Returning to the main topic, Chen slowly stepped onto the Stairwell.
After walking for a while, Chen realized something was wrong.
Is this Stairwell really this long?
Chen had been walking for a long time, but couldn’t find a way to leave the Stairwell.
There were only stairs here.
That’s not right, where did those Entities from just now go?
After climbing about 38 flights of stairs, Chen finally found a door.
Pushing the door open, Chen discovered that outside was a balcony of about two square meters.
Looking out from the balcony, nearby was a scarlet forest, while in the distance was only darkness.
And on the floor of the balcony was a piece of paper.
It was even folded in half.
Chen raised an eyebrow, looking at the cover of the note, which read:
“If you open this paper, the situation will change, but at the same time, it will trigger some kind of incomprehensible event.”
“You can also choose not to open it; in that case, after you walk up a certain number of steps, there will be a new note.”
Chen raised an eyebrow again, ignoring the risk, and opened it anyway.
Examining it closely, the inside of the paper read:
“When you open this paper, an unbeatable crawling creature will be activated, and at the same time, the layout of the entire Stairwell will be quietly altered.”
“New settings have been added!
“Now every flight of stairs will have a safety door, and outside each door is a balcony just like this one. Falling off will mean eternal damnation, so please be cautious.”
“Current status of the Stairwell: With you as the center point, the Stairwell extends infinitely both upwards and downwards. The Entities will respawn ten floors away from you in three minutes.”
“The Entity’s speed is nearly equal to yours. If you hear strange noises, you can go to the safety door in the Stairwell to hide temporarily, and wait until its footsteps fade away before escaping in the opposite direction.”
“Any form of cheating is prohibited on this floor. You cannot use any means to take out food. There is only one way to obtain supplies, and that is to count the stairs.”
“Each flight of stairs has 19 steps. If you count to 20 steps, then congratulations, food to fill you up will respawn under the last step.”
“If you count to 18 steps, then a piece of meat from an unknown creature will appear on the ground.”
“When you have collected 14 pieces of meat, entering any safety door will allow you to leave the Stairwell. Additionally, whenever you are caught up to by the crawling creature, you can give it a piece of meat in exchange for 5 minutes of escape time.”
“But if you do this, the next time you encounter the monster, its movement speed will increase by 5%. Please judge carefully.”
“If you are accidentally discovered while hiding in the safety door, it will wait for you in ambush.”
“At this moment, a backpack will respawn at your feet with infinite capacity. The backpack is only for use within the Stairwell.”
“Finally, the monster will know your location every hour. If you happen to be inside a safety door, it will block the door, hee hee.”
“Wait, how did such a piece of paper fit so much information?” After reading it, this was Chen’s first reaction.
“Did you focus on the wrong thing?” the System expressed speechlessness.
“Don’t worry about that for now, System. Try to help me get some almond water.”
“Usage failed due to unknown reasons.”
Chen raised an eyebrow.
After reading the note carefully again, Chen returned to the Stairwell and began to check the situation.
Looking downwards, the floors that were originally visible to the bottom were now a pitch-black void.
At the same time, Chen checked and confirmed that every floor indeed had an additional safety door.
On them were drawn emergency exit signs.
Thinking rapidly, Chen began to count the stairs on this floor.
1, 2, 3…
Counting all the way to 19, this flight of stairs was normal.
Chen sighed, and just at that moment, he heard a deep, low moan, followed by the sound of something rubbing against the stairs.
Below me?
His heart skipped a beat, and Chen hurriedly ran up two flights of stairs, then found the nearest safety door to enter.
Outside was still an unprotected two-square-meter balcony; the red forest below seemed to form a blood-colored smile, as if saying to Chen: “Come down quickly, there are good things down here.”
Chen couldn’t help but shudder.
Listening to the crawling creature getting closer and closer in the Stairwell, Chen seemed to imagine its appearance—it must be some kind of freakish creature with a gaping, bloodthirsty maw.
When the sound passed the floor Chen was on, it seemed to him that it sniffed around, and then after a while, continued to head upwards.
After counting for about a minute, Chen quietly opened the door and poked his head out to look up.
There was nothing there, but some crawling marks could be seen in the Stairwell.
Following the instructions, Chen proceeded in the opposite direction.
He counted all the way down, and in the Stairwell three floors away, he counted to 20 steps for the first time.
Following the hint, he searched under the last step.
This step was hollow and could be opened from the side.
Chen found a burger combo inside.
“Uh, this feels so out of place. Also, why is the ketchup on this burger so thin? It’s practically a liquid…”
Hmm?
Hmm, tastes like tomato.
He tried tasting it; the flavor was very mild, but he could still tell that it should contain some tomato DNA.
Only then did Chen relax and begin to eat quickly.
Just 5 seconds after Chen had eaten the burger and was preparing to take a sip of the water he had found along with it, there seemed to be some movement far away upstairs.
No way, did this bastard smell it?
Cursing his bad luck under his breath, Chen quickly packed his things into the backpack and then sprinted downwards.
He descended the stairs extremely quickly.
After about 8 floors, he threw the remaining food down the Stairwell, then made a left turn and went directly into a safety door.
Leaning his back against the safety door, Chen panted quietly, not daring to speak loudly.
Twenty seconds later, the monster’s sounds followed closely.
After sniffing around, it began to move towards the floor where Chen had thrown the food.
Chen could hear it stop after reaching a certain floor.
Good grief, did it misjudge my position and start waiting in ambush?
After waiting for a while, Chen quietly opened the door and then stepped up the stairs silently.
Right, count them.
1, 2, 3…
After counting to 18, this flight of stairs came to an end.
Oh?
The moment Chen finished counting, a piece of bright red meat with yellow grease on the surface appeared in his field of vision.
Chen fell silent.
Silently picking up the meat and putting it into the backpack, he continued to walk forward.
At this moment, the long-silent System suddenly gave a prompt: “Warning, Assimilation rate has reached: 15%.”
What the hell?
Before Chen could even think, accompanying the prompt sound, the joints in Chen’s hands suddenly began to ache and cramp, and at the same time, there was the cracking sound of bones.
And this noise obviously attracted something below; Chen heard the sound of it coming upstairs.
There was no time to run further, so Chen scrambled up one flight of stairs and turned directly into the safety room.
And the sound of the monster crawling followed closely behind.
Oh no!