Deep in the Living-Chapter 229 - 218: Park at Night

[Moon Lake Park]

Funded by Taishe Group, this public area allows everyone to experience the park’s facilities twice a week for free.

Opening hours "06:00-22:00"

Luo Di’s rental is a considerable distance from the park. Instead of opting for a night jog, he took a late-night taxi, with only three hours left to fulfill the requirements posted online.

He circumvented the unmonitored outer wall and climbed over it.

Luo Di wrapped himself in a trench coat, his hood covering most of his face, mimicking the actions of an ordinary person.

[Disguise]

He didn’t do it on purpose, it just naturally turned out to be the most common form of disguise.

As it was after closing time,

90% of the park’s lights were off, but the park was not dark.

The moonlight from the night sky cast a feeble white layer over the park. Although it was far from meeting the safety standards of the corners, it was sufficient for one to roughly see the inside of the park.

Such surroundings reminded Luo Di of a vacation island, reminiscing about the dark woods lit by starlight.

However, when he looked up at the night sky,

there were no stars scattered everywhere, nor any dazzling colors, only a bright full moon.

Luo Di adjusted the "button camera" at his collar and switched it to night recording mode.

He walked along the pebble path in the wooded area around the park perimeter, not far from a road sign pointing in the direction of Moon Lake.

One sign was normal enough.

But as he delved deeper into the park, more and more signs appeared, some carelessly placed in the woods, askew or even broken off and tossed on the ground.

All signs were the same, all pointing towards[Moon Lake].

It seemed as if the park itself was actively leading Luo Di, guiding this night intruder.

Or perhaps some invisible presence had long been waiting here for the poster to arrive.

Seeing so many signs, a flicker of fear passed over Luo Di’s face, and his pace slowed. Now and then, he looked around or took deep breaths to relax his tense nerves.

Following the direction of the signs, he walked out of the wooded area, and a huge lake shimmering in moonlight came into view.

Along the lakeside, numerous sightseeing boats were docked, and a ticket booth was also set up. One could imagine the number of people who would likely paddle here during daytime hours.

Just as Luo Di was about to randomly choose a suitable sightseeing boat,

Click!

The lights in the ticket booth suddenly turned on.

This anomaly forced Luo Di to abruptly turn around, catching a glimpse of what seemed to be a shadow inside the booth.

Upon noticing this abnormal situation, his spine reflexively started to heat up, but was quickly suppressed by Luo Di.

He cautiously approached,

There was no one in the booth; the so-called shadow was just a coat hanging on a chair.

Strangely, there was a boat ticket and keys to start the sightseeing boat placed at the ticket window.

When Luo Di reached out to take them, the key was easily picked up, but the boat ticket was unexpectedly heavy, as if something was pressing down on it.

Upon closer examination,

a hand was pinching the other end of the ticket.

Just as Luo Di saw this pale, bloodless hand, a cool breeze carrying fragmented voices brushed past his ear, freēwēbηovel.c૦m

"Double boat... number 3..."

As the voice ended, the hand disappeared.

The boat ticket still held in Luo Di’s hand retained a hint of coolness.

Huff~ his breathing intensified.

Luo Di seemed extremely tense, the spread of fear racing inside him. But since he responded to the post, he had to complete this offline activity, thus he forcefully calmed his shaking legs and walked toward the shore.

Finding the double boat marked with the number three,

he stepped onto the somewhat damp surface of the boat, the weight causing the boat to rock and ripples to spread, breaking the otherwise still moonlit lake surface.

It was not electric,

but required pedaling on a pedal similar to that of a bicycle to move.

The so-called key was only for unlocking.

Squeak, squeak~

The friction from the rotating axle was harshly loud on the silent lake, as if it might awaken something lurking beneath the water.

Unconsciously, Luo Di had drifted over a hundred meters from the shore, slowly losing sight of the shoreline, feeling as if he was in the vast ocean.

This sensation was very uncomfortable for Luo Di, especially his spine.

Fortunately, with the encouragement from the class leader previously, he had somewhat adapted to the discomfort towards the ocean, otherwise, his current situation would be very bad.

Unable to see the conditions of the shoreline clearly, Luo Di could not tell if he had reached the center of the lake, so he had to use the ’map’ feature on his wristband to determine his position.

But when he turned it on, it indicated "no signal in the current area".

Luo Di had to temporarily stop pedaling the boat, his hands also leaving the steering wheel, trying to find reference points.

Strangely,

Even though Luo Di did not continue pedaling, the boat showed no intention of stopping.

The rudder turned on its own without the manipulation of hands, as if someone else was pedaling the boat.

Realizing he was in a two-seater, Luo Di suddenly looked towards the seat beside him.

There was no one on the cold plastic seat,

only the pedal rotating on its own, creaking.

Soon.

The boat started to slow down and finally stopped, presumably having reached the center of the lake.

Luo Di also started the countdown on his watch, waiting for ten minutes to pass.

The temperature of the lake surface plummeted directly, dropping below zero in just three minutes, causing Luo Di to hug his arms and shiver uncontrollably.

The cold brought fog, reducing the visibility over the entire lake surface to less than five meters.

There was always a feeling that something might approach through the fog, that a person might appear on the boat out of nowhere, that something beneath the lake was surfacing.

Loneliness, cold, and the mental suspicion intertwined into an emotion called fear,

until... beep beep beep!

The countdown ended.

Luo Di hurriedly pedaled the sightseeing boat trying to leave.

But the fog over the lake did not clear up, and Luo Di, confused about the directions, could only pedal fiercely towards one fixed direction, as long as he could reach the shore.

A long time passed, still no sign of reaching the shore, it had already taken longer than the time it took to reach the center of the lake.

Luo Di realized the real danger was not the ten minutes in the lake’s center but "how to return".

No longer continuously expending meaningless energy,

the extreme cold of the lake rapidly deprived his body of warmth,

if he just curled up motionless, waiting for the park to open in the morning, he might barely survive, but most likely he would freeze to death.

Having no other choice, Luo Di stepped onto the boat’s bow, trying to stand in a higher position to spy around the lake surface, attempting to see even a glimpse of the shore’s buildings.

As far as the eye could see.

It seemed like he really saw something through the dense fog,

In order to confirm that it was some kind of marker for the shore, Luo Di moved forward as much as possible, almost about to fall off the bow of the boat.

However,

there was no marker at all; it was just an illusion brought by the extreme cold.

Just as he prepared to turn around and return inside the boat, planning to curl up and get through the night.

He suddenly felt a pair of ice-cold hands touch his back,

gently pushing!

Already standing at the edge, Luo Di couldn’t react in time, his body leaning forward.

Splash! Water splashed.

The extremely cold lake water submerged Luo Di, the unexpected fall plunging him completely under the water, his vision sinking below the lake surface, his hearing drowned by the water.

Just as he was about to float up,

a sound came from the depths of the lake,

a female song, pulling at Luo Di’s thoughts, trying to keep his body submerged.

At the same time.

By the dim light brought by the moon,

Luo Di saw a long-haired woman slowly swimming towards him from the dark depths of the lake, the song coming from her mouth.

It seemed she had been dead for a long time, apparently waiting at the bottom of the lake for the living to arrive.

Despair, suffocation, darkness, helplessness.

Any other respondent would either start frantically slapping the surface of the water or try to get back to the boat.

But.

The look of horror on Luo Di’s face suddenly froze, slowly becoming expressionless.

He touched the button camera on his collar with his right hand, turning it off, the following scene didn’t need to be recorded.

Watching the woman swimming towards him,

Luo Di’s lips slightly curled upwards, he had never expected that the Pseudo-Person he thought he needed to track through various clues and intelligence could actually be contacted through the 4hs website.

Moreover, she was a Pseudo-Person who could express a complete concretization.

Gurgle gurgle~

The lake water around his spine was boiling, the so-called extreme cold dispelled by a higher dimensional heat.

As darkness covered his eyes,

the Avatar of the Hell Demon, Luo Di, pulled the lake water with immense force, carrying his body and rushing towards the black-haired woman with a look of surprise.

She seemed not to have reacted at all, still in the thought that the target was just an ordinary human due to the disguise.

When she looked at the ’respondent’ in front of her again, there seemed to be tentacles surging in his dark pupils, emitting a color of fear that could implant into her brain.

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