Chapter 94: The Game Begins

It was a matter of life and death, so naturally I was cautious. I had to ask myself if it was truly worth making my escape harder for the sake of a few strangers.

Standing in the dim corridor, my expression shifted uncertainly. Gripping the keys, I weighed my final choice.

"Bang!" A sudden noise came from Jiang Fei's cell. Not long after, a soaking-wet little boy crawled out from the gap beneath the door.

"Song Xiaofeng?" I stared at the boy lying on the floor. This little guy had actually crawled through the drainage ditch into Jiang Fei's room. "Who told you to run off?"

The boy looked a bit wronged. "Didn't you say that if someone came in, I should escape to another room through the ditch? I heard someone come into this room, so I quickly crawled over."

"Is this what they call fortune favoring fools? Good thing I was the one who came in." The child was somewhat slow-witted, and I offered a wry smile. "It seems this is the will of heaven, so I don't need to struggle with my choice anymore."

Taking the keys, I first let out the older brother, Song Xiaowang. When Jiang Fei saw his cleft lip, she subconsciously hid behind me. "He's terrifying."

"These two brothers are pitiful souls. They might look ugly, but they don't mean any harm." I brought the two children to the madwoman's cell. I had originally thought their family reunion would be deeply moving, but the reactions of the three left me rather puzzled.

The two children didn't recognize the woman at all. They hid in the shadows of the corridor, seemingly terrified of interacting with strangers.

The woman's reaction, on the other hand, was intense. The chain around her neck drew taut as she reached out to the two children like a struggling, dying beast, wildly yelling words no one could understand.

"Watch them, and don't let them run off," I told Jiang Fei, pointing at the brothers. Then I took the keys and walked over to the middle-aged driver's door.

Out of everyone here, he was the one I was least willing to release. The man was crooked, and more importantly, he had once harbored murderous intent toward me.

The lock clicked three times. I pushed open the iron door to find the middle-aged driver standing inside, his face full of surprise. "Not bad, bro!"

"If we want to escape, everyone needs to cooperate fully. I hope you aren't harboring any funny ideas."

"Of course, of course." The middle-aged driver agreed readily enough, but the moment he stepped out, his eyes glued themselves to Jiang Fei like hooks.

Her thin pajamas did nothing to conceal her stunning curves. The middle-aged driver shifted his gaze slowly, raking his eyes over every inch of Jiang Fei's body as if savoring a rare delicacy.

"What a stunner!" The sound of him swallowing his saliva was crystal clear to me even from two meters away.

I stared at his back, thought it over, and decided not to say anything more.

Next, I opened the cell labeled Monday. The thick stench of blood inside still hadn't dissipated. Discarded surgical gloves, a rubber hose used for washing away blood, and a mop were tossed on the floor.

"The blood and severed fingers that washed down the ditch earlier came from this room." Although the cell had been cleaned, disposing of a corpse wasn't as easy as one might imagine. A lot of fat residue and tiny bone fragments hadn't been completely scrubbed away.

"Not only did they kill someone in this cell, but they also conducted extremely cruel experiments." A large table sat in the center of the room, likely left behind in a hurry. Faint knife scars and axe marks marred its surface, along with irregular gouges that looked like they had been left by human fingernails.

"Just what kind of agony did they suffer to leave such hideous gouges in solid wood?"

Finding nothing else, I stepped out of the cell and walked to the very end of the corridor.

"Logically speaking, there are seven days in a week, perfectly matching seven cells. So what is this extra one for?" I had been trying to guess why the other party would use days of the week as room numbers. The most likely possibility was that, in chronological order, they killed the patient in cell one on Monday, the patient in cell two on Tuesday, and so on.

But going by that theory, what was the purpose of this eighth, completely unmarked cell?

I tried the keys in my hand one by one, but even after going through the entire heavy ring, none of them could open this door.

"How strange. Is this room really that special? Just who could be locked up inside?"

Unable to make sense of it, I finally had to give up.

I called everyone together. "I've already guessed the general location of this place. No matter what we encounter in a moment, don't panic. Stay calm. Jiang Fei, stay in the back and take care of the two kids. Don't let them run off. Wang Yingnan, you walk in front with me. We'll keep a distance of one meter between us. If something happens to me, take them and run."

After giving the instructions, I took off the plastic bag and pulled out the Underworld Live Show Phone. Being on a black screen for so long had caused my viewer count to drop significantly, but some people were still stubbornly waiting.

"Apologies to all my livestream viewers. It was an emergency, so I had to leave you hanging for a bit." I didn't try to hide it from Jiang Fei and Wang Yingnan, taking the phone out right in front of them.

"You hid that well, kid! You actually have a phone?" Wang Yingnan was shocked when he saw the Large-Screen Phone. "We're saved! Hurry up and call the police!"

"I'd love to call the police, but this phone doesn't have that function."

Bullet comments gradually filled the livestream room, and my viewer count began to recover.

"Why did the signal cut out just now? Streamer, I demand an explanation!"

"What's going on? Black screen for so long, and the moment it comes back on we get pajama temptation? Let go of that young lady, I want to lick the screen!"

"A cell, chains, and a beauty... Streamer, just what have you been doing behind our backs!?"

"Perhaps, this is just what it means to be a man..."

The livestream viewers spouted their cheeky remarks, but none of them could see my predicament. "Everyone, please calm down. My hands are tied right now, and the situation is extremely dangerous. If there are any friends from Jiangcheng watching my stream, please call the police immediately. Based on my deductions, this should be the Henshan Psychiatric Hospital in the Jiangcheng Southern Suburbs!"

There were many clues, and they all pointed to the same place. I was ninety percent sure this was the Henshan Psychiatric Hospital.

"Gao Jian, what are you doing?" Jiang Fei asked, a little curious. Seeing her approach, I immediately moved the phone away.

"Don't ask what you shouldn't ask, and whatever you see today, don't breathe a word of it." Anyone who got involved with the Underworld Live Show ended up with a miserable fate. Officer Huang and Huang Guanxing were perfect examples.

I stood at the very front of the group. The iron door at the end of the corridor wasn't locked. Pulling it open revealed a staircase one and a half meters wide.

Bending over, I climbed the steps. Dim light spilled from overhead. In the completely empty hall, rows of long benches were arranged neatly.

The decor here looked like a church. At the very front of the hall stood a statue depicting the crucifixion of Jesus.

Unlike a normal sculpture, however, this cross was inverted. Jesus hung upside down, his face obscured by a book.

I picked up the book and flipped through it. It was a Chinese-translated version of the Bible.

"The layout is completely unfamiliar, so it's best not to run around blindly. Let's not split up. We'll search for a way out together!" The hall was in the center of the building; if we wanted to get out, we still had a long way to go.

Holding my phone up, I walked at the forefront. This building looked like it had been abandoned for a long time, but there were signs of living people everywhere.

"Secondary Medical Ward, Mandatory Correction Room, Punishment Room, Public Bathhouse..." The psychiatric hospital covered a massive area, and after walking in a circle, I surprisingly found myself back in the hall.

"Where are you leading us?" the middle-aged driver urged from behind. "How about you give me the phone and let me navigate?"

Hearing his words, I frowned. 'Is he trying to get his hands on the Underworld Live Show Phone?'

I ignored him and continued forward. This time, I chose a different path, but I came to a halt after only a few steps.

To my left was a completely sealed wall with boarded-up windows, and to my right was a small room of about twenty square meters. Inside that very room stood several patients wearing hospital gowns!

With thick clothes draped over them, it was impossible to distinguish their genders in the darkness. I could only see a group of swaying silhouettes.

"What are they doing?" The sign on the door read "Rehabilitation Room," but the people inside looked more like they were receiving corporal punishment.

I signaled for everyone to stop, originally intending to avoid this place and leave via another route, but then the unexpected happened.

Every light in the entire building went out, leaving the phone in my hand as the only source of illumination.

"What's going on?!" Pressing my back against the wall, I moved toward where Jiang Fei was. In the pitch-black corridor, everything had suddenly become terrifying.