Author: 木尺素 / Mu Chisu
Translator: Kinky || https://kinkytranslations.com/
Chapter 95
In less than a minute, Zhou Qian had changed his clothes.
After the two left room 1107, even though they knew the likelihood of anyone being present was low, they still forcibly opened all the doors on the 11th floor to check the inside before leaving the floor.
Once inside the elevator, they pressed the number “12”. When the elevator door opened, as expected, all the door plaques still displayed numbers starting with 11. They had arrived in a new timeline on the 11th floor.
As usual, they first saw the murder scene of Xiong Fei and Li Yuan. This time, the incident took place in room 1111, and the victims were still a couple. The murderer’s method was largely similar to the previous times, with no new tricks.
After skillfully killing the couple, Xiong Fei and Li Yuan left.
Next, based on the pattern, it was time for the animation of the second story—the story related to the handsome man and the woman in the red skirt.
However, this time, Zhou Qian and Bai Zhou waited for quite a while but saw no sign of it. Neither the woman nor the man emerged from rooms 1103 or 1104.
Zhou Qian wasn’t in a hurry. He and Bai Zhou waited in the corridor for about five minutes when they noticed an unusual burning smell. Upon closer inspection, they realized it was coming from room 1103.
Leaning against the corridor wall, Zhou Qian unconsciously lifted his foot and tapped it on the floor several times. After a while, he looked at Bai Zhou, who was standing opposite him, nodded towards room 1103, and finally said, “Zhou Ge, it’s up to you.”
Hearing this, Bai Zhou gave Zhou Qian a few more glances, seemingly trying to gauge his current mood.
Soon, he nodded without asking any more questions and walked over to Zhou Qian. Turning his body slightly, Bai Zhou gave a forceful kick to the door, breaking the lock.
“It might not be safe inside. You want to go in now?” After taking a quick look inside, Bai Zhou asked Zhou Qian.
“We won’t know if it’s safe unless we go in,” Zhou Qian responded, hinting, “Hmm? This time you didn’t throw me onto the bed after breaking the door, did you?”
“Zhou Qian…” Bai Zhou frowned slightly and reached out to grab Zhou Qian’s wrist.
Zhou Qian dodged and went into the room first.
Bai Zhou’s brows deepened. He stepped forward to follow, but Zhou Qian immediately stopped him.
“Don’t come in. Let me check the situation first. We shouldn’t both be caught off guard,” Zhou Qian said.
Bai Zhou shook his head. “I know what you’re trying to do. You go out. Let me handle it.”
“It’s fine.” Zhou Qian glanced at him, pushed Bai Zhou into the corridor, and then closed the door behind him.
Inside the room, it was just as Zhou Qian suspected. The room, covered in pentagrams, had all its windows and doors tightly shut. A man and a woman lay side by side on the bed, and next to the bed was a basin of burning charcoal. They were attempting suicide via charcoal burning.
Zhou Qian had left Bai Zhou outside, fearing that both of them might succumb to carbon monoxide poisoning. He was still unsure if all the scenes involving this man and woman were merely animations. Therefore, he wanted to test it out himself.
After leaving Bai Zhou outside, Zhou Qian approached the man and woman. They both opened their eyes and looked at him. At this moment, Zhou Qian asked, “Did you kill those people?”
The man was the first to reply. “Yes.”
Zhou Qian then asked, “I guess you don’t feel guilty. But aren’t you afraid of dying?”
This time, the woman answered. Her voice was weak, but she smiled and said, “Of course not! Others fear death because they’ll have nothing when they go to hell. We’re different! Those who die by our hands will be our slaves! They’ll serve us in hell! Death will bring us true wealth!”
The man quickly added, “I’m now filled with boundless joy. I’m about to see Lord Satan! This world is filled with sin, betrayal, and pointless desires. Only Satan can give me… the pleasure and peace I desire!”
“If death pleases you, then perhaps you shouldn’t die.” Zhou Qian smirked, picking up a bottle of unfinished mineral water from the table next to him and pouring it into the charcoal stove.
“What are you doing?”
“Stop! Stop this useless and foolish act!”
“To be honest, I think what I’m doing probably doesn’t serve any real purpose. But seeing the two of you so angry and distorted before death, it seems worth it.” Zhou Qian narrowed his eyes and said, “It’s just a shame that this is so much lighter than what you’ve done to other victims. I guess you’ll never get what you want. You’re just brainwashed. There’s no Satan in hell.”
The man and woman could no longer speak because they gradually lost consciousness.
Zhou Qian poured out the entire bottle of mineral water, but the charcoal fire was unaffected. The smoke, mixed with the harmful gasses from incomplete combustion, continued to fill the room.
About three minutes later, the couple was dead. Zhou Qian was unharmed and didn’t even feel any discomfort. He could see the couple and smell the scent of burning charcoal, as if he were in the same space with them. But in reality, it wasn’t the case.
Suddenly, the door was pushed open, and Bai Zhou entered. His pace was unusually hurried. After entering the room, he immediately grabbed Zhou Qian’s wrist and dragged him to the door. “Do you feel okay?”
“I’m fine.”
Zhou Qian looked straight ahead at the man and woman on the bed, their bodies becoming transparent and then disappearing from the room.
At the same time, the charcoal fire and the pentagrams throughout the room also vanished. The room looked brand new, as if nothing had happened.
Zhou Qian reached into his bag and found something:
[Item: Useless Paper]
[Function: No function; transformed from an illusion, its existence is very short-lived. If not placed in the bag, it would have already disappeared.]
[Note: Keeping it in the bag is a waste of space and has no practical use. It is recommended that players take it out as soon as possible. It will disappear immediately when taken out.]
Upon seeing the note, Zhou Qian took the item out. It was the money given to him by the man in room 1103 as a delivery fee.
As the system said, the money disappeared shortly after leaving the bag, just like the suddenly vanished couple and the marks they left in the room.
“So, things didn’t start to go awry until we returned to the 11th floor from the lobby. The alternate dimension appeared much earlier. The first time we met that couple, they were already ‘illusions’ and not real. They could see us and talk to us, but they couldn’t interact with us in any substantive way. They had already died in ‘history’ and didn’t exist in this time and space.”
Suddenly, Zhou Qian laughed, turned to Bai Zhou, and held up another item—
It was what they bought from the front desk in the lobby.
“So this thing is useless to them after buying.” Zhou Qian said as he walked to the trash can and threw it away. “What a pity it can’t be used.”
After disposing of the item, Zhou Qian stared at the trash can for a moment. Various thoughts crossed his mind.
How does the system train Rank God players? One would think Bai Zhou spent these years cultivating some emotionless path.
So does he have feelings for me?
Especially after tying people up and biting ears… What is he doing?
Taking a deep breath and yawning, Zhou Qian turned around to see Bai Zhou leaning against the door, seemingly deep in thought. When Bai Zhou noticed Zhou Qian’s gaze, he looked back and said, “Everything we’ve seen feels like a flashback*.”
*Revolving lantern (走马灯). It’s a lantern consisting of a revolving cylinder that has cutouts of pictures on its surface. When a light source is placed inside, it projects moving images on the surrounding walls, creating an effect similar to a modern film reel. Metaphorically, it’s used to describe rapid flashing of images or replaying of memories (AKA one’s life flashing before their eyes).
There was a saying that people would recall their most important memories before they die. Could the illusions or animations players saw be the memories of these murderers flashing back before their suicide?
Zhou Qian became serious, taking the lead to leave the room and head towards another. “Remind me, let’s check room 1111.”
Room 1111 was where they had witnessed another murder when they first arrived on this floor. If the traces of the “charcoal suicide case” in room 1103 disappeared, what about the other rooms? And were there any clues they might have missed?
Leaving room 1103, Zhou Qian and Bai Zhou quickly headed to room 1111. As they approached, they were hit by a strong smell of blood. The murder scene in this room hadn’t “vanished”.
Indeed, everything inside was intact. Two bodies were tied up, their heads covered with nylon bags, and the room was marked with inverted pentagrams.
The story related to that man and woman is indeed a kind of illusion, akin to an animated existence. Perhaps the story came from the flash of memories like a revolving lantern, or maybe it was the shadow of history cast through time and space to the present.
Regardless, they didn’t really exist in this time and space and wouldn’t have any substantial impact on the player.
However, it could now be determined that the cases committed by Xiong Fei and Li Yuan may not be the same.
Suppressing his disgust at the blood in the room, Zhou Qian said, “The actions of Xiong and Li are indeed closely related to the man and woman. Their behavior is an exact replica of the adulterous killers.”
“The fake He Xiaowei previously claimed that the ghosts of the man and woman possessed the bodies of Xiong and Li after they died. But this claim is untenable. He said that just to clear his name and make me believe he was the real He Xiaowei.”
“So, the question I raised earlier is still unresolved—why did Xiong and Li appear as if they were ‘resurrected from the dead’?”
“Now it’s clear that, unlike the situation with the man and woman, these dead people haven’t disappeared; they are not illusions or animations that vanish after playing. So where did these dead people come from? Where did the fake He Xiaowei and the fake version of you come from?”
As he spoke, Zhou Qian heard the sound of a blade being unsheathed. Turning his head, he saw Bai Zhou holding his incredibly sharp Tang sword.
The Tang sword has a long and straight blade, much narrower than ordinary swords. Compared to a double-edged sword, the single-edged Tang sword was thicker and sturdier. Its hilt was long, allowing for a flexible two-handed grip. But mastering it wasn’t a task of just a few days.
The dim light from the corridor cast Bai Zhou and his Tang sword in two long, narrow shadows. Shifting his gaze from the shadow on the floor, Zhou Qian looked up to see Bai Zhou lifting the sword. Reflected on the slender snow-white blade were Bai Zhou’s shining black eyes.
After a moment, Bai Zhou said, “For a long time, I did nothing but practice with this sword. During that period, every challenge I took on was related to swordsmanship. It took me years to achieve my current proficiency.”
Zhou Qian understood his point. “Yes, I was curious earlier. How could that counterfeit last so long against you?”
Bai Zhou added, “This sword is called ‘Breaking Dawn’. I received it as a reward when I reached god rank. I had defeated the most powerful boss in the game. The system emphasized that it’s unique in the entire game.”
Zhou Qian remembered something and asked, “When I attacked you earlier, you didn’t even touch my weapon. Why? Were you afraid my weapon would get damaged? Is your ‘Breaking Dawn’ so sharp that it can easily shatter the Rib of God?”
“Yes, it can break anything,” Bai Zhou replied. “So, logically, there shouldn’t be another identical sword here. It appears that this instance has somehow duplicated both me and that sword.”
After the word “duplicate” was uttered by Bai Zhou, Zhou Qian pondered on it, piecing together the events in his mind.
The 11th floor of the Saiya Hotel seemed to be an ominous floor where many had been murdered. The killers were a pair of lovers who ended their lives in a charcoal suicide pact.
Many years later, eleven impoverished tourists checked into this hotel. One of them, likely a hotel staff, murdered two tourists, Xiong Fei and Li Yuan.
After this, an alternate dimension appeared. The birth of the shadows of the man and woman marked the beginning of this dimension.
Suddenly, the hotel seemed off. The 11th floor seemed to overlap with multiple timelines.
Two killers appeared, replicating the forms of Xiong Fei and Li Yuan. Their actions mirrored the adulterous killer duo.
Meanwhile, the other nine tourists were duplicated, leading to the appearances of another Bai Zhou and He Xiaowei. Victims of the adulterous killers, who should’ve died at different times, were also duplicated, repeating the tragedy.
“So… are the numerous 11th floors some kind of ‘duplication’ or ‘reproduction’?”
Zhou Qian wondered aloud. He then moved closer to a bedside table in the room. Earlier, they hadn’t found any clues on the deceased, only deducing that they all shared a trait of ‘prone to cheating’. Thus, Zhou Qian had overlooked one detail during his first investigation.
Upon his second entry, he discovered a signed photo with the name “Luo Yu”.
On the back of the photo, written in a different font, were the words: [I finally saw you in Blue Harbor City! You are my most admired idol!]
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Kinky Translations 
thanks for this chapter
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