The False Front Desk

"What kind of favor? I will help you to the best of my ability."

The ghost was completely docile now. For some reason, the moment it saw that dog chasing them and snapping at their heels, they didn't even have the heart to resist; they only wanted to flee without looking back, as if it were a primal instinct.

Yet, it remembered that even when it died, it had never been chased by a dog. Why was it so afraid of one?

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

Bai Yuze wasn't in a rush to state his request, asking a question instead.

"There is a special type of pigment water here. It doesn't have a pungent odor, and its only drawback is that it fades when it comes into contact with other liquids."

The ghost confessed truthfully, trembling slightly as the distant sounds of roaring and barking echoed through the air.

"Is that so? Then can you help me get a bucket of it? I want blue."

The ghost nodded and then departed.

Hearing the request Bai Yuze had made, Yukino asked in confusion.

"Are you trying to mix yellow and blue to make green? Is that reliable? Why don't we just look for a green door directly?"

"Looking for a green door directly is fine, of course, but the problem is we don't have the key. Isn't it simpler to hand-craft an open green door than to go searching for a key?"

Yukino was stunned. She had never thought of doing things this way. She suddenly wanted to pry open Bai Yuze's head to see how many tricks he had hidden inside.

"You can't be bound by the rules; you have to expand upon the rules provided. For example, the Minzhai rules forbid keeping pets. If I put a collar on myself and then report the ghost for keeping me as a pet, wouldn't they just explode?"

Yukino: ...

Yukino said that Bai Yuze was quite a character...

Before long, the ghost returned, carrying a bucket of blue pigment liquid.

Bai Yuze took the wooden bucket, opened a yellow door, and splashed the blue liquid directly onto it. The yellow and blue mixed, turning into green.

The spatial structure inside the room also underwent a change.

This scene left Yukino staring in a daze.

"Let's go, why are you just standing there?"

After Bai Yuze called out to Yukino, he stepped into the green door.

It was relatively bright and clean inside, unlike the dark and damp atmosphere of the other rooms.

The furniture was simple, and an iron chain lay on the table with a note beside it.

Bai Yuze reached out to touch the handwriting on the paper; it didn't smudge, and the script matched Yang Peng's handwriting. The paper looked slightly aged.

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

Bai Yuze didn't quite understand, but to clear the doubts in his mind, he proceeded to read the content of the note.

[Hello, dear player. I am glad you found this note in such a desperate place. I have some words I wish to convey to you. Sometimes a single sentence can be of great benefit, even if it is only a few words.]

[2. Please ignore the children in the basement; they do not exist.]

[2. Commissioning them to do things is not allowed, but in the basement, it can be forgiven.]

[3. Resistance has crushed their arrogance and brought us hope, so do not stop your steps.]

[4. Those who move forward will always encounter obstacles on the road; please take up your weapon to face the enemy.]

[5. Have you lifted the mattress? You will find what I wish to entrust to you.]

"What about the first hint? Why does it feel a bit chaotic? Is it because it had no value that it wasn't corrupted?"

Yukino fell into deep thought as she looked at the new hints provided by Yang Peng. She felt that some parts of these hints were problematic and lacked logic.

"I think I understand why this note wasn't corrupted."

Bai Yuze drew a sharp breath. If not for Yang Peng's reminder, he would never have suspected that guy until now.

"Why?"

"Because the previous notes Yang Peng left behind were too obvious, so the Minzhai gradually corrupted those notes. To solve this, Yang Peng came up with a new method: an acrostic."

"An acrostic? Please... Resist... Front... Desk...?"

"Not just that. Do you see those Arabic numerals? Find the corresponding characters and connect them into a sentence: 'You have the wrong person'."

"Put it together, and it says: 'Please resist the front desk, you have the wrong person'."

"Does that mean the front desk is fake?"

"He never once answered directly that he was the front desk. Because he kept helping us solve problems, we subconsciously assumed he was the front desk."

"But we did receive help from the front desk, didn't we? The note in room 107 mentioned 'the front desk's help', didn't it?"

Yukino immediately thought of the note left by the guy who called himself the "boss" in the cabinet of room 107, which mentioned the phrase "the front desk's help."

"That is indeed the case, but you have to realize that the word 'help' has no time limit. For example, if the real front desk left a key before dying that helped us open something, that still counts as the front desk helping us. We cannot negate his help to us just because he died."

"Looking at it this way, I thought it was just a privacy habit of the front desk, but every time before opening the door, I could always hear some movement. That sound was like the friction of clothing..."

Bai Yuze felt his mind in a state of chaos; he sat on the bed and took a few deep breaths, trying to calm himself down.

"So what do we do now? Is Yuigahama-san in danger?"

Yukino sensed an aura of despair; the truth was drawing closer, but the danger was increasing right along with it.

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

"What things?"

"The dog! His main goal is to make us bring the dog up, and he can use Tuanzi to threaten us so we don't report him."

Bai Yuze carefully analyzed the connection between the rules, attempting to find a way to resolve this crisis.

The entity outside the door let out a yawn; as everyone knows, yawning is contagious.

Consequently, Yukino also subconsciously let out a yawn.

And it was precisely this yawn that reminded Bai Yuze of something.

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

Upon hearing Bai Yuze's question, Yukino immediately began to recall when they had last rested.

Suddenly, she froze as well.

"It seems that ever since you picked up that kitchen knife, we haven't rested at all!"

"That's right. It looks like the power of this Zhenxie Guiqi is even greater than I imagined."

The Minzhai would affect the emotions of those who did not sleep or rest.

However, those holding the Zhenxie Guiqi and their allies were exempt from this negative effect.

"No wonder Tuanzi was fine after not closing her eyes all night because she was afraid of the Male Corpse turning; it turns out the Male Corpse considered her an ally!"

The Male Corpse and Yuigahama Yui were in the same room, so from the very beginning, Yuigahama Yui and the Male Corpse were roommates, meaning they were allies, and thus she had gained the protection of the Zhenxie Guiqi.

Therefore, when the monster knocked on the door, the Male Corpse pulling out the Scalpel to scare the monster away was, in essence, protecting Yuigahama Yui.

"If that's the case, then when the Male Corpse was chasing you and Tuanzi, Tuanzi didn't need to run at all."