Chapter 32-I Clean Up Garbage in a Wasteland World
Chapter 32: The House That Hunts People-5
The alarm clock showed the time was 6:30 AM. It was daybreak.
Had Zhu Ning really slept an entire night in this room? It felt so unreal.
The System voice sounded: [Side Quest: The House That Hunts People. Current purification progress: 10%.]
Did that count as completing the task of sleeping in the house?
This was the first system notification she had heard since entering the house. She had never felt the System's mechanical female voice was so friendly before.
Zhu Ning tilted her neck. She didn't feel relaxed after resting at all; instead, she was extremely tired, more tired than attending a combat class. Anyone who didn't know better would think she had gotten into a fight last night.
The furniture in the bedroom stood quietly by her bed, as if alive, observing her corpse.
Zhu Ning's first reaction was to check her helmet. The helmet had a video recording function. This was her first time watching a video of herself falling asleep, and from a first-person perspective at that.
But the helmet's field of view was limited. She had fallen asleep lying on her back, so the footage directly opposite was of the ceiling lamp.
Zhu Ning sped through the video from yesterday. Under night vision, the screen was green. At first, there was only the ceiling lamp, dull and boring, like a still image.
Suddenly, scratch—
After a faint rustling sound, the Zhu Ning of last night turned over. Just then, something suddenly appeared on the screen.
It was pressed tightly against Zhu Ning's face.
Zhu Ning was watching the video inside the helmet. While watching, it felt immersive, as if the thing was right in front of her eyes.
That was... a pot of pothos?
The pothos on the bedside table came over to watch her in the middle of the night? And it had to watch right up against her face?
The pothos was too close to Zhu Ning, blocking most of the screen. It was half an hour later before the sleeping Zhu Ning turned over again.
She turned from her left side to her right side. From this point on, other furniture suddenly appeared in the video frame.
The time displayed in the bottom right corner was 4:00 AM.
Zhu Ning sorted it out. Based on the helmet's video playback, she confirmed two facts.
First, she really fell asleep yesterday.
Second, the furniture really moved in the middle of the night.
The technology of the Sanitation Center should far exceed the surveillance cameras used by the public, but like Huang Yaruo, she couldn't capture the process of the furniture moving.
In the blink of an eye, they were already right in front of her.
Generally speaking, moving furniture would make a lot of noise. As a doomsday survivor from a zombie world, Zhu Ning didn't hear a single sound?
This was completely illogical.
Psychic Contamination. It was definitely Psychic Contamination, breaking you down psychologically through repeated irrational events.
But Zhu Ning's Sanity hadn't dropped at all. Was it because she was too mentally tough? Or was the mode of this contaminated area like boiling a frog in warm water? By the time you reacted, you would already be crazy.
Doing normal things in an abnormal place—what should one do after waking up on the "second day"?
Logically, one should wash up. Zhu Ning got out of bed and went to the bathroom to wash.
But Zhu Ning had absolutely no desire to use the toilet, and she couldn't possibly take off her helmet to brush her teeth. So, she pretended to wash her hands, and also her... helmet. The uniform was waterproof anyway.
If there were someone at home right now, they would also find Zhu Ning very strange. Zhu Ning was actually splashing water on her helmet with her hands quite naturally, and even wiped it carefully with a towel afterwards.
The house wasn't normal, and Zhu Ning wasn't much better.
Get up, wash up, eat breakfast. The last thing was breakfast.
She had to go to the kitchen. When Zhu Ning opened the bedroom door, she froze.
A whole row of furniture was lined up at the bedroom door. The refrigerator, washing machine, TV cabinet, sofa—all had changed positions. They were lined up in an orderly fashion at Zhu Ning's bedroom door.
As if... they had been eavesdropping at her door all night yesterday.
She could imagine that while she was asleep, the furniture moved slowly, holding its breath to observe Zhu Ning inside.
These pieces of furniture were... observing her?
After the furniture in the house moved, the entire cozy little home appeared very strange, as if the furniture were the masters of the house walking freely.
Zhu Ning asked, "Is anyone there?"
Silence. It was extremely quiet all around, still that eerie, extreme silence.
No one answered her at all.
Apart from Zhu Ning, no one in this world made any sound. She felt very clearly that she had stepped into a void.
She regretted coming in alone a bit; otherwise, there would be someone to talk to.
She discovered that life's greatest fear is boredom. It was so boring.
The sun outside was as bright as an incandescent lamp. The light was fake; it carried no warmth when it shone on the body.
Zhu Ning sat on the sofa. This sofa had been placed at the door of her room, right next to a double-door refrigerator. She had never tried sitting on a sofa in this position. She propped her chin in her hand and gazed at the refrigerator, scrutinizing it for a while.
Danger Sense didn't ring.
But this didn't mean there was no danger. Her Danger Sense talent could only predict up to thirty seconds into the future.
If a large knife suddenly slashed from behind, killing her instantly and drawing blood, Danger Sense would activate. But for this kind of silent, slow killing, Danger Sense was probably useless.
This kind of horror was completely different from what Zhu Ning had experienced before.
No monsters, no Contaminants, no blood or severed limbs. Just a strange house.
She didn't even know where to start.
She turned on the TV. The TV actually worked. Televisions were generally mediums for receiving information; maybe she could find clues.
Zhu Ning moved the sofa opposite the TV and began to watch TV with a serious attitude. An advertisement was playing on the TV.
"Have you had insomnia lately? Are you troubled by falling asleep? Use Wanning Cervical Pillow to return you a peaceful dream."
Selling pillows.
Next ad: "Tossing and turning, unable to sleep? No energy after waking up? Super Moon Sleeping Pills are here to help you."
Sleeping pills could advertise on TV?
Next one: "White Tea Fragrance, returning you to a gentle dreamland."
Next one...
Zhu Ning felt the sound of the advertisements getting weaker and weaker, and the picture in front of her became more and more blurry. Zhu Ning's head nodded.
Wait.
Zhu Ning suddenly raised her head. What was she doing just now? Did she fall asleep?
The TV was still looping advertisements.
When Zhu Ning looked up, the sky outside was already dark. Checking the time, it was now 9:36 PM.
She slept for a day? Impossible. She couldn't have slept for so long without knowing.
The lights weren't on in the room; only faint streetlight shone in from outside. It was very much like waking up and being abandoned by the whole world.
And the furniture in the room had changed appearance again. Except for the sofa Zhu Ning was sitting on, all other furniture faced the wall, turning their backs to Zhu Ning, as if rows of furniture were facing the wall in punishment.
Here it came again, that sense of horror.
Making you lose control of your body, not knowing if you were asleep, and even less aware of how time passed. Blinding all your senses, leaving you in utter chaos.
Even scarier was that Zhu Ning's system panel hadn't reminded her of any drop in Sanity.
The System couldn't be broken; other items in the panel could be used. So this wasn't Psychic Contamination in the traditional sense, yet it could make you gradually lose your instincts.
Scarier than Psychic Contamination.
After sleeping twice in this room, Zhu Ning found she had lost her coordinates and references. Nothing was trustworthy. The time shown on the clock wasn't necessarily the time; falling asleep wasn't necessarily falling asleep.
TV commercials had hypnotic effects, and every piece of furniture seemed alive.
She wasn't even sure if there was a Source of Contamination in this contaminated area. Was this really a contaminated area? But when she first entered, the helmet clearly warned that this was a Grade C Contaminated Area.
The System's task was to find Huang Yaruo. The house wasn't big; there was simply no place to hide a person.
If she was still in the house, where could she hide?
Both Huang Yaruo and Ding Chaojie had heard noise in the middle of the night. They said someone was making strange sounds inside, like boxing.
There was no punching bag in this house at all, and Huang Yaruo didn't look like a fitness fanatic. Where did the boxing sound come from?
Suddenly, Thud!
A muffled sound suddenly came from the dark room, and the entire floor trembled with it.
Thud! Thud! Thud!
It was here. This was the sound.
The noise described by Ding Chaojie really sounded like someone boxing, punching a heavy sandbag one punch after another.
In a residential building with poor soundproofing, encountering a neighbor hitting a sandbag in the middle of the night could even make the floor of the entire room vibrate.
It was now 10:01 PM.
The sound of punching echoed in the room. Listening to the noise for a long time would make one irritable. Ding Chaojie had been tortured for years and was almost crazy, but where did the sound come from?
Neighbors?
Zhu Ning searched carefully for the sound source. She put her ear to the living room wall and listened for a while. She listened to every wall, including the floor.
She couldn't find the source.
Zhu Ning's hearing was already quite good, yet she couldn't find the origin of the sound. It seemed to come from all directions, emanating from the cracks in the walls and every pore.
As if a little boxer lived inside the walls.
Suddenly, Zhu Ning stopped.
Wearing her helmet, she stood in a room with very strange furniture, listening seriously to the boxing noise.
She was thinking.
This is an independent space. Zhu Ning cannot accurately sense the passage of time and space.
There is sound here, transmitted from somewhere else.
The System asked Zhu Ning to find the missing Huang Yaruo. Whether she is dead or alive, it proves she is still hidden here.
Furniture likes to turn its back to people and face the wall.
Question: Where could Huang Yaruo be?
Zhu Ning moved. Like she was possessed, she turned around abruptly, putting her back to the wall.
Then she began to walk backward.
She walked very slowly, step by step, slowly walking backward. If there were a surveillance angle watching her, she would surely look like she was sleepwalking.
One step, two steps, three steps...
Huang Yaruo's home wasn't big; ten steps across the living room would reach the end.
With a soft thud.
Zhu Ning's back touched the wall. It was the end. She could feel a solid wall blocking her back, and her right heel pressed against the base of the wall. There was no room to retreat.
Zhu Ning lifted her foot and took another step backward.
If there were a real wall behind her, her foot should have hit the wall, but the step she took backward landed.
Her foot stepped into the ground.
Theoretically, there was no space behind her, yet she stepped into another space.
Sure enough, time and space were weird in this place. The space of the house could be extended.
Every time Huang Yaruo woke up and saw all the furniture with their backs to her, facing the wall, it was because the furniture was looking at the real house.
The furniture wanted to go in. Huang Yaruo might be inside too.
Zhu Ning had guessed right that the time and space were different here, but she didn't dare turn her head at all.
One of her feet had stepped into another dimension, while half of her body was still outside. Zhu Ning remained motionless, as if stuck in the middle of the wall.
She heard a woman crying.
Ding Chaojie said that someone would box in the middle of the night, and sometimes a woman would cry. He wasn't lying; Zhu Ning really heard it.
And the tactile sensation under Zhu Ning's foot was soft, as if... stepping on a corpse.
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