Lin Sanjiu walked one step at a time, slowly, as if to ascertain that her decision was right. As she did this, she remembered the conversations she had with the occupants in the building.
A tall svelte woman lived in unit 207. Standing straight, she was even a head taller than Lin Sanjiu. When that woman lowered her head to talk, she immediately reminded Lin Sanjiu of a giraffe. "That's right, you are not an official occupant, yet."
After a slight pause, she continued expressionless, "If you want to be an official occupant, you first need to meet another official occupant twice or more. I heard there's another way… but I don't know much about that."
There was a young couple living in unit 304. When the husband opened the door, his petite wife stood behind him saying cheerily, "I'm still in my nightie, please close the door first." However, Lin Sanjiu had already seen this tactic once so she immediately jammed her foot between the door. In the end, the husband answered her question.
"Can you get out through the windows? You must be joking! There is a proper exit, why would you go out through a window? The girl from unit 320 said that? Well, that's because she is an outsider. She can't find the exit so she stayed here… There is definitely an exit."
A young man who seemed like he was preparing for his exams lived in unit 411. He was holding a pen even when he opened the door and spoke impatiently. "I don't know how to answer your questions. If you wait a few minutes, my mum will be home. Come over, then. What? You won't come back again?"
After the young man heard that, he lowered his head, hiding his face in the shadows. After some time, he finally replied quietly, "Alright. If that's the case, I will tell you what I know. It isn't safe outside this apartment building. Recently, we often have various burglars and drifters sneaking in. They create a lot of trouble. What? Of course, you can exit following how they enter.. But once you go out, you would become a drifter. Those people are not allowed to move into this apartment. Oh, why don't I show you? You can see some of those people from my window…"
Lin Sanjiu ran for her life. After she left unit 411, Lin Sanjiu headed to unit 608 and knocked on the door.
"You're just a preparatory occupant. I guess you don't have much in your room?" a plump middle-aged gentleman greeted her warmly. "Would you like some coffee?" he offered.
Lin Sanjiu shook her head immediately. The middle-aged gentleman placed his coffee pot down and squeezed his body between the half-opened door. He watched Lin Sanjiu with unblinking eyes and commented, "The security here is quite poor. Burglars come into our apartment from these windows. Random people also often come knocking on our doors. I can tolerate a person knocking once on my door. I get angry if they knock the second time… I stuffed the last person who knocked on my door through a window leading to the fire escape route. After that, I realized that it was one of our new friendly occupant who lives on the first floor."
There were six floors and Lin Sanjiu only avoided the first floor considering that Geran might be around. After avoiding the doors that she had already knocked on, Lin Sanjiu tried to get as much information from the remaining occupants. After she gathered quite a bit of information, she realized that she could classify their answers into a few categories. Of course, during this process, all the occupants tried every trick in the book to convince Lin Sanjiu to knock on their door a second time.
Nevertheless, Lin Sanjiu finally got a general idea of her situation.
First, this attraction was split into two areas. Behind the familiar corridors of the apartment building was another hidden and more dangerous "out-of-the-window world". According to what the occupants said, there were "burglars and drifters" in the "out-of-the-window world". People who went out of the building could never come back. However, those "people" outside of the building would occasionally appear in the apartment building and create "trouble" for the occupants. Meanwhile, the occupants, like the middle-aged gentleman, could use force or trickery to get players to exit from the windows...
Even though Lin Sanjiu was unable to fully get to the bottom of the truth, she managed to reconstruct a timeline very close to the truth.
After she entered this attraction, "out-of-the-window world" was the new death trap that appeared after the difficulty of the attraction was raised. When she knocked on unit 601, Geran ran up to the seventh floor. From the spot where his spectacles had fallen, Lin Sanjiu guessed that Geran might have seen the other player, who had been previously thrown out of a window by the middle-aged gentleman, behind the window in the washroom. According to the middle-aged gentleman, Geran trusted that person to a certain extent.
However, the "person" outside the window was naturally no longer human.
Since Geran was a cautious person, Lin Sanjiu was sure that the man wouldn't just jump through any of the windows without thinking. Yet, it might be his careful nature that finally caused his demise within this building. Just as the giraffe-like woman had said, he might have turned into an "official occupant" through the second method and officially moved into unit 101.
After what had happened to him, Livia climbed out of a window for some reason. It was very possible that things unfolded just as she recounted. She might have jumped out of the window when she was scared by the old woman and found herself trapped in the "out-of-the window world".
Lin Sanjiu knew that, if she had not entered the attraction, Geran and Livia would not have died because of the windows. From a certain perspective, their later actions seemed like a form of revenge. On top of that, the information hidden between the words of the occupants was meant to confuse her. For example, the girl in unit 320 was actually providing information to distinguish between official occupants and preparatory occupants, whereas the old woman was talking about the "out-of the-window world". Thus, Lin Sanjiu got the wrong impression that the windows were exits and nearly got tricked by Livia.
"The 'Neighborhood Meeting' is probably the last stage in this particular round."
At least, all that was Lin Sanjiu's conjecture.
As she walked past the "neighbors", Lin Sanjiu guessed that she probably would never forget that feeling.
The lights suddenly became so bright that she could even see white behind her eyelids. The gazes she received seemed almost tangible. Even though she met no one on her way to the washroom, she was somehow aware that she was walking through a crowd of "humans".
The "occupants" were standing very close to her. In fact, they were a little too close. Lin Sanjiu felt an itch on her left face. It felt like someone's hair had brushed past her face. When she thought about it, that sensation was the feeling of moving eyelashes when someone blinks.
A pair of eyeballs was directly in contact with her face.
That thought was enough to make her shudder and she really had the urge to open her eyes.
"Geran, are you here?" Lin Sanjiu suddenly called out softly as she walked outward based on her memory. She did not dare to stick her hand out as she was afraid that she might touch something so she walked very slowly. "You must be here…" Lin Sanjiu's eyelids trembled a little just like her voice.
No one answered even after some time.
"I'm sorry," Lin Sanjiu finally apologized after ruminating about it for some time.
Even though Lin Sanjiu knew that it was not her fault, her throat felt dry when she remembered Geran's expression when he stopped her from seeking out the occupant in unit 320 the second time.
If he did not help her and decided to ignore her, she might have died instead of him. Lin Sanjiu felt that Geran was probably around and was choosing to remain silent even after her apology. Lin Sanjiu sighed inwardly. She tried to suppress her feelings of fear and guilt while she placed her focus on sensing everything around.
After she closed her eyes and concentrated, her "muddled" senses slowly became clearer. As her perception of her surroundings returned to normal, Lin Sanjiu knew that she was walking in the right direction. Bang. After that sound, Lin Sanjiu felt a breeze. As the wind toyed with her hair, she felt her heartbeat finally returning to normal.
"Congratulations, you have completed the first round of Haunted House Dare".
Lin Sanjiu stood tensely like wound-up spring. Lin Sanjiu opened her eyes gingerly only after she was sure that she could feel sunlight on her shoulders. She saw the same broad-shouldered young woman behind the glass window of the ticket booth.
"Your performance was unimpressive so you only earned 6 stamina points. Please come here to collect your points," the ticket seller said.
Lin Sanjiu turned to look behind. She saw the familiar warehouse-like building. A roller shutter was closing behind her. The apartment building, the dark red wooden doors, Geran… There was no longer a single trace of these things.
Lin Sanjiu rushed up to the window of the ticket booth abruptly. She swung open her large skeletal wings furiously. She angled her wings such that their sharp tips were pointing at the glass window of the ticket booth.
Crash!
The glass window immediately shattered as Lin Sanjiu pierced the glass with her wings. The young woman behind the glass sat panic-stricken under the shadows of Lin Sanjiu's wings and seemed at a total loss.
However, Lin Sanjiu stopped her attack the next second when she heard a female voice coming from the speakers in the attraction.
"Player 57, please take note. If you don't stop attacking our staff, 50 stamina points will be deducted as a punishment. Player 57, please take note..."
Though Lin Sanjiu had stopped attacking, she could not curb her anger. She swung her arms and a few large pieces of glass flew toward the young woman. "Haunted House Dare? It is a haunted house! How is it a 'sightseeing attraction'!"
"According to the original setup, I am not supposed to tell you what this attraction is beforehand," the young woman gulped. Her actions and expression were no different from that of a normal person. She did not seem like a being within a pocket dimension. "Besides, how many people have ever seen ghosts? Who cares about mountains and rivers, don't you think that was a real sight to behold?"
Lin Sanjiu's chest rose and fell in anger. She stayed in the same spot for some time before she finally let out a sigh.
"I see…" Mrs. Manas finally also spoke up. "I see! That was why you can't attack them and they don't attack you!"
"Yes," the young woman sat up straight once again amidst the broken glass. "When you enter a haunted attraction, which amusement park will let you attack their staff? Naturally, our staff will not touch you."
"Staff…"
Lin Sanjiu felt a bitterness in her mouth. Would Geran and Livia be forever trapped in that world behind the windows? Two lives treated like a joke?
"If a player is unable to complete the first round, what will happen to them?" Lin Sanjiu asked quietly.
The young woman shot a quick glance at her. She did not answer Lin Sanjiu directly. She seemed to be worried that Lin Sanjiu would risk losing 50 stamina points and vent her anger out on her. After mulling for some time, the young woman chose a few careful words, "It depends on their luck. Some people who don't lose hope might not necessarily be trapped forever…"
Even though there was only a slim chance, it was better than having no hope at all.
Lin Sanjiu exhaled and wiped her face once before looking at her surroundings.
She found out that she had walked out from the same roller shutter. Everything around her looked exactly the same so she couldn't tell how long she had been in the attraction. When she asked the ticket seller that question, the young woman searched through the broken glass and her overturned table and found a watch.
"You didn't take much time. You only spent four hours."
"Four hours…" Lin Sanjiu frowned. Lin Sanjiu wondered if Puppeteer managed to clear his station in that amount of time. In any case, what's done is done. She knew that she had to complete the remaining rounds as quickly as she could to chase up to Puppeteer.
"Okay, give me my stamina points. I want to take part in the next round," Lin Sanjiu demanded, raising her wrist.
The broad-shouldered young woman quickly picked up a device from the floor and waved it over Lin Sanjiu's wrist. "The set will be different, don't try anything funny," the ticket seller added, probably afraid of Lin Sanjiu's temper.
When the roller shutter slowly opened again, Lin Sanjiu glared at the ticket sellers once more. She sighed and took her first step toward the entrance. Unexpectedly, before she took another step, a pair of feet appeared behind the roller shutter. Next, a person walked out from the shadow of the roller shutter.
"Oh? Miss Lin. Why are you here? I was looking for you. What a coincidence!" Aker exclaimed sounding a little surprised as his eyes widened.