Near the footprints were droplets of blood, and intuition told them they were dripping from the weapon capable of cleaving a person in two.

"What's happening?" the shop owner's voice trembled. "Where's the... the guy from the painting? And the footprints..."

Huai Yi gave him a fierce look. "Shut your mouth and watch around. Just like you see, that damn thing came out."

"Came out..." The shop owner was momentarily dazed, but when he recovered, his expression was as mournful as if he were about to die. "How is that possible? It's just a painting. How could something from a painting come out?"

Although the shop owner had accepted that some terrifying things would happen in Room 19, the shock of something walking out of a painting and appearing in the real world was still too much for him to bear.

But apparently, no one cared about his feelings. Jiang Cheng and the others were concentrating on observing their surroundings. The room was relatively quiet; they didn't hear any footsteps.

The phone vibrated gently, and a message came through.

Jiang Cheng looked at the phone screen. It was from Fatty, and the message was short, just one line: Get out of there, someone's behind you!

Without hesitation, Jiang Cheng immediately looked behind him. Almost simultaneously, Xia Qiang, who had received a similar message from his teammate, did the same.

Seeing Jiang Cheng and Xia Qiang turn around at the same time, looking behind them with vigilance, Huai Yi followed suit. He wasn't sure about Xia Qiang, but following Jiang Cheng was definitely the right move.

The shop owner was frightened by their sudden actions, pleading bitterly, "Let's... let's get out of here. This place isn't right. This place is haunted!"

The message Xia Qiang received was from Zhou Tong, and aside from slightly different wording, the general meaning was the same.

But strangely, they didn't find anything unusual behind them.

Although the surrounding visibility wasn't great, it was still about 3 meters, and everyone was very vigilant in a place like this.

None of them were rookies; it was unlikely that something could be standing right behind them without them noticing.

After a moment of silence, Jiang Cheng slowly said, "Let's find a way out first."

The group slowly walked toward the table, where a table lamp cast a ghastly green light.

At that moment, the lamp became their guiding light in the fog-filled room, giving them a little comfort.

When they actually stood next to the table, things took a turn. The previously blurry surroundings suddenly became a little clearer, and they could barely see the outline of a door.

Outside the door, shadowy figures seemed to be gathered, constantly peering inside.

Although the lamp's green light made their faces look terrifying, they were surprisingly calm. Without hesitation, Xia Qiang walked in front, Huai Yi and the shop owner in the middle, and Jiang Cheng brought up the rear. The four of them formed a line and slowly moved toward the door.

As they got closer, the door became clearer and clearer. "Wait!" Jiang Cheng, at the rear, suddenly spoke.

Xia Qiang immediately stopped.

The others turned around and followed Jiang Cheng's gaze. Jiang Cheng was staring at the table not far away, where a black-covered notebook had suddenly appeared.

In an environment like this, a black notebook could easily be overlooked, but the cover was glinting with gold.

It seemed to be a row of gold-stamped characters.

As a gust of wind blew by, the notebook opened automatically, and Jiang Cheng and the others could clearly see the gold letters on the cover.

"Player's Handbook," Huai Yi said, his eyes lighting up.

Without a doubt, judging from the name, this was an important clue, and it might hold the key to survival in the task.

Contrary to Huai Yi's excitement, Jiang Cheng and Xia Qiang didn't show much emotion. Huai Yi took a few quick steps, wanting to go to Jiang Cheng's side and discuss it with him, but someone grabbed his arm. "Don't go over there," Xia Qiang said softly.

He pointed to the side of the table, about 1 meter from the notebook.

Huai Yi looked over. It was just outside the range of the lamplight, but he could vaguely see that the area was empty, with nothing unusual.

"Below," Xia Qiang said.

His gaze shifted downward, and when he saw the side of the table, Huai Yi's expression became puzzled. Although the visibility wasn't good, he could still see something faintly glowing there.

He concentrated his attention, and the next moment, when he saw what was glowing, he couldn't help but gasp.

It was a pair of heavy leather boots, black, tightly pressed against the side of the table.

It was a trap!

The ghost was standing next to the table, waiting for someone to walk over and pick up the notebook.

Even after leaving Room 19, Huai Yi's nervousness hadn't completely subsided. The shop owner collapsed on the ground as soon as he got outside, sobbing and crying as if he had suffered some great injustice.

Seeing Jiang Cheng and the others come out, Fatty finally felt relieved. "Doctor, are you guys okay?"

"We're fine." Jiang Cheng took out his phone, opened the message, and asked Fatty, "Did you send this message?"

"I did." Fatty immediately replied, "Doctor, I was originally going to call you, but no matter how much we shouted, you guys seemed to be unable to hear us. And we didn't dare to go in rashly."

Feng Jie and Zhou Tong also came over. Zhou Tong looked at Xia Qiang, her face a little pale, and said, "Brother Qiang, the inside and outside of the room seemed to be separate worlds. You guys disappeared as soon as you went in, leaving only a faint light."

"But not long ago, when we were standing outside, we could suddenly see a little bit inside. We saw you guys, but we couldn't see clearly. Your figures were blurry, and we could only make out a rough outline."

"But as we watched, we realized something was wrong." Zhou Tong changed her tone, her voice becoming strange. "There were 5 figures inside."

Hearing this, Xia Qiang frowned. He, Jiang Cheng, the shop owner, and Huai Yi, only 4 people had gone in.

There was one extra.

Without a doubt, the extra one was the ghost.

"What do you mean someone was standing behind us?" Jiang Cheng asked. "We looked back, but we didn't see anyone."

"It's like this. At first, we could only vaguely see 5 shadows, but after a while, when we looked again, there were only 4."

"Later, we realized that as long as you guys moved quickly, there were 5 shadows, but when you stopped, it quickly changed back to 4."

Zhou Tong's organizational skills were obviously not her strong suit, but Jiang Cheng roughly understood. "You mean someone was following us, and when we stopped, they would stand behind one of us, the two shadows overlapping, so it still looked like there were only 4 people."