Monsters and Humans

Monsters and Humans

All around was darkness. Luo Jun recalled the feeling from the corridor last night. Visibility was less than two meters, but he could vaguely hear rustling movements constantly surrounding him in the dark.

Yet standing in such eerie, terrifying darkness, Luo Jun felt somewhat calmer.

It was more or less as he had guessed.

As Luo Jun continued forward, the movements around him grew more numerous and denser. Finally, when he reached a certain spot, a tall figure emerged from the darkness ahead!

It stood over two meters tall, with a crocodile-like head, four thick arms, digitigrade beast-like hind legs, and a thick, long tail covered in scales.

The Crocodile Monster lowered its head, its pale yellow eyes fixed fiercely on Luo Jun. It opened its Bloody Mouth, and a fishy stench washed over Luo Jun's face.

But Luo Jun neither retreated nor dodged.

"Are you the master of the first basement level?" Luo Jun stared directly at the crocodile humanoid. "I want to see the master of the first basement level! I have something important to give it!"

The Crocodile Monster froze for a moment and closed its huge mouth. "You're not afraid of me?"

Luo Jun smiled faintly. "Of course not, because you're human."

"Humans are safe!"

Luo Jun looked at the crocodile humanoid. One head, two eyes, one mouth, two hind legs walking upright... these traits perfectly matched the rules' definition of a human!

Not just this crocodile humanoid—the Octopus Head who had helped him restrain the Tentacle Monster last night, as well as the alien monster he had encountered in the corridor that had politely bowed to him, all matched those traits!

That was right. What humans looked like according to his old common sense was completely irrelevant. At the Midnight Hotel, rules were everything. No matter how bizarre their appearance, as long as they met those traits, they were human, and they were safe!

Conversely, no matter how human they looked, as long as even one trait did not match, they were monsters and therefore dangerous!

Of course, that was on the premise that Luo Jun was still human!

"Hehehehe, interesting..."

Suddenly, a woman's soft laugh came from the darkness.

At the Same Time, a lamp Lit Up Above Head, illuminating a five-meter radius around him. Only then did Luo Jun see that he was surrounded by a huge group of monsters in all sorts of shapes.

Some had long noses, Blue Face Fangs; some had Wings on their backs and were covered in spikes; some had six ears and eight arms; others carried turtle shells and Horns on their heads... Yet without exception, every one of these monsters had one head, two eyes, one mouth, and two legs that walked upright, perfectly fitting the rules' definition of humans!

"Most people who come here for the first time scream and collapse in terror, fleeing back to 'their' territory, where they are ultimately eaten. Their remaining limbs and bones are dumped here..." The woman's voice carried a trace of sorrow.

"I like humans. I don't want them to die like that. I tried to put them back together, but I had no blueprints to refer to... Until a long time ago, someone like you who wasn't afraid of this place told me that humans are animals Grown with one head, two eyes, one mouth, and two hind legs for walking upright."

"I was very happy and wanted to keep him here to help me revive these remains. But unfortunately, he said he still had companions upstairs and was unwilling to stay by my side."

As the woman spoke, several scale-covered Tendrils slowly extended from the darkness and gently coiled around Luo Jun's body.

"You are the second human in all this time who hasn't been afraid of me... Stay with me. Be my friend, and help me revive those poor humans..."

Cold sweat ran down Luo Jun's forehead. He could feel the faint pressure radiating from the Tendrils. This was some higher form of life, possessing power he could hardly resist.

But Luo Jun clearly had no intention of staying here.

"Sorry, I have to leave." Luo Jun's words made the Tendrils pause slightly.

"You don't want to stay either..." Disappointment and anger lurked in the woman's voice. More Tendrils extended from the darkness, and an invisible Killing Intent descended, frightening all the surrounding monsters away.

"But I brought you blueprints!" Luo Jun suddenly shouted before the Killing Intent reached its peak. "As Long As you let me leave, I'll give this to you!"

As he spoke, he pulled the Human-Shaped Biscuit from his pocket!

The contradictions in the rules indicated that there was more than one eerie force in the Hotel. Luo Jun had initially thought there were two: one representing hunger, the other fatigue... But later, he realized he had been wrong. Hunger and fatigue were both methods the eerie forces used to weaken and contaminate him!

Strictly speaking, there were actually three forces in the Hotel. One was the Hotel itself, or rather, the Chaos Mission itself. As the issuer of the mission, this force had established rules that could protect participants and possessed the Strongest control over the Hotel.

The other two forces were humans and monsters!

That was right. The rules on the door had told him from the very beginning!

Of these two forces, the monsters occupied the main body of the Hotel. The Hotel Lobby, Dining Hall, and corridors were all monster territory.

The "humans," meanwhile, occupied the Hotel's corners, chiefly the stairwells and the forgotten first basement level.

That was why the stairs did not connect to the Hotel Lobby. That was why the creatures who looked like monsters but were actually human were all encountered in the stairwells. Even when they appeared in the corridors, they had come out of the stairwells.

As for the Guest Rooms, they were neutral territory—the guests' safe houses, at least during the most dangerous nights.

Though these two forces could not violate the Hotel itself, they could exert a certain degree of influence within their own territories, such as altering some of the rules in their domains.

Did he remember the fourth rule in the stairwell that Luo Jun had judged to be problematic? It had likely been altered by the underground "human" force. Luo Jun guessed that if one followed it, one would definitely arrive at the first basement level.

Correspondingly, the "monsters," in order to stop the other side, had added two more stairwell rules to prevent guests from entering the first basement level. But because it was not their home ground, they could only add them through crude handwritten notes!

By the same logic, Luo Jun guessed the Dining Hall was the same. The handwritten rule saying not to eat meat was a warning from the underground force. Then the rule saying one could eat up to five hundred grams of meat had likely been altered by the "monster" force. If someone ate meat in the Dining Hall, they would likely be contaminated and something terrible would happen!

The meat in the Dining Hall might not be any ordinary meat.

Then the question was, why did the monster force all possess roughly human appearances, while the humans were so strange and varied?

The woman's voice had just revealed the reason. The greatest eerie entities representing the two forces both had issues with their cognitive abilities—or rather, they differed from ordinary creatures. They could not identify human traits through conventional means such as sight or Tactile Sense.

Then how did they identify humans?

Animal Crackers had given him the clue.

Why could buying crackers free someone after encountering the endless stairwell? Because the crackers were tributes for the "human" force, something the "human" force needed.

But what did it need crackers for? While carefully thinking back in the Dining Hall, Luo Jun had connected the crackers' shapes with the shapes of the "humans."

That was right. The bizarre "humans" had features that could all be found on Animal Crackers. Or rather, they had been pieced together from the animal images on the crackers according to the rules' traits for humans!

Therefore, Luo Jun guessed that the eerie entities identified humans by eating!

This also explained why the monster force could disguise itself so well as humans—because they had eaten living humans!

Just as the mission prompt had said: Like humans, eat humans, become humans!

That statement applied to both sides. The monster force liked the taste of humans. By eating humans, they could take on human forms.

The underground eerie entity genuinely liked humans. It could not bear to eat living people, so it could only rely on eating human-shaped food to become human.

The only food in the Hotel that could possibly be human-shaped was Animal Crackers.

And only the Dining Hall had human-shaped Animal Crackers, which was why it strictly prohibited taking out any food and repeatedly emphasized that there were no Human-Shaped Biscuits. The purpose was to prevent the underground eerie entity from gaining the ability to become human.

After all, only by possessing a human appearance could it gain humans' trust and walk above ground!

All of this was merely Luo Jun's speculation, and he had not been very confident in it. But after the normal checkout route had been blocked, this was the only path left to him.

The instant he took out the biscuit, a judgment flashed through Luo Jun's mind.

Event Difficulty 10, Final Points 44+5, Event Success!

It seemed he had guessed correctly! Handing over the biscuit could win the underground eerie entity's favor and allow him to leave safely! The difficulty of ten points likely referred to possible minor accidents.

The Tendrils hesitated for a few moments before taking the biscuit from Luo Jun's hand. Joyful laughter immediately rang out from the darkness.

"Interesting human, I will thank you."

The woman's voice was full of delight.

Then a row of small lights Lit Up Above Head, illuminating a path of light. At the end of that path was the only exit in the darkness.

Luo Jun followed the illuminated path forward. The monsters hidden in the darkness moved aside one after another, watching him step through the exit.

At the Same Time, he received the notification in his mind that the Chaos Mission had been completed...