The man wrapped in black clothes looked suspicious no matter how you look at him.
Bai Lixin glanced at the man from the corner of his eye. The man’s coat collar was high, almost covering half of his face.
The man stood motionless in the corner of the elevator, and with his pitch-black sunglasses, it was unclear where his gaze was focused.
The elevator was quite spacious, and each of them stood in one corner. No one said a word, and the only sounds were the humming of the elevator motor and the sound of their breathing.
S419M: [Lord, this person doesn’t look like a good person.]
[…] Bai Lixin: [How do you know?]
S419M: [Look at his clothes. Who dresses like that? Wrapped up like that in the elevator? He’s so secretive.]
Bai Lixin: [How about I bring up Samael’s look?]
S419M: [Uh, no…then why do you think he is dressed like this?]
Bai Lixin: [Perhaps he has vitiligo, social anxiety, or is trying to maintain a discreet celebrity image.]
S419M: […]
The elevator stopped at the 8th floor, and the door opened slowly. Bai Lixin glanced at the man who looked like a wooden figure and was the first to step out of the elevator.
He looked for the room number 802 in the corridor and quickly found it.
But, in fact, he didn’t need to search much; the attention-grabbing red words “pay back the money” on the door were enough to draw his attention.
The door of room 802 was splashed with red paint, and the red liquid had trickled down and solidified on the floor.
On both sides of the door, red paint wrote many words: “pay back the money,” “debt,” “die,” “will kill you,” and so on.
Bai Lixin took out the key from his backpack and unlocked the door. As he pushed the door open, he glanced at the corridor and noticed the man in black was standing diagonally opposite to him.
As he opened his door, the man in black unlocked the door with his fingerprint, entered the room directly, and closed the door without any hesitation.
Only after the man in black entered the room did Bai Lixin push the door and enter this seemingly unscrupulous place.
The moment he entered, he felt something coming towards him. Instinctively, he dodged effortlessly, narrowly avoiding the object.
After switching on the light on the wall, a white, fat head first came into view.
It was a pig’s head.
A sharp hook had pierced through the pig’s head, suspending it at the entrance.
The pig’s head would sway as the door was pushed, and the presence Bai Lixin sensed just now was this small thing.
S419M: [Ah ah ah ah ah, scared me to death, ah ah ah!]
Escape System: [Wuu wuu wuu, I’m scared too, big brother M.]
Bai Lixin: […]
‘Aren’t both of you systems?!’
He shifted his gaze away from the pig’s head and looked around the room.
All the furniture in the room was covered with white cloth, and the room was neatly cleaned, except for a circular bloodstain splatter on the wall above the ceiling fan.
There were some black bloodstains that hadn’t been cleaned properly next to the fan as well.
Escape System: [A college student committed suicide in this room not long ago. He was not the owner but a tenant. While he was in college, he was deceived and led astray, unknowingly borrowing from loan sharks. The debt ballooned with exorbitant interest, and debt collectors came every day, not only calling his parents but also contacting his classmates, teachers, and relatives.]
[This student, who had never experienced the real world, had never seen so much money before, and he was also deeply humiliated. Under extreme pressure, he chose to commit suicide by hanging himself right on the ceiling fan above your head.]
[When he was discovered, the fan was still running. The hanging time was too long, and his neck was broken. His body fell to the ground below, but his head remained hanging from the fan. As the fan turned, blood splattered all over the ceiling.]
[His parents cried and took his body back, but this apartment became a haunted place. Originally, the landlord wanted the parents to compensate for the situation, but seeing that they were simple farmers, they might not even have money for their son’s funeral. In the end, the landlord could only admit his bad luck and let them go.]
[When something bad happens, it spreads far and wide. After this incident, this apartment became haunted, and it couldn’t be rented or sold anymore.]
[That’s why you want have to stay here for one night and change the fate of this apartment.]
Bai Lixin glanced at the ceiling above him and said, “Okay, I understand the cause and effect. Thanks a lot.”
It was exactly 8 p.m at this moment.
The system’s voice sounded again.
[It’s time for work. Congratulations, player, for being punctual.]
[Please rest well tonight, sleep tester. You must not leave the room no matter what happens.]
[See you again at 8 a.m. tomorrow.]
With the system’s voice fading, Bai Lixin started to observe the room.
The fifty-square-meter apartment had one bedroom, one living room, and one bathroom, and all could be seen at a glance.
He walked into the bedroom, where a notebook was still placed on the desk.
There were also two or three simple shirts inside the wardrobe.
S419M: [Lord Host, what are you doing?]
Bai Lixin leaned on his hand lazily and casually replied, [I can’t sleep at this hour, so I thought of checking if the computer can connect to the internet, I want to look up the background of this urban copy.]
With that, he opened the browser, quickly typing in the search engine, “What year is it now?”
The search engine responded, displaying tens of thousands of entries. The one he wanted was at the top.
The year S3010, May.
Bai Lixin clicked on it and looked at the current events to get a general idea.
Then he typed in another search query: “Suicide incident at Gold Sea High-rise Apartments.”
The search engine displayed many entries. He randomly clicked the top one, a news report from a few days ago. The content matched what the system described.
The news ended with some additional cautionary remarks, warning everyone to handle their finances carefully and not to engage in excessive consumption.
The news the system covered and the news it didn’t were all given. The person had borrowed 30,000 yuan in total, and within six months, it had grown to 60,000 yuan. In one year, it skyrocketed to 200,000 yuan.
Bai Lixin wondered, if the person could produce 200,000 yuan, why would he have borrowed 30,000 yuan in the first place?
Perhaps due to the gory nature of the suicide scene, the news did not include any pictures.
He then opened another piece of news.
This time, it was a forum.
Unlike the factual and rigorous news, the forum had other content that the news couldn’t report.
The death of this university student had other versions circulating in the forum.
—— [The deceased was our schoolmate, you know? He was outstanding, a graduate student, and was even signed by a top company before graduation. He was also the vice chairman of the student union, and his girlfriend was the principal’s daughter. We all thought he must have saved the world in his previous life to be so lucky in this one. Never expected that such a talented and clever guy would be ruined over 30,000 yuan, what a pity.]
—— [Yes, I’m also from this school. I heard the principal’s face turned green when he received the debt collection call.]
—— [But how did those people know their phone numbers?]
—— [They implant Trojan software in the phone, directly copying the phone contacts. Even if you have ‘principal’ or ‘boss’ marked on them, treated them like gods, and you don’t make a single call in a year, they don’t care; they’ll start calling from the first one and keep calling until your social death.]
—— [True, I know someone who borrowed 5,000 yuan. Thought it’d be repaid quickly, but when it was time to repay, it had increased to 20,000.]
—— [I have some insider information. His suicide wasn’t primarily because of the debt; it was because someone discovered some embarrassing photos of him. This is a trick those loan sharks use, specifically targeting pretty girls and handsome boys to persuade them to borrow money. When they can’t repay, they use threats and coercion to make them shoot certain videos or live streams to earn money to repay. At first, they are asked to cover their faces, but when the actual shooting starts, who cares if they cover their faces? They’re completely under their control.]
—— [I’ve heard worse. They also engage in “luo borrowing”. Although they are all college students, they are still too naïve, without any experience outside of school. Borrowers need to take photos of their identity documents along with nude photos. At first, they say that once you repay, they will delete the photos. But from the moment they take the photos, you’ve fallen into an abyss of no return. The photos are said to be kept, but actually, those photos are uploaded on a hidden platform for illegal transactions. Some organizations even put a clear price tag on these individuals and auction them off. While those borrowers feel delighted to obtain money without much effort, they don’t realize they have become commodities for others to profit from.
When these borrowers fail to repay the money, they are forced to sell themselves to the auctioneers as a form of debt repayment. What’s even more terrifying is that when clearing their debts, they turn around and thank those “merchants” who have already exploited them to the fullest, thanking them for providing the high-interest loans!
It’s truly foolish, frustrating, and pitiful.]
—— [God, it’s too terrifying. I’m shivering with fear, save me, I want to go home, Mom!]
The man wrapped in black clothes looked suspicious no matter how you look at him.
Bai Lixin glanced at the man from the corner of his eye. The man’s coat collar was high, almost covering half of his face.
The man stood motionless in the corner of the elevator, and with his pitch-black sunglasses, it was unclear where his gaze was focused.
The elevator was quite spacious, and each of them stood in one corner. No one said a word, and the only sounds were the humming of the elevator motor and the sound of their breathing.
S419M: [Lord, this person doesn’t look like a good person.]
[…] Bai Lixin: [How do you know?]
S419M: [Look at his clothes. Who dresses like that? Wrapped up like that in the elevator? He’s so secretive.]
Bai Lixin: [How about I bring up Samael’s look?]
S419M: [Uh, no…then why do you think he is dressed like this?]
Bai Lixin: [Perhaps he has vitiligo, social anxiety, or is trying to maintain a discreet celebrity image.]
S419M: […]
The elevator stopped at the 8th floor, and the door opened slowly. Bai Lixin glanced at the man who looked like a wooden figure and was the first to step out of the elevator.
He looked for the room number 802 in the corridor and quickly found it.
But, in fact, he didn’t need to search much; the attention-grabbing red words “pay back the money” on the door were enough to draw his attention.
The door of room 802 was splashed with red paint, and the red liquid had trickled down and solidified on the floor.
On both sides of the door, red paint wrote many words: “pay back the money,” “debt,” “die,” “will kill you,” and so on.
Bai Lixin took out the key from his backpack and unlocked the door. As he pushed the door open, he glanced at the corridor and noticed the man in black was standing diagonally opposite to him.
As he opened his door, the man in black unlocked the door with his fingerprint, entered the room directly, and closed the door without any hesitation.
Only after the man in black entered the room did Bai Lixin push the door and enter this seemingly unscrupulous place.
The moment he entered, he felt something coming towards him. Instinctively, he dodged effortlessly, narrowly avoiding the object.
After switching on the light on the wall, a white, fat head first came into view.
It was a pig’s head.
A sharp hook had pierced through the pig’s head, suspending it at the entrance.
The pig’s head would sway as the door was pushed, and the presence Bai Lixin sensed just now was this small thing.
S419M: [Ah ah ah ah ah, scared me to death, ah ah ah!]
Escape System: [Wuu wuu wuu, I’m scared too, big brother M.]
Bai Lixin: […]
‘Aren’t both of you systems?!’
He shifted his gaze away from the pig’s head and looked around the room.
All the furniture in the room was covered with white cloth, and the room was neatly cleaned, except for a circular bloodstain splatter on the wall above the ceiling fan.
There were some black bloodstains that hadn’t been cleaned properly next to the fan as well.
Escape System: [A college student committed suicide in this room not long ago. He was not the owner but a tenant. While he was in college, he was deceived and led astray, unknowingly borrowing from loan sharks. The debt ballooned with exorbitant interest, and debt collectors came every day, not only calling his parents but also contacting his classmates, teachers, and relatives.]
[This student, who had never experienced the real world, had never seen so much money before, and he was also deeply humiliated. Under extreme pressure, he chose to commit suicide by hanging himself right on the ceiling fan above your head.]
[When he was discovered, the fan was still running. The hanging time was too long, and his neck was broken. His body fell to the ground below, but his head remained hanging from the fan. As the fan turned, blood splattered all over the ceiling.]
[His parents cried and took his body back, but this apartment became a haunted place. Originally, the landlord wanted the parents to compensate for the situation, but seeing that they were simple farmers, they might not even have money for their son’s funeral. In the end, the landlord could only admit his bad luck and let them go.]
[When something bad happens, it spreads far and wide. After this incident, this apartment became haunted, and it couldn’t be rented or sold anymore.]
[That’s why you want have to stay here for one night and change the fate of this apartment.]
Bai Lixin glanced at the ceiling above him and said, “Okay, I understand the cause and effect. Thanks a lot.”
It was exactly 8 p.m at this moment.
The system’s voice sounded again.
[It’s time for work. Congratulations, player, for being punctual.]
[Please rest well tonight, sleep tester. You must not leave the room no matter what happens.]
[See you again at 8 a.m. tomorrow.]
With the system’s voice fading, Bai Lixin started to observe the room.
The fifty-square-meter apartment had one bedroom, one living room, and one bathroom, and all could be seen at a glance.
He walked into the bedroom, where a notebook was still placed on the desk.
There were also two or three simple shirts inside the wardrobe.
S419M: [Lord Host, what are you doing?]
Bai Lixin leaned on his hand lazily and casually replied, [I can’t sleep at this hour, so I thought of checking if the computer can connect to the internet, I want to look up the background of this urban copy.]
With that, he opened the browser, quickly typing in the search engine, “What year is it now?”
The search engine responded, displaying tens of thousands of entries. The one he wanted was at the top.
The year S3010, May.
Bai Lixin clicked on it and looked at the current events to get a general idea.
Then he typed in another search query: “Suicide incident at Gold Sea High-rise Apartments.”
The search engine displayed many entries. He randomly clicked the top one, a news report from a few days ago. The content matched what the system described.
The news ended with some additional cautionary remarks, warning everyone to handle their finances carefully and not to engage in excessive consumption.
The news the system covered and the news it didn’t were all given. The person had borrowed 30,000 yuan in total, and within six months, it had grown to 60,000 yuan. In one year, it skyrocketed to 200,000 yuan.
Bai Lixin wondered, if the person could produce 200,000 yuan, why would he have borrowed 30,000 yuan in the first place?
Perhaps due to the gory nature of the suicide scene, the news did not include any pictures.
He then opened another piece of news.
This time, it was a forum.
Unlike the factual and rigorous news, the forum had other content that the news couldn’t report.
The death of this university student had other versions circulating in the forum.
—— [The deceased was our schoolmate, you know? He was outstanding, a graduate student, and was even signed by a top company before graduation. He was also the vice chairman of the student union, and his girlfriend was the principal’s daughter. We all thought he must have saved the world in his previous life to be so lucky in this one. Never expected that such a talented and clever guy would be ruined over 30,000 yuan, what a pity.]
—— [Yes, I’m also from this school. I heard the principal’s face turned green when he received the debt collection call.]
—— [But how did those people know their phone numbers?]
—— [They implant Trojan software in the phone, directly copying the phone contacts. Even if you have ‘principal’ or ‘boss’ marked on them, treated them like gods, and you don’t make a single call in a year, they don’t care; they’ll start calling from the first one and keep calling until your social death.]
—— [True, I know someone who borrowed 5,000 yuan. Thought it’d be repaid quickly, but when it was time to repay, it had increased to 20,000.]
—— [I have some insider information. His suicide wasn’t primarily because of the debt; it was because someone discovered some embarrassing photos of him. This is a trick those loan sharks use, specifically targeting pretty girls and handsome boys to persuade them to borrow money. When they can’t repay, they use threats and coercion to make them shoot certain videos or live streams to earn money to repay. At first, they are asked to cover their faces, but when the actual shooting starts, who cares if they cover their faces? They’re completely under their control.]
—— [I’ve heard worse. They also engage in “luo borrowing”. Although they are all college students, they are still too naïve, without any experience outside of school. Borrowers need to take photos of their identity documents along with nude photos. At first, they say that once you repay, they will delete the photos. But from the moment they take the photos, you’ve fallen into an abyss of no return. The photos are said to be kept, but actually, those photos are uploaded on a hidden platform for illegal transactions. Some organizations even put a clear price tag on these individuals and auction them off. While those borrowers feel delighted to obtain money without much effort, they don’t realize they have become commodities for others to profit from.
When these borrowers fail to repay the money, they are forced to sell themselves to the auctioneers as a form of debt repayment. What’s even more terrifying is that when clearing their debts, they turn around and thank those “merchants” who have already exploited them to the fullest, thanking them for providing the high-interest loans!
It’s truly foolish, frustrating, and pitiful.]
—— [God, it’s too terrifying. I’m shivering with fear, save me, I want to go home, Mom!]
