Drip, drip, drip. The sound of running water was unusually loud in the empty washroom. The fluorescent lights above them flickered from time to time, causing their vision to flicker as if they were going to plunge into complete darkness at any moment.
Lin Sanjiu heaved a sigh of exhaustion and reached out to turn the rusty faucet. She desperately needed to splash some cold water on her face. However, after a few squeaks, nothing came out of the dried-up faucet.
Lin Sanjiu raised her eyes and stared at her reflection in the mirror.
Under the flickering fluorescent light, her face looked pale and bloodless in the mirror. The bony wings on her back were standing straight and half of them were hidden in the shadow.
"What should we do next?" Mrs. Manas, who had not shown her face for a long time, suddenly asked.
Lin Sanjiu did not answer.
She did not know either.
A few minutes ago, she had already searched every corner of the apartment building. Starting from the first floor, she did not miss any corner. She searched every inch of the building until she reached the seventh floor, which was the end of the apartment building. The staircase there had disappeared, leaving only an old and thick ceiling that blocked her way as if it was mocking her.
It was as if the entire building was carved out from a single piece of brick. There was not even a crack in the ceiling, let alone an exit.
Even though Lin Sanjiu knew that brute force would not work, she still tried to hit the wall at the end of the corridor. The brick was not very hard, but no matter how many times Lin Sanjiu hit it, the wall would still be as thick as a wall. It was as if there was no end to the wall. After a few minutes, she went downstairs and found that even the crack she made had disappeared. The wall with white and green stripes was as good as new.
Lin Sanjiu couldn't help wondering where Puppeteer was now every minute she was trapped in this place.
"We have been trapped here for almost three years," the girl's smile reappeared in Lin Sanjiu's mind. Every word she said was as clear as if it was right beside her ear. "At first, I was still thinking of finding an exit, but now, I have gotten over it. Isn't it the same wherever we go? We don't have to suffer the pain of reincarnation here. There is no danger to our lives, and we have everything we need. You better change your mindset. Do you want some whiskey? "
"Three years —"
That was what the girl said. Lin Sanjiu rushed out of the door and rummaged through the entire building again. However, she found nothing.
She sighed and suppressed the anxiety in her heart. She walked out of the washroom.
It was an apartment building, but there was a public bathroom on the seventh floor. Although it had been in disrepair for a long time and the water was leaking all over the floor, it was still usable.
The wooden stairs creaked under her footsteps. Lin Sanjiu followed Lin Sanjiu all the way back to the third floor. The corridor was still the same as usual, except for the noisy music that had disappeared at some point.
After some time, Lin Sanjiu realized something. She was not sure. No matter what, those people had entered the instance dungeon before her. Maybe they knew something else …
Lin Sanjiu stopped in front of Room 320. She raised her fist and knocked on the door a few times. Dust fell from the dark gold number plate. When she moved her hand away, the dust-covered dark mahogany door immediately left the imprint of her knuckles.
Even after knocking a few times, the room was still deathly silent.
"Is there anyone there?" She raised her voice suspiciously and shouted, "… I'm that person just now. Open the door! "
Her voice echoed down the corridor, but no one answered. She put her ear close to the door and listened for a long time, but there was only silence in Room 320.
When she raised her hand again, Lin Sanjiu heard a low voice coming from the dead silence behind her, "Stop knocking."
Lin Sanjiu felt goosebumps all over her body. She quickly spread her skeletal wings and retreated a few steps back. However, the owner of the voice did not follow her. He stood at the same spot and looked at her quietly. His spectacles glinted under the fluorescent lights.
"Who are you?" — and when had he arrived? Why didn't she hear anything?
Faced with the hostile Lin Sanjiu, the thin young man adjusted his glasses and pointed at the door of unit 320 with his bulging veins. He didn't answer her question. "… Don't call the door anymore. Trust me, you don't want to meet someone who opens this door a second time. "
"… What do you mean? Who are you? "
The thin man's voice was very low and light, as if every word that came out of his mouth. It was as if he was afraid of disturbing someone.
"You just came in today, right?" As he spoke, he turned around. After taking a few steps, he noticed that Lin Sanjiu didn't follow him. He turned his head and frowned. "… I came in last month. I have been stuck here for almost 20 days. My name is Geran. "
Lin Sanjiu wasn't sure if he was a member of Progressor Alliance, so she nodded cautiously, "My surname is Lin. My surname is Lin, and I'm a Growth Type. Why didn't you let me knock just now? What do you know about this attraction? "
The thin man tilted his head. He seemed to be distracted by something in Lin Sanjiu's words. However, he quickly replied in a low voice, "The last time you knocked on the door, I heard it and saw it."
Geran seemed to be an emotionless person. His tone was calm and cautious. He pointed at the staircase and said, "At that time, I was standing on the staircase … No, don't think that it's impossible. In this building, no matter what kind of detection method you use, the result will always be chaotic … Just like just now, you didn't notice me approaching, right? "
Lin Sanjiu was speechless. Her hypersensory didn't sense anything … This was almost unimaginable in the outside world.
Seeing that the man didn't seem hostile and showed his back to her again, Lin Sanjiu followed him while maintaining her distance.
"I didn't let you knock on the door because …" Geran seemed to be at a loss for words. After thinking for a while, he continued, "It's because both of us don't know what's behind the door."
"Over the past 20 days, I've seen a few posthumans in the dark … They knocked on the door once. I don't know if they met the same group of people as you did. But, like you, after searching the apartment, they would come back and knock on the door a second or a third time. "
"I also understand. In order to find the exit, no one dared to let go of any clues … If it wasn't for my good luck, I wouldn't have been able to find out that something was wrong. I'm afraid I'll have to knock on the door as well. " As Geran spoke, he had already reached the edge of the staircase. He placed his hand on the railing and turned to Lin Sanjiu, "I noticed that every posthuman who came to the door for the second time would be scared to death. All — "
Before he could finish his sentence, his eyes behind his spectacles suddenly widened. Geran looked behind Lin Sanjiu and his face turned pale. Before Lin Sanjiu could say anything, he turned around and rushed down the stairs. Not a single word was uttered.
Lin Sanjiu's scalp went numb. Before she could follow him, she heard the door creak. The sound came from behind her, and it seemed to be from unit 320.
In the end, she still managed to knock on the door of unit 320 for the second time.
A drop of cold sweat slid down her back and flowed into the groove of her spine.
"You're back. I was asleep just now, so I didn't hear the door," the girl's voice came from behind her. She sounded the same as the last time she spoke. There was a hint of drunkenness and lethargy in her voice, "Am I right? You didn't find the exit, right? "
Lin Sanjiu resisted the urge to turn around. She took a step forward, almost stiffly, with her eyes fixed on the ground.
Geran fled before he could finish his sentence. However, this did not stop Lin Sanjiu from obtaining some information from the words he left behind, "All the posthumans who came to the door for the second time …" Lin Sanjiu didn't know what had happened to them, but she was certain that those posthumans didn't end up well.
In other words, no matter what, she couldn't turn back now.
The Converse shoes seemed to be walking toward her, but Lin Sanjiu wasn't sure. The soft carpet and the strange apartment building made her unable to trust her five senses. She spread her wings and dashed toward the staircase with a gust of wind. She braked hard and twisted her body. Then, she dashed down the stairs.
As she turned a corner, she vaguely caught a glimpse of a huge, round shadow from the corner of her eyes. She did not know when it had approached the back of her head. It looked like a face. From the shadow of the round face, Lin Sanjiu could vaguely see something. From the shadow of the round face, she said, "Why aren't you coming over? Come over … "
Shielding her left eye with one hand, Lin Sanjiu did not dare to look in the direction of the corridor. She almost tumbled down the stairs. She rushed all the way to the first floor. When she saw that there was no way out, she tensed up like a cornered animal. She was like a small animal that had been cornered. He took a quick glance upstairs.
Regardless of what that girl was, she didn't seem to be chasing after her.
Lin Sanjiu held her breath and waited for a few seconds. It was still quiet on the stairs. There was no one coming down.
"Is it alright as long as I don't see the 'person' who opened the door for the second time?"
Lin Sanjiu thought to herself as her heart thumped loudly. She waited for a while more. When she saw that the surroundings were still quiet, she exhaled cautiously.
She was standing at the spot where she had just entered. Lin Sanjiu looked around and a question surfaced in her mind.
"Where is Geran?
This apartment building is a straight line. There is no exit. If he ran down from the third floor, shouldn't he be at the bottom now?
Did he stop at the second floor? "
Lin Sanjiu didn't dare to make a sound. She walked along the corridor on the first floor step by step. However, there was no place to hide in this straight and simple corridor. The man who was alive a moment ago seemed to have evaporated in the blink of an eye. He was nowhere to be found.
"Geran? Where are you? "
It wasn't easy for Lin Sanjiu to meet a normal person. Even though he didn't seem to be very righteous, Lin Sanjiu still hoped that she could see him again. Geran had lived in this apartment building for more than twenty days. He must know a lot of things that Lin Sanjiu didn't know.
If one were to point out the difference between the first floor and the other floors, it would be that the place where the entrance and exit should have been was now an arched, enclosed hall. Lin Sanjiu stood helplessly in the small hall for a while. Just when she was about to go upstairs to check on the situation, she heard a familiar creak.
It was the unique sound of the building's mahogany door being pushed open. Lin Sanjiu stared blankly as the door to unit 101 opened.
A pair of spectacles glistened under the light. It was the skinny man who had just exchanged names with Lin Sanjiu.
Geran saw Lin Sanjiu at first glance, but he didn't move. Instead, he scanned the stairs cautiously. When he saw that no one was coming down, he turned to Lin Sanjiu and whispered, "I didn't expect you to be so smart! Didn't you turn around to look? "
Lin Sanjiu's skeletal wings were stuck to the wall. She didn't move an inch.
"It seems like I was right.
The 'residents' of each floor are indeed only active on that floor … "Geran pushed his spectacles," What's wrong with you? "
Lin Sanjiu gulped.
She didn't forget that the door to unit 101 only opened after she called his name a few times.
From a certain point of view, this was probably the first time the door to unit 101 was opened.
"You … Why are you in the room?" Lin Sanjiu asked with a dry voice. She was a little afraid of the answer she was going to hear.
"Didn't you say that there's something in the room …"
Geran tilted his head. He suddenly understood. "Oh," he said, "This? Unit 101 is the only place in the entire apartment building that can provide protection for posthumans.
It's our 'life door'. There's nothing in here. There's only a sofa and some food and water. The food and water are renewed every day. "
"How did you find out?" Lin Sanjiu stared at Geran without blinking. It was as if she was trying to find anything suspicious on his face. However, the man's skin, hair, eyes, and body looked very normal. There was no difference from before.
"That's because … the first door I knocked was unit 101," Geran scratched his head as if he was a little embarrassed. Geran scratched his head in embarrassment. "Nobody answered, so I came in as soon as I opened the door. Later on, I realized that this was the only room in the entire apartment building that was truly empty — "
He walked out and stood in the corridor. He followed Lin Sanjiu's line of sight and pointed his finger forward. Two rows of dark red wooden doors stood silently on both sides of the corridor.
They didn't make any sound. "Don't be fooled by how quiet it is. If you knock on these doors, they will all open eventually."
PS:
"Even though I know that I will be swallowed by that bitch, I still want to add the thank you list! I know that I won't be able to see it when I send it, so I have to edit it again before the thank you list appears. However, if the student on the other end of the phone doesn't clear the cache after reading it for the first time, my newly added thank you message won't appear … What should I do? I can't send my message … "
In any case, I still want to thank the following people who didn't get thanked but still persevered: Thank you, Mushroom, Irozisu, 2 perfume sachets.
Two mikasayou (Stable Protective Amulet Supplier), Big Spider's Market Price, Popo2990, Hashimoto Man, and Nana Yukinakura's Protective Amulets!
I also want to thank Bingni Chestnut, Lazy Is So Lazy, 2 Green Snare Flower, 2 Guoguo, 2 Cat on the Balcony, 2 Littly-Sho.
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