Gamers Are Fierce-Chapter 689 - 657: Goodbye

In Room 1108, Danfei from the Voodoo Black Witch Clan held a yellow sticky note that was slowly floating down from mid-air. The handwriting on the note was messy and hard to read, but one could barely make out the words "Don't leave me."

Don't leave what? he wondered. Don't leave the room? Or the chair?

Danfei's train of thought was interrupted by a knocking sound from the floor.

The knocking from below conveyed a message: "Brother."

Danfei knocked back: "I'm here."

The taps from below continued: "The light, it's out."

Danfei knocked in reply: "Flashlight."

"The flashlight, it's not, working," came the tapped response.

Danfei fell silent for a moment. The players had previously checked the hotel's electrical system and found it intact. They had also reminded each other to check and search their rooms upon entering.

Had the circuit in Kafei's room suddenly burned out? Was it because curfew had started that the flashlight also failed to work? But could it really be such a coincidence?

When the players were searching the first and second floors, they had confirmed that the material of the Dolphin Hotel's rooms could not conduct energy and had excellent sound insulation. Even if you turned a rock music speaker to maximum volume on the floor below, you couldn't hear any noise in the rooms above, below, or in the adjacent corridors.

Why such a coincidence?

In his and Kafei's rooms, there was a sunken area on the floor through which they could transmit messages by knocking, and this area was coincidentally hidden by a carpet, so he hadn't discovered it immediately.

Kafei had said the ceiling was thin, but why did he wait until a few minutes before curfew to tell me by knocking? Could it be... this sound was created by some anomaly in the hotel? Designed to impersonate Kafei, to deceive me, to make me violate the hotel's guidelines and the note, leave this room, and then be killed by the anomaly?

Danfei felt his mind become a whirl of confused thoughts. The Obsidian Battle Axe in his hand was raised, then lowered, unsure how to respond.

"Something's coming."

After a lengthy silence, the knocking came again. This time it was louder, and the debris in the depression on the floor rattled and jumped, as if to illustrate Kafei's panic and confusion at that moment.

Danfei could almost picture it: his brother in the dimly lit room below, crouching, spear in hand, nervously scanning his surroundings while desperately using the spear to signal him.

Should I go? Should I leave? Should I break the rules? Risk death to save someone who might be my brother, or might not be?

Danfei's mind was torn, his fingers trembling slightly as they clutched the pale yellow sticky note.

Room 1108 was as serene as ever, but the note in his hand felt so heavy it made it hard to breathe.

After a long while, the knocking came again.

"It's eating me."

"My foot, broken."

"That thing, it's gone, for now."

"I'm bleeding."

Each knock was like a sledgehammer blow to Danfei's heart. His brother was in Room 1008, just downstairs. Only half an hour ago, they had seen each other and vowed to survive this time.

Survive...

An image of his brother's smile filled Danfei's mind. Kafei was robust and strong, rugged in appearance, taciturn, and not good at conversation. Even former gang leaders thought he was a natural-born cold enforcer. But only Danfei knew that beneath Kafei's rough exterior lay a sensitive and tender heart—he wanted to be a sculptor. He dreamed of having his own studio in New York, Los Angeles, or San Francisco, dressed in a suit, talking eloquently under the spotlight to art enthusiasts admiring his exhibitions, sharing the inspiration behind his creations.

Danfei didn't understand art. He only knew how to use blood and violence to earn enough for his family's next meal. But he knew his brother's dream was noble. He struggled to climb, forcing himself to become indifferent and callous, all to prevent his brother's hands—a sculptor's hands—from being stained with more blood.

If hands must be dirtied to survive, let them be mine.

That's what Danfei thought, and what he did.

"Brother."

"It's coming back."

"I can't hold on much longer."

The tapping, once strong, grew weak and faint.

Danfei silently clenched the Obsidian Battle Axe handle. The rule hammered at his conscience: No activity outside guest rooms between 00:11 and 07:07...?

I'll say it again, I hate hotels.

Danfei crumpled the yellow sticky note in his hand, the sweat from his palm making it clammy.

He rose to the balls of his feet and pushed open the door. Before he could rush out, the Obsidian Battle Axe in his hand traced a semicircle through the air. If something had been waiting at the door, it would surely have been cleaved in two.

WHOOSH—

The sound of displaced air vanished instantly. His axe struck nothing. More precisely, the eleventh-floor corridor was empty, save for the clock at its end pointing to 00:20, heralding the curfew.

"..."

The silent Danfei casually closed the door, his fingers inadvertently drawing a rapidly fading black trail on its surface—if anything broke in after he left, he would notice upon his return.

He chose not to take the elevators; they were too slow, and the confined space offered no room to maneuver or dodge. He didn't choose to call for help either. In missions in this killing game, it was already difficult enough for a Lone Wolf Player to take care of themselves. Offering a helping hand to players they'd never met, at the risk of their own life, was a pipe dream.

Besides, this was a horror-type scenario... Some things are even more terrifying than death.

Danfei's feet pushed off the ground, his figure like a black lightning bolt dashing into the stairwell. Ricocheting off the stairwell walls in a rapid, agile descent, he dropped down a floor.

This was Kafei's floor.

Danfei slapped open the stairwell door, his lean figure appearing in the narrow tenth-floor corridor.

At the end of the corridor stood two figures.

On the left stood an extremely tall, elderly woman. She was clad in a deep, blood-red robe and stared intently at Danfei. In her left hand, she held a wooden basket, while her right hand waved at him, as if in greeting or farewell. The skin on the back of her exposed hand was a mass of deep wrinkles, like intersecting ravines.

Danfei's scalp prickled, feeling as if it might burst. The old woman in the red robe waving to him began to laugh silently and maniacally; the corners of her mouth stretched almost to her ears, her white teeth chewing on a chunk of raw flesh that dripped with blood.

Beside the old woman was a large, black silhouette. This figure, draped in a tattered black robe with a hood obscuring its features, was indistinct. It had no feet and simply floated in mid-air, blood continuously dripping from beneath its robe. This black-robed figure was also raising its hands, waving at Danfei, but it didn't give Danfei the same horrifying and oppressive sensation as the red-robed old woman.

What in the world are these things...?

Danfei felt his thoughts slowing. He stood frozen, mouth agape, eyes wide. An impulse surged within him to rush forward and cleave the terrifying old woman with the Obsidian Battle Axe in his hand.

But that would be too dangerous. And I have more important things to do. His brother was still in danger and needed him.

Danfei activated a skill, his body generating an imposing aura that forged a path through the old woman's terrifying and powerful presence. He moved forward with difficulty, step by step, resisting the old woman's eerie stare, heading for Room 1008, and placing his hand on the doorknob.

Strangely, the moment his hand touched the doorknob and he began to open the door to Room 1008, the old woman's oppressive aura vanished. She contentedly chewed the flesh in her mouth, then opened it wide and sucked her bloodstained, pale fingers. The colossal black shadow beside her also inexplicably stopped its waving, floating motionlessly.

They did not stop Danfei.

Unease spread through Danfei, but nothing could affect his determination to rescue his brother. 𝒻𝘳ℯℯ𝑤ℯ𝒷𝘯ℴ𝓋ℯ𝘭.𝑐ℴ𝑚

He pushed the door open and entered. The room was dark and dim. By the faint light filtering in from the corridor, he could see it was a wreck, with signs of a struggle and bloodstains everywhere. In the center of the living room ceiling was a fresh indentation, with white plaster dust scattered on the floor beneath it, as if someone had just been prodding the ceiling.

Danfei's breath hitched. His brother had been in this room, and now he was gone.

On the window at the far end of the room, another yellow sticky note of the same size was stuck, bearing words in a slanted script.

At that moment, his unease reached its peak. Danfei stepped over the chaotic debris, approached the window, and peeled off the note.

It read:

"Don't say I didn't give you a chance to say goodbye."

His heart skipped a beat.

Danfei, frantic, burst from the room into the corridor. But at the end of that corridor, the red-robed old woman and the colossal black-robed figure had already vanished.