Thank you @Jill for the Ko-fi.
Changsheng Building
Chapter 249: What do they want to buy on the fourth floor?
Before Qi Qian could finish speaking, the slightly ajar door creaked open, silently revealing a dark gap in front of everyone.
Behind them, the faint light from the oil lamp flowed into the room.
“!!!”
Everyone in the Dark Fire squad jumped, instinctively taking half a step back and assuming a defensive stance.
Seeing this, the Orange Candy squad also realized the severity of the situation, immediately becoming fully alert and preparing for the danger that could strike at any moment.
The air was tense, and the entire shop fell into a suffocating silence.
Time ticked by, but…
Nothing happened.
The group exchanged puzzled looks.
Orange Candy was the first to break the silence: “Give me the oil lamp, I’ll go in and check.”
“Be careful, the corpses inside could be activated by the light,” Qi Qian whispered in warning, “Try not to touch anything.”
Orange Candy: “Got it.”
With that, she took the lit oil lamp from one of her teammates and, accompanied by two others, walked into the dark room.
The remaining team members waited at the door, vigilant for any potential developments.
Wen Jianyan and Su Cheng stood at the back, peering over the shoulders of others into the room. The half-open door was pitch black, with only a faint, flickering light barely illuminating the interior. They couldn’t see what was happening inside, holding their breath and waiting anxiously.
Time passed second by second.
Just when everyone’s nerves were stretched to the limit, Orange Candy’s voice came from inside: “It’s safe.”
Safe?
Qi Qian and the others were stunned, looking at each other.
Could it be that the shop on the west side of the fourth floor had no corpses?
In the “Integrity First” live broadcast room:
[Wow, who would have thought, he actually guessed right… I just checked a few other live broadcasts, the other three shops on the fourth floor have terrifying corpses. The other teams are barely holding on.]
[Looks like out of the four shops on the fourth floor, three are deadly traps, and only one is relatively safe. I always thought it was a matter of luck, but it turns out it depends on the direction, and our anchor guessed it right.]
[Our anchor is awesome!]
[Hahahaha, I thought so too. After all, the shops on the fourth floor have no signs and all look identical. With so few teams reaching this floor, it’s basically a matter of luck.]
[Wen Jianyan, a man forced to use his brains to overcome his bad luck.]
The outside space needed someone to stay behind as well. Not everyone could rush inside; if they encountered any emergency, not only would it be easy to wipe them out, but it would also limit their ability to fight back.
Therefore, only Qi Qian, Wen Jianyan, and Tong Yao entered the dark room.
The air inside was damp and cold, the stench of decaying corpses and dust mixed together, making their throats itch slightly.
Perhaps because there were only four shops on the fourth floor, even the dark room at the back of the shop was almost as large as a shop on the first floor.
Orange Candy and her two teammates stood not far away, holding the oil lamp, whose dim light barely illuminated a small area in front of them. Most of the space was shrouded in ambiguous shadows, rendering it impossible to see clearly.
He stood still, seemingly looking up at something.
Hearing footsteps, Wei Cheng turned his head to see Qi Qian and the other two approaching: “Rest assured, the captain has already checked. There are no corpses or anything that would attack those who enter.”
Then he looked at Wen Jianyan behind Qi Qian:
“It seems your choice was indeed wise.”
The shop on the west side did correspond to the relatively safer room within the courtyard.
“Although there is no danger,” Wei Cheng said, moving his gaze and stepping aside slightly, “I also discovered something.”
As the distance closed, Wen Jianyan finally saw what Orange Candy and the others were looking at.
That…
An altar?
In the dark, empty room, there was a high table painted with red oil paint. On the table were memorial tablets and portraits. The black portraits were illuminated by the dim yellow light, their faces blurred, making it impossible to discern their features, giving off a cold and ominous feeling.
Wen Jianyan was taken aback, instinctively stepping forward.
With the reduced distance, he could see more.
Wen Jianyan looked up.
More memorial tablets and portraits appeared before him.
These memorial tablets were layered, extending high upward, disappearing into the darkness where the light couldn’t reach.
The sheer number was terrifying.
No, not an altar.
The layout and setup looked more like…
More like an ancestral hall than an altar.
However, the combination of portraits and memorial tablets reminded Wen Jianyan of his previous encounter on the third floor.
After leaving the courtyard, he entered a desolate graveyard where the same things were placed before every grave: portraits, memorial tablets, and…
Wen Jianyan’s gaze shifted down to the table.
In the center of the red table was a small bronze incense burner, exactly the same as the one he had carried back from the third floor, almost indistinguishable.
Wen Jianyan was slightly stunned.
“So many…?” Qi Qian stared at the dense memorial tablets in front of him, his face showing astonishment, and his nerves tensed up again. “Could they come to life?”
Orange Candy glanced at him: “I don’t know.”
Each memorial tablet represented a dead person, a corpse, a potential threat that could appear. The sheer number was overwhelmingly oppressive, making even just standing beside it and observing feel chilling.
“These memorial tablets don’t give me a strong feeling,” Tong Yao, who had been silent, slowly spoke. “At least for now, they don’t seem dangerous.”
Wen Jianyan turned to look at Tong Yao.
Although he knew nothing about the fourth floor, he inclined to agree with Tong Yao’s assessment. The portraits and memorial tablets in the paintings on the third floor were placed before graves, each corresponding to a winding path leading to a specific courtyard.
In other words, the memorial tablets and portraits in that barren graveyard were the real deal, possessing the terrifying power to lead to another space.
The ones in front of him now seemed more like replicas that retained the form but lacked the function.
Tong Yao slowly opened her eyes, her pupils covered with a layer of gray haze, staring directly at the table in front of her.
Ahe pointed to the brass incense burner.
“The only thing that feels different to me is that.”
Sure enough.
In this instance, anything made of brass was unusual.
“The incense burner…?” Qi Qian frowned slightly, taking something out of his pocket. “It reminds me that before entering the fourth floor, I found this in the donation box.”
Wen Jianyan leaned over to see what was in Qi Qian’s palm.
A slender, unlit incense stick.
Without Wen Jianyan around, the Dark Fire squad, led by Qi Qian, didn’t face any extra trials. They followed the standard procedure, served three customers, and obtained three pieces of spirit money.
One red, two ordinary.
The ordinary ghost money was exchanged for a plate of gray lamp oil and a yellow talisman, while the red spirit money was exchanged for this instead of red lamp oil like last time.
“I feel the same way,” Wei Cheng said.
“Could it be that we need to offer sacrifices to these memorial tablets?” Tong Yao speculated.
“Perhaps,” Qi Qian frowned. “But what would that help with in terms of clearing the level?”
Incense burner… incense… offerings…
Wen Jianyan suddenly seemed to realize something, his eyes widening slightly as he reached into his pocket.
He took out the brass incense burner he had brought from the third floor. At the same time, something else fell from his pocket and landed lightly on the ground.
It was a gray ordinary ghost money.
Ghost money?
Wen Jianyan paused, bent down, and picked up the ghost money.
He furrowed his brows, searching his mind.
During the third floor, he had been controlled as a hostage within the team and never had a chance to interact with spirit money. Whether inside or outside the painting, he had not interacted with customers.
Except…
Wen Jianyan’s breath hitched as he seemed to recall something. Familiar images flashed quickly through his mind, like lightning cutting through a dark sky, leaving him stunned.
On the stairs between the third and fourth floors, after lighting the red candles, the nearest shadow had moved, while the other monsters had not been activated in the same way.
The shadow had approached but did not attack; instead, it had vanished.
The only interaction he had with a “customer” was…
Wen Jianyan turned to look at the incense burner in front of him—it was empty.
But he clearly remembered that when he got the incense burner, it had something inside.
Several unlit incense sticks and burned-out incense ash had been firmly pressed to the bottom, unable to be poured out even if turned upside down. Since time was tight at the time, it hadn’t seemed unusual, so Wen Jianyan hadn’t paid much attention. But now, those broken incense sticks and the ash had disappeared.
In an instant, all the clues connected in his mind.
The “customers” on the first floor had bought human-skin clothes, the second floor had items symbolizing vision and hearing, and the third floor had faces. If following this logic, a complete “form” had already been pieced together on the first three floors and didn’t require more additions. So what was the purpose of the fourth floor?
What else did it need?
What would it want to buy on the fourth floor?
As the pieces fell into place, one answer emerged clearly.
Wen Jianyan’s breathing grew slightly rapid.
If in the real world…
In a shopping mall, what would be on the top floor?
A dark, eerie, and terrifying entity, once it gains form and mobility, what would be its primary, most primal desire?
“The items purchased by the customers on the fourth floor,” Wen Jianyan said with as much calmness as he could muster, “are for consumption.”
To eat.
The others were momentarily stunned, turning to look at him, seemingly puzzled by Wen Jianyan’s sudden conclusion.
This meant that, while protected by continuous lighting in the stairwell, Wen Jianyan had unknowingly completed the first transaction.
Since he wasn’t in the store at the time, with no curses applied around and the lights not needing to be consumed, he had completed a transaction without facing any life-threatening danger.
But inside the store…
Everything would be different.
“The incense burner and incense are not for offering to the memorial tablets,” Wen Jianyan took a deep breath and said slowly. “They are for offering to the ‘customers.'”
He looked up at the high memorial tablets in front of him, suddenly feeling a chill.
“The store on the fourth floor sells food.”
“Food for the dead.”
