Chapter 2816: Phantom Peril (Six)

After listening for a while, only this kind of sound echoed; Shiller put down the alarm clock, but did not hear the fifth ding.

It was not until 12:15 that the fifth sound came from a very distant place. Shiller judged that it must be the first sound of the left corridor, followed quickly by the second sound.

After the second sound ended, there was no more noise. Shiller waited for another 15 minutes, but the sound did not ring again.

The right corridor rang four times, while the left corridor only twice, which was obviously unbalanced.

From the previous locations of the sounds, the elevator rang once, and then the sounds started to get closer—room 03 once, room 05 once, so it was possible that the sound after the elevator was from room 01.

That is to say, rooms 1, 3, and 5 each rang once, so the pattern was that the sound echoed in the odd-numbered rooms. But the problem was that there were four knocks in the right corridor, and the right corridor did not have a fourth odd number—so where did the fourth sound come from?

Shiller thought of room 00 because the door number of this room had been changed. If room 00 was originally an odd number, then it made sense.

With one voice missing from the left corridor, it proved that some odd-numbered room from the left had been switched to the right.

Why would someone switch the room numbers of the left and right corridors, just to make one less knock on the left side? But the meaning of these sounds was still unclear, and so far, no abnormal phenomena had occurred.

Realizing there was no further activity, Shiller decided not to sleep. He took the screw and alarm clock and went to the desk to study them.

Undoubtedly, both items had issues—the person who changed the door numbers couldn't have accidentally left two screws loose. The remaining two were either lost or taken.

The alarm clock had rung earlier, and if one listened closely, they could hear the dripping of water. Among all paranormal phenomena related to the past, water was a significant factor; this object was not simple.

While Shiller was investigating, Peter suddenly sent a message. Shiller opened it to find a very blurry photo that seemed to be taken through a peephole.

The door to room 04 was open in the photo, with a figure exiting. Peter said it was the person who had smiled at him during the day, and he noted the photo was taken precisely at midnight.

In another hotel, the occupant of room 04 had left at exactly midnight.

From the side profile in the photo, Shiller could tell it was Jerome Valeska.

He was the villain in the Gotham TV series. Shiller had heard from Little Bruce that Jerome was now an insurance investigator, mainly exploring the truth behind various accidental death cases to help insurance companies deny claims.

Previously, Little Bruce had used the power of the Outer God to try to eradicate Gotham's darkness, leading to many deaths. This insurance investigator had been consistently on his trail to uncover the truth, so effectively that Little Bruce had to lay low for a while.

Placed in a role-playing group, this guy had the makings of a Legendary Investigator, Shiller thought. But it was normal; the principle was similar to his own. He was already mad, and thus had an unbelievably high threshold, maintaining sanity as long as he didn't face an Outer God directly.

Shiller hadn't expected him to appear at Peter's hotel. If it was to chase Little Bruce, could it be that the hotel where Peter stayed was the problematic one, where Little Bruce was hiding?

Shiller didn't continue the thought. He opened a voice communication with Peter and asked, "Did you hear anything just now?"

"Any noise? I've been by the door watching the opposite side and didn't hear anything."

"No ding from the elevator?"

"No, have you encountered something?"

"It's nothing, Peter. I know you're somewhat scared, so now you can go to sleep. When you wake up in the morning, I hope you can help me with some things."

"No problem, PhD, but I can't sleep now. Can't I help you now?"

"Are you sure you dare to go out?"

"Go out? I'd rather not. I'm going to try to sleep now and will message you when it's light."

After cutting off the communication, Shiller didn't go to sleep. He placed the screw and alarm clock on the table, then went to the window, his gaze falling on the windowsill but using his peripheral vision to look outside.

The other hotel was not appearing. Was the key the cellphone?

Shiller picked up his phone again, mainly focusing on it while watching the outside with his peripheral vision. As expected, in the next second, the city's scenery pulled back layer by layer, and a huge hotel approached, the nearest window was lit, but still no one was there.

Shiller glanced down at his phone and noticed there was no signal. Everything seemed the same as before midnight.

After realizing this, Shiller put away his phone, but contrary to his expectations, the hotel didn't disappear as before—it continued to stand there, no longer just in his peripheral vision. Shiller could now turn and look directly through the window at the hotel.

Immediately, Shiller opened the curtains and the window, leaning out to gaze at the room across from him. Suddenly, a gust of wind blew almost blinding him.

He looked down to see an endless abyss beneath him, as if the hotel was thousands of stories high with innumerable windows that had no end in sight.

Shiller estimated the distance between his hotel and the one opposite to be roughly 20 meters—a not insurmountable distance. Using the items in the hotel, Shiller had a way to get to the other side.

But the condition was that there could be no interference en route, which was nearly impossible. Even the gust of wind from earlier could have easily blown him off. The puzzle was not so easily solved.

Taking advantage of this time, Shiller continued to explore his room, trying to find something like the alarm clock that he had not noticed before. But he searched until past four in the morning, and with daylight approaching, he found nothing useful.

The hotel across the street had been there the whole time, not disappearing the moment someone's gaze shifted away as before midnight. It wasn't until the first light of dawn shone that the scene outside the window returned to its bustling state, as if all the eeriness from the night was an illusion.

Peter's message came on time. He said he had left his room and turned on his video, sharing his view with Shiller.

The hotel corridor on his end was very quiet. Peter tiptoed out of his room and took a quick glance at room 1904. Seeing no issue, he was about to peek through the peephole of room 1904 when suddenly the door to room 1901 opened.

A man dressed in a suit and leather shoes walked out. He was the quintessential embodiment of a corporate elite. Neticing someone else in the corridor, he turned his head to push his glasses up and nodded at Peter.

Peter, not knowing why, also nodded back and offered a smile.

But room 1901 was where Shiller had seen that man bumping his head against the door yesterday.

So Peter's timeline was earlier than his own? Shiller speculated that on Peter's timeline, the man hadn't encountered trouble yet; therefore, he could walk out nonchalantly.

And this also explained why the guest from room 1903 told Peter he wanted to extend his stay, whereas Shiller heard he wanted to check out.

Possibly at Peter's point in time, he indeed intended to extend the stay, but by Shiller's timeline, after the surge of supernatural events, the man got scared and decided to check out. He couldn't do it successfully and was ultimately unable to escape.

The casual demeanor of the front desk in Peter's time might actually be normal, while at Shiller's point in time, the front desk seemed overly enthusiastic, as if afraid to lose him as a guest, even striving to satisfy his rather tricky request, which might also be an anomaly.

So perhaps Peter had arrived at a time when the supernatural phenomena hadn't escalated severely, while Shiller was in a timeline after the explosion of these events.

Peter quickly went downstairs. The elevator operated normally, and everything went smoothly. He arrived at the breakfast restaurant, where a rich variety of food was available; some guests were getting their meals, others were talking to each other, and some were seated by the window conducting business.

This scene relieved Peter. He grabbed some pancakes and sausages, found a seat to eat, and searched the crowd, hoping to spot the madman who had smiled at him.

Unfortunately, it seemed the guy hadn't come for breakfast, and Peter didn't see any staff members in the crowd, but he saw the guest from room 1901 who had greeted him in the corridor, as well as the guest from room 1903 whom he had met briefly in front of the elevator the other day.

Both men seemed to be out-of-towners here for business; the guest from room 1901 was taller, nearly 1.9 meters, while the one from room 1903 was shorter and chubbier.

Peter nicknamed them Tall and Short, and Shiller decided to adopt these nicknames to avoid confusion.

Shiller also left his room, intending to check out the hotel during daytime. After exiting, the corridor remained as quiet as it had been at night, unchanged. As he approached the elevator, Shiller found that it was still out of service.

Had the supernatural occurrences completely spiraled out of control? Shiller sighed inwardly. He hadn't seen a fire escape on this floor, which theoretically should be impossible. The only explanation was that some kind of paranormal phenomena had sealed off all the exits.

Now he was completely trapped on the 19th floor.

Shiller went back to take a look at room 1901 and saw the man was still standing by the door but had stopped banging his head against it. There was no response from room 1903 no matter how much he knocked, and room 1913's door would open automatically whenever Shiller walked by.

All the other rooms were locked tight, and there was nothing to be seen through the gaps. Left with no choice, Shiller returned to his own room to fetch some items, planning to continue communicating with the man in room 1901 through notes to see if he could get any response.

Shiller opened the briefcase that he had been carrying with him, which didn't contain any paper documents but was instead filled with a bunch of odd items. After rummaging through, he ultimately pulled out a white candle and a lighter.

He took the items and stepped out, first placing the candle next to the door of room 1901, then began writing on a note.

"I'll help you open the door, what can you offer me in return?"

"Help me open the door," was the reply that materialized in blood.

No matter what else Shiller asked, the man kept repeating the same phrase, as if not in the mood for polite entreaty, thought Shiller, somewhat speechlessly.

Suddenly, someone knocked from inside room 1903, and that voice said, "Hey, you damned lunatic, you can't open his door, something has latched onto him."

"Did you hear the dinging sound last night? Tell me what it was, or I'll break down the door right away."

"If you open the door, you'll die."

"Do I look scared of dying?"

The person seemed a bit helpless and finally said, "If there's a noise inside a room, it means there's someone in there. You must've gotten the alarm clock already, right? You need to make sure that alarm clock rings. If your room gets judged as empty, something horrible will happen."

"So, the alarm clock might not ring?"

"There's a possibility."

"What if it doesn't?"

"Seems you can only leave the room," said the voice hesitantly, then added, "But I don't know for sure, it kept ringing, and I've never tried leaving."

Shiller had been conversing with the voice inside room 1903, but in reality, he had not remained by the door of room 1901; instead, he had positioned himself next to room 1903's door.

He slowly lay down on the floor, peering through the gap under the door.

There was nothing inside the gap.