What's with the Knocking in the Middle of the Night!
[Current time: 9:07 p.m.] [One hour and fifty-three minutes until guest rooms are sealed at 11:00 p.m.]
After the hotel announcement ended,
Shen Niannian didn't linger in the restaurant.
She had obtained the first [Dining Service Stamp].
The red-clothed ghost had also fled.
The most important things were now perfectly clear.
Return to room 701.
Make it safely through the night.
Then wait for the second service-
[Midnight Room Service]
As for the scream from the second floor just now...
Shen Niannian paused.
In the end, she didn't go over there of her own accord.
(｡ŏ_ŏ)
Curiosity killed the cat.
And at her current size,
if she were really sold by weight, she probably wouldn't be worth as much as a fat orange cat.
If she could avoid sticking her nose into things,
she would.
Zhou Hai, however, had already led the remaining players back to the second floor.
The scream had come from room 207.
The occupant was a man with glasses, around thirty years old.
The door now stood open.
The man was sitting on the floor.
His right leg had completely vanished from the knee down.
There was no blood at the stump.
Only dense black bite marks.
"What happened?"
Zhou Hai hurried over.
The bespectacled man was deathly pale, and his voice trembled.
"When I came back, I found a pair of slippers by the door. They weren't in the room before, but I thought they were complimentary, so I put them on..."
At that point, his lips began to quiver.
"As soon as I put them on, mouths grew inside the slippers."
Everyone looked beside the door.
There was indeed a pair of black slippers there.
Except their openings were slowly opening and closing.
They were filled with rows of tiny teeth.
The livestream viewers' scalps tingled.
"Another trap that catches people acting on instinct!"
"You really can't just touch things that suddenly appear in a hotel."
"This guy was lucky. He only lost one leg."
Zhou Hai's expression was grim.
"Just because something appears in a room that wasn't there before doesn't mean it's part of the hotel's official services. Everyone, remember this tonight: don't touch anything that suddenly appears unless the rules explicitly permit it."
With that,
he looked up at the time.
9:12.
There were less than two hours left until eleven.
"If you're injured, tend to your own wounds. Everyone else, go back to your rooms and don't come out again before eleven."
Clutching the wound on his face, Wang Jianguo asked, "What about Midnight Room Service?"
Zhou Hai fell silent for a moment.
As for that question,
no one knew the answer.
At least the Blood Banquet Restaurant had a rules board.
They didn't even know when Midnight Room Service would start.
"Let's make it past eleven first."
Meanwhile,
Shen Niannian had returned to the seventh floor.
As soon as the elevator doors opened,
Bai Feiyue followed her out.
Shen Niannian turned to look at her.
"Are you staying on the seventh floor too?"
"I wasn't originally."
"Then why did you come up here?"
Bai Feiyue answered as though it were obvious.
"To keep you company."
Shen Niannian: "..."
(￣ー￣)
Thanks.
But there's really no need.
Gu Changsheng soon came out of another elevator as well.
He had clearly made preparations in advance.
"Miss Bai's room has been changed to 703."
Shen Niannian stopped in her tracks.
"703?"
She instinctively looked down the corridor.
701.
703.
Only room 702 lay between them.
Bai Feiyue nodded in satisfaction.
"Not bad."
Shen Niannian wasn't satisfied at all.
She strongly suspected that after she fell asleep tonight, she would open her eyes to find a yandere face leaning over her bedside.
"Didn't you say 701 was the only room open on the seventh floor?"
Gu Changsheng's expression didn't change.
"Room 703 just opened."
Shen Niannian: "..."
Just opened, huh.
Your hotel's rules sure are flexible.
Bai Feiyue was already walking ahead in a very good mood.
"Niannian, if you're bored tonight, come find me."
"Thanks, but I'm usually not bored at night."
"Then I'll come find you."
"..."
Shen Niannian decided to pretend she hadn't heard that.
She had more important things to do.
After returning to room 701,
she locked the door immediately.
Checked the window.
Made sure she had her room key card.
Then went over today's rules in her head again.
Leaving the guest room was forbidden after eleven.
If she heard knocking on the wall from next door in the middle of the night,
she must not respond.
Shen Niannian's gaze froze.
Next door.
Room 702 was to the left of her room.
To the right was the end of the corridor.
And Bai Feiyue was staying in 703.
That meant
702 was right between her and Bai Feiyue.
Shen Niannian suddenly had a very bad feeling.
(｡ŏ_ŏ)
This room 702...
It couldn't be there specifically for knocking on the wall, could it?
As she was thinking,
the service bell in the room suddenly rang.
Ding-a-ling.
Shen Niannian's body instantly tensed.
She didn't touch it right away.
Instead, she looked down at the time first.
9:43.
It wasn't after eleven.
Then she looked at the service bell again.
At some point, a line of small text had appeared beside it.
[Hotel service notice] [Midnight Room Service will begin at 11:30 p.m. tonight.] [Guests who wish to obtain a Room Service Stamp are asked to keep their doors closed before 11:00 p.m.] [Once service begins, please complete the process according to the room service rules that appear in your room.]
Shen Niannian stared at the last sentence.
11:30.
And rule two said-
Leaving the guest room was forbidden after 11:00 p.m.
In other words,
the task for the second stamp
was always meant to be carried out inside the room.
Shen Niannian understood at once.
(￣▽￣)
Great.
At least I won't have to run all over the hotel in the middle of the night.
That sounds much safer than the Blood Banquet Restaurant.
The next second,
she thought of the words "Midnight Room Service" again.
Her smile slowly vanished.
Maybe it isn't that much safer after all.
The livestream viewers saw the notice at the same time.
"The second task is here!"
"Eleven thirty, and it has to be completed in the room."
"The problem is, rule three is also about knocking on the wall in the middle of the night."
"Room service and the knocking aren't going to happen at the same time, are they?"
"Don't jinx it!"
Time ticked by.
Ten o'clock.
Ten thirty.
The entire Blood Moon Hotel grew quieter and quieter.
Ten fifty-five.
The announcement sounded again.
[Five minutes until the guest rooms are sealed.]
Second floor.
Zhou Hai checked one last time that everyone had returned to their rooms.
Then he closed the door to room 205.
Click.
He locked it.
Ten fifty-nine.
The lights in the hotel corridors all went out at once.
Only the number plates on each room door gave off a faint red glow.
Eleven o'clock sharp.
Bong-
A muffled bell tolled.
[The guest room lockdown has begun.] [All guests are prohibited from leaving their current rooms.]
Shen Niannian sat on the large bed in room 701.
She hugged a pillow.
Her room card and the Identity Archive interface were in front of her.
(๑•̀ㅂ•́)و✧
She was well prepared.
No need to panic.
Eleven oh three.
Nothing happened.
Eleven oh seven.
Still quiet.
Eleven twelve.
Shen Niannian was even starting to feel a little sleepy.
"Room service doesn't start until eleven thirty. How about I take a ten-minute nap first?"
She had just settled her pillow.
Knock.
A sudden knock came from the wall.
Shen Niannian froze.
(⊙_⊙)
The left.
Room 702.
Knock.
Another one.
Very faint.
It sounded like someone rapping their knuckles against the wall.
Rule three sprang into her mind almost instantly.
[If you hear knocking on the wall from the room next door in the middle of the night, please do not respond.]
Shen Niannian immediately shut her mouth.
She didn't speak.
She didn't knock back.
She didn't even intend to get out of bed.
But then.
Knock.
Knock, knock.
The knocking on the wall became rhythmic.
Three short.
One long.
A pause.
Then three short again.
Shen Niannian hadn't intended to pay it any attention.
But after listening for more than ten seconds.
Her expression gradually turned strange.
This rhythm...
Why does it sound so much like someone tapping out Morse code?
She subconsciously began translating it in her head.
Three short.
Three long.
Three short?
SOS?
Shen Niannian: "..."
(°ー°〃)
Wait.
Was the ghost next door sending an international distress signal?
The livestream viewers also noticed something was off.
"There's a pattern to that knocking!"
"Don't respond! The rule is crystal clear!"
"Even if someone really is calling for help, you can't respond!"
That was exactly what Shen Niannian thought, of course.
Whatever was next door.
Even if there really was someone in there calling for help.
The rule said not to respond.
So she wouldn't respond.
Just then.
A woman's voice suddenly came from behind the wall, very faint.
"Niannian."
Shen Niannian's scalp prickled instantly.
Σ(っ °Д °;)っ
It knows my name?!
The next second.
The voice came again.
"Shen Niannian, can you hear me?"
It was familiar.
Extremely familiar.
Shen Niannian froze for two seconds.
Then she abruptly turned to look to her right.
Wait.
This voice...
Why does it sound so much like Bai Feiyue?
But isn't Bai Feiyue staying in room 703?
Room 702 was between them.
In theory, their rooms weren't even next door to each other.
Behind the wall.
The voice came again.
"Niannian, the walls in my room keep bleeding. Is it happening over there too?"
Shen Niannian: "..."
The livestream chat: "..."
A few seconds later.
Someone caught on.
"Wait!"
"That really is Bai Feiyue, isn't it?!"
"Is she knocking from room 703 through room 702?!"
Shen Niannian likewise fell into thought.
The rule said:
[If you hear knocking on the wall from the room next door, do not respond.]
There were two questions now.
First.
Was Bai Feiyue actually talking to her?
Second.
Room 703...
Did it count as next door?
Shen Niannian looked at the wall to her left.
She was faced with the most absurd rule interpretation.
Since entering the Blood Moon Hotel.
(￣ー￣)
Wait.
This is a rules horror story, fine.
Why am I being tested on floor plans now?