A knock at the door

Before Shao Lan could think any further, a piercing cry rang out from outside.

Shao Lan and Jiang Mingran exchanged a glance and went out together.

The cries came not from the eighth floor, but from the seventh floor just below them, carrying up through the stairwell.

A man in a suit knelt beside the elevator, sobbing at the top of his lungs. "I pressed it by mistake! I really only pressed it by mistake! I don't want to enter an Instance! I don't want to die! Please let me go! I'm begging you!"

The Property Manager stood opposite him, still wearing her professional smile. "Sir, pressing the elevator button is considered an expression of your wish to participate in the game," she said politely. "You cannot change your mind."

"I pressed it by mistake! I told you, I really only pressed it by mistake! Don't make me get in the elevator! I don't want to play another game! I'll die! Please!" the suited man pleaded through his tears.

The Property Manager remained motionless, her smile unchanged.

The suited man broke down. He charged straight toward the corridor, trying to escape!

In a flash, the petite Property Manager blocked his path.

"Are you going to violate the [Happiness Residential Community] Resident Regulations?" she asked softly.

The suited man gritted his teeth and tried to shove her aside.

"I told you I don't want to play! You..."

The rest of his words caught in his throat, then turned into a scream.

The suited man's left leg snapped with a loud crack, followed by his right.

Smiling, the Property Manager reached out and broke both his legs. Then, watching him crawl along the floor, she reached out again and snapped his arms.

She tossed the man, all four limbs broken, into the open elevator like a piece of trash, then bowed with a smile. "Enjoy your game."

The elevator doors closed, and the man's bloodied face disappeared behind them.

There was no doubt that he would never survive.

The elevator led to a world of unimaginable horror, and he could not even stand.

No wonder the Property Manager had reminded them to take the stairs when visiting other floors, rather than the elevator, or face serious consequences.

Pressing the elevator button counted as applying to participate in a game.

That application could not be withdrawn. They had to follow through, and if they refused, someone like the Property Manager would help them do so.

Both Shao Lan and Jiang Mingran had gone a little pale.

Jiang Mingran murmured, "Is the Property Manager a monster too...?"

As an athlete, Jiang Mingran had always been confident in his strength, but snapping a grown man's limbs with bare hands was well beyond human capability.

And the Property Manager had looked as relaxed as if she were playing with a Barbie doll. She had not used anything close to her full strength.

The elevator fell silent again. The two stood by its doors for a while, then returned to their respective rooms.

Just before going inside, Shao Lan instinctively glanced toward Room 801.

He froze.

Where the door to Room 801 had once been, there was now an unbroken wall.

The room had vanished into thin air.

No wonder... no wonder the third floor only had Room 303, with no 301 or 302.

The residents who had once lived in those two rooms had already "checked out."

When a resident died, their room disappeared with them.

What had killed them? Had they starved like the woman in Room 801, or died inside an Instance after being forced to enter it?

The possibilities made Shao Lan deeply uncomfortable, but there was nothing else he could do. He returned to his room, boiled an egg and a potato, and hastily filled his stomach.

After eating, he rested for a while, then went to Room 804 to check on Pancake Uncle.

Pancake Uncle sat on the edge of the bed in a daze. Everything that had happened was clearly more than the old man could bear. His eyes were red, his thin, withered right hand held a worn wallet, and his left wiped away his tears.

With digital payments so widespread these days, probably only elderly people like Pancake Uncle still used wallets. The money inside was useless in this building. He gently stroked a photograph tucked within.

Shao Lan looked at the photograph. It showed an adorable little girl whose large eyes resembled two glossy black grapes.

"My granddaughter. Her name's Tangtang." Pancake Uncle gazed at the little girl in the photograph and sighed softly.

"My wife died from complications after giving birth to our daughter. I raised my girl on what I earned from my food stall."

"At last, she graduated, found a job, and got married. Her husband was a good man too, but neither of them lived long... All they left me was a little granddaughter."

"I named the little girl Tangtang because I wanted her life to be sweet as sugar, so she wouldn't suffer as much as her mother and grandmother..."

Tangtang was the main reason Pancake Uncle had managed to hold on and survive this long.

"I might never see her again." Pancake Uncle wiped his tears. "I don't even know how she's doing now."

"Have you eaten?" Shao Lan asked.

Pancake Uncle paused.

"You have to stay alive yourself before you can have a chance to see your granddaughter," Shao Lan said calmly.

Pancake Uncle murmured, "Is there... is there still a chance?"

"I don't know, but if you die, there definitely won't be," Shao Lan said. "Stay alive first. There has to be a way out. We'll take our time finding it."

He paused. "Just like you, I want to get out as soon as possible."

His words seemed to hold a kind of magic, and Pancake Uncle gradually rallied.

There was something reassuring about this young man. If he said there was a way out, then there had to be one.

Once Pancake Uncle's emotions had settled, Shao Lan first asked him about the number.

As expected, Pancake Uncle had found a number too-on the calf of his disabled leg.

"XCVI."

Pancake Uncle had the highest number of the three: 96, more than twice Jiang Mingran's 41.

He clearly had no idea when the scar had appeared either.

"My leg just felt a bit itchy, like when a wound's healing." Pancake Uncle pressed the scar. "When did this get burned into me?"

Shao Lan had no answer to that either.

There were too many mysteries here to solve them all at once. Staying alive was the immediate priority.

Seeing that Pancake Uncle had neither eaten nor drunk anything, Shao Lan decided to take him to his room.

Pancake Uncle initially refused. "I can't spend your money."

"It won't cost anything," Shao Lan said. "I've already bought the induction cooker. I might as well use it. I can at least boil some water."

Water and electricity were free in this building, so this was one way to get something out of the place.

Only then did Pancake Uncle follow Shao Lan to Room 802. Shao Lan had boiled some tap water on the induction cooker earlier, and it had now cooled to a comfortable drinking temperature.

Pancake Uncle drank without lifting his head-he really was thirsty.

When Shao Lan offered to share some more food, Pancake Uncle refused to accept it no matter what. He learned to use the vending machine, bought himself a potato, and boiled it on Shao Lan's induction cooker.

"Shao, I won't buy a cooker myself. How about I pay you each time I use yours? I don't know if we can transfer money to each other. If we can't, I'll get you something and pay with that..."

Pancake Uncle's face reddened a little. He was an honest man who disliked taking advantage of others, but with only 500 yuan in total, he could not quite bring himself to spend 128 yuan on a pot.

"It's fine. I've already bought it anyway," Shao Lan said. "Using it a few more times will help me feel like I got my money's worth."

For now, he did not mention that he had ten thousand yuan.

Although Pancake Uncle and Jiang Mingran both seemed like good people, Shao Lan was cautious by nature and decided not to reveal his wealth at this stage.

The woman who had starved to death in Room 801 and the man on the seventh floor who had cried and begged not to enter the elevator were proof enough of how difficult it was to earn money and survive in this building.

Under these circumstances, displaying his wealth would make him an easy target.

Even if Pancake Uncle and Jiang Mingran were both good people, despair, hunger, and fear in extreme circumstances could turn a good person into a monster.

Shao Lan did not want to gamble on human nature.

Pancake Uncle ate the potato he had bought, and Shao Lan boiled another pot of water and left it to cool. Just then, a knock came at the door.

"It's me, Jiang."

"Come in."

"There's something I wanted to discuss with you." Jiang Mingran walked in. "There's a girl who wants to team up with us..."