"Old Landlord, you'd better stop smiling. The more you smile, the more freaked out I get."
Looking at Old Landlord's nuclear-cancer smile, Ji Yan could not help speaking up.
"Finish early, rest early."
"When you pass the Eighth Floor, don't linger or run around. There are many places in this Apartment that someone who's only been here a few days like you can't enter."
"Even with that badge hanging on your chest, it's just decoration to some residents. It won't help."
The Landlord said nothing more. After giving his final instructions, he turned and left.
Ji Yan gripped the key and left the room as well, rushing upstairs.
The Apartment at night was not merely more terrifying in atmosphere. Many indistinct eerie shadows wandered through the corridors and stairwells.
Those nighttime eerie NPCs who were reasonable could still trigger certain tasks. If you completed them, they would not make things difficult for you.
The bad-tempered ones would not even trigger tasks. After only a few words of interaction, they would open their mouths and start eating!
Therefore, players without nighttime privileges would not dare come out at night even if given a hundred times more courage.
Even those with privileges did not dare hop around recklessly.
The Privilege Badge only worked on most eerie beings. A small number of terrifying ones did not care about those privilege rules...
They were like viruses and Trojans that had slipped through the cracks. None of the Apartment's protective mechanisms could restrain them!
After leaving Room 404, Ji Yan ran up the stairwell, unwilling to linger on any floor.
Quite a few nighttime eerie beings wandered through the stairwell as well.
Some of them even ignored the Privilege Badge and could interact with Ji Yan!
Ji Yan ignored them. The only thing on his mind was getting to the Rooftop.
When he reached the 7th Floor, there were fewer eerie shadows in the stairwell, but all kinds of hair-raising sounds echoed through it.
When he reached the Eighth Floor, the corridor was black as ink. He could not see either end, and the silence was chilling.
Thinking carefully, he seemed to have connections on both the seventh and eighth floors.
Not to mention the one on the eighth floor.
Liu Nianqing on the seventh floor owed him a huge favor. He just did not know how much influence Liu Nianqing had in the Apartment.
Ji Yan had already made up his mind.
If he encountered any danger on the Rooftop that he could not handle, he would run straight to Liu Nianqing's room and leave it for him to deal with!
But when he reached the Rooftop, he found that its door was open!
"Who opened it?" Ji Yan looked at the unlocked padlock, unable to tell whether it had been a player or an eerie being.
He drew his Spike Hammer and cautiously stepped onto the Rooftop.
On the Apartment's top-floor Rooftop, the cold wind howled, piercing to the bone.
A crimson crescent moon hung high in the night sky.
Ji Yan glanced around. The next second, he noticed a faint movement behind him and spun around, accurately catching a flying brick.
Looking up, he saw a girl with twin ponytails in the distance turn pale in shock. "It's over, the sneak attack failed!"
"Little sis, run!"
"Why run? He's a player, not an eerie being."
The girl with a single ponytail grabbed her younger sister, who was trying to flee, and spoke irritably.
Ji Yan crushed the brick in his hand and dusted off his palms.
Looking at the two girls, he realized they were Twin Sisters. Even their clothes were identical; only their hairstyles could distinguish them.
"You should be glad I'm a player. If I were an eerie being, you wouldn't have had a chance to run."
The older sister with the single ponytail said helplessly, "Don't mind her. My little sister is a bit simple-minded. She makes a fuss over everything."
Ji Yan looked at the Twin Sisters and tried asking, "So you were also tricked by Old Landlord into handling the 'Clean the Water Tank' task?"
"The task is indeed that one, but it wasn't triggered by the Landlord. It was triggered by our 705 Eerie Family." The older twin shook her head.
They were player residents of 705. Their Eerie Family member was an eerie being that had died in the bathroom, playing the role of their brother.
Because he had drowned in the bathroom, he spent all day soaking in an overflowing bathtub. Like a fish, he could not leave the bathtub or the water.
But in recent days, the water from the tap had turned into thick black blood. Eerie Brother had become increasingly irritable and had begun to darken.
If the Twin Sisters wanted to continue living safely in 705, they had to solve the water-quality problem.
Through the task, they had obtained the Rooftop key from the Landlord. But when they came up during the day, they found nothing wrong with the water tank, so they returned at midnight to inspect it and then ran into Ji Yan.
Ji Yan understood.
They also wore Privilege Badges on their chests and had nighttime protection. That surprised Ji Yan somewhat. The sisters looked like gaming newbies, yet they had privileges and were residents of the 7th Floor.
When he checked their profile information, he found that they had survived for forty-five days.
It seemed they truly had some ability. He could not judge them by appearances alone.
"How is your task progressing? What problem did you find?"
Ji Yan glanced at the square water tank built from Cement nearby and asked.
"We didn't go over there. We didn't dare!"
"It's too scary!" Zhong Ting, the younger twin, hugged her head with both hands. Her cheeks were red from the cold and filled with terror.
"Scary?" Ji Yan narrowed his eyes. "What did you see?"
Zhong Yi, the older twin, covered her sister's mouth. Clearly, the older sister was much sharper, and she looked at Ji Yan with some wariness.
She asked first, "You said the Landlord sent you up here. Do you have the Rooftop key?"
Ji Yan was straightforward and tossed her the key.
Only after seeing the key did Zhong Yi relax.
She said, "We don't know what's inside the water tank. We heard it."
"Heard it?"
Before her sister could speak, the younger one rushed to answer. "Mm-hmm! Our talent is Telepathy. In the Dungeon, my sister and I can not only communicate through our thoughts, but we can also hear the thoughts of eerie beings involved in the tasks we carry out!"
"An A-rank talent! Amazing, right?!"
The younger sister's face was full of pride.
The older sister covered her face, then smacked her sister on the head. "You little brat, I'm begging you, shut your mouth!"
She was furious at her sister's failure to live up to expectations.
Who revealed their talent trump card to someone the moment they met?
If she, the older sister, had not been covering for her, it would have been a miracle if this foolish little sister could survive even one day in such a brutal Dungeon!
Ji Yan was slightly surprised when he heard that.
They could hear an eerie being's thoughts?
That talent was very practical!
After surviving in the Dungeon for so many days, he had finally heard of a decent talent.
Ji Yan pondered. In that case, the filthy water in the tank was most likely the work of that eerie being.
"What did you hear that eerie being say?"
"It's called hearing thoughts, but in reality, we can't make out what it's saying at all."
"It sounded terrifying, so we didn't dare open the water tank. We were thinking of discussing a plan first, and then you came up."
The older sister shook her head.
The younger sister crouched in a corner, both hands covering her head. Still shaken, she said, "That eerie being is in a lot of pain."
"It even asked us for help..."
As soon as she finished speaking, the younger sister's pretty face suddenly changed.
She clamped both hands over her ears and screamed, "Ah! That eerie being is yelling again! It sounds so scary!!"
"It's in so much pain... I really want to block out its voice. Someone save me..."
Before you continue