Hat Man walked over, seeming to want to knock on Jiang Cheng's door and confirm something.
The Suit Man stared at the door to Room 404, then quickly glanced around. In a low voice, he said, "Let's go back. Something feels off here."
Once they were back in their room, the Suit Man turned and shut the door, then cautiously locked it.
The young Hat Man ripped off his cap and flung it onto the bed. Turning around, he asked sharply, "Could those two guys in Room 404 have caused that sound?"
Several deep scars marked Hat Man's scalp. The most prominent began at the back of his head and ran all the way behind his ear. It was one of the reasons he always wore a cap.
He was clearly older than he looked, probably around thirty, though he dressed like a young punk.
The Suit Man leaned against the wall, his expression frighteningly grim. After a long pause, he said, "Probably not. We just got here, and we still don't know what triggers the evil spirits. I don't believe they'd dare do something like that." He paused. "Unless they're not right in the head."
At the Suit Man's reminder, Hat Man's anger gradually subsided. He wasn't stupid, and he knew the Suit Man had a point.
His expression slowly turned uneasy. "So that scraping sound really wasn't made by a player, but by..." He looked at the Suit Man, but in the end, he couldn't bring himself to say the word "ghost."
There was an unspoken rule in the Nightmare World: once a mission began, no one wanted to mention that word unless absolutely necessary, as if saying it would bring misfortune upon them.
"Nothing's happened so far, so don't scare yourself," the Suit Man said.
He undid the neat buttons on his suit and the top two buttons of his shirt, then took a deep breath and said to his companion, "Theoretically, Room 405 is the safest location we could've picked. There are people on both sides, and the name of the room next door, Room 404, sounds unlucky. There may have been a murder there in the past. So whatever happens to them, we'll get the information firsthand. We just have to make sure we're not the first ones to go over."
Hat Man seemed to think of something. "We should be careful. That skinny guy in Room 404 seems to be deliberately targeting you."
The Suit Man smiled, revealing a row of snow-white teeth. "I'll keep an eye on him. Then I'll find a chance to leave him here forever."
Hearing the Suit Man say that, Hat Man had nothing more to add.
After they agreed on who would keep watch and settled the other arrangements, Hat Man went to sleep first.
After all, whether they were well-rested would directly affect their chances of surviving the nightmare.
Room 404.
After returning to the room, Jiang Cheng didn't lie down right away. Instead, he sat in a chair, as if pondering something.
The Fatty figured it was time to discuss serious matters, so he sat up in bed and poked his head out. "Do you think someone will die tonight?"
During their last mission in the villa, the Middle-aged man had died mysteriously on the first night. His neck had been twisted a hundred and eighty degrees, his toes pointing forward and his face turned backward.
Worse still, the Fatty had been the first to find him. He'd been half-asleep and on his way to relieve himself, and the sight had nearly scared him into wetting himself.
That terrifying image still came back to him from time to time.
"I don't think so," Jiang Cheng replied after a few seconds' thought.
The Fatty muttered, "Doctor, you also said we wouldn't enter a nightmare tonight, but we still did."
Jiang Cheng turned and stared at the Fatty for a moment. Then he suddenly said, "Fatty, I just remembered something really important."
"What is it?" The Fatty nodded along automatically. It was rare for the Doctor to be so serious, so he figured he must have noticed an important clue.
"When you go to sleep tonight, be careful. You'd better pull the blanket up to your chin." Jiang Cheng gestured as he spoke, his expression earnest.
The Fatty grew a little frightened. He quickly scanned the room, then wrapped the blanket around himself before cautiously asking, "Why do you say that?"
Jiang Cheng clapped his hands and stood up. "Because if a ghost comes to twist your neck tonight, you'll still be able to struggle a little."
The Fatty: "..."
Perhaps Jiang Cheng pitied the Fatty, who was trembling all over, or perhaps his conscience had finally kicked in. Either way, he offered to keep watch and told the Fatty to sleep first, then wake him when it was time to switch shifts.
But the Fatty shook his head and sighed. "No need, Doctor. That story you just told was way too stimulating. Now whenever I close my eyes, I see a ghost twisting my neck. I'm not the least bit sleepy."
Since the Fatty insisted, Jiang Cheng relented. They agreed on a time for the Fatty to wake him, then Jiang Cheng went to sleep.
The Fatty sat on the bed, wrapped in every blanket he could find, yet he still couldn't stop a chill from creeping through him.
Honestly, from the moment he'd entered the dormitory building, he'd had a really bad feeling, as if something wasn't quite right.
But he'd examined everything carefully and still couldn't figure out where that eerie feeling was coming from.
When Jiang Cheng said he had a premonition, the Fatty had one too. He felt that someone was very likely to die tonight.
There was no basis for it at all. It was purely the Fatty family's intuition.
The bit about twisting someone's neck had taken root in the Fatty's mind. No matter how many times he changed positions, he still felt unsafe.
In the end, he propped up his pillow and leaned it against the wall, then settled against it. With his back to the wall, surely a ghost wouldn't be able to snap his neck.
Before long, faint snores came from Jiang Cheng's side of the room.
The Fatty couldn't help admiring Jiang Cheng. No matter when or where, if he wanted to sleep, he could.
Compared to the clear division of duties in Rooms 404 and 405, the people in Room 406 had things much worse.
Although there were three of them, they didn't trust one another.
And there were only two beds in the room, which meant one of them would have to make do on a chair for the night.
There were two men and one woman, yet the woman had the upper hand.
She was unremarkable in appearance, with her hair tied back in a neat ponytail. Her gaze was as sharp as a knife.
If Jiang Cheng had been there, he probably could have judged from her straight-backed posture and the calluses on the web between her thumb and forefinger and on her fingertips that she was trained in martial arts, and might even have handled a gun.
But the two men didn't have that kind of insight. They could only tell that she was someone not to be trifled with.
And she certainly wasn't new to the Nightmare World; otherwise, she wouldn't have been so calm.
The woman had claimed the best bed in the room, the one against the wall and far from the window.
After all, at any moment, a glowing green face might appear outside the window.
The middle-aged man in the undershirt and the other man were both in the Nightmare World for the first time. They sat side by side on the edge of the bed, looking uneasy.
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