The system immediately posed another question: "But where did the mother go?"
The questions kept coming in rapid succession, leaving everyone bewildered.
Where had the mother gone? How were they supposed to know?
Gu Zhan suddenly spoke up, "The mother discovered a clue about the father in the female teacher's bag and went to the teacher's home to search for him."
"What?" Yu Yezhou was taken aback. "But you just said the father was dead."
Gu Zhan explained, "The mother already killed the teacher; the father didn’t come back to life. The reason for his lack of resurrection wasn't that the ritual failed, but that the person meant to be resurrected hadn’t actually died. Realizing that the ritual had failed, the mother neglected to clean up the scene and left home."
Yu Yezhou was left speechless.
Alright, he couldn’t grasp this insane line of reasoning.
He looked at Gu Zhan with newfound admiration. How could he think of that?
Sang Yue widened her eyes in disbelief. How could this be possible?
Just then, the system announced, "Congratulations, you have answered completely correctly! As a reward, you will receive a ten-minute immunity from Sanity value penalties. Make sure to cherish it!"
"Now, you can set off to search for the mother."
"Wait, what’s this penalty reward?" An Heyan furrowed his brow and opened his attribute panel, quickly noticing that his sanity was steadily decreasing.
The number was small enough that he hadn’t noticed before.
An Heyan immediately turned to Sang Yue. "Was your earlier reaction because of this?"
Sang Yue nodded helplessly.
An Heyan frowned even deeper.
The system didn’t seem inclined to answer his question and fell silent once more.
Sang Yue added, "We just discovered it but hadn’t had time to tell you. Since we entered this scenario, our sanity have been continuously decreasing. Answering questions correctly restores a small portion, but it’s almost insignificant compared to what we’ve lost."
This seemingly twisted and calm scenario had placed an invisible countdown upon them.
Their time was running out.
Realizing this, everyone sprang into action.
An Heyan didn’t want to waste a single minute. He immediately asked, "If we need to find the mother, where do we start looking?"
The outside world was vast compared to this small room; searching aimlessly would lead nowhere.
Yu Yezhou said, "We need a specific destination."
"This is simple," Sang Yue replied. "The mother learned about the father's clues through the female teacher. We should look for the female teacher’s personal items... and her body."
They immediately began searching through the female teacher’s belongings and remains.
Soon, they found an electricity bill in the pocket of the lower half of her body, which indicated the floor and apartment number.
Gu Zhan read out the address and said to the system, "We need to go to this place!"
As soon as he finished speaking, the surrounding fog enveloped them, and the walls of the room rapidly collapsed and transformed.
In the blink of an eye, they found themselves on the street.
In front of them stood a residential building that was the female teacher's home.
They had already used up half of the value immunity time granted by the system.
Yu Yezhou said, "Hurry up and go up."
The group didn't waste any more time and hurried upstairs.
However, just as they entered the corridor, the door behind them slammed shut with a loud "clang."
The corridor was already narrow and dim, and now the tense and uneasy atmosphere spread among them.
Sang Yue whispered, "What's up there? Why did they close the door?"
No one could answer her.
But they all knew that whatever was upstairs was definitely not good.
Yu Yezhou said, "Let's go check it out. Everyone, be careful."
They pressed against the wall, taking careful steps up the stairs.
Halfway up, they heard a "clang, clang" sound from above.
"Someone is coming down!" Sang Yue whispered in the cramped, dark space.
It was indeed very narrow and empty; her voice bounced off the walls, creating an echo that added to everyone’s anxiety.
An Heyan listened carefully toward the stairs and said, "It seems quite far from us. That person has a weapon in hand."
Gu Zhan, however, was staring blankly at the address of his female teacher in his hand.
"What should we do? Avoid him?" Yu Yezhou asked.
They were still on the first floor, with nowhere to hide. If they went upstairs, they would definitely encounter the owner of that voice.
But at that moment, Gu Zhan suddenly looked up and said, "Quick, go upstairs."
Yu Yezhou was taken aback: "Why? If we go up, we’ll definitely run into him!"
The person seemed to be descending slowly, and the dull sound became clearer, like chains dragging along the ground.
Gu Zhan quickly explained while moving upward, "The female teacher's house is on the second floor. As expected, all the doors here are locked. If we don't go in now, we can only maneuver with him in the stairwell and corridor. It's too narrow here; we won't have the advantage."
"Ah!" Yu Yezhou understood and hurried to catch up. "Let’s go, let’s go!"
They rushed upstairs, and to their surprise, the door to the room on the left on the second floor was open. Just as Gu Zhan's hand touched the doorknob, a sound of something slicing through the air came from above. At the same time, Yu Yezhou shouted, "Watch out!"
Gu Zhan quickly ducked to the side, and a steel chain brushed past his ear.
The edge of the chain was sharpened, like a blade that could easily cut hair.
Fortunately, Gu Zhan had reacted quickly; if he had been even a second late, half of his face would have been gone.
Everyone broke out in a cold sweat and looked up to see a disheveled, ragged man standing on the stairs above. He was holding a steel chain, breathing heavily, his eyes fixed intently on Gu Zhan, who had just opened the door.
"It's that father! Run!" Yu Yezhou shouted, pushing Gu Zhan.
Gu Zhan hurried into the room, followed closely by the others.
Seeing them enter the female teacher’s home only fueled the man's rage as he howled and charged toward them.
"Bang!"
The door slammed shut just in time, and the man crashed heavily against the door.
The door shook from the impact, nearly causing the three men inside to lose their balance.
Yu Yezhou felt his shoulder go numb from the impact and immediately turned to the others, saying, "Quick! Get the tables and benches to brace the door!"
Gu Zhan quickly teamed up with Sang Yue to push the shoe cabinet over, while Yu Yezhou wedged the cabinet against the door.
The man outside didn’t give up and continued to batter the door.
"Bang!"
"Bang bang!"
The force grew stronger with each blow!
The door creaked ominously, threatening to splinter.
"This door can't hold for long!" Yu Yezhou yelled. "You guys go check if there's anywhere else we can hide!"
Gu Zhan turned and rushed inside.
He knocked over all the chairs and benches in the living room, creating a narrow, winding barricade.
While this wouldn't stop the man outside, it would definitely slow him down.
Meanwhile, Sang Yue went further inside and, to her despair, realized this was just a normal residential house. Besides the bedroom, there were no doors on any of the other rooms!
One of the rooms emitted a foul stench, and the wooden door had already been damaged.
Sang Yue leaned in to take a look and quickly understood; it was almost certainly the place where that man had been held captive. The sheets were filthy and unrecognizable. The floor was piled with garbage, and even waste was directly thrown into the corner.
Pinching her nose, she stepped back from that room and said, "The female teacher imprisoned the man outside, and he escaped from inside. The only place to temporarily hide is the bedroom, but the door doesn’t look sturdy either!"
In the hallway, they were like a lone hero facing a crowd; inside the house, it was like trapping a turtle in a jar. They had no way out!
Just as they were speaking, the door they were bracing suddenly got hit hard, creating a large hole. The man's blood-red eyes pressed against the hole, staring inside.
His gaze landed on Yu Yezhou, and he broke into a creepy smile.
That eerie laugh sent chills down everyone’s spines.
Before anyone could react, Gu Zhan suddenly threw a teacup through the door gap. With a "bang," it hit its target.
The man's eye exploded instantly, and blood streamed down.
He screamed, covering his eyes and retreating, but then he became even more furious and began to smash against the door again.
The gap in the door grew wider, and the man seemed to remember he still had a weapon in hand. He swung the chain violently at the door.
"Clang!"
The steel chain slammed into the door. Its force wasn't as strong as the man's, but it managed to whip through the cracks and into the room.
The sharp edge grazed Xu Ke's cheek, instantly leaving a bloody trail!
An Heyan gasped, "Xu Ke!"
"I'm fine," Xu Ke immediately replied, but Yu Yezhou, closest to him, could see that half of his face was twitching.
That hit probably injured his bones too!
Yu Yezhou quickly said to Xu Ke and Xu Yu, who were with him at the door, "On the count of three, you guys let go, and we all run back together."
Gu Zhan said, "Look back at the road."
Yu Yezhou turned around for a quick glance, confirming the route before nodding, then raised his voice, "Three..."
"Bang!"
His voice coincided with the sound of the man crashing into the door.
The door continued to splinter, the gap widening to a large opening, allowing the man to reach his hand through.
Getting caught at this position would be nearly fatal, leaving no room for resistance.
Xu Ke was already injured and could only lean back.
As he pulled slightly away from the door, he and Yu Yezhou were unable to withstand the man's strength.
Yu Yezhou pushed against the shoe cabinet with all his might, his lips turning pale.
He continued shouting, "Two..."
"Crack, crack, crack..." The man reached his hand through the opening and swept it aside.
He hadn’t trimmed his nails in a long time; his black, curved nails grazed past Yu Yezhou's nose.
"One... Run!!"
Yu Yezhou shouted, releasing his hold on the shoe cabinet.
Gu Zhan and the others had been waiting at the door of the room. As soon as Yu Yezhou let go, the man immediately pushed the door open and stepped inside.
Unaware that the shoe cabinet was blocking the way inside, he stumbled and fell.
Angered, the man kicked the broken shoe cabinet aside and continued moving forward.
However, in the living room, Gu Zhan had already prepared gifts for him. The narrow path only allowed one person to pass at a time, and with the slightest misstep, he could be scraped by the nearby tables and chairs.
The man was strong, but his vision wasn’t great, especially after Gu Zhan had blinded him in one eye.
There was a cacophony of clattering sounds in the living room, but by the time Gu Zhan and the others had all entered the bedroom, the man still hadn’t pursued them, still struggling with the tables and chairs.
“Ha... Ugh!!”
As the bedroom door was closed, the man’s angry roars could still be faintly heard.
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