The refrigerator in Chenxi Apartment was completely empty, save for a few bottles of expired mineral water. Lin Xiao stared inside for two seconds, ultimately abandoning the idea of treating the water as breakfast, and silently closed the door.
As a soon-to-be graduate and prospective university student whose wallet was cleaner than her face, she had to solve the problem of food and clothing for the day before pondering whether the world was collapsing. After all, no matter how bizarre the world became, people still had to eat.
Since the commercial amenities surrounding Chenxi Apartment were pitifully scarce, Lin Xiao had to cast her gaze toward Zijing Street, which was a bit further away. It was an established residential area in the outer city district; though far less prosperous than before, it had low prices and plenty of discount activities for low-income groups.
Before going to sweep up discounted groceries, Lin Xiao had a task she couldn't avoid—returning books.
She took a thick stack of books from the shelf, including The History of Urban Development, Research on Lost Folklore, The Impact of Catastrophe on Human Social Structure, and Extreme Climate and Biological Changes. These were all books she had borrowed from the Radical Three Library.
The Radical Three Library was located near Purple Street. Because of its extremely low deposit fees and abundant resources, it had always been the top choice for residents of the outer city district. Lin Xiao packed her things, tucked her library card into her pocket, and went out.
……
The sky was heavily overcast, and the wind moaned between the buildings like a low, mournful sob.
Lin Xiao had just walked out of the Radical Three Library and couldn't help but pull her coat tighter. The weather forecast had solemnly promised no rain today, but judging by the current posture, it was clearly unreliable. She quickened her pace, preparing to cross the street to the commercial district opposite and head straight for Xinyuan Mall.
This so-called commercial district was actually quite desolate. Across the street, a row of seven or eight shops uniformly displayed signs reading "Prime Location for Transfer," exuding an air of bleakness.
The traffic light countdown ended, and the green light came on. Lin Xiao put her hands in her pockets and stepped onto the zebra crossing.
Just as she had taken a few steps, the world before her twisted without warning.
It felt like an old cathode-ray tube TV suddenly losing signal; countless gray-black noise points instantly exploded in her field of vision, shrouding the entire intersection in a haze of blur.
Lin Xiao stopped instinctively.
Almost simultaneously, a piercing screech of brakes exploded in front of her.
A severely speeding car drifted crazily past less than half a meter in front of her. The tires rubbed against the asphalt, leaving scorched black marks, and the pungent smell of rubber instantly permeated the air. The car straightened out a second before hitting a roadside concrete block and swerved erratically into the distance.
Lin Xiao stood rooted to the spot, cold sweat seeping down her back.
If she hadn't stopped that step, she would likely have been sent flying by the out-of-control car.
As the car sped away, the layer of ominous gray-black fog in her vision dissipated as well, and the world became clear and sharp again.
Lin Xiao raised a hand to rub her eyes, gaining a more intuitive understanding of the skill [Insight Eye] she had drawn yesterday. It seemed this thing could not only be activated actively but would also trigger automatically when encountering fatal threats, acting as a sort of life-saving mechanism.
This episode, though thrilling, didn't cause much delay. A quarter of an hour later, Lin Xiao was standing at the main entrance of Xinyuan Mall.
It was a small mall with only four floors. Lin Xiao's target was on the third floor—there was a cheap supermarket there specializing in selling near-expired discounted food.
She pressed the up button, and the elevator doors slowly opened. There weren't many people in the car; everyone stood scattered, maintaining the specific coldness and alienation of city dwellers, heads down staring at their phone screens.
Lin Xiao leaned against the corner wall of the car. Just as she was about to pull out her phone to kill time, that heart-palpitating sensation of visual disorder descended once more.
This time, the gray-black fog did not dissipate but instantly swallowed the entire elevator car.
“……”
With the experience from the road earlier, Lin Xiao immediately realized danger had arrived. Moreover, considering the fog appeared after entering the elevator, countless social news stories about elevator accidents flashed through her mind.
As a university student with basic self-rescue knowledge, Lin Xiao's first reaction was to press the open button. However, her body seemed to be instantly solidified in some viscous, icy liquid; even lifting a finger became exceptionally difficult.
An immense pressure surged from all directions, depriving her of breath, even drowning her hearing and vision. This sensation of near-death asphyxiation didn't last long. When her body regained sensation, Lin Xiao found she was still standing in the elevator.
But this was no longer the elevator from a moment ago.
It felt as if she had been forcibly displaced by some indescribable force, peeled from the real world and thrown into a seemingly similar yet entirely different dimension.
The light in the elevator became dim and murky. Although the ceiling light was on, it exuded a stale, withered feeling.
The originally simple floor button panel had undergone a bizarre change. Besides the standard "1" to "4", there were now buttons for "B2", "B1", and "5" to "8". At this moment, the button representing "B2" was glowing with a faint light, indicating they were currently on the second basement level.
In this mutated space, the only thing Lin Xiao felt slightly fortunate about was that the passengers in the elevator were still the same few people. Including herself, there were six in total.
The short-haired girl who had been standing opposite, absorbed in her phone, finally noticed something was wrong. She raised her head in shock, looked around, and froze in place. It took a long while before she trembled and spoke: “Wh-where is this?”
No one answered her.
At this moment, everyone's gaze was drawn to a black instruction sheet that had suddenly appeared on the car wall.
“《Mall Elevator Riding Instructions》 “In order to ensure the user experience of passengers, the following requirements are specifically made for riders: “1. During the elevator ride, please do not make loud noises or cause adverse effects on others; “2. This elevator is public property; please use it with care; “3. If passengers do not need to use the elevator, please do not remain in the car for more than fifteen seconds; “4. To save time, each passenger may only press the floor button twice; “5. If a passenger accidentally misses the target floor, they may press the button again. When the elevator arrives at the destination for the second time, the passenger must leave the elevator. “6. After the countdown ends, the elevator will officially be put into operation. “Good luck :).”
At the end of the instructions, that smiley face symbol appeared particularly jarring. Below the text, a bright red countdown was jumping: 04 minutes 36 seconds.
There wasn't much reaction time left for them.
Despite having previous experience with an abandoned office building, Lin Xiao was still full of doubts about the situation before her. However, this did not hinder her from quickly analyzing the status quo. This was similar to the previous "Escape Room" game; she had to find clues to leave based on the rules before the countdown ended.
Lin Xiao quickly scanned the rules and cast her gaze toward the other survivors.
The sudden change in environment had everyone's nerves on edge, filled with wariness and alienation toward one another.
Standing at the very front was a young man around thirty years old. He wore well-tailored, slim-fit clothing, and on his wrist was a watch that looked expensive at a glance. The ring on his right index finger had an exquisite design. He had well-defined facial features, and between his brows lay an innate arrogance.
Not far from him stood a girl who looked to be under twenty. She wore a jade pendant around her neck, the corners of her eyes slanted upward, and her pupils were shaped somewhat like a cat's. This girl sported a dark punk style, covered in various avant-garde metal trinkets. Her face was pale as if she weren't alive, and she wore heavy smoky makeup.
Seeming to sense Lin Xiao's gaze, the cat-eyed girl turned her head slightly.
Before their eyes could meet, Lin Xiao naturally shifted her gaze and continued to observe the remaining people.
Besides the short-haired student who had spoken earlier, there were two office workers. One looked utterly exhausted, a middle-aged man seemingly crushed by life; the other appeared more immature, likely having just left school not long ago, with a trace of innocence not yet faded from his face.
After a brief silence, the exhausted office worker suddenly spoke, his voice trembling slightly: “This situation... I think I've seen it online.”
The short-haired student immediately asked, “What situation?”
The office worker frowned deeply, trying hard to recall: “I remember that post said if you suddenly encounter this kind of inexplicable, bizarre change, it means you've encountered immense danger. But as long as you're lucky and meet certain conditions, you can leave...” He wiped the cold sweat from his forehead, “But that post was deleted very quickly. I didn't take it seriously at the time.”
Before his voice fell, a light laugh suddenly rang out in the elevator.
Carrying a hint of careless mockery, it sounded exceptionally clear in the deathly silent car.
The one who laughed was the young man with the famous watch. He lazily swept his gaze over everyone, his tone relaxed: “