Chapter 13: Chapter 13: Apartment Administrator
On the balcony were three human faces, covered in blood and twisted into eerie smiles.
They were his "father," "mother," and "sister."
Blood dripped continuously from the balcony above. At first, Gao Tian thought it was coming from their faces, but he soon realized blood couldn’t drip so densely and constantly from a person’s cheeks. The true source was their ragged necks.
The three of them had been decapitated; only their heads remained. From behind, three pale arms held their heads out over the balcony. Blood still trickled from the fresh wounds, dripping down onto Gao Tian, drop by drop.
Gao Xi, now just a head held over the balcony by one of the long, pale arms, even greeted Gao Tian cheerfully:
"Hello there, Gao Tian. Are you a person or a ghost? You almost had us fooled.
"The ability to alter someone’s memories... We always thought we were the only ones who could do that. This is the first time we’ve ever seen something else with the same power. You twisted my memory with your words earlier, didn’t you? We just snapped out of it. To be honest, having your memory altered feels awful.
"So, you must be a ghost too, right? That’s why you have a ghost’s abilities.
"But no matter what you are, it’s all over now. The Building Manager is here, and it’s furious. We didn’t follow its orders to keep you here so it could open the door and eat you. Not only that, but you actually altered our memories and made us stay in the study to block the Building Manager for you. You’re so devious.
"Given our incompetence, it’s come to deal with you itself.
"Ghosts may be immortal, but that doesn’t mean we can’t feel pain. I wonder how the Building Manager will punish us after it’s done eating you.
"Just having our heads ripped clean off like this... our necks hurt so much we’re breaking out in a cold sweat. We can’t die, so we just have to endure it.
"Honestly, sometimes I envy humans. Once you reach a certain limit of pain, you die, and you don’t have to endure it anymore. Compared to the torture the Building Manager has in store for us, this probably feels like nothing..."
This Memory Ghost was a real chatterbox. Even as three severed heads held in mid-air by strange, pale hands, it just kept prattling on.
The owner of the pale arms—the one who had twisted off the Memory Ghost’s heads, the one they called the "Building Manager" in terror, the one who had been knocking outside as "Li Xing"—finally made its move.
Though three hands were already occupied holding the three heads, Gao Tian saw a fourth, equally bloodless arm slither out from the balcony like a crooked snake. The arm stretched with absurd elasticity, reaching far past the balcony’s edge and grabbing for Gao Tian, who was dangling in mid-air.
It had already extended over two meters, far longer than a normal human arm. Yet it still hadn’t reached its limit. Four or five joints twisted together, constantly adjusting its position. The hand, like the head of a long serpent, splayed its five fingers and lunged for Gao Tian’s head.
In fact, while "Gao Xi" had been talking, Gao Tian hadn’t stopped moving. He was still carefully climbing down the makeshift rope of blankets, trying to reach a foothold on the third floor as quickly as possible.
But two fingers on his right hand were broken, so he couldn’t get a proper grip. The long arm, pieced together from several joints, moved much faster than it looked. In the blink of an eye, it was right above him. At this distance, Gao Tian could even see the countless lines on its palm. And sweat stains.
Just like a living person’s hand.
’If it touches me, is there any chance of escape?’ Gao Tian’s heart pounded wildly. He knew he had to move faster, but haste makes waste. The more he rushed to reach the third floor, the slower his descent became.
Just as the ghostly hand was about to touch him, Gao Tian grew even more frantic. His injured hand suddenly lost its strength, and he let go of the blankets, plummeting from above the third floor.
’This is it. It’s all over.’ In mid-air, Gao Tian knew he was finished. ’Better to fall to my death than to be captured and slowly tortured by that ghost.’
Just as he had that thought, he suddenly found that even though he had let go of the blankets, he only fell for a moment before stopping, suspended in his original position as if his feet had touched solid ground.
’What in the world is going on?’
Stunned and confused, Gao Tian looked down. From a third-floor window, two slender arms had reached out and were holding his legs firmly. It was the girl in the Lolita dress. Gao Tian had seen her once before in the first-floor lobby.
But at the time, his memory had been corrupted. His mind was filled with thoughts of rushing "home" to see his parents, so he hadn’t noticed the three strange people in the lobby, let alone the sign at the building’s entrance that read "Living Persons’ Apartment."
Now, seeing this girl’s slender arms holding his legs as steadily as a mountain, he was shocked. Gao Tian was a grown man of healthy weight, yet in the delicate girl’s grasp, he felt as light as a chick. How could a normal human woman possess such monstrous strength? Only a ghost could have such astonishing power.
Gao Tian was filled with suspicion and uncertainty.
"Are you a person or a ghost?"
The girl’s expression was impassive, like a doll devoid of any emotion.
"If I were a ghost, I’d rip you in half right now just to shut you up.
"Just kidding. The third floor and down is the Living Persons’ Apartment. Ghosts can’t come down. Climb in through the window first."
She slowly lowered Gao Tian, who was still suspended between the third and fourth floors. A delicate young girl, holding a man two heads taller than her as if he were an action figure, and gently setting him down—the scene couldn’t have been stranger.
As if to prove the girl’s words about the "Living Persons’" Apartment, the three heads on the fourth floor shrieked in unison, "Don’t let him escape!" The long, white, snake-like arm, not giving up, continued to stretch down in pursuit.
But when it reached the height of the third-floor window, the arm began to twitch violently. Fine green vines sprouted from its rotting surface, as if trying to bind it to the wall. Realizing it had crossed the boundary, the ghostly arm retracted as if shocked by electricity, pulling back inside the fourth-floor balcony along with the three dangling heads.
The ghost had actually backed down, a rare sight. After suffering such a setback, it gave up on chasing Gao Tian.
It was just as the delicate girl had said—
The third floor and below was for the living only. It was a forbidden zone for ghosts.
Gao Tian, his heart still racing, practically scrambled through the third-floor window into the girl’s room.
The room seemed to be decorated in an old European style. The light was dim, rows of shelves were crammed with sheepskin-bound books, a fire crackled in a distant fireplace, and a large, dark red rug covered the floor. The color of the rug was most ominous; even if someone died and bled all over it, the color wouldn’t change in the slightest.
Standing in the room were the same three people Gao Tian had first seen in the lobby: a young man with silver hair, eyes narrowed to slits, and a black jacket; the freakishly strong, delicate girl in an elaborate Lolita dress, now dusting off her hands; and a thin Monk in a gray robe, his scalp shining and cleaner than the bottom of an empty wallet.
"Another one, tricked into the Living Persons’ Apartment. Seems like there are more new residents this month."
"But this guy... the first thing he does after arriving is go up to the fourth floor, and he even came back alive. He’s either incredibly skilled or incredibly bold."
The silver-haired young man observed the newcomer, Gao Tian, while fiddling with a lighter in his hand.
He had seen Gao Tian calmly walk to the elevator and press the "up" button in the lobby earlier.
He had no idea that Gao Tian’s memory had been altered at the time. Gao Tian didn’t know this was the Living Persons’ Apartment, nor did he know that ghosts were forbidden below the third floor, while everything above it was a playground for monsters and demons.
From the young man’s perspective, Gao Tian had, on his very first day, willingly gone up to the fourth floor and returned unscathed. He seemed both arrogant and capable.
The young Monk made a Buddhist gesture of respect.
"Amitabha."
The Lolita girl, her eyes like a pair of emeralds, watched Gao Tian quietly.
"Next time, don’t go upstairs so rashly without a full investigation.
"The ghost on each floor, in each room, is different. Some powerful ghosts are absolutely unsolvable. The moment you enter, you die.
"I know you’re very capable, but now that you’re in this apartment, you’ll have plenty of chances to get yourself killed later. There’s no need to be in such a hurry to die right now."
Gao Tian knew she also thought he was just putting on an act. There was no way to explain the situation clearly right now.
"Since you’re here, you’re now a new resident of the Living Persons’ Apartment. You either complete ten tasks and leave this place, or you die.
"Let me introduce us. My name is Xia Ta. This bald guy is Yu Sheng. And the one with the grandpa hair, whose eyes are never open, is Jiang Yang."
The Lolita girl narrowed her eyes as she introduced them one by one.
"We’re the administrators of this apartment, for now. People die here every month. The ones who get lucky and survive for a while become the administrators. Maybe we’ll die later, maybe we’ll die tomorrow. Who knows, maybe one day all the residents with more seniority than you will be dead. Then it’ll be your turn to stand where I am and guide the newcomers."
Her explanation was brief and left many things unclear, but Gao Tian had read plenty of web novels and understood the basic rules. Besides, after being hunted by a powerful ghost released by the Jialan Society, he had long since accepted that supernatural events were real.
’Still, getting caught up in two separate supernatural incidents within two days... my luck is really terrible.’
Gao Tian sighed and sought final confirmation.
"So, once you enter this apartment, you become a resident and are forcibly bound to it."
"Then, periodically, it issues dangerous, supernatural tasks to the residents. If you manage to survive, you’ve completed one task."
"Complete ten tasks, and you’re unbound and can leave."
"And if you don’t follow the apartment’s requirements, you’ll be ’eliminated’ in various ways."
"Is my understanding correct?"
