Congratulations on Your Successful Escape

Mo Yi was startled and subconsciously took a few steps forward.

The mask laid quietly on the headboard of the bed, with a thick layer of dust on it. The dark glass eyes were also stained with dust and of a misty color. The silver-white beak was bent and stretched, hanging from the edge of the headboard. 

Seeing that the look in his eyes was wrong, Yu Ran followed his line of sight, and her expression couldn’t help but become serious:

“What? Is there any problem with this mask?”

Mo Yi’s gaze remained tightly locked on the mask, he pursed his lips and replied:

“In the Middle Ages, when the Black Death spread, doctors of that era would wear strictly black linen robes and masks like this in order to prevent infection.” 

–The Black Death, the plague, the ghost that once hovered over the European continent, took away nearly one-third of the population of the European continent with death and terror.

Mo Yi lowered his eyes slightly, his long eyelashes covering the look in his eyes, leaving a deep shadow on his pale cheeks.

He paused, then continued:

“I’m wondering…whether the previous mice have anything to do with this.”

Yu Ran’s face also became serious, and a pair of beautiful eyes looked at the mask deeply.

Mo Yi didn’t say anything anymore, just took a few steps forward. He was about to get a closer look–

A low humming came from outside the door.

The past intermittent humming of nursery rhymes, which sounded like they came from a music box, were different to this voice. It was soft now, as if it was sung by a real child. 

The immature child’s voice was humming an unknown tune in a low voice, which seemed extraordinarily bizarre in the room.

But for some reason, this voice sounded… muffled, and it was extremely difficult to recognize the lyrics of the song.

All the players involuntarily stopped what they were doing.

They looked at each other, both seeing the same horror and panic on each other’s faces. 

The cold air in the house penetrated through the texture of their clothing along with the child’s low humming. It climbed up along the bones and skin, arousing a deep sense of coldness and fear.

Mo Yi’s complexion became paler and paler, and his dark eyes turned extremely bright, as if they were shaded with a compelling look.

Ignoring Yu Ran’s small voice behind him, he turned around and walked slowly, step by step, towards the place where the sound originated.

The closer to the source of the sound, the clearer the humming. 

Mo Yi walked out of the room and entered the hall. The sound of the nursery rhyme surrounded the room, and the twisted and uneven building structure seemed to him even more strange.

He noticed that in addition to himself, many other players were also in the lobby.

Mo Yi held his breath and continued to walk a few steps forward.

He caught the humming of the words– 

“…rosies…pocket full of…ashes”

Mo Yi was stunned for a moment, a thought flashed through his mind very quickly, he took a few steps forward again in a hurry, and looked around the hall.

–This time, he found the source of the sound.

Second floor. 

Mo Yi raised his head and looked at the crooked and narrow stairs, only to see the oddly shaped uneven steps extending step by step into the darkness of the second floor, without a trace of light.

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.

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The voice from the nursery rhyme was heard more clearly:

“…ashes, ashes, we all fall down…”

Mo Yi’s breathing became rapid, the sound of blood rushing in his ears seemed to ring loudly, and his mind buzzed.

Mo Yi turned on his flashlight and shone towards the thick, inevitable darkness at the end of the stairs. 

On the stairs, a figure stood quietly in the darkness, a straight cloak wrapped tightly around its body, making it impossible to see the whole figure.

It stopped humming.

The painful silence instantly enveloped the entire room, and it seemed that everyone could hear their own violent heartbeats.

Its head suddenly rolled down without warning! 

As the head fell, the cloak on the body seemed to have lost its support, and fell to the ground.

–It was empty inside.

The head tumbled down the steps of the stairs, expanding with a metallic clang on the hard ground.

Mo Yi quickly ducked away. 

He recognized that it was not a head that rolled down.

…but the same thing from that room, the beak mask.

The silver-white bird’s beak was curved and slender, and there was nothing in the misty black eye sockets, which looked strange and terrifying.

The mask rolled down the floor to the center of the hall, then stopped slowly. 

It was too late for a warning, because the moment it stopped, a large number of mice suddenly poured out of the mask!

A swarm of mice fled to all parts of the room. The alarm bell in Mo Yi’s heart rang loudly, and he shouted, “Be careful!”

But it was too late.

Two players couldn’t dodge in time, and the rapidly spreading mice crawled onto them, taking a bite from their shoulder. 

They screamed in pain, and before they had time to pull the mice away from themselves, the mice turned into dust and dissipated.

The rest of the mice hid in the dark corners of the house one after another, and disappeared within seconds.

Silence returned to the house.

A few players wanted to go check on the situation of the two people, but Mo Yi shouted sharply: “Don’t go there!” 

They were terrified and stopped.

The two bitten players had unpleasant expressions on their faces. They were preparing to argue with Mo Yi. The next second, their complexions turned pale, and their faces were stained with a low-grade flush, as they stumbled a few times in a trance.

Immediately afterwards, they screamed in pain: “Ahhh what’s going on! It hurts! It’s hot!”

The two of them twitched and rolled on the ground, as if this was the only way to relieve the pain. Everyone watched helplessly as red circles spread on their faces, hands, and the rest of their exposed skin at a speed visible to the naked eye. The rash and reddening of the skin quickly condensed into a dark red crust that looked startling on the pale skin. 

Their vomit was all over their bodies, and the foul smell spread.

They gasped hard, wheezing like howls of suffocation– then twitched twice and stopped moving.

The plague came so fiercely that in less than three minutes, infected people experienced all the symptoms of the Black Death, which would normally occur within five days after infection– then it ruthlessly put them to death.

A suffocating silence spread through the crowd. 

Everyone stared at the two unrecognizable corpses on the ground in shock, their throats seemed to be stuffed with cotton wool, and no sound would come out.

Mo Yi pursed his lips tightly, his fingers slowly tightened, and his knuckles turned white due to the force.

”The full text of the nursery rhyme that was sung just now is:

Ring-a-ring-a-rosies 

A pocket full of posies

Ashes, ashes

We all fall down”

Mo Yi took a deep breath and continued:

“This nursery rhyme is said to have originated from the Great Plague of London. The rosies refer to the early symptoms of the Black Death, namely the rash and red spots, and the ashes refer to the ashes of the burned corpse.”

When everyone heard the words, their faces were pale, and some people even closed their eyes subconsciously, unable to bear to look closely. 

The atmosphere in the air was so heavy that it was almost suffocating.

One of the players jumped out, his sweat-soaked face was pale and twisted, and his bloodshot eyes flashed with a frantic look. He pointed at Mo Yi with trembling fingers, with spit flying from his mouth:

“It’s all you! It’s all your fault! If you hadn’t turned on the flashlight! Those two would never have died!”

He giggled nervously: “And how do you know this so well! It must be a conspiracy!” 

Mo Yi frowned blankly, too lazy to refute.

The Mist, who had been silent for a long time, suddenly spoke:

“There is also a downside to showing up in this state, there is no way to deal with this kind of person.”

Mo Yi was taken aback, and recalled a similar situation from the last instance. The difference was that last time, the man beside him dislocated the opponent’s arm. This time… 

He suddenly wanted to laugh a little.

But since the situation in front of him was really not suitable for laughing, Mo Yi had to purse his lips, suppress the smile that appeared in his eyes, and try to maintain his expressionless and cold look.

He opened his mouth and was about to say something.

But the next second Mo Yi suddenly remembered that only he could see the other party. He couldn’t help but subconsciously and abruptly swallow the words back. 

Since he couldn’t speak, Mo Yi had to covertly stretch out his hand and squeeze the other’s cold fingers hanging on his side.

The message was conveyed with gentle force- it’s okay, he didn’t care.

The Mist’s whole body froze.

At this moment, Mo Yi was about to withdraw his hand. After the Mist noticed it, he quickly stretched out his hand and clasped Mo Yi’s fingers tightly– 

Mo Yi was stunned for a moment, feeling it was somewhat inexplicable.

……what? What was this for?

Did he not convey his meaning clearly enough?

However, breaking free at this time was too much effort, and others couldn’t see it… just hold it if you want. 

Anyway, it would be no loss for him.

Mo Yi relaxed the muscles of his hand and let the Mist clasp his fingers.

The player spat and talked for a long time. When he looked up, he found that Mo Yi’s mind was still wandering in the sky. He didn’t seem to care about him at all.

He rushed forward, fingers clenched into fists, ready to swing. 

–Suddenly, an extremely cold feeling struck him without warning, occupying all his senses, as if standing naked in ice and snow, or sinking deeply to the bottom of the ocean, suffocating and terrifying.

Like being stared at by some giant beast.

A cold and deep sense of danger enveloped him, making his hair stand on end. His teeth started chattering, and his raised fists could not help but stop mid-air, unable to move.

The others around him didn’t notice it. 

Seeing that his movements were getting more and more outrageous, Yu Ran frowned subtly, stepped forward, and stood between Mo Yi and the player.

She opened her mouth and said:

“According to the nature of the instance, even without Mo Yi, the mask would roll off. If you want to live longer, you have to learn to be less jealous of the virtuous.”

That cold and dangerous feeling came and went quickly, and after Yu Ran finished speaking, it disappeared without a trace. 

The player’s clothes were almost soaked in cold sweat, and his sanity that had been eroded by anger returned slowly to him.

Even if Yu Ran ridiculed him with sarcasm, he didn’t dare to refute, he just retracted his hands sullenly, and then muttered a few curses before returning to his previous position.

The Mist stared at him coldly, his dark gray eyes glowed with inorganic color, and the grim lines of his face were tight.

He retracted his gaze and lowered his icy eyes. 

Immediately afterwards, he carefully adjusted the movement of his fingers, as Mo Yi was not paying attention, and positioned his fingers to interlock.

The Mist stole a glance at Mo Yi, saw that he didn’t respond, then quickly turned his eyes away and looked straight ahead with an even face.

Thin lips were restrained in a slight arc.