Borrowing a Skin in "Taotie's Nest"

"Bang bang--"

"Are you there? Can I borrow some soy sauce?"

In the very center of room 401.

"..." Xu Xi touched her forehead.

It was like a dream, and everything in the dream seemed shrouded in mist after waking up.

A U-shaped corridor, a massive Meat Mountain, tall, shriveled human skin...

And that door leading outside the building.

Without a doubt, he is dead.

He ultimately failed to complete the Dungeon.

So, was that experience real, or... just a dream?

"Bang bang--"

"Neighbor, are you there?"

"I really just wanted to borrow some soy sauce~"

It's so noisy.

Open the door, stab in the groin, pick up the axe, chop off the head.

It's quiet now.

Xu Xi stood beside the corpse, lost in thought.

The answer is actually quite obvious.

The emotions that fade when faced with injustice, the inexhaustible energy that seems to last no matter how hard you run, the unwavering certainty upon seeing the key in the mahogany box...

Let's just pretend it was a dream.

So, what are the conditions for entering a dream?

Or rather, the medium?

He remembers clearly that, amidst a splitting headache, he overheard a one-sided conversation between the [doctor] and "him".

Clearly, he either experienced the same ordeal as the original owner of the diary, or he experienced the ordeal from the other person's perspective.

These two are worlds apart, and he hadn't heard the other person's voice at all, so he was more inclined to believe the former.

Indeed, Xu Xi suspected that this experience was a sign of entering the dream.

However, the problem has returned to its original state.

What exactly is the way that allows different people to experience the same thing?

The only thing he had in common with the original owner of the diary was that they were both tenants of room 401.

If that's the case, the medium that triggers the dream must be in this room.

Xu Xi's gaze swept over every inch of the room.

There are countless things he's touched; after all, he thoroughly searched the house the first time he visited.

But that's precisely where the problem lies.

In subsequent Rollbacks, he didn't stay in that room for very long at all.

So what was it that he had the most contact with in the previous episode, and that the original owner of the diary had also had considerable contact with?

Soon, Xu Xi's gaze settled on the chair in front of the desk.

He sat in this position twice: once to read his diary, and the other time when he was contemplating whether to take an unconventional approach.

Ironically, the original owner was an online novelist, and this chair was also where he spent the most time.

Xu Xi circled the chair halfway around, but found nothing unusual. Then she squatted down and flipped the chair upside down.

In the very center beneath the seat, a tiny eyeball was perfectly embedded, its pupil darting around. When it saw Xu Xi, it froze, seemingly staring at him.

"..." The culprit behind the dream has been found.

He didn't rush to pry it open, but instead examined it carefully.

This thing looks very much like some kind of surveillance camera; it can even subtly draw people into dreams and make them lose themselves inside.

An absurd thought suddenly popped into my head.

The doctor's one-sided conversation with him... was it conducted through this eyeball?

Never mind.

Xu Xi shook her head, no longer pondering the matter.

Wouldn't it be better to ask the owner of this eyeball if you have any questions?

202, right? We'll see.

Just in case, he went to room 502 again and successfully obtained the rope.

Standing in front of room 202, Xu Xi knocked on the door.

After waiting for a while, there was no response.

So he decided to try a different method of entering the house.

To avoid alerting the Landlord, he took out a fruit knife, inserted the tip of the blade into the crack of the door, wedged the latch, and pressed it down little by little.

After fiddling around for a while, I successfully opened the door.

As soon as Xu Xi stepped into room 202, her trypophobia kicked in.

The walls, the ceiling, and even every visible corner of this room were densely packed with countless eyeballs.

Large and small, hundreds and thousands.

The moment he entered, everyone in the room turned their pupils and focused their attention on him.

Xu Xi felt as if her mind had been severely Contamination.

Despite the dizziness caused by the double vision, he raised the axe.

Rather than using Item, it's better to just cut off those eyeballs once and for all.

However, the next second, the little eyeballs that were releasing some kind of magnetic field towards Xu Xi suddenly seemed to lose their support and fell off the wall one after another, all crowding together.

Gradually, fewer and fewer eyeballs remained in the room, until finally only one large eyeball, about the size of a fist, was left on the floor.

The big-eyed creature glanced at the axe in Xu Xi's hand, then at the rope around his waist, and finally rolled to Xu Xi's feet.

The Contamination has disappeared.

"..." Xu Xi looked at the large eyeball at her feet with surprise and uncertainty.

For some reason, he seemed to see flattery in that eye.

Seeing that Xu Xi didn't react, the big-eyed creature bounced around twice before jumping onto the axe's cheek and naturally embedding itself there.

Xu Xi: "..."

Okay.

He glanced around the room.

Without the eyeballs, the room seemed much emptier, furnished only with some basic furniture, showing no signs of being lived in.

Does the doctor not live in room 202?

Thinking of this, Xu Xi couldn't help but sigh.

He was considering whether to continue with his previous unconventional approach or refocus his attention on the Landlord and the Sixth Floor.

He never imagined that the Landlord was actually the original owner of the diary.

"If you can't escape, join us"... This suggests that the other person was definitely desperate at the time.

After all, reskinning doesn't sound simple.

Etc.

Reskinning?

Xu Xi looked at the axe in her hand, seemingly lost in thought.

He remembered the White-Dressed Woman 502 as having a penchant for skinning; he'd initially thought it was just a hobby, but now it seemed...

The original owner of the diary had always wanted to escape the building, but after becoming the Landlord, he did not leave.

Have they been assimilated? Or is it that the Landlord is actually unable to leave the building?

Is there really a key to the main door on the Sixth Floor?

To put it another way, does the front door really have a key?

Perhaps "leaving the building" is not just about leaving the building.

The dream that the big-eyed boy brought him might just be a hint.

We should still go up to the Sixth Floor and take a look.

Just then, Xu Xi had already come up with a way to get to the Sixth Floor.

Since anyone can be Landlord, let him be one too.

First, I'll borrow a piece of wood from the Landlord.