Chapter 22: The Cloaked Phantom

The sunlight of a new day shone upon the streets and alleys of Shanming City. In the eastern suburbs, the Sanhe residential complex looked somewhat warmer despite its desolate surroundings; it was a pleasant day, slightly dispelling the chill of autumn.

A handsome but pale figure, wrapped in a loose trench coat and with a cigarette dangling from his lips, stumbled out of an old building. Beside him was a middle-aged man in a Zhongshan suit, his complexion fair, carrying a semi-conscious person on his back who let out soft groans from time to time. They looked as if they had just fought a brutal battle, each of them exhausted in body and mind.

The man in the trench coat hailed a taxi. The middle-aged man placed the emaciated, unconscious youth in the back seat, and the two of them squeezed in beside him.

"The moat bank, the southwest public restroom."

Upon hearing the destination, the driver did not activate his navigation. His entire face seemed to turn numb and rigid. Regardless of whether he knew the specific location of that so-called public restroom, the mere mention of the name compelled him to drive toward it. Beneath that public restroom lay the true destination: the Tianhai Hotel.

...

"Back! I’m back!"

The second personality had barely spoken since Ji Li was injured, but once they were safely inside the hotel, it roared loudly, as if it had been suppressed for far too long. Under the influence of the hotel's mysterious power, Ji Li’s hands began to emit the faint sound of bones knitting back together; the process was not painful. In fact, beyond issuing those terrifying missions, the hotel provided for its employees in an impeccable manner.

Yu Guo’s body lay in the center of the lobby. The wounds on his legs, which had been crudely treated, were knitting themselves shut, regenerating flesh and bone. His consciousness was also gradually recovering. Fang Shenyan could be considered the least injured of the three; he had merely exhausted a great deal of his strength and, after several intervals of rest, was regaining his vitality.

"Congratulations to the Tianhai Hotel, Branch Manager Ji Li of the Seventh Branch, Employee Fang Shenyan, and Employee Yu Guo.

The recruitment mission has been successfully completed and you have returned!

Replacement employees will arrive at the hotel lobby promptly at two o'clock in the afternoon three days from now.

I wish you all a pleasant survival."

Ji Li listened to the sweet female voice on the intercom without a word. Out of six people, half were dead; this casualty rate was already extremely high. He now felt a vague sense that as the hotel upgraded to "one-star," the difficulty of the missions and the terrifying nature of the ghosts were climbing steadily. Six people no longer seemed to be enough. He looked at the black-and-white portraits hanging on the wall and sighed. Perhaps as the missions progressed and the hotel upgraded, the personnel would change accordingly.

...

However, there were two more missions before the next star upgrade. With so few people left, he figured they would have to participate every single time, and even Ji Li was not confident that he could survive the next mission.

"New recruits will arrive in three days. I hope some brilliant individuals will join us..."

"Damn it! That hurt like hell! I’ve never been this badly injured in my life!"

Yu Guo finally stirred and woke up at that moment. The first words out of his mouth signaled that he had returned to his usual temperament. Fang Shenyan looked at him, a faint smile appearing on his numb face. Among them, besides his execution capability, Yu Guo’s role was to be the strong heart that could dispel the oppressive atmosphere.

"What a shame, what a shame. My live-streaming phone was left in Room 701. You guys didn't help me get it back, did you?" Yu Guo did a kip-up, stood up from the floor, and immediately asked about his stream.

Ji Li looked at him with a half-smile. "You said you already found the existence of a ghost. Is there still any need to stream?"

"Of course there is! The guys in the chat room always call me a fraud. That was the perfect time to prove them wrong." Yu Guo was highly agitated. Aside from the joy of survival, he seemed to regret not being able to stream the encounter with the ghost.

"Then just get a new phone and go to the second floor to film it," Fang Shenyan said, patting him lightly on the shoulder.

At the same time, a wisp of black smoke suddenly emerged from the black eyeball tattoo on the back of his hand. It condensed in the air into the image of a female spirit, her forehead marked by an inexplicable force with three digits: "201."

The black shadow vanished and headed straight for the second floor. This was not by its own volition; under the rules of the hotel, neither human nor ghost could resist. As it entered, Ji Li clearly heard the sound of three doors opening simultaneously from the second-floor rooms where the ghost residents lived. It seemed that ghosts possessed curiosity just as humans did, and there existed a desire for voyeurism among them as well.

"Why... why hasn't the tattoo on the back of my hand disappeared?"

Only when Fang Shenyan spoke did he capture Ji Li’s attention. Ji Li turned to look at the back of Fang Shenyan’s left hand. That distinct, gothic-style tattoo remained on his skin. Yu Guo blinked; he had been unconscious during the incident and knew nothing about it.

"What’s the situation? You got a tattoo while on a mission?"

"Do you know anything about this?" Fang Shenyan, seemingly accustomed to Yu Guo’s teasing, threw the question to Ji Li.

Ji Li knew little about it as well. He observed it carefully and asked, "Do you feel any discomfort?"

"No. Whether it exists or not, I feel absolutely nothing."

Ji Li nodded, then looked thoughtfully at the portraits in the lobby. He finally fixed his gaze on the third portrait—the man who was once the manager of the Seventh Branch. He was the strongest manager who had led his generation of employees to elevate the hotel to two stars. On his cheek, there was a similar, unconventional tattoo. Although the design was completely different from Fang Shenyan’s, the dark, ominous pattern shared a similar essence.

Ji Li frowned. "I don’t know what the purpose of this thing is, but it must be related to the hotel’s level. It may be useless for now, but as the hotel’s rank climbs, its function should be revealed!"

Without a definitive answer, they could only take things one step at a time. The three of them walked side-by-side to the third floor and returned to their rooms to rest.

However, the moment Yu Guo reached his room, he asked the Tianhai Hotel for a new phone, logged into his account, and stepped back out into the hallway. He began his stream, a dark smirk playing on his lips.

"Fang Shenyan really has a sharp mind. If I keep watch over those ghosts every day, I won't have to worry about not getting gifts, right?"

"Hey guys, I'm back! Don't ask why I went offline last night; I barely escaped with my life! Tsk! I'm really not lying to you. I'll take you to see what a real ghost looks like right now. One cruise ship, one ghost; two cruise ships, two ghosts!"

Yu Guo seemed to have mastered the code to wealth. In reality, for the employees, money was just a number; they could have as much as they wanted. But Yu Guo’s brain seemed wired differently; he loved streaming, and seeking gifts was merely a way to satisfy his psychological needs.

"Alright, thanks to 'Snowflakes Don't Drift, I Don't Drift' for the cruise ship. Let's start with something to whet your appetite—let's pick the headless ghost..."

Yu Guo positioned his phone stand toward the second-floor corridor, aiming at the window at the very edge, and moved it inch by inch toward the headless ghost in Room 210.

But immediately after, before he could capture the ghost on camera, his stream was forcibly terminated. When he tried to click it again, the channel had been permanently banned. Yu Guo’s scalp went numb. Just as he was about to curse, the playback of his previous stream began to play on its own...

On the screen, at the second-floor window within arm's reach of him, two blurry shadows appeared. One had no head, while the other seemed wrapped in a thick cloak, its entire body merged into it, looking like a trench coat hanging in the air, swaying in the wind.

The two shadows: the headless shadow was inside the hotel, while the cloaked ghost shadow was outside!