The Other Side

"... Is this how you usually talk?"

Looking at the person in front of her who had put down the Walkie-Talkie and started eating Apple again, Temperance Gentleheart had a conflicted expression on her face.

She had heard the Traveler ask for help in the public channel before, but because the conversation between the two was too abstract, she could only listen to gibberish.

While VerdantRipple had Traveler patiently explaining things to her, she had to rely entirely on guesswork... It was just like being in math class and, after daydreaming for a few minutes, discovering that the blackboard was full of incomprehensible gibberish.

"No matter what they say, they're asking for your help. Is it really appropriate for you to be so sarcastic and cynical? What kind of 'Merely the wisdom of mortals' is this...?"

"Oh, my idol is Chu Xuan, Colonel Chu. I'm trying my best to imitate his behavior and style."

While eating Apple, Bai Zhi turned his gaze away from the room whose door he had just kicked open, pulled out a pair of black-rimmed Glasses from somewhere, put them on, and then turned to look at Temperance Gentleheart with a serious expression.

"Do you think my imitation is good? If so, please give me a like!"

"... I bet you don't have any friends."

Looking at the face in front of her, Temperance Gentleheart lips twitched slightly.

"You're overthinking it. How could someone as respectful to teachers as me not have friends?"

With a pursed lip, Bai Zhi walked towards the next room.

"As the saying goes, 'A teacher for a day is a father for life,' and I have always kept this principle in mind."

"So what?"

Looking at the empty room in front of her, Temperance Gentleheart for no reason and quickly followed the other person's footsteps.

"We really need to do it one by one..."

"So when my Teacher passes away, I will rush to his bedside to fight for his inheritance. After all, he is also my father, and I should definitely get a share of his estate."

Suddenly turning to look at the other person, Bai Zhi nodded very seriously.

"This is the ultimate meaning of 'a teacher for a day is a father for life.' How about it? Are you starting to feel moved? Don't you suddenly feel that everything before your eyes is exceptionally bright? This is the Light of the Righteous Path."

"... I mean, do we really need to look at them one by one?"

Her eyes twitched slightly as she looked at the bandage wrapped around the white paper arm in front of her, and Temperance Gentleheart sighed with a hint of helplessness.

"Since the house has eaten everything in the room, there's no point in continuing to look, right?"

Just minutes ago, they had just arrived on the sixth floor and experienced another Life and Death crisis.

After emerging from that stairwell, or rather, from that painting, they successfully reached the sixth floor.

However, the staircase that originally led from the sixth floor to the rooftop had an odd angle and plunged straight into the ceiling. But since the rooftop wasn't their destination, the two of them didn't pay too much attention to it.

The sixth floor is where the Teacher and Employee of the Orphanage live. Theoretically Staff, you could find a lot of clues here, such as what exactly happened in the Orphanage? Where did all the children in the Orphanage go? When did the Anomaly start?... and so on.

However, to their surprise, the room on the sixth floor was empty.

This emptiness is not an empty space in a symbolic sense, but a real, tangible emptiness. The bed, table, chairs, Cabinet, and other furniture that should have been in the room have all disappeared.

The room was completely empty, but the floor was spotless, like a bare-bones apartment that had been renovated but hadn't yet been furnished.

At the far end of the room, facing the wall, stood a small notice board, the Unique Item in the room.

After some deliberation, the two of them finally decided to go into the room. After all, the room wasn't big, only about ten square meters in size, and the door was right there, so even if there were any hidden dangers inside, they could escape in time.

When faced with Anomaly, simply running away is not advisable; sometimes, it's necessary to take a little risk.

However, neither of them expected that the room was far more dangerous than they had imagined. After taking a few steps to the small notice board, before they could even read what was on it... the entire room suddenly came to life.

This "job" is a job in the literal sense; the entire room seemed to have become a Life entity, the door was the room's mouth, and they had foolishly walked into the mouth of a Life entity.

However, since he dared to come in, Bai Zhi was prepared. Risking being bitten, after grabbing the sign and putting it into his Inventory, Bai Zhi pulled Temperance Gentleheart into the Shadow and then safely retreated outside the door.

The price for doing so was that Bai Zhi's arm was bitten by the room, and a large piece of his clothes was torn off. Bai Zhi originally wanted to use tape and stapler to fix the wound as usual, but he was stopped by Temperance Gentleheart, who had unexpectedly become assertive. He could only let her bandage the wound for him.

However, this also helped Bai Zhi and the others understand where the missing furniture in the room... or rather, where the humans had gone.

The risk taken to obtain this information was valuable. After understanding that the Man-eating Room was immobile and could only passively hunt, their safety was greatly improved.

All you need to do is stand at the door and kick it open to see the layout of the room. You'll immediately see which room is the Man-eating Room and which is the normal room. After all, the Man-eating Room is easy to identify because it's completely empty.

"Of course there are. I don't believe all the rooms on the sixth floor have turned into those Man-eating Room. There are bound to be normal rooms. And don't underestimate those Man-eating Room; they're quite valuable."

Shrugging, Bai Zhi casually tossed the Apple core he had left in his hand into the Blank Room in front of him.

The Apple core had barely hit the ground when it was completely swallowed up by the empty room within seconds.

"... Value? What can you do with something like that?"

Looking at the empty room in front of her, Temperance Gentleheart felt a chill run down her spine just thinking about how she had almost been devoured by it.

"Infinite Trash Can."

Bai Zhi glanced at her, his expression completely matter-of-fact.

"Do you know how much money the country spends every year to dispose of all kinds of garbage? Now, all we need is one of these rooms. Whether it's Nuclear Waste or any other non-recyclable hazardous or toxic waste, we can just throw it all in here. It's clean, environmentally friendly, and pollution-free. Just think about it, what a huge leap forward this is!"

"..."

Temperance Gentleheart, and no words could express her feelings.