Translator: Atlas Studios
Editor: Atlas Studios
Li Ang examined the female corpse kneeling before him coldly and ignored the thick and unsightly decomposition smell. He said indifferently, “At about 1 p.m. on June 17, 51-year-old Bao Fangtian came to the Patriarch Building.
“Bao Fangtian suffers from a minor mental illness. She came to the Patriarch Building to go to the 5th floor of Building 2, which hosts a treatment sanatorium called New Rehabilitation Home.
“In order to facilitate the customers’ entry and exit, the merchants in Building 2 have purposely built a dedicated elevator on the right side of the building, which can only go to the 7th floor or lower.
“Bao Fangtian, who had been to the Patriarch Building several times before, walked into the dedicated elevator. Although she wanted to go to the sanatorium on the 5th floor, she pressed the 6th-floor button.
“When the elevator door opened, what appeared in front of her was not the corridor leading to the sanatorium but a closed iron sliding door. The original owner on the 6th floor had installed this iron door outside the elevator to prevent theft.
“Bao Fangtian, who didn’t know about it, subconsciously thought it was a newly-installed iron door of the sanatorium, so she stepped forward to check whether the door could be opened. She banged on the iron door and tried to call the sanatorium staff.
“As she stepped forward to check, the elevator door behind her closed automatically. Bao Fangtian, who panicked, tried to prevent the elevator door from closing. However, because she was fat, she had slow reflexes. Before she could turn around, the elevator door closed completely.
“Just like that, she was stuck in the gap between the iron sliding door and the elevator door.
“The gap was extremely narrow, and fat Bao Fangtian was squeezed inside, unable to move, squat, or sit. She could only stand close to the two steel gates.
“She called out for help, but there was no one on the 6th floor all year round. Furthermore, a thick cement board separated the floor upstairs and downstairs. No one could hear her cry.”
“Desperate, Bao Fangtian tried to use her arm to pass through the iron sliding door and press the button of the elevator outside. However, the gap in the iron door was narrow and Bao Fangtian’s arm was too short. Thus, she could not reach the button.
“The only chance of the dedicated elevator passing by the 6th floor was when someone took the elevator to the Fragrant Fate Beauty Salon on the 7th floor. However, business was poor and the salon had very few customers. Even when the beauty salon’s staff occasionally passed by, they would also automatically ignore the pounding sound coming from the old elevator.
“What was worse, the owner of the 6th floor had specifically blocked the emergency exit passageway on that floor in order to prevent homeless people from sneaking in. This way, no one could come to this ‘non-existing floor’.
“Soon, Bao Fangtian’s relatives, who had noticed that she was missing, hurried to the sanatorium of the Patriarch Building. However, they learned that she had not been there for treatment that day.
“There was no surveillance camera in the whole building, and the sanatorium had no reason to deceive them. After a short inspection, Bao Fangtian’s family subconsciously started to believe that the old lady’s mental illness had worked up on that day and she had not gone to the sanatorium. Instead, she had gotten lost on the street.
“The anxious family members hurriedly printed missing person notices and went to find people on the street. However, they did not know that Bao Fangtian had gotten trapped on the floor above the sanatorium.
“Two days passed. Bao Fangtian, who had not been eating or drinking and was not aware of the time outside, fell into despair and eventually died on the fifth day of organ failure due to dehydration.
“This was not the end. A few days after Bao Fangtian’s death, another person stepped into the elevator.
“It was the old man I saw in the hospital.
“Old Chen came to the Patriarch Building to visit his daughter but might have misremembered the address and did not go to the correct building. Instead, he went to Building 2.
“Coincidentally, Old Chen, who should have gone to the 7th floor, pressed the 6th-floor button by mistake.
“Since he was about to see his daughter, the anticipating old man had not imagined that when the elevator door opened, a standing female body that had decomposed would appear before him.
“The elevator door had opened, and Bao Fangtian’s body knelt forward after losing support. She stared at Old Chen in the elevator with those fierce, terrifying empty eyes.
“Because he had been suddenly frightened by this, the soul of the old man, who was an ordinary person, flew to Heaven. He shrank to the corner of the elevator without daring to budge.
“The elevator door was about to close when it was caught by the kneeling body of Bao Fangtian. It clicked, clicked, and clicked. The elevator door tried to close mechanically again and again but couldn’t.
“A person and a corpse faced each other for a long time by the 6th-floor elevator entrance. Finally, Old Chen, who couldn’t stand it anymore, endured the fear, picked up Bao Fangtian’s body, stuffed it back into the gap between the iron sliding door, returned to the elevator, and pressed the down button.
“The elevator door finally closed, but Old Chen, who had gotten frightened and had lost his soul, couldn’t care less about visiting his daughter. He left the Patriarch Building in a fluster without even telling the staff of the building that a female corpse was trapped on the 6th floor.
“Old Chen, who returned home with his remaining sanity, had lost his intelligence and could neither raise a hand nor speak.
“He was not possessed by ghosts. The remnant psionic response of his body was just caused by the unwillingness and fear left in the 6th-floor elevator before Bao Fangtian’s spirit escaped.
“Maybe before the doctor could come up with a solution. The relevant departments of the Republic would first find Old Chen to cure his dementia, which was caused by the remnant psionic energy.”
[100% uncovered the truth]
[Routine Quest ‘Between the Gap’ has been completed]
[Reward is being determined]
[Random Normal Grade Item*1 has been placed in the player’s inventory. Please check.]
Li Ang exhaled and walked straight out of the elevator, which had descended to the 1st floor, leaving this tragedy behind.
After a long time, the first unlucky person to open the elevator door would see the decomposed female corpse lying between the elevator and let out a deafening scream that would pierce the peacefulness of the Patriarch Building.
Li Ang, who reached the street, was hidden in the crowd. He walked forward along with the crowd of people until he reached the corner of the south street of Yin City Dongda Coloproctology Hospital.
He hadn’t lied to Wang Congshan. He really wanted to eat a bowl of hot and sour noodles with pig intestines from the intestine shop next to the hospital.
The sweet potato noodles in the head-sized pots was crystal-clear, and the rapeseed oil and red chili peppers contrasted each other well. The few scattered hot-pickled mustard tubers floated on top of the red chili oil, and the pig intestines in the center were piled up extremely high.
Li Ang chewed on the pig intestines while watching the heavy traffic on the streets. The pedestrians were like weaves, and he couldn’t help but lose himself in contemplation.
First of all, the quests issued by the system might not necessarily be combat type. They might also be purely about deducing and deciphering. Subsequent quests with deciphering and combat elements might also occur.
Second, a psionic reaction did not mean that there would be a spirit. Some spirits also had a chance of dissipating on their own as time passed.
Finally, there was a chance of triggering a quest as long as this was an abnormal death.
In that case, the number of potential quests in Yin City, which was an international metropolis with a total population of more than 20 million, was imaginable.
Li Ang drained the hot and sour soup and opened the quest reward in the inventory in his consciousness.
[Name: Face-Changing Mask]
[Category: Armor]
[Grade: Normal]
[Defense: Weak]
[Effect 1: When equipped, the mask pattern will be disguised randomly]
[Effect 2: When equipped, the player who wears it can choose to enhance or weaken his sense of presence in the eyes of others]
[Equipment Requirement 1: The player who wears it has a face with physiological anatomy]
[Equipment Requirement 2: Intelligence is greater than or equal to 5. Perception is greater than or equal to 6]
[Remarks: Fang Xiangshi1 bears a bear’s skin with four golden eyes and is clad in a black top and red pants. Grasping his lance and brandishing his shield, he leads 100 officials as they perform a seasonal exorcism, searching through houses and driving out pestilences.]