Task Delayed?

"Huh?"

As the white light faded, the flustered figure froze for a moment before letting out a hysterical scream!

Ji Li's head throbbed, but he made no move to help.

Fang Shenyan merely watched without saying a word.

Only Tong Guan frowned and stepped forward, pulling the new man off Yu Guo.

Perhaps because the newcomer had not officially become a hotel employee during the transmission, stepping on Yu Guo did not count as actual harm.

Otherwise, he would have already been burned to death by the hotel's curse.

"What's going on? Who are you? Where am I?!"

The man who had arrived looked plain and was not very old, perhaps just over twenty. The moment he saw Tong Guan, he fired off several questions at once.

"This is Tianhai Hotel... Unfortunately, you've been selected..."

Before Tong Guan could finish, Ji Li grabbed the "Newcomer Handbook" from the table and tossed it to the bewildered man.

Ji Li gave him a cursory look and could tell that, aside from having excessive curiosity, this newcomer had nothing special about him.

Since he was so ordinary, there was no need to waste too much time on him.

Still, Ji Li's behavior made Tong Guan and Chang Nian somewhat uncomfortable.

Ji Li walked over to Yu Guo and glanced at the solid shoeprint on his face, tugging at the corner of his mouth.

"Damn, that hurts like hell. Ji Li, look—did I get disfigured?"

Yu Guo covered his left cheek as he hurriedly asked Ji Li, still spouting endless nonsense.

"What's your name?"

"Li... Li Xing.

What the hell is going on? I was about to use the bathroom, my pants were already down—how did I end up here?" The man's face had reddened, but not from embarrassment. It looked more like he was desperately holding in his urine.

Chang Nian, the only woman present, twitched at the corner of her eye and snapped, "The bathroom's over there. Get the hell out of here!"

Fang Shenyan lifted his eyes and glanced at her, pressing his lips together.

He was becoming fairly certain that this woman was not quite normal either. At the very least, her temper was far more explosive than her husband's.

Tong Guan instead became the most normal person in the hotel.

"Don't panic. Let me explain the current situation first.

Feel your pockets. You should find a phone."

"Based on the previous pattern, whenever a newcomer arrives, the latest mission is usually issued. Why is there still no movement?"

After a brief exchange, Ji Li and the others sat down again.

Tong Guan sat in his chair with a cigarette between his fingers and spoke softly.

Although Ji Li had only experienced one newcomer replenishment, they had received a mission immediately back then.

Tong Guan had more experience than he did, so his words should have been reliable.

Yet two hours had already passed since they arrived at the hotel, and there had been no sign of anything.

Over this period, Ji Li had gained a rough understanding of the personalities of Tong Guan and Chang Nian, the married couple.

Tong Guan was clearly formidable in both intellect and courage. He had just described several missions he had experienced before, as well as the process of deducing a way out.

That superb logical reasoning ability made even Ji Li feel a sense of crisis.

Of course, having someone like that as a companion was naturally a good thing, but what truly concerned Ji Li was Tong Guan's personality.

Tong Guan was already about to become an official store manager. Anyone with eyes could see the natural air of leadership he carried.

Yet unlike Ji Li, Fang Shenyan, and the others, who were all thoroughly scheming, this man possessed a sense of chivalry.

Just now, no one had paid attention to Li Xing. Even Chang Nian had looked disgusted, while Tong Guan alone had gone to explain things to the newcomer.

Tong Guan looked more like a store manager than Ji Li did.

Nothing could be seen for now, but if the hotel upgraded in the future and the number of people continued to increase...

Once the number reached a certain peak, factions would inevitably form. At that point, whether Ji Li would still be the manager of Shop No. 7 was hard to say.

Although he did not care about the empty title of store manager,

the hotel's earlier announcement had vaguely revealed that the true manager certainly possessed some kind of privilege.

Tong Guan's arrival was an improvement for the group as a whole, but to Ji Li personally, he was indeed a potential threat.

Likewise, their original way of doing things was vastly different from Tong Guan's. Perhaps in the coming missions, Tong Guan would become a major factor obstructing Ji Li's plans.

This was also why Fang Shenyan had said almost nothing so far.

Because Fang Shenyan had already chosen to stand beside Ji Li, whose style resembled his own.

"Say, are all those portraits upstairs former store managers? That many people died?"

While the other employees silently stared at the phones on the table, waiting for the mission to arrive, Li Xing had already circled the entire hotel more than five times.

Nearly every time he finished looking around, he asked several more questions, the very image of a curious young man.

Basically, aside from Tong Guan and Yu Guo, no one was willing to pay attention to him.

"Brother, do you seriously have nothing better to do? The mission's about to come. Why not save your strength instead of getting ready to walk into your death later?"

Even Yu Guo's good temper had been worn thin by his questions. One could imagine just how much "power" Li Xing had displayed during this time.

Li Xing clicked his tongue and could only return sheepishly to the solid wood table. Seeing the grave expressions on everyone's faces, he chose the far end beside Chang Nian.

Just as he was about to sit down, Chang Nian widened her phoenix eyes. "Get over there!"

Li Xing jumped at the shout. He did not dare provoke this woman, who looked sweet on the surface but was vicious in truth, so he edged over beside Yu Guo.

"Our phones are all the same, right?"

Seeing that Yu Guo was the easiest person to talk to among them, he casually picked up Yu Guo's Hotel Phone and carefully compared it with his own.

Yu Guo did not think much of it. He merely lowered his head and played with his livestream phone, still applying to have his ban lifted.

Ji Li was growing increasingly irritated. With a cigarette between his lips, he reached out with his left hand, picked up the phone in front of him, and checked it several times, but there was still no mission email.

"Are you left-handed?" Fang Shenyan asked curiously when he saw this.

Hearing that, Ji Li froze. Only then did he realize that it was his left hand holding the phone.

Those five fingers deftly typed and flipped through pages on the screen, as though they had long grown accustomed to using it.

Ji Li was also somewhat stunned. "My left hand has been chopped off several times. It's already numb, and I hardly use it at all..."

Yet the way he had instinctively used it just now felt utterly natural, as though it should have been that way.

Just then, a heavy crash suddenly rang out from the second floor, accompanied by the sound of shattering glass!

The second-floor windows had already been sealed with iron plates. It sounded as though something outside had suddenly slammed into a window, shattering the outer glass but being stopped by the iron plates!

Ji Li threw down his phone and rushed toward the second floor with the others!

In the first-floor lobby, only Li Xing remained behind.

His expression suddenly changed from ordinary to gloomy, and his movements became puppet-like.

His vacant eyes fell upon the five Hotel Phones on the table...