Chapter 39 Leaving the Villa

The uniqueness of Lu Yuan lies within himself, not in anything bestowed upon him by An Shi.

"I’ve been here before when I was a child?" Lu Yuan furrowed his brows.

Impossible!

His memory had always been excellent; since he began forming memories at the age of five, Lu Yuan had kept a clear record of everything that happened each year. In his memories, there was never any fragment related to the Dream of Horror world.

Could it be that he came here before he was five? That was too absurd! A child under five, arriving in such a perilous Dream of Horror world, could not possibly have survived. According to An Shi, Lu Yuan should have died in his childhood; he never would have had the chance to grow up.

An Shi offered no further explanation.

Now was not the time to dwell on this. Lu Yuan took a deep breath, casting these distractions aside. "You know this place so well; there must be a way."

An Shi let out an abrupt laugh. "If I truly had a way, I would be the one torturing you right now, instead of you standing before me acting so arrogant. Lu Yuan, you and I are both merely tools. Now, they are choosing to discard me as a tool and select you instead."

An Shi’s voice held no sarcasm; it sounded as if he were stating a common, unremarkable fact.

Lu Yuan looked down at the fruit knife in his hand. At this moment, the notch on the blade appeared particularly glaring.

Yes, indeed. As long as one is a tool, there will come a day when one breaks.

Lu Yuan’s eyes flickered. "Who are 'they'?"

An Shi did not say.

Lu Yuan detested people who only said half of what they meant; it felt like they were playing riddles on purpose, which was infuriating.

An Shi’s body squirmed as if he had thought of something. "You must have met Zhuang Dong by now."

So, An Shi knew everything. Even locked in the bathroom and unable to leave, he could still roughly guess what Lu Yuan had experienced.

"Since you know, tell me, how can I pull Zhuang Dong into this place?" If An Shi refused to cooperate, Lu Yuan might as well stop holding Zhuo Yan back.

An Shi sneered. "It’s simple. If you kill him, he will come here."

Nonsense! Lu Yuan already knew this method. What he wanted was a gentler solution.

"Hahahaha! You will die. You will definitely die!!! Zhuang Dong is the first gift I am bestowing upon you!"

Upon hearing this, Lu Yuan knew there was no point in continuing the conversation. The current An Shi was like a hardened criminal, willing to endure Zhuo Yan’s torture just to watch Lu Yuan die.

Lu Yuan turned and walked out of the bathroom. Seeing this, Zhuo Yan’s eyes filled with hatred as she cast a sinister look at An Shi.

The bathroom door slowly closed. A second later, screams erupted from inside once more.

Lu Yuan remained calm, as if he hadn't heard them at all. However, a sense of crisis surged in his heart; An Shi had truly gone to great lengths to kill him.

A long while later, Zhuo Yan emerged from the bathroom. "He still refuses to speak. I was tempted to just finish him off."

Lu Yuan was not surprised. "He won't talk."

An Shi was hell-bent on killing him. As long as Zhuang Dong remained alive, the Lu Yuan in the real world could encounter danger at any moment.

Lu Yuan sat on the sofa, eyes closed in thought. It seemed that to resolve the hidden threat of Zhuang Dong, he would need the help of Wen Ke. Lu Yuan needed a legitimate and appropriate reason to have Zhuang Dong locked up—whether in prison or a psychiatric ward—in any case, he could not allow Zhuang Dong to roam free.

Lu Yuan rubbed his temples. What a nuisance! There was no way to deal with Zhuang Dong in the short term.

Zhuo Yan was becoming restless. She desperately wanted revenge on Zhuang Dong, but in the current situation, she had no options.

"Don't worry about Zhuang Dong. I can try to think of a way in the real world." Although he couldn't kill Zhuang Dong directly, with his connection to Wen Ke, Lu Yuan could pull a few strings.

"Let’s talk about going to Mingzhi Primary School." Lu Yuan gestured for Zhuo Yan to sit down.

Zhuo Yan’s tone remained as it had been before. "The success rate of getting from here to Mingzhi Primary School is extremely low. Even if I were to set out for the school alone, the probability of reaching it alive is no more than twenty percent."

From the very beginning, Zhuo Yan had thought Lu Yuan’s decision to go to Mingzhi Primary School was foolish. For a living person, staying in the villa was the best decision. She did not understand why Lu Yuan insisted on going; it was no different from courting death.

To be honest, Lu Yuan didn't want to go either. But there was no choice! If he didn't go, the television set would not let him off.

Lu Yuan furrowed his brows and asked, "How dangerous is it outside?"

Zhuo Yan only knew that the world outside the villa was treacherous. Like Lu Yuan, she hadn't been in the Dream of Horror world for long, and her foresight regarding the dangers of this world relied entirely on her instincts as a supernatural entity. She only knew one thing: do not go out.

Going out meant death! Even someone like Zhuo Yan had no desire to wander outside.

"I have to go there. If I don't, I won't survive anyway."

It was death either way. Lu Yuan had to choose the option that offered even the slightest possibility of survival.

Zhuo Yan’s eyes flickered. Since Lu Yuan had said as much, she couldn't dissuade him anymore. Besides, she was a supernatural entity; even if they truly encountered danger, her chances of survival were higher than his. "Normally, it takes four hours to get from here to Mingzhi Primary School. But we need to be extra cautious, so that time will likely double."

Double? Lu Yuan was startled.

That meant it would take eight hours to get from here to the school, covering almost the entire night.

That was too long! Lu Yuan’s original estimate had been five or six hours, which would have left him some time to rest.

Seeing Lu Yuan’s stunned expression, Zhuo Yan realized he had still underestimated this world. She mocked, "It might even take longer. With you in tow, we’ll have to find a place to hide whenever we encounter danger. Once we hide, there’s no telling how long we’ll be stuck. Eight hours is already the best-case scenario."

Zhuo Yan could have fought against entities of her own level, but if she left Lu Yuan’s side, who would protect him? The situation Zhuo Yan envisioned was encountering danger, hiding, and then, once the danger had passed, carefully creeping toward Mingzhi Primary School.

Lu Yuan frowned deeply. He finally understood why the television set had given him three days. He had originally intended to wait until the last day to leave the villa, but calculating it now, that wouldn't work—he needed to set off immediately. If he delayed any longer, the three-day limit would expire.

Thinking of this, Lu Yuan urged, "We leave now."

Zhuo Yan was stunned. Now? She had said all that to make Lu Yuan prepare for a longer period before leaving the villa; she hadn't expected him to be even more anxious.

"We leave now! There’s no time left."

Lu Yuan took a deep breath and strode toward the villa’s entrance. The moment he opened the door, everything outside was a hazy gray.

He was going to have to fight for his life all over again.