Chapter 86: Xinlian Hotel (VIII)
Xinlian Hotel, second floor corridor.
At this moment, the four people standing here were a little speechless.
They didn't know what was going on. From just now till now, they had been constantly teleported back to the lobby on the first floor...
It started with Wang Hao, the boy in the couple - he was exploring room 201 with his girlfriend Xu Jin, when suddenly his vision blurred and when he came to his senses, he was back on the sofa in the lobby on the first floor.
Soon after that his girlfriend was teleported down, followed by Little Curly (his name was Yu Ning), and finally Yan Shaowen.
The seating order of the four people was exactly the same as at the beginning. They stared at each other, confused, and no one could tell what was going on.
After running back to the second floor, before they could come to a conclusion, Xu Jin and Yu Ning were teleported again one after the other.
Before being teleported this time, something very different happened to Yu Ning's body - he suddenly turned red all over, and then turned grayish white, his skin and flesh seemed to be cooked in the air, they even faintly smelled a "meaty aroma", and goose bumps appeared all over their bodies.
Fortunately, the horrific process was interrupted by the transmission, and when Yu Ning ran up from the first floor, his body had returned to normal.
At this moment——
Wang Hao swallowed, his eyes nervously darting around, and he subconsciously lowered his voice when he spoke: "What happened just now? Was it the monsters in this instance messing with us?"
Yan Shaowen rubbed the corners of his eyes.
Rather than saying that an invisible monster is causing trouble...
There are probably other players involved in this dungeon, so it would be better to ask them what they are doing now that they are nowhere to be found.
He let out a breath, not bothering to explain to the three people, and looked up to his side.
The time has already reached 6:45.
Because of the continuous teleportation just now, they have not yet successfully explored a room.
In this small floor, the oak-colored doors of the four rooms 201, 202, 203, and 204 surrounded them from the east, south, west, and north, pressing on them like four tombstones embedded in the walls, giving them a full sense of oppression.
There are only four rooms on the second floor, and the entire hotel now only has these two floors.
——This building has obviously been transformed by a replica.
"Let's continue the topic we just discussed," Yan Shaowen stood in the middle of the narrow corridor covered with red carpet and looked at Xu Jin and Wang Hao, "You just said that room 201 is full of cosmetics and luxury goods, then what?"
The young couple came to their senses and looked at each other.
Behind them now was the door to Room 201.
Before Xu Jin was teleported for the second time, the two of them just talked about how they entered room 201 and did not encounter any monsters. They only saw luxury bags, shoes, clothes, jewelry and other items scattered throughout the room.
Then--
Xu Jin's expression turned a little awkward.
Wang Hao said embarrassedly: "At first we were very careful and didn't touch those things, but we checked the whole room and didn't find any clues. We thought, these things are always put out for people to use, so do we have to use them to trigger something..."
The curly-haired Yuning immediately looked at them with an "Oh, I understand" look.
Wang Hao's voice became increasingly guilty: "...Later, something seemed to be wrong between the two of us."
At first, Xu Jin just tried on a gorgeous luxury brand long dress.
The long skirt looked very beautiful on Xu Jin. The two of them couldn't help taking several photos. Only after they were done did they realize - there didn't seem to be any difference!
There was no change in Xu Jin's body, and there was no change in the entire room.
The things are still the same things, and the people are still the same two people. They didn’t trigger any clues at all!
Is there no clue in this room?
They were somewhat disappointed, but at the same time, a secret thought finally broke free and quietly rose in their hearts -
At present, these luxury goods are simply unaffordable for them in reality.
...But the copy actually delivered these things to them.
Even though we know very well that these things are fake and are made from copies, who can resist looking at all these dazzling things?
Their door was closed, and if you think about it, no one could see what they were doing... so why don't they take the opportunity to try it out and enjoy it...?
It won’t be a problem if I just play secretly for a while, right?
So, they gradually began to become more and more unrestrained.
Xu Jin enthusiastically tried on those brand-name clothes, matched them with different bags, and took photos of himself crazily.
Wang Hao began to try on the limited edition sneakers in the wardrobe one by one and put on million-dollar watches.
They were so excited, as if they had fallen into heaven. Everything in this room was what they dreamed of but could never get in reality.
They happily ate cake, gnawed steak and drank red wine.
They jumped on the bed to toast, danced in the piles of luxury goods, shouted with joy, and their faces flushed...
Xu Jin's hair, which had been tied up before going out today, was messed up in the madness, and Wang Hao's clothes were also covered with lipstick cream and steak sauce. The two people's blood was rushing, and they were so crazy that they forgot what day it was, where they were, and what they were supposed to do.
It was not until they were teleported back to the lobby on the first floor that they suddenly woke up and realized with horror—
"We, we ate all the food in that room, even the cosmetics and skin care products!" Wang Hao shivered, "Before I was teleported, I just swallowed a watch and was chewing on a pair of sneakers..."
Their stomachs were swollen with all kinds of foreign objects, like women about to give birth. If the teleportation had not happened, they would probably have died of suffocation in Room 201, dying in a false and weird happiness.
Beside Wang Hao, Xu Jin also had a lingering fear on his face.
Yan Shaowen glanced at the two men's stomachs - their stomachs were now deflated, not like they were filled with a lot of "food".
Noticing his look, Wang Hao quickly said, "After being teleported back to the first floor, everything in our stomachs seemed to have disappeared!"
"Yes," Xu Jin said quickly, "It's the same as if I had never eaten it before..."
Yan Shaowen seemed to be thinking about something.
Therefore, it was Room 201 that created the illusion for these two people, making them think that they had eaten a lot of food. Once they left the room, the illusion stopped working.
——Or did everything really happen, but the "teleportation" not only sent their physical location back to the starting point, but also sent their physical state back to the starting point?
Which one?
While thinking, Yan Shaowen looked at Yu Ning and signaled with his eyes: What about you?
This guy just broke into room 202 alone.
Yu Ning curled his lips, raised his phone and showed them a sentence.
"——In addition to me, there are two more people in room 202."
Immediately, Xu Jin and Wang Hao took a breath of cold air.
“Who is it?!”
"So you're hiding?"
Yu Ning lowered his head and typed another paragraph, then raised his hand.
"Because I couldn't hear anything, I hid under the bed as soon as I entered the room, wanting to observe for a while to make sure there was no danger before going out. I hid for about half a minute, and then two pairs of feet appeared in front of the bed."
Xu Jin and Wang Hao were reading with trembling hands, but Yan Shaowen remained calm.
Yu Ning's phone screen also read: "I think the first rule of the hotel is a bit problematic. We can't just take it literally."
"It said that each room could accommodate a maximum of two people. If we found any trace of a third person, we should hide and contact the hotel front desk after the other party left. But the two things that appeared in room 202 at that time, I thought they were monsters and ghosts."
"'A room can accommodate up to two people' should actually mean that a room can accommodate up to two players at the same time. In this case, the third person who appears in the room must be a monster, so be careful."
"So I think this rule is a hint that in some rooms there will be two camps: players and monsters."
"But it doesn't mean that we need to be vigilant only when the 'third person' is a monster. I think that as long as there is a monster, even if there is only one player, one monster, the player should hide."
Yu Ning lowered his head and added four words: "That's all, over!"
Xu Jin and Wang Hao admired him. As a person with hearing impairment, it was already amazing that he dared to break into the room alone and take unknown risks. Now he can still analyze and summarize so calmly. It's amazing!
After reading it, Yan Shaowen asked, "So, how did you determine that the identities of those two monsters were 'ghosts'?"
Wang Hao and Xu Jin were stunned.
Yu Ning paused.
"What else did those two 'ghosts' do?" Yan Shaowen asked with interest.
Yu Ning lowered her head to type and raised her phone to show him.
This time I switched back to WeChat.
"How can you be sure that it is related to my personal privacy? It is useless for you to know my personal affairs [rolling eyes]"
Yan Shaowen: “…” Why does he like to use emojis when talking to him?
He said slowly: "We will exchange rooms for testing later. Everyone's experience will be useful to the next tester."
Yu Ning asked back: "Then why don't you tell me specifically what 'absurd thing' you encountered in room 204?"
A few minutes ago, Yan Shaowen, as the first person to describe his experience, only said that he encountered some ridiculous things in Room 204.
Yan Shaowen: “…………”
He recalled what happened in Room 204.
The only noteworthy thing in the room was a photo album on the big bed, and the photos in that album were truly bizarre.
There was Lu Chongnian, wearing the blue and white high school uniform of their class, staring blankly at a test paper with a score of zero.
There was a scene where Lu Zhongnian jumped up and shot on the basketball court, and the basketball flew directly over the basket and out.
There is also a scene where Mu Yu and another boy in the class walk away arm in arm, with Lu Chongnian staring at them sadly from a close distance in the camera.
Yan Shaowen has not yet recovered his memories related to Lu Chongnian, but he knows with his toes that these photos can't be real, they look very ooc at first glance.
The only purpose of the copy making these fake photos might be to make him laugh, but it's a pity that Yan Shaowen's sense of humor is really not that low...
Moreover, with so many photos related to Lu Zhongnian, he really doubted whether the copy maker had some misunderstanding about him. He was not Lu Zhongnian's closeted...
After Yan Shaowen finished his recollections, he became even more speechless.
Yu Ning looked up at him in dissatisfaction and inquiry, her beautiful eyes sparkling.
Yan Shaowen looked down at the guy, raised his eyebrows and said, "It's something that might make me laugh, but I can't laugh at all."
When Yu Ning heard this, he lowered his head and typed quickly, then raised his hand.
Yan Shaowen looked over.
"Then I met two people who made me angry and wanted to beat them up, but I was too lazy to get my hands dirty when I beat them up."
The little curly-haired boy raised his chin with a look of provocation.
Yan Shaowen looked at him and chuckled.
The two stared at each other, and there seemed to be sparks of lightning popping in the air.
Xu Jin and Wang Hao on the side looked back and forth at the two of them silently.
…It would be great if the monster jumped out at this time. Even if it was Godzilla, he would be killed by the lightning and fire of these two people…
The next second, Yan Shaowen and Yu Ning both looked away, one looked to the left nonchalantly, and the other looked to the right indifferently.
Wang Hao stammered, "Well, uh, then, what should we do next..."
"No one has entered room 203 yet. Someone needs to go in and check." Yan Shaowen stared at the door next to him with the room number "203" on it and spoke.
Wang Hao shut up, and he and Xu Jin both looked speechless.
After what happened in Room 201, they really didn't have the courage to enter a strange room again...
Yan Shaowen's sleeve was pulled and he turned around.
Yu Ning pointed at the door of Room 203 with a grim look on his face.
"You want to go in?"
Yu Ning nodded.
"Okay," Yan Shaowen didn't argue with him, but just looked at him again, "Then I'll go to Room 202 - what about you two?"
Xu Jin and Wang Hao hesitated for a while, and Wang Hao said, "Then, let's go to Room 204 and try it."
The purpose of exchanging rooms is to confirm whether different players will encounter the same situation when entering the same room.
They also have to solve the puzzle as quickly as possible - what exactly does the copy want them to "find" in these four rooms.
The four of them exchanged room cards and walked towards the rooms of their choice.
Four crystal coffins rolled and slid in the narrow corridor, following behind them.
Wang Hao and Xu Jin took deep breaths in front of the door of Room 204, feeling very nervous.
Yan Shaowen and Yu Ning opened the door in front of them without hesitation and walked in.
*
With a click, the oak door automatically closed behind him.
The crystal coffin was blocked outside the door, just like in the previous round.
Yan Shaowen pressed the light switch on the wall, and the interior of Room 202 suddenly became bright.
He walked in quietly, looking around calmly.
The interior layout of each room seems to be the same. There is a small entrance hall when you enter. There is a bathroom on the right side of the entrance hall and a wardrobe on the left side.
Going further, you will see a small living room - there is a sofa and a coffee table on one side of the living room, and a TV hanging on the wall on the other side.
A huge screen was placed in the middle of the room as a partition. On the other side of the screen was the bedroom with a double bed.
Yan Shaowen scanned it carefully.
At that moment, there was no other creature in the room except him. According to what Yu Ning said, he also waited under the bed for half a minute before the ghost appeared.
Yan Shaowen stood in the middle of the room, raised his hand and looked at his watch.
A minute later, the ghost did not appear.
He narrowed his eyes.
Does it have to be the player hiding for it to appear?
I'm afraid the clues will only appear after the monster appears?
Yan Shaowen glanced at the big bed in front of him.
He wouldn't crawl under the bed.
He turned around and walked calmly towards the window.
The curtains are double-layered, with a thick, opaque outer layer and a thin, gauze inner layer.
Yan Shaowen pulled open the curtains, hid behind them, leaving only half of his eyes exposed, and began to wait quietly.
…
Half a minute later, he raised his hand again to check the time.
There is still no movement in the room. Has the monster appeared yet?
Or is that little curly-haired guy fooling people?
Yan Shaowen was quite impatient.
"He can't die yet."
He paused.
"The group can only be stable if he lives. Tell the doctor to keep the old man alive no matter what!"
Suddenly, a man could be heard talking to himself in the room, and at the same time, there was the rustling sound of someone getting dressed.
Yan Shaowen slowly raised his eyes, and looked out with his black pupils as calm as dead water.
A tall middle-aged man was standing in front of the bed.
He was facing sideways towards Yan Shaowen, with some silver hair on his temples. His facial features were handsome, but his narrow and emotionless eyes made him look cold as ice, making people dare not look directly at him.
There were ties and watches on the bed.
The man had just put on his suit vest. While talking on the phone, he picked up the tie and put it under his collar.
He smiled, and the sudden expression made his face look a little more lively.
However, this smile was still emotionless. He just moved the corners of his lips, and a few cold wrinkles appeared at the corners of his eyes.
"What are you talking about? He is totally unconscious right now, how can he feel any pain?"
"So what if it hurts? He has lived comfortably for most of his life. What's wrong with him sacrificing for the whole family now?"
"You might as well worry about yourself. If your father were gone at this moment, would we still be able to keep our current family business? Would your family still be able to hold on?"
The person on the other end of the phone seemed silent.
The man tied his tie, clamped the phone between his shoulder and face, and started wearing the watch.
Soon, the person on the other end of the phone seemed to change the subject. The man said, "Yan Xiaoyan wants to come back? She is living well abroad, so why would she come back?"
"Heh, why did you send her abroad in the first place? She doesn't even remember it. If you bring her back, what else can she do except cause trouble?"
The man's tone turned cold.
"Tell her that if she doesn't obey, I will cut off her financial support. If she needs money, she can ask Aunt Zhang for it."
"If she really wants to come back, wait until she is 20 years old. Then let her meet the boy from the Xu family. If they can get married, then she can stay. If she doesn't want to get married, then get out of here and go back abroad."
Behind the curtains, Yan Shaowen's face was calm.
So this is what Curly meant by “ghost”.
It is indeed a ghost that lingers.
It would be fine if we were both under the same roof, but now we are playing a life and death game and the copy has to send people to him.
So, what about the clues?
Yan Shaowen glanced at the big bed expressionlessly, but did not see any "objects" that suddenly appeared on the bed and were worthy of attention.
The same was true for the rest of the room.
The only change is the appearance of a noisy man.
"If she refuses to get married, what value does she have? Her death abroad has nothing to do with our Yan family!"
"Yan Shaowen, why mention him?"
The man looked annoyed, paused, narrowed his eyes and said: "This kid is smart."
"Speaking of which, it seems that this brother and sister have a bad relationship, but in fact, it is not the case. Putting Yan Xiaoyan abroad can also contain him..."
Yan Shaowen's eyes moved indifferently back and forth across the room.
Is this the only thing you can get from a copy?
"Oh, so what if he is my son? Does he treat me as his father?"
"You raised him with your own hands, and you don't know what kind of person he is?"
"What am I talking about!"
"How does this kid usually look at us, and what is his attitude towards us?!"
You keep talking nonsense. At your age, you still quack like a duck. Can you please shut up?
What's the point of doing all this? Is it just to disgust him?
"If he doesn't treat me as his father, I won't treat him as my son!"
"There is no family affection in this family. You know, it's not just me who made this family like this. You are also responsible!"
It's so annoying, really, just shut up.
"No, it should be us and you. This is how our two families are. Don't complain at this time!"
"If you don't like me, why did you marry me in the first place?"
"Don't be ridiculous. Are our two families getting married just to form a happy and complete family?"
Shut up.
"Remember, even if Yan Shaowen is your own son, you can't tame him!"
Shut up.
"He will eat us sooner or later. He will even swallow our bones and lick our blood clean!"
Shut up.
"If you don't want him to die, tie him up and put him in a cage!"
"Pulled out his teeth, pulled out his nails, got it?!"
"If he bites our fingers one day, we can only lick them like a dog!"
"Leave him to us and beg for mercy—"
——
Suddenly, the curtains were drawn open.
The man stopped talking abruptly, turned around abruptly, and looked surprised.
Yan Shaowen stared at him and laughed.
"The player showed up and didn't disappear?"
"Stay here, are you asking for a beating?"
He suddenly stopped smiling and his eyes became staring.
The hands hanging at the sides slowly closed.
"Come to think of it," he said lazily, "I have wanted to beat you up for a long time."
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