Chapter 22: A Wall of Blood, the Backstory

Long Yuan narrowed his eyes, unwilling to get involved, and turned to walk upstairs.

Ji Yan reached out and knocked on the door of Room 102. No one answered. Looking at the dust on the doorknob, Ji Yan realized the room was unoccupied. The Canker-Spirit behind him stepped forward, gripped the handle, and pushed the door open.

Creak.

The state of the room took Ji Yan by surprise. Every inch was spotlessly clean—from the vases to the key tray. The floor was polished to a shine, suggesting someone lived there, yet the exterior remained blanketed in dust. As the Canker-Spirit shambled in, dirty water splashed everywhere with every step, but the mutant rats that had been following them refused to enter, clustering instead at the threshold.

Having returned to its former home, the Canker-Spirit grew unusually agitated, carefully examining and touching everything in the room. "Everything is the same. This is my old home... but where is she?"

Ji Yan stood in the background, glancing at the clock on the wall. Less than an hour remained before the mission ended. If the Canker-Spirit did not leave the apartment with the plague within this hour, he wouldn't even need the mission penalty to be triggered; the hostile, bristling ghostly residents would likely tear him apart first.

"Ah—!"

"I just finished cleaning, and now it's a total mess! How did you get in?"

A girl walked in from the balcony. Seeing her pristine room suddenly reeking and splattered with filth, she looked as if her world had collapsed. The drink in her hand fell to the floor.

Ji Yan recognized her as a player. She was well-dressed, her hair glossy, her face plump, and she was carrying a platter of fresh meat. Even the drink she had dropped was freshly squeezed juice. These abundant living conditions left even Ji Yan momentarily stunned. He had thought his own survival conditions were superior compared to other players, but this dyed-haired girl was truly living the life.

The girl stared at the Canker-Spirit, covered in sludge and trailing refuse, as it wandered through her home. She clutched her pale cheeks in horror. "What kind of freakish thing is this? How did you get in? Don't move! Don't touch anything!"

"It's over, it's all ruined. I'm dead."

Having finally been matched into such a comfortable instance, the thought of being eliminated and sent to a more terrifying one pushed her to the brink of a breakdown.

Ji Yan looked at her. "Are you the permanent player for Room 102?"

The female player didn't answer, staring at Ji Yan with eyes full of hatred. "What did I ever do to you?"

Ji Yan understood her sentiment. He pointed to the Canker-Spirit and said, "Completing a mission—it's beyond my control. Besides, that spirit seems to be the original owner of 102."

"Bullshit! I live here, don't you think I know who the owner of 102 is? You..."

Ji Yan had no interest in listening to the girl's tirade. He reached out and touched various conspicuous items in the room. It was like accessing a database; a stream of hidden information popped up, all of which Ji Yan absorbed. After quickly browsing through these hidden details, his expression shifted repeatedly. In just two minutes, he had finally unraveled the backstory between the Canker-Spirit and Room 102.

So that was it!

He raised a hand to cut off the girl's stream of insults and asked, "How long have you been surviving here?"

The girl glared at him, tight-lipped.

"If you want to keep surviving in this instance, answer my question," Ji Yan said, his expression serious.

The girl opened her mouth, eventually deciding to treat a dying horse like a living one. "One month."

"Is there an invisible entity that gives you daily tasks? Where is it?"

"How did you know?" The girl's eyes widened.

A month ago, she had been transported to this instance from Blue Star, and she had felt like the sky was falling. But gradually, she discovered that her living environment was remarkably safe and comfortable. She didn't have to face the various dangers other players encountered daily; all she had to do was stay in the room and clean it.

Thoroughly. Every corner, every speck of dust.

In return, she received three high-quality meals a day and even daily necessities. And so, the girl had survived for a month. Compared to other players struggling for their lives, she only had to be a maid in Room 102; the rest of her time was her own. But today, her idyllic life had been shattered by a man and a spirit.

"Where is it? Take me there."

The girl turned and walked into a bedroom, pointing to a wall of blood in the back.

"My daily tasks are received from this wall! The instructions say that as long as I clean the room well enough, I won't be evicted."

Ji Yan stared at the blood-stained wall. At this moment, the Canker-Spirit, which had been wandering the apartment, entered the bedroom. Upon seeing the wall, it became highly emotional, its voice trembling: "I remember... I remember everything!"

Ji Yan said to the girl, "Go out. Don't interfere with the reunion between father and daughter."

The girl was stunned. "Father and daughter?"

"Once they finish, you'll be fine, and my mission will be complete."

Ji Yan looked at the wall, which was continuously seeping blood, then left the room and closed the door.

Outside, the girl was still dazed, her head full of questions. Before she could speak, Ji Yan, coughing from his dry throat, asked first, "Do you have anything to drink?"

"I only clean the things in this room; I don't have the right to use them," the girl pouted.

Ji Yan looked at her, then at the drink in her hand. The girl hesitated, looking pained, then handed it over. "Don't finish it all at once! I saved that juice for three days!"

Ji Yan, however, took a large gulp without ceremony. The girl gritted her teeth in anger. "So you can finally speak?"

Ji Yan wiped the corner of his mouth. "Let me tell you a story. Once, a father and daughter lived in an apartment. Later, because the father couldn't afford the rent, they faced eviction by the landlord. But the environment outside the apartment was extremely treacherous—being evicted meant certain death."

"The father thought of a way to let his daughter live in the apartment forever. Can you guess what it was?"

The girl froze, remembering the wall of blood, and felt a chill run down her spine. "The father... he walled the girl inside?"

"Exactly. The father exploited a loophole in the apartment's rules: none of the apartment's walls could be moved. By merging her body with the apartment, the landlord couldn't do anything about it. The room even became a 'haunted house,' impossible to rent out to others."

"Inside the wall, the daughter couldn't move, but she was technically 'alive.' After the father was kicked out, he was eroded by the dangerous environment outside, turning into a creature neither human nor ghost, losing most of his memories."

"But one memory remained: he remembered his home was in Room 102, and that someone very important to him was there. He forgot who that person was, but driven by that obsession, he survived as a walking corpse, becoming a grudge-filled spirit, wandering the dangerous world."

"One day, he returned to this apartment. Familiar memories were partially awakened, and he became obsessed with finding a way to get back inside..."

Ji Yan exhaled slightly. He looked at the girl, who was listening in a stupor. "That is the backstory of your Room 102."