Midnight's heavy rain poured into the alley. A corpse rested silently against the wall.
Long hair was blown aside by the wind, revealing a pale, paper-thin face. The head tilted weakly.
The entire neck looked as though it had been snapped by brute force, twisted into a grotesque death pose.
But as a raindrop slipped into those wide-open eyes, the broken bones gave a sharp crack, and the scattered pupils showed signs of focus.
Thoughts began to reorganize, to return.
At the same time, two restless voices rang in his mind.
*Who am I?*
*You are Ji Li.*
*Who are you?*
*I am Ji Li as well.*
*We are all Ji Li!*
*We are all Ji Li!*
*We are all Ji Li!*
The chaotic voices churned in his head. Under the relentless barrage, the corpse's body suddenly tensed, then sprang upright, scattering a spray of raindrops.
*Hu!*
Ji Li died—and resurrected.
"Failed…"
He exhaled a white mist, rubbed his throbbing neck, and his gray eyes gazed at the rain-washed world, trying to clear the haze of resurrection.
After a pause, he suddenly strode forward, bellowing at the voices in his mind: "Shut up!"
The inner world fell silent. Ji Li, too, became quiet.
From a filthy alley into the dazzling city, his pace quickened, striding toward a certain direction. Neon lights stretched his shadow long across the wet pavement.
For a fleeting moment, three shadows existed on the ground.
...
Shanming City, across the moat.
Ji Li silently faced a public restroom, as if pondering. After a moment, he pushed the small door open.
In an instant, heaven and earth changed.
Behind the door was not a restroom, but the lavish lobby of a grand hotel.
Brilliant lights bathed his pale face, while warm air quickly dried his rain-soaked clothes.
He looked at the seventeen black-and-white memorial portraits hanging in stark contrast to the golden hall, saying nothing.
**Congratulations to Tianhai[1] Hotel, Branch Seven's acting manager, Mr. Ji Li, on your successful return.**
**Though the escort mission was not completed, you may still choose to rest and enjoy a cup of hot tea to ward off the autumn chill…**
Ji Li waved his hand, cutting off the sweet female voice from the broadcast, and walked toward the left stairway with a sour expression.
"I just had my neck snapped by that thing. Still hurts. Got a massage here?"
*Main persona? Main persona? Are you still there?*
The same nagging voice stirred again in his head. Ji Li frowned, ignoring it.
Since waking here half a month ago with no memories, he had already died twice.
Though each time he revived unscathed, the price was another *persona* appearing in his mind.
By now, counting the main one, his soul had been split into three parts.
With all memory gone, he remembered nothing—not even his own name. *Ji Li* was simply the one word left in his head upon awakening.
So he believed he was Ji Li, but wasn't sure he was truly human anymore.
"Tch!"
His thoughts were cut short as the carpet beneath his feet suddenly flooded with thick scarlet blood, pooling in sheets.
"205! Next time you slit your wrists, do it in the bathtub! The blood's seeping out into the hallway!"
At those words, the bloodstains on the carpet began to recede, retreating back under the door.
As Ji Li turned, he heard the bouncing of marbles echoing from deeper in the corridor.
Narrowing his eyes, he focused on room 210's hallway, where a lone glass marble was bouncing up and down, untouched by anyone.
"210! Get back in your room!"
A lightning flash split the sky, illuminating the hotel's second floor.
On Ji Li's grim face, the light also revealed—for just a moment—the outline of a headless figure by room 210's door.
After inspecting all ten rooms, Ji Li finally returned to his own on the third floor.
He pulled off his damp coat, collapsed into a chair, and let the glow of the computer screen cast its pale light over his face.
Tianhai Hotel—a bizarre inn hidden beneath the surface of the mortal world.
Half a month ago, Ji Li awoke here, stripped of everything.
At that time, the hotel was empty. The moment he opened his eyes, a woman's voice echoed from the broadcast.
**Welcome, Mr. Ji Li, to Tianhai Hotel, Branch Seven. You are now the acting manager.**
**You have two duties:**
**First, receive new residents.**
**Second, supervise them to prevent escape.**
**For now, only the receiving task applies to you.**
**When a task arises, its details will be sent to the hotel's official mailbox. Please register and log in within five minutes for future access.**
**As for supervision, once residents move in, simply patrol nightly with the staff to ensure no one escapes.**
**Branch Seven is currently ranked the lowest, a *Ordinary*. To advance to a *One-Star Hotel*, you must receive three residents.**
**Hotel ranks are: Standard, One-Star, Two-Star, Three-Star, Four-Star, and Five-Star.**
**Rank is determined by the number of residents received.**
**With each new rank, staff of that branch gain corresponding *benefits*.**
**Upon reaching Five-Star, all staff of the branch will be freed from Tianhai and regain their freedom.**
**Do your utmost to complete tasks and raise your hotel's rank.**
Those few sentences were the only sound Ji Li heard upon awakening.
At the same time, he noticed a brand-new phone placed at his feet, its screen lit with a registration page.
Any normal person would ignore such absurd instructions.
So did Ji Li. And that was when he first discovered his ability to die and return.
He chose to ignore the phone and stepped out of the hotel doors.
Beyond lay Shanming City's moat, but behind him was nothing but a plain, dingy public restroom.
The door remained open. Within the restroom shimmered the luxurious golden glow of the hotel, leaving Ji Li unable to believe his own eyes.
Yet this bizarre sight was a horror unlike anything he had ever known.
Then the five-minute deadline expired.
Because Ji Li had done nothing, his body was instantly consumed by fire, reduced to ash in a heartbeat.
That was his first death—and the beginning of the second persona.
He had no choice but to return to the hotel, pick up the phone, and register as Branch Seven's acting manager.
In a single day, Ji Li's life was overturned.
He had thought himself merely a pitiful man with no memories. But after dying and reviving with a second persona, he realized with a jolt that he was not normal.
The hotel's official instructions were scant. It never even revealed the identities of the *residents* he was to receive.
What truly made Ji Li understand his predicament were the seventeen black-and-white portraits hanging on the lobby wall.
They were the former managers of Tianhai Hotel. Every one of them had died.
Yet beside each portrait, written in hard-pressed strokes, were the hidden rules of the hotel—including the details of the receiving tasks that had led them to their deaths.
Once Ji Li absorbed all of these rules, his worldview shattered.
Where there is light, there is darkness. Where there are people, there are ghosts.
And ghosts, for humans, cannot be harmed, cannot be resisted.
They are natural enemies.
But the two duties of Tianhai Hotel forced humans to confront them.
The *receiving task* required staff to venture into haunted places and bring ghosts back as residents.
The *supervision task* required nightly patrols to prevent those ghostly residents from escaping.
None of the hotel's managers or staff, past or present, had entered willingly. Like Ji Li, they had all been dragged here against their will.
And once inside, they were bound to the tasks.
The hotel was an existence above both humans and ghosts.
Its commands could not be refused. Disobedience meant instant death.
It was a curse, planted from the very moment one stepped inside.
According to the carved notes on the portraits, many had tried to escape—but every attempt ended in a gruesome death.
Just as when Ji Li failed to register in time, they too were incinerated by nameless fire.
But unlike Ji Li, they did not have his strange, mysterious body that allowed them to return.
The receiving tasks had nearly wiped out Branch Seven. Among the two duties, it was the most dangerous.
Yet a few exceptional managers survived for a time, completing several tasks and successfully receiving ghosts.
They left behind records of their experiences.
*Ghosts can kill, but even they are bound by rules and limits.*
Ji Li carved that sentence into his memory. Later, when he experienced receiving tasks himself, he came to the same conclusion.
Ghosts kill according to specific rules. Find those rules, break them—
Then they can no longer harm the living. At the same time, this counts as a successful capture: *bring the ghost back to the hotel, and the task is complete*.
Even so, the death rate remains terrifyingly high.
Counting his most recent failure, Ji Li had already faced three receiving tasks—and died once more.
**205** and **210** were his only results in half a month.
As for the rule that one could escape Tianhai only by reaching Five-Star rank, Ji Li still could not imagine it.
From the inscriptions on the portraits, the best any previous Branch Seven manager had achieved was capturing six ghosts, reaching Two-Star rank.
But just as they became a Two-Star Hotel, the entire staff was wiped out.
Ji Li had guessed that with each new rank, the ghosts they faced would only grow more terrifying—so much so that even with added *benefits*, resistance was still impossible.
Which made him doubt whether reaching Five-Star and capturing eighteen ghosts was even possible.
*Ding!*
His computer screen lit up. A new email popped in the corner.
Ji Li rubbed his aching neck, sighed, and opened it.
Recipient: **Acting Manager Ji Li, Tianhai Hotel Branch Seven**
*Please proceed at midnight, October 21, 2015, to Beggar Alley in District XC of this city. Within three hours, find a path of survival and bring the new resident back to the hotel.*
*This is a hotel rank-up task. Completion will promote Branch Seven to One-Star Hotel.*
*The benefit of this rank: hiring additional staff.*
Sender: **Tianhai**
Before Ji Li could react, the second persona in his mind erupted.
*What the hell is this hotel! Spamming me with emails, sending me to fetch some damn ghost resident! With what, exactly, am I supposed to fetch it?*
*What's… a ghost resident?* the newly formed third persona asked timidly.
*A ghost is a ghost! A killer ghost!*
The noise pounded his head. Ji Li slammed the table. "Shut up, all of you!"
He exhaled hard. The task he had just failed had already been a promotion mission.
It seemed that because of his inability to truly die, Tianhai's rules had shifted.
But the promised *benefit*—hiring more staff—actually pleased him.
In his view, the last failure was because he fought alone.
With allies, at least the odds of a ghost's attack could be shared.
After a long time, Ji Li still stared at the now-dark computer screen, raising his pale arm with a grim expression.
At its center ran a faint black dotted line, as if foreshadowing some fracture.
He slowly closed his eyes. He could feel his life force weakening with each resurrection, edging closer to final death.
He struggled on only to uncover the truth.
What was the memory he had lost?
Who had given him the power to die and rise again?
Why had he awakened inside Tianhai Hotel?
Behind it all, a colossal hand seemed to shroud him.
And this conspiracy, steeped in supernatural power, inevitably led him to suspect the terrifying Tianhai Hotel itself.
Ji Li was not like the managers before him.
He lived not merely for the sake of living.
[1] Tianhai means Heaven Sea.