Chapter 107
Chapter 107
“Aaaah!”
A woman’s piercing scream rang through the room. The expressions of everyone waiting outside turned grim.
Old Zhao paced in front of the door. Little Red recognized her companion’s voice and immediately burst into tears.
No one knew what had happened, but no one dared open the door rashly.
Time seemed to stand still. After an unknown length of time, the door to Room 201 opened from within.
Only three people emerged.
Qi Jiajia ran back to Cheng Miao, her face cold as ice. She raised a hand to tug at Cheng Miao’s clothes, then seemed to remember something and lowered it again, her expression turning even darker.
Gu Jian yawned and stretched, looking as though he had just finished a massage. “I’m exhausted. I’m going back to sleep.”
No one dared stop him. They watched him enter the elevator alone.
“He’s so brave,” Xiao Song murmured.
Qi Jiajia was clearly in a foul mood. Little Red’s lips trembled as she looked at Brother Wang, her face gray with despair.
Brother Wang did not look much better. He described the game, including the room’s unnatural darkness.
“Later, I felt someone following me. It kept getting closer. I didn’t dare open my eyes. I just concentrated on playing until I heard the girl’s scream.”
He looked pityingly at Little Red. “She screamed and ran out of the room. I heard her open the door… After that, the room returned to normal and we could see again. That was when we realized she hadn’t opened the door. She’d opened the window.”
“She jumped out.”
There was nothing but darkness beyond the window. They could not see what lay outside, nor could they see Little Green’s body.
Little Red sat there like a doll without a soul. Brother Wang sighed and patted her shoulder, then looked at the silent Qi Jiajia.
Seeing the appeal in his eyes, Cheng Miao asked, “Did it happen to you too?”
Qi Jiajia gave an indifferent hum.
Brother Wang immediately jumped in. “Right? You felt something too! I swear I felt her hair brush against me several times!”
The players who had not entered the game broke out in goosebumps.
“So you survive by pretending nothing is happening,” Brother Wang concluded, still shaken.
Cheng Miao was skeptical. “Is that how you cleared it too?”
Qi Jiajia rolled her eyes. “No. Its hair touched me, so I grabbed it and pulled. Felt like I should’ve been able to tear its head off, but I couldn’t see anything, so I don’t know if the head actually came off.”
Everyone stared at her.
Holy shit! What a badass! Legendary!
Cheng Miao was speechless. So Qi Jiajia had come out looking furious and wiped her hand on Lin Zhu because she thought it was dirty.
Lin Zhu still had not caught on and was gently comforting Qi Jiajia. Cheng Miao exchanged a look with Qin Musong, then both turned away, unable to watch.
Had Little Green gone mad and jumped because she could not withstand the pressure?
Cheng Miao did not think so. As Brother Wang and Qi Jiajia had said, the thing had followed them for quite a while. Little Green had not broken down immediately. What had happened to her?
Brother Wang was still sighing. “Poor girl. She must’ve been scared out of her mind. She kept begging the Bodhisattva to protect her, but in a ghost game like this, how could any Bodhisattva save you?”
Little Green had kept muttering a prayer?
Cheng Miao frowned. Inspiration flashed past, too quickly for her to catch.
The Longtime Tenants rose one after another and blew out the candles, leaving the players behind.
“Can we stay out here instead of returning to our rooms?” Little Red asked tearfully. She was truly afraid to be alone. So many people had died in succession, including her friend, who had died on the same floor as her room.
Her head felt as though it had been split in two. Looking pitifully at the others, she waited for an answer.
No one could help her. The Landlord had never said they could not leave their rooms at night, but now that he was gone, who would dare risk it?
One after another, the players returned to their rooms. Little Red’s eyes were vacant, and an air of death hung over her.
Unable to ignore it, Cheng Miao patted her shoulder. “As long as you’re alive, there’s hope. If you give up now, then you truly won’t be far from death.”
A spark returned to Little Red’s eyes, and she looked at Cheng Miao gratefully.
Ever since entering the game, she had targeted Cheng Miao both openly and in subtle ways. She could not stand that Cheng Miao was prettier and stronger than she was or that she had such excellent teammates.
Yet now, Cheng Miao was the only person who still encouraged her and cared whether she survived.
Little Red thanked her sincerely, then went into her room and closed the door.
Cheng Miao returned to her own apartment. With the Landlord gone, she could finally get a good night’s sleep.
She reviewed the games from the past two nights in her mind and gradually drifted off.
No one had died when she woke the next morning. Little Red looked as though she had not slept at all, deep shadows carved beneath eyes that had once been bright and lively.
The Pregnant Woman delivered breakfast and told them she would soon invite everyone to her home for snacks.
An idea began to form in Cheng Miao’s mind. “Which room is yours?”
The smile on the Pregnant Woman’s face stiffened for an instant when she met Cheng Miao’s eyes. “601.”
Just as Cheng Miao had thought. This instance resembled a series of sequential stages.
Only after defeating one minor boss could they unlock the path to the next.
They had uncovered the secrets of the Landlord’s Room 602. Now it was time for Room 601.
This also meant they could not complete the tasks early or skip ahead. Only after dealing with the Longtime Tenants in front of them could they learn what had happened in Shen Xin’s home, Room 703 on the seventh floor.
Cheng Miao tested her theory herself.
The barrier between Room 602 and Room 601 was gone, but they still could not reach the seventh floor. Her reasoning was correct.
Despite everyone’s reluctance, they soon assembled outside Room 601.
Cheng Miao knocked. A moment later, the Pregnant Woman opened the door, her belly prominently swollen, and invited them inside.
The apartment was surprisingly cozy. Photographs of the Pregnant Woman with a man none of them had seen before filled the room.
“This is my husband. He works away from home and rarely comes back,” the Pregnant Woman explained happily. Everyone offered a few polite responses and sat in the living room.
Unlike the Landlord, the Pregnant Woman showed no aggression. The players could not use violence against her.
She also stayed in the room the entire time, which meant they could not search her home.
There had to be another approach. Cheng Miao did not touch the snacks on the table. Her gaze roamed around the room.
None of the players ate. They all carefully avoided the food.
The Pregnant Woman did not seem to mind. She chatted with the players until the conversation eventually turned to children.
“I’m lucky. My baby will be born in the Year of the Rat.” Maternal affection filled her face as she stroked her belly, then looked at the players. “What about you? Were any of you born in the Year of the Rat?”
The players exchanged glances. Only after a long silence under her persistent gaze did two hands rise.
“I was.”
Old Zhao’s and Sun Jiao’s voices both trembled. Gu Jian grinned. “Me too.”
Old Zhao and Sun Jiao relaxed. An expert was in the same group, so perhaps there was no danger.
The Pregnant Woman nodded with a smile and continued asking the others for their Chinese zodiac signs.
No one dared lie. They answered honestly.
Before she reached Cheng Miao, Cheng Miao’s instincts warned that something would go wrong if the questioning continued. She was about to change the subject when Brother Wang answered after Xiao Song.
“I was born in the Year of the Snake.”
The Pregnant Woman’s smile suddenly turned strange.