Chapter Fifty-One: The Eighteenth Floor

With a few steps still remaining between them, the moment Fang Shenyan caught sight of Tong Guan and Chang Nian ahead, he gave a sweeping gesture of his arm and hurled Xiao Qi straight toward the two of them!

None of them had anticipated that Fang Shenyan’s initial move would be quite so abrupt. Amidst Xiao Qi’s startled cry, Tong Guan hurriedly lunged forward two steps and managed to catch her in his arms.

Crouching down to steady Xiao Qi, Chang Nian whipped her ponytail around, glared at Fang Shenyan, and roared, "What are you doing?!"

Yet Fang Shenyan did not spare the pair even a glance. Instead, he grabbed Yu Guo by the arm and pushed past them straight toward the deeper recesses of the eighteenth floor!

"Jili! Jili!"

Fang Shenyan did not trust Tong Guan, nor did he believe those two could fathom the key to survival; everything now hinged on Jili.

To find Jili meant to find the direction toward survival.

He shouted at the top of his lungs, his voice piercing through multiple corridors only to be buried deep within the gloom, receiving not the slightest response.

Yu Guo’s expression flickered with uncertainty. He turned his head back to look at the empty space behind them, as if worrying over something.

"If we cannot find Jili, what shall we do?"

Pushing up his glasses to suppress the rising agitation within him, Fang Shenyan spoke as they walked:

"After learning the clues in Old Xue's phone, Jili headed straight upstairs. Obviously, there is something here that he wanted."

Slightly perplexed, Yu Guo narrowed his eyes and gazed at the man beside him. "Then how can you be certain he came to the eighteenth floor?"

As if searching for something, Fang Shenyan quickened his pace.

"Among the anomalies in the upper floors, the only one was the eighteenth floor, which Jili and Li Xing visited previously with five staff members. He didn't elaborate at the time on why he came here, but I am certain he concealed it from us precisely because he worried there was a traitor among us. Since the matter originates on the eighteenth floor, and Jili deliberately withheld the clues, there is only one possibility!"

A sudden flash of realization dawned upon Yu Guo, who exclaimed in shock:

"The eighteenth floor holds the breakthrough clue for this mission—it's the trump card Jili left for himself!"

Suddenly, an unprovoked, biting cold wind swept past Fang Shenyan, originating from the profound depths straight ahead!

It felt as though a window on the top floor had been shattered, allowing the wind and rain of the outside world to assail them in an instant.

A sinister premonition gripped Fang Shenyan’s heart, but after a moment of reflection, he immediately broke into a sprint toward the source of the howling wind.

When Fang and Yu finally reached the origin of that inexplicable gale, they were greeted by an empty, hollow elevator shaft.

Lying on the ground was a mobile phone, smashed to absolute smithereens...

Fang Shenyan’s eyelids twitched violently. Staring at the shattered phone, he tremblingly reached out his hand, only to draw it back abruptly upon making contact.

Yu Guo’s eyes nearly bulged out of their sockets:

"It’s Jili’s hotel phone!"

Fang Shenyan shivered. Seemingly struck by a sudden thought, he whipped his head up and cast his upper body toward the dark, abyss-like shaft!

Yet...

The eyes of the living could not pierce that kind of distance.

Apart from the darkness, he gained nothing.

Squatting on the ground, Yu Guo picked up the phone Jili had once used, feeling a completely indescribable emotion wash over him.

He was reluctant to believe that Jili could be dead, for once Jili died, it practically meant that the truth they had been striving to uncover would drift further and further away.

In this mission, apart from Jili, no other staff member knew the truth...

Fang Shenyan’s expression shifted through a myriad of hues before he abruptly raised his head to stare at the cold fluorescent tubes on the ceiling, his face drained of color.

"Not necessarily... Even if Jili is dead, why would he take out his hotel phone right before his demise?"

Squatting on the ground, Yu Guo looked up at Fang Shenyan and voiced his conjecture:

"Perhaps he discovered something he wanted to notify us of... Or perhaps there is something abnormal about the hotel phones..."

Rubbing his stiff face, Fang Shenyan nodded and analyzed in a deep voice:

"Do you remember how the hotel phones of all of us experienced unexplainable disconnections? I can guarantee that Jili certainly did not intend to brief us on any clues. First of all, he is simply not that kind of person; secondly, the situation at the time must have been extremely critical. If he had the time to report back, he would not have gone missing!"

Standing up from the ground, Yu Guo cast his gaze toward a certain direction and said in a grave tone:

"You said yourself that the eighteenth floor is a secret place Jili kept hidden from us. Since he could find a way to survive, then so can we."

...

Tong Guan turned his ear to listen for sounds from the lower floors, but the traces of Li Xing’s pursuit remained dead quiet, which caught him somewhat off guard.

On the other side, Chang Nian was comforting the frightened Xiao Qi, continuously conversing with her to extract information.

Looking at this suddenly appeared little girl, Tong Guan also found her existence exceedingly bizarre.

"I’ve一直 stayed with Daddy in the innermost office on the fifth floor. Didn't you and the uncle see us?"

Upon hearing this, both Tong Guan and Chang Nian were utterly bewildered.

During their initial sweep, they had been responsible for searching floors one through ten, yet they knew nothing whatsoever about the office Xiao Qi described where operatic singing played.

Even upon Chang Nian’s careful questioning, the location of that office corresponded to a solid wall in their original search plan.

Tong Guan even felt an impulse to return to the fifth floor to verify whether his memory had failed him or if Xiao Qi was lying, but time no longer permitted it.

Setting Xiao Qi down on the ground, Chang Nian stood up and said to the still-puzzled Tong Guan:

"Perhaps both Xiao Qi and Old Xue are crucial clue-bearing figures..."

Tong Guan jerked his head up, staring intently at Chang Nian to signal her to continue.

"Xiao Qi and Old Xue both belong to a hidden storyline... It's a thread the entities had no choice but to conceal. Had we investigated it beforehand, it would have exposed the entities' deployment prematurely. Therefore, they created an illusion, temporarily masking the location of their office to stall us past our initial search. It wasn't until people began to die, and Jili and Li Xing returned to the fifth floor, that this hidden thread was finally unearthed."

Chang Nian’s words shattered Tong Guan’s rigid mindset, causing everything to fall into place.

Looking at Xiao Qi’s innocent face, he suddenly recalled Jili’s series of bizarre actions.

"Jili withheld the information because he was hoarding clues for himself!"

Chang Nian nodded. She could understand Jili’s actions; after all, under the circumstances at the time, Jili had no way of determining the location and identity of the entities.

Had he divulged the intelligence ahead of time, it would likely have alerted the entities and led to his assassination.

In truth, the fact that Xiao Qi had survived until now was entirely thanks to Jili’s selfishness and tight-lipped silence.

Tong Guan’s gaze flickered incessantly. He had been waiting all along for Li Xing’s arrival.

The hotel phone was held firmly in his palm, resting permanently on the mission email page.

His previous conversation with Chang Nian in the stairwell had already pinpointed their most crucial action plan.

"The transmission route of the curse is precisely the hotel phone of every staff member!"

Every single deceased person had manifested through this medium.

At first, they thought the staff members themselves were spreading the curse, but that was until the deaths of the last batch of workers, which others were unaware of.

Only Tong Guan knew that it was because his hotel phone had already recorded every single staff member.

Only by explaining it this way could it align with the killing rules of the entities!

The mission could be wrong.

Yet the killing rules were not affected by the mission content!

Everything centered upon the entity!

At this thought, Tong Guan hesitated no longer. Rising to his feet, he led Chang Nian and Xiao Qi and rushed into the depths of the eighteenth floor.

"We need a catalyst—the catalyst that triggers the true mission to appear, and we are lacking just a sliver!"

Only at this moment did he truly understand how monumental Jili’s role in this mission had been.

Coming here was Jili’s guidance without truly guiding, the place where the true content of the mission was destined to surface!