Chapter 2817: Phantom Peril (Seven)

Interesting, thought Shiller.

He stood in front of Room 1903's door, listening to the sounds emanating from within. He could very clearly sense that the speaker must be standing right next to the door, just like the man in Room 1901, who had to have his nose practically against the door to produce such a sound.

But looking through the gap under the door revealed no feet, which meant that there was also something off about the person inside Room 1903.

The person in Room 1901 wanted Shiller to open the door for him, while the person in Room 1903 was insistent that Shiller mustn't open it.

A normal person would choose between these two rooms, and many would tend toward Room 1903, because he indeed sounded like a normal person. But even if legs and feet were seen through the gap, Shiller wouldn't easily trust the person in Room 1903.

Or rather, this person might be even less trustworthy than the one in Room 1901 because he and Peter had both seen this person and had heard him speak. Inconsistencies had surfaced regarding him; that wasn't something a normal person could manage. It was only a matter of time before issues arose with such a person.

Now that clues had appeared in Rooms 1900, 1901, 1903, and 1904, only Room 1902 was left without providing any. Shiller walked over to the door of Room 1902, refusing to believe it was just empty.

First, Shiller glanced up at the room number. When he had been twisting screws earlier, he had already confirmed that, apart from Room 1900, none of the door numbers on the right side had been tampered with. The marks left by the screws being twisted in were one-time incidents, suggesting that the problem likely wasn't with the door numbers.

Again, there was nothing to see through the gap, and the doorknob wouldn't turn. With nothing more on the door, Shiller looked directly through the peephole.

Shiller saw another eye.

Because of the peephole's magnifying and reducing effects, details were unclear, yet it was certain that a bloodshot eyeball was on the other side.

Thump, thump, thump!

Shiller knocked forcefully on the door of Room 1902, even interrupting the ongoing chatter of the resident in Room 1903.

There was no response from Room 1902. When Shiller checked the peephole again, the eye had disappeared.

Good, having a clue was sufficient. Shiller did not intend to explore the left-side corridor just yet. He returned to his own room, began to organize the clues he had, and planned to piece them together.

He didn't have much time left. If the elevator was out of commission, he had no way to secure basic sustenance. The hotel rooms were supplied with mineral water and a bit of food, but that would last at most a week. That meant if Shiller didn't find a way to lift the lockdown within seven days, he'd meet the same fate as an ordinary person and be trapped here to die.

But he felt that seven days wouldn't be necessary; he was already formulating some ideas.

Looking only at the right-side corridor, the clues seemed plentiful and jumbled—the approaching hotel building from the corner of his eye, the moved room number plates, the sounds that emerged at midnight, the elevator stuck in a perpetual halt, and the distinctive neighbors.

These clues appeared entirely unrelated at first glance, but this was normal in Shiller's view. He believed many clues were not immediately useful to him and would only become relevant after he could leave the 19th floor. So, there was no need to consider them.

Which clues might be irrelevant then?

Shiller thought that everything, except for the neighbors, was likely not pertinent.

The oncoming hotel building seen from the corner of his eye might even contain the deepest secret of this hotel: why he and Peter ended up in two different timelines. It might also explain the current state of the hotel and how it got this way. Such clues were not to be pondered at this stage.

The noises that appeared at midnight, which sounded exactly like the elevator moving, seemed to indicate a need to investigate these sounds to break the 19th floor's limits. However, Shiller believed these represented a pattern for the whole hotel, not just the 19th floor. As such, they would be useless for solving the 19th floor's unique situation.

The stalled elevator also seemed to be an essential object of study, but like the noise, they were likely interconnected—both stemmed from the same supernatural phenomenon, not limited to the 19th floor. So they could also be temporarily set aside.

The moved room numbers and neighbors belonged to the same category. The elevator couldn't have possibly changed the room numbers. Whoever did it was either a monster or a living person, so it made sense to group them with the neighbors for further study, which wasn't a problem.

Therefore, to escape this situation, the current line of thinking should focus on the supernatural phenomena unique to the 19th floor: the troublesome neighbors.

So far, Shiller had learned of five neighbors.

The first was the footprint at the door of Room 1904. Because the identity was unknown, it was simply referred to as Footprint.

The second was the person in Room 1901 who continually banged his head against the door. Peter had mentioned he was probably tall, but since they were in different times, Shiller couldn't be sure that the person residing in Room 1901 during his time was tall. However, he was temporarily labeled Tall.

The third was the person in Room 1903 who had been conversing with Shiller. Since Shiller had also seen him when he entered the hotel and the voice matched, Shiller could almost confirm that he was the short person Peter had seen.

The fourth was the last discovered by Shiller: the bloodshot eye from Room 1902, which could be called Eye.

The fifth was the neighbor suspected of moving the room number of Room 1900. It was possible that it was one of the first four, or another one from the left-side corridor.

Among these five existences, the only ones with contact and intersections were the occupants of rooms 1901 and 1903, namely, the tall one and the short one. It seemed the tall one had already met with disaster and hoped Shiller would open the door to let him out, while the short one demanded that Shiller not release the tall one.

The other neighbors lived in peace with the world, so these two were the only pair on the right corridor with a conflict.

Shiller considered himself to be a very fair person, as well as just and willing to help others. Since his neighbors were in conflict, he felt obliged to mediate, but the process had to be kept fair, just, and open, without favoring either side.

Shiller had Peter, from another hotel, reach out to the short one in room 1903 and somehow get the key card he carried.

Peter had been briefed by Shiller about the situation earlier. After hearing about the terrifying predicament, he was both shocked and scared, and he expressed his concerns to Doctor Sophocles.

Peter wasn't keen on stealing, but he went ahead after receiving instructions from the doctor. He had a nagging feeling that something was off about the hotel, and if things were to escalate as they had for Shiller, he needed to be prepared.

Peter quickly found the short one and struck up a conversation on some pretext, sizing up the suit-clad gentleman, and guessing where he might keep his room card.

It wasn't too difficult to guess; suit trousers don't have that many pockets. Excluding the two trouser pockets, there were only the decorative pockets on the jacket. Unless one had a specific fetish, one wouldn't put things in the decorative pockets, especially something frequently used like a key card.

So it must be in the trouser pockets. Observing carefully, Peter noticed the short one's suit was very new, but the right trouser pocket was slightly more expanded than the left, as if it was used more frequently.

Because the short one was quite plump and filled out his suit considerably, semi-circles would occasionally appear at the bottom of his pockets, most likely the shape of the key card, as his movements stretched the fabric.

After pinpointing the location, Peter had to think of how to get the key card. But the doctor had explicitly instructed to avoid violence — it would be best to obtain the key card without the other party noticing, which was a bit of a challenge.

Peter wasn't skilled in pickpocketing and found it difficult to take the key card without being noticed. But since subtle theft wasn't an option, it was enough to act before the other man could react.

The two soon parted ways, and it seemed the short one headed toward the downstairs café, likely for a business meeting. Peter saw this as a great opportunity; he'd noted the café on his way in, and it was crowded.

More than one elevator from the restaurant led to the downstairs café. Without hesitation, Peter took another route to the café.

There was a crowd in front of the café entry, and since the door could both be pushed and pulled, there was much back-and-forth traffic. Peter seized this opportunity to collide with a tall man beside him, but used the man's blind spot to duck beside the short one.

Though Peter no longer had Spider-strength, he was still an adult, and with a purposeful shove, the robust man staggered and nearly knocked his front teeth on the glass door.

He turned around abruptly, wanting to find who bumped into him. But at that moment, everyone was filing inside, and his pause inevitably caused others to run into him, with the short one being the first to suffer.

The short one crashed into the tall man's back, and unluckily for him, it was just as the tall man was turning around, causing an elbow to hit him squarely on the cheekbone.

Peter, seizing his chance, pretended to enter and squeezed next to the short one. As the short one cried out in pain and stumbled backward, Peter reflexively reached out to steady him, slipping his hand into the pocket.

Feeling a rigid card, Peter pocketed the key card, hiding it in his own loose-fitting sweats; nothing was amiss.

"Oh my, sir, are you all right?" Peter quickly helped the short one to his feet, and the tall man, not meaning to fight, quickly turned to apologize after he realized he'd bumped into someone.

The two caused a bit of chaos at the door, but it was swiftly resolved. The short one seemed in a hurry to get to his meeting, rubbing his face and waving off concern without a word, he pushed through the door and went in.

Peter also entered, but touching the key card in his pocket, he soon circled back out and headed to the 19th floor under the guidance of the doctor. He was to use the key card from room 1903 to open the short one's door and look around his room.

Peter swiftly took the elevator to the 19th floor, used the key card to unlock room 1903, and after entering, quickly shut the door and surveyed the empty room.

He strode toward the wardrobe, opened the doors one by one, and found nothing, continuing until all the wardrobe doors were opened without discovering the alarm clock mentioned by Doctor Sophocles.

Peter kept searching the room, not knowing when the other would return, so he had to move quickly.

He went through the bedroom's beddings, wardrobe, nightstands, and checked every cupboard in the living room, but found no trace of the alarm clock. The only place left unchecked was the bathroom.

Peter rushed into the bathroom, searching through the vanity cabinet, the trash bin, even the bathtub, but he found nothing until a flash of insight struck him, and he reached to lift the lid of the toilet tank.

"Found you!"

Peter retrieved a soaked alarm clock from the toilet tank, and Shiller received the news on his end.

"Hiding in the toilet tank?"