But that thing behind him was getting closer and closer.

It was over. Just as that thing was about to catch up to him, Eric Bennett felt a wave of despair in his heart. But at that moment, it seemed like something tripped his foot, and he fell heavily to the ground.

“Shit!” Eric Bennett took a nasty spill, even getting a mouthful of snow. But this movement made him feel as if something was pulled out from his body, and then he felt someone lift him straight up from the snow.

“Eric Bennett, Eric Bennett, are you okay? Am I really that heavy?” It was Grace Cooper's voice.

Eric Bennett struggled to get up from the ground, turned his head, and saw the girl squatting next to him, poking his cheek with her finger.

As for Adam Grant, he was the one who had pulled Eric Bennett up from the snow. He asked, “Are you alright?”

Eric Bennett let out a long breath. “I seriously thought I was done for.”

Grace Cooper tilted her head. “Why?”

Eric Bennett briefly explained what had just happened, saying that luckily he got tripped at the end, otherwise he’d probably be dead by now.

“Oh.” Grace Cooper said, “So that’s why you fell. I thought it was because I was too heavy.”

Eric Bennett: “It’s fine, you’re not that heavy.”

Grace Cooper curled her lips into a smile.

Adam Grant said, “Come on, get up. The others are already heading down the slope. It’s getting dark, we need to hurry.”

Eric Bennett nodded. As he got up, he felt a pain in his knee—probably hurt it when he fell. But he didn’t mention it, just followed Adam Grant and the others forward. He had originally wanted to carry Grace Cooper, but she refused, saying Eric Bennett was too skinny and it hurt her chest when he carried her.

After hearing this, Eric Bennett quietly muttered, “Do you even have a chest…” When he carried Grace Cooper earlier, he felt her chest was completely flat, with no softness at all.

Grace Cooper got angry when she heard Eric Bennett's words and snapped, “Fine, fine, if your chest is so big, you go first!”

Eric Bennett: “……”

The three of them quickened their pace, trying to catch up with the people ahead. But just then, Eric Bennett heard a piercing, miserable scream.

“Did you guys hear that?” Eric Bennett asked, worried it was just his imagination.

“We heard it.” Adam Grant's face darkened. “Hurry, something’s happened.”

The three of them broke into a run, and when they reached the front, they were met with a horrifying scene.

Of the three people who had been carrying the wood, two were dead. Their bodies had been smashed in half by the logs. The most terrifying part was that even though their bodies were severed, they were still conscious, blood gushing from their mouths as they screamed and begged for help.

The one who remained was collapsed on the ground, a wet patch spreading in his crotch, wailing in utter despair, “Help—help—”

“What happened! What the hell happened!” Adam Grant demanded.

Little Scott said, “They were just walking along, then suddenly they all let go, and the log slid down and smashed into the waists of the two in front.”

Before Adam Grant could say anything, the lone survivor scrambled up from the ground and started running wildly, crying out, “There’s a ghost, help, there’s a ghost—”

Before anyone could react, they watched him disappear into the curtain of snow.

The two left on the ground were barely alive, and soon breathed their last.

“What do we do…” One of the women in the group started crying, her wails echoing without end. “Are we all going to die here?”

Snowflakes clung to Adam Grant's beard. He sighed, his expression surprisingly calm, and said, “Let’s go, let’s get the wood back first.”

After the wood had killed people, no one dared to touch it. No one wanted to move, until finally Eric Bennett stepped forward and helped Adam Grant carry the blood-soaked log.

On the way back, everyone was silent. Fortunately, nothing else happened.

The two of them delivered the wood to the carpenter. The old carpenter wasn’t surprised at all to see the blood on the wood. He didn’t even ask a single question, just rasped out a reminder: “Still two more to go.”

Adam Grant and Eric Bennett said nothing and turned back to their quarters.

The way the log had fallen was just too strange—there had to be something supernatural at work. Eric Bennett felt like he’d dodged death once again. He stared blankly at the fire in front of him, lost in thought, his whole being in a daze.

Grace Cooper sat beside him and suddenly said, “I want to eat noodles.”

“Mm.” Eric Bennett replied, “Let me rest for a bit first.”

Grace Cooper asked, “What’s wrong, are you tired?”

“No, I’m just thinking about what the point of me being in this world is.” Eric Bennett said. “I was living just fine where I was, then one day I walked out my front door and found twelve iron doors in the hallway. Then I opened one of them…”

Grace Cooper listened quietly.

“And then I ended up here.” Eric Bennett said. “Do the iron doors just mean fear and torment?”

Grace Cooper laughed at that and said, “I think there’s no point in thinking about that now. Maybe this kind of experience isn’t torment after all.”