absurd deduction game.

The passageway was unusually quiet, with only the soft "plop" sound of their footsteps on the springy ground.

The fungal carpet on the walls emitted a faint phosphorescence, providing some illumination, but the greenish glow only added to the eeriness. The air was foul, filled with a strong musty smell and a pungent odor similar to biological stomach acid.

Not far ahead, the passageway forked, one sloping upwards and the other winding downwards.

"Which way?" Qu Xianqing asked.

Yu Xing blinked, carefully sensing the energy fluctuations emanating from the two forks in the road.

The upward energy flow is relatively stable, but carries an unsettling feeling of "digestion," as if leading to a huge "stomach." The downward energy flow is more chaotic and violent, with faint gurgling sounds like liquid flowing through pipes, and a kind of... low, intermittent sobbing.

"Down." Yu Xing made her choice.

In this place, uncontrolled chaos may be the only way out.

They then descended, where the passage became increasingly narrow and steep, and the fungal carpet on the walls grew thicker, with some parts even wriggling slightly as if alive.

The gurgling water and the sobbing sounds became increasingly clear.

Suddenly, Yu Xing, who was walking at the front, stopped abruptly and raised his hand to signal.

On the side wall of the passageway not far ahead, several semi-transparent human figures were clearly "embedded"!
They are not living people, but they do not appear to be the same species as the Shadows.

As you get closer, the human figure becomes clearer, revealing chilling details.

From the fragments of their clothing and hairstyles that were not yet completely engulfed by the fungal carpet, one can clearly discern characteristics of the Victorian era—just like the real world outside.

“This is…” Qu Xianqing gripped the blood-stained sword in his hand and examined it closely.

One of the female victims' faces was still relatively clear, but her once-tied updo was now disheveled, with a few strands of brown hair covered in mucus clinging to her pale forehead.

Further down, the mangled body still bore the marks of a desperate struggle to break free. Fragments of a ruffled high-necked shirt remained on her body, and a pearl brooch, long since dulled, adorned her collar.

What was most disturbing was her right hand—her fingers, clad in a black lace glove with a spiderweb pattern, had become one with the fungal carpet, yet remained in the bent position of her struggle.

She had clearly been dead for a long time, but she had not completely lost her vitality. Her withered eyes turned toward Qu Xianqing as she approached, silently staring at her.

Qu Xianqing: "..."

Although she wasn't afraid, she was quite sensitive to spiritual pain, and seeing such a soul-torturing way of dying still made her feel somewhat creeped out.

Yu Xing had already come to her side and stood beside her, casually using her fingers to smooth her high ponytail, which had become messy due to her movements.

The fluorescence on the fungal carpet illuminated these "people".

Beside the lady with the pearl brooch stood a gentleman in a tattered double-breasted tuxedo, his gold-rimmed glasses perched askew on his nose, the pupils behind the lenses completely milky white.

The wool fabric of his formal attire was slowly disintegrating under the erosion of the fungal carpet, revealing the outline of his ribs, which were connected to the veins of the carpet. His lips were slightly parted, as if he were still silently reciting a name.

Deeper inside was a young girl. The remaining hem of her skirt still showed signs of a popular basalt crinoline style, but the steel frame of the crinoline had pierced through the fabric, intertwining with the fungal carpet like a strange skeleton. A small silver cross hung around her neck, which was now gently tapping against the wall as the fungal carpet undulated.

These three individuals were not of low status; before being absorbed by the flesh wall, they likely came from relatively well-off families.

The fungal carpet on the wall pulsated intensely around these victims, as if it were still slowly digesting the prey captured long ago. Whenever the carpet writhed, the victims' limbs would twitch slightly, and the lace and dress fragments would rustle, like a death ball that never ends.

As you walk further in, the dead reveal even more differences.

rickshaw pullers, peddlers, beggars, survivors...

All the victims' skin had a translucent, waxy texture, and the blood vessels under the skin could be vaguely seen to be connected to the network of the fungal carpet, deeply embedded in the wall like tree roots.

Their facial expressions were mostly frozen in the horror and pain of the last moment, their wide-open mouths devoid of tongues—instead, they contained constantly wriggling mycelial-like substances.

What's even stranger are their eyes.

Although their eyes were cloudy, the depths of their pupils shimmered with the same phosphorescence as the surrounding fungal carpet, as if their consciousness was still trapped within these shells, eternally gazing at the terrifying world that had devoured them.

"Dorothy...Dorothy..."

As they passed a woman whose body consisted of only half a body, a name suddenly murmured from her mouth, which was covered in mycelium. Her off-key, hoarse voice echoed in the passageway, causing Yu Xing to freeze in place.

Dorothy?
If I heard correctly, that seems to be the name of the wife of the big banker Defit Claude, a woman who was suspected of having ties to cults but died in a nightmare.

The actor also noticed her, and gave an ambiguous "Oh?" before examining the half-body for a moment: "This woman looks much newer than the other victims, as if she just came in recently."

In fact, the presence of so many corpses of outsiders in the passageway suggests that the three of them were right about the mental journey of ordinary people entering the City of Horrors. But the question is, how did so many ordinary people enter the City of Horrors without a key?
Were they all, like Edgar, watched over by the ancient gods, passively and forcibly dragged into this place after undergoing mental pollution?

Yu Xing examined these things that could be called corpses once again, confirming that they spanned a great deal of time. The one in front of him that could still make a sound was wearing a light gray belted coat covered in stains, with a gold-plated fountain pen clipped to its chest. Half of a leather-covered interview notebook was sticking out of the coat pocket, its edges already blended into the fungal carpet.

This appears to be a female reporter, and her clothing style is similar to theirs. Just as the actor said, she must have died recently.

The other entities around them looked much older, many more than thirty years old, and judging from their clothing, they were probably close to a hundred years old.

Looking at it this way, it makes sense. These corpses in the passageways probably represent most of the victims from all over the world who were dragged into the City of Horrors over the past hundred years.

Yu Xing's attention returned to the "Dorothy" mentioned by the female reporter in front of him.

He wanted to confirm the person's identity again, but her right side had completely disappeared, and the cut was covered by a dense network of mycelium, which acted like some kind of eerie suture, firmly connecting her severed body to the wall.

Through the gaps in the hyphae, one could see that her chest cavity was empty, and her ribs were spread out like carefully arranged specimens, intertwining with the veins of the fungal carpet to form a nauseating pattern.

In her remaining left hand, she clutched an old-fashioned flash camera, her knuckles white from excessive force—perhaps her last obsession. The camera's lens was broken, tiny fungi growing from the cracks, occasionally emitting a faint phosphorescence. It's uncertain whether it can be salvaged.

Yu Xing tried to reach for the camera, but Qu Xianqing stopped him, giving him a sharp, daughterly glance: "Aren't you worried about these fungi getting all over you? You're still a human being, after all. Let me do it."

Yu Xing: "Oh."

Qu Xianqing pushed the person aside slightly before reaching for the camera in the female reporter's hand. The female reporter's fingers were gripping it tightly; an ordinary person might not be able to pry them open.

As she moved, the silent fungal carpet seemed to sense the new life and began to wriggle slightly. Whenever the fungal carpet wriggled, half of the female reporter's body would sway slightly, the gold-plated pen would sway gently on her coat, and the phosphorescence of the mushrooms in the camera would flicker.

Finally, Qu Xianqing got her hands on the camera. Blood from her very soul flowed from her hands as she washed away the last trace of mycelium from the camera. What exactly was recorded in the camera, and what was the relationship between the female reporter and Dorothy? Only after leaving the City of Horrors could she open the camera and examine it carefully to find out.

Yu Xing silently watched the bodies being devoured and merged, knowing that the city was still constantly "feeding".

Wow, she can really eat! She seems even hungrier than him.

A few seconds later, he looked away: "Let's go, keep going forward, I sense the exit isn't far away."

These connecting passageways are not continuous from one end to the other; they are intermittent, providing breathing space.

They did not disturb these pitiful "mosaics" any further, carefully avoiding them, and tried to continue to delve deeper.

Just as the three were carefully bypassing the eternally imprisoned victims and continuing their descent, Yu Xing's senses suddenly triggered a sharp warning—

"Stand still!"

Almost at the same time he spoke, the thick fungal carpet on both sides and under his feet, which had only been wriggling slightly, suddenly burst forth with intense activity, like a huge creature that had been awakened!
The surface of the fungal carpet, which had been emitting a faint phosphorescence, suddenly opened countless cloudy, pupil-less, milky-white eyes, all staring intently at the three uninvited guests.

A thick, yellowish-green mucus with a strong, sour, putrid odor is secreted in large quantities from the gaps in the fungal carpet, much like a biological digestive fluid.

Immediately afterwards, countless slimy, octopus-tentacle-like strands formed from mycelium shot out from all directions, whistling through the air as they swiftly swept toward the three of them!

The tips of these hyphae split open, revealing a dense array of tiny, file-like teeth inside. Clearly, they were not only trying to bind them, but also to completely entangle and digest them, just as they had done to their victims!
"Charge! Don't stop!"

Faced with this sudden attack, the three did not hesitate at all.

Qu Xianqing snorted coldly, and a blood-red light flashed for a moment. Facing the overwhelming mycelium, she no longer held back. A chilling blood aura surrounded her, and all the mycelium tentacles that approached were instantly crushed into countless foul-smelling fragments and slime upon contact with the blood aura.

She transformed into a black arrow, charging forward along the tunnel.

The performer chuckled lightly, showing no sign of panic. The mycelium withered and softened instantly, as if its power had been drained. He even had the mood to chat with Yu Xing: "She's really skilled. No wonder she's the girl you picked up."

"Tsk." For a moment, Yu Xing really wanted to push the actor directly into the mycelium. Half of it was real killing intent, and the other half was to see how the actor would react to the unexpected, and what kind of expression the actor would show when the mycelium destroyed his pretentious facade.

Most importantly, the actor hadn't shown much malice along the way, which made him feel a bit suspicious. He felt that this actor was more dangerous than before, so he might as well trick him here.

Just then, Xiao Ququ had already rushed ahead, so whatever happened wouldn't affect her in time.

With this in mind, Yu Xing was eager to put it into practice.

The moment his tendrils emerged from the void, the musician seemed to realize something, his smile widening as he grabbed Yu Xing's hand: "Trying to kill me again? At this time—now that we're allied and can be considered teammates for the time being?"

"Is that really the case? You're already willing to abandon your principles and turn against your collaborators? If you strike first, our mission... the Archbishop's instructions, and the lives of the other NPCs in Yorikov Town might all be ruined by your hands~"

Perhaps this is the talent of the Fallen Line: they are full of malice towards others, and are extremely sensitive to the malice of others.

The actor was even a little impatient. He pulled Yu Xing's hand to his chest and applied slight pressure: "Come on, push me to my death!"

Yu Xing: "You really seem like a masochist."

The effects of the cognitive distortion were slowly fading, and his human way of thinking was gradually returning. Now he was even keeping up with the thought process of the performer.

In fact, they all knew that if they slowed down in this long and narrow passage, they would be completely surrounded and entangled by countless mycelial tentacles, and the consequences would be unimaginable. So, whether they made a move or not, they only had this much time to hesitate and waste.

The actors were provoking him.

Or perhaps, the actor was simply expressing his true feelings. He had always been happy to see any opportunity for Yu Xing to fall into depravity, and he was always able to accurately seize such opportunities to disgust Yu Xing and steer things in a way that was favorable to him.

For example, if he says something like this now, Yu Xing will most likely give up taking action, otherwise the disadvantages will outweigh the advantages.

But even under the sickly gaze of the actor, Yu Xing revealed a hint of pleasure.

He didn't exert any force in his hands, but suddenly a sharp branch appeared in the void, piercing the actor's neck and pushing him into the surging mycelium with its forward momentum.

A hint of surprise flashed in the actor's eyes.

Yu Xing smiled, wiped her hands, and said before the musician was engulfed by the mycelium, "You are different from me. You are not someone who would risk your life for pleasure. Every time you act crazy, it means that you have made thorough preparations."

"So, your main body has caught up with Qu Xianqing, right?"

"Killing your clone won't change the mission, the stance... anything will be fine, but it'll make me happy for a while, so goodbye."

Upon hearing this, the actor smiled and said, "You saw right through me again."

As soon as he finished speaking, he was engulfed by mycelium. The rampant mycelium made it impossible to distinguish between the main body and the clone. Because he had obtained something delicious, a chewing sound suddenly filled the air.

Taking advantage of this opening, Yu Xing enveloped himself in a cursed black mist and rushed towards the exit. (End of Chapter)