Disappointment flickered across Li Mo's face.
The human skins pressed beneath the butcher's block, their empty eye sockets, observed this.
The grotesque, withered skins even mirrored his sadness, as if empathizing.
This was definitely not something Bizzare Entities would do. They could experience emotions, but those emotions were always twisted, corrupted over eons and ingrained within their Bizzare nature.
Like Kiana.
"Kiana…I kind of miss her." A faint smile touched Li Mo's lips.
He knew he was corrupted, but he truly didn't care.
He had embraced the dream memories as his own, and with the passage of time, this feeling wouldn't disappear; it would only intensify, becoming a part of his very soul.
"Hua isn't here."
"I need to leave."
Li Mo hadn't forgotten his primary objective.
He hunched over, exiting the slaughterhouse filled with human skins, and quickly glanced at his phone.
10:20 pm.
Ten minutes until the notebook's predicted time of death.
Suddenly, two possibilities struck Li Mo. He needed to weigh the risks and benefits.
The notebook's first page possessed near-omniscience, understanding past, present, and future across countless timelines.
A human contending with it was like a blade of grass comparing itself to the sun and moon in the sky.
If he followed its instructions blindly, he would lose control of the situation.
Li Mo hated that feeling of helplessness and couldn't guarantee the first page wasn't trying to kill him.
Perhaps his first "rebirth" had also served some hidden purpose.
"My original plan was to hurry back. Running at full speed would take about ten minutes."
"If I did that, I would arrive at the dormant room at 10:30 pm."
"But I would die."
"So, the room has likely fallen. But why?"
Li Mo analyzed rapidly as he left the spot where he'd checked his phone.
"Both the room and the Head Ghost are dormant. I also arranged for people to guard it. The room, with its protective abilities, didn't give me any time to delay my death, meaning I triggered an instant-death rule upon entering."
Li Mo struggled to recall the second page's warning: [After returning to your room, avoid staying too long, avoid spending the night, avoid getting injured, avoid leaning against the walls, avoid letting ghosts into the room…]
Staying too long and spending the night were no longer relevant with the ghost stomach dormant. Leaning against the wall had been negated by the Head Ghost devouring that aspect of the room, rendering it also dormant.
That left two possibilities: injury or a ghost entering the room.
Injury was likely related to the ghost stomach, as there were no other Bizzare Entities within the room. The Head Ghost had devoured all the incomplete Bizzare Entities inside, leaving only the room in its special form, both now dormant.
Eliminating injury, only one possibility remained.
"A ghost entered the room."
The only answer was glaringly obvious.
"The room isn't like the main hall. It cannot block a ghost's perception or suppress its abilities. Any ghost that enters will have full power."
This was the most likely scenario.
If so, there was no point returning. The room was no longer safe. He had to stay in the slaughterhouse until morning.
He would use the thermometer during the day to find the intruding ghost, expel it from the room, and then guard it himself.
But… hadn't he given the Bizzare Handgun to those guarding the room?
How could a ghost have breached their defenses? Was there a ghost that could counter the Bizzare Handgun?
"In the slaughterhouse, as long as I don't stand under the tree and avoid eye contact, my chances of survival are high."
"At night, the human skin effigies seemed to mistake me for someone else, showing great kindness, even affection."
"Using this to my advantage, the slaughterhouse might be safer than the room."
"But I cannot be certain. As time passes, more Bizzare Entities will appear. Those I haven't found in the slaughterhouse will revive. With overlapping rules, I'll likely die."
Two choices: return or stay.
Both were fraught with uncertainty and danger.
But one thing was certain: if he did nothing, he would die at 10:30 pm.
"There's another possibility: my decision to stay in the slaughterhouse will lead to my death."
"The room is safe, but the notebook's first page misleads me into thinking it has fallen, causing me to remain in the slaughterhouse."
"Then, at 10:30 pm, an unknown Bizzare Entity here revives and kills me…"
Li Mo reasoned. It wasn't a contest of wits against the notebook, but a game of chance.
The notebook was anticipating Li Mo's actions, so Li Mo had to anticipate its anticipation of him. But his anticipation of the notebook's anticipation could also be anticipated by the notebook.
It was a gamble.
"Should I consult the notebook?"
Li Mo looked at the ancient book, a strong urge to use it rising within him. He quickly quelled it. He knew better.
"No. It wants to lead me step by step into certain death. The initial death traps still offered a glimmer of hope, but using it now will make me a puppet, entirely reliant on it."
"I'll lose all agency, walking into certain death."
Li Mo shook his head. He was exhausted, physically and mentally drained.
Prolonged hunger was dulling his senses, his body trembling.
He didn't have the energy to contemplate the notebook's purpose or the nature of the Bizzare source.
Just figuring out how to survive this current predicament was enough to make his head spin.
He desperately wanted to kill himself and restart.
In this state, dealing with a Bizzare incident was dangerous. Slowed thinking meant impaired judgment.
Impaired judgment, reduced execution. One wrong move, one overlooked detail, and it would cost him a life, perhaps his last.
"Gulp…"
Li Mo swallowed. The flesh in the buckets no longer looked so repulsive, the stench less intense.
He was starving…
He walked towards the martial artists' remains, biting his lip, then punching himself hard.
"If I take this step, there's no turning back."
"I'll never be able to face myself."
"Nor will I have the face to face her…"
An image surfaced in his mind, an ethereal vision that gave him immense strength and resolve.
It made him decide. Despite his gnawing hunger, he would return to the room.
It was simple. Staying here meant starving to death, being killed by Bizzare Entities, or abandoning his human dignity.
Humans were fascinating. Even on the brink of collapse, faith, born from pure emotion, could reinforce their crumbling will.
He was a human with emotions, not a Bizzare Entity bound by rules.
"I will bring Hua back. I cannot give up."
"I should die… for a more meaningful cause."
Moonlight bathed Li Mo's running figure.
The chilling night wind brushed against his face.
He climbed over the fence with practiced ease.
The plants swayed in the wind, their movements mirroring his passage as if trying to capture his every motion.
After Li Mo left, the seven human skins beneath the butcher's block stirred, lifting the block and standing.
Their gruesome faces softened, especially Qin Suyi and Jiang Wanxi.
They hadn't lived to see this day, but in death, they had.
Although eyeless, they couldn't see Li Mo's expression or his form, but his soul, his unwavering emotions, were undeniable proof, the reward for fifty thousand years of waiting.
Moonlight spilled through cracks in the courtyard wall, illuminating the window of the room, revealing a dim scene within—
Five hunched figures, dressed in thick black clothes and hats, stared intently at the closed door.
Beneath each hat lurked a grotesque cat face, green eyes gleaming with a Bizzare light.
The room was silent, no human voices, no meows.
They stood patiently before the door, waiting for a living person to open it and meet their gaze.
"..."
"It's… unnervingly quiet."
His phone showed 10:29 pm, one minute until 10:30.
Li Mo was a step away from the room.
One push of the door, and he would see the truth.
He would know whether the notebook's first page referred to the slaughterhouse or the room.
Li Mo didn't rush. He scanned for details to analyze later, after restarting, and deduce a solution.
The closed door was undamaged, no signs of struggle.
Clearly, they hadn't even had a chance to resist, just like him earlier.
Perhaps a ghost, disguised as him, had lulled them into a false sense of security, killing them all in an instant.
But this was unlikely. He had given them four different passwords. Even if they had triggered the same rule, they wouldn't have died simultaneously.
They would have panicked and opened the door to escape.
But that hadn't happened. Li Mo could vaguely make out five small, dark figures through the window screen.
"Silhouettes mean there are people inside, but they don't look like grown men. More like Granny Cat-Face."
"Five… I remember seven people, besides myself. Two martial artists and four guards."
"The martial artists are dead, leaving four guards."
"Is the extra silhouette their killer…?"
"Granny Cat-Face, who assimilates through eye contact? But logically, that's impossible."
"She can only target one person at a time. The others could have used the Bizzare Handgun."
"But no bullet marks on the door. They didn't fire."
Li Mo pondered. He was weak, lacking the means to control Bizzare Entities.
"Besides the Head Ghost and the room, at least two other ghosts are inside," Li Mo concluded.
Those inside had been turned into Granny Cat-Faces, but Granny Cat-Face alone couldn't have overcome four people without resistance, unless…overlapping rules, two ghosts entering simultaneously.
The situation was far worse than he'd imagined.
The entire group of over twenty was dead.
Not even surviving the first day.
"Life is so fragile." Li Mo murmured, placing the combat knife against his chest. The sharp blade easily pierced his flesh.
Death was a mirror, reflecting the futility of all actions before it.
"Before they kill me, I'll kill myself."
Blood spurted.
The knife pierced his heart.
For a normal person, this meant instant death.
Intense pain radiated through his chest, his breathing labored.
But in his once-dead state, he could cling to life, though not for long.
"Ugh…push…the door…"
The knife slipped from his hand. His phone clattered to the ground, activating the screen.
The time changed from 10:29 to 10:30.
"Creak…"
The door opened. Li Mo leaned against the wall, struggling to look inside.
The Head Ghost remained dormant; the five ghosts showed no interest in waking it. Indeed, if they did, they wouldn't be here.
The unkillable Head Ghost would attack any Bizzare Entity in sight.
Bizzare Entities didn't defend; they didn't dodge or feel fear.
Thus, the Head Ghost could devour them, absorbing their rules. Though its attacks seemed weak to Li Mo, they were devastating to these incomplete Bizzare Entities.
Even the complete ghost stomach, with three Bizzare Entities and at least six rules, had been disabled by the released Head Ghost. The ghost stomach's rules weren't that dangerous, requiring him to sleep against a wall.
Unlike now, facing Granny Cat-Face, he couldn't even control his limbs.