Rebirth 09: Starting from taking charge of Running Man on CCTV

Chen Yang's voice came from behind the door again.

There were no ups and downs.

"Has the camera's location been confirmed?"

Zhang Lei stood sideways against the door frame, answering through the gap of less than two centimeters.

"Old Zhou's four camera positions are all in place. Two in the first-floor corridor, one at the corner of the second-floor staircase, and one in the fourth-floor audience seating area. They're all concealed locations, so your position won't be revealed."

"it is good."

One word.

It was clean and crisp, like slicing tofu with a knife, without even a trace of extra flavor.

It was as if he wasn't preparing to personally engage in a life-or-death chase with eight people, but rather confirming how many boxed lunches he had ordered for tomorrow.

Zhang Lei hesitated for a moment.

He opened his mouth twice, and only on the third attempt did he manage to squeeze out the words.

"And... Chen Yang, what if they just come up here and easily tear you apart?"

There was silence inside the door for a few seconds.

It's not hesitation.

Zhang Lei understood this silence all too well.

This isn't about thinking, "What if it gets torn?"

This is someone thinking, "How could you ask such a stupid question?"

Then, a soft laugh came from inside the door.

It carried an air of arrogance.

"Hmph, you think you can tear me apart? Not so easy!"

Zhang Lei looked up at the ceiling.

Row.

Asking is the same as not asking at all.

Ma Li stood on the other side of the corridor, her tone flat, as if stating an objective fact.

"Are all the people on your directing team like this?"

Zhang Lei thought for a moment and then answered with precise wording.

"Just like him."

He paused for a moment.

"The others still have some will to survive."

The voice just fell.

Bottom edge of the door seam.

The sliver of light shining from the room went out silently at that moment.

It was as if someone had extinguished the last candle.

The corridor was plunged into darkness in an instant.

The three people stood still, none of them moving.

Even their breathing became softer unconsciously.

It's not fear.

It is an instinctive alertness to the unknown in the dark.

then.

The door was pushed open from the inside.

Extremely light.

So quiet it was almost silent.

There wasn't even the slightest friction sound of the door hinges turning; it was as if the sound had been sucked away by something.

A dark silhouette emerged from the doorway.

He was dressed entirely in black, with his hat pulled low and a mask covering half his face.

In this corridor without main lighting, the silhouette almost blended into the surrounding darkness, with only the edges of the silhouette barely outlining a human figure in the dim green light of the emergency lights.

Ma Li instinctively held her breath.

The silhouette paused for a second in the darkness, then turned towards Zhang Lei.

"The broadcast will be switched on time in a moment."

Zhang Lei nodded, his voice completely calm.

"receive."

The black silhouette remained silent.

He turned around and walked deeper down the corridor.

Ding-dong.

Ding-dong.

The sound of the bells faded into the darkness, steady, calm, and unhurried.

Ma Li watched that figure disappear around the corner of the corridor, and it took her a long time to come back to her senses before she murmured something.

"His...the name tag on his back..."

Zhang Lei followed her gaze and glanced at her.

"Um."

"Did he stick the key inside his name tag?! Did he stick the key on his body?!"

"right."

"Does he want eight people to tear off his name tag in order to get the key?!"

"right."

Ma Li turned to Zhang Lei, her tone carrying an indescribable complex emotion.

"He wants to personally chase after eight people to tear off their name tags, and then make them tear off his name tags in order to open the box?"

"Yes."

"...Is this person alright?"

Zhang Lei thought for a moment and then answered seriously.

"I'm not sick! I'm just obsessed with making these shows."

Su Xiao did not participate in this conversation.

She closed the script.

"Let's go, it's time to keep an eye on the radio."

Not long after.

The background announcements at the Bird's Nest main stadium suddenly stopped.

The faint ambient white noise in the corridor disappeared.

That kind of "break" is not a gradual weakening, nor a fade-out—it's like someone directly unplugging the power supply, all the sound being sucked out at the same instant.

Almost simultaneously, all eight people sensed something was amiss.

That's a physiological discomfort.

It's like when you're on an airplane and suddenly there's a pressure drop, your eardrums are suddenly sucked in by the vacuum.

The air became unusually quiet.

It was so quiet that I could hear the blood flowing in my veins.

Deng Chao stopped in his tracks, his brows furrowing slightly.

Baby tilted her head and subconsciously looked at the loudspeaker on the ceiling.

Chen He opened his mouth as if to say something, but it felt like something was pinching his throat.

The silence lasted for a full five seconds.

Then--

The loudspeaker lights came on again.

But the voice changed.

It was no longer the gentle female voice from the system.

Instead, a voice was processed by a voice changer.

Low-pitched, cold, and devoid of any emotional fluctuation.

Each word looks as if it were scraped off a metal plate, carrying a mechanical, inhuman texture.

The voice said:

"Attention everyone!"

All eight people remained frozen in place.

Baby instinctively grabbed Deng Chao's sleeve.

Chen He's back slammed against the wall, and he froze.

The air in the corridor felt frozen.

The voice continued, speaking slowly and deliberately, with just the right pauses between each sentence, as if deliberately giving the fear time to fester.

"From now on, a special participant will be added to the venue."

"The bell-ringer".

"He wore a mask, dressed in black, and had bells tied around his ankles."

pause.

"He will be able to move freely within the venue."

"He doesn't distinguish between the red team and the green team."

"The person whose name tag he tore off..."

The cold voice paused for almost two seconds.

Two seconds of silence are more lethal than any words.

"Immediate elimination."

"Disqualified from all competitions."

The audience was silent.

No one dared to speak, or even breathe deeply.

Broadcast interrupted.

Immediately afterwards—

Half of all the main lights in the venue went out at the same instant.

The lights in the corridor went out in patches, as if something was swallowing the light source layer by layer from the depths of the venue.

In the end, only the emergency indicator lights on the ground remained in the entire corridor, emitting an extremely faint, eerie green light that barely illuminated a half-meter radius beneath one's feet.

Beyond half a meter, it was all darkness.

The breathing of the eight people was amplified countless times in the darkness.

The sounds of heartbeats, swallowing, and the rustling of clothes all became abnormally clear.

then.

Deep inside the Bird's Nest.

At the farthest point of a corridor that seems to have no end.

A crisp, metallic clanging sound came softly and abruptly from the darkness.

Ding-dong.

Chen He's pupils contracted sharply.

Ding-dong.

Ding-dong.

The sound of bells grew louder as they approached.

The pace was steady.

Not too fast, not too slow.

It's not running, it's not rushing.

It's time to leave.

Step by step, step by step.

It was as if something was slowly and deliberately walking towards them from the deepest part of this massive building, along a dark passage they couldn't see.

He's not in a hurry.

Because he knew.

None of you can escape.