INSIDER Chapter 142

The giant brown curly-haired teddy bear had red and black stains on its stomach, with cotton stuffing protruding from various parts of its body. It glared at the ten people, including Lu Chu, with a sinister smile stitched crudely onto its face. Blood seeped from its button eyes, as if it were extremely excited.

Then, it spoke.

Contrary to its terrifying appearance, its voice was quite hearty: “Found you.”

With that, it raised the chainsaw in its hand and swung it towards the nearest person, Luo Qi.

Wang Heng screamed instinctively.

Luo Qi deftly dodged and sternly yelled at the three who were just standing there screaming, “Don’t stand in the middle of the room! Get to the corners!”

The three were already pale with fear, and upon hearing Luo Qi’s roar, they trembled and scurried to the farthest corner by the window, near the door. They crouched down, huddling together, covering their ears and muttering prayers for protection.

Lu Chu, at this moment, confirmed that this teddy bear was the same one he encountered in the “Dancing Dolls and Teddy Bears” game.

The same teddy bear that had killed the parents of an abused little girl and then dismembered the girl.

When Lu Chu first encountered the bear, he had just transitioned from being a blind man for twenty years to a player. His physical abilities were far inferior to what they are now, and he narrowly escaped death several times at the hands of the teddy bear’s chainsaw. It was his wits rather than his strength that saw him through that game.

Back then, Lu Chu had not backed down in the face of the fierce teddy bear, and now he would not fear it either.

Luo Qi and Qian Zhen had already engaged the bear in battle.

Lu Chu was ready to strike at any moment. He told the others, “I’ve discovered something very important. Let’s finish this quickly.”

The others nodded in agreement.

Just as they were about to launch an attack on the bear, 7 said calmly, “I’ll handle this.”

He took the iron rod from Luo Qi and charged at the teddy bear with lightning speed, kicking it hard to the ground. The bear, furious, felt it was being underestimated. It stood up with its chainsaw, ready to attack, but 7 swiftly thrust the iron rod into one of its eyes.

A squelching sound was heard, despite the bear not having real eyeballs. The three people crouched in the corner shivered even more upon hearing it.

7, with a calm expression, applied slight pressure with his hand, driving the iron rod through the bear’s head, with the end of the rod bursting out from the back, along with gray-white brain-like goo. Despite this, the bear didn’t die. 7 pulled out the rod and, before the bear could react, plunged it into its left chest, crushing its heart. Blood, reeking of iron, spurted everywhere, splattering the walls and floor.

The bear roared in pain and struggled before collapsing, twitching and bleeding profusely.

Eventually, it stopped moving and died.

To everyone’s surprise, the giant teddy bear disappeared, replaced by a smaller, blood-stained teddy bear about the size of a regular toy. This real “teddy bear” had curly brown fur matted with blood, knife slashes all over its body, and its stomach ripped open, its glass eyes removed, looking terrifying.

Yuan Kejie praised, “As expected of the master, finishing the bear in no time. But even in its original form, this teddy bear is still scary.”

Lu Chu nodded in agreement, thinking that the scars on the bear were likely inflicted by the little girl he had once inhabited.

Song Gui looked at Lu Chu, “You said you discovered something important. What is it?”

“I need to confirm one more thing before telling you,” Lu Chu replied. “Was there anything strange about the layout of the rooms on the third floor?”

Song Gui nodded without hesitation, “Yes.”

The layout of the third-floor rooms had puzzled Song Gui, making him wonder what the original designer of the mansion had in mind.

Song Gui had wanted to explore the rooms further for more clues, but Sun Haoran had suddenly approached him, whispering about how many tasks he had completed. Realizing Sun Haoran was revealing too much, Song Gui and Qian Zhen had subdued him.

Seeing Lu Chu’s urgency, Song Gui became serious, “Is there a problem?”

“Yes, a bit,” Lu Chu said. “Take me to the third floor. This might be good news, but I need to confirm it first.”

He needed to verify if the place he was once trapped in was the same as this place.

Song Gui seemed to have a guess and said immediately, “Alright, let’s go to the third floor.”

They all decided to go together. Despite their fear, Wang Heng and the other two stood up, trembling, and followed the group. As for Sun Haoran, who had been beaten up, he was escorted upstairs by Qian Zhen and Luo Qi.

On the third floor, they found a short corridor. Following it, they saw the floor divided into two sections. One section had rooms arranged normally, side by side; the other had a long wall with a single door at the end.

Song Gui opened the door and said to Lu Chu, “This is it.”

They entered and found a right-angle corridor wide enough for four people to walk side by side. They used their phones’ lights to examine it carefully.

Both sides of the corridor seemed to be the same length, with another right-angle turn at the end. Lu Chu marked an “X” on the floor with the iron rod borrowed from Luo Qi and walked down the right corridor with the others.

After one turn, they saw a door on one side. Continuing, they encountered another turn with another door. After more turns and doors, they realized they had returned to the starting point.

While the others were confused by the strange layout, Lu Chu felt more certain. He continued walking along the corridor, soon returning to the marked “X.” He confirmed the corridor’s layout was like a “回” (square) character.

Feeling a sense of familiarity, Lu Chu smiled.

Similarly, 7, who had experienced all the solo instances, seemed to have an idea of what was happening.

At this point, Sun Haoran, who had been restrained, chuckled, “See, you found out. I knew you’d discover it eventually.”

Lu Chu looked at Sun Haoran with a complex expression.

From Sun Haoran’s tone, it was clear he had known about this for a long time. Why had he waited here for Lu Chu to discover it?

Yuan Kejie was puzzled, “What did you discover?”

Lu Chu replied firmly, “A way for players to enter the same ‘instance.'”

Yuan Kejie gasped, and Luo Qi and Qian Zhen looked shocked. Even Song Gui, who had suspected what Lu Chu meant, couldn’t help but feel excited.

Song Gui’s eyes lit up, “Confirmed?”

“Yes, confirmed,” Lu Chu nodded, relaxing and smiling gently. “It’s not just a way to enter the same ‘instance,’ but a way to enter the same ‘worldview.'”

Yuan Kejie was confused, “What do you mean? I don’t understand.”

Lu Chu explained, “I once experienced a solo instance exactly like this one—same teddy bear, same ‘回’ corridor.”

“What?!” Yuan Kejie exclaimed.

“Calm down and let me finish,” Lu Chu said. “The solo instance I experienced is a microcosm of this multiplayer instance. It’s independent but also part of the multiplayer instance.”

“So,” Song Gui added, “to enter the same ‘instance,’ we should look for multiplayer instances connected to that worldview?”

Lu Chu nodded, “In theory, yes.”

“A significant breakthrough,” Song Gui mused. “If there’s a multiplayer instance related to the ‘Whole City Feelingless’ solo instance, we can enter it to find the origin point of the instance’s characters.”

Everyone knew that the origin point character was Lu Chu.

As soon as Song Gui finished speaking, Yuan Kejie and the others turned to Lu Chu with hopeful eyes, as if seeing a way home.