In Virtual Reality 61☆ Red Stairwell (8/10)

A stack of slender wooden boards bristling with long nails - what could they be used for? Xu Jin Yi's practical demonstration in "The Red Staircase" left no doubt.

With a tight grip on the long plank, Xu Jin Yi swung it forcefully, the wind howling as it cut through the air. Her expression was inscrutable, almost icy, as she landed a devastating blow to Li Dong's back.

A dull thud resounded as Li Dong stumbled a few steps, nearly plummeting down the stairs. It took him a moment to steady himself with the handrail and turn around, his face a mixture of suspicion and incredulity. "What...what is this?!"

The mass of slender wooden boards in front of him floated as if clutched by an invisible hand before soaring through the air again to strike Li Dong in the head with brutal force. He couldn't evade the attack in time, and his skull throbbed with pain. Unable to maintain his balance, Li Dong tumbled backwards, rolling down the stairs until he finally collided with the wall. It was some time before he let out an unconscious moan.

Standing on the staircase landing, Xu Jin Yi surveyed the fragile female student on the stairs before glancing at Li Dong sprawled below.

Save the person first.

Discarding the pile of wooden boards, Xu Jin Yi watched them scatter harmlessly across the ground.

Approaching the girl with three or four steps, Xu Jin Yi crouched and reached out tentatively to touch her.

...still no solution.

After pondering momentarily, Xu Jin Yi picked up a few slim wooden boards and placed them horizontally across the girl's thighs, lower back, and neck. Then, with these makeshift supports, she lifted the unconscious girl horizontally, now aware that she could only touch items related to her death.

Carefully, Xu Jin Yi held the girl in her arms and hurried down to the lower level, passing by Li Dong. She hesitated briefly, glancing back at the pile of slender wooden boards on the stairs, wondering if she should repeat the process.

The girl in her arms whimpered weakly, emitting pitiful moans like a kitten.

Before she could think further, Xu Jin Yi swept past the powerless Li Dong and headed towards the downstairs exit.

**

Li Dong held his head, feeling disoriented.

...how did he come down just now?

It felt as if several sticks were hitting him in the face?! Raising his hand, he discovered a large red mark that soon swelled up. Li Dong took a sharp breath, shook his head, and then was struck by the intense pain in his head from multiple blows. But the agony cleared his mind somewhat. He blinked a few times and then saw how the student floated in mid-air?!!

The female student, carried by three wooden boards, floated steadily from the stairs to in front of him, even stopping there.

Li Dong couldn't help but shrink his feet inside and pretend to be unconscious with his eyes half-closed.

'Is it possible...that this is a ghost?!' '

He considered playing dead as a viable option, and soon after, Xu Jin Yi and the female student, carrying three wooden boards, left the upper level.

Relieved, Li Dong sighed and felt a throbbing pain at the back of his head. But before long, a loud noise echoed from somewhere, prompting him to quickly shut his eyes. His heart pounded violently, but he heard no further movement after the noise.

Slowly, he lifted his eyelids--

He found himself face to face with a pair of blood-red eyes.

"Brother Dong..." His wife, covered in bloodstains, approached him, gently cradling his head in her hands. She spoke softly: "I'm in so much pain..."

ClickCrack.

**

As Xu Jin Yi descended to the first floor with the female student cradled in her arms, she heard a clamour erupting from the exit ahead. She raised her gaze.

Standing before the exit, dressed in the same blue and white school uniform, was a male student, bewilderedly clutching a flyer.

"Excuse me, are you Fang Xiao Hong?" he tentatively inquired, his voice quivering as he observed the floating student before him. "Are you... a magical girl?"

Xu Jin Yi: "..." How absurd!

Despite the solemn ambience, Xu Jin Yi could not help but display a wry smile.

Lifting her foot, she proceeded towards the male student clutching the flyer and stationed at the exit.

With a flash of white light, Xu Jin Yi found herself empty-handed, and the scenery transformed from a sunny day to a bleak, rainy one.

What was happening?

Xu Jin Yi came to a halt and scrutinized her surroundings: she was back on the 5th floor.

Through the crevices between the floors, she observed the stairwells packed with layers upon layers, indicating that Xu Jin Yi had transitioned from the memory to loop. However, what had become of Fang Xiao Hong? And that male student? Why did she suddenly reappear here without any prior warning?

Xu Jin Yi paused as she heard the sound of someone chewing behind her. Turning around, she saw a woman in a white dress squatting on the stairs that ascended above. The ground was covered in limbs and blood, impossible to conceal. Blood droplets rolled down like severed beads, and the woman halted her motion of eating something, turning her head 180 degrees directly towards Xu Jin Yi!

It was her! Xu Jin Yi saw the face of the woman in white who had newly emerged. It was the wife who had been murdered by Li Dong! Half-eaten meat strips protruded from her mouth. Like the female ghost student who had crawled before her, she had a patchwork of scars on her body and no pupils in her eyes.

The ghost bride giggled foolishly and held a pile of meat strips in front of her, looking excited like a child, and wanted to give it to Xu Jin Yi. "Eat, eat this...," she said.

Xu Jin Yi didn't move. She saw pieces of cloth hanging on the pile of meat strips, and without a doubt, this was Li Dong.

NPC 【Li Dong】was dead again.

The game reverted to square one.

The staircase stretched on infinitely, death lurking at every turn. The truth was a mosaic of shattered details, pieced together but ultimately futile-- for there was no way to beat the game.

Xu Jin Yi watched the bride ghost approach her, her foolish grin and meaty morsel causing her to quit the game.

Suddenly, a thunderbolt cracked, almost deafening her. She couldn't discern whether it was in the game or in reality. Rain pounded the window, showing no signs of abating.

Xu Jin Yi disconnected her device and halted the recording, settling onto the plush sofa with her phone.

Opponent's Attorney, Please Interrogate: 【Excelsior, I have cleared the game.】

This was the message that Old Attorney had sent her five minutes prior.

Xu Jin Yi wasn't too concerned with winning or losing. She was curious about the game's ending and how Old Attorney had managed to clear it before her.

Excelsior: 【Congratulations! I still need to clear the game. Can you tell me how you did it? What's the ending of this game?】

Old Attorney replied almost immediately.

Xu Jin Yi thought Old Attorney would be elated but was surprised when Old Attorney didn't boast, instead asking: 【Since you haven't cleared the game, have you found the hidden route?】

Xu Jin Yi:?

Is There a Hidden Route?

When he saw no response from Xu Jin Yi, Old Attorney typed again. 【It's been only two days since the game was released, and the official website's comment section is already in a state of chaos.】

"Chaos?" Xu Jin Yi leaned back and returned to the game's homepage to search for 《Red Stairwell's》 official website. As Old Attorney said, the comment section of the game's development team was a battlefield, with various people engaged in heated debates.

After scrolling through the comments, Xu Jin Yi gradually understood the whole story.

It all started with the storyline of 《Red Stairwell》. Some people were dissatisfied with the wife in the story and declared that "marriage is a tomb," which then escalated into a gender conflict, and the comments soon turned into a heated arguments.

After reading several pages of comments, Xu Jin Yi was at a loss for words and furrowed her eyebrows.

Old Attorney messaged again: 【To clear the game, you need to reach the exit on the first floor while being pulled into Li Dong's memories.】."

Excelsior: 【Didn't you follow Li Dong?】.

There was silence from the other end for a long time.

【I did follow him, but as you know, players cannot interact with NPCs in their memories.】 Old Attorney finally replied.

Xu Jin Yi paused to think.

Excelsior: 【Actually, there is a way.】

Excelsior: 【You can inflict physical damage on the NPC using the wooden board at the corner of the second-floor corridor.】

Old Attorney: 【?】

It appeared that the other party had yet to discover this.

Xu Jin Yi continued to type without delay: 【I attempted to leave with 【Fang Xiao Hong】using the board, but we encountered a new NPC just before exiting. He appeared to be a classmate of 【Fang Xiao Hong】. Shortly after, a blinding flash of light took us away from memory.】

Old Attorney: 【In the memory, the scene ends when the protagonist 【Li Dong】 dies... But who is Fang Xiao Hong? And who is the male classmate?】

Xu Jin Yi: 【Uh... Haven't you played that far yet?】

Old Attorney: 【...】

Old Attorney had good reason to suspect that Excelsior was taunting him.

After a long pause, the other party eagerly typed: 【I'll keep trying for the hidden ending.】

【Regardless, I dislike this game and its ending.】

【If it were you, I'm sure you'd find an alternative path to discover the true hidden ending, right?】

After saying this, the other party's profile picture turned grey, indicating they had left the forum.

Xu Jin Yi failed to comprehend the last sentence uttered by Old Attorney. She pondered upon what he thought of her. Despite her ingenuity, she remained an outsider to the official production team and could not circumvent the established framework.

Lost in her thoughts, she unconsciously navigated to the gaming website's forum.

The forum displayed various threads discussing 《Red Stairwell》 players.

【No.1 Discussion, The Greatness of 《Red Stairwell》】

【No.2 《Red Stairwell》 New Gaming Method, A Whole New Experience!】

【No.3 Exposing Social Phenomena, How Brave is 《Red Stairwell》!】

【No.4 New Official Production, Gaming Website's New Talent!】

【...】

Numerous posts on the forum delved into the players' experiences of 《Red Stairwell》. Then, Xu Jin Yi recollected the official statement of the game 《Elevator Safety Instructions,》 which prophesied the game's explosion in popularity. The game had a captivated audience, despite receiving both criticism and praise. On the forums, discussions about the repugnant behavior of Li Dong and the terrifying experience of the New Bride Ghost were prevalent. Players expressed their emotions and opinions ceaselessly, with dissenting viewpoints often sparking disagreements and mockery.

Xu Jin Yi, however, noticed that very few players had delved into Fang Xiao Hong's story. Instead, players fixated on topics such as "gender" and "domestic violence." But was that really all there was to it?

Xu Jin Yi sat on the sofa and closed her eyes.

In 【Li Dong】's memories, 【Fang Xiao Hong】 appeared, along with the male classmate who came later. Fang Xiao Hong was dead, but what about the male classmate? If he also died, it's not just because of sexism. It means there is something wrong with Li Dong himself. It's a genderless murder. And...

Xu Jin Yi looked at the increasing popularity of 《Red Stairwell》 on the official website and the growing number of game downloads. Frowning, she stared at the screen of her phone with a deep, swirling gaze.

Is this also deliberate hype?

...Forget it; she can't control these commercial things.

Xu Jin Yi sighed.

After resting for a while, she plunged back into the game. Although she can't control the commercial side, she can find the hidden ending of this game.

...If there really was one.

——— Translators Notes ———

Fang Xiao Hong: 方晓红

Fang = square / power or involution (math.) / upright / honest / fair and square / direction / side /

Xiao = dawn / daybreak / to know / to let sb know / to make explicit

Hong = red / popular / revolutionary / bonus