Gamers Are Fierce-Chapter 703 - 701

No one objected. The players left Room 1172, closing the door behind them and setting a trap. This would ensure they would notice if the door were opened later.

Afterward, the players searched the eleventh and tenth floors, focusing on Room 1008, where Kafei stayed, and the fixed-line telephone in the left corridor of the tenth floor, which might have been used to make a call last night. Unfortunately, they found no trace of Danfei or any other anomaly.

After some consideration, Bai Haozheng suggested that Li Ang use Alchemy to create a roll of tape. They would stick it on the fixed-line telephones on the tenth and eleventh floors so that if the phones were used, the players would be able to tell—assuming the tape wouldn't be reset by the hotel corridor's properties during curfew.

The day passed quickly, and as night fell, the players returned to their respective rooms.

I wonder if a sticky note will appear tonight...

Li Ang sat on the sofa in the living room of Room 0508, holding a pen and paper, looking at the clock on the wall.

After last night's battle, Room 0508 was a mess. For a better living experience and to make it easier to find new sticky notes, Li Ang had specifically cleaned the room at eleven o'clock. He put the tables and chairs back in place and used Alchemy to collect the large amount of salt remaining in the carpet, forming it into a ball.

As for the four paintings, Li Ang didn't hang them back in their original places. Instead, he stacked them in a corner of the room to prevent them from coming to life again tonight and causing him trouble.

Over two days, the players felt that the hotel's secrets, or rules, were gradually being unveiled. Some inconsistencies among them were particularly concerning.

Task Three of the second phase mission rewarded players with 500 Experience Points and Game Coins for every life form they eliminated in any form within the Dolphin Hotel. However, from the moment they entered the hotel until now, no one had killed any life within it.

On the first night, Wanli Fengdao had caught a green-headed fly in his room. It flew as fast and was as lethal as a sniper bullet. Its body was abnormally sturdy; not even the Dragon-Slaying Sword could damage it. He could only capture it and put it in a net.

The characters from the paintings Li Ang had subdued last night could feel pain and sustain injuries, but their healing speed was absurdly fast. Even if Li Ang sliced them into fine shreds or ground them into mincemeat suitable for dumplings, they would fully recover within three seconds. Thus, it didn't count as a kill.

So, is this reward of five hundred Experience Points and Game Coins for killing a life really just for other players? Or have we still not discovered some of the hotel's hidden rules that prevent us from killing these anomalies...?

Li Ang propped his chin with one hand and slowly pondered.

The System's tasks possessed a level of mystery that definitely surpassed the hotel's own rules. This meant that if the System notified players they could kill life forms within the hotel, it had to be possible; they just hadn't found the method yet.

Of course, it could also be that the time just isn't right yet, Li Ang mumbled to himself. It's not yet time for the System to let us start farming points...

TICK-TOCK. The minute hand of the clock made a sound. It was 00:11.

***

[Lying in the Bathtub]

In Room 0908, Bob held the sticky note that had floated down from the air, his fingers trembling slightly.

For three consecutive nights, the content of the sticky note had compelled him to lie in the bathtub. He would be deprived of his senses, enduring the dead silence in an empty, Pitch Black Space while silently counting.

On the first night, he felt as though one hundred thousand seconds had passed, nearly 27 hours. On the second night, his perception of time's passage had doubled; he spent 55 hours in the Pitch Black Space.

If the pattern held, tonight he would spend one hundred and ten hours in the Pitch Black Space.

This period of confinement wasn't actually that significant. Bob had once been incarcerated in a United States prison, where he had spent time in solitary confinement, enduring cramped spaces, stale air, and the absence of anyone or anything to communicate with.

But the Pitch Black Space, where all five senses were stripped away, was far more cruel and terrifying than mere solitary confinement.

In there, he couldn't see any light; he couldn't hear any sound, not even his own heartbeat or pulse; he couldn't feel any feedback from his limbs or entire body.

He could only desperately recall, digging through pleasant or painful memories to remind himself who he was and that he had to continue enduring.

"HUFF..." Bob exhaled deeply, took labored steps toward the bathroom, and glanced at himself in the mirror.

Resignedly, he quickly scribbled some words on a piece of paper, placing it and the sticky note on the edge of the sink.

Then, he lay down in the completely empty bathtub, allowing the formless, insubstantial water to submerge him.

***

Has it finally come?

In Room 0808, 13MARK plucked a sticky note that had suddenly appeared on his room window.

He and Ω from Room 0108 hadn't received any notes for two consecutive nights, missing two rounds of anomalous event attacks.

"As expected, good luck doesn't last forever," the thin young man in a suit and dreadlocks sighed, scrutinizing the note's content.

[Keep the door clean]

13MARK frowned. "[Keep the door clean]? What does that mean? Am I supposed to be a janitor and clean every door in the room?"

Bai Haozheng's experience on the first night indicated that one shouldn't interpret the note's content too narrowly.

The 'door' on the note might not just refer to the room's main entrance; it could mean anything in the room that could be considered a door.

"Could it be that Bai Haozheng and the others are right? Does the hotel have some kind of detection function that issues different notes based on each resident's situation...?" 13MARK murmured to himself, the white gloves he wore faintly glowing.

These gloves were a powerful item of Excellent quality he had obtained from a script world similar to Dungeons & Dragons (D&D). They were fashioned by a master-level magic item craftsman and possessed over ten Special Effects. These included, but were not limited to: emitting Energy blasts; casting arcane missiles; growing barbs, allowing the wearer to climb smooth walls; maintaining body temperature; releasing cold air, lowering the ambient temperature; allowing his palms to become ethereal and pass through walls; and making the user deft and nimble for a period, enabling them to quickly pick simple locks.

While none of the gloves' Special Effects were overwhelmingly powerful, their versatility was prized. One such function was cleaning—collecting dust and dirt from the air or off surfaces.

I never thought I'd be a janitor again, 13MARK smirked self-deprecatingly as memories of his childhood flashed through his mind—living in a luxurious manor with his mother, who worked as a maid.

What he didn't know was that Ω in Room 0108 was also holding a sticky note that read [Keep the door clean], and had fallen silent.