Players, Please Board the Train

The clear reward was obtained, which included a return ticket. Xu Huo estimated that Xiao Ling and Yu Guangnan were almost done as well. When they had exchanged progress earlier, neither had mentioned the Doll Clothing Store, but after hearing Teacher Pan’s story, completing the remaining progress wasn’t difficult at all.

However, none of the three left.

“Footsteps have appeared.” Gao Xiaoyue, who was monitoring outside, relayed the news. “Sixth deck, stairway.”

The players left their rooms and moved toward the sixth deck. Xu Huo walked at the front, and the moment he reached the stairway entrance, he heard the familiar footsteps ascending. He checked the data on the “Narrow Escape” item, and the number had actually dropped to 5%!

Earlier, he had secretly used the item to test other areas of the hotel. Although the escape chances were all in the single digits, they were still higher than this.

The only explanation for this phenomenon was that there was no expected entrance or exit around the footsteps. This sound wasn’t the walking noise of players coming from outside—it was the same kind of sound that had drawn him into the Mirror Hotel!

This sound seemed to come from another space. The sound-dampening items they were wearing were completely useless. Monsters roaming other floors were attracted over, and the players immediately fell into chaos again.

Amid the fighting, Xu Huo noticed Lin Zhenhuai and Gao Xiaoyue shielding Teacher Pan as they fled upstairs. He followed them, and sure enough, he soon heard the footsteps appearing in the seventh-deck hallway. Trailing behind the three, he saw Teacher Pan toss that small frame item toward where the footsteps were coming from.

The item landed on the floor, but the footsteps sounded again somewhere else. Gao Xiaoyue picked up the item and threw it immediately, but as the item flew over, the footsteps shifted to another location again.

“Bang!” Xiao Ling smashed through the stairs and flew up. Looking up and spotting Xu Huo, she said hurriedly, “Get over here and help!”

Xu Huo pivoted and leaped toward the pursuing monster. “Eye of the Dead” swung down in one arc, slicing off half its face!

The monster howled and staggered back, then turned and collided with Peng Fengnian and Yu Guangnan, who had come to help. It knocked both of them away, let out a warning roar, and bolted down the stairs.

“Don’t chase it,” Xu Huo called out, stopping the few who wanted to follow. He quickly turned and headed upstairs, but the moment his foot crossed into the hallway, the floor seemed to dissolve into nothingness beneath him. He lost his balance and plunged downward!

The same thing happened to the other players, whether above or below. But the fall didn’t last long—just a few seconds later, their feet hit solid ground again. Same floor. Same spot.

Xiao Ling and Yu Guangnan, still confused by the situation, moved closer to Xu Huo with tense expressions. “What the hell was that?”

“That’s a question for them,” Xu Huo said, jerking his chin toward Teacher Pan and the other two, who were walking back.

“I have no idea what happened either. The item suddenly opened a door in the floor… Just now, I felt the ground give way beneath me. Could the hotel’s space have been swapped?” Teacher Pan asked, his voice filled with doubt.

Xu Huo narrowed his eyes, studying the three of them. After a moment, he said, “A spatial swap might have actually happened. That monster ran off too. For all we know, we might already be in the Corpse Hotel.”

“Doesn’t look much like the Corpse Hotel,” Gao Xiaoyue said, looking around. “Look outside. There’s no one there.”

Back on the first night at the Corpse Hotel, it had been so dark outside you couldn’t see your hand in front of your face. But now, looking out, the faint light of dawn was barely visible, and that weak glow seemed to add a bit of brightness to the hotel, making the layout vaguely discernible—like moonlight spilling in.

The expressions of Peng Fengnian and the others were hard to read in the dim light. Peng Fengnian, Sun Bo, Old Zheng, and Eagle were on the sixth deck. Teacher Pan, Lin Zhenhuai, and Gao Xiaoyue were on the seventh. Xu Huo and his group happened to be stuck on the windowless stairway.

The space fell silent instantly, and the atmosphere grew tense without anyone noticing.

Xiao Ling and Yu Guangnan weren’t stupid. The former lightly poked Xu Huo in the back.

“If it’s not the Corpse Hotel, then it might be some other space,” Xu Huo said, breaking the strange silence as he put away his item. “There are already multiple layers of space here. Triggering a mechanism and falling into any one of them isn’t strange. But since your items are still useful, try a few more times. Maybe we’ll luck out and land in the Corpse Hotel.”

Teacher Pan and the others didn’t take the bait, but they also stopped blocking the way. After stepping aside, one of them said, “How about we split up and look for the footsteps?”

The two groups quickly separated, though Peng Fengnian and Sun Bo followed Xu Huo.

Xiao Ling walked ahead and exchanged a discreet glance with Xu Huo. Then, while the two behind them weren’t paying attention, she released a small toy. Half a minute later, footsteps sounded from below.

Peng Fengnian and Sun Bo didn’t hesitate—they vaulted out the window without a second thought. But Xu Huo and his group, who had also reached the window, didn’t go down. Instead, they turned back into the hallway. Xiao Ling used a sound-dampening item before speaking. “These people are seriously shady!”

Xu Huo already knew that. Watching how practiced Teacher Pan and his group were at “luring” the footsteps made it clear this wasn’t their first time doing this, nor was it likely their first visit to this space. Peng Fengnian and Sun Bo also seemed very familiar with the situation on this deck, acting far more relaxed than before.

“What exactly are they looking for?” Xiao Ling was genuinely curious. “Aren’t they worried about being trapped here? The time here… is also off.”

They all knew this dungeon might operate on a one-day cycle. Whether these people had tickets or not, surely they had to have noticed something by now.

“It’s not that they aren’t worried—it’s that they really are trapped,” Xu Huo said, glancing toward the window. “Why do you think they told us everything about Museum City’s past without holding anything back?”

After doing such detailed background research and deploying so many people, there was no way they’d let only ticketless players in here.

These people were starving and emotionally unstable, yet they insisted on staying here. It probably wasn’t because they absolutely had to get some item. More likely, they had cleared the dungeon but still couldn’t leave. Telling the full backstory was a show of goodwill, regardless of whether Xu Huo and his group could clear it. Forget that they’d only been in here for two days—even if they couldn’t gather all the progress, being unable to leave was still useless even if they did.

“The train ticket and return ticket are both useless?” Xiao Ling refused to believe it. She immediately checked her personal panel. Two seconds later, she said through gritted teeth, “I knew it. Not a single one of these people is honest. And you actually treated Peng Fengnian like a friend!”

Leaving Peng Fengnian aside, at least both sides were staying out of each other’s way for now. Everyone’s ultimate goal was the same—to get out.

Yu Guangnan had also cleared the dungeon. His expression was no longer as calm as before, a hint of tension creeping in. “If the train ticket can’t be used and we can’t leave this space, what if we exceed the seven-day limit? Would we be stuck in this dungeon forever?”

Xu Huo glanced at the time. It was almost midnight. “We don’t have seven days. We might only have twelve hours left.”

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