Chapter 1:35

The time was now 01:35.

Li Ang slapped his thigh and stood up from his chair.

For the past few nights, players had generally received their notes before 00:50.

If he hadn't found a note by now, there was a high probability that he would be skipped tonight.

"I wonder how Hei Shengzi and Bai Haozheng are..."

Li Ang muttered, searching the room one more time to make sure no note had appeared, then headed for the door and peered out through the peephole.

The indicator panel above the elevator glowed white, the pointer showing that the elevator was currently descending from the twelfth floor, pausing on each floor.

And on the tenth floor, the elevator paused for a longer time than before.

It seemed someone was already in the elevator.

Li Ang narrowed his eyes, watching the indicator panel spin,

not hurrying to open the door, but continuing to observe from inside until the elevator descended to the fifth floor.

Ding-dong.

The elevator doors opened, revealing a figure in black and gold armor.

Hei Shengzi.

This young master of the B'An organization was holding a tome in his left hand and a serpentine short blade in his right, with a palm-sized mirror floating in front of him at a 45° angle to the elevator door.

By adjusting the position and angle of the mirror, Hei Shengzi could stay in the elevator and peer into the corridors on both sides.

He opened the door and he's still alive?

It seemed that opening the door and stepping into the corridor, violating the rules, didn't lead to immediate death.

Li Ang raised an eyebrow, opened the door, and greeted Hei Shengzi in the elevator, "Good evening."

Hei Shengzi was stunned for a moment, then reacted and nodded. "Good evening."

Both of them had their player nicknames floating above their heads, used to confirm each other's identities.

In fact, the two had met once before in the Aberrant World and were once opponents; Hei Shengzi had almost died at Li Ang's hands and had a deep impression of the latter.

However, times had changed, and now that everyone was trapped in a paranormal instance, they were all in the same boat, and past grudges had to be put aside.

Li Ang opened the door, still standing in room 0508,

holding a mirror in his hand, using it to observe the corridor like Hei Shengzi.

He had opened the door, but no anomalies had appeared in the corridor.

Hei Shengzi noticed Li Ang's actions and said, "I didn't see any ghosts when I opened the door before.

It's possible that opening the door or leaving the room only increases the chance of being attacked.

Players can also use equipment skills in the elevator; there are no restrictions."

"Oh."

Standing inside the door, Li Ang nodded, took a life-size stone statue from the side, and dropped it in the middle of the corridor with a thud.

This stone statue was made of mud by his alchemy, with exquisite and lifelike details.

It wore a dragon-head mask and a lab coat, its prototype clearly Li Ang himself.

?

Hei Shengzi, who was holding the elevator door open, looked at the statue in the corridor, dumbfounded.

What was this?

This colored stone statue had one foot on the ground and one foot lifted back, leaning forward with its arms straight back, striking the iconic "Naruto run" pose from the anime Naruto.

At the ends of the arms were two wooden sticks.

Hei Shengzi was puzzled, hesitated, and asked in a low voice, "What are you..."

"Testing,"

Li Ang said softly, as if it were only natural. "To see if a stone statue very similar to a real person will attract an attack, to test the corridor's intelligence, the means of observing anomalies, and the probability of abnormal attacks."

Well, that seemed to make some sense.

Before Hei Shengzi could react, he saw Li Ang standing in the doorway of 0508, raising his hands and cupping them around his mouth to amplify the sound, providing voice acting for his statue. "Hmph, is this what they call an anomaly?

It's really vulnerable,

with this kind of strength, there's no way you can keep up with my speed!"

??

Hei Shengzi was completely confused and almost wanted to speak up to remind him to keep his voice down and not attract ghosts.

However, he quickly realized that the other party's purpose in making a loud noise was to attract anomalies anyway—since the door was already open, he might as well take the opportunity to do some more testing.

To increase the statue's realism, Li Ang also gripped the two wooden sticks extending from the ends of the statue's arms and pulled them back and forth,

causing the statue, whose shoulder joints had built-in gears, to swing its arms back and forth, moving like a marionette, making a show of trying to run,

while Li Ang continued to provide voice acting from behind, constantly making "huff huff" sounds of running.

After pretending for a long time, Li Ang picked up the mirror and looked around the corridor,

hm, still no ghosts appeared.

"Even this high-end, classy puppet didn't attract any aliens..."

Li Ang frowned and murmured, "I don't know if there's nothing wrong with the corridor at all, or if those aliens are too cunning and can see through this seamless disguise."

Seamless? Are you sure? The statue's foot position hasn't moved at all from beginning to end, okay? How low does your IQ have to be to be fooled?

Hei Shengzi grumbled in his heart, but didn't show it on his face.

Li Ang, failing in his attempt, wasn't discouraged, as it was just a casual try.

He took a sack full of mud from behind him, reached into the mud, used alchemy to make a metal ladder, placed it on the corridor floor,

and then conveniently closed the door, stepping on the metal ladder (without touching the carpet), walking slowly towards the elevator, along the way he reached out and patted the statue, turning it back into mud.

This action was also a test to see what effect a real human would have after entering the corridor, and whether using transcendent abilities (alchemy) in the corridor would trigger an attack.

However, until Li Ang entered the elevator, he didn't encounter any alien attacks.

What a pity.

"Where's Bai Haozheng?"

Li Ang asked casually.

"I just came down from upstairs, opened the elevator door on the fourteenth floor, but he didn't respond, he might be entangled in an abnormal event."

Hei Shengzi said calmly, "Bob on the ninth floor and Yui Kokoro on the seventh floor didn't respond either. 13maek on the eighth floor and Plague Doctor on the sixth floor, as agreed,

stuck a piece of paper out from under the door to indicate they were safe."

The players had already discussed it during the day. The patrolman in the elevator wouldn't actively open the door and help the players in the rooms without permission – the note's contents might be to keep the doors and windows closed or not allow external light to enter, etc.

Unless the player inside the room actively opens the door and asks for support.

If the player didn't receive a note at night, they could insert a piece of paper out of the door seam when the patrolman arrived to indicate that they were safe.

"Did you find anything on the twelfth, eleventh, or tenth floors?"

Li Ang put away the ladder and asked casually.

Hei Shengzi pressed the close button and shook his head. "I didn't see anything special.

I spent a little more time on the tenth floor, waiting for the old woman in red, but she's still nowhere to be seen."

As he spoke, the metal door slowly closed, and the two players descended with the elevator.