Playing Hide-and-Seek, Stepping Onto the 8th Floor

The younger sister covered her ears with both hands. The sound emanating from the cistern was like piercing noise, stinging her eardrums and making her head feel like it would split.

The older sister also held one hand to her forehead, though she seemed less distressed.

"Although my sister and I have the same talent, she hears the inner voices much more intensely than I do."

Ji Yan looked at the cistern covered in moss and asked, "What exactly did that eerie entity say?"

The younger sister, covering her head, replied, "It said it was cold inside, so stuffy, and it couldn't breathe..."

"It's... it's asking for help."

Asking for help?

So that eerie entity was trapped inside.

Who threw it in there?

Ji Yan pondered for a moment. "Stay here. I'm going to push aside the concrete slab of the cistern and see if it'll come out."

With that, Ji Yan got up and walked towards the cistern.

Perhaps it was because Eerie Grandmother had added "100 points of Eerie Power" to the black meat soup, but the heavy concrete slab, weighing several hundred pounds, felt like a wooden plank. Ji Yan pushed it aside with little effort.

The concrete slab was pushed open by about half an arm's length.

The next second, a strong stench and black mist surged out from the cistern...

Ji Yan stared into the dark interior of the cistern.

He faintly saw a pair of pale white eyes staring directly at him.

The next second, a swollen, blistered, dark green hand reached out and grabbed the edge...

"Don't be nervous, I'm here to help you out."

Seeing that the entity didn't attack him immediately, Ji Yan tried to interact.

As long as this eerie entity was brought out, the problem of the cistern's water contamination should be solved.

However, the moment Ji Yan spoke, those pale white eyes turned chilling. "Get lost!!"

The next second, that dark hand lunged towards Ji Yan's neck.

Ji Yan, who had been prepared, swung the nail hammer at the hand before it could touch him. With a forceful swing, a piece of rotten flesh was torn away.

The eerie entity inside quickly retracted its hand...

"What's going on? It's asking for help, but then it doesn't want to be saved!"

Ji Yan frowned, looking at the piece of rotten flesh, and grumbled.

The older sister, Zhong Yi, spoke from behind, "That eerie entity only allows its father to rescue it."

"No one else is allowed."

The younger sister, Zhong Ting, added, "It said it's a game of hide-and-seek. As long as Dad hasn't found it, the game isn't over, and it hasn't lost yet."

"Hide-and-seek?"

"Which room's resident is it?"

The two sisters shook their heads.

"It's already good that we can hear this information. It's been wailing incessantly!"

Ji Yan's eyes flickered. He suddenly thought of something and picked up the piece of rotten flesh.

Immediately, [Omniscient Understanding] was triggered, and a hidden message popped up before his eyes.

[That day, Dad played hide-and-seek with me. He said the game couldn't end until he found me, so I listened to him and ran out of Room 804, hiding in the cistern on the rooftop. It's so cold, so stuffy. Why hasn't Dad found me yet?]

Ji Yan's eyebrows twitched.

"Room 804, a resident on the 8th floor..."

He felt a headache coming on.

The residents on the 8th floor were all tough customers, and he really didn't want to deal with them.

However, his own child had hidden in the rooftop cistern, and he still hadn't found them.

Was it carelessness, or was he deliberately not looking?

He didn't dwell on it. At least now he had a target for his clue.

"Do you know where its father is?" The older sister, Zhong Yi, with her sharp ears, heard Ji Yan's mumbling.

"Room 804."

Ji Yan jumped down from the cistern and threw away the piece of rotten flesh. "Do you two want to follow?"

"How did you get this information?" The younger sister glanced at the disgusting piece of rotten flesh and asked.

"Everyone has a talent, don't they?"

"What's your talent? It looks really powerful."

"It's pretty useless, nothing to brag about," Ji Yan said, waving his hand, unwilling to reveal anything.

Her sister's face immediately flushed red: "That's not fair, I told you everything."

The older sister pulled her younger sister behind her and asked, "You're going to the eighth floor?"

"The residents on the 8th floor are..."

"How about you go, and I'll stay here to keep watch?" Ji Yan countered.

The older sister smiled slightly, "You go ahead. My sister and I will stay here. If you get any more information, tell me when you get back."

"No worries, I have connections on the eighth floor."

Ji Yan patted the dust off his clothes.

The older sister smiled in surprise, "You have a guide on the 8th floor residents too? How good are your connections?"

"Life-or-death friendship, what do you think?"

Waving his hand and leaving that sentence behind, Ji Yan turned and left the rooftop.

As soon as Ji Yan left, the younger sister tugged on her older sister's hand, "Sister, he's dealt with the eerie residents on the 8th floor before, should we try to get on his good side?"

The older sister shook her head, "Do you believe everything he says?"

"Look how stiff his smile is, he's just putting on a brave face."

"His profile only says he's survived for less than 7 days, is that even possible?"

Eighth Floor.

As soon as his feet stepped onto the corridor, his vision was greatly obstructed.

It was deathly silent; even the wandering night creatures seemed afraid to tread on this floor.

Ji Yan took out the flashlight he had obtained from the Eerie Mother from his tool bar.

The cold orange light pierced through the inky darkness. The eighth floor was exceptionally clean, with no trash, no bloodstains, and even a red carpet laid on the floor.

Shining his light on the door numbers on both sides, Ji Yan quickly found Room 804.

At the entrance, a little boy wearing a bib was squatting.

He was playing with a dead little bird in his hand. When he saw Ji Yan approaching with the flashlight, he held up the dead little bird and asked with a grin, "Brother, this one is dead, what fun things do you have?"

Ji Yan looked at the half-open door behind the Eerie Child and asked, "Are your parents home?"

The boy grinned, "Hehehe, give me something fun, and I'll tell you."

Ji Yan was a bit troubled. The only things he had on him that he could give away were three coffin nails and an eyeball he had pried off from the Ghoul on the 7th floor.

As he was thinking, the half-open door creaked open.

A white-haired woman in pajamas walked out and picked up the child.

She glanced at Ji Yan, her eyes like she was looking at a lowly rat scavenging for garbage in a sewer: "Good son, you forgot what Mommy told you again. Don't talk to these people downstairs, they're all dirty."

"You are Mommy's treasure, don't get contaminated by them."

Ji Yan: "..."

The Eerie Child, however, was displeased, "Mommy, I don't have any toys to play with. This brother has lots of fun things, I want them!"

The Eerie Mother stopped, looking somewhat helpless.

Ji Yan seized the opportunity to speak, "Sister, I'm looking for you..."

The Eerie Mother interrupted him, slightly lowering her proud figure. Her V-neck revealed a large expanse of pale skin: "Call me sister, you have a sweet mouth."

"Where do you live?"

Ji Yan could only answer first, "The 4th floor."

"Oh, a new resident from the fourth floor."

The Eerie Mother then asked, "Is this your first time on the 8th floor?"

Ji Yan hesitated for a moment and nodded slightly.

The Eerie Mother let out a long "Oh," and her smile suddenly became meaningful, "So you're saying you have no connections on the 8th floor?"

Ji Yan's heart skipped a beat, and he immediately sensed something was wrong.

Before he could react, the Eerie Mother's eyes, which had been smiling a moment ago, turned arrogant and cold. One of her hands had already gripped Ji Yan's neck.

It felt as if his throat had been caught by the Grim Reaper's scythe, and Ji Yan's entire body turned ice-cold and numb...

The Eerie Mother licked her lips with her bright red tongue: "What a fine specimen."

"Who gave you the courage to dare come to the 8th floor alone in the dead of night?"