Yu Qing tapped 【Claim Rewards】.
A series of cheerful jingling sounds rang out, and several notifications appeared in succession.
【Combat EXP: 1,000
Character Level: +1
Character Assets: 30,000
Congratulations! You have obtained the following special items:
Dusty Conch Shell Bell ×1
Strange Gold Coin ×1
Wish Slip ×1
Event Clue Fragment ×1】
After so many encounters with the holographic screen, Yu Qing seemed to have grown accustomed to its sudden appearances. He had even begun voluntarily tapping item names to examine their descriptions.
【Dusty Conch Shell Bell】
Someone coveted Luo Yao's life—his reputation, status, wealth, and even his appearance—yet discarded his true treasure as though it were worthless, casting it into the depths of the sea.
Your answer has brought a measure of comfort to a wandering soul. After rummaging through every pocket he had, he presented you with a Dusty Conch Shell Bell.
【Strange Gold Coin】
A golden coin engraved with the image of a wooden boat. It bears a striking resemblance to an arcade token from the previous century.
You tried biting it to see whether it was real gold. Unfortunately, it's hard, isn't made of genuine gold, and isn't worth much.
Its purpose remains unknown.
Yu Qing wondered what kind of idiot would bite something like that.
Then he heard Three Ks, apparently unwilling to take the description at its word, bite down on his own coin.
"Blegh! It really is hard."
He spat out the dust.
He even took out the dusty conch shell bell and tried shaking it.
A system notification appeared.
【The timing is not right. Please try again later.】
Three Ks grumbled, "What a load of crap. These rewards are just messing with me."
"..."
If deities themselves could use Wish Slips, Yu Qing would certainly have made a wish.
His first wish would be to get as far away from idiots as possible.
Perhaps because the two additional reward items were so shabby and seemingly worthless, Just Plain Rude could only glare at them, too furious to speak.
"I can see the rewards interface on my end, too."
Mi Xiaobai's voice suddenly rang out, carrying a soft, playfully exaggerated note of delight.
"Wow, I'm truly grateful. Thanks to your help, despite everything that's happened between us, my financial situation is looking much better."
Only then did Yu Qing remember that he hadn't ended the speakerphone call.
He was still connected to the other Room 1811.
For once, he opened his character information panel.
The figures displayed there were perfectly clear.
【Character Level: 4
Character Assets: -419,000】
Nearly 420,000 in debt...
Yu Qing couldn't help saying, "Forgive me, but I fail to understand how a large number with a minus sign in front of it can possibly appear in the same sentence as 'much better.'"
"It can where I'm concerned," Mi Xiaobai replied. "After all, once you're in debt up to your eyeballs, what's a little more?"
Yu Qing found himself utterly incapable of sympathizing with someone who had that attitude toward debt.
Instead, he automatically sympathized with the creditors.
What a shameless scoundrel.
He was just about to deliver a cutting remark when he noticed a small white figure suddenly crumple in the corner of his vision.
Yu Qing: "?"
It was Three Ks, still wearing the skin of one of the twins.
The quest's countdown had sent his adrenaline soaring, and the special rewards had distracted him afterward. For a moment, he'd almost forgotten what he had witnessed.
Now, hearing the voice coming from the telephone, he finally put down his items and turned around.
He stared at Yu Qing for several seconds before speaking in a small voice.
"Something's wrong. Smiley, there's something wrong with you..."
Mi Xiaobai immediately picked up on the nickname and obligingly answered for him.
"Smiley? Are you talking about me?"
Yu Qing closed his mouth just as he was about to speak.
He had always hated unnecessary trouble. Ordinarily, whenever something required a long-winded explanation, he left it to Uncle Yuan.
Uncle Yuan wasn't here at the moment, but apparently someone else had stepped in to do the job.
That was acceptable.
No sooner had Yu Qing decided this than he heard Mi Xiaobai ask a question so shameless that even he found it astonishing.
"What's wrong with me?"
Three Ks thought, What the fuck isn't wrong with you?! How can you even ask that?
But he didn't dare say it aloud.
After all, this Smiley had just forcibly dressed him in someone else's skin.
And when it came to questions, Three Ks had far too many of them.
He recognized the cold voice of the person standing before him.
He also recognized the careless, slightly teasing voice coming from the telephone.
He had heard both voices from the same person.
Yet now, the two voices were coming from opposite ends of a telephone conversation.
He could see the face of the person standing in front of him. If that was Smiley himself, then who was the person on the other end?
For the moment, he didn't dare ask any of these questions.
This mysterious "teammate" was unfathomable, radiated an eerie aura, could disguise himself, and was even capable of stripping off people's skins.
Most importantly, he had entered the instance wearing an entirely black suit that looked remarkably like a costume...
Everything pointed toward an answer Three Ks was afraid to contemplate.
Clutching his little white dress, he sank to the floor and muttered, "What the hell have I been matched with in a beginner instance? Has the bug somehow latched onto me? This isn't right..."
"Nothing about this is right," Just Plain Rude said, looking equally dazed.
From the look of him, he seemed to have already suffered a complete mental breakdown during the time he'd spent in silence.
Three Ks wriggled across the floor until he was sitting beside him, then whispered his agreement.
"Right?"
Just Plain Rude was still in a daze.
"I mean, the whole course of this instance has changed..."
Three Ks remembered that this teammate knew more about the game than he did. He had probably read quite a few guides before entering.
"So what is a normal beginner instance supposed to be like?"
Just Plain Rude said, "Apparently, there are only a few sets of beginner guide quests. You check into the hotel, buy a weapon, avoid the monsters, buy medicine and food, and level up. Then you take some medicine and try fighting a boss. Once you've collected a bunch of rewards and treasure chests, the game guides you toward the exit."
Three Ks was bewildered.
"It's that simple? Then why does everyone say the extraction rate is below eighty percent? Doesn't that mean a five-person team normally only gets three or four people out of the instance?"
"Who knows? We've lost someone on our team, too. Lord Spicy Soup just up and died."
Just Plain Rude looked deeply worried.
He cast a frightened glance at Yu Qing, then secretly typed a message into his phone's input field and showed it to Three Ks.
—Are you scared of him? I'm a little scared of him. Sure, getting all these rewards for free feels great, but it's embarrassing to keep winning without doing anything. The outcome of the instance has already been affected. If we keep doing these hidden quests, there's no telling what might happen.
Three Ks typed a reply into his own input field.
—What are you suggesting?
—Why don't we go back and complete the normal beginner guide quests? We can see whether the instance exit opens.
Three Ks scratched his head, looking conflicted.
"Uh... would that really be a good idea?"
He also attempted to steal a glance at Yu Qing.
Unfortunately, his eyes met Yu Qing's cold gaze.
Three Ks immediately turned back and declared with righteous conviction, "Obviously not!"
Just Plain Rude: "..."
He was about to say something else when a ding suddenly sounded.
The holographic screen, which had barely been quiet for a moment, appeared again.
【A Severed Steel Cable】
Warning! Warning!
Someone has cut through the steel cables at the marina. Several speedboats previously moored at the docks have disappeared without a trace.
The seaside equipment shop has also suffered a terrible ordeal. Its walls and floor have been covered in words written in blood, and the shopkeeper was so badly frightened that he has closed the shop.
Swimwear, life jackets, and speedboat rentals are temporarily unavailable.
The regular tourist exit from the island has been closed.
Please explore alternative means of escape and leave as soon as possible!
Three Ks was left with a head full of questions.
"What the hell does that mean?"
Just Plain Rude struggled to get the words out.
"...It means the normal instance exit is gone."
"Gone? As in, gone for good? It's never going to open?"
Three Ks looked utterly lost.
"But we haven't touched anything! Why would this warning suddenly pop up?"
Mi Xiaobai's lazy voice came from the telephone.
"Ah, I'm terribly sorry. My fingers were itching just now, and I couldn't resist tapping the Event Clue Fragment we received as a reward."
Just Plain Rude looked utterly devastated.
Three Ks was even careful about how he expressed his despair.
"Um... can I ask something? I've actually been wanting to ask for a while. Where exactly does this telephone call go? There are only five people on our team, so why does it sound like there are several people over there? And how can they submit quest items and claim Event Clues, too?"
He looked at Yu Qing.
Despite his fear, he still instinctively regarded this unfathomable "teammate" as someone he could rely on.
Yu Qing, however, said, "Why don't you ask the murderer?"
The unexpected calmness of his words frightened Three Ks half to death.
"The murderer? You mean the person who killed that family of five is still inside this hotel?"
Yu Qing replied, "Yes."
As Painted Skin, a Ghost Deity, he had witnessed countless tragedies born of greed in the island city.
Naturally, he had also encountered all manner of sinister methods.
When he discovered that the other Room 1811 could reproduce everything in his room, he had already begun to form a theory.
Someone had coveted Luo Yao's life and resorted to underhanded methods in an attempt to replicate that life for himself.
Unfortunately, something had gone wrong along the way.
The explanations accompanying the rewards and items had merely confirmed Yu Qing's suspicions.
The only question he'd still been considering was whether the murderer remained here.
And Mi Xiaobai's supposed inability to keep his fingers to himself had just confirmed that suspicion as well.
There were two groups of vengeful ghosts that had lingered in this hotel for years.
One was Luo Yao's family of five.
They simply couldn't bear to part with the warmth and happiness they had once known. That was why they continued to wander through the hotel, longing to return to the place where they had once stayed together as a family, all five of them reunited and undisturbed.
For that very reason, they couldn't have been the ones who had guided Yu Qing into his room.
Nor could they have been the ones preventing tourists from leaving the island.
Yu Qing's gaze settled on Three Ks and Just Plain Rude.
He suddenly asked, "Are you two always together?"
They froze, not quite understanding the question.
"Yeah. Why?"
Yu Qing continued, "When you got the key card for Room 1811 and came upstairs to look at it, did you go straight to the room on the right?"
Three Ks and Just Plain Rude exchanged glances.
"Yeah. How could we have gone the wrong way?"
Yu Qing didn't immediately tell them that there were two rooms numbered 1811 on the eighteenth floor.
Instead, he asked, "Why didn't you check the left side?"
Three Ks was puzzled.
"When you come out of the elevator, aren't Rooms 1813 and 1812 directly in front of you? Obviously, you go in the direction of the smaller numbers."
Then, sounding almost personally offended, he added, "I might be stupid, but I'm not so stupid that I can't find my way around a hotel!"
No sooner had the words left his mouth than Mi Xiaobai's voice rang out again from the telephone, which still hadn't been disconnected.
He asked Yu Qing, "Is that so? Then why did we choose the room on the left when we checked in?"
His tone was genuinely curious.
Unfortunately, coming immediately after Three Ks's remark, the question was practically begging for someone to punch him.
Besides...
Who the hell is this "we"?!
Yu Qing's expression remained cold.
"What an extraordinary coincidence. When I came upstairs after checking in, the rooms directly opposite the elevator were 1812 and 1813."
Addressing the telephone, he emphasized in a perfectly flat voice, "I also went in the direction of the smaller numbers."
Then he turned the question back on Mi Xiaobai.
"It seems someone tampered with things in the meantime. So tell me, since you're the one with a brain, why didn't you notice anything when you moved in and took over my body?"