In the end, caution won out over curiosity. After a moment's hesitation, everyone abandoned the idea of going to the fifteenth floor.
Just as Su Bai had said, whether the fifteenth floor was dangerous or safe, this survival game would eventually lead them there. Whatever secrets it might hold had merely been set aside for now.
"Let's keep moving." Chi Yan's voice came from up ahead. He was the first to step onto the descending stairs, his stride steady and decisive.
The others followed.
The staircase was wide. Even with Xu Rui on his back and a wheelchair in his hand, Xiang Feiyu had plenty of room.
"Big brother, Xie Ying has fallen behind everyone else. She keeps looking back toward the fifteenth floor, too."
Le Shiya's voice drifted into Su Bai's mind like a feather. Her ability seemed to do more than convey information; it also brought an inexplicable sense of reassurance.
"Is she especially interested in the fifteenth floor? And just now, when she noticed me watching her, she looked away."
Su Bai squeezed Le Shiya's little hand in acknowledgment, then fitted this detail into the puzzle he was piecing together about Xie Ying.
The stairwell felt entirely different from the corridors. Its walls and steps were bare, unfinished concrete, their rough surfaces exposed, like an abandoned building that had never been completed. The lights overhead were weak and yellow, far dimmer than the glaring incandescent lights in the corridors, and cast blurred shadows on the walls.
In any previous Nightmare Game setting, such a standard environment would probably have felt oppressive, even chilling. But after enduring the irritating glare in the corridors, the stairwell's lighting actually seemed gentle. At least there were no uncomfortable incandescent lights glaring into every corner, no sense that some invisible presence was