Chapter 5: The Fourth Floor

Zhou You’s pen suddenly stopped.

Even though he was merely copying the diary, he could still feel the despair and anguish contained within those words.

Something’s wrong. This person wanted to escape, so how could...

The suspicious thought had only just surfaced.

But in the next instant, a bizarre and inexplicable sensation suddenly seeped into his head.

Zhou You felt as though his brain were being peeled away little by little.

It was as if something were devouring his mind.

In the blink of an eye, even his consciousness began to scatter.

“...You have discovered an Erosion Point.”

“You have received 10 Soulstones.”

“Current Soulstone count: 20.”

“You have suffered Erosion. Sanity reduced. Current Sanity: 89/100.”

Sanity?

What was that supposed to be?

After finally recovering, a giant question mark once again rose in Zhou You’s mind.

Yet this time, the female voice, which had always been cold and mechanical, unexpectedly provided an answer.

“In certain scenarios, players possess the attribute known as Sanity.”

“When players come into contact with certain bizarre horrors or Erosion Points, they will lose Sanity.”

“If Sanity reaches zero, the scenario will be forcibly failed regardless of the number of remaining revivals.”

All right.

Apparently it was another restrictive mechanic.

Zhou You shook his head, trying to throw off the lingering sensation.

But at that very moment, the scene before his eyes suddenly changed.

The garbage covering the floor vanished in an instant.

The room became clean and orderly.

Bright sunlight streamed through the window.

A gentle breeze stirred the wind chimes, producing crisp, pleasant notes.

The entire room radiated warmth and comfort, making one instinctively want to live there forever...

“Wait. What am I thinking?”

He suddenly snapped awake.

Before him remained the same mold-covered, desolate, ruined room.

A hallucination?

Zhou You closed his eyes and carefully recalled the image for a long time.

In the end, he merely shook his head.

He neither accepted nor rejected it.

Instead, he picked up his pen and continued reconstructing the fragmented diary.

August 10. Cloudy.

I have a feeling the way outside must be on the fifth floor.

The Landlady keeps emphasizing that under no circumstances are we allowed to go there.

That means there must be a way to escape.

August 11. Sunny.

But to reach the fifth floor, I have to pass through the fourth floor.

And the fourth floor...

September 14. Sunny.

I think I’ve finally found a way to reach the fifth floor.

But making this thing requires...

No.

No, how could I possibly...

May 11. Weather unknown.

After paying so much and sacrificing so much, I finally reached the fifth floor.

But it wasn’t what I expected.

Nothing like what I expected.

This building is where I truly belong.

I...

The writing ended abruptly.

The diary concluded there.

Yet Zhou You did not put down his pen.

After pausing briefly, he continued writing beneath it.

One. Judging from both the previous tenant’s screams and this diary, the fifth floor is a critical location. Even if it does not contain an exit, it is very likely the key to breaking the scenario.

Two. The fourth floor is another critical point. To pass through it, some kind of item must be created.

Three. This former tenant was continuously suffering from some form of mental corruption. The diary’s dates and narrative are both disordered to a certain degree. After deciding to escape the building, he may have regained clarity for a period of time. Although his narration remained chaotic, the dates became correct. Unfortunately, for some reason, he soon lost his sanity again, ultimately resulting in his failed escape.

Several seconds later, however, Zhou You hesitated and added several large question marks at the end of the third point.

But what exactly did this former tenant see?

What happened on the fifth floor?

Why did he eventually come to believe that this building was where he belonged?

Could he have experienced the same hallucinations that I did?

After pondering for a while, Zhou You finally put down his pen.

Unfortunately, there was still too little information.

If he wanted answers, then...

“So in the end, I’ll have to go see it myself, won’t I?”

Zhou You glanced toward the doorway.

Compared with the second and third floors, the stairs leading to the fourth floor were even darker.

Though there was still faint lighting in the stairwell, the dimness was so oppressive that the weak illumination brought no sense of security.

Instead, it inspired a bone-deep chill.

Even without anyone telling him, Zhou You understood perfectly well that continuing upward would place him in even greater danger.

Still...

He suddenly curled his lips.

How did that saying go?

If you move an arcade machine into your house, then no matter how difficult the game is, you can eventually grind your way through it.

Anyway, he had unlimited credits now.

Who was he supposed to be afraid of?

After giving the small room one final inspection and confirming he had missed nothing, Zhou You took a deep breath and headed for the stairs.

The dim stairwell resembled the gaping maw of a monster, indiscriminately devouring everything.

The farther upward he climbed, the stronger a certain illusion became.

Walking upward.

Straight into hell.

The fourth floor arrived soon enough.

Originally, Zhou You had mentally prepared himself to encounter something even more horrifying, perhaps a more terrifying monster or more frightened tenants.

But when he actually arrived, he realized all of his preparations had been completely unnecessary.

The reason was simple.

The entire fourth floor contained no doors.

Nor was there a single living thing.

The vast floor stood completely empty.

There were no apartment doors.

No windows.

As far as the eye could see, there were only cracked, mold-covered plaster walls.

Wait.

That wasn’t entirely accurate.

There was still something there.

Directly opposite the staircase, on the bare wall in front of Zhou You, hung a pair of couplets.

Their style was old.

The writing upon them had become completely illegible.

Yet the red color remained strikingly vivid, creating a jarring contrast against the gloomy surroundings.

No doors.

Yet there were door couplets.

No residents.

Yet there was celebration.

There were no monsters before his eyes.

Yet this abnormal and grotesque scene felt more terrifying than any monster.

Confronted with this sight, Zhou You hesitated briefly.

But in the end, he carefully stepped onto the fourth floor.

Nothing happened.

“...How strange. That diary specifically emphasized the fourth floor, so why is there nothing here at all?”

Feeling somewhat relieved, Zhou You first moved toward the most conspicuous location on the floor, namely the wall where the couplets hung.

Then he knocked gently against it.

Thud. Thud. Thud.

It was not hollow.

It was completely solid.

It was as though the space behind the wall had been filled from the very beginning of construction.

There was no possibility whatsoever of a hidden room existing there.

Still unconvinced, Zhou You searched around the floor.

Unfortunately, the result remained the same.

The only unusual thing was that compared with the floors below, the walls here were unnervingly cold.

Touching them felt less like touching reinforced concrete and more like touching an enormous block of ice.

Or perhaps, to be more extreme...

An entire wall built from cold corpses?

Zhou You vigorously shook his head and forced the disturbing thought from his mind.

After looking around once more and finding nothing else worth investigating, he turned his attention upward.

The motion-sensor light leading to the fifth floor appeared completely broken.

It only flickered occasionally, illuminating patches of floor covered in dust and garbage.

“So I can only keep going up?”

Zhou You glanced back at the strange and conspicuous couplets.

After confirming he could find nothing suspicious about them, he raised his leg and continued climbing.

Then, in the very next second.

Something icy seized his neck.

Instantly, his entire body was dragged backward against his will.

Next came a slippery pressure, like the compression of internal organs, squeezing him from all directions.

Zhou You felt every bone in his body being crushed apart.

And then...

Bang!

Like a tomato casually squeezed to pieces.

Blood and chunks of flesh exploded outward as his body burst apart completely.

“You have died.”