Chapter 638 The Next Door

Chapter 638: The Next Door

As soon as Su Bai's voice fell, the familiar door materialized on the wall behind Wu Hang.

Without hesitation, he strode straight over.

His steps did not pause for even a moment.

What surprised him was that what lay beyond the door was not only those memories he had forgotten for certain reasons, but also many fragments he could still recall.

As he pushed open door after door, time rolled forward with him. He saw his former self—completely broke, hopeless, and all alone when he first entered the Nightmare World—saw A Xi and Yao show up beside him in the gray gloom, and saw those who, through fate's twists and turns, had crossed paths with him, yapping away, telling him to "keep living"—his Puzzles.

Every memory came flooding in. He kept walking, and the memories kept coming.

Until he pushed open another door, and the scene before him shifted abruptly—a battlefield that was both familiar and spine-chilling, where human players were locked in close-quarters combat with Eerie Entities.

This war had not yet truly arrived in the present world, but it had long been deeply etched into Su Bai's memories from his previous life.

It was the biggest, bloodiest battle he'd ever been through.

And it was after that battle that humanity finally dropped the whole "it's just a game" act, stopped calling themselves "players," and really became warriors.

Back then, Su Bai still wasn't part of any faction or group—he was a lone wolf in the Nightmare World. But that didn't mean he just stood around doing nothing.

Nobody noticed that up in the ruins, at a high spot overlooking the whole battlefield, someone was standing there. Using a Puzzle that granted him concealment, he summoned one Puzzle after another, quietly cutting down casualties on the human side.

On the battlefield, leading the charge as a human shield was Lin Wenhua, along with members of the Nameless Society, and even the Candlelight Association and other organizations and teams of all sizes that usually had their own agendas.

Teams that would normally be at each other's throats stood shoulder to shoulder without a second thought.

Not for some noble cause. Not for loyalty.

They just wanted to stay alive.

Behind the front line, a player named Su Ye—a famous actress back in the real world—took charge as the main healer, rallying other healers to keep restoring everyone's morale and injuries.

People went down, some got dragged back to safety, and some sacrificed themselves to save others. But no matter what, someone always kept charging forward.

For the humans on that battlefield, it seemed like there was nothing solid at their backs, but something invisible kept pushing them forward.

Standing there in that scene, Su Bai felt a heavy weight pressing on his chest.

The battle back then was way more brutal than what he was remembering now. At that time, he hadn't reached his current level of strength and couldn't control too many powerful Puzzles at once.

Even giving it everything he had, he hadn't really been able to turn the tide of the battle.

Instinctively he wanted to head for the next door, to get out of this cruel future that hadn't even happened yet.

But he ended up lingering on this battlefield for a long time—after all, he hadn't come here just to get his memories back, but also to give the Director more material, to show the audience what he wanted them to see.

In other words, there was some detail or event on this battlefield that the Director—or Mr. Yu—specifically wanted to see. Su Bai just didn't know yet what it was.

After a long while, Su Bai finally took control of his body again. He walked around the frozen figures of the battle, heading for the next door.

Beyond the door was a forest soaked in red moonlight.

Aside from the weirdly intense red glow, the forest looked pretty normal at first—quiet, thick, with a faint damp-earth smell.

But when Su Bai stood still and peered closely in the red moonlight, he saw that faint faces were visible on the tall tree trunks.

Some had their eyes squeezed shut, some wore pained expressions, and others looked like they were smiling or muttering—appearing and disappearing on the rough bark, flickering in and out as the moonlight shifted.

The Face Forest.

A place Su Bai definitely didn't remember, but had seen before in a gap, and had heard about from a Puzzle's suddenly cut-off words.

"Careful! Don't touch any tree trunks or branches!"

A somewhat familiar voice came from beside Su Bai.