It was a little difficult for her to keep the door closed.
To be more precise, she had to use a portion of her Higher Consciousness, but this portion of Higher Consciousness couldn't be stretched like a chewing gum. In order to make it stretch, Lin Sanjiu had to change its "capacity" from its original volume to its length. When the portion of her Higher Consciousness had become as thin as clay, she would add another portion of her Higher Consciousness and continue to mold it. This was a process that required constant concentration. If she got distracted and climbed up two flights of stairs while she wasn't using her Higher Consciousness, the end that was hanging on the door would be pulled down.
Even though she knew how to do it, she wasn't familiar with this method, so it was a little strenuous for her. Sometimes, she even had to stop and think. Several times, when she raised her head, she found that the three people in front of her had already climbed far away. The few fishes that Bohemia took out to light up the dark and narrow staircase had already become blurry lumps of light, hanging high in the air.
It was very easy for them to sneak into a narrow and dark place like this. When she caught up with Puppeteer again, she slowed down a few meters away from him and sighed inwardly.
The staircase and the walls on both sides were made of some unknown material. It was as if countless hungry mouths had swallowed all the sounds they made. Not to mention the sound of their footsteps, sometimes, when Bohemia, who was walking in front, said something, the words would disappear before Lin Sanjiu could hear them clearly. For example, right now.
"What?" Lin Sanjiu had no choice but to raise her head and yell. Under the dim light, she could only see Puppeteer's back and two shadows that flickered in and out of sight. "Who said that? Is it Bohemia? "
"I said it," Bohemia raised her voice and yelled again, "The staircase in front of us is getting steeper and narrower! You really know how to save money and labor! "
The staircase was getting narrower and steeper, and that was one of the reasons why they couldn't stick close to each other. The other reason was, of course, Puppeteer.
"Take out a few more of your fish," Lin Sanjiu replied, "I can't even see how far I've gone."
"With your Higher Consciousness, if someone pushed the door open, you would be the first one to notice. Why would you look back?" Bohemia did not forget to bicker with Lin Sanjiu. "Do you think my Swimming Fish can be used infinitely?"
Before Lin Sanjiu could finish her words, her vision suddenly darkened. With a flick of its tail, the luminous fish swam past her head. Together with the other luminous fishes, it had swam to the front of the group. Before Lin Sanjiu could say anything, she heard Bohemia yelling, "Who are you?!"
Everyone stopped in their tracks.
"… Huh?"
Vaguely, Lin Sanjiu heard Bohemia asking another question. She also saw the shadow of the former guard standing by the wall, craning his neck to look ahead. He was the most obedient one. Every time he stopped, he would press his back against the wall to give Puppeteer some space to fight.
"This is weird," Bohemia yelled after two seconds, "There's a dead man here!"
"Is he really dead?" the former guard asked, his voice trembling.
Lin Sanjiu would know if he was dead or not by touching him. "Excuse me!" Lin Sanjiu yelled as she squeezed past Puppeteer. She did not forget to use her Higher Consciousness to "shape" her body. After a while, she finally reached the staircase below Bohemia. As the space was too narrow, the former guard staggered a few times and almost lost his balance.
In order not to step on her skirt, Bohemia had changed into a jumper and shorts. It was as if she had come back to another era. "Look," she pointed, "You scared me."
A man's body slithered down the step like a snake. His head was on the step closest to them, and he was looking up at them. Apparently, he had just died not too long ago. The livor mortis on his face wasn't that serious. However, since his head was at the bottom, the blood had seeped into his face, and his skin was covered in patches of green and red. Lin Sanjiu had not used the card limit of her [Planar World] on the second day. As soon as Lin Sanjiu touched the man's forehead, the corpse turned into a card.
[Corpse with Unknown Cause of Death]
It was another corpse that they had picked up along the way.
"How did this man die here?" Bohemia mumbled to herself.
"Is he the one who tried to force his way into the elevator?" The former guard guessed. "If he rushed in when the last batch of discharged players were about to reach the end, then the people in front of him would take the elevator and the NPC behind him would lock the door, and he wouldn't be able to get out."
Bohemia shuddered. "Just like that … he was trapped in the stairwell? You mean he died? Does that mean that the last time someone was discharged was a long time ago? Or is there a danger lurking in the stairway? "
"I'm not sure," the former guard scratched his head. He was a little confused, "Why haven't I read about this in the walkthrough?"
Since they were on the same boat, Lin Sanjiu didn't think he was trying to hide the truth. She nodded, "Since he's dead, it doesn't matter. Let's move on."
"Throw the dead man away," Puppeteer said coldly. He stood at the very bottom, his figure condensed into a darkness darker than the dusk. "Are you a scavenger?"
Just as Lin Sanjiu was about to ask him why, she suddenly realized something. The NPC mentioned that they would be disqualified if there was another person present when the elevator was moving, but it did not specify whether the fifth person was dead or alive. Puppeteer must have already thought of turning someone into a puppet since he had already thought of this. "That's right," Lin Sanjiu thought to herself.
'No matter where he goes, he never forgets his old profession. '
Lin Sanjiu returned to the back of the group and turned the corpse into a card. She searched the corpse with her empty hand and found nothing. Then, she lifted the corpse and let it roll down the stairs. Both the shadow and the sound of the corpse were swallowed by the endless stairway.
"I'm sorry," Lin Sanjiu said softly and followed the group.
The sound of the footsteps, breathing, and clothes rubbing against each other were swallowed by the stairway. If Lin Sanjiu didn't look up, she would have thought that she was climbing the endless stairway alone. The long stairway behind her was engulfed in darkness. She stared at the four of them without saying a word.
There were a few times when she was sure that she would see the corpse crawling up the stairs on all fours the moment she turned around. However, she was just being paranoid every time. There was nothing in the stairway behind her except darkness and the messy footprints they left in the dust.
"Erm, my lord?" As Lin Sanjiu kept looking down, Bohemia, who was in front of her, suddenly called out, "Do you think there are only four of us in this staircase?"
Puppeteer maintained the same posture as before. He didn't even turn his head around. Lin Sanjiu didn't see him looking around. Half a second later, she heard a familiar gloomy voice in her ears, "Stay close. Did you leave Cerebello in the hospital?"
Lin Sanjiu was stunned. When she first came in, Puppeteer complained that she was too close to him, so he had no choice but to step back a few meters. Ever since then, she had maintained the same distance from him. Could it be that he suddenly wanted her to come closer to him because he found this place strange?
Well, at least he didn't say that someone else had snuck in. "
Lin Sanjiu replied hurriedly and walked up two flights of stairs. She was cautious, so she only shortened the distance by one meter. After all, Puppeteer was a temperamental person. It was very likely that he would use his illness to chase her away. However, she didn't expect that after she walked up two flights of stairs, she would be greeted with a shout, "Get lost!"
… One moment he thought it was too close, the next moment he thought it was too far. What was wrong with this guy?
Lin Sanjiu had been tormented by him recently, so she didn't have the temperament to cooperate with him. She stopped and watched as he walked up the stairs. She only caught up to him when he was about seven to eight meters away. Strangely enough, Puppeteer seemed to be satisfied even though they were further away than before. He no longer asked her to follow him closely. In order to maintain this new distance, Lin Sanjiu even adjusted her position a few times to match the speed of the three people in front of her.
After climbing up the stairs step by step, even a posthuman with strong physical strength could feel a stabbing pain in her thigh. Lin Sanjiu wiped the sweat off her forehead. She was starting to see Bohemia in a new light. She might have been a chatterbox, but when it was time for her to be serious, not only did she not say a single word, but she also maintained a steady pace. She was like a light fish that swam back and forth above her head. Her movements were unhurried and rhythmic.
"Nothing happened even though we've been in here for so long. The elevator should be arriving soon, right?" Could it be that their luck had finally turned for the better and they managed to pass the test without any trouble?
Lin Sanjiu condensed her Higher Consciousness into a long thread in her hand. She did not sense any tremors from the door, which made her feel a lot more at ease. If she could stand still for five minutes and use the method Hei Zexin taught her, she would feel the "distortion" of the space around her. Then, she would be more confident. If someone really sneaked in, they might be able to cover their tracks and their voices, but they would not be able to conceal their "presence" as they occupied a part of the physical space.
"Hey, I want to stop for a few minutes," Lin Sanjiu yelled, "Bohemia, don't go yet! Do you still remember what happened when I found the red-faced man? "
Lin Sanjiu didn't know what was going on in her mind, so she couldn't speak clearly. However, Bohemia would definitely know what she was going to do once she heard what she said.
Bohemia's reply was quickly swallowed by the stairway. If Lin Sanjiu didn't see Puppeteer's shadow coming to a stop, she would have thought that Bohemia didn't say anything at all. A few fishes swam back and forth in the air in a rhythmic pattern. As their bodies swayed, they sprinkled light down on the stairway. Everything in the stairway was hazy. Even the swaying shadows seemed to have a life of their own.
"The method Hei Zeji taught me is really practical. I didn't expect that I would get another chance to practice it so soon." Lin Sanjiu took a deep breath and closed her eyes. She slowly spread her consciousness out according to the words Hei Zeji had told her, waiting for the wonderful feeling of "the universe is a membrane" to come to her again.
"The elevator!"
The ex-guard suddenly sucked in a deep breath. He was so excited that he was about to get what he wanted. His voice was soft and muffled, as if it came from afar. Strangely, even though his voice was so soft, Lin Sanjiu could still hear him. When she realized that she had heard Bohemia's excited, fragmented voice, her heart skipped a beat. Before she could understand what was going on, goosebumps rose all over her body, and even the hair on her body stood on its ends.
"No, something is not right. How could they suddenly see the elevator when they were standing still?"
At the same time, a strange feeling burst forth in her mind. There was no one occupying the space of more than ten meters around her. Lin Sanjiu opened her eyes abruptly and saw Puppeteer, Puppeteer, and Puppeteer still standing on the stairway. When she closed her eyes again, she only saw herself and the endless stairway in front of her in the physical dimension.
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