His eyes were uncovered, and he sat face to face with another player.
They blinked at each other.
"So... Is it that when you complete a challenge, you find another player?" The woman asked.
Ah'Ming shrugged.
"Okay then, not a talker. I understand. I'm LaoSi. I can summon lollipops, ones that can heal."
She stated all of this information calmly, announcing it like one announced their name. Which she had done.
Nodding back at her, Ah'Ming replied in turn. "I'm Ah'Ming, I have a melee skill."
She smiled.
That was a surprisingly good skill combination, a support and a fighter. The system was being nice, which was suspicious for a punishment instance.
The door to the kitchen opened, and out came large vats of an odorous oil. It was repulsive. The vats, made of copper, settled down on every table, accompanied by plates and utensils. The woman sighed, and took out two pieces of chocolate.
"You can still use your inventory?!" Ah'Ming was shocked.
The woman lifted an eyebrow. "Can you not? Oh, are you in a punishment instance?"
He nodded.
"That's why. For me, this is a normal instance, so none of my skills are locked. This is a C- level instance, so are you around E rank?"
Ah'Ming nodded again.
"Okay, Listen to my instructions then. I'll try to keep you alive."
All around them, the oil vats seemed to be eaten by invisible people. The oil was eaten, not the vats.
Little mouse, up on the lampstand,
Trying to steal oil with his sticky sticky hands!
He can't get down, oh what a shame!
He calls for Mama, but that's not right,
Rolly-polly, like a dolly,
Down he tumbles, bumpity-bump!
(小老鼠,上灯台,偷油吃,下不来,叫妈妈,妈妈不来,骨碌骨碌骨碌骨碌滚下来)
Ah'Ming's face twisted. Why did the instance need to ruin childhood lullaby's? As he was thinking, the floor gradually turned black. His feet lost their ground, dangling where he sat on the chair.
Huh. That was cool.
They looked at each other, and nodded. The lullaby mentioned falling, so they both prepared, and
j
u
m
p
e
d.
They fell for a long time, in pitch black darkness. Very black.
They landed in an old props room, in a basement of some kind.
Instead of singing this time, the lullaby was on the wall, written in a dark brown. there was a strong scent of iron in the air.
Pull the big saw, pull it tight,
Saw the wood from morning till night.
Build a house so strong and neat,
just for little you and me
At grandma's home, a grand opera!
Let's bring me and ma and pa!
Pick the bride, invite the groom.
Little nephew, there's room for you too!
In front of them was a table, with a broken leg on it. A saw was stuck halfway through the thigh.
It was a puppet leg.
Lao si nudged him forwards.
"Follow the instructions, it's pretty simple."
It didn't feel right. that was too simple, a massive red herring.
She rolled her eyes, called him a coward, and turned to saw the leg. Black sludge leaked out slowly. He looked along the walls, drifting his hands over them. The room was mostly empty, but he really didn't trust the leg.
A piece of the wallpaper bulged. He used a claw, I mean nail, to slice ethe wallpaper open. Inside was a folded note, simple in its contents. It was a page of a child's diary.
te direktor sed that I was gon get a-dop-ted. Im gon get a famili. I sed I had a famili here, but he
lafed. I wood want to sta, but he saz i haf to leeve.
It didn't seem very useful, but it proved that there were hidden clues.
He kept feeling around, but did not find any more clues.
Lao Si called back for him. She had found a little doll figurine inside of the leg, which she stuck
into an indent in the wall. the wall groaned, but opened.
Ah'Ming snuck a look at her hands. They were covered in the black sludge. He took a small step
away from her.
A woman who had survived until level C wouldn't be so lax against contamination, so it was
clear she'd already interacted with something strange before this. She most likely didn't even
realise, which was what made it so much more dangerous.
She walked through the doorway. Ah'Ming, on the other hand, noticed that the room beyond was an arts and crafts room. It had nothing to do with any Opera. He stayed behind. Lao Si glanced at him, but most likely gave up on him.
She went into the Arts and crafts room, and the wall slid shut behind her.
Ah'Ming looked at the note once more. He shoved the dolls leg off of the table, careful not to get any sludge on himself.
He gently ripped the word "Wood" out of the page, and tossed it onto the table. It transformed into a piece of wood. Huh. Similar to those brain games he used to play. He hated that app.
He sawed it to pieces, and tried to build a small house. Nothing happened though, and he watched as the little mound fell apart.
What else could there be? What else was building a house? Reinforcing the walls with wood?
He snuck a glance at the walls. He sawed the wood even smaller, into thin planks, before layering them against the wall. They grew in size, covering the entire wall within seconds. The walls fell outwards with a thump, looking like those old present boxes that came apart when the ribbon was untied.
He was in a larger banquet room, the entire place covered in chinese decorations. It was dressed up for what seemed to be an opera performance. Chinese opera, not like a soap opera or something. It even had a stage!
Ah'Ming followed the instructions of the lullaby, and walked towards the dressing rooms behind the stage.
There were countless mannequins, dressed in exquisite dresses and headdresses. some even had faces, painted in make up. He stopped in front of one that looked unfortunately familiar. A woman, who looked just like the one that was contaminated by the doll's leg juice. It seemed it hadn't been a doll, but a mannequin.