Chapter 355: Neighborhood Meeting
After Lin Sanjiu opened the door slightly, she did not stick her head out immediately. Instead, she stealthily stuck one hand out while holding a broken piece of mirror. Tilting the mirror, she caught the blurry reflection of the carpeted corridor outside.
After scavenging through unit 119, she finally found a mirror behind the door of a cupboard and chipped a piece off. As Lin Sanjiu was worried that even a reflection might work, she intentionally rubbed the surface of the mirror against a corner of a table a few times. She scratched the mirror until it became cloudy before she used it to check the situation outside.
She didn"t really have a choice. For some reasons, ever since Lin Sanjiu entered this attraction, her five senses were just all messed up. It was as if she had reverted back to being a normal human. When she saw or heard something, it was usually too late for her to react.
Thankfully, that thing which was once Geran was no longer outside. While she stared at the reflection in her mirror for almost five minutes, there was seemingly no movements in the corridor.
Lin Sanjiu turned around and looked at the room in unit 119 again. She took a deep breath and pulled the door open.
The painting which depicted a small port on a rainy day was still behind her. The painting no longer had any quiet impressionistic charm. The part of the painting where Livia"s face appeared was empty once more. All that was left was a misty, eerie-looking grayish-green port on a drizzling day.
She s.h.i.+fted her slightly uncomfortable shoulders and shot a quick glance at the corridor. Then, she closed her eyes. Her body shot out of the door the next second before her mind could even process anything. Closing her eyes, she found herself in full darkness as she nervously judged the distance between her steps.
Creak. She heard the sound of a door. Suddenly, it was as if something in the atmosphere had changed. However, she couldn"t see a thing now, and she couldn"t even detect what it was. Lin Sanjiu could feel her pores simultaneously contracting. The second she heard that sound, she extended her wings almost instinctively as if to protect herself. She stretched out her left arm and tried to see if she could touch anything for a split second before she sprinted up the stairs.
After racing up the stairs, Lin Sanjiu only stopped when she reached the second floor. Her heart was still pounding rapidly. She opened her eyes cautiously.
When her gaze s.h.i.+fted to the stairs, she could see "Geran"s" deformed shadow stretching along its steps as if he was going to climb up.
"Geran had already moved into room 101, so he definitely can"t come up," Lin Sanjiu comforted herself inwardly. Even though she did not knock the doors when she came up to the second floor this time, she certainly didn"t want to stay any longer than necessary. Without staying for even half a second, Lin Sanjiu turned around and sped up the next flight of stairs.
—
The conversation she had with Livia ten minutes before surfaced in her mind as she replayed the sentences in her head.
"I can"t say too much to you," a photo-like image of Livia moved choppily as if it was some lousy computer generated graphics. Livia"s pupils were at the corner of her eyes one second and back in the center of her eyes the next second. "You"ve stayed in this room for more than 5 minutes so you"re probably already considered as a "preparatory occupant". Check if there is bottled water in the room," Livia urged with an unstable, erratic voice.
Lin Sanjiu crushed the A4 paper with the "Neighborhood Meeting" tightly into a ball. She stared at the graphic-form Livia and slowly walked in front of the dining table. With a quick glance, she knew that something was wrong—
There was no bottled water and only two carbonated sodas.
"Yes, this is the sign that you are a "preparatory occupant"," Livia, in her graphical form, looked like she wanted to laugh. However, the corners of her mouth seemed to be frozen. "If you want to get water to survive, a "preparatory occupant" has to go to the washroom to get water. I think this is some sort of hint. The "sightseeing" really begins behind the window in the washroom. Once you enter, you will find the exit."
Lin Sanjiu froze for half a second before asking dryly, "And... how would you know?"
"After I entered unit 603, didn"t you knock on the door? Before I could even react, an old woman suddenly materialized… I was startled so I didn"t notice that the scenery behind the window in the room was actually a drawing. I turned around and leaped through the window… In a surprising turn of event, I found out the secret behind this building."
"But, you can"t enter from this window. I think the window will only be accessible when the true owner of this unit appears. Anyway, you should go to the washroom on the 7th floor,"
Livia concluded and nodded at Lin Sanjiu as if she was unwilling to reveal anything more behind that gla.s.s window.
After that, Livia turned around as her image flickered. She disappeared from the window as if she had taken another route in front of her.
Lin Sanjiu fiddled with the paper ball in her hands disconcertingly for some time. The edges of the paper ball created indents in her palm. Going to the washroom on the 7th floor seemed to be the only choice laid out for her. Even though Lin Sanjiu was uncertain if Livia was telling the truth, she was not going to simply wait obediently in unit 119 for that stupid "neighborhood meeting".
—
Jarring footsteps rang up the flight of stairs to the 3rd floor. Then, they stopped.
"What"s wrong?" Mrs. Manas asked fretfully.
Lin Sanjiu crooked her head and thought for a moment. She suddenly turned around and walked down the stairs gingerly. As she tiptoed, she replied, "I suddenly remembered that I still need to do something."
She moved as lightly and slowly as she could. If one didn"t pay attention, they might even a.s.sume that there was no one in the entire building.
—
Forty minutes later, the door of the washroom on the 7th floor opened with a creak, and Lin Sanjiu walked into it. Water had acc.u.mulated over the tiled floor of the washroom. The wet floor glistened under the white fluorescent light looking like it could cause a slip and fall accident anytime. Bzzt. Bzzt. The fluorescent light flickered in the gray and empty washroom.
Lin Sanjiu looked around herself and realized that the window in the male and the female washroom were not situated the same corresponding part of the washroom due to the structure of the building. Lin Sanjiu stepped through the water to the last cubicle in the washroom and opened it. She saw Livia"s face in the window.
Lin Sanjiu could make out the scenery of a beach behind that face. Livia was standing extremely close to the window. Lin Sanjiu spotted the shadows of a few palm trees behind the image of Livia"s face.
"You"re finally here," Livia"s eyes s.h.i.+fted rigidly from left to right as Lin Sanjiu approached, "Why did you take such a long time?"
Despite saying that, Livia didn"t seem bothered by that and greeted Lin Sanjiu, "It"s fine as long as you"re here. Quick, prepare yourself and come in here. You can just open the gla.s.s window and stick your head in."
"Sure," Lin Sanjiu replied as she walked toward the window. Lin Sanjiu opened the window following Livia"s instructions while she questioned, "So, the sceneries behind the windows are all connected?"
"Yes," Livia"s black eyes moved downward as she eyed Lin Sanjiu"s hand, "It"s designed in this manner for the players to find the exit."
After Lin Sanjiu pulled open the window, a gust of sea breeze blew in. The wind ruffled Lin Sanjiu"s fringe. Livia"s face suddenly seemed a lot more lively and her expression seemed much smoother, "Yes. Yes. Just come in."
Lin Sanjiu smiled at Livia before raising her wings.
In a split second, before Livia even noticed anything amiss, Lin Sanjiu had already projected her skeletal wings toward the "painting" like bullets. The white sinister-looking wings, with their multiple sharp ends, thrust through the human face in the painting powered by Lin Sanjiu"s incredible strength. There was a loud shriek. Livia"s face was shredded along with the painting that fell to the ground in torn pieces. Lin Sanjiu pulled out her wings, took a few steps backward and looked cautiously at the painting.
That attack had damaged the bottom left corner of the painting. Livia"s face was at that spot moments ago and Lin Sanjiu had vandalized it so badly that it was impossible to tell what it looked like originally. However, after that shriek, Livia"s face disappeared from the torn pieces of paper and rea.s.sembled back on the painting perfectly intact. She moved from the bottom left corner to the bottom right corner of the painting. She glared at Lin Sanjiu with a pair of bloodshot eyes.
"You... Why did you attack me?" Livia"s shoulders moved up and down as if she was panting while she questioned Lin Sanjiu.
"I should have thought of that long ago," Lin Sanjiu sighed lightly. "I think I owe you an apology."
Livia"s eyes widened. She didn"t say a word.
"Have you met another player called Geran? Even if you haven"t, you must have met him by now… You and Geran came into this attraction before I did," Lin Sanjiu explained as she studied Livia"s face. "When I entered, the difficulty suddenly increased. I am not sure what aspect of the attraction changed. But, both Geran and you died because of this."
Lin Sanjiu made a gesture and a pair of gold-rimmed spectacles appeared in her hand. "I found this in the male washroom... When I think about it, Geran probably met the same fate as you. He might have been tricked to enter that window…"
Livia eyed the spectacle frame and laughed coldly.
"I still don"t know much about this place," Lin Sanjiu ignored her and looked down at the spectacles. She placed the spectacles on top of the toilet water tank. "For example, I don"t know what would happen if a person entered a window. What state are you and Geran in? What kind of existence have both of you become? I can"t figure the answers to those questions. The only thing I know is that you and Geran died because of me. That is also the reason why both of you want to trick and kill me."
"Then… why didn"t you trust me?" Livia asked through the damaged painting with her head crooked.
"It is because of the occupants in the building." Lin Sanjiu replied. "You and Geran are different from the occupants living here. The difference is that both of you are not "planned"... Both of you were actually players. Due to some reasons, both of you were tricked. You both died and were trapped here. Consequently, what you and Geran said are not scripted by the attraction. In that case, whether you guys are right or wrong, the attraction only need me to know the information conveyed by the original occupants."
Lin Sanjiu looked at Livia"s ashen face. Because Livia had crooked her head, Lin Sanjiu finally noticed that there was no neck and body beneath that realistic image of the woman"s head. "Before I came here and saw you, I went to knock on all the doors that I have missed so I already got all the information I needed."
When Livia heard this, her pupils spun and shot to the back of her eyes such that only her sclera remained. Unexpectedly, Livia burst into shrieks of laughter.
"You are relying on the occupants here?" Livia sounded like she had heard something delightful and continued laughing uncontrollably. "If I knew you were someone so simple, I wouldn"t even have wasted my effort. Just enjoy. Your neighborhood meeting is coming up."
Before her words faded, Lin Sanjiu felt a chill through her body and tensed up. The cubicle suddenly became dark.
When she looked under the door of the cubicle, she noticed that at some unknown time multiple pairs of legs had appeared. Long, short, fat, skinny. Lin Sanjiu saw legs of all a.s.sortments along with their different shoes. They were outside and only a door stood between them and Lin Sanjiu. Without looking up, Lin Sanjiu knew that there were some things looming over the four corners of the cubicle above her.
The figure blocked the dim light in the washroom, casting intercrossed shadows on her body. It was as if she was a plate of cuisine that was about to be eaten.
Knock. Knock. Someone knocked on the door of the cubicle. There was a pair of converse sneakers right in front of the door.
The girl"s voice was supposed to be intoxicated, affected by cigarette, alcohol and weed, yet she suddenly sounded very sober. "Are you that older sister? Open the door, please. I have something to tell you," the girl chuckled and said with an amiable and friendly tone.
The washroom was silent for a few seconds.
"Young lady, aren"t you going to open the door?" the old woman"s cheerful voice filled the air, "I"m old so it"s really tiring for me to look at you through the gap at the bottom of the cubicle."
As she said that, a gray shadowy figure slowly appeared from under the door. It seemed to be the face of an old woman bending over. Lin Sanjiu first saw the old woman"s curly hair and then her forehead...
Lin Sanjiu inhaled sharply and closed her eyes. She opened the door and stepped out of the cubicle. The light from the washroom shone through her eyelids. In the vague white light, Lin Sanjiu felt the shadows around her. With the "occupants" around her, Lin Sanjiu shut her eyes and walked forward.