"What are you saying? What if he just overslept—" Chu Zhongfei frowned, retorting. But judging from his expression, he also seemed to believe Ren Chaohang had been murdered. He pursed his lips, looked at everyone, and hesitated, "Then, then everyone, have you decided... should we force the door open now?"
"Open the door." Wu Sansheng nodded. "Whether Ren Chaohang is alright or not, it's time to open the door now. We need to allow enough time for breakfast."
The tightly closed door of A406 was slowly pushed open. The instant it opened, a torrent of stench—a mixture of grease, sourness, vomit, and rotting food—rushed out from under the door. Chu Zhongfei, who was responsible for opening the door, was immediately assaulted by the stench. Despite his usual bravado, he involuntarily bent over and began to gag. He hurriedly backed away, trying to warn the other players, "No... gag... cover your nose... gag... nose..."
Standing behind Chu Zhongfei, Wu Sansheng decisively pushed the door open, then pulled the retching Wu Zhongfei, Mu Anqi, and Zhao Guogu behind him, and retreated away together.
"Ha, retreating so far, what if the evidence disappears later?" Shen Bufan, standing the furthest away, wasn't initially affected. He saw Chu Zhongfei's face flushed red and he was still gagging, a hint of disgust flashing in his eyes. However, before he could move closer, the stench wafted over... "Ugh!"
How can there be such a smell in the world that makes people want to vomit as soon as they smell it!
"No, no, it's not just the smell that's awful, it...it stings my eyes..." Mu Anqi and the others retreated to the corner of the stairs, but still couldn't find a good way to overcome the difficulty. Could it be... that they had no choice but to face the challenge head-on?
Tears welled in Chu Zhongfei's eyes. He couldn't control his physical reaction, yet he felt extremely disrespectful to Ren Chaohang. No matter how much he tried to restrain himself or mentally prepare himself, the moment he stepped closer, his stomach began to churn uncontrollably—"Ugh!"
"I only glanced at it briefly when I pulled you in. The room was piled with all sorts of food waste and vomit. If I'm not mistaken, Ren Chaohang corresponds to bulimia," Wu Sansheng analyzed rationally. "This can't go on. Let's go have breakfast first and check again when the smell dissipates."
"?" Zhao Guogu twitched his lips, almost thinking he was hallucinating. "You...you can still eat?"
Aren't you hungry?
"..."
Mu Anqi rubbed her stomach, feeling it necessary to analyze her morning's speculations with the two of them. "Let's check the house first, then go eat. Just bear with it; even if we have guesses, we need to confirm them several times."
"And… yesterday, there seemed to be a ghostly figure in the mirror in my room trying to scare me," Mu Anqi said.
"Are you the ghost in the mirror? I was washing my face at the sink when I noticed someone's feet behind me... but when I dried my face and turned around, I didn't see anything." Zhao Guogu was somewhat surprised.
"There seemed to be a dark shadow by the window after the lights were turned off," Wu Sansheng said simply.
Seeing that everyone had spoken, Chu Zhongfei scratched his head in confusion. After thinking for a moment, he suddenly said, "Oh, right! Last night when I was sleeping, it sounded like someone was playing marbles under my bed. It was so noisy! But I was sleeping so comfortably that I couldn't open my eyes, so I didn't look."
"If the Ghost is just intimidating us and not actually killing us, everyone should adjust their mindset and not be too scared. If a ghost could fight, it would have done so; it wouldn't scare people for no reason," Mu Anqi said. "It's just trying to distract us, drive us insane, and make us die more easily. Everyone should try to relax and distract ourselves if we encounter it… Hmm, let's go check inside the house first." Mu Anqi tried to reassure her companions, then looked at the stench-filled corridor. She was about to take a deep breath, but forcibly stopped herself. Quickly turning her head to take a deep breath, holding it, Mu Anqi ran over as fast as she could.
The escape game is so cruel; its torment is multifaceted!
Mu Anqi was the first to rush into the room. She kicked a half-deformed aluminum can by the door, sending it rolling into another pile of cookie boxes and potato chip bags, making a noise. Pizza plates, chicken bones, half-eaten cream cakes... all sorts of food appeared in the room.
Mu Anqi even felt that if this were a two-dimensional world, the room would definitely be filled with a strange green gas...
Ren Chaohang no longer resembled a human being; he was more like a giant human ball, his belly bulging high, his skin and flesh taut and showing no sign of deflating. His corpse lay supine on the bed, one hand inside a half-open bag of cookies, the other clutching a half-eaten fried chicken, which had slipped off the pillow.
His eyes were wide open, unfocused, staring futilely at a single point, though his excitement and fervor were still faintly discernible. The sheets and pillowcases were covered in semi-solid vomit and cream, and the white sheets and pillowcases had turned a yellowish-brown…
Trash, trash... trash everywhere.
Logically, they should have checked the body again to see what was inside Ren Chaohang's stomach. But...
Mu Anqi retreated silently. After taking a few breaths, unable to hold her breath any longer, she felt stomach acid rising. She managed to forcefully suppress it.
"They ate themselves to death."
...
The remaining five people sat silently at the restaurant table. Mu Anqi looked at the exquisite plates and food beside him, but hesitated to eat.
The occasional clinking of a porcelain spoon against a bowl could be heard. Mu Anqi glanced enviously at Wu Sansheng, unable to discern any other emotion on the calm woman's face as she ate.
A true master!
"...Let's eat something, otherwise, who knows when those ghosts that were scaring us will suddenly become aggressive." Chu Zhongfei held the large white steamed bun, hesitated for a long time, then tore it in half and forced it into his mouth to chew. It's safe to say he would never dare touch fried chicken, roast chicken, pizza, pastries, cakes, or anything like that in the restaurant again.
"Let's exchange information." Mu Anqi sighed, picked up her spoon, and began to eat her porridge. She glanced at Shen Bufan and said, "Lust, gluttony… the next one, if I'm not mistaken, is Greed. My ability name is ' Old Lady Has Money,' so if nothing unexpected happens, I correspond to Greed or envy. Shen Bufan should correspond to pride." Greed corresponds to "an excessive pursuit of money or power," while envy is "resentment towards others because they possess more assets than oneself." Like Greed, envy is a sin born from unfulfilled desires. Greed is usually related to material possessions, while envy is related to other aspects, such as love or the success of others. Based on this interpretation, Mu Anqi felt that she undoubtedly corresponded to Greed. After all, she still had 888 guansi in her bag.
"…?" Shen Bufan frowned, glanced at Mu Anqi with displeasure, snorted coldly, but did not refute anything.
"I am jealous." Zhao Guogu glanced at Mu Anqi. She hadn't expected Mu Anqi to be so direct about her ability, but… that wasn't so bad. "My ability is called Innate Fortune. You can think of me as a woman of destiny."
Mu Anqi stared blankly at Zhao Guogu, never expecting that the lucky one would be right beside her.
There are two remaining: laziness and anger.
These two... Chu Zhongfei couldn't understand them. He felt he was neither lazy nor easily angered, but as for calmness... he didn't seem to have it. Diligent? He wasn't that...
" Chu Zhongfei has a good temper, and Wu Sansheng is calm. Both of them seem to be prone to anger. As for laziness... they're not lazy either, so it seems..."
"Everyone has lazy moments, and I'm no exception." Wu Sansheng slowly put down his spoon, wiped his mouth with a napkin, and said in his unchanging tone, "However, the correspondence shouldn't be that simple. My ability can resist negative mental effects and keep me calm. I don't get angry. And laziness is understood in the seven deadly sins as escaping reality, irresponsibility, and wasting time, which is the opposite of Chu Zhongfei's character."
"Ah, so... we've found the contact?" Chu Zhongfei was pleasantly surprised.
"Finding it won't help; this is a survival mission, not a decryption mission," Zhao Guogu said helplessly. "However, knowing which ghost will come to assassinate us on which night will give us a better chance to prepare."
"Players who succumb to evil are lured to their deaths, so... what will players with the attraction trait encounter?" Mu Anqi was somewhat confused; she couldn't imagine what she would encounter tonight. Could it be... that the Ghost, symbolizing " Greed," would build her a golden palace? However, ever since her sudden death after becoming a three-hundred-million-dollar lottery winner, Mu Anqi felt that her desire for "money"... wasn't very strong at all.
"Perhaps for Ghost, what's more interesting is stirring up the hidden secrets in people's hearts. Transforming a person, testing humanity, turning someone into a monster or something," Zhao Guogu speculated. She couldn't imagine what she would encounter. She couldn't imagine Wu Sansheng losing his mind and going into a rage, or Chu Zhongfei being defeated by laziness. But undeniably, as long as you're human, this game truly is… "a test of humanity."
"But I can't figure out how arrogance leads to death." Chu Zhongfei looked at Shen Bufan, who had a haughty expression, with great curiosity. "Arrogance…disrespect for God, cruelty to others, abuse of power, pride. And it's the opposite of 'humility'."
"Heh, if I were that arrogant ghost, I wouldn't let any player like me go either." Shen Bufan turned his head to the side. "'It's not worthy?"
After breakfast, everyone returned to the hallway between the rooms. With this back and forth, rooms A407 and A406 were completely emptied, with no player corpses or remains, and were once again clean and tidy ordinary suites.
" Greed … endless." Mu Anqi thought. Greed's choice of her was both accidental and inevitable. Her abilities attracted this kind of Ghost, and this kind of Ghost … completely suppressed her abilities.