Xingwang Hotel
Chapter 374.2: First sight kill
Time passed slowly, each second feeling like an eternity.
Finally, the red candles began to extinguish, one by one, and the power disrupting the lights started to fade.
The darkness in the hall slowly began to lift.
The rancid smell also gradually faded.
Had it ended?
The same thought crossed everyone’s mind.
Just as if to confirm their guess, several figures quickly ran toward them.
They were wearing waitstaff uniforms, their faces covered by masks that concealed their features. Beneath the masks, their breathing was frantic and uneven.
It was the anchors, no doubt.
“We’re done.”
Chen Mo said, breathing heavily.
“What happened?” Blond lowered his voice, asking nervously.
The first person’s mission was to personally understand the risks that might occur during the banquet, so the ones who returned alive had to tell their teammates every detail of what had just happened.
“We carried the trays toward the table, and the further we went, the darker it got.”
Chen Mo steadied his breath before beginning to speak.
Even now, with everything over, recalling it still made him feel a chill down his spine.
As the light was taken away, the cold, stiff figures of the guests ahead became increasingly clear. Their pale faces, devoid of discernible features, stared unblinkingly ahead, sending a deep sense of dread into one’s heart.
“There were matches to light candles on the table,” Chen Mo said, “but their purpose wasn’t to light the candles. It was to take my blood.”
“What?”
The others were shocked.
“In the moment I struck the match, something invisible cut my fingertip,” Chen Mo said as he extended his hand to show them the cut on his index finger.
The wound was still fresh, as if it had just appeared, but the surrounding skin was pale, with not a drop of blood coming out.
“And during the burning of the candle, I had the sensation that my blood was still being lost.”
Chen Mo’s face, hidden beneath the mask, turned pale. As if trying to overcome some psychological trauma, he said with great difficulty, “And when I started bleeding, the ‘guest’ noticed me.”
He still clearly remembered every moment that had just happened.
The blood was consumed from the wound, and the once-still candlestick on the table burst into a cluster of scarlet flames. The eerie red light enveloped him, finally dispersing the thick, sticky darkness around him.
Chen Mo had just sighed in relief, ready to proceed with the next part of the task, when suddenly, he felt a cold sensation on his back.
The feeling of being “watched” overwhelmed him, sending a chill down his spine.
Instinctively, he turned his head, and at that exact moment, he locked eyes with a pair of cold, black, emotionless eyes.
It was a guest.
Listening to Chen Mo’s recount, Wen Jianyan fell into deep thought.
As he had previously suspected, the essence of the banquet was similar to the fourth floor of the Prosperity Building.
Both the red light that attracted ghosts and the offerings made to the ghosts followed a very similar mechanism.
Before lighting the candle and serving the guests, the anchors wore masks that concealed their breath, confusing the evil spirits into not recognizing them as humans. However, when they used their blood to light the candle, they provided an opportunity for the ghosts to feed, while simultaneously revealing their presence.
If they didn’t serve the meal representing the human soul during this time, the serving staff would be treated as food and attacked by the evil spirits.
This was why the hotel manager had said that they needed to light the candle on the table before serving the guests and that the food had to be delivered before the candle burned out.
If the first condition wasn’t completed, the eating rules wouldn’t be triggered.
If the second was missed, the staff would instead become the meal.
Therefore, the real danger lay in the short span of time between lighting the candle and serving the guests.
It seemed simple, but in reality, it was fraught with danger.
It was important to remember that before this, the confrontation with the evil spirits had been separated by a nightmare-induced illusion. Now, however, there were no such barriers between them and the evil spirits.
In other words, they had to face a hungry, emotionless evil spirit up close in this brief moment… While the time wasn’t long, it was more than enough for the anchors to find themselves in a perilous situation.
They had just sent three people, but only two had returned.
This meant that the one who hadn’t returned was likely already dead.
“…Anyway, that’s roughly what happened,” Chen Mo succinctly summarized his heart-pounding experience in just a few brief sentences.
Although his description was concise, from his unstable tone and quick breathing, it was clear that he hadn’t handled the situation lightly.
The level of danger during this process was something even a veteran anchor like him considered to be a close call.
Wen Jianyan glanced at the account.
Chen Mo had earned them a small tip of five yuan for this round.
He raised his eyes and casually glanced at the black team.
They were also quietly discussing something among themselves.
It seemed they had more or less figured out the rules for serving the guests at the banquet, and their actions would likely be less cautious than before.
Wait a minute.
Wen Jianyan suddenly seemed to realize something.
He furrowed his brows and scanned the other team again.
Like them, the black team had also sent three people, but based on his earlier observation, it seemed only two had returned.
This meant that, in total, they had sent six anchors, but only four had returned.
However, there were five guests!
At this moment, Wen Jianyan’s pupils shrank. He suddenly turned his head and looked in the direction of the dining table.
The darkness was still gradually dissipating.
Empty, with the long table covered in white cloth, the four cold, rigid guest figures had already disappeared. However, at the end of the table, one figure remained.
It sat upright at the table, the candle beside it already extinguished, a bright, blood-red stain remaining.
The plate in front of it was drenched in blood, and two pale human faces were quietly placed there.
It was as though these faces had just been torn off a human, the edges mangled with blood and flesh, uneven, with thick, sticky blood dripping down.
The faces seemed to have undergone a terrifying experience in life, their hollow eyelids and mouths wide open in terror, their expressions twisted. Death had frozen that fear, and the lingering bitterness and resentment almost seemed ready to burst from the flesh and break free.
The darkness continued to fade.
The figure sitting at the table became clearer.
“…!”
The moment Wen Jianyan saw the shape of the guest, his pupils contracted, and he almost forgot how to breathe.
It was a woman.
She wore a white dress, her features blurry, and her eyes hollow. Even from a distance, just looking at her was enough to send a chill down one’s spine.
It was her!!
The owner of the notebook, and the woman who had been controlling their movements in the mirrored world earlier.
As Wen Jianyan was still in shock, Chen Mo’s tense voice rang out, “Damn it, look outside the hall.”
Wen Jianyan controlled the storm of emotions rising in his chest, forced himself to look away from the table, and turned to follow Chen Mo’s direction.
He didn’t know when it had started, but the lights outside the hall began to flicker intensely once again.
This time, the flickering frequency was even more intense than before.
In the dim, red-tinged light, several figures gradually emerged. Faces as pale as masks moved under the light, drawing closer toward them.
The dark, stiff, upright shadows almost blended into the darkness.
It was the second wave of “guests.”
One, two, three…
Wen Jianyan silently counted in his mind.
This time, there were seven in total.
More than the previous group.
Wen Jianyan’s heart skipped a beat.
In an instant, he recalled the size of the long table.
“!”
It was as though he suddenly realized something, and he couldn’t help but feel horrified.
These “guests” attending the banquet didn’t come all at once, but in waves. A single table could accommodate fifteen people, which meant they might soon need to serve fifteen “guests” at once!
Once the blood-burning process began, the mask’s disguise would fail.
Even if the anchors promptly served the ghosts they were responsible for, sending them away, if there were ghosts in the two adjacent seats and the anchors failed to serve them…
Then the anchor would face not just one ghost in such a short distance, but two, three…
Or even more!
A strong sense of crisis surged through Wen Jianyan, making his breathing quicker.
At this moment, he finally realized why the nightmare had been so merciful, offering them a chance to buy their lives with tips.
Apart from guiding more conflicts between the anchors, making the final battle between the two teams even more uncertain, there was another, more important reason.
That was, the difficulty of this banquet was so high that, without this system in place, once the number of anchors reached a certain critical point…
No one would survive.
Wen Jianyan clenched his teeth and said softly, “This time, Yun Bilan, Zhong Shan, Xi Zi, and Mu Bai go.”
Yun Bilan’s ability was well-known, and Xi Zi and Mu Bai were the captains of two other red team squads, so their strength was unquestionable. As for Zhong Shan, though a bit slippery, he was a master at survival.
“Remember every key point that Chen Mo mentioned. Prioritize guests near your teammates, so after lighting the candle, you can help each other. Then, choose guests with empty seats around them to avoid being dragged down by another anchor’s mistake, causing you to face two or even three ghosts.”
“Remember, after lighting the candle, activate your items immediately. Try not to use your talents; we still have a tough battle ahead, and it’s not worth wasting your talents in this situation.”
“Finally”, Wen Jianyan took a deep breath and turned his gaze toward the table.
On the long table, only one guest remained motionless in their seat. The plate in front of them held two torn-off faces, cold and stiff.
“Stay away from that guest; no matter what, do not serve it.”
This guest was no ordinary entity.
It wasn’t just because it had killed two anchors. More importantly, from what Wen Jianyan had learned so far, it was the source of all this strange occurrence. It was the cause of the small town turning into a dead city and the terrifying ritual beginning.
Though it used the same body, Wen Jianyan didn’t believe it was the same teacher who had given him the box in the well. That teacher had merely been a container and tool for it; it had been nurtured in human flesh, but was not truly human. It was a more sinister and terrifying existence.
Even though it had become a “guest,” its terror was on a whole new level.
So, out of caution, Wen Jianyan did not want his teammates to face it directly, but preferred to wait and observe for a while longer.
Soon, as he spoke, the second wave of guests had already entered the hall, walking with slow and eerie steps to sit at the long dining table.
“Go ahead, be careful,” Wen Jianyan’s voice was low, almost a whisper.
The others nodded and stepped forward, heading towards the table.
Similarly, the Black Team sent out their second wave, four people as well.
The process was almost identical to last time. As the anchors picked up their trays and began walking toward the table, the lights in the hall started to flicker violently. A thick, almost impenetrable darkness descended, shrouding the entire hall.
The anchors left at the front desk could no longer see what was happening in the distance; they could only smell the increasing stench of decay. This time, the rotten smell was even worse, so pungent that it made them gag even from afar.
The direction of the table, faint red candlelights began to flicker on one by one.
One, two, three…
Eight candles lit up.
Wen Jianyan felt his heart start pounding fiercely, thudding against his ribs.
Soon, the faint red flames flickered out one by one, and the darkness enveloping the hall began to dissipate, with light slowly returning.
In the dark, four figures ran toward this direction.
All of them had survived.
Wen Jianyan let out a sigh of relief.
He flexed his fingers, realizing that his palms had become sweaty without him noticing.
But just as they were about to approach, one of them suddenly stumbled, falling to his knees with a loud thud, startling everyone.
It was as though the restraint had been released. His mask fell off with a clatter.
Underneath the mask was a bloody, mangled face.
It was Zhong Shan.
He was dead.
Wen Jianyan felt a chill run down his spine, the hairs on the back of his neck standing up.
He slowly raised his head, looking toward the dining table.
The darkness had almost completely dissipated. This time, five of the eight figures at the table had disappeared, leaving only three.
It was obvious that Zhong Shan’s face was now in one of their plates.
The Black Team had also lost two people.
Wen Jianyan narrowed his eyes beneath his mask.
If this had been an initial encounter with death, the rate of attrition would have been understandable. But given that they had already figured out the rules of the banquet and had been extra cautious, yet still lost so many people, something didn’t sit right.
Moreover, the Black Team, like them, had the same information, so they too would have been cautious and wouldn’t have sent any average members.
Yet despite that, they still lost people.
If that’s the case…
It was clear that the guests here were of varying levels of danger. Ordinary ones could easily be sent away, but the more terrifying ones, like the woman in white, would make it incredibly hard to survive in a confrontation with them.
Wen Jianyan turned his head again and looked toward the table.
The darkness had almost entirely dissipated.
This time, three guests remained at the table.
Each of their plates contained bloody, face-like skin, emitting a foul, rotting odor.
“Here they come again.”
Blond murmured.
As though not giving them any chance to rest, the lights outside the hallway flickered again, and in the crimson, cold corridor, several figures began to appear.
“This time…” Blond’s voice faltered slightly, trembling as he said, “There are ten.”
Ten guests.
And this time, three guests remained at the table, meaning only two seats would be vacant.
Wen Jianyan couldn’t help but shiver.
He knew that this was one step closer to the terrifying scene he had predicted earlier.
Suddenly, from behind him, a sharp “creak” rang out, like the sound of a chair leg scraping against the floor.
“?!”
Everyone was startled, quickly turning to look in the direction of the sound.
Under the horrified gaze of all, a guest slowly stood up. The chair behind them was pushed backward, making a sharp noise against the floor, causing everyone’s heart to skip a beat.
It was the woman in white with the blurred face.
She stood up.
In front of her, a bloodstained brass plate held three faces.
…
Staring at her face with no distinct features, a cold sweat broke out on everyone’s back.
Wen Jianyan felt it too.
But after standing up, she didn’t move further.
She simply stood motionless at her seat, like a corpse long dead, quietly waiting for something.
No one dared to take this strange behavior lightly.
“…”
Suddenly, Wen Jianyan seemed to realize something and paused for a moment.
Before the banquet began, in addition to reminding them to light the candles before serving and to finish serving before the candles went out, the hotel manager had given them another reminder.
To be exact, this was actually the first rule he had told them.
【Do not keep the guests waiting.】
Staring at the white-clad woman standing silently in front of her seat, Wen Jianyan felt a cold sweat run down his spine.
What would happen if they kept her waiting?
“This time, I’ll go.”
Wen Jianyan said quietly.
He had to send this guest away during this serving session. If not, they might encounter a terrifying scene that they didn’t want to face.
On the Black Team’s side.
“Captain, what do you think?” The team members looked uncertainly at the white-clad woman standing in the distance, lowering their voices to ask Anis and the gentleman.
More footsteps of guests were approaching in the corridor behind.
No matter what, these ten new guests were about to enter the hall.
The gentleman glanced subtly at the Red Team’s area, then spoke lightly: “I think, this time, Pinocchio won’t be able to stay seated.”
He remained his usual elegant self, saying casually:
“Even if he doesn’t act himself, he’ll make the team members closer and more capable act—this is a good opportunity.”
“Naturally.”
Anis moved his lips and gave a sinister smile beneath his mask. He stretched his shoulders and said:
“Let’s go. This time, we’ll act together.”
