“Hello. Welcome to Bliss, once again.”
A woman’s deep voice came into existence. It felt itchy as if the wind was kissing her ears, causing her to feel a snakelike chill creep down her spine and her skin to burst out in goosebumps. She entered the hypersensory state and hastily turned around. However, there was nothing in the dark corridor.
“Jezebel,” Lin Sanjiu said, gritting her teeth, “That isn’t your name, right? Who the hell are you? Why don’t you come out and talk to me face to face? Are you scared?”
The woman chuckled. Lin Sanjiu was certain that she wasn’t physically here, and it didn’t seem like she was talking through a speaker either. It felt as if her voice had assimilated with the air, filling into every inch of the corridor.
“Who the hell are you?” Lin Sanjiu shouted, her voice reverberated along the corridor. “So you wouldn’t have shown yourself if I hadn’t removed my mask, huh?”
Just like what Mrs. Manas had warned her, of course she knew the consequence of removing her mask. However, if she did not throw the bait, “Jezebel” wouldn’t show herself. She knew that this was the only way to force her out of hiding.
It was just that she felt pretty hurt when “Jezebel” took the bait and appeared.
The woman who donned a wet red robe; the woman with a pair of intense blue eyes; the woman who showed her the checkpoint… Did she want to kill her as well?
“I suppose you have underestimated me,” the woman chuckled. “Whether or not you remove your mask, I will know it is you the moment you step into this building.”
Lin Sanjiu took a breath to calm herself down. She scanned around the corridor and found out that even though it was daytime now, the corridor was dark. “Jezebel” sighed again and then continued, “I remember your smell after spending that night with you. Whenever you come near this building, I can sense you.”
Lin Sanjiu was even more confused. Frowning, she did not ask how she did that, but asked another question instead, “Who are you? Why would you pretend to be Jezebel?”
“She isn’t here most of the time, so she was the most suitable candidate,” the woman’s voice answered, “As for my real identity… If you have a watch, then you can tell time. But imagine this, would you still know the exact time if you had hundreds of watches? You would be confused, right? Likewise, I have too many names, so not even I can tell you my real name.”
Setting her jaw tight, Lin Sanjiu did not say anything and strode towards the staircase.
When she passed by the last window display on the corridor, it lit up. Scarcely had she taken a look than a shadow pounced out from the blast of white light. Startled, she quickly recoiled. Nevertheless, since there was a layer of glass between them, the creature hit the glass with a loud thud.
An arctic white face that was completely devoid of facial features came into her sight. The creature slowly peeled its face away from the glass. It was only then that Lin Sanjiu saw the creature in its entirety. Its head was abnormally huge, which did not go very well with its tiny and scrawny body. The lower part of its torso was split into dozens of root-like tentacles, one of which was beating the glass.
The creature continued to pound the window display, causing the glass to shake and dust to fall off the ceiling. Sniffing around the corners, the creature looked like it was looking for a way out.
‘How did Bliss come up with such a creature?’
“To be honest, I don’t want to kill you,” the “Jezebel” sighed again. “I am smitten with you, and if possible, I want to put you into one of my displays. I want to look at you every day. I want you to stand under the light and let me touch you, feel you, and turn you into my belonging. Just like the creature over there.”
Lin Sanjiu looked into the window display. Aside from duoluozhong, she really couldn’t think of what else it might be.
“And?” She sneered coldly, “I know there is always a but.”
The air was filled anew with “Jezebel’s” guilt-laden sigh. “Yes. Unfortunately, they won’t allow me to do so. They said you are a threat, and we have to eliminate you to keep ourselves safe. The opposition side was too small and too weak, so I have no choice but to agree with the suggestion.”
“Who are they?” Lin Sanjiu asked, her anger apparent.
“Jezebel” shrugged off the question with a laugh. There was a few minutes of silence, and the only sound that could be heard was the pounding of the creature in the window display. After what seemed like an eternity, “Jezebel’s” voice rang out again. “I remember how cute your reaction was when I was nibbling on your earlobe. I remember the shape of your collarbone and the rhythm of your breath when you reached your climax. I love to teach a newbie like you how to explore a human’s body and discover your desire. They wanted to kill you, I couldn’t stop them. They tasked me with an assignment, but I couldn’t bring myself to do it. So, please, don’t make it hard for me. Just wait here until 1 pm, and I will let you go, okay?”
Aside from sounding like she was consoling her girlfriend, there was a hint of grief and sadness in her voice.
Lin Sanjiu turned and examined the window display again.
The creature had stopped knocking the glass. Right now, it stuck its face real closed to the glass. Two slits were growing out of its featureless face, and they looked like its eyes. From the location of the window display, she was certain that the glass would shatter and the creature would pounce on her the moment she rushed to the staircase.
‘If the creature’s only weapon is its teeth, then there is nothing to worry about,’ Lin Sanjiu thought inwardly.
“The last time I checked-in was around 12 in the noon, and now it’s already half past eleven.” She looked at the creature and said, “In another 30 minutes, I will miss my chance to check-in.”
“Jezebel” fell silent.
“Are you planning to hold me up so that I cannot check-in?” Lin Sanjiu continued. “You want me to die, but you don’t even want to step up and do it yourself. Instead, you are going to take advantage of the power of the pocket dimension to get rid of me. What a coward.”
“I am sorry, but I just couldn’t help it.”
Lin Sanjiu chafed at the comment, “Well, have it your way because… I am not going to give you the chance.”
Before her voice died away, she shot towards the staircase like an arrow released from its bow. The window display behind her shattered. A metallic scent instantly blistered the air as a long, mindless shrill assaulted her ears. It sounded like somebody was scraping against the metal.
The creature rammed itself and smacked its tentacles on the staircase, but it was too late. Lin Sanjiu had already leapt over the corner of the stairs and went straight to the second floor. By the time her foot stepped on the last step, the creature hadn’t even made its way up the staircase yet. However, barely had she taken a breath than her heart clenched in her chest. She jerked her head back and the [Defense Forcefield] lit up.
“Jezebel” expelled a sigh. Lin Sanjiu had no idea why, but her voice still felt as if she was talking beside her ears even though she had switched to another floor.
“Do you think I have only one collection?” Her voice had calmed down, like a pool of deadly water. The alluring attribution in her voice was gone. “Why can’t you just listen? If you sit here and wait until 12, I can assure you that none of them are going to hurt you.”
Lin Sanjiu couldn’t say a word right now. She couldn’t see anything, and she felt as if her face was going to fall off. When she turned her head back a second ago, she finally saw the thing that caused her heart to skip a beat. Something was hanging down from the ceiling, and before she could do anything, it jumped onto her face. It began sucking her face like how a baby sucked on a pacifier. Even with her [Defense Forcefield], she could still feel her skin getting pulled away from her face and neck. It had only been half a second, but the pain was so intense, her consciousness began slipping away.
Then, she suddenly realized that she could still move her hands.
She raised her arms up amidst the excruciating pain she was enduring and activated the [Mosaic Censorship]. Without any hesitation, she pressed her hands down. However, as if it knew what she was going to do, the sucking force suddenly disappeared and the creature peeled itself away from her face. Lin Sanjiu’s face was covered in the creature’s saliva, and before she could open her eyes, it caught her hands in midair and pushed them towards her face.
It all happened so fast that Lin Sanjiu couldn’t react in time. The moment before her hands connected with her face, Mrs. Manas deactivated the [Mosaic Censorship].
It was only when her hands fell on her shoulder and her forehead that she finally came around to her senses. Her heartbeat sped into a gallop, and she belatedly realized that Mrs. Manas had deactivated the [Mosaic Censorship] in the last minute so that she wouldn’t blow herself up into pieces. If it weren’t for Mrs. Manas, she would be a pile of lifeless meat right now. The realization did not comfort her by the slightest bit, but made her even more scared. Her back was wet with sweat and her legs were shaking profusely.
Slowly, she raised her head and looked up.
There was a huge, black, petunia-shaped creature on the ceiling. It glissaded across the ceiling and slid down the wall into a window display at the corner. Lin Sanjiu peeled her eyes away and looked back. Not wanting the tentacle creature to catch up to her, she darted straight into the corridor. When she passed by the window display holding the creature that assaulted her just now, she saw it get up from the floor and then stand straight, swaying back and forth like a petunia flower in the wind.
“Jezebel” began to speak again. “Aren’t they cute? Anyway, if I were you, I wouldn’t underestimate them. Although they all look strange, they are pretty nasty. That little creature that attacked you just now is something I came across in the past. It is very good at misdirecting its opponent, and then it strikes back by using its enemy’s own attack.”
“Who the f*ck are you?” Lin Sanjiu shouted.
The woman sighed again.
“Well, if you insist, you can call me Bliss. There is only 30 minutes left, but you won’t be able to reach the pool and check-in. Do you know why?”
Lin Sanjiu finally saw the light.
“Because you are this building,” she answered.
