"The ghost is waiting for me"

"We seem to have found the source of the curse: a photo with a bloody hand in it.

But something feels strange..."

Ji Li made his way up the stairwell toward the Eighteenth Floor. Apart from his own footsteps, the only sound was the Third Personality's analysis inside his head.

"It is strange. We previously guessed that the source of the curse was somewhere near us employees.

But judging by what we know now, there are still far too many unanswered questions about how the ghost kills.

Perhaps once we find Xiao Li's phone and see the photo, a lot of things will make sense."

At this point, Ji Li was no longer in a hurry.

He knew very well that things had unfolded almost exactly as he had expected. Sure enough, Xiao Qi had become the key to the final truth.

And now, he was only one step away from the true source of the mission!

"Number Two, why do you keep falling asleep?"

Aside from the questions surrounding the mission, what puzzled Ji Li most now was the change within himself.

Ever since the last mission, the Second Personality's strength seemed to have been gradually weakening. He was always asleep, and even when he woke, he had little energy.

And the black-robed, gray-eyed "Ji Li" he had just discovered filled him with an instinctive fear.

He had no idea who that person was, or how he had gotten inside his body.

But he had still realized that some subtle form of fusion was taking place among them.

Ji Li could vaguely sense that the person had been inside him for a very long time, and possessed extraordinary power.

Perhaps his own special ability to "return from the dead" came from that person!

But Ji Li was still afraid...

He had never feared anything so much, not even ghosts. What frightened him was the possibility that he would lose himself before accomplishing what he had set out to do.

He could feel that once he fully merged with that person, he would no longer be himself.

Then the mysteries surrounding his own existence and Tianhai Hotel would all remain unresolved, cut short before he could uncover them.

"I don't know. I just feel that lately, my five senses have been growing weaker and weaker, as though I'm coming down with a serious illness.

I have very little strength left..."

From the moment he came into being, the Second Personality had embodied hotheadedness and passion.

Although Ji Li disliked that temperament, he had to admit that having Number Two around made his struggle to survive in this hell feel more alive.

After all, Ji Li was a man devoid of vitality.

"Gray represents the person inside you.

But what is the red light...?"

The Third Personality returned to the matter at hand. Before leaving, Xiao Qi had said that besides Ji Li's natural eye color, there had also been red light and gray.

The gray was easy enough to explain now, but what was the red light?

Ji Li glanced at the sign for the Eighteenth Floor, which he was about to reach, and said quietly:

"When I first reached the fifth floor, I felt a sense of danger unlike anything I'd ever experienced.

It was also at that moment that a sharp pain struck my head, and some outside force began invading my body."

At this, he suddenly fell silent. His footsteps stopped, then he abruptly raised his head, as though something had dawned on him.

He blurted out, "Could that cold, invasive force have been the ghost?"

A ghost had invaded a living person's body...

That fit the method of killing in this mission perfectly: possession followed by suicide!

Prompted by those words, the Third Personality fell silent for a moment before realization struck him:

"So that's what happened!

When you reached the fifth floor, the ghost in this mission must have tried to possess you. That red light represented the ghost!

It entered your body, and that was precisely what awakened the Gray Soul inside you!

The Gray Soul was trying to resist the red-light ghost's invasion!

From the looks of it, he succeeded. Otherwise, you would have already been forced to kill yourself!"

Ji Li nodded repeatedly as he listened. Explained that way, everything made sense.

Gray was another soul that had been hidden inside his body for a long time, possessing incomprehensible power.

The red light was the ghost in this mission. For some unknown reason, Ji Li had triggered a fatal condition earlier, and it had been about to invade and kill him, only to be blocked by the gray presence.

"But if the Gray Soul is a force that protects me, why didn't he appear the previous times I died...?"

Ji Li did not believe things were that simple. He still believed that some condition within him had been met, triggering the gray presence's protection.

And that protection was certainly not benevolent. Perhaps the person deep inside him harbored an even greater secret, and there had to be a purpose behind his actions.

Once that secret came to light, what awaited Ji Li would be eternal damnation.

"How did the ghost find you...?"

Ji Li shook his head. He had a vague feeling that the ghost had been hiding beside him all along.

But what form it had taken, or how it existed there, remained a mystery even now.

He swept his loose hair back behind his head and stared intently in one direction ahead. That was where the final clue lay.

This trip would determine the fate of every employee still alive.

Fang Shenyan and Yu Guo had to monitor the situation on the first floor, while Tong Guan and Chang Nian would deal with Li Xing on the lower floors. Ji Li had become the only one free to act, and the one closest to the truth.

"As long as I find that photo, I'm confident I can uncover the whole truth!"

Ji Li drew a deep breath. He stopped walking and sprinted along the route he remembered, heading straight for the place where it had happened.

Xiao Li's body, along with the bodies of the five employees from before, should still have been in the same place.

But...

When Ji Li reached that familiar corner, he saw the five bodies lying on either side of the corridor, long since stiff and cold.

Yet one was missing—the most crucial one.

Xiao Li's body!

Ji Li's expression changed dramatically. In fact, he had already considered it on his way here: Lao Xue's body had disappeared, so Xiao Li's body...

He spun around and looked toward a particular room on the Eighteenth Floor.

There was only one last location left: the place where Brother Xu had died, which Xiao Li had once sent to Lao Xue.

Now that both Lao Xue's and Xiao Li's bodies had disappeared, only Brother Xu remained of the three who had known about the ghost!

"Ji Li!

I have a bad feeling. Brother Xu is the last key figure, but everything happening now feels like a scheme!

The ghost is deliberately leading us there!"

Yes. The bodies at two of the three death sites had all disappeared. Now only the last one remained.

The situation was already far too obvious. Having survived several crises, Ji Li had thought of that possibility immediately.

But he had no choice but to go!

Ji Li's face was grim. He was only one final step away. Even if it was a trap, he had to jump into it!

He strode quickly toward the far end of the Eighteenth Floor, without the slightest hesitation.

"I'm going to find it, even if it kills me!"