Chapter 54: Do you eat candy?
Darkness amplifies senses other than sight.
Bai Cha turned on the flashlight on her phone with a blank expression.
She felt the backpack she had specifically carried when she went to put the file on the supervisor’s desk.
Because it was almost 11:30 at the time, she was afraid something unexpected might happen. So she specifically packed her things before getting up.
Since there was a power outage, she should go home.
Based on the recipient address found in the phone’s shopping app, it wasn’t hard to figure out where Gu Baixue lived.
She felt around in her bag and found the keys.
There was a lock on the glass door of the company. Bai Cha compared the keys to the lock hole, found the right one, locked it, and then walked towards the elevator.
The corridor in the middle of the office building was quite long.
It might also be because the company was at this end. Logically, there should be elevators at both ends.
But there was only a fire escape staircase at this end.
And she was currently on the nineteenth floor.
Bai Cha chose to take the elevator with almost no hesitation. Although elevators usually meant danger in horror movies, the stairs weren’t much better.
The danger level of both was the same; the difference was that the latter might trap her running up and down the stairs endlessly.
Just thinking about it was tiring.
She preferred a quick solution. The elevator going straight up and down was naturally her only choice.
Only the emergency lights were on in the corridor now.
It was very dim.
Gu Baixue was also wearing shoes with heels, not high, only three centimeters, but they made noise when she walked.
Clack, clack, clack…
In the silent corridor, it even had a bit of an echo.
When passing by the public restroom, Bai Cha suddenly heard the sound of a heavy object being dragged on the floor inside.
It sounded like someone had accidentally bumped into something and was dragging it across the ground.
Bai Cha had originally planned to pretend not to hear it, but then she thought that Gu Baixue’s personality might make her take a look?
So she pretended to hesitate and stopped, peering into the restroom.
“Is anyone there?” she asked softly.
No one answered, and even the emergency light flickered twice inexplicably.
Bai Cha touched her arm, as if she had goosebumps, quickly withdrew her gaze, stopped talking, and jogged towards the elevator.
The emergency light behind her flickered twice again. There were a total of five emergency lights in the corridor, and suddenly three of them went out.
This made the corridor even more eerie and deep. Looking back, it seemed like some invisible thing in the darkness was waiting to devour its prey.
Bai Cha wasn’t someone who liked to scare herself by looking back in the dark. But based on Gu Baixue’s emotional expressions, she was a girl with rich emotions.
Rich in emotions, but also a bit careless.
Sensitive, but not suspicious.
So she would scare herself for no reason, but when she really encountered something, it was hard for her to think of other possibilities.
So she reluctantly looked back again.
This time, when she looked back, she seemed to see a figure standing there in the darkness.
Bai Cha pressed the elevator down button with an even more flustered expression.
Although she looked flustered, while waiting for the elevator, Bai Cha was actually considering another matter.
Some buildings avoided the eighteenth floor because the number eighteen had a homophone meaning “eighteen levels of hell.”
So they would usually skip this floor directly and write it as the nineteenth floor.
Or in commercial buildings, because the first and second floors would be used as shops, they would be combined into the first floor, so the original eighteenth floor would actually be the seventeenth floor.
She was on the nineteenth floor.
While Bai Cha was thinking this, the elevator dinged and the doors opened.
The bright elevator lights illuminated the space in front of her.
Compared to the dim corridor, this seemed to offer more security.
Bai Cha breathed a sigh of relief, even patted her chest, before stepping inside.
She pressed the button for the first floor.
Then she felt her keys.
Generally, there was one key for the apartment door, one for the company door, and two other keys. One looked like it was for an electric scooter, and the other might be a lock for the scooter or something else, it was hard to say.
In any case, she still had to find her electric scooter.
While these thoughts were going through her mind, only about ten seconds had passed, and the elevator dinged and stopped.
It stopped on the seventeenth floor.
Huh.
While Bai Cha pretended to be nervous and leaned against the wall, her hand was already ready to press the close door button at any time.
The elevator doors slowly opened.
A man was standing at the door.
He was even wearing a raincoat, and water was dripping from his body.
So it was raining outside?
That wasn’t good, she might get sick if she got rained on.
No, she would definitely get sick.
Perhaps because of the heavy moisture on the other person, the entire elevator was filled with a fishy smell of water and soil.
The man kept his head down, and his face couldn’t be seen clearly.
But Bai Cha always felt that the other person was secretly staring at her.
Bai Cha thought for a moment and quietly opened the comment section.
[The streamer finally opened the comments]
[Run! The person beside you is a killer. Other players in the same instance have already died!]
[Can you guys stop giving her bad ideas? Where can she run in an elevator?]
[Then let’s pray she doesn’t die in the elevator. But speaking of which, the person who died before seemed to have died in the company]
[Didn’t understand how the death condition was triggered. I heard about this instance before, the clear rate is extremely low, so I came to watch specifically]
[Watching is useless. If you go in, you won’t remember anything]
[But I can see what props are useful and prepare in advance]
[However, this streamer seems to be the most natural actor so far]
The comment sections were unexpectedly lively.
Bai Cha was thoughtful.
The raincoat man in the elevator suddenly spoke.
“Eat candy?”
Bai Cha was taken aback and looked over.
She saw the other person extend their hand, a mint candy lying on their pale, water-soaked palm.
In just a moment, Bai Cha slipped into her role, revealing an awkward yet polite smile, waving her hand with a hint of fear and strangeness.
“No need… thank you…”
She said softly, lowering her head even more, and incidentally took out her phone to start messaging [Darling Yuqi].
[gbx]: Ahhh, speechless, feels like I ran into a lunatic.
After sending the message, Bai Cha didn’t hear the sound of a phone ringing from the person beside her.
So this person wasn’t that [Darling Yuqi]?
Her phone rang.
[Darling Yuqi]: What’s wrong?
[gbx]: I’m in the elevator now, there’s a guy who suddenly asked me if I wanted candy, what a weirdo.
[Darling Yuqi]: A bit, yeah. Be careful, it’s too late, stay safe.
Just then, the elevator doors opened with a ding, having reached the first floor.
[gbx]: Okay, gotta go, don’t know if it rained, I need to hurry back.
Closing her phone, Bai Cha hurriedly left the elevator.
She hadn’t closed the comment section and could see the messages.
[She actually came out safely]
[Then why did that streamer die in the elevator just now? Didn’t they not eat the candy either?] [Don’t know, feels like this killer is just killing randomly]
Another one died?
Bai Cha pondered silently. Judging from the comment section, the raincoat man was the killer.
How did he manage to appear beside every player at the same time, or were each of the players in different times and spaces?
Author’s Note:
Scratching my head, let me explain. This book doesn’t have a male lead. But there might be romance, because experiencing emotions is normal in life. But there can only be one protagonist, and in one’s own life, one can only be uniquely beautiful, with the presence of others. But if they can’t keep up with the female lead’s growth, then it’s the next stage. However, I’m not good at writing romance, so there might not be any romantic relationships at all.
In short, no male lead, but a small probability of romance. I think liking someone also takes courage, and that’s part of growth. Especially when realizing that liking someone isn’t wrong but one must first prioritize and love oneself, the female lead actually has two growth lines: one is her game strength, and the other is her inner strengthening, being able to accept all of herself, having the courage to face all emotions, including negative ones, and learning to correctly handle emotions, including family, friendship, and love. These are things that life will naturally experience. If anyone minds romance, they can stop reading in time.
