Chapter 10: Check the Fourth Floor First
428 Words
What do these two sentences really mean?
"The world is awakening" carries a touch of post-modern philosophical and mysterious undertones, but Merlin prefers to interpret it literally. The "world" mentioned refers to this bizarre, nightmarish realm.
Merlin is puzzled about what "it" refers to when it says, "It opened the door for the Pencil Spirit." He is at a loss for answers.
With more questions than answers, Merlin decides to leave them for now and think about asking the Pencil Spirit tomorrow.
After pondering for a moment, Merlin puts aside these concerns. He takes another look around the room and sees that there seems to be nothing of value left.
He heads to the hallway, closes the door, and decides to leave the second floor. Since 404 might be a room number, Merlin plans to investigate the fourth floor of this building.
At the hallway entrance, Merlin first listens at the safety door.
It's quiet outside.
Wrapping himself tighter in his military coat, Merlin hopes that the face-spider fears the pale ghost, as that would give him a chance to reach the fourth floor. Otherwise, with the spider’s crawling speed, escaping its pursuit would be impossible.
Moreover, with the pencil and the diary in hand, what’s there to be afraid of?
"It’s a pity I searched the second floor thoroughly and didn’t find a useful weapon. Even a fruit knife would do," Merlin mutters.
He quietly opens the safety door.
He checks the situation outside, and seeing no sign of the face-spider in the second-floor hallway, Merlin peeks down and quickly retracts his head.
The monster is below.
It is laying eggs.
There are several white egg sacs, some already wriggling, and it looks like the spiderlings will hatch soon.
Merlin even sees one egg sac on a corpse's abdomen.
The corpse is covered in spider silk, its belly swollen and semi-transparent, revealing several palm-sized spiderlings wriggling inside.
"What kind of monster is this?"
Merlin has never seen such a scene before, but now is a chance. He moves out slowly, making no sound, and heads towards the third floor.
But Merlin overlooked one thing.
He can be quiet, but the pale ghost behind him is beyond his control.
A loud clanging sound comes from the stair railing.
Merlin's heart skips a beat, and he immediately starts running up the stairs.
Regardless of whether the pale ghost did it intentionally, the noise definitely alerted the face-spider. Merlin must speed up.
Sure enough, the shrieking of the face-spider comes from below, followed by the sound of it climbing upward.
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