Doll Survival Game - Chapter 107 - Part 4
Baige Tower has only one door, and the light source comes solely from this door, so once inside, everyone found it hard to see.
“Is there a light?” Yuan Mo wanted to approach the doll but was afraid of the magician, so he moved closer to Xia Lang.
Xia Lang, clutching Zhang Mimi, shuffled forward, also a bit scared: “No, there isn’t.”
Li Wei tugged at Xia Lang’s sleeve, her eyes wide and confused: “Didn’t anyone bring a flashlight or something?”
Last time, those people were well-equipped.
Zhang Mimi said confidently, “Didn’t bring one! But I did bring a mask.”
Li Wei: “…” What’s the use of a mask?
“By the way, don’t you remember where the key is?”
Li Wei: “Even if I remember, it’s no use. That person said the key’s position changes every time we come in, and this floor is so big, if we can’t see clearly, we won’t find it. We should go out and find a flashlight first; there was a supermarket nearby…”
While Li Wei was persuading Zhang Mimi, the magician moved.
The darkness didn’t affect the magician much, but he didn’t move forward; instead, he retreated to the side of the door.
“Puppet?” Luo Yiran called out, though he still didn’t control the magician.
The magician took something off the wall, and as he approached the door, the doll saw it was a candlestick, and he paused.
“Young master.” The magician flicked his arm lightly, and a candle appeared in his hand, his voice carrying a smile: “Borrow some fire.”
The four huddled not far away heard the commotion: “Fire? Who has fire?”
Li Wei felt the closeness of Zhang Mimi and the others in front, her heart filled with worry about the path ahead.
Luo Yiran didn’t respond to them; he lay down on the magician’s hat, then reached out his hand, fingers deftly flicking, and a playing card appeared in his hand. He quickly swiped it through the air, a faint flame flickering before the magician’s eyes.
A very small flame, the magician used it to light the candle before it went out.
The candle lit up, illuminating the corner, and Xia Lang and the others instantly looked over, Zhang Mimi feeling a bit moved: “I knew you were reliable…”
“…”
His voice abruptly stopped, and the others fell silent too. Li Wei looked at the eerie bandaged man under the candlelight and the sinister doll on his hat, breaking out in a cold sweat.
Yuan Mo swallowed, taking a step back, his eyes filled with excitement and fear, wanting to capture the scene while also sensing danger.
The doll looked at the suddenly silent trio, his red eyes meeting theirs, sensing a clear fear, like being startled in a haunted house.
“You all,” Luo Yiran squinted: “Think I’m scary?”
They snapped back to reality and shook their heads frantically.
Zhang Mimi recovered, awkwardly smiling: “So, do we have more candles? We only have half an hour, and this floor is quite large. Should we each search a different area?”
The magician flicked out two candles, lighting them and walking over to give them to Zhang Mimi.
Zhang Mimi caught them: “Thanks.”
The magician laughed: “No problem. Just keep your distance from the young master and don’t touch him…”
Zhang Mimi was bewildered, and the doll’s mouth twitched before controlling the magician to turn away: “I’ll go this way.”
“…Oh.” Zhang Mimi said dryly, scratching his head–could the magician possibly like the doll?
The thought quickly passed, and Zhang Mimi handed one of the candles to Xia Lang: “You and Yuan Mo go to the left, I’ll stay here with Li Wei.”
Li Wei was taken aback.
Zhang Mimi smiled brightly: “I’m not very detail-oriented, so I’ll rely on you.”
Li Wei was flustered: “I-I’m not very detail-oriented either…”
The doll watched Zhang Mimi’s side out of the corner of his eye, smiling at the scene: “Quite cautious.”
The magician hummed in confusion.
Luo Yiran said it was nothing, then watched the magician walk straight ahead.
Magician: “Young master, aren’t you curious where I’m going?”
The doll blinked, his silver thread reaching out to hook onto the magician’s left shoulder, quickly and smoothly landing on the magician’s shoulder, he said: “Aren’t you going to check the door to the second floor?”
“Bingo~” The magician raised his hand, brushing his gray hair to the right, then said: “To find the key, we must first see what the lock looks like.”
Luo Yiran glanced around the first floor of Baige Tower, with three candles spread out, the light was also dispersed, allowing them to vaguely see most of the first-floor scene.
It seemed like a library setting.
But at least half of the books and shelves were missing, and the collapsed and scattered books and shelves couldn’t fill the space.
It was too chaotic; if the key was hidden in a book, flipping through them one by one wouldn’t be feasible in half an hour.
Moreover, Li Wei mentioned the key changes position upon re-entry…
The doll thought of something, then lowered his head to send a message in the group chat.
The magician noticed out of the corner of his eye, chuckling, and by the time the doll looked up, he had reached the door to the second floor, saying: “Young master, it’s the key.”
Luo Yiran looked at the relatively narrow wooden door in front of him–once opened, it should lead to the stairs…
Hmm?
The doll noticed something, calling out: “Magician, give it a push.”
The magician also noticed, reaching out to push, but the wooden door didn’t budge. The magician raised an eyebrow slightly, then placed his hand on the lock, applying little force, but the lock was pressed down, and the wooden door creaked open instantly.
Luo Yiran looked at the gap revealed by the opened door–had someone already gone to the second floor?
The doll paused in thought, staring at the combination lock on the door behind the wooden one.
The magician chuckled, “Doesn’t it feel like opening gift boxes one after another?”
Luo Yiran continued to fix his gaze on the combination lock.
The magician glanced back at the stack of books on the ground, “Do we need to find a string of numbers from these?”
The doll squinted, raised his hand, and with a crisp sound, a silver thread extended and hooked onto the edge of the combination lock.
Then, with a slight exertion from Luo Yiran, the combination lock was lifted, revealing the keyhole beneath.
The magician remarked, “…Oh my.”
Luo Yiran smiled, though his smile lacked warmth, “You’re right, it really is one layer after another.”
Each door was set with all sorts of trivial tricks.
The magician reached out to carefully explore the keyhole beneath the combination lock, then attempted to push the door, “There’s nothing else, we should be looking for the key to this door.”
Whoever set this up was purely trying to annoy people; the door posed no real danger, but some might waste time here, especially since the first layer had a time limit, and the key’s position changed every time one entered.
However, based on the setup of this door, there might be more than one hidden key in this layer?
And Li Wei hadn’t mentioned this.
Either the door she faced at the time didn’t have these tricks, or this was the door Li Wei was referring to.
After confirming the door, the magician leaned closer to inspect the lock, then turned to join the doll in searching for the key.
But the doll seemed uninterested in finding the key; his gaze fell on a toppled bookshelf, where faint words were carved.
Luo Yiran glanced at the dust on the bookshelf, then directed the magician to retrieve it.
The magician had initially focused on the adjacent bookshelf, but the doll suddenly manipulated him to turn aside, watching himself pick up a dust-covered book, then wipe away the dust with his hand. The magician looked somewhat helplessly at the bandage dirtied on his hand, “Young master, the handkerchief is in my left chest pocket… Didn’t you check what I had on me?”
The doll paused, “I forgot, and these books are all dusty; your handkerchief wouldn’t be enough.”
“…”
Anyway, he had already dusted it off. The magician glanced at his bandage, relieved that it was self-cleaning, so it wouldn’t matter after a while. He then shifted his focus to the book.
This book had no title.
The doll released his control, and the magician opened the nameless book himself, “Young master, you’re lucky; this book looks suspicious.”
Luo Yiran didn’t explain that it had nothing to do with luck. He had noticed earlier that the books on this shelf seemed off, scattered differently from other shelves, as if deliberately arranged.
And the thickness and cover condition of this book appeared inconsistent with the others on the shelf, like the difference between a collector’s edition and a roadside magazine.
Without explanation, the magician spoke up, “But young master, your luck isn’t good.”
The doll: “…”
The book with the blank title had no content. Luo Yiran suggested, “Try heating it with fire.”
That’s how it’s done on TV.
The magician brought the candle flame to the bottom of the book, “There’s no key hidden in here.”
“I know,” Luo Yiran leaned slightly forward, “But there’s something wrong with this book; it might have a clue.”
Yet, no content appeared when the book was heated.
The magician set the candlestick down, closed the book, and shook it twice, “Should we try soaking it in water?”
The doll observed it for a while, “Turn to about the fourth or fifth page from the end.”
The magician flipped to the fourth page from the end, noticing ink stains, and read the crookedly written words aloud, “Anyone who opens this book will die.”
The magician recited it with a lack of emotion, making the somewhat eerie sentence lose its impact.
He pressed his hand on the paper, “Only this page has writing… Young master, how did you know?”
Luo Yiran replied, “The ink seeped through a bit.”
After flipping through other pages and confirming there were no more words, the magician asked, “Weren’t you afraid of that sentence just now, young master?”
Luo Yiran returned to his senses, shaking his head, “The uneven writing looks like a child’s.”
The magician chuckled, lightly shrugging, causing the doll’s body to rise and fall slightly, “Who knows.”
Luo Yiran extended the silver thread to pick up the book, intending to take a closer look. Suddenly, the book shrank to match Luo Yiran’s size, surprising him.
The magician glanced over, “Turns out it’s just an item.”
An item? Then what about those words?
Luo Yiran stared at the book in his hand, opened to the fourth page from the end, and watched as the words began to change, becoming equally crooked but different: [Trash, how dare you roast me!]
The doll: “…Puppet, bring the fire over.”
Book: [?]
Luo Yiran, expressionless, “I only need clues, not items. Burn it.”
Book: [……]
The magician cheerfully brought the candlestick over, and the page was filled with ellipses. As the fire approached, all the dots vanished, and a panicked, messy sentence appeared on the paper: [Wuwuwu, I’m really miserable. Master abandoned me and even threw me away… And now I’m going to be burned. Is this my fate?]
Without hesitation, Luo Yiran wrapped it in silver thread and brought it closer to the candle flame, sneering, “Don’t you think your fate is caused by your own foul mouth?”
The book was silent for a moment, then, perhaps sensing the fire drawing nearer, the words changed quickly, written with force: [I was wrong, you’re not trash, you’re my daddy, I’m the trash.]
“…”
The book continued to plead rapidly: [I just wanted to scare you, then make you throw me away. I’m sorry, daddy.]