"Ah!"
Ai Shiping jumped in fright.
His nerves were already stretched to the limit—just like when he was fully focused on peeking a corner in a shooter ga, only for a jumpscare to suddenly flash across the screen.
In that split second, Ai Shiping's tightly clenched fists went completely limp. He nearly threw his phone away.
It took more than a second for him to gradually calm down.
Ai Shiping's flashlight beam swept roughly up and down, quickly gathering information.
There was no step stool beneath Xiao Li's feet.
What hung him was not even a rope—it was hair.
Long, dense, black strands of a woman's hair!
"Soone's dead, guys!"
Ai Shiping lowered his voice, speaking directly to his phone.
He beca increasingly certain that his viewers were definitely not normal.
Under normal circumstances, his livestream room would have been banned long ago. But clearly, this corpse was sothing he was bound to encounter as part of the progression.
Ai Shiping rembered that during the intro sequence, 'he' had indeed ntioned letting Xiao Li co in early to set up chanisms. The real Xiao Li must have died back then. The 'Xiao Li' he saw earlier was highly unlikely to be the man himself—it was probably soone else impersonating him.
Or rather, sothing else.
That guy had kept calling him 'Boss,' likely because it didn't know his identity, or perhaps it didn't even know his last na.
However, Ai Shiping did not have ti to look at the live chat right now. He kept swiveling his head to check his surroundings, his alertness cranked to the absolute maximum.
Obviously, since he had encountered this person here—
It ant Ming Po probably hadn't run into him on his end.
Otherwise, the live chat would have ntioned it to him.
Therefore, this entity only existed within the space he currently occupied.
Ai Shiping checked repeatedly until he was sure there was nothing hiding in any of the blind spots. After planning out his escape route, he finally walked over and began searching Xiao Li's body.
He wasn't sure if that doll from earlier was still useful, and he definitely needed to keep sothing like a hamr for self-defense!
But unfortunately.
Neither the doll nor the hamr was on Xiao Li.
However, Ai Shiping did manage to find so potentially useful items from Xiao Li's pockets—
A lighter, a pack of cigarettes, and so talisman ash.
Right, talismans!
Ai Shiping rembered.
That was the legacy left to them by the master. He pulled out a talisman and attempted to slap it onto Xiao Li's body.
To his surprise, it actually stuck!
The mont the talisman attached, it erupted into red flas.
Xiao Li, who had been hanging completely motionless, suddenly stirred. His body began to swing, twitching with increasing violence!
Ai Shiping imdiately took a half-step back.
What was going on?
Did this talisman just supercharge him or sothing?
But soon, Ai Shiping realized he had misunderstood.
Because it wasn't the man himself moving.
Rather, sothing inside the man's body was squirming—
As if provoked by the talisman, black snakes began crawling out from Xiao Li's eyes, ears, mouth, and nose!
More and more black snakes poured out, their numbers rapidly reaching an absurd amount.
Combined, the volu of these black snakes was already more than three tis that of Xiao Li himself!
Like sewage splashing against a wall, the filth rebounded and splattered everywhere. These black snakes did the sa.
They coalesced into a rushing river—not crawling, but being forcefully pushed forward by even more black snakes behind them!
These black snakes surged and tumbled within the current. If Ai Shiping's footsteps slowed even a fraction, he would likely fall right into them.
"Holy crap!"
Ai Shiping let out a perfectly enunciated curse, turning on his heel to flee. "Why is there a tentacle scene now?!"
Yet at this very mont, he actually grew much calr—
Compared to a monster appearing and having to run away, having one's mories mysteriously altered was far more terrifying.
If anything, as he fled for his life, he even felt a strange hint of nostalgia and relief—this was exactly the right pacing!
The further Ai Shiping ran, the closer the music sounded.
He had originally considered whether to try using '5' or 'G' as clues to solve the puzzle. But when he tried it, the fifth door wouldn't budge at all. None of the other adjacent doors would open either.
As for running a G-shaped route to lead the wave of snakes in circles, his physical stamina could never keep up. The fact that he could sprint like this without slowing down was already thanks to the energy boost from the cola earlier.
Fortunately, as the music grew louder, Ai Shiping quickly spotted the only open door ahead—
The numbers on the door read 2018.
"2018—"
Ai Shiping's mind raced to recall. "Which incident happened in 2018?"
His mory was decent, and he quickly rembered—the incident where the little girl choked to death should have been in 2016. That was the last piece of news.
By now, the tide of snakes had already caught up to his heels.
Ai Shiping had no ti to search for other rooms.
He swiftly pulled open the already ajar door and dove inside.
Then, without the slightest hesitation, he slamd it shut!
On his first attempt to close it, half of a snake that had splattered forward got caught in the doorfra, letting out a squeak like a rat. Ai Shiping imdiately cracked the door open, kicked it out, and slamd it shut again instantly.
At this point, a few of the surging black snakes had already tumbled past his position.
If Ai Shiping hadn't entered this room, they would have caught him.
"Whew—"
Ai Shiping let out a sigh of relief and turned around.
He found Ming Po facing him with a look of utter astonishnt.
The man was crouching before an open safe, examining a heart-shaped music box. He looked exactly like a burglar caught in the act.
"What are you doing?"
Ming Po asked, a bit puzzled.
Ai Shiping grew highly cautious, taking a half-step back. "Are you the real Ah Po?"
"Of course I am—did you run into a fake one?"
Ming Po questioned.
"Yeah."
Ai Shiping fell silent for a mont before answering, "I ran into a fake Xiao Li right when I was coming upstairs."
He recounted everything he had encountered to Ming Po.
anwhile, the rustling sound of the snake tide outside gradually subsided.
"Alright, it's a good thing you're back."
Ming Po pushed up his glasses, his tone calm. "Then we—"
Before he could finish his sentence, a knock sounded from the door.
"Excuse , is anyone there?"
From outside the door ca Ming Po's steady voice. "Ai Shiping, are you inside?"
In an instant, Room 2018 fell into a profound silence.
"Looks like the monster is here."
The Ming Po inside the room pushed up his glasses and pulled his hamr out from his pocket. "Stand back—"
"Give it to , I'll handle it. Otherwise, if you two get into a brawl, I won't know who's real and who's fake."
Ai Shiping cracked a joke. "If you two decide to play the true and false Monkey King, I won't be able to tell you apart."
"I'm real, he's fake! I'm real, he's fake!"
The Ming Po in the room pinched his throat, speaking with a smile. "Right—sure. Then I'll go grab a longer weapon—"
As he spoke, he handed the hamr to Ai Shiping.
In the very next heartbeat, Ai Shiping swung the hamr backward, slamming it straight into Ming Po's temple!
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