Chapter 132: Game Exploit

“Can we still survive?”

Fang Shenyen questioned himself inwardly. His face showed little resistance, but the quiet despair in his eyes was unmistakable.

He had struggled for a long time. Before entering the hotel, he had attempted suicide multiple times.

In fact, his arrival at the hotel stemmed from a fortune-teller—a charlatan who had pointed him in a direction.

Fang Shenyen had spent his life searching for something, something he once believed in and then lost faith in.

That fortune-teller gave him a path, and he had followed it, arriving in Tianhai, at the Seventh Branch.

The first person he saw was Ji Li.

Suddenly, life seemed strangely interesting. Perhaps his existence was unlike anyone else’s.

Others struggled to survive through suffering, but Fang Shenyen only sought stimulation. He wanted answers here, and then death.

So even now, he was still unwilling to yield.

Everything seemed to have reached its end. He hadn’t heard the cat’s meow, nor could he see Ji Li.

All he could see was the massive hand above, leaving him stunned and confused.

Then he felt a surge of revival… life rekindling…

The threads were slowly retracting from his flesh, floating back above his skin, and the wounds previously cut by the threads began to heal gradually.

The sensation was like returning to the hotel with the healing ability gained from completing a mission.

He clearly understood—the hand above carried supernatural power!

This ghost was rapidly healing all his injuries!

On the other side, Ji Li experienced the same. The bullet hole in his lower abdomen was visibly closing.

Even the severe pain in his internal organs eased.

Compared to Fang Shenyen, Ji Li showed little surprise; he had already figured it out.

Why would the ghost heal them?

To kill them more effectively.

This ghost had a ritualistic nature. On the seventeenth floor, all corpses except Sister Qing’s were intact.

They were bound by limbs and head, yet bore no wounds.

Frozen in grotesque dance-like poses, these were the results the ghost desired.

It was a ghost with artistic methods of killing, and its artwork could not bear a single flaw.

So it even erased the previous injuries of Ji Li and Fang Shenyen.

Ji Li’s dilated pupils refocused. He looked up at the hand above.

He knew clearly: once their injuries fully healed, death would follow. No one could save them then.

Yet, Ji Li’s lips curved into a slight smile. Even in this desperate moment, he smiled.

Xue Tinghai had made a mistake. He had believed that without Sin Artifacts, escape from the Cube Tower was impossible, that the Seventh Branch would die here.

He had underestimated Ji Li’s resilience and intellect, because the ghost had also made a mistake.

A single mistake that could render today’s deployment entirely flawed.

It had let Kondo Sei leave!

Before the ghost appeared, Kondo Sei had already exited the Cube Tower.

The ghost hadn’t attacked her—perhaps it enjoyed watching the living fight, or perhaps it didn’t care whether it killed one more or one less.

But now, Kondo Sei, removed from the situation, was the key to turning the tide.

The ghost had effectively shot itself in the foot. Its healing gave the living a brief respite.

That time was enough for Ji Li to implement his plan.

The right side of Ji Li’s body could now move freely. In fact, the supernatural barrier had no effect on him.

The gray soul was far too powerful, almost like a cheat. Though not decisive, it gave Ji Li an unearned advantage.

He took out the hotel phone and called Kondo Sei.

The call was almost instantly answered; she had clearly been waiting for a long time.

“Ji! I saw the Fourth Branch leave. Why aren’t you out yet? We failed again. I’m downstairs but don’t dare come up. You…”

Kondo Sei was clearly panicked. Though she disapproved of Ji Li’s methods, as a fellow staff, she desperately wanted him and the others to survive.

Not long ago, she had even prayed for Ji Li and Fang Shenyen.

Ji Li’s tone was unexpectedly gentle, though more weary than gentle.

It was deliberate, part of his plan.

“Kondo Sei, Fang Shenyen and I are trapped by the ghost in the Cube Tower. Right now, only you can save us.”

“Ah? There really is a ghost? But the mission hasn’t even started yet! How is this possible?”

Kondo Sei’s confusion was understandable; the current situation defied all the rules the staffs had long relied upon.

Ji Li restrained his impatience and quickly said:

“No matter what, the fate of Fang Shenyen and me rests on your decision.

I need you to bring any outsider with you to the seventeenth floor of the Cube Tower!

You don’t need to do anything else—just bring someone there. Once an outsider reaches the seventeenth floor, the ghost’s supernatural barrier will be broken!”

This, Ji Li realized, was the loophole in the ghost’s plan.

Clearly, the ghost’s setup exploited a gap in the hotel’s rules.

This ghost belonged to the first type: it was restricted by hotel regulations and captured by staffs.

Yet the ghost had used strategy, luring the staffs into a prearranged trap.

It sealed the hotel’s will with the supernatural barrier, attempting to strangle the staffs before the mission even began.

In other words, the only one who could now save Ji Li and Fang Shenyen was the hotel itself.

They needed to alert the hotel that the ghost was breaking the rules and disrupting the mission’s balance.

Ji Li’s plan for Kondo Sei to bring an outsider into the barrier was meant to expose a crack in the otherwise sealed circle.

Once an outsider entered, the hotel would inevitably become aware of the barrier.

At that point, the ghost would be forced to halt its execution, because its actions were now clearly against the rules.

Ji Li’s plan demonstrated that he had thoroughly studied the hotel, the ghost, and the mission itself.

It was like a game: the staffs and the ghost were players, while the hotel was the game master.

The hotel had set limits for both staffs and the ghost. If one side attempted to cheat and tip the balance, the game master would inevitably intervene.

Capture the ghost successfully, and the staffs win; fail, and the ghost wins.

These were the only two possible outcomes. While the hotel could not directly eliminate the ghost, it would not allow one side to dominate the game before it even began.

Ji Li forced a smile. Seeing the absurd and cruel nature of this game, he realized how pitiful the role he had been forced to play truly was.

He hated the game master with all his heart, yet in this moment, he had no choice but to rely on it to survive.