Xingwang Hotel
Chapter 328: A person with their back to us
Soon, the plan was set.
The few anchors who had awakened from their unconsciousness temporarily joined Wen Jianyan’s team.
As for those whose name tags had been stripped away and whose facial features had also been removed, although they no longer had breath or a heartbeat, according to the Nightmare standards, they were not yet dead.
However, since they had lost all vital signs, as long as nothing unusual happened within the instance, they were unlikely to be targeted by the town’s ghosts.
To be safe, Wen Jianyan and the others still moved their “corpses” to a hidden corner of the shop, doing what they could.
Once that was done, he turned to his teammates:
“Everyone, take two pieces of clothing, and then we can leave this place.”
In the instance of “Xingwang Hotel”, all human skin items were quite similar. They were very dangerous—if used too many times, they would be activated and turn into a channel that connected to the real world, allowing ghosts to invade through it. However, these items could also block the endless light rain in the area, allowing the living to move through this deadly, life-draining rain without dying.
The human skin umbrella they had been carrying was no longer usable. To survive the next three hours, wandering freely through the rainy ghost town after the “Gate” closed, they had no choice but to use these human skin clothes.
The more human skin clothes they carried, the more advantageous their next actions would be.
Once one piece of clothing began to show signs of abnormality, they could discard it immediately and switch to the next. But the problem was… they might very well encounter the Black Faction’s squad in the next three hours.
According to what Zhong Shan had previously mentioned…
Anise’s talent was highly suspicious.
If he could truly “summon souls,” causing the dormant spiritual dangers to activate, then the more spiritual items they carried, the more dangerous it would be.
Considering this, Wen Jianyan had to choose carefully and ultimately settled on a compromise: “Two pieces each.”
Under his command, everyone quickly acted.
Soon, everything was ready.
Wen Jianyan draped a large gray old-fashioned suit over his body. On the surface, it appeared to be just an old, inconspicuous piece of clothing, but only the one wearing it could smell the faint decaying odor emanating from it and feel the chilling, skin-like collar rubbing against the neck, creating a terrifying sensation.
He took a deep breath, suppressed the discomfort in his heart, and turned to look at his teammates:
“Ready?”
Everyone else also put on their human skin clothes and nodded.
Wen Jianyan lowered his head and glanced at the pocket watch in his hand.
The slowly moving hands had just crossed the boundary between black and white, entering the pitch-black region.
This meant that there was no turning back.
Wen Jianyan took a deep breath, turned to his teammates, and reminded them:
“Please be very careful from now on. If you notice any clues, no matter how insignificant, if it makes you feel uneasy, tell me immediately. Understood?”
The others exchanged glances and nodded, “Understood.”
The reason Wen Jianyan was so cautious wasn’t just because the Black Faction was also somewhere on this street, but because… the lights in Xingwang Hotel should have been turned on by now.
Once the lights were turned on, the road between the hotel and the town would be sealed off.
Before entering the town, they had only stayed for about an hour.
This time, however, the time had been quadrupled.
What was more critical was that they had no idea whether the “lighting” in Xingwang Hotel would bring any unknown changes to the town…
In other words, the experience and patterns they had summarized during the previous hour, when the lights were off, could be completely overturned in the next three hours.
The best outcome would be that nothing changes, but they had to be prepared for the worst.
Everything was unknown.
And since the “Gate” had already closed, if they encountered any danger, they couldn’t retreat back to the hotel like before. They would have to face it head-on.
“Alright, let’s go.”
Given the situation, they couldn’t afford to waste any more time. They had to act immediately.
This wasn’t just a race against the Black Faction; it was a race against death itself.
With Wen Jianyan’s command, the group carefully avoided the corpse still wandering in the room, dripping blood, and once again stepped into the rain.
The sky was overcast, dark clouds hung heavily above, and no light could break through.
Before them was a crooked street, stretching deep into the rainy abyss.
The fine rain fell from above, bringing a chill with it.
The rainwater hit the human skin clothing, but instead of soaking through like before, it seemed to be blocked by some invisible force, sliding off the surface of the human skin.
Wen Jianyan looked up and gazed into the depths of the commercial street.
Due to the rain, there were no traces left by any human footsteps.
Even though they couldn’t track the Black Faction’s movements by footprints, it didn’t matter to the Red Faction. After all, they knew exactly where the Black Faction was headed.
The Framing Shop.
Although they didn’t yet know the exact location of the shop, based on the images in the oil painting and the content written in Rui Rui’s notes, they only needed to follow this street and go deeper to find it.
The endless rain continued to fall, and soon, the entrance to the street was far behind them.
The group moved deeper into the dead street.
The houses on either side of the street all had their doors tightly shut, looking very desolate. The windows were pitch black, like the bones of the dead, staring with hollow eyes at the only living beings on this dead street.
Perhaps it was just an illusion, but the deeper they walked, the colder the atmosphere became.
Though the human skin clothes blocked the rain, an invisible chill permeated the air, coming from all directions, seeping into their bones, causing everyone to shiver uncontrollably.
So cold.
“Have you spotted the Framing Shop?”
Wen Jianyan asked.
Blond stared down the seemingly endless street and shook his head. “No.”
Wen Jianyan wiped the rainwater off his face and glanced at the time.
They had been moving at full speed for over five minutes.
But up until now, the street seemed endless, as if it couldn’t be finished, and they hadn’t seen any sign of the Framing Shop.
The shops on both sides of the street were mostly closed, with signs that had long since faded and become illegible from the rain. The windows were pitch black, and it was nearly impossible to gain any useful information.
“Let’s walk for another three minutes,” Wen Jianyan said, putting away his phone.
As time passed, the decaying smell from the human skin clothes became more and more noticeable. In the damp, cold air, it was hard to ignore, faintly lingering around everyone’s noses.
The surface of the clothes seemed to slightly puff up, as if being stirred by the surrounding wind, but there were faint, ominous shadows that always seemed to be visible.
Clearly, as they continued to walk in the rain, the human skin clothes were becoming increasingly dangerous.
If they still couldn’t find the Framing Shop in three more minutes…
It would be time to stop and find a shop to take shelter from the rain.
“Okay.”
Everyone nodded.
The group continued to move forward quickly but cautiously.
They kept an eye on the rapidly passing scenery on either side of the street, looking for any shop that could match the one in the oil painting—
Suddenly, Blond stopped, looking in a certain direction.
Wen Jianyan sharply noticed his reaction. “Did you find something?”
“No, no.”
Blond swallowed nervously, shaking his head.
Perhaps due to the rain, Zhong Shan’s face was unusually pale. He stared intently at the distance, raising his hand and pointing to a corner at the end of the street. “Look over there—”
Wen Jianyan followed his finger and looked.
Not far ahead, on the left side of the street, through the misty rain, they could vaguely make out a pitch-black, unmoving shadow.
It looked like…
“A person with their back to us.”
As if afraid of disturbing something, Blond’s voice was barely above a whisper, trembling slightly.
The moment he spoke, an uneasy chill ran through everyone.
Though the gloomy rain obscured their view, it was clear—there was a “person” standing rigidly a few dozen meters ahead, completely still.
Given the circumstances, the chances of it being human were slim.
“What kind of clothes is it wearing?” Wen Jianyan asked slowly after a moment of thought.
Blond blinked, then quickly understood.
Inside the rain-soaked town, anything marked with specific times or locations had been eroded beyond recognition. But one thing was certain—this town seemed frozen in time decades ago.
The interior decorations, clothing styles, everything was outdated, as if time had stopped.
But the anchors who entered here would be wearing modern clothes from the real world.
“Not old-fashioned clothes,” Blond confirmed after a careful look.
This meant the “person” standing with its back to them wasn’t an original resident of the town—it was the corpse of a dead anchor.
Though they didn’t yet know why it had appeared, this was still good news.
In this instance, the original residents trapped underwater were the most terrifying. The corpses of anchors, while still dangerous, were more like vengeful spirits that lured others to their deaths. As long as they were careful, they could avoid major trouble—just like how they had dealt with the ones in the clothing store earlier.
After a brief moment of consideration, Wen Jianyan made a decision.
“Keep moving forward.”
Soon, they approached the figure standing with its back to them.
It stood rigidly in place, unmoving despite the cold rain pelting down, like a wooden stake driven into the ground.
The group cautiously chose to walk on the side farther from the corpse.
The distance gradually closed.
Wen Jianyan kept his gaze fixed on the body, staying alert in case it suddenly moved.
However, until they had completely passed the area, it remained motionless.
Wen Jianyan subtly let out a breath of relief.
He turned his head and looked back at the corpse he had just passed.
His heart stopped for a moment.
After passing this area, the “person” that should have been facing them was still facing away.
It stood motionless in the rain, with its back turned to Wen Jianyan and his group, as if it hadn’t moved an inch from the start.
Almost as if…
It didn’t have a “front” to begin with.
Still, the good news was that it didn’t seem to sense their presence—it showed no intention of moving or attacking.
As long as they avoided it, it wouldn’t pursue them.
During the previous hour when the lights were off, the corpses of the anchors could only move underwater. But now, they were appearing openly on the streets. Clearly, this was one of the changes that had occurred during the “three hours after the lights turned on.”
And as time passed, these changes would only multiply.
Suppressing a shiver, Wen Jianyan looked away.
“Two minutes left. Keep moving.”
The group continued down the street.
Before long, a second corpse appeared ahead.
Just like the first, it stood rigidly in the rain, its back turned to them. Though it didn’t move or attack, its mere presence was enough to send chills down their spines, making them want to flee as fast as possible.
Then came a third corpse.
A fourth…
The further they went, the more corpses there were.
The once empty, desolate street was now gradually filling up, the eerie “population” increasing, the atmosphere growing more and more sinister.
None of them moved.
They just stood there.
Their backs turned, like lifeless objects—yet undeniably human in shape.
One after another, the dark figures loomed silently in the endless rain, an unsettling sight.
Soon, the allotted three minutes had passed.
But they still hadn’t found the framing shop marked in the oil painting and the psychography.
“Stop.”
Wen Jianyan glanced down at the human-skin suit draped over him.
Even without wind, the hem of the gray suit swayed faintly, as if something unseen was slowly pushing out from beneath.
It was as if the suit wasn’t just covering Wen Jianyan—but also a second, formless horror gradually awakening from slumber.
The stench of decay grew stronger.
“Find shelter first,” Wen Jianyan decided firmly.
There was something deeply wrong with this street.
Not just because of the corpses, but also because the framing shop remained nowhere in sight.
The shopping street had no branching paths—just a straight road forward. Yet, despite walking for so long, they hadn’t encountered anything new.
If they continued like this, they’d only end up lost in the depths of the street. It was better to pause, regroup, and reassess their strategy.
More importantly, their resources were limited. They had to conserve them carefully—otherwise, even if they found the framing shop, they’d be killed by the rain before they could do anything.
Carefully avoiding the motionless vengeful spirits lining the street, the group moved closer to the buildings, searching for a place to take shelter.
Most of the shops were tightly shut.
The wooden doors were sealed, seemingly without locks—yet impossible to open.
Zhong Shan, tall and burly, tried forcing one open. But despite his bull-like strength, the dilapidated-looking door didn’t budge an inch.
“Damn it…”
Wiping rainwater from his face, Zhong Shan cursed under his breath and prepared to ram the door again—
“Wait.”
Wen Jianyan stopped him, narrowing his eyes at the closed door before turning to Blond.
“Try looking through the window.”
Blond obeyed.
He stepped up to the window and peered inside—then froze.
“What do you see?” Wen Jianyan asked.
“Nothing,” Blond said, his face paling. “I can’t see anything.”
“Of course not, there’s no light,” Zhong Shan muttered.
“N-no, that’s not what I mean,” Blond turned back, his face almost blending into the rain. “If it was just dark, I wouldn’t say I can’t see anything.”
He took a deep breath.
“I can’t see anything because there’s nothing inside.”
Pure blackness.
An absolute void.
Like another dimension entirely.
“But…”
Blond clenched his teeth, his expression uneasy.
“Earlier, when we first entered this street, it wasn’t like this…”
Though the shops had been dark then too, they hadn’t been empty. At the very least, he could make out vague outlines of objects inside.
Deserted, abandoned—but undeniably real.
Now, everyone understood what Blond meant.
Even Zhong Shan, who had initially doubted him, fell into grim silence.
Wen Jianyan, however, didn’t seem surprised.
“Just as I thought.”
He exhaled slowly.
“Just as you thought?” Chen Mo turned to him. “What do you mean?”
“I suspect that the moment the lights went out, this street became something entirely different,” Wen Jianyan said.
The others stiffened.
“That doesn’t mean we’re on the wrong path. After all, the opposing team is also trapped in this sealed-off town,” Wen Jianyan continued calmly.
“In fact, it might mean we’re heading the right way.”
It was just that the framing shop—the core of this entire instance—wasn’t so easily found.
Perhaps that was why, despite walking for so long, they still hadn’t encountered the opposing team.
Wen Jianyan turned away.
“Let’s go. Don’t waste time on locked shops. Just find one that’s still open.”
Though most were sealed, there had to be exceptions.
“Got it.”
Blond nodded, scanning the street ahead.
Then his eyes lit up.
“There!”
After a careful search, he pointed excitedly toward a shop further down the street.
“That one’s open!”
