"Taotie's Nest": An Unorthodox Approach?
Xu Xi stood there and waited for a while.
When the old woman reappeared, he subconsciously looked at her hands.
As he wished, it was a set of keys.
Xu Xi was overjoyed, but quickly composed herself as the old lady approached.
"Let me see, the key to 401... Hmm, this is it."
The keys weren't marked, and he didn't know how the old woman managed to squint and pinpoint the one that belonged to 401.
The lock opened easily, and the old lady, without any hesitation, went inside first.
As they walked, they reminded everyone, "Noise pollution fee: 500; locksmith fee: 200; errand fee: 300."
Xu Xi, who was following behind her, gave a perfunctory reply.
As for the extra delivery fee?
It doesn't matter, he's not planning to pay anyway.
Inside the room, the headless corpse of 501 Burly Men lay conspicuously on the floor.
Xu Xi pointed and said, "That's the disturbance fee I need to pay you. Please take it. As for the locksmith fee and delivery fee..."
Just as he had guessed, the old woman, as the Landlord, did not concern herself with the private disputes between the tenants.
Even with the burly man's corpse right in front of her, she remained unmoved. Instead, she smiled instantly when she heard that Xu Xi planned to use it as a disturbance fee.
"Good, it seems you've sincerely realized your mistake, but the other two fees still cannot be reduced by a single penny."
"Of course." Xu Xi casually picked up the axe she had hidden in the corner not long ago. "The remaining fees are in room 502. Would you like to come with me to get them?"
The old woman, whose attention had been drawn to the burly man's corpse, snapped out of her daze upon hearing this, clearly not expecting the young man's response.
"502?" she asked doubtfully, wondering if the young man was deliberately trying to trick her into skipping the fare. The next second after she turned around, a rope suddenly tied her up tightly.
Xu Xi didn't give the old woman any time to react; he raised his axe and beheaded her.
He then quickly snatched the bunch of keys from the other person's hand and ran outside without delay.
He knew he couldn't kill the old woman this way, so he just intended to stall for time.
He ran downstairs as fast as he could and arrived at the iron gate, where he began trying out key after key without stopping.
Listening to the sound of rain outside the door, Xu Xi tried all the keys.
However, none of them could open the iron gate.
Just then, a hoarse voice suddenly rang out from behind.
"You've violated the rules, resident of 401."
"..." Xu Xi sighed inwardly and turned around.
He was met with a gaping, blood-red maw.
--
Although the plan was successful, the outcome was a failure.
Surprisingly, the key to the building's iron gate wasn't among the keys.
"Bang bang--"
"Are you there? Can I borrow some soy sauce?"
The process remains unchanged: open the door, stab in the groin, chop off the head, pick up the axe.
Xu Xi headed towards 502 while pondering the matter.
Knock on the door, behead someone, pick up the rope.
This time, he didn't leave in a hurry, but instead searched the room thoroughly as well.
One hundred and two yuan and three mao, is seventy-seven yuan and eight mao more than the strong man in 501.
He didn't know if he would ever need it, but that didn't stop him from putting it away for now.
If room 501 gave him an impression of being greasy, then this room was bloody.
The dolls of all sizes almost filled every available space to step, the crude stitches were covered with bloody flesh, and sticky fur was everywhere. Stepping on the floor felt greasy, as if some kind of liquid stain hadn't been cleaned up.
Putting aside the dolls and the tools used to make them, Xu Xi discovered some interesting information.
The owner of this house, the White-Dressed Woman lying at the door with her head gone, doesn't seem to be interested in making dolls, but rather... skinning?
He suddenly realized that the arrangement of these dolls followed a pattern.
The deeper inside, the rougher the dolls become; their "skin" is pitted and uneven, and their color is dull, like a beginner's practice piece.
The closer the dolls are to the door, the whiter and more delicate their skin becomes, with a texture that is almost perfect, showing a visible improvement in craftsmanship.
However, the stitching technique was extremely perfunctory and careless from beginning to end.
Do they not care about the stitching technique, but only about the leather itself?
Xu Xi looked thoughtful.
These long-time tenants are all quite unique.
He exited 502 and stood at the top of the stairs, looking up at the sky.
The steps are clearly defined, yet once you step on them, they seem endless.
He looked at it for a while before looking away.
Back to 401.
Xu Xi leaned back against the small desk, intending to organize her thoughts.
To be honest, he had experienced firsthand the difficulty of this Dungeon.
In such a short time, he has already Rollback five times.
However, the customs clearance progress is practically zero.
Assuming he is a tenant, the way to pass through is to leave this building, which the original owner of the diary described as "man-eating".
The only solution right now is to find the key to the iron gate and try to leave the building.
Since the Landlord hadn't kept the key to the iron gate and the spare key together, he could only try to go up to the Sixth Floor to look for the iron gate key or other relevant clues.
Another problem arises: the Sixth Floor... how is he supposed to get up there?
Stuck in a predicament, Xu Xi decided to change her approach again.
Is it possible to leave this building without having to go through the iron gate?
He muttered the word "tenant" to himself, and a new idea popped into his head.
Can a tenant leave the building after terminating their lease?
Wait... that doesn't seem like a good idea either.
He almost forgot; he remembered the Landlord saying that this building was for people who could only enter and not leave.
Xu Xi scratched her hair in frustration.
Fortunately, this wasn't the first or second time he had faced such a helpless situation, and he habitually began to think outside the box.
Only inflows and no outflows... but only outflows can bring inflows.
Therefore, the arrival of a new tenant means the demise of the old tenant.
But how did the new tenants get in?
Thinking about this, Xu Xi suddenly realized that she seemed to have overlooked this point.
Since he appeared directly in room 401 when he entered the Dungeon, this issue has never been investigated in detail.
Other tenants aren't players; surely they have some way to enter this building?
If the new tenant enters through the iron gate, he can take this opportunity to leave; if they enter through other means, he can use this opportunity to find out how they entered and find another way.
Xu Xi thought about it more and more and felt that this plan was feasible.
Two long-term tenants have already died. Given the Landlord's greedy nature, if too many tenants die and it affects her income, such as rent, she will definitely try to find new tenants.
However, this plan also presents challenges.
Leaving aside the question of how many tenants there are in this building, although the 501 Burly Man mentioned two, he was clearly hiding something.
Secondly, isn't it a bit of a risky and unethical approach to force the landlady to hire new Landlord by killing long-term tenants in order to spy on the building's access routes?
That doesn't sound like a legitimate way to complete the game.
But Xu Xi thought about it and assumed that leaving the building was considered passing the checkpoint, so the method of leaving shouldn't matter, right?