Chapter 40

Chapter 40

In fact, Luo Xi had already been inside the director's office once before—back when he was helping Xiao Kui look for her heart.

The stench of corpses and blood from that room had left a deep impression on him.

But now that he was transported into this solo instance again, the view before him was one of warmth and serenity. For a moment, he didn’t recognize it, and a doubt crept into his mind: could this be the time before the director started eating people?

Luo Xi was always cautious when it came to challenges. He first twisted the doorknob forcefully—it was indeed locked tight—then immediately lunged at the thick velvet curtains. As expected, behind them was a solid stone wall, making brute-force escape impossible.

A classic locked-room challenge, no doubt.

At the moment, the room was devoid of life—so quiet that even the sound of his own breathing stood out.

Luo Xi surveyed his surroundings: the room was decorated in classic European style. The furniture, shelves of books, and Chinese antiques all indicated that the owner was quite wealthy. But during a time of war, how could an orphanage that took in so many children afford such luxury?

…Something didn’t feel right.

Just as he furrowed his brows, the system notification chimed in, its tone warm and gentle.

[Little Luo Xi, you need to find a way to escape the director’s office.]

[If you’re still trapped in the office in two hours, you’ll be eliminated immediately.]

Escape-room puzzles were a common occurrence in the game, so Luo Xi wasn’t overly anxious. He immediately returned to the door and examined it carefully. The keyhole was normal—he figured that as long as he found the right key, he could get out.

…So, where might the key be hidden?

His gaze swept from the bookshelves, to the desk, to various odd trinkets, and finally landed on a small wooden cabinet in the corner of the room.

The cabinet was surrounded by stacks of dusty books, but the cabinet itself had been recently cleaned—practically spotless. Was it something the director frequently checked?

On closer inspection, he found that the cabinet contained a safe with a number lock—just as he suspected, part of the puzzle.

Luo Xi took a deep breath and turned toward the most prominent desk in the room.

On it was a stack of childlike drawings, clearly made by kids from the orphanage for the director. The writing on them was messy and crooked, all wishing him a happy birthday.

Besides that, there was an opened letter lying there.The letter was written in traditional Chinese characters. Aside from the formal pleasantries addressed to the missionary, it mostly complained about a strange illness that had recently spread throughout the city—adults were mysteriously dying from high fevers and vomiting blood. Fortunately, the children remained unharmed. Rumors were running wild in the city, and many feared it was the work of evil forces. The writer earnestly pleaded with Stephen to come to the city to help calm the people.

…That missionary later became seriously ill, most likely infected during that visit. A bad end for a bad person.

Luo Xi snorted and patiently opened each drawer, checking the miscellaneous items inside one by one—until he was stopped by the final drawer.

He got down to the floor and inspected it carefully, discovering that this drawer was also locked and required a key.

The main door, the safe, and now a drawer.

Three puzzle elements—it was only logical they would be interconnected.

Luo Xi swept his gaze over the bookshelf and then walked to the side to inspect it more closely. Aside from a Bible, the other books were covered in dust, clearly untouched for quite some time.

He pulled out the Bible and flipped it open. Other than a red-ink note on the title page that read "Thank God," there was nothing particularly strange.

After another round of page-checking, Luo Xi strolled over to the bedroom behind the folding screen.

The director clearly had refined tastes—everything from the bedding to the décor was made of silk, and the bedside table was adorned with incense and fresh flowers. The whole scene reeked of someone who’d come to China just to bleed the place dry like a vampire.

Disdainfully, Luo Xi touched each piece of clothing in the wardrobe, then lifted the bedding to search smoothly and methodically. Finally, he found a small box under the bed. Inside were some aged letters—the stamps on the envelopes were faded, and the letters were written entirely in English. They were from a nun named Sue, who addressed the director as "Missionary Stephen."

Skimming through them, Luo Xi saw that they had a foster mother–foster son relationship—Stephen had been adopted by Sue when he was young and later became a missionary himself.

At this point in the story, Stephen had already been in China spreading the gospel for three years and hadn’t returned. The nun Sue was deeply concerned about his health and daily life, expressing pride in his work redeeming children, along with praises to God and other such sentiments.

…Didn’t seem very useful. Probably just background lore for the audience?

Luo Xi simply dumped out the contents of the box and finally found a small hidden compartment at the bottom—inside was a tiny golden key!

Judging by its size, it obviously couldn’t be for the main door, but there was one place left that needed a key.

Luo Xi immediately dashed back to the desk and used the key to unlock the mysterious drawer!

But to his surprise—it was empty, except for some well-preserved newspapers?

By this point in the game, no one would believe there wasn’t something suspicious going on.

Luo Xi sat on the floor and read through them carefully. Eventually, he spotted something odd: while most of the articles were local news and war reports, there was a section for obituaries, missing persons, and advertisements. Every issue featured a Mr. Yi searching for his lost son—and every time, the phone number listed was different!…Could the phone numbers be the code? What kind of message were they conveying?

In that era, using a string of numbers as a cipher typically required a key text to decode—a method that had been in use since the 18th century.

In this room, the Bible that Stephen often read was the most likely key text!

Luo Xi made this deduction purely based on his past gaming experience. He quickly grabbed the Bible and began trying to decode the message by matching page numbers and line numbers. After several attempts, he finally cracked the mystery with a sense of relief—the information in the newspaper was actually very simple: gender, age, quantity, price—it looked like a list of demands for buying and selling children.

No wonder Stephen was able to live such a comfortable life in the turmoil of China—he had become a human trafficker...

Furious, Luo Xi slammed the Bible shut, then glanced at the safe again, pondering the details he might have overlooked.

At that moment, the heavy book slowly closed itself, once again revealing the words on the title page written in blood-red ink: “Thank God.”

Thank God...

Thank God?

A flash of insight struck Luo Xi. He jotted down the letters and reopened the Bible. Using a reversed decoding method, he arrived at a string of numbers that matched the number of digits required by the safe!

But... could it really be that easy?

Skeptical, he entered the code—and to his complete surprise, it worked. A new key appeared inside—and not just one!

A flood of silver coins and a wide variety of metal keys spilled out from the safe, so many that it was overwhelming!

The notoriously unlucky Luo Xi finally began to panic. He scrambled through them for a while and counted—there were 87 keys in total.

Was he really supposed to try them all one by one?

Already dreading the outcome, he inserted a few at random—sure enough, none of them worked.

Time was tight—this wasn't going to work!

Feeling nervous, Luo Xi examined the keyhole again, then grouped the keys by size. Using their dimensions and feel, he carefully eliminated the mismatches. After a long and tense process, he finally identified the correct one.

By now, more than half the allotted time had passed.

As he turned the key, an involuntary sense of unease crept in: the puzzle room still felt too easy—there had to be another twist… right?As it turns out, when it comes to bad luck, Luo Xi really can manifest whatever he dreads.

The moment the door opened, a wave of blood stench surged out violently.

Frowning, Luo Xi was yanked into the room by some kind of brute force. He stood there in a daze, realizing that he was still in the director’s office—but all the furniture had become filthy and decrepit. Clearly, the era had changed.

He glanced back at the door, now shut tight again, and muttered, “…Is this never going to end? Russian nesting dolls, huh?”

No sooner had he finished talking to himself than a horrific scream erupted from behind the folding screen in the bedroom.

Luo Xi immediately picked up a metal candle holder from the ground, bracing himself for a fight.

But the screaming continued without any sign of movement. Could something be trapped in there?

Tensed, he stepped forward. The moment he passed the screen, his eyes widened.

A Western man was tied tightly to the bed, limbs bound like an animal, thrashing violently. His skin was pale yellow like rice paper, with blue and red veins protruding. His mouth—already ulcerated and bloody—kept howling, and the exposed gums and swollen eyes made him utterly horrifying.

…This must be Director Stephen, right?

Luo Xi raised an eyebrow and stared at him for a moment. Then he bent down, picked up a filthy robe from the floor, and stuffed it hard into Stephen’s mouth. He clapped his hands with satisfaction and said, “Much quieter now.”

Stephen writhed in agony, only able to make muffled moans.

Luo Xi finally turned his attention back to finding the key. He searched around the bed thoroughly but came up empty. Then he stepped up and opened the wardrobe.

At the exact moment the door opened, a huge shadow lunged at him.

Luo Xi instinctively rolled back. Looking closely, he realized—it was the corpse of a foreign nun.

Judging from her gruesome death, she seemed to have had the same illness as Stephen, but hadn’t lasted as long.

…Why hide a corpse here? And who hid it?

The orphanage’s secrets were multiplying by the second.

Using the filthy robe as a glove, Luo Xi carefully searched every inch of the nun’s body. At last, he managed to pull out a metal chain hidden in her clothes. Hanging from it was a square pendant of a strange design—clearly intended for more than just decoration.

Taking the object back to the living room, Luo Xi kicked aside the torn bedsheets and bloodstained utensils on the floor. Only then did he spot that the corner safe had been replaced by a smaller refrigerator.And what was inside the refrigerator… he had already guessed, and had even started to dread looking.

But being forced to play this infuriating game left him no choice.

Luo Xi gripped the nun’s pendant tightly and pried open the special lock piece. As expected, he was immediately met with half a heart encased in ice.

The heart was ashen in color and frozen solid—it looked like it had been stored for quite a while.

He picked up a fork from the floor, frowned, and moved the heart and ice aside, then pulled out a medicine box from deeper within.

Inside the box, aside from the two remaining vials of injectable medicine, there was nothing else.

…How the hell was he supposed to open the door?!

Annoyed, Luo Xi threw the medicine box aside, turned around, and tore off the dusty gray cloth covering the desk, hurriedly checking out the newly revealed written props.

Letters—nothing but letters, all unopened and simply tossed on the desk.

Not surprising. After all, Stephen was already in such a condition that any form of socializing had long become impossible.

Luo Xi checked through the letters one by one, until he found one written by Sister Sue, clearly sent from across the sea. Unable to resist, he tore it open and began to read: the letter spoke of daily life in America and her concerns about the war. Most of it expressed worry over Stephen’s complete silence, urging him to contact her as soon as possible. It was clear how much care she had for her adopted son—she must have been terrified that he had met some misfortune in the chaos of China.

…Heh, he did meet misfortune. Too bad even saying “he deserved it” doesn’t quite cut it.

Luo Xi’s lips pulled down in displeasure. As he tossed the letter aside, his sharp eyes caught the pure white letter paper nearby. Under the candle’s faint glow, he noticed faint traces—someone had written something on it and then torn it off!

He quickly found a pencil in the drawer and lightly shaded over the letter paper, finally making out the contents of the message:

Dear Miss Sue,

I am an ordinary teacher at the Pure Grace Orphanage. Two years ago, Director Stephen saved me from the hands of the Japanese army. I was so happy to stay and help him and the children.

But… a strange infectious disease recently robbed us of our peaceful life. I’m now at my wit’s end and have no one else to turn to for help. Director Stephen once said you are the person he respects most. Only you can save him!

This strange illness had never appeared before. Infected individuals develop fever, cough blood, their bodies rot, their veins harden, and they eventually die in agony, vomiting blood. The strangest part is that it only affects adults.

Director Stephen also, unfortunately, became one of the infected when he went into town to preach.

Because an American doctor said children carry antibodies against the virus, Sister Zoe suggested he eat the children’s hearts!

I truly cannot bring myself to describe the cruelty of the process. After all… I am also an accomplice to the devil!Strangely enough, every time the director ate a heart, his condition would improve for two days—so almost all the children in the orphanage fell victim to him...

To make matters worse, the disease didn’t spare the rest of us either. Aside from the director, all the nuns gradually became ill. In order to survive, what was once a well-run orphanage completely turned into a slaughterhouse for children...

All the children were killed, the nuns died one by one, and I no longer knew how to bury them—or how to deal with the now-insane director. After all... I won’t live much longer either...

There are two experimental medicines left by the American doctor in the refrigerator. I doubt they’ll do me any good, so I might as well leave them for someone who needs them in the future.

Once I finish writing this letter, I’ll try my best to find someone to send it out. Though by the time you read it, I will likely no longer be in this world, I still hope to receive your forgiveness.

I think... other than you, no one else in this world can stop Director Stephen anymore...

Your child,

Qiu

—

Only after reading it did Luo Xi finally understand what had happened in the orphanage, but he couldn’t help getting angry: That old lady’s in America, and you’re writing a damn letter for help? Wouldn’t it have been better to just stab Stephen and be done with it?!

...Or maybe these religious types just absolutely refuse to kill, no matter what?

No, no, no—bullshit!

Those children were killed by their hands!

After mentally ranting for a while, Luo Xi finally came back to his senses, frowned, and dug through the trash on the floor until he found a dirty syringe. Without hesitation, he drew the medicine from the vial in the fridge, rushed back into the room, straddled Stephen, and forcibly injected it!

Stephen trembled all over in pain, thrashing his head wildly side to side with all his might!

Luo Xi, not holding back, immediately pushed the second dose into his vein as well.

Thankfully, the medication wasn’t useless.

After struggling for three to five minutes, Stephen finally began to quiet down.

So that’s what this prop was for.

Luo Xi yanked the rag from Stephen’s mouth and gave him two punches, demanding, “Hey! Wake up! Tell me how to get out of here!”

Stephen’s eyes were unfocused and dull, staring at him in a daze: “Child... child... save me... please... give me your heart…”

Luo Xi clenched his fists, then slowly forced himself to calm down. With a grin that didn’t reach his eyes, he replied, “A lot of kids came to the orphanage—I brought them all for you.”Stephen responded, “Yes, yes…”

Luo Xi pressed, “So, where’s the key?!”

Stephen panted with difficulty for a moment, then whispered, “Under... the flowerpot…”

Only then did Luo Xi kick him hard in the face a few times, jumped off the bed, and rushed back toward the desk area. After yanking away the pile of garbage-like junk, he successfully found a small, broken, withered flowerpot lying on its side at the corner of the desk.

He squatted down and brushed away the filthy dirt inside, discovering—sure enough—a small, rusted, pitch-black key.

...So it was here. I wasted half the damn day for this.

Luo Xi cursed under his breath, calmly took the key to the door and twisted it open, mentally prepared for the next round of the “matryoshka room” challenge—but even so, he still widened his eyes at the scene beyond the door.

It was the thing he hated most—fire!

A sudden, violent force surged from the air, slamming Luo Xi into the new room.

The door behind him shut again, ruthlessly.

There’s no need to explain the danger of a fire in a locked room—just the thick smoke swirling around was enough to kill someone within minutes!

Having crawled and fought through too many close calls, Luo Xi’s first instinct was seriously to soak his clothes in urine and cover his face to survive!

...But getting eliminated in such a humiliating way—flailing around on livestream—wouldn’t be any better.

He suppressed his instincts slightly and scanned the nearly unseeable director’s room. Finally, he spotted a fresh corpse collapsed beside the bed—it was the old lady who had given him the quest earlier!

The old woman had dropped a vintage pistol at her side, and the blood flowing from her head had stained the filthy carpet red—but it also gave Luo Xi a chance to live.

He quickly rummaged through the trash and debris for something sharp, then, without hesitation, slashed open the old woman’s neck, soaking a rag in her fresh blood and pressing it over his face before finally glancing around.

Stephen, still chained to the bed, had long since turned into a rotting skeleton. Perhaps Sister Sue had spent months making her way to China, only to miss everything, then be driven to despair by her adopted son’s demonic actions—and so, chose suicide as atonement?

Luo Xi picked up the cross from the ground and stuffed it into the old woman’s hands, then wobbled back to the flaming desk, gripping her small pistol.

The door had been locked again from the inside—and blocked by a nearby metal cabinet. Clearly, Sister Sue had resolved not to let anyone in... or out.

But... a door locked from the inside has to have a key, doesn’t it?He struggled to pry apart every wooden board and the burning thick books, his hands blistered from the heat, nearly overturning everything—yet he found nothing.

As time passed, the blood on his clothes began to dry, and the danger to his life escalated rapidly.

Luo Xi was so overwhelmed he nearly collapsed headfirst into the fire, swaying with dizziness and cursing, “Where’s the damn key—don’t tell me you ate it?!”

……

...

Huh?

He suddenly looked toward the old woman’s corpse, then hurried over in a panic, snatched up the discarded knife, fumbled to find the correct spot on her stomach—and without hesitation, sliced it open.

With a wave of stomach bile and gushing blood that was revolting to the extreme, out flowed a familiar key along with the mess.

Luo Xi dry-heaved, inhaling even more smoke and dust.

He was already at the limit—physically drained, struggling to breathe—surviving purely on willpower as he grabbed the key, stumbled toward the door, and shoved aside the furniture blocking his way. He shoved the key into the lock and twisted hard.

The door opened...

A rush of cool air surged in—outside was finally the long-lost orphanage hallway.

Luo Xi exhaled in relief. His body, pushed to its limits, collapsed with a crash—falling into brief shock.

And before his eyes, the boundless fire returned.

Now restored to his adult self, Luo Xi stumbled through the flames, but a large nail had punctured his left leg severely—it was clear he couldn’t go much farther.

So hot… so suffocating…

Such simple yet utterly hopeless words bubbled up in his mind over and over.

Collapsed helplessly in exhaustion, Luo Xi even began to accept the idea of death.

But just then—from deep within the fire—came a tall, familiar figure charging toward him. His features were blurry, his voice distant but urgent: “A-Yu! Are you okay?!”

Luo Xi didn’t have the strength to answer.That figure, undeterred by the raging flames, bravely rushed closer and lifted him up: “I’ll carry you! Hang in there!”

Luo Xi squinted in pain, trying to see his face.

But darkness swallowed everything—he couldn’t see a thing.

“Hey, are you alright, kid?”

The hazy greeting pulled Luo Xi’s consciousness back.

He jolted upright in a panic, only to see a wrinkled, hideous face right in front of him. Cold sweat streamed down instantly. “Sister Sue…”

The old woman standing outside the office gave a wry smile. “It’s me.”

Luo Xi returned to reality, panting hard as he asked, “I made it out. Where’s my reward?”

The old woman pulled a gemstone shard from her sleeve.

“And? The special item you mentioned?” Luo Xi pressed.

The old woman coaxed gently, “Don’t you have anything to say about this story?”

Game designers at Yuntai were always like this—hoping streamers would act like drama kings and queens, and ideally become motivational speakers, to generate publicity.

Uncooperative, Luo Xi simply gave a cold snort: “Everyone feels differently. I’ve got nothing to say. But if I ran into someone like Stephen, I wouldn’t even give him the chance to act out. One guy gets sick and drags the whole orphanage to die with him. Honestly, all the adults around him were idiots. Those kids were just screwed from the start.”

The old woman NPC looked a bit disappointed, wanting to say more but holding back.

Luo Xi reached out. “The item. Don’t try to con me.”

Only then did the old woman retrieve a familiar small pistol from her robes. “I hope you use it wisely—to bring peace back to the orphanage as soon as possible.”

Luo Xi took it, and instantly heard the system notification.

[Item acquired: Sister Sue’s Pistol]

[After an imposter dies, they exist as a soul, protected by the demon and granted immortality]

[Using the pistol allows you to assassinate one imposter, eliminating them from the game—at the cost of 20 points]Luo Xi took a look and instantly revealed an uncontrollable smile—clearly, he had long since chosen a target for revenge.