Chapter 2: Tower of Terror 02

Chapter 2: Tower of Terror 02

Everyone looked towards the corridor to see many black creatures crawling out.

In the light of the street lamps, they scrutinized these creatures.

They resembled spiders but not quite; with eight legs, a hollow mouth, a massive head covered densely with eyes, continuously sucking in air.

These tumorous creatures extended their slimy, sticky tentacles, swiftly pulling the two running girls into their dark maws, their mouths, splattering blood everywhere.

Everyone was petrified.

If this was special effects, they were made too realistically. But when a bloodied head was spat out, rolling in front of them, the remaining eight people dispersed in an instant, fleeing in all directions.

Someone stepped on an eyeball from one of the girls, slipped, fell, and was swallowed whole by a spider that caught up.

Pei Yi also ran as fast as he could, not caring for much else.

The moment he saw the square, he felt a chill; according to feng shui, too much open space is a major taboo.

A group scattered there, unable to gather any fortune, as if they were in a giant slaughterhouse, and they were the lambs to be slaughtered.

Then, more spiders crawled out from the corridor.

Running from small spiders is one thing, but what about giant spiders taller and bigger than humans?

Of the remaining eight people, three were quickly devoured, leaving only five, including the hefty Boss Lu, who, faced with death, exhibited surprising strength.

It was a deadly game of eagle catching chicks, where being caught meant certain death.

Pei Yi realized running towards the edges was tantamount to death, as there were no buildings, only open space. Their only option was to run towards the dark building.

He shouted, "Run to the building, quick!"

With that call,

The remaining four immediately rushed towards the building as if their lives depended on it, without needing further instruction.

After a life-and-death sprint, all five were nearly out of breath. Stopping even for a moment meant they could collapse.

When the five gathered, Boss Lu couldn’t hold on any longer. Seeing Pei Yi, he grabbed his arm, "Save me! Thirty... I’ll give it all to you..." He was too exhausted to run or speak. Weighing over 200 pounds, he had narrowly escaped being caught, sacrificing his girlfriend to survive.

Now, no one dared to call this a game anymore; it was a death game.

Pei Yi, not as winded, asked while running, "You mean it? Your word? Three hundred thousand? Will you transfer it immediately?"

"Yes. Thirty... one hundred... million... anything!"

"What would I do with so much?" Pei Yi had just reached out when a scream sounded, another person nearly caught by a spider’s tentacle. Without thinking, Pei Yi pulled her back. This girl was the only one among the five women who had survived, but now she too was on the verge of collapse.

The sticky spider was inches away, Pei Yi turned and pushed the fat man towards the spider, cursing, "Get lost!" Using the momentum to force the creature back for a moment.

Thinking Pei Yi was sacrificing him, the fat boss screamed, terror-induced incontinence staining his pants.

In this sorry state, he was far from the man who had been proudly embracing his girlfriend.

Pei Yi, carrying two, sprinted towards the dark building. Alone, he would have no issues, but with two others, including a heavyset man, it was challenging, sweat covering his forehead.

This was a desperate gamble for life; the other two men had already recklessly dashed into the ominously dark building.

"Someone's definitely going to die," Pei Yi thought.

Endless spiders kept surging forward as Pei Yi, supporting two people, continued onward.

But the fat boss was too heavy, nearly dislocating Pei Yi's arms. Yet, he didn't let go, not out of kindness, but thinking of the three hundred thousand, he was determined to save the fat man if it meant securing his own escape.

With this thought, he gritted his teeth and pushed forward.

The dark building was now within sight.

At this critical moment, the fat man stumbled and fell with a crash, tripping over his own feet while running on the edge of death.

This fall sent him straight into the grasp of death, as seven or eight large spiders wrapped him up and sprayed a black viscous substance, enveloping him before yanking him back.

Almost simultaneously, Pei Yi and the woman entered the dark building. He pushed her inside, saw a corridor filled with debris, and recklessly grabbed the largest object to charge at the spiders.

Hurling a wooden door, the spider enveloping the fat boss recoiled in pain. Seeing the effect, Pei Yi grabbed and threw more forcefully, causing the spiders to retreat in a scramble.

"Cough up the three hundred thousand!" Pei Yi bellowed.

Perhaps because the fat boss was too large, the spiders hadn't managed to consume him yet. The boss was in a pitiful state, half inside a spider's mouth, covered in sticky substance.

The sight was disgustingly nauseating, not knowing how much he had ingested.

Pei Yi turned to the three bystanders, tossing them a lighter, "Light this up."

While continuing to smash at the hesitant spiders.

A short man approached, handing over a burning piece of clothing. Pei Yi was safe from behind, as the spiders seemed reluctant to approach the dark building.

Pei Yi tied the clothing to the wooden door and hurled it at the spiders, knowing that nearly all animals fear fire.

The spider holding the fat boss caught fire, scattering the nearby spiders. Seizing the opportunity, Pei Yi rushed forward, fighting and pulling the half-consumed boss from the spider's grasp.

Without initiating an attack, the spiders swarmed again, just as Pei Yi entered the dark building with the fat boss.

Just inside was an old iron gate, which he slammed shut and locked with a black padlock hanging there.

The spider swarm waved their pincers a few times and retreated in an orderly fashion, as if daring not to advance a step towards the dark building.

The sweet sound of the system rang out once more across the square and inside the dark building,

"Current number of survivors: 5/10," the system announced, repeating, "Current number of survivors: 5/10."

"Congratulations to the five players for successfully reaching the Dark Tower, reward points: 1."

"Main quest activated. Current task: Explore the Dark Tower."

Hearing these numbers, the five exchanged bewildered looks. Points, what points? Pei Yi noticed a number 1 suddenly appearing on his watch.

"Live broadcast panel is now open. You can activate it via the bracelet to check rankings. Wishing you all a wonderful journey. City of Thrills, endless horror."

Pei Yi: "..." What in the world is this place?

Who cares what it is, it's not as important as getting back the 300,000.

Pei Yi grabbed the chubby owner from the ground, "300,000." He handed him a phone, "Transfer it now."

Owner Lu was on his last breath, hardly in any state to struggle.

Unable to utter a single word.

At that moment, one of the men said, "Seems like there's no signal."

Pei Yi didn't care about that. He came to this escape room for the money. His brothers, the migrant workers, were waiting for this money, and he had to bring it back no matter what.

He had seen the chubby guy with a credit card, so he took it for now. "What's the PIN? How much can it withdraw?"

"One hundred... one million," Owner Lu said, faltering.

"What's the PIN?"

“6，9，6，……”

Pei Yi interjected, "Pervert, got it. I'll hold onto the card for now. Transfer the funds next month, or I'll max out your credit card. I mean what I say." He pocketed the card.

It wasn't that Pei Yi was ruthless, but rather, he too had known hardship.

In his senior year of high school, his family went bankrupt, his father accumulated millions in debt from business, and his mother fell seriously ill with stress and ended up in the hospital. He barely made it to university, choosing civil engineering as his major. There's a saying in the field, "Cherish life, stay away from civil engineering." His salary was miserably low, and bonuses were a pipe dream.

Out of necessity, he quit his exhausting job of drawing plans all night, only to find himself in a worse predicament of being unable to find work.

He became unemployed.

The worry was overwhelming, but worrying changed nothing; he had to face reality. Recently, a friend had referred him to a job on a construction site, claiming it paid tens of thousands a month.

Pei Yi thought, "Tens of thousands a month? I'd do it even if it meant moving bricks every day." Little did he know it was all a scam.

After working himself to exhaustion, the job was done, but the boss refused to pay the final installment. As the foreman and someone his colleagues looked up to for being a college graduate, they expected him to collect the payment. But being a "college graduate" meant nothing when the boss simply refused to pay.

He had been begging for three months.

Fortunately, getting hold of a card meant he could at least show he hadn't come back empty-handed. The immediate priority was to get out of this trashy escape room.

After hearing the system's announcement, the previously dark tower suddenly lit up.

Thus, the four slowly made their way up the dark corridor.

The chubby owner, barely clinging to life, grabbed at Pei Yi's leg as he was leaving, "Li... Little Pei, save... save me."

Pei Yi squatted down: "Don't you have the ability? Walk out alive on your own."

Owner Lu had narrowly escaped death, that spider had truly intended to devour him. He could swear that this was no game!

"Please! I'll give you... money... any amount."

Pei Yi sneered, "I do need money, but I won't stoop to doing anything despicable. For a ruthless employer like you, I'd confront each one I meet. Get lost!" With that, he stood up and walked away without looking back.

Upon reaching the second floor, they looked down from the corridor to see that the square's streetlights had long been extinguished, and somehow, the spider had vanished without a trace.

Darkness enveloped the outside, leaving only this dark tower illuminated.

The four stood in silence, still catching their breath from the run. Each pondered over their watches, looking for any clues. Pei Yi tried it out, wondering if it was for live broadcasting, to see what could be broadcasted.

Twisting a button on the bracelet, a touch panel appeared before him. At the bottom of the panel was a money symbol, which Pei Yi tapped first, showing it was still redeemable.

Seeing the exchange rate, one point equaled ten thousand yuan. His eyes lit up instantly. Was that the purpose of the points?

So, that single point was worth ten thousand? Was there really such a quick way to make money? Hopefully, it wasn't a trap.

—If true, he could dominate this lousy game.

Looking at the other parts of the panel, a standard playback window appeared. Pressing it, Pei Yi's face showed up, and the rest of the panel lit up with viewer numbers, comments, and barrage settings, among others.

At the top was a countdown timer, a bright red 05:20. It seemed that, no matter what, the game was the focus. Pei Yi opened the barrage to see if there were any messages.

"Current viewer count: 2."

"These guys look like cannon fodder, wonder when they'll die?"

"Thought this Pei Yi had some skills, even saved a teammate, but what's his background? A migrant worker? Probably not much upstairs. With Hu Qing around, why bother watching a migrant worker, moving on."

These comments were from around 9 o'clock, before he had saved the chubby man.

Pei Yi: "..." Not just him, the other three were speechless too, silently turning off the live stream, likely expecting no kind words.

Pei Yi, feeling defiant, retorted, "Who are you calling brainless?"

The person behind the comment probably didn't expect the streamer to talk back, given it was a death game and everyone was preoccupied.

"You."

"Just wait and see who has the last laugh," Pei Yi said before closing the panel, thinking to himself that death was inconsequential as long as there was money involved. Reaching into his pocket for a cigarette, he realized he had no lighter.

Chen Mo said, "Your lighter is with me."

Pei Yi thanked him, took the lighter, lit his cigarette, and moved aside to avoid bothering the girls with the smoke.

After resting for a bit, they finally regained some energy.

"This game seems to be about escaping. Looks like it's still going to be a physical challenge like before."

"And watch out for being killed, but it's been over ten minutes now, and nothing's happened."

Pei Yi checked the time on his bracelet, countdown at 5:10, "Maybe it's on the hour." He speculated casually.

Seeing the three of them getting along well, Pei Yi asked, "Are you together?" Of the seven people who came in the elevator, four had died; the short one was named Chen Mo, but he didn't know the others' names yet.

Chen Mo seemed pretty smart, having been the first to run to the dark tower.

Chen Mo: "Yeah."

Pei Yi took a couple more drags, calmed his nerves, put out his cigarette, and pointed at the room in front of them, "I think the clues might be inside the room. Let's not waste any more time and split up to take a good look, see what this place really is."

Leaning over the railing to look outside, using his height advantage, he made a quick survey: four white poles, "There are about eight rooms in this row, with a white pipe for every two rooms, and with six floors in the dark tower, that makes forty-eight rooms."

Seeing how quickly he took charge, the other three were slightly surprised. Chen Mo asked, "So how do we divide the tasks?"

"I'll take the farthest, 56 for you, 34 for this guy, and 12 for the lady," Pei Yi arranged.

The woman said, "I can't, I can't be alone... I'm scared."

Chen Mo said, "You can come with me, we'll start with 12."

With the tasks distributed, Pei Yi walked forward alone, checking the countdown: 5:03. He took the system's words seriously, treating each as a clue and a potential death sentence. He verbally dismissed it as a broken game but was cautious in action.

Each entered a room, leaving Pei Yi alone in the corridor, his footsteps echoing. He thought to himself how fortunate he was to have three companions, otherwise, it would be quite frightening to walk alone.

Just as he thought this,

A whooshing sound, and all the lights went out instantly, plunging the dark building into darkness.

Pei Yi could hear his own heartbeat, the only source of light being his watch displaying 22:00 and a five-hour countdown.

Pei Yi dared not move, unsure what lurked in the darkness.

His heart thudded as if trying to leap from his chest.

"Ahh!" A piercing scream shattered the silent night, coming from the woman just mentioned.

Trouble! That scream seemed to indicate a terrifying ordeal, followed by a man's voice,

"Help—!"

Meanwhile, a heavy thudding sound followed Pei Yi.