I, the screenwriter, have experienced a resurgence of inspiration.

Li Yafei ran desperately downstairs, floor after floor, not daring to look back.

The hallway was completely dark, with the doors of the subdivided rooms on both sides, one after another.

Some doors let in a dim, yellowish light through the cracks, while others were completely dark.

The clothes on the clothesline swayed back and forth, casting shadows on the wall like human skins hanging up.

Li Yafei was out of breath from running, her lungs burning.

—After running up several floors, I suddenly heard a series of muffled "thuds" from the corner of the stairs ahead.

one more time.

It was very rhythmic, like something hitting the ground.

What kind of monster is it this time?

Li Yafei's heart tightened, and she instinctively hid behind a half-open door.

The door was ajar, with only a crack, just enough to see the open space around the corner.

On the open ground around the corner, there was a small stool, and someone was sitting there with their back to her.

She was an old woman wearing a black cloth diagonal-front shirt, with gray hair and her hair tied in a round bun.

She had her back to Li Yafei, her waist slightly hunched, and she held up a black women's cloth shoe in her hand.

The soles of the cloth shoes were studded with tiny iron nails.

The mother-in-law raised her hands high, then slammed them heavily onto the ground, one after another.

"Smack."

"Smack."

"Snapped!"

Two yellow paper figures were placed on the ground, their faces drawn with cinnabar, their names and birth dates written upside down, and a large red cross marked their chests.

Beside the old man's feet was a cracked wooden memorial tablet, blank and dark.

Her voice was high-pitched and thin, with a drawn-out tone, making it sound even more strange and sinister.

"I'll beat you up, you little brat, until you're breathless!"

I'll beat you up, you little brat! I'll beat you until you don't know how to stop even when you're rich!

I'll spank you, you little brat, until you fall and break your leg!

I'll spank your little belly until you're so sick you can't poop anymore!

I'll beat you until you cough until you die!

I’ll beat you up, you little human soul, I’ll beat you to the point where you’ll never be able to stand up again——”

……

Over and over again, the speaking speed increased, like a videotape with its speed adjusted, sounding somewhat distorted, not like the voice of a living person!

The soles of the shoes slammed down with increasing force.

Li Yafei shivered.

It means to beat up a villain.

Many housewives in the port city believe in this.

When some people feel unlucky or that they are being targeted by malicious people, they go to the City God Temple or the area near Wong Tai Sin Temple to find an old woman to perform a ritual to dispel the bad luck, which is said to be very effective.

She used to be bullied by her classmates, and her mother-in-law even took her to beat the villains.

But now, in the dead of night, in the underworld, an old woman is beating a voodoo doll all by herself.

It looks eerie no matter how you look at it.

Li Yafei huddled behind the door, not daring to breathe.

Just then, Akai and Ale caught up.

……

……

The two thugs were panting heavily, their eyes only on Li Yafei ahead, completely unaware of the old woman sitting around the corner.

"You son of a bitch! Let's see which way you run!" Kai cursed, rushing over.

He was running too fast and didn't watch where he was going, so he kicked over the memorial tablet next to the old woman's feet.

With a loud crash, the cracked wooden memorial tablet wobbled and fell straight down.

The sound of beating the villain abruptly stopped.

The hallway fell silent instantly.

Ah Kai, panting, glanced down at the memorial tablet and spat out dismissively, "What a piece of junk."

The two were just about to take a step.

The old woman sitting on the small stool slowly turned her head.

The eerie green firelight reflected on her face, making half of it appear blue and the other half gray.

Her eyes were cloudy, with a strange green light, and she stared intently at Akai and Ale.

Suddenly, she grinned and smiled.

His mouth stretched all the way to his ears, revealing his dark gums; he had absolutely no teeth.

"Two young men, so disobedient?"

"You'll pay with your life if you bully a grandson."

Li Yafei, who was hiding behind the door, was stunned for a moment.

Ah Kai scoffed, "You old hag, pretending to be a ghost. Who is your grandson? I'll bully you, what can you do about it?"

As he spoke, he kicked over the paper figure on the ground.

Ah Lok laughed along, "At your age, instead of staying home, you're out here scaring people. Do you believe we'll beat you up too?"

Neither of them noticed anything amiss.

The old woman didn't speak, but slowly withdrew her gaze and looked back at the two yellow paper figures on the ground.

Then, the black cloth shoes in his hand were raised again.

"Snapped!"

The cloth shoe, studded with nails, slammed down heavily, this time harder than any of the previous blows.

"I'll kick you so hard you'll trip and fall and break your neck!"

The voice just fell.

Ah Kai's foot, which he had just lifted, suddenly slipped heavily.

He didn't know what slippery thing he stepped on, but his center of gravity shifted backward, and he fell straight down the stairs.

"ah--!"

A short, sharp scream.

"Click—"

A crisp sound of bones cracking came from below the stairs.

Then there was silence.

Ah Le stood there, stunned, the smile still on his face: "Ah, Ah Kai?"

He called out tremblingly, but no one answered. He had no choice but to take two steps forward and crane his neck to look down.

The stairwell was pitch black, and you couldn't see anything.

It seemed that only a strong smell of blood slowly wafted up.

"Akai? Are you okay? Don't scare me!"

His voice trembled, and the old woman's cloth shoe slipped again.

"Snapped!"

"I'll beat you up, you little brat! I'll beat you until your pores bleed and you can't even see it!"

Ah Le suddenly felt an itch on his face.

He reached out and scratched it, only to find it wet; his hand was covered in water.

It's wet.

Ah Kai looked up and saw that his hands were covered in red.

His pores were bleeding.

Tiny beads of blood oozed from every pore on my face, neck, and the back of my hands.

"W-what happened..." His expression was somewhat bewildered, and also a little incredulous.

My arms were covered in blood droplets, densely packed, like tiny sesame seeds sprouting out.

The blood flowed more and more, streaming down her cheeks, blurring her vision, and staining her clothes red.

"Help...help me!"

He turned to run, but his feet seemed to be held by someone, and he couldn't move.

Blood flowed down his trouser leg and quickly formed a small puddle on the ground.

Akaiqin's bloodshot eyes met Li Yafei's. The next second, he struggled to crawl towards her, his bloodied hands outstretched, his eyes filled with fear and pleading.

"Please call an ambulance for me... Help me... Help me..."

The dark red blood left a long, shocking trail on the ground.

Li Yafei huddled behind the door, yet inexplicably felt a sense of relief.

In the hallway, Ah Le fell silent.

Ah Kai collapsed to the ground like a melted ice cream.

Li Yafei held her breath and looked outside. The next second, there was a "creak."

The door she was hiding in was slowly opened.

A shadow was cast from the doorway and slowly enveloped her.

Li Yafei froze, then slowly raised her head.

An old woman stood inside the door, wearing a blue cloth shirt and a gray apron, with gray hair tied in a bun and a gentle smile on her face.

She is my mother-in-law.

"Little sister, were you scared?"

My mother-in-law's voice was gentle and soft, exactly the same as when she usually coaxed her:

"Don't be afraid, don't be afraid. Go back home and drink sugar water."

"Those two shady thugs are gone, they won't bully you anymore."

She reached out her hand; her dry palm was a little cold. She pulled Li Yafei up, as if cursing the two little rascals to death was nothing of importance.

It's like swatting two ants.

"Mother-in-law...is that really you?"

"It's me, silly girl." The mother-in-law laughed and gently patted her head, her palm cool to the touch.

Li Yafei could no longer hold back and threw herself into her mother-in-law's arms:

"Mother-in-law... I miss you so much... They bullied me!"

"I know I was wrong... I shouldn't have embarrassed you before... I shouldn't have argued with you..."

Her mother-in-law patted her back gently and coaxed her softly, "Silly girl, I don't blame you. Go back now, the sweet soup is still warm."

—If you ignore the two corpses on the ground whose deaths were far from pleasant, you might even feel a strange sense of warmth.

……

……

……

In the stairwell on the first floor, the swaying incandescent light shone on the blackened wall, casting several shadows huddled around the corner.

The three men looked ashen-faced as if they were dead.

The air was filled with a musty and rusty smell, mixed with some paper ash, which seemed to be coming from nowhere and was sticky and stuck in my throat.

It felt as if my lungs were filled with paper ash, and every cough smelled musty.

"Those two bastards shouldn't be chasing us."

The guy squatting on the outermost edge has dark skin and thick lips that almost turn upside down.

He was wearing a faded black vest, and his arm was tattooed with a crooked blue dragon.

He wore a pair of dusty gray rubber hose shoe covers with soft soles, which made no sound at all when he stepped on the cement floor.

The man glanced sideways at the upper left corner of his field of vision, where player information, visible only to him, floated:

【Occupation: Gunslinger (Green)】

[Unlimited Ammo: You will receive a pistol that uses your own blood as bullets; its damage is determined by the amount of blood lost.]

[Item: Silent Plastic Shoe Covers (Durability 9/10) (The fishmonger's favorite pair of shoe covers; wearing them silences footsteps and reduces his presence.)]

……

Big Water Bro licked his thick lips, glanced at the two people behind him, and a sinister smile appeared on his lips.

He said that people can always find a way out of seemingly hopeless situations.

Last night, he was being chased by the cops and hid in a trash can in an alley. Just when he was about to be caught, he looked up and saw a piece of gold paper floating in the sky.

The gold paper landed on Brother Da Shui, and he felt dizzy. That's how he ended up in this awful place.

Although monsters roamed everywhere outside, he felt only a surge of ecstasy:

Who doesn't know that copies exist in the world these days?

The stuff you can take out of the dungeon is all good stuff!

I heard that the starting price for life-extending items on the black market has already reached tens of millions!

Tens of millions!

How long would it take him, with his worthless life, to accumulate enough?

Big Water Brother smugly touched the gun in his pocket, smacking his thick lips repeatedly.

In this godforsaken place, only the capable survive.

He's a superman now, with superpowers. As long as he can get out alive, those conglomerates will be scrambling to get him out of trouble.

—At that point, not only will the police be unable to do anything to him, but the law will also be powerless!

Thinking of this, Brother Shui looked at the two people hiding to the side and said in a vicious voice:

"Hey, you two."

One was a young white-collar worker, dressed in a business suit; the other looked like a student, fair-skinned and well-mannered.

Big Water Bro lowered his voice, his tone carrying a malicious threat:

"Listen carefully, there are two 'big guys' outside, over ten meters tall, they specialize in squeezing people's heads, one at a time, they'll crush your brains."

As he spoke, he pointed outside, and the two men's faces turned even paler.

The two of them shrank back like quails, and as if remembering something, they began to gag uncontrollably.

"Scared?"

Big Water Bro patted his side and said, "You're right to be scared. Without me, you two would have had your heads crushed and fed to the monsters long ago."

He issued commands as if bestowing them upon others:

"If you want to live, you have to listen to me. Do whatever I tell you to do, no talking back, no slacking off—do well and I'll save your life, do badly..."

He paused, a ruthless glint flashing in his eyes:

"Just throw them out to feed the monsters. Anyway, two more of you won't make a difference, and two less of you won't make a difference either."