Lin Ye got out of the prison transport. It was still some distance from the tunnel, and the Regulatory Personnel were clearly unwilling to get any closer, as if the tunnel would eat people.
"Number 1, you go in first."
This time, the captain was a white man with a stern face, looking like he wasn't easy to talk to.
The other two D-Class Personnel didn't move. Unfortunately, this time, Number 1 was Lin Ye. He couldn't have someone else scout the path for him.
Lin Ye walked forward and let the Regulatory Personnel put the helmet on him.
"Can I have a weapon?"
Lin Ye asked, as he always did.
The Regulatory Personnel glanced at the captain. Seeing the captain nod, he drew the dagger from his waist and handed it to Lin Ye.
Dagger in hand, Lin Ye approached the tunnel. It was a large, semi-circular, two-lane tunnel, twenty meters wide and ten meters high.
Two rows of overhead lights on the ceiling bathed every corner of the tunnel in a yellowish-white glow.
Lin Ye entered the tunnel, keeping to the right. There were no people or vehicles inside. The long passage stretched on without an end in sight, its destination unknown.
After walking for about half an hour, Lin Ye had encountered nothing. There was no sound from his earpiece either. The tunnel occasionally curved, but there were no forks in the road; he could only go forward or turn back.
*This time the difficulty is a bit low. I've been walking for half an hour and haven't run into a single monster. Last time, I had to restart several times within the first half-hour.*
As Lin Ye was thinking this out of boredom, his vision suddenly went black. It seemed as if all the overhead lights in the tunnel had gone out at once.
Lin Ye stood still. It was pitch-black all around, without a single speck of light. Other than the sound of his own heartbeat and breathing, there was complete silence.
A quick look at tinyurl.com/2p9emv8w will leave you more fulfilled.
After waiting for a moment and seeing no sign of the lights coming back on, Lin Ye hesitated before taking a step forward.
That single step was like flipping a switch. The entire tunnel was suddenly illuminated.
Lin Ye squinted. The sudden change in environment required a moment for his eyes to adjust.
Just then, Lin Ye noticed a dark figure on the left side of the road ahead. He snapped his eyes wide open, and in the blurry afterimage, he barely managed to make out the shape.
It was a tall, humanoid monster.
Its body was covered in writhing strips of flesh, its limbs were long and slender, bone spurs jutted out from its waist and abdomen, and a bluish-black tail grew from its back.
Lin Ye turned and ran. With only a dagger, he stood no chance against this obviously dangerous monster.
*Oh, great Tunnel Spirit! I was just thinking! Don't actually conjure up a bunch of monsters for me!*
The monster let out a frenzied roar and charged at Lin Ye like a wild dog that had been starved for days.
Lin Ye's vision went black, but only for an instant. The next moment, the overhead lights flickered back on, and the monster behind him suddenly went silent.
"Huh?"
Lin Ye turned around to find that there was no monster behind him. Everything that had just happened felt like a hallucination.
"What the hell?"
If he weren't sure of his own sanity and didn't already know this tunnel was strange, Lin Ye would have suspected he was going crazy.
Lin Ye hesitated for a moment, then turned back to the spot where he had seen the monster. This time, the lights didn't go out, and there was no trace of any monster.
"Damn it, this is nuts."
Lin Ye ran a hand through his hair in frustration. This mission was even more troublesome than the last one. He wasn't sure if he should keep going or turn back immediately.
*Whatever. For this simulation, I'll just see this path through to the end. I'll find out what happens if I keep going forward. I have ten simulation attempts anyway.*
Lin Ye continued forward. The tunnel was dead silent, save for the sound of his own footsteps.
*Give me a cup of Tea with milk. No, let me find a milk tea shop.*
*Let me run into a few monsters, preferably the kind with the pointy heads.*
*Let me return to Blue Star, and give me a hundred million while you're at it.*
...
Lin Ye made wishes in his mind as he walked. The timing of the monster's appearance had been too coincidental, forcing him to suspect that the tunnel had a wish-granting function.
However, none of his wishes came true. The tunnel remained dead silent.
After walking for another few dozen minutes, the overhead lights went out again.
This time, Lin Ye didn't stop. The darkness was fleeting. Lin Ye's eyes shot open, looking ahead and to the side, while he silently recited in his mind:
*This time the difficulty is a bit low. I've been walking for an hour and only run into one monster. Last time, I had to restart several times within the first half-hour.*
Sure enough, a figure appeared on the left side of the passage ahead of Lin Ye. But it wasn't the monster he was expecting; it was one of the D-Class Personnel who had arrived in the same transport as him.
"Why did you turn back? Is there something up ahead?"
"How did you get in front of me?"
The two spoke at almost the same time.
Lin Ye froze for a second, but he quickly realized the other man thought he had turned back.
But he hadn't turned back.
The tunnel had no forks. Unless the other person had started from the opposite end, he would have had to pass Lin Ye to get in front of him.
*Would the Regulatory Personnel have taken him to the other end of the tunnel? Is this some kind of experiment?*
*Is he lying to me?*
*Did he run past me when the lights went out? But what would be the point of that?*
*Is he really a D-Class Personnel? Could he be some kind of mimic monster?*
...
A tangle of chaotic thoughts knotted in Lin Ye's mind. Too many uncertainties made it impossible for him to reach a conclusion. He didn't know whether to trust this person who should have been his peer.
"What are you talking about? 'Get in front of you'? Are you turned around?"
Jesse watched Lin Ye warily, his right hand moving toward his waist.
"Sorry, the lights went out earlier, didn't they? I think I might have gotten turned around."
Lin Ye apologized quickly. He didn't want to start a conflict under these circumstances. He was strong, but the other man wasn't weak either. A careless mistake could waste one of his simulation attempts.
"Earlier? Wasn't that just now? You talk funny. You a foreigner?"
Seeing Lin Ye's compliant attitude, Jesse didn't continue to draw his weapon, but he still didn't get any closer.
"Have you only seen the lights go out once? It happened to me once before, too."
Lin Ye didn't approach him either. They both needed a certain amount of safe distance.
"Oh, so that's it. Maybe it's because we were in different sections. I just experienced the lights going out for the first time. It was pitch-black, couldn't see a thing. I waited in place for a while, and then the moment I took a step forward, the lights came back on," Jesse complained.
"...Me too."
Lin Ye ran a hand through his hair. This place was even more troublesome than he'd thought.
"Perfect. Since you've turned back, let's head back together. We've been walking for so long with no end in sight, and there's nothing on the earpiece. I've been wanting to go back for a while, but I was afraid those bastards would shoot me if I went back alone," Jesse said, licking his chapped lips.
"Alright, let's go back together. They probably won't kill us. At worst, they'll just make us walk it again," Lin Ye agreed.
As he got closer to Jesse, Lin Ye suddenly felt that something was off. The man looked exhausted, in even worse shape than he was.
"Sigh, I'm getting a little hungry after walking for so long. Good thing I ate a bit extra before we came in," Jesse said with a sigh.
"...How long have you been in here?"
Lin Ye's vision went black as he heard the reply.
"Huh? Almost three hours. I'm dead tired."
Proofreader: Peter Pan