Dead End Eruption

"Holy crap! What the hell is that!"

Ji Li was so startled by the scene that his hair stood on end, and the Second Personality in his mind screamed out.

Inside the master bedroom, only the phone's image was emitting light. This sudden shock sent a tremor through everyone.

Yu Guo, holding the phone and closest to the image, immediately threw it away. It hit the glass window, cracking it slightly.

"Let's go, let's go!"

Ji Li shook his head violently, got up from the ground, pushed Fang Shenyan beside him, and squeezed through the crowd to leave the master bedroom!

Ding Miaoxin and Cao Yuan had already darted out of the room almost as soon as he spoke.

Ji Li, however, lagged behind. As he was leaving the master bedroom, he couldn't suppress his curiosity and turned to glance at the opening.

But this time, he found that the beam of light was gone...

"The killer in 702 has realized our presence!"

As Ji Li stepped into the living room, he immediately regretted it.

With the phone's camera blocking the opening, 702 couldn't see anything!

Ji Li panicked and ordered a retreat, which only exposed them, the "peeping Toms"!

He quickly walked out of the master bedroom and into the living room.

The five staff members were gathered in the center of the living room, sitting on the floor in a circle. After the previous scare, their sense of unity seemed to have increased.

Ji Li was the first to ask for the notebook. Fang Shenyan handed it over without much explanation, his face looking a little pale.

"October 20, 2015..."

Ji Li frowned. The perverted man had said he was already dead and was going to find the woman in 702.

The date he said this was two days ago!

But why did the killing scene they just saw through the opening appear to have happened just now?

What had this ghost been doing for the past two days!

Yu Guo ran his hand through his hair, agitated by the complex situation. He couldn't stand the oppressive atmosphere and was the first to ask:

"Everyone, it seems the situation has become clear.

The 701 we are in is the residence of a perverted and lewd man. He became a ghost after he died.

But he hasn't changed his ways and went after the woman in 702.

It seems that simple, but so many things don't add up!"

Fang Shenyan nodded in agreement, also feeling that the progress of events was too easy.

"We still have many unresolved doubts!

First, how did the perverted man know he was going to die?

Second, I noticed the content of his last diary entry was from two days ago, but everything that happened next door clearly just occurred. There's a two-day gap!

Third, why is the perverted man's room so tidy? This completely contradicts his displayed personality!"

Ji Li frowned, took out his cigarette case, lit one, and tossed it onto the coffee table.

"I can answer the third point.

The current arrangement of the room we see might have been interfered with by the hotel to some extent, removing some irrelevant information and retaining the corresponding information.

This is one of the unwritten rules of the mission.

As for the first point...

Perhaps there is some unknown connection between the hotel and the ghosts. Such macro and deep-seated implications are not important to us at the moment.

The most crucial thing is why he clearly reached out to the woman in 702 two days ago, but only killed her today!"

Most of the people present had no mission experience, and Ji Li was asking himself this question.

After a period of silence, the Third Personality spoke, offering a somewhat ethereal guess.

"Ji Li... do you think what we're seeing is the ghost replaying an event from two days ago?"

Ji Li frowned and replied in a low voice, "What do you mean?"

The Third Personality fumbled for words, then analyzed loudly:

"Perhaps the woman in 702 was killed by the same method two days ago, And what we are seeing now is the ghost re-enacting it for some purpose!"

Ji Li pondered whether the Third Personality's analysis had any loopholes, but after considering it, he found this idea to be very plausible.

"So, the reason they wanted us to see this murder process was to show us the way out, or perhaps the way to death!"

As soon as he said this, the voice in his mind completely disappeared.

The Third Personality agreed, and the Second Personality had no objection.

"Brother Ji, who... who are you talking to..."

Cao Yuan's voice rang out, and Ji Li finally looked up, realizing that the other staff members were also staring at him with peculiar expressions.

Ji Li waved his hand, not offering an explanation.

He glanced at his watch. It was 8:48 PM, and the mission had begun nearly an hour ago.

Ever since he had been stared at by those eyes, a premonition had settled in his heart.

Ji Li looked at his companions, their expressions varied, and said softly:

"I'm now 90% certain that the perverted man from Room 701 is the ghost we need to face in this mission!

Furthermore, I can now roughly answer Fang Shenyan's second question.

It wasn't idle during these past two days.

When it wrote the last page of the diary, it had already gone to Room 702 to kill that woman.

And it waited for our arrival, deliberately recreating the scene."

Yu Guo glanced at the phone that had been thrown into the master bedroom and asked distractedly, "Why?"

Ji Li hesitated but didn't immediately answer.

"What exactly are you thinking?" The Second Personality couldn't understand Ji Li's intentions either and asked from the side.

The Third Personality spoke softly in his mind:

"We were previously guessing whether the ghost showing us the murder illusion was a hint for a way out or a deadly trap!

But... if we follow Murphy's Law.

Perhaps it exploited the staff's eagerness to find clues and spent two days meticulously designing a dead end.

A dead end that would instantly trigger for all the staff!"

"Bang!"

Just as the living people in the living room were immersed in the psychological horror from before, the anti-theft door was suddenly slammed!

Ji Li's finger twitched, and a piece of ash fell onto his clothes, but his gaze remained fixed on the door, unblinking!

Everyone was drawn by the sound of the door being slammed. Then, Cao Yuan, who was closest to the door, jumped up as if electrocuted, scrambling into the crowd.

"It's here? It's here!"

Cao Yuan shoved Yu Guo beside him forcefully and growled, "It's here! It's here! Let's run!"

Yu Guo annoyedly batted away Cao Yuan's arm and subtly moved closer to Ji Li.

Facing imminent death, he still didn't seem overly panicked. "Run? This place is only this big, where else can we run!"

"This... this..."

Ding Miaoxin had completely collapsed onto the floor, her hands braced on the coffee table, lacking the strength to even run.

She was utterly terrified. Yu Guo's words still echoed in her ears, but she was no longer listening.

She could only remember that monstrous, scarlet eyeball, like a mountain of corpses and a sea of blood, was about to consume her life!

Fang Shenyan, who was already near the room, glanced at the door and then at Ji Li, who hadn't moved.

He seemed to vaguely understand why Ji Li hadn't answered Yu Guo's question earlier.

"Because the dead end has been triggered..."