The fourth floor

Li Xian hurriedly looked back. The human skin was crawling swiftly along the floor, drawing closer and closer to him.

Watching the way it crawled, he suddenly thought of something. He grabbed a painting off the wall and hurled it at the human skin!

The human skin immediately dodged, almost pressing itself against the base of the wall. Once the portrait landed, it adjusted its position and returned to the center of the corridor.

Just as I thought. They aren't only afraid of picture frames-they're afraid of the portraits on the walls, too!

There had clearly been a better hiding place in the room-behind the painting-but the human skin had bypassed the portrait and hidden in the corner instead.

It was doing the same thing now. Not only had it avoided climbing onto the walls, but it was also dutifully following the very center of the corridor as it chased him.

With his theory confirmed, Li Xian grabbed another painting off the wall and held it in front of himself.

By then, the human skin had caught up with him and was about to pounce, but the sight of the portrait in front of him made it abruptly stop.

Li Xian carefully backed away, step by step. The human skin advanced at the same pace, maintaining a delicate distance between them.

But the corridor had an end.

Although Li Xian deliberately slowed his steps, his heels soon touched the wall.

The human skin seemed to have been waiting for that moment.

It leaped into the air, but instead of lunging at Li Xian, it landed on the bare wall behind him.

Just as it was about to twist around and drop onto his head, a tiny object was thrown at it.

The instant the Wooden Figurine touched the human skin, it dissolved into several streams of water that wound around it, pinning it to the wall.

[What's that?]

[Looks like a wooden figurine? Must be one of the streamer's items?]

[He's only cleared one instance. Where'd he get an item like that? It can even restrain a spectral monster! I don't have anything like that!]

[He unlocked the true ending in the last instance. It was probably his reward.]

[I doubt it'll last very long. One or two seconds at most.]

[It's already pretty impressive to get a crowd-control item like this in the Novice Zone. Ah, that thing broke free.]

[I just timed it. That was five seconds...]

[Holy shit, seriously?!]

[I've figured it out. That item must be single-use! Yeah, single-use...]

Five seconds only gave Li Xian enough time to run a short distance and knock on the nearest door.

But before anyone inside could answer, the human skin charged at him again!

Li Xian looked toward the other end of the corridor. His "roommate" had actually gotten someone to open a door and taken an unused picture frame from inside.

They were some distance apart, and the human skin was about to catch Li Xian, so the man raised his arm and hurled the frame-

The sharp-cornered wooden frame spun through the air in an arc. The man seemed to have thrown it too high.

Li Xian jumped, caught the frame firmly in midair, and swung it behind him on instinct!

He felt resistance. The human skin was securely trapped inside the frame.

The man closed the door beside him and walked steadily toward Li Xian, hanging the fallen painting back on the wall along the way.

The first thing he said was-

"If you hadn't caught it, that frame would've landed right around the human skin behind you."

Li Xian rolled his eyes at him. "Well, sorry about that. I prefer to keep my fate in my own hands."

"I was just worried it'd hit you in the head."

"You're worrying too much. Next time, throw it straight at my face."

The man clicked his tongue softly, as though puzzled by Li Xian's lack of appreciation. In the end, however, he said nothing else and followed Li Xian back to the room, putting this portrait into the drawer as well.

It was already late at night. Li Xian climbed into bed and only then closed his eyes with some measure of relief.

Thinking he was going to sleep, the man obediently lay down on the other side of the bed. But the moment his head touched the pillow, he heard a question from beside him:

"Last time was a coincidence, but why was the human skin chasing me again this time?"

Silence lingered for so long that Li Xian was almost asleep when he faintly heard a leisurely reply beside his ear:

"Maybe because you look like an easy target?"

"..."

Speechless, Li Xian pulled the covers over his head and refused to speak to him again.

The next morning, Li Xian made a point of finding Liang Pei and thanking him.

Fortunately, he had supplied the frame last night. Otherwise, Li Xian might not have lived to see today.

Liang Pei shook his head. "No need to thank me. After all, if we hadn't taken the chance to eliminate the human skin completely, we'd still have been in danger later. I took that risk for my own sake, too. But..."

Liang Pei looked as though he had something more to say. After hesitating for a long while, he continued:

"Last night, I was holding the frame and about to open the door when it opened straight from the outside."

"I don't know how that man did it, but you'd better be careful around him."

He cast a wary glance at the tall man whose name they still didn't know. The man seemed to be hiding a great deal.

"Got it."

Li Xian walked away, but Liang Pei followed him and said quietly, "Today... I'm planning to go to the fourth floor. The portrait in my room is already holding up four fingers. If I don't take a risk and look for clues now, it'll be too late."

Liang Pei tried inviting Li Xian along. He was very capable, and working together would give them better odds. But Liang Pei also knew that Li Xian's count should have been "three" today. His situation wasn't yet as urgent as Liang Pei's.

"All right."

Liang Pei looked up in surprise. He hadn't expected Li Xian to agree without hesitation.

But the reason was actually simple. Li Xian had returned to his own room early that morning, only to discover that the number of fingers in his portrait... had increased to four.

Li Xian suspected it was a penalty for not sleeping in his own room. In any case, his deadline had moved forward by a day.

Liang Pei quickly settled the plan. "Then we'll wait until this afternoon, when the Mistress is drinking coffee in the Living Room!"

"What about the lock?"

"I happen to have an item that can open locks."

With that agreed, the two began waiting for their opportunity.

Shortly after noon, when they saw the Mistress sitting on the sofa admiring her portrait again, they immediately set off and reached the stairs leading to the fourth floor.

An iron gate completely blocked the entrance to the staircase, secured with a lock on the outside.

Liang Pei took out a piece of wire twisted into a corkscrew shape and poked it into the keyhole twice. The lock clicked open.

The two hurried up to the fourth floor.

There was an unlocked door at the top of the stairs. Li Xian reached out and pushed it open, revealing a space much like an attic. It had been furnished as a bedroom, and the traces left behind suggested someone had once lived there.

They stepped cautiously into the room. The furniture was arranged very neatly, but belongings lay scattered everywhere, creating an eerie sense of disorder.

The legs of the bed and table, along with similar spots, had all been wrapped in soft rubber, as though the room had been prepared for a child or a patient.

Li Xian tried moving the table, only to discover that it was fixed to the floor.

A crumpled piece of clothing lay on the table, and there seemed to be something written on the exposed corner.

Li Xian moved the clothing aside and found deep scratches carved with some unknown object. They read:

"I'm not Du Sha. She is!!!"