Western Suburbs of the City.
A streak of fire cut through the night, passed along the deserted streets, and stopped outside Star Fast Food across from the Maple Grove Hotel.
Shen Ye got off the motorcycle and looked into the fast-food restaurant.
Strange.
There was no one else inside the restaurant.
Only a little girl of five or six sat in a corner, carrying a large schoolbag.
Hearing the motorcycle, she looked up at Shen Ye.
Shen Ye beckoned to the little girl.
The little girl ran straight out of the restaurant, all the way up to him, and looked at him uneasily.
A large pair of red headphones hung around her neck, with eyeball-like designs on both earcups.
A Chinese reading comprehension question was playing through the headphones.
"Were you the one who called me?"
Shen Ye asked.
"Yes-have you seen my mom? I can't reach her," the little girl said anxiously.
The little girl wore a red school uniform patched all over. She was frail, her hair dry and yellowish, and she looked somewhat malnourished.
It was as though a gust of wind could blow her away.
Shen Ye looked her over, then turned toward the Maple Grove Hotel across the street.
The hotel was dozens of stories tall. Against the night, it looked like a monster that might choose someone to devour at any moment.
"I'll go find your mom right away. By the way, have you called the police?"
"The call went through, but no one answered."
"I'll call."
Shen Ye quickly dialed the police.
Ring-ring-
The phone rang for a full thirty seconds. No one answered.
...How could this happen?
Shen Ye felt somewhat bewildered.
"Is my mom still alive? Could you please help me find her?" the little girl asked, biting her lip as she looked up at Shen Ye.
Shen Ye asked, "Where's your dad?"
"He died a long time ago. My mom and I only have each other," the little girl said.
"How about this? I'll send you somewhere safe first, then contact you once I find your mom," Shen Ye said.
"Where?" the little girl asked.
"Ghost Fire, take her to the Human World Martial Arts Tower, then come back for me," Shen Ye said.
A gentle voice came from the motorcycle. "Recalculating route. Route confirmed. Passengers under twelve, please fasten your seat belts. We will depart shortly."
Shen Ye placed the little girl on the motorcycle.
"I want to see my mom," the little girl said, staring at him.
"I'm looking for her too," Shen Ye said.
"Her room number is 707, but I couldn't reach her, so I didn't dare go," the little girl said.
"All right. I'll find her, then we'll come get you together," Shen Ye said.
"I'm scared." The little girl began to cry.
Shen Ye patted her back and said gently:
"Don't be afraid. The place I'm sending you is very safe. We'll take you out to eat later."
Getting her to feel reassured and leave without a fuss was the best course of action.
Her life mattered more than anything else.
The little girl rubbed her eyes and studied him with utmost care, saying nothing for a long while.
Seeing that she had calmed down, Shen Ye breathed a sigh of relief and patted the motorcycle.
"I will return to your side in five minutes and thirty-nine seconds," the motorcycle said.
"I'll be at the hotel across the street. Look for me there," Shen Ye said.
"I will return to your side in five minutes and forty seconds," the motorcycle said.
"Go!"
The motorcycle started and swiftly carried the little girl out of the neighborhood.
Shen Ye continued gazing at the Maple Grove Hotel.
"A complete waste of time-this little girl has no bearing on your interests. You don't even know her, and she's highly likely to become a burden to you. I can't understand why you would help her."
Big Skeleton said.
"Her mother was innocent. This happened because she got dragged into my affairs," Shen Ye said.
"Hmph. Softhearted and weak. You'll never accomplish anything great," Big Skeleton said.
Boom-
A crash came from the Maple Grove Hotel, along with faint, fierce shouts.
Xiao Mengyu was fighting that "Skinner"!
-I can't wait any longer.
But everything was also very strange.
Ever since entering this neighborhood, he had felt an indescribable stillness.
There were no moving cars on the streets.
There were no pedestrians on the roads.
All the shops had their lights on, but they were empty too.
This place was like a realm of ghosts.
Rustle...
Cold rain fell from the night sky, constantly striking the ground with a rasping sound.
Boom-
Another tremendous crash rang out.
Whether it was his imagination or something else, Shen Ye kept feeling that the hotel seemed to have grown darker.
It had completely transformed into a dark cathedral radiating an ominous air.
Every additional glance deepened the unease in his heart.
But he had to go.
So many people had died.
The threat of assassination had never gone away.
If he didn't investigate everything today and allowed it to keep lurking in the shadows, would he have to live in fear and unease forever?
-The truth was right in front of him!
Shen Ye silenced his phone and put it into his pocket before crossing the street and walking straight into the hotel lobby.
There were people in the lobby, at least.
Several hotel employees stood in the lobby and looked toward Shen Ye together.
"Hello, would you like a room?"
A middle-aged woman with a "Manager" badge on her chest gave him an appropriate smile.
Shen Ye was about to speak when Big Skeleton's voice sounded in his ear:
"Be careful. There are no living people here."
When it came to matters of life and death, Shen Ye naturally trusted this member of the Undead Race.
He turned his hand over, took out Nightfall, and immediately asked:
"How did you die? Why can you still stand here?"
-Dark Whisper activated!
The middle-aged woman maintained her smile as she explained, "To make his stay more comfortable, the master killed us all and strung us together with special threads. He uses Spellcraft to control our souls and orders us to perform various actions."
"Is that right?" Shen Ye asked the others.
The corpses all nodded.
"Why aren't you attacking me?" Shen Ye asked.
"We were set to do our utmost to serve the guests. The master encountered a powerful enemy and is busy fighting, so he hasn't given us any new instructions," the middle-aged woman said.
"Besides you, how many others died here?" he asked.
"Everyone," the middle-aged woman said.
"What do you mean by everyone?"
"Everyone in this neighborhood died here."
Shen Ye froze.
Now he knew where that ominous feeling from earlier had come from.
The sounds of fighting upstairs grew more intense. He could even hear Xiao Mengyu's sharp cries.
The sounds of battle headed all the way toward the top floor.
Good. Now's my chance!
Shen Ye rushed up the stairs, climbed to the seventh floor in one go, and stopped outside room 707.
No matter how hard it was to bear-
He shoved the door hard.
The lock broke outright, and he pushed the door open, revealing the scene inside.
Corpses covered the floor and hung all over the walls. The ceiling was packed with corpses pinned in place by steel wires.
A woman's corpse lay on the carpet in the center of the room.
Part of her body was missing, but Shen Ye had some recollection of her face.
Shen Ye's heart gradually sank.
Please, no...
He stepped over corpse after corpse, came before the woman, and asked softly:
"Do you know me?"
The woman opened her eyes and looked at him. "Shen Ye, I saw your encounter with the ghost while I was on duty."
Shen Ye suddenly felt an urge to flee.
But in the end, he didn't move. He merely closed his eyes slowly, then opened them again.
"I'm sorry. You died because of what happened to me."
He heard himself say.
The woman's voice was calm. "I'm already dead, so these things don't matter as much anymore. Besides, it wasn't your fault. If you're willing-"
"Please avenge us."
Avenge them...
Shen Ye looked at the room full of corpses and recalled what the manager in the lobby had said.
"Everyone in this neighborhood died here."
Just how many people had that fellow killed?
"Can you sense the other corpses?" he asked.
"That's right. The other rooms are all like this one, with even more densely packed corpses," Big Skeleton said.
Shen Ye returned his gaze to the woman and said quietly:
"Don't worry. You will be avenged. And then... your daughter..."
"I'll make sure she grows up healthy."
"I'll cover all her expenses from now on."
"Please rest in peace."
The woman's corpse listened quietly, then suddenly looked puzzled.
But there was no time to say any more.
The building shook violently.
An unstoppable force struck the hotel, blasting half the building clean away.
"Who?!"
A voice filled with shock and fury came from the rooftop.
Big Skeleton said quickly, "One of the two combatants has suffered a sudden drop in vitality and is falling toward us. They'll pass outside the window any moment."
Shen Ye's expression changed.
The voice on the rooftop was a man's.
Then the one falling was naturally the other combatant.
Xiao Mengyu!
He rushed toward the window, crashed straight through it, and looked around in midair.
Sure enough, a woman holding a sword was falling from above.
Her body was covered in a shocking number of wounds, with blood continuously pouring out.
Xiao Mengyu turned her icy gaze toward him. When she realized it was Shen Ye, she visibly froze, then relaxed.
"Her life force is extremely weak."
Big Skeleton said.
"What?" Shen Ye's face drained of color.
He caught Xiao Mengyu in his arms.
"Kill me, quick. I don't want him to torture me," Xiao Mengyu said, her voice barely a thread.
"Cut the crap. You're going to be fine!" Shen Ye said.
Xiao Mengyu gazed steadily at him. Realizing he seemed sincere, and considering that he had come to help despite his level of strength, she couldn't help feeling both amused and appreciative.
-Did he think I had no trump card?
Controlling her injuries like that just now, making her breathing incredibly faint, had actually been a ploy to lure the enemy in.
Success or failure had originally hinged on that single counterattack.
Unfortunately, heaven's calculations had fallen short of a human's: this boy had jumped out, wanting to save her.
Naturally, that "Skinner" hadn't followed.
Both annoyed and amused, Xiao Mengyu couldn't help giving a soft huff:
"Fine, since you-"
Smack.
Shen Ye struck the side of her neck with a knife-hand chop.
Because she was a Great Swordsman, he had feared he wouldn't hit hard enough and put all 7 Attribute Points into strength.
8.3 strength.
The blow landed on the neck of a dying girl. Strong as she was, she was indeed gravely wounded, and she hadn't guarded against him.
The girl's eyes flew wide as she uttered:
"You-"
She couldn't hold on any longer. Her head lolled to one side, and she passed out.
"It's fine. I just don't want you seeing my secret," Shen Ye said.
He caught the sword with one hand and held Xiao Mengyu with the other, using Dodge from Deer Walk Beneath the Moon to take several steps along the wall, smash through another window, and rush into the room next door.
Fortunately, his Agility was now above 10!
Otherwise, performing a Movement Technique like this while carrying someone would have sent him straight down.
The moment Shen Ye landed, he activated Charge from Deer Walk Beneath the Moon, smashed through the room's door, and reached the corridor.
"Gate!"
He shouted urgently.
A gate instantly appeared in the corridor.
Shen Ye rushed through it with Xiao Mengyu in his arms.
"Disperse! Disperse!"
The gate vanished.
The next second.
A figure landed in the room and paused, then drifted through the smashed doorway into the corridor like a shadow sliding along the ground.
Just one step too late, he missed the sight of the gate disappearing.
All the man saw was an empty corridor.
This created a false impression based on experience.
"Huh? Hiding?"
The man was surprised at first, then immediately let out an involuntary giggle.
"You probably don't know that I have eyes and ears everywhere in this Hotel, so you've decided to play hide-and-seek with me."
"How fun."
He took out a white handkerchief, wiped the crimson from his fingers, and said casually:
"All right, I'll play along."
"I'll start counting down now. When I reach 1, I'll start looking for you."
"10,"
"9,"
"..."