Chapter 12: Person 012 Part 2
Click.
At this moment, the doorknob of the small door began to turn as if someone was twisting it, trying to come out.
Li Chengyi held his breath, dashed forward in a few steps, and pounced fiercely, slamming hard against the small door without hesitation.
Bang! The door, which was about to be opened, was forced shut again by his impact.
‘As long as the door doesn’t open, that ghostly thing can’t come out!’
This was the only thought in his mind at the moment.
His body pressed firmly against the door panel, the cold red maintenance door was firmly blocked and didn’t open at all.
Thud, thud, thud.
Inside the maintenance room, a heavy object kept hitting the door panel, creating a dull sound.
It seemed like something was trying to push the door open.
But with Li Chengyi’s previous slam, the door was closed and locked again. The lock, along with his full strength pressing against it, firmly kept the door from opening.
Thud, thud, thud.
The sound of banging continued relentlessly, without pause, growing heavier with each hit.
The heavy impacts brought vibrations, buzzing Li Chengyi’s eardrums and numbing his arms and shoulders that were pressed against the door.
He gritted his teeth, making his body form a diagonal line, pressing against the door, daring not to relax.
But the hits grew larger and heavier, the increasing strength so rapid that it was startling.
‘I must find a way! If this continues, I will undoubtedly die!’
Previously, the Huayu Armor helped him evade a disaster, but now that the armor was damaged, he only had his Floral Speech ability left, which was no match for confronting that face head-on.
And if the first time was a human face, who could assure that the second wouldn’t be some other troublesome monster?
‘It must not come out!!’
Li Chengyi pressed firmly against the door, various thoughts flashing rapidly through his mind.
Suddenly, an idea crossed his mind.
‘If the Floral Speech ability needs touch to activate, would touching through an object work as well??’
‘I’m currently touching the door, and the monster on the other side is also touching the door, does this count as contact??’
This idea rapidly took root in his mind as soon as it appeared.
‘Should I give it a try!?’
He made up his mind, flipping his right hand quickly, slapping it against the door.
The cold, hard touch transmitted into his mind through the palm of his hand.
In an instant, thoughts flowed, and his palm quickly covered with a layer of invisible distortion.
That distortion contacted the iron door and evenly dispersed into the door panel, disappearing from sight.
Thud! At the same time, another heavy hit came from behind the door.
But this time, the impact only lasted for a moment.
Li Chengyi felt as if a line connected his hand, the door panel, and something behind the door panel together.
‘It worked!! Next, the target of the second touch drowning.’
The full activation of the Drowning Hand took two steps.
First: designate the target.
Second: determine what makes the target drown.
For Li Chengyi’s first use, he felt the connection like a thin thread, continuously draining his body’s strength.
This draining speed was fast, like sprinting non-stop on a track, it would only take half a minute for his strength to be completely drained.
‘I must act quickly!’
His thoughts raced, his bloodshot eyes quickly scanning the surroundings, not pausing, his right hand once again pressing down hard on the iron door in front of him.
He was on the outside, whatever he designated, would inevitably let the thing inside the door come out.
So, why not use this iron door as the object of drowning! Let that monster drown in this little door!
With a crisp snap.
His palm slapped the iron door’s surface.
And at the same time, the inside of the door fell completely silent.
Hiss. Hiss. Li Chengyi closed his mouth, breathing heavily through his nostrils, his eyes wide open staring at the iron door in front of him.
After waiting for a while, about ten seconds, or perhaps a minute.
The door remained motionless.
‘Did it succeed??’
He didn’t know, but from the reaction, it seemed to have worked.
Hiss. Suddenly, a faint rubbing sound came from behind the iron door.
It seemed like someone was gently caressing this door.
The hissing sound was not loud, but it was persistent.
When Li Chengyi first heard the sound, he was startled, but then, noticing the door showed no signs of being opened, gradually relaxed.
‘It seems to have worked. As long as I don’t open this door myself, there should be no problem.’
He could feel a faint, fragile connection on the iron door, linking the door and something inside the maintenance room together.
As long as there was no external interruption, this state of drowning could continue indefinitely until the Floral Speech ability itself wore off.
He didn’t know how long the Floral Speech ability would last, that still needed testing and recording.
But now, at least for now, he finally had an effective way to avoid danger.
After making sure there was no problem, he stepped back a few steps, picked up his bag, and ran towards the corner.
Even if the situation was temporarily stable, he didn’t want to stay near that small door any longer.
The feeling of being close to a source of danger made his hair stand on end and his heartbeat accelerate.
Continuing like this, he couldn’t rest and regain his strength.
Jogging away, he distanced himself from that door, walking over a hundred meters, and then he sat down behind a support pillar.
Using the pillar as cover, he only needed to tilt his head slightly to see the situation of the maintenance room door.
The cold and empty garage was devoid of any vehicles.
Li Chengyi, carrying a white plastic bag, was gasping for breath, and his complexion was starting to pale.
The cold light shone on his face, making him appear even paler.
Just as he was about to squint and rest for a while.
“Is anyone there?”
Suddenly, he seemed to have heard a voice.
Someone was calling out.
“Is there anyone here?” It was a young woman’s voice.
The voice was energetic, the tone calm, without any panic.
‘Someone!?’ Li Chengyi was first stunned, thinking he had heard wrong or had auditory hallucinations.
Being in an extremely quiet environment for too long, one tends to experience this phenomenon.
Due to the excessive silence, the sound around is too subtle, causing the imaginary sound in one’s mind to mix with the external subtle sounds, making it difficult to distinguish between illusion and reality.
“Is there anyone? Is anyone there?” The woman’s voice rang out again.
This time, the voice was closer and clearer.
Li Chengyi widened his eyes, finally certain that he hadn’t misheard. Indeed, there was someone else besides him making noise!
He immediately stood up, intending to respond.
But suddenly, like applying brakes, the sound in his throat halted abruptly, stopping him.
‘Wait! This place even had that kind of monster before, so it wouldn’t be surprising if there was another monster that can mimic human voices! Just wait, wait.’
His expression changed, discarding the idea of responding immediately, instead, he looked in the direction of the voice.
The woman’s voice came from the right.
There was a turn leading up to another level.
Accompanying the shouts, faint footsteps slowly approached.
It seemed the person was moving towards this level.
The footsteps were muffled, seemingly not from leather or hard-soled shoes but from soft rubber soles.
Li Chengyi patiently hid behind the cylindrical pillar, standing straight with his body fully concealed behind the half-meter diameter grey-white pillar, waiting for the footsteps to grow nearer.
His nose was almost touching the rough surface of the pillar, smelling a faint cement scent.
As the footsteps grew closer and louder,
“Is anyone there?” The woman’s voice sounded again, this time much clearer, and even the faint breathing could be heard, obviously, the woman was also somewhat tired.
Li Chengyi carefully peeked out a sliver of his eye, aiming at the bend, waiting for the person to appear.
Five seconds.
Ten seconds.
Fifteen seconds.
Finally, from afar, a person slowly emerged at the bend.
A woman dressed in all black, holding a brown-white checkered coat in her hand.
The woman looked around calmly, but her increasingly rapid steps betrayed her façade of calm.
“Is anyone there?” She called out again, approaching Li Chengyi’s direction.
As the distance closed, Li Chengyi could gradually see her appearance more clearly.
The woman had fair skin, her features were generally above average, with slight signs of cosmetic surgery at the corners of her eyes and chin, giving her an unnatural standard of beauty.
She had black shoulder-length hair, outerwear that was a black light coat that hid her figure.
Her lower body was clad in black tight pants, and she wore black platform shoes that were half a palm thick.
Li Chengyi noticed the woman was also carrying a large shopping bag, outside of which bore the logo of the department store Cain Mina, surrounded by a pure white floral wreath.
Cain Mina was a high-end department store known to Li Chengyi, positioned in the city center.
To sum it up in one word — expensive.
The woman walked for a bit, stopped, and pulled out a black-cased mobile phone from her coat pocket, its back adorned with a decorative pink cartoon cat pendant.
She checked her phone screen, possibly for a signal.
After confirming there was still no signal, she put it away with disappointment, her chest heaving even more.
By then, Li Chengyi had determined that the other party was not any monster, but a real living person.
Li Chengyi breathed a sigh of relief, glanced at the maintenance room door he had closed before to ensure there was no movement, and then slowly emerged.
“Were you suddenly pulled in here as well?”
He spoke in a deep voice, having regained some energy from before, which made his voice sound steady and strong.
In such a foreign and unsafe environment, one should never show their weakness.
That wasn’t some wisdom of life, just a person’s instinctive need to maintain their own sense of security.
“!!?” Seeing someone come out, the black-haired woman seemed startled, taking a sudden step back.
At this moment, they were about ten meters apart, her height just over 1.7 meters, slightly shorter than Li Chengyi, but that was due to her exaggerated platform shoes. Her real height must be much shorter.
Startled, the woman staggered, almost falling backward.
But she quickly regained her balance, showing good postural control, then stood firmly, her face expressing surprise as she looked at Li Chengyi.
“I finally found someone!! What exactly is this place?? Are you a staff member here?! Can you take me out?! I can give you money! Would a thousand be enough?!”
She blurted out several sentences in quick succession.
The calm she had on her face collapsed at this moment.
Li Chengyi glanced at her, noting the white dust and wear marks on the knees of her black pants and on the top of her shoes — clear signs of a recent fall.
Moreover, standing more than ten meters away, he could still smell a strong peach fragrance emanating from her, indicating how much perfume she had applied.
“Sorry, I’m not a staff member here, nor can I take you away. Do you still not know where this is?” Li Chengyi doubted if the other party, after experiencing two premonitions, still did not understand Dead End.
That unmistakably clear premonition experience, even the dullest person should know to search for information.
(End of Chapter)
