Chapter 44: It Has Come Back to Life

The tall man raised his fist and struck fiercely toward Duoduo's face.

Just then, Duoduo turned around to see if Ling Yun was still there.

Behind her was only a swirling black vortex; Ling Yun's figure was already completely out of sight.

Duoduo's round eyes dimmed, and a sense of emptiness washed over her heart.

Without Ling Yun trailing behind, Chou Chou felt as though it had come back to life.

Sensing a delicious meal delivered right to its doorstep, it unceremoniously opened its maw and swallowed the tall man whole in a single gulp.

"What the hell?"

The dark-skinned man rubbed his eyes, thinking he must be hallucinating.

The next moment, a towering shadow suddenly expanded, enveloping his entire body within it.

"Ah!"

Gazing at the menacing shadow looming before him, the dark-skinned man let out a piercing shriek of terror.

At the sound, Duoduo turned her head back, while Chou Chou swiftly shrank itself back into the cloth doll.

Finding no one in front of her, Duoduo let out a puzzled, "Huh?"

"Sister, did you hear any noise just now?"

Chou Chou was too busy chewing to bother answering her.

Duoduo scratched her little head, then turned her gaze back to the swirling black vortex behind her.

Last time, she had walked right through this very spot and seen her home.

Even though her home had changed, her father was still there.

If she went in now, would this be the next time her father had mentioned?

Duoduo's bright eyes rolled around mischievously.

She took steps with her short little legs, heading toward the vortex.

However, when she reached the edge of the vortex, try as she might, she simply could not step inside.

"Why won't it let me in?"

"You're the only one here today!"

A familiar voice gently echoed from behind her.

Duoduo turned toward the sound and saw a shuttle bus suddenly materialize before her eyes.

A woman stepped down from the vehicle and walked over to Duoduo with a warm, smiling expression.

Duoduo raised her small face, looking at her with curiosity.

"Aunty, why won't it let me in?"

Duoduo lifted a tiny hand and pointed at the vortex in front of her.

The woman squatted down before Duoduo and explained with a gentle smile, "Instances have specific opening hours, little one. Until the time arrives, you naturally cannot enter. Shall I carry you onto the bus and send you back to rest, esteemed little guest?"

"Okay!"

Unable to go in and find her father, Duoduo could only nod in agreement.

The woman scooped Duoduo up and carried her onto the vehicle.

The moment her little feet were steady on the floor, Duoduo raised her tiny hand and tapped her watch against the scanner.

"Such a clever child, learning how to do that on the first try."

The woman praised Duoduo generously and fastened her seatbelt for her.

The shuttle bus waited by the vortex for a short while before the man in glasses emerged from it first.

Seeing that the tall man was nowhere to be seen, he let out a silent sigh of relief.

Soon after, the stutterer also stumbled out of the vortex.

The instant she cleared the threshold, the vortex vanished entirely.

The woman smiled pleasantly at them. "Respected guests, we are about to depart. Will you be boarding?"

"Yes!"

The man in glasses and the stutterer had also booked a double room.

They boarded one after another, and once their points were deducted, the shuttle bus started moving.

Hiding in the shadows, the trendy young man watched the direction the shuttle bus took, his eyes wide with utter disbelief.

What on earth was that dark shadow from earlier? It had silently slaughtered two people just like that!

Duoduo returned to her room and swiped her watch against the door lock.

Fifty points were deducted, and the door slowly swung open.

The room was completely empty.

Overcome with sleepiness, Duoduo gave a tiny yawn, closed the door, lay down, and drifted off to sleep.

In the eerie forest, the easy-difficulty instance inside Door Number 4 had concluded an hour earlier than the one behind Door Number 1.

The games in the other two instances were still ongoing.

After being kicked out of the Number 1 livestream room, the netizens from City Z experienced a wave of shock.

Well over half of them were too heartbroken to do anything else, pulling the covers over their heads and going straight to sleep.

A small fraction of them, however, switched over to the Number 3 livestream room.

Although the brutality level in Room Number 3 couldn't quite match that of Room Number 1, two people had already perished there as well.

Siyue had been tailing the pair of siblings, relying on the props they scavenged to survive three consecutive rounds.

Just as they used a prop to lure away a monster, the sister and brother rounded a corner only to run straight into another one.

The young man furrowed his brows and took a step back.

"You've got to be kidding me, our luck is abysmal. We just chased one away and another shows up. Sis, I'm all out of props, do you have any left?"

"My props are exhausted too!"

Watching the rapidly approaching monster, they knew it was already too late to run.

The woman glanced back at Siyue trailing behind them. Out of the corner of her eye earlier, when she used a prop to distract a monster, she had spotted this child picking up a prop.

"Hey kid, hand over your props right now."

"I don't have any props!"

Siyue shook her head, having no intention of using her own items.

The siblings had no way of knowing she possessed props anyway.

Since they were adults, they were bound to protect her when the monster attacked.

And she could use the precious time while the monster slaughtered them to make her escape!

Siyue's calculations were well-thought-out, but she failed to realize that the woman had seen right through her intentions instantly.

Bypassing any further nonsense, the woman grabbed the teenage boy and turned to sprint the moment the monster lunged.

She employed a zig-zag evasion pattern, causing the monster to lunge into empty air.

With a disappointed meow-like cry, the creature pivoted and lunged at the siblings once again.

The woman dragged the boy aside, dodging just in time.

Seeing that they were throwing away convention and running straight toward her direction instead, Siyue panicked and turned to bolt.

Yet her legs were short, and she could never outrun two adults; the siblings quickly overtook her.

She glanced at the rapidly widening gap between herself and the siblings, then looked back over her shoulder.

Seeing the monster's hideous face magnified as it lunged directly toward her, her eyes widened in terror, but it was already too late to dodge.

"Ah!"

Knocked down by the monster, Siyue sprawled miserably on the ground.

Crying out in pain, she raised a tiny, pathetic hand toward the retreating backs of the siblings.

"Big brother, big sister, save me!"

Hearing her plea, the teenage boy abruptly halted his steps.

He looked back and, seeing the child who had followed them the entire way pinned beneath the monster, he loosened his grip on the woman's hand.

"Sis, that child has been pinned down, we have to save her."

"We don't have any props, we can't save her. If she doesn't want to die, she'll just have to use her own props, hmph!"

The woman let out a cold snort and grabbed the boy, pressing onward at a run.

Seeing them abandon her to her fate, Siyue gnashed her teeth in fury, pulled out a pouch of catnip, and hurled it aside.

"Get lost!"

The moment her command left her lips, the monster dismounted from her body.

Siyue scrambled up from the dirt in a disheveled state, dusting off her clothes.

"I told you she had props on her!"

The woman's voice slowly drifted into Siyue's ears.

Siyue froze for a second, then raised her head to look at the siblings.

Weren't they supposed to have left? How had they managed to circle back?