American Horror Story, Starting from Falls Town

Chapter 383 Game Over
"Why are you all looking at me? I really didn't move this time!"

Nidi knew that Baldy hadn't actually moved; turning his head just now was purely an instinctive reaction. Of the six, he was indeed the most likely to mess things up.

Then, Ashley thought of a possibility.

"Could it be that the dark web saw us coming and manually activated the mechanism?"

This is also possible.

In the previous beach level, Nidi successfully used the game rules to make passing the level much easier. If it weren't for the sudden appearance of the ghouls, the six of them would have easily passed the level again.

Using the game rules is perfectly acceptable, but there's no guarantee that the dark web won't get angry and increase the difficulty of the game for the six players.

Of course, there is another possibility: that some unexpected new players appeared in the game, and it was they who triggered the mechanism.

This is the worst-case scenario.

The next second, two ugly ghouls emerged from the corner, their eyes filled with greed as they stared at the six people's bodies.

Fortunately, the two ghouls probably intended to devour all six people themselves, so they didn't call for their companions.

Nidi quickly pulled out her pistol to intimidate the ghouls. These ghouls seemed to have seen this weapon used to injure their own kind before, so they slowed their pace.

In fact, Nidi's pistol had already fired quite a few bullets, so there shouldn't be many bullets left in the magazine.

When Claire used her ability to seal the pistol for Nidi, she forgot to seal the magazine, which was quite embarrassing.

Fortunately, the ghouls were unaware of this; they were still warily watching the gun in Nidi's hand.

At this point, 15 seconds had passed, and the round-faced woman quickly reminded Nidi.

"Nidi, give me the pistol! You go find clues, I'll keep an eye on these monsters!"

That's definitely a good idea. If Nidi has the gun, she won't be able to solve the mystery, and the round-faced woman is a veteran, so she's definitely more professional with guns than Nidi.

Nidi whispered a reminder to the round-faced girl.

"There are about three or four bullets left in the magazine, be careful!"

The round-faced woman nodded, then held up her gun to intimidate the ghouls, and the two ghouls didn't dare to come closer.

"Hurry! Go find some weapons, there might be more ghouls coming later!"

The group began to disperse to search for clues.

First, there was a general store in front of everyone, which was blocked by a roller shutter door, but there seemed to be a fairly large space inside.

However, to open the roller shutter door, you have to unlock a large lock.

"We need a key here!"

Then, the Black woman found a phone booth with the phone ringing incessantly, but the booth was locked with a chain.

"Look, there's a lock on this phone booth. Maybe we need more than one key!"

The bald man was frantically wandering around.

"Fuck! Why do I need keys everywhere?!"

However, it's obvious that wandering around aimlessly like a headless fly won't lead to any clues.

Nidi was still thinking about 0526 when she saw a picture spray-painted on the grocery store's shutter door. It looked a lot like the mother and daughter on the beach in the previous level, except that the image representing the mother had a pair of angel-like wings behind it, seemingly hinting at something.

There is another line of text below the portraits of the mother and daughter.

"I will keep watching you, May 26th?"

Nidi noticed the numbers 0526 again; this wasn't the first time she'd encountered them in the game.

A minute and a half had passed, but no one had found anything.

Since there are no clues on the ground, could they be above us?
Ashley looked up at the roof of the grocery store.

Ashley, what are you looking at?

The priest noticed that Ashley kept her head up and asked her a question.

"I think I saw a bunch of keys hanging on the terrace up here!"

Upon hearing this, the priest noticed the key on the roof, as well as the escalator that led upstairs, and quickly pulled the escalator down.

But at that moment, Nidi glanced at the timer and realized that there were less than 30 seconds left.

"Damn it! It's too late!"

There's clearly no time to climb to the second floor and untie the key in 30 seconds.

But Baldy patted his chest and made a promise.

"30 seconds is enough, watch me!"

The bald man, like a monkey, climbed up the escalator in just a few seconds, then with dazzling speed, unlocked the key on the railing and fell down.

The whole thing took less than 10 seconds!

Everyone was amazed by the bald man's incredible hand speed after being single for nearly thirty years, but they didn't just stand there dumbfounded. Nidi quickly picked up the key from the ground and opened the roller shutter door in front of them.

The group worked together to pull up the roller shutter, only to find that the shop door inside was still locked and they needed a key.

"Wortfalk!"

The Black woman immediately swore, but at that moment there were less than 15 seconds left.

To make matters worse, after observing for more than ten seconds, the two ghouls seemed to have discovered that the round-faced woman was all bark and no bite, and began to attack!

Ghouls are not much less intelligent than humans, since many ghouls were transformed from humans. However, these dark creatures have been dominated by instinct for a long time, so they don't like to use their brains to think.

However, when instinct fails to solve the problem, the ghoul will try to use its long-unused, somewhat rusty brain to think for a moment.

Left with no other option, the round-faced woman fired two shots at the ghoul, but the ghoul was alert and blocked them with its arm, so the shots missed vital organs.

"Step back! You beasts! Aren't you done yet?"

The bald man nimbly jumped down from the roof and made a suggestion.

"If all else fails, should I try picking the lock?"

The priest glanced at the bald man in surprise.

"Do you still have this skill?"

The bald guy shrugged and was about to speak when Nidi quickly stopped the two from chatting.

"Less than 10 seconds left! Open the lock now if you want to!"

The bald man immediately took out his eating utensils from his pocket to unlock the door, and then his expression changed.

"Damn it! This lock has been modified; it can't be opened with a wire!"

As expected, the dark web knows the backgrounds of all gamers and won't give them a chance to cheat.

Immediately afterwards, the ghouls launched another attack.

"They're coming!"

Even after the round-faced woman fired her last two bullets, she still couldn't stop the ghouls; they had completely realized that the group was bluffing.

The priest picked up the bicycle next to him to use as a weapon for defense, and Nidi also prepared to use her true strength to deal with the ghoul.

But at that moment, the countdown ended.

The showerhead on the ceiling started spraying liquid, and a canopy popped up above Nidi and the others.

"careful!"

Ashley reached out and pulled Roundface into the awning, but Roundface was still covered in many places where the shower spray had left burn-like wounds.

However, the round-faced woman was completely unaware of the pain. As she herself said, she was a woman who couldn't feel pain, which was why she was chosen as a player for the escape room game. "You're injured!"

Nidi immediately placed her hand on the round-faced woman's back, wanting to treat her, but the round-faced woman refused.

"Nidi, there are cameras here. It will be very dangerous if your abilities are discovered! I only have minor injuries right now, and it's not time for me to need treatment yet!"

Upon hearing this, Nidi had no choice but to withdraw her hand.

The awning was corroded by acid rain, and everyone had more or less cuts and bruises from the acid rain.

Even worse off were the ghouls outside. Caught completely off guard, they were drenched in acid rain, their flesh corroded away in just a few seconds, and they let out sharp screams.

Upon hearing the scream, everyone sensed something was wrong.

"Won't this sound attract more monsters?"

The answer came quickly.

Ten seconds later, the showerhead turned off.

Nidi and the others then heard more crawling sounds, clearly indicating that a large number of ghouls had appeared.

To make matters worse, the countdown timer had only one and a half minutes left, meaning the safety time was reduced by half.

"Fuck! The dark web never intended for us to survive!"

The round-faced woman started cursing, and everyone else, including the relatively calm black woman, showed expressions of despair.

Only Niddy was still playing the game seriously; she was afraid of dying, but even more afraid of losing.

At that moment, a television in the grocery store turned on automatically, and a news anchor began broadcasting the news.

"Recently, influenced by environmentalists, a series of chain reactions have occurred in the city. As moisture levels rise, many city residents have begun collecting rainwater..."

After hearing the news, Nidi had a sudden inspiration.

"Chain... collecting rainwater... I get it! We need to find a container to collect acid rain, then use the acid rain to melt the chains on the phone booth so we can answer the phone!"

The group immediately began searching the surroundings for a container to catch the acid rain, and then they found a small red bottle.

Nidi picked up the red bottle and glanced at the bottom.

"PMP (polymethylpentene) material, this material can withstand strong acids!"

Just as Nidi was about to put the red bottle on the ground, she saw several ghouls running towards her from not far away. She instinctively stepped back, but found that the ghouls ran past her without attacking her at all, as if they were running away from something terrifying.

Some ghouls even made whimpering sounds similar to puppies begging for mercy.

This scene left everyone somewhat bewildered.

"How is this going?"

The priest couldn't understand why these ferocious ghouls were running around like stray dogs, but Ashley guessed something.

"It must be Roy!"

The round-faced woman looked at Ashley.

"I think I heard you mention this name just now. Who is Roy?"

The next second, more ghouls began to run wildly, their eyes completely ignoring Nidi and the others, filled only with endless fear.

Then, a handsome man appeared, carrying a dead ghoul in his hand.

"What are you running for! Stop right there!"

The man threw the ghoul in his hand as easily as throwing a stone.

No, there are still differences. At least ordinary people can't throw stones to create the effect of cannonballs.

boom!
The ghoul the man threw easily knocked down a group of ghouls.

"Roy!"

As soon as Nidi and Ashley saw Roy, they happily rushed over to him, which made several second-runner players realize that the two girls had an unusual relationship with Roy.

"Oh, so you guys are here!"

Roy hugged Needy and Ashley tightly. Although Needy had grown quite a bit taller due to the bloodline fusion ritual, she was still only a little over 1.7 meters tall.

Ashley is even shorter. Black Widow has a strong presence, but her official height is only 1.6 meters, and her actual height is probably even shorter.

Compared to Roy, who is now nearly 1.95 meters tall, both of them are rather petite.

Blackie didn't really want to interrupt Roy and the others' embrace, but with the countdown running out of time, she had no choice but to speak up.

"Uh! Mr. Roy, I don't really want to interrupt your reunion, but in about twenty seconds, the ceiling is going to spray acid rain!"

Roy looked up at the showerhead and immediately understood what was going on.

"Nidi, Ashley, we'll hug you later. Let's deal with the acid rain problem first."

Pushing aside Nidi and Ashley, Roy strode to the grocery store, seemingly intending to break down the door.

The bald man and the priest hesitated, as they had already tried to break down the door, but the store door was very sturdy, and they couldn't open it even after their arms ached from banging on it.

As a result, Roy shattered the glass door with a light punch, then opened it as easily as opening a soda can, all the while looking very effortless.

The four second-runners stared in disbelief at the scene, completely forgetting that the countdown was about to end.

"What are you all standing there for? Come in now!"

Nidi walked into the grocery store looking a little unhappy. She rarely acted this way, and Roy could tell at a glance why she was upset.

Roy patted Nidi's head and said some kind words.

"Be good! Listen to me! The game is over!"

"But it's rare for people to have such an interesting game!"

For second-time players, this is a life-or-death situation with a slim chance of survival, but for Nidi, it's just an "interesting" game.

"Nidi, how about I play a game with you as compensation?"

Upon hearing this, Nidi's eyes lit up immediately.

Even the most thrilling escape room game can't compare to playing a game with your loved one, so Nidy immediately agreed.

"You said it, don't go back on your word!"

"Of course! When you get back, go choose a game, and we'll play it together!"

Nidi was calmed down, and Roy didn't forget Ashley either.

"Ashley, shall I help you complete the ritual in a few days?"

Upon hearing this, Ashley smiled, which meant that she had truly been accepted by Roy and became the fifth person to complete the bloodline fusion ritual.

During the conversation, the acid rain outside had stopped, and Roy then broke through the room's set and climbed up through the maintenance passage.

During this process, they encountered many ghouls, but the ghouls would flee in terror at the sight of Roy. It is estimated that there may be terrifying legends about Roy among the ghouls.

After climbing for about half an hour, Roy and his group finally reached the ground. However, instead of going to the roadside, they entered the factory of the Minos Company.

It turns out that this Minos company was a cover for the dark web, used to conceal a series of escape rooms beneath.

Roy took out his satellite phone and was calling Saltana to inform her to seize Minos Corporation, but Saltana's words on the other end of the line surprised him greatly.

"Thank God, Roy, you finally answered the phone!"

Finally, here's a picture of Claire, the mastermind behind everything, as a child, for comparison with the previous one.

(End of this chapter)