The first-floor atrium of the shopping mall was not far from where Yan Ao and the others stood, but due to the tension and the burden of carrying an unconscious person, Yan Ao and Lan Zhijie were nearly exhausted by the time they reached it.
Before they could even stop to rest, another harsh blast echoed in their ears. Just like before, the heads of several people who hadn't managed to step into the atrium in time burst open without any warning or psychological preparation.
Panting, Yan Ao raised his head just in time to see a man's head explode. The headless body, driven by the momentum of its run, took two more steps forward before collapsing to the ground. A massive surge of dark red liquid poured from the severed neck, mixing with the blood of others to stain the floor crimson.
"I... I'm not dead yet?" Despite witnessing such a bloody scene, Yan Ao did not feel the nausea he had experienced earlier. Instead, he felt immensely grateful for his judgment. Had they not followed the prompts on the giant screen—no, he was one hundred percent certain—they would have been among the dead.
Everyone who failed to make it to the first-floor atrium in time had died. Only seven or eight survivors had arrived here with Yan Ao and the others; the rest had either ignored the options or failed to arrive in time.
"People are dying again. What on earth are those options? Is someone playing a prank?" A bespectacled man looked around anxiously. Although he had made it in time, he still could not comprehend the current situation.
"A prank? How could this possibly be a prank?" Lan Zhijie blurted out, turning on the man. "Heads exploding for no reason, and the mall doors sealed shut so they won't budge—is that something an ordinary person could do?"
"If it's not a prank, what is it? Terrorists? Did they plant bombs in those people's heads?" asked a middle-aged man with a square face and a white shirt, giving a bitter smile.
"Did you guys see those options? The ones on the giant screen just now," asked a teenage boy in student attire, just like Yan Ao and the others.
"We saw them, or we wouldn't have come here," the bespectacled man snapped.
"The people who didn't come are all dead? Does that mean we only survived because we followed the options?" Lan Zhijie suddenly realized the truth, grabbing Yan Ao. "A-Ao, oh my god, we only survived because of you."
Indeed, without Yan Ao's reminder, they would probably still be standing around in a daze, likely dying without even knowing what hit them. Yan Ao lowered his voice and said, "The problem is, what do we do now? How can we get out of this mall?"
Hearing this, everyone fell silent.
"There are so many exits in the mall, it makes no sense that we can't get out. Besides, with so many people dead here, the police should arrive soon. Don't worry," the square-faced middle-aged man tried to comfort himself.
"It's not that simple. I think there must be some kind of conspiracy, like supernatural forces," guessed the student-looking boy.
The bespectacled man rolled his eyes, clearly unconvinced.
"Hey, look, it's happening again!" Lei Yuyao suddenly shuddered, pointing and shouting at a nearby television usually used by the mall to broadcast advertisements.
At the same time, except for Yan Ao, who had lost his phone, everyone's phones chimed with text messages simultaneously. They pulled out their phones and glanced at the screens, their expressions instantly freezing. Lacking a phone, Yan Ao could only fix his gaze on the television screen, where the same bloody characters appeared once more:
○: Go to the parking lot.
X: Go to the rooftop.
Prompt: Please make a choice within 4 minutes and 44 seconds. Exceeding the time limit will be treated as abstention. Those who abstain will face Death.
When everyone saw the content of the bloody text, their faces turned ashen. Who knew what kind of danger awaited them next?
"It's a choice between two, and we have to decide within 4 minutes and 44 seconds. Let's make up our minds quickly," Yan Ao said, having regained some composure. It wasn't because he was particularly brave, but because he had started noticing the rules behind the options. This set of choices didn't look as terrifying as the previous two; at least the word "Death" did not appear in the options.
The bespectacled man and the others had also noticed the rule requiring a choice within 4 minutes and 44 seconds. Those who had failed to make a choice within that time frame earlier had all turned into headless corpses.
"The mall's parking lot is on the second basement level, and there's no way out down there. We might as well go to the rooftop; once we're up there, we might find a way to call for help," the square-faced middle-aged man suggested.
No one raised any objections to this proposal. Indeed, compared to a gloomy underground parking lot, the rooftop seemed like a much safer path to survival.
Although the mall was experiencing a blackout, it was only five stories high, making the rooftop easily accessible via the stairs. The only trouble was that an iron door at the very end of the stairwell leading to the rooftop was firmly locked.
"Let me handle it!" The bespectacled man looked scholarly, but to everyone's surprise, he turned out to be quite rough. Having somehow found a fire axe, he gave a brief warning before hacking down at the lock on the iron door.
*Clang!* The iron door was successfully forced open, and everyone let out a sigh of relief as they stepped outside.
"Since you had an axe, why didn't you just smash open the mall's main doors and escape from the first floor?" Lan Zhijie asked the bespectacled man after taking a short rest.
"I tried that ages ago. An axe couldn't smash open the iron security gate of the mall. And it wasn't just the security gate—the glass doors connected to the mall's McDonald's couldn't be smashed either," the bespectacled man retorted impatiently.
"Seriously? Glass doors won't break with a fire axe?" Lan Zhijie stared in dumbfounded disbelief, and Yan Ao, who had just settled Zheng Yunyun nearby, froze upon hearing this.
"I told you all long ago there are supernatural phenomena. Looks like it's true," the student boy said excitedly.
"That piece of glass must have been swapped by someone with an agenda—replaced with bulletproof glass," the square-faced man still refused to believe in any supernatural nonsense, shaking his head dismissively.
"Don't be in such a rush to jump to conclusions, mister. How do you explain those people's heads exploding?" The student boy curled his lip.
"..."
Hearing this, the square-faced man was left speechless. He truly could not explain it.
While the others were arguing, Yan Ao set Zheng Yunyun down and walked over to the edge of the rooftop's railing. More than the cause of this incident, he cared about how to escape their current anomaly.
Ever since arriving on the rooftop, he had felt a persistent and strong sense of dissonance, though he couldn't quite put his finger on what was wrong. It wasn't until he reached the railing and looked down at the street below that Yan Ao understood instantly.
"Stop arguing, let's hurry up and find someone to rescue us," the bespectacled man said, hoisting the fire axe onto his shoulder as he came up beside Yan Ao and shouted down at the people on the street below, "Hey! Help!"
Seeing this, the others rushed over and began shouting along with the bespectacled man. But very quickly, just like Yan Ao, they noticed the anomaly on the street below, and one by one, they froze in stunned silence.
"Am... am I hallucinating?" Lan Zhijie muttered.