Chapter 20 - The Vanished Mermaid (Part 13)

8 AM.

Mermaid Hotel lobby.

The players who survived last night gradually gathered in the hotel lobby. The floral shirt and the black T-shirt young man came down together, both looking rather grim.

The black T-shirt young man was named Li Zhi, a fresh intern in the real world. The floral shirt was Fang Jincheng. They were friends with Qing, who had died last night and whose body had been transformed into a monster, a friend they met in the game.

The instance “The Escape of the Poacher” was one Qing got pulled into, and after Luo Yiran interrupted it, Qing, along with her teammates Li Zhi and Fang Jincheng, joined “The Vanished Mermaid.”

But now Qing was dead.

And they didn’t know how much longer they could survive.

The front desk staff approached with a smile, asking if they needed any food.

Fang Jincheng, with heavy dark circles under his eyes, lit a cigarette and waved them off.

The front desk said, “If you need food, you can come to me.”

“Alright.”

Li Zhi didn’t smoke, but he also had no appetite: “I wonder how many people are still alive in the hotel now.”

Fang Jincheng took a deep drag on his cigarette: “Anyone who was alone in a room last night is probably gone.”

“The ones who knocked on the door… people.” Fang Jincheng hesitated to even call them people, but eventually did: “If someone was alone and saw the face of the person outside through the peephole, they were done for… They would definitely open the door.”

Without a companion to notice something was wrong and stop them, the person in the room was likely to fall for it.

Fang Jincheng had gone back to tell Li Zhi that Qing was gone, and out of concern for each other, they had squeezed into one room, which just happened to give them a slim chance of survival.

But even after the crisis was over, neither of them slept well. Initially, it was because the person knocking on the door kept calling out to them from outside, making their skin crawl. Just when they were about to endure it, a male voice began shouting and then sobbing somewhere, echoing eerily, and the most terrifying part was that after the crying started, the knocking stopped…

What did that mean?

It meant the crying guy was even more dangerous!

They were both worried that the crying man would find their door, and that worry kept them up all night.

Li Zhi looked up at the other five players in the lobby and whispered, “Do you think everyone heard that guy crying last night?”

Fang Jincheng looked at the five players’ haggard faces and the heavy dark circles under their eyes: “I believe it.”

The seven players exchanged knowing glances and sighed simultaneously. After sighing, they all sat on the sofa with troubled expressions.

With no one speaking or moving, the already quiet Mermaid Hotel became even quieter. If you listened carefully, you could even hear the sound of the elevator operating…

Wait! The elevator operating? Who was bold enough to take the elevator!

Fang Jincheng turned to look at the elevator not far away.

The sound of the wheels stopped, and Fang Jincheng watched as the elevator doors slowly opened. His first thought was that the knocker from this morning had followed them down, so he immediately stood up, deciding that if it really was that thing coming after them, they would knock it out and stuff it back inside…

He hadn’t even finished thinking about how to handle it when he froze.

“Doll?”

Out of the elevator stepped a tall man in a wrinkled gray suit. On his head was a high magic hat, and sitting cross-legged on it was a doll in a white shirt and suspenders, a deep blue beret covering his head. When he heard Fang Jincheng’s voice, the doll looked up and corrected him: “My name is Luo Yiran.”

“Oh, oh, Luo Yiran, why did you take the elevator down…” Fang Jincheng hadn’t finished his sentence when he saw the doll wave his hand, and then a blond boy, familiar to all the players, stepped out of the elevator. His bright blue eyes glanced at the players in the lobby, and then he flashed them a confident smile.

Although the boy had the same face as the mermaid in the water tank yesterday, for some reason, the impact wasn’t as strong as yesterday.

But just having the same face was shocking enough.

The doll glanced over the seven players in the lobby, noticing their haggard faces as if they hadn’t slept all night. He asked curiously, “Did you not sleep last night?”

Fang Jincheng, the only one who had spoken to the doll a few times, explained to avoid awkward silence: “There was a guy crying all night, didn’t you hear it? It was terrifying…”

Fang Jincheng’s voice cut off as he stared wide-eyed at the blond boy.

The lobby fell silent.

The seven players all looked at the blond boy, a shared suspicion rising in their hearts-could this boy be Luo Yiran’s knocker? And the one crying last night…

Mainly because they had all compared notes when they came down, and their knockers were all female.

Luo Yiran nodded, pointing at Artel to confirm their suspicion: “You’re probably talking about him. He knocked on my door last night, and when I didn’t let him in, he cried at the window.”

Artel gave an embarrassed, shy smile.

“……”

After a deathly silence, the seven players took a few steps back in unison.

Luo Yiran: “?”

Fang Jincheng gave the doll a thumbs up from a distance: “You’re brave, bringing anyone along.”

Luo Yiran: “He insisted on following me.”

Fang Jincheng: “We knocked them out and locked them in a room.”

Luo Yiran paused, curiously asking: “So you’re not going back to your rooms to rest tonight?”

“……?!”

It wasn’t that they didn’t understand; it was just that Li Zhi, the first to open the door in the morning, was startled to find last night’s knocker still outside, and reflexively knocked them out and threw them back in the room. Those who heard the commotion followed suit.

“It’s fine to let them follow during the day.” The doll had no ill intentions and said kindly, “At this time, their faces aren’t as attractive, so you won’t be enchanted.”

Perhaps the doll’s words were reassuring, as the only female player present boldly asked him a question that all the players were curious about: “Why does he look exactly like the mermaid from yesterday?”

Could it be that Luo Yiran’s knocker was the mermaid? After all, legends say a mermaid’s fish tail can turn into legs.

The atmosphere in the lobby grew tense, and Luo Yiran knew it was because of the task.

Players who chose task two had the goal of killing the mermaid, and now there was someone by Luo Yiran’s side who looked exactly like the mermaid.

“Um…”

The doll adjusted the beret on his head and said truthfully: “He’s not the mermaid.”

He said it, but whether they believed it was up to them.

“But yesterday, it was him in the water tank.” Via’s voice suddenly came from behind, and everyone turned to look.

Luo Yiran also turned, seeing Via bouncing over, accompanied by the steady Li Qi Feng… and the dazed Guan Cheng trailing behind.

This setup was familiar. Luo Yiran smiled a little.

Via came over and sat next to Artel, sincerely complimenting him: “You’re really good-looking.”

Artel happily thanked him.

Via tilted his head, smiling, and asked, “Yesterday, you were playing the mermaid Idia in the water tank, right?”

Mentioning Idia made Artel unhappy, but he still answered, “Yes, it was me.”

“Then you’re really impressive.” Via hinted, “At certain moments yesterday, you really seemed like a mermaid, not like a person playing a role at all.”

Artel’s smile disappeared.

“Where’s your knocker?” The doll suddenly interrupted Via.

“Killed it.” Via casually crossed his legs, shaking them: “And we killed a monster in the hallway too.”

“……”

The lobby fell silent again, and someone remarked, “As expected of you two.”

Li Qi Feng and Via were a formidable team, especially for those who had seen the live broadcast instance.

The two of them fell silent for a moment, knowing that this comment meant people had seen their live broadcast instance. They could have laughed it off, but now they both glanced at the doll-

This instance was also a live broadcast instance!

Li Qi Feng sighed almost imperceptibly, then changed the subject: “You all know the knockers are meant to lure us to open the door, and then the hallway monster comes to kill us, right?”

Everyone except Luo Yiran nodded.

Luo Yiran candidly said, “I had my suspicions, but unfortunately, I didn’t see it.”

“Not seeing it is probably for the best.” Fang Jincheng shuddered: “It looked too strange. Just one look and I almost threw up.”

Li Qi Feng coughed, pulling his coat tighter: “We checked the rooms when we came down, and besides Guan Cheng, no one else is alive.”

The lobby fell silent again, but this time the silence was heavy with tension.

“So,” Li Zhi swallowed, “after one day in the instance, only eleven of us are still alive.”

“Twelve,” Luo Yiran corrected, “there’s one more outside the hotel.”

Everyone was puzzled, and Via waved it off: “Fine, let’s just say your friend who didn’t come back last night is still alive, so there are twelve of us left.”

One more or one less didn’t make a difference to them now, as it didn’t change the fact that more than half of the people in this instance were gone after the first day.

They didn’t dwell on it, and instead, the female player who had spoken earlier was curious about something else: “The doll and Guan Cheng were in a room alone last night, right? How did you deal with the knocker?”

There was nothing wrong with sharing this, especially since so few people were left. Sharing experiences was good, even though things might be different each night.

Luo Yiran: “Hold out against the first glance, and then just don’t look at their face.”

The female player: “……” The problem was they couldn’t hold out at all.

Guan Cheng came over, looking a bit puffy but otherwise in good spirits. He patted his face, looking a bit dazed: “Actually, I… was drunk last night. I just found out what happened.”

“……?”

Guan Cheng had really passed out drunk. He hadn’t planned on drinking, but the events with Xia Lang last night had hit him hard, so he drank, accidentally drinking too much and not knowing when he fell asleep. He woke up when Via shook him awake.

Everyone was speechless, and Li Zhi quipped, “You dared to drink in an instance?”

Guan Cheng smiled wryly: “Someone insisted on selling it to me… and I hadn’t planned on drinking.”

“Pretty lucky.” Passing out drunk meant he didn’t hear any knocking.

Luo Yiran calmly summarized: “So if anyone knocks tonight, just ignore it.”

Via went to the front desk to get a piece of cake, then wobbled back: “No worries, if worse comes to worst, just cut them down. They’re a lot weaker than the mermaid monster outside.”

“……” Artel quietly moved closer to the magician, looking innocently at the doll.

At that moment, a voice came from the hotel entrance before the person arrived: “Is everyone up? If you are, hurry up. Today we’re going to tour the Water City attractions together!”

The people in the lobby turned to look.

The boss they had seen when they got off the bus yesterday walked in, with a very beautiful woman on his arm. The boss looked at them, then his gaze fell on Guan Cheng. He frowned: “I didn’t notice yesterday, but didn’t you win the lottery and quit? Why are you here for team building?”

Guan Cheng looked confused, but then thought it might be part of his character setting, so he said, “I still want to spend some time with everyone.”

The boss didn’t like him: “It’s good for someone with only luck and no skill to leave.”

Via exclaimed, “Wow, the lottery, huh? That’s great~ Even if it’s just a setting, I’d love to feel what it’s like to win the lottery.”

The boss ignored the “even if it’s just a setting” part, snorting: “Don’t even think about it. Among you, this guy’s the luckiest.”

The others didn’t react much, but Luo Yiran paused, then a second later, the doll looked at the boss: “Boss, what about me?”

The boss thought Luo Yiran was envious of Guan Cheng, so he comforted him: “Don’t worry, even though you’re unlucky, you’re my most outstanding employee!”

“When we get back, I’ll give you a promotion and a raise!”