Lu Xiu's hand tightened around the axe handle, trembling uncontrollably.
At the same time, her body began to shake again.
She looked down at her hand, then followed the axe handle with her gaze to the blade buried in the other person's neck.
Mia lay motionless on the ground. The blood flowing from the wound had already begun to slow, trickling along her collarbone before dripping onto the floor with faint pattering sounds.
"Ugh..."
The nausea hit her before her mind could even process what had happened.
Lu Xiu stumbled back two steps, bent over, and began retching violently.
But nothing came out. There was only the burning sting of stomach acid scorching her esophagus and the uncontrollable trembling running through her entire body.
The smell of blood.
Such a heavy smell of blood.
It was disgusting.
Her hands were covered in blood—some of it hers, some of it Mia's—and the warm, sticky sensation clung to her skin as though it could never be washed away.
"Haa..."
Lu Xiu braced her hands against her knees and gasped for breath. Her vision kept going dark, and even when she closed her eyes, she could still see the afterimage of the axe cleaving into Mia's neck.
After a while.
She finally recovered.
She had killed her.
But Mia would get back up.
If she'd known, she wouldn't have made it so difficult...
Tears gathered at the corners of Lu Xiu's eyes. She looked like she was about to cry, but just as they were about to fall, she raised her bloodstained hand and roughly wiped her face.
She forcibly cut off her emotions, smearing blood across her face in the process.
"...I'd already prepared myself mentally. The everyday memories from these past few days were stripped away, so why are those other memories still affecting me?"
In a moment, Mia would return the favor.
Stop crying, damn it.
Keep moving through the dungeon.
Lu Xiu sniffled, only to choke on the stench of blood and cough.
After finally suppressing the coughing, she slowly straightened her back and pulled the axe out of Mia's neck.
Squelch—
The instant the blade came free, blood sprayed across her pant leg.
It was warm.
Lu Xiu didn't look.
Although her legs were weak, she steadied herself against the wall and walked out.
At first.
The entire world seemed to sway around her, cold sweat pouring down her forehead.
But she clenched her teeth until her jaw ached and forcibly suppressed the nausea churning in her stomach. Once the first wave of discomfort passed—perhaps because the adrenaline had kicked in again—the world finally stopped spinning.
She released the wall and walked step by step toward the hallway.
In the hallway.
The phone rang.
Lu Xiu picked up the receiver and placed it aside without listening.
It was a call from Mia's sister, Zoe. She already knew what she would say—it was nothing more than telling her that she could escape through the attic.
Lu Xiu continued the sequence.
She returned to the hallway where she had first entered the house, used the bolt cutters to snip through the chain locking the cabinet at the end of the corridor, and took the fuse from inside.
Then she went to the VCR room and installed it.
After that, she stepped back out.
The moment she turned the corner, Mia suddenly appeared again, blood still staining her neck, as though nothing had happened.
She was alive again.
"Ethan! It's okay, it's okay, it's me."
"I know you didn't mean to hurt me."
She looked like someone seeing a long-lost lover again, her face filled with joyful surprise.
Lu Xiu felt a wave of despair.
As expected.
In the very next second, as if a mask had been flipped, Mia's expression turned vicious again, and she shoved Lu Xiu to the ground.
Then, pulling a screwdriver from who knew where, she drove it straight through Lu Xiu's left palm and pinned her hand to the wall.
This time, Lu Xiu bit down hard on her lip.
Forcing herself not to scream.
"But you shouldn't have done that! That hurt like hell!"
Mia roared viciously.
After pinning Lu Xiu's palm to the wall, she turned around and pulled out a chainsaw that was already running, its deafening roar filling the corridor.
This was the third wave.
In fact.
There was a fourth.
Most players who had played through this part felt like they were going to lose their minds.
This protagonist's wife!
Mia!
She was truly like a lingering ghost!
It never ended!
Now that this had become part of a dungeon plot, it would probably be enough to drive the players here insane as well.
Although a sharp pain stabbed through her left palm, although Mia was approaching step by step with the chainsaw, although cold sweat covered her body and fear still lingered in her heart—
Lu Xiu smiled in relief when she thought about how everyone else would get to enjoy this treatment too.
After smiling.
Lu Xiu closed her eyes, bit hard on her lip, twisted her body to the side, and raised her right hand to yank the screwdriver out of her left palm.
The instant she was free.
Mia, who had been approaching slowly, suddenly accelerated, raised the chainsaw, and swung it straight toward Lu Xiu's face.
Lu Xiu instinctively lifted her left hand to block.
The chainsaw's roar exploded in her ears.
Before Lu Xiu could even react, her left hand was gone.
Skin, muscle, bone, nerves—
Everything was torn apart, ripped through, and severed in a single instant.
The pain surged into her shoulder like an electric current before exploding along her spine, turning her vision completely white.
There was nothing in that blankness.
Only sound.
The roar of the chainsaw.
And the dull thud of something hitting the floor.
It was her left hand.
When Lu Xiu saw her own severed hand, her first reaction wasn't pain.
Instead, the thought that flashed through her mind was:
So this is what it feels like to have your hand cut off.
Then the pain came back.
It crashed over her like a mountain.
Her scream echoed throughout the entire farmhouse.
Lu Xiu dropped to her knees, clutching her severed wrist and curling in on herself. Blood gushed from the wound, warm and sticky, flowing down her forearm to her elbow before dripping onto the floor.
It hurt.
It hurt so badly she wanted to die.
Mia staggered away with the chainsaw in hand, looking exceptionally terrifying.
"..."
Running away wouldn't solve anything.
The most important thing now was to accept reality and solve the problem.
Lu Xiu took deep breaths, repeating those words to herself over and over.
Then she bit down hard on her lip and, fighting through the pain, struggled to stand.
Her legs were weak.
But she could walk.
She slowly got back to her feet, picked up her severed hand, and tossed it into the dungeon's built-in inventory.
Then, swaying and stumbling, she slowly made her way upstairs and pressed the button.
The staircase leading to the third floor descended.
She didn't know whether it was because the worst moment had already passed...
Or because she had finally broken the mental imprint that told her this current body wasn't suited for combat.
Although Lu Xiu was in so much pain that her vision kept darkening, there wasn't much expression left on her face.
She simply climbed the stairs, panting.
One step.
Another step.
Blood dripped onto the floor, leaving a trail of droplets stretching all the way from behind her up to the third floor.
Lu Xiu finally reached the third floor, but by then she was almost unconscious from the pain.
She steadied herself against the wall, slowly made her way into the room on the third floor, and picked up the ammunition and handgun.
Then.
She continued down the corridor.
She wasn't walking quickly.
She swayed and stumbled, nearly falling several times.
But she still forced herself forward, grinding her teeth so hard that her masseter muscles ached and her jaw turned sore.
Even though she was trembling like a sieve.
She still kept moving.
Because this chapter wasn't over yet.
If she didn't defeat Mia, the father-in-law wouldn't appear, the dungeon would fail, and then it would truly be over.
Lu Xiu had lost too much blood and was practically dragging herself forward.
Finally.
She reached the ladder leading up to the attic.
But just as she approached it, the sound of the chainsaw rang out once again.
Mia was here again.
She swung the chainsaw, kicked the attic ladder away, and jumped down from above.
This was the fourth time.
The deafening crash of the ladder being knocked away exploded in Lu Xiu's ears.
Mia dropped from above, chainsaw roaring.
She staggered slightly upon landing before steadying herself.
Lu Xiu looked at Mia.
At that twisted face.
At that threatening, spinning chainsaw.
Then she took a deep breath.
Her left hand was gone.
Blood was still flowing.
Her legs were so weak that she could collapse at any moment.
But at this moment, Lu Xiu was completely expressionless.
She simply raised her right hand slowly, lifted the handgun, and aimed at Mia's head.
At the same time, she raised the stump of her severed left wrist and used it to support her right wrist.
It was strange.
Just moments ago, Lu Xiu had been trembling uncontrollably, looking as though she might collapse at any second.
But the instant she raised the gun, her shaking suddenly stopped as if someone had flipped a switch.
Her body became still.
Her teeth stopped chattering.
The right hand holding the gun was perfectly steady.
Even her breathing slowed.
She stopped panting.
The pain was still there.
A burning, searing agony radiated from her severed wrist, and every bone in her body seemed to ache.
But that pain suddenly felt separated from her by something.
Distant.
Blurred.
Like watching a fire through a pane of glass.
Mia raised the chainsaw and charged.
The roar grew closer.
Lu Xiu pulled the trigger.
Bang—
Muzzle flash burst from the handgun.
Blood sprayed from Mia's head.
She staggered, but didn't stop, continuing to rush forward while swinging the chainsaw.
Bang—
Bang—
Bang—
Lu Xiu fired repeatedly.
Mia drew closer and closer.
Lu Xiu stepped sideways several paces.
The chainsaw grazed past her face, and the gust of air it created scraped painfully across her skin.
She steadied herself, retreated several steps to create distance, raised the gun, and aimed again.
Bang—
Lu Xiu kept retreating.
Kept firing.
If she couldn't retreat fast enough, she simply turned and ran.
She kept circling around.
And Mia, like a relentless ghost, kept hunting her down.
Just like that.
One ran.
One chased.
Lu Xiu was eventually forced into one of the rooms.
She struggled to reload, then raised the gun—not toward the doorway, but straight at the wall.
Mia tore through the wooden wall with the chainsaw and appeared before her.
In truth.
Throughout this entire escape, Lu Xiu's steps had been unsteady.
She looked like she might collapse at any moment.
But every time she raised the gun, her hand became as steady as a rock.
This time was no different.
She watched Mia swing the chainsaw and shifted the muzzle.
Bang—
Lu Xiu pulled the trigger again.
Mia lurched backward, then charged forward once more as though she were immortal.
Bang—
Lu Xiu stopped retreating.
While continuing to fire, she calculated her remaining ammunition.
Five steps.
Four steps.
Three steps.
Mia was getting closer.
Three rounds.
Two rounds.
One round...
The bullets were running out.
But Lu Xiu's hand remained as steady as stone.
Bang—
She pulled the trigger for the third time.
Finally.
With only one bullet remaining.
Mia's body suddenly went limp.
After leaving behind a faint, almost indistinguishable "I love you," she staggered and collapsed onto the floor.
The chainsaw slipped from her hands and hit the ground, still buzzing and spinning.
The chain scraped across the floorboards, throwing up a shower of sparks.
Then it stopped.
Everything went silent.
The chainsaw no longer roared.
Mia no longer moved.
Only the sound of Lu Xiu's breathing remained.
She suddenly relaxed.
Only then did she hear herself gasping.
Every breath she drew tasted of blood.
Every breath she exhaled trembled violently.
She was still holding the handgun.
Her right arm remained extended in the aiming position, completely motionless.
Only when the muscles in her arm began to ache—aching badly—did she finally realize that the battle was over.
She had won.
Lu Xiu slowly lowered the gun.
Her hand started trembling again.
First her fingers.
Then the shaking spread through her palm, crawled up her arm, through her shoulder, across her back, into her legs—
Until her entire body was trembling.
The taut string had finally snapped loose.
Then she shuddered uncontrollably.
"..."
Lu Xiu looked at Mia lying on the floor and forced out a smile.
It wasn't actually that hard after all.
It was just that after the fight, she didn't really want to live anymore...
But that feeling didn't last long.
Soon, Lu Xiu raised her face again.
It wasn't over yet.
Keep going.
The Bakers were about to arrive—the family of three that players jokingly called the father-in-law, mother-in-law, and brother-in-law...
Lu Xiu forced her body to move and took a step forward.
Her body was still trembling, and she nearly fell.
She quickly caught herself against the wall, slowly stepped over Mia, and walked out.
The instant she stepped through the doorway—
A sturdy figure suddenly flashed into view, pulled back a fist, and swung it directly toward her face.
...A punch right from the start.
Lu Xiu smiled in relief again as she watched the fist rapidly grow larger in her vision.
The dungeon was still continuing.
Lu Xiu's progress through the dungeon wasn't slow, but the dungeon itself wouldn't end that quickly.
And no one knew that somewhere in this world, a young girl named Lu Xiu was struggling inside a dungeon she herself had created.
The camera pulled back.
The Baker Farm stood beneath the pouring rain, silent and eerie.
But soon, the sounds of commotion came from inside once again.
Chaos.