One moment, his eyes were shut; the next, they snapped open.
Xu Xingyuan found himself sitting on a blood-splattered bus, arriving at a destination known as the “Monster Apartment.”
He was all by his lonesome. His entire net worth consisted of a tattered little backpack with a bunny plushie dangling from the zipper.
Fortunately, Xu Xingyuan managed to score a job at the Monster Apartment that included room and board.
The cause of all this could be traced back to a single bloodstained “Death Ticket.”
His stepbrother had secretly stuffed the ticket into his backpack—the boy’s wish for Xu Xingyuan to hurry up and die had finally come true.
The job itself was pretty good, except for the fact that it ate people.
Literally.
Of the group that arrived at the Monster Apartment with Xu Xingyuan, half had vanished without realizing it.
Some entered the Doctor’s room and never came out again. The next day, while sweeping the courtyard, Xu Xingyuan spotted a face with eyes wide open in death, buried under a layer of loosely packed soil.
Others tried to hook up with the Nun—a woman with a mask covering her face, but a killer body. The next day, while cleaning the toilets, Xu Xingyuan found the toilet clogged. He discovered chopped-up pieces of a corpse inside.
Then there were those who foolishly tried to attack the apartment’s Security Guard to escape over the impenetrable walls. The next day, while cleaning the feeding room for the “Little Monsters,” Xu Xingyuan found human fingers mixed into the fodder.
Anyone who stayed here long enough—anyone except Xu Xingyuan—would eventually lose their mind, no matter how normal they were at the start, and try to escape in a frenzy.
Before anyone knew it, a month had passed, and only three people, including Xu Xingyuan, were left.
Xu Xingyuan gripped his broom, thinking blankly I don’t have a home anymore. Staying here isn’t so bad.
“Xingyuan, you want to escape too, don’t you?”
Lin Zhe, who had arrived in the same batch as Xu Xingyuan, had already snapped.
He gripped Xu Xingyuan’s shoulders tightly, his eyes shot with red veins, and asked again neurotically, “You definitely want to escape too. This place eats people! It eats people!”
Xu Xingyuan snapped out of his daze. His overgrown bangs covered his palm-sized, pale face as he whispered, “As long as you honestly complete your tasks, you won’t die.”
“Are you serious?” Lin Zhe roared. “Do you really think the NPCs in this apartment are normal?”
Let’s not even mention the Doctor, who was always smiling yet gloomily sinister and used human corpses as fertilizer. Or the Nun, who covered every inch of her skin under long robes and a mask.
“Even that little shota who’s only 1.6 meters tall is wrong! I saw him swallow a grown man whole with my own eyes!”
Xu Xingyuan just lowered his head in silence. His bangs hid his eyes, and his whole aura was gloomy and heavy.
He looked like an unloved mushroom growing in the shade.
Lin Zhe stared at him for a moment, then backed away step by step, his expression filled with disappointment.
“Tomorrow… are you really not going to escape with us?”
Xu Xingyuan shook his head gently. “I’m fine staying here.”
Lin Zhe didn’t say another word. He gave Xu Xingyuan one last deep look before turning and sprinting away.
After he left, Xu Xingyuan went back to sweeping the fallen leaves, his movements practiced and earnest.
He didn’t know what material made up the soil on the Monster Apartment’s grounds. The smell was metallic with blood, mixed with the faint rot of corpses.
While sweeping, if one wasn’t careful, one might find half a gnawed-off finger bone.
Xu Xingyuan put on his gloves without batting an eye, picked up the finger bone, and skillfully tossed it into the bucket by his feet.
Bang.
A window nearby was thrown open, and a gentle voice with an upward inflection drifted out.
“Xingyuan, time for your blood draw.”
Xu Xingyuan turned instinctively and met the Doctor’s smiling face.
During his month at the Monster Apartment, likely due to the daily blood draws, Xu Xingyuan and the Doctor had gradually become acquainted.
The Doctor was always smiling and seemed to have a very good temper. However, he wore a white lab coat buttoned to the top year-round. Like the Nun, he refused to let a single inch of skin show.
But once, by pure chance, Xu Xingyuan had seen faint snake scales surfacing on the Doctor’s pale neck.
Finding snake scales on the neck of someone who looked human was obviously not normal. But Xu Xingyuan had tacitly looked away, pretending he hadn’t seen a thing.
Aside from the fact that the Monster Apartment occasionally ate people, had a gloomy and terrifying atmosphere, and never saw a ray of sunlight—
The people here spoke nicely, and the food was delicious. Xu Xingyuan super-liked it here.
He was already homeless. To Xu Xingyuan, the Monster Apartment was like a second “home” where he could crash.
Xu Xingyuan was a living human who had transmigrated into an Infinite Flow world and muddled his way into becoming an NPC.
Even if this home was overly bloody and terrifying, as long as he was obedient and followed the rules, it provided shelter from the wind and rain, and he could scrape together a living.
The Doctor led Xu Xingyuan into the infirmary and methodically picked up a syringe.
Xu Xingyuan practicedly rolled up his sleeve, revealing a section of a slender, pale forearm. The blue veins protruded slightly, making his skin look blindingly white.
The Doctor drew the blood with gentle movements, asking seemingly casually, “Xingyuan, you didn’t go to the Top Floor, did you?”
Hearing this, Xu Xingyuan’s pale face instantly tensed. He shook his head rapidly, answering a bit breathlessly, “N-no!”
On their first day at the Monster Apartment, the Doctor had given everyone an Employee Handbook.
The very last rule was highlighted in large, blood-red font: Employees must absolutely, absolutely, absolutely never go to the Top Floor!
For the entire Monster Apartment, the Top Floor was… an existence too special and too terrifying.
Even the five main NPCs, including the Doctor, would go out of their way to avoid the path to the Top Floor.
The Doctor held the syringe, implying something as he said, “Good. It’s best you didn’t.”
After the blood draw, Xu Xingyuan’s already pale face went a few shades whiter.
Once the Doctor finished filling a large vial, Xu Xingyuan pulled his arm back and accepted the candy the Doctor handed him.
“A reward for a good child.” The Doctor chuckled, his tone remaining gentle.
The candy looked like a pearl. The coating was snow-white, and once unwrapped, it smelled faintly of milk. Eating one would cure anemia.
Xu Xingyuan popped the candy into his mouth and instinctively tucked the wrapper into his pocket.
“The cook made that especially for you. It seems he really likes you.”
The Doctor ruffled Xu Xingyuan’s hair and walked him out.
Before he left, the Doctor turned back and warned him carefully one last time, “Xingyuan, whatever you do, do not go to the Top Floor.”
Xu Xingyuan nodded furiously, the candy in his mouth making his cheeks bulge like a little squirrel hoarding food.
After saying goodbye to the Doctor, he grabbed his broom.
As he passed the stairwell…
Suddenly, a deep red ball of yarn rolled slowly down the steps.
In the silent corridor, this red yarn ball, moving without wind yet with precise aim, became the most eerie presence.
It rolled all the way down until… it came to a stop right against the tip of Xu Xingyuan’s mud-stained shoe.
Xu Xingyuan stopped instinctively, looking up blankly toward the source of the yarn.
The moment he looked up, through the layers of dim space between the bannisters, he saw the highest point—
It was the place everyone called taboo: The Top Floor.