3 - The Door Behind

Translated by rabbitrisu

The oversized hiking backpack contained a set of toiletries, but Su Zimo didn’t feel the weight of the light and fluffy suitcase behind him. He didn’t know if the set of toiletries was just light enough or if the backpack had some hidden effects.

Su Zimo also discovered something important.

The reason why he can see the text on the toiletries was not because he suddenly gained a special ability, but because the pair of chained glasses from the shop that was hanging on the bridge of his nose. As long as Su Zimo took off the glasses and hung them around his neck, he couldn’t see the small distracting pieces of text.

It’s like with the unwrapped toilet paper roll Su Zimo was holding in his hand. Only when he wears the glasses can he know that it’s a roll of [Nightmare Premium Toilet Paper] priced at 1 yuan, which has an excellent texture and the elegant fragrance of international brand perfume.

“……..” Su Zimo silently threw the roll of toilet paper into the backpack, adjusted his glasses and was about to leave the bathroom.

But just as Su Zimo was about to turn around and leave, his eyes were attracted to the still-blurry mirror in front of him!

“What’s that?” Su Zimo held his glasses with his left hand and rubbed at his eyes with his right hand as if he felt dazed.

He seemed to see that behind him in the mirror… was a translucent and looming door! He immediately turned around to look, but there was nothing behind him except for the closed bathroom door.

Was he wrong?

Su Zimo turned to look into the mirror again, and once more saw the looming door.

He picked up the old towel that he had used to wipe the mirror before and tried to unscrew the faucet to no avail. He could only wipe it forcefully for a long time. The translucent door that appeared in the mirror seemed clearer and looked a bit like the sliding door from the ‘An Yu Yi Yu’ shop.

Su Zimo tried for a while to go through the mirror in the bathroom. He tried turning in all directions and picked up a piece of mirror from the sink. After several attempts, only one unbelievable thing was certain — he was always being followed by a translucent door!

The door only appeared behind him, so without the help of a mirror, no matter how he turned, it was impossible to find the door.

He also tried to walk backwards, but he didn’t collide with anything but the bathroom wall, as if the door was just a ghostly image.

After trying several times and still not understand how to use the ‘door,’ Su Zimo temporarily gave up on researching the matter. After all, the time in the refuge was limited. He needed to find a way to protect himself and restock as much as possible.

Otherwise, he may permanently be trapped between this ‘Nightmare World’ and ‘Ayuyuyu.’

After taking a deep breath, Su Zimo opened the bathroom door and exited.

Although there were no instructions for the ‘door,’ Su Zimo felt that the it must be beneficial to him!

After exiting the bathroom, Su Zimo found that the atmosphere in the refuge was somewhat silent. Both of the two self-proclaimed veterans and the two newcomers seemed to be thinking about their own circumstances without talking.

Su Zimo knew that he may not be a trainer like them since there was no bloody lettering on his arm giving him a task, and there was also no bloody 12 hour countdown.

He was just there to restock goods, and he was ‘backed’ by a strange door.

However, the way out was also unknown.

“Zi… Mr. Su.” Qi Xiaomin, who was wearing sportswear and a ponytail, saw Su Zimo coming out and asked with concern, “Are you all right?”

As a matter of common sense, there are only two reasons why you would stay so long in the bathroom in a dangerous nightmare world. You’re either very nervous or uncomfortable.

“Well, I’m all right.” Suddenly being called like that, ‘Mr.’ Su Zimo was a little uncomfortable.

After all, four years ago, he was close to high school graduation, and he still thinks of himself as a teenager. Su Zimo held the glasses, feeling that he had to adapt to this somewhat different world.

“Thank you for just now.” The young woman with the injured foot walked up to Su Zimo’s side. She was in pain because of her hurt ankle, but she still thanked Su Zimo and Qi Xiaomin by pulling the corner of her mouth. “My name is Han Ling. I’m a public relations manager.”

Han Ling was hot with beautiful large curves, a tight black skirt, and even if she took off her high heels, she couldn’t hide her tall body.

When he escaped in the corridor before, Zheng Ming, who took the lead, treated her and Su Zimo like nasty oil bottles to be dragged, but after hiding in the refuge, Zheng Ming’s eyes kept wandering up and down Miss Han’s legs. ¹

“Thank you for helping me.” Han Ling moved in Qi Xiaomin and Su Zimo’s direction, trying to get out of the middle-aged Zheng Ming’s sight. “If no one helped me, I might’ve been like the person in the beginning who was eaten by the darkness.”

“You don’t need to worry.” Qi Xiaomin felt Han Ling’s rejection of Zheng Ming, so she lowered her voice and said, “The number of survivors in each nightmare world will also affect everyone’s nightmare points, so as long as it’s not out of desperation, Mr. Zheng and I will work hard to protect you.”

When Han Ling breathed in relief, Qi Xiaomin said somewhat mysteriously, “The thing Mr. Zheng is holding is probable a weapon brought from another nightmare world, otherwise he wouldn’t refuse to let the treasure go.”

While Qi Xiaomin was talking, Su Zimo was looking around. He found something very strange. There were all kinds of modern supplies in the bathroom, but there was no TV or phone in the room. There were no sale prices or text on the furniture, but a price appeared on the dirty white porcelain vase on the bedside table.

[Cheap Vase (No Stars)]

[Price: 1 yuan]

[Description: Very cheap vase of very low quality, contaminated with the air of the nightmare world, but nothing changed.]

Another one yuan?

Su Zimo felt strange when he heard Qi Xiaomin mention Zheng Ming. He subconsciously looked at the strange wooden stick in Zheng Ming’s hand. Unexpectedly, Su Zimo actually saw the text related to the wooden stick.

[Wooden Stick (One Star)]

[Price: 10 yuan)]

[Description: A pine stick that has been simply processed. Comes from a pine tree planted next to a malicious spirit’s tomb. It is contaminated with a little bit of ghost resentment and can attack ghosts to a certain extent, but is very easy to damage.]

[Degree of Damage: 86%]

This was the first time Su Zimo saw a ‘one star’ product. Qi Xiaomin called it a ‘weapon,’ but in Su Zimo’s opinion it was just a ‘commodity’ with a high degree of damage and a low price that already belonged to another person.

Su Zimo took another serious look at the high heels that Han Ling had thrown onto the floor and the schoolbag in the arms of the male student whose name he didn’t yet know. The objects belonging to the trainers didn’t appear as commodities like the wooden stick. The text also proves that the stick is different.

Qi Xiaomin should be right; that wooden stick was brought by Zheng Ming from another nightmare world. After all, he was the only person in the room who had experienced three nightmare worlds.

“Twenty minutes have passed and we have to quickly leave here!” Zheng Ming glanced at the time engraved in blood on his right arm and slowly rose from the bed.

“Isn’t… isn’t it ten more minutes?” The male student holding his schoolbag looked wide-bodied and fat, but at that moment he was timidly squeezed into the corner of the room and he didn’t mean to leave the refuge at all.

“Seniors in the last nightmare world said that the longer you stay in the shelter, the more dangerous the situation will be, so leaving the shelter a few minutes early is the safest option,” Qi Xiaomin explained patiently.

“If we continue to stay in the refuge, what will we encounter? What’s hidden in the darkness of the outside corridor?” Because the explanations of the two seniors were ambiguous, Su Zimo frowned and asked directly, “Is it… a ghost?”

Although the existence of ghosts was somewhat unreasonable, that was the most reasonable explanation Su Zimo could think of at the moment.

“This is a nightmare world, anything can happen.” Qi Xiaomin paused, and then said, “But in most nightmare worlds, the dangers we encounter do indeed tend to be a variety of fierce ghosts, and now is no exception.”

There was another moment of silence in the refuge, and all three newcomers needed time to digest to a new worldview.

“Aren’t you veterans?” After a few minutes, the male student said in a panic, “Aren’t you supposed to be very powerful? Can’t you kill the ghost?”

“Fatty, everything outside had become a ghost. Can they be killed again?” Zheng Ming smiled sarcastically, “Don’t blame us seniors for your hiding, there is only one way to leave the nightmare world. That’s to find the place where the ghost hides, find its weakness, take advantage of its weakness, and then hide in absolute safety until the mission’s end. Now that the ghost is hiding in darkness, all we can do is stay away from that darkness, understand?”

“In fact, killing ghosts is not impossible.” Qi Xiaomin shook her head. “Previous seniors have said that there are some powerful guys in the nightmare world that can kill ghosts. They will even deliberately stay in refuge past half an hour.”

“I remember you said that staying in a refuge for over thirty minutes will cause it to become the most dangerous place in the entire nightmare world.” Su Zimo thought about the connection and seemed to think of something.

“Yes. At that time, a malicious spirit will appear in the shelter with a 100% chance!” Qi Xiaomin nodded solemnly. “For us, that is the most terrible outcome, but for those guys, it’s the best time to kill a ghost!”

“Don’t think about that. The refuge only appears in nightmare worlds where there are newcomers.” Zheng Ming kicked the male student from the corner with an uncomfortable expression, then walked to the door, pulling his collar. “You didn’t have enough good luck to meet a strong man like that, admit it!”

After talking, Zheng Ming pushed open the refuge door and rushed out.

“Mr. Su, we also…”

Qi Xiaomin wanted to call Su Zimo, but she was surprised to see that the young man with the gentle appearance and temperament walked quickly to the bed and threw the ugly, old, broken vase on the bedside table into the hiking backpack.

“……..”

Footnotes

<ol>A dragged oil bottle is something that causes trouble for others around them, making them put in extra effort.</ol>