Chapter 437: The Otherworld
Chapter 437: The Otherworld
From the blood pool that was only a few centimeters deep, suddenly, a human hand with sharp nails stretched out, and then a second, a third, a fourth...
At last, a woman with four arms and disheveled hair crawled out of the pool of blood slowly. Her hair had covered her face. She suddenly scuttled forward in the dim environment and rapidly clambered onto the wall. There, she unleashed an ear-piercing scream and she crawled into the darkness like a gecko...
This scream ran through the corridor and echoed directly in the ears of Chen Chen and the many students next to the elevator. These students seemed to be rather on edge and many people screamed subconsciously.
“What’s that sound? It sounds like a woman’s scream but also like the sound of scraping glass, but in reality, it’s more terrifying than any of these!”
Someone was startled and asked in fright.
“Maybe it’s your mother calling you to go home for dinner.”
Zhang Wei glanced at that person as if they were an idiot as he retorted.
“Surely, surely not, I’m wondering if it’s a ghost...”
That student stammered.
“Why are you asking if you already know? Why don’t you quickly light your candle?”
Zhang Wei looked at his flashlight nervously and then said confidently, “Don’t panic, the flashlight in my hand hasn’t flickered yet, which means the ghost hasn’t yet entered the hunting phase. We’re safe! If it enters the hunting phase, we only need to each find a room to hide in and anyway, there are so many rooms here!”
“But the doors of these rooms are locked...”
Someone said feebly.
“F*ck?”
Zhang Wei was suddenly at a loss. He had forgotten about that.
Currently, Chen Chen, who was standing in the dark, also heard this sound.
“The sound came from the location of the server room. In other words, it was a trap in there...”
Chen Chen thought silently. He tried to contact Little X but found that the signal had been interrupted long ago. After he witnessed the elevator directly falling into an abyss, it was obvious that they were no longer underground in the previous building, but had been drawn into a peculiar space.
Although he was no longer the same person he used to be, Chen Chen was not so arrogant as to run into danger headfirst. Whether it was the T-virus he was infected with, which was comparable to the strength of a weakened U.S. military team or his Field energy that could withstand bullets, they could only deal with conventional situations. If it was a supernatural situation like this, these powers had no effect at all.
Everything he had experienced up until now had gone beyond reality and was more like a weapon created by a meme...
In other words, Zhao Shanhe or another person behind the scenes had a set of memetic technology that was almost fully mature, which could induce the memetic effect to produce such complicated tricks?
This thought occurred to Chen Chen but in the next second, it was immediately rejected by him.
No, impossible!
If this was the case, then why should the other person be so sneaky? Would it not be grand to kill Chen Chen directly and take the USB drive away?
After all, if Chen Chen was faced with developed memetic technology, he would be powerless to fight back.
Thus, if that was not the case, what was this meme, which could draw him and everyone on this floor into a strange space?
Could it be...
Suddenly, a spark went off in Chen Chen’s mind and a possibility came to his mind.
“Could it be that? But how is that possible... How can the USB flash drive accept such a movie...”
Chen Chen was a little surprised but then he thought about it. “If this is the case, then I should mix in with the crowd first. I’ll see what happens then...”
Thinking of this, Chen Chen heard a whispering sound behind him as if something was slowly approaching. Therefore, he stopped hesitating and walked directly in the direction of the rest.
Chen Chen’s footsteps sounded from the darkness. Hearing this sound, everyone turned their heads like frightened birds, staring at the darkness. Several female classmates screamed at once and shrank behind Zhang Wei.
Zhang Wei also jumped in fright, but when he thought of the crucifix in his hand and the performance that he was putting on, he gradually gained a trace of confidence. He asked loudly, “Who is sneaking around there? I, Zhang Wei, ask you to come out!”
“It’s me.”
Chen Chen walked out of the darkness. He looked at Zhang Wei and a glimmer of puzzlement and helplessness appeared in his eyes.
This was not because of the lanky young man’s boastful pretense from beginning to end, but because of his voice. If Chen Chen remembered correctly, he had heard it in Dorm 404 before.
The owner of that voice had also been called Zhang Wei.
Did this mean that this guy had followed him here? How excellent!
Chen Chen twitched the corners of his mouth. He did not expect that his marvelous self, an amalgamation of “Alice” and “Andrew”, would one day be tracked by an ordinary person, without him noticing it at that.
“So, it’s you!”
Putting aside the jumble of thoughts in Chen Chen’s mind at this time, when Zhang Wei saw Chen Chen’s face, he also gasped, apparently recognizing the figure from the surveillance feed. “You eavesdropped on the conversation in our dormitory before and you’re a pervert with a door fetish?”
“Door fetish?”
Chen Chen gaped and understood that he would not have any meaningful exchange with such a person. He immediately changed the subject wisely. “I just heard a scream coming from the end of the corridor. Something seems to be approaching us from the dark. If you don’t want to die, I suggest we come up with a plan as soon as possible...”
There was a mad scramble after everyone heard this.
“Don’t panic, everyone!”
Zhang Wei said loudly and at the same time, looked at Chen Chen vigilantly. “Ordinary people may have been fooled by you at once, but I, Zhang Wei, am different. I’ve already discovered a huge flaw in your words!”
With that said, Zhang Wei could not help but sneer. “You said something was approaching in the dark, then why did you stay in the dark just now? Did you make the scream? You’re a ghost!”
As soon as he said these words, everyone’s expressions changed again and their eyes turned to Chen Chen with a flash of fear and horror.
Chen Chen frowned and had to say, “I’m human, not a ghost.”
“Oh, no?”
Zhang Wei thought for a while, then simply held up the crucifix. “If you’re not a ghost, would you dare to look directly at the crucifix?”
As he said, he moved toward Chen Chen step by step. At the same time, when everyone was still behind him, he surreptitiously put his left hand into his crotch, took it out, and quickly smeared something on the crucifix.
“What the f*ck are you doing?”
Chen Chen’s scalp turned numb and he quickly leaped back.
“Haha, you’ve been exposed. You’re a ghost indeed!”
Seeing this, Zhang Wei laughed coldly. He moved back directly and jumped back in front of everyone. “You’re not afraid of the crucifix, but you’re afraid of the urine of young boys! You’re indeed a ghost and you’re a Chinese ghost who doesn’t believe in God!”
Everyone was shocked. They looked at the wet crucifix in Zhang Wei’s hand and his wet crotch. Some girls who had been hiding behind Zhang Wei trustingly suddenly turned blank and looked at them both in bewilderment.
The rest of the people wore a baffled look on their faces and suddenly felt that the lanky young man in front of them seemed a little unreliable...
However, just as the situation gradually became awkward, there was another spine-tingling scream from the depths of the corridor. At the same time, a rustling sound could be heard, like the sound of something crawling.
After hearing this sound, the crowd suddenly screamed again and everyone kept rushing toward the stairs and elevator entrance at the end of the corridor.
At this time, Chen Chen’s eyes had taken on a serious gaze. He turned his head abruptly and the surrounding Field tightly enveloped him.
The flashlight in Zhang Wei’s hand instinctively pointed behind Chen Chen but he happened to see that on the ceiling of the corridor, a red figure was darting past!
In the gloom, he could even make out that it was a woman with long hair...
“Ahh!”
The group erupted into another screech. This time, everyone was fully convinced that ghosts were real.
“Heh heh, it’s just trying to scare us to lower our sanity level. Don’t fall for it...”
Zhang Wei twitched his mouth stiffly and said with a forced smile.
“You say that, but why are you trembling?”
A young man on the side asked shakily because everyone could see that Zhang Wei was shaking more than everyone at this point. Even the beam of the flashlight in his hand was quaking rapidly...
Chen Chen had been paying close attention to the scream deep in the corridor, but because of his fusion with the T-virus, his eyesight was much better than that of ordinary people. Even in such a dark corridor, he could see the figure.
That figure was a woman with four arms crawling on the wall like a spider!
Laura!
Chen Chen felt a violent jolt in his heart and he immediately called out the monster’s name.
The reason Chen Chen could call out its name was that this was a monster from a game, but how could a monster in a game appear in reality?
Thinking of this, Chen Chen immediately turned his head and looked at the crowd with a solemn expression. “Which of you have played The Evil Within?”
“Me... Me!”
After hearing this, a short boy immediately stammered out a reply. “So, you’ve seen it too. That monster just now, is it The Evil Within’s La, Lau, Ra, Laura?”
Hearing these words, Chen Chen’s eyes suddenly lit up. He walked quickly toward the boy, who constantly retreated in alarm.
“You, what are you trying to do?”
“Did you talk about this game just now?”
Chen Chen stared steadily at the boy, giving him a huge amount of pressure. “Tell me, did you just talk about this game with someone?”
“I didn’t. It’s just that I’ve been playing through this old game recently, so I was thinking about the strategy in my mind...”
The boy swiftly said in fear.
“As I thought!”
Chen Chen raised his eyebrows and he looked down the corridor again. The red figure of Laura had long disappeared. Chen Chen said immediately, “In this case, Wang Liang, take everyone away and climb out of here!”
Chen Chen pointed to the head of the Publicity Department of the student council who had remained silent all this time and said in an unquestionable tone, “Climb out of the elevator shaft. I have been here before and I know that it’s the exit!”
“Really?”
Wang Liang was shocked. He was half-skeptical at first, but when he saw Chen Chen’s eyes, he felt his body shudder and all his doubts disappeared. Then, he gritted his teeth and said to the group, “Everyone, come with me!”
With that said, he leaned out himself and looked into the elevator shaft.
After the elevator had dropped down, there was only a black abyss left in the elevator shaft. Even just glancing at it would make people feel weak in the knees. Nonetheless, at this time, the group did not care about this anymore. They suddenly discovered that, on the outer wall of the elevator shaft, there was a stairway for people to climb through!
This staircase was embedded in the elevator space. Although its appearance was astonishing, everyone understood that this was probably the only way out...
Many people instantly began to scramble and one by one they went frantically to the elevator shaft and prepared to climb up the stairs inside.
At this time, there was another piercing scream from the depths of the corridor. This time, Chen Chen did not hesitate anymore. His Field energy stretched out directly, heading toward the depths of the corridor.
It covered five meters, ten meters, fifteen meters...
Chen Chen’s Field energy stretched ahead for 20 meters. This level was close to the strength of Chen Chen’s Field in the dream world!
This immense power gave Chen Chen a flicker of confidence and he peered into the darkness, trying to spot Laura’s shadow.
If his guess was not wrong, the dimension he had been drawn into now was the meme of the old movie Silent Hill, a memetic effect called the “Otherworld”...
Chen Chen thought silently. After all, the withered, decayed floors and walls, and the space that was isolated from the outside world — these characteristics were very close to the old movie Silent Hill, from nearly 20 years ago.
As for the Otherworld in that movie, it was created by the huge hatred in the heart of a little girl, Alessa, who was brutally bullied, burned by the townspeople, but was later rescued...
In the movie, Alessa was cast aside by everyone because of the influence of the local church. She was furthermore bullied and humiliated. In the end, she was even immolated by the church as a sacrifice to God. Although she was eventually rescued, the seeds of hatred were planted in the young girl’s heart.
Her hatred turned into a demon, trapping all the residents in that small town in the Otherworld she had created.
Not only that but her hatred had turned into a group of extremely terrifying monsters, who continued to slaughter the villagers. It seemed that only by killing them all could the hatred in her heart be vented.
The reason Chen Chen did not think of this at first was just that this was not science fiction but a horror film.
Chen Chen had never expected that such a horror film that involved religion would be recognized by the USB flash drive.
Indeed, it could only manifest in the real world if it was recognized by the USB drive.
If this was the case, Laura’s appearance could also be explained...
The Otherworld’s memetic ability was to create an alternate dimension. At the same time, all the dark sides of one’s heart would turn into monsters and attack everyone.
In other words, this memetic effect must have an anchor point. Just as the Otherworld in Silent Hill was conceived of by Alessa, now, the Otherworld Chen Chen was in must also have a human being as the carrier.
This carrier had a high probability of being random. It could be anyone, so the short boy just now had become the anchor of the Otherworld this time.
Therefore, Chen Chen had asked the question “Which of you have played The Evil Within?” after seeing Laura.
Moreover, since that guy was the anchor point, if he wanted to leave, it should be achievable with just one thought. That was why Chen Chen said to them that there was an exit in the elevator shaft.
When the guy thought there was an exit in the elevator shaft, then it was very likely that there was an exit there...
All these thoughts flashed through Chen Chen’s mind. At this time, he only had one purpose and that was to block Laura who was about to attack everyone and allow the boy who was the anchor point to escape from this place. This was the only way for the Otherworld meme to collapse of its own volition.