Chapter Twelve: The Reenactment of Slaughter

“Bang… bang bang… bang bang bang!”

The rhythm of the pounding on the door was strangely methodical. Whatever was outside, apart from its strength, didn’t seem overly impatient.

This eerie sound became a deadly note of oppression, fraying the nerves of those alive inside the room.

Despite the intense psychological pressure, Li Ji showed no sign of panic.

His eyes fixed on the watch’s hands, checking the time carefully.

“Exactly five minutes after the woman next door in Room 702 died, the knocking began outside the door. Quite punctual!”

Fang Shenyan kept watching Li Ji’s reaction closely, frowning. “Why aren’t you worried at all?”

Li Ji shook his head slightly, straightened his back, and looked at the pale-faced group before speaking softly:

“The dead path has indeed broken out, but I don’t believe it’s a full-scale outbreak.

“Normally, the mission has only just passed the first hour. Even if it kills, it’s most likely to kill only one person!

“The main point is, it’s been knocking for nearly two minutes now and hasn’t come in…

“It either can’t get in at all, or it’s waiting for something…”

“A one-in-five chance…” Fang Shenyan’s hand trembled slightly as he adjusted his glasses.

If he was this unsettled, the others—Cao Yuan and the rest—were far more frantic.

“What… is it waiting for?” Yu Guo asked anxiously.

Li Ji hesitated for a moment, then rose to his feet in the horrified gazes of the others. He headed straight for the door.

“What are you doing?”

Without turning back, Li Ji waved his hand and moved toward the pitch-black security door.

He took a deep breath and pressed his face against the peephole.

The sensation was similar to before—his cheek grew cold, and the view through the lock shifted from blurry to clear.

At the same time, the knocking abruptly ceased as he approached.

Through the peephole, Li Ji saw a figure clad in a dark raincoat…

Standing motionless outside the door, as if capable of seeing right through it to observe Li Ji inside!

The raincoat’s hood obscured most of the face, preventing Li Ji from discerning the person’s features, but the stubble on the chin revealed it was a man.

That half-visible face, under Li Ji’s gaze, slowly stretched…

Gradually curling into a deeply unsettling smile.

Li Ji had never seen a smile so strange and twisted—the skin on the face seemed pulled by an invisible force, contorting into a fractured, strained arc!

He was increasingly convinced the man outside could indeed see through the door panel.

Because after Li Ji arrived, the man turned and opened the door to Room 702, stepping inside!

Li Ji slowly stepped away from the peephole, furrowing his brow, head bowed, unable to utter a word.

---

“What did you see?” Fang Shenyan’s glasses caught the light as he asked the question everyone was eager to hear.

“I saw a man…

“He must be the ghost, but he turned and went back into Room 702…”

Before Li Ji finished, his throat suddenly tightened!

His body stiffened momentarily, then he dashed to the center of the living room, grabbing Ding Miaoxin, who had been lying limp on the floor.

At this moment, Ding Miaoxin’s body felt as soft as noodles—so easy to lift that Li Ji barely exerted any force.

It was as if every bone was shattered; what he held was a fragile corpse…

Ding Miaoxin was dead!

Fang Shenyan, Yu Guo, and Cao Yuan hurried over, none prepared for Ding Miaoxin’s death.

When Li Ji announced the man outside had left, they even felt relieved that no one else had died.

But…

“Silent and without a trace, it didn’t even enter the door, and Ding Miaoxin died first!” Yu Guo’s face flushed red as he kicked over the coffee table!

Fang Shenyan smoked silently, his face pale.

Cao Yuan’s eyes were red-rimmed; he wanted to take Ding Miaoxin’s body but lacked the courage.

He felt he should have been closest to the ghost at the start.

When the knocking came, he fled, not even pulling Ding Miaoxin along!

Yu Guo was the only one to take the body, placing it on the sofa before turning to Li Ji:

“The ghost rules you sent us, including the mission type, clearly indicate a survival mission.

“But with a house this size—less than a hundred square meters on either side—we can’t possibly survive past one night!”

Having witnessed a comrade’s death, his earlier recklessness vanished, replaced by discouragement.

Li Ji frowned in silence; his mind was in turmoil.

Too many things defied logic.

He felt the events in Rooms 701 and 702 carried an indescribable sense of discord.

He was certain the perverse man was the ghost, yet why didn’t he enter the room?

He was the owner of that room and must have had a way to open the door. Why use such a conspicuous method to kill?

And what about the sixth person he constantly worried about?

The mission had lasted an hour, but the replacement was nowhere to be found.

Yu Guo’s discouragement, Fang Shenyan’s silence, Cao Yuan’s panic—Li Ji had no conditions to change the situation.

After hesitating, he spoke:

“There should actually be a sixth person in this mission…”

Yu Guo and Cao Yuan came closer behind him, faces full of shock.

Li Ji looked up and quietly explained everything.

Yu Guo paced on the spot, murmuring for a moment before saying:

“Perhaps… this sixth person could be our breakthrough…”

---

Li Ji once again pulled out a cigarette from his pocket, something that sparked his thinking.

Inside the room, only four male clerks remained. Amid the smoky haze, Yu Guo was about to speak.

Suddenly, everyone heard a dull thud…

The sound of something striking the wall!

“The master bedroom!”

Li Ji was the first to react, tossing aside his cigarette and rushing toward the master bedroom. He clearly heard the sound came from next door in Room 702!

The four clerks sprinted to the master bedroom, their gaze fixed on the east wall.

A tiny hole emitted a beam of light—it was obvious that Room 702’s lights had been turned on again!

“Why! Why!”

“Wuwu…”

Li Ji heard a man’s low roar and a woman’s sobbing, making the situation even more baffling.

But before he could think further, he immediately took out his phone and aimed the camera at the hole, just like last time.

This footage was much clearer and more complete than before, as if the event had just begun.

In the cold-toned, shaky image,

He saw a man in black raincoat straddling a woman in a long dress, his pale hands gripping her slender neck tightly.

“Again? Killing over and over?”

Yu Guo’s eyelids twitched violently; rubbing his eyes hard, he felt like he was hallucinating.

Fang Shenyan suddenly turned to the unsettled Li Ji and said in a low voice:

“No! Your earlier theory was wrong!”

At the same time, a third voice echoed in Li Ji’s mind:

“Our guess about the dead path was half right and half wrong!

“The killing scene doesn’t happen all at once but repeats!

“The pattern is to kill only one person at a time, repeatedly murdering the same woman!”

The two voices exploded in Li Ji’s ears as he glanced at his watch, determined to stop watching.

He quickly put away his phone and decisively ran to the window, stretching his head out to measure the distance between Room 701’s window and Room 702’s.

Then he turned to Fang Shenyan and Yu Guo, his clear voice resonating through the midnight air:

“Everything’s repeating—the raincoat man kills the woman, then five minutes later comes to Room 701 to kill us!”

Cao Yuan was completely terrified; he couldn’t understand how someone already dead could appear again and be killed once more!

“According to this killing pattern, if we can stop the raincoat man from killing the woman, can we indefinitely delay the dead path’s arrival?

“Thus, we’d create a path to survival!”