“I found a few pieces of fabric,” he said, pulling out a small, yellowed, hardened scrap.
The stench of decaying corpses was overwhelming, and naturally, some of it clung to the fabric. Just getting close enough, one could smell the pungent odor that refused to dissipate. Shan Qi frowned, likely disgusted by the notion of having something so close that had been taken from a corpse.
Yan Chuan’s gaze fell on the fabric in Shan Qi’s hand, then shifted to Tang Zhen.
“This is it,” Tang Zhen confirmed after inspecting it closely. “The pattern is similar to what we saw yesterday.”
A weight pressed down on Yan Chuan’s heart.
While the corpse would not disturb them, the entities in the escape variety show might act differently.
They stood in the hallway for a while before returning to the living room of the apartment.
The corpse discovered in the ventilation system was a critical piece of evidence, closely tied to the dark history of Apartment 13.
Finding the corpse only for it to vanish the next day indicated that something significant was about to occur.
But the spirit could be one that seeks revenge for grievances suffered, searching for its master behind the scenes…
Or perhaps it would indiscriminately attack anyone who had seen it?
It was likely that he and Tang Zhen were the first people to discover the body.
In this old Apartment 13, the small corpse had likely lain in the ventilation system for who knows how long. The other residents could only smell a strange odor without understanding its source.
They were completely unaware of the unspeakable evil buried here.
Yan Chuan hadn’t seen many horror movies, but he understood that characters, especially young ones who had suffered greatly, often succumbed to darkness and became terrifying specters in horror films.
Would it come to trouble them?
He unconsciously voiced the question, hoping to draw answers from Shan Qi and Tang Zhen.
Furrowing his brows, a few strands of hair fell onto his pale cheeks, revealing an expression of distress. The slight quiver of his eyelashes almost tugged at the heartstrings.
It seemed like he was worried.
Yan Chuan was handsome, yet his beautiful, pale face bore a faintly melancholic expression. His watery, dark eyes always appeared veiled in mist, and his lips were pressed together with a hint of sorrow.
Viewing the world through a foggy lens always created distance.
It gave the impression that few could truly reach into his eyes; you knew he was right in front of you, but you couldn’t penetrate his heart.
However, when expressions danced across his face, whether it was a slight frown or an almost imperceptible smile, it could illuminate the surroundings, drawing vivid colors like a brushstroke on a canvas.
You might feel happy for his joy or worried for his concerns, wishing to offer him your heart.
Obviously, the two men present were captivated by him as well.
After finishing with the fabric he had brought out, Shan Qi still bore a trace of disdain on his face, but upon hearing this, he immediately adopted a courteous smile.
“During the script briefing, it was mentioned,” he squeezed himself in front of Yan Chuan, pushing aside the bothersome obstacle beside him, “that residents in Apartment 13 have been dying one after another. Based on the clues gathered, this is undoubtedly a vengeance plot.”
“An eye for an eye, a tooth for a tooth,” Shan Qi used the hand that hadn’t touched the fabric to tuck a stray lock of hair behind Yan Chuan’s ear. “Spirits usually appear seeking vengeance.”
Yan Chuan, unperturbed by Shan Qi’s somewhat intimate gesture, followed up, “Revenge… Are they looking for the family in room five?”
That would be Zhou Wu and the others?
As Yan Chuan pondered, he suddenly realized something.
In the escape variety show, players were given specific identities and were required to act according to designated personas; the exploration of the script was constructed upon this premise.
They had to role-play as residents from the ‘script’ of Apartment 13, where if they did not proactively add scenes, the unfolding narrative was fixed.
Having scenes alongside NPCs living together was quite perilous; living alone was slightly safer but still carried risks of collateral damage.
However, this also meant that their “deaths” would be similar to those of the original residents.
Vengeance… Yan Chuan lowered his eyelids, silently assessing his own judgment: victims turned into vengeful spirits would kill.
Unless they could find a way to break the cycle in advance, they would have to deal with the threats posed by these malevolent entities.
Shan Qi acknowledged this, having gleaned some information from Yan Chuan and Tang Zhen regarding the corpse’s probable identity, along with forming a guess about the real identity of the family in room five.
“However, one cannot measure a spirit’s intentions with common logic,” he added, “it’s possible for them to completely blacken and seek trouble with everyone.”
“And of course, Apartment 13 doesn’t contain just this one spirit.”
Following this logic, everyone involved, whether directly or indirectly connected to this case, would be targeted, confirming the escape variety show’s backdrop.
Yan Chuan bit his lip.
“By the way,” he recalled another matter, asking with some reluctance, “You all… In the time you’ve been in the script, have you encountered anything resembling a ghost?”
“Something like,” Yan Chuan tried to describe it in detail: “a black mist, unclear faces, something strange…”
Yan Chuan had faced the weight of ghostly pressure on his very first night in the escape variety show.
In the dark, something akin to a shadow had been fixated on him, with icy, formless hands caressing his cheek, not even sparing his earlobes.
Recalling that experience filled Yan Chuan with both dread and confusion; he couldn’t fathom why a spirit would come to his room on the first night.
Even alongside his “husband,” the actions carried lewd implications, forcing him to climb onto his husband for protection.
With this thought, his inner turmoil grew more intense.
His “husband” was undoubtedly also an NPC in the escape variety show, but he was too different from the other NPCs.
Yan Chuan had seen Zhou Wu’s “wife” in Apartment 13 and the NPC acting as the shopkeeper in the convenience store; they all had the same vacant gaze, as if programmed to behave robotically, revealing that they weren’t truly “human.”
Of course, Yan Chuan had only participated in the script for Apartment 13, and it was not impossible that other scripts featured more “advanced” NPCs.
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