In the pitch-black, terrifying tunnel, he voluntarily closed his eyes — calling it "a different way of seeing the world." No matter how hard the taxi driver tried, he couldn't figure out what Chen Ge hoped to achieve by doing this.
Did he think closing his eyes would keep the monsters from appearing? How was this any different from burying his head in the sand?
Despite all the questions swirling in his mind, the driver obediently followed behind Chen Ge. The man in front of him was the only person he could rely on right now. He couldn't even bear to imagine what it would be like to wander this dark tunnel alone.
Chen Ge had no idea what the driver was thinking. With his eyes covered, he was completely submerged in darkness. The surroundings grew even quieter. Perhaps because of the extreme tension, his body temperature was slowly dropping — if someone accidentally touched him, they might think they'd brushed against a corpse.
Chen Ge's world had become something entirely different from before. He could only rely on his sense of smell, his hearing, and the sensation transmitted through his fingertips to reacquaint himself with everything around him.
The walls were uneven. Occasionally his fingers brushed against moss. Because he couldn't see, when a slick, slimy feeling seeped through his fingertips, the hair on Chen Ge's arms stood on end.
"Just keep walking like this and I'll find the exit? It probably isn't that simple. The black phone's hint probably has a deeper meaning." Chen Ge led the way blindfolded, unable to see a thing. Darkness, cold, strange noises, the peculiar textures under his fingertips — everything crashed over his nerves like a tidal wave.
Relying on his extraordinary mental fortitude, Chen Ge suppressed the urge to tear the cloth from his eyes and pressed onward, step by step — slow but resolute.
Don't look. Don't think. Empty yourself.
Chen Ge regulated his breathing, just as he had the first time he'd taken on a Nightmare-tier daily task. At this moment, his mind held only a single thought: find the real way out.
The concept of time ceased to exist in his head. Chen Ge had no idea how long he had been walking. Unlike his previous Nightmare-tier daily task, he didn't even count his heartbeat or his footsteps this time. He had completely emptied his mind.
Running his hand along the damp, slippery wall, he walked and walked — until suddenly, his hand met empty air.
"There's a hole in the wall?" The Bailong Cave tunnel ran straight through with no turns, so encountering empty space like this shouldn't be possible.
Should he remove the blindfold and take a look?
Before Chen Ge could make up his mind, someone suddenly seized his arm. He could clearly feel the person gripping him trembling violently.
"Calm down. What did you see?" The unknown was always the most terrifying thing. With his sight gone, Chen Ge's emotions were easily swayed by the people around him.
"It's on your left — that thing is right beside your left cheek! It's very close to you — don't move, whatever you do don't move!" The driver's voice was laced with anxiety and thick with fear.
"Easy. Describe what it looks like to me. Is it a person? Or some kind of insect?" Chen Ge stood rooted to the spot, not moving a muscle.
But after waiting a long time, no one answered. "Are you still there?"
The empty tunnel held only Chen Ge's own echo. The driver had seemingly vanished.
"What did he just see?" If the driver had simply disappeared, Chen Ge wouldn't have been so alarmed. But the driver had left behind those final words before vanishing — words that made it unmistakably clear that right here, right now, there was something special right beside his left cheek.
"The driver's disappearance is probably connected to whatever is on my left cheek — but then again, maybe not. It's possible the driver ran into trouble the moment I covered my eyes. The one who's been following behind me this whole time could be someone else entirely, deliberately trying to draw my attention to the left." What the truth actually was, Chen Ge had no way of knowing. All he could do was make what attempts he could within the limited options available to him.