A wave of intense dizziness.
By the time Lu Yuan regained his senses, the surrounding environment had vanished, replaced by pitch black. Lu Yuan discovered he could not yet control his body and could only float in the darkness. At the same time, he felt a chilling, uncomfortable sensation circling him.
After a few seconds, a voice suddenly sounded in his ear—
"Beep~~~~" It sounded a bit like a phone's busy signal.
Just as Lu Yuan was trying to figure out where this busy signal was coming from, a series of gloomy and long-drawn-out sounds appeared.
【You are a most normal office worker. Like all other 35-year-old men, work, loans, family, and all the pressure from your surroundings smash into you without restraint.】
【I do not know when it started, but you, who once held beautiful fantasies about the future, became gloomy. You started smoking, started drinking, and started lingering in the fleeting pleasure of the night's glaze.】
【Every time you were drunk and vomiting, you berated yourself for turning your life into the very thing you once hated most. Sometimes, you even thought about dying.】
【However, you have a family. You have a wife and a cute daughter. Their existence made you abandon the thought of suicide time and time again. At the same time, it is also they who keep you tied deeper and deeper into an abyss of miserable self-reproach.】
【This day, as usual, you were vomiting crazily in a muddy alley after drinking. Soon, the alcohol washed away your consciousness.】
【Your face smashed helplessly into the warm vomit, and you lost consciousness.】
As this was said, the voice stopped abruptly, and Lu Yuan instantly regained control of his body.
However, the surrounding darkness remained.
"Am I blind?"
This was the first thought that sprouted in Lu Yuan's mind.
But soon, he discovered he was not blind; it was just that the place he was in was pitch black.
At the same time, he also knew what that chilling sensation that had been wrapping around him was. It turned out he had been lying in a bathtub the whole time. The bathtub was filled with cold water, and his soaked clothes were sticking tightly to his body, which was very uncomfortable.
At this moment, a small menu suddenly appeared before his eyes, on which was written: 【Main Quest: Leave】
Lu Yuan glanced at this Main Quest, which consisted of only two simple words. He did not rush to sit up from the bathtub but continued to lie there quietly. It was not until a few minutes later, when his line of sight had completely adapted to the surrounding light, that he slowly sat up. Although visibility was extremely low, Lu Yuan could still confirm that he was in a narrow space, likely a restroom or something similar.
He braced himself against the edges of the bathtub and stood up, carefully stepping out of the tub.
Afterward, he groped along the bathtub bit by bit until he touched a wall, then continued to grope along the wall. Within the next 15 seconds, he clattered and banged into who knows how many messy things, but in the end, he successfully found something similar to a 'switch'.
"Click~"
As the switch was pressed, a series of rapid flickers occurred, and the light on the ceiling finally turned on, revealing the scene around him.
Just as Lu Yuan had conjectured, this was an extremely narrow restroom. A toilet, a sink, and various toiletries he had knocked over were all crowded everywhere. A dim light bulb swayed uneasily overhead, making the surroundings appear even more oppressive than they looked. In such a small space, a half-person-length bathtub had been crammed in, making it so that one had to be careful even to 'turn around'—and he had just crawled out of this very bathtub.
Lu Yuan went to the mirror and checked his face, finding that his appearance was about the same as in the Game, though his complexion was gloomier. He was wearing the standard old shirt and trousers of an office worker. This look made it very easy for one to be drawn into the identity of the 'alcoholic office worker' from the previous Narration.
"Heh, they put quite a bit of effort into the character design." He muttered to himself while lowering his head to wring as much water as possible out of his clothes.
At the same time, he did not forget to rummage through his pockets, trying to see if he could find anything useful.
Believe it or not, he soon found a wallet in his pants pocket.
Lu Yuan opened the wallet and found three things inside.
1. A few banknotes, adding up to only a few dozen dollars.
2. A folded slip of paper about 5 centimeters wide.
3. A photograph.
Lu Yuan did not pay attention to the banknotes and directly picked up the slip of paper, opening it. Since the paper was already soaking wet, Lu Yuan's movements were very careful.
After opening it, he found that there was no Text on the slip, but rather some crooked, eerie lines drawn on it. No matter from which angle he looked, he could not see any useful Information.
【A strange slip of paper】
【Type: Consumable】
【Only usable in this Instance】
【Postscript: Just a wet piece of paper. You do not know why this thing appeared in your pocket, but you always feel that this thing should be useful.】
Lu Yuan frowned. Although he did not know what this thing was for, since the Postscript said it might be useful, Lu Yuan naturally would not throw it away.
Thus, he carefully patted the paper dry while also casting his line of sight toward the photograph.
In this photograph was a very cute little girl, looking to be about ten years old. The background of the photo was a grassy field, and the little girl was holding a balloon, running happily toward the direction of the camera.
【Photograph】
【Type: Instance Item】
【Postscript: Nothing to see, just a photograph.】
Lu Yuan flipped the photograph over and checked the back, then tried to see if there was any hidden layer in the photo. Finally, refusing to give up, he closed the light to see if there was any Information written on it with a fluorescent pen. In the end, he had to admit that this thing was just a normal photograph, so he put it away.
After confirming the things in his pocket, Lu Yuan spent another 5 minutes turning the narrow restroom upside down. Finally, he determined that there was nothing useful left here, so he carefully opened the restroom door.
"Beep~~~"
The moment the restroom door was opened, that strange sound sounded again.
Lu Yuan still could not find the source of this sound; it was as if it had sounded in his ear out of thin air.
However, at this time, he had no time to worry about this sound, because following that "Beep~~" was a light "creak~~".
The door hinges let out an old groan. Outside the door, it was still pitch black, and the light from the restroom could only spill a short distance before being swallowed by the darkness.
Lu Yuan squinted, took out the 【Broken Baseball Bat】 from his bag, and slowly poked his head out.
"Yo-ho~~ Is anyone there?" He greeted.
This kind of pre-battle taunting behavior looked like Danger, but theoretically, it was not. Because if there really were some monster in that darkness, then walking in rashly and fighting for his life in the dark would be worse than using this bit of light, which at least gave him some advantage.
A few seconds later, there was no movement in the darkness.
Lu Yuan did not linger any longer and stepped out.
Because visibility was extremely low, he chose to hug the wall and inch into the darkness step by step, while using the nearly broken baseball bat to swipe around in front of him and feeling the wall up and down, trying to see if he could find a light switch.
This space was clearly larger than the restroom just now; it should be a living room or something similar, so Lu Yuan searched very slowly. A few minutes later, he finally touched a switch.
"Click"
The switch was pressed down.
Just like before, the old light bulb flickered a few times first.
However...
In those few moments of alternating light and dark, Lu Yuan's line of sight keenly captured a terrifying scene that made his scalp tingle.
He saw a 'person' floating in the middle of the living room. Her head was pressed against the ceiling, and she was wearing a long white dress. However, at this moment, the long dress had long since been soaked through with blood. Her limbs and head hung down powerlessly, and her Hair was draped in front of her face, obscuring her features. The image was just like Sadako after hanging herself.
In this situation, anyone here would probably scream at the top of their lungs. However, Lu Yuan did not. His posture was straight, his expression was normal, and there was even a flash of excitement in his eyes.
"Fellow villager~ Is that you, fellow villager?"
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