Extreme darkness swallowed everything, stripping away even the night vision ability endowed by Hei Yan. Bai Yu didn't panic. Years of experience instantly put him into combat mode. He held his breath, focusing all his attention on hearing and touch. The pervasive stench of rot and blood in the air grew increasingly thick, almost solidifying into a tangible mass that assaulted his nostrils.
"Sss... drag... Sss... drag..."
The sound of a heavy object being dragged across slippery tiles came from deep within the restroom. It was not fast, yet carried a teeth-grinding rhythm; every scrape seemed to grate against one's eardrums. It was approaching.
Bai Yu immediately recalled the cold, slippery sphere that had rolled off his face moments ago.
An eyeball.
That was the key item for Rule Six: "Please help me find my eyeballs." He had to locate it. At the same time, the corrected Rule Four lit up in his mind—"Please turn on the restroom lights when in danger."
Now was, without a doubt, his most dangerous moment.
He didn't act rashly. Instead, he slowly crouched down, extending his right hand to feel across the icy ground like a blind man. The sticky, wet sensation at his fingertips came from the rapidly spreading pool of blood. He fought back the nausea, probing cautiously.
"Sss... drag... Sss... drag..." The dragging sound drew closer, now only a few meters away. Bai Yu could even smell the stench emanating from the thing—a foul odor like sewer sludge mixed with rotting flesh.
His fingertips touched something hard yet elastic. This was it! Bai Yu's heart tightened. He quickly clenched the eyeball in his palm. Its texture was nauseating, like a peeled, ice-cold grape coated in a layer of slimy fluid. He didn't dare think about it further and immediately stuffed it into his uniform pocket.
Objective complete. Next step—turn on the lights!
Bai Yu remembered clearly that the restroom's light switch was right by the entrance door. Pressing his back against the cold wall to use it as a reference, he began slowly moving in the direction of the door. His steps were extremely light, almost silent, trying to meld into the drip, drip of the water.
However, the dragging monster seemed to possess some perception beyond sight. The moment Bai Yu moved, the "sss-drag" sound immediately shifted direction, heading straight for him, its speed clearly increasing!
A foul wind blew into his face. Bai Yu could even feel the viscous sensation of the air being stirred. Without hesitation, he rolled sharply to the side, dodging a fatal blow. A muffled boom rang out as the wall where he had been standing was struck by some heavy object, the sound of shattering tiles following suit.
No more delays!
Bai Yu abandoned stealth, leaping up from the ground and sprinting wildly toward the door based on memory. The sound behind him turned into a violent, frantic dragging noise, hot on his heels. The darkness magnified all fear; he could only judge distance by instinct and experience.
Close, getting closer! He felt himself collide with the door frame. Ignoring the pain, he reached out and frantically felt along the wall. Cold wall surface, rough texture...
Found it! That protruding plastic switch!
At the instant he was about to press it, a stifling, putrid aura enveloped him from behind. A massive hand seemingly woven from countless wet cloth strips lunged for the back of his neck.
Without a moment's hesitation, Bai Yu exerted all his strength and slammed the switch!
*Click!*
The entire world was instantly flooded with ghastly white light.
The blinding light sent a sharp pain through Bai Yu's eyes, and he instinctively squinted. When he opened them again, the sight before him made even this veteran investigator feel bone-chilling cold.
The light was not steady illumination. It flickered at an extremely irregular frequency, causing the entire restroom to switch rapidly between light and darkness, like a dying dream.
The "hand" that had tried to grab him revealed its true form under the light—a tentacle twisted from countless blood-dripping mop cloth strips, and at the end of that tentacle was the janitor who should have vanished!
No, that thing could no longer be called human.
The old man's body was swollen and twisted, his skin a waterlogged ashen hue. Countless filthy mop cloth strips drilled out from his flesh and blood, writhing like living things. His blue janitor uniform was stretched until tattered, stained with dark red blood and yellow-green pus.
The most terrifying thing was his face. On that visage wrinkled and dotted with corpse spots, the eye sockets were two empty black holes. Yet his mouth was stretched to an inconceivable width. Inside were no teeth, only a squirming mass of filth resembling a mop head.
This was the true form of the Nightmare.
Bai Yu's gaze rapidly swept across the entire restroom. The sea of blood on the floor had already spread to every corner. Above the sink, that huge mirror which shouldn't have existed was now clearly reflecting everything.
No, not quite everything.
In the mirror, Bai Yu's figure was clearly visible, and the mop monster behind him was equally clear. But in the mirror's reflection, within the monster's two hollow eye sockets were embedded two clear, darting eyeballs! The mirror reflected its "complete" state!
"Rule Two: There are no mirrors in the restroom." Bai Yu instantly understood. The mirror was the "truth revealer" of this supernatural tale. Its appearance itself signified another distortion of the rules, and also meant that the key to solving the mystery lay within it.
His gaze finally landed on the innermost stall. Under the flickering light, he could see a small, thin figure curled up on the toilet, motionless. It was a little boy in children's clothes, head lowered, hands covering his face, his body trembling slightly from fear.
"Give... back... my... eyes..."
A faint, intermittent voice seemed to come from another world, resounding directly in Bai Yu's mind.
It was that child!
The mop monster let out an inhuman roar. It seemed to abhor light intensely; its body emitted plumes of black smoke under the flickering lights. It abandoned its attack on Bai Yu, instead using its disgusting mop tentacles to madly smash the ceiling lamps.
*Bang! Bang!*
Glass shards from the light tubes flew in all directions. The light grew even more unstable, on the verge of going out completely at any moment.
Bai Yu's brain was racing.
The truth was now crystal clear. This janitor monster was the Nightmare's main body. It had killed that child and stolen his eyes. The child's resentment and obsession with his eyes formed the core of this rule-based supernatural tale.
The child's consciousness had left a cry for help within the rules—"Please help me find my eyeballs."
The janitor, meanwhile, had established misleading rules, trying to trap all intruders here to become its nourishment. He disguised himself as a harmless old man, using rules like "trust the cleaning staff" to confuse victims. When a victim chose to stay, it meant falling into his trap; at that point, he would reveal his true form and snuff out all living life.
He had one eyeball now. The other, according to the mirror's hint, was on the monster!
Before the lights went out completely, he had to retrieve the second eyeball and return it to that child!
Bai Yu's gaze locked onto the monster. He noticed that in the monster's swollen abdomen, within the pocket of those tattered janitor clothes, there seemed to be a small circular bulge.
That was it!
He took a deep breath, picking up a blood-soaked wooden mop handle from the ground and gripping it tightly. He didn't choose to charge the monster. Instead, he turned and, without hesitation, sprinted toward the open last stall!
"At any time, please do not use the last stall of the men's restroom." This was the corrected rule. Bai Yu was gambling that this rule was not only a warning to intruders, but also some kind of restriction on the monster itself!
Sure enough, seeing Bai Yu charge toward the stall, the mop monster roared even more frenziedly. It abandoned its assault on the ceiling lamps, its massive body hurtling toward Bai Yu at a speed that belied its size, churning the bloody water on the ground into splashing waves.
The instant one of Bai Yu's feet stepped into the stall, he suddenly braked, spun around, and lowered his body, aiming the wooden mop handle in his hand like a javelin at the onrushing monster.
The monster collided with unstoppable momentum!
*Pfft!*
The sharp, broken end of the wooden pole precisely pierced the pocket area on the monster's abdomen!
A burst of putrid, pus-filled blood exploded, spraying all over Bai Yu.
The monster let out a pained roar. The tremendous impact force sent Bai Yu flying, his back slamming heavily against the stall door.
Bai Yu ignored the body-shattering agony. He stared fixedly at the wooden pole lodged in the monster's abdomen. As the pus and blood flowed out, a cold, slippery eyeball was squeezed from the wound, falling into the pool of blood with a soft *plop*.
He'd succeeded!
The mop monster twisted its body in pain, trying to pull out the pole. Its movements stalled for a moment.
Now!
Bai Yu scrambled and crawled over, snatching the eyeball from the bloody water, then rushed back into the last stall without looking back.
The instant he rushed in, a deafening boom sounded behind him. The mop monster's massive body crashed into the stall's door frame, but it was as if blocked by an invisible wall. No matter how it roared or how frantically it whipped its mop tentacles, it could not advance another step.
He'd bet correctly! This stall was the victim's "sanctuary," and also the monster's "forbidden zone"!
Bai Yu gasped for breath, leaning against the cold stall wall as he looked at the little boy curled up on the toilet. He slowly stepped forward, opening his hands. Two eyeballs, stained with blood yet still clear, lay quietly in his palms.
"I... found them for you." Bai Yu's voice was somewhat hoarse.
The little boy slowly raised his head. It was a face pale to the point of having not a trace of blood, covered in tear streaks, with two bottomless black holes where the eye sockets should be.
He looked at the eyeballs in Bai Yu's hands. From those black-hole-like sockets, transparent liquid seemed to flow out.
He stretched out a small, trembling hand and gently lifted the two eyeballs.
The instant his fingertips touched the eyeballs, a soft white light emanated from his body. He slowly pressed the two eyeballs back into his sockets.
Light erupted brilliantly!
The mop monster outside the stall let out one final mournful and unwilling wail. In the dazzling white light, its body composed of filth and resentment rapidly melted away like snow under the blazing sun, finally turning into a puddle of foul-smelling black water that vanished completely.
The entire restroom began to shake violently. The tiles on the walls cracked inch by inch. Massive fissures appeared in the ceiling and floor. The mirror shattered into countless pieces with a crack. The entire supernatural world was falling apart.
The little boy's body grew increasingly transparent. He gave Bai Yu a pure, grateful smile.
"Thank you, big brother."
As his words fell, his figure completely dissipated within the white light. An intense wave of dizziness assaulted Bai Yu once more. His vision went black, and he completely lost consciousness.
...
"Hey! Wake up! Bai Yu!"
Someone was slapping his cheek forcefully. Bai Yu slowly opened his heavy eyelids. The glaring sunlight made him somewhat uncomfortable. He found himself lying on the cold floor of the shopping mall, surrounded by colleagues in Investigation Bureau uniforms. The anxious faces of An Mu and Mo Fei were right before his eyes.
He struggled to sit up, discovering that he was at the entrance of the "Strange Dream Cafe." The cafe was brightly lit inside, customers coming and going. Everything had returned to normal, as if that life-or-death horror just moments ago had truly been nothing more than a bizarre nightmare.
"You little punk, you're finally out! You scared us to death!" Mo Fei pulled him up and gave him a hearty slap on the back.
An Mu passed over a bottle of water, a trace of lingering fear and relief in his eyes. "Are you alright? The Nightmare inside..."
"It's taken care of. I didn't expect it could actually affect Hei Yan's ability. Almost died in there." Bai Yu took the water, unscrewed the cap, and took a large gulp. His parched throat finally felt a bit better. He looked down at his hands—clean, without a trace of blood. His pockets no longer held those two nauseating eyeballs.
However, resting quietly in his palm was a crystal-clear, eyeball-shaped glass marble. Under the sunlight, it refracted a rainbow-colored light.
"This should be the Nightmare Core of that Nightmare."