Landlady

Zhou You jolted awake.

He was no longer in that stairwell. Instead, he was in a strange space where pages floated in the air.

But he paid it no mind. The first thing he did after coming to his senses was grab at his neck.

It was intact, without a single mark. His head was still attached to his body.

I'm still alive.

Only when he realized this did Zhou You's body finally relax.

At some point, cold sweat had soaked through his back. Even knowing he hadn't died, his heart still pounded like a drum, leaving him almost breathless.

Was everything that had just happened... an illusion?

The doubt had barely surfaced before Zhou You dismissed it.

No. It hadn't been an illusion. He really had died just now.

Something had cut his head off. He'd been thoroughly, undeniably dead.

So was he standing here intact now because of that so-called "resurrection"?

Only then did Zhou You raise his head and look at the sheet of yellow paper floating in midair.

At the same time, the mechanical female voice sounded in his ear.

"You died."

"Your death had no value."

"You failed to uncover any Erosion Points or advance the plot in any way, so you will receive no rewards for this death."

"Since you are still in the beginner period, you may spend ten Soul Stones (first use free) to replay the ten seconds before and after your death. Would you like to replay it?"

Erosion Points, plot progression, Soul Stones... What did any of that mean?

His mind was still hazy from having just died. Zhou You furrowed his brow and thought for a long while, but still couldn't glean any useful information from those few dozen words.

In the end, he chose to replay his death.

His only clue was the moment he died. At the very least, he needed to know who had killed him and how.

Soon, a scene unfolded before his eyes like a video recording.

It was a bird's-eye view.

The time seemed to be just as he had stepped toward the entrance. Sunlight filled the outdoors, Zhou You's expression was normal, and nothing seemed amiss.

But the very next second, just as he was about to step outside—

A line of blood suddenly appeared across his neck.

Then his head and neck abruptly separated.

As blood gushed out, Zhou You's head rolled away, tumbling down the stairwell until it landed in the trash heap in the corner, among a pile of black plastic bags.

There was no killer, no monster, not even the slightest sign of anything. It was as though his head had never been attached to his body at all—as if taking that one step would make him collapse like a pile of building blocks.

...He hadn't found anything?

No.

Zhou You ignored the scene before his death and replayed the ten seconds after it instead.

His head fell, blood sprayed, and it rolled backward before landing in the trash heap...

...Something really was wrong.

Zhou You furrowed his brow.

By the normal momentum of someone walking forward, his center of gravity would lean forward as he took a step. So when his head fell, it should have rolled straight out the door. There was no way it should have ended up behind the entrance.

Zhou You rewound the scene, slowed it down, and paused it.

After repeating this several times, he finally caught a glimpse of something in the gap between the entrance doors, just one second before his head fell. The image lasted fewer than ten frames.

A shimmer rippled into view, and beneath it was a pale, twisted, deeply uncanny face that flashed past.

And the other person was smiling.

"...You have discovered an Erosion Point."

"You have received a reward of 10 Soul Stones."

"You have obtained a temporary white talent: Keen Observation."

"By observing closely, you may occasionally glimpse traces that are easy to overlook."

"Temporary talents do not occupy a talent slot and last for only one instance, but you may convert them into permanent talents at any time."

"Converting a temporary white talent into a permanent one costs 50 Soul Stones. Would you like to convert it?"

Zhou You declined without a second thought.

He was flat broke. There was no way he could afford to make it permanent.

Still, he had learned quite a bit from those messages. At the very least, he knew that he could obtain talents to strengthen himself in this game, and how to spend Soul Stones.

The Erosion Point in particular seemed to be one of the core mechanics of this scenario.

But the question remained: What exactly was this thing?

Some kind of hidden trap?

A malicious ghost?

Or an anomaly that didn't belong in the normal world?

After a long pause, Zhou You shook his head.

There was simply too little information. If he wanted to learn the truth about this game, he would have to return to that eerie stairwell.

Only...

Zhou You touched his neck.

If something went wrong, would he have to experience that real death all over again?

But then, he suddenly smiled.

Compared with the doctor's verdict that he was going to die, compared with a terminal illness that no amount of money could cure, what did the pain of getting his head chopped off amount to?

Looking at the floating yellow paper, Zhou You selected confirm without hesitation.

In an instant, the scenery changed again.

A moment later, he was back in the stairwell.

It was just as shabby as before.

But this time, Zhou You didn't rush to step outside. He cleared his throat first.

Then, as if changing his face, he suddenly looked terrified and let out a piercing scream toward the door.

"Help! There's a ghost! Someone, please help me!"

His voice was shrill and frantic, as if a man on the verge of death were begging for help. But the people in the distance acted as though they couldn't hear him at all. They carried on playing and laughing, as if no one had noticed the poor soul trapped in the stairwell.

...I figured that wouldn't work.

His screams came to an abrupt stop. Zhou You pursed his lips, showing no sign of disappointment. He looked around, picked up a suitably sized garbage bag from the corner, weighed it in his hand, then tossed it outside—

The next moment, the black plastic bag was sliced cleanly in two.

But just like before, he still couldn't see what had done it. None of the garbage inside fell outside, and not even a drop of rotten liquid spilled out.

It was as if an invisible barrier stood in front of the entrance, dividing the inside and outside into two worlds that could never be crossed.

It looked like this path was a dead end.

Zhou You craned his neck and looked toward the other passage.

Old steps connected the floors above and below. The lighting in this old residential building was clearly terrible. Although the sun was shining outside in broad daylight, the stairwell was pitch-black. At first glance, it looked like the gaping maw of some invisible monster, waiting for its prey to walk right in.

Zhou You hesitated, but eventually set off up the stairs.

The second floor was a little cleaner than the first, but not by much. There were only four apartment doors on this floor, and the narrow hallway was crammed with all sorts of clutter. Dust covered everything, and a strange stench seemed to be coming from somewhere.

Zhou You frowned and knocked on each door in turn.

There was no answer from doors one through three. They were silent, as if no one lived there at all. But when he knocked on door four, a man's voice rang out, full of panic.

"Landlady? I-I really don't have any money left. Please, could you give me a few more days to pay the rent? Look, I-I-I've always been polite and followed your rules. I haven't disturbed the other tenants, gone to the fourth floor without permission, or messed with anything in the fifth-floor storage room. Please, just give me a little more time. I'll get the money soon, I really will. I'll have it soon, I swear—aaaaaaaaaaaaah!"

All that followed was a string of utterly despairing screams. The man seemed to have completely lost his mind. After that, only erratic shrieks and wails could be heard.

When the noise finally quieted down a little, Zhou You was about to knock again and ask for details, but suddenly a hand patted him on the shoulder.

Zhou You turned around and saw a short, gaunt old woman, her face covered in wrinkles. Half her nose was rotted away, and she looked like a dead locust tree.

Before Zhou You could say anything, the old woman suddenly opened her mouth.

The next second, he suddenly lost control of his entire body.

All he could do was stand there and watch as the old woman's mouth stretched wider and wider. It soon exceeded the limits of what a human could manage, yet it didn't stop. It kept spreading, her pale fangs and mouth protruding farther and farther, until they formed a pitch-black hole.

The hole swallowed him.

Then it snapped shut.

All that remained was the sound of chewing.

"You died."

"You died at the hands of the Landlady."