Seeing ghosts through the left eye

This was the first time Su Bai had used Black Umbrella's left eye to look at Happiness Residential Complex.

Although Su Bai had been using Black Umbrella's power both times he encountered Feng Ling, Black Umbrella's left eye was a bloody socket where the eye had been forcibly gouged out. He had always covered it with an eye patch to keep the human players from taking him for a supernatural entity and eliminating him before he could deal with the real ones.

Now, although Su Bai was borrowing Black Umbrella's power, he still looked like the dark-skinned male student. The strangulation marks on his neck were barely noticeable, and his eye and bangs concealed most of the bloody socket on the left. Even if he ran into other humans along the way, there probably wouldn't be any disastrous misunderstandings.

There was something rather poignant about it. Black Umbrella's left eye had been forcibly gouged out, yet the bloody socket left behind could actually see things Regular people couldn't. However, the left eye's field of vision also affected his right eye and hearing. Otherwise, if his two eyes constantly saw entirely different things and he heard different things as well, that sense of disconnection might drive a Regular person insane.

"Meow."

The little black kitten with golden eyes lay cradled in Su Bai's arms, even shifting into a more comfortable sleeping position. Even through Su Bai's left eye, the kitten was still an adorable kitten, not some strange, writhing black shadow. That was a relief.

"Meow?"

As though sensing Su Bai's gaze, the kitten, which had been trying its best to snuggle up to him, tilted its head and gave an affectionate mew.

"It's nothing. Let's go back and take another look."

Only after looking away from the black cat did Su Bai begin carefully examining Room 402 through his left eye. Although the gouged-out eye could miraculously see, its vision was tinted a faint blood red. Once he got used to it, though, it didn't interfere with his observations.

Moreover, because Su Bai's own power was insufficient, Black Umbrella within the puzzle had probably weakened the left eye's power so Su Bai could use his abilities for longer. It was essentially a way of reducing energy consumption and extending standby time.

In other words, what Su Bai could currently see through his left eye was only part of Happiness Residential Complex's true appearance. Still, it was enough for him to gradually uncover some "truths" Regular players could never discover.

The fourth-floor corridor, previously lit as brightly as daylight, had turned dim and yellow. The clean, brand-new white ceiling lights now looked as though they hadn't been replaced in over a decade, yellowed and caked with grime. The cream-colored tiles on the walls and floor had vanished as well. The entire corridor had become an unfinished concrete space without even a coat of white latex paint.

That alone would have been tolerable, but under the dim yellow light, Su Bai saw all sorts of dark marks covering the concrete walls on either side of the corridor. Holding the kitten, he moved closer to inspect them. Their color reminded him of old bloodstains.

Besides those bloodstains of unknown origin, there were recognizable human handprints and even cat paw prints, every one of them stained with blood so dark it was nearly black.

And then there were the bloody scratches left by animal claws all over the walls...

The cat paw prints, which Su Bai would normally have found cute and pretty, now looked utterly sinister.

"This is..."

Then Su Bai looked at the doors of Room 401 and Room 402 beside it. There were no clean, attractive, white-painted security doors anymore. They were enormous black gravestones!

The door to Room 401 now looked just like a gravestone in a cemetery, except that this black gravestone was as large as a door. Engraved on it were words found only on a tombstone-

"Grave of our beloved son, Lin Yongxian"

Above the white-painted engraving was a black-and-white photograph of a heavyset young man. The names of Mr. Lin Yongxian's parents were inscribed below.

Su Bai immediately recalled hearing someone slam desperately against a wall when he first arrived on the fourth floor, making quite a racket. That must have been Mr. Lin Yongxian in Room 401, right?

Walking back a few steps, Su Bai looked at the door belonging to the "aunt" in Room 402. Strangely, though... while her door had also transformed completely into a black gravestone, no one's name was written on it. Instead, it bore only a single line-

"May they rest here forever."

"They?"

Su Bai tightened his hold on the kitten a little, making the little creature in his arms meow in discomfort. After soothing it, he continued down the corridor and examined the doors of the other fourth-floor residents.

However, although every resident's door on the fourth floor had become an enormous black gravestone, the inscriptions on all of them except Rooms 401 and 402 had been scratched beyond recognition!

Even where he could vaguely make out words engraved on the "gravestones," Su Bai's attention was completely drawn to the marks left by animal claws raking frantically across them. He had no attention to spare for those unfamiliar names.

"The cats have such big appetites. If no one else comes, they really won't be able to find anything to eat."

"They eat anything. Once they finish the food at home, they go looking for food elsewhere on their own."

"But there might be fewer good people outside now. These children come back starving every time. Sometimes they even gnaw on my hands. I don't know how much longer we can hold on."

In an instant, the "aunt's" earlier words resurfaced in Su Bai's mind. He remembered the irritating meowing he had heard upon reaching the fourth floor, the sound of Mr. "Lin Yongxian" in Room 401 angrily pounding against the wall, and how none of the other residents had reacted to the frantic cries of the cats...

What did those cats eat?

Or rather, where did those cats, who had been starving for who knew how long, go to forage? And what did they consider food?

Could it be... the neighbors?

Su Bai recalled the writhing black shadow on the recliner, the stray cats and glowing eyes scattered throughout every corner of the room, the "aunt's" eagerness as she repeatedly urged her "nephew" to leave, and the pleas the kitten in his arms couldn't understand.

His past experience became a weapon, carving a plausible theory out of his tangled thoughts.

With a theory in mind, Su Bai scratched the kitten under its chin, then headed toward Room 402. "Come on. Let's go back and have a look."

"Meow!"

Although the door to Room 402 had become a strange black gravestone, it remained ajar, just as before. When he pushed it open, it still weighed about as much as an ordinary security door.

Because the corridor lights outside had grown dim, even with the door to Room 402 open, the living room was much darker than on Su Bai's previous visit. Fortunately, he had borrowed Black Umbrella's power this time. Not only could he use his left eye to see what was inside Room 402, but he also felt more confident about getting out unscathed.

"Little Bai? Why did you come back?" The writhing figure still lay in the rocking chair, wearing that dress pieced together from rags.

Su Bai looked around. All the stray cats had vanished from his left eye's field of vision. Apart from a few simple pieces of furniture, the entire living room was empty. There was only the "aunt's" voice and the creaking of the rocking chair.

Where was the meowing?

"Meow-"

The meowing Su Bai had been expecting followed, but those overlapping cries didn't come from the kitten in his arms, the nearby sofa or rug, or any of the other rooms in Room 402.

All the meowing came from the "aunt's" body!