All eyes had returned to the blood-colored city.
Old questions had found their answers, but new ones quickly arose in their place.
Chen Ge pulled out his phone and pointed it at the wall, filming. He didn't care whether or not it would still play after leaving the world beyond the door — he'd record first and worry later.
The four wards on the first floor had all been searched. Chen Ge and the others hadn't found any remains of the cloth doll there.
"Bro, you're not seriously thinking about going upstairs, are you? Have you forgotten what we went through in Building One of the Jiuhong residential complex? There are definitely extremely dangerous monsters lurking up there!" Xiao Sun bared his fangs and brandished his claws, trying to dissuade Chen Ge. Unfortunately, Chen Ge had never been the kind of person who could be swayed. Once he decided on something, he would see it through to the bitter end — just like when he had taken over the haunted house after his parents disappeared. Back then, he couldn't even earn enough to cover the utilities, yet he'd poured his own money in just to keep it running.
The Skull-Breaking Hammer in his hand felt even heavier now. Chen Ge could barely drag it along.
"Something must be clinging to my back!"
Bulging blue-green veins surfaced on his neck. Chen Ge swung his fist hard, loathing that feeling of weakness.
"Chen Ge, you should really rest for a bit. I'm even more worried about Xiang Nuan's safety than you are, but if you keep pushing yourself like this, I'm afraid you'll collapse before we even find her." Wen Qing had noticed that Chen Ge's condition was extremely abnormal — it didn't look like simple overexhaustion at all. It was more like he'd fallen gravely ill.
His companions all urged Chen Ge to rest, but he simply shook his head. "I have a very bad feeling that this calm is about to be shattered. If we don't have enough cards in hand before catastrophe strikes, we won't even make it to the table. Do you understand what I'm saying?"
"No, I don't. All I know is that you look exhausted — like a kid running his first marathon who's hit his physical limit but refuses to quit." Wen Qing wanted to say more, but Chen Ge cut her off with a wave of his hand.
"Missing a marathon finish is just a regret. But if we stop here, we may never get another chance to move forward."
Chen Ge stepped out of Room 0011 and into the corridor.
Whether it was real or just his imagination, he actually caught a whiff of disinfectant in the air.
The smell mixed with the stench, creating a bizarre and acrid odor that made one instinctively want to cover their nose and mouth.
"The black iron door leading into the other children's worlds also gave off the scent of disinfectant. Am I getting closer and closer to the deepest secret of the Underworld Fetus?"
Gripping the stair railing, Chen Ge made his way to the second floor. This corridor was completely sealed off — every window had been bricked up with cement. What was more interesting was that someone had painted new windows onto the cemented-over ones using blood.
"Blood represents pain and disaster. Windows represent the outside world and hope. What does painting windows in blood mean?"
The second-floor corridor was oppressively claustrophobic, like a completely enclosed space. There wasn't even a draft of wind.
Stepping into the corridor, Chen Ge looked at the row of doors along the walls and came to a stop.
The doors on the second floor were different from those on the first — no longer the hospital ward doors with small windows. These were solid black iron doors.
They looked like the doors used to confine prisoners in solitary cells. Traces of blood and grime stained their surfaces, and each one hung a heavy padlock.
"Can't open them?"
Chen Ge tried the key he'd found in the Jinhua residential complex, but the teeth didn't match at all.
"Black iron doors, and the air still carries that disinfectant smell. Behind these doors should lie the Underworld Fetus's final secret." Fighting back the pain tearing at the corners of his eyes, Chen Ge used the Yin Pupil and crouched to peer through the gap beneath the first iron door. The room inside was pitch black. Scattered across the floor were numerous smashed and dismantled toys.
Those toys bore a resemblance to some of the ones Chen Ge had played with as a child. Most of them had likely been purchased by the hospital to the Underworld Fetus's specifications.
"Every single toy has been smashed to pieces, not one left standing. It seems the Underworld Fetus has already realized that even if it plays with the same toys as before, it can never go back to how things were."
"It's no longer anyone's shadow. It's a child who was driven mad."
Unable to open the door, this was the only way he could observe. Just as he withdrew his gaze and was about to move toward the second door, the entire building suddenly shuddered again — this time, the tremor was far more violent than any before it!
"Get down! Against the wall!" Chen Ge gripped the Skull-Breaking Hammer. He lost his footing, stumbled, and crashed to the ground, his face pale and terrifying.
The screams and howls from outside the building grew increasingly dense. The monsters lurking in the black fog seemed to have gone berserk, attacking the structures within the residential complex.
Cracks began appearing on the walls, and black fog was already seeping into the building's interior!
"Aaah!"
Wen Qing, not far from Chen Ge, let out a piercing scream. Her body seemed to be pulled by some invisible force — something was trying to drag her downstairs!
"Chen Ge!" Wen Qing cried out to him in panic. The building was still shaking, and Chen Ge had no good options. He could only watch helplessly as Wen Qing was dragged down the stairs.
"Xiao Sun! We're going after her!" Using both hands and feet, Chen Ge scrambled after her — he had rarely looked this wretched. He and Xiao Sun chased Wen Qing down to the first floor, where they watched her get pulled by that force into Room 0097.
"We're going in too!"
The moment Chen Ge and Xiao Sun entered Room 0097, they heard a tremendous crash from one of the floors above — it sounded like one of the iron doors had been flung open, the door slamming against the wall.
"Did something just come out of that room?"
The three of them took cover inside Room 0097. Chen Ge stood near the door, focusing every ounce of his attention on the corridor outside.
Thudding sounds echoed through the stairwell, growing closer and closer.
After a few seconds, Chen Ge caught a glimpse of an almost completely deformed head flickering past the crack in the door.
Beneath that head was a body constructed entirely of curses. Strands of thread radiating an ominous aura interwove with one another, giving off a thick, putrid stench.
"Was that the cloth doll's head that just ran out of the building?"
The head moved with extraordinary speed. Chen Ge didn't catch a glimpse of its face — only the back of the skull, covered in stitching marks.
After the head burst out of Building Two of the Jiuhong complex, the building where Chen Ge and the others were hiding shook even more violently, as though it could collapse at any moment.
"Severed parts of the cloth doll were placed in different buildings to stabilize the entire complex. Why did the head in Building Two run off on its own? Has the situation really deteriorated that far?"
Chen Ge realized he had underestimated the people from the Cursed Hospital. They understood the Underworld Fetus extremely well, and this infiltration beyond the door had clearly been meticulously planned. The pressure they were exerting on the Underworld Fetus was immense.
"It looks like the Underworld Fetus will probably devote most of its attention to the Cursed Hospital side. That's good news for me."
Leaning against the door, Chen Ge slowly slid down to the floor. He was utterly exhausted now — a weariness that seemed to well up from the very depths of his soul. No amount of rest could alleviate it.
"I shouldn't gloat. My own condition isn't great either. This is, after all, the Underworld Fetus's world beyond the door. Perhaps it's trying to eliminate both me and the people from the Cursed Hospital at the same time — solving the problem once and for all."
The ground trembled. The entire building seemed to tilt, cracks spreading across the walls as black fog continued to seep inside.