Touch

Sometime in the middle of the night, a crushing weight suddenly pressed down on Yin Xiu, and his eyes snapped open.

The room was filled with a cold, eerie chill. He instinctively tightened his grip on the knife, but his hand was frozen in place, unable to move.

In the pitch darkness, something invisible held his limbs fast, like sleep paralysis. His mind was clear, but he couldn’t resist at all.

Without a sound, a cold sensation crept along his side, moving with predatory intent and making his hair stand on end.

Yin Xiu cast a sidelong glance into the darkness beside him. Something intangible was slowly coiling around him, winding past his throat and encircling his neck, bringing a faintly suffocating pressure that showed little restraint.

The touch was icy, but pressed tightly against his skin. Everywhere it touched sent a shiver through him. It definitely wasn’t the touch of a human.

Instance Rule Seven: If you feel something has entered your room, call loudly for your roommate to come find you. After that, the two of you must stay together until dawn.

The soundless pressure made Yin Xiu’s scalp prickle. A monstrosity had clearly come to his side.

He didn’t know what had triggered Rule Seven, but the moment he came to and realized what was happening, he opened his mouth to call for Li Mo in the room next door. Even if Li Mo was dangerous too, at least he was technically his roommate.

But the moment Yin Xiu opened his mouth, something clamped over it.

The brief sound was smothered, trapped in his throat, utterly feeble.

An eerie, flowing chill entered his mouth, curiously probing around inside. It slid along his palate, rubbing and tracing its contours, as if a monstrosity were studying the structure of a human mouth.

Yin Xiu knitted his brows and struggled with all his might, trying to regain control of his body. But all he managed was a slight tremor. Under the immense restraint, he had virtually no room to fight back.

The bullet comments noticed that something was wrong with Yin Xiu too.

“Look, something seems off about Yin Xiu.”

“Forget Yin Xiu. Those players who made it back to their rooms alive from the living room are acting strange too.”

“I suspect it’s the thing from the living room. It didn’t kill the players hiding there, but it followed them back to their rooms. That’s probably what triggered Rule Seven.”

“I thought so too. Otherwise, the trigger for Rule Seven would be way too random. Does it just go to someone’s room whenever it feels like it?”

“Ah... That player’s body looks like it’s being twisted by something invisible...”

“Holy shit... It snapped their spine while they were still alive, and their limbs too...”

“Oh my god, I was about to go to sleep, but now there’s no way I can.”

“The other player is being tortured too. That’s awful...”

“It looks like none of them realized right away that they should call their roommates. At this hour, if it’s in a player’s room, then it’s not in the living room, so you can cross through.”

“Even if you call your roommate, they have to be willing to come. One player did call, but their roommate never showed up...”

“That’s why having a good teammate matters. But why didn’t Yin Xiu call either?”

“Looks like he can’t...”

Every player watching stared intently at the view of Yin Xiu’s room. They could clearly see something invisible winding around him. Beneath his clothes, something writhed and bulged as it traveled over his body. He was lying motionless on the bed, even his head seemingly held in place by something that kept him from moving.

Even though Yin Xiu wanted to struggle, every attempt to resist earned him only the slightest twitch.

He was like prey caught in a snake’s coils and bitten, unable to struggle or fight back, left only to await death in its grasp.

“I have to say, watching him struggle in bed is kind of terrifying.”

“Ahhh, it’s the middle of the night! Shut up! I don’t want to hear this!”

“Even Yin Xiu can’t move. This monstrosity seems way too powerful for this instance, doesn’t it?”

“Yeah... It looks like red marks are starting to appear on his skin where it’s wrapped around him. It’s pretty creepy.”

“Looks like Yin Xiu isn’t all that impressive after all. He can’t even make it through the first night of a beginner instance?”

“Hey, that’s enough from the person up there. Right now, every player who’s been targeted has died except those who called their roommates. Yin Xiu’s the only one who’s lasted this long.”

“Exactly. The players who triggered the rule at the same time are all dead. How is he still alive?”

“Didn’t you notice that it doesn’t seem to want to kill him? It’s just torturing him. If it really wanted him dead, that’d only take a moment.”

“What a pervert! The monstrosities in this instance are so perverted! Since when did they learn to torture people?”

“Calling it torture... It feels more like it’s playing with him...”

“The other players couldn’t move at all and were strangled to death in an instant. Yin Xiu can even struggle a little now and then. It keeps loosening and tightening its hold, letting him fight back for a bit as a diversion.”

“It’ll kill him eventually anyway. You have to be a pervert to toy with your prey like that!”

Yin Xiu had realized this too. When the thing on him sensed that he wasn’t moving, it would loosen its grip a little, giving him a bit of control. But the moment he resisted, it would tighten its hold and bind him fast again.

After it finished examining Yin Xiu’s mouth, it covered it and began studying other parts of him, exploring him all over as if he were a specimen for research.

Yin Xiu drew a shallow breath. His pale eyes remained fixed on the invisible thing in the darkness as he quietly gathered his strength, waiting for his next chance to act.

When it noticed that Yin Xiu had stopped moving again, it tentatively loosened its coils a little more, tightening them again the instant it let go. But this time, it realized Yin Xiu wasn’t resisting at all.

Yin Xiu’s stillness only made him harder to read. The thing became even more unpredictable. Prey that stopped struggling completely was no fun, so it loosened its coils more and more, waiting for Yin Xiu to fight back. It had plenty of ways to coil around him again, after all.

The moment he sensed its hold slacken, Yin Xiu narrowed his eyes. As soon as his right hand could move, he grabbed the knife hanging at his waist, drew it in an instant, and slashed at the invisible presence before him.

A flash of cold light, and something in the darkness seemed to tear apart.

Without giving it a chance to coil around him again, Yin Xiu suddenly called toward the doorway, “Li Mo!”

His voice passed through the door, across the living room, and into the other room.

The person sitting quietly in the darkness, waiting, suddenly opened his eyes. His unchanging smile was even more intriguing than usual.

Li Mo lowered his gaze and raised his hand. A knife wound was clearly visible across his palm, with a trickle of black liquid flowing from the cut. But it quickly withdrew, and even the wound vanished without a trace.

The human warmth lingering in his palm was unmistakable, different from a monstrosity’s chill. He even felt a little reluctant to let it go.

“So this is what the inside of a human mouth looks like,” he murmured thoughtfully. He rose from his chair and slowly opened the door, heading toward Yin Xiu’s room.

If he got another chance, he wanted to examine somewhere else too.