*Bang… bang, bang… bang, bang, bang!*
The pounding on the door came with a strange rhythm. Whatever was outside, it wasn't frenzied—just unnervingly forceful.
That bizarre sound became a deadly refrain, pulling taut the nerves of everyone inside.
And yet, under such crushing pressure, Ji Li showed no trace of panic.
His eyes stayed fixed on the watch, checking the time.
"Exactly five minutes after the woman in 702 died, the knocking began.
Right on time."
Fang Shenyan studied Ji Li's calm expression, frowning.
"Why aren't you the least bit worried?"
Ji Li shook his head slightly. Straightening his back, he looked at their pale faces and spoke softly:
"The dead end has triggered, yes—but I don't believe it's a full outbreak.
Normally, barely an hour into the task, it wouldn't wipe us all out at once. At most, one victim.
And more importantly, it's been knocking for nearly two minutes, yet hasn't entered…
Either it can't come in, or it's waiting for something."
"One chance in five…" Fang Shenyan murmured, hand trembling on his glasses.
If even he was shaken, the others were in worse disarray.
"Waiting for what?" Yu Guo demanded, restless.
Ji Li hesitated, then—under their horrified stares—rose to his feet and walked straight to the door.
"What are you doing?"
He waved a hand behind him without turning, stepping to the black steel security door.
Drawing a deep breath, he pressed his face to the peephole.
The sensation was the same as before—a chill on his cheek, the blur sharpening into focus.
And at that exact moment, the knocking ceased.
Through the peephole, Ji Li saw a figure in a dark raincoat standing motionless outside. It was as if the figure could see him through the door.
The hood obscured most of the face, but a stubbled chin revealed it was a man.
Then, under Ji Li's gaze, that half-hidden face stretched…
Slowly, it curved into a secretive, grotesque smile.
Never had Ji Li seen a smile so twisted—skin tugged by an unseen force into a broken, unnatural arc.
He was more certain than ever: the man could see through the door.
Because the moment Ji Li appeared, the man turned, opened the door of 702, and stepped inside.
Ji Li drew back from the peephole, brow furrowed, unable to speak.
"What did you see?" Fang Shenyan's lenses glinted as he asked the question burning in everyone's minds.
"I saw a man…
He must be the ghost. But he turned back into 702…"
Ji Li's throat seized before he could finish.
In an instant, his body stiffened—then he lunged into the living room, grabbing limp Ding Miaoxin from the floor.
Her body was shockingly weightless, as if boneless. With almost no effort, he lifted her up.
Her skeleton felt shattered through and through. Ji Li was holding nothing but a crumbling corpse.
Ding Miaoxin was dead.
Fang Shenyan, Yu Guo, and Cao Yuan rushed over, none prepared for this.
When Ji Li had said the man outside had gone, they'd secretly felt relief that no one had died.
But…
"Without a sound, without even coming in, Ding Miaoxin is the first to die!" Yu Guo shouted, face red as he kicked the coffee table over.
Fang Shenyan smoked in silence, pale as ash.
Cao Yuan's eyes reddened. He wanted to take Ding Miaoxin's body, but lacked the courage.
After all, he had been the closest to the ghost. When the knocking began, he'd only thought of himself, never pulling her along.
Yu Guo was the only one who finally lifted her body, laying it on the sofa. Then he turned back to Ji Li.
"The envelope you gave us with the ghost's rules marked this as a survival-type task.
But in a place barely a hundred square meters, how could we possibly survive the night?"
The death of a companion stripped him of his earlier bravado. His words carried only despair.
Ji Li stayed silent, brow deeply furrowed. His mind was chaos.
There were too many things he couldn't reconcile.
The events in rooms 701 and 702 carried a wrongness beyond words.
Now it was certain—the perverted man was the ghost. But why didn't he enter the room?
This was his room. He had to be able to open the door. Why hide behind such clumsy methods to kill?
And what about the sixth person who'd been on Ji Li's mind from the start?
An hour had passed since the task began, yet the missing one still hadn't appeared.
Yu Guo's despair, Fang Shenyan's silence, Cao Yuan's panic—none of it changed Ji Li's resolve.
After a long pause, he finally spoke.
"This task should actually have a sixth participant…"
Yu Guo and Cao Yuan stepped closer, stunned.
Ji Li tilted his head back and explained everything in a low voice.
Yu Guo paced in place, then muttered after some thought,
"Maybe… this sixth person could be our breakthrough…"
Ji Li once again pulled out a cigarette. The smoke always cleared his thoughts.
Now only four male staffs remained inside. As the haze thickened, Yu Guo opened his mouth—
But suddenly, a dull thud rang out.
Something had slammed against the wall.
"The master bedroom!"
Ji Li reacted first, flinging his cigarette away and rushing straight there. He could tell clearly: the sound came from 702 next door.
The four men dashed into the master bedroom, eyes fixing on the eastern wall.
The tiny hole once again shone with light—702 had turned on the lamp.
"Why! Why!"
"Mm… mm…"
Ji Li heard a man's growl and a woman's muffled sobs, incomprehensible as ever.
But there was no time to dwell. He whipped out his phone and aimed the camera at the hole.
The footage this time was sharper, fuller—like the scene was just beginning.
Through the cold lens and trembling frame—
He saw a man in a black raincoat straddling a woman in a long dress, pale hands crushing her slender neck.
"Again? Killing her again?"
Yu Guo's eyelids twitched violently. He rubbed his eyes hard, convinced it was an illusion.
Fang Shenyan snapped his head toward Ji Li, voice grim.
"No! Your theory was wrong!"
The third persona shouted in Ji Li's mind at the same time:
*Our guess about the dead end was half right, half wrong!*
*The murder isn't shown once—it replays!*
*The rule is one death at a time, again and again, always that woman first!*
Their voices thundered in Ji Li's head. He lowered his gaze to his watch and made his choice.
Snatching the phone away, he dashed to the window, stuck his head out, and gauged the distance between 701's and 702's windows.
Then he turned back to Fang Shenyan and Yu Guo, his clear voice ringing out through the midnight air:
"It's all repeating! Once the raincoat man finishes killing the woman, five minutes later he'll come for us in 701!"
Cao Yuan was completely broken, unable to understand how someone already killed could appear again—only to be killed again.
"Then… if we can stop the raincoat man from killing her, doesn't that mean we can delay the dead end indefinitely?
And in doing so… find the path to survival!"