Death Spiral [Infinite Flow] - Chapter 80

Chapter 80 – Three People Make a Tiger 16

After some tossing and turning, the three finally fell asleep.

Xu RenDong had no psychological burden and quickly fell asleep. Before he knew it, he found himself standing in the corridor of the guest room. On the left was the room where the three of them live and, on the right, was the room with the four members of the movie club. The corridor was quiet and empty but there was no feeling of terror and depression. Instead, it made him feel very comfortable and he had the feeling that no one could interfere with what he wanted to do.

Is this a dream? Is this what it’s like to be a boss?

Very comfortable!

He tried turning the doorknob and the door opened without making any noise. Zhong Xiu and Lian Qiao were still sleeping and a human figure was hollowed out between them as if a transparent person was lying there. Xu RenDong knew that it was his own body.

So how do you get into someone else’s dream?

Xu RenDong touched Zhong Xiu’s arm. He immediately felt a pull from his hand that was dragging him in the direction of Zhong Xiu. Xu RenDong hurriedly retracted his hand. It was just as he expected, he could enter someone’s dream by touching them.

After thinking about it, he decided to do an experiment first. He turned his head and walked to the room of the film club’s group of four.

This time, he didn’t even open the door but walked directly through the wall. As the master of dreams, there was nothing unusual about going through walls. However, when he entered the room, he was taken aback by the sight in front of him.

The four people from the film company were lying side by side on a big bed. What kind of configuration was this?

Xu RenDong remembered that the relationship between men and women was complicated between these four people. He didn’t know how they could sleep together.

But now is not the time to gossip about this. Xu RenDong stepped forward and touched the president’s arm. Soon, a huge suction force pulled him towards the president. Xu RenDong’s eyes darkened and, when he opened his eyes again, the surrounding scenes  had completely changed.

He found himself on the top floor of a school building. In front of him was a classroom. The door was closed and there was a rumbling subwoofer. After listening to it for a while, Xu RenDong realized that it seemed to be playing a horror movie with various horror sound effects accompanied by constant screams. Occasionally laughter and talking could also be heard.

Since it is playing a movie, it should be very dark inside…

Xu RenDong imagined that he was at one with the darkness and then passed through the door.

As he expected, a horror movie was being played on a projector in the classroom. Several young people sat on the podium, both men and women, all of them staring at the projection screen, completely unaware of Xu RenDong’s arrival.

But…

Xu RenDong frowned. Why are there five people here?

The president and members A, B, and C are here but there was also another woman, let’s call her girl D for the time being. Girl D looks similar in age to the other four and should also be a member of the film club.

It doesn’t matter why girl D appeared here. Xu RenDong decided to find the elevator first. He went through the wall again to the outside of the classroom. This classroom is located on the sixth floor of the school building. Outside the school building was an endless darkness, just like the glass room on the top floor of the villa.     

Xu RenDong walked around the corridor and quickly found the elevator. This elevator was exactly the same as the one they take in and out of the instance and the elevator button was also lit. The elevator was at the end of the hallway but the problem is that the classroom where the film studio was located was on the other side of the hallway and there is a staircase outside the classroom.     

How could he drive them all into the elevator?     

Xu RenDong’s eyes fell on the fire extinguisher on the side.     

Inside the classroom, the zombie on the screen stretched out its long nails and slammed into the male protagonist’s neck. The male protagonist was strangled with feet lifted off the ground. The hand holding the zombie twisted in pain. Accompanied by the screams of the heroine of the movie, the background music became more and more tense.     

“Ah, ah, I don’t want to watch it anymore!” Member A leaned against the president’s shoulder with a squeak and her petite body trembled like a frightened deer, “President, why do you want to show us this kind of film?” 

The president laughed: “Because the theme this time is Zombie Horror Night!” He moved his shoulders and moved away from Member A very naturally, “Your chin is too sharp, it makes my shoulders hurt!”     

Member A grumbled unhappily. She opened her mouth and grumbled, “What a straight man…” {When Chinese people say “zhi nan”/ “straight man”, it doesn’t just mean the person is straight but also that they are a typical dude i.e. insensitive, not romantic etc.}

The president turned a deaf ear. He just turned his head and threw a faint smile at girl D.

Girl D blushed and bowed her head silently.

The president moved his nose suddenly and frowned, “Hey, do you smell something?”

Several other people also sniffed the air. Member B said in shock: “It seems like a fire! There is smoke underneath the door!”

Everyone was startled and looked towards the door. Sure enough, there was thick smoke rising from the crack of the door. The president rushed to the door immediately, turned the door handle and his face changed instantly: “The door is locked!”

“What, what do you mean?” Everyone was shocked, “Who locked it?”

“Did someone deliberately cause a fire to burn us inside?” Member A turned pale with fright.

“Let’s go out first!” The president slammed into the door of the classroom but the door seemed to be nailed to the wall and barely moved. The other male member B hurriedly came up to help. The two shouted ‘“One, two, three” and, at the same time, slammed into the door, but the door remained motionless.

“Get out of the way!” A feminine voice shouted, it came from girl D.

The president and member B hurriedly turned aside and, when they turned around, they saw the girl D raised a seat and smashed it hard at the door handle! She smashed it several times. The doorknob rattled under her efforts and finally twisted and deformed little by little.

Under the surprised eyes of everyone, with a bang, the entire door handle was smashed. Girl D stretched out her hand and the loose door lock fell from the door.

“It’s alright, let’s go!” Girl D looked back and smiled, her eyes just happening to meet the president’s.

“Go!” The president greeted her with a smile and pushed open the classroom door with her. As soon as the door opened, a heat wave rushed in. The president only felt that the flames rushed directly into the trachea, causing him to cough violently, and he subconsciously retreated.

“Cough, cough, cough…” Girl D was also choked into tears.

“The fire is so big!” The fire was reflected on everyone’s faces and everyone was horrified to find that the entire classroom was swallowed by flames. Don’t mention the stairs, even the ceiling was burning. Pieces of fire kept falling down.

The apocalyptic scene instantly deprived everyone of their strength. They are all college students who have never seen the world and the usual fire drills were just like playing games at home. How could they know how to escape when they are really in a fire?

The dark smoke kept pouring into the classroom and everyone was choked into tears.

At the same time, Xu RenDong stood at the entrance of the stairs, holding a fire extinguisher to put out the fire with a feeling of embarrassment.

Why is the fire so big…? He just went to the chemistry laboratory to find a few bottles of flammable materials and dumped them in the corridor but he didn’t expect that the whole corridor was suddenly set on fire.

Of course, as the boss of the dream, he wasn’t affected by the fire. However the fire was too big, how could those little bastards escape!

Despite Xu RenDong’s efforts to control the fire, the flames spread quickly. Soon, the classroom was also on fire. The students screamed and backed away and even had the urge to jump from the windows to escape.

“No!” The president hugged the impulsive member A, “The floor is too high! You will die if you jump off!”

Member A cried in his arms: “What should I do then! I’m so scared! What should I do! “

Crush, rush out…cough…” Girl D found mineral water for everyone, “Pour it on your clothes, cover your mouth and nose with your sleeves, let’s rush out!”

 Member A cried, “But the stairs are burning. It’s over!”

Girl D: “I think the fire started from this side and it shouldn’t have reached the elevator! The elevator in the school building is a fire escape. As long as we run over there, we will be saved!”

Everyone suddenly realized and quickly followed girl D’s example and wetted themselves.

“Go quickly, you must be fast! Otherwise, you will be suffocated by the thick smoke!” Girl D has a weak appearance but a stoic personality. She took a deep breath and rushed out of the classroom.

The president was about to follow but was pulled by his sleeve by member A.

“President! I’m afraid!” Member A had tears in her eyes.

The president stomped his foot: “Stop dawdling!” He put his arms around Member A’s shoulder and pushed her to run forward.

 As soon as the four of them rushed out of the classroom, they heard a loud noise above their heads. Everyone was shocked and watched helplessly as a large piece of steel plate smashed down on their heads, hitting girl D and knocking her to the ground.

The president wailed and rushed to the side of girl D, trying to push the steel plate away. However, the weight of the steel plate was astonishing so, no matter how hard he tried, the steel plate was firmly pressed onto girl D’s back.

“Hnn…” Girl D gritted her teeth, sweating all over her face. She raised her little face with difficulty and said with anger, “Leave me alone, just go…”

“No! No!” The president looked like a mad wolf. He grabbed girl D’s arms, kicked the steel plate behind her and shouted to the other members, “What are you doing, come and help!” 

The three looked at each other. Member A said hesitantly: “The fire is too big…” 

The other two also nodded. The president said angrily: “What do you mean!?” 

The three of them looked at each other and came up to pull him: “Since she told you to let go, don’t waste her kindness!” 

“Let’s go! The fire is about to burn over here!” 

“If we don’t leave, all of us will die here!” 

The president struggled, screaming constantly, but was dragged away from girl D by the three of them.

Girl D was pressed under the huge steel plate and blood slowly seeped out from under her, dyeing her white collar red. Under the light of the fire, she showed a poignant smile to the president and said in a low, inaudible voice, “Go ba.” 

The president was forced to leave in despair.

Not long after he left, the girl’s head drooped weakly. She lay in a pool of her own blood with a bitter smile on her beautiful young cheeks.

At the other end of the corridor, Xu RenDong watched all this silently. After the film club’s group of four entered the elevator, the surrounding scene suddenly blurred like a stirred lake. It seems that they have successfully escaped and so this dream world was  about to disappear.

Xu RenDong felt a suction and knew he was about to leave this dream. He glanced at the girl one last time but suddenly found that the girl’s body was gone. In its place was a piece of paper that appeared to have writing on it.

Fighting against the suction, he reached out and picked up the paper. He saw that it read:

“Notice:”

“In response to the fire incident that occurred on the 5th floor of the XX school building of our school on XX, XX, XX, the case has been reported. It has been confirmed that the five students involved are all film students in our school. A member of the club was using a projector to watch a movie in the classroom on the fifth floor at the time of the incident. This behavior was unauthorized without the approval of the school and there was no instructor present at the time. Due to the improper operation of girl D, the equipment caught fire. The fire quickly spread and could not be extinguished. Five students tried to escape from the teaching building in a panic. During this process, girl D was hit by falling building materials and died on the spot. The other four students suffered slightly injured.”

“This is very unfortunate for girl D. The school deeply regrets her death. However, the cause of this incident was that the students operated the equipment without the consent of the school, which caused the school building to catch fire, causing huge loss of life and property. The circumstances will be treated seriously. The students of the film club, as well as its responsible teachers, will be dealt with in the following manner…” 

The so-called serious treatment was just a demerit. The fire almost destroyed the entire school building and caused huge economic losses to the school. However, since girl D, who was the main responsible person, had died, the four survivors were treated extremely tolerantly and reasonably. But… it still felt like there was something wrong.     

The scene in front of him quickly blurred. Xu RenDong’s vision blurred and then he returned to reality. He looked down and saw that the piece of paper in his hand was gone but there were still some black marks left on his fingertips. He twisted his fingers and found that there were only ashes.

At this moment, he suddenly had a flash of inspiration and understood what was wrong.

This dream was too real, it is obviously not a simple dream, but a common memory of the four people. The fire in the dream was set by Xu RenDong so in the real world, how did the fire start?

It definitely wasn’t girl D. When the fire started, she was the only one who remained calm and cool while organizing an escape. How could such a calm girl just operate the projector casually and cause the whole school building to catch fire? The fire must have had another cause.

“Three People Make a Tiger” – was this what they meant?

After girl D died, the other three put all the blame on girl D in order to avoid punishment. And the president obviously admires girl D.

……I see. No wonder the president wanted to find a way to kill those three people.

Xu RenDong sighed and left this story behind.

The room of the film club’s group of four was empty so it could be seen that they really  did leave here through the elevator in their dreams. After Xu RenDong confirmed that this method was effective, he quickly returned to his room.

Zhong Xiu and Lian Qiao were still sleeping peacefully, not realizing that there was one person gone from the bed. Xu RenDong looked back and forth and suddenly felt like he was in a bit of a pickle.

Is this the typical scenario of when “me and your mother fall into the water, who will you save first?”

Xu RenDong didn’t want to waste time so he took out a coin from his pocket and tossed it. Taking a look, it was a “1”.

That’s Lian Qiao.

Xu RenDong walked to Lian Qiao’s side and lightly touched his arm. Soon, a familiar pull came from the hand. He entered Lian Qiao’s dream.

***

The author has something to say:

Focus: Lian Qiao is a 1! {i.e. Gong lol}