Chapter 79 — IAVD (QT) Chapter 79

The stairwell was deep and pitch-black. One could not see their own hand in front of their face.

Ji Xiu tried stomping his foot to make some noise, but no lights turned on in response. Most likely, the stairwell lights had long fallen into disrepair, and with no one daring to come change them, they were completely unusable.

This was not a problem for Ji Xiu. He had internal energy protecting his body and could see in the dark, though it was somewhat inconvenient.

Following the stairs of the thirteenth floor, Ji Xiu walked downward step by step, planning to go all the way to the first floor from here and see exactly what was going on that made this place forbidden to enter.

Because Building Thirteen was designed entirely as duplex apartments, the floor height of each level was around five and a half meters. As a result, there were far more stairs than usual. In ordinary residential buildings, a flight of stairs usually had nine or ten steps. But in this apartment building, a single flight had thirteen steps. Only after walking two flights, a total of twenty-six steps, would one reach a complete floor.

Ji Xiu felt a hint of doubt in his heart. Why was it thirteen again?

In Western stories, thirteen was a very unlucky number. Before Jesus was crucified, he had his last supper with his disciples. The thirteenth person at the table was Judas, the disciple who betrayed him and caused Jesus to suffer immense torment. In the end, thirteen came to represent suffering and misfortune.

In many later literary works, thirteen was used to hint at the arrival of death and disaster.

And in this apartment building, there were simply too many instances of “thirteen.”

The apartment was Building Thirteen. They lived on the thirteenth floor. The stairs had thirteen steps. Right, Ji Xiu suddenly thought of their room number, 1309. One, three, nine. Add them together, and it was also thirteen.

Could it be that all of this was the reason the apartment was haunted?

Ji Xiu pondered for a moment and felt it was very likely.

The apartment was built on low ground, facing away from the sun, located in the center of the complex and surrounded by tall buildings. Most of the time, it never saw sunlight. In feng shui terms, this was a place that gathered yin energy. Coupled with so many ominous symbols, it was naturally shrouded in a gloomy atmosphere. Yin energy accumulated and did not disperse, giving rise to evil ghosts and supernatural incidents. That would be perfectly reasonable.

Once he understood the reason for the haunting, the mystery of the apartment was more than half solved.

As long as one avoided anything related to the number thirteen, it would basically mean avoiding the killing mechanism.

Right. What the cleaner said was correct. The stairwell also contained thirteen. Do not take the stairs. The stairs were the killing mechanism.

Ji Xiu thought briefly, looked at the overlapping stairs below that disappeared into darkness, and turned around without hesitation, heading back toward the thirteenth floor.

He walked upward. After climbing one flight of stairs, there was no door in front of him, only a wall. Smooth and flat, it looked like the landing between floors.

Ji Xiu raised his brows in surprise and continued upward.

After another thirteen steps, what appeared before him was still a wall.

Ji Xiu’s expression grew slightly heavy. He kept going upward. Every flight of stairs ended in a wall. He could no longer tell how many steps he had walked. The staircase became endless, spiraling continuously, as if it had no end at all. No matter how he walked, he could not find the exit. In the dim, lightless stairwell, the pressure on one’s mind grew immense.

Ji Xiu thought for a moment, then turned around and walked downward.

After just one flight, light appeared ahead. The exit was right in front of him. But the sign before the exit was something that should not exist.

Fourth Floor.

Ji Xiu did not enter rashly.

From the landing between the twelfth and thirteenth floors, he had walked upward for at least a hundred floors. Normally, he should have reached the rooftop long ago. Yet now, after walking down only a few steps, he had arrived at the fourth floor. It was far too strange.

Ji Xiu recalled that on the first day, when they rode the elevator, everyone had chatted casually and discussed why this building had no fourth floor. He had glanced at the buttons then, and indeed, there was no fourth floor button.

So what exactly was this fourth floor in front of him?

A rare hint of curiosity arose in Ji Xiu’s heart. He stepped forward and walked inside.

…

At the same time, on the thirteenth floor.

The players had not noticed Ji Xiu’s disappearance and were still seriously knocking on doors one by one, asking for clues.

Using the identity of newly moved-in neighbors, the residents who opened their doors showed some vigilance, but were still fairly friendly and answered questions readily.

However, these residents were all outsiders who had not lived here long. They worked every day and had no time to observe their surroundings, so they did not provide any useful clues.

The players had no choice but to cast a wide net.

When they knocked on the last door, no one opened it.

They knocked several times without receiving a response, which they could understand.

These days, scams and home invasions were becoming more and more common. Many people would not open the door even if they heard noise. Out of more than ten doors they knocked on, only four or five had opened. It was normal for this one not to.

They should move on to the next one.

Just as the players turned to leave, a resident at the neighboring door, who was talking with another player, casually said, “That one won’t open the door. Don’t knock.”

“Why?”

“That person has something wrong with his head. Who knows what kind of stimulation he suffered. He’s completely unhinged. Every night at midnight, he doesn’t sleep and just screams in his room, making it impossible for the neighbors to have any peace.”

Unhinged?

Screaming at night?

The players instantly caught onto the key points. They thanked the resident. After the door closed, they tacitly regrouped in front of the last room and cautiously knocked again.

Inside, there was an eerie silence. After several minutes, a faint cry finally came from within.

“Go, go away, don’t come looking for me, I was wrong…”

Du Sheng’s eyes lit up. He instructed, “Keep knocking.”

The man in the suit responded and knocked again and again.

Several more minutes passed, and noises came from inside, as if the resident had smashed something in irritation.

Du Sheng frowned, cleared his throat, and spoke slowly and calmly. “Hello, could you please open the door? We’re new residents who just moved in. According to social etiquette, we’re here to visit our neighbors.”

“…”

Half a minute later, the door slowly opened.

A haggard, pale male face appeared. He looked neither fully human nor fully ghost.

Du Sheng calmly greeted him. “Hello.”

The man scanned the group, his eyes evasive. “You’re new… residents?”

Du Sheng showed a bright smile. His face looked trustworthy at a glance, making people relax unconsciously. He nodded. “Yes, we moved in yesterday.”

The man scrutinized them for a long time. His expression seemed to relax slightly. Thinking of Du Sheng’s words, he forced himself to calm down and asked in a low voice, “What do you need?”

Du Sheng could tell that he knew something about the apartment, which was why he was so nervous. So he went straight to the point. “It’s like this. When we moved in yesterday, the cleaner said some strange things that we didn’t understand. Then something weird happened at night. So we wanted to ask the neighbors whether anything had happened in the apartment building we’re staying in.”

The moment he heard this, the man’s eyes lit up startlingly. He grabbed Du Sheng tightly. “Right? You ran into it too, didn’t you? I told others, but they wouldn’t believe me. There’s something wrong with this apartment. It’s really strange…”

He looked somewhat neurotic. It was hard to tell whether it was psychological trauma from being frightened too much, or if he had really encountered something.

Du Sheng wanted useful information from him, so he patiently comforted him for a long time, letting him calm down, then entered the room to talk.

The others followed inside.

The man did not mind at all. In fact, he seemed to wish there were more people. Seeing the living room full of people, he even showed a pleased expression.

“More people is good. With more people, it won’t dare come.”

“Who is it?” Huang Wenli asked, hitting the key point.

The man’s face changed instantly. His gaze swept the living room in panic. After a long while, he carefully lowered his voice and said, “A ghost.”

He expected to see everyone jump in fear, but the players were seasoned veterans. They had seen more ghosts than he had girlfriends. How could they be scared?

He stared at them, disappointed to find that not a single person changed expression.

“You don’t believe me?”

Lu Zhizhen shuddered, then instantly activated her professional acting skills honed over five years in the entertainment industry. She covered her mouth, as if belatedly realizing something, and showed a shocked expression. “A ghost?!”

Seeing someone believe him, the man’s eyes filled with tears, and he even looked a little moved. He nodded. “Yes, a ghost. I’ll tell you…”

He lowered his voice, glared nervously at the surrounding air, and leaned in. “In this room of mine, there’s a ghost.”

“Every night, it appears.”

“At first I didn’t know, but every morning when I woke up, I’d find changes in the house. The kitchen would be a mess, towels from the bathroom thrown on the floor, my computer clearly turned off but glowing and heating up…”

“I was terrified. I looked everywhere for help, but my actions seemed to anger it.”

“It can hear what I say during the day. When I curse it, it takes revenge at night.”

“When I eat, it swaps my tableware. When I shower, it locks the bathroom door from the outside. When I sleep, it grips my throat.”

“I tried to outwit it, but it only grew angrier.”

“Early yesterday morning, it lay by my bedside and told me that within three days, it would kill me…”

As he spoke, tears streamed down his face. “I don’t want to die. I’m going to move out. I’ll move tomorrow.”

Lu Zhizhen listened with her heart in her throat. Seeing his state, she felt some sympathy and comforted him. “Moving is good. Once you move, it’ll be fine.”

The man wiped his tears and nodded. “Yes. Once I move, it’ll be fine.”

He did not mention that he had been laid off by his company three months ago and still had not found a job. Anyway, better to live on the streets than to stay here and wait to die. Saying it or not made no difference. He had to leave as soon as possible.

Pouring his heart out to these neighbors was just because after living here for half a year with no one believing him, it felt too suffocating.

“By the way, which room do you live in?” the man asked, suddenly thinking of something.

Lu Zhizhen said, “The one next to the elevator. 1309.”

The man froze, his expression stunned. “What? What happened to the previous tenant of 1309?”

Lu Zhizhen exchanged a glance with her companions and cautiously asked, “You knew the previous tenant?”

“I did!” The man grew anxious. “On this floor, I was only on decent terms with 1309. He moved in two months earlier than me. When I ran into the ghost, he was the only one who believed me, because he had encountered the same thing.”

What?

Did that mean…

There was also a ghost in room 1309?

The players recalled the inexplicably cold living room and their expressions darkened.

The man seemed to think of it too. Looking at the group of tenants from 1309, he swallowed and said, “How about… you leave quickly too. Don’t stay here. This apartment is really strange.”

They wanted to leave, but the game mission was not finished. How could they?

Lu Zhizhen smiled bitterly inwardly, but still followed his words. “We’ll remember that. Thank you. We’ll go back and discuss it before deciding.”

She led the group to stand up and take their leave, planning to return and tell the boss about the clues they had obtained.

“Strange. Where did the boss go?”

Back in 1309, no one was inside. They searched around but could not find Ji Xiu.

As they were puzzled, Qi Qing spoke up. “I remember, earlier it seemed like the boss went out with us.”

“The boss went out with us?” Lu Zhizhen was stunned. “Why didn’t we see him later?”

“I don’t remember where he went either.”

While everyone was racking their brains, Xiao Chen in the corner spoke softly. “I think I saw him go into the stairwell.”

“What?!”

Everyone was shocked, their gazes turning toward the stairwell opposite the elevator.

The stairwell was directly across from the elevator, diagonally opposite room 1309.

From the entryway, they could see the stairwell door half-closed. Inside, it was dusty, dark, and gloomy, without a trace of light. It looked strange and sinister, full of danger.

The man in the suit immediately flew into a rage and grabbed Xiao Chen by the collar. “Why didn’t you say this earlier? How could you let the boss take such a risk alone?”

Xiao Chen was timid to begin with. Being intimidated like this, he trembled, burst into tears, bent over, and begged for mercy. “I was wrong. I was wrong.”

“That’s enough.” Du Sheng frowned, displeased. “That’s just his personality. Why are you making things difficult for him? Besides, I trust the boss’s abilities. Since he dared to enter the stairwell, he must have the ability to get out safely. We just need to wait here.”

The fat man, who had never seen Ji Xiu’s abilities, felt uneasy. “Just wait here doing nothing? We knocked on doors for one or two hours already, and he still hasn’t come back. Are we really not going to look for him?”

Du Sheng was taken aback, hesitating.

Had it already been that long?

He trusted the boss’s abilities, but with the boss gone for so long, what if something really happened?

After all, this apartment was so strange and sinister. On the first day, there had already been an evil ghost smashing the door. On the second and third days, there might be even more powerful ghosts.

If the boss entered the stairwell and encountered a troublesome opponent, needing their help, but they stayed here waiting and did not go look for him, letting him fight alone, wouldn’t that be a missed opportunity?

Du Sheng had this concern mainly because he had personally experienced something like this before.

In one of the worlds he had passed through, he encountered a ridiculous yet disheartening situation. As the hidden team leader, he went alone to scout and fell into a trap. The trap itself was not difficult, but once inside, he could not get out and needed teammates to rescue him from the outside.

In other words, as long as his teammates flipped a switch, he could easily come out.

But when he never returned, the teammates outside either thought he had encountered danger and did not dare enter, or believed he could handle it alone and did not need support.

In the end, he endured three days and three nights in that trap, grinding through it with his teeth before barely escaping.

Although the chance of the boss encountering such a situation was very small, what if?

Du Sheng’s expression wavered.

Seeing this, the fat man proposed his idea. “We don’t dare enter the stairwell because it’s dangerous. How about we all go together? The game wouldn’t kill all of us on the second day. That would be too excessive. Our survival chances would be much higher.”

That sounded quite feasible.

Du Sheng thought it over and made a decision. “Wait one more hour. At four o’clock, if the boss still hasn’t come out, we’ll go in together to find him. We must bring him back before five, before the sun sets.”

Since he said so, the others did not want to leave Ji Xiu to fight alone while they waited safely. They all agreed.

The group stared at the stairwell entrance, waiting for time to pass.

One hour quickly went by.

Du Sheng took out a peachwood sword from his item bag and looked around at everyone. “Let’s go. Everyone, take out your strongest items. We’re going into the stairwell to take a look.”

The skinny old man did not want to go. Xiao Chen did not dare to go. Both stayed where they were.

Du Sheng and the others did not force them. After a glance, they said nothing, only telling those willing to go to follow and those unwilling to stay behind and cook. Then they turned around decisively and left.

When they reached the stairwell door, footsteps sounded behind them.

Everyone turned around. Xiao Chen had followed after all.

Xiao Chen muttered, “I… I think it’s safer to follow you…”

The skinny old man stood far away and did not hear what Xiao Chen said, but seeing Xiao Chen betray him for the second time, his expression turned very ugly.

The man in the suit, however, vaguely guessed Xiao Chen’s ability from yesterday’s events and was secretly delighted.

If Xiao Chen said that, didn’t it mean their safety this time was quite high?

As for the skinny old man…

The man in the suit looked up at him and somehow felt that behind him, in the living room, something was baring its fangs and claws, eager to come out.

Probably just an illusion. Maybe it was the curtains being blown by the wind?

The man in the suit quickly withdrew his attention and followed everyone into the stairwell.

Creak.

After the last person entered, the stairwell door slowly closed.

…

Like Ji Xiu, Du Sheng and the others also encountered the ghostly loop.

Going up did not work. They could only go down.

But after walking down two steps and seeing the sign for “Fourth Floor” at the exit, everyone stopped in place, not daring to approach.

“The boss should have gone in there, right?”

The man in the suit, who at some point had started calling him “boss” along with everyone else, nodded softly. “Most likely. As long as we go in, we should see the boss.”

“Then what are we waiting for? Let’s go. We have to go in sooner or later.” The fat man took out a stack of talismans, his face grim, and strode forward.

His personality was impulsive and reckless. The more stimulated he was, the easier it was for hot blood to rush to his head. Without waiting for the others, he took a big step and entered the fourth floor.

“Slow down…” Du Sheng hurried after him.

The words stuck in his throat when he clearly saw the environment of the fourth floor.

This was…

The fourth floor was not built like a normal residential area. It looked more like a factory.

Under dim lighting, iron cages hung in the air. Some cages were empty, their doors open. Others were full, containing children ranging from three or four years old to twelve or thirteen.

Every child wore tattered, filthy clothes. They were skin and bones, barely alive, their bodies emitting a strange stench. They looked like goods waiting to be sold, or like cured meat hanging out to dry, trapped in cold iron cages with no trace of vitality.

Hearing the noise, a few children lowered their heads to look over, but more of them did not move. It was unclear whether they had fainted or something worse had happened.

The children who looked over all wore indifferent expressions. Their eyes were cold and hollow, as if they had already seen through life and death.

Du Sheng and the fat man stood stunned. They were used to life and death and danger, but when faced with children who should have been innocent, yet now looked as lifeless as corpses, a faint, wrenching pain gripped their hearts, leaving them speechless.

The players behind sensed something wrong and cautiously crossed the stairwell doorway, following them inside. When they saw the scene before them, they instantly fell silent, frozen in place, hearing only their own breathing.

What kind of human hell was this?

After half a minute, the players snapped back in pain and tried to lower the iron cages.

It was clear that these children were all normal humans, with no yin energy on them at all. Regardless of what this place was used for, saving people was the most important thing right now.

But after searching around, they could not find the mechanism to lower the cages.

“Look over there.” Qi Qing scanned around, then raised her hand and pointed in a certain direction. Everyone followed her gaze.

At the far end of the cages, there was a door.

The door was already open, revealing an empty passage inside, along with glowing green signage.

“Let’s go take a look.” Du Sheng said with suppressed anger, his face ugly.

The others said nothing and followed silently behind him. Just like that, seven players walked in a group toward the open door and entered without hesitation.

In the past few minutes, as they looked at the environment of the fourth floor, they had more or less figured out what was going on.

The apartment did have supernatural incidents, but the fourth floor had nothing to do with the supernatural.

Because the fourth floor truly existed, and these children truly existed.

Their belief that the apartment had no fourth floor came from the elevator buttons. But what if the fourth floor had always existed, only hidden by the developer?

No one dared to take the stairs, so no one knew about the fourth floor.

As long as the fourth floor button was removed from the elevator, and every time a resident moved in, the cleaner said some vague, frightening words to scare them away from using the stairs, the fourth floor would permanently disappear from public view. Even the police would never imagine that right under their noses, in a high-end apartment complex, someone would dare to abduct children.

As for the hundreds of deaths that had occurred in the apartment over the past two years, everyone now had a guess.

Aside from those killed by evil ghosts, most likely more deaths came from this sinful fourth floor.

Although the apartment spread ghost stories about the stairs to scare people away, sometimes the elevator would break down. Residents still needed to go to work and would have no choice but to take the stairs.

The strangeness of the stairwell would trap them in an endless loop, forcing them into the fourth floor.

Once they entered the fourth floor and discovered its secret, these people would try to expose it or even call the police. But such a huge fourth floor would definitely have defenses.

Only the dead could truly keep secrets. These residents who discovered the truth would eventually die in various bizarre “suicides.”

As for why the players could enter the fourth floor so smoothly, without any obstruction, they tacitly believed it was thanks to the boss.

The boss had gone into the stairwell alone, dealt with the guards of the fourth floor, and opened this door, allowing them to uncover the truth unhindered.

The boss must be waiting for us ahead.

Every player thought the same. They quickened their steps, eager to find the boss and fight alongside him.

The boss was excellent at dealing with ghosts, but against vicious criminals, one man’s fists could not match many hands. He might already be in danger.

At the end of the passage, Du Sheng pushed open the door.

Ji Xiu’s figure appeared before them.

He stood in front of some kind of machine, frowning in distress, as if troubled by something.

At his feet lay a pile of unconscious thugs.

Hearing the noise, Ji Xiu turned his head, glanced at them, and showed a slightly teasing expression. “Are you guys the police from a TVB drama?”

Otherwise, why did you only show up after I finished dealing with everything?