Chapter 26 (Minor revision)

[File number: 0092

[Strange story code: Butterfly Mansion

[Related information source: Internet collection/local population legend/dead oral account

[Related description: Rumor has it that it is often seen in the southern suburbs of City A. It has appeared in many forms, including but not limited to highways/amusement facilities/hotels, etc. The specific manifestation is speculated to be a space or time connected from beginning to end, that is, a space-time cycle. Because its latest form is determined to be a hotel and has a fixed name, namely [Butterfly Mansion], it is designated as the code.

[Rule points: Unknown

[Escape method: Unknown

[Is there a known human survivor: No

[Is there a known non-human escapee: Yes

[Note: Currently, only one non-human escapee has been contacted. It is speculated that he entered the strange story area after a normal death in reality, and was later released by the strange story area. The relevant information provided has been filed separately. Please apply for access if needed.

[Has a field investigation been sent out? Yes.

[Investigation results: From August 202X to March 202X, a total of one batch was sent out, and no survivors were recorded. It is expected that another field investigation will be conducted in April 202X. Selected members: Tang Wenhao, Zhang Wenjian. Reserve members: Fang Xueqing, Ling Guang. 】

"..."

After quickly scanning the text on this page, Xu Ming's eyebrows moved slightly, and he slowly stood up. Qiu Yufei whispered in disbelief:

"I have a rough idea of ​​what 'loop' means. But what does this 'unknown means of escape' mean?"

"It means that at least this group of people in the industry have not found a way out." Xu Ming exhaled, "The only person who has left here is a dead person, or he was released by the ghost talk area himself."

As for the other living people who accidentally entered - it is estimated to be the same as Tang Menglong's description.

First, they continuously loop in space on a highway, and then enter the hotel to loop in time.

A more specific manifestation should be the constant check-out and check-in... That's why Tang Menglong "returned" to the bus after checking out, and left more experience records afterwards.

"... The question is, what's the purpose of this strange area?" Qiu Yufei thought for a moment, but couldn't help saying, "We are already trapped here, why do we have to add such a complicated setting..."

"Maybe it's because this can clear the memory and facilitate better control?" Xu Ming was not sure, and after thinking about it, he took out Tang Menglong's notebook again, "And, look carefully at the records he left..."

"This Miss A, is the state similar to Bo He?"

"..." Qiu Yufei was stunned for a moment, and found that it was true. Xu Ming followed up, "Then do you still remember the number on the registration book? Bohe and her friend are both number 2. The two of us are number 1. Assuming that this number refers to the number of cycles, then Bohe and Miss A are both number 2. C, who checked in earlier than A, should be at least number 3, which means he has experienced at least three cycles."

"Think about it again, what happened to C?"

Qiu Yufei pondered for a moment, her face changed instantly: "... He went crazy and was taken away by the hotel staff in the end."

"That's it." Xu Ming put away the book with a serious face, "Tan Tu, who lives in 8301, should also be experiencing his third cycle. According to Bohe, his mental state is also very bad."

"That is to say, the cycle is not static. And in each cycle, three new people will join. This hotel is very likely using these cycles to continuously deepen a certain influence on us..."

"I see." Qiu Yufei gradually understood, "Just like Hongqiang is using the employee code of conduct to pickle people, in this place, the cycle is its unique way of pickling!"

"That's what I guessed... but it's not necessarily true." Xu Ming pondered for a while, but still didn't dare to make a statement. After a brief hesitation, he turned his attention to the computer in front of him.

——The file just now was found by her in a related folder on the computer. In the same folder, there are many other documents, which should be the records of Tang Menglong after entering the second round.

Xu Ming was about to read it, but suddenly remembered something and turned to look at Gu Yunshu.

"Yunshu." She waved at the other party, "Room 8301, do you know how to get out?"

Gu Yunshu was stunned for a moment, then nodded slowly.

"Then please go over there and take a look, okay?" Xu Ming continued, "The tenant over there is the only one in the three-cycle cycle, and the hotel staff has been keeping a special eye on him before..."

This made her inevitably more concerned.

Gu Yunshu was straightforward, nodded again, stood up and walked to the window, and climbed out skillfully.

But Qiu Yufei was stunned.

"...I thought she could just go through the wall." She said blankly.

"It's possible in reality, but probably not in the ghost story zone." Xu Ming operated the computer without looking up, "In a place like this, even an Ah Piao has to follow some physical rules."

...So how regular can it be to crawl along the wall?

Qiu Yufei looked at her with difficulty, and then carefully scanned the surroundings. She imagined Gu Yunshu leading a group of Ah Piao to climb the window in the middle of the night, and she felt even more numb.

On the other side, Xu Ming scanned the records on the computer at a glance. I don't know what he saw, and his brows knitted even tighter.

*

At the same time.

Both hands clung to the window frame tightly, and the veins were popped out with force. The man hanging outside the second-floor window finally opened the window with force, panting, and climbed in from the outside.

Still wearing a coat stained with blood, it was Tan Tu who was supposed to be in room 8301.

He climbed down from his room directly along the outer wall of the hotel. The difficult movements made his face soaked with sweat, but after his feet landed on the ground, his face showed an expression of relief.

"I'm saved, I'm saved..." He murmured, and after confirming that there was no one else in the room, he sat on the ground, his lips trembling, "I escaped, I escaped from under the noses of those people..."

The notice was right, those staff were indeed monitoring him! For this reason, they even sent someone to follow him in the corridor on the third floor... Fortunately, he was brave and escaped first.

The question is, what should he do after that?

Tan Tu's throat rolled, and his fingers involuntarily reached into his coat pocket, and he quickly took out a white folded card, which was the guest instructions he brought out from his room.

He had read the contents of this letter countless times in the past ten hours. He was so familiar with it that even though his vision was blurred by sweat, he could still see some of the words clearly -

[…First of all, although I don’t know if you have noticed, you are already in the loop…

[If you have discovered this, it proves that you are the chosen one, and you deserve salvation more than others. If not, choose to believe, maybe you still have a chance to be saved…]

[…The most important point, remember, don’t trust anyone. Especially the hotel staff. Don’t trust other guests, they may have been contaminated. They are in the same group.]

[Only rooms with 13 in the number are safe, and they can’t get in. But remember, a room can only protect you for 24 hours at most. When the time is up, leave immediately and don’t let them catch you. 】

【Try to collect as many white chess-shaped candies as possible, the butterflies will like them. 】

【Be careful, they will clean your brain, don't let them find out that you have noticed the loop. 】

【Also, assuming that you have already noticed the loop, then I boldly guess that you almost died in the last round, right?

【You were trapped in a secret room, and luckily you didn't die, but you didn't escape either. So when this loop started, your status was not reset...

【Don't be nervous, this is a good thing, really. The isolation of the secret room allowed you to keep your memory, and the reset of the loop allowed you to escape from the secret room. Like I said, you are the chosen one, the lucky one in a million.

【But this leads to another problem, I guess you may have already noticed - they will not let you go.

【Those staff will keep an eye on you, and at the same time, the secret room will hunt you. As long as the destined day comes, you will definitely enter that terrible room again, because it has locked you in. No matter how you escape, it will be useless. Unless you die.

[And I can tell you for sure that there is only one way to escape this predetermined ending——]

"...We have to hurry in."

Tan Tu closed his eyes tightly, his throat rolled, and he stuffed the paper back into his pocket with difficulty, then stood up staggeringly: "It's already the second day, I can't delay any longer, I don't have much time... I have to hurry in, I can't stay here until tomorrow..."

Those tragic fragments of memory flashed through his mind for the nth time. His steps paused slightly, and then they quickened again.

...Secret room.

Yes, he did experience a secret room. He remembered it.

He was clearly just visiting the showroom at the time, and everything suddenly changed. The room was suddenly closed, and there were strange statues. The shadow in the mirror would laugh strangely, there were spell-like whispers around his ears, and there were screams and requests for help from other people... Blood was everywhere, and thinking about it now made him sick.

What was even more devastating was that he had experienced this kind of thing more than once.

The first time, he foolishly thought it was just a trap in the hotel, until another tenant who was also trapped there was smashed to pieces in front of him.

But he was lucky, he didn't die. Just when he was about to die, time suddenly went back. When he woke up, he was already standing outside the secret room. He stumbled out, and his posture was so clumsy that the girl he met by chance mistook him for an NPC, and she even gave him candy.

At that time, he could not fully understand what had happened. He only roughly realized that time had returned to the first day he checked into the hotel. Everything seemed to start all over again, but it was not exactly the same as before.

The people living in the hotel had changed. The rules he saw had also changed. Everything had changed, but no one seemed to know except him.

But he said nothing. He thought the nightmare was over - until the day he was about to check out, he was trapped in the same secret room again.

He was scared, really scared. But on the other hand, he already had experience, and he knew how to ensure that he could survive as much as possible.

Just make yourself the last person alive in the secret room.

... As it turned out, he made the right bet. At a certain point in time, he came out again and stood outside the secret room, his heart pounding, as if he were in another world.

But when he stumbled out of the corridor and saw a familiar girl standing outside, he suddenly realized that it was not over yet.

Everything was back to the starting point, which meant that everything would happen again.

Just like the tenant instructions said, he would be trapped in the secret room again tomorrow, for sure.

There was only one way to avoid being locked in -

go back to the first day before the third day.

Slowly opening the door in front of him, Tan Tu looked out in panic. Only after making sure that there were no staff in the corridor did he move out carefully.

The lights in the corridor were dim, but even so, he quickly saw a figure not far away. It was the girl who gave him candy, standing in front of another door not far away, swiping her card to enter.

There was a bit of cruelty in his frightened eyes. Tan Tu swallowed his saliva, held the things hidden in his pocket tightly, and walked towards her lightly.

Halfway there, he heard a click of a door opening -

the door of room 8203 next to him suddenly opened by itself.

The door was only half open, and there was no light on inside, so it was pitch black.

Tan Tu subconsciously glanced inside the door, and suddenly froze. After a moment of stunned silence, he turned pale and slowly backed away.

On the other side, accompanied by a crisp sound, Bo He finally touched the door, and the sound of hanging the door chain came from the room.

The door of room 8203 was then gently closed, as if it had never been opened.

Tan Tu was the only one left, standing there stiffly, with a look of great fear on his face. At this moment, he heard the sound of an elevator coming up from behind him. He was so scared that his breathing stagnated and he instinctively hid in the door frame beside him. After a pause, he poked his head out again and saw another person staggering out from inside. He

was not a staff member. He was a young man, very thin, and looked like a college student.

"..."

Tan Tu was silent for a moment, then suddenly closed his eyes and took a deep breath.

He couldn't do it to that girl, but this one seemed to be okay.

So soon, he opened his eyes again, put one hand behind his back, and slowly walked towards the other party.

In his pocket was a rope that he had prepared long ago, and in his hand was a sharp piece of mirror fragment.

*

The other side.

In Tang Menglong's room on the third floor.

Xu Ming and Qiu Yufei were still quickly reading the records left by each other, taking a backup photo with their mobile phones from time to time.

As they expected, the new record was about Tang Menglong's second cycle.

I don't know if it was to prevent leaks, many contents were not as detailed as they remembered in the first round, and some places used a lot of jargon. Even so, they still took down a lot of information that people were concerned about -

for example, when registering again, there is still a link to take candy. But the number of candies is no longer five, but maintained at the end of the first round; for example, the tenant instructions for the second round. It is obviously different from the first round.

Tang Menglong speculated that this was a rule invasion, but it was temporarily impossible to determine the origin of the invading party; for example, the "special effects" encountered in the second round seemed to be very different from the first round.

In Tang Menglong's words - almost all the "special effects" have taken on the characteristics of mice. Not only that, real mice seem to make their presence felt from time to time. When I sleep at night, I can sometimes hear rustling sounds coming from the wall.

If it were just that, it would be fine. The more important thing is that the feeling of those "special effects" has also changed.

[The frequency of [Coward] triggering has increased significantly. Sometimes even if I just sit quietly, I can feel a strong sense of being spied on and a sense of crisis. The frequency of abnormal beings appearing has not increased significantly... In addition, their changed attitude towards [Candy] is also very interesting.

[Considering the contradictions between the two versions of the rules, I deliberately used another one as a test. If, in the first cycle, these monsters were only curious about the white candy, then in the second cycle, their attitude towards the candy could be described as enthusiastic.

[There is no significant difference in the effect after taking it, but if they find that they have more candy in their hands, they will even abandon the smaller portion and actively chase the larger portion... From this perspective, the abnormal existence in this round is not only attacking, but also seems to have a higher IQ than before. ]

- Another example is the second round of check-in list.

In Tang Menglong's second cycle, there are still six tenants. In addition to Tang Menglong and his companion Lao Zhang, there are three new tenants. The remaining person is not Mr. E, who checked out with them smoothly, but Miss A, who was thought dead by Tang Menglong.

Mr. E's absence was not surprising, because this ghost story area itself had a precedent of releasing the dead; but Miss A's reappearance shocked both insiders.

Not only because she had escaped death, but also because she was in a very bad state when she appeared.

Her head was covered in blood, her body was covered in wounds, and she seemed to be in great panic. When Tang Menglong found her, she was staggering along the corridor alone, as if she had just escaped from some terrifying place.

As an insider, Tang Menglong quickly caught up with her and comforted her with a very professional method. To his surprise, Miss A seemed to have escaped directly from the secret room because of the end of the cycle; and it seemed that because of this special experience, she vaguely sensed the existence of the cycle.

In addition, she was the only person currently experiencing the third cycle, and Miss A's importance in the eyes of the two insiders suddenly rose to the highest level. Not only did she become the focus of their attention, but she also received their close protection.

This can be seen from the records left by Tang Menglong - most of the records in the later period of the second round almost revolved around her:

[Miss A refused to describe to me the appearance of the monsters she encountered in this round. The only thing that can be confirmed is that they no longer show the characteristics of rats.

[Miss A showed obvious resistance to the hotel staff, refused to use anything in the hotel, and sometimes looked at a certain place with fear.

[Miss A showed an unusual love for the number thirteen, and thought that of all the numbers, only 13 was the most perfect because it was the pattern closest to a butterfly - but I didn't quite understand her logic. If it was because 13 looked like half a butterfly, then wasn't B the same?

[But her words gave me some inspiration. I went to check out Room 13 on the second and third floors. Sure enough, B was modified later... Someone artificially added a vertical line to the doorplate, turning 13 into 1B.

[Combined with the hints in the second version, can we judge that the hotel is deliberately guarding against something?

[...No more information can be obtained for the time being. Miss A has shown strong anxiety since yesterday and refused to continue communicating with us. I tried to comfort and inquire, but to little avail.

[It seems that because of the experience of being trapped in the secret room in the last round, she is very afraid of the arrival of the fourth night. She was trapped in the secret room on the fourth night in the last round. For some reason, she firmly believes that the same thing will happen again.

[In addition, there are still no more rules, and no clues to leave, which makes Lao Zhang and I a little anxious. ]

[Lao Zhang made a bold attempt. He used his [Pickpocket] characteristic to steal two additional clues from the entire strange story area. The details are as follows:

[1. Corpses raise animals, animals raise mice, mice raise butterflies, butterflies look for scissors, and scissors offer corpses.

[2. The more it loops, the closer it gets, and time will draw closer to the sound of its flapping wings, and those who have escaped from death can hear it most clearly. ]

[… We have tried to make some interpretations of these two hints, but there is still no obvious progress. ]

[Lao Zhang fell into a state of extreme fatigue due to the use of his characteristics. I tried to switch my own characteristics to a pickpocket, but unfortunately I failed.

[No wonder, after all, the [pickpockets] I have come into contact with so far are only Lao Zhang and Xue Qing. Because the negative effects are obvious, they don’t use them often... The number of times they are seen is too small, and it is indeed difficult to grasp. ]

[Today is the fourth day of this cycle, and tomorrow is the time to check out. We still know too little.

[Suddenly, I have a question. Can the cycle only be triggered by checking out? Is there any other way to enter the cycle? If this method can be found, perhaps we can reversely deduce the method to escape the cycle. ]

... ...

...

[It has been confirmed that in addition to checking out, there is another way to enter the cycle.

[Lao Zhang is dead. A killed him.

[We went directly into the third cycle, and A no longer has to worry about the fourth night.

[The number of days in the cycle has been reduced. This time, we will only stay for three days. ]

"..."

Here, the record in front of him finally came to an end.

Xu Ming stared at the last few lines of words intently. For some reason, a strong sense of uneasiness suddenly surged in his chest.

At this moment, Gu Yunshu finally climbed in from the window again. Xu Ming quickly asked about the situation of 8301. Gu Yunshu tilted his head while sitting on the windowsill, and his tone was a little confused.

"I've checked, he's not in the room," she said softly, "and..."

She raised her hand and tried to gesture: "The mirror in the bathroom is broken. There's a piece about this big missing..."

Before she finished speaking, a scream suddenly came from downstairs.

Perhaps because the window was open, the sound was vague, but some of it could still be heard. At least Xu Ming could hear that it was Mint's voice.

She seemed to be very frightened, and kept shouting "someone's been murdered", "call an ambulance" and so on - but soon, the sound quickly weakened.

It was as if everything was muted, not only her screams, but all sounds began to move away. Xu Ming turned his head and saw Qiu Yufei's lips opening and closing, but heard nothing. He moved his eyes and saw the clock on the TV cabinet, the hands of which were rapidly reversing.

His eyes began to blur and his consciousness began to blur. Xu Ming was startled and hurriedly slapped himself hard. His brain was spinning rapidly, and countless fragments of information quickly passed through his mind -

killing someone can start the cycle in advance, and the cycle started in advance is suspected to reduce the number of days. Tan Tu slipped away and killed people under the supervision of the staff. He did the same thing as A in the past... Why? Because they both reached the third round?

No, this is not the point. The important thing is what happens next...

She gritted her teeth, and took advantage of the brief lucidity to quickly write a few words on her palm with a pen, and then quickly looked at Gu Yunshu who was standing blankly beside the bed——

"Take everyone to my room and wait!"

Xu Ming couldn't hear his own voice, so he could only shout as loudly as possible. As soon as he finished speaking, he felt the dizziness like hypoglycemia coming up again——

...

"Mingming? Teacher Mingming?

"Wake up, we're here..."

Qiu Yufei's voice came from the side. Xu Ming opened his eyes with difficulty, only to find that the car had stopped.

Outside the car window was the hotel they were staying at - the overall style of the building was deliberately old, with large patches of withered ivy climbing on the walls. From Xu Ming's perspective, he could even see the broken glass windows on the upper floor.

Xu Ming: "..."

Yes, I remember now. I was accompanying Qiu Yufei to experience the hotel.

Xu Ming thought silently and tried to sit up straight. His head was still a little heavy after falling asleep. Heavy.

She raised her hand habitually, wanting to rub her forehead, and her eyes glanced at her palm, and she was suddenly stunned.

There were a lot of things written on it, such as 831B, xunhuan, photo album, 8307...

There was a line of handwriting on the wrist that was so sloppy that it was about to fly. It took a lot of effort to recognize that it was five words, "Strange Talk Demolition Office".

There was also a fragmented and confusing sentence.

Look at Qiu Yufei's bag.

Xu Ming: "..." What the hell?

After a slight hesitation, she still looked at Qiu Yufei next to her.

"Hey, why don't you look through your bag." She tried to say, "See if there is anything special in it?"

"...?? "Qiu Yufei looked at her in surprise, her expression seemed to say what's wrong with you. However, seeing Xu Ming insisted, she didn't say anything in the end, and began to rummage through her handbag in front of Xu Ming.

However, as she rummaged through it, her expression quickly changed.

"...Oh my god." She widened her eyes in disbelief, and slowly took out a work badge that both of them were very familiar with, "What's going on?"

Xu Ming: "..." Good question, I want to know too.

And just as she was about to say this, an even more shocked voice suddenly popped up in her mind: "Oh my god! What's going on! ! "

The tone was so strong that it almost burst her skull.

...Why are you yelling so loudly!

Xu Ming covered his forehead, and for the nth time he had the urge to release the blubber man.

On the other side, Qiu Yufei seemed to realize something. She looked at the name card with "Strange Talk Demolition and Relocation Office" written on it, and her eyes gradually became fearful: "Ming, Teacher Mingming, since this thing has appeared, wouldn't we..." "

..."

In front of him was Qiu Yufei who was confused about the situation, and the blubber man was still screaming in her head. Xu Ming also blinked blankly, then looked at the palm of his hand with the house number written on it, was silent for a moment, and finally sighed.

"I don't know." She clasped her hands together, "Anyway, let's go out and take a look first. "

If we really have accidentally entered the ghost story area, just sitting here is not a solution.

Thinking of this, Xu Ming walked downstairs with her luggage. After entering the hotel, the check-in process was very smooth, and she got the room card not long after.

——831B.

The room was randomly assigned by the front desk, and the accommodation time was two days and one night.

In a blink of an eye, it was the third floor. Xu Ming looked at the house number in front of her, then looked at her palm, raised her eyebrows, and her expression became more subtle.

And this subtlety, the moment she pushed open the door, instantly turned into unconcealable shock——

"Oh my god. What's going on. "

Staring at the room in disbelief, Xu Ming tried to hold back, but finally couldn't and murmured.

"..."

In response to her, Gu Yunshu's usual calm and innocent eyes.

As if cooperating with her movements, the charred corpses surrounding her, which almost filled the entire room, also looked over in unison.

...It has to be said that even for Xu Ming, this scene was a little too exciting.

*

A few hours later.

Another bus stopped at the door of the hotel. A moment later, two figures got out of the car.

"...132 hours." Fang Xueqing checked the records on her mobile phone, her face as ugly as if she had swallowed a fly, "We were trapped on that highway for a full 132 hours.

"Don't worry, at least we're finally in." Another young man in the group waved his hand and took out his mobile phone to check the progress with Fang Xueqing. "

But it's also strange." He thought for a moment and said, "According to the information provided by Brother Tang and the others before, we should have gotten off the highway in more than 90 hours..."

"It's obvious that the intelligence is wrong." Fang Xueqing sighed helplessly, "Otherwise, could it be that someone has deceived us?"

The young man: "..." It seems so.

"To say that this ghost story mechanism is also weird, I have never seen a ghost story where others have to wait outside to enter the core area. There are so many living and dead people who accidentally entered the highway and are circling around, but they only let three people through each time. I really don't know what they want to do."

"Besides, the intelligence provided by Brother Tang before also said that there were no strange phenomena on the highway throughout the whole journey." Fang Xueqing said, and directly picked up the mobile phone to show the other party her notes, "Take a look at this paragraph again, it can't be that I fell asleep while driving and wrote it randomly."

"..." The young man looked at her hesitantly and walked over. There were only a few lines of words on the phone screen, and between the lines, there was the calmness and restraint of a professional:

[122nd hour, still on the highway, no ramp in sight. A strange figure was seen on the roadside. A cursory observation revealed that it was a human female in a cleaning uniform, waving. When approaching, a large number of abnormal beings gathered around her. Because the car was driving too fast, I was unable to observe carefully.

[But does this prevent me from being afraid? No, it doesn't.

[Fuck that, what the hell is this Dengxi, it scared the baby to death.]