Xingwang Hotel
Chapter 320: After lights out
At this moment, two buzzing sounds broke the silence in the room.
Wen Jianyan was startled and instinctively took a step back, away from the oil painting. It took him a few seconds to realize that it was his phone ringing.
He lowered his head, took his phone out of his pocket, and glanced at it.
“What’s wrong?”
The people nearby were watching Wen Jianyan’s movements closely and quickly asked when they saw him react.
“It’s a message from Yun Bilan,” Wen Jianyan put his phone back into his pocket. “Zhong Shan’s team and Locket’s team have successfully met up, and everything is going according to plan.”
It seemed that even though Yun Bilan was deep in enemy territory, she had still found a way to synchronize the progress with them.
——This was why Wen Jianyan had chosen Yun Bilan to “undercover” in Zhong Shan’s team.
Before joining Wen Jianyan’s guild, Yun Bilan had been the leader of an independent team. Compared to Chen Mo, she was more agile and quick-witted and good at adapting. Compared to Blond, she was bolder and steadier, willing to take risks. This type of task, which was suitable for only one person to complete, was something only Yun Bilan could handle in the whole team, aside from Wen Jianyan himself.
Wen Jianyan took a deep breath, then glanced at the oil painting in front of him one last time before responding.
The heat from his side waist and abdomen seeped beneath his skin, gradually disappearing, leaving only a faint warmth behind, indicating that what had just happened was not a figment of his imagination.
He finally organized the clues he had gathered.
After completely eliminating a member of the Black Faction team, the occupant of Room 408 had presented them with a so-called “request.”
To fulfill this request, they needed to enter Rainy Town through Room 329.
The oil painting in Room 329 seemed to be crucial. After all, in this instance-based world, a shop named “Framing Shop” was definitely not an ordinary place.
No matter how he looked at it, Room 329 was far more central to the entire instance than he had initially imagined.
Wen Jianyan lowered his eyes and instinctively twirled the Ouroboros ring on his finger. The cold, heavy metal against his fingertip made his thoughts become clearer.
He now understood one thing clearly—
Room 408 was strange.
According to the patterns Wen Jianyan had summarized earlier, Rainy Town had started to transform into its current state at a certain moment, and at that point, all the residents of the town became “ghosts in the oil paintings.”
However, the woman in the black robe in Room 408 was hard to fit into this framework.
Her position wasn’t just in an abandoned, dilapidated house, and there was no “human skin umbrella” to serve as a medium. Compared to the other “residents” in Rainy Town, she was clearly an anomaly.
She was an exception.
And this exception was closely related to the core of the Xingwang Hotel and the residual bugs in the instance.
Now, the prompt from Wu Zhu’s mark confirmed this point.
Perhaps this was the reason they had initially woken up in Room 408.
In that case, no matter which direction they moved next or how many rooms they entered, after the lights went out for the first time, they would inevitably enter Rainy Town through the oil painting in Room 408.
According to the instance rules, entering Room 329 in the future was inevitable.
Moreover…
Wen Jianyan pursed his lips, a thoughtful look flashing in his eyes.
408.
This number had felt familiar from the start.
In the very first instance he had experienced, the “Decai Middle School” instance, the legendary non-existent room number was 408.
However, before this, Wen Jianyan had never found any evidence to prove a connection between the two, so he had only treated it as a coincidence—
Until now.
Wen Jianyan’s breathing unconsciously became a little quicker.
He felt like he had touched on some hidden threads, existing in the seemingly unrelated details of the instances.
A certain self-contained logic ran through everything, and he was gradually approaching the end and the origin of it all.
Wen Jianyan had been thinking for too long.
“Uh…” Blond cautiously asked, “Captain, did you find any clues?”
Wen Jianyan snapped out of his thoughts, raised his gaze, and smiled.
“Of course.”
The others perked up, “What?”
Wen Jianyan pointed at the oil painting behind him and asked, “What do you see in this?”
Chen Mo stepped forward, carefully inspecting it. His gaze quickly landed on the spot Wen Jianyan had just examined, and his eyes narrowed as he slowly said, “…Framing Shop.”
“Yes, this is indeed key.”
Wen Jianyan’s tone shifted as he thoughtfully rubbed his fingertip. “But there’s something else.”
Chen Mo and Blond turned their heads, their eyes on Wen Jianyan, both showing puzzled expressions.
“What else?”
“So far, we’ve basically been through every floor of the Xingwang Hotel, right?” Wen Jianyan asked. “Haven’t you noticed that the paintings have a pattern?”
The others froze, as if they had just thought of something, and all fell into deep thought.
Wen Jianyan continued, “The oil paintings on the first and fourth floors are mostly of residential areas.”
The gloomy, rain-soaked scenes in the paintings, with an eerie atmosphere as if they could seep through the canvas, depicted low houses and small two-story buildings, and in all of them, whether indoors or outdoors, without exception, they were all places where humans lived.
“Do you remember what the scene in the room we entered on the second floor looked like?”
It was a low, single-story rectangular building, surrounded by an empty, desolate area. Through the grayish rain curtain, the general layout of the building could be vaguely seen. It didn’t look like a residential building at all, but rather…
“A school,” Chen Mo said slowly.
Wen Jianyan pointed at the oil painting beside him. “And in this painting, it’s depicting a commercial street.”
“So, the [doors] in the Xingwang Hotel, and the worlds they lead to, follow a pattern…!”
Blond’s eyes widened slightly.
They had originally thought that when the doors in the Xingwang Hotel opened, the locations they entered in Rainy Town were random, chaotic, and without order. But now, it seemed the opposite was true.
The first and fourth floors of the Xingwang Hotel led to one area of Rainy Town, while the second and third floors led to another area.
By piecing together these fragments of maps, they might be able to roughly understand the size of Rainy Town, or even master its layout.
While the group was quietly discussing, they suddenly heard a “clack” sound coming from the hallway outside.
Darkness descended.
Shadows enveloped the entire hallway, seemingly creeping through the half-open door, bringing with them a cold, ominous atmosphere. Under the watchful eyes of the group, the oil painting in Room 329 began to change at a visible speed, slowly transforming from the commercial street scene into a gray, low building shrouded in rain.
Through the gray rain curtain, a sign could be faintly seen hanging on the building—
■■ Primary School.
However, compared to the last time they saw it, some unsettling changes appeared in this scene.
The low, rectangular building now had countless small, gray windows lined up side by side. Through the hazy, blurry glass, numerous pale, towering shadows could be faintly seen inside.
It looked as though many children were standing in a row, stiff and motionless behind the windows, their faces pale and blurred, staring out at them from the painting.
“…”
The group exchanged glances, and in each other’s eyes, they saw the same look of horror.
When they were on the second floor earlier, there had been nothing like this in the painting!
As they hesitated, a sudden “creak” sounded from the hallway outside.
It was as if someone was pressing the door handle, preparing to leave the room.
Wen Jianyan’s expression tightened. “Don’t hesitate. Let’s go. We need to get inside.”
Whether the occupant preparing to leave was from the Black Faction or Red Faction team, it would only add more risks for them. So, it was best to leave quickly, before the occupant left the room and before they were locked onto by the occupant.
The group nodded.
The door behind the oil painting opened.
A cold wind, carrying the damp, musty air, blew in. Standing at the door was the scene from the painting.
The gray sky, the endless light rain, and the distant low, gray building.
The moment they stepped into the town, the familiar weight appeared in Wen Jianyan’s hand. He looked down and froze for a moment.
…it was an umbrella.
A damp, human-skin umbrella appeared in his palm, and the handle still had fresh black handprints on it.
In fact, when they rushed into the hotel earlier, the human skin umbrella from their team had disappeared. Wen Jianyan initially thought it had been lost in the chaos, but now it seemed that these umbrellas disappeared upon entering the Xingwang Hotel and only reappeared when returning to Rainy Town.
“We have an umbrella!” Blond’s eyes lit up. “Our actions can be more flexible now!”
Wen Jianyan didn’t respond.
He wasn’t as optimistic as Blond.
The reason the umbrella reappeared was likely not to improve their chances of survival. In fact, the umbrella’s true nature seemed more like a “curse,” which was why it always followed them—
Just like the oil painting in the room.
Wen Jianyan’s gaze lingered on the umbrella for a moment before quickly pulling away.
“Let’s go.”
At his command, the group moved in unison and rushed into the rain.
Although they were still a bit far from the building, the umbrella greatly increased their margin for error, allowing them to run farther in the rain.
Soon, they reached the entrance of the school.
The sign outside was soaked with rain, with blotches and marks all over it, looking quite old. Apart from the word “Primary School” on the sign, the rest of the text was almost completely unreadable.
The rusty iron gate was ajar.
Wen Jianyan raised his hand and pushed, and the gate creaked open.
He wiped the cold rainwater from his face and shouted loudly, “Hurry! Get inside!”
The group rushed into the school as fast as they could. After crossing a small, muddy, and sticky playground, they quickly reached the exterior of the gray building.
They stood in the porch, breathing heavily. The cold, rainwater dripped off their bodies, pooling into a puddle at their feet.
Beside them were the dark, blackened classroom doors and windows.
The windows were covered in dust, dim and murky. The pale figures that had appeared in the painting earlier were now gone, and it was almost impossible to see inside from the outside.
Wen Jianyan put the umbrella away, propping it to one side, and glanced at the umbrella handle. The black handprints were now more pronounced.
It seemed that after using it once or twice more, it would start to become dangerous again.
Blond shook the rainwater out of his hair.
His light yellow hair, now soaked, had turned a deep brown, making him look like a stray dog that had fallen into the water, a pitiful sight.
He looked at Wen Jianyan. “Captain, what should we do next?”
“Wait,” Wen Jianyan replied.
Their purpose for entering the painting wasn’t to bring more guests, but to gather more critical information through contact with the Black Faction team, using Zhong Shan’s and Locket’s teams. Therefore, the message from Yun Bilan was key to their actions.
However, before that, they couldn’t do nothing.
Wen Jianyan spoke to his other team members, “Let’s go. We’ll search the rooms for useful clues. If you see a painting, don’t touch it. If you find an umbrella or anything else, call me first.”
Everyone nodded.
The school wasn’t large. Although it had six grades, it only had a single low one-story building. Looking at the weathered signs in front of the classrooms, it was clear that each grade only had one classroom—this was obviously a school in a very remote town; otherwise, it wouldn’t be so simple.
Wen Jianyan reached out and pushed open the door of one of the classrooms. A cold, damp smell hit him. He turned on his flashlight and walked inside.
The pale light dispelled the darkness, illuminating the classroom, which was as simple as the exterior.
A blackboard, a podium, low desks, and chairs.
Books and stationery were scattered across the desks, lying quietly in the darkness, as if the teacher and students had suddenly vanished in the middle of a class.
Wen Jianyan continued walking forward.
The room was very dark, and there weren’t many clues—
His steps paused, and the flashlight beam lingered on the wall for a moment.
On one of the weathered, peeling walls, several simple drawings were stuck. The drawings depicted numerous crooked little figures in a childish style. What seemed like playful images in the darkness took on a strange, eerie quality.
“Buzz, buzz.”
His phone rang again.
Wen Jianyan took out his phone and glanced at it.
It was from Yun Bilan.
This time, her message was more detailed than before.
[Found a way to contact the Black Faction.]
Wen Jianyan raised an eyebrow in surprise.
It seemed he had underestimated the strength of Team 32. They had already found a way to contact the Black Faction shortly after entering the town. Clearly, they had some capability.
There must be members in the team with special talents.
“Buzz, buzz.”
The phone vibrated twice, and a new message came through.
…?
Hmm? Already some new developments?
Wen Jianyan was surprised and looked down at the phone screen again.
It was still from Yun Bilan.
This message was even more concise than the last one.
It contained only two short words:
[Commercial Street.]
Oh damn, looks like they really are a step or two ahead!