Forced to Act out a Strange Script with a Rival - Chapter 56

The dizziness brought by the sense of weightlessness had not completely faded. Li Ting felt her senses were filled with a smell so thick it was sickening—the salty stench of seawater, mixed with the cloying sweetness of some kind of rotting seaweed, and an… indescribable, spine-chilling stench, like a mix of the slime from countless wet, slippery creatures.

The light was dim, and the air was so humid it felt like it could be wrung out. Every breath was like inhaling a viscous liquid.

She found herself standing on a narrow, wet flagstone path.

On both sides of the road were low, crooked stone houses, their walls covered in slick moss and dark stains.

The sky was a depressing, perpetually overcast lead-gray. The heavy clouds looked ready to crush this strange town at any moment. The dull roar of waves crashing against the rocks came from a distance, monotonous and gloomy.

Unlike the bone-deep gore of the prison dungeon, Li Ting’s first impression of this world was one of sheer oddity.

And the most chilling part was that the streets were not empty.

Scattered figures moved in the gray light. They wore dark, oddly styled clothes that looked waterlogged and heavy, clinging to their bodies. Their faces were pale, their features blurry, and their eyes vacant and dull, like soulless puppets.

Their gait was slow and stiff, moving silently, like a group of marionettes controlled by invisible strings.

A powerful sense of being watched struck her.

Li Ting keenly noticed that the empty gaze of those “people” immediately focused on her the moment she appeared. There was no emotion, no curiosity, just a bone-chilling, icy stare.

After arriving in this world, the system seemed to be disconnected; there were no prompts at all.

Did the system’s preferences change? Was it no longer necessary to follow the character setting?

Li Ting’s whole body was tense as she tried to analyze the bizarre environment. She forced herself to remain calm.

“The Spring of the Tentacle Monster” was the only clue, and the name itself was inherently absurd and dangerous.

She needed information. Following the horror movie logic, perhaps choosing to move forward with the stream of those eerie “people” might lead to answers.

Li Ting took a deep breath of the suffocating air, suppressed the anxiety churning within her, and began to walk, trailing at the very end of the group.

At the end of the road was a ruined, seaside chapel.

The chapel’s spire was crooked, its stone walls covered in even denser, dark moss that seemed to writhe, and some kind of vine-like marine plant. The door was open, and a flickering, dim yellow light spilled out, like the dying breath of some giant creature.

The interior of the chapel seemed even colder and damper than the outside.

The cloying, rotten smell in the air mixed with a strong scent of incense, creating a dizzying, grotesque combination.

A few flickering whale-oil lamps were the only light source, casting distorted shadows on the mildew-stained walls like monstrous claws.

The chapel was packed with people, or rather, packed with those “residents” in heavy, wet clothes with pale faces and vacant eyes.

They stood silently, like silent reefs, filling the entire space to the brim.

A profoundly oppressive atmosphere, a mixture of sadness and numbness, permeated the air.

Everyone’s gaze was fixed on the front of the chapel.

There was no altar there. Instead, there was a large platform crudely constructed from some kind of stark white reef rock.

And on the platform lay a… coffin.

The coffin was not made of wood; it was constructed from a semi-transparent, strangely shimmering, pearlescent material, with a faint glow flowing over its surface, like the inside of a giant shell.

The lid of the coffin was also open.

Li Ting’s heart, upon seeing what was inside the coffin, felt as if it had been fiercely gripped by an icy hand and stopped beating.

The coffin was filled with layers upon layers of strangely colored, deep purple sea anemones, whose soft tentacles swayed slightly in the air. Lying in the center of this eerie “flower bed” was none other than—

Si Xiaoxiao.

What was going on?

Li Ting felt dizzy.

The person in the coffin was wearing luxurious attire Li Ting had never seen before—a long dress seemingly woven from countless tiny, faintly glowing pearls and dark scales, tightly wrapping her delicate figure.

Her long hair was spread beneath her like seaweed, adorned with strange coral and glowing shells. Her face was still bright and stunning, even more exquisitely otherworldly than usual, possessing a non-mortal beauty.

However, her eyes were tightly shut, her skin displayed a lifeless, icy pearl-white color, yet her lips were a grotesque deep purple. She lay there quietly, like a carefully displayed, priceless offering.

Luxurious, bizarre, and… lifeless.

Si Xiaoxiao… was dead?

Li Ting’s mind went blank with a loud buzz.

A mix of absurdity and sharp stinging pain erupted simultaneously in her chest.

Li Ting stood at the edge of the crowd, like a discordant reef.

She exuded an icy aura that warned people to keep their distance, her eyes sharply scanning everything around her, trying to find any loophole in the rules or a system prompt.

Was the person in the coffin really Si Xiaoxiao? What was the mission in this world?

Where was the trigger point? What was the connection between “The Spring of the Tentacle Monster” and this funeral?

She forced herself to look away, not to look at that familiar yet strange face.

Her fingernails dug deeply into her palms, using the sharp pain to maintain her sanity.

A “priest,” wearing a dark robe of the same strange material, walked up to the platform.

He had an ordinary face, and his voice sounded like an echo from the deep sea, hollow and distant, as he chanted an obituary with strange syllables that Li Ting could not understand at all.

The language sounded like a mixture of countless popping bubbles and the wailing of conch shells.

The long and eerie ceremony proceeded.

The silent “residents,” like programmed procedures, offered low, muffled responses to specific syllables.

The entire chapel was permeated with a surreal, suffocating sense of discomfort.

Just as the bizarre eulogy neared its end, the “priest” suddenly turned towards Li Ting’s direction.

His hollow eyes seemed to pierce through the crowd, locking onto her with precision.

“It seems this funeral has an unexpected guest,” the priest’s voice carried an undeniable, icy tone of judgment. “Now… please, let the closest ‘blood relative’ of the deceased step forward… and offer her soul the final ‘blessing.'”

As his words fell, all the vacant gazes in the chapel instantly converged on Li Ting like searchlights.

“Blood relative?” Li Ting’s brow furrowed tightly.

She and Si Xiaoxiao, and that eerie corpse in the coffin, were… blood relatives?

“Come forward, lost child,” the priest’s voice had a strange, seductive power.

Li Ting’s heart sank. She realized something was wrong and tried to flee, but to her surprise, her body was uncontrollable and unable to respond to her brain’s commands.

She couldn’t move.

An icy, slippery, and sea-salty touch silently wrapped around her ankle!

Li Ting froze and looked down.

A deep purple, slippery “vine” covered in tiny suction cups, like a sea anemone’s tentacle, had quietly emerged from the damp stone slab cracks. It was slowly and firmly winding its way up her calf.

The sensation was icy and sticky, with a repulsive, squirming feeling of a living thing.

!!! What is this!!

Li Ting’s pupils contracted. She instinctively tried to lift her foot and shake it off.

However, the moment she moved, the force of the wrap tightened abruptly.

A huge, irresistible dragging force came, causing her to stagger. She was forcibly dragged by the slippery tentacle, stumbling towards the platform where “Si Xiaoxiao’s” remains were placed.

She tried to struggle, but the tentacle’s strength was beyond imagination, and there seemed to be more than one!

More of the same slippery, icy sensations wrapped around her other ankle and her wrists in the shadows she couldn’t see!

“Let go of me!” Li Ting shouted, her voice slightly trembling with anger and a hint of startled offense.

She tried to mobilize her physical strength to resist, but in this bizarre world, her strength was far too weak.

Must stay calm, mustn’t panic!

Li Ting forcibly stopped the trembling in her body. Like a moth caught in a spider’s web, she was aggressively dragged by the slippery, icy tentacles, step by step, towards the luxurious, bizarre coffin, all under the scrutiny of countless vacant stares.

She couldn’t stop it. She could only try her best to curl up and protect her head, minimizing the damage caused by the rough tentacles.

The force aggressively dragged her to the edge of the platform, almost an arm’s length away from “Si Xiaoxiao” lying in the cluster of sea anemones.

A thick, non-human, sickly-sweet scent rushed to her face.

The slippery tentacles wrapped around her never loosened; instead, like a claim of ownership, they left wet, cold red marks on her slender ankles and wrists.

The priest’s hollow voice sounded again, like a death knell: “Offer the tribute to the Sea God.”

As his voice fell, the bizarre villagers repeated in unison, taking a synchronized step forward, surrounding Li Ting in the center of the chapel: “Sacrifice! Sacrifice! Sacrifice!”

The deafening sound instantly shook the ground.

Sacrifice? Sacrifice!!

Li Ting was still thinking, but the slippery tentacles wrapped around her suddenly tightened.

The immense force squeezed her bones painfully. The icy suction cups adhered tightly to her skin, bringing a horrifying illusion of having her marrow sucked out.

At the same time, an invisible force, carrying intense mental pressure, surged towards her like a tide, trying to pry open her will and force her to submit.

No! I won’t be a sacrifice!!

I cannot become a sacrifice! I must find a way to save myself.

Her gaze finally fell on the window behind the coffin. A plan instantly formed in her mind.

“I am willing to cooperate with the sacrifice voluntarily!!” she suddenly shouted, the only dissonance in the chorus of “Sacrifice.”

The islanders with vacant eyes instantly froze, their gazes strangely synchronized, fixed on Li Ting.

Even the eerie tentacles paused.

Indeed, that strange thing is being operated by someone!!

The priest looked down at Li Ting, revealing a strange smile. As his vividly colored lips, like they were stained with blood, parted slightly—

Li Ting suddenly surged forward, lunging towards the coffin. Then, stepping on the edge of the coffin, she threw herself against the glass window.

With the sound of shattering glass, the sun finally shone on Li Ting again. Her body fell with gravity, crashing heavily onto the sandy ground. The sharp glass scraped her arms and knees.

She didn’t dare to stop. She instinctively picked up a piece of glass from the ground and fled in panic.

The residents did not move because the bizarre tentacles were faster than her.

In an instant, they wrapped around her.

Li Ting continued to run forward while desperately waving the sharp glass in her hand, trying to cut the monstrous, eerie things.

Bright red blood oozed from the cuts, which seemed to slow down the monster’s speed.

However, her resistance was ultimately futile.

After rushing through the dense woods, at the end of the road was the vast, endless sea.

Had she reached a dead end?

No! Not a dead end!

Li Ting looked back. Not far away were faces with vacant and eerie eyes.

Only the front is the only way out!

Without hesitation, Li Ting leaped down from the cliff.

The icy, salty seawater instantly submerged her nose and mouth.

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