Demon Apartment - Chapter 9 - Panic

The room plunged into complete darkness, and even the phones became unusable, which indeed caused everyone to feel a heightened sense of panic.

No one would believe this was a natural power outage. Yet, even so, such a sudden change filled them with terror.

“What… what should we do?”

“My phone won’t turn on either, what… what should we do?”

“Calm down… calm down!”

“Who can stay calm? Could that old lady have already come in?”

“Ge Qi!” Just as everyone’s minds were in chaos, Dong Ning’s voice rang out: “Don’t you have a lighter?”

At that moment, everyone remembered. Ge Qi himself also recalled and quickly took out the lighter, producing a small flame.

When light reappeared in their sight, they finally breathed a sigh of relief. Thankfully, at least the lighter still worked. In such a critical moment, they hadn’t reacted as quickly as a girl.

After lighting the lighter, Ge Qi immediately shone it around the room.

“Phew… it’s, it’s okay…” Ge Qi sighed in relief. The room hadn’t gained any extra “things.” Otherwise, Ge Qi would have been scared out of his wits.

Feng Yu, at this point, was completely at a loss, like a headless fly. He turned to Zhao Long and asked, “Um… Zhao Long, do you, do you have any ideas? What should we do at a time like this? Should we stay here, or… go out?”

The records and information about the Blood Letters they had studied in the past proved utterly useless when it came to practice. After all, in the Blood Letters, the patterns of “those things” were nearly impossible to predict. In lower-difficulty Blood Letters, “they” sometimes had limitations, unable to locate the residents’ positions, and their physical movements weren’t very fast. Of course, this was only in the early stages of the Blood Letter. As it neared the end, if a Path to Survival still couldn’t be found, the restrictions would gradually lift.

However, even if “those things” couldn’t locate them, hiding in such a building wasn’t an easy task. That much was certain.

“Yeah,” Ge Qi, holding the lighter, also trembled as he spoke, “Zhao Long, you’ve survived two Blood Letters after all, you must have some ideas, right? What… what should we do?”

Dong Xie looked at the people in front of him and realized they were completely unreliable. Though they were veteran residents, they were no different from him, a newcomer-if not worse. Their past experiences with the Blood Letters had clearly shattered their courage. Dong Xie understood that if they wanted to survive, it would have to be up to him and Ah Ning.

Zhao Long stared at Feng Yu and Ge Qi, who were utterly clueless, even asking him whether they should leave or not. This left Zhao Long’s mind blank as well. Frankly, he didn’t know what the right choice was. If they went out now, would they die even faster? Maybe that old lady was waiting for them downstairs! Just the thought of it made Zhao Long’s legs go weak.

“You think I’m some kind of savior? I’m not Buddha, and I’m not Jesus! How would I know what to do?” Zhao Long was honestly fed up with being the one in charge. He had barely survived his last Blood Letter. Originally, he had planned to stay in constant contact with Mo Yuan. Within the Apartment, the three residents who had survived the most Blood Letters were Mo Yuan, Qin Ziyuan, and Nie Han-all of whom had successfully completed four Blood Letters. Among them, Mo Yuan was the most willing to help other residents; if he said he was second, no one would dare claim first. But now, with their phones disconnected, he couldn’t reach Mo Yuan anymore!

During his last Blood Letter… he had only survived because he had communicated all the information to Mo Yuan, who had then figured out the Path to Survival. Without Mo Yuan, Zhao Long felt utterly hopeless! He knew he wasn’t particularly intelligent. During his first two Blood Letters, he had been completely clueless, never understanding how the so-called Path to Survival was deduced. And if he couldn’t figure it out this time… he was as good as dead!

“What do you mean, Zhao Long?” Feng Yu was frantic now. “Don’t you live close to Mo Yuan? Don’t you two often talk? Surely Mo Yuan must have shared some survival tips with you! You can’t just bail on us at a time like this!”

Ge Qi chimed in as well: “Yeah, we’ve only survived one Blood Letter each. Honestly, I barely made it back to the Apartment during my last one. I don’t want to die! You… you must have some ideas, right? You’ve been through the most Blood Letters, and you’re the leader of this temporary team. You can’t just shirk your responsibility! Didn’t Spider-Man say, ‘With great power comes great responsibility’?”

“What responsibility? I don’t have any damn responsibility! I’m not Spider-Man, I’m just an ordinary person!”

Dong Ning watched the scene from the side, utterly disappointed in the three of them. With their current state, it would be a miracle if they survived.

“Listen to me!” Just then, Dong Xie spoke up: “Let’s get out of here!”

As the other three were arguing more and more intensely, Dong Xie’s words immediately drew their attention to him.

“What are you talking about?” Feng Yu had been completely ignoring Dong Xie from the start. This time, he had only borrowed Dong Xie’s car to get to the Blood Letter execution site.

Not just Feng Yu, but Ge Qi also looked at Dong Xie as if he were a fool.

To them, Dong Xie was just a new resident on his first Blood Letter mission. To put it bluntly, they saw him as a dead man walking, not placing the slightest bit of hope in him.

“What I mean is…” Dong Xie cleared his throat and said, “In such a small room, if ‘those things’ really appear, it won’t be safe for us. It’s better to go out and explore. Even if… we get attacked, we might find some clues related to the Path to Survival.”

It wasn’t a complicated idea. Yet, in the face of fear, both Zhao Long and Feng Yu chose to bury their heads in the sand. They knew going out might yield clues, but the thought of that old lady, that terrifying entity, made them too scared to take a single step.

“If we go out… and run into that old lady…” Feng Yu couldn’t bring himself to leave: “There must be another way, right?”

“There is no other way,” Dong Xie said firmly. “The Path to Survival won’t just be handed to us. Avoiding the problem won’t help. I’ve read past Blood Letter records… If residents don’t actively search for clues to the Path to Survival, they die because they can’t find it. We need to explore Building 3. Only then do we have a chance to find the Path to Survival.”

“You, a new resident, think you can act all high and mighty in front of me?” Feng Yu vented his fear and unease on Dong Xie: “You, a rookie who hasn’t even survived a single Blood Letter, dare to boss us around?”