"Ten minutes. I'll just close my eyes and gather my strength for a bit, and then we'll find the exit together!" Li Chengyi said decisively.
His body was severely overdrawn at this point.
Wearing the Floral Dress seemed to also drain his body, causing a dual exhaustion both physically and mentally.
Then, keeping his spirit taut all along as he searched for the exit also depleted a lot of his stamina. Colliding with doors and wrestling with monsters, and in the end, using the Flower Language Ability to firmly hold the door, left him completely worn out.
Remaining awake under such conditions was a testament to his strong willpower.
He estimated that in his current state, if the situation from before were to reoccur, whether or not he could still use his Flower Language Ability was an unknown.
"All right!" Meng Dongdong said, nodding earnestly upon hearing his words.
The exchange they just had, along with their shared local townsfolk identity, gave her a considerable sense of security.
If all she had to do was keep an eye on the surroundings, and wait ten minutes without doing anything else, she was willing to do so.
"You find a place to rest, this place is too big, just relying on me alone, I'm afraid it won't be easy to find the exit. Once you've rested, we'll start searching in different directions," she said seriously.
"All right!" Li Chengyi nodded earnestly.
Carrying the things, he scanned around and quickly found a corner of the wall, walked over, then sat down cross-legged with his back against the wall.
"Oh, and if you hear any noises from that door across there, don't bother with it, don't open the door, absolutely do not open the door. Wait till I've rested, got it?" he cautioned at last to prevent her from opening the door for monsters affected by the Flower Language Technique.
"All right!" Meng Dongdong earnestly replied.
After giving the important instructions, Li Chengyi put on his hood, took a long, deep breath, his eyes narrowed but not completely closed, and began to rest.
This time, with someone watching over him, he could relax a little more than when he was alone.
With eyes narrowed, he originally planned to stay a bit alert to his surroundings.
After all, Meng Dongdong was a stranger, and he couldn't entrust all his safety to an outsider.
But he was just too tired.
Before this day, he was also just a common college graduate who often ran for exercise, and even that was not long-distance running.
In essence, his stamina was just slightly stronger than average. The rest of his physical condition was at a normal level.
To maintain his composure and not lose his cool after everything that happened, even as a transmigrator, he thought he was already quite strong.
Narrowing his eyes, his vision gradually became blurry.
Pat.
Suddenly, a faint noise reached his ears.
It seemed to be the sound of a plastic bag dropping and hitting the ground.
A cool breeze, carrying the scent of flowers, brushed against his face.
Flower scent?
Suddenly, Li Chengyi's spirit lifted, and he opened his eyes wide to look ahead.
In front of him was a small park bathed in moonlight.
The dark red plastic running track, the tree branches and leaves swaying in the wind, the dim solar-powered streetlight.
Everything was unmistakably clear.
He had made it out!
"I...!?" Li Chengyi stood frozen in place, not daring to move.
He was worried that he was hallucinating.
He had just been talking to Meng Dongdong, asking her to keep watch while he rested his eyes.
How could he have suddenly come out in the blink of an eye??
No, this isn't right!?
He suddenly noticed that the plastic running track on the ground was very new, as if it had never been used before.
The scenery in the distance was also blurry and unclear.
'Is this a dream? Did I fall asleep?'
'I can't sleep! If I'm asleep, I'll completely lose the ability to stay alert to my surroundings. If something goes wrong...'
Li Chengyi tried hard to control himself, attempting to wake from the dream.
But he had just fallen asleep and couldn't awaken so quickly.
As he struggled to regain consciousness, Meng Dongdong leaned against a pillar, watching as Li Chengyi slowly closed his eyes, sitting cross-legged on the ground, back against the wall, breathing even and steady.
She sighed softly to herself, looking around, then her gaze settled on the maintenance room door across from her.
Yes, she had noticed early on that this man who called himself Cheng Yi was in an unstable mental state, frequently glancing at that small door across from him out of the corner of his eye.
He thought she hadn't noticed, but she had seen it all along, she just hadn't mentioned it outright.
Standing next to the pillar, Meng Dongdong gently placed her shopping bag down and put on her jacket.
She took another look at Li Chengyi, who was still not awake and continued to rest with his eyes half-closed.
Even from the side, the whites of his half-closed eyes were visible.
Meng Dongdong exhaled, bent down, and slipped off her platform shoes, standing in just her socks on the ground.
Seeing that Li Chengyi remained motionless.
She steeled herself and suddenly sped up, rushing towards the maintenance room door.
There was no exit to be found above or below, and that man was so fixated on this place, it was very likely that this was the entrance and exit to this cursed place!!
Monsters? Danger? They were nothing more than fabrications by that man to scare people.
In this age of technology, the existence of monsters was simply impossible, and such stories that might deceive a three-year-old child were taken out as if she would believe them. He was underestimating her far too much.
Puff.
Meng Dongdong snatched at the door handle of the maintenance room.
"Stop!!" Li Chengyi's voice hurriedly came through.
Right as he came to his senses, he saw Meng Dongdong grasping the doorknob, and in his urgency, he shouted loudly.
"Don't open the door!!"
He yelled.
"Still trying to trick me!? To hell with your craziness!!" Meng Dongdong twisted the doorknob fiercely and pulled it open, a triumphant smile on her face as she charged inside.
But as soon as she looked inside, the smile on her face suddenly froze.
Behind the door, there was nothing, just an empty little storeroom.
Standing at the doorway, Meng Dongdong was stunned.
She hadn't expected the repair room that Li Chengyi was so anxious about to be such a scene. The gap completely caught her off guard.
Behind her, Li Chengyi was also stunned.
He had clearly just used his Flower Language Ability to stabilize the monster behind the door, but now, there was nothing behind it.
"Is this what you called a monster?" Meng Dongdong turned her head and looked toward Li Chengyi, her eyes filled with skepticism.
"...." Li Chengyi was equally astonished.
He had clearly felt something affected by his Flower Language Ability just a moment ago, but now...
"It looks like you're well-rested. Shouldn't we be looking for an exit now?" Meng Dongdong's gaze shifted, and she didn't continue on this topic.
She was now more convinced that this person was sick, and likely suffered from a mental issue, such as hallucinations or some similar condition.
"..." Li Chengyi stared intently at the now-open repair room door, the room empty, nothing there.
No monster, no repair tools, just like a single room that has just been renovated.
'Could it be that the appearance of that monster is time-limited?' A thought flashed through his mind.
He was certain of the monster's existence, but the current situation was inexplicable, as he had clearly felt the door being struck before.
But now...
Boom.
At this moment, Meng Dongdong closed the small door of the repair room. Seeing that Li Chengyi had no reaction, she had lost all hope.
This was just a seemingly normal psychotic patient.
Li Chengyi saw through her thoughts, but he couldn't prove that what he said was true.
Unless he was willing to reveal his Flower Language Ability. But that was out of the question.
At any time, under any circumstances, one must always keep an ace up their sleeve.
Now in the Blind Spot, without the Floral Dress, the Flower Language Ability was his only reliance.
Caught off guard, the effect would even ensnare the mysterious and fearsome creature, so he could not disclose it.
"Let's go, we need to look carefully and see how to leave this place," Meng Dongdong said, her eyes flickering, clearly pondering.
Li Chengyi stood up feeling a bit dizzy, but it was somewhat better than before.
At least a little rest had allowed his overexerted strength to recover somewhat.
He still looked at the small door in disbelief.
The repair room's small door was tightly shut, quiet and still, completely ordinary, without any unusual traces.
Looking at Meng Dongdong standing beside him, he picked up his bag and walked to the entrance of the repair room, carefully examining the trace on the door and the footprints on the ground.
Although the floor was concrete, his sports shoes would still leave faint marks of friction when he exerted force.
But no matter how hard he looked, there were no traces here.
This inevitably made him think of the previous disappearance of the traces.
Li Chengyi stood up straight, turned to Meng Dongdong.
He suddenly realized, understanding her earlier behavior.
'Just now I thought I had calmed her down, thinking she believed what I said. Now it looks like the situation is quite the reverse.
It was this woman who was purposely calming me down, making me believe she was convinced, and then she took the chance to act while I rested, rushing out to open the door.'
Realizing this, Li Chengyi felt an indescribable sensation in his heart; Meng Dongdong, with her simple-looking exterior and the way she talked like money paved her way, was actually very opportunistic and quick-witted.
Click.
He reached out and opened the small door of the repair room; it was empty, then closed it again, making a soft sound.
Truly, there was no monster anymore.
"Do you have any ideas on how to find the exit?" Since she didn't believe in the talk of a monster, he didn't mention it. What mattered wasn't proving whether there was a monster, but finding the exit.
"You said you came from the bottom floor, right?" Meng Dongdong asked.
"Yes."
"All the way up, it's been the same scene, and the only thing that could open and close was this small door to the repair room, correct?" she asked again.
"It seems so, I can only confirm that two doors could open," Li Chengyi answered. By the 'two doors,' he meant the doors through which the monster had appeared twice.
"Enough. A simple analysis suggests that our hope of getting out might very well lie with these repair rooms that can be opened," Meng Dongdong said seriously.
Upon hearing this, Li Chengyi's brows furrowed. Was this about colliding with the repair room?
"Believe it or not, when the door of the repair room is turned from the inside out, don't let it open. It's very dangerous!" he warned again.
"Monsters and such are all nonsensical talk," Meng Dongdong frowned.
"That's right. No such thing as monsters, I'm so damn tired of this place, even if there were monsters, I'd take down every single one that comes!"
Just as Li Chengyi was about to speak, an irate male voice suddenly sounded from not too far away.
Another person!?
He quickly looked in the direction of the sound.
Around the corner, a tall and muscular young man was coming down from the upper floor.
This man had bushy eyebrows and large eyes, wore a white short-sleeved T-shirt with a tiny microphone clipped at the neckline, and had tanned skin with solid and strong lines, sporting a crew cut.
From a distance, one could clearly see the calm and steadiness on his face, as if nothing could shake him.
Most importantly, he was holding a black handgun, its butt thick and with a decorative silver ring around the muzzle—very conspicuous.
A gun!?
Before Li Chengyi could confirm if it was a real gun,
the man had already rapidly approached just a few meters away and stopped.
"Somebody said I was going to die. That once in this damn place, I'd never get out alive, heh..." He sneered, "I bloody well don't believe it!"
He raised his hand, switched off the safety on the handgun, producing a clicking sound.