The World Below Surface

After the previous task-takers left, his world would go back to normal, including himself.

But not this time...

Lu Yan touched his left eye, feeling a sharp pain. He shut his other eye, but his vision was still dim and blurry. He could barely see.

The effects of the failed mission extended beyond the mission itself!

The mummies in the museum came to life, hunting down the children. The kids ran and shrieked, but one little girl was caught and dragged into a glass display case. Her parents watched with a smile as their daughter shrivelled up, before reaching out to get her back.

The little girl slipped from her parents' grasp, thud, thud, thud, and dashed outside, bumping into Lu Yan.

"Are you crying, big brother?" She grinned, her hollow eyes staring at his face.

Lu Yan looked away, glancing at the mirror. He saw the blood on his eye, making him look ghastly and frightening.

He didn't wait for the little girl to say more. He left.

Behind him, everyone in the museum froze, turning their heads in unison, watching him leave in silence.

A cold shiver ran down Lu Yan's spine as he sensed the oppressive silence that enveloped the museum. He did not dare to glance behind him, fearing what he might see. He flung the door open and hurried down the stairs.

But it was too late. Even outside, he felt everyone's eyes on him, piercing through his skin with a faint but unmistakable hostility. They watched him with a morbid curiosity, as if he were a specimen on display.

He knew the reason for their attention.

He had seen this before: whenever he was the sole survivor of a mission, he would soon be plagued by unnatural phenomena that defied explanation.

And now, it was happening again...

A clown girl came bouncing towards him, her face a hideous mask of paint and blood. She had carved a grin on her face, extending from the corners of her mouth to her ears, exposing her teeth and gums. And on her nose, she had attached another person's severed nose, creating a grotesque parody of a clown's nose.

"Take a look!"

With a cheerful tone, a little girl in a clown costume approached Lu Yan, thrusting a brochure into his face.

Lu Yan recoiled, but her hand followed his movement, forcing him to look at the brochure.

It was an advertisement for a quaint town, where one could enjoy the rustic charm of nature and culture.

"Would you like to join us, sir?" The clown girl asked, flashing a smile that exposed the gory wounds on her mouth. She had cut her lips open, creating a permanent grin that reached her ears.

"Don't you want to see?"

"Go on, take a peek..."

A toy doll on a pumpkin carriage rolled towards Lu Yan, encircling him. It sang nursery rhymes in a high-pitched voice.

Lu Yan froze, unable to move. The clown girl stared at him with unblinking black eyes, her smile turning into a sneer. Her eyes glinted with malice.

"Come on... take a look..." She extended her arm.

The brochure showed a face, not a clown's, but a traditional Chinese opera mask. It was painted with bright colours, and it smiled at Lu Yan. It joined the doll in singing.

He was surrounded by a crowd of listeners, but Lu Yan was deaf to the song. He knew that it would be bad if he could hear what they were hearing.

"Go... go..." Lu Yan reluctantly grabbed the flyer from the little girl's hand.

She let out a delighted laugh, and leaped into the pumpkin carriage next to the doll. She morphed into another doll, identical to the first one. The two dolls, with their long lashes and sinister faces, sang a tune as they rode away in the carriage, pulled by a small pony.

Lu Yan was left alone in the middle of the road, clutching the ominous flyer.

He had no other option but to go.

*

*

"Yi Zhen Zhen, please step outside for a moment."

The homeroom teacher's voice interrupted the morning reading class, and summoned Yi Zhen Zhen to the door. As soon as she left, a ripple of anxiety ran through the class. They noticed the homeroom teacher's grim expression, which reminded them of the time when a student she had mentored had vanished without a trace.

Yi Zhen Zhen was a quiet girl, who never stood out in the class. Her classmates quickly whispered their guesses, but their curiosity was cut short by the arrival of the English teacher, who looked equally sombre. The students obediently resumed their vocabulary drills.

No one found out what had happened. Yi Zhen Zhen came back to the classroom in tears, stuffing her belongings into her bag. She said she had to go home for a few days.

Her desk mate, who had barely exchanged a word with her in a year, tried to ask her what was wrong, but she shook her head, refusing to answer. She dashed out of the room with her backpack.

The homeroom teacher followed her home, watching her face with concern all the way.

"Zhen Zhen, you're a brave girl, you have to...have to be strong. Your mom would hate to see you suffer like this..." The class teacher repeated herself several times, feeling like she was adding insult to injury.

Zhen Zhen sat motionless in the back seat, not making a sound.

After a long pause, she said, "If you need anything, just let me know. Everyone is here for you."

Yi Zhen Zhen stayed silent.

Her tears fell without a sob. She reached the police station with swollen eyes, filled out a stack of forms, and followed the class teacher to the morgue.

As soon as she saw the body, Yi Zhen Zhen collapsed, weeping. The few police officers who were there also felt a lump in their throats, and looked away to hide their tears.

The class teacher went to find out more about the case.

The body was discovered in a haunted house at an amusement park, along with six other victims, three women and four men. It was reported that a forensic student who was visiting the haunted house had noticed something odd with the decorations in one of the rooms, and had alerted the police. The haunted house turned out to be a macabre display of real corpses. The haunted house had been closed down for investigation.

But everyone had a sinking feeling that this would be another unsolved mystery, like the ones before, where the killer had vanished without a trace and the deaths where stated as suicides.

"It wasn't suicide. Something happened to her," Yi Zhen Zhen insisted, with a firm tone.

The police officer pressed, "Are you sure? Did she show any signs of distress lately? Joining any religious groups, maybe?"

Lately, they had been dealing with several new cases, all linked to cults. Whenever they encountered a situation like this, where a group of people died in a bizarre way, they suspected the involvement of the cults that were spreading like a plague.

Yi Zhen Zhen racked her brain, but finally shook her head slowly.

Then, the police showed her some photos of the other victims in this case. Yi Zhen Zhen denied knowing any of them.

After a long and exhausting process, the sky turned dark, and the homeroom teacher escorted Yi Zhen Zhen out of the police station.

Before she could think of a way to console Yi Zhen Zhen, the girl spoke first, "Teacher, I'm okay. Can I have a few days off to sort things out, please?"

The homeroom teacher, feeling helpless, gave her some advice, and left reluctantly, looking back every few steps.

Soon after, a tall, thin man trailed behind the girl.

He was none other than Chu Xiu.

Chu Xiu monitored the rising trend of local deaths that defied explanation. When he learned about the seven bizarre fatalities in a specific area, he recognized the signs of another mission.

There were few recent posts from task-takers on the website. Those who used to eagerly share their experiences were disappearing, and some even attempted to spread religious propaganda, only to be swiftly removed and banned by the site's administrators.

He felt a twinge of unease.

Did these task-takers choose not to share, or did they fail to complete their missions? Thus, no one had any clue what their missions were.

Like this time.

After finding out the address of Yi Zhen Zhen, Chu Xiu departed, heading to examine the surveillance footage in that area.

He understood why the police suspected a cult involvement. The video from the haunted house cameras was chilling. Seven people entered the haunted house, acting normally at first - talking, laughing. But after midnight, in a flash, they all dropped dead.

Another... total annihilation.

He wondered what kind of mission they had accepted this time, that none of them returned alive.

Lately, the tasks they had received had grown more and more bizarre and dangerous, taking them to worlds that were stranger than ever. These realms bore no resemblance to their own, sometimes even mirroring scenes from apocalyptic films.

The death toll had risen, but in contrast, there was a steady stream of newcomers. The number of task performers had not dwindled; rather, it had increased.

Chu Xiu's latest assignment had brought him to a strange underworld. He was the only veteran among the group; the rest were all rookies. The mission was extremely difficult, and he was the sole survivor.

He felt the red mark on his body, thinking of someone.

The worlds that task performers explored were not always the same, but wherever they went, whatever kind of NPCs they met, he had never come across anyone like Lu Yan—someone inexplicable.

Chu Xiu even had a faint suspicion that Lu Yan had detected the anomaly of the horrific world they were in and the intrusion of outsiders.

What made him so different?

Chu Xiu did not know, but he remained loyal to his promise, cohabiting with that idol. He was relieved that after the weird incident that day, nothing else out of the ordinary had happened.

His phone rang, interrupting his thoughts.

"Hello? Miss Lin?" Chu Xiu picked up the call, and saw Lin Chu's name on the screen.

On the other side of the line, Lin Chu sounded courteous, asking him to meet her the next day. She said she had some issues about the mission that she wanted to talk to him about.

Chu Xiu smelled a trap, but he was confident in his skills, so he played along. He exchanged a few clever words with her, and agreed to her request. Feeling restless, he took out some parts from his home safe, quickly put together his gun, and loaded it with bullets.

On the other end of the call, Lin Chu was in a private room, aiming the gun at Yu Huai Yao's head. An Ru was lying on the floor, his head bleeding profusely.

"If you have any brains, you'll know what to keep to yourself and what to spill," Lin Chu said coldly after ending the call, glaring at Yu Huai Yao. "Believe it or not, I had nothing to do with Yu Huan's death."

Yu Huai Yao, with his back to her, lifted his hands. "If you're innocent, why can't you tell me how he died?"

"Huh? Didn't I tell you already? Killed by ghosts. Do you buy that?" Lin Chu pushed the gun forward, roughly hitting Yu Huai Yao on the back of his head. Lin Chu's eyes were full of rage that contrasted with her cute appearance. "You lost your loved ones, and so did I. I suggest you, if you really want to avenge them, don't bother me."

"Revenge..." Yu Huai Yao whispered these two words, "What are you planning to do?"

He received a brutal hit on the back of his head with the gun's handle, followed by the last words he heard before blacking out - "It's none of your business."

Lin Chu tucked away her new gun, bent down to check that the two were still breathing, then crawled out of the compartment window and ran down the alley.

The waiter had been waiting for a long time, and it was only when the evening was almost over that he decided to knock on the door. He opened the compartment door, and let out a shriek. He quickly called the police.

*

*

It was the weekend, and a group of girls from a certain class gathered around the TV on the class's all-in-one machine. They were all infatuated with a male celebrity, and at that moment, the TV was showing an interview with that celebrity.

"Everyone, love me as if your life depends on it, love me with your life!" The handsome man smiled.

"He's so handsome..." The girl nearest to the screen flushed.

"Speaking of which, he told us to love him with our lives, but we already adore him so much." A girl in the back row said, "I've followed the fan club's instructions, stained a red thread with my own blood, and wished for his fortune."

"Me too, me too. I even tattooed his name on my body, without any painkillers."

The class president suddenly rose, spreading her arms, with a fervent expression, "Don't you get it? Loving with our lives means giving up our lives for him!"

She gestured outside with her hand, "How amazing would it be if we all jumped from the rooftop together? He would be overjoyed, wouldn't he?"

"Definitely!"

"It makes perfect sense! It's a rare opportunity that the teacher is absent now. Should we seize the moment?"

"But..."

"No 'buts'! Don't you adore him?"

"Of course, I adore him the most!" The challenged girl promptly got up. "Come on, everyone. We'll link hands and jump together."

"Great! Linking hands, let's jump together!"

All thirty-one girls in the class marched to the school rooftop, clasping hands, chanting the name of the same man, and jumped.

*

*

“Reportedly, thirty-one female students from a certain university have collectively jumped off a building for unknown reasons. As of now, the death toll stands at thirty-one, and further investigation is currently underway.”

Lin Chu listened to the news, frowning deeper and deeper.

What was wrong with people these days? Why were there so many strange news stories?

She printed out this specific news piece and added it to her pile.

The record book was bulky, and for the odd events in the city this month alone, she had filled three pages. She shuddered to think how much it would be if the scale widened to the whole country or even the entire world.

She glanced at her watch, and realised the time for her meeting with Chu Xiu was near. Lin Chu opened a drawer, grabbed a pistol, armed herself with various homemade drugs, and left her home to drive to a park.

She muttered Chu Xiu's name, and without knowing it, her eyes blazed with murderous intent.