Players, Please Board the Train

Back at the Corpse Hotel, if he had heard footsteps from the Mirror Hotel, they wouldn’t have been so steady and rhythmic.

As for Peng Fengnian’s certainty that no players had entered before them, that still needed verification. It wasn’t that Xu Huo didn’t trust these people, but this was simply something very difficult to confirm.

Yet the footsteps heard in the Mirror Hotel could intersect with the movement tracks of players outside... This suggested that the “footsteps” heard before entering and after entering were not the same kind, which also aligned with the fact that when “footsteps” appeared at the Corpse Hotel, they could lead people into the Mirror Hotel, while hearing “footsteps” in the Mirror Hotel couldn’t lead them out.

Assuming this fact held true, the players were completely trapped in a dead end—the Mirror Hotel truly allowed entry but no exit.

“We previously speculated that maybe we just hadn’t heard the right footsteps in the Mirror Hotel,” Lin Zhenhuai said. “We can’t wander around in the Mirror Hotel, but perhaps footsteps would appear on other floors...”

“That doesn’t hold up,” Xu Huo said directly. “The footsteps at the Corpse Hotel follow the players, and you’ve tracked the footsteps outside in the Mirror Hotel. You’ve also verified with other players the overlap between footsteps and movement tracks. The footsteps at the Corpse Hotel last for varying lengths of time—you should have encountered the footsteps from outside at least once.”

“Unless you were extremely unlucky every single time and never ran into them, then it means the footsteps from outside deliberately avoided the players in the Mirror Hotel.”

“That... isn’t necessarily true, right?” Gao Xiaoyue said. “We never encountered any players whose footsteps overlapped with both sides.”

Earlier players who entered, they still took risks to search for. But by now, the greatest kindness Peng Fengnian and the others could offer was telling later arrivals to stay safely in their rooms.

“Not encountering them is very telling in itself,” Xiao Ling said. “It probably means the Mirror Hotel restricts its players.”Round and round they went, back to the same starting point—the footsteps players heard in the Mirror Hotel held no real meaning.

“So we’re just waiting to die?” Peng Fengnian could hardly hide his disappointment.

“Not necessarily,” Xu Huo said. “Looking at it from the opposite perspective, if the footsteps heard in the Mirror Hotel have no meaning at all, then that in itself has significant meaning.”

“You mean, the Mirror Hotel itself has a flaw?” Xiao Ling reacted quickly, mulling it over. “Yeah, that makes sense. If the footsteps heard inside were really different from the outside and were the actual walking sounds of real players, it would be strange for them to filter in here.”

“So what’s the conclusion?” Sun Bo finally couldn’t help asking. “Still follow the footsteps?”

What difference did that make from what they’d been doing before?

Xu Huo ignored his comment and pressed further for more details about that monster.

Although Peng Fengnian and the others hadn’t checked every room, they were surprisingly certain that the Mirror Hotel had absolutely only one such monster. Whether it was due to its sensitivity to sound or its particular fondness for people walking outside rooms, no matter when they went out, that monster would appear quickly. When personnel were scattered, the monster would only chase one of them.

Peng Fengnian and his group had once dispersed to different floors to test this, and using this method, they had searched through most of the rooms.

As for the nest and excretion site, they hadn’t found them. But given that they couldn’t leave the Mirror Hotel, the monster’s nest might as well be outside.

“That’s not hard to verify.” Xu Huo paused, then asked about the sunrise and sunset times in the Mirror Hotel.

The expressions of Lin Zhenhuai and the others nearby didn’t change much—clearly, the key points he was focusing on were ones they had already carefully noted. Now Xu Huo asking about them was just retreading their old path.

The Mirror Hotel had the same day and night times as the outside world. Not only sunrise and sunset, but even the time sunlight appeared and the angle of light and shadow had been measured and compared.

The data was detailed enough to surprise Xu Huo. Xiao Ling said directly, “Do you people have nothing better to do with your brains?”

Lin Zhenhuai smiled good-naturedly. “Without exceptional intelligence, we have to make up for it with careful observation.”

Then he turned his gaze to Xu Huo, as if hoping he could offer a different conclusion.

The Mirror Hotel—or rather, Sun Museum City—had very long daylight hours, from six in the morning to nine at night, with the remaining nine hours plunged into deep darkness. This was especially true for the Corpse Hotel, or rather, the Mirror Hotel.

“As things stand now, it seems we only have one path—wait for the next time the footsteps appear,” Xu Huo said. “And it’s best to search the entire hotel again.”

“Search the whole place?” Peng Fengnian said hesitantly. “But that monster...”

“Then kill it first,” Xu Huo said without hesitation.

Sun Bo let out a laugh from the side but said nothing.

Peng Fengnian hesitated for a moment before saying, “You should have seen that monster just now. It’s not easy to deal with. And its recovery ability is especially strong—wounds caused by items heal in a very short time. Unless you hit a vital spot, it won’t even shed two drops of blood.”

After experiencing two battles, they had mostly just stalled the monster and stopped wasting items fighting it to the death.

Xu Huo hadn’t directly confronted the monster, so he couldn’t judge, but he still said, “Even if we can’t kill it, it’s best to heavily wound it, just to see if it really can’t leave the Mirror Hotel.”

“I don’t see the point of this,” Gao Xiaoyue said. “What if it can go outside? Outside is still the mirror world. Even if we get out, it doesn’t matter.”

“The main purpose of doing this is to find its nest and excretion site,” Xu Huo said. “It’s a living creature—it must have an excretion site. If it’s not in the hotel, and it can’t leave the hotel, then where could that place be?”

“That would be a place that exists in this space but that we can’t discover,” Xiao Ling laughed. “Maybe if we wound it badly enough, it will go back to its lair on its own.”

Xu Huo didn’t think following the monster would allow them to pass through space and leave the Mirror Hotel. Even the theory of multiple spaces was still in question. They would need to confirm it first before proceeding further.

“What do you all think?” He directly asked Lin Zhenhuai and the others. “Why don’t you go back and discuss it with your companions before deciding. Dealing with that monster won’t be easy. We don’t have enough hands—everyone needs to participate.”

Yes, given that Peng Fengnian and the others were already in poor mental states, it wouldn’t be right to let some risk life and death while others sat back and reaped the benefits.

“I’ll go ask,” Lin Zhenhuai said.

Sun Bo moved to go with him.

Xu Huo added at this point, “I imagine you’ve already tried every method you could think of. Since none of them worked, we have to take other paths. Risk is inevitable.”

Lin Zhenhuai didn’t say anything this time. He and Sun Bo climbed out one after another.

Peng Fengnian had previously placed great hopes on Xu Huo, but now he looked somewhat dispirited. “To find the nest, we really don’t need to take such a big risk. We could lure it away while others search.”

Xu Huo didn’t explain much. He only said, “A permanent solution is the best choice.”