Chapter 579 The Other Side

Chapter 579: The Other Side

Inside Room 1408, a bone-chilling cold seeped through the room.

Outside Room 1408, everywhere was covered in the ash and embers of explosions. The intense heat had been brought under control, but under the flickering lights of the corridor, nurses shuffled like zombies and withered branches littered the floor.

Cracks had already appeared on the walls of the room. Xu Rui and Tian Yue, battered and disheveled, pressed their backs against the door, too afraid to sit or let their hands touch the floor again.

Feng Xuelan had already regressed five years earlier, now appearing to be no more than fourteen or fifteen years old, her clothes no longer fitting properly.

Xu Rui and Tian Yue also showed signs of regression, reverting to their prime youth, but this clearly did not bring them much joy.

Not far from the three, a boy who looked five or six years old lay on the hospital bed, covered in scratches and bruises, his face pale as paper.

This was Xiang Feiyu, pushed to his breaking point by the rules. If those "nurses" got close to him one more time, he'd fail the game outright and vanish into some corner of this world for good.

The room was silent and oppressive. None of them could say how much time had passed.

Ever since Su Bai and the others had stepped onto the stairs leading to the fifteenth floor, their figures swallowed by the thick fog and the unknown beyond, time had become unbearably tough.

Earlier, in the stairwell, Tian Yue and the others had tried to climb the stairs to check on Su Bai and the rest, but dense fog suddenly blocked their path, and they didn't dare go further.

At the same time, the stairwell had become intensely hot. The metal door to the fourteenth floor had warped badly from the sustained heat, the metal groaning as it neared its breaking point, ready to shatter at any moment.

If they didn't act soon, it would be too late.

With no way out, the four of them racked their brains and finally came up with a desperate plan. This plan might let them cross the intense heat and return to the relatively safe area of the ward, at least temporarily.

But the plan itself carried immense risks and uncertainties.

First, the ward was not a permanent safe haven.

Second, the plan would drain every ounce of their physical and mental strength.

Finally, they needed Xu Rui to run, even if the pain cut like a knife, he'd have to grit his teeth and push through to the end.

After a brief silence, the four reached a consensus.

Feng Xuelan took a folding umbrella from her bag, a common item from the nightmare world with some defensive ability. However, when Feng Xuelan used her ability, the umbrella's canopy would turn into a "shield" able to withstand huge impacts and heat.

Feng Xuelan's power could change how hard objects were, and with further refinement, it might even change the simpler structures of simple objects. Before entering this game, she'd already gotten close to that level. With Jie Ying's help, she understood her power better, but the exact extent of what she could achieve remained unknown.

Once the plan began, Xu Rui immediately activated his ability to enhance the abilities of Xiang Feiyu, Tian Yue, and Feng Xuelan.

Then Feng Xuelan gently pressed her finger against the umbrella's handle. The whole frame let out a faint "click," as if the metal structure had undergone a brief reforging, and the canopy quickly hardened into a solid, shield-like shape.

She handed the reinforced umbrella to Xiang Feiyu, their tank, telling him to hold it up front as the team's blast shield.

Then Feng Xuelan repeatedly altered the hardness of the metal door, making the heat-warped door twist to its limit in a short time, its structure ready to collapse.

When the door reached a critical breaking point, Tian Yue pulled out a gun.

Earlier, when Su Bai first followed the players on guard in the stairwell, he had heard the sound of a round being chambered. Clearly, most players had some hidden aces up their sleeves.

"Boom—!"

With a deafening blast, Tian Yue's bullet tore through the door, setting off a violent blast. Flames erupted, and fragments flew everywhere like rain, but Xiang Feiyu stood firm at the front, holding up the umbrella now hardened into a shield, blocking the full force of the explosion.

The three behind him only got a few scratches.

They couldn't withstand the heat, nor could they stay and wait to die. So they planned to use the corridor's heat to blow up the whole hallway! Though the explosion was dangerous, the embers would leave a path they could walk on. The corridor after the explosion would still be terrifyingly hot, but it wouldn't burn them to a crisp.

That was how they charged toward the ward.

But accidents always happen. The corridor went dark after the explosion, so as they neared the ward, the nurses controlled by the withered branches swarmed them and attacked.

Xu Rui and the others were too exhausted to fight back.

To make matters worse, "It" had done something to worsen their symptoms. Feng Xuelan, who originally had a language dysfunction that made her uncontrollably speak the truth, now couldn't help but say sharp, false words that grated on the ears.

But Tian Yue was used to this reaction. Instead, it helped her quickly see through the fake "Feng Xuelan" who stood beside her with a gentle, friendly tone—it was just an illusion. The real Feng Xuelan was nearby, gritting her teeth as she hardened her removed jacket to fend off the nurses pouncing on her.

As for Xiang Feiyu, who had already lost his memory, his condition kept deteriorating. He might forget what he said a second ago, but sometimes he seemed to recall things from long ago.

Compared to them, Xu Rui, who only suffered from leg pain, was the least affected.

The four's symptoms worsened, their stamina nearly depleted, and the nurses grew in number, surrounding them with no way out.

At that moment, no one knew what crossed Xiang Feiyu's muddled mind, but his dazed state seemed briefly interrupted. He charged forward, raising the now-deformed umbrella again.

He shouted for the others to run, his voice hoarse but firm, then charged at the group of nurses without hesitation, using the umbrella and his own body to carve a path for the four.

Tian Yue and Feng Xuelan also pushed beyond their limits, grabbing Xu Rui and Xiang Feiyu tightly, dragging them, coughing up blood, into the nearest room—Room 1408.

But Room 1408 was a ward they had stayed in for a while. In a little while, Room 1408 would no longer be safe either.

They stared blankly at the ceiling of Room 1408, wondering if the next second would be their end.