Chapter 16

Chapter 16

Pozhan’s scalp tingled with fear at the sight.

So that was the thing harassing him from under the bed last night. If that was the case, then inside this coffin…

He shook his head, hurriedly pushing the rest of those associations out of his mind.

While the things in this room were terrifying, they hadn’t truly shown any murderous intent yet. But if that was true, how exactly did the streamer in Room 4009 die last night?

Meanwhile, in Room 4008, a male streamer with the ID Canyue Wushuang was awakened by a familiar scratching sound. He rubbed his weary eyelids and checked his phone; it was already ten o’clock at night.

He had actually slept for fifteen hours?

Yet, he felt as if he hadn’t slept long at all. His entire body remained heavy with exhaustion.

Furthermore, he wasn’t hungry in the slightest.

Had he passed the point of feeling hunger?

Just then, a thumping sound came from the door. *Bang, bang, bang.* It was slow and rhythmic, but to his ears, it sounded like *bang-scratch, bang-scratch, bang-scratch…*

Canyue Wushuang shuddered and pulled his blanket over his head.

Yesterday there had only been the scratching. Why was there a pounding on the door today?

He swallowed hard and gripped the corners of his blanket, though he knew deep down that if the thing outside could get in, this blanket wouldn’t offer the slightest bit of protection.

The knocking continued, each strike feeling like it was hitting his very nerves. Finally, unable to bear it any longer and adopting a desperate, sink-or-swim attitude, Canyue Wushuang shouted, “Who is it? It’s the middle of the night! Can’t a person get some sleep?”

As the saying goes, even ghosts fear the wicked.

In a previous Instance, he had seen a short-tempered teammate curse at a Ghost, unleashing a three-minute torrent of verbal abuse that actually forced the entity back, allowing the teammate to escape successfully.

Though Canyue Wushuang didn’t have such a colorful vocabulary, he mimicked the aggressive momentum perfectly.

Whether it was because his gamble paid off or something else, the knocking outside the door actually stopped.

Canyue Wushuang stared intensely at the door, not even daring to blink, as if trying to see right through the wood.

After a full minute, his eyelids finally gave in and blinked once.

Has the thing outside left?

It must have. The knocking had stopped.

Canyue Wushuang took a deep breath, slowly climbed out of bed, and crept toward the door. Holding his breath, he leaned in close to the peephole.

Huh?

Is the peephole broken?

It was pitch black inside the lens; he couldn’t see anything at all.

After staring for a moment, he vaguely remembered that the hallway had sound-activated lights. Gathering his courage, he gave the door a sharp kick.

To his disappointment, the view through the peephole remained void of light.

So it really is broken?

However, he absolutely did not have the courage to actually open the door and check.

Just as he was about to give up and return to the bedroom to catch more sleep, another loud *bang* echoed from the door right next to him.

Canyue Wushuang froze in place. He slowly turned his head back toward the peephole. This time, a faint, dim yellow light filtered through the darkness of the lens. A pitch-black eye that had been pressed tight against the other side gradually pulled away, revealing Li Xiaoqin’s face-paler than a sheet of paper.

“Open the door!”

During the day, Li Xiaoqin was a delicate white flower; at night, she was a man-eating malevolent spirit!

The horror factor had increased by several magnitudes.

Canyue Wushuang stumbled back into a corner, covering his mouth and shaking his head frantically. The corners of his eyes were bloodshot from exhaustion.

Why!

Why was Li Xiaoqin coming for him?
Creeeeeak… creeeeeak… creeeeeak…

During the silence, an eerie sound drifted over unhurriedly from the side. The door to the shoe cabinet creaked open just a crack, and a pair of eyes streaming bloody tears stared fixedly at the person huddled in the corner.

Canyue Wushuang sucked in a cold breath. His entire body felt as if it had been frozen in ice, stiff and immobile.

At that moment, Li Xiaoqin’s eerie laughter echoed from outside the door. “Since you won’t open the door, I’ll just do it myself.”

As soon as the words fell, the locked door clicked open on its own. The door swung open a fraction, and an arm covered in dark, bruised blotches reached through the gap first…

Room 4009-

Jet-black hair surged forward like an endless tide, as if it possessed a parasitic skill. The five streamers were forced to split up, dodging the winding, supple strands.

They finally understood exactly how the streamer who previously occupied this room had died.

Wulong Tea huddled in a corner, clutching the Jade Guanyin. Facing the long hair that was waiting for an opening, his heart was filled with regret. Why had he run into a corner?

Simultaneously, a strand of hair curled toward his calf. Wulong Tea bent over and thrust the Jade Guanyin toward the black hair. The hair seemed wary and stopped its approach, instead changing direction to strike at his wrist.

On the other side, Pozhan and First Blood were also in a dire situation, looking utterly disheveled as they scrambled to hide.

“Should we use a Review Card?” Pozhan’s face was a mask of indecision.

First Blood countered, “Using it now will only let you live for one more day. Are you sure you can secure 70% of the storyline within twenty-four hours?”

“Fuck! But if we don’t use it now, we’re dead!”

First Blood reached out and yanked Pozhan’s suit sleeve, helping him dodge a sneak attack from the hair behind him. He said coldly, “Don’t forget, this Instance can accelerate time.”

Hearing this, Pozhan hurriedly closed his Live Stream Room projection, overcome with lingering fear.

As for Brother Crocodile, he was in a relatively better spot. He hid behind Qiao Yu, dodging the murderous hair while using his body to block the door, preventing Qiao Yu from opening it.

-Oh ho, how exciting!

-None of them are in their own rooms, hahaha. They’re dead meat now!

-Not enough, this isn’t enough. I want to see blood splattering everywhere. It must be beautiful~

-Scream! Why aren’t any of you screaming? Of course, it wouldn’t matter if you did. Even if you screamed your lungs out, it’s still a dead end, hee hee hee~

“Even in this situation, you still won’t let me open the door?” Qiao Yu asked. Showing no fear of death, he reached out and grabbed a handful of the long hair that was trying to entwine him.

“You can’t open it!” Man-Eating Crocodile wasn’t an idiot. If the door stayed shut, it was just hair flying around; if the door opened, it would be a full-blown ghost party.

But then- “Why are you so obsessed with opening the door?”

Qiao Yu frowned at the hair that had taken the opportunity to wrap around his arm. He said irritably, “I want to see what that Landlord Uncle was fiddling with at the entrance of Room 4008…”

Brother Crocodile’s face turned red with anger at this explanation, and tears instantly filled his eyes. “Then can’t you just look tomorrow?”

Qiao Yu’s arm was being squeezed so tightly by the hair that the blood flow had stopped, making his skin as pale as a zombie’s. He used his other hand to pull a lighter out of his pocket. With a *flick*, the flame ignited, and the hair wrapped around his wrist was instantly singed away.

“Fine, fine, fine. I won’t open the door, okay? Just please don’t cry.”

Man-Eating Crocodile: “……”

Wait, what just happened??