Doll Survival Game

“Hold on, let me ask my master. He just tried it.” Tian Tang quickly sent a message and then looked towards Baige Tower: “Speaking of which, Baige Tower is supposed to be inaccessible, but a few players have been lingering around there… It’s really strange.”

It was as if they could enter Baige Tower.

“……”

Tian Tang paused–could they actually enter Baige Tower?

“A lot of people…?” Zhang Mimi didn’t quite understand what Luo Yiran meant until he saw the doll walk into the fourth floor, following behind the Mantis Woman, and then he understood the doll’s words.

In the deeper part of the fourth floor, over a dozen large iron cages were suspended high, with sharp blades on each iron pillar between the cages.

Inside each cage, there were usually four or five naked people either standing or lying down.

Their bodies were covered with wounds and stitching marks, and blood dripped down from the iron cages.

When they entered, these people showed no reaction to their presence, as if they were already dead.

The doll looked upwards.

The magician wanted to raise his hand to cover Luo Yiran’s eyes but ultimately did not.

The Demon tiptoed carefully, disdainfully: “So dirty.”

Yuan Mo gagged several times, feeling a chill run through his body as he looked at the scene before him.

Zhang Mimi glanced once and immediately turned his gaze towards the door leading to the fifth floor: “The door is there!”

Luo Yiran sat in the magician’s palm, constantly looking up. He said, “We need a key.”

Zhang Mimi was taken aback, then his gaze swept from left to right. He looked at the sparse arrangement of the floor, aside from the people, and a suspicion arose in his heart. The doll voiced the same thought, but from another perspective.

“If this scene were my doing,” Luo Yiran continued looking up at a cage, his red eyes fixed on a man inside, “I would hide the key beneath the flesh.”

“……”

Zhang Mimi hissed, then sighed deeply–indeed.

After his sigh, he noticed the doll’s peculiar upward gaze, and following Luo Yiran’s line of sight, he saw the only man standing in the cage.

At first glance, one might mistake him for a woman because he was so thin, and his hair was long and black, almost reaching his heels while standing.

His features, except for his mouth, were obscured by hair, and he held a kitchen knife, standing motionless like a piece of wood. But after they noticed him, the frail man raised his hand and pulled open the blade-filled cage, his hand pierced and bleeding, yet he leaped down without care.

A chilling sensation came over them, and Zhang Mimi reflexively clenched his fists.

Was this the guardian of this floor? Yet he didn’t seem very powerful…

The long-haired man raised his head, revealing his face, but Zhang Mimi felt a shiver of dread.

The humanoid monster before him had only a narrow red mouth clearly visible, with dark scars above it. The eyes and nose were mere holes, and the face was flat except for the mouth. His pitch-black pupils swirled in the holes, and the monster grinned: “Food, food…”

As he spoke, he charged forward, ignoring the doll, magician, and Mantis Woman, heading straight for Zhang Mimi.

Zhang Mimi didn’t dodge because Yuan Mo was behind him, so he took a deep breath and instantly reinforced his body, raising his hand to block the monster’s swinging kitchen knife.

After snapping it, Zhang Mimi was relieved it was just an ordinary knife and then punched the monster’s neck.

As the monster brushed past, Luo Yiran turned back, his tone calm: “He’s human.”

The fist stopped just short of the monster’s neck, and Zhang Mimi looked up in shock: “What did you say?”

The long-haired man still wanted to attack Zhang Mimi, but Zhang Mimi pinned him down and looked back at Luo Yiran: “Doll?”

Luo Yiran watched the Mantis Woman still waving her forelimbs at him, and said, “They are human.”

Zhang Mimi was stunned for a moment, then said: “I know they were human before…”

His voice trailed off as he met the doll’s eyes, and Luo Yiran suddenly smiled, though the smile seemed strange.

Luo Yiran smiled: “They are still human now.”

Yuan Mo also wanted to ask something, but the words stuck in his throat.

In the end, he could only say: “Ran, what do you mean?”

“Only humans have emotions tainted by worldly desires,” Luo Yiran said, directing the magician to place him in front of the Mantis Woman. The Mantis Woman’s face, as if squeezed, showed a hint of joy if one looked closely, and she approached Luo Yiran, waving her forelimbs around the doll.

Zhang Mimi watched, heart pounding, but the doll remained unperturbed, focusing on the Mantis Woman’s large eyes: “Look, her gaze is very pure, not muddled like a monster’s. And judging by her behavior, she probably just wants a hug… She might be quite young.”

Zhang Mimi: “…??”

Sorry, he couldn’t see it.

Luo Yiran placed his hand on the Mantis Woman’s face, and she seemed to calm down, stopping her forelimb movements and standing quietly, hissing.

Zhang Mimi was even more confused, looking at the struggling humanoid monster in his grip: “What about him?”

Luo Yiran glanced over: “He’s human too, but his behavior is a bit puzzling… Not as endearing as the Mantis Woman.”

“I’ve observed humans for a long time, and I’m fairly confident in identifying them,” Luo Yiran said, standing up.

Yuan Mo was still bewildered. He asked, “Ran, do you mean they still retain human consciousness?”

“Not necessarily,” Luo Yiran replied decisively. “It’s possible they still have human appearances, but what we see is this form.”

“…”

“There are hints,” Luo Yiran glanced at the Demon.

Zhang Mimi’s mouth twitched, and he instinctively looked at the unresponsive Demon. “Really?”

What hint?

Was it the layered doors when the staircase illusion was still on the first level?

But why look at the Demon?

Luo Yiran shifted his gaze to the magician, whose bandaged mouth curved upward. “Young master, what’s the matter?”

The doll opened his mouth and then closed it again, slightly surprised–he had just wanted to verify his suspicion with the magician.

“Nothing,” the doll frowned slightly.

Yuan Mo reacted after a moment, then touched the stone table beside him, feeling it. “It’s very real, huh?”

“…What I mean is that everything around us truly exists, but what we see might not be the same as reality,” Luo Yiran reached out to touch the magician. “Just like now, when I touch the magician, in all our eyes, he is the magician, but in reality, this person might not be the magician.”

“Some things in front of us might be distorted.”

Yuan Mo understood, then he looked at the magician cautiously. “Is he real or fake?”

“Real,” the doll didn’t hesitate, as he had a connection with the magician, unless this illusion affected more than just surface senses…

Zhang Mimi rubbed his nose with one hand. “It might be true; the smell of blood here is a bit strange.”

“But even if part of it is distorted, everything is still based on reality, right? So our task is still to reach the top of the tower, bringing a human…”

Zhang Mimi paused, looking at the unconscious Li Wei beside Yuan Mo, suddenly realizing. “Is she human?”

Luo Yiran smiled. “What do you think?”

Zhang Mimi: “…”

“Didn’t you notice?” Luo Yiran smirked. “Sometimes she forgets to breathe.”

“But if dead people count as humans, then it works,” the doll added.

Zhang Mimi silently restrained the long-haired man with one hand, then reached out to the doll. “Lend me your silver thread, the kind that won’t kill.”

The doll handed it over.

Zhang Mimi tied the man up. “Better take him up.” Although taking the Mantis Woman would work, what if she ran away halfway?

Tying her up wouldn’t be good either, as Luo Yiran mentioned she wasn’t very old.

Yuan Mo glanced at the struggling long-haired man, then at Li Wei. “How do we handle her?”

“Bring her,” Luo Yiran pointed to his eyes. “We’re not sure what criteria the tower top uses to judge whether the person brought up is human. If judged by appearance, she might be useful.”

Yuan Mo sighed, looking at Li Wei. “How can a dead person move…”

Zhang Mimi finished tying the long-haired man, then silently and swiftly placed him beside Yuan Mo. “Watch how the magician moves.”

…But the magician is alive! And Li Wei is dead, right? Even if a dead person can be manipulated, what about the changing expressions?

Yuan Mo was puzzled, not noticing Zhang Mimi placing the long-haired man beside him. Filled with confusion, he said, “I still don’t understand.”

Zhang Mimi comforted him, “As long as we clear the level.” Then he approached the doll. “Can you find out where the key is?”

Seeing Zhang Mimi turn without hesitation, Yuan Mo sluggishly looked down at the long-haired man lying at his feet, then realized he had to carry two people. His mouth twitched, but he obediently knocked the struggling long-haired man unconscious–to make it easier to carry.

Then he looked up at Luo Yiran, intending to listen to what the doll had to say, but saw the Demon suddenly walk past him to the doll’s side.

Luo Yiran sharply raised his head.

The Demon bent slightly, placing his finger on his chin, and asked curiously and casually, “Can all illusions not deceive you?”

Luo Yiran looked at him and then said, “Fake is fake.”

The Demon narrowed his eyes slightly. “But reality is different for different beings.”

Luo Yiran laughed. “You understand, don’t you?”

If one person’s perceived reality is placed before another, it might become false.

So.

“At least for me, the only thing that can completely deceive me is a trap I’ve constructed myself.”

The Demon looked at the magician, blatantly conveying a message with his eyes.

The magician ignored it.

After answering the Demon, Luo Yiran looked up at the people in the iron cage above, dazed. He said, “As for the key, it’s uncertain who has it.”

Zhang Mimi’s thoughts were focused on the conversation between the Demon and the doll. He was pondering why the Demon was making faces, but the doll suddenly brought the topic back, so he reacted after a second. “Are these humans?”

They had to peel back the flesh of these beings to find the key. If they were human, he might not be able to do it…though even if they weren’t human, it would be difficult.

“No.”

Luo Yiran thought for a moment, then manipulated the magician to flick a playing card at one person. The person didn’t dodge or avoid, but when the card stuck in his arm, he suddenly became violent, his body sprouting dense spikes in an instant, then crazily crashing against the iron cage.

Instantly, blood splattered everywhere, flesh flying.

“…”

The scene was too gruesome, and the three players below were stunned.