, the situation would become incredibly dangerous.

I had already figured out that the Plush Bear only changed its position whenever the TV went black.

'Now it has already crawled to the bedroom doorway...' If I didn't want to encounter this monster in complete darkness, the best approach was to strike right now while the TV outside was still on, and end this game.

My fingers gripping the crack began to exert force. Keeping my eyes locked on the Plush Bear, I raised the water cup. But as if this bizarre Dream Realm were being manipulated by someone, before I could even push the door fully open, the living room TV abruptly went black again!

'Fuck! This again?!' A deep sense of powerlessness welled up in my heart. The various sudden changes in the Dream Realm all seemed designed to pull me along, forcing me to make the exact same choices the Dream Realm's owner had made back then. The moment I prepared to alter the game's progression, all sorts of accidents would crop up.

'Is this really just a Shallow Dream Layer?'

Holding the water cup, I was tormented by the terror in my heart amidst the darkness.

'Has the toy already crawled right outside the wardrobe?'

'Is it peering at me through the crack right now?'

'Or has it already gotten inside the wardrobe?'

A death sentence wasn't frightening; what was frightening was the process of waiting for the execution.

Fear was fermenting. I wanted nothing more than to fling the wardrobe door open immediately.

"Clatter!"

A soft noise came from outside the wardrobe, sounding as if the fruit knife had dropped onto the floor tiles. I listened closely, but strangely enough, the apartment had suddenly become deathly quiet. Even the sound of dripping water had vanished.

Tormented by fear, I waited for several agonizing minutes before the long stretch of darkness finally ended. Nothing had happened; it seemed that the Plush Bear hadn't found me.

'A place as obvious as the wardrobe—it couldn't have missed it, right?' As the TV screen emitted light once more, I no longer hesitated. Raising the water cup, I pushed the wardrobe door wide open.

Water stains covered the bedroom everywhere, yet there was no sign of the Plush Bear.

'Where did it go? I need to find it before it finds me!'

Stepping out of the wardrobe, I swept my gaze across the room, and my face suddenly turned deathly pale...