Volume 1, Chapter 6: The Calamity Hotel — Ghostly Loop

Everyone knew there was no time to wait for the elevator, and with the second, third, and fourth floors all compromised, it was impossible to use them.

Lin Xi gritted his teeth and took the lead, sprinting toward the stairwell.

The group vanished into the stairwell, and at that moment, the elevator that had just been idling on the first floor suddenly slid open. A slender, fair-skinned leg emerged, clad in a charcoal-black high heel that made the skin appear even paler.

...

"Brother Bei, slow down! I—I can’t keep up!"

After spitting out another mouthful of blood, Sun Kai panted heavily, shouting to Lin Xi at the head of the group.

Lin Xi heard the cry from behind but did not slow down; instead, he quickened his pace.

Minutes later, Lin Xi caught a glimpse of bloodstains on the steps, and his urgency grew. The others behind him naturally noticed the fresh blood, and its source was self-evident.

Sun Kai, who had been trailing them closely, was nowhere to be seen. But what confused the group was why this blood appeared ahead of them—weren't they supposed to be heading downstairs?

Lin Xi, at the front of the line, covered his ears with both hands and squeezed his eyes shut. He steered his body as far to the left as possible, plunging downward.

Shortly after Sun Kai had coughed up that first mouthful of blood, Lin Xi realized they were trapped in a loop on this same flight of stairs. That very blood had appeared beneath his feet countless times already.

When Lin Xi tried to share this discovery with the others, he was struck by a terrifying realization: the five people trailing him had been silently replaced. He could no longer be certain what kind of monsters were following him.

Just as he was about to turn and speak to them, Lin Xi noticed that the chaotic sound of footsteps behind him had suddenly become perfectly synchronized. Glancing down out of the corner of his eye, he saw that the feet of those behind him were hovering above the ground.

Counting the steps in his mind, Lin Xi reached the forty-fourth step, abruptly turned left, bypassed the wall, and charged down the next flight. Throughout the entire ordeal, he kept his eyes squeezed shut and his ears covered.

Back in the sixth-floor stairwell, that pair of black high heels stepped rhythmically in place, over and over again.

On the stairs in front of those heels, Sun Kai sat with blood leaking from his mouth, his shoulders straddled by the pale legs that had just stepped out of the elevator. With his eyes rolled back, Sun Kai’s feet dangled off the ground, drifting up and down the sixth-floor staircase in an endless, repetitive cycle.

Meanwhile, the six people who had been following "Lin Xi" down the stairs began to notice something strange about Sun Kai at the back of the line.

Sun Kai, who had been panting and drenched in sweat just from running off the bus earlier, hadn't taken a single breath after running for so long? Had the sonic waves from that woman earlier somehow cleared his meridians?

None of them were fools; they wouldn't use such an absurd excuse to convince themselves. They would rather believe that the Sun Kai behind them had been replaced by some monster.

As they continued to run downstairs, they paid closer attention to Sun Kai. Gradually, they realized: why were there footsteps sounding like Sun Kai’s at the front of the line, too?

They looked up abruptly, their faces contorted with sudden, horrified realization. The "Lin Xi" leading them had never touched the ground; he had been floating in front of them the whole time, though for some reason, they hadn't noticed until now.

*Thud.* A collision came from Zheng Daqian at the back of the line. The sudden impact threw Zheng Daqian off balance, causing him to tumble down the stairs along with the figure behind him.

"Cover your ears!" Lin Xi’s voice echoed from just ahead.

The few who were still standing instinctively covered their ears. They felt the "Lin Xi" leading them stop and slowly turn around. Only then did they realize the person floating before them wasn't Lin Xi at all.

It was clearly a woman with distorted features and skin as black as if it had been scorched by fire.

Seeing her horrific appearance, the five still standing on the stairs opened their eyes in unison, only then realizing they had been running with their eyes closed the entire time.

Lin Xi scrambled up from the ground, brushing off his clothes. Beside him, Zheng Daqian, who had just been knocked down the stairs, pulled himself up against the wall.

Lin Xi covered his ears again, signaled for the others to follow, and took the lead, sprinting downstairs.

Only then did the group notice the sign on the stairwell door: it clearly read "Fourth Floor."

This time, the descent was smooth. Before long, they burst out of the stairwell and into the first-floor lobby. The place had undergone a drastic transformation since they first arrived.

Dozens of tables now filled the lobby, and the original wooden door had vanished entirely, replaced by a solid, sturdy-looking wall.

The skinless fat man, now dressed in an exquisite tuxedo, stood behind the counter with a smile, while the shelves behind him were lined with hundreds of varieties of high-end foreign spirits.

Lin Xi found a table against the wall and sat down with the others. After several deep breaths, he looked at his companions—their faces grave, their breathing ragged—and said, "It must have been a 'ghost wall.' What did you all encounter?"

Zhao Zechen, still shaken, examined Lin Xi to ensure he was truly himself before speaking. "We followed you downstairs, running for a long time, but we never got out. Gradually, I felt something was wrong. Sun Kai, who was following us..."

Zhao Zechen stopped abruptly. He adjusted his glasses, his lips trembling as he looked at the others and asked, "Where is Sun Kai?"

Lin Xi sighed and looked toward the stairwell.

"He... he probably isn't coming out."

Lin Xi then gestured for Zhao Zechen to continue.

"Sun Kai had been running for so long without saying he was tired. It’s normal for him to be too scared to speak, but back on the bus, he was physically exhausted. To run this long without even catching his breath? That’s not normal."

"So that’s when you realized something was wrong?" Lin Xi asked.

"Actually, that wasn't the only thing," Qian Baobao added. "I noticed that the footsteps of Sun Kai behind us were perfectly in sync with the footsteps of you leading us at the front. I don't know if the rest of you noticed."

The others nodded, confirming they had all realized the same.

"And you," Zhao Zechen asked, his gaze filled with suspicion, "you were leading us—how did you end up behind us? And why did you knock Zheng Daqian down?"