Chapter 70: Chapter 70: The Incident of the Residents’ Total Annihilation Seven Years Ago
The man this corpse once belonged to was named Lin Nan’an. The Wind Attendant Buddha walked to his side, flipped forward through the book, and began to read to Jiang Yang.
March 11, Sunny.
Another resident from the fourth floor complained to me about strange occurrences. It was a single woman who said that while she was washing vegetables at home, a large amount of black hair flowed out of her faucet. Then, after she went to sleep, she heard children’s voices coming from upstairs, constantly calling out things like, "Sister, come on up and play with us."
’How many similar complaints is that in the past two months?’
’I’ll just observe for now.’
To be honest, even though I’m the apartment administrator, I feel a deep, instinctual fear of the fifth-floor hallway.
But it’s a fear I can never let the ordinary residents see.
April 2, Sunny.
Another very promising newcomer died during their third green-character mission.
Such a shame. People who can survive four green-character missions are few and far between.
My sixth green-character mission is in four months.
Logically, this should be a fairly pleasant long break. For these four months, at least, I won’t have to worry. I can just enjoy my life.
But for some reason, as I write these words, my temples are throbbing. It feels as if something worse than just ominous is about to happen.
April 14, Overcast
Old Wang’s child has disappeared.
Aunt Wang forgot to lock her front door when she went downstairs to get something from the food pantry.
When she returned, she found the child had run out.
At first, it didn’t seem like a big deal. After all, all the kids in the apartment building are friends and often visit each other’s homes.
But after going door to door, they still couldn’t find Old Wang’s child. A few neighbors started searching the floors below the fourth, as well as the surrounding neighborhood.
To this day, not a single clue has been found.
When Old Wang got back, he had a heart attack and was rushed to the hospital.
We need to see a person if they’re alive, and a body if they’re dead. ’Where on earth could Old Wang’s child have gone?’
April 21, Heavy Rain
’I had a terrible thought.’
’Could it be... that when he saw the door was open, Old Wang’s child ran up to the fifth floor?’
That is the one place in the entire building that no resident dares to go search.
’But that shouldn’t be possible...’
On their very first day in the apartment, every resident—especially the children—is warned again and again to absolutely never go near that stairwell.
Xiaoding’s son only got close enough to peek, and his dad beat him half to death for it. His screams echoed throughout the entire floor.
’So what happened with Old Wang’s child that day?’
April 28, Overcast
I received several more complaints about paranormal events today.
It’s no longer just the fourth-floor residents experiencing unexplained incidents in their homes. Now, on the third floor, someone reported seeing a silhouette standing at the head of their bed, watching them, while they were half-asleep in the middle of the night.
’I don’t know if this is some kind of mass hysteria.’
An atmosphere of fear has begun to spread throughout the entire building.
Some have started to move out of the Apartment of the Living.
May 8, Sunny
We’ve installed security cameras in every corner of the fourth-floor hallway.
Especially at the stairs leading to the fifth floor.
Now, if any fourth-floor residents try to go upstairs, we’ll be able to spot them immediately.
However, the few remaining families refused to stay on the fourth floor any longer. They’ve all moved down to the third.
As I write this, the only ones left on the fourth floor are me and Xiaoding’s family. Just two households.
May 13, Overcast.
Xiaoding’s son says he often hears a familiar voice calling to him from the direction of the fifth floor.
It’s Old Wang’s son, calling for Xiaoding Bao to come upstairs and play with him.
Xiaoding Bao tentatively asked him why he’d run upstairs, and what was so fun up there anyway.
Old Wang’s son just laughed, a hollow sound, and said that there were lots and lots of children on the fifth floor. A place with no homework, no classes, no scoldings from adults, and no terrifying green-character missions.
"It’s a place of freedom," he said. "All the children who come up here find true happiness."
May 22, Sunny
We checked the surveillance cameras.
Xiaoding Bao had never once been near the fifth-floor stairwell.
And no children had been seen coming down from the fifth-floor stairwell, nor had any sounds been recorded.
The apartment administrators unanimously concluded that Xiaoding Bao missed his friend so much he was starting to hallucinate.
He can no longer tell the difference between reality and fantasy.
May 25, Sunny
Xiaoding and his family moved off the fourth floor.
Now, I’m the only person left on the entire floor.
May 28, Windy
Old Wang and his family died during their third green-character mission.
The mystery of his child’s disappearance will now likely remain a mystery forever.
No one in the building will ever look into it again.
June 1, Cloudy
An increasing number of paranormal events have been reported to the various administrators. It has become a fact that can no longer be ignored.
It’s not just the fourth floor anymore; the third floor is no longer safe either.
Another child has disappeared.
I have a strong feeling there’s a direct connection between the paranormal events spreading downward through the building and these missing children.
They are happening in tandem.
At a small meeting between the four administrators, I strongly suggested we form an elite team to go up to the fifth floor and find out what’s really going on.
To my disappointment, my suggestion was rejected on the spot. It was a nearly unanimous vote against it.
Some of the administrators are very powerful, and they even possess several high-grade Supernatural Artifacts...
But they don’t care about anyone else in the building. All they want is to quickly complete their ten missions and get out of this godforsaken place.
’Of course, I know I’m in no position to judge them.’
June 7, Overcast
I survived my sixth green-character mission by the skin of my teeth.
Even though I have another long break and I’ve obtained a new Supernatural Artifact, I feel no joy.
June 9, Sunny
I haven’t been back in the apartment for two days, and already I’m starting to hear children’s voices from upstairs, trying to talk to me.
’I’m the only one living on the entire fourth floor now, aren’t I?’
Even the veteran administrators who’ve completed six missions used their privileges to immediately move far away from the fifth floor, down to the much safer second floor.
To them, their own safety is the number one priority.
’Now I’m the only one left to face this alone.’
June 15, Sunny
The children’s voices from upstairs... there’s Old Wang’s son, Xiaoding Bao, that little girl who just moved in not long ago...
And many, many others I don’t recognize.
’I have no idea when the fifth floor filled up with so many children.’
It’s like they opened a daycare up there.
They know I’m right downstairs, and they know I can hear them.
At first, Xiaoding Bao tried talking down to me, but I ignored him.
’I at least have that much common sense. Cute little Xiaoding Bao is a ghost now.’
The Apartment of the Living has been broken for a long time. Even the fourth floor isn’t safe anymore.
But gradually, I changed my mind.
The entire building is permeated by a powerful sense of decay, a feeling of inevitable ruin.
June 19, Sunny
Gradually, more and more people stopped returning to the building. Some don’t even bother with the green-character missions anymore.
They don’t care if their time runs out and they get erased by the building’s rules.
Some people just get drunk every day, and when the time for their next green-character mission arrives, they find a rope and hang themselves.
Some don’t even bother with the two beginner missions anymore. They spend all their savings, take out huge loans, and live it up for as many days as they have left.
’Ten missions. It’s too hard, too far-off a goal for the newcomers.’
The number of residents keeps dwindling. Far more people die each month than arrive.
At this rate, our entire generation of residents might be headed for total annihilation, leaving behind nothing but an empty, dilapidated building.
June 27, Overcast to Sunny
People have started dying inside the building.
No one knows who the killer is.
Probably killed by some paranormal force.
’Are the building’s restrictions starting to break down?’
June 30, Rain
Old Cao, another administrator, died during his seventh green-character mission.
Honestly, the news hit me hard.
Old Cao was an extremely cold, selfish, and domineering man. He never thought about anyone but himself and would do anything to survive.
Nobody liked him.
But you had to admit, Old Cao was powerful.
’If even someone like him could die during a green-character mission, I can’t imagine what kind of person it would take to actually survive all ten and get out of here.’
’Was our fate sealed the moment we stepped into the Apartment of the Living?’
The stench of decay and despair spread further among the residents.
July 1, Rain
Lying in my room, staring at the ceiling. The children upstairs have started trying to talk to me again.
There are so many of them now. Every night they’re loud, playing, making it impossible for me to sleep.
’Why don’t I move out of the Apartment of the Living? I honestly don’t know. Maybe my own spirit is slipping into that same abyss of decay.’
Oh, right.
I’ve started calling that room upstairs, the one full of children, the Children’s Home.
