Snap.
Finally, the door was completely closed.
Yu Hong let out a heavy breath.
"What the hell is this place!?"
He locked the door and stood up straight, but suddenly thought of that stammering Yiyi from before.
*This place looked so strange in every way. That stammering Yiyi seemed to be a good person, but how did she survive here?*
He took two steps back and exhaled deeply.
Poof.
Suddenly, he seemed to have bumped into something.
Cold and a bit stiff...
It seemed... to be a person!!
Yu Hong froze completely.
He lowered his head and saw on the ground behind him, there was a pair of white shoes silently standing right behind him...
This guy... actually got in!??
When!?
Bang!!
A sudden loud noise.
The wooden door was slammed open, and a short figure rushed in, raising their hand to throw out a handful of gray-white material.
"Ah!!"
At the same time, the sound of stammering Yiyi was like a suona breaking the silence, jolting Yu Hong awake from his stiffness.
He felt a puff of gray-white shadow brush past his cheek and hit the white figure behind him.
Poof poof poof poof!
A sound like fabric being struck rang out, but with the sound, Yu Hong relaxed all over, stumbling forward a few steps, almost falling.
He was already physically weak, totally exhausted. At this moment, scared and emotionally swung like a pendulum, his physical and mental energy drained even more.
After walking a few steps, his legs suddenly went weak, and he fell to the ground.
He turned over on the ground and saw stammering Yiyi rushing in, holding a thick wooden stick, hitting hard on the white figure.
But more bizarrely, the white figure deflated like a leaking balloon, with a poof, and quickly burst like foam, becoming broken cloth and disappearing completely.
The shreds hadn't even hit the ground before they shattered again, fading away, leaving nothing behind.
As if everything that just happened was an illusion.
Huff huff.
Stammering Yiyi panted heavily, set down the thick-arm stick in her hands, her face flushed, veins bulging on her face and hands. The fine beads of sweat were clearly visible even in the dim light.
"Human, illusory, dan...ger...outside...less...less...out!" she turned to look at Yu Hong, saying seriously.
Yu Hong unconsciously nodded.
Only now did he feel a burning pain on his back, as if a layer of skin had been scraped away.
Rolling over on the ground, he suddenly discovered a few traces of blood staining the place where his back had touched.
Seeing this, stammering Yiyi hurriedly stepped forward to help him up.
The two of them exerted force together, and stammering Yiyi's strength suddenly manifested.
She actually had more strength than a grown man like Yu Hong, and by quite a bit!
She dragged Yu Hong up, turned him around against the door frame, and took off his shirt.
Then she somehow found a jar of something, and applied it to his back.
Soon, a rough pain spread from his back.
Yu Hong forced himself to endure it, knowing she was saving him, treating his wound.
"What is this medicine?"
"My... grand...father...left...the wound powder..." stammering Yiyi answered haltingly.
"Effect...good!"
Silence.
Yu Hong recalled the white figure just now. A heap of questions arose in his heart wanting to ask.
After pondering for a while, he spoke again.
"Just now, that person in white, what was it?"
"A...shadow..." stammering Yiyi answered.
"A shadow?"
"Was he human?" Yu Hong asked again.
"Don't...know...."
*Yu Hong felt as if his years of materialistic beliefs were about to collapse, especially since the figure disappeared into thin air right in front of him. That scene left him feeling indescribably fake and unreal.*
He thought for a while, until the light outside the window grew dimmer. Then he spoke.
"So...was that person in white a ghost?"
"No... it...isn't..." stammering Yiyi answered, "newspaper...has...."
Talking really took effort for her, so she paused the wound treatment, bent down to pick up the newspaper, rustled through it to find a page, and handed it to Yu Hong.
Yu Hong took it, only to see that the headline read.
"A Major Breakthrough in the Shadow Experiment"
Below was the detailed content.
'...According to the public announcement by the Human Joint Research Institute, the shadow is closely related to the Blood Tide, but after careful analysis, the experimental content announced by the institute showed that the shadow itself does not possess any memory. They only have the human form of their past lives but lack corresponding memories and emotions, merely instinctively hunting any living beings that approach and notice them, primarily those of the same kind.
In other words, the essence of the shadow is more like a new kind of hunter with extremely high camouflage properties. They cannot be killed, only expelled, and even if completely scattered, they will reappear soon, possessing the special ability to penetrate most existing materials.
In some institutional experiments, it is even suspected that they may not exist in reality, but in our brains— a special signal similar to a self-illusion....'
Quickly reading through the report, the chill in Yu Hong's heart spread throughout his body.
Danger!
Too dangerous!!
*What the hell is this place!! How is it so dangerous!?*
*He was just going out! Is staying alive not an option!?*
Clutching the newspaper, he took deep breaths to calm himself, and then reread it several times.
Bam.
Yu Hong sat on the edge of the bed with a gloomy face, watching stammering Yiyi pack up the things she had used to treat his wound.
Then she began to organize a bamboo backpack filled with random muddy roots and stems.
The room, because of poor ventilation, was soon filled with a strong musty smell.
Sitting for a while, Yu Hong only felt dry-mouthed and feverish.
"Is there water?" he asked dejectedly.
Stammering Yiyi paused, raised her hand and pointed to a small unremarkable black jar in the corner of the wall.
The small jar was only the size of a human head and had faint patterns of birds and branches on the outside.
Yu Hong got up, walked over, and squatted down, lifting the lid of the small jar.
Inside, a shallow layer of yellow water with a faint stench appeared in front of him.
"....." He was speechless. Just looking at it, he knew this water definitely wasn't drinkable.
*It smelled bad...*
Suddenly, a black metal thing resembling a teapot was handed from the side.
It was stammering Yiyi.
She shook the teapot.
"Fil...ter...."
She made a motion of scooping water and slowly pouring it into the top of the teapot.
Only then did Yu Hong notice that there was something like a filter at the top of the teapot.
He remained silent, took the teapot, found a ladle at the side of the water jar, and began scooping water into it, bit by bit.
After much effort, he filtered one ladle of water.
He took the teapot, found a wooden cup, and poured the ladle of filtered water into it.
Sizzle.
A stream of clear water, with a slightly foul smell, trickled down, filling a third of the cup, then stopping.
Yu Hong looked at the foul water, even though it was filtered, it still... looked unappealing.
*He didn't want to drink it, but his body was severely dehydrated, and he understood that being sick and injured, if he stayed dehydrated, he'd be finished.*
Just as he hesitated, stammering Yiyi snatched the cup from his hand and drank it all in one gulp.
Clink.
She set the cup on the edge of the small jar with a clattering sound.
"Drink...it's...fine!"
Yu Hong paused, then stepped forward to scoop water again, filtering another cup, and then, holding the cup, suspended his hand in mid-air.
Hmm....
He paused, raised the cup to drink.
But then slowly put it down.
Then raised it to drink again.
Quickly put it down again....
Stammering Yiyi's eyeballs followed his hand up and down, a bit confused.
After repeating several times.
Yu Hong took a deep breath, gripping the cup tightly, his face growing paler.
*Thinking to himself, couldn't this water be a bit cleaner?*
*He was worried that before replenishing his water, he might encounter a problem. Stammering Yiyi drank it and was fine, but that didn't mean he wouldn't have any issues. The difference in constitution between people could sometimes be much greater than imagined.*
'Reinforce the cup or not?'
Suddenly, a faint sound reached his ears.
Slam, the cup was placed on a side wooden table.
Yu Hong's face slightly changed, looking around but only saw stammering Yiyi standing there blankly, looking at him.
'Reinforce the cup or not?'
The sound echoed again.
Yu Hong looked around everywhere but couldn't find anyone speaking.
So he focused his gaze on the wooden cup on the table.
Soon, a faint number appeared on the cup's surface: 3 days.
Nothing else.
Yu Hong's face changed instantly, first wondering if he was seeing things, but after blinking several times, he found the number still there.
Suddenly, he seemed to think of something, lowered his head to look at the back of his right hand, the black mark.
Sure enough.
The mark was the size of an egg, with the black area shimmering like waves.
'This thing is the culprit!' Yu Hong instantly understood.
*His eyes were aflame, his heart churned, standing in place, his mind was flooded with a torrent of thoughts.*
But soon, he remembered that stammering Yiyi was still beside him.
He hurriedly raised his hand, showing the mark on his hand to stammering Yiyi.
"Can you see anything on my hand?"
"...." Stammering Yiyi shook her head with a confused look. "There's...nothing."
"..." Yu Hong lowered his hand, glanced again at the cup, confirming the number was still there, had some guesses forming in his mind.
Under stammering Yiyi's bewildered gaze, he turned and walked to another part of the room.
The room wasn't big, with only a few furnishings.
A wardrobe, a table serving as both dining table and desk, two bedside tables, an old vanity mirror, two stools.
Besides these, there was a pile of miscellaneous items in the corner, with the small water jar placed there as well.
He paced around and finally stopped in front of the wooden door of the room.
Reaching out, he placed his hand on the door.
Recalling the previous process, he felt the idea rise again in his heart.
'Couldn't this door be stronger?"
Hiss.
Suddenly, as if a thin thread shot out from the mark on the back of his hand, threading into the wooden door.
Soon, a black number appeared on the door: 16 days.
'Reinforce the wooden door or not?' The faint voice echoed again, indistinguishable in gender, emotionless, just like a mechanical sound.
Yu Hong looked at the number, vaguely understanding something.
'This number might be the time needed for reinforcement... so what will the door look like after being reinforced?'
He withdrew his hand, glanced at the cup again, and the number on the cup had disappeared.
'Moreover, through what method does this reinforcement occur? Will it make a lot of noise? Is it possible to keep reinforcing, and are there any limitations?'
One question after another emerged from his heart.
"What are you doing??" stammering Yiyi couldn't help but ask.
"I just... felt dizzy... got a nerve in my brain, a bit chaotic..." Yu Hong sighed, not mentioning the numbers or the Black Mark.
Before clarifying the situation, he didn't plan on revealing it to anyone.
The most urgent thing is to find something to test the Black Mark's reinforcement effect.
The wooden door takes too long, and there is no guarantee of noise.
Yu Hong circled around again, soon locking his eyes on a small, inconspicuous object—the little white stone that stammering Yiyi had thrown before.