Thriller Zone: From the Mental Hospital to the Ghostly World

A minute later, the red paper containing the instructions vanished in Fei'er's hand like ashes.

Apart from the newcomers who were still in the early stages of the game, the veterans who had participated in the domain before fell silent, pondering the meaning of this guidance.

After reading the instructions on the paper, Chen Ji took two steps back, leaned against the wall, and felt a slight stirring in his heart.

This time, the guidance is different from that for students repeating a grade in high school.

The guidelines for repeating a grade in high school clearly state that "students should act like students."

Looking back on the entire mission now, this instruction actually clearly outlined most of the taboos.

As long as you don't violate the student rules while at school, you can survive the first two days.

However, this instruction from Liting Apartments is very abstract and has absolutely no connection to the apartments themselves.

Instead, it's more like a stream-of-consciousness poem.

The only mention at the end of the paper was that the ultimate goal was to escape from here.

Pulling his thoughts back, Chen Ji knew that he couldn't glean anything more from this guidance for the time being.

"Ding-dong."

"We've arrived at the first floor."

The eight people in the lobby immediately looked up, their expressions somewhat surprised, as someone came down from the elevator.

Chen Ji frowned. He remembered that when he checked the area before, the display screen next to the elevator had no numbers on it, as if no one had used it for a long time.

A metallic clanging sound rang out, followed by a man wearing a yellow helmet and a dirty maintenance uniform stepping out of the elevator.

He glanced at the people in the lobby, seemed startled, and after a moment's hesitation, said:

"The elevator is out of service and will be unusable for the next couple of days."

After saying that, he took out a folded warning sign from inside the elevator and placed it in front of the elevator.

"Both of them are broken?" Murong Qing asked, somewhat incredulously.

The elevator repairman shook his head: "Only the freight elevator on the left is working. However, the passenger elevator on the right also has some problems. It's best to wait until they are both repaired before using them."

Chen Ji immediately asked, "How many days will it take to fix?"

The repairman had already walked to the door with his repair kit, his voice sounding somewhat impatient.

"It can only be repaired once the parts arrive, which will take at least a week."

Before he could finish speaking, he pushed open the apartment door and slipped out.

Chen Ji had sharp eyes and saw that there was nothing in the gap when the door was pushed open, only pitch blackness, like an empty void.

The repairman, like an NPC in a game, disappeared from the "apartment" scene.

"He just left like that...?" Yuanyuan was somewhat taken aback.

Behind her, Zhuang Rui's eyes flashed, and he suddenly asked, "Does this count as him leaving the apartment?"

"Fine." Murong Qing nodded, seemingly knowing what Zhuang Rui was thinking, and gave him a somewhat disdainful look.

"He can do it, but you can't."

Wu Zhonghai understood Zhuang Rui's meaning. Although he felt it wouldn't be that simple, he still approached the door with some hesitation and turned the doorknob.

Click.

The door was opened very easily.

But outside, just as Chen Ji saw, there was only endless blackness and wisps of drifting mist.

Wu Zhonghai was startled when the door opened so quickly, and he staggered back a few steps.

Zhuang Rui cautiously approached the door, intending to take a closer look outside, when he was suddenly interrupted by Zuo Shiming's voice.

"If you don't want to die, don't go near there."

His words were not sarcastic at all; on the contrary, they were quite serious. Before anyone else could say anything, Zuo Shiming picked up a cushion from the sofa next to him and threw it into the darkness outside the door.

Almost instantly, the cushion disappeared into the void, like a drop of water falling into the ocean, without causing any ripples.

Chen Ji stared at the darkness outside the door, which seemed to swallow everything, without saying a word, one hand in his pocket.

The pen was twisting slightly there, as if it had sensed a strong unease.

Zhuang Rui, his face ashen, took a few steps back and stopped mentioning opening the door. Instead, Wu Zhonghai went over and closed the glass door.

Zuo Shiming coughed lightly twice, adjusted his glasses, and looked at Murong Qing and math teacher Wu Zhonghai:

"You two, did you find anything upstairs earlier?"

The two of them were the first to wake up. Chen Ji didn't see them when he opened his eyes. Calculating the time, he realized they had been upstairs for at least three minutes.

Chen Ji hadn't had a chance to return Du Tingfeng's watch, so he was still wearing it and would occasionally look at it.

When Chen Ji opened his eyes, it was 8:15, and the elevator operator arrived at exactly 8:20. Therefore, the time when Murong Qing and the other person came downstairs should be around 8:18.

Murong Qing said briefly, "The time was too short, I didn't see anything."

Wu Zhonghai glanced at her and quickly added a comment from the side.

"We just walked around in the stairwell and didn't go inside."

"After walking to about the fifth floor, the apartment building reached its top floor, and then Ms. Murong led me down."

Zuo Shiming nodded thoughtfully and did not ask any further questions.

A few minutes later, after discussion, the eight people simply divided into teams and went to explore in different areas.

Murong Qing and Wu Zhonghai went to the second floor.

Yuanyuan and Huli were assigned to the fourth floor, but Yuanyuan was reluctant to climb the stairs and wanted to take the passenger elevator on the right.

"The repairman said that only the left one is broken."

No one spoke; they just watched from the sidelines. Hu Li couldn't persuade her otherwise, so she had no choice but to take the elevator up with her.

When the elevator reached the fourth floor without any problems, Chen Ji noticed that the others visibly breathed a sigh of relief.

To Chen Ji's surprise, Zuo Shiming did not choose to team up with Fei'er, whom he knew, but instead went to the third floor with Zhuang Rui.

All that's left are Chen Ji and Fei'er.

Instead of taking the elevator on the right, Fei'er climbed up the stairs through the stairwell.

Her dress was gorgeous and elaborate, with a crinoline that could take up several steps, and she wore a pair of heeled leather shoes.

But Fei'er seemed completely unaffected by these clothes; her petite body moved with incredible speed, darting up like a white rabbit.

She didn't stop for a moment and climbed straight to the fifth floor. Not a single drop of sweat fell from her porcelain-white face.

In these old apartment buildings, the stairwells are rarely cleaned, and a thick layer of dust accumulates on the ground and railings.

Chen Ji followed Fei'er up the stairs, feeling as if his lungs were being filled with the dust she kicked up.

When he reached the fifth floor, he saw Fei'er looking at him expressionlessly, with a hint of disdain in her eyes, as if she thought he was too slow.

Chen Ji, looking disheveled, pushed open the stairwell door with one hand, his voice somewhat stiff:

"Hehe, let's go in first."

Just as he was about to step into the stairwell, his collar was suddenly grabbed with great force, instantly pulling Chen Ji out of the door.

"Mayfair?"

Is it dangerous inside?

But the fountain pen didn't give any warning?

Chen Ji was taken aback, turned his head to look, and was startled.

Phil's face was right behind his shoulder, and he could even see her long eyelashes trembling slightly. Then, a puzzled expression appeared on her face.

"Chen Ji".

Chen Ji's heart skipped a beat. He had only given his surname, Xiao Chen, to others.

In the internet age, information changes rapidly. The news you see today may be forgotten tomorrow. Moreover, Chen Ji was not wearing a mental hospital gown like last time.

He barely thought, a look of confusion appearing on his face first: "Who?"

Receiving no answer, Phil took a deep breath and frowned, saying:

"What do you smell like?"

"?"