The door slammed hard against the wall.
"Damn! This high?"
Standing at the window ledge and looking down, he estimated the drop to the ground was at least three or four meters.
Hurried footsteps echoed in the corridor — the landlord and the tattooed man were closing in fast.
There was no time to think. Chen Ge climbed out the window, gripped the sill with both hands, and planted his feet on the first-floor security grate.
"He definitely saw us moving the body!"
"We can't let him get away!"
The landlord's ugly, furious face appeared in the doorway. He held a cleaver, his features twisted with menace. "Trying to run?!"
At the sight of that, Chen Ge didn't hesitate for a second. He let go and dropped.
His arms scraped against the wall, and his clothes caught a long tear on the security grate. After hitting the ground, he rolled, snatched up the claw hammer lying there, and sprinted toward the compound's outer wall.
"Quick! Get him!" the landlord roared and hurled his cleaver at Chen Ge.
A chill grazed the back of his head. Chen Ge watched the cleaver bury itself in the grass barely behind him, cold sweat beading on his forehead. "I absolutely cannot fall into their hands — they've already decided to kill!"
The apartment building's front door burst open as well. The fat man and the woman, who had been lying in wait on the first floor, charged out wielding iron hedge shears.
"Insane — all of them!" Chen Ge sprinted at full speed, shooting toward the compound's iron gate like an arrow. He stepped on the new padlock the landlord had installed, grabbed the rusted chain, and vaulted over.
The apartment building was surrounded by dense woods. The night was pitch black, making it impossible to see any path. Add to that the several people chasing him, and Chen Ge simply plunged straight into the forest.
Pursuit and flight — flashlight beams swept past from behind while the landlord and the tattooed man screamed curses at his back. Chen Ge didn't dare look over his shoulder. Only one thought filled his mind — get out, now!
His clothes and pants were torn to shreds by branches and vines, his entire body caked in mud and covered in leaves. A full fifteen minutes of running before he finally shook them off.
He crouched in a thicket, watching the faint light sweep back and forth in the distance, fingers clawing into the dirt, gulping down mouthfuls of air.
That was way too close!
Trapped inside the apartment building, even the slightest hesitation or wrong choice could have cost him his life.
"Just how absurdly difficult is this trial?" The tasks the Black Phone issued were a gamble with life and death. What made it worse was that they played out in the real world.
Shaking off the landlord for the moment didn't mean he was safe. Chen Ge huddled among the bushes — truthfully, he was terrified that if he turned around, he'd suddenly see the landlord and the others standing behind him with their hedge shears and cleavers.
His heartbeat gradually returned to normal. Chen Ge slowly rose from the thicket. The beam of the landlord's flashlight had vanished. The deep forest at night was dead silent, with barely an insect chirp or a bird call.
"Which way should I go?"
He was a stranger here, unfamiliar with the terrain. After sprinting blindly through the woods, he couldn't even tell north from south anymore.
"Maybe I should just hide here until dawn?"
He pulled out his phone. The livestream was still going. The screen had been black for over an hour, and the chat was flooded with question marks. Even the seasoned viewers were completely baffled by this bizarre channel.
He didn't interact with the chat. Glancing at the time, he was just about to tap open Heshan's reply when a rustling sound came from behind and to his side — branches swaying.
Chen Ge immediately shoved the phone back into his pocket, preventing the screen's glow from giving away his position.