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There was dead silence in the room.
On the blurry glass, framed by a twisted window frame, were still handprints left from being slammed. It looked like the marks left by a struggle, engraved on the eyes of a man in despair.
Through the window, one can see that the open space outside has returned to barrenness and silence, the dead branches stretching out into the sky, like the five fingers of a hand.
If it weren’t for the large bloodstains that were wetting the ground, it would almost make one think that everything was just an illusion.
Mo Yi gazed at the bright bloodstains on the ground for a few seconds, then averted his eyes and turned around.
Mo Yi was startled as soon as he turned just halfway.
The Players throughout the room were staring at him.
The female player who had spoken just now hesitated, then stepped forward, and asked, “What… did you say just now? What crooked man? Do you know anything?”
As the last sentence was voiced, her eyes became extremely sharp, staring at Mo Yi intensely, as if trying to see through him.
Mo Yi pursed his lips and said, “This is a nursery rhyme. Its name is crooked-man.”
He paused, lowered his eyes slightly, then continued: “The so-called ‘life of Solomon Grundy’ mentioned in the clues, like this crooked-man, comes from a collection of British nursery rhymes … ‘Mother Goose Nursery Rhymes’.”
Several players had apparently heard the name of the nursery rhymes, and were shocked when they were told of it.
Whispers sounded in the crowd, and people who didn’t understand murmured in confusion and asked each other in low voices.
Mo Yi stood patiently and watched the insiders of the players explain it for others.
What exactly are ”Mother Goose Nursery Rhymes”?
Although the name of this collection of nursery rhymes sounded kind and childlike, they were terrifying because of its dark background, and its contents were much “richer” than the version seen by the public today.
Because of the bloody and cruel sentences in some of the old nursery rhymes, many people even called them “horror nursery rhymes”.
However, since the original version of “Mother Goose Nursery Rhymes” has been mostly cut and modified to the editions published today, it is still difficult for most people to see the complete version.
The female veteran who just spoke frowned deeply, and asked slowly as she pondered:
“So … Do you suspect that this instance is related to this nursery rhyme?”
Mo Yi nodded.
People couldn’t help but feel creeped out and the atmosphere became more depressing. Less than an hour after the beginning of the instance, three players have been killed, and the fact that this is related to the black nursery rhyme made this instance even more strange and heavy.
The female veteran broke the silence first and took the lead in extending her right hand to Mo Yi: “My name is Yu Ran.”
Mo Yi raised his eyebrows, and held the woman’s white and slender palm, introducing himself: “Mo Yi.”
Yu Ran turned her head and said to the other players, “Everyone can say their name, so we know what to call each other.”
When the players heard that, they also reported their names one by one. The original tension in the air relaxed a lot, and everyone was no longer as afraid and tense as before.
Mo Yi glanced at Yu Ran, and stretched his eyebrows again.
This time, the instance didn’t last long, and there were a lot of people, so the difficulty was quite hard. In this kind of difficulty, everything was very dangerous, and the death interval of the players would become extremely short. In the next second someone is likely to die, and self-introduction will not improve the chance of survival.
We’re sorry for MTLers or people who like using reading mode, but our translations keep getting stolen by aggregators so we’re going to bring back the copy protection. If you need to MTL please retype the gibberish parts.
However, the atmosphere that was just tense and choking, was eased by the suggestion alone.
Ktf yfcfolar beakflut atf vlrjvnjcajufr.
Ca atlr wbwfca, Zb Tl ofia j riluta abemt bc tlr qjiw.
Lf ogbhf jcv ibbxfv ja atf qfgrbc rajcvlcu cfza ab tlw. Lf rjk j ajii wjc klat j rtjgq ojmf jcv j qjlg bo wlras iluta ugjs fsfr rajglcu ja tlw.
Lf rjlv, “Gb sbe ilxf tfg?”
Mo Yi was startled and looked subconsciously at the other players beside him, only to find that they didn’t notice, and then he remembered … the sound of the Mist seemed to be heard only by him.
He was slightly relieved.
He wrote and drew with his fingers on the hand of the other person’s palm: [l wouldn’t know, but she is very careful in her thinking]
Just after writing the first few words, Mo Yi suddenly realized that something was wrong. He raised his eyebrows high, looked at the Mist suspiciously, and his actions changed:
[What do you ask this for?]
The other side looked serious, but answered casually:
“Nothing, just asking.”
Mo Yi frowned at him suspiciously, without asking more.
Suddenly, he seemed to remember something, and once again wrote and drew in the palm of the Mists hand:
[By the way, what’s your name?]
The Mist seemed to be stunned, as if he didn’t expect Mo Yi to ask this question.
He frowned, thought for a moment, and then answered:
“I don’t have a name.”
Suddenly, just at this moment, a soft “creak” came from the door.
Mo Yi was startled, stopped the movement of his hand, raised his eyes and looked at the source of the sound.
The door that wouldn’t move before, opened slowly on its own. After halfway, it stopped as a matter of course, and through the half opened door gap, one could see the rich darkness and barren land outside.
Everyone was silent, standing rigidly in place.
Nothing happened.
Mo Yi tilted sideways a little, adjusted his angle, and raised his eyes to look out of the door.
–There was nothing on the dry and soft ground. The blood-stained ground was now clean and dry, and there was no trace of blood, as if the ground had sucked it all up.
Mo Yi looked out the window.
The other bloodstains were gone.
The ground was scarily clean.
A hoarse, metallic sound was heard.
Intermittent, as if a jammed radio, a broken record or a broken music box.
A vague children’s voice hummed.
But the content of the humming was masked by the noisy sound, making it impossible to recognize every word.
In the gloomy and silent room, the strange and untuned notes echoed, which could arouse the most primitive fear in everyone’s heart.
From the depths of the shapeless corridor came the sound of tiny footsteps.
Not like a human’s.
The dense crackling sound hit the wooden ground, making one feel numb and wanting to flee.
However, the door was still equally dangerous, and he wondered if the crooked-man would jump out again in the next second.
This is a dilemma. One side is an abyss and the other a fire pit. There is almost no way out, so everyone couldn’t help but look desperate.
The scratching sounds deeper in the corridors were getting closer.
Everyone moved to the door involuntarily, away from the source of the sound.
The candlelight in the room grew dimmer, casting a swaying shadow on the distorted walls. The shaking light seemed to pinch the heart, and choke one’s throat.
A monstrous figure slowly appeared in the entrance of the hallway, with its arched back, it had half the height of a human, appearing between darkness and chaos. The scalp scratching sound was clear as if it were in one’s ear.
That kind of slowly approaching fear can drive almost any normal person into madness!
Some people finally couldn’t stand it. Their bodies shaking with fear as they ran towards the door in a lifeless way. There was only one thought in their heart: Stay away from it! Further away!
Four or five people swarmed out of the door, almost getting stuck in the already narrow door frame.
Mo Yi’s heart was also beating in his throat.
At this moment, he felt the Mist next to him stretch out his hand and hold his wrist, a cold feeling came from the skin where he touched, it gave him inexplicably a sense of peace. Mo Yi froze, and turned his head to look at him.
He saw him looking into the depths of the corridor, his jaw tightening, and shaking his head slightly.
–Don’t move.
The next second, the weird figure in the deep corridor sprang out instantly!
Directly towards the door!
Then everyone saw it clearly –it was a giant weird mouse!
It is about half a person tall and has no fur on its body. Instead, it looked like inverted skin, which was irregularly covered with wrinkled black sutures, seeming to be stitched together crookedly by needle and thread. It was horrifyingly covered in red blood.
The rotten meat dripped along in its movement, and the thick bloody smell was almost disgusting.
It ignored the other players standing in the middle of the room, and rushed directly to the door. A player crowding at the door subconsciously turned back and saw such a terrible scene, at once he could not help but scream.
The mouse opened its crooked mouth, exposing sharp teeth, and biting the thigh of the screaming man severely, then pulling at it hard. It instantly dragged the man to the ground like a broken doll.
As the others crowding in the doorway decided on what to do, the pressure that held them in standstill eased, and they ran out in fear.
After a time, out of the shadow of the corridor, two more huge mice came out!
There was more than one of these terrible creatures!
They rushed straight out the door, chasing the players who were fleeing.
The child hummed with a broken voice, louder and louder, singing the same tune again and again.
The first mouse held down the struggling, screaming man, its sharp claws sinking into the man’s head like chopped tofu.
The poor man twitched, and the screaming stopped abruptly.
It pulled out its claws.
From Mo Yi’s perspective, he could see that there were two eyeballs full of blood and brain matter in its sharp and bloody claws.
Eyeballs?
A thought hit Mo Yi instantly.
He looked at the face of the mouse, and saw that its pointed face was ugly and distorted by needle stitching. There were no eyes in its eye sockets, only a terribly big mouth, which was still dripping blood.
Mo Yi turned his eyes to look at the other players who were standing stiffly in the room. His black eyes locked firmly at their pale faces, which were deformed by fear. He shook his head gently, making a gesture for silence near his lips.
–They can’t see anything.
The direction of its prey can only be discerned by hearing.
Without speaking, it is possible to live.
The intermittent chorus of the nursery rhyme became louder and clearer, and Mo Yi could discern some of the words.
He can even complete the lyrics in his heart–
”Three blind mice! See how they run!
They all ran after the farmer’s wife.
She cut off their tails with a carving knife
Did you ever see such a sight in your life as three blind mice?”
Mo Yi’s heart couldn’t help but feel a chill as he listened to the jammed and broken child’s voice.
–Another song.
TN: Hello readers. After taking a peak at the next chapters, I decided to change how I translate a few things:
Everything the players read or hear from this instance (songs, nursery rhymes, etc.) was originally written in Englisch. After the english version, was a translated chinese version. For this instance I will leave the original english version, and remove the translated chinese version, to avoid hindering the reading flow by repeating a section.
I will do this to the end of the instance, unless I make a note of it otherwise.
I will also edit the last chapter accordingly.