Chapter Forty-One: A Difficult Choice

The sudden wave of sleepiness that had washed over Yu Guo was completely shattered by the bizarre and cruel reality unfolding before his eyes. After freezing for a brief moment, he began sprinting rapidly toward the first floor!

Tong Guan, Fang Shenyan, and the others instantly realized that the situation was experiencing a massive collapse, and their expressions altered drastically.

Following closely behind Yu Guo, Fang Shenyan hurried toward the ground floor in an attempt to rescue those staff members whose necks had not yet been snapped.

He hoped to preserve the last remaining sparks of life before the six-hour mark arrived, in order to stall for time until the ultimate deadline.

Only Tong Guan and Chang Nian remained entirely motionless, standing silently at the staircase entrance.

As if everything happening before them had nothing to do with them whatsoever, their minds were preoccupied with something else entirely.

"How are you feeling?"

Tong Guan took out the hotel-issued mobile phone and opened the memo pad, which displayed a long list of names in stark black text.

This was the official roster containing the personal information of all staff members.

Chang Nian frowned, reluctant to speak, but after a long pause, she uttered, "Absurd."

"Everything that has happened since entering this mission is truly baffling."

Hearing this, Tong Guan nodded, for he shared a similar sentiment. "Not a single casualty occurred on the first floor from beginning to end.

It was as if the entity had constantly been causing trouble for Ji Li's side alone, and even when I personally tried to lure the ghost out, it had no effect whatsoever.

Yet now, with a full hour remaining before the mission ends, the entity has suddenly chosen to strike simultaneously, instantly slaughtering over twenty staff members?"

Chang Nian turned her head, her bright eyes reflecting Tong Guan's upright figure, and spoke softly:

"At this stage, the entity's killing pattern seems to have finally revealed itself.

First, slaughter all the staff members, and subsequently slaughter all the store employees.

However, this pattern is inescapable!"

Tong Guan took a deep breath. Listening to the spine-chilling sounds of cracking bones echoing around him, he slowly closed his eyes:

"Perhaps there are still lingering doubts that we haven't quite figured out.

For instance, why were the staff members on the first floor completely unharmed all this time, only to be attacked simultaneously in the fifth hour after the mission began?

If there were no pattern, why did those who died previously all perish in our immediate vicinity?

This is likely closely tied to the true nature of the mission."

Chang Nian was persuaded by this lengthy reasoning, and she followed Tong Guan's train of thought, extending it further.

"We need to uncover the true content of the mission, and to achieve that goal, we are brought right back to that initial question..."

Tong Guan slowly turned his head to look at the security camera closest to him, knowing that on the other side, a gaze was perpetually fixed upon him.

His lips twitched slightly up and down as he silently mouthed three words:

"Where is the ghost?"

...

"Where is the ghost?"

Ji Li's complexion appeared deathly pale under the illumination of the screen. He slowly averted his gaze from the monitor and let it fall upon his own hands.

Everything was proceeding in the direction he had initially anticipated. Although this was the outcome he least wished to see, it seemed forever unavoidable.

Ji Li knew deep down that Li Xing was a special character in this mission—a uniqueness stemming from the fact that the hotel had made an unprecedented exception for him.

A newcomer reporting for duty, yet why was he three minutes late?

And within those three minutes, what exactly had transpired...

On the other side, Li Xing sat in the corner of the monitoring room, his left and right shoulders leaning against the walls, forming a blind spot.

Yet, it provided him with a sufficient sense of security.

Li Xing had also overheard Ji Li and Tong Guan's previous speculations regarding the true nature of the mission, but his attention was not solely focused on that.

Most importantly, ever since he heard the hypothesis concerning the authenticity of the mission objectives, he felt as though something had been forgotten in the depths of his mind.

However, where it had been forgotten, or why it had been forgotten, he was utterly incapable of figuring out.

Until...

Just as Ji Li turned around completely and Li Xing was about to speak, he caught sight of that expression, chilling to the absolute extreme.

"M-Manager..."

Ji Li observed his reaction. To be honest, he really found it hard to believe that such a cowardly man could be the entity itself.

Thus, his mind leaned more toward an alternative hypothesis: Li Xing was not the entity itself, but rather the vessel for the entity!

"Take off all your clothes."

The horrific scenes in the first-floor lobby were still unfolding, but Ji Li knew very well that the staff members were not entirely dead yet.

Even though the situation was collapsing now, he still had a few minutes left; at the very least, before the staff members were completely wiped out, he was safe!

Ji Li still believed that some secret was concealed within Li Xing—perhaps a secret that even Li Xing himself was unaware of.

Taken aback by this unprovoked demand, Li Xing was momentarily at a loss.

"Manager, why?"

Ji Li asked coldly, "Have you noticed any abnormalities with your body?"

Li Xing scratched his head, pondering for a moment. "There is... nothing uncomfortable about my body, Manager. What do you mean?"

"Not a single suspicious detail?

Have you never wondered why someone as ordinary as you would receive special treatment from the hotel?

Three minutes late—what were you doing during those three minutes?"

Ji Li's questions came like a barrage of artillery shells, leaving Li Xing breathless.

"I... I just had a sudden urge to use the restroom, but the facilities on my floor were occupied, so I searched for a washroom across various floors.

Then I was brought into the hotel. In my perception, that period of transit vanished in the blink of an eye.

It's just that... I feel like I've forgotten something..."

Li Xing traced his experience of entering the hotel from beginning to end before finally articulating the oddity he had sensed all along.

Ji Li raised an eyebrow. "Why?"

Li Xing could not explain it either, his face turning flushed red. After a long moment, he said:

"Earlier, there was nothing at all. But ever since you and Tong Guan discussed the authenticity of the mission content, it suddenly felt as though certain scenes were flashing across my mind.

Yet every time I tried to examine them, I could never quite grasp them.

I am certain they exist inside my brain, but..."

Ji Li's pupils shifted. Memories residing within the mind—what on earth had Li Xing witnessed during those three minutes...

This was the crux of the matter!

"Stimulus!"

Ji Li could conclude with certainty that Li Xing must have laid eyes on something before entering the hotel, and it was even possible he had encountered the entity's true form.

By entering the hotel, he had inadvertently brought that ghost in with him!

Perhaps this entity was immensely powerful, or perhaps this was a special arrangement orchestrated by the hotel.

Leveraging the unique nature of this entity, an extraordinarily special mission had been arranged.

All of this must have occurred within the confines of the hotel; thus, even though the entity had erased Li Xing's memory, its abilities were suppressed inside the hotel, causing Li Xing to become sensitive to the mission content and triggering his instinct to retrieve what was lost!

Instead, Li Xing had become the breakthrough point, which greatly pleased Ji Li.

He watched Li Xing's increasingly bewildered expression. At this moment, Li Xing appeared as though his crucial memories were tightly sealed behind a heavy lock.

All that was missing was a key—it didn't even need to be inserted into the keyhole; its mere presence would be enough to shatter the prison of Li Xing's memory!

Ji Li found himself caught in a dilemma as he turned his gaze back to the large screen.

The rescue efforts of Fang and Yu not only yielded zero results, but the moment they made physical contact with the staff members, the rate of the staff's deaths accelerated bizarrely!

In less than two minutes now, apart from the store employees and Xiao Qi, whose whereabouts remained unknown, there would be no living souls left in this building.

In that case, the probability of the entity turning its sights on the store employees next was exceedingly high.

The key of stimulus was the ghost itself!

As long as the entity manifested, it could shatter the prison of Li Xing's memory through the most direct and brutal means, revealing the truth behind the mission!

However, by the same token, the entity might not necessarily choose to target the store employees first; it could also go after Xiao Qi, the sole survivor hiding within the building.

If Xiao Qi perished first, Ji Li would lose a trump card. If the lead regarding Li Xing proved useless as well, it would be extremely difficult for him to turn the tables!

Ji Li's fists clenched so tightly they crunched, yet he remained deeply convinced that Li Xing was the crux of the mission!

He was already infinitely close to the truth—which meant he was close to the path of survival.

So, would the entity choose to follow the fake mission requirements and eliminate Xiao Qi first,

or would it adhere to the hotel's usual convention and target Ji Li, who was closest to the path of survival, first...