Visa On Arrival Chapter 2

Looking at me?

Don’t be afraid, this should just be the park using projection technology to show off their skills, that’s why it looks so real. As long as we safely walk out of here and reach the Safe Zone, we can go back, Chen Rong said, slowly patting her back to comfort her.

Looking down at her face, she spoke gently: It’s the same rules as a haunted house, it’s fine. They do this to create this kind of atmosphere; it’s just a gimmick.

Tense muscles began to slowly surrender. Just now, countless terrifying thoughts had exploded like fireworks, scattered here and there. Now those fragments were slowly piecing together, chaos replaced by order, fear squeezed out. Although lingering tremors remained, logic was slowly being rebuilt.

Qi Ranyue wiped her face with her hand and gave an embarrassed, bitter smile. I’m just a bit fond of my life, that’s all. I thought I was going to die here just now.

Now we need to think about how to get out of this place, Chen Rong pondered for a moment.

If it’s the same rules as a haunted house, we have to keep breaking through different rooms until we reach the exit. We might encounter some ghosts—uh, I mean monsters, NPCs in disguise—along the way. When that happens, as long as we don’t make a sound and wait for them to leave, we can slowly move to the next room. Is that okay?

Okay, Qi Ranyue nodded.

After some mental preparation.

Her hand gripped the doorknob; it was cold and uncomfortable.

Taking a deep breath.

She pushed it open!

What hit them was a heavy, fermented, sour stench emitted by something unknown.

Chen Rong felt around the edge of the door for the slight plastic bulge of a button switch and pressed it down.

A rhythmic clicking sound echoed, and the lights all came on, but the light was weak, as if borrowed from a far-off place.

Files were scattered all over the floor, and several worn-out chemical instruments sat on the table.

Qi Ranyue approached the table and lightly pressed down with her finger. Her fingertip sank into the dust, and a layer of gray fuzz stuck to her finger pad. It’s so dirty here.

Let’s go to the next room, Chen Rong said, pulling her sleeves tight, her tone flat and calm, her words concise.

They searched for the exit room by room. When they pushed open the fourth door, what greeted them was still deathly silence and empty walls.

How many rooms has it been? There’s nothing but dust. Have the monsters here all finished their shifts? Qi Ranyue’s eyebrows knitted together. She really couldn’t figure it out and simply spoke her mind.

Maybe we’ll just clear the level with zero difficulty in a bit. Chen Rong raised her hand to rub the top of her head. Her tone was gentle and light, carrying a hint of a smile. Her voice wasn’t loud, but it was like warm sunshine, driving away unease, so gentle that one couldn’t help but lower all defenses.

Suddenly, a heavy, slow sound of footsteps came from another room.

The two shared a look and immediately searched for cover.

Chen Rong pulled open a half-closed equipment cabinet and pulled Qi Ranyue into the cramped space.

Both held their breath, pressing their eyes against a crack in the door as thin as a strand of hair. Their field of vision was pitifully narrow.

The moment they saw the monster outside clearly, it felt as if an invisible giant hand had seized their internal organs. Their lungs felt like they had been vacuumed empty. They were so terrified they could almost hear the thumping sound of blood flowing under their eardrums, and their chests forgot how to rise and fall.

Its head had the characteristics of a giant fish, with one cloudy, massive eye glinting with a cold light and gills slightly twitching. Its lower body was the sturdy torso of a lizard, with thick, muscular hind legs and webbed toes. What was truly terrifying was its natural weaponry: two innate ancient scythes. It had no fingers, only two curved, crescent-like pale bone blades with serrated hooks—like a mantis, but a hundred times larger.

The monster stood there, unmoving.

The room was very quiet. One of the overhead fluorescent lights flickered intermittently. Its shadow was stretched long, cast upon the wall.

It stood for a long time.

The monster lifted a foot and took a step forward, staring fixedly in the direction of the cabinet where they were hiding.

Step by step, the distance grew closer.

Suddenly, it turned and walked out of the room.

But something felt wrong; its departure was too sudden.

Time passed second by second. Once they confirmed it hadn’t returned.

Qi Ranyue slowly opened the cabinet door, looked around, and stepped out. It’s gone, come out first. She reached out to pull Chen Rong.

In an instant, the monster suddenly rushed back into the room, swinging its massive scythe and hacking toward them.

The blade whistled down with the sound of wind. In a flash, Chen Rong shoved Qi Ranyue aside and shielded her behind her back.

Chen Rong squeezed her eyes shut, her muscles tensed, waiting for the fatal blow to land. The air seemed to freeze, every second stretching out. However, the expected agonizing pain did not arrive. As the seconds ticked by, the two finally gathered the courage to open their eyes.

The scythe-hand hung in mid-air, less than a palm’s width from Chen Rong. The monster’s eye looked past the blade, over Chen Rong’s shoulder, and was fixed straight and dead onto Qi Ranyue’s face.

Those eyes expanded rapidly as if being inflated, the pitch-black pupils almost filling the entire sockets. The muscles on its face began to twitch and contort irregularly.

In that frozen gaze, Qi Ranyue suddenly felt something surging up from the depths of her memory, but she couldn’t grasp it in an instant.

Without any warning, the monster turned and left without the slightest hesitation. Its mouth emitted a low-frequency sound that they couldn’t understand.

That extremely low frequency was penetrating the walls, the cover, and their skin, directly stirring up waves of silent tremors deep within their brains. The two looked at each other, knowing that the thing was transmitting information to its companions.

The sound vanished, leaving only a deathly silence in the room.

Qi Ranyue’s hand pressed against Chen Rong’s back, slowly and uncontrollably sliding down. Bit by bit, until she collapsed onto the floor.

She looked up at Chen Rong, gasping for air, tears flowing involuntarily. Her throat trembled slightly. That thing just now, that…

Did… did you see it… Her voice was intermittent, mixed with sobs and tremors. That monster… it was so… so real. It seemed… real, not like those NPCs wearing masks. Could it be… that a real one got in? Is this really safe? She couldn’t go on, covering her face with both hands, her shoulders shaking violently as the rest of her words turned into suppressed whimpers.

Chen Rong wanted to comfort her, she really did. She wanted to say it was okay, to say we’ll find a way together, to say all the things she should say.

But she looked down at her own still-shaking hands, felt her heart pounding like a drum, and suddenly gave up on saying those things.

Chen Rong sat down against the wall, leaning side-by-side with Qi Ranyue. She reached out an arm to pull her shoulder close, helping her regulate her breathing, trying to find a way to face the unknown area outside the door.

After an unknown amount of time, Chen Rong noticed that Qi Ranyue’s hands had stopped shaking. She pushed off the ground and stood up.

Fear still weighed heavily in her heart, but her body had calmed down.

She slowly raised her eyes, her gaze as faint as water. When she spoke, her tone was cold and serious. It was looking at you.

As if she hadn’t understood the sentence, Qi Ranyue looked up, staring straight at her, all her confusion and bewilderment laid bare on her face.

Once she realized what Chen Rong had said, a surge of irrational anger rushed from the soles of her feet to the top of her head. Anger, disgust, and a sense of ill omen mixed together like overturned spice jars, surging toward her forehead.

What on earth are you talking about? It was looking…! Before she could finish, her stomach suddenly churned. Acid surged violently into her throat, her eyes turned bright red from the strain, and tears burst out. Me? At me?