Frightening Joke: Above the Mist

"Citizens, please seek shelter on high ground, and avoid the rain..."

"Please seek shelter on high ground, and avoid the rain!"

Televisions, radios, phones, all terminals receiving signals echoed the same message.

The terrifying abnormality was like the collapsing gates of Hell, heavily weighing on everyone's hearts.

If this blood rain could still be barely explained with science, what happened next drove every citizen of Ye City to despair.

Those who died under the blood rain had their flesh separated from the bone, sinking completely into the blood water.

This blood water, as if guided by some force, dragged all the skeletons that died in the rain towards one direction—Ye City Center.

And the true terror lies precisely in this.

The survivors, clutching their phones, hid at home, praying for a chance of survival.

At this time, a video appeared online.

Or rather... it was a live broadcast.

This was launched by the armed forces Ye City could still mobilize, a... self-rescue operation.

Thousands armed to the teeth wrapped themselves tightly, forming a circle around the plaza at Ye City Center.

And in the footage, everyone saw...

The place they surrounded in the center was a massive, bottomless pit!

Countless streams of blood water carrying skeletons converged from all directions of Ye City, defying the laws of physics to flow into this giant sinkhole located at the city center.

This place was originally a plaza, but in the midst of the pouring rain, a pit with a five-meter radius abruptly appeared in the center of the plaza.

Initially, it indeed had only a five-meter radius.

But as the rain fell harder and more blood water and corpses gathered, the sinkhole grew larger!

By the time forces organized by Ye City arrived, the diameter of the sinkhole had expanded into a terrifying black hole over a hundred meters wide in a mere two hours.

All instruments malfunctioned the instant they flew over it.

No signal, no detection of the bottom, even light seemed to get swallowed up, barely able to illuminate a few meters around it, beyond which nothing was visible.

This sinkhole was also the only place in the entire Ye City where it wasn't raining.

————

Glancing at his phone, Bai Yanliang said to Bai Yanren in front of him, "Is this the door you want to open?"

"Not yet," Bai Yanren didn't turn his head.

Bai Yanliang continued staring at the phone screen.

The thousands of armed personnel were preparing to enter the pit.

Bai Yanliang's pupils constricted.

Among the advancing armed personnel, he spotted several familiar faces.

Yang Wanlong, Gao Fei, Tang Guo.

It's them?!

Frantically, Bai Yanliang opened his unfamiliar social media app.

Only then did he realize they had sent him many messages.

[Hide well, your brother is out, don't let him find you.] —Yang Wanlong.

[Master, are you okay? Don't go out, don't get caught in the rain, I can't make it in time, you must hide...] —Tang Guo.

[Brother Bai, do you know what's going on? Forget it... it's not important. Too many died in an instant, we have to go down and take a look.] —Gao Fei.

...

There were many such messages, most inquiring about his safety and thoughts on the cause of the blood rain.

Unfortunately, Bai Yanliang only saw them now.

"Where are you going."

Just as Bai Yanliang made a slight movement, Bai Yanren noticed.

"Here."

Bai Yanliang picked up his phone, the screen showing the massive sinkhole resembling a giant mouth eager to consume people.

"I said it's not time yet." Bai Yanren halted, turned to look at him, "What you need to do now is take me to find the next person with the key."

This person indeed had the face of his brother.

Bai Yanliang was a bit dazed.

"Alright."

Bai Yanliang didn't resist, nodded and continued to lead the way forward.

————

"Hey, there's a stairway leading down in the pit!"

Someone suddenly shouted at Ye City Center.

Since even flashlight beams were partially devoured by the pit, finding a suitable place to descend was extremely challenging.

There were enough people present that even if the flashlight could only illuminate two or three meters ahead, it was still sufficient.

As more stairways were discovered, speculations spread among the crowd.

Because... stairways implied civilization.

Whether it was an external civilization or an indigenous, long-lost one, the presence of stairways confirmed a certain level of intelligence.

Plus, with the torrential blood rain and blood water flowing back into the massive black hole... if a mysterious civilization indeed existed, this civilization's path might sharply contrast with humanity's.

Upon an order, teams descended the pit in succession.

This pit was very peculiar, with a spiral staircase along the wall that was remarkably clean, undisturbed by the blood water gathering and pouring in from above.

This was practically a spectacle.

The blood water formed a waterfall hanging overhead.

Inside the pit, there was no rain, no wind, and even the sound of it, nor any scent of blood.

Everyone who descended the spiral staircase on the pit wall experienced a moment of disorientation.

This massive black mouth not only swallowed light...

But also sound, and even perhaps... thoughts.

Whether it was the eerie scene causing everyone to tremble and lose focus, or if it was inherently like this.

Everyone felt their minds were becoming sluggish.

This was like... the state one experiences upon waking from a summer afternoon nap.

Everyone was on high alert, aware that everything happening now was utterly disconnected from their past lives, beyond comprehension by common sense.

For instance, these stairways chiseled into the pit wall, so far, each stairway was of identical size and angle, as if copy-pasted from a computer, with no discernible differences!

Yet, while attached to the pit wall, they appeared naturally formed, devoid of any carved marks.

"One hundred thirty-six, one hundred thirty-seven, one hundred thirty-eight..."

Someone was counting.

This place was incredibly abnormal, without counting, the perfectly identical stairways and the soundless blood water flowing from the upper entrance would make one believe they were moving in place.

"This place... is so incredible..." Young police officer Tang Guo narrowly escaped being drenched by the blood rain initially.

But soon, she was selected for a special task force to investigate the massive sinkhole at the city center.

Though calling it a team... it far surpassed the scale of a squad.

At that moment, Yang Wanlong was also behind her, silent for a long time after hearing this.

Others might not know, but he... could see clearly.

The material of this pit wall was not the soil from the city's underground.

Instead, it was... the place he had visited, where a man had been confined for ten years.

The place where he had always been trapped.