Chapter 103: Drawing board memory, burning incense and worshiping Buddha!
Chapter 103: Drawing board memory, burning incense and worshiping Buddha!
Dream gazed at the pendant, her eyes slightly vacant, a hint of daze on her pretty face.
Her expression caught Qin Nuo's attention.
There was definitely something there.
He remained silent, waiting for Dream to come back to her senses.
After a moment, a spark returned to Dream's eyes. Qin Nuo asked, "Did you remember anything?"
Dream nodded, though her tone was uncertain, "I remembered some things, but... they're just fragmented pieces."
"It's okay, tell me what you remember," Qin Nuo said.
Dream's small face showed a hint of conflict, and she hesitated, "I don't know how to explain it, but I think I can draw it."
"Draw it?" Qin Nuo's expression was puzzled. Where could they find a drawing board and pencils at this time?
"There's an art room on the fifth floor," Dream said."Then let's go," Qin Nuo didn't hesitate. He could only gather more clues from Dream, so he took her hand and left the hall.
The art room on the fifth floor wasn't a professional studio. It was messy, with oil pencils and drawing boards scattered everywhere. Some boards were covered with strange and bizarre drawings.
Clearly, this was just a recreational room for patients.
Qin Nuo found a relatively clean drawing board, set it on the easel, and gathered a row of neat pencils. "Go ahead and draw," he said.
Dream shook her head, "One board isn't enough. There's a lot to draw."
Without wasting words, Qin Nuo found several more boards and arranged them together.
Only then did Dream pick up a sketch pencil from the colorful array and approach the board.
Then, with her eyes closed, she began to sketch out the fragmented memories triggered by the gemstone pendant onto the boards.
Her nimble hands moved swiftly across the board, like a printer, astonishingly fast. Within minutes, the sketch on the first board appeared before Qin Nuo's eyes.
Without opening her eyes, Dream continued with the sketch pencil on the second board.
On the first board, a woman in a nun's habit was pinned to the ground by a sloppy man, her clothes being torn apart by his hands.
The man's perverse smile and intense desire in his eyes, the woman's helpless wails and terrified expression, were vividly portrayed, almost shockingly so.
Though it was a static image, it seemed to come alive, as if witnessing a tragic scene unfold before one's eyes.
"This child is truly a master of all arts," Qin Nuo murmured. The information from the first board wasn't new to him.
He had already gleaned this from Constantine's Cigarettes, from the cursed nun.
A filthy woman, violated by a filthy man...
The only surprise was that this woman was also a nun.
However, the nun on the board and the cursed nun from before were two different faces, not the same person!
By now, Dream had finished the second board, and Qin Nuo's gaze shifted to it.
A woman was nailed to a cross, flames burning beneath her, surrounded by religious followers, heads bowed, chanting devoutly.
The woman, defiled, was burned alive on the cross by her religious followers...
This was also information obtained through spiritual communication.
Could this burned woman be the mastermind?
If so, where was she now?
Qin Nuo muttered to himself, shifting his gaze to the third board.
The third board's image was similar to the second, except behind the burned nun was a shadow, a child's shadow.
"The implication here is that the nun secretly gave birth to the child of her violator," Qin Nuo speculated upon seeing the third board.
The fourth and fifth sketches depicted the religious followers discovering the nun's child, subjecting it to humiliation and harm, ultimately burning it alive like its mother... ??
But as Qin Nuo looked at the remaining boards, his expression changed, growing more serious.
By the eighth board, Dream stopped, opened her eyes, and turned to Qin Nuo, "Brother, this is all I can remember."
"The rest is blurry. The more I try to remember, the more my head hurts."
"It's okay, this is enough," Qin Nuo reassured her, patting her head. He took out a puzzle piece, looking at the eye on it, forming a hypothesis in his mind.
Could it be like this?
Isn't that a bit far-fetched?
No, in a horror game, any bizarre and absurd plot is within the realm of possibility.
"Do you have an answer?" the Blood-Eyed Ghost asked.
"I do," Qin Nuo replied, putting away the puzzle piece. "But without concrete evidence, it's just a guess."
"So, we still need to find all the puzzle pieces."
Qin Nuo took Dream's small hand, and she looked up, asking, "Where are we going now?"
"To uncover the final truth," Qin Nuo smiled at her.
...
In the dark of the mental hospital, a horror sound suddenly echoed.
Then, with a few muffled thuds, the horror sound abruptly stopped.
A door opened, and the scent of blood wafted out.
A terrifying corpse lay on the ground, and Lan Yan, clutching the door frame, emerged weakly, a large gash across his chest, blood flowing freely, staining his shirt.
"Damn it, this wound is too severe. I might not make it," Lan Yan muttered, looking at his chest wound with a grim expression.
He had found a new puzzle piece and triggered a passive task. He only needed to change the patient's clothes and lay them down to complete it, but the stench of the body caused a mistake, turning the patient into a fierce ghost that attacked him.
"All for this damned puzzle!" Lan Yan cursed under his breath, his face dark.
"Better find Phantom and regroup," he murmured, but as he turned, he suddenly froze.
Cold sweat dripped down his back as he stared at the White Shadow at the end of the corridor, a chill creeping into his heart.
Could he be this unlucky?
The White Shadow spotted Lan Yan and swiftly approached.
Lan Yan sighed, too tired to run. In his current state, even with wings, he couldn't escape.
But halfway there, the White Shadow suddenly stopped, then slowly retreated, disappearing back into the corridor.
Lan Yan turned to see Qin Nuo leading Dream over.
"I saw the puzzle reacting, so I came over. Looks like it was a close call," Lan Yan said, leaning against the wall and sliding down, handing a puzzle piece to Qin Nuo. "I can't find the remaining pieces. I'll be lucky to survive until the game ends."
Qin Nuo took the puzzle piece and said, "No need for luck, you're not dead yet."
Putting away the puzzle piece, Qin Nuo took out a roll of bandages and tossed it to Lan Yan. "Tear your shirt and wrap the bandage around the wound."