Chapter 112: The 'Survivor' Challenge
The Torture Building was the place where the victims had endured punishment while alive.
The only entrance was a heavy iron door with an observation window.
There was almost no natural light inside, only a few emergency lights hanging on the walls. Their dim, uneven light stretched and shattered the shadows of the three people.
The temperature was at least ten degrees lower than outside. It wasn't just cold; it was a kind of damp, bone-chilling cold that seeped into the marrow.
The three of them shivered involuntarily.
Passing by rows of dusty racks holding torture instruments, their attention was immediately captured by a rusted crucifix standing in the center of the room.
Almost instantly, all three held their breath.
Bound to that cross was a person whose specific features were hard to make out, with rusted iron chains tightly restraining their limbs.
The person hung their head low, their state of life or death unknown.
Exchanging a glance, Winifred slightly adjusted the beam of his flashlight, while the other two adopted defensive stances.
The harsh beam of light fell upon the cross, but the person bound to it remained motionless.
Winifred's gaze meticulously scanned the figure inch by inch. After a moment, he suddenly walked over to the cross and used his flashlight to lift the tattered cloth covering the person.
"It's a dummy."
Polina and Daisy were taken aback upon hearing this. They moved closer to inspect and found it was indeed just a silicone model of roughly human proportions.
There was no need to ask; this was clearly a deliberate setup by the production team.
Polina shifted her gaze, which then landed on a table on the other side.
On the tabletop, thick with dust, a conspicuously clean small card was placed.
"It's a challenge from the production team." Picking up the card, Polina scanned its contents rapidly with a few glances, then handed the card to the other two.
After reading it, Winifred and Daisy's expressions darkened slightly.
"Hah," Daisy curled the corner of her lip in a cold sneer. "If you're looking to die, there are better ways."
The card explicitly stated that one person from the team must play the role of a prison guard and whip the model for a duration of three minutes. The others must be bound at designated spots, waiting for the player acting as the guard to complete the challenge.
It sounded deceptively simple, with seemingly no difficulty at all.
But the problem was, they weren't actually filming a show.
"Are we sure about doing this challenge?" Daisy waved the card in her hand. "Are we really going to seek death like this?"
Polina, who was constantly monitoring their surroundings with her peripheral vision, glanced at her. "So, you know how to clear this stage?"
"Regrettably, I do not," Daisy replied without a hint of embarrassment, shaking her head frankly.
"Then this death you have to seek," Polina said calmly.
Winifred gave a light cough, interrupting their clash. "Ladies, rather than fighting amongst ourselves, shouldn't we first consider the most practical question?"
"Who will play the role of that... whip-wielding guard?"
*
In the silent forest, the only two players who had chosen the Bone-Burial Forest were cautiously making their way through.
Despite it being daytime, the dense canopy completely blocked out the sunlight. The air was misty and hazy, without even a whisper of wind.
The long-sleeved woman, Gessalin, suddenly stopped and raised her hand, signaling the woman with the birthmark to be quiet.
She half-crouched and picked up a half-piece of a jawbone from the soil, which carried a faint, fishy odor.
The birthmarked woman, Kuxia, also bent down to examine it closely.
On the slanted upper surface of the jawbone, a sharp, clean knife mark was clearly visible.
Seeing this, both women formed a guess in their hearts.
This jawbone was likely the remains of one of the islanders from back then.
"There are more ahead," Kuxia said, her sharp eyes spotting more white bones half-buried in the soil further on.
Following the trail of these remains, the two walked deep into the woods until a structure resembling an altar appeared before them.
On top of this altar, a white card lay quietly upon a stone tablet.
[Bone-Burial Forest Challenge]
[Please kneel and sit upon the altar, light the incense and candles, face the mirror, and chant the scripture on the paper for ten minutes.]
After reading the card's contents, the two fell into a momentary silence.
Kuxia hesitated. "Should we... really follow these instructions?"
Gessalin didn't answer immediately. She picked up the paper placed beside the incense and candles—its corners deliberately aged—and looked down at it.
Seeing Gessalin's expression turn rather grim, Kuxia also leaned in for a closer look and gasped sharply.
She had assumed it would be some ordinary scripture to chant. She hadn't expected the production team to prepare a scripture specifically used for summoning spirits of the dead.
"F**k!" Kuxia cursed under her breath. "Are you kidding me?"
Chanting a scripture to summon the dead deep in a forest full of white bones and wild graves??
"Those people's brains must have been kicked by kangaroos!"
Gessalin nodded in agreement. "True, but—" she shifted her tone, "do we have any other choice?"
Kuxia paused, unable to refute.
With no information and no leads, aside from following the "rules" set by the production team, they truly had no other method.
Letting out a soft sigh, Kuxia picked up the lighter and the incense and candles from the ground. "Fine, let's do it."
"Let's see what this instance is really up to."
*
It was an underground cavern of unimaginable size.
Saha, the man in the trench coat Yurien, and the man with the tie, Ichimura Kota, stood at the edge of the pit, their gazes heavy and fixed on the pit bottom below, which was piled with countless pale skulls.
Rather than calling it a Mass Grave, a Skull Pool would be more fitting.
"Hmm?" Saha lightly nudged a skull with the tip of his shoe. It rolled into the pool and was instantly swallowed by the sea of bones. At the same time, a white card fluttered silently to the ground.
Picking up the card, Saha quickly scanned it, then without hesitation passed it to the two men beside him.
"'Embrace and slumber with these skulls'?" Yurien stroked his chin. "Isn't that a bit too romantic?"
"It's just each person taking turns lying in there for five minutes," Saha said, giving him a sidelong glance. "If you wish to embrace them and spend the night with them in this place, we wouldn't mind."
"Mr. Black Man, when you learn to season your jokes with despair, then you may comment on my humor," Yurien retorted without backing down.
Saha snorted coldly, not bothering to waste more words on this melancholic Romantic. He turned to his other teammate. "What are you thinking?"
Ichimura Kota replied in a low voice, "I'm thinking, what will the other two challenges be?"
"And, who goes in first."
