3: Chapter 3 Self-harm

The dim fire escape stairwell was like a man-eating abyss, with pale green Toxic Mist winding and coiling through the gaps in the steps, radiating a sense of crisis.

Qin Ruoxue was so scared that she gripped Chen Ye's arm tightly, the hem of her nurse's uniform trembling slightly from fear.

She leaned her entire body against Chen Ye's side, her high-rising chest pressed tightly against his arm.

The rogue-like air and frivolity on Chen Ye's face vanished without a trace, and his brows knit tightly together.

The aura around him suddenly turned cold and sharp as he entered an unprecedented state of seriousness.

The pain of being corroded by the green mist in his past life, leading to lifelong organ failure, was still etched deep in his bone marrow, and he knew the characteristics of this Toxic Mist like the back of his hand.

This mist had absolutely no hallucinogenic toxicity!

It only eroded the body and rotted flesh; inhaling a large amount would instantly destroy the internal organs.

It was absolutely impossible for it to create an illusion of a "stairwell that never ends."

Therefore, this was definitely not a hallucination caused by the Toxic Mist!

He quickly ruled out the most likely cause, his gaze subconsciously falling on Qin Ruoxue beside him, where there was a small pocket on the left side of her nurse's uniform, over her high-rising chest.

Chen Ye didn't think much and reached out toward the position of her chest pocket; just as his fingertips were about to touch her body...

"You bastard!" Qin Ruoxue stiffened, thinking he wanted to act like a hooligan even in this life-or-death moment.

Her cold, almond-shaped eyes instantly filled with anger; without a second thought, she dodged to the side and simultaneously raised her hand to slap him!

"Slap!" The crisp sound of the slap was exceptionally jarring in the deathly silent stairwell.

"We are in this situation and you still want to take advantage of me? You are too lecherous!" Qin Ruoxue rebuked angrily.

Chen Ye had his head turned by the slap, his cheek burning with pain.

Clutching his cheek and looking at her speechlessly, his tone was both angry and anxious: "What kind of messy thoughts are in your head! I was trying to get the pen in your pocket!"

Chen Ye hadn't expected that this girl would actually reach out and hit him.

Qin Ruoxue was stunned; she looked down at the signature pen clipped to her chest pocket, and her cheeks instantly flushed bright red, the redness spreading from her earlobes to her neck.

Her cold brows and eyes were filled with embarrassment and shyness, her beautiful eyes darting away, not daring to look at Chen Ye.

Her fingers nervously clutched the hem of her nurse's uniform, "I-I'm sorry... I-I misunderstood you..."

Her voice was as soft as a mosquito's hum as she hurriedly took off the pen.

Her slender, fair fingers held the pen body and gently handed it to Chen Ye, her fingertips trembling slightly, full of apology.

[Ding! Qin Ruoxue's trust attitude has changed]

[Trust +10! Current: 35!]

[Obedience +8! Current: 15!]

[Symbiosis Value +18! Current: 50!]

[Host passive attribute updated: Basic Strength +18 → Current: 50]

Listening to the system's voice in his mind, he thought, "It seems this Basic Strength is directly linked to the Symbiosis Value, and the Symbiosis Value is the sum of the obedience level and the trust level."

"But this obedience level is too hard to increase; she really is a proud beauty!" he muttered to himself.

Chen Ye rubbed his burning cheek, took the pen, and glared at her irritably:

"Now you know to panic? You were quite ruthless with that hit just now."

"Who told you to look like you were going to touch my chest?" Qin Ruoxue lowered her head, her voice soft and glutinous, asking cautiously, "So what are you doing with the pen?"

"Making a mark!" Chen Ye crouched down, gripping the pen with his fingertips, and forcefully drew a large cross on the concrete steps beneath his feet, the lines deep and clear.

"If this really is a Ghost Wall, we will definitely walk back to the same spot and see this mark."

He stood up, took Qin Ruoxue's cold, slender hand, the warmth of his palm enveloping her small hand: "Let's go, keep going down; I want to see what kind of tricks this damn stairwell is up to."

Although Qin Ruoxue didn't understand the situation, she had no choice but to follow him step by step downwards.

The hem of her nurse's uniform swayed gently with her steps, her white thighs appearing and disappearing with each movement.

The two walked down another three or four floors, turning corner after corner of the stairs.

The stairwell remained dim and endless; let alone the cross he had drawn, they didn't even see a shadow of the first floor!

Chen Ye's expression darkened completely; he crouched down again, drew a more obvious circular mark on the steps, and pulled Qin Ruoxue forward.

But the result remained the same.

After walking for a long time, they still didn't see any marks, as if they weren't walking on stairs, but on an infinitely extending dead end!

"It's not a Ghost Wall..."

Chen Ye murmured in a low voice, his eyes grave to the extreme, "A Ghost Wall only repeats the path and will definitely return to the origin, but this is an infinitely extending illusion!"

There is only one truth!

They had already fallen into a trap!

It wasn't the green mist outside, but an attack from some kind of psychic mutant beast.

In his past life, he had heard that in the apocalypse, there were a few native mutant beasts that possessed the ability to control minds and create illusions, far more terrifying than ordinary mutated beasts by a hundred times!

However, he knew that even this kind of illusion requires a medium to take effect; otherwise, it would be toxins, or it would be sound.

"When exactly did we fall for it..." Chen Ye knitted his brows tightly, racking his brains but finding no clue.

The longer the illusion dragged on, the more severe the mental exhaustion would be, and in the end, they would be trapped in the illusion forever, becoming walking corpses!

Chen Ye turned his head abruptly and looked at Qin Ruoxue, his tone urgent and serious: "Take out the scalpel you hid!"

"A scalpel? How did you know I hid one?" Qin Ruoxue was stunned.

She hurriedly took out the cold, gleaming scalpel from her pocket, even more puzzled, "What do you want a scalpel for?"

"Don't ask, hurry!" Chen Ye grabbed her wrist, stuffed the scalpel back into her hand, and pointed to his thigh, "Stab it in hard! The deeper, the better!"

"What?!" Qin Ruoxue shuddered, the scalpel almost falling to the ground.

Her cold, almond-shaped eyes widened, her face pale, "Are you crazy?! This is self-harm! Have you been driven stupid by the illusion?"

"I'm not stupid! If we drag this out, we'll both die in the illusion!" Chen Ye roared, his eyes incredibly firm.

Qin Ruoxue looked at his serious gaze, her hand holding the scalpel trembling non-stop.

She bit her pale pink lips, her eyes reddened, the collar of her nurse's uniform slightly open from her rapid breathing, revealing her slender collarbone.

Finally, she closed her eyes tightly, gritted her teeth, and stabbed it in hard!

"Sss!" The sharp scalpel instantly pierced the skin, blood gushing out immediately, staining Chen Ye's trouser leg red, and the intense pain struck his whole body like lightning!

"Ugh!" Chen Ye groaned, his brain feeling as if it had been struck hard by a heavy hammer.

The endless stairwell before his eyes shattered instantly!

The intense pain made him instantly clear-headed!

The scene before him changed suddenly; where was there any endless stairwell?

He was lying at the entrance of the second-floor stairwell, his back against the cold concrete floor.

Not far from him, Qin Ruoxue was curled up on the ground, her eyes tightly shut, as if she had fallen into a deep sleep.

Her face was frighteningly pale, her nurse's uniform slightly disheveled, the tender inner side of her thigh vaguely visible, completely defenseless.

"Sure enough, the pain in a shallow dream can also wake you up; it's a good thing I discovered it early!"

At this moment, a crisp yet eerie child's laughter echoed in the building!

"Hee hee... hee hee hee..." The laughter was childish but carried a bone-chilling eeriness, drifting back and forth in the empty stairwell.

It made one's scalp tingle and the hair on one's body stand on end!

Chen Ye looked up abruptly, hurriedly took the real scalpel from Qin Ruoxue's pocket, and stared fixedly at the direction of the stairwell door!

At the crack of the door, a bald child's head, without a single hair, was slowly poking out!

Its skin was as pale as paper, its pitch-black eyes, devoid of whites, were staring fixedly at him, and the corners of its mouth were pulled into an extremely eerie smile...