Chapter 14 - The Vanished Mermaid (Part 7)

Mermaid Hotel.

The murder that occurred during the day at the hotel was now known to almost all the players. Even those who hadn’t heard about it were informed by the news reports playing on a loop in the hotel lobby.

“When will the remaining four guests arrive?” the receptionist asked with a smile as she approached.

The player she addressed was startled, hesitated for a moment, and then replied perfunctorily, “Soon.”

The receptionist nodded and refilled the tea for the few people in the lobby before returning to her station. She didn’t look at the entrance but kept her eyes fixed on the people in the lobby without blinking.

“How long is she going to keep staring at us?” one player muttered under his breath.

“If you don’t want to be watched, just go upstairs to your room,” a man sitting by the window scoffed. His hair was slicked back in a vintage style, and he wore a floral shirt and jeans, giving off a retro vibe.

The player who had been spoken to didn’t want to argue, and he was indeed too scared to go up alone, so he just pursed his lips and ignored the man in the floral shirt.

“Hey,” the man in the floral shirt lit a cigarette and pointed at the bandaged man standing by the window, half-hidden by the curtain. “You were the first to make it into the hotel alive, right? Tell us, is what the news said true? Did a murderer escape from prison and kill someone here?”

Luo Yiran turned to look at the man in the floral shirt.

He was sitting on the magician’s hat, his entire doll form shrouded in shadow. When he turned his head, his bright red eyes were particularly striking.

The man in the floral shirt paused for a moment. “Almost forgot, you’re Luo Yiran.”

The doll didn’t mind that the magician had a stronger presence than himself. He carefully observed the man in the floral shirt and said, “What the news said is true, but the murderer has already been shot by the police, and all the bodies have been cleared from the hotel.”

The man in the floral shirt considered this. “So you think it’s safe to stay here now?”

Luo Yiran nodded naturally.

The man in the floral shirt was speechless.

Luo Yiran continued, “Anyway, we can only stay at this hotel. We might as well think positively. With such a big hotel and only about twenty of us staying, it should be quite peaceful and comfortable.”

The players could only stay at the Mermaid Hotel.

This was a message that appeared on everyone’s room card when the hotel was cleaned up in the afternoon. Clearly, it was an ominous piece of information-an empty hotel only housing players, which suggested a battlefield had been cleared for a fierce battle at night.

The young man in the black T-shirt who had been sitting behind Luo Yiran on the bus stood up. “I’m going back to my room.”

The player who had been mocked by the man in the floral shirt immediately stood up. “I’ll go with you.”

The other players also stood up one after another, planning to go upstairs together.

The man in the floral shirt waved amicably. “I don’t need to remind you how often elevators appear in horror movies, right? Remember to take the stairs, everyone.”

Then he turned to ask Luo Yiran, “Aren’t you going up?”

“I’m waiting for my friend,” Luo Yiran tilted his head slightly, watching the group of seven or eight people leave in a grand manner. He then asked the man in the floral shirt, “Aren’t you going up with your friend?”

The man in the floral shirt was taken aback.

“The one who sat behind me on the bus,” Luo Yiran yawned, his clear eyes seeming to glisten with a hint of moisture. “You two are friends, right? You exchanged a lot of glances on the bus and now.”

The man in the floral shirt was silent for a moment before clicking his tongue. He extinguished his cigarette with an annoyed tone, “Are you some kind of creep, staring at people all the time?”

“I wasn’t staring, just happened to notice,” Luo Yiran stood up, the night breeze blowing through the window, lifting the strands of hair around his forehead and ears. The pearl on his earlobe glowed softly as he recalled, “Or are you waiting for your other female friend? I haven’t seen her return yet.”

The man in the floral shirt was stunned, his eyes involuntarily showing shock. “?!”

Luo Yiran frowned. “No need to be so surprised, right? Weren’t you talking to that girl on the bus?”

The man in the floral shirt took a deep breath. “Were you really watching us the whole time?”

Luo Yiran withdrew his gaze, pouting slightly. “I told you, I wasn’t. I just remember the people I saw on the bus.” People can see a lot of things at a glance, but most can’t accurately remember them. He can.

The man in the floral shirt was skeptical. He still felt that Luo Yiran had been paying attention to them, but after thinking it over quickly, he couldn’t figure out what purpose Luo Yiran could have for doing so… Could he be telling the truth?

Can he really remember everything he’s seen and recall the details later?

Luo Yiran stared out the window and suddenly asked, “Are you close with your friend?”

The man in the floral shirt didn’t answer.

“I remember everyone on the bus, so I also remember how many people returned to the hotel,” Luo Yiran said without looking at the man in the floral shirt. “Including the two of us, there are now eighteen people staying at the hotel.”

The man in the floral shirt frowned. “So what?”

“Two players died at the hotel entrance during the day, so there are still seven who haven’t returned,” Luo Yiran’s eyes darkened. “But now only four more can come back.”

“What do you mean only four can come back…” The man in the floral shirt froze, and a few seconds later, he turned sharply to look at the Mermaid Hotel’s front desk.

The receptionist, who had been watching them, smiled when the man in the floral shirt turned around and repeated her earlier question, “When will the remaining four guests arrive?”

The man in the floral shirt’s hand trembled, his chest heaving violently. He stood up and looked towards the window-the magician let out a boisterous laugh, joyfully asking the doll, “Young master, do you think Xia Lang is among those four who can still return?”

The pearl on his earlobe continued to affect him, and besides the constant surge of irritation in his heart, the voice that had appeared during the day kept echoing in his ears, urging him to look up, to look up.

Luo Yiran resisted the urge to look up, closing his eyes to think about Xia Lang-wondering why he hadn’t returned yet despite being told to come back before dark.

The magician was still laughing, and the laughter was indeed annoying. The doll raised his hand, lightly biting his finger, his voice muffled, “Don’t speak, I don’t want to get angry.”

The voice was extremely muffled and low, as if suppressing something.

The magician didn’t want to be manipulated into sealing his own mouth again, so he obediently remained silent, though beneath the bandages on his face was clearly a gloating smile.

But the world is never short of people who are oblivious. The man in the floral shirt, after coming to his senses, kept muttering to himself, trying to calculate something, but he couldn’t recall anything. So he looked up, eyes slightly red, and asked the doll, “Do you remember everyone on the bus? Can you tell me who hasn’t come back yet?!”

Luo Yiran paused, slowly raising his head, his red eyes as cold as ice, devoid of any emotion.

The man in the floral shirt was startled, as if doused in cold water, suddenly clear-headed. He also noticed the pearl on Luo Yiran’s earlobe. “You, you have a pearl too?!”

A pearl too?

Luo Yiran paused, as if realizing something. “No need to ask me who else. If your friend got a pearl, then she’s likely doomed.” Xia Lang didn’t have a pearl, so his chances of survival were much higher than the man in the floral shirt’s friend.

At that moment, someone turned the corner of the street in front of the hotel, the streetlight stretching the newcomer’s shadow. Luo Yiran and the man in the floral shirt both turned to look-

The man in the floral shirt recognized the clothes and exclaimed in surprise, “It’s Qing…”

His voice abruptly stopped as he saw a disheveled woman staggering forward, looking up at the sky, her ears covered in pearls, almost enveloping her entire ear.

“Qing!” The man in the floral shirt immediately moved towards the door, wanting to go out and meet his friend, but before he could touch the door, the receptionist quickly came over and held him back. Despite her slender hands, she could hold the man in the floral shirt, a grown man, without him being able to move an inch.

The man in the floral shirt watched as the woman, head raised, slowly approached the hotel, and a strong sense of foreboding rose in his heart. He looked at the receptionist and growled, “A guest has arrived!”

The receptionist remained unmoved, her smile sweet. “Sir, that is not our guest.”

The man in the floral shirt was stunned.

The doll’s eyes showed a hint of pity.

The man in the floral shirt watched as the woman got closer and closer to the door, then he saw it-the tiny scales on her skin, the bloody gash on her neck, and the strong fishy smell emanating from her.

The receptionist’s sweet smile turned to disgust as she pulled something from her pocket and threw it at the woman. “Disgusting creature, don’t come in here. Security, get rid of it!”

The woman didn’t lower her head, making a hissing sound like a stray dog being chased away, stumbling as she turned to leave.

The man in the floral shirt was about to explode. He was preparing to resist when the receptionist suddenly spoke, enunciating each word clearly, “Sir, we cannot harm guests, but you cannot harm us either.”

As her words fell, the man in the floral shirt froze, and after a moment, he slumped down, shuffling back to the sofa in the lobby.

The doll looked at him. “The dead will continue to exist in the game as soul forms. You won’t forget her.”

The man in the floral shirt lit a cigarette and took a deep drag. “You’re definitely a newbie.”

The doll tilted his head in confusion.

“I won’t forget her, but the soul form forgets everything and can only wander aimlessly in personal space.”

The doll seemed thoughtful.

After finishing his cigarette, the man in the floral shirt stood up, ready to go upstairs. But before he reached the stairs, he suddenly turned back to Luo Yiran. “Newbie, did you hear what the receptionist said? Don’t harm the people in the hotel; that’s one of the rules of this instance.”

“The rules of this instance should be discovered and triggered by ourselves,” the man in the floral shirt said with a self-deprecating smile. “When we were only given one option at the start without any other explanations, I should have realized.” Qing must have triggered a rule she couldn’t handle.

With that, the man in the floral shirt turned to go upstairs.

“Thank you for telling me,” Luo Yiran raised his voice slightly. “Then let me tell you, if you receive a pearl, remember not to look up, no matter how strong the urge.”

The man in the floral shirt turned sharply.

Luo Yiran pointed to his ear. “There’s a voice constantly urging me to look up, and at first, it was saying that the night in Water City holds many secrets, urging me to find them.”

“Though it’s hard not to listen, you mustn’t,” the doll’s eyes didn’t blink. “If you believe it for even a moment, it’s dangerous.”

It was because the pearl urged him to search at night that he told Xia Lang to return before dark.

The man in the floral shirt’s face twitched at the doll’s words, which hit the nail on the head about Qing’s reason for going out. He quickly left.

“Young master, you’re so clever,” the magician chuckled, asking softly, “Do you want to guess if Xia Lang has gotten a pearl by now?”

The doll’s eyes darkened again. “Don’t provoke me; under the pearl’s influence, my temper won’t be good.”

“You’ve never been kind to me,” the magician said, aggrieved. “Besides, it’s just a guess.”

Guess my foot. The doll ignored the magician, touching his ear-it’s a pity this thing can’t be removed.

At that moment, the hotel door was knocked on, and then a gray, curly-haired head popped in. “Knock, knock, anyone there? We’re here to check in.”

“Three in total.”

Beside the curly-haired boy, the trench coat man stood with his arms crossed, and behind them, Guan Cheng was pitifully holding several bags, his face full of fear and guilt.

The doll looked up, meeting the gaze of the three.

After a moment, Via raised his hands. “Don’t look at us like that, we did our best.”