Chapter 45: Cashing in a Favor, and the So-Called Key

"How did you know this apartment building had a basement?"

Hearing Ji Yan's words, Miss Xu's beautiful eyes flickered with a serene smile.

"I figured it out as I walked from the first-floor lobby up to the eighth floor."

"The marks of destruction are the worst on the first floor; it looks on the verge of collapsing at any moment. The higher the floor, the fewer the cracks."

"So it's not hard to guess that the real thief—the culprit responsible for destroying the apartment—is in the basement, or perhaps, beneath the apartment."

"The source of the apartment's fracturing is likely that its foundation has been gnawed away and destroyed."

"It's just that that multi-faced specter was extremely unlucky; its actions and unknown identity completely matched those of the true culprit, so it was treated as a thief that everyone wanted to beat up!"

Ji Yan spoke his deduction as a guess, but his tone was absolute.

Were it not for the hidden information obtained through his [Talent], Ji Yan would also have been misled into trying every possible means to kill the multi-faced specter, thereby accelerating the destruction of the apartment instance!

Through that acquired hidden information, one could deduce that the weird faces on the multi-faced specter were also native residents of the apartment.

It was just that due to "material aging" or other reasons, they had been discarded.

That black bug specter was responsible for taking in these discarded native faces, and when the apartment faced a crisis of destruction, it would come out to save the apartment building to the best of its ability.

However, their help only treated the symptoms, not the root cause.

To truly save the apartment, one still had to rely on the players!

"There is indeed a basement, but the key..."

Miss Xu picked up a cup of hot coffee from the table and dropped two sugar cubes into it.

"The key is in the landlord's hands?"

"It is indeed in the landlord's hands, but he won't be involved in this crisis."

"During this time, the old man is sleeping."

Miss Xu took a sip of coffee and answered offhandedly.

Ji Yan frowned: "The apartment building is about to be destroyed, and as the landlord, he's actually sleeping?"

He found this absurd. No matter how he looked at it, the landlord should be the biggest boss of the apartment instance. In the main storyline, he didn't have any role to play at all?

Miss Xu stirred the dark brown coffee with a spoon: "This old gentleman doesn't meddle in many things."

"His mindset is very rigid."

"If the apartment truly is destroyed, he will also consider it fate, and will willingly vanish from this world along with the apartment."

Miss Xu's words enlightened Ji Yan.

The landlord might seem like the biggest boss in the Crimson Apartment instance, but in reality, he was nothing more than a dull NPC manipulated under the rules of the instance.

Ji Yan shook his head: "There must be a way."

"Since I can discover that the true culprit is hiding beneath the apartment foundation, it means this is definitely not a dead end!"

A trace of approval flashed in Miss Xu's eyes: "Not bad, your brain works quite smartly sometimes."

"How to get to the apartment's basement? Aside from the landlord, the native residents also have a way."

"However, the native residents are very repulsed by us outsider guests. It's difficult just to communicate with them, let alone get them to help you go to the basement."

Miss Xu's words, however, suddenly gave Ji Yan an inspiration.

His eyes flashed: "I suddenly thought of a special native resident."

"Perhaps, she can help me."

As he spoke, Ji Yan bid farewell to Miss Xu and prepared to leave.

"Wait."

"Let me give you one more gift. I've placed my bet on you, don't let me down."

Miss Xu called out to Ji Yan and gently flicked her slender, jade-like fingers.

Three paper-cut figurines landed on Ji Yan.

The paper figurines possessed vitality; like the little people in Hans Christian Andersen's fairy tales, they lined up and danced on his shoulder, finally burrowing into the roots of the hair on top of his head.

"Ding! Congratulations to the player for discovering the hiding place of the true [Culprit] of the main storyline and obtaining the blessing reward from the resident of Room 801."

"Special Strange Item: Paper-Cut Figuring."

"Quality: Legendary."

"Item Description: In ancient legends, paper-cut figurines can contain wandering souls. The older generation liked to hang them by the window. When a soul inhabits a paper figurine, it can guide and pray for blessings for its owner, as well as ward off disasters and calamities."

"Hidden Information: The three paper figurines possess three special ability effects respectively: curse, blessing, and disaster-avoidance."

"Another legendary equipment!"

Ji Yan's expression shifted slightly. He hadn't expected that even though Miss Xu wasn't his strange family member, they could still interact and drop a piece of legendary equipment.

He had to admit, the drop rate for this main storyline was truly high!

"Don't rush to smile. These three paper figurines of mine have rather bad tempers."

"Even if I give them to you, you might not necessarily be able to use them."

Miss Xu said offhandedly.

Ji Yan nodded, exchanged a few pleasantries, and then exited Room 801.

Time was pressing. Ji Yan descended back to the first floor and knocked on the door of Room 102.

This was the same room he had helped the Kan-sprite enter before. If he remembered correctly, the Kan-sprite had said that if he ever had trouble, he could ask her daughter for help.

A favor was like currency.

As long as it remained there, its value persisted, and sooner or later, it would come in handy.

The one who opened the door was still the dyed-hair girl. The moment she saw Ji Yan, her expression turned ugly: "Why is it you again?"

"What kind of filthy thing have you brought this time? Whenever I see you, I always have a premonition that I'm about to have bad luck."

Because her daily tasks didn't require her to go out, the dyed-hair girl was as if isolated from the world.

She thought she would always live in peace in the little Room 102, unaware that the apartment was currently facing a catastrophic disaster.

"I'm looking for your master!"

Pushing open the door, Ji Yan walked inside, hurrying directly toward the master bedroom at the end of the hallway.

"Hey! At least change your shoes! Where on earth have you been, the soles of your shoes are covered in red paint!" Looking at the stained floor, the dyed-hair girl's pleasant mood for the day instantly vanished.

Inside the master bedroom.

The bloody wall was continuously oozing blood, converging into a line of distorted characters.

"...I knew you would come..."

"Pardon the intrusion, but I want to know about the apartment's basement. Do you know how to get down there?" Ji Yan asked straight to the point.

The blood characters shifted: "I know..."

"However, the basement used to be a forbidden place where the apartment locked up severely rule-breaking residents..."

"It is extremely dangerous... You are the benefactor of my father and me, and I don't want to harm you."

"If I don't go, the apartment building will collapse, and the result will be the same."

"Everyone else is deceived and misled; only I know where the source of the problem lies. I am the only one who must go to this dangerous place!"

Ji Yan's words carried a sense of desolation, giving off a vibe of "if I don't go to hell, who will?"

But in reality, he was simply afraid that other players would snatch his credit.

He certainly wasn't the only one who discovered he had been misled.

Therefore, he had to seize the time and grab the initiative!

The blood wall quieted for a moment, and the blood characters transformed once again: "Tear open the floor, and I will send you down."

"The apartment rules cannot constrain what is below. Be careful yourself."

Hearing this, Ji Yan's eyes flashed.

He then took out his grandmother's embroidery needle and gently traced it across the floor.

The floor behaved like a thin piece of fabric, being easily torn apart as a large amount of fresh blood seeped out.

The flesh and blood beneath the floor wriggled, and accompanied by the tearing sound, it forcibly opened up a pitch-black staircase leading to the basement!

Ji Yan's eyes widened slightly.

He finally understood why Miss Xu said that apart from the landlord, only the native residents possessed the key to the basement.

And why it was so difficult to get them to willingly take out the key.

So the native residents had to tear open their own flesh and blood to open the door to the basement.

The so-called key was merely an act of self-harm by the native residents!