"Completely overturned! All our earlier assumptions are reversed!"
Ji Li locked eyes with the fully revealed female ghost through the glass window.
From the hatred and malice burning in her pupils, he could even read mockery.
"We were wrong from the very beginning!
This female ghost—she is the real owner of 701!"
The second persona's voice trembled as it spoke, never having imagined such a shocking reversal.
"A mistake born of assumption!
Everyone thought voyeurism meant a man's perversion toward a woman, but this time it's the opposite!
The true master of 701 was a deranged woman. Her diary was filled with twisted love for the man in 702!
The toiletries in the bathroom, the men's clothes in the wardrobe—those must have been stolen from the raincoat man's room!
The diary mentioned the bear doll on 702's door matching the design on his phone case—that's solid proof!
The raincoat man bleeds, he flees, he carries the key to 702 but can't enter 701…
Because he is alive!
We were fooled by the killing scene, believing the victim to be 702's resident and the killer to be 701's ghost.
But in truth, what we saw wasn't a ghostly reenactment at all!"
The third persona laid it out in the night wind, its voice growing louder with every word:
"The female ghost can't be killed.
That's why the raincoat man, the true victim, keeps trying again and again to kill her—to break free of this torment!
This is the truth of the mission!"
Ji Li didn't need their voices to confirm it. The sight of the phone case and the woman's monstrous face had already told him everything.
He exhaled heavily, cast a final deep look at the motionless ghost on the bed, then slowly pulled himself back onto 701's window ledge.
When he returned, he found Yu Guo and Fang Shenyan crouched by the peephole while Cao Yuan leaned against the bed, clutching his chest, pale as death.
"B-brother Ji… help me…"
Seeing Ji Li return, Cao Yuan's fading hope flared again. He stretched out his arm desperately, begging for rescue.
But Ji Li ignored him, heading straight toward Fang Shenyan, the cause of it all.
"What happened while I was gone?"
Yu Guo glanced at Fang Shenyan, who kept silent, then spoke up and recounted everything.
Moonlight spilled into 701's bedroom, merging the shadows of Ji Li, Fang Shenyan, and Yu Guo as if pulling them into one.
Only Cao Yuan's curled figure lay apart, his shadow's edge crushed under Ji Li's foot.
...
"That's how it was," Yu Guo finished, throat parched. He wanted to drink but thought better of it.
"The raincoat man can't be a ghost—his behavior is that of a living man, beyond doubt!"
Ji Li nodded and sat cross-legged, recounting everything he had seen in 702.
When Yu Guo heard the complete reversal, he leapt up.
"Damn! The ghost was hiding this deep?"
Even Fang Shenyan was shaken. If they hadn't provoked the raincoat man earlier, the truth would never have surfaced.
None of them could have predicted things would unfold this way.
Ji Li's eyes darkened, blending with the room's gloom.
"One thing is certain now: the raincoat man is alive.
He tries to kill the ghost because she's driven him to the brink of madness.
That means we're close to finding the path of survival…"
He sighed in relief. The raincoat man's role was special. In life, he had been the woman's obsession. Even after death, her ghost would not let him go.
Most importantly—why could he face the ghost, attack her, yet still remain alive?
Yu Guo paced the room, thoughts racing.
Aside from Cao Yuan, the other three were sharp-minded. It didn't take long for them to see the truth.
The key to survival lay in the raincoat man's uniqueness.
"But why," Fang Shenyan broke his silence, "does he keep returning to 702, knowing it's haunted?"
Ji Li looked at him. That same question had gnawed at him from the start.
By all logic, if you knew a ghost haunted your home, why would you go back?
Even after uncovering the truth, Ji Li had debated this with his third persona for a long time.
And even now, with so many mysteries resolved, countless questions remained unanswered.
The raincoat man's bizarre compulsion was one of them.
The sixth missing staff.
And then there was the sixth missing staff who had never appeared. Ji Li had always believed this hidden survivor—kept until the very end—would be the key to every answer.
But until now, he still had no clue.
Slowly rising from the ground, Ji Li turned his gaze to the faintly starry night sky.
"Restraint…"
The word suddenly leapt into his mind, spinning endlessly in thought.
"We were forced into 701 to carry out this mission, trapped here to await the ghost's hunt.
This raincoat man, returning to 702 again and again, forced to endure the ghost's torment—could it be the same kind of restraint?!"
The thought came abruptly, yet a connection was there.
Could it be—the sixth person had already appeared?
The raincoat man, alive, and the only other living human they had seen tonight.
The sixth staff, bound by some unknown force, waiting at the mission site.
In an instant, Ji Li gathered all the scattered fragments in his mind into one sweeping realization.
"But… something doesn't fit.
The email clearly stated the mission site was 701.
If the raincoat man is the new staff, then waiting in 702 already places him outside the mission's boundaries…"
Moments later, Ji Li drew in a sharp breath, as if struck by a terrifying possibility.
Inside 701, only the ragged breaths of the surviving humans remained.
The ghost's true nature was already exposed, and now any of them could be the next target.
The path to survival was right before them—only a single veil remained.
But that final veil, left untouched, was enough to breed catastrophe.
At that moment, Ji Li abruptly turned his head toward Cao Yuan, who leaned weakly against the bedframe, barely clinging to life.
He strode toward him, steps firm and resolute.
When their eyes met, Ji Li's gaze shone with a deep, unfathomable light as he looked upon Cao Yuan's face twisted with pain and desperate pleading.
Word by word, he said:
"Do you want to live?"