Zhong Ting and Zhong Yi, Telepathy

"Old Landlord, you'd better stop smiling. The more you grin, the more nervous I get."

Looking at the Old Landlord's nuclear-meltdown smile, Ji Yan couldn't help but speak up.

"Finish up early, get some rest early."

"When you pass the Eighth Floor, don't linger or wander off. There are plenty of places in this apartment that aren't for someone who's only been here a few days."

"Even with that badge pinned to your chest, it's just decoration to some tenants—won't do you any good."

The Old Landlord didn't say more. After those final instructions, he turned and left.

Ji Yan gripped the key, followed him out of the room, and dashed upstairs.

At night, the apartment wasn't just creepier in atmosphere—countless blurry, eerie figures roamed the hallways and stairwells.

These nighttime eerie NPCs, if they were reasonable, could trigger some quests. Finish them, and they wouldn't give you trouble.

The bad-tempered ones wouldn't even trigger a quest. A couple of lines of interaction, and they'd just open their mouths and start eating!

So, Players without nighttime privileges wouldn't dare come out at night even if you gave them a hundred guts.

Even those with privileges didn't dare to bounce around carelessly.

The privilege badge only worked on most eerie beings. A small number of terrifying ones didn't care about those privilege settings...

They were like leftover virus trojans—none of the apartment's protective mechanisms could trap them!

Ji Yan left 404 and bolted up the stairwell, not willing to linger on any floor.

The stairwell was also crawling with nighttime eerie beings.

Some even ignored the privilege badge and could interact with Ji Yan!

He ignored them, his mind set only on reaching the Rooftop.

By the 7th Floor, the eerie figures in the stairwell thinned out, but the air echoed with all kinds of hair-raising sounds.

By the Eighth Floor, the hallway was pitch-black like ink, both ends invisible, deathly silent and unnerving.

Thinking it over, he realized he had some connections on both the 7th Floor and the Eighth Floor.

Never mind the one on the Eighth Floor.

Liu Nianqing on the 7th Floor owed him a big favor, though he had no idea how much weight that carried in the apartment.

Ji Yan had already made a plan.

If he ran into danger on the Rooftop that he couldn't handle, he'd just bolt straight to Liu Nianqing's room and let him deal with it!

But when he reached the Rooftop, he found the door was already open!

"Who opened this?" Ji Yan stared at the broken lock, unable to tell if it was a Player or an eerie being.

He pulled out the Spike Hammer and stepped onto the Rooftop cautiously.

On the top-floor Rooftop of the apartment, the cold wind howled, biting to the bone.

A scarlet crescent moon hung high in the night sky.

Ji Yan glanced around, then the next second sensed a faint movement behind him. He spun around and caught a flying brick with precision.

Looking up, he saw a girl with twin ponytails not far away, panicking: "Crap, the sneak attack failed!"

"Sister, let's run!"

"Run what? That's a Player, not an eerie being."

The girl with a single ponytail grabbed her fleeing sister and spoke with exasperation.

Ji Yan crushed the brick in his hand and dusted off his palms.

He looked at the two girls and realized they were Twin Sisters, dressed identically—only their hairstyles told them apart.

"You should be glad I'm a Player. If I were an eerie being, you wouldn't have had a chance to run."

The single-ponytail Sister sighed helplessly: "Don't mind her. My sister's a one-track mind—she jumps at everything."

Ji Yan studied the Twin Sisters and ventured a question: "So, you two got roped into the 'Clean the Water Tank' quest by the Old Landlord too?"

"The quest is right, but it didn't trigger from the Old Landlord. It came from our 705 Eerie Family." The Twin Sister shook her head and explained.

They were Players living in 705. Their eerie family was a ghost who died in the bathroom, playing their brother.

He drowned in the tub, spending his days soaking in an overflowing bath, like a fish—couldn't leave the tub, couldn't leave the water.

But lately, the tap water had turned into thick black blood, and the Eerie Brother was getting more and more agitated, starting to go dark.

If the Twin Sister Players wanted to keep living safely in 705, they had to solve the water problem.

Through the quest, they got the Rooftop key from the Old Landlord, but when they came up during the day, the water tank was fine. So they came back to check at midnight, and that's when they ran into Ji Yan.

Ji Yan understood.

They both wore privilege badges on their chests, giving them nighttime protection. That surprised him a bit—these sisters looked like game newbies, yet they had privileges and were even 7th Floor tenants.

He checked their profile pages and found they'd survived 45 days.

Guess they really had skills. Couldn't judge by looks alone.

"How's your mission going? Found any problems?"

Ji Yan glanced at the square concrete water tank over there and asked.

"We didn't go near it, and we didn't dare to!"

"It's terrifying!" The twin sister, Zhong Ting, clutched her head with both hands, her face flushed red from the cold, filled with fear.

"Terrifying?" Ji Yan narrowed his eyes. "What did you see?"

The twin sister, Zhong Yi, covered her younger sister's mouth. Clearly, the elder sister was sharper, eyeing Ji Yan with some caution.

She spoke first, asking, "You said the Landlord sent you up. Do you have the Rooftop key?"

Ji Yan was straightforward, tossing the key over directly.

Seeing the key, Zhong Yi finally relaxed.

She said, "We don't know what's in the water tank—we heard it."

"Heard it?"

Before the elder sister could speak, the younger sister blurted out, "Mm-hmm! Our talent is Telepathy. In the Dungeon, my sister and I can not only communicate through thoughts, but we can also hear the Eerie's thoughts during our missions!"

"An A-rank talent, pretty awesome, right?!"

The younger sister's face was full of pride.

The elder sister covered her face and gave her sister a knock on the head. "Girl, I'm begging you, shut your mouth!"

She was exasperated.

Who just blurts out their trump card talent to someone they just met?

If it weren't for her, the elder sister, covering for her, this foolish sister wouldn't last a day in this brutal Dungeon!

Ji Yan was slightly surprised upon hearing this.

Able to hear an Eerie's thoughts?

That talent was very practical!

After surviving so many days in the Dungeon, he'd finally heard of a decent talent.

Ji Yan pondered. So the reason the water tank was dirty was probably That Eerie's doing.

"What did That Eerie say?"

"It's supposed to be thoughts, but we can't really make it out clearly."

"It sounds creepy, so we didn't dare open the water tank. We were planning to discuss a strategy first, and then you showed up."

The elder sister shook her head.

The younger sister crouched in the corner, hands over her head, still shaken. "That Eerie is in a lot of pain."

"It even begged us for help..."

Just as she finished, her pretty face suddenly changed.

She clamped both hands over her ears and screamed, "Ah, That Eerie is yelling and screaming again—it sounds so scary!!"

"It hurts so much, I want to block out its voice. Someone, save me..."