Chapter 23: Deadly Room Numbers (Part 3)

When Chen Kaijie entered the room, the darkness was so thick that he couldn’t even see the shadows of the people in front of him. Stranger still, he couldn’t sense the presence, or hear the breaths of his companions. His heart immediately began to race.

“Miss Xiao? Lin Hai?” He called out a few times, testing the waters, but received no response.

Despite entering only seconds apart from the others, no one answered him.

Chen Kaijie could distinctly hear his own breathing becoming heavier, his muscles tensing up. The darkness was overwhelming, and he couldn’t see anything—what on earth was happening?

As he stood there fumbling about, he turned his head. In that moment, he found himself looking at the remaining half of a man’s face, just two centimeters away from him. In the pitch-black room, that face appeared unnervingly clear.

The empty left eye socket, with only the bones and the exposed jaw, grinned at him, the stench of decaying flesh on the face invading his breath.

The sudden, close encounter was indescribably shocking. Chen Kaijie’s heart almost went numb, and his pupils constricted sharply.

No matter how strong their mind, no one could withstand such a shock. He lost control and shouted, “Sh*t!” His whole body jolted backward, losing all composure as he scrambled far away.

“Ah! Ah!”

“Stay back! Mom, help!”

The five girls inside the room watched as the four men became possessed, rolling and crawling on the floor while screaming.

As Wang Yushan and the others watched their bizarre behavior, although they didn’t know what had happened, they were still frightened out of their wits inside this instance, and didn’t even dare to breathe.

By the time the men came to their senses, nearly scared enough to wet their pants, they found the five women staring at them with different expressions. At this point, despite the dim surroundings, they could clearly see the environment around them. The ghost that had scared them into crying and screaming for their lives, wasn’t there at all.

The atmosphere became extremely awkward for a moment.

Shen Qingqiu, who had enjoyed the spectacle, gave a rare big smile as she said, “What did you guys see to be scared like that?”

Chen Kaijie was the first to recover. After hurriedly standing up and tidying his clothes, he took a deep breath and, still feeling somewhat embarrassed, said, “Didn’t any of you see a ghost right behind you when you came in?”

After the men described what they saw, Wang Yushan and the others hastily glanced behind them, but there was nothing there.

Even Xiao Muyu couldn’t help it as her lips pressed together in a faint semblance of a smile. Shen Qingqiu, who caught it, arched her brows.

Xiao Muyu glanced at the four men with a hint of teasing in her eyes, and said, “Just said the system was cruel, and it proved me right. It probably scared you because you were dawdling.”

“Pfft.” Although it was still scary, Zuo Tiantian couldn’t hold back her laughter—it really was funny.

“Stop laughing. They’ve already lost their wits, and now they’ll lose face too,” Shen Qingqiu added another jab.

*Snicker*

This time, it wasn’t the women who laughed, but the men. Chen Kaijie’s face turned pale with anger. He turned to them and scolded under his breath, “You guys still have the nerve to laugh!”

He saw the three men’s faces had gone stiff and pale, and he asked disgruntledly, “What’s with that expression?”

“They didn’t laugh,” Xiao Muyu said in a serious tone.

Chen Kaijie’s throat tightened, and his eyes instantly filled with a wary, fearful look. He searched the area where he heard the sound from.

Shen Qingqiu immediately turned her back to Xiao Muyu, and the two of them stood back to back in tacit understanding, cautiously surveying the surroundings.

Just then, a shadow floated past in front of them, scaring Wang Yushan. Trembling, she shut her eyes and covered her mouth. The others quickly followed the movement with their eyes, only to realize that the door had been locked, and a row of glowing green numbers had appeared there.

The starting numbers were all 0, and there were six digits in total.

The mechanical voice sounded again inside the room: “The condition to clear this round of the game is: Exit the room! Option 1: Unlock the combination lock. Option 2: The door will automatically open in fifteen minutes.”

Instead of relief, they only felt more panic upon hearing the two options. Waiting fifteen minutes for the door to open seemed like child’s play compared to cracking a six-digit code. But could it really be that simple? How agonizing would those fifteen minutes be?

Reality soon answered them.

With a swish, a cold wind swept through the room. *Whoosh* Suddenly, a ring of candles lit up. In the dim candlelight, they could clearly see the mirrors surrounding them.

The room was enormous, easily over a hundred square meters, and mirrors covered the walls entirely. Reflected in them was the group, displaying various expressions of fear, panic, shock, and seriousness, from every angle, with no blind spots.

Those standing further away trembled and moved closer to the center. The group of nine huddled back to back in the middle, with no escape.

“It- it’s starting to write.” Su Jin’s voice was taut like a bowstring, as if it might snap at any moment.

Twelve figures had appeared in the mirror. Nine of them, who had previously been mirroring the group’s movements and expressions exactly, were simultaneously raising their hands, revealing creepy smiles as they looked at the group. With bloody fingers, they started to write “Bloody Mary” on the mirrors.

“Bloody Mary?” Lin Hai shouted in panic, then quickly realized and yelled, “Don’t let them finish writing!” Just like how they had stopped it at the beginning, he rushed over and frantically scrubbed at the mirrors.

Xiao Muyu stood still, her eyes fixed on the combination lock. Her voice was urgent and low: “It’s useless. If it were that simple, there wouldn’t be a fifteen-minute setting.”

It was useless indeed. They watched up close as the two words were completed, and felt an almost overwhelming sense of helplessness.

Shen Qingqiu, with her gaze still fixed on the mirrors, immediately suggested, “The password is six digits, and it’s numerical, which matches the clues from the meeting room. Could it be our room numbers?”

Someone started kicking the glass, trying to destroy the mirrors, but it had no effect.

The nine blood-red “Bloody Mary” phrases remained on the mirrors, like a demonic curse. Then, the skin of the mirror images began to crack inch by inch, like a shattered mirror. Blood seeped through the cracks, and a hand suddenly reached out of the mirror, curving towards the group.

They were coming out, and only 50 seconds had passed!

Xiao Muyu could no longer afford to be concerned with anything else. She dashed to the door in a few quick strides and began to input the password.

Behind her, the women’s screams and the men’s curses, filled with terror, reached her ears. Just as she entered the first digit, a cold hand grabbed her clothing. The chill of the icy hand pierced through her clothes, reaching her shoulder, and goosebumps immediately broke out.

But before the hand could do anything further, someone swiftly kicked it away. Xiao Muyu didn’t even turn her head, as if she was certain someone would help her handle it.

A frowning Shen Qingqiu kicked the female ghost, sending her crashing against the wall. She watched as the mirror images with cracked bodies converging towards the door, and imposingly said to the other seven, “If you only know how to scream and hide, you guys might as well wait for them to tear you apart.”

At this moment, Chen Kaijie’s mind became very clear: “Miss Xiao, try the room numbers. Everyone, we must hold them off. They’re just a bunch of rotting corpses—who’s afraid of whom!”

Sweat beaded on Xiao Muyu’s forehead as her mind raced. ‘Six digits, six rooms; 4311, 4312, 4314, 4315, 4317, and 4318; these are the room numbers from the first game. Taking the last digit from each, the six numbers should be 1, 4, 2, 8, 5, 7, in order.’

She forced herself to stay calm, her hands moving steadily and methodically.

It wasn’t just nine figures coming out of the mirrors, but twelve. In the first round, there were probably twelve players who had noticed something wrong with the mirrors. However, three unlucky ones hadn’t made it out of their rooms.

The mirror images moved slowly, but since they weren’t human, they felt no pain, couldn’t be hurt, and looked so terrifying that no one knew how to deal with them.

The more timid ones, Wang Yushan and Zuo Tiantian, couldn’t even bear to look. They shut their eyes, blindly kicking, hitting, and pushing, making for a comical sight.

In a tense voice, Shen Qingqiu called out Xiao Muyu’s name again, “Muyu, are you done?”

Xiao Muyu entered the final digit, but the door didn’t open.

“142857 is wrong,” Xiao Muyu said, her face downcast.

Chen Kaijie had just punched down mirror “Xiao Muyu”, wincing as he shook his hand. He froze when he heard her, and then said, “Why would it be 142857? On our side, the sequence was 758241.”

Xiao Muyu paused for a moment before realization hit her. The mirrors meant everything was reversed. So, the sequence on Chen Kaijie’s side should be the reverse of the one on Xiao Muyu’s side. Taking a deep breath, she quickly began entering the numbers in the reverse order.

Shen Qingqiu stood guard behind Xiao Muyu, kicking down each mirror figure that approached without moving an inch from her spot.

However, her expression grew increasingly grim as she realized that these creatures were becoming stronger over time.

Worse still, Xiao Muyu delivered another piece of bad news: “It’s still wrong.”

“How could it be wrong? There’s no other clue here. A six-digit code with ten possible numbers—without a hint, forget guessing the right password, we wouldn’t even be able to pick the correct six numbers. Clearing it would practically be impossible. So these six digits should be the right ones since they’re the most obvious choice,” Shen Qingqiu said without stopping her movements, but her mind remained sharp.

“Could 43 also be relevant? Our two teams came out separately, and four of the room numbers overlap.” Chen Kaijie’s mind also worked fast, and just as he thought of something, he voiced it.

Xiao Muyu had an extraordinarily sharp memory. There were six doors in total; five people had successfully come out on her team, while Chen Kaijie’s team had four. The overlapping room numbers were 1, 4, 2, and 8, and she immediately combined them to form the password: 431428.

The light on the lock turned red, and a buzzing sound rang out—wrong again!

The group was reaching their limit. Shen Qingqiu quickly ran through all the numbers they had seen in the meeting room: the calendar—too many numbers; the countdown—not right. What else?

Suddenly, she remembered the books. The only distinctive ones were related to mathematics. Since this game was clearly centered on numbers, it had to be that.

At this urgent moment, Shen Qingqiu shouted Xiao Muyu’s name again, “Muyu, could those books be related to the password?” Xiao Muyu seemed used to it by now.

“9, 15, 23, 25, 30, 33?”

Xiao Muyu immediately recited the six numbers that Shen Qingqiu had teasingly mentioned earlier, but then she frowned slightly. Xiao Muyu realized that these six numbers didn’t match the six-digit password at all, and couldn’t be used directly.

Shen Qingqiu threw a female ghost over her shoulder, slamming her to the floor, and followed up with a kick that sent her flying away.

The more urgent the situation became, the faster Shen Qingqiu’s mind worked. She kept running those numbers through her head—those six digits were definitely not the order of the math books. So, they must be…

Suddenly, a flash of insight struck her—she got it! And, after a quick calculation, it was once again those same six numbers. This fateful coincidence greatly reinforced her certainty.

“8.”

*Click* The first digit was entered. Shen Qingqiu broke off a female ghost’s arm, and the ghost’s sleeve slid down, revealing a red number on her wrist. It flashed briefly, and from Shen Qingqiu’s angle, she saw it clearly: 9.

Shen Qingqiu paused momentarily, but when the ghost tried to grab her again, she kicked her away.

“5!”

The second digit!

As time passed, these things had grown too strong for an ordinary person to handle. The others, especially the girls who lacked physical strength, were like ants trying to move a tree. They could only slow the ghosts down momentarily.

“7!”

Shen Qingqiu grabbed one of the mirror images by the collar, using the momentum to flip herself. Her left leg wrapped around the neck of the mirror figure that had thrown Zuo Tiantian, and with an explosive burst of strength from her waist, she slammed both mirror images to the floor.

“1!” she shouted right as the two monsters hit the floor, and Xiao Muyu quickly turned the dial on the lock, but she couldn’t help glancing at Shen Qingqiu.

In fact, she had already figured out where Shen Qingqiu was getting these numbers. However, she didn’t stop her from continuing to call them out, because Shen Qingqiu had turned shouting the password into a battle cry as she fought off the ghosts.

“4!”

Chen Kaijie and the others were watching with eyes wide and mouths agape—they had never seen a woman so formidable.

In his brief distraction, Chen Kaijie’s mirror image lunged at him. Panicking, he kicked it hard. But while Shen Qingqiu made kicking the ghosts look effortless, his leg went numb from the impact. “Chen Kaijie” only staggered back three steps, before continuing to move toward the door.

Chen Kaijie desperately tried to stop the ghost, but it suddenly twisted its head toward him, baring its jagged teeth in a terrifying roar. Its mouth, filled with blood splotches, opened wide, revealing saw-like teeth.

Horrified, Chen Kaijie turned and ran, but the creature grabbed him and threw him aside. His head spun after he crashed to the floor.

The others also got tossed around like rag dolls.

“2!”

“Ah, Miss Xiao, hurry, faster!” Lin Hai cried out in pain as one of the creatures clawed at his hand.

*Tick* After one final soft noise, the entire password lit up.

The door was unlocked!

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Author had something to say:

The second round of the game is over. Can you bosses figure out why the password was what it was? This instance will activate the romance, though they won’t realize it.

Xiao Xiao: This woman is weird. I’ll never get involved with her.

Xiao Shen: This woman is interesting, but I’m just having fun with her.

Then one day, Xiao Xiao realizes that there’s already a trellis for the “melon” between them. (TL: Couldn’t find anything on this trellis slang. Sorry. I only know anyone who’s called a melon or something melon-related in Chinese is similar to being called an idiot, stupid, etc.)

Xiao Shen: … I guess I’m just the melon rind (idiot).

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TL: The number 142857 is very important. For those unfamiliar, try googling it. Another big clue is the number Qingqiu saw on the ghost’s arm.