Fourth Floor

Zhou You's pen suddenly stopped.

Even though he was only copying it down, he could still feel the despair and anguish packed into those words.

Something was wrong. That person had clearly wanted to escape, so how could he have...

The thought had barely surfaced when, in the very next second, something strange and uncanny seeped into Zhou You's head. He felt his brain being peeled away bit by bit, as though something were devouring it. In the blink of an eye, even his consciousness began to scatter—

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

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

"Current Soul Stone total: 20."

"Your Sanity Value has been eroded. Your current Sanity Value is 89/100."

"...Sanity?"

What the hell was that?

After finally managing to recover, a huge question mark surfaced in his mind. But as Zhou You stood there baffled, the cold, mechanical female voice that had been speaking all along actually gave him an answer.

"In certain scenarios, players will have a stat called 'Sanity Value.' Players will lose Sanity Value when they encounter certain strange or terrifying things, or an Erosion Point. When a player's Sanity Value reaches 0, the scenario will be forcibly failed, regardless of how many times the player can revive."

...All right. So that was another kind of restriction.

Zhou You shook his head, trying to fling away the lingering sensation—but in that very instant, the scene before his eyes abruptly changed.

The garbage covering the floor vanished in a flash. The room became clean and tidy, bright sunlight streamed in through the window, and a breeze stirred the wind chimes into their clear, crisp song. A warm, welcoming feeling filled the whole place, inside and out, making him want to live there forever...

"Wait a minute. What am I thinking?"

He snapped back to his senses.

Before his eyes was still the same dilapidated room, its walls covered in mold and decay.

...Was it an illusion?

Zhou You closed his eyes and lingered over the scene in his memory for a long while. In the end, he could only shake his head.

He neither confirmed nor dismissed it. Instead, he picked up his pen again and continued writing down the incomplete diary.

August 10, overcast.

I have a feeling the door leading outside must be on the Fifth Floor. The Landlady keeps emphasizing that I must never go to the Fifth Floor, no matter what, so there must be a way to escape up there.

August 11, sunny

But to get to the Fifth Floor, I have to pass through the Fourth Floor. But the Fourth Floor...

September 14, sunny.

I think I've found a way to get to the Fifth Floor, but making this thing requires... No, no, how could I—

May 11, weather unknown.

After paying so much, sacrificing so much, I finally made it to the Fifth Floor. But it isn't what I imagined. It's nothing like what I imagined. This building is where I belong. I—

The writing stopped abruptly.

The diary ended there, but Zhou You didn't put down his pen. After pausing briefly, he continued writing.

First, judging from the previous tenant, the horrible screams, and this diary, the Fifth Floor was a key point. Even if there wasn't an exit up there, it was very likely the key to breaking out of this situation.

Second, the Fourth Floor was another key point. To get through it, he would have to make something.

Third, the previous tenant had been suffering from some kind of mental erosion. The dates and narration in the diary were both jumbled to some extent. After trying to escape the building, he may have been lucid for a while. Although his account was still disorganized, the dates were right. Unfortunately, something must have happened soon after, and he lost his sanity again, ultimately failing to escape.

A few seconds later, Zhou You hesitated, then added several large question marks at the end of the third point.

—But what exactly had the previous tenant seen? What had happened on the Fifth Floor? Why had he ultimately decided that this building was where he belonged? Could he have experienced the same kind of hallucination I did?

After thinking for a while, Zhou You finally set down his pen.

Unfortunately, there was still too little information. If he wanted answers, he could only...

"So I have no choice but to go and see for myself?"

Zhou You glanced outside the door.

Compared with the second and third floors, the stairs leading to the Fourth Floor were much darker. The stairwell was still faintly lit, but the dim glow didn't make him feel any safer. Instead, it sent a chill deep into his bones.

Even without anyone telling him, Zhou You understood perfectly well that if he went any higher, he would inevitably face even greater danger.

But, well...

He suddenly pursed his lips.

What was that saying? If you brought an arcade machine home, you could eventually beat even the hardest game by grinding at it long enough.

—Besides, I've got unlimited continues. Who's afraid of whom?

He looked around the little room one more time to make sure he hadn't missed anything. Then Zhou You took a deep breath and headed for the stairs.

The dim stairwell yawned like the maw of a monster, swallowing everything indiscriminately. The higher he climbed, the stronger the illusion became.

—Climb upward, straight into hell...

He reached the Fourth Floor in no time.

Zhou You had already prepared himself for what might await him: even more terrifying monsters, perhaps, or even more horrifying residents. But once he actually arrived, he realized all that preparation had been completely unnecessary.

The reason was simple.

There wasn't a single door on the entire Fourth Floor, nor was there even a living thing in sight.

The huge floor stood empty. There were no apartment doors or windows, nothing you would expect to find in a normal residential building. As far as the eye could see, there was nothing but cracked, moldy white plaster walls.

...Wait, that wasn't entirely true. There was something here after all.

Right before Zhou You, directly opposite the stairs, a pair of Couplet strips hung on the bare wall.

They were old-fashioned, and the writing on them was no longer legible. Yet their color was a vivid red, standing out starkly against the gloomy surroundings.

No doors, but there were couplets.

No one living there, but there was a festive air.

There was no monster before him, yet this bizarre, unnatural sight was even more chilling than any monster could be.

Zhou You hesitated at the sight, but in the end, he cautiously stepped onto the Fourth Floor.

Nothing happened.

"...This is strange. The diary clearly emphasized the Fourth Floor, but why isn't there a damn thing here?"

After letting out a small sigh of relief, Zhou You moved toward the most conspicuous spot on the floor—the wall with the couplets—and gently knocked on it.

"Knock, knock, knock."

It wasn't hollow. The wall was completely solid, as if it had been filled in from the moment it was built. There was no possibility of a hidden room.

Unconvinced, Zhou You knocked on the walls all around, but the result was the same. The only unusual thing was that the walls on this floor were so cold they were unnerving, especially compared to the floors below. It was as if he weren't touching reinforced concrete, but a single enormous block of ice.

Or, to put it more dramatically, as if...

It were one huge wall of cold corpses, piled up on purpose?

Zhou You shook his head hard, banishing the strange thought, then looked around. Seeing nothing else worth checking, he could only turn his gaze upward.

The voice-activated light leading to the Fifth Floor seemed to have failed completely. It only flickered now and then, briefly illuminating a floor strewn with dust and garbage.

"So I can only keep going up?"

Zhou You looked back at the strangely out-of-place couplets and, finding nothing wrong with them, had no choice but to lift his leg and head upstairs.

—But in the very next second,

he felt something cold grip his neck. In an instant, his body was pulled backward against his will.

Then came a slick, visceral pressure from every direction. Zhou You felt every bone in his body crushed, and finally—

"Bang!"

Like a tomato crushed carelessly in someone's hand, he burst apart completely, blood and chunks of flesh spraying everywhere.

"You died."