The small black room, the New World’s primary method for disciplining rule-breaking Wishers, functioned by assigning a punishment duration according to the severity of the Wisher’s transgression. It was essentially just a cramped, dark room. Individuals who entered were projected into their own subconscious space.

Within the prescribed time, for Wishers who had already been greatly frightened in the instance, the unknown darkness could easily evoke their subconscious fears.

To be precise, it targeted their emotions.

Whether it be fear, exhilaration, anger, sadness, or any other potent emotion, it could serve as a catalyst, conjuring different scenarios and the terrifying entities that arose from them. Sometimes these manifestations were monstrous, while at other times they took the form of the people or things the Wisher dreaded most.

When the punished Wishers confronted the horrors spawned from their own emotions, their emotional state often intensified, and their inherent personality flaws and hidden dark sides were completely projected onto these nightmarish figments.

There was no actual death within the confines of the small black room. After all, the physical body remained unharmed. However, all the sensations – the five senses, the crushing fear, the agonizing pain, the hyper-realistic sensation of teetering on the brink of annihilation – were undeniably real. Even if the allotted time had not yet elapsed, they had already been psychologically ‘killed’ countless times.

All these tormenting sensations were genuine.

Many individuals had already mentally ‘died’ within the small black room’s oppressive embrace. Still, because their designated punishment time had not yet run its course, the raw agony and sheer terror of that moment of perceived death would stretch into an agonizing eternity until the final second ticked by.

Torture, live dissection, the desperate struggle against unimaginable pain after brutal, losing fights.

These were the typical scenes they were accustomed to observing on the monitoring screens.

Now this…

Just as they began to speculate whether a fundamental malfunction had occurred within the small black room’s programming, and were about to pull up all the detailed running display screens for closer analysis, Qin Yuan casually waved his hand. Instantly, a staggering thirty thousand display screens simultaneously overlapped before them, creating a dizzying visual spectacle.

Compared to the chaotic and horrifying scenes playing out on the vast majority of the monitoring screens, her bizarrely harmonious and almost beautiful scene stood out in stark, unsettling contrast.

They all held their breath, a silent debate raging within them – should they voice their confusion, or would any utterance risk provoking the volatile madman standing before them?

They could only steal cautious glances at their boss, who had remained uncharacteristically silent from the moment Ding Yi had entered the room. They saw him staring intently at the figure on one of the screens, cheeks puffed out in apparent enjoyment as she ate, and then, a low, almost amused sound escaped his lips. “Heh.”

Suit Squad, their internal alarms blaring: Boss… is losing it! He’s finally gone completely mad! This woman has irrevocably broken the boss!

Qin Yuan abruptly withdrew his gaze from the mesmerizingly mundane scene and turned to leave the monitoring room.

0723’s mouth moved faster than his brain could process the implications. “Boss, aren’t you going to continue watching?”

Qin Yuan merely cast a brief, enigmatic glance at him, and 0723 instinctively squeezed 0695’s hand even tighter.

In the end, Qin Yuan offered no verbal explanation and walked away, his imposing figure disappearing through the exit.

The instant he was gone, the Suit Squad collectively felt the air in the room become significantly lighter, the suffocating tension dissipating. The hearts that had been lodged in their throats could now safely descend back to their proper place.

0695 slapped 0723’s hand away with a look of utter disgust. “Look at your utter uselessness.”

0723 touched the back of his hand, which had been lightly struck, and a slightly aggrieved expression crossed his face. He muttered in a low voice, “Weren’t all of you just as terrified?”

“But,” 0695 retorted with a smug air, “our mouths possess the distinct advantage of having a lock.”

0723: (；′д｀)ゞ

0811, a man with slicked-back hair, a long, somewhat equine face, and narrow single eyelids, voiced the collective unease. “Is there genuinely something amiss with the small black room? It shouldn’t be malfunctioning, right? Even if the boss himself had entered, a birthday cake couldn’t have possibly materialized, could it?”

0695 shook his head slowly. “If there were a real problem, would the boss have simply turned and walked away like that? You all witnessed it just now. The precise moment that woman began to sing, the boss’s face—”

0695 shuddered dramatically, wrapping his arms around himself as if warding off a sudden chill. He had a distinct premonition of unsettling nightmares that night.

Ding Yi, blissfully unaware of the minor pandemonium she had caused outside the confines of her temporary prison, lazily nestled deeper into the soft sofa after finishing the entire cake. The tranquil environment and the rapidly metabolizing sugar began to induce a pleasant drowsiness.

Succumbing to the comforting weight of sleepiness, she drifted off into a deep slumber.

The high-quality rest, surprisingly, did not leave her feeling groggy or irritable upon waking. Instead, she was enveloped in a sensation of being completely refreshed and revitalized.

Ding Yi stood up and stretched languidly, a soft yawn escaping her lips, and casually walked past 0723, who was now silently holding the door open for her.

Only one other suit-clad individual remained outside, a woman with sharp features whom Ding Yi hadn’t encountered before. When the woman saw her walking out with a relaxed and slightly dazed expression, a fleeting trace of shock flickered across her face.

She didn’t know that after Ding Yi had yawned and closed her eyes, everyone except 0723, who had been assigned the task of retrieving her, had exchanged bewildered glances, shaken their heads in disbelief, and quietly departed, as if they had witnessed something truly inexplicable.

At this moment, the flowing hourglass depicted on the door indicated that a staggering 140 minutes still remained of her designated punishment. From the moment she entered the room to the time she finished the cake and then curled up for a nap, only ten minutes had elapsed.

But fortunately, the enigmatic boss wasn’t present, and these remaining 140 minutes didn’t seem nearly as daunting or unpleasant as she might have initially imagined.

As soon as Ding Yi stepped out of the room, the hourglass flowing on the door diagonally opposite also reached its end. The suit-clad woman with sharp features efficiently opened the door, and a disheveled yellow-haired man with elaborate tattoos covering his arms crawled out of the room with considerable difficulty, looking as though he had been completely submerged in some viscous fluid.

His slightly long, thin yellow hair clung to his scalp in wet strands, and his face was coated in an exaggerated amount of some transparent liquid that dripped steadily onto the floor. The raw terror in his wide eyes was unmistakable, and his thin body trembled uncontrollably. His bloodless lips also quivered, opening and closing silently.

The suit-clad woman, standing impassively at the doorway and looking down at his pathetic state, appeared utterly unfazed, as if this were a commonplace occurrence. Without a trace of emotion in her voice, she stated flatly, “Follow me. If you get lost and wander into areas where you don’t belong, don’t even entertain the thought of ever leaving the small black room.”

The yellow-haired man with tattoos, still clearly disoriented and trembling violently, suddenly snapped back to a semblance of awareness and stared at the suit-clad woman’s unwavering back. He hurriedly attempted to rise from the floor. However, his legs were too weak and unresponsive, unable to support his weight. He now resembled a newborn fawn, collapsing repeatedly as it desperately tried to stand on unsteady limbs.

Ding Yi: …?

The bizarre scene unfolding before her was even more perplexing than the unexpected birthday cake she had encountered in the small black room.

What in the world had he experienced in that room?

And how had he managed to become so thoroughly drenched?

She inquired with sincere curiosity, “Is he feeling ill? Did he maybe overeat? Or could he be experiencing a severe allergic reaction? It can’t be that the food in his room came to life and tried to eat him, can it?”

0723: …

He had a multitude of potential responses bubbling to the surface, words forming on his lips.

It’s just…

Is it even remotely possible that his utterly traumatized state is actually the normal outcome?

The words had already reached the tip of his tongue, yet he found himself utterly unsure of where to even begin explaining. In the end, he silently swallowed all his carefully considered explanations.

Ding Yi, receiving no answer to her increasingly bizarre inquiries, simply shrugged and did not press the issue. She followed him at a comfortable distance, neither too close nor too far behind, and after navigating a long, sterile corridor, they arrived at another unassuming door.

“Behind this door is your designated room. Please ensure you read the rules posted on the wall carefully.”

0723 deliberately emphasized the word “rules,” as though fearing she hadn’t fully registered its significance.

Ding Yi glanced at him, offered a polite nod of thanks, turned the handle, and pushed open the door. Beyond the threshold lay an ordinary, if somewhat luxurious, queen-sized hotel room.

The space was quite spacious, containing a comfortable bed, a sleek wardrobe, a functional desk, chairs, and a private bathroom. Everything one would typically expect to find in a high-end hotel room was present.

Ding Yi surveyed the room with a detached assessment before approaching the closed curtains, planning to draw them aside and gaze at the outside view. Yet, she was unprepared for what lay hidden behind the thick red velvet drapes: a neatly printed list of rules.

[Dear Wisher, welcome to the Infinite Hotel.]

[In order to allow you to have a better rest during your stay at the Infinite Hotel, please read the following rules carefully.]

[1. Based on the difficulty of your previous instance, your stay at the Infinite Hotel will be twenty days. During this time, you are encouraged to relax and enjoy yourself to the fullest. The Infinite Hotel will provide you with complete and comprehensive services.]

[2. The hotel will provide you with three nutritionally balanced meals per day. You have three opportunities to place meal orders each day, with no specific time restrictions. You can review the available dishes on the menu located on the table, and the hotel will deliver your food to your room as promptly as possible. Please note that you must not waste any food, as doing so will result in punishment.]

[3. The hotel will provide you with clean clothing daily. Please place all your discarded dirty clothes correctly into the laundry basket provided in the bathroom. Randomly discarding clothing will be considered a violation of the hotel’s hygiene regulations.]

[4. Please cultivate and maintain good personal hygiene habits. Do not litter under any circumstances. From the moment you first check into the Infinite Hotel until the time you ultimately leave the New World, you are granted a total of three exemptions regarding minor infractions. Exceeding this limit will result in you being classified as a repeat offender and will be subject to severe disciplinary action.]

[5. Cultivating positive interpersonal relationships can enhance relaxation. The hotel encourages you to engage socially, build friendships, and welcome guests to your room for conversation and relaxation. However, please ensure that your guests do not disturb your rest; they need to leave your room by midnight. Failing to do so may lead to consequences for everyone involved.]

[6. The hotel prioritizes the personal privacy of every Wisher. Your personalized nameplate will be showcased outside your door, and the star chain you wear acts as your distinctive room key. Don’t worry about the hotel’s size making it hard to find your room after stepping out. If you mentally repeat “Infinite Hotel,” the star chain on your wrist will instinctively direct you to the right location.]

[7. Please strictly adhere to all the aforementioned rules, and we wish you a pleasant and restful stay.]