Chapter Sixty: Astonishing Discovery

"Harboring a ghost?"

The moment the female broadcast voice rang out, Fang Shenyan and Yu Guo froze in their tracks, dumbfounded.

It was not because their threshold for endurance was too low, but rather because the hotel's declaration was simply too bizarre and subversive.

Simultaneously, the two men turned their heads toward Ji Li, who was lying flat on the floor like a corpse. For the first time, Yu Guo looked seriously into Ji Li's opened eyes, and a sense of dread welled up in his heart.

Ji Li's eyes were different. His originally pitch-black pupils seemed to have been forcibly crammed with a color that had no business being there.

It was the gray that represented extinction!

Yu Guo licked his dry lips. Watching Ji Li gradually pull himself up, he involuntarily took two steps back and asked with a profound sense of unfamiliarity:

"Ji Li... why have you changed?"

At first, none of them had noticed. After all, Ji Li had been on the verge of unconsciousness when he arrived, and no one had inspected his pupils for mutations.

Yet, once the hotel pointed its finger squarely at Ji Li, the others observed him closely and finally spotted the anomaly.

And among them, the most deeply shocked was Tong Guan!

Almost the exact moment he saw Ji Li's pair of pupils, his blood instantly ran backward in his veins, his hands clenched into fists, and the veins on his forehead bulged.

Especially when he saw Ji Li wrapped in his signature trench coat, slowly rising from the ground with an indifferent gaze!

At this moment, Ji Li's appearance gradually overlapped with the grey-eyed, black-robed figure he had seen in his childhood!

Tong Guan's eyes nearly popped out of their sockets as he stared fixedly at the close-at-range Ji Li, looking at him as if he were a mortal enemy from a past life.

Chang Nian, witnessing this scene from the side, was also profoundly shaken, but her emotions remained entirely tethered to Tong Guan alone. Seeing him begin to lose his composure, she gently placed her hand on his arm.

A cool touch soothed Tong Guan's heated state of mind.

"Don't be rash. This is something we anticipated long ago. Ji Li is the person we've been looking for. The truth will come to light sooner or later, but now is not the time," Chang Nian said softly beside Tong Guan, her tone tender to the extreme.

"After all, his eyes haven't completely turned grey yet, have they?"

***

Ji Li's demeanor remained somewhat hazy, a wave of weakness from having just survived a severe injury creeping into his mind.

Echoing within his thoughts were still the demanding words issued by the broadcast.

Others might not understand why, but he knew very well.

In fact, there were six clerks in total, requiring the designation of six parts of the ghosts. However, with Li Xing dead and five survivors remaining, designating five parts of the ghosts should have been sufficient to complete the reception mission.

The trouble stemmed from the abnormal stirring of the grey soul within Ji Li's body.

As ill luck would have it, the fragment of the ghost residing in Ji Li's phone chose the exact moment of the grey soul's palpitation to invade his body, causing it to be swallowed and go missing.

In other words, following Li Xing's death, the remaining portion of the ghost was left ownerless and ought to have been captured by the hotel.

Yet, midway through the mission, it was waylaid and hijacked by the grey soul inside Ji Li...

This was a massive farce.

Now that the hotel had pointed the spearhead directly at him, Ji Li was filled with bitter grievances. He would have gladly handed over the ghost within him if he could, but it was simply beyond his power.

Time ticked away second by second. Unable to offer a response, Ji Li found everyone staring at him.

After a long hesitation, the broadcast of Tianhai Hotel spoke up once again:

"Mr. Ji Li, you must not harbor a part of the ghost. We hope you will hand it over to the hotel management."

This phrasing was extremely similar to the previous one; at first hearing, one could hardly tell the difference. Yet, the choice of words was worlds apart.

An incredulous expression surfaced on Yu Guo's face as the hotel's will used the word "hope."

This was the exact opposite of the initial mandatory command, suggesting a hint of compromise.

His gaze toward Ji Li grew even more estranged, as if he were meeting him for the very first time.

"I would like to, but I cannot..."

Startled by the hotel's shifting attitude, Ji Li could only offer this reply.

Judging from the hotel's account, that fragment of the ghost had not completely vanished; it existed right inside his physical body.

His interior was already a chaotic mess, and now another ghost had squeezed its way in. The sensation made him feel somewhat nauseous, yet he was utterly helpless against it.

"The replacement will arrive in three days. I wish all clerks a pleasant survival."

After a long pause, the broadcast seemed to tacitly accept Ji Li's answer and actively skipped over the matter.

Simultaneously, the phantom of the five-fingered bloody palm in midair suddenly spun, carved the characters "205" onto its back, and then transformed into a red streak of light flying toward the second floor.

The lobby fell completely silent. Fang Shenyan cast one deep look at Ji Li, said nothing more, touched the eyeball tattoo on the back of his hand, and walked up to the third floor.

Yu Guo pursed his lips. Astonished by the hotel's attitude toward Ji Li, his focus remained fixed on the matter of "harboring a ghost."

He took two steps toward Ji Li, but hesitated and came to a halt. It seemed he had something to say, but in the end, he turned and left as well.

Next came Tong Guan and Chang Nian. Without even sparing Ji Li a glance, they departed swiftly amidst a gust of wind.

Left behind in the space was only the thoroughly exhausted Ji Li. His expression grew increasingly desolate. Instead of heading upstairs, he walked straight to the corner of the round table, pulled out a chair, sat down, and lit a cigarette.

After a long while, he tilted his head back, looked up at the broadcast speaker on the ceiling, and asked softly:

"Was this mission plotted by the hotel from the very beginning?"

The female voice did not pause at all; she was always present:

"Whether the hotel plotted it, I cannot say. But while you were all investigating the anomaly on the second floor, Li Xing used his finger to touch the hotel phones of every single one of you.

That is the origin of this mission. If you had asked in advance, I would have informed you of this point.

With your abilities, through this clue, you might have discovered the mission's abnormality much sooner."

This answer was something Ji Li had not anticipated. He had always assumed the female voice was the will of Tianhai Hotel and that the missions were designed by the hotel itself, but her response did not seem to imply that.

"Are you not the will of the hotel?"

The female voice remained as clear as a spring breeze, yet carried a subtle nuance of difference.

"I am very sorry, Mr. Ji Li, but I cannot answer this question.

No one has ever asked me a similar question before you, and I am equally unaware of the answer."

Ji Li raised an eyebrow. He seemed to have uncovered some unusual secrets concerning Tianhai Hotel, as the female voice's attitude deviated from what he had imagined.

Judging by her words, it sounded as though she and the hotel did not belong to the same will.

She was more like a customer service representative, serving a designated role tasked with providing explanations and relaying messages to the clerks on behalf of the hotel.

Ji Li's fingers trembled slightly. He had not expected that such a unique situation could exist within the hotel.

Perhaps before him, all managers and clerks had presupposed that the female voice was the hotel itself, never once considering that she might actually be a distinct individual!

This was a startling discovery.

"Who... exactly are you?"

"I do not know who I am, just as Mr. Ji Li, you do not know who you are..."