There Must Be Something Wrong With This Game!

Mention the number eighteen, and superstitious people will think of the eighteen levels of Hell. More normal people, on the other hand, will think of... less than normal things.

Just as Duan Fei was pondering what the eighteen levels of Hell symbolized, Jinghong spoke up beside him. "Deception. The criminals in the eighteenth level of Hell are those who swindle others out of their money, those who deceive the people who trust them."

Having grown up with her grandmother and received a certain kind of education, Jinghong’s knowledge of folklore was even greater than Duan Fei’s.

Or perhaps it was better to say that as a family heiress, the education Jinghong had received was superior to Duan Fei’s in many respects.

If not for his transmigrator buff, Duan Fei felt he could never win against Jinghong.

"Deception... could it be hinting at something?"

Just then, a sinister wind swept by, sending a chill through Duan Fei. It also made him feel that this instance was getting more and more thrilling.

Reviewing their previous actions, they realized that making the staircase appear seemed to require two conditions.

First, walk a full circle around the corridor, returning to the starting point.

Second, peek into the window of each room.

The first condition was manageable, but the second one reeked of a setup for a jump scare.

It wasn’t that he couldn’t handle jump scares, but Duan Fei preferred the kind of horror that became creepier the more you thought about it. Of course, he didn’t mind a good scare either.

Having come to an agreement, Duan Fei and Jinghong set off clockwise, hand in hand, and walked to the window of Room 01.

The scene inside the room was no different from the one on the floor above. But just as Duan Fei was about to leave, Jinghong suddenly grabbed his hand and whispered, "Don’t talk. Listen."

Pressing his ear to the window, it took a long while before Duan Fei heard a crisp sound.

DRIP.

Duan Fei took out his phone and turned on the flashlight. The bright beam made the objects in the room clearer, making it easier to see what was happening inside.

Through the glass, Duan Fei saw the wife ladling soup for the child, her back to the window. A single drop of liquid fell slowly from the ladle in her hand, revealing a dull, dark red color under the beam of his phone.

The drop fell at an impossibly slow speed. It took a full ten minutes from the moment it left the ladle to the moment it hit the floor. Upon landing, it would simply vanish, as if it had returned to the bowl.

’Would ordinary soup be this red?’

’And the soup on the floor above... was it this color too?’

Puzzled, he checked the other three rooms, only to find the exact same scene in each one.

After checking all the rooms, they returned to their starting point and found that the stairs leading to the next floor had appeared once more.

Before stepping onto the stairs, Duan Fei took out his Crowbar, carved a clear mark on the wall nearby, and set down his Electric Tool Team. Then, he and Jinghong walked down the long staircase and smoothly arrived on the next floor.

Unsurprisingly, this was also the eighteenth floor.

The mark he’d made was still on the wall, and the Electric Tool Team he’d left behind was on the floor. Both were right where he’d left them, as if they had never moved.

Everything around them looked the same as the floor above, only it all seemed a little darker now.

The sun had moved to the other side of the sky. A blood-red sunset stained the horizon, intensifying the feeling of unease in their hearts.

Just as Duan Fei was starting to feel uneasy, Jinghong squeezed his hand tightly and said with composure, "Don’t worry. I’ll protect you."

"Um... shouldn’t I be the one saying that?"

"...Please allow me to protect you."

"That was a cool line, but I’m getting a really bad feeling about this."

After pondering the situation for another moment, Duan Fei still felt completely clueless.

There was too little information. The instance hadn’t revealed enough for him to grasp its true purpose.

’Since I don’t get it, I’ll just have to keep observing.’

Compared to the floor above, this one was even creepier.

Inside the room, the television the family of three had been watching flickered to life.

The image on the screen was now black and white. Due to a bad signal, the picture kept distorting, and the host’s voice had become a sharp, twisted static.

Though it sounded bizarre, Duan Fei could still make out the host repeating a single phrase: "Insurance fraud..."

The scene was the same in all four rooms, but the words coming from the host were different.

"Car crash... insurance company... one person... insurance fraud..."

The hint wasn’t particularly subtle. A little bit of deduction was all it took to piece it together: there was a car crash, one person either died or survived, and the insurance company suspected fraud.

The fact that it was highlighted this way meant it was an important clue, one worth remembering.

’But what does that have to do with the family of three?’

After mentally noting this key piece of information, Duan Fei and Jinghong stepped onto the newly appeared staircase. As they descended, they noticed a new change.

The world outside had now transitioned to night. Dim lights flickered on in the corridor, and under each one was a line of bloody footprints.

Before Duan Fei even had a chance to be scared, Jinghong swept him up into a Princess carry and declared with composure, "Don’t be afraid. I’ll protect you."

"I’m not scared, though. And I get the feeling you’re the one who’s terrified."

"Are you kidding? I don’t even blink when I watch horror movies."

"Those are slasher films. You’re the kind of person who eats dinner while watching a gorefest."

"I’m not afraid of *Curse* either."

"That’s because you think you could take on Kayako in a fight. But when it comes to these creepy, mysterious things where you don’t even know what you’re up against, you get scared."

"Don’t be afraid."

"See? You’re already trying to psych yourself up!"

Jinghong had an interesting quirk when it came to horror games: if she could see the monster, she’d feel like she could beat it in a fight and wouldn’t be scared at all.

Even if she couldn’t actually win, she wouldn’t feel any fear.

But if she couldn’t see the enemy, if she didn’t understand the source of the phenomena, then Jinghong would be plunged into a state of terror. And her reaction...

...was super cute.

Putting on a brave front and insisting she wasn’t scared, all while squeezing Duan Fei’s hand for dear life—that ’my mouth says no, but my body’s honest’ Reaction—it was a sight Duan Fei could never get tired of.

’Jinghong was especially fun to tease like this.’

But Duan Fei didn’t actually want to bully her. After all, his friend was this terrified; teasing her any more would be going too far.

So, he said to Jinghong, "Just close your eyes. I’ll go look. One person looking should be enough to trigger the rule and make the next floor appear."

"...Okay. But for the record, I’m not scared."

"Right, right, right. My Jinghong is the bravest of them all."

After Jinghong closed her eyes, Duan Fei walked over to the window of Room 01 and looked inside.

The scene inside had become even more hellish than he could have imagined.

The woman ladling the soup was now bleeding from all seven orifices. Blood streamed from her eyes, ears, nose, and mouth, dripping into the soup bowl before her to become the family’s delicious meal.

From the television, a woman’s voice drifted out intermittently. It was like a distant, howling wind, laced with a desperate and tragic wail.

"Why...? Why would you do that!"

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