The Second Stamp, Secured!

Thump.

Thump, thump.

The knocking inside the wall continued.

"Shen Niannian, can you hear me?"

Bai Feiyue's voice came from behind the wall to her left again.

Shen Niannian hugged her pillow, her expression growing strange.

703.

702.

701.

In theory.

There was clearly a room between her and Bai Feiyue.

Yet now the voice was coming straight from inside the wall to the left of 701.

Did that make sense?

Not one bit!

More importantly-

Rule three stated it clearly.

[If you hear knocking on the wall from the room next door in the middle of the night, do not respond.]

As for whether 703 counted as the room next door...

Shen Niannian gave it two seconds of serious thought.

Then decisively gave up thinking about it.

(￣ー￣)

She didn't care whether it counted or not.

The rule told her not to respond.

So she would keep her mouth shut.

Sometimes, the deadliest thing in a rules horror scenario wasn't that the rules were too complicated.

It was that players insisted on proving they were smarter than the rules.

Shen Niannian hugged the pillow tighter.

She couldn't hear it.

She couldn't hear it.

A turtle was chanting scriptures.

The livestream chat had still been debating whether 703 counted as the room next door, but after seeing her reaction, the viewers gradually came to an agreement.

"Right, stop analyzing the floor plan!"

"If the rule says not to respond, then don't respond!"

"Even if that really is Bai Feiyue behind the wall, wait until tomorrow to talk about it."

"Shen Niannian's finally starting to feel like a veteran player. When it's time to play it safe, she really plays it safe."

The voice behind the wall continued for several minutes.

It started out asking questions.

Then gradually grew more and more urgent.

"Niannian?"

"Why are you ignoring me?"

"Could you open the door?"

Shen Niannian's eyelid twitched.

Open the door?

If Bai Feiyue really lived in 703.

Why wouldn't she come through the hallway to find her?

Besides, it was already past eleven.

[Do not leave your guest room.]

This thing was clearly trying to lure her into breaking more rules.

Shen Niannian simply pulled the blanket over her head.

(.-ω-)zzz

It could act all it wanted.

She wasn't playing along.

Just then.

On the second floor.

Room 207.

The bespectacled man, who had already lost one lower leg, heard the knocking on the wall too.

Thump.

Thump, thump.

Then.

Zhou Hai's voice came from behind the wall.

"Old Zhao, can you hear me?"

The bespectacled man jerked his head up.

"Brother Zhou?"

The room next door fell silent for a moment.

Immediately afterward, Zhou Hai's voice came again.

"Your leg is badly injured. I have medicine to stop the bleeding. Move the cabinet away from the wall. There's a staff maintenance hatch behind it. I'll pass it to you through there."

Delight immediately appeared on the bespectacled man's face.

The pain from his severed leg had long since driven him to the brink of losing his mind.

He had even forgotten rule three.

"All right! Wait a moment!"

As soon as he spoke.

Inside room 205.

The real Zhou Hai's eyes snapped open.

He had heard it.

Someone in 207 had responded to the knocking!

"This is bad!"

But it was already too late.

Inside room 207.

The bespectacled man had just touched the cabinet by the wall.

The wall suddenly bulged.

A gaping, bloody maw that took up half the wall slowly split open.

The delight on the man's face froze instantly.

"Zhou... Brother Zhou?"

The voice from inside the wall still belonged to Zhou Hai.

Only now, it carried a hint of an eerie smile.

"The medicine is here."

The next second.

Countless pitch-black arms reached out of the wall.

"Aah-!"

The scream lasted less than three seconds.

Then cut off abruptly.

[Player Zhao Wen has died.]

[Players currently alive: 7]

The livestream fell silent in an instant.

Then a flood of comments poured in.

"He died!"

"You really can't respond under rule three!"

"It can imitate people you know!"

"The voice behind Shen Niannian's wall was Bai Feiyue's too, so that wasn't Bai Feiyue at all!"

On the seventh floor.

Shen Niannian naturally heard the death notification too.

She slowly poked her silver-white head out from under the blanket.

(｡ŏ_ŏ)

Very good.

That only further proved keeping her mouth shut had been the right choice.

At 11:29.

The voice inside the wall suddenly disappeared.

Room 701 fell quiet again.

One minute later.

Ding-a-ling-

The service bell rang.

Shen Niannian immediately sat up straight.

New blood-red words slowly appeared on the wall.

[Midnight room service rules]

[1. Midnight room service will only enter through the door. Any "staff" coming from the walls or windows do not belong to the hotel.]

When Shen Niannian saw the first rule, the corner of her mouth twitched.

(￢_￢)

They should have said so sooner.

She had almost started analyzing the building's structure just now.

[2. Official room attendants all wear black uniforms. They will knock on the door three times in succession and state your room number correctly.]

[3. Room service includes turndown service, hot drinks, and wound care. Please choose at least one.]

[4. After the service is complete, the staff member will ask, "Are you satisfied with this service?" Please answer, "Satisfied." Do not answer any other questions the staff member asks.]

[5. Complete one correct room service to receive a Room Service Stamp.]

Five rules.

Very straightforward.

Shen Niannian quickly identified the key point.

She had to choose one.

The hot drink service meant consuming something.

Wound care...

She wasn't injured right now.

What if they gave her a wound first so they could treat it?

Shen Niannian thought of Chen Hao in room 404.

Her expression immediately grew serious.

The way the hotel fulfilled requests.

Absolutely could not be understood using normal people's logic.

So the safest choice was-

Turndown service.

No bodily contact.

And nothing to consume.

The lowest risk.

Thump.

Thump.

Thump.

The door was knocked on three times, right on schedule.

"Guest in room 701, midnight room service."

Shen Niannian didn't open the door immediately.

She went to the peephole first.

A female attendant dressed in black stood outside.

The identity archive appeared at the same time.

[Target: room attendant]

[Danger level: C]

[Identity: Official employee of the Blood Moon Hotel]

[Current status: Nervous]

Black uniform.

Official employee.

Correct room number.

All the conditions were met.

Only then did Shen Niannian open the door.

"I'd like turndown service."

The waitress seemed to breathe a sigh of relief.

"Certainly."

After entering the room, she didn't touch Shen Niannian.

She simply walked over to the bed.

Straightened the bedding.

Changed the sheets for clean ones.

Then placed a dried dark-red flower at the head of the bed.

The entire process was so normal that it was almost abnormal.

A minute later.

The waitress stopped.

"Miss Shen, are you satisfied with the service?"

"Yes."

Shen Niannian answered instantly.

The waitress bowed slightly.

Then, however, she looked up and asked, "Will you be afraid sleeping alone tonight?"

Shen Niannian's mouth instantly snapped shut.

(・×・)

Rule four.

Aside from that designated question.

She was not to answer anything else.

The waitress waited a few seconds.

The corners of her mouth seemed to rise a little.

"Exactly right."

She left the room.

The door closed.

Bzz-

The black-and-gold room card for room 701 grew hot again.

The second empty crescent slowly filled with scarlet.

[Room Service Stamp obtained!]

Shen Niannian's eyes lit up at once.

(✧ω✧)

The second one!

In hand!

The livestream erupted as well.

"Nice!"

"She had a reason for choosing turndown service too. Choosing wound care when she wasn't hurt might have caused trouble instead!"

"And that last question was obviously a trap!"

"Two stamps!"

"Only the Blood Moon Banquet Hall left!"

Shen Niannian looked at the two complete stamps on the back of her room card.

She felt noticeably more relaxed.

Two-thirds.

Just one left.

She was already starting to look forward to seeing what the [Identity Archive] would upgrade into once she cleared the game.

Seven o'clock the next morning.

The blood moon outside the window gradually faded.

The hotel announcement sounded right on time.

[Day two at the Blood Moon Hotel has begun.]

[Players currently alive: 7.]

[Guests, please plan your schedules for today accordingly.]

Shen Niannian sat up, yawning.

Her long silver-white hair hung messily down her back.

(つω｀)

Nothing else had gone wrong in the second half of the night.

At least she'd slept fairly well.

Just as she was about to wash up.

The announcement suddenly sounded again.

[Special notice.]

[Due to the unexpected arrival of honored guests from the Blood Rose Family, the Blood Moon Banquet Hall, originally scheduled to open on the evening of the third day, will open early tonight.]

Shen Niannian froze.

Immediately afterward.

The third empty slot on her room card slowly lit up.

[Blood Moon Banquet Hall]

[Opening time: 8 p.m. tonight.]

[Only guests who possess the first two service stamps can obtain an invitation to the banquet.]

Shen Niannian looked down.

The first one.

She had it.

The second one.

She had that too.

Which meant-

If she got the third one tonight.

Tomorrow morning.

She could officially check out!

Shen Niannian's red eyes, which had still been a little sleepy, lit up instantly.

(☆▽☆)

Great!

No need to drag this out until the third night.

She could tackle the final mission tonight!

Meanwhile.

On the second floor.

Zhou Hai looked at his room card.

His expression gradually darkened.

Because of the seven players still alive.

Only four-

Had obtained the first two stamps.

On the other three players' room cards.

At least one slot was still empty.

And at that moment, the next line of the announcement slowly sounded.

[Guests who have not qualified for a banquet invitation, please obtain your missing stamps before 8 p.m. tonight.]

[Those who fail to qualify for an invitation by the deadline-]

[Will lose the right to check out.]