Forces of Temptation

Nan Zhou put the sketchbook and charcoal pencils on the nearby fire hydrant.

Leaning against the large window glass, after dialing the number, he put the phone to his ear: "Brother Fang, come to me."

Jiang Fang over there pressed his ear and let out a sigh of relief.

...as if he let go of some heavy burden in his heart.

The heavy burden of not speaking for 10 hours across the radio waves brushed against Nan Zhou's ear tips as lightly as a feather, making it a little itchy.

Jiang Fang asked, "Where are you?"

Nan Zhou touched his ears: "This is classroom 403."

Jiang Fang: "We're not looking for Xie Xiangyu anymore?"

Nan Zhou: "Yeah. He's right next to me."

Xie Xiangyu: "..."

Before he could make any decent response, Nan Zhou temporarily moved the phone away from his ear.

He said to the direction where the shadow fell: "You can run."

"But if you don't join us, once Sun Guojing is successfully replaced, we will reshuffle the cards, and it will be your turn next."

"Think carefully."

After finishing speaking, he put the phone back to his ear: "Brother Fang, you don't have to hurry, call Sun Guojing and the three of them back together. I'll wait for you."

After hanging up the phone, Nan Zhou raised his head again and looked towards the empty corridor.

The light and shadow of light and shade are very wonderful, changing with the objects, changing the horizon, and dividing the corridor into two obvious sides of yin and yang.

It made him want to draw a sketch.

However, the shadow that was originally superimposed on his own shadow disappeared.

Xie Xiangyu didn't respond to his words either.

Nan Zhou felt a little regretful.

He thought, maybe we shouldn't startle the snake just now.

You should grab Xie Xiangyu's hair first, bump it against the wall next to him, and then talk to him.

But he quickly shot down the idea.

If you get hit and killed, it's not good.

Fortunately, he was not worried that Xie Xiangyu would attack him.

On the alert, no one can do anything to him unless he wants to, unless it's a full moon.

While walking towards the stairs, Nan Zhou planned to open a new page of sketch paper, and planned to copy the classroom distribution map hanging on the stairs again.

However, after taking a step, Nanzhou stopped.

There is no writing on the blank paper.

But when he turned the page, his fingertips touched a subtle raised feeling in the lower right corner.

...with words.

He stroked the paper and read the message with his fingertips.

Among other things, the font is strong, beautiful and unfamiliar.

Xie Xiangyu must be the only one who can stick to his body and leave such a message that is difficult to recognize with the naked eye.

The question is, when did Xie Xiangyu leave the message?

Nan Zhou thought about it for a moment, then let out a faint "ah".

...when I keep my sketchbook and pen by the fire hydrant.

In addition to a string of phone numbers, there are two words.

Nan Zhou read those two words over and over again with his fingertips.

He blinked his long eyelashes slightly, showing a little confused expression.

In the next second, Nanzhou stabbed, tore off the whole piece of sketching paper, quickly crumpled it into a ball and stuffed it into his pocket.

The tearing sound was loud, and even a little echoed in the empty and straight corridor.

……

When Jiang Fang and his group came to the east fifth floor, Nan Zhou was sitting in front of the maple tree, writing the last few strokes in the sketchbook.

Everything was the same as before the three of Sun Guojing left.

Nanzhou waved his hands, and handed the redrawn structure diagram of the east fifth floor to everyone.

He did not mention the painting that was torn up.

When it was circulated, Nanzhou briefly described his findings.

When the sketchbook was passed on to Jiang Fang, Nanzhou had almost let Sun Guojing and the others understand the way to break the situation.

Jiang Fang took a careful look at the jagged outline of the last piece of sketch paper that faintly showed through the gaps in the paper.

But he didn't turn it over, he just stroked the paper slowly with his fingertips.

His fingertips stopped for a moment in the lower right corner of the paper, and then naturally hung down, as if he had never found this clue.

A group of people re-entered the east fifth floor and verified Nan Zhou's conjectures.

There is indeed a weird space on the fourth floor.

It does not exist in human vision.

Not present in classroom map.

It is non-existent existence.

And the way Qi Tianyun thought that day was not wrong.

As long as they enter the correct "classroom" in the correct time and order, there is a great possibility to transition this dungeon safely.

The eyes of the three old men were astonishingly bright, and there was no awkwardness in their eyes looking at Nan Zhou, full of infinite gratitude and admiration.

Jiang Fang was very concerned about someone who was not there: "Where is Xie Xiangyu?"

Nan Zhou said, "He's gone."

Sun Guojing, who was originally beaming, couldn't help becoming worried when he heard the words: "This... one person is missing, what should I do?"

Nan Zhou said: "It doesn't matter. He will come."

Qi Tianyun's thinking was fairly general, and after being inspired by Nanzhou, he immediately reacted.

"He originally wanted to disrupt the order by killing people, but he can't guarantee that his method of passing the level is absolutely correct! Now there is a better way. If we really lose people and his method doesn't work, then he will It's over! So he can only join us!"

As he said that, Qi Tianyun looked at Nan Zhou eagerly, obviously wanting to get an affirmative answer from him.

"No." Nanzhou said ruthlessly, "I didn't think so."

Qi Tianyun: "..."

Nan Zhou said directly: "The dungeon will also take into account the death of someone."

"If Sun Guojing dies, we will lose one person completely. Does it mean that as long as one player dies, the way to pass the level will be blocked? All other players can only wait to die?"

"It is impossible for the game to make such an unbalanced setting."

"So, I don't think it will have a big impact if the staff is not all in place. So I asked Brother Fang to find you and gather together. As long as Xie Xiangyu can't find a chance to make a move, he can only follow our rhythm."

Speaking of this, Nan Zhou looked at Qi Tianyun: "But there is one thing, you are right."

"Unless he wants to exchange his death for the failure of all our missions, he will definitely join us."

"Because he has only one person. No matter how convenient the action is, no teammate can replace the order with him."

Thinking of his jumping off the building last night, Nan Zhou added: "He regrets his life."

Sun Guojing still couldn't help muttering: "But he still ran away."

Qi Tianyun patted Sun Guojing on the shoulder: "Old Sun, don't think about it. If you were him, would you dare to come and tell us that you want to join us now?"

Sun Guojing: "..."

When he thought of that little bastard who ran into their dormitory in the middle of the night and kept claiming to be friends with his three brothers, he ended up first looking for clues, second coaxing them to find the way, and third with the idea of ​​backstabbing them at a critical moment , I hate it so much that my teeth itch.

If Xie Xiangyu was in front of his eyes now, he would definitely punch his back molars into his throat.

Qi Tianyun continued: "... If I were him, I would definitely hide. When 'that place' opens at seven o'clock, I will sneak in."

"Damn it." Sun Guojing said angrily, "When we go in, close the door for him immediately!"

Nan Zhou was not very interested in venting and complaining from Sun Guojing and others.

He succinctly stated their course of action: "Now, we just have to wait."

……

After repeated testing, the extra eight steps of "non-existent" space are just adjacent to the right side of classroom 403.

Thus, classroom 403 was requisitioned again.

They have to wait here until seven o'clock in the evening.

Now, for them, all that is needed is patience.

To pass the time, they decided to play Ludo.

But after taking out all the chess pieces, they realized that they had lost the chessboard.

If you can't find it all over the place, you can only give up.

In the end, they chose Fight the Landlord.

The bet for each game is to invite a meal.

Li Yinhang didn't know how to play, so he chose to watch the battle from the sidelines.

Luo Ge didn't fall asleep all night, and now he was relaxed, sleeping on the table like a dead pig.

Although Sun Guojing and Qi Tianyun didn't sleep all night, they were so excited that they couldn't fall asleep seeing the turning point of life approaching.

Sun Guojing was nagging, this time, as soon as he went out this time, he would go to the "Douzhuan Casino" in Zhijin City to gamble, the **** bet, it's best to win a big one.

He gritted his teeth and said, "As long as you win, you don't have to risk your life."

Jiang Fang and Nan Zhou looked at each other.

... This is how the customers of "Douzhuan Casino" come.

After experiencing a struggle on the edge of life and death, everyone will be afraid and feel guilty.

Therefore, the more fearful and wanting to escape, the more people want to take shortcuts.

Even if the shortcut is a spider's thread hanging on a cliff hundreds of feet away, a hunter's trap, or a fisherman's bait, they will bite the bullet and fight for the one win in "ten bets and nine losses". fight.

Nanzhou reminded them: "Gambling will lose."

"Hi." Sun Guojing said indifferently, "If I can survive this time, I will be lucky."

Nan Zhou glanced at Jiang Fang: ——look at them.

Jiang Fang understood, smiled and handed the shuffled cards forward: "Then draw the cards?"

As long as it is a game that has something to do with cards, Jiang Fang can play any weird way of playing.

Not to mention this popular card game.

He didn't spend a thousand dollars, didn't cheat, and played in the most orderly manner. With only ten hands, Sun Guojing's idea of ​​going to the casino and becoming a gambler to win a good game disappeared.

Nanzhou had never played this kind of card game before.

He has a serious attitude, a flexible mind, and can understand everything.

Losing is due to poor luck.

There were several hands in a row, and what he got was either a small card, or a garbage card that couldn't be connected into a straight or a pair at all, with one missing in the east and one missing in the west.

The cards in other people's hands have been played out, but there are still a lot of cards in his hand.

... The game experience cannot be said to be extremely bad, basically it can be said to be non-existent.

Nanzhou's competitive spirit was also aroused little by little.

But his luck was really bad.

Finally, when he got the No.12 deck, Nan Zhou pursed his lips and carefully arranged and combined the cards in his hand.

Jiang Fang, who snatched the landlord, held the four twos and two kings in his hand, and asked Nan Zhou with a smile, "Is the card good?"

Nan Zhou stared at the card with a very cautious expression: "Yes."

After playing a few rounds of miscellaneous cards, Nanzhou played a three belt one.

In his hand he had four threes, a very small bomb, which he had managed to draw.

And a straight.

Hit a straight and he wins.

Sun Guojing and Qi Tianyun, who were downcast with a bad hand, both expressed their apologies.

It was Jiang Fang's turn.

He glanced at Nan Zhou's slightly bent lips, and the corners of his mouth curled up happily.

Jiang Fang's card counting has always been accurate.

He could even guess which cards Nan Zhou had and how he planned to play them next.

So Jiang Fang played his cards: "Three with a one. Three twos with a two."

Nanzhou's eyes lit up slightly when he heard "three belts and one".

He played four three "bombs" logically.

All three expressed their apologies.

Nan Zhou hit a straight and finally won a round.

There was no expression on his face, but he was very happy in his heart.

Jiang Fang directly mixed the cards in his hand with the cards he had already played, smiled gracefully at Nan Zhou, and blinked.

Seeing him like this, Nan Zhou felt itchy again, wanting to play with his eyelashes.

Sun Guojing and Qi Tianyun didn't sleep all night, and they lost their heads again. In addition, Jiang Fang's tone was so reasonable that they didn't realize that there was something wrong with the showy operation of three twos and one two.

Sun Guojing tossed the cards in his hand, and was about to say something when he suddenly yelled, stood up from the ground, and gasped for breath.

Qi Tianyun, who tied his feet with a rope, was almost dragged to the ground by him.

Nan Zhou looked up: "What's wrong?"

Sun Guojing's eye circles were completely red, and the muscles in his throat were highly convulsed, and he couldn't speak at all.

After a while, he choked his throat and said: "...You guys, did you hear that?"

"I heard……"

Sun Guojing used all his strength to make a sound.

His tall figure slowly trembled and softened.

"The eighth sound..."

"Shusha..."

"The penultimate sound..."

The faces of the people who pieced together effective messages from his fragmented words changed drastically.

Li Yinhang immediately grabbed his phone and checked the time.

It's 12:[-] noon.

At seven o'clock in the evening, there are six and a half hours left.

Sun Guojing's throat let out a frightened gurgling sound of air.

He covered his ears, trying to resist the continuous rustling.

"here we go again……"

"It doesn't want me to live..."

Qi Tianyun held his shoulder, gritted his teeth and comforted him: "Old grandson! Calm down! Wait until seven o'clock! Wait until seven o'clock, everything will be fine!"

Sun Guojing's pale lips trembled violently.

The touch of cold teeth and hot lips made him feel cold all over.

He murmured: "...can I still wait?"

……

I can't play the cards anymore.

Sun Guojing sat next to the two brothers, not saying a word.

The closer it was to seven o'clock, the more anxious Sun Guojing became.

After the thumbnail was bitten by him, he began to pick the barbs on his thumb frequently.

Even if it's bloody, it won't stop.

He looked at the clock almost every minute.

Every second of time passed, it was like an ant crawled over him.

05:30 now.

It's six o'clock.

It's a quarter past six...

Sun Guojing prayed unceasingly.

He reflected on all the wrong things he had done in his life.

He piously prayed to all the gods he knew in his mind.

He hoped that seven o'clock would come sooner.

Under Sun Guojing's nervous stare, the clock finally managed to point to [-]:[-].

10 minutes left!

Sun Guojing gritted his teeth so hard that he was sweating profusely, and tears welled up from the corners of his eyes.

The torment and waiting like hell is coming to an end...

7 minutes left!

……

5 minutes left!

4 minutes!

Finally, Sun Guojing couldn't bear it anymore.

He suddenly got up and grabbed Qi Tianyun's shoulder beside him: "Let's wait in the corridor!!"

But the moment he blurted out—

"sand--"

The death-defying sound resounded deep in Sun Guojing's eardrums.

As if he was afraid that he could not hear clearly enough, the voice repeated it jokingly again.

"sand--"

Next, Sun Guojing watched helplessly as his hand passed through Qi Tianyun's shoulder.

And Qi Tianyun was staring at the countdown on the phone.

Several ropes connecting him with Qi Tianyun and Luo Ge also fell off from his hands and feet.

Sun Guojing stood there blankly, and grabbed Qi Tianyun's shoulder several times.

He can still stand on the ground.

But the rope couldn't hold him anymore.

He couldn't hold anything else either.

Anything that allows him to communicate with other people is out of his reach.

After being dazed for just a few seconds, a white shadow appeared in Sun Guojing's peripheral vision.

Sun Guojing turned his head to look, and his pupils suddenly constricted.

With a scream, he quickly stepped back.

——Sun Guojing finally understood why Zuo Jiaming wanted to run away.

Because at the moment when the ninth rustle sounded, he saw a monster sticking its head out from the entrance of classroom 403.

It was an indescribable object.

Countless, indistinguishable snow-white human figures, arched and lying on the ground, entangled into a huge, disgusting strip-shaped object.

It seems that countless souls that once disappeared in this world are twisted together regardless of head and tail, crawling on the ground.

Countless human-shaped legs and hands rubbed against the ground, dragging the centipede-like body, making uninterrupted soft noises.

rustle.

rustle.

rustle.

Like a venomous cry.

Like a call from Hades.

Like the almost cursed whisper after Zuo Jiaming's death message:

"—I went."

"Sun Guojing, when are you coming?"

Sun Guojing screamed and ran to the back of classroom 403.

The snow-white monster was unhurried, its soft and flexible legs rubbed against each other, climbed up the steps like a pupa, and crawled towards Sun Guojing in a rustling manner.

The other five were doing their own thing.

They couldn't see what Sun Guojing was facing.

In the desperate situation of being unable to rely on others, Sun Guojing burst out with an amazing desire to survive.

He suddenly jumped onto the table, narrowly avoiding a human hand that was grabbed at him in the air, stepped on the stepped table with a loud noise, rushed all the way down, and raised his legs to step over the wriggling white undead on the ground. A monster rushed out of classroom 403!

The only thing that can confirm that Sun Guojing exists in this world is the sensor light in the corridor.

With the last sliver of expectation and hope, Sun Guojing went out and turned right, running towards the location of the non-existent space that they estimated before entering classroom 403.

However, Sun Guojing's hope, like a ray of light on a match, was suddenly blown out by the wind.

...There was just a dark wall there.

no door!no door!

Sun Guojing turned his head to look at classroom 403, cold sweat dripping down his groin.

The monster has moved and crawled out from the door of 403, filling the entire corridor, and slowly coming towards him.

sand--

sand--

Heartbroken, Sun Guojing strode towards the window at the end of the corridor. Without slowing down, he smashed through the glass and jumped straight from the fourth floor!

Last time he was head down.

This time, he hoped that he could land smoothly.

Please, save me, save me—

Everyone is good, help me...

……

Nanzhou was not looking at the time.

He has been staring at Sun Guojing.

But he himself didn't know when he lost his mind.

It seemed that Sun Guojing had always been there without moving.

It also seemed...he was just staring at a blank space from beginning to end.

Until the sensor light outside the door turned on for no reason, Nan Zhou raised his eyes and looked at it with a concentrated expression.

Jiang Fang, who had been doing the same thing with him, also discovered something.

He got up suddenly, his voice was rarely hurried: "...Where is Sun Guojing?"

Hearing this, a group of people suddenly rioted.

Luo Ge and Qi Tianyun stared at the rope that fell off at some point, their complexions turned livid.

They rushed out of classroom 403 back and forth, only to find that a door was opened next to 403 at some point.

It was the most common classroom door.

There is a warm glow inside.

The door was left open, and there was a silent invitation in the corridor.

……please.

Please enter the urn.

Last Friday night, Hu Li, who arrived first without a key, was bewitched in this way.

Nanzhou walked quickly to the door.

There is no sign on the door, nothing to prove its function.

Just a small, nameless classroom that shouldn't exist.

He saw the scene inside the door clearly at a glance.

Inside the door was a small empty room with no tables and chairs, about 8 to 9 meters long and 6 to 7 meters wide.

There are still traces of the carnival in it.

A few drink bottles were thrown in the corner.

The ground is scattered with chili crumbs left over from barbecue, and the mottled sugar stains formed by spilled drinks.

...and a Ludoboard lying quietly under a table.

When he held the doorknob of the non-existent door, a cool chill penetrated his palm, and it was twisted into Nan Zhou's brain like a knife.

They were standing on the torsos, hands and feet of those snow-white human bodies that stretched out from the door like spider webs.

Everyone couldn't see it, and neither could Nan Zhou.

Qi Tianyun pulled Luo Ge, and said in a trembling voice: "Let's go in quickly! Old Sun is still saved!!"

Jiang Fang held Qi Tianyun's hand, "It's hopeless."

Qi Tianyun was furious: "You can't be saved!"

Jiang Fang was not annoyed, but asked instead, "Why did he disappear?"

Under this reminder, Qi Tianyun's face turned pale at the moment of epiphany.

...Sun Guojing, I heard the ninth rustle!

Even if they go in now, he has already been completely entangled by that force.

...really... hopeless...

When Qi Tianyun and Luo Ge were both sitting on the ground with their eyes glazed over, Sun Guojing's screams soundlessly rang out from the stairwell.

He fell prey to the spider's web.

Shiny fangs are about to bite it.

And Nan Zhou was still standing in front of the door, holding the icy door handle, pushing and pulling it repeatedly, as if he was experimenting with something.

He closed the door.

The light source inside disappeared instantly.

It was pitch black in the crack of the door, with no light coming through.

He opened the door again.

The warm light of goose yellow came out again from inside the door.

It was as if this classroom existed by virtue of this door that appeared out of thin air.

... No one knows what Nan Zhou is thinking.

Everyone couldn't guess Nan Zhou's heart, and they couldn't hear or see the dead end that Sun Guojing was facing right now.

They could only see the originally silent voice-activated lights coming to them one by one from the other end of the stairwell.

The cloud-like hands and feet curled up in satisfaction, pulling its prey back towards the door.

Just when Sun Guojing's feet were only half a meter away from the door, Nan Zhou, who was holding the doorknob, suddenly lifted his foot and kicked hard at the door hinge.

At the moment when a piercing crack sounded——

"Recycling." Nanzhou enunciated clearly, "...I said, item recycling."

The door that had been knocked half off by his kick gave out an abnormal tremor, and suddenly disappeared without a trace in front of everyone's eyes.

...as abrupt as it appears.

The snow-white monster also stopped in amazement, let out a strange scream, pulled away from Sun Guojing's feet, and disappeared.

Sun Guojing stepped on the edge of the wall of the door just now, trying his best to make a final resistance posture.

But the huge pulling force on the feet disappeared in the next moment.

Sun Guojing lay softly on the ground, opened his eyes dripping with sweat, and saw Qi Tianyun and Luo Ge again who he thought he would never see again.

However, when Qi Tianyun and Luo Ge looked at him lying on the ground in embarrassment, their expressions were even more shocked than him.

"...Old Sun? Why do you—"

Sun Guojing didn't have time to think about what happened, so he threw himself into the arms of the two brothers, crying bitterly.

At this time, the long-silent game system prompt sounded in Nanzhou's mind.

"Congratulations player Nanzhou—"

"Congratulations--"

"Congratulations—"

Looking at the door-like object that was entangled and decorated by white human-shaped objects, the item system got stuck again.

...What the hell is this? ?

The author has something to say:

Item system: I fucking vomited.