stonecrandall Chapter 110 Expansion
Chapter 110 Expansion
Lu Dan stood still, his right hand gripping the brass key he had just stolen tightly.
The key was cold and slightly sticky.
"call……"
He adjusted his breathing and, relying on his faint grayscale vision, looked down to examine the spoils in his hands.
This is a key with an extremely strange design.
The front end is a probe resembling a triangular spike, while the rear end is a distorted relief of a human face.
The face has its eyes closed, and its mouth is tightly sewn shut with stitches.
"There's only a key, no lock."
Lu Dan's fingertips caressed the rows of sutures.
That's a really bad joke.
There's not even a vent. What's the point of giving him a key? Are you suggesting he use a copper needle to chisel a hole in the wall like he did in Shawshank?
"Tick-tock...tick-tock..."
The mechanical watch on his wrist continued its tireless race, the noise of the gears meshing amplified infinitely in the silence, as if counting down the days of his life.
Hunger gnawed fiercely at the stomach lining; thirst made it feel as if a handful of rough sand had been stuffed into the throat.
"can not wait."
Lu Dan began to explore the 4x4x4 cube in greater detail.
Since the balance scales rise from the ground, there must be a mechanism in the floor.
He lay prone where the scales had disappeared, his fingers slowly digging into the metal floor.
The floorboards were perfectly fitted together, with not a single seam to be found.
Lu Dan stood up and turned to face the wall.
Since the ground is blocked, let's try the wall.
"Sizzle—"
The key slid across the metal wall.
At that very moment, a sudden change occurred.
The moment the "closed-eye face" at the end of the copper key touched the cold wall, a violent tremor suddenly erupted.
The entire room began to shake violently. Lu Dan stumbled and had to lean against the wall to barely steady himself.
Immediately afterwards, he felt the wall he was leaning against rapidly receding away from him.
The metal plates on all six sides—front, back, left, right, above, and below—sounded creaking as they expanded outwards.
The cramped space that was originally only a few steps away suddenly became frighteningly spacious.
When everything returned to silence, Lu Dan once again stood in the center of the room.
He tentatively took a few steps forward.
One step, two steps, three steps... ten steps.
It didn't hit the wall.
"8 meters."
Lu Dan quickly constructed a new spatial model in his mind.
The touch just now caused the cage, which was originally 64 cubic meters, to expand to 512 cubic meters in an instant.
The side length changed from 4 meters to 8 meters.
In Lu Dan's eyes, this was not good news at all.
"The larger the space, the more area I need to search."
"and……"
Lu Dan looked up at the even more distant, dark ceiling above him.
"If the exit is up there, I can't reach it at all."
To make matters worse, he could barely make out the general outline within a 4-meter radius.
Now that the space has doubled, the surrounding darkness seems to have become even thicker, and the visible distance has been severely compressed, with only blurry noise visible in the distance.
"Is the key used to expand storage space?"
Lu Dan looked at the brass key in his hand with a gloomy expression.
Instead of waiting to be killed, he immediately began a new round of searching.
This time, the workload has increased significantly.
He walked along the edge, taking each step with extreme care.
The newly created space is not as smooth and flat as before.
Strange marks began to appear on the ground.
In some places, there were deep scratches, and fingernails broke off and stuck in the metal gaps, already blackened.
In some places, there are dark red patches, like old bloodstains.
"It seems that quite a few 'tenants' have stayed here before me."
He continued forward, groped his way to the corner of the room, and kicked something with his toe.
A paper.
On the empty metal floor, the paper stood out conspicuously.
Lu Dan bent down and picked it up.
The paper has a strange feel to it, with some very fine textures.
He brought the paper close to his eyes, trying to make out the writing on it using the faint grayscale vision.
The words were written with dark red paint, the brushstrokes distorted and trembling.
The note contained only two words, followed by a series of unsettling ellipses:
[Waiting patiently...]
"Wait and see?"
Lu Dan chewed over and over these two words.
Was this an order? Or a dying wish?
What are we waiting for?
To await death? To await rescue? Or to await... the arrival of something?
Just as Lu Dan was thinking, a gust of cold wind blew past the back of his neck.
How can there be wind inside this completely enclosed cube?
Lu Dan suddenly turned around, raising the revolver in his hand and pointing it at the void behind him.
"Who?"
nobody.
But the hairs on Lu Dan's back stood up one by one.
His intuition was screaming alarm bells.
He was no longer alone in the larger room.
The expansion of space is to make room for another "existence".
……
Lin Xiaoxiao collapsed to the ground, panting heavily, her chest heaving violently.
She made her choice just seconds ago.
"Cough cough... cough cough cough!"
Lin Xiaoxiao coughed painfully, her face covered in tears and snot.
"I saw it... I saw it..."
Lin Xiaoxiao reached out her hand, trembling.
The fear subsided rapidly as vision returned.
Humanity's fear of the unknown largely stems from its inability to see.
When everything is exposed to the public eye, even monsters become a potential threat.
She stood up, leaning against the wall, and with the help of her night vision, she could see the cage that imprisoned her.
It was a standard metal cube, identical to the model she had groped her way out of the dark.
But the details... are chilling.
The walls are not smooth.
Lin Xiaoxiao saw that the walls were covered with words.
Densely packed characters of all sizes and crooked shapes.
Some were carved with fingernails, some were written with blood, and some looked like marks made by biting with teeth.
Let me out.
That's fake.
Don't eat it! Don't eat it! Don't eat it!
It is alive.
[A lied]
【who I am?】
Countless murmurs covered the four walls.
Among these chaotic graffiti, one line of words was carved the deepest and largest, located in the center of the opposite wall:
Rule 1: Play your role well, or it will take you back.
"Playing the role of..."
Lin Xiaoxiao muttered to herself.
Her mind was frighteningly clear; her vision had activated her logical thinking.
"I am B."
"Since there is B, there must be A, C, and D."
"This is a role-playing script, but I don't even know what a script is, how am I supposed to act?"
Lin Xiaoxiao forced herself to look away from those frantic words and began to examine herself.
Since it's an act, there must be clues about him.
She lowered her head to check her clothes.
Her clothes instantly transformed into a thin, grayish-white garment resembling a hospital gown.
The clothes were very dirty, and there were signs of wear and tear on the collar and cuffs.
She felt around in her clothes, but there were no pockets.
"No, there must be something."
Lin Xiaoxiao did not give up. She began to check the lining of the clothes, pinching every inch of fabric with her fingers.
Finally, she felt a hard lump at the seam inside the hem of her dress.
Something was sewn inside!
Lin Xiaoxiao was overjoyed and, without any hesitation, used her teeth to bite open the rough sutures.
"Sizzle."
The fabric was torn open, and a rolled-up, cylindrical object fell out.
It's a plastic bracelet, like the kind that hospitals give to patients, but the material is harder.
The bracelet has a line of clear black text printed on it:
[Number: E-209 (B)]
[Criminal Charge: Voyeur]
[Symptoms: Severe delusions, visual sensitivity; due to seeing things he shouldn't have, the eyeball needs to be removed (pending execution).]
When she read the last three words, Lin Xiaoxiao instinctively covered her eyes.
A chill ran from the soles of my feet straight up to the top of my head.
She raised her hand, trembling, and touched her eye socket.
My fingertip touched my eyelid; my eyeball was still there, still moving.
But this did not reassure her; instead, it made her even more fearful.
The diagnostic label on the wristband reads "Pending execution".
This means that the punishment has not yet been delivered, or... the plot has not yet progressed to that point.
"The Spying Machine..."
Lin Xiaoxiao looked at the charge.
Was it because she saw something she shouldn't have seen?
Suddenly, her gaze fixed on the corner of the ceiling.
There was an inconspicuous, slightly raised black dot.
In the darkness before, she had completely overlooked this detail.
In the current green field of vision, that black dot looks out of place.
An extremely tiny pinhole camera.
It is watching her.
"It's spying on me."
Lin Xiaoxiao pressed her back against the wall, a sense of humiliation and fear of being used as a guinea pig welling up within her.
"No matter what it is, I have to keep acting."
Lin Xiaoxiao took a deep breath and gripped the bracelet tightly.
Since the charge is "voyeurism," the symptoms are "visual sensitivity" and "severe delusions."
So, how should she play this role well?
Is it an expression of an even more insane voyeuristic desire? Or is it an expression of madness caused by witnessing a horrific scene?
Just then, a slight tremor came from under the floor.
Lin Xiaoxiao looked down and saw the tray that had brought the medicine and the human head slowly descending, preparing to retract into the ground.
But in the empty space where the apple with the human head was placed, there was something else now.
It was a note.
The note reads:
Phase 1 has ended.
[B abandoned the key and chose the eyes of evil.]
In exchange, the one who has always sought to see the truth will lose his light.
Lin Xiaoxiao's heart sank.
Someone who has always wanted to see the truth?
"Whom...did I hurt?"
Lin Xiaoxiao's fingers gripped the note tightly.
She chose the light, but at the cost of depriving others of their sight?
If that's the case, then the balance scales from before...
The resources here are conserved.
She received the light, but others will be plunged into absolute darkness.
……
"Cough cough..."
Lu Dan clutched his chest and coughed violently twice.
The side effects of the accelerated time were becoming increasingly apparent; his lips were cracked and peeling, and his throat felt like it was on fire.
But he couldn't care less about that at the moment.
Because just a moment ago, everything suddenly went black before his eyes.
Utterly black.
The grayscale outlines that could still be barely seen thanks to the "Night Owl" feature were as if they had been forcibly erased by an invisible hand.
Lu Dan felt a sharp pain in his eye.
"Damn it..."
He closed his eyes, and tears streamed down his face uncontrollably.
"What exactly happened?"
"The price of the scales?"
"You took the key, so you're going to take my eyes too?"
"Fair, very fair."
Losing your sight is indeed troublesome, especially now that there's an extra "thing" in the room.
But he still has other senses, and his roommate is still there.
"Wait patiently..."
In the darkness, a chilling aura drew near once more.
This time, it wasn't an illusion.
Moist breath sprayed onto Lu Dan's left ear.
I was very close to him.
Something was pressed against his back, waiting for him to reveal a weakness.
Lu Dan slowly raised his left hand and placed it on his chest, feeling his heart beating steadily and powerfully.
"The Ventriloquist's Trick, activated."
His lips didn't move, but terrified gasps came from another corner of the room—diagonally opposite where he was now.
"Huff...huff...who's there?!"
The moment the sound rang out.
The chilling aura that had been clinging to his back disappeared.
Immediately afterwards, the sound of limbs crawling rapidly on the ground could be heard from the darkness not far away.
"Shhhhh—"
The thing lunged towards the source of the sound.
Lu Dan stood there like a silent sculpture.
Time continues to accelerate at an alarming rate.
Tick.
Tick.