Real Constraints

The heavy rain outside the building had long since stopped. The rainwater had yet to dry, but the glass doors were covered in streaks of moisture.

Within the increasingly cold building, scenes of utter brutality were unfolding.

"Stop trying to save them!"

Fang Shenyan flexed his aching knuckles and stopped Yu Guo, who was still trying to help.

The two stood side by side, looking at the only ten people left before them.

Fang Shenyan's eyes grew increasingly puzzled. At the very beginning, ten of the twenty-eight staff members had died outright.

No matter how they tried to save them, there had been no way to bring them back. They had gradually come to accept Ji Li's claim that once someone was possessed, there was no cure.

Then they discovered that the closer they got to the staff, the faster the living people died!

It was a new discovery, but a strange one.

This change reminded Fang Shenyan of the speculation Ji Li had mentioned earlier.

The closer the clerks got to the staff, the faster they died. It seemed to form a killing rule.

But what Fang Shenyan could not figure out, no matter how hard he thought, was how these staff members had all been possessed by ghosts at the same time.

Before he could make sense of that, what happened next left him even more alarmed.

As Fang Shenyan and Yu Guo withdrew to watch, the remaining ten staff members who had not yet died began displaying another bizarre phenomenon.

All ten had their hands clasped around their heads, yet none of them moved for a long time!

It was as though they had been frozen in the same pose. Even after everyone around them had died, they still took no action.

Yu Guo irritably searched himself, pulled out a cigarette case from his pocket, handed Fang Shenyan one, and asked softly:

"Teacher Fang, what's going on?"

Fang Shenyan stared deeply at the ten remaining survivors, took a drag of his cigarette, and shook his head slightly.

"I don't know."

As he said that, he raised his wrist and checked his watch. It was 3:20 a.m.

Twenty minutes had passed since the chaos on the first floor began, yet these last ten people had remained motionless for a full ten minutes!

They maintained that rigid posture of death, yet had not truly acted.

"I have a feeling the ghosts are deliberately stalling for time. Perhaps they are restricted by the real mission's constraints.

Only after reaching a certain point can they slaughter us without restraint!"

After pondering for a moment, Fang Shenyan called Ji Li.

But the call would not go through.

Meanwhile, Tong Guan and Chang Nian had reached the area near the third floor. They were trying to find Ji Li and meet up with him.

"I've been thinking about the killing rule all the way here.

The mission details might be wrong, but a ghost's killing rule will not change.

Based on that, we can work backward and deduce the real Mission Information."

Tong Guan kept his head lowered, constantly on guard against his surroundings. He still did not know that the inexplicable pause had already begun on the first floor.

Chang Nian looked up at the somewhat yellowed light and thought for a moment before saying:

"But what do all these people who died have in common...?"

Tong Guan took out his Hotel Phone, casually opened the memo, held it before Chang Nian, and said gravely:

"The phone!

Perhaps Ji Li's guess was not entirely wrong. The staff really did die one after another because they came into contact with us clerks.

But we are not the source of the curse. Perhaps the Hotel Phones are!"

Chang Nian did not quite understand. Looking at the list of twenty-eight staff members recorded on Tong Guan's phone, she hesitated before saying:

"What does that mean...

Could the mission details be correct after all?"

Tong Guan shook his head, then deleted every name in the memo.

"I only just thought of it. Every one of us clerks carries a Hotel Phone.

The people who died before had indeed died around us. Only this final group on the first floor was affected even after we had already left.

I did not realize it at the time. It was only when I picked up my phone just now and tried to reread the mission details that I understood.

My phone had already recorded every surviving person.

Perhaps the ghosts' killing rule is to kill staff members around the Hotel Phones, including any living person who comes into contact with the phones in any way!

That is their criterion!"

Chang Nian stopped walking, a chill running through her body. "Then are the mission details still wrong?"

Tong Guan nodded.

"Yes. First, the tone of the Mission Information is far too subjective. It does not match the hotel's usual mission style.

Second, the mission details are vague and unclear, more like something abruptly written on the spur of the moment.

And if the Hotel Phones are the source of the curse, that fits even better with the idea that the ghosts concealed the real mission.

Finally, and most importantly—

It proves that this mission is fake!"

Listening to Tong Guan's word-by-word analysis and his nearly certain conclusion, Chang Nian's eyes still curved with a faint smile in this most difficult moment.

"What?"

"Because there were still three hours left before the mission ended at that time.

On the first floor, the experiment Guan Ping and I conducted never began, never ended, and simply came to nothing!

My thought at the time was that if I died, it would prove there was a flaw in the mission, and the fake mission created by the ghosts would officially come to light.

Now we know that the phones may be the source of the curse, so the ghosts were likely lurking around us all along.

That plan would have exposed the ghosts' setup two hours early, with so much time remaining.

So they had no choice but to stop our plan from the very beginning.

What was strangest was that before the plan was carried out, when I was merely testing things, the clerks could remain stiff as they snapped their own necks. But the moment the plan was put into action, I lost that perception!

The ghosts were making their attempt at concealment far too obvious."

Chang Nian listened intently to Tong Guan's long explanation, repeatedly nodding as she followed his reasoning and continued:

"And when Ji Li's plan took shape, the ghosts did not stop it again out of caution. Instead, they resorted to stalling for time.

They forcibly dragged things out until the final moment of the mission before erupting, because by then, they no longer cared whether we discovered the mission was real or fake!"

Tong Guan nodded and was about to speak when the Hotel Phone suddenly began buzzing. The caller ID read "Fang Shenyan."

"Hello? Teacher Fang?"

"Tong Guan, there's a situation.

Since 3:10, ten staff members have remained alive on the first floor. Everyone else had already died, but they still have not snapped their necks.

I suspect the ghosts are stalling for time. This must be related to the real mission details.

But when I called Ji Li, it said no one answered.

I suspect something happened on his side, or Li Xing's."

Tong Guan's brows tightened. He had just said the ghosts were stalling for time, but Fang Shenyan's words showed that even now—

the ghosts were still waiting for something and had not delivered the final blow!

"Are we just going to keep waiting like this?"

On the other end of the call, Yu Guo shouted hoarsely. He had no direction at all. The ghosts had controlled the pace from beginning to end, and the feeling was driving him mad.

Tong Guan's face darkened. He too realized that the ghosts must have had a long-planned scheme.

He even felt that the so-called mission to protect the staff was meant to stall for time!

As for the purpose, Tong Guan understood it as soon as he thought it through. The ghosts were merely constrained by the real mission details.

Perhaps the moment something happened to the remaining ten staff members, the ghosts' claws would reach toward every clerk!

"I understand. I'll go find Ji Li!"

The moment Tong Guan finished speaking, a burst of chaotic footsteps suddenly came from the other end of the corridor.

A blurry figure stood within the halo of light, its outline wavering against the backlight.

A voice that sounded familiar at first, yet became cold and strange upon closer thought, echoed through the corridor.

"Tong Guan?

Come over here quickly. I found the way out!"