Forced to Act out a Strange Script with a Rival - Chapter 66

She calmly concealed herself, observing…

Inside the dilapidated wooden hut, Li Ting was huddled in the corner, flipping through the soaked diary over and over again. Her fingertips were slightly white from the force she was exerting.

The pages, softened and fragile from being immersed in seawater, had ink bleeding outwards, making many sentences even more blurred and illegible.

She scrutinized every single word, trying to extract any possible overlooked key information from the fragments documenting the daily interactions between “Sister” and “Sister.”

However, there was nothing.

Those scattered words about the Priest’s control time limit, the basement imprisonment, and the sacrificial ritual—she already knew them by heart.

The repetitive reading, apart from deepening her sense of powerlessness and her anxiety about Si Xiaoxiao’s situation, brought no new, game-changing clues.

She just felt that there was something inconsistent about the diary, but she couldn’t pinpoint what it was.

Li Ting closed the diary in frustration, letting out a stifled sigh. Her fingertip unconsciously traced the cover, where a faint, tiny roughness remained from the tear that had dried there last night.

But there was no need to overthink it, she told herself, forcefully suppressing the faint sense of unease.

As long as the content recorded in the diary was correct, that was enough.

“Priest’s control limit is one hour,” “The False God fears the sea,” “A girl is imprisoned in the basement”… these were the core pieces of information supporting her actions, the straws she was clutching in her despair.

Then she would start by finding the basement.

Li Ting stood up and, once again, hopefully began to meticulously search the abandoned hut, hoping to find something useful.

The interior of the hut was even more dilapidated than the exterior. Dust and cobwebs were everywhere, and the corners were piled with rotting fragments of fishing nets and empty seashells.

However, when she moved a decayed wooden plank that had been serving as a tabletop, she discovered a small bundle wrapped tightly in oilcloth underneath!

Her heart gave a violent thump. She quickly unwrapped the oilcloth.

The contents made her pupils constrict: a military-green aluminum canteen, a small folding knife with a brightly polished, clearly sharp blade, a small roll of clean gauze, a small bottle of iodine, a few compressed biscuits, and even a windproof lighter.

It was as if someone had specifically prepared these items and left them here.

This was no coincidence.

An abandoned coast guard hut, unused for many years, should not contain such new, practical, and highly specific “survival gear.”

Li Ting picked up the small knife and tested it. The cold metal touch and the heavy weight conveyed a strange sense of security. She checked the canteen and confirmed it was intact. Although the packaging of the compressed biscuits was slightly damp, they hadn’t expired too long ago.

Li Ting accepted the situation well enough. After all, a puzzle-solving game room required clues and tools; otherwise, how could a mere human body resist a terrifying, non-human monster?

And from a logical perspective, it actually made sense.

The owner of the diary, the sister in the story, had been hiding on this island for some time, and this secluded hut by the sea was very likely her hideout.

These pieces of equipment were probably what she had prepared for herself, procured with immense effort.

It was just that she ultimately couldn’t use them… she failed during her attempt and only left behind this diary.

An indescribable heaviness pressed upon her heart.

Li Ting filled the canteen with seawater, preparing to explore the strange island again.

Outside the hut, the sky remained overcast, and the sea breeze carried a salty chill.

After a night’s respite, the suffocating silence on the island seemed to have faded somewhat, resuming a kind of false “daily routine” atmosphere.

The Priest’s control time limit had passed, and the villagers should have returned to their “amnesiac” state of numbness, though she didn’t know how often the Priest could exert control.

But beneath this calm lay a deeper crisis.

Li Ting slung the heavy, seawater-filled military-green canteen over her shoulder. The cold touch transmitted through her thin clothing was like a silent reminder and support. She checked the sharp folding knife at her waist and the survival supplies in her pocket one last time, took a deep breath of the air, which carried the scent of salt and decay, and her gaze sharply swept toward the depths of the island.

There, logically, should be a pointed-roof building—the church she had first seen.

She moved like a phantom, making full use of the jagged reefs, low shrubs, and the shadows cast by the houses for cover.

The island had indeed returned to that uncomfortable “everyday” illusion. A few fishermen were mending nets; several were sitting on stone steps in front of their doors sunbathing, and a few were chatting, holding pipes.

Li Ting did not alert them, moving slowly toward the island’s interior.

However, even after walking until the sun began to set, Li Ting failed to find the church she remembered.

Li Ting didn’t dare to spend the night outside and could only return to the seaside hut.

After two days, Li Ting had traversed the entire island but came up empty-handed.

Gradually, even the usually calm Li Ting couldn’t help but feel annoyed.

She was plunged into an unprecedented state of anxiety.

Was there truly a possibility of defeating such an evil entity? Was she looking in the wrong direction? Should she leave the island and try to find the police, dismantling this cult organization through that method?

What made Li Ting even more anxious was the monster’s lack of action. The diary clearly stated it relentlessly pursued, yet now it seemed to have given up on her, allowing her to explore the island.

Someone was buying time for Li Ting, thus holding back the monster.

And that person, without needing to think twice, was Si Xiaoxiao.

How had she overcome her fear of that terrifying behemoth, what price had she paid, and what was she facing now?

That brutal confrontation still felt recent.

Just thinking about it made Li Ting feel heartbroken. She longed to commit suicide and escape this script world.

Yet, she couldn’t be that selfish. Si Xiaoxiao was unwilling to surrender, and so, she would not surrender either.

Li Ting resolved to burn her bridges and fight with everything she had. A bold idea popped into her mind.

At night, when everything was silent, Li Ting crept to the harbor while all the islanders were asleep and set fire to all the small fishing boats.

The flames, like an angry giant beast, abruptly woke up in the silent harbor.

Li Ting’s figure flashed and disappeared in the shadows interwoven with leaping fire tongues and thick smoke.

Dry, cracked wood, ropes soaked in fish oil, tattered canvas… everything let out bursting groans, fueled by the sea breeze, greedily licking the night sky.

Thick smoke, carrying the pungent smell of scorching and the stench of burning grease, billowed up, instantly obscuring the sparse starlight and blurring the island’s outline.

“Fire—!!!”

“The boats! My boats!!!”

The deadly silence was completely torn apart. The islanders woke up one after another from their sleep or stupor. They rushed out of their simple houses in horror. Their faces no longer held a false smile but were etched with the deep, innate human fear and anger.

Reflected in the firelight, those distorted faces were filled with despair at the destruction of the very foundation of their survival. Cries, curses, the sound of running feet, the noise of splashing water to fight the fire… instantly converged into a chaotic torrent rushing toward the small harbor.

Cutting off the retreat from the island, a desperate, do-or-die fight, was not Li Ting’s sole purpose for burning the boats.

She calmly concealed herself, observing the chaos on the island.

The chaos was her cover, and even more so, her lure.

Taking advantage of the fact that everyone’s attention was drawn to the fire at the dock, Li Ting didn’t hesitate. She turned and headed toward her other target at the head of the village: the stone house with a “Convenience Store” sign that Lin Xiu described as having a way to contact the outside world.

It was also the place recorded in the diary—

[I heard that there’s actually a telephone hidden in the convenience store at the head of the village!!

They even engage in the evil trade of human trafficking! And that fixed telephone is the only way they contact the outside world.]

Over the past few days, Li Ting had deliberately scouted this convenience store. She found that the normally tightly locked door was unlocked, and the fishermen seemed to intentionally avoid the store.

This was highly strange, looking exactly like a trap waiting for Li Ting to fall into.

If she hadn’t been on guard against the island initially, if she hadn’t had the information in the diary about the islanders’ fear of the sea, if she completely disregarded the diary’s intelligence…

Then the cornered lamb might very well choose to call the outside world using the phone in the convenience store, desperately seeking rescue.

After all, in the initial information, Lin Xiu had already mentioned the existence of the phone.

And this might be why the convenience store seemed “unprotected” these past few days.

Li Ting even suspected that this convenience store might be the place where the girls, who were brainwashed to become breeding tools, were imprisoned.

An outsider who accidentally drifted onto the island was warmly welcomed by the islanders, but after a few days, the outsider discovered something was wrong and tried to contact the outside world via the convenience store phone. As a result, they fell into the trap of the convenience store and were permanently imprisoned on the island.

This line of logic made sense; a trap was highly likely.

However, even if it was a trap, she had to investigate it.

The convenience store stood alone at the head of the village, far from the dock’s clamor and firelight, appearing especially eerie in the deep night.

The rusty old iron lock was still chillingly hanging on the door.

It was locked?

This was unexpected for Li Ting.

It hadn’t been locked when she scouted it during the day… Did they notice the fire and specifically come to lock it?

Should she give up this created opportunity?

No, she couldn’t. She didn’t know Si Xiaoxiao’s current situation, and dragging it out would only make things worse. She could not retreat!

Moreover, the fact that it was locked actually indicated that there were no villagers guarding it! They were relying on the lock to protect something important!!

She had to find out what was inside!!

Li Ting instantly firmed her resolve. She didn’t have time to look for a key or complex lock-picking tools.

Her eyes scanned the surroundings, and she quickly found a sharp-edged reef stone in the corner of the wall.

Then, she took a deep breath, gripped the stone with both hands, aimed at the most vulnerable part where the lock shackle connected to the door frame, and slammed down with all her strength!

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