It wasn’t just a resemblance.
The man standing in front of him, whether in demeanor and expression, was undeniably Li Cangshan, not merely someone who looked like him or a replica.
Bai Lixin immediately pulled up his friends’ contact list from his consciousness, but Li Cangshan’s name was still grayed out, not lit up.
This meant that in the game’s judgment, Li Cangshan was still considered dead.
Lin Xiao could move between different game copies, and now Li Cangshan had appeared in Lin Xiao’s copy.
Could it be that Lin Xiao had done something?
“I didn’t expect you to recognize me even when I’m dressed like this.” Li Cangshan’s face reddened slightly, and he smiled a bit shyly, revealing a white canine tooth. “I’m really glad to see you, Bai Lixin.”
Bai Lixin couldn’t help but sigh, “Yeah, I never thought I’d see you here. This is the biggest surprise I’ve had in a long time. Why did you come here?”
Li Cangshan: “I don’t know either. Wasn’t I turned into a robot in the Dark Steel City? My consciousness was stored in a chip, and when Dark Steel City collapsed, it seems someone picked up my memory chip. After that, I lost consciousness.”
“When I regained consciousness, I found myself here.”
“When I first arrived here, I thought I had gone to hell. It was only after seeing some familiar players that I realized I was still in the horror game.”
Bai Lixin: “Hell?”
Li Cangshan glanced at Chen Xiaoling, who was trembling behind Bai Lixin, and sighed, “This place is terrifying.”
“Even when I was transformed into a robot, I only felt regret for not completing my mission. But here, my heart is filled with deep anger.”
“If one has never experienced the greatest malice in the world, then this place is the greatest malice.”
Chen Xiaoling shrank behind Bai Lixin, cautiously peeking out to observe Li Cangshan.
She seemed to recognize something and, as her trembling gradually subsided, said, “I remember you. You were the one who secretly let me go. Brother Erniu, he’s not like those demons, he’s a good person.”
Bai Lixin: “Tell me what you know, Li Cangshan.”
Li Cangshan: “I haven’t been here very long, but this seems to be a human experimentation base. Those people in black rubber suits and bird masks conduct all kinds of horrific experiments on people day and night. Large numbers of people die horribly due to the experiments, and they just throw the bodies into an incinerator to be used as fuel. Sometimes they even throw the corpses into the river, letting them rot and stink.”
Bai Lixin: “…”
Chen Xiaoling, who had just calmed down, began shaking again, and Bai Lixin could hear her sobbing.
Li Cangshan: “I was assigned to do some odd jobs and clean up the place.”
“When cleaning up, I would take advantage of the moments when they weren’t watching to push the piled-up bodies in the river downstream and let them flow away. I know many of these bodies came from Chenjia Village, and the villagers of Chenjia have always been retrieving their dead from downstream. Rather than letting them rot in the river, being eaten by fish and insects, it was better to send them home.”
“To those demons, the filthy corpses are just that, but to the people of Chenjia Village, they are beloved family members.”
Bai Lixin murmured softly, “So that’s where the bodies downstream came from.”
Li Cangshan suddenly remembered something. “Wait for me here. I’ll be right back.”
After he left, Chen Xiaoling clung tightly to Bai Lixin’s neck and whispered in his ear, “I remember now, we were all captured and brought here.”
“I was caught with my husband. His name was Zhou Guoyou.”
Bai Lixin was stunned.
Zhou Guoyou was the name of the groom in Chen Xiaoling’s ghost marriage.
“No, it wasn’t Zhou Guoyou.” Chen Xiaoling immediately contradicted herself, “My husband isn’t Zhou Guoyou. His name is… is… 082.”
“No, that’s not right either. Maybe it was 623.”
“…No, that’s not right. Was it 1005?”
Chen Xiaoling muttered to herself, then suddenly let out a despairing wail and fainted.
Even after she fainted, her arms remained tightly wrapped around Bai Lixin’s neck, as if she understood that this person was her only hope of leaving this place.
When Li Cangshan returned, he was carrying a black rubber suit and a mask.
Bai Lixin took them and put them on. The rubber suit was very large, so nothing looked out of place even after covering Chen Xiaoling.
After putting on the mask, Li Cangshan pointed ahead, signaling Bai Lixin to follow.
Bai Lixin: “Just before she fainted, Chen Xiaoling mentioned several numbers, saying they were all her husband.”
Li Cangshan sighed, “The people who are captured here undergo both physical and mental torment. Many eventually lose their sanity.”
“When I arrived here, this woman was already like this. The reason I said this place is the greatest malice in the world is because of the inhumane things they do here.”
“The experiments in this hellhole aren’t just physical—they also experiment on the mind. They have many ways to torment and torture these victims. One of these methods is the ‘family’ experiment.”
“They pair men and women as couples to test the mental resilience of ‘family’ and ‘love’ on humans, and sometimes, they even assign a child to these families. Chen Xiaoling was captured along with her husband, but during the pairing process, those people deliberately paired her with another man, even though they knew Zhou Guoyou was her husband.”
Bai Lixin: “…”
Li Cangshan’s voice trembled, “This was just one of the experiments. While conducting the ‘family’ experiment, they simultaneously performed various other experiments on them. Many people couldn’t withstand the experiments and died in terrible conditions. If one person in the ‘family’ experiment died, those demons would immediately reassign the remaining partner. Chen Xiaoling was repeatedly paired with different men, forming several families.”
Bai Lixin: “What about Zhou Guoyou?”
Li Cangshan: “Zhou Guoyou and Chen Xiaoling held on, believing that if they managed to stay alive, they would eventually be paired together. But it seemed those demons knew what they were thinking and deliberately tortured them. Zhou Guoyou watched Chen Xiaoling ‘marry’ other men repeatedly, while Chen Xiaoling watched Zhou Guoyou ‘form families’ with other women again and again.”
“In the end, Zhou Guoyou couldn’t hold on and died. Not long after his death, Chen Xiaoling couldn’t bear the torment of the experiments and followed him.”
Something wet dripped onto Bai Lixin’s neck. Bai Lixin supported Chen Xiaoling by the waist, gently patting her feather-light back, hoping she would sleep more soundly.
Li Cangshan: “Bai Lixin, although I survived in this place, I’m not truly alive. My consciousness can’t connect to the system, I can’t open my backpack, and I can’t use my skills. My strength is very weak now, but I want to save them. Can you help me?”
“This is serious,” Bai Lixin said. “Even if you didn’t ask, I would’ve done it anyway.”
Destroying this place wasn’t part of the task, but he loved meddling in things that weren’t his business.
Bai Lixin: “What exactly do we need to do?”
Li Cangshan: “There are five things that sustain this place: water, food, medicine, electricity, and weapons.”
“If we destroy the power system, the weapons depot, and the supply storage of this base, they’ll be powerless and significantly weakened.”
“But with just the two of us, it might not be enough. These things are spread across four different locations, and we only have two people. It would be best to destroy them simultaneously, but we don’t have enough hands.”
Bai Lixin: “Samuel and Lin Jue also came down. Have you seen them?”
Li Cangshan: “So it was them? I know now. They alerted the guards when they came down, and soldiers have been hunting them since then. We need to find Samuel and Lin Jue before those soldiers do. Follow me, I have a rough idea of where they might be.”
Li Cangshan walked ahead, his broad body almost blocking Bai Lixin’s entire view.
As he looked at the familiar back, Bai Lixin thought of something: “Earlier, you said you realized you were still in the horror game world after seeing the players. Where did you see the players?”
Li Cangshan: “Yesterday, about a dozen people fell into the trap. I could tell at a glance that they were players. There’s a big difference between players and NPCs who actually live here. NPCs treat this place as reality, and when faced with danger, their first reaction is fear. But after players came in, they had expressions of surprise and curiosity, even a bit of excitement at discovering new clues.”
Bai Lixin: “There are also three players hiding among the bird-masked group. Did you meet them?”
Li Cangshan turned around, the long bird beak on his mask sharp as ever. “Really? I didn’t notice. Since you said so, I might have missed them.”
Bai Lixin: …
What seemed like identical tunnels to Bai Lixin were navigated by Li Cangshan with remarkable decisiveness. He turned at every junction with confidence, without hesitation.
“You might not believe this,” Li Cangshan chuckled softly from beneath his mask, “but I have a talent for navigating. No matter how complex the maze, I can always find the way out.”
Bai Lixin: “I believe that. Back when we were in the underground steel city, you guided us through the tunnels like you’re doing today, and that’s how we found our way out.”
History seemed to be repeating itself. Different copies, different outfits, yet once again, Li Cangshan was like a lighthouse guiding him.
“We’re approaching the experiment zone. Prepare yourself mentally.”
As soon as Li Cangshan finished speaking, Bai Lixin heard a scream.
The narrow tunnel widened at its end, revealing a broader path and some structures.
The wailing came from the corridor ahead.
From time to time, someone emerged from the small rooms along the corridor, only to hurriedly enter another room.
It was unclear if Chen Xiaoling was startled awake, but her body swayed a few times. Bai Lixin gently patted her back to soothe her, and Chen Xiaoling tightened her grip, settling down again.
They soon reached the wide corridor.
On either side of the corridor were small rooms with iron doors firmly shut. There were no windows, just a small twenty-centimeter window on each door.
A light indicator was beside each door, most of which were glowing red.
Li Cangshan: “Red means in use. This place is busy every day.”
As he spoke, the iron door of one room opened, releasing a stench of chemicals so strong it seemed to pierce Bai Lixin’s skull, burning his eyes.
But soon the smell was absorbed by the mask on his face and it quickly dissipated.
Several people in black rubber suits entered the iron room, gradually carrying out several corpses.
The bodies had bluish-purple faces, contorted into unnatural positions, with clawed hands clutching their throats, mouths wide open in agony, and eyes bulging—a look of extreme pain.
Li Cangshan averted his gaze and whispered to Bai Lixin, “Let’s move quickly.”
The two swiftly bypassed the busy people and continued forward.
A strange tone emanated from beneath the bird-faced mask. Though Bai Lixin couldn’t understand the language, he could sense the disdain, coldness, and disgust in it.
Bai Lixin noticed that Li Cangshan beside him had clenched his fists so he asked in a low voice, “What are they saying?”
“They’re so weak, they died already. Looks like this batch of antidote has failed again.”
“They really stink, worse than the bugs in the gutter.”
“Hahaha, look at their expressions before they died, it’s hilarious.”
“Seeing the people from Chenjia Village in pain might be the highlight of my day.”
Li Cangshan translated word by word, biting his tongue so hard that the strong taste of iron immediately filled his throat.
More harsh words drilled into his ears, but he could no longer continue translating.
Li Cangshan struggled to swallow the blood in his mouth and forcibly suppressed the nearly uncontrollable anger back into his chest.
