Chapter 165: Flame

Lü Yang struggled desperately, trying hard to sit up, but his mind grew fuzzier and fuzzier…

Vaguely, he felt like someone had come to the side of the bathtub. He wanted to scream, but no sound came out. Lü Yang struggled desperately once more.

That person seemed to squat down and reached out a hand to touch the liquid in the bathtub. Right at that moment, Lü Yang used all his strength and finally managed to sit up from the bathtub, reaching out to try and grab that person’s body…

Lü Yang gasped for breath heavily and suddenly opened his eyes, only to find he wasn’t sitting in a bathtub filled with salty, fishy, thick, sticky liquid, but was sitting on his own bed.

“Ah!”

Lü Yang shouted instinctively. A chill ran down his back, giving him a creepy feeling.

Just now… was that a dream?

A nightmare?

The problem wasn’t whether it was a nightmare just now, but when this nightmare would end.

Was he awake now? Was this the real world?

Could it be that Zhou Ling’s curse was to trap him, Lü Yang, in a nightmare from which he could never wake?

Damn! Whatever the curse! Before things got completely out of hand, he needed to find a way to end it.

How to end it?

Lü Yang picked up his mobile phone and looked. It was 2:15 in the morning.

If this was a dream, then he needed to find a way to leave this dream as soon as possible.

After sitting quietly on the bed for a while, Lü Yang reached out and tried to turn on the bedside lamp. This time, there was still power. The energy-saving lamp slowly lit up.

Lü Yang walked to the window and abruptly opened it.

There was no wall outside. Rain was falling, and the raindrops felt cool on Lü Yang’s face. The residential area was the same as usual in the middle of the night, with a few households still having their lights on. There was also a light near the gatehouse, and from the direction outside the residential area, the faint sound of cars could be heard.

First, assume this isn’t a curse, but a mysterious domain… If it is, then how big is the range of this mysterious domain?

Does it cover the entire Jing’an Residential Area? There are car sounds outside the residential area… That’s way too big, right?

Maybe to end this mysterious domain, he must go out to find some clues. Otherwise, staying in this room would quickly trap him in a loop again.

Lü Yang changed his clothes, took his keys, and tiptoed to the door. He listened carefully outside. There was no movement. Then, he pulled the door open and stepped out.

Lü Yang’s rented room was on the third floor. He quickly ran down the staircase, wanting to investigate the full extent of the mysterious domain. However… he felt he was almost down to the first floor, but the stairs just kept going down.

When Lü Yang felt he had turned at least five times… roughly equivalent to running down from the sixth floor, he stopped in front of a doorway. Then, he carefully examined this door…

It was actually the door to his own rented room!

A death loop!

No matter how many floors he went down, he couldn’t leave the third floor…

It felt like this wasn’t the first time he had experienced a death loop.

The last death loop was also at the Xingyue Gas Station. At that time, there was a death loop on the highway, which could also be called an infinite loop. But this time, the loop’s range was much smaller, limited to just one floor.

Lü Yang took out his keys, opened the door, and forcefully pushed it open. Then he turned on the light in the hall.

TV, worn-out sofa… everything was very familiar. It was his rented room.

Although it was familiar, everything gave him a strange feeling, as if… he had entered another parallel world.

Lü Yang sat down on the worn-out sofa, took the remote control, pressed the button, and turned on the TV. But the TV just lit up and immediately went off.

Along with the TV, the light in the hall also went out.

Only, this time it was absolute darkness, so dark he couldn’t see his own hand in front of his face.

“Your mother!”

Lü Yang cursed loudly. Could it be… it was really coming?

As for what was coming, Lü Yang wasn’t sure, but this absolute darkness immediately filled him with a fear of some immense disaster approaching.

Light, he must find light.

Only light can fight darkness.

Lü Yang felt his way into his bedroom and groped for his mobile phone and flashlight on the bedside. However, the mobile phone was off and wouldn’t turn on, and the flashlight wouldn’t light up either!

How tragic. Even carrying the flashlight everywhere wasn’t enough…

Lü Yang felt his way to the window, opened it, and reached his hand outside to feel.

Wall.

Lü Yang’s heart instantly turned cold.

Absolute darkness. A sealed room.

Path of Survival! Path of Survival! If he didn’t find the Path of Survival soon, the next time he died here, it might be for real.

A faint whimpering sound drifted in the darkness. Some faint, cool sensations brushed against Lü Yang’s ears. These sounds, these feelings, were all too familiar to Lü Yang.

This sound appeared just before the Dark Predators showed up. And this faint cool feeling was unique to the area near the Black Mist.

He must find light. Otherwise, once the Dark Predators truly appeared, without light, he couldn’t break their Black Fog Armor. If Lü Yang was attacked in this darkness, it would mean certain death.

All devices that used electricity to produce light had failed. How could he create light then?

Before electricity was harnessed, humanity didn’t live in constant darkness. That was because of the existence of fire.

Yes, fire!

Lü Yang quickly ran to the kitchen. He opened the valve on the gas tank, then turned the knob on the gas stove, trying to ignite it.

“Click! Click! Click!” Lü Yang repeatedly turned the ignition switch, but it wouldn’t light.

The gas had been delivered just a few days ago. The gas tank was full, but the gas stove was too old! He really should have bought a new one…

“Growl… Ooh…” A very familiar, beast-like roar came from the hall outside. At the same time, heavy footsteps could be heard.

Lü Yang knew the Dark Predators had used the darkness as cover and invaded his home. Darkness was their cloak, and their vision wasn’t blocked by the dark at all.

The only thing that could deal with them and save Lü Yang’s life now was the light brought by flame.

But, he couldn’t get a flame.

Although he had a full gas tank, the stove was too old and hadn’t been used for a long time. It was very difficult to light. In the past few days, every time he and Yi Ya tried to cook, they had to try many times before it lit.

Now, at this critical moment, it was going to cost him his life.

Was he really going to die here?

The footsteps got closer. From the sound, there seemed to be more than one Dark Predator in the hall.

“Damn!” Lü Yang cursed. He slapped the gas stove hard, then tried to light it two more times.

With a “whoosh,” a strong flame finally burst to life on the gas stove. Once the flame appeared, it immediately lit up the kitchen, even allowing Lü Yang to see into the hall.

What he saw made all the hair on his body stand on end, sending chills down his spine.

At least four Dark Predators had reached the kitchen doorway, less than two meters away from him!

Afraid of the bright light from the gas stove, they all covered their eyes with their hands. But, relying on their Black Fog Armor, they still raised their cleavers and advanced towards Lü Yang.

Lü Yang looked around quickly and saw the newly bought bottle of cooking oil. He quickly grabbed it, opened the lid, and splashed the oil onto the Dark Predators.

Then, Lü Yang grabbed an old newspaper, rolled it into a long strip, dipped it in the oil, lit it on the gas stove, and used it to set the cooking oil on the Dark Predators ablaze.

Once the cooking oil on the Dark Predators caught fire, it produced strong flames. The Black Fog Armor was quickly burned away. Lü Yang threw more cooking oil onto them. The Dark Predators were all set on fire. They retreated from the kitchen, howling as they scurried back into the hall, rolling on the ground. In a short while, they set the entire hall on fire, and a big blaze quickly erupted.

The Dark Predators were driven back, but Lü Yang’s situation wasn’t great either. The kitchen was on fire, and Lü Yang, splashed with a lot of oil, was severely burned.

The faucet in the kitchen sink was strangely broken. Lü Yang couldn’t get water from it. Enduring the scorching heat of the fire, he rushed out of the kitchen into the hall and tried to rush into the bathroom, but the bathroom door was locked.

Lü Yang gave the bathroom door a hard kick. The lock inside snapped with a ‘crack.’ But when he kicked again trying to force the door open, the door seemed to be blocked by something inside. In his panic, Lü Yang kicked forcefully once more, but still couldn’t open it.

Unable to open the bathroom door, Lü Yang was already suffering from large area burns all over his body. Instinctively, he rushed into the bedroom, only to find that the bedroom was also completely on fire. In the entire rented room, there was no safe place left. The fire grew bigger and bigger. Lü Yang’s skin was completely burned and blistered. The thick smoke and flames made his lungs feel extremely uncomfortable.

After holding his breath for what felt like a long time, Lü Yang finally couldn’t take it anymore. He covered his mouth and nose with a bed sheet and took several big breaths. Even so, what he inhaled was still the poisonous gas generated by the burning room, which was no help to him in his current state.

Lü Yang’s consciousness grew hazy. The sharp pain from the severe burns all over his body actually seemed to lessen a bit.

Lü Yang knew this was a sign that he was about to be poisoned by the toxic smoke. He tried hard to stand up, but couldn’t. His body became extremely heavy, as if it didn’t belong to him.

“Am I really going to die?” Lü Yang thought despairingly. His consciousness grew even fuzzier.

…

“Ah!”

Lü Yang let out a loud shout and suddenly woke up. He found himself still lying intact on his bedroom bed.

No fire.

When Lü Yang wanted to sit up and turn on the light, he suddenly thought of something and immediately gave up the idea of getting up. He lay still on the bed, his mind racing.

Was this a nightmare?

Not a nightmare! This was a mysterious domain from which he could never wake!

He shouldn’t rush around recklessly anymore… If he kept rushing around recklessly, he wouldn’t save himself. Next time he died in this mysterious domain, he might not get another chance to wake up.