Chapter 15: Welcome to Building 3

"Speak the language of men when meeting men and speak the language of ghosts when meeting ghosts," Bai Wu had been practicing this skill from a young age under his father's influence.

Find common ground in knowledge, use it as a breakthrough point, and quickly gain the other party's trust.

From the moment the notes mentioned another way to clear the stage, Bai Wu guessed the nature of Evil Fallen must be quite extreme.

"This is the first time I've seen an Evil Fallen commit suicide," Wang Shi said cheerfully.

"Is it because the Evil Fallen we encountered before were just simple predators?" Shang Xiaoyi was somewhat curious about this intelligent Evil Fallen.

Although everyone was clear that Evil Fallen were transformed from humans, seven hundred years of investigation outside the tower had made people realize one thing: never treat Evil Fallen as humans.

"Wang bro, the key is inside the Evil Fallen's stomach, and from what I see, you're the only suitable one to do the job," Bai Wu returned to his normal state.

The others hadn't yet adjusted from their roles as the evil masterminds.

Wang Shi said, "I thought our team only had one actor. I didn't expect you to be a movie star too, heh."

Wang Shi did not move; there was someone more appropriate for the dissection task.

Lin Wurou hummed a light tune, walking towards the corpse of the Evil Fallen.

Everyone brought something with them when they ventured outside the tower; Bai Wu brought a rice cooker, and Lin Wurou, a set of knives wrapped around her waist.

She now unwrapped the set of knives from the belt's outer circumference, eleven knives of varying sizes in total.

The others were already accustomed to this, but for Bai Wu, it was quite curious:

"A row of knives meant for dismemberment; dismembering is an art, never believe that a saw is enough, unless you like blood spatters. With this row of knives, you can dissect a corpse as delicately as if you were eating French cuisine. Unfortunately for the sissy, this set of knives has yet to host a Spirit Possession."

Unlucky, recalling the expression on Lin Wurou's face when he himself took the camera, suddenly felt that Lin wasn't so bad after all.

Thinking back to the initial remarks about Lin Wurou in the notes, as well as the various performances of the group... Bai Wu concluded:

Hmm, only Yin Shuang and I are the normal ones in the entire team.

The air was filled with a stench, and Wu Jiu's group waited patiently as Lin Wurou "cut the cake."

Lin Wurou was fast, although her set of knives had not hosted a Spirit Possession, the materials were by no means ordinary.

Before long, she took out the key.

"A key that can enter the next level, you must be very curious whether the doors of this world always require a key? Think hard, and you'll find the answer."

What does it mean?

Bai Wu had indeed wondered about this issue. From the topmost floor down here, he found that many floors had been damaged, and the cell doors were warped, so it seemed that Wu Jiu could probably force his way into the entrance of the third building.

No, I've overlooked one point; the events that occurred in this hospital are likely to have taken place before The Era of the High Tower...

The world outside the tower before and after The Era of the High Tower is different.

Before The Era of the High Tower arrived, a hospital was just a hospital, but now, a hospital is merely a scene outside the tower.

And scenes cannot be destroyed!

Just like in GTA5, even if you install the Thanos Mod, and snap your fingers, followed by a few hundred rocket launches, the palm trees are still unharmed.

Since he could see the annotations through his eyes, Bai Wu had always felt that the world outside the tower was restricted by some powerful rules.

That's why, seven hundred years later, the city still had intact facilities, and the sewage system was still operational.

That's why, after seven hundred years, the Evil Fallen inside the hospital still couldn't destroy it...

So the doors of the outside world may also be partly inaccessible by force; you must find the keys.

"All right, finally done."

Lin Wurou's voice interrupted Bai Wu's thoughts.

Looking back at where Elijah had fallen, there was no sign of Elijah's body.

Fontanelle, liver, spleen, stomach, heart, skeleton, the several arms on the back… all of Elijah's parts were neatly arranged.

Bai Wu noticed something special about the stomach of the Evil Fallen.

Perhaps it was because Elijah was special, with a stomach but no intestines, more like a heart, connected by numerous huge blood vessels, converting the digested contents into energy, transported to various locations.

Lin Wurou looked at the neatly arranged "pieces" on the ground, happy like an eighteen-year-old girl.

Bai Wu had seen such behavior when solving cases in his past life; some psychopathic killers all had their unique styles of murder.

There were styles like Lin Wurou's, cutting the body into many pieces and then arranging them in a jumbled manner like a puzzle.

"Now that we're done, let's move on. We'll head to the next level first," Bai Wu had no interest in Lin Wurou's arrangement.

However, he felt somewhat better about the team.

In playing the role of Teacher Elijah and speaking with Elijah, Bai Wu was sure these people could also deduce some of the child's past to some extent.

But everyone looked normal and had not overflowed with sympathy.

In his former life, when Bai Wu helped the police solve cases, he always heard the public say the criminals were pitiable and had their reasons.

He just couldn't understand why.

"Why do we have to go downstairs?"

With the death of Elijah, Shang Xiaoyi was sure there were no longer any traces of Evil Fallen presence in the building.

"If it's exploration, naturally we need to take a look at every place."

Bai Wu still had some unsolved mysteries.

For instance, why was Elijah obsessed with the twelfth prison?

And why did he never leave this building?

Did he and Little Pitiful from the fourth building ever reach some kind of agreement?

Or could it be that Evil Fallen are unable to leave certain areas?

On the way to the bottom level, Bai Wu asked this question:

"Captain, why do these Evil Fallen choose not to leave this building?"

"I'm not sure; no one knows the answer to that question, at least none of the literature on leaving the tower has mentioned Evil Fallen migrating en masse from one area to another. We can temporarily regard it as some sort of constraint."

Constraint?

This could explain why Elijah never left, so the scene cannot be destroyed... and the creatures in the scene cannot easily change their setting?

"But since we haven't found the principle that supports this constraint, we can't regard it as an iron law. Outside the tower, we still need to maintain high alertness," Wu Jiu cautioned seriously.

Bai Wu nodded in agreement with Wu Jiu's caution. Although his superior was stern-faced and not prone to jest, he was indeed very diligent.

...

The eighteenth floor did not have many cells; it was like an arena that would have one particularly unique cage for imprisoning the most powerful beast.

The entire eighteenth floor was this exquisite cage, with Elijah as the beast within the cage.

The furnishings on the bottom floor were simple: a large, empty area, the walls covered with scratches left by Elijah.

Looking at these marks, Bai Wu found they didn't correspond to the bloody patterns he'd seen in the first building, convinced that Elijah must have been here for hundreds of years... never having left.

His thoughts suddenly drifted to some trivial matters.

Throughout his journey, Bai Wu had only seen sanitary areas in the first building, and none at all in the second.

Combining this with the dissection scene by Lin Wurou he had just witnessed, he confirmed the conclusion noted in the remarks: Evil Fallen do not need to excrete.

What a pity that in his previous life, no humans were able to evolve into such advanced bodies. Otherwise, it could resolve the regret of many fat otakus discovering that their female idols also have bodily urgencies.

Stopping the bizarre train of thought in his head, Bai Wu's eyes swept across the room.

Most remarks in the area were of no value, yet Bai Wu still discovered some clues.

Although there were no cells on the entire bottom floor, the position corresponding to room number twelve on each floor finally mentioned something of interest to Bai Wu.

["A guy stubborn about his principles, he's The Twelfth Disciple, hence his preference for this number."]

Another puzzle.

"He" must refer to Elijah. Disciple corresponds to a mentor, the mentor must be the teacher whom Elijah fervently worships.

So that teacher must have at least twelve highly aberrant Evil Fallen under his command? Recalling how Elijah was sent to the hospital... Bai Wu had a vague sense that the teacher might also be scheming something tremendous.

It was as if Sherlock Holmes had encountered Moriarty.

Bai Wu developed a strong interest in this teacher, even overshadowing Little Pitiful from the fourth building.

Having finished exploring the entire second building, the group began to head back the way they had come.

Throughout this process, everyone was silent, and Bai Wu quietly observed for a while, convinced they hadn't noticed anything unusual.

"Based on the story Liu Mu told earlier, I had better not tell anyone about Sequences lower than two hundred..."

The owner of Sequence seventy-five was taken to the sixth floor and then disappeared without a trace, while Taotie ranked at seventy-six...

Especially since inside his own body was Sequence twenty-four...

Although Prayle's Eye provided information in a somewhat unserious manner, it always managed to find clues to break through the situation.

Particularly during Spirit Possession of the camera, it gave precise timing, something beyond deducing.

With this pair of eyes, he could greatly enhance his survival rate outside the tower. Conversely, should his Sequence be exposed, it would inevitably attract a lot of trouble.

...

...

In front of the entrance to the air corridor of the third building, Shang Xiaoyi was the first to step forward; after sensing around earnestly, he frowned and said:

"It seems like there are no Evil Fallen in the entire third building either."

Wu Jiu didn't hurry to act but instead looked at Bai Wu. Bai Wu gazed at the entrance to the third building, his previous deductions now affirmed.

[Out of the four buildings in the ninth hospital area, only this one was a place for people to live, but the people are already all dead. They left behind many dull records. However, I have to remind you that Little Pitiful has already started to notice you, and she left some little puzzles for you in the third building. You've already obtained a Sequence, so you can choose to leave at the right time, at least that way you won't die; or alternatively... do you plan to keep going deeper (don't pick this one)?]

"Open the door."

Bai Wu took the content in the remark's brackets as a joke; with Wu Jiu present, they should at least be able to escape.

From his previous deductions, Bai Wu somewhat understood that after the arrival of The Era of the High Tower, Elijah was constrained by the rules outside the tower and unable to leave the second building.

Then Little Pitiful must be the same, unable to leave the fourth building.

Wu Jiu took the keys and opened the entrance to the third building.

At the far end of the air corridor stood a sign that read "No Entry."

Bai Wu originally thought this sign bore some mystery, and so he watched for a moment, but the remark's content wasn't particularly valuable:

["See, I told you not to choose this option, didn't I? It's written here to prohibit (huan) entering (ying), it says, as a rule-abiding and polite adult, I believe you will follow the rules."]

Since it was a floor where people lived, naturally, the third building had an elevator. Bai Wu walked past the long corridor and dining area, arriving at the elevator entrance.

Another remark popped up.

[Here comes the first choice Little Pitiful has left for you; this building is filled with her resentment. Don't think it's just the minor troubles from the first building. I can give you a hint: go to the third floor first, afterward, you're on your own. Also, keep an eye on your buddies—if you get lost on this floor~ you won't be able to get back.]