The Fake Front Desk

"What do you need help with? I'll do everything I can to help you."

The spirits finally behaved themselves. For some reason, the moment they saw that dog chasing them and snapping at them, they hadn't even thought of fighting back. They'd only wanted to run without looking back, as if it were instinct.

But he remembered that he'd never been chased by a dog, even when he was alive. Why was he so afraid of dogs?

"How did you change the color of the door? Paint? But why can't I smell any paint?"

Bai Yuze didn't rush to make his request. Instead, he asked the other party a question first.

"There's a special kind of colored liquid here. It doesn't have a pungent smell. Its only drawback is that it fades when it comes into contact with other liquids."

The spirit told him the truth. The distant howls and frenzied barking made it tremble.

"Really? Then can you get me a bucket of it? I want blue."

The spirit nodded, then left.

Hearing Bai Yuze's request, Yukino asked in confusion,

"Are you planning to mix yellow and blue to make green? Will that really work? Why don't we just look for the Green Gate?"

"Of course we can look for the Green Gate, but the problem is, we don't have a key. And wouldn't it be easier to make our own already-open Green Gate than to find a key?"

Yukino froze. She'd never thought of doing something like that. Suddenly, she wanted to crack open Bai Yuze's skull and see how many tricks he had up his sleeve.

"We can't let the rules hold us back. We have to build on the rules we've been given. For example, the rules in the residence say we can't keep pets. So I could put a collar around my own head, then turn around and report the spirits for keeping me as a pet. Wouldn't that make them lose it?"

Yukino: ...

Yukino had said Bai Yuze was quite something...

Before long, the spirit returned carrying a bucket of blue liquid paint.

Bai Yuze took the bucket. First, he opened a Yellow Gate, then splashed the blue paint directly onto it. The yellow and blue mixed, turning green.

The spatial layout inside the room changed, too.

Yukino stared at the scene, completely dumbfounded.

"Come on. Why are you just standing there?"

Bai Yuze called to Yukino, then stepped through the Green Gate.

It was much brighter and cleaner inside, unlike the other rooms, which were dark and damp.

The furnishings were simple. An iron chain lay on the table, with a note beside it.

Bai Yuze reached out and touched the writing on the paper. The ink hadn't run, and the handwriting matched Yang Peng's. The paper looked slightly old.

"This really does look like Yang Peng's handwriting, but why hasn't this note been corrupted?"

Bai Yuze couldn't understand it, but to resolve his doubts, he read the note.

[Hello, dear player. I'm glad you found this note in such a desperate situation. I have a few things I want to tell you. Sometimes, a single sentence can be deeply enlightening, even if it's only a few words.]

[2. Please ignore the children in the basement. They don't exist.]

[2. You're not allowed to assign them tasks, but you can be forgiven for doing so in the basement.]

[3. Resistance has crushed their arrogance and brought us hope, so don't stop moving forward.]

[4. Those who press on will always encounter obstacles along the way. Keep your weapon ready to face the enemy.]

[5. Have you lifted the mattress? You'll find what I want to leave for you.]

"What happened to the first hint? This seems a little jumbled. Maybe it wasn't corrupted because it wasn't valuable?"

Yukino studied the new hints from Yang Peng, lost in thought. Some parts seemed problematic to her; others made no sense.

"I think I understand why this note hasn't been corrupted."

Bai Yuze took a deep breath. If Yang Peng hadn't warned him, he might never have suspected that man.

"Why?"

"Because the hints Yang Peng left before were too obvious, the residence gradually corrupted those notes.

"To solve that problem, Yang Peng came up with a new method: an acrostic."

"An acrostic? 'Please... resist... front... desk...'?"

"Not just that. Did you notice those Arabic numerals? Find the corresponding characters and put them together, and you get 'You've got the wrong person.'

"Together, they say, 'Please defy the front desk; you've got the wrong person.'"

"So the front desk is fake?"

"He never actually said he was the front desk. He kept helping us solve problems, so we just assumed he was."

"But we really did get help from the front desk, didn't we? The note in Room 107 mentioned 'help from the front desk,' didn't it?"

Yukino immediately thought of the note in the cabinet in Room 107, left by the man who called himself the "Boss." It had mentioned "help from the front desk."

"That's true, but you have to remember that the word 'help' doesn't imply a time limit.

"For example, if the real front desk had left a key behind before he died, and that key helped us open something, that would still count as help from the front desk. His death wouldn't erase the fact that he helped us."

"Come to think of it, I thought he just had a habit of keeping his private life to himself. But every time before I opened the door, I could hear something moving. It sounded like clothes rubbing together..."

Bai Yuze's thoughts were a mess. He sat on the bed and took a few deep breaths, trying to calm down.

"What do we do now? Is Yuigahama in danger?"

Yukino sensed an air of despair. The truth was drawing closer, but so was the danger.

"No, Tuanzi won't be in danger. He still needs to use her to trade with us."

"Trade what?"

"The dog! His main goal is to get us to bring the dog upstairs. Then he can use Tuanzi to threaten us and stop us from reporting him."

Bai Yuze carefully analyzed how the rules related to one another, trying to find a way to resolve the crisis.

The spirit outside the door yawned. As everyone knew, yawns were contagious.

Yukino yawned in response without thinking.

That yawn reminded Bai Yuze of something.

"Do you remember how long it's been since we last rested?"

At Bai Yuze's question, Yukino immediately tried to recall when they had last rested.

Suddenly, she froze, too.

"It seems like we haven't rested since you got that cleaver!"

"Exactly. It looks like this Zhenxie Guiqi is even more powerful than I thought."

The residence affected the moods of people who didn't sleep or rest.

But anyone holding a Zhenxie Guiqi, along with their allies, was immune to this negative effect.

"No wonder Tuanzi was fine even though she stayed awake all night because she was afraid the Male Corpse would reanimate. So the Male Corpse considered her an ally!"

The Male Corpse and Yuigahama Yui were in the same room. That meant Yuigahama Yui and the Male Corpse had been roommates from the beginning—on the same side, in other words—and so she'd been protected by the Zhenxie Guiqi.

That was why, when the monster knocked on the door, the Male Corpse had pulled out the Scalpel to scare it off. He'd been protecting Yuigahama Yui all along.

"Then, going by that logic, Tuanzi didn't need to run when the Male Corpse chased you two back then."