Chapter 24
Chapter 24
The four words “he’s very special” were Yu Lingling’s way of warning Brother B. After all, Brother B had previously given her one fairly useful piece of information – that certain numbers held special meanings.
Brother B didn’t tell Yu Lingling about Brother Knife’s current condition. Instead, he said, “Let’s take a look at the second floor.”
Yu Lingling hummed in acknowledgment.
Brother B told her what he had experienced the night before. “I chose an empty room and dealt with the anomaly that came back knocking. Tonight, I plan to move into the room next door.”
Yu Lingling felt that only half of what Brother B said could be trusted – particularly his claim that he had dealt with the anomaly that came knocking.
Brother B demanded bluntly, “Tell me exactly what happened to you last night.”
[Brother B really has zero self-awareness. How dare he talk to a future big shot like that?]
[She didn’t do anything. She just cleared every anomaly off the fourth floor, that’s all.]
Yu Lingling was certain that Brother B hadn’t been the one secretly watching what happened to her on the fourth floor. “I waited for the anomaly in an empty room. The moment I saw the anomaly described in the diary appear, Brother Knife switched me to the second floor.”
[Not a single lie, yet not a single word of truth.]
When Brother B and Yu Lingling reached the second floor, all the clutter in the stairwell and corridor had been neatly arranged again. However, they also found fresh bloodstains and several items that had belonged to Sister A.
They didn’t rashly knock on any doors, in case doing so triggered one of the rules. Brother B had only been able to examine that heap of fat earlier because Yu Lingling had opened the door directly.
“When I was switched down here, I found myself in the restroom. Sister A must have planned it with Brother Knife. She tried to shove me out, but she was the one who died in the end. I escaped to the first floor.”
Both Brother B and Yu Lingling spoke of Sister A’s death with perfect indifference, as though it were an everyday occurrence.
Yu Lingling truly didn’t care. Her brother had taught her to cherish life, but he had also told her never to tolerate anyone who tried to hurt her. There was nothing wrong with being someone who always settled the score.
Brother B stopped the moment he stepped into the restroom.
The restroom was divided into two sections. The outer section had a row of faucets with a long rectangular mirror mounted above them.
Now, in addition to the bloody handprints, a line of words had appeared on the mirror.
“I’ll be waiting for all of you.”
Brother B scoffed. “What do you make of it, Chacha?”
“I look at it with my eyes.” Yu Lingling merely glanced at the mirror before looking toward the door separating the toilet area from the washroom. The door had been destroyed last night, but it had now been restored and stood ajar once more, with a filthy curtain hanging over it. She pushed open the wooden door but didn’t go inside. “I sensed something in here last night.”
Brother B stood beside her. “Does it only appear at night?”
The ceiling and walls inside were splattered with blood. Clumps of hair and chunks of flesh were stuck to them as well, all of it fresh.
Neither of them entered. After taking a look, they closed the door and left.
Yu Lingling’s slippers made soft slap-slap sounds against the concrete floor.
Brother B’s sneakers were made of some unusual material. Even when Yu Lingling walked directly behind him, she couldn’t hear a single footstep from him.
Aside from Yu Lingling’s footsteps, the only sound on the entire floor was Brother B chewing his gum.
Yu Lingling had deliberately observed it before. The gum wrapper Brother B appeared to pull from his pocket was extremely unusual. She had never seen anything like it, as though it were something unique to the Horror Game.
When they reached the third floor, Brother B took Yu Lingling to see the empty room. He then pointed toward the room whose owner was the old woman and said, “I’ll choose this room later. Provided you’re strong enough, I recommend not staying in one place.”
His advice aligned with what Yu Lingling had already suspected. However, Brother B had claimed that he chose the empty room on the first day. Yu Lingling glanced at the footprints on the floor. She was more inclined to believe that he had chosen the room whose owner was the old woman that day, but had simply used some method to deal with the empty room’s owner.
Yu Lingling revised her assessment of Brother B. He had his own agenda, but he wasn’t evil through and through.
“I know.”
The two of them headed up to the fourth floor. Yu Lingling didn’t notice anything unusual on the remaining stairs.
Brother Knife was blocking the stairwell entrance to the fourth floor. He glared at Yu Lingling as she walked behind Brother B.
Hugging her Teddy Bear Doll, Yu Lingling beamed at him. “Is the fourth floor fun?”
Brother Knife forcibly suppressed the hatred in his heart.
Brother B looked at him. “Let us through.”
Brother Knife stared at him for a moment before silently stepping aside.
The corridor was dark and narrow. Yu Lingling noticed that the shoes she’d vaguely glimpsed in the shadows last night were gone.
Brother B got straight to the point. “We found an important clue. Is there somewhere we can talk?”
Brother Knife’s voice was hoarse. “Sister A is dead.”
Neither Brother B nor Yu Lingling responded.
Brother Knife led them toward one of the rooms. Yu Lingling noticed that it wasn’t the room where she’d encountered the Wheelchair-Bound Boy, but the vacant room next to it.
Yu Lingling stopped outside the Wheelchair-Bound Boy’s room. “You should be here.”
Brother Knife hated Yu Lingling with every fiber of his being. “I paid a heavy price to survive.”
Brother B glanced over, then silently stuck a small piece of chewing gum beside the doorway of the room where, according to Yu Lingling, the Wheelchair-Bound Boy lived.
“What matters now is how we’re going to survive tonight. Tonight will probably be the most dangerous night yet.”
None of the three said anything else. Brother Knife opened the door to the vacant room, and they all went inside.
Compared to yesterday, the room seemed smaller and more dilapidated. The previously clean window was now coated in a layer of dust and had shrunk slightly as well.
What determined how the rooms here changed?
Yu Lingling compared all the rooms on the fourth floor with the strength of their occupants. Did stronger residents get better rooms?
Brother Knife asked bluntly, “What clue did you find?”
Brother B didn’t answer immediately. Perhaps Yu Lingling’s appearance was simply too deceptive, or perhaps he was overly confident in his own strength. Either way, he had naturally assumed control during their time together.
Yu Lingling had noticed, but she made no attempt to challenge him. In fact, she had deliberately reined in her edge.
Brother B made his demand directly. “Tell us exactly what happened last night. We’ll trade information.”
Brother Knife fell silent.
Brother B still wore his usual cheeky grin. “You should know that, compared to the two of us, you’re the one in the greatest danger.”
Brother Knife slowly exhaled. “Sister A and I were on the second floor last night. Those entities came upstairs and knocked on the doors, but neither of us opened up. They woke every entity on the floor. By the time we realized we’d broken a rule, it was already too late. We were forced to hide in the bathroom.”
Yu Lingling and Brother B had already guessed that much.
Brother Knife tightened his grip on his knife. “The bathroom must have been a temporary safe zone. Those entities were kept outside for a while, but as time passed, even it couldn’t hold them back.”
While Brother Knife wasn’t looking, Yu Lingling and Brother B exchanged a glance.
The bathroom hadn’t been a safe zone. Rather, a more powerful presence inside had frightened the entities on the second floor.
But why had those entities stopped being afraid later? There weren’t enough clues yet to determine the reason.
Brother Knife’s eyes were bloodshot. He hated Yu Lingling for refusing to obediently die. He hated her for provoking something on the fourth floor that she never should have disturbed, only for him to pay the price. As for whether Sister A lived or died, he didn’t care in the slightest.
“I swapped places with you and came face-to-face with the Wheelchair-Bound Boy on the fourth floor. That entity… that entity was incredibly powerful. I almost died at his hands.”
Yu Lingling looked down at Brother Knife’s shadow on the floor.
Its legs were gone.