Isolation Theory

The team of seven moved through the dark stairwell in gloomy silence, accompanied by dense, chaotic footsteps and flushed faces, racing hearts.

Everyone had seen it: the corpse whose head had twisted around in an inhuman fashion, still standing within the Corridor Entrance.

Its body was completely shrouded in darkness. Only when a living person's Light Source reached it could they see that it was not a statue, but a dead body!

The five employees forced to come under Ji Li's intimidation were all silent as cicadas, not even daring to breathe too loudly.

Just moments ago, the leading middle-aged man had screamed upon seeing the corpse, only for Ji Li to turn and shove the pitch-black muzzle of his gun into his mouth. He had nearly wet himself in fright.

Those icy eyes radiated merciless pressure. For a while, no one dared to speak again and could only obediently follow him onward.

"Manager... Manager, why did you have to bring me...? My ability isn't strong enough. I'm afraid I'll only hold you back."

Compared with the others, Li Xing felt far less mystery toward Ji Li's identity, which gave him more courage to speak.

In fact, just as he said, whether it was Tong Guan, Chang Nian, or Yu Guo, each of them was certainly far more capable than Li Xing.

Ji Li had not chosen everyone else, yet had specifically brought him along. That left Li Xing deeply puzzled.

More than anything, he was afraid because Ji Li's style had already become well known in Shop No. 7. Li Xing feared that Ji Li truly intended to use him as a sacrificial pawn...

But Ji Li ignored his question completely.

"We've already searched the Second Floor and the Third Floor. There was nothing suspicious. We'll search upward, floor by floor.

"Until we find the remaining three people, dead or alive."

Li Xing turned to exchange a glance with the middle-aged man beside him, swallowing all his questions and not daring to respond.

Holding a flashlight, Ji Li searched door to door. The layout of this building was incomparably complicated, its spaces carved apart by various small companies into a chaotic, illogical arrangement.

That made his search considerably more difficult.

On the surface, his task on this trip was to rescue the remaining three people, but he knew perfectly well what truly mattered.

Saving people was not the objective. The key was whether he could use those three people's deaths to judge and deduce the ghost's killing pattern.

The so-called Isolation Theory was also one of Ji Li's contingencies.

Li Xing's role was naturally to serve as a sacrificial pawn, though not entirely.

As Ji Li kept his eyes fixed on every corner, a sharp gleam flickered within them.

The ghost possessed a Cloning Ability. That was practically a fact by now.

But how it selected its targets remained a question.

A previous remark from the Second Personality had given him several ideas.

He had said, "Ji Li is the incarnation of the Grim Reaper. Wherever he goes, people die!"

During the first operation, there had been three groups. Ji Li, Tong Guan, and Fang Shenyan—every death had occurred near one of them.

Combined with the Isolation Theory, that led to a relatively clear deduction:

"The ghost will prioritize attacking staff members near store employees, and only when the total number of living people is fewer than six!"

However, that numerical limit still needed further testing.

The key point behind that conclusion was that Fang Shenyan's side had contained five people at the time, yet they had still been attacked.

That was why Ji Li had arrived at the guess that six people did not count as isolated, though it might not be accurate.

This time, their side had started with seven people, and their numbers would continue to increase as they searched for the remaining three.

Ji Li needed to verify two things: first, whether the Isolation Theory held true; second, how many people were required to no longer count as isolated and thus become immune to the ghost's attacks.

If he could determine that, then perhaps a path to survival for this mission had already appeared.

Even so, Ji Li still felt that this path to survival was too simple for the difficulty level of the current hotel, but he had to investigate it nonetheless.

Bang!

Just as the group's repression had reached its limit and their nerves had been stretched taut, an exceptionally loud sound of a door being slammed suddenly thundered through the building!

"G-Ghost? The ghost is here?"

Li Xing shrieked and was about to hurry forward to stand behind Ji Li, but the middle-aged man beside him reacted even faster than this store employee.

Before Li Xing could rush out, the man grabbed his arm instead.

The workers behind them immediately huddled into a mass, shoving forward and crashing into Ji Li's back.

Ji Li had been tilting his head, trying to locate the source of the sound, when the six people behind him slammed into him and nearly pinned him against the wall.

His face instantly darkened. The sound had not been particularly close, and it had vanished in an instant. He had only caught a rough sense of it.

He had been concentrating on locating it, only for this group to completely interrupt him.

But this was not the time to dwell on that. The Third Personality swiftly gave him an answer in his mind:

"Upstairs, southeast!"

Ji Li glanced at the others without saying anything more, gripped his flashlight, and rushed up the nearest staircase.

The fifth floor!

Only a single door-slamming sound had come from there, yet that was precisely what Ji Li found strange.

Even now, he did not understand why three employees had not gone downstairs after the building lost power. There were roughly two possibilities: they were either already dead, or asleep.

Because of his earlier speculation about the killing rule, he was more inclined toward the latter.

But why would employees who had not realized there was a ghost in the building slam a door the instant they woke up?

The sound had even been violent enough for him to hear it clearly from downstairs.

Li Xing and the others behind him watched Ji Li rush off and exchanged glances.

"What do we do... brother, are we going or not?"

Li Xing gritted his teeth. He might not have been clever, but he was not stupid either. He understood the Isolation Theory Ji Li had mentioned earlier. Now that Ji Li had left, they did not know whether staying behind would be safe.

"Go! Follow him!"

Hearing the footsteps behind him, Ji Li knew that group had followed after all. It did not surprise him.

"Turn left at the corner and keep going in. I can hear a woman crying!"

Ji Li frowned. He had not heard a single sound on this fifth floor, yet the Third Personality continued directing him.

Before a transparent glass wall, Ji Li stopped. He raised his flashlight and looked through the glass into the room beyond.

At the same time, he turned to look at the others, who were no longer far from him.

In a low voice, he said to Li Xing, "Bring four people over."

Li Xing's expression twitched. He knew that since he had already come this far, there was no point in refusing to even look. Taking a deep breath, he turned to the middle-aged man.

"Let's go."

Six people had now gradually gathered on Ji Li's side. Including the woman behind the wall, there were seven of them here now.

If the Isolation Theory held true, then they were currently at their greatest possible numbers.

Would the ghost still make a move?