The blood receded, and the hatred in the woman in red's eyes slowly faded. She felt her body growing lighter — perhaps this was what salvation felt like.
"If only I had met him when I was alive."
What had happened before her death was seared into her body. Every time she recalled it, the woman in red wanted to destroy every living thing she saw.
She didn't have to die — no one had been willing to help, and the result was her eventual crushing fate.
A strange sound escaped her throat. The woman's body grew colder still, her bones shifting and deforming, as though she were about to shatter apart.
His back had gone numb. Chen Ge knew something terrible was happening behind him, but he had no intention of putting the woman in red down.
"If there's anything I can do to help her, then I will."
Carrying the gruesomely dead woman in red on his back, none of the other ghosts and monsters lurking in the darkness dared to approach. The enormous spider shadow that had been trailing above Chen Ge's head reluctantly departed as well.
The tunnel ceiling made a rustling sound as pebbles rained down. The vast, spider-like shadow crawled deeper into the tunnel.
"What kind of monsters live in this tunnel?"
Chen Ge used the woman in red as a shield, carrying her as he made his way toward the tunnel exit inch by inch.
The white cat had long since jumped aside and now ran ahead, occasionally glancing back at Chen Ge with a look of awe in its eyes, as if to say — you're the scary one.
Coming in, Chen Ge had only walked forty-four steps. But on the way out, he found the path was extraordinarily long.
The woman in red's opinion of him had changed dramatically because of his words, but her killing intent hadn't dissipated entirely.
Chen Ge knew that talking too much only invited mistakes, and he wasn't the type for idle chatter. Instead, he let his actions speak for themselves, showing the woman in red that he truly wanted to save her.
Step by step, they moved toward the outside. The darkness was driven back, and the oppressive atmosphere began to lift.
The outline of the tunnel exit slowly came into focus. A breeze blew in from outside, and the scent of blood in the air dissipated.
Specks of starlight fell upon her face. The woman in red's sunken skull and twisted body had both been restored.
Chen Ge could no longer feel the weight on his back. When he turned around, he found the woman in red gazing up at the night sky beyond the tunnel.
Not daring to move carelessly, Chen Ge tried taking another step forward. Just as he was about to leave the tunnel's mouth, the woman in red's body suddenly began to change.
Her head and limbs started deforming uncontrollably, as though if she moved any further out, she would completely disintegrate.
"What's going on? She can't leave the tunnel?"
Chen Ge had two choices at this point. He could throw her down before she had time to react and make a clean escape.
This was the safest option. The Nightmare-level task on the Black Phone had been completed. He wouldn't be coming back to this place until he was absolutely certain of himself.
The other choice was to stand and wait — wait for the woman in red's body to recover, then ask for her opinion.
Chen Ge looked back at the woman, pulled back the leg that had been about to step out, and stood at the tunnel entrance with the woman in red still on his back.
Before him stretched a night sky full of stars. Behind him lay the pitch-black, seemingly endless tunnel.
After ten-odd seconds, the woman stopped struggling and, under the starlight, reverted to the appearance she'd had at the moment of her gruesome death.