In Virtual Reality 56 ☆ Red Stairwell (3/10)

The rice cooker hung limply by Xu Jin Yi's side, losing its target. She peeked around but found no sign of anyone or anything. It was all like an illusion she had just seen through the cat's eye.

Unable to resist her curiosity, she stepped out and leaned over the half-height railing to look down at the next floor.

Suddenly, her right hand felt light, and Xu Jin Yi looked down to see that the rice cooker had disappeared. When she turned around, she realized that the door, which had been ajar before, had been closed silently. She pushed on the door to confirm that it was indeed closed.

Unable to return to the unit, Xu Jin Yi continued downstairs. Before setting off, she used her fingernail to deeply scratch a letter into the white wall next to the stairs. She would know when she saw that letter again whether it was a time loop or a stair loop.

She clapped her hands to wipe off the grey-white dust and brushed off the pink hoodie, leaving two white handprints on the hem.

Determined to quickly confirm the situation in this old residential building, Xu Jin Yi didn't plan on sauntering this time. She continued fast down the stairs.

Large and small black garbage bags were piled up in the corner passage on the fifth floor leading to the fourth floor.

In the corner passage on the fourth floor leading to the third floor, there were two large bags for collecting plastic bottles, and empty bottles and other scattered waste spilt out onto the ground. Brightly coloured peeled electrical wires had been torn from somewhere.

Xu Jin Yi went to the dimly lit corner passage on the third floor and led down to the second. Her eyes scanned the area and landed on the discarded wooden boards haphazardly on the ground. That was the place where she had "died" before. Xu Jin Yi crouched down and examined the boards more closely. Upon closer inspection, she saw a rusty nail on one of the boards with a fresh red stain on its tip.

Xu Jin Yi: "..."

She lifted her hand and grazed her forehead. The spot where she was pierced. Was this small crimson blotch proof of the "Silence's" death?

Carefully, Xu Jin Yi shifted the wooden board to reveal more space in the cramped corner. She didn't want to risk stumbling on it if a ghost were to appear.

With a deep breath, she stood up and descended the stairs.

Although the ghost had relentlessly pursued her earlier, Xu Jin Yi was aware of her surroundings, having visited the first and second floors. Though she may not have had time to scrutinize every detail, the mind could store memories of the objects one's eyes passed over.

Xu Jin Yi's inquisitive mind pondered the enigma of the door that only fifth-floor residents could access. Her thoughts were interrupted when she stumbled upon a circular bloodstain. It was immaculately round, with a deep crimson centre and gradually fading hues at the edges. The consistency of the stain was unusual, for if a person were murdered here, one would expect blood to be scattered around rather than forming a neat circle. The blood had trickled down the wall in narrow crimson rivulets guided by gravity.

As she observed the bloodstain, the sensor light overhead flickered and went out. Xu Jin Yi clapped her hands, and the orange light returned. She extended her hand to touch the stain but found no traces of blood. The circular mark on the wall had been there for a while, and it seemed the blood had dried.

With her mind still occupied by the peculiar stain, she went down to the second floor, where an empty corner aisle awaited her. There was no sign of anyone around. The only way forward was to the first floor.

Xu Jin Yi leaned against the railing and looked down. The staircase seemed to stretch on infinitely with no end in sight. Turning around, she gazed up at the second-floor platform, which lacked a floor number sign but had conspicuous markings in contrast to the grey walls.

"This is, without a doubt, the second floor," she muttered. "Below should be the first floor... It appears the staircase loops?"

The sequence was 5th floor → 4th floor → 3rd floor → 2nd floor → 1st floor → 5th floor. It was a never-ending cycle.

"Bang!"

A loud noise from downstairs jolted Xu Jin Yi from her thoughts. She peered through the narrow gap between the floors, but it revealed little. Nevertheless, she decided to investigate the source of the commotion.

Her encounter with the ghost and her previous exploration of the house had not deterred her. She knew that even if she reencountered it, it would only lead her back to the starting point, where she could continue her investigation. Xu Jin Yi was the only resident with the key to the door, and the clump of hair she had discovered in the water tank made her suspicious.

She hastened down the stairs and scrutinized the wall to verify her location upon reaching the first floor. There was a can of freshly opened white paint on the platform confirmed. Continuing her descent, she caught sight of a man kicking the resident's door on the fifth floor.

"How come it's him again?" she muttered.

The man had his back to her and was muttering obscenities, which irked Xu Jin Yi. She stood on the corridor to the fifth floor and tapped the black-painted wooden handrail. The hollow sound reverberated through the stairwell.

Startled, the man whirled around, his pupils shrinking, and his face contorted in disbelief. After recognizing Xu Jin Yi, his expression changed from disbelief to confusion.

"Who, who are you?" the man stuttered, pressing himself against the security door. "Are you in cahoots with that ghost thing?!"

Xu Jin Yi considered her character's setting and replied, "I just happened to be passing by to avoid the rain. I didn't expect to be trapped here."

The man remained sceptical. "How do I know you're not lying? You could be in league with that ghost."

Xu Jin Yi persisted. "Hey friend, I recall that you were bitten by the ghost. Shouldn't you be dead by now?"

"How do you know?" The man was stunned momentarily, then asked accusingly, "Aren't you dead too?!"

Xu Jin Yi: "......"

The guy didn't seem mentally sane; there was no need to get so upset.

She recalled her mantra to "stay calm and brave through difficulties, be fearless, and face challenges with courage," Xu Jin Yi felt her once-hot-tempered heart slowly calm down. She even managed to muster a calm smile and speak softly: "After I died, I woke up in the unit behind you, and the back door was closed when I came out. So do you know what's going on now?"

The man's eyes widened in disbelief. "You woke up inside here?!" he exclaimed. "Then why am I outside the door?!" He clenched his hair and turned around to kick the anti-theft door with great force, causing a deafening noise to reverberate throughout the hallway.

With gritted teeth, the man continued, "I just saw that damn thing as soon as I went out the door and have been trapped in this building ever since." He explained that the entity relentlessly pursued him and only disappeared after death. Every time he awoke, he found himself back at the door, and before long, the female ghost would inexplicably appear again.

"I can't shake it off!" The man lamented bitterly. "If only I could get inside..."

Suddenly, a thought occurred to him, and he looked up at Xu Jin Yi with a sly grin. "After you die, you'll come back to the room, right?!"

"Wait," Xu Jin Yi furrowed her brows, her right foot slightly back, standing on the stairs and looking down at him, then nodded. "What's your plan?"

The man's face revealed a peculiar smile. "Next time you go out, be sure to grab a knife from the kitchen," he said, stepping out of the anti-theft door and walking towards Xu Jin Yi.

"Perhaps we could use the knife to kill that ghost," he continued, licking his chapped lips. His black eyes shone, and he smiled at Xu Jin Yi before ascending the stairs.

Xu Jin Yi narrowed her eyes, her lips curving into a gentle arc, making her seem soft and good-natured. "But I can't get out right now. The anti-theft door closes once I leave."

The man replied, "It doesn't matter."

He lifted his foot, climbing the stairs quickly, and stretched his thick arms forward. His large hands, full of veins, were about to grab the hem of Xu Jin Yi's pink hoodie. "You just need to die one more time!"

Xu Jin Yi sensed his intentions and leaned back. She lifted her right foot in a split second and kicked him hard in the chest, near his throat. With a sudden burst of strength, the man couldn't resist and tumbled down the stairs, slamming the back of his head against the black anti-theft door with a resounding crash.

There was another deafening noise, but this time, it was the abuser's head that bore the brunt of it, along with the anti-theft door.

'Hmph, no guts, but mind full of pretty fanciful thoughts,' Xu Jin Yi thought to herself.

Xu Jin Yi leaned against the white wall, arms crossed. She didn't care about getting dust on her clothes. Her mouth, which had been slightly raised, was now wholly down, giving her a particularly ruthless appearance.

She seldom encountered an NPC in the game that she particularly disliked. Even if some NPCs had low rationality or were too much of a burden to the team, as long as there were no significant issues, Xu Jin Yi wouldn't pay too much attention.

'After all, they're just NPCs. Why worry too much about a programmed data?' she thought.

Initially, Xu Jin Yi was too engrossed in the developer team's storyline during her first playthrough. However, soon as she played the game a dozen times, she'll become Excelsior, who would skip through the storyline's dialogue without a second thought.

But that didn't mean she could tolerate an NPC's provocation like this.

This NPC has a very distinct personality. Xu Jin Yi sneered and thought, 'The developers shouldn't 'have made this type of character.' Otherwise, they shouldn't be surprised if she uses a cheat engine/mod to pick up a machine gun and spray down this suffocating NPC in the game.

"Never mind that the things on the fifth floor cannot be taken out. Even if they could be taken out, why should I listen to you and die just to get you something?" Watching the man holding the back of his head and moaning in pain, Xu Jin Yi clicked her tongue and wished she could kick him again. "Just lookin' at you gives me bad luck."

Xu Jin Yi didn't go down any further and turned her head back upstairs. "Out of sight, out of mind."

Returning to the first-floor platform, Xu Jin Yi crouched and carefully examined the newly opened can of white paint.

This was a new can of paint that hadn't been mixed with any other paint colours, and the can was still whole. Whoever opened it had just done so and hadn't had time to do anything else.

Oh, right...

Xu Jin Yi thought of the man again. From the way he spoke, she could sense something. The other person should be a resident of this building, unlike Xu Jin Yi's character setting, who was just a passerby who got involved by an accident.

Reflecting on his clothing, Xu Jin Yi observed that the grey and white sweatshirt, black knee-length shorts, and flip-flops were the cause of his stumbling and tumbling while running. His behaviour was cowardly yet vicious - a typical bully. Xu Jin Yi clicked her tongue in disapproval. She despised him even more.

The resident on the fifth floor, where she could return after her death, was likely the man's home.

The hair in the sink... Xu Jin Yi didn't get a clear look at it, but she knew that the hair blocking the drain couldn't belong to a short-haired man. It must have belonged to someone with long hair, but was it a girl or a guy with long hair? What does it have to do with the man anyway?

Lost in thought, Xu Jin Yi wanted to return to the room as soon as possible, but the ghost still hadn't appeared.

Xu Jin Yi looked at the rectangular window in the hallway's corner. The fog outside made it hard to see anything. She wondered if jumping out of the window would be fatal.

She tried pulling the glass window, and to her surprise, it opened.

Xu Jin Yi gazed out the window, observing the ground about one or two metres below. Placing her hands on the dusty white window sill, she lifted one foot in contemplation.

"Ahhhh!!!" The shrill screams of the irritating man reverberated through the building.

'Is the ghost out?'

Even though the man should have descended the stairs, his screams continued to echo, persistently reverberating upstairs.

Xu Jin Yi retracted her foot and leaned over the railing inquisitively to peer down. This time, she only glimpsed the unkempt black hair at the back of his head and blood spattering everywhere again.

The man had already died three times since Xu Jin Yi arrived here.

She shook her head. "Tsk, all he knows how to do is scream." Nevertheless, his comment reminded Xu Jin Yi of something important.

Before she entered the game, the ghost had relentlessly pursued the man alone. He would perish and then wake up once more. Once he awoke, there was a brief interlude without the ghost's presence.

However, since Xu Jin Yi had joined the game, the ghost would only vanish shortly after the two characters died.

Xu Jin Yi mulled over this notion. Let us conduct an experiment to observe how long it takes for a ghost to disappear and reappear.

Without hesitation, she climbed onto the windowsill. As the screams from downstairs gradually faded away, Xu Jin Yi leapt outside.