Chapter 287: The Razor Water Slide
The live stream room was noisy, but in reality, things were already underway.
Island staff had entered the hotel room where Lab Rat Amir had died and begun collecting the body.
These professional Cleaners.
They specialized in disposing of corpses.
Of course, on the island the final fate of these dead people was always the same: they were put on a boat by the Cleaners, taken far away from the island, and dumped into the sea to feed the sharks.
…
After finishing at the haunted house, Jiang Ran split ways with Xiao Q and the third person.
Then he returned to his own hotel room, waited until mealtime, and went up to the tenth floor for the buffet.
After that he went back to his hotel room.
He digested his food, played on his phone for a while, then followed an exercise routine from his phone to work out. When he finished, he showered, got into bed, turned on the air conditioning, and played on his phone—enjoying a pleasant night.
As for going out at night?
Impossible.
What would he do out alone in the middle of the night?
So Jiang Ran lay on his bed scrolling through TikTok.
For some reason, recently a singer with the surname Wang had become the center of controversy on TikTok.
A lot of netizens were arguing whether his studies at that Berkeley-like school abroad were music or operating an excavator—there was a lot of debate…
Music or excavators, Jiang Ran didn’t know.
But he found those videos pretty funny.
He kept scrolling until just before sleep, and noticed that the Tai Country beauty in the next bed, Wannara, still hadn’t returned.
…
Special Live Stream — Macedonia Island.
The next day, seven in the morning.
On Macedonia Island, besides the hotels, there were other facilities.
For example, a water park.
In that water park there was a water attraction—a large water slide.
This giant water slide.
From the ground, when you looked up,
you could see that the slide was very long.
It wound around in coils, designed with many twists and turns;
at a glance it looked wildly dangerous and thrilling.
Moreover, this water slide was completely enclosed.
Outsiders could not see inside the slide;
it wasn’t like an open-air slide where you could tell what position a rider was in.
What was more strange about this water slide
was what happened at the end: riders were flushed into a large pool when they finished.
Normally that pool would be open-air, and riders would climb out onto the shore.
But this slide’s pool was sealed.
Standing beside the sealed pool—unable to see inside—was a white man who looked about fifty years old.
Fifty is an age that, in ancient times, would be considered old.
In the Qing Dynasty, fifty was already old.
But in the modern era of explosive technology, seventy or eighty are the ages counted as elderly.
Fifty is still middle-aged!
Yet this middle-aged white man had short white hair all over his head.
The white man was named James Carter.
He was one of the deranged serial killers on Macedonia Island.
And the frightening, thrill-packed water slide beside him was his masterpiece.
“172 people.” (English)
James kept his hands in his pockets and stared expressionless at his creation as he muttered to himself.
That was the number of people who had died on this water slide yesterday.
You probably want to know—how could riding a water slide kill someone?
It’s simple.
Many people had probably already guessed.
He had installed blades inside the enclosed slide.
Many people had seen that foreign movie about a water slide fitted with cross-shaped blades.
Honestly, it’s terrifying. That movie made a lot of people fear enclosed water slides.
You can’t be scared of ten thousand things, only the one-in-a-million chance matters—you might run into that situation yourself.
But James was even more vicious than that movie.
In that film, only one of three slide entrances had cross blades.
James had five slide entrances, and each one had blades.
And they were diagonal-cross blades.
Why diagonal-cross blades?
To avoid any slip-ups!
Of course, even then there can be slip-ups.
So he upgraded.
Each slide entrance had three blades at different positions.
And it seemed to suit James’s twisted tastes.
The three blades were positioned differently: the first was a single vertical blade.
The second was a cross-shaped blade.
The third was the diagonal-cross blade.
The purpose seemed to be to give riders hope after surviving a danger, only to push them into despair again.
Think about it: you go down this slide, rush along, and suddenly see a huge sharp vertical blade ahead.
What do you feel?
Terrified.
But to your surprise, that vertical blade is installed so that there’s space on its left or right to squeeze past.
You inch through carefully.
You breathe a little easier and feel so lucky!
Then you continue sliding and encounter the second cross blade.
You begin to despair.
How do you get past this?
But you find there might still be a chance!
The cross blade is an × shape—if you’re careful, you can just barely slip through the lower gap.
Being small-bodied works to your advantage;
a taller or broader person would get stuck and be cut.
After passing that one, your heart pounds with unease.
What if there’s a third blade?
And then you indeed see the third.
It’s the diagonal-cross blade.
The space is tiny—can you still get through?
You refuse to give up;
your brain races in that critical moment, searching for a solution.
Eventually you think you see a sliver of space you might be able to exploit. It’s uncertain, but you gamble on it.
So you slowly and desperately control your body, inching forward.
Just as you prepare to attempt it, a scream erupts from behind you.
You suddenly realize with dawning horror that you’re not the only one on this slide…
Three blades placed at different positions.
Guaranteed no one would slip through completely unscathed.
This was what they called—the net of heaven is wide, but nothing escapes it.
As for whether James was the originator of blade-laden slides?
Of course not.
He was a copycat.
And he had been inspired by that movie to become what he was.
James raised his left hand and glanced at the watch on his wrist.
The water park opened at eight o’clock.
There were still over forty minutes to go.
He didn’t do anything else.
He came to the platform, climbed up the metal stairs that had been set up, and walked onto the high platform.
The platform was incredibly spacious.
Five slide entrances were arranged in sequence.
No one would have guessed this massive slide would be a deadly trap.
After stepping up, James sat on one of the plastic chairs with a backrest on the platform.
He pulled out his phone and scrolled silently, quietly waiting for the water park’s eight o’clock opening.
Soon it was eight;
the water park officially opened.
A large number of tourists poured into the park and began their day-long revelry.
In a water park, water slides are the equivalent of roller coasters or giant pendulums in a regular amusement park—thrilling attractions.
So naturally many thrill-seeking men and women wanted to try them.
Right after the park opened,
James already saw young men and women stepping up from the metal stairs.