Chapter 21: "I thought you wouldn't look up."

But now was not the time to dwell on that.

Chen Kun strode to the water tank on the rooftop and pried open the lid with force. Even though he had steeled himself, he couldn't help but gag at the sight of the bloated, maggot-ridden corpse inside.

It was utterly repulsive.

It was difficult to tell that it had once been a female body. Even so, his fear level did not rise significantly; after all, his terror was reserved strictly for ghosts. While the sight of such a corpse was unpleasant, it didn't greatly impact his fear threshold.

At the same time, a new prompt popped up on the interface in his vision.

—
"Ding. You have discovered one corpse. You need to find six more to complete the dungeon's main quest."
—

Chen Kun waved his hand, signaling for Hei Hao and the other to take a look at the body, before heading back the way they came. They returned to the stairwell and stopped at the trash chute entrance between the seventh and sixth floors.

"Hoo..."

He took a deep breath and pried open the steel plate on the wall. What met his eyes was a face twisted into an expression of extreme terror.

A rather plump female corpse had been forcibly stuffed into the chute. Because of her size, the body was jammed tightly in the shaft and had not fallen through. At the very top was that face, contorted in agony.

—
"Ding. You have discovered two corpses. You need to find five more to complete the dungeon's main quest."
—

Good.

Chen Kun slowly closed his eyes and steadied his breathing, trying to calm his mind as much as possible. Regardless of the circumstances, things were moving in a positive direction; the second corpse had been found.

Just after he discovered this body, he suddenly noticed that the sign on the wall, which had read "Seventh Floor," slowly changed to "Sixth Floor." This meant they had finally escaped the "ghost loop" and arrived on the sixth floor.

Now, they only needed to find the remaining five corpses to leave this place.

A new floor.

None of the three dared to speak. They exchanged looks and reached a silent consensus: there was no sign of the long-haired woman on this floor for the moment. They had no choice but to search the dormitories one by one to find the remaining five bodies. After all, in a dormitory building, there were only so many places to hide a corpse.

Just then—

"Thump, thump, thump..."

From the stairs behind them came the familiar sound of a head striking the steps. The woman ghost who walked on her head had arrived, apparently heading toward the sixth floor.

Chen Kun and the others wisely stepped aside to let her pass. Although the scene was chilling, the two parties coexisted quite harmoniously.

If nothing else went wrong, this dungeon was actually the type that was merely frightening but not life-threatening. It was just that... something had gone wrong.

Once the woman ghost had moved far away and began patrolling the sixth-floor dorms, Chen Kun cautiously walked onto the sixth floor, moving down the hallway in the opposite direction, checking each dormitory one by one.

As soon as he entered the first room, Chen Kun heard the sound of suppressed, rapid breathing. He crouched down and saw the young man who had been separated from them, hiding under a bed with a face full of terror. When the man saw Chen Kun crouch down, he frantically waved his hands in anger, signaling for them to leave quickly.

Clearly, he was worried they would attract the ghost.

However...

Chen Kun’s lips parted slightly, but in the end, he said nothing. He led Hei Hao and the others out of the room cautiously. He had wanted to offer a warning—that the woman in the hallway walked with her head down, and he should be careful—but the young man clearly didn't know that, and Chen Kun was afraid of startling him.

Then again, the fact that this young man dared to hide under a bed alone meant he wasn't exactly a coward. If it were him, he would never move alone in such an environment.

...

On the sixth floor, at the end of the hallway, he was hesitating whether to check the public restroom.

"AAAH!!"

A piercing scream suddenly tore through the entire floor, sounding like a rooster with a shredded throat, filled with pure terror.

It was the voice of the young man who had been separated from them.

It seemed that man wasn't so brave after all.

The next moment—

Chen Kun’s pupils constricted violently. He saw a tide of black hair surging up the stairs. This meant the long-haired woman had been attracted to the noise. Without a second thought, he dived into the restroom.

This long-haired ghost didn't just scare people; she killed them.

The public restroom had eight stalls.

Each was enclosed by a partition. Chen Kun and his two companions stood on their tiptoes, hiding in the innermost stall, holding their breath as much as they could.

...

Chen Kun gripped his cane tightly. His fear level was already hovering at 95%. He knew that if he were startled again, he would inevitably enter a state of madness.

He didn't know if he could win a fight in that state.

But...

In a state of madness, he would be out of control. In other words, he might die here today.

"Creeeak."

As the night wind blew in through the window, the door to the public restroom stall let out a creaking sound. Their worst fear was realized.

"Clack."

They heard something walk into the restroom. It pulled open the first stall door. After a pause, it pulled open the second.

The hearts of the three men were in their throats.

Damn it.

There was no room to escape from this position. They could only hope the entity wouldn't open this specific stall, or that it was like the woman who walked on her head, with her face covered by her pajamas, unable to see anything.

Seven stalls were opened in succession.

"Thump. Thump."

The thing reached the eighth stall—the one they were in. But it was locked from the inside. The entity pulled at it several times, but it wouldn't budge.

Inside the stall, the three men were tense, ready to fight at any moment.

It seemed the intelligence of the thing outside wasn't very high.

After several failed attempts, it gave up. As the footsteps gradually faded, the entity left the restroom.

The three waited patiently for three minutes.

Seeing that there was truly no sound outside, Chen Kun finally relaxed his body. He let out a long breath, wiped the cold sweat from his forehead, and subconsciously leaned back against the wall, looking up at the ceiling.

However, the next moment—

A ghastly white face appeared at the very top of the stall, looking down at them. Its hands were resting on the partition, and its mouth stretched to its ears in a grin of extreme delight, emitting a shrill, piercing sound.

"You found me."

"I thought you wouldn't look up."