(17/20)
Xingwang Hotel
Chapter 296: Race to the Death
A dark red light flickered overhead, illuminating the narrow, empty corridor.
In the dead silence of the narrow passage, heavy, hurried breaths echoed.
Wen Jianyan let go of the door handle, taking two slow steps back. His gaze fell on the tightly closed hotel room door.
Above the little light that displayed the words “Do Not Disturb” was a small iron plate embedded deeply in the door, with its numbers weathered and mottled from age, but under the dark red light, they stood out clearly—
408
Wen Jianyan narrowed his eyes.
He remembered—this was the room number he had when he first entered the instance, and it was also in room 408 that he first saw the painting of the woman in white with the blurred face.
In other words…
In this instance, room numbers weren’t strictly fixed. They shifted based on the painting inside the room.
“W-What should we do next?” Blond turned anxiously to Wen Jianyan, looking lost.
Though they hadn’t fully grasped the rules of this instance, what little they had seen so far already sent chills down their spines.
If they kept following the instance’s rules by bringing “guests” into the Xingwang Hotel, as time passed, the instance would only grow more dangerous.
After all, they had to survive here for a full three days.
If every anchor team pulled a ghost in with each lights-out…they couldn’t even imagine the terror awaiting them as the instance reached its later stages.
But… if they didn’t do anything, it would basically be suicide in such a high-level instance.
The anchors were trapped in a deadly dilemma.
Doing nothing meant certain death, but following the rules might lead to a fate worse than death.
“…”
Wen Jianyan didn’t answer.
As if struck by a thought, he lowered his head, pulling a small, hard-covered black notebook from his pocket.
Though he’d been in the rain for quite a while and was drenched, the notebook’s pages remained completely dry, showing no trace of moisture.
He opened the notebook, where a few crimson lines of text met his gaze:
[Probationary Employee Assessment]
[1] Please welcome a guest to stay in the Xingwang Hotel
…No new instructions had been added.
Wen Jianyan felt a sinking feeling in his heart.
This meant that deciding what to do next and how was entirely up to them.
The other team members stood still, quietly waiting.
Wen Jianyan put the notebook back in his pocket, looked up at the group, took a deep breath, and finally seemed to make up his mind: “…Let’s go.”
“Where to?” Yun Bilan asked. “To the next room?”
“No.”
Wen Jianyan shook his head.
He turned toward the end of the corridor, narrowing his eyes slightly before speaking slowly: “Downstairs.”
Downstairs?!
Everyone was taken aback.
No one had expected Wen Jianyan to make such an unexpected decision—he wasn’t trying to connect with other members of the Red Team to exchange clues and control the hotel’s risk level, nor was he aiming to find the next room with a painting to bring in another guest…
Wen Jianyan raised his eyes.
Having just come out of the town, his eyebrows and hair tips were still damp, giving him a hint of a fragile and vulnerable look, but his pale eyes remained as calm and deep as a placid lake.
He said:
“After all, isn’t the “Xingwang Hotel” instance a PvP instance?”
The others were momentarily stunned.
…Indeed.
In the Nightmare, PvP and team instances were both rare, and most of Yun Bilan and Chen Mo’s experience had been in regular instances as part of a squad. Although “Xingwang Hotel” was a PvP instance, that element had surprisingly been downplayed.
Since entering the instance, they had yet to see any members of the Black Team, and none of the rules they had uncovered so far seemed related to the opposing team. After their brush with life and death, they had all, to some degree, overlooked the instance’s true nature—
Confrontation.
In other words, even if they hadn’t yet noticed the underlying patterns, all the instance’s rules were likely linked to this core concept.
It was like a minefield, with explosives hidden in unknown spots, waiting to go off at any moment.
In the “Integrity First” live broadcast room:
[Damn, I’ve watched a ton of live broadcasts, but I’ve never seen a anchor so savvy about Nightmare’s traps…]
[He can see through to the essence with one glance, predicting where the pitfalls are. That’s some real skill.]
[Yeah, I’m curious, too—I don’t get where “Xingwang Hotel” gets its PvP element. I remember that before it closed, it was just a regular A-level instance, right?]
[Right, exactly. Who would’ve thought they’d reopen it with a higher difficulty level and a different instance type? I’m dying to know what’s changed!]
“We’ve got three hours until the next lights-out,” Wen Jianyan glanced at the others. “Let’s use this time to check things out downstairs.”
Time was of the essence.
If the other team unearthed the rules first, they’d be the ones to fall into the trap. More importantly, as time passed, the number of ghosts in the Xingwang Hotel would only increase. By then, maneuvering around a hotel filled with dangers would become nearly impossible.
“Stairs or elevator?” Chen Mo asked.
Wen Jianyan: “Of course, the stairs.”
The risk of using the elevator was too high.
Not only could it contain unknown dangers, but more importantly, it would show their floor level. If anyone from the opposing side saw the elevator descending from the fourth floor, they’d immediately know their movements. Then, if they blocked the elevator doors, they’d be trapped.
The group headed toward the safe passage indicated on the map.
The door to the safe passage was wide open, with no lights inside. A narrow, steep staircase led downward, disappearing into darkness.
“Prepare your cloaking props,” Wen Jianyan instructed the others.
After all, they were about to venture directly into enemy territory… Although he’d never met the former number 008, he knew that the other side had the Gentleman, and their own group included Bai Xue, whose appearance was too distinctive to conceal. If they had the misfortune of running into a large Black Team, these props could at least help them avoid conflict.
There was another important point…
Wen Jianyan understood that among the Black Team, there were also experienced anchors, just like him. If he could think of scouting out the Black Team’s territory, there was no reason the other side couldn’t think of it as well.
This meant they had to be especially careful not to run into a Black Team.
Wen Jianyan was very aware that, in terms of raw strength, they were no match for the opposition.
“Blond, you walk beside me and keep an eye on the front.”
After making all the preparations, Wen Jianyan took a deep breath and stepped into the pitch-black stairwell.
The floors of the Xingwang Hotel weren’t particularly high, so even with their cautious, slow movements, they quickly descended to the third floor.
The third floor was quiet, with not a soul in sight.
The group continued downward.
The lower they went, the quieter everyone became.
They deliberately softened their footsteps, treading carefully down the stairs, with even their breathing hushed. They moved through the darkness as silently as cats.
Before long, they reached the second floor.
“Go take a look,” Wen Jianyan signaled to Blond.
Blond nodded, cautiously poking his head out to observe carefully in both directions.
A few seconds later, he pulled back and whispered to Wen Jianyan, “All clear, no one there.”
“Good.” Wen Jianyan nodded and gestured for the others to follow.
Moving stealthily, the group slipped out from the stairwell and into the corridor on the second floor of the Xingwang Hotel.
The layout here was almost identical to the fourth floor.
A narrow, enclosed hallway stretched ahead, with yellowing, worn wallpaper on the walls, thick carpeting underfoot, and dark red, suffocating lights that weighed down on them.
As Wen Jianyan walked forward, he glanced at the guest rooms on either side.
All the doors were shut tightly, and there was a dead silence inside. No footsteps, no flickering lights, as though the rooms were completely empty, showing no signs of human presence.
He had no intention of entering any room.
From past experience, the first room they entered would “remember” them.
After lights-out, no matter where they were, the room they stayed in would transform back to their initial room—just like room 408 on the fourth floor.
Clearly, just as the third floor was sparsely occupied by the Red Team, the second floor was similarly untouched by the Black Team.
In other words, any information they gathered here would be no different from what they found on the third floor, yielding little insight.
Unless…
Wen Jianyan abruptly stopped, his gaze settling on the distant, safe passage, an expression of contemplation crossing his face.
Noticing the direction of his gaze, Blond shuddered and widened his eyes in horror: “Wait a minute! You… you’re not thinking of…”
Going down to the first floor, are you?!
“…”
Wen Jianyan turned, giving Blond a bright, harmless smile:
“After all, we’re already here.”
Blond: “.”
His fist clenched.
In the “Integrity First” live broadcast room”
[Hahaha, ‘We’re already here!’]
[I’m dying, Blond’s face twisted! Fear and the urge to punch someone are not mutually exclusive!]
[Damn, I didn’t expect them to break into enemy territory this early in the instance… Bold, really bold.]
Under Wen Jianyan’s coaxing, the group once again found themselves descending the stairs toward the first floor.
Knowing they were about to enter the Black Team’s territory, everyone was doubly cautious.
They clutched their tools tightly, ready to activate them at any moment.
Before long, they reached the first floor.
The layout differed slightly from the second floor. At the center was a hall similar to the one on the fourth floor, only larger. The registration desk was completely empty, with no one in sight.
And unlike the eerie silence of the second floor, they immediately heard faint footsteps and voices upon entering the first floor.
Everyone’s hearts skipped a beat, and they quickly ducked into the shadows to wait quietly.
Once the footsteps faded, they all let out a sigh of relief.
Blond peeked out, cautiously scanning the area. After confirming that no one was nearby, he nodded carefully to Wen Jianyan: “It’s clear.”
Under Wen Jianyan’s lead, the group quietly crept out of the stairwell.
Although he had only glanced at the map once, Wen Jianyan had already memorized its layout thoroughly.
He walked quickly down the corridor, glancing at each guest room as if he were searching for something.
Without any experience, Blond seemed far less composed.
He stuck closely to Wen Jianyan, his face pale, and his heart was practically pounding in his throat. Like a frightened rabbit, he kept looking around nervously, jumping at the slightest noise.
“C-Captain, w-when can we finally get out of here?” Blond asked with a pained expression.
“Soon, soon,” Wen Jianyan responded dismissively.
As he spoke, he carefully inspected each guest room in front of him, his gaze sweeping over the room numbers above the doors.
“…”
Wen Jianyan frowned slightly.
He turned to his teammates beside him and asked, “Did you notice something about these room numbers…?”
“They’re all consecutive,” Chen Mo replied, narrowing his eyes.
“Huh? What does that mean?” Blond swallowed and asked.
Chen Mo: “It means that, like us, the other side probably started exploring from a place of total ignorance. If they also managed to host any guests, then the room numbers here would most likely have changed too.”
He glanced back down the corridor they had just walked through.
“But all the rooms we passed were consecutive without any irregularities.”
Blond looked confused: “So…?”
Suddenly, something seemed to occur to Wen Jianyan.
He looked down, took out his phone from his pocket, and glanced at a photo in his album. “Follow me!”
With that, he quickly started running.
The others were taken aback and had no time to ask questions, so they hurried after him.
Fortunately, the first floor was as expansive as the fourth, and luck was on their side—they hadn’t encountered any Black Team members along the way.
Soon, Wen Jianyan stopped.
He looked up at the room in front of him.
“This is…” Yun Biluo followed his gaze and suddenly froze.
The room number above the door was rusty and worn.
Three numbers were clearly written on it:
[408]
Under the room number, a small “Do Not Disturb” light was on.
Everyone stared in shock, astonished:
“Wait… isn’t this the first floor?”
Why was room 408, which they had just left, here?!
“So that’s it,” Wen Jianyan withdrew his gaze, looking at the others as he spoke slowly, “It seems… the entire hotel is a mirror image.”
This was how he was able to locate this room so precisely.
By folding the hotel map with the second floor as the axis, they could see which room on the first floor would correspond to room 408 on the fourth.
In other words, the actual number of rooms in the “Xingwang Hotel” was only half of what was shown on the map.
The reason they saw consecutive room numbers on the first floor was probably not because the Black Team hadn’t hosted any guests during the last lights-out, but rather because…
They were the “Red Team”, so they couldn’t see where the Black Team had invited their guests.
Their own team members wouldn’t voluntarily enter a room with ghosts.
Unless…the ghost in that room had been invited by a member of the opposing team.
At the start of the instance, each side didn’t occupy many rooms, so there wasn’t much overlap.
However, as time went on, sooner or later, one of their teams would inevitably enter a room occupied by a guest that the opposing team had invited.
And that room would already be taken by a “guest.”
The guest wasn’t human.
It was easy to imagine what might happen then.
At that moment, everyone felt a chill rise from their feet, sending tingles up their spines and making their hair stand on end.
Only now did they truly realize how treacherous this instance really was.
If they didn’t actively invite ghosts to stay, the rooms would be taken by ghosts invited by the opposing team.
Remember, after the lights went out, the anchors had to stay in a room.
That meant the more ghosts the opposing team invited, the higher the chance they’d end up in a dangerous room. So, to survive, they’d also be forced to invite more “guests” to “Xingwang Hotel,” creating a vicious cycle they couldn’t escape from.
Even though both sides knew the more ghosts there were in the hotel, the more terrifying the instance would become later on.
But to increase their chances of survival, they’d still have to keep bringing one “guest” after another into the “Xingwang Hotel,” plunging themselves into a literal “race to the death.”
In the barrage of the “Integrity First” live broadcast room:
[! So that’s how this instance works!]
[Whoa… I think I’m starting to get why the difficulty rating on this instance went up. For top-tier anchors, it’s practically a one-way ticket to hell. Given this mechanism, the stronger and more efficient the anchors are, the scarier the instance becomes later on. If they were all newbies, they’d probably have a better survival rate.]
[And it’s still only Day One! I bet there are even more tricks this instance has in store for them. Just wait and see!]
Wen Jianyan lowered his head, glancing at the screen of his phone.
The screen hadn’t timed out yet, and the map of “Xingwang Hotel” was still displayed.
He squinted slightly, his gaze flicking to his own hand holding the phone. The dark ouroboros ring gleamed in the light, with a cold metallic sheen, heavy around the base of his finger.
…A mirror image.
Just as silence fell and everyone was absorbed in their chilling thoughts about the instance, suddenly, from one of the distant hallways, faint footsteps and voices drifted over without warning.
“!!!”
Everyone snapped out of their thoughts, looking quickly in the direction of the sounds.
Damn! The Black Team was coming!
“Move!”
Wen Jianyan reacted swiftly, signaling his team to retreat in the opposite direction. But before they’d taken more than a few steps, they heard a sudden click from a nearby door.
Not far away, a guest room door creaked open.
The second Black Team, drenched from head to toe, rushed out from the room and into the corridor.
Wen Jianyan’s pupils shrank.
They were surrounded.
With nowhere to run.
