Volume 1. Let the Game Begin
Covered in dust, the once-clean hospital gown had already become ragged.
The cold ventilation duct was both narrow and dark—I could barely see what lay ahead and could only charge forward blindly.
The ‘paji paji’ sound of footsteps lingered below, faint yet real.
The feeling of fear kept rising.
Even someone without claustrophobia would hardly fare any better under such circumstances.
The terror kept escalating, and a strong sense of impending doom seemed to surround me entirely.
Climb!
All I could do was climb!
My left calf had completely fractured, dragging behind me.
Each movement made my shoe scrape against the duct with a ‘scrrr~~ scrrr~~~’ sound.
Blood was flowing, and I no longer knew how much I had lost, but my vision had started to blur.
Perhaps it was due to the strength of the Evil Spirit Form that my body could still move in this state.
Or maybe it was sheer fear triggering my physical potential.
I didn’t know…
Pain dominated almost all my nerves.
Fear consumed nearly all my thoughts.
I could only convert all the pain into strength and keep crawling forward.
‘Paji paji paji~~~ Bang!!’
Once again, a sudden, furry black hand shot up from below.
It pierced through the wall and the metal sheet of the ventilation duct almost effortlessly.
This time, the black fur appeared in front of me...
“Ugh!”
The pain made me grunt, and instinctively, I stopped moving.
Reaching into my pocket, I immediately pulled out the substitute doll I had retrieved from Fang Zheng!
If it had grabbed me directly, and I went ahead, then it wouldn’t have mattered.
But now, that thing has already opened a gap.
If I passed over it now, no matter how blind it was, it would still see me.
I couldn’t gamble my survival on it being blind.
So… I could only take out the substitute doll from my pocket and toss it out through that torn hole.
Below… there was no sound at all.
The substitute doll was a small cloth-stuffed toy, not even the length of a pinky finger.
Dropping something that size to the ground wouldn’t make any sound at all.
And at this moment, even that footstep sound had completely stopped!
Everything around… seemed to freeze in an instant!
No… don’t be afraid.
Keep crawling!
Keep going!!
Gritting my teeth, I forced myself to keep crawling forward.
I had probably crawled for dozens of meters by now.
The substitute doll had bought me ten seconds.
I didn’t know where I was anymore, but I could only keep climbing!
‘Dong dong dong dong~’
My limbs hit against the metal ventilation duct, making hollow thudding sounds that echoed all around.
There were no other sounds.
An overwhelming sense of solitude wrapped around me.
The intense pain gnawed at all my nerves, even giving rise to a thought deep in my mind—“Maybe I should just give up.”
But… in the end, I still reached the end.
The moment my hand reached into empty space, I knew… I might actually have a chance to survive.
Taking a deep breath, without hesitation, I extended my hand… and touched the metal sheet on the opposite side.
Once I roughly figured out the width of the ventilation duct, I endured the pain and twisted my body around.
I placed my good right leg underneath first, then used my hands to move the broken leg back into a normal position.
Although the bone had snapped, the muscles and tendons were still connected, so it wasn’t hard for me to do this.
Mm… “not hard” in terms of strength, but when I moved my left leg, the pain nearly made me scream out instinctively!
“Uaaaahhhh!!! Ugh…”
Unable to hold my breath, I almost shouted myself into oxygen deprivation.
Shaking my slightly dizzy head, I tried to listen to the echo of the sound…
Good, just as I expected—the ventilation duct ran straight down.
I didn’t know exactly how long it was, but it should at least be the height of five or six floors.
If it had been the old me, there was no way I could jump down like this.
But now, with the Evil Spirit Form strengthening my body, my strength has increased somewhat, nearly on par with an adult male.
In this physical state, I finally had a sliver of confidence to attempt it.
Pressing both hands against the walls of the ventilation duct, I took a deep breath.
With a thrust of my waist forward, I didn't have time to worry about whether that monster had followed or not.
My entire body whooshed down!
At that moment… the cloth strips tied to my hands finally came into play.
If they had been in good condition, they would’ve done more harm than good in this situation.
However, the cloth strips on my hands were already weathered, with many erosion marks like rust.
These marks greatly increased the friction, and the ventilation duct itself was also in a decayed state.
This further enhanced the friction.
With both hands braced against the duct walls, I descended at the fastest speed I could handle.
The constant 'scrrr~~~' sound echoed around my ears.
Just as I had descended two floors, the ‘paji paji’ footsteps suddenly sounded from above.
Too bad… no matter how fast it was, it couldn’t be faster than me jumping down!
“Damn it! I win! Go eat some shit, you bastard!”
I cursed fiercely upward.
Just as I was about to yell something more, my right foot suddenly stepped on something, producing a trembling bang.
I instinctively braced myself to stop, then looked down…
“Is this… a safety net to prevent falls? Damn! Are you freaking kidding me!?”
That monster seemed to hear my cursing and suddenly started running again.
And this time… I could clearly feel its footsteps were much faster than before!
Damn… no way, did I just jinx myself?
No time to care!!
The iron net had already been mostly corroded.
The moment I stepped on it, it began to deform.
At that point, all I could do was… stomp hard!
Even with one foot, I had to stomp hard!
If it didn’t break, then jump and stomp harder!
Bang! Bang! Crack—!!
Three times in a row, the iron net was instantly torn open.
The originally fixed net snapped apart, and before I could react, my whole body whooshed down.
As I passed through the broken section, several gashes were torn into my body!
The pain intensified once again!!
“Argh!!”
The pain didn’t matter.
If I didn’t slow down now, the next net might break my right leg!
The scream pushed me to use even more strength.
My hands pressed once again against the ventilation duct walls, forcing myself to slow down.
Sure enough, three floors down, I was blocked by another iron net!
Follow the pattern—copy the technique!
Another round of wild stomping and pounding.
My left leg flailed with every bounce.
The pain soaked my hospital gown with sweat.
At this point… the gown was already hanging by a thread.
It had been torn in several places back at the first iron net.
The ragged gown stuck to my body, clinging to my wounds.
Mixed with sweat, it stung so bad it made me break into a cold sweat.
Gritting my teeth, I stomped down hard.
Bang bang bang creak!!
The iron net broke again.
At the same time, those footsteps continued to circle above.
‘Paji paji!’