endless horror

The Fluttering Heart

Besides lacking heavy weapons, they were also without food and water. While other concerns could be brushed aside, the absence of these essentials meant that, if trapped in a horror movie, they could easily starve or die of thirst.

"We're still novices, it seems. We thought surviving one horror movie made us veterans, but we're woefully unprepared. Approaching a horror movie so casually is like treating it as a game," Ye Wudao lamented. Zhan Lan nodded silently, her gaze scanning the walls of the room.

Curious, Ye Wudao asked, "What are you looking for?"

Without looking away, Zhan Lan replied, "This is a super-modern spaceship. I can't believe there aren't any high-tech communication devices on board. Do the characters in the plot have to run to each other just to talk?"

As she spoke, Zhan Lan spotted a button device mounted on the wall. She pressed a button at random, and a faint sound emanated from it, like a phone call connecting with silence on the other end.

Touching her forehead, Zhan Lan noted, "There are over forty buttons. If each one corresponds to a room with a communication device, that means we're in the middle of the merchant ship, not far from the control room."

Ye Wudao leaned in and counted—there were a total of forty-six buttons. The device before them was labeled twenty-one, and only the button marked twenty-seven was painted red.

He considered Zhan Lan's reasoning. She seemed to divide the entire merchant ship into forty-six sections, corresponding to the buttons. Rooms one and forty-six were likely at the edges, while room twenty-one, where they were, should be centrally located. The special red twenty-seven likely indicated the control room.

Ye Wudao hesitated. "What if the numbers on the communicator don't correspond to room locations? What if they're jumbled, and the red twenty-seven isn't the control room but the security room or something else? It feels hasty to judge our location based on this."

Zhan Lan hummed softly. "Hasty or not, it's better than waiting here to be found by aliens, right? Do you want to relive the crawlers attacking the door? Watching it get smashed while we can't do anything? Even if room twenty-seven isn't the control room, there could be useful weapons there."

Ye Wudao felt a headache coming on. Indeed, it was wise not to provoke women; their anxiety could lead to endless chatter. He quickly nodded, saying, "Yes, very good, no problem. I agree—we should go out and explore. Anything is better than staying here."

Zhan Lan giggled, "I knew Ye Wudao is a good man, so receptive to a lady's suggestions! I'll leave it to you—please make sure to protect me!"

Ye Wudao strapped three steel bars to his back, gripping the thickest and longest one in his hand. He held back his words, watching as Zhan Lan adjusted the entrance's light to green. Taking a deep breath, he rushed out.

"Yes, my reasoning was correct. Each important room has a communication device and a number. We just passed room twenty-five, which means the control room of the merchant ship must be nearby," Chu Xuan said as he emerged from a room, addressing the other four.

The others scanned their surroundings nervously. Zhang Jie suddenly interjected, "What can we do by finding the control room? We should find Ye Wudao first—he's our most important fighting force."

Chu Xuan replied indifferently, "Whether they're dead or alive, we need to locate the control room first. We're unfamiliar with the ship's layout, and we have no idea where the aliens might gather, where weapons are stored, or even where food and water are. Do you even know where the restroom is? We must find the control room to understand the ship's map; only then can we effectively fight."