84: Chapter 83 Words Xu Mo Would Never Say

Xu Mo leaned against the wall, his face ashen white as if all the blood had been drained from him.

He trembled as he pushed up his glasses, trying to touch the patterns on the wall, searching for even the slightest logical flaw.

But he failed.

This time, everything around him was real to the point of despair.

The sour stench of aged, dried rotten flesh in the air, the occasional drop of cold water dripping from the unseen pipes overhead, hitting precisely on the nape of his neck... that bone-chilling coldness was utterly impossible to disprove.

This terror of 'being unable to distinguish reality from illusion' was more suffocating than facing an S-rank Fiend directly.

The three instinctively huddled back-to-back, shoulders touching. The body heat transmitted through their assault jackets became the only lifeline in this endless darkness.

"We can't just wait here to die."

After an unknown amount of time, Xu Mo's hoarse voice broke the dead silence: "The lever is still there; the physical coordinates haven't changed. What just happened was a psychic attack, but this door... must be opened physically."

"Pull it!" Pei Duo gritted her teeth, a fierce glint flashing in her eyes from being pushed to the absolute limit.

That 'funeral' just now had nearly cost her soul; now, she was like a bowstring pulled taut to its breaking point.

She abruptly turned, gripping the cold, rusted lever tightly with both hands, and slammed it down with all her might.

Click—Rumble!

The sound of heavy gears engaging echoed. The massive obsidian door opened.

This time, a slightly dim, dust-filled ray of sunlight slanted in.

The three instinctively raised their weapons—Lin Sa's Soul-Reaping Rope went taut, Xu Mo held talismans between his fingers, and Pei Duo snatched up a handful of bone spurs, staring intently at the doorway.

There was no "Kaban kneeling and begging for mercy."

There was no "Fiend lunging at the face."

Outside the door was the familiar maya corridor. The stone pillars were mottled, dust danced in the light beam, and the wind blowing through the empty hallway made a 'whooshing' sound.

It was empty.

"Where is Kaban?" Pei Duo swallowed nervously.

Xu Mo narrowed his eyes, his gaze sweeping over the messy trail of footprints leading outward on the corridor floor.

"He ran."

Xu Mo put away his talismans, adjusted his glasses, and his tone returned to that characteristically annoying, rational indifference: "This is logical. The energy core failed, the system lost control; if that second-generation brat didn't run to call for backup, was he supposed to stay here to be buried with it? Don't forget your brother is an honored guest here."

The tightly wound nerves of Pei Duo finally snapped one thread; her whole body swayed, almost collapsing.

A strong, steady hand supported her.

"It's alright now." Although Lin Sa's voice was weary, it carried a reassuring strength, "Let's go, get some sun."

The three supported each other, staggering across the threshold.

When the sunlight truly fell upon their skin, the real burning sensation almost made Pei Duo weep. Faint cheers from the ball game drifted in the distance, and the scent of roasted meat wafted through the air. Everything seemed so vulgar, yet so 'normal'.

There was no brainless rich-guy plot, no forced face-slapping moments. This was just an ordinary afternoon after surviving a calamity.

"We're alive..." Pei Duo greedily breathed the outside air. Even if this was Xibalba, it was ten thousand times better than that dark room.

She walked in the middle, with the 'Strongest Brain' Xu Mo on her left and the 'Strongest Combat Power' Lin Sa on her right.

This classic 'Iron Triangle' configuration gave her an unprecedented sense of security.

The fear from the darkness just now, the despair from the illusion, now all transformed into relief.

Pei Duo couldn't help but tighten her grip on Lin Sa's arm, then looked at Xu Mo beside her, her eyes turning red: "Thank goodness for you two. When those Fiends rushed forward in that completely dark altar... if you hadn't jumped down from the ventilation shaft to save me, I probably would have been scared to death in the first wave."

She paused, her voice laced with a sob, stemming from deep-seated terror: "I really dare not imagine what would have happened if I were alone."

Hearing these words, Xu Mo, who was walking ahead, stopped.

He turned around, his back to the sunlight. On that face, usually filled with calculation, conspiracy theories, and coldness, there now appeared an extremely gentle smile, even carrying a hint of doting affection.

Xu Mo reached out and gently ruffled Pei Duo's messy hair, his voice incredibly soft:

"Silly girl, what are you talking about."

"As long as we are here, you never need to face that darkness. Whether it's decryption or combat, if the sky falls, we'll hold it up."

Xu Mo looked into Pei Duo's eyes and said:

"You don't need to overthink things. Just empty your mind and leave everything to us."

In that instant, the sunlight was perfect, and the breeze was gentle.

This should have been a perfect, heartwarming moment worthy of being recorded in the team's history.

However.

Those words struck Pei Duo's cerebral cortex like a high-voltage current.

Her expression, previously full of gratitude and dependence, froze on her face as if flash-frozen with liquid nitrogen.

She didn't even have time to retract the curve of her lips, but the light in her eyes extinguished in an instant.

The air seemed to solidify.

"Empty your mind...?" Pei Duo murmured, repeating those few words.

Who was the real Xu Mo?

He was the top strategist of the Special Operations Bureau, a super schemer who had carved the word 'cautious' into his very bones!

How could the real Xu Mo tell her to 'empty her mind' when this mythical trial wasn't completely over and the surrounding environment wasn't confirmed to be 100% safe?

What was the difference between that and telling her to 'wash her neck and stick it out'?!

The Xu Mo who only ever repeated 'stay vigilant,' 'trust no one,' and 'check your gear' would never utter such a warm but extremely anti-intellectual nonsense!

This was severe OOC!

Pei Duo violently shook off Xu Mo's hand and recoiled two steps as if shocked by electricity, her face filled with terror.

"You are not Xu Mo."

Pei Duo's voice trembled, but her gaze was fixed firmly on the two most familiar 'teammates' before her.

Her brain began to work frantically, and the bugs she had overlooked due to fear surged back like a tide—

Why would the S-rank difficulty 'House of Fear' have such a large, completely unprotected ventilation shaft?

Why could Xu Mo and Lin Sa descend so precisely one second before she was surrounded by Fiends?

Why could they maintain absolute clarity within the illusion and even cooperate with her acting?

Unless...

They themselves were a part of this 'House of Fear'! They were the 'Strongest Official Cheat' specifically generated by this house to appease her, to make her sink into a false sense of security!

"Pei Duo, what's wrong with you?" Lin Sa beside her frowned, reaching out with a look of concern, "Are you scared silly?"

"Don't touch me!" Pei Duo shrieked, slapping Lin Sa's hand away.

She looked at the two partners who had fought alongside her the entire way, tears streaming down her face, but her heart sank into the abyss bit by bit.

"You never came in... did you?"

Pei Duo backed away, crying and laughing at the same time, her laughter filled with despair and self-mockery:

"Because I'm afraid of the dark, so I fantasized about the light from the ventilation shaft."

"Because I'm afraid of death, so I fantasized about you two descending from the sky."

"I don't want to be alone... so I fantasized about the most reliable teammates in the world..."

As her desperate murmurs faded, the last layer of pretense was ruthlessly torn away.

The sunny corridor before her suddenly began to twist and weather violently, like a faded old photograph.

The gentle smile on 'Xu Mo's' face froze, then began to flicker violently and stretch like a TV screen with bad reception, turning into countless garbled codes.

'Lin Sa's' outstretched hand froze mid-air, his fingertips beginning to dissipate into black smoke.

Hiss—

The sound of the world collapsing was, surprisingly, this kind of silence.

All light vanished.

Pei Duo suddenly opened her eyes.

No sunlight, no corridor, no Xu Mo, and no Lin Sa.

She was still curled up in the corner of the obsidian altar—pitch black, foul-smelling, and crawling with Fiends leaking corpse fluid.

Above her was a sealed obsidian ceiling; not even a fly could get in. Where was the ventilation shaft?

That heart-stopping 'hero saves the beauty,' that perfectly coordinated 'reverse operation,' and even that heartbreaking 'funeral'—it was all a grand dream she had alone in the pitch-black darkness, hugging her knees.

This was the trial of Xibalba.

From beginning to end.

She was the only one.