Gamers Are Fierce-Chapter 686 - 684 Guide (4K)
With unknown terrors to guard against from the outside and "companions" who might betray them at any moment from within, the players' expressions were grim. The atmosphere tensed once more.
"Heh."
Bai Haozheng's soft chuckle sounded particularly jarring in the silence. Composed, he shook his head and said with a smile, "Before this, I thought this script task might be particularly difficult or terrifying. However, this new restriction has actually put me much more at ease."
The Special Affairs Bureau Intelligence Analyst's smile was warm and gentle. Although he was subtly showing off, he didn't give off an impression of arrogant self-importance.
If Li Ang had said the same thing with the same expression, it would have sounded like: "This is so simple, a genius like me saw through it at a glance. Don't tell me you guys still haven't figured it out? No way, right?" In short, utterly punchable.
Perhaps this was also a difference between official Special Affairs Bureau personnel and ordinary Lone Wolf Players—the former underwent employee training, which included courses on social skills and interpersonal psychology.
Ghost of Hidden Eye narrowed his eyes and asked in a deep voice, "...What do you mean?"
"It's simple," Bai Haozheng smiled. "This is a survival task. There's no friendly fire immunity, a 180-hour survival time limit, and massive rewards for killing other living beings to earn Experience Points and Game Coins.
"All these factors seem to suggest that players should compete, encouraging rivalry. But if we actually succumb to infighting as implied, we probably won't last the first 24 hours.
"The existence of Reward 3 proves that the main enemies we need to face are multiple life forms. They are numerous, powerful, and difficult to kill.
"This is mainly deduced from the reward distribution method. We are fourteen players at Lv15 and above. If the rewards are generous enough to allow everyone to avoid infighting and cooperate, we can unleash terrifying strength.
"The System wouldn't set up a comfortable place for us to easily score points. If it wants to create survival pressure and make players feel fear, yet doesn't want them to unite under that pressure, then an individual enemy's strength will likely be greater than any single player's but still manageable if multiple players collaborate. Simultaneously, it would set various hints and traps to make it difficult for players to trust each other. Or, more directly, it might endow those aberrant beings with the ability to scatter player groups, isolating or dividing them when one or a few are separated."
Bai Haozheng, true to his role as an Intelligence Analyst, spoke plainly without concealment or deception. He simply laid out all the possibilities before the players, letting them weigh the pros and cons and decide whether to continue cooperating.
After Bai Haozheng finished speaking, he quietly observed the other players. Seeing that no one moved to leave, he pushed up his gold-rimmed glasses and smiled. "Since that's the case, let's start by finding the so-called Dolphin Hotel accommodation guide, as the phase two mission objective states. If it's an accommodation guide, the most likely place to find it would be..."
He took a few steps forward and arrived at the hotel reception desk.
On the hotel reception desk were four computers, a guest information log, some office supplies, personal items belonging to the reception staff, and a stack of papers resembling promotional flyers.
All four computers were properly plugged in, but their screens were dark and they wouldn't turn on.
The guest information log was filled with comma-like characters interspersed with ink splotches resembling doodles, making it impossible to discern any useful information.
As for the stack of promotional flyers, Bai Haozheng picked up several, spread them out on the reception's marble countertop, and showed them to the other players.
The paper was A4-sized, slightly stiff, with an overall color scheme of black, white, and gold. At first glance, it looked no different from an ordinary hotel promotional brochure, except for the strange text.
"Dear guests, welcome to the Dolphin Hotel. Our establishment began operations in the 1920s. With fourteen floors and over six hundred rooms, we offer dining, entertainment, and accommodation all in one place. The hotel reception supports multiple languages, including English, Japanese, French, German, and Chinese. You may call the hotel reception or book accommodations on the official hotel website."
The text on the paper was in English, unlike the tadpole-like characters on the guest registration form.
"The hotel is a non-smoking establishment. On the first floor, a café is located in the dining area to the east of the lobby, offering complimentary European meals. Free Wi-Fi is available in public areas, and guests are welcome to use the washing machines, irons, and ironing boards free of charge. If needed, you can call the front desk to request a wake-up call. Daily room cleaning services are provided. We are committed to meeting your needs."
Beside this text was a structural diagram of the hotel, showing the layout of the Dolphin Hotel.
"However, if our dear guests wish to use the hotel's services for free permanently and live here safely and happily for an extended period, you must adhere to the following Dolphin Hotel accommodation guidelines."
"1. From 00:11 to 07:07, areas such as the hotel's corridors, stairs, lobby, dining area, and café will no longer be safe. We strongly advise all guests to stay in their rooms, keep doors and windows firmly closed, and lock their doors. Ignore all noises in the corridors—whether they sound like injured infants, children, women, your isolated neighbors, or long-deceased relatives and friends. These sounds all signify malicious intent. Do not open the door. Do not open the door. Do not open the door."
"2. Please do not be active outside your room between 00:11 and 07:07. For your safety, do not do so under any circumstances. If you find yourself in danger, immediately contact the hotel reception using the corridor phone, then stay where you are and wait for rescue. Rescue personnel will be uniformed staff, wearing dolphin badges and speaking with a Portuguese accent. If the 'rescue personnel' speak any language other than English while approaching you, immediately enter an elevator."
"3. The elevators at the Dolphin Hotel will activate their safety protection system from 01:11 to 06:07. If you enter an elevator during an escape, nothing can harm you. You may wait inside until the time on the elevator's internal display panel exceeds 06:07. However, note that each elevator can only carry two sentient, living individuals at a time, regardless of their size, height, weight, or injury status. If the load exceeds two people, the elevator will no longer be safe. Remember this. If necessary, use the fire axe inside the elevator to kill any malicious intruders."
"4. The Dolphin Hotel has two elevators, located on either side of the corridor. Each elevator entrance has a red fixed-line telephone. These phones only connect internally within the hotel; dial a number followed by the # key to call any room in the hotel. The phones in each room can only receive calls and cannot dial out. Press 0 followed by the # key to contact the front desk to book services or request rescue."
"5. Please ensure that a weapon is placed in each room of your suite. Weapons should ideally be simple, durable, and powerful. Baseball bats, ice picks, spears, chainsaws, firearms, Flamethrowers, etc., are all acceptable."
"6. Do not leave leftover food outside. The hotel's dining area offers complimentary meals, and you can also call the front desk to order meal delivery. If there are leftovers, put them in the refrigerator or immediately dispose of them in the garbage bin at the end of the corridor during daylight hours. Never place leftover food at your own or other residents' doorways."
"7. Every floor of the hotel must be occupied. If it is the off-season and there are no guests, at least four hotel staff members must reside on the unoccupied floors, in pairs, in rooms directly opposite the elevator entrances. This is paramount. Keeping floors occupied can effectively calm the hotel's restlessness."
"8. The Dolphin Hotel has many habits and quirks. We merely reside within it; we do not own it. We can only accustom ourselves and adapt. Each hotel rule is a summary of gruesome safety incidents. If a death occurs on any floor, the hotel will seal off that floor and send a team to clean up the scene—we deeply mourn any death, but at least that floor will not require occupants for the next 180 hours."
"9. During the night, notes may appear in the rooms. Please ignore the randomly generated content on these notes. If the worst happens—the hotel is overrun and all staff are unreachable—stay in your room and follow the instructions on the notes. We are with you."
This was all the content on the papers.
"The text and patterns on all these papers are identical," Bai Haozheng mused. "This means this must be the Dolphin Hotel accommodation guide we're looking for.
"There are several notable points in the guide. From 00:11 to 07:07, areas outside the guest rooms are no longer safe. Something moves in the corridors, and guests must stay indoors. Guests can use the fixed telephone by the elevator to contact other rooms. Pressing 0 then # connects to the front desk. The elevator is safe between 01:11 and 06:07 and can be used as a shelter, but it only holds two people; exceeding this limit makes it unsafe. Leftover food must not be left outside doors and should be disposed of promptly. Each floor must be occupied. If a death occurs, that floor doesn't need occupants for the next 180 hours."
"These must be the rules we need to follow. Fourteen players for fourteen floors, and the last rule also corresponds to the 180-hour time limit," Black Holy Son said indifferently. "So, are we supposed to pick a floor and a room, and just survive for 180 hours?"
The player named Ω, who wore a fishbowl helmet, shook his head and said through his bow-tie voice synthesizer, "I'm afraid it's not that simple. Danger lurks in the corridors and stairwells at night. Only the rooms and the elevator are safe. However, notes might randomly appear in the rooms, and their instructions could lead people into danger—like opening the door, stepping outside, or summoning Evil Spirits by chanting into a mirror. Plus, the elevator's safety system is only active for a limited time and can only hold two people..."
Ω didn't finish, but his meaning was clear: players, desperate to survive, might end up fighting and killing each other over control of the elevators.
"There's no use overthinking this. The phase two objective is to find the hotel accommodation guide and survive for 180 hours. It didn't say we have to strictly follow the guide. This means the guide might not be entirely accurate or truthful, and we might survive even if we don't follow it exactly."
Bai Haozheng pushed up his glasses, picked up a clock from the reception desk, and checked the time. "The clock says... 19:11. It matches the clock in the first-floor lobby, so let's use this as our standard time for now. We entered the hotel around 19:00 and Triggered phase two. We have to stay here until 07:00, seven days from now. There's still some time before curfew, so we can explore the hotel first and then decide."
Bai Haozheng's analysis was logical and well-founded, and no one else had any objections. They each took a few copies of the accommodation guide and began searching the hotel's various floors.
The power supply system was functioning properly. The self-service dining area offered a variety of fresh European dishes, with plates neatly arranged on the tables. The door to the staff break room was open, a steaming cup of coffee sat on one desk, and dew still lingered on the ornamental plants at the end of the corridor. Just as the players had guessed, the hotel was empty except for them. The guests and staff who once resided here had vanished abruptly, as if they had evaporated from the earth.
The materials inside the hotel were abnormally sturdy. Doors and windows were tightly shut, seemingly welded to their frames, offering no means of escape.
Even the seemingly fragile brick and stone floors withstood the full force of the players' strikes. The damage inflicted by unleashing Fighting skills on ordinary walls was also significantly reduced.
This essentially weakened the players' ability to influence their surroundings.
In the drawers at the hotel's front desk, the players found several sets of keys for the hotel's over six hundred rooms. These keys easily opened every door, including the locked hotel manager's office.
The group took the keys and searched the hotel rooms on the first and second floors. The rooms were as ordinary as any real-world hotel rooms; no pinhole cameras or written notes were found.
By eleven o'clock at night, due to safety concerns, the players decided to temporarily halt their exploration. They resolved to follow the accommodation guide's instructions: each person would choose a floor and occupy a room on the same side, directly opposite the elevator. They planned to stay inside and not leave after 23:30, to get through the first night.
The room assignments were determined by personal strength and existing relationships.
Starting from the top floor, the occupants were:
Fourteenth floor: Bai Haozheng
Thirteenth floor: Black Holy Son
Twelfth floor: Ghost of Hidden Eye
Eleventh floor: Danfei
Tenth floor: Kafei
Ninth floor: Bob
Eighth floor: 13MARK
Seventh floor: Yuyi Xinzhong
Sixth floor: Plague Doctor
Fifth floor: Li Rising
Fourth floor: Mule
Third floor: Liu Wu Dai
Second floor: Wanli Fengdao
First floor: Ω
After agreeing on the room allocation, everyone settled into their respective rooms, waiting for the curfew and the forewarned "anomalies" to arrive.
