“Ugh~”
Lin Mi rubbed her stuffed stomach—she hadn’t controlled herself and ended up overeating.
One had to admit, a star-rated hotel buffet was truly lavish. The dishes were plentiful, and the ingredients were top-notch.
After enjoying the meal, she sat by the floor-to-ceiling windows, leisurely sipping tea. She planned to rest a bit and digest. Anyway, she had already handled everything—now she just needed to wait and confirm the result.
Suddenly, Lin Mi sat up straight, placing her cup down slowly.
Only now did she realize a crucial problem.
The system’s trending report on the fire… mentioned a gas leak as the cause, didn’t it?
Then here was the question—
Was the accident caused by the stovetop wiring?
Or was the real issue the gas pipeline in the kitchen?
Or… both?
Could it be that the spark from the faulty wiring ignited the fire, and coupled with leaking gas, created the catastrophic explosion?
“…”
That thought made her heart pound in panic.
She quickly checked the time—1:50 p.m.
Over twenty minutes left before the predicted fire!
Was she overthinking?
Or had she made the wrong assumptions from the very start?
Even though everything in the hotel looked calm and peaceful—guests walking around, staff working normally—there was no sign of imminent danger…
But the weight of knowing the future pressed on her chest, making it hard to breathe.
If she had fixed the wrong problem… the fire would still happen.
A wave of fear swept over her.
“No, I need to check again!”
She stood abruptly and made her way toward the third-floor kitchen area again. She needed to see for herself that the root hazard had been removed.
She pretended to be on the phone, mumbling nonsense as she glanced around and slowly approached the kitchen passage.
Σ(°△°|||)︴ Wait!
She suddenly froze, lowering her phone-hand, completely forgetting she was “on a call.”
Something was wrong with the air.
There was the normal smell of food since she was near the kitchen—but beneath it, she sensed something else.
A sharp, nauseating chemical odor—
Gas.
Her pupils shrank instantly, alarms blaring in her head.
She knew this smell too well.
It was leaking fuel gas!
She was still two to three meters away from the kitchen, yet she could already smell it clearly. That meant the concentration inside the kitchen had to be high.
Her earlier judgment was wrong.
The stovetop wiring issue was only the trigger.
The real killer was the gas leak!
How…?
Was no one in the kitchen? Didn’t anyone notice this strong, pungent smell?
If the hazard wasn’t fixed, the fire would still happen.
The moment that thought appeared, panic washed over her completely.
She thought she’d done enough to change the future, but everything was still progressing on the predicted path.
For the first time, doubt surged in her—could she really change a destined outcome? Save these innocent lives?
She tightened her grip on her phone.
“Wait…”
Her phone.
Right!
She had a system!
If the predicted future couldn’t be changed, the system wouldn’t have rewards or penalties.
Since rewards existed, it meant the trending events could be altered.
The thought struck her like lightning, clearing away her panic.
She almost trapped herself in her own fear.
Regaining clarity, Lin Mi forced herself to calm down.
Time was running out!
She dashed to the kitchen door—only to find it chained shut. It was past the lunch period, so the staff had gone on break.
“Is anyone inside?”
She knocked hard. She didn’t know if there were secondary entrances or if anyone was on duty inside, but she had to try.
Silence.
The kitchen was dead quiet.
Lin Mi quickly called the front desk, standing close to the kitchen door. The gas smell was even stronger here.
“Hello! Send someone to the third-floor kitchen immediately! There’s a strong gas smell in the hallway—probably a gas leak! It’s extremely dangerous—alert security and maintenance right now!”
She spoke rapidly, hung up, and immediately dialed the fire department, giving a brief report about the gas leak at Starlight International Hotel’s third-floor kitchen.
Right as she ended the call, several staff members rushed over.
“Open the door now and check!”
It was an emergency. No one questioned her— they immediately opened the kitchen door.
As soon as they entered, they too sensed something off in the air. Their expressions turned tense.
A man who seemed to be the floor manager stepped forward, frowning.
“What’s going on? A gas leak?”
He sniffed near the stove, then his expression relaxed slightly. Turning to her, he said:
“It’s fine, not that serious. Just a faint smell. We’ll ventilate. You shouting like that will cause panic.”
In general knowledge, gas leaks didn’t instantly cause explosions. Ventilating often solved the issue if handled early—and without an ignition source, a leak didn’t always guarantee disaster.
“Just a faint smell?!”
Lin Mi nearly exploded. “The concentration is already high! Are your noses useless? If you delay any further, there could be an explosion at any time! You’d better check again—especially the gas pipes!”
She was stunned by their incompetence.
Every second mattered, yet they were acting like nothing was wrong!
Time was slipping away. If she kept arguing, she’d waste even more critical minutes.
Ignoring them, she turned and ran out of the kitchen.
“Everyone listen! There’s an emergency in the third-floor kitchen! Please evacuate the hotel immediately!”
Lin Mi shouted at the top of her lungs, waving frantically at the guests and staff in the hallway.
Her voice was strained with fear and urgency.
People turned, confused and bewildered—no one realized the danger yet. Some even looked at her with curiosity, as if watching a spectacle.
“Stop her! Don’t let her cause panic!”
The floor manager shouted from behind. In his eyes, it was just “a small issue” they could handle internally. If things escalated publicly, he’d be blamed.
Now she was shouting in public—creating panic—and he was terrified of higher-ups finding out.
Lin Mi almost fainted from anger.
No wonder the system showed the fire becoming so severe!
There was no time!
She couldn’t waste even another second here.
She needed to rush to the fourth-floor conference hall—where most people would be trapped.
The fourth floor had the largest number of casualties in the predicted fire. Just the summit carried more than two hundred people. If she delayed even a moment, the chaos and losses would be unimaginable.
(End of this chapter)