Chapter 738: Unsolvable Death
This time, Xu Huo didn't wait for the nursery rhyme to finish before heading to the door, but the moment he approached the entrance, his vision went black again. When he opened his eyes a second later, he was once more seated on the sofa.
Picking up the doll, he gave it a quick inspection, found no control clasps, and simply twisted its head off.
The inside of the doll had no mechanical interfaces—it was as if its head and body had always been separate. The neck and jaw were perfectly smooth, and after being discarded, they rolled away on their own.
Since it was something from an illusion, Xu Huo didn't bother trying to destroy it. After tossing it aside, he planned to go upstairs to investigate.
However, when he reached the staircase, he found he couldn't go up. It was as if the map hadn't been unlocked yet. He repeatedly set foot on the stairs, but after a few steps, the staircase would flip downward, sending him back to the living room.
"Ding-dong! Ding-dong!" The doorbell rang again.
Xu Huo stood still in front of the stairs, but after a few seconds of silence from the doorbell, he returned to the sofa.
After three attempts, he had already gathered some information.
First, whether he touched the doll or destroyed it, when the time came, it would sing on its own. After the song ended, the doorbell would ring.
Second, whether he approached the door, walked over from the sofa, came from the kitchen, or simply didn't get close at all, he would die.
Third, he couldn't go up to the second floor.
The clues available in the house were pitifully few. The most telling was the nursery rhyme the doll sang.
The content was simple: a child was playing in the living room, the mother was cooking in the kitchen, the father was off work but hadn't come home yet. The doorbell rang, and both the child and mother who went to open the door were killed. Whether the father, who returned later, was also killed was uncertain.
It was clearly a murder. The person outside the door killed the child and mother directly. Additionally, the mother might have come to the door holding a knife, or she might have died by the knife she brought with her—one knife was missing from the kitchen.
If this were a game, no matter where you were in the room, you would be killed. The way to break through might be self-rescue.
First, he had to survive this "murder case."
Xu Huo first blocked the doors and windows before the nursery rhyme began, but he failed two minutes later. Starting over, he not only blocked the doors and windows but also hid under the kitchen cabinet, but that was useless too.
Since he couldn't go up to the second floor, blocking it was out of the question. An unblocked area represented a gap, and perhaps that was the key to "death."
But if that were the case, it meant this was an unsolvable death loop, so there had to be another way to break through.
He began trying to use items.
Item power could manifest in this illusion and even take on a certain physical form. For example, when he used "Compressed Air," the originally near-transparent barrier turned into a solid shield that could even be placed separately from his hand.
So he simply used compressed air barriers to seal off the French windows and the space outside the second-floor staircase. He also set up other items like "Hurt Others, Not Self" to create traps, half-blocking the main door and hallway.
With such thorough preparations, he still "died" after the doorbell rang.
Since sealing all exits was useless, he switched to taking out the 101 Shelter, hiding inside with the doll. When the nursery rhyme ended, he found himself back by the sofa.
Xu Huo sat by the sofa, face to face with the doll. He had used every defensive measure available, but it couldn't change the inevitable death. If the game maker wasn't playing a joke on him, then the murderer set in this game possessed special items and abilities like a player, or was directly a player.
Using the brief time of the nursery rhyme, he tried attacking the room. Staying in the room only meant waiting for death; perhaps he could go outside.
But the result was unexpected—the moment he broke the window, he still "died."
After all these attempts, Xu Huo felt he had been going in the wrong direction. No matter what method he used, "death" couldn't be skipped. That meant the mother and child in the house were fated to die—it was a fact. So what was the purpose of this scene replay?
"The doll is playing in the living room."
"Mom is cooking in the kitchen."
"Dad is on his way home."
"Ding-dong! Ding-dong! The doorbell rings!"
"Dad forgot his keys!"
"The doll goes to open the door, bumps its head on the cabinet."
"Mom goes to open the door, her belly hits the knife."
"Dad comes home and opens the door, he lies beside the doll and Mom too!"
The nursery rhyme started again. Xu Huo instantly appeared at the door and directly turned the doorknob. Of course, the result was no different—he returned to the sofa.
In the nursery rhyme, the main characters—the mother and child—both died, but the father who returned from outside was uncertain. Was this a cycle of imagination or regret for the past?
"Tap!" At that moment, a glass bead suddenly fell to the floor and slowly rolled to his feet. Following the direction it came from, he saw that the top of the second-floor staircase was no longer pitch black but lit up with light.
He wasn't sure what triggered it, but Xu Huo chose to go up.
The second floor was a study. There was no desk, and the only chair faced away from the staircase. The back of the chair blocked the person sitting in it, with only the right armrest showing a middle-aged man's hand.
"They're both dead," the middle-aged man spoke before Xu Huo entered the study.
After waiting two seconds, Xu Huo spoke, "I wanted to save them too, but I didn't succeed."
"How I wish time could turn back," the middle-aged man continued. "If I hadn't lost my temper that day because a young team member made a mistake, I wouldn't have called a short meeting before leaving work."
"If I hadn't called that short meeting, I wouldn't have run into a leader coming for an inspection and been dragged out for drinks."
"If I hadn't drunk, I wouldn't have had to take public transportation because I couldn't drive, and I wouldn't have gotten caught up in an unexpected argument."
"If I hadn't gotten caught up in that argument, I wouldn't have been dragged in to testify, and I wouldn't have had to repeat my statement over and over because I was slurring my words."
"If I hadn't wasted time giving my statement, I wouldn't have been five minutes late getting home."
"If I hadn't been those five minutes late, they might still be alive."
It was the simplest of narratives, but every word was steeped in regret. Beneath the calm surface lay the daily, knife-like pain of remorse, to the point where every detail, every choice, even every step was filled with regret.
If that was the case, then the existence of this illusion was still about the person who created it wanting to save his wife and child. Unfortunately, time couldn't turn back...
As this thought crossed his mind, Xu Huo suddenly froze. He looked at the hand and said, "If you can't change the facts at the moment of the tragedy, perhaps you can save them before it happens—if only time could turn back."
The middle-aged man stopped repeating his words and then disappeared from the chair.
Xu Huo quickly walked over and turned the chair around. On the cushion was a vial of potion!
(Chapter End)