Naming Technique of the Night

Chapter 1757: Chapter 923: All Dead_2

”How strange, why did you die here, and who killed you?” Qing Chen pondered.

There must be something in this maze that’s killing people. One of Gou Wa’s men is already dead. If more keep dying, I might not be able to continue passing through, right?

Qing Chen turned to continue walking forward, and when he thought something was wrong and wanted to return to check on the corpse, he found that the body on the wall was no longer the same person; it had been replaced by Gou Wa’s subordinate!

For a moment, his hair stood on end.

He possessed the Memory Palace, not forgetting a single detail of anything he had seen. He was certain the person embedded in the wall earlier was definitely not Gou Wa’s subordinate.

Yet he had only walked about ten meters and turned a corner, and when he returned, everything had suddenly changed.

Qing Chen slowly began to retreat, a sense of horror enveloping his heart like a dark curtain. The ghostly child on the kayak also stood up, opened its mouth toward him, revealing its fangs within.

”Don’t make me slap you.”

The ghostly child closed its mouth and obediently sat back down.

Qing Chen suddenly laughed coldly. He took a few more steps forward, turned a corner, and when he returned, the figure on the wall was still Gou Wa’s subordinate.

He continued dragging the kayak deeper into the maze, walking and walking.

He heard the screams of Gou Wa.

He heard the screams of others.

By counting, almost everyone in this maze was dead, and he was the only one left.

Is it a hallucination?

He couldn’t be sure.

There was no competition, no game; this maze area was like a meat grinder, pushing everyone into the machine one by one.

But if those people really were all dead, Qing Chen would then have no chance of proceeding unless he withdrew first and brought in a new group of people.

Soon after, Qing Chen saw Gou Wa and his men within the walls, absorbed into the maze with eerie postures as part of its structure.

Finally, gathering his courage, he pulled at the vegetation wall of the maze, uncovering bleached white bones beneath the roots of those plants.

This maze had stood for hundreds of years, consuming countless people.

”All dead!”

”All dead!”

Qing Chen stood bewildered in the maze, as if it had no end.

He began to run frantically, from the wee hours until the next noon, but no matter how he ran, he could not escape the maze.

At his pace, even running at a constant speed to conserve energy, he should have covered nearly a thousand kilometers in those eight hours, yet the maze still had no end.

The sun shone on Qing Chen’s face, causing his lips to crack.

The mental pollution grew more severe; the child on the kayak had grown into a young man over those eight hours.

Qing Chen glanced back and said, ”You were cuter when you were a child, change back.”

The ghostly young man turned back into the ghostly child...

”Does entering the ghost house mean certain death?” Qing Chen wondered, ”But why haven’t I died? What’s different about me compared to Gou Wa and the others? Is it because I’m powerful, so no one dares to kill me, or did I do something different?”

He thought for a long time but found no answer.

Night fell again, and the first day in the ghost house passed just like that.

Qing Chen was exhausted. Ever since he entered the amusement park, he had been in a tense state, his mind constantly racing, and now he was tired.

He lay on the soft kayak, fell asleep, surrendered, let things decay, thinking if anything wanted to kill him, it should just come and do it!

Let’s see who bumps into whom!

When Qing Chen woke again, he glanced at the countdown on his arm, 112:00:00.

Had he really slept that long?

But the problem was, nothing and no one had come to kill him.

This was what Qing Chen feared most: if someone came to kill him, at least he could retaliate; even if he died there, he could take someone down with him.

But if he were to be trapped here until he died, it would be the most despairing and humiliating fate.

Water, food.

None to be found here.

Stuck like this, he’d only survive another five days at most before he died here.

Qing Chen began moving again, dragging the kayak for who knows how far.

His infallible memory was now a constraint, as everything here was in constant flux, rendering memory useless.

”Wait.”

Qing Chen gave up looking for opponents and teammates, instead dragging the kayak back and forth repeatedly.

Like a headless fly, he moved incessantly among the maze’s walls.

He intended to use the most blunt and exhaustive method to test every possible configuration of the maze!

The scraping sound of the kayak being dragged across the ground was chilling; even the ghostly child behind him was too tired to hop further, obediently sitting in the kayak like a child sitting in a shopping cart, worn out from following a parent around the supermarket.

Again and again, again and again.

Countdown: 96:00:00.

Countdown: 72:00:00.

When Qing Chen got tired, he would toss the ghostly child out of the kayak, lie down himself, sleep, and continue walking when he woke.

”Strange, already 18,960 changes, and even brute force is useless,” he cursed, ”Who the hell designed this maze, with so many configurations! Come out here, stand in front of me, and see if I don’t knock your teeth out with one punch!”

Countdown: 48:00:00.

He lay down to sleep again, mumbling in his drowsiness, ”You guys wouldn’t set a dead end for me, its secret lies hidden in my memory.”

He began replaying all the details from his entry into the amusement park over and over.

Qing Chen replayed everything, trying to unearth the maze’s secret from earlier details.

Ultimately, all his thoughts lingered on a few words from before:

”Remember, if you hear the sound of iron clanging, leave the amusement park immediately. If you can’t leave in time, make sure you’re alone when you sit before the Guardian Lizard Sculpture in the Maze Area, toss your Blessing Card into its mouth, and close your eyes until the clanging stops; it will protect you.”

”There’s only one Guardian Lizard Sculpture in the maze, but if you see two at the same time, do not toss your Blessing Card into their mouths.”

Qing Chen suddenly laughed, his laughter seemingly manic, as though amused by the clever wordplay, or perhaps mocking his own slow realization.

”There’s only one lizard sculpture in the maze.”

”But here there are 19.”

”The telescope already gave me enough hints before I entered the slide, yet I ignored them. The Visitor Information states there are 12 zones in the amusement park, but I only saw 10 zones through the telescope. So the roller coaster area and the ghost house area are indeed part of the amusement park, just not existing in a normal world.”

”Moreover, there are clouds swirling atop the maze, but not above you.”

”So you are not the maze area.”

”You’re the ghost house area!”

When there are more than one Guardian Lizard, it’s the ghost house area.

That resembling Qing Zhen, Qing Shen.

He truly intended to warn visitors with the carousel totem: always distinguish clearly between the maze and the ghost house; if you encounter the ghost house, you must head to the left or right roller coaster area!

Leave here, or die!

Throwing the Blessing Card to the Guardian Lizard in the maze area is useful; it will protect you. In the ghost house area, throwing it is useless and might even awaken it to kill people!

Qing Chen knew Ren Xiaosu once had two Guardian Lizards, named Dawn and Dusk.

In the previous era of human civilization, one of the Guardian Lizards was controlled by the artificial intelligence Zero, slaughtering humans.

So, one stands for protection, the other for slaughter.

But... Qing Chen hadn’t seen any roller coaster on the left or right before coming in.

A roller coaster is such a tall structure; if it were on either side, it should be visible, right?

If you encounter the ghost house area, go to the roller coaster area.

But how to get there?