Chapter 232: Chapter 231: Have You Ever Felt True Despair?
We reached the fourteenth floor through the emergency stairwell.
I held up a hand to stop the people behind me.
Asher stood beside me, looking down at the infrared laser on the floor.
In the darkness, the line was exceptionally clear.
"CLICK."
Asher lifted his leg, touched the infrared beam, and then pulled back. The sensor made a clicking sound, and a small steel ball dropped from above. It slowly rolled down a track and hit the floor.
The wooden tiles on the floor toppled over rapidly, like a line of dominoes.
As the dominoes fell, the lights on the entire fourteenth floor turned on.
It was a wide-open space with no cover whatsoever, everything visible at a glance.
The dominoes on the floor continued to fall, spelling out a word on the ground: DEATH.
Lucas Grant rolled his eyes. "Just trying to be mysterious."
Zeke Shaw frowned, warily scanning the entire fourteenth floor. "Something’s not right."
"Twinkle, twinkle, little star..." A little girl’s singing echoed through the empty space.
Not far away, a little girl in a red dress was bouncing a rubber ball on the floor.
"Hey! Little girl," Lucas Grant called out.
The little girl seemed not to hear him and continued to bounce her ball.
"I’ll go take a look." Zeke Shaw prepared to step over the infrared beam to check on the girl.
"It’s a hologram," Asher said, pulling Zeke Shaw back. "That little girl is a hologram."
Zeke Shaw froze, staring at Asher in astonishment. "Is holographic technology really this advanced now?"
"The lighting, the scenery, our current position—it all makes it look real," Lucas Grant explained.
Julian Fletcher picked up a rock from the floor and threw it toward the little girl. Sure enough, the rock passed right through her body. It was definitely a hologram.
"So that lunatic brought us here to watch a movie?" Lucas Grant cursed with a frown.
Beside them, Felix Foster remained silent. Ever since Peach died, he was like a different person—no longer cheerful, as if constantly weighed down by something.
"What’s with this guy? Did Chainsaw Man scare him that badly?" Lucas Grant whispered to Asher.
Asher ignored Lucas Grant.
"He’s been like this ever since Peach died..." Lucas Grant muttered, a sudden chill running down his spine. He instinctively looked up to study Felix Foster more closely.
Felix Foster kept his head down, saying nothing.
"Charlie..."
Suddenly, Peach’s voice echoed through the empty space.
At the end of the hallway, a blood-soaked Peach stood there, smiling and calling out, "Charlie."
Everyone was stunned.
"Holy crap... Do they have AI resurrection now? Are these psychos just showing off their tech?" Lucas Grant grumbled.
But beside him, Felix Foster actually froze for a moment, then instinctively dashed past the infrared barrier and ran inside.
"Felix!" I wanted to grab him, but it was too late.
Felix Foster had already rushed in.
Asher frowned.
Felix ran a few steps before his foot triggered some kind of mechanism.
He glanced back at Asher, his brow furrowed and his expression grave. "That... wasn’t a hologram."
Asher’s expression darkened as well.
I didn’t quite understand what Felix meant. Just as I was about to ask, the floor beneath his feet swung open. He fell in, and the floor snapped shut again.
"Felix!" all of us screamed.
But only an echo answered in the vast, empty space.
My breathing grew ragged as I looked at Asher.
Felix had fallen, his fate unknown.
Not far away, the image of Peach slowly faded from view.
Before she disappeared, she turned back and smiled at all of us.
It was a terrifying smile.
Claire Lawson burst into tears. "Peach..."
Claire tried to go after her too.
I reached out and held her back.
Claire looked at me with red-rimmed eyes. "Peach is so lonely. I want to go be with her."
I frowned, gripping Claire tightly as I scanned our surroundings.
Just as I suspected, a white gas was being released from the ceiling—a hallucinogen that made people walk forward uncontrollably.
"Asher..." My voice was weak.
The others around me were also slowly losing focus.
Zeke Shaw shook his head hard. "Madeline... Hold your breath."
But Madeline Quinn just stared ahead blankly. "Cece... Cece is calling me."
I used all my strength to hold Madeline back.
But Madeline was already under its control.
Under the holographic lens, Cecilia Caldwell... or rather, ’me’, seemed to come to life, just standing there.
She smiled at us and spoke. "Julian... will you marry my mom?"
I glanced at Julian Fletcher. As expected, he was under its control too and had started walking forward.
I frantically grabbed Asher, afraid he would be controlled as well.
Fortunately, Asher was resistant to the drug.
He pulled me into his arms and said in a low voice, "She called out to Julian Fletcher first. It’s definitely a fake. If it were you, you’d call my name first."
I slumped against his shoulder, exasperated. "Is this really the time to be jealous?"
"Madeline..."
Zeke Shaw tried to hold Madeline back, but she was determined to move forward.
She walked under the holographic projector and raised a hand, trying to touch ’Cecilia Caldwell’.
Madeline choked out, "Cece, I’m sorry... I should have gotten you out of there sooner."
"CLICK!" Suddenly, the floor opened up, and Madeline fell through as well.
Mechanical noises came from below.
Everyone could hear it. We heard screams, followed by the smell of blood.
Then, blood began to seep through the cracks of the floor tiles where Felix Foster and Madeline Quinn had fallen.
I gripped Asher’s collar tightly, my heart racing and my whole body trembling.
’It’s that feeling again...’
’That feeling of going insane, of suffocating despair.’
’But there’s nothing I can do.’
My chest was numb yet itched with pain. I wanted to cry, to scream, to lose my mind...
"Asher..." My voice was hoarse, choked. I struggled weakly, desperately trying to stop Julian Fletcher.
Asher reached out for me and grabbed Julian.
Julian Fletcher snapped out of it, breathing heavily.
Erin Whittaker seemed to be under its control as well and started to walk forward.
Julian Fletcher stopped her, his voice deep. "Erin! Snap out of it!"
After watching Madeline fall with his own eyes, Zeke Shaw went berserk and tried to rush forward too. It took a punch from Lucas Grant to bring him to his senses.
Claire Lawson was sobbing on the floor. All of us were consumed by a boundless despair.
What does it feel like to watch the people you care about—your friends, your loved ones—fall into an abyss and die horribly right before your eyes?
"Can you feel it? This is despair, suffocation, sorrow, pain, struggle, and rage..."
The little girl in the hologram let out an eerie laugh, as if taunting us. "And you are all cowards."
I clenched my fists so tightly my whole body trembled with suppressed emotion, but I didn’t know how to express what I was feeling.
’Am I angry? Am I in pain?’
’What is this feeling?’
"She’s dead... She was your best friend." The little girl smiled tauntingly. A panel in the floor opened, and she pulled out a bloody head from within.
It was Madeline Quinn’s head...
"I’ll kill you!" Zeke Shaw thrashed wildly, held in a death grip by Lucas Grant.
Claire Lawson was crying out in despair.
Zeke Shaw was losing his mind.
Lucas Grant was holding him with all his might.
Erin Whittaker was trembling in Julian Fletcher’s arms.
Julian Fletcher looked at me, his eyes rimmed with red.
「In that moment.」
It was as if the only thing I could hear was the sound of Asher’s heartbeat.
"Monster, she’s a monster! She’s a monster with no feelings!"
My head felt like it was about to split open.
Gasping for breath, I collapsed to my knees.
The accusations of the other children from my past echoed in my ears.
My mother’s desperate cry: "Caldwell, Cece is a monster with no feelings... I saw her kill that little bird with the broken wing with her own hands."
"Cece... she has no feelings. She doesn’t get angry, she doesn’t feel dread, she isn’t afraid. She has no emotions."
"Cece, why did you kill that bird?" Victor Quinn’s voice was accusatory.
"Its wing was broken. In nature, a bird with a broken wing can only die. Rather than let it be painfully killed by a predator or eaten by insects, it was better for me to help it..."
"Cece?" Asher was calling my name.
My thoughts snapped back to reality. With bloodshot eyes, I stared at the little girl in the hologram who was taunting me.
I recognized her. The little girl in the red dress was me as a child. It was the young ’Cecilia Caldwell’.
"Cece!"
I pushed Asher away, stepped over the red line, and walked step by step onto the floor tiles, heading toward the center.
’Am I angry?’
’I think... I can feel it!’