Cloaked Ghost

The sun of a new day shone over the streets and alleys of Shanming City.

The Three Rivers Residential Complex in the eastern outskirts was desolate, yet touched by a hint of warmth. It was fine weather today, slightly dispelling the autumn chill.

A handsome but pale-faced man, wrapped in a loose trench coat and holding a cigarette between his lips, staggered out of an old building.

Beside him was a fair-skinned middle-aged man in a Zhongshan suit, carrying a half-conscious person on his back who occasionally let out soft groans.

They looked as though they had fought a vicious battle. Every one of them was exhausted in both body and mind.

The man in the trench coat hailed a taxi. The middle-aged man placed the unconscious, gaunt young man onto the back seat, and the two squeezed into the cab.

"The riverbank, Southwest Public Restroom."

After hearing the destination, the driver did not turn on his navigation. His entire face seemed to go numb and stiff.

Whether or not he knew the exact location of that so-called public restroom, as long as someone named the place, he would drive there on his own.

The true place beneath the public restroom: Tianhai Hotel.

"We're back! I'm back again!"

The Second Personality had barely spoken after Ji Li was injured. Only after entering the safety of the hotel did it howl loudly, as if it had been suppressing itself for a long time.

Under the reinforcement of the hotel's special power, Ji Li's hands slowly gave off the sound of bones knitting together. The process was not painful.

Other than issuing terrifying missions, the hotel was practically flawless in how it accommodated its employees.

Yu Guo's body lay in the center of the lobby. The crudely treated wound on his leg opened and closed on its own, gathering flesh and bone.

His consciousness was gradually returning as well.

Fang Shenyan could be said to have sustained the lightest injuries among the three. He had merely exhausted much of his strength, and after resting for a while, he regained his energy.

"Congratulations to Mr. Ji Li, Acting Manager of Tianhai Hotel's Shop No. 7; employee Mr. Fang Shenyan; and employee Mr. Yu Guo.

You have successfully completed the Reception Mission and returned!

Additional employees will arrive in the hotel lobby promptly at two o'clock in the afternoon, three days from now.

May you all enjoy surviving."

Ji Li said nothing as he listened to the sweet female voice over the broadcast.

Of the six people on the mission, half had died. The casualty rate was already extremely high.

He now vaguely felt that after the hotel had advanced to one star, both the difficulty of its missions and the terror of its ghosts had steadily risen.

Six people seemed to be no longer enough.

He looked at the black-and-white memorial portraits on the wall and sighed.

Perhaps as the missions progressed and the hotel leveled up, its personnel would change accordingly.

But there were still two missions before the next star upgrade.

With so few people now, they would probably have to participate every time. Even Ji Li was not confident that he could survive the next mission.

"Newcomers will be added in three days. I hope a few outstanding ones arrive..."

"Fuck! That hurt like hell! I've never suffered such serious injuries in my life!"

Yu Guo finally woke up slowly at that moment, and the first thing he said showed that he had recovered his usual temperament.

Fang Shenyan looked at him, and even his numb face carried a trace of a smile.

Besides his ability to execute, Yu Guo's role among them was to be the one with the strongest nerves, capable of dispelling the oppressive atmosphere.

"What a pity, what a pity. I left my livestreaming phone in Room 701. You didn't help me get it back, did you?"

Yu Guo sprang up from the ground and immediately asked about the livestream.

Ji Li looked at him with a faint smile. "Didn't you say you had already found proof that ghosts existed? Is livestreaming still necessary?"

"Of course it is!

The guys in my stream always call me a fraud. That was clearly a perfect chance to prove it."

Yu Guo was highly excited. Besides the joy of surviving, he seemed to regret missing the chance to livestream his encounter with ghosts.

"Then get another phone and film the second floor."

Fang Shenyan lightly patted his shoulder.

At the same time, a plume of black smoke suddenly rose from the Black Eyeball tattoo on the back of his hand.

It gathered in the air into the form of a disheveled-haired woman, and an inexplicable force carved three numbers into her forehead.

"201"

The shadow vanished and rushed straight to the second floor. It was not willing, but under the hotel's rules, neither human nor ghost could resist.

As it entered, Ji Li clearly heard the doors of the three Ghost Residents already on the second floor open at the same time.

It seemed that humans were not the only ones with curiosity. Ghosts likewise possessed an urge to pry.

"Why hasn't the tattoo on the back of my hand disappeared..."

Only when Fang Shenyan said this did he draw Ji Li's attention.

He turned to look at the back of Fang Shenyan's left hand. That distinctive, Gothic-style tattoo still remained there.

Yu Guo blinked. He had been unconscious at the time and knew nothing about it.

"What's going on? You went on one mission and got yourself a tattoo?"

"Do you know?" Fang Shenyan seemed accustomed to Yu Guo's teasing and threw the question to Ji Li.

Ji Li knew little about it as well. After observing it carefully, he asked, "Do you feel any discomfort?"

"No. Whether it exists or not, I don't feel the slightest difference."

Ji Li nodded, then thoughtfully looked toward the memorial portraits in the lobby.

In the end, his gaze settled on the third one. The man in that portrait had once been the manager of Shop No. 7.

He had also been the strongest manager, the one who led the employees of that generation to turn the hotel into a two-star hotel.

There was likewise an unusual tattoo on his cheek, though its pattern was completely different from Fang Shenyan's.

However, those dark, sinister designs carried a similar feeling.

Ji Li frowned. "I don't know what this thing does, but I imagine it is related to the hotel's level.

It may be useless now, but as the hotel's level rises in the future, its function should reveal itself!"

Without a definite answer, they could only take things one step at a time.

The three walked side by side to the Third Floor and returned to their rooms to rest.

But the moment Yu Guo entered his room, he asked Heavenly Sea for a new phone, logged into his account, and came back out.

He started a livestream while lowering his head and snickering.

"Fang Shenyan really has a good head on his shoulders. If I keep watch on those ghosts every day, how could I possibly not receive gifts?"

"Guys, I'm back! Don't ask why I ended my stream last night—I barely escaped with my life!

Tch! I really wasn't lying to you. Now I'll show you what real ghosts actually look like.

One cruise ship for one look, two cruise ships for two looks!"

Yu Guo seemed to have figured out the secret to getting rich. In truth, money was already just a number to the employees; they could have as much as they wanted.

But Yu Guo's way of thinking seemed different from ordinary people's. He loved livestreaming, and asking for gifts was merely a process of satisfying himself.

"Alright then, thanks to Snowflakes Don't Drift, I Don't Drift for the cruise ship. Let's give everyone a taste first—let's pick a Headless Ghost..."

Yu Guo aimed his phone stand at the second-floor corridor, at the window farthest to the side, slowly moving inward toward the Headless Ghost in Room 210.

But before he could capture the ghostly figure, his stream was forcibly shut down. When he opened it again, the livestream room had been permanently banned.

Yu Guo's scalp went numb. Just as he was about to curse, the replay of the stream began playing on its own...

In the footage, two blurry shadows appeared at the second-floor window, only inches away from him.

One had no head, while the other seemed wrapped in a thick cloak, its entire body merged within it. It looked like a trench coat hanging in midair, stirred by the wind.

Of the two shadows, the headless one was inside the hotel, while the Cloaked Ghost was outside it!