*Can you fucking walk faster? My hand's gone again—it hurts like hell!*
*Has the main persona ever lost a hand before?*
*Cut the crap! This time hurts worse than last!*
Ji Li no longer had the strength to silence the two voices bickering in his head. Clutching the empty frame under his arm, he staggered toward the public restroom ahead.
The task was over, but he had collapsed afterward. If the other personas hadn't shouted him awake, he would have bled to death by now.
Bang!
The man of three shadows slammed open the restroom door, and in an instant the world shifted—he was back at Branch Seven of Tianhai Hotel.
A warm breeze drove away the chill of the autumn night. Strange heat flooded his body, wrapping around him where he collapsed.
**Congratulations, Acting Manager Ji Li of Branch Seven, on successfully completing the reception mission.**
**Branch Seven has been promoted from *Ordinary* to *One-Star*, with five new staff members to be recruited.**
**Until Two-Star, the *dead replace the fallen* format applies, fixed at six staff members.**
**The new staff will arrive tomorrow morning at 10:00 in the hotel lobby.**
**Manager Ji Li, please decide on one reasonable management rule before their induction.**
**We wish you a pleasant survival.**
Ji Li looked at his broken left hand as flesh and bone visibly regrew. He ignored the sight, focusing instead on the empty frame—the ghost he had just received.
*Hey hey, don't move, don't move… it's a bit numb, a bit itchy—it's almost healed…*
The second persona's strange voice echoed in his ear. Ji Li frowned but stayed silent.
The frame floated into the air, words suddenly appearing on its back: Resident 203.
Then it vanished. A dull thud came from upstairs—a door closing.
Ji Li exhaled. The hotel had accepted its new tenant. His mission was complete.
Only now did he finally check the new email on his phone, climbing the stairs as he thought about his three ghostly residents.
He had always blamed past failures on a lack of manpower.
In that failed mission, he had found the life path—but without enough time or hands, he still lost.
Now, with the hotel upgraded, five teammates would change everything.
The second-floor corridor radiated a strange chill. Ji Li sensed Room 205 and Room 210 stirring restlessly at the arrival of 203.
He stood at the end of the hall, eyes deep and distant.
He still couldn't understand the purpose of the staff regulations.
The ghostly residents didn't listen to control. They always tried to escape, though the staff could stop them briefly.
But could humans really restrain ghosts?
Ji Li pressed his hands on the stair rail, staring at the seventeen portraits of past managers.
**When all the staff die, the residents vanish too…**
**But people die as people die. Where do the residents go?**
*Ji Li, will you tell me what's going on now?* The third persona's calm, composed voice broke his thoughts.
Ji Li sighed, turned back upstairs, and entered his private room. Sitting at his computer, he began recounting everything in a low voice.
After a long silence, the third persona accepted it.
*So I've gone from a psychiatrist to a persona inside you, stripped of human rights…*
*I don't know why you have independent memory and will. Number Two doesn't.* Ji Li rubbed his temples.
He knew something about the supernatural hotel, but his own strange condition was a mystery.
The second persona was crude and deranged, but nothing unusual. The third, however, displayed independence that unsettled him.
Calm though it was, he feared that if every death birthed another self-willed persona, he might lose control entirely.
Each persona could become a ticking bomb—unexpected disasters, even a threat to his dominance.
*Forget it, forget it. I think Number Three's is retarded. Tomorrow at ten the new staff arrive, and as manager, we'd better run things properly.* The second persona yawned.
Ji Li nodded. The newcomers were a blessing.
But they needed to grasp the situation quickly, or a single stupid mistake could ruin everything.
"I can create one hotel rule, within reason, to govern them. Which direction should it take?"
The voices went quiet. Ji Li bowed his head, deep in thought.
Inside the hotel, nothing was lacking—materials, wealth, anything desired appeared in one's cabinet with a single spoken word.
With everything provided, Ji Li didn't know what kind of rule he should create.
*Remember how you schemed against the yellow-haired man and the others just now?* The third persona spoke, making Ji Li raise a brow.
*During reception missions, faced with ghosts, humans have almost no power to resist under the pressure of death.*
*So like you, out of fear of death, it's only natural they might harm each other.*
The third persona didn't finish, but Ji Li understood completely: it was suggesting he create an internal restraint among humans.
"Tianhai, the rule I create is: staff are forbidden to scheme against one another—" He paused.
Then corrected himself: "Inside the hotel, staff are forbidden from infighting!"
**Acting Manager Ji Li's proposed rule meets the standard. It is now established.**
Hearing the hotel's confirmation, Ji Li nodded. At first, he had wanted to forbid scheming between humans entirely. But thinking it over, he realized he himself lacked the ability to resist ghosts.
So during missions, betrayals might still happen.
In his view, scheming in the field was a matter of personal ability, but within the hotel, no hand should ever turn against another. Otherwise, even this last place of safety would collapse.
"Enough, enough. Let's see the newcomers tomorrow. I'm fucking exhausted."
Ji Li still didn't rest. Sitting in his chair, he lit a cigarette, staring blankly into the corner.
"I'm only the acting manager. The hotel's email said right now there's no difference between manager and staff.
Does that mean when I truly become manager, I'll gain special authority?"
He shook his head. "The only reason I became acting manager was because I was the only one left at the time.
Maybe one day, there'll be a real selection for manager. Then everyone will have to fight for it.
Tianhai… the hotel…
and I… Ji Li…"