Chapter 123

"From my current observation, the strange stories on the first 44 floors are indeed presented in the form of physical floors."

On the other side, in the shared apartment where Qiu Yufei lives.

In the cramped compartment, the bald man who is over 1.9 meters tall tries to place his body on the floor full of clutter. He looks up at Qiu Yufei who is sitting on the bed and says seriously: "To be precise, all the strange stories are in one building.

"It's just that the conditions of the first 44 floors and the last 56 floors are very different... uh, wait a minute."

The bald man said, and took out a small notebook from his waist bag, licked his fingers, and began to flip through it: "Wait a minute, I have made some records here, and the description will be more detailed..."

"Yeah. "Qiu Yufei sat cross-legged on the mattress, nodded in agreement, and quietly reached out to press back the whale man's head.

The bald man was named Chu Yungang, and he was the "Anxin Gardening" mentioned by the whale man. It is said that he was accidentally dragged in - he was originally responsible for monitoring some weird forums, but after a sudden reply, he came in.

As for the specific situation of the reply, he did not mention it, and Qiu Yufei did not ask much. She was also cautious and did not explain too much. She only said that she was an employee of the Strange Talk Demolition Office and came in with the old employees to help. It was just that he had just come in and did not understand the situation very well - anyway, as Xu Ming said, When it comes to intelligence, the more you can get, the better.

On the other hand, maybe it's because she's working for the Demolition Office, but although Mr. Chu's attitude is lukewarm, he's quite generous with intelligence. Not only did he take the initiative to tell Qiu Yufei about clues about the current strange talk not long after she came in, but after hearing her mention her confusion about the window and the lighthouse, he further shared the information and guesses he had collected.

"Hey, I finally found it." Just at this moment, Chu Yungang finally turned to the designated page in the notebook, adjusted his sitting position uncomfortably, and explained to Qiu Yufei while gesturing with his hands:

"First of all, we have to make one thing clear - this place is different from ordinary buildings.

"The first floor of a regular building is in the ground, but this building... if it can really be considered a building, it's the opposite.

"Its first floor is the top floor, and the number of floors increases as you count down.

"Among them, the first forty-four floors, regardless of the original settings, will definitely have windows, and the windows will face the same direction, so you can see the lighthouse outside. Some people with better viewing angles can even see the streets below.

"The shapes of the windows are different, and it seems to be based on the original settings of the strange story. When you open the window, you can see the unified exterior wall of the building. At certain extreme angles, you can also see the windows of other floors and the situation inside the window.

"The last fifty-six floors are in a completely opposite state. There are no windows, no lighthouses, and even if there are windows, most of them are sealed.

"And that is..." Chu Yungang paused subtly when he said this.

"Hmm?" Qiu Yufei looked over immediately, not hiding her thirst for knowledge - although she didn't understand it all, it didn't matter.

The important thing is that what she heard, the whale man could also hear it. Rounding off, Xu Ming would also know.

If you can't make an accurate judgment, then just act as an emotionless broadcaster. Qiu Yufei has

always been very clear about her positioning. Chu Yungang looked at her awkwardly and reached out to scratch his head.

"I once tried to pry open a sealed window." He said, "It's also sealed outside."

"?" Qiu Yufei didn't understand, "What do you mean? "

That is to say, there is also a solid object outside the window. It's a bit like a wall, but the texture is not that hard. It feels more like soil, completely blocking the space outside the window..." Chu Yungang said, and showed his hand to Qiu Yufei - because he showed the middle finger of his left hand, Qiu Yufei's heart skipped a beat.

But if you look closely, you will find that the middle finger looks pretty miserable. Half of the nail has fallen off, and the edge is black, and there is accumulated blood in the finger cracks. Because of the passage of time, it has turned into a very dark brown. It looks dirty.

"I also tried to touch it with my hand, and the result is this. "Chu Yungang sighed, "I broke the nail myself because after it touched the mud outside the window, mushrooms began to grow in the cracks of my nails. It was not enough to just pull them out. I had to remove them with the roots..."

...hiss.

Qiu Yufei imagined the scene and felt that the cracks in her fingers were also painful.

At this moment, there was a slight movement in the bag. The whale man came out of the bag like a cricket pupa, grabbed the edge of the bag and whispered:

"Xu Ming asked you to ask again about moving with the help of windows--"

Qiu Yufei: "..."

But, can't you make yourself more normal... headphones, mobile phone, if it doesn't work, you can just pinch yourself into a little man and come out again...

Qiu Yufei thought silently, and put the brown potato back into the bag as if nothing had happened, and wiped her fingers with the corner of the quilt beside her: "Well, that, if it's convenient, I would like to ask again..."

"If you want to move with the help of windows, I'm not sure if it's possible." Chu Yungang said directly.

Qiu Yufei: "...Ah?"

"What I mean is, although it looks like the first 44 floors are in one building, whether it is possible to transfer space directly through the outer walls and windows is still debatable. "Chu Yungang said, "When I was on the 44th floor, I tried to flip out of the window directly. The strange thing is that the 44th floor is the lowest floor, and I can see the ground directly from the window, but when I flip out, my feet can't touch the ground."

For the sake of safety, he flipped back silently. As for the other floors, there is no way to try - the outer wall of this building is flat, and there is almost no fulcrum, and it is risky to climb out.

"Oh..." Qiu Yufei nodded thoughtfully, glanced at Chu Yungang, and silently covered her bag, "But may I ask, how did you just, um..."

"My hearing is very good." Chu Yungang said, pointing to his ears, "and the person in your bag...to be honest, has a strong sense of presence. I actually noticed it a long time ago. "

After saying that, he nodded towards Qiu Yufei's bag: "If you have any questions, you can ask me directly. Now we are all in the same boat, I have no reason to hide it."

Qiu Yufei: "..."

The other party behaved too naturally, which made her not know what to say for a moment. But the whale fat man in the bag, the word "you" made him very happy, and he couldn't help but show off to Xu Ming in the other room in his mind.

Look at the other child, and then look at you.

"Well, sorry, we didn't mean to hide it from you." Qiu Yufei was silent for a while, and finally found her voice, "It's just because our teacher is not normal, so we are worried that you may not be able to accept it."

"Oh, no." Chu Yungang said immediately, "Our unit also hired mutant roots as consultants."

Yes, the one who was taken away this time.

Of course, the more important reason is that he had heard other colleagues mention the Demolition Office - mainly from those in the Field Affairs Department.

How to say it, the result of being indoctrinated with countless hearsay is that he feels that no matter what strange things Qiu Yufei takes out in front of him, he will not be surprised. It's

just a mutant root, why should you be surprised, as if you have never seen the world...

"Oh..." Qiu Yufei nodded thoughtfully, and the whale fat man on the other side had already flipped out the edge of the bag. After staring at Chu Yungang for a while, he suddenly spoke:

"By the way, there is one more thing.

"We have received help messages from unknown sources on other floors before. We suspect it may be from the consultant of your unit.

"If so, she is now on the 100th floor and you need to rescue her within 24 hours."

...The 100th floor?

Chu Yungang's eyes turned slightly, revealing an expression of "as expected", while Qiu Yufei frowned: "But, 24 hours? How can it be in time?" "

Not necessarily in time." Chu Yungang said, "The speed of time flow between each floor here is different. What the teacher said may only be the time she perceives. For people outside, the limit may not be so tight."

So that's it. Qiu Yufei breathed a sigh of relief, while Chu Yungang raised his wrist to check the time, then stood up with great effort and carefully approached the closed door.

"The 'landlord' outside should have left." After a moment, he turned around and said, "It's safe outside for now. Let's go out and look for clues."

- The landlord and other tenants are the dangers in this strange story. Due to the lack of clues, they are now unable to determine how many tenants there are in this house besides them. The only thing they know is that if they want to go to other tenants' houses to look for intelligence, they must abide by the corresponding tenant rules. On this basis, they also need to abide by the rules given by the landlord and the rules of the public area. Once any of them is violated, it is possible to bring about a fatal disaster.

Qiu Yufei hesitated for a moment, then nodded slowly. Chu Yungang opened the door and limped out. It was not obvious when he was sitting, but when he stood up, it was obvious that his left ankle was wrapped in a thick layer of gauze, which was roughly wrapped and had a large area of ​​red inside.

To be honest, because of this wound, Qiu Yufei was quite nervous when she first saw him, and she almost hit him with her bag. But she couldn't be blamed for overreacting. After all, the monsters she saw in the parking lot before also walked with a limp.

It was only when Chu Yun took out his business card to prove his human identity that Qiu Yufei calmed down a little. It just so happened that his business card had a leaf pattern printed on it, so the two sides confirmed each other's identities.

However, Qiu Yufei still couldn't help but be a little concerned about the injury on the other's foot. The other party happened to be telling her the key points to beware of other tenants and landlords. Qiu Yufei secretly glanced at his wound and said,

"So, the wound on your foot... was also caused by them?"

"Ah?" Chu Yungang was stunned and said quickly, "No, no, it was not caused by the monsters here, but by other people..." "

?!" Qiu Yufei's eyes widened immediately, "Other 'people'?!"

Chu Yungang: "..."

"Actually, I'm not sure if it's a person, maybe not." He sighed and continued to limp forward, "Speaking of which, I have to remind you about this matter."

"In this weird story, besides humans like us who have been swept up, there seems to be another kind of existence moving around...abnormal existence."

Qiu Yufei: "......?"

She paused slightly: "You mean, not those dummies?"

"No, it's another thing." Chu Yungang exhaled, "They look very similar to humans. I have only come into contact with one and don't know the details. But what is certain is that if they are dead, they must be Cang'er. If they are mutant roots, they must have bad intentions."

"The wound on my foot was caused by one of them." Chu Yungang said, lifting his trouser leg and revealing the wound on his foot again, "He was pretending to be an ordinary human at the time...and I was not vigilant enough."

Fortunately, he reacted quickly, otherwise his whole foot would probably be gone. Not only that, the guy almost looted all the cards he found at that time - fortunately he hid one in his shoe, otherwise he wouldn't even be able to take the elevator to leave.

"Anyway, you should be careful in the future." Chu Yungang finally said, exhaling again, "The man I met was a man with tattered clothes and always wearing a mask. From what he said, there are more than one 'person' like him."

"If you meet him in the future, you must be careful."

*

The other side.

The elevator entrance.

The barefoot woman in a red dress stood in the open elevator, fiddling with the cards in her hands boredly, while flipping through the notebook hanging inside the carriage, looking like she was struggling with what kind of story to write.

Familiar footsteps suddenly sounded outside, and a head wearing a mask suddenly poked into the carriage.

"Hey, you're still here." The masked man said rudely and stepped into the elevator. "I just happened to meet you, so I won't be polite to you. I'm going to use your card."

"...Get out. Did I let you use it?" The woman in the red dress rolled her eyes at him impatiently, but didn't really try to chase him away. Instead, she put the notebook and pen in her hand back to their original places. "Looking at you like this, I can tell that you have gained a lot. You're using my elevator. How shameless."

"Look at what you said. How about this, I'll take out all my cards and exchange them with you, okay?" The masked man said, pulling down his mask, revealing a mouthful of rugged black teeth. "Come to think of it, have you seen Big Eyes? Why do I feel like I haven't seen it for a long time. Nothing will happen, right?"

"Neither did I. Maybe it went to some floor to concentrate on eating." The woman in the red dress said nonchalantly, "Mad Bag, you don't have to pretend to worry about it. We all know that after removing all the roots from its body, it has the strength to deal with both of us at the same time. Instead of worrying about it getting in trouble, you might as well worry about it suddenly becoming smart and knowing how to snatch things from you - that would be interesting."

The man called "Mad Bag" sneered, looked up and looked around, and suddenly changed the subject: "Tell me, what kind of place is this?"

"What a hell of a place." The woman in the red dress said coldly, "They dragged me in for no reason, and took away all my things for no reason. Don't let me know who the domain master here is, otherwise I will definitely bite him to death."

"You talk as if you can do it." Crazy Bag laughed mercilessly, "I think this place is quite interesting. So many people, so many monsters, so many cards with the power of roots - have you played that kind of chicken-eating game? Don't you think our situation is actually very similar to that?"

"Try to collect all the cards you can find. If you meet other people, kill them. Then, under their desperate gaze, snatch their cards - how interesting!" Crazy Bag became more and more excited as he spoke, and accidentally laughed out loud, "I met an insider before, and it was so funny to see him screaming and getting no response in the end..."

"Tsk." The woman in the red dress looked at him with disdain, turned her eyes away indifferently, paused, and suddenly said, "By the way, speaking of insiders... do you remember the person holding the rule book number nine?"

"..." The smile on Crazy Bag's face froze, and his eyes immediately turned cold, "I remember, what's the matter?"

"Her friend is here too." The woman in the red dress said, "The one who was with her in Hongqiang, I saw her."

The girl still smelled of the rule book - it was a pity that the time they met was really unfortunate.

As an abnormal being, the woman in the red dress is not good at writing, so she often uses a more costly method to start the elevator, that is, directly consuming a membership card. When she met Qiu Yufei, her elevator was about to start. If she chased after her, it would mean that the card she used would be wasted. She was really hurt.

In a moment of entanglement, the girl with the rule book ran away. She is still resentful now.

"Oh, her..." Crazy Bag looked uninterested, "I know who you are talking about, forget about her, it doesn't matter...?!"

Before he finished speaking, he seemed to think of something, and his expression suddenly changed again: "Wait, you said the friend of the person holding the number nine rule book is here?"

The woman in the red dress rolled her eyes and nodded impatiently. Crazy Bag was immediately excited.

"And you said that she still smells like the rule book, right?"

"Yes." The woman in the red dress said, "Maybe she has her own rule book. What's the matter?"

"No, no, no, it's impossible. It's very impossible." Crazy Bag said firmly, "I have seen her. I met her in real life. She couldn't see me at all at that time."

In other words, the girl is not a psychic.

And people without psychic bodies cannot obtain the rule book.

The woman in the red dress frowned: "You mean..."

"A person who shouldn't have the rule book, but has the rule book, and is alone. There is only one possibility." Crazy Bag lowered his voice, his tone mysterious, "That is, she came in with another person. And when she came in, because of the magical mechanism of this damn place, she accidentally got her companion's personal belongings-and that personal belonging happened to be the rule book."

Crazy Bag couldn't help laughing when he said this:

"What a coincidence, she just happens to have a friend who holds the rule book number nine.

"Then who do you think the rule book on her body belongs to?"

"..." The woman in the red dress paused slightly and turned her head to the side, "You mean, the holder of the rule book is also here?"

"Not only that, they are separated. "This is definitely a good opportunity to take action," said Crazy Bag. "

Rule Book No. 9 - he has always remembered it.

Also engraved in his mind are the beatings he received, the bites he received, the laptop that was stolen...

He remembers every single one of them!

The woman in the red dress didn't know that he was already playing the background music of revenge in his mind. She just thought that he was still obsessed with the rule book, and said casually, "So you plan to rob it directly?"

"Yes - no, you can't." Crazy Bag's eyes rolled, and he suddenly changed his mind, "You can't steal the rule book first. "

Just to snatch a rule book, whether it is to disassemble it or forcibly absorb it, it will take a long time. And this period of time is enough for that guy to find a way to come here again. What's more, some abilities can be used without the rule book. Just taking away a rule book can't guarantee anything.

Woman in red dress: "...What do you mean?"

"To shoot a person, shoot the horse first. To steal a book, steal the person first." Mad Bag pondered for a moment, muttered, then narrowed his eyes as if he had made up his mind, took out a card from his pocket, held it in his mouth, and took out a knife from somewhere. He looked at his left hand for a long time, and suddenly he got mad and cut off two fingers with one knife. The severed

fingers fell to the ground with a snap. He frowned restrainedly, took the card out of his mouth, and said nervously: "Exchange.

"Trade part of your body in exchange for specific information.

" "Tell me, the owner of the number nine rule book, which floor is she on now, and how many helpers does she have?"

With a sharp scratching sound, the card in his hand suddenly began to heat up. The original text was erased bit by bit, and replaced by the answer he got with his fingers.

Mad Bag chuckled, and was about to take a closer look when he suddenly cried out in pain, and the knife in his right hand fell to the ground with a clang - and with it fell two more broken fingers.

Without any warning, the middle finger and index finger of his right hand also fell.

"Puff." The woman in a red dress standing next to him couldn't help laughing, "It seems that your fingers are not as valuable as you thought."

"If you want to exchange for something else, I guess you can only chop off your whole hand."

"No need to be so troublesome. I still have my feet, thank you." Crazy Bag looked at her unhappily, hissed in pain, held the card with difficulty, lowered his head and continued to read the answer that appeared.

As he read, he couldn't help but groan. The woman in the red dress looked over with disgust and curiosity, but he had no intention of hiding it, and said directly: "She is alone, on the 26th floor."

"Ha ha ha, alone, alone - ah!"

He rubbed his fingers as if he had an idea suddenly, the curve of the corners of his mouth almost stretched to the back of his head, and half of his face was almost occupied by a dark smile: "I know what to do.

"I thought of how to torture her severely!"

Crazy Bag said, and immediately picked up the notebook hanging on the wall, turned directly to the floor where Xu Ming was, and then picked up the matching pen -

then, his action stopped where he was.

Woman in red dress: “……?”

"... Help me." Crazy Bag was silent for a while, then spoke reluctantly, "My fingers are not strong enough to write now."

The woman in red sneered again, but still cooperated and walked over, took the paper and pen from him, and elegantly drew two strokes on the paper with the tip of the pen: "Do you want to add a setting to the floor where she is? What do you plan to write?"

"Something that is quite explosive."

The man whispered, with a gurgling sound in his voice, as if he was trying hard to hold back his laughter:

"Something that can make her fall from heaven to hell in an instant."