Chapter 27

……

The original conversation was broken at this moment by the noisy commotion outside.

The white lights turned into a glaring red at this moment.

The red was also accompanied by flickering, and outside was the urgent roaring of alarms.

Even through the terrifyingly thick walls and doors, one could hear the commotion outside quite clearly.

Zou Zhihua stood up with a grave expression: "Xu Yien, Lin Zhiqi, you two go out and see what happened outside."

"Yes." Xu Yien and Lin Zhiqi stopped for almost no time at all; when this anomaly occurred, they were already prepared.

So at this moment, they walked directly out the door.

Both of their expressions were equally grave and carried confusion.

Because they were certainly very clear about the situation represented by this kind of commotion.

This was an alarm that covered the entire area, which only occurred when the interior was invaded.

And the number of times this kind of alarm had appeared in the last 10 years was only once, and the result of that time was fatal damage to the interior and countless casualties.

Fortunately, there was a "special" person inside at that time, otherwise that disaster might not have been resolved so easily.

And this time, the alarm for the intrusion and the alarm that started that time were almost identical; it was impossible for the interior to misjudge.

So although their faces only looked grave now, their hearts were actually already tense.

And after this, the next 10-plus minutes were an endless silence.

What was revealed in Zou Zhihua's eyes was obvious worry.

Huaiyou, however, was more laid-back.

After all, no matter what, even if something really happened, it wouldn't be his turn; judging by the specifications outside, there were definitely more than just the three of them, and if something really needed to be solved, they would be the ones to solve it, and he had no way to help anyway.

And likewise, it must be said.

This thought of Huaiyou's was very correct.

Suddenly.

Zou Zhihua frowned at this moment and took out a mobile phone from his pocket that looked small in style but had a white metallic luster.

It looked like one of those old-fashioned phones for the elderly.

He pressed it gently and held it to his ear, seemingly listening to some information; the more he listened, the more peculiar his expression became, and a faint, imperceptible curiosity seemed to well up.

Soon, after he put the phone down, he glanced at Huaiyou.

He began to say: "There are some things outside that I need to handle. You stay here and think carefully about what I asked you before. I will come back after I finish handling it. I hope you will consider it clearly during this time."

Zou Zhihua gave a light cold snort and walked straight out the door.

As the special metal door closed, judging by the sound, it should have been locked as well.

Only Huaiyou was left here alone.

Huaiyou looked at the surrounding environment with utter helplessness at this moment; he naturally could not disobey what Zou Zhihua said, nor could he disobey it. In a place where he didn't even know what it was, if he really ran around, there was no telling what kind of trouble he might cause.

If he ran into some other dangerous thing, he might really lose his life.

Looking at their appearance, something probably appeared outside, so all in all, staying here was relatively safe.

So, after staying in place for a few seconds and feeling a bit bored, he began to stand up and wander around this large office.

It must be said that such a place was really quite large.

Besides the so-called logo of the Judgment Bureau on the wall, there were also some strange paintings.

Especially the three oil paintings about half the size of a person placed on the side wall suddenly attracted Huaiyou's attention.

He had noticed these things when he first came in, but because of the slightly tense interrogation that followed, he didn't pay much attention to them, so this was the best time to observe and appreciate them.

These were three oil paintings framed in exquisite white wood.

But the more Huaiyou looked, the more he felt a sense of horror slowly welling up in his heart.

The first painting on the far left was a monster that looked like a pillar but was extremely elastic; its foul-smelling, colorful, pitch-black head seemed to be right in front of him. The painter used extreme brushwork to depict the image of such a strange creature.

Besides that pitch-black head, the things painted in the frame slightly further back could be seen even more clearly, with a sense of fullness appearing; the brush seemed to make one feel the vividness of this monster behind it.

This hideous and ugly monster, if used as a comparison for scenery, was much larger than any subway, and if one had to use a word to describe the monster's body.

It would be an amorphous aggregate of protoplasmic tumor bubbles, slightly glowing, with green-glowing eyes in the front, constantly forming and decomposing.

The picture presented an overall pitch-black and dim atmosphere, yet it combined with the frame and the surrounding environment.

The second painting contained a man turning his head, looking a bit like a candid shot.

But the appearance of this man was a bit excessively twisted and strange.

He had a narrow head, protruding, watery blue eyes that seemed never to have blinked, a flat nose, a receding forehead and chin, and ears that seemed not fully developed, looking a bit like some kind of aquatic animal.

He had long, thick lips, rough, grayish-white cheeks with visible large pores, and almost no beard, except for some sparse yellow clumps of hair curled irregularly. Moreover, some parts of his face had shapes that looked strange, as if caused by peeling from some kind of skin disease.

Patches of skin were mixed in, presenting a strange scale-like appearance; his vein-exposed hands looked large and presented an unusual blue-gray color, with his fingers tightly joined together.

Huaiyou couldn't help but mutter while looking at this picture at this moment: "How can there be such a person in the world? Is it artistic processing or some other situation? Except for the appearance being a bit like people, it looks just like a fish in the sea..."

Next, his gaze shifted, and Huaiyou walked toward the third painting.

This painting was slightly more normal and had a strong fantasy color style; this was Huaiyou's first impression upon seeing this painting.

This was a piece of ancient ruins in a lake.

Right in the middle of these ruins was a tall stone pillar.

On the stone pillar.

Was an ancient lantern.

Surprisingly, in such ruins, it still maintained its light.

And even Huaiyou, when he saw this lamp, noticed for the first time that in the very center of this lamp was actually an ancient city.

The forest of stone pillars presented its vicissitudes and antiquity.

This city also seemed to be located on the seabed, because ancient marine creatures were floating in the air.

After looking at the three paintings.

Huaiyou couldn't help but sigh a little.

"Tsk... the taste of these people is really unique; to have such heavy-tasting paintings displayed in the office, aren't they afraid of having nightmares at night after looking at them too much?"

After a while.

Huaiyou felt that the surrounding environment was a bit boring, and he had seen about as much as there was to see.

He turned around slightly and found that there was no mobile phone or anything like that here.

Otherwise, he might have been able to check the situation of that strange movie software himself.

He also didn't know if the other party had discovered the software on his phone.

But if what the other party said was correct, it was estimated that most of his things had already been seen, and they had likely already discovered that software.

Was it just that the other party didn't ask him? Or was there some other purpose?

Huaiyou just sat on the chair and let his imagination run wild.

Thinking about his future life, he always felt that the appearance of this software and the so-called horror and thriller movies one after another would change something, but as far as he could see now, it still seemed to be a piece of confusion.

And it was just when he was letting his imagination run wild like this.

Suddenly.

An uncomfortable atmosphere suddenly appeared.

Huaiyou strangely felt that he was now frozen in place.

Something on the ceiling above his head seemed to be twisting and moving, making one clear sound after another.

Huaiyou felt his eyes, like the threat of death that appeared when facing Kayako, being shrouded by a mixture of red and black dimness.

It was the most extreme despair welling up from the bottom of his heart!

He opened his mouth wide to make a sound, but it was as if his mouth had been covered.

Yet he did not feel any pain all over his body.

Suddenly.

Amidst this most extreme uncomfortable feeling.

Huaiyou felt that something was standing behind him.

He clearly felt that the thing seemed to be a person.

No, maybe more than one person.

But he couldn't turn his head; he couldn't even move his fingers in the slightest.

A bizarre gaze remained on him.

It seemed that that person or those people were quietly standing behind Huaiyou, watching him.

"Ah..."

Huaiyou tried his best to struggle at this moment.

But it was to no avail.

"Click..."

The next second, Huaiyou saw the display screen in front of him, the one that had been pressed down and was initially playing the recording, suddenly start to move at this moment.

Slowly, as if controlled by someone, it rose from the desktop.

A line of twisted characters for Huaiyou suddenly began to appear slowly at this time.

【Strange Tale Roulette is now open, please complete it as soon as possible, Reality Movie Audience.】

【Detected the particularity of the audience's location, the roulette will be adjusted for appropriate deployment.】

【Roulette name: Trading with the Devil.

The deal with the devil, can you grasp that degree well?】

【Friendly reminder: This roulette strange tale possesses a relatively high degree of uncertainty and scene-specific danger, so a trading hint is now given to the Reality Movie Audience.

Trading hint: Painting.】

……

The twisted, terrifying font slowly ended here at this moment, and then slowly disappeared.

Huaiyou only felt a trance in his spirit.

Subsequently, his body returned to normal at this moment.

Painting?

For no reason, Huaiyou turned his gaze to the three paintings with bizarre styles on the wall.

……