Chapter 1751: Chapter 1006: Missing
Regarding this, Yang Xiao felt quite helpless. Every time he told the truth, no one would believe him. He was an honest kid, but this group would rather believe lies.
Since that was the case, Yang Xiao had nothing left to say to Hasegawa Hideji. After what just happened, Hasegawa Hideji’s gaze toward Yang Xiao became suspicious and strange, not only doubting his character but also as if suspecting there was something wrong with his mind.
Time passed quickly, and by noon, Jiu Shan Sha Yue and Mitsuo Takeda woke up one after another. After a brief chat about assessing the situation, they decided to make do with some food.
There wasn’t any decent food, just some snacks they had scavenged from the reception, enough to fill the stomach a bit, but dreaming of a full meal was just wishful thinking.
Yang Xiao shook awake Sato Shouta and Takagi Sayo, the former sleeping so soundly that he was drooling, and upon being shaken awake, he thought a ghost had come.
The six of them sat together, sharing the pitiful amount of snacks on the floor, hoping that the two teams who went exploring would bring back enough food.
"Folks, do you think we might end up dying of thirst and hunger here?" Hasegawa Hideji said, laughing to himself as annoying as ever.
During the idle chatter, Mitsuo Takeda began recounting a nightmare task he once experienced, where the ghost’s method of killing was to dehydrate people quickly, turning them into dried corpses in the end.
It involved a female ghost who, in life, had been severely oppressed by her gambler husband. The man chained her in the bathroom, and though there was a bathtub full of water nearby, she couldn’t reach it due to the chain’s length, eventually dying of thirst, turning into a fierce ghost seeking vengeance.
The condition to clear that task was unique. All players had to play the role of the female ghost’s husband, even the female players weren’t exempted.
They were forced into gambling, and if they lost, using up all their capital meant death, but if they won and dared to not give the winnings to their wife, or didn’t inform her about their winnings, the consequences were deadly.
Mitsuo Takeda was a sensible person and sensed that this "wife" was problematic, so after winning money from gambling, he spent it on jewelry, flowers, and tons of gifts for his wife, even handing over the remaining money and then doing house chores, which deeply moved the female ghost.
It’s safe to say that without Mitsuo Takeda, they might have been wiped out in that task, especially since Mitsuo Takeda in reality is henpecked by his wife and daughter.
After lunch, Yang Xiao and Hasegawa Hideji each took a rest. Sato Shouta patted his chest repeatedly assuring Yang Xiao he would stay by Yang Xiao’s side so he could rest easy.
Yang Xiao trusted the character of Sato Shouta, but he had reservations about his ability. The person who truly allowed Yang Xiao to rest assured was Jiu Shan Sha Yue, as she was the teammate he could trust.
Yang Xiao had a very restful sleep, and around 3:30 in the afternoon, he was woken by a commotion. Upon opening his eyes and sitting up, he saw it was the group led by Qingshui Cangjie returning.
All four of them had come back, including Beiyu Ye. They were holding bags filled with sausage, bread, instant noodles, and other food. At that moment, they were standing with Jiu Shan Sha Yue and Mitsuo Takeda chatting.
Yang Xiao got up and walked over, just in time to hear them discussing the findings of their exploration.
Indeed, Qingshui Cangjie and his team lived up to expectations, uncovering some information about the Eightfold Kashi Mountain Hotel. As they understood, a while ago there was a construction team renovating the hotel, but something happened, reportedly resulting in deaths, though it wasn’t clear how many, at least three.
Two died suddenly from illness, and one didn’t know why they jumped.
All three died at night. The surroundings of the hotel were open and desolate, with no accommodations nearby, and the construction period was tight, so the construction team simply stayed at the hotel overnight.
Speaking of jumping, Yang Xiao immediately thought of the sealed window at the east corridor on the 8th floor of the hotel.
There was also the sacrificial remnants in the emergency access, and room 5044 on the 5th floor, with talisman paper stuffed into the lock, all these anomalies added up to three.
"There’s one more thing—a villager reported that the hotel later invited people to perform an exorcism ritual, which was elaborate, with firecrackers at night, but it seemed ineffective as they later halted construction altogether," Beiyu Ye explained.
This roughly matched the current information they had. It was presumed that the people invited to exorcise were from the Jiangmu Road Shrine, but unfortunately, they couldn’t solve it entirely, only impose restrictions.
Qingshui Cangjie also mentioned that the Eightfold Kashi Mountain Hotel had been abandoned for over a decade, almost immediately after construction, supposedly due to financial issues, but that sounded dubious.
Everyone sat chatting while eating, waiting for almost two hours as the sun gradually set, causing unease among the group as those who went to Yasaka Swamp had yet to return.
"What’s going on?" Takeuchi Tomoya couldn’t help but complain, "Don’t they keep track of time?"
"They surely ran into trouble," Yang Xiao said, frowning slightly. Among the other group was Tong Han, a person who handled things with discretion. She would certainly leave enough time for the return trip, but since there’s no news so far, something must’ve gone wrong.
It was already close to 5:30, and in another half an hour, the hotel’s main door would be locked.
