Pick up the phone,
Don't pick up the phone.

These two sentences were written on separate lines in hurried English, different from yesterday's handwriting.

The content inside was puzzling.

Should he pick it up? Or not? Who was calling? Was it the phone in the room or in the hallway?

Dan Fei's mind raced with a thousand thoughts, the scene of Kafi's tragic death last night still flashing before his eyes.

Breaking the rules meant certain death.

What should I do?

Dan Fei's face was tense as he walked towards the telephone in the living room, picked it up from the wooden table, and stretched the telephone cord along the floor as far as he could.

All the way to the front door of room 1172.

No player who could survive to this level was truly stupid.

Dan Fei, after all, had climbed to the top in the underworld gang, stepping on the blood of others. His IQ was not low.

Although he didn't understand the specific meaning of the phrase "Pick up the phone, don't pick up the phone," he had to prepare as much as possible.

Bringing the room's telephone to the door would allow him to answer the phone at any time.

It would also allow him to look out through the peephole—room 1172 faced the elevator lobby on the right side of the eleventh-floor corridor, and outside the elevator lobby was one of the only two landline phones on this floor that could make outgoing calls.

That landline phone had a long, narrow screen, and whether a call was being received or made, the screen would light up with an orange-yellow glow.

During the day, the players had discussed that they couldn't yet determine the priority between executing the note's content and not opening the door.

For now, this was all he could do.

Dan Fei slowly exhaled a breath of stale air and took out a fluffy, orange-yellow cat-ear-shaped headset from his inventory.

[Name: Cat Ear Headset]

[Type: Magic Item]

[Quality: Excellent]

[Effect: Eavesdropping. Wearing the headset greatly enhances hearing and other sensory perception, but also causes side effects such as itching in the ears and fingers, the growth of cat fur on the body, a voice that turns into a meow, and a fear of bathing and doctors.]

[Cost: None]

[Cooldown: None. Usage time is calculated separately. After a total usage time exceeding half an hour, a 24-hour cooldown will be forcibly entered. Wearing the cat ear headset during the cooldown will not trigger the positive effects of the effect.]

[Equipment Condition: None]

[Note: After removing the cat ear headset, the side effects will not disappear immediately; the duration of the side effects depends on the wearing time.]

[Note: Each pair of cat ear headphones consumes a cat. Protect cats, reject cat ear headphones]

[Note: Transform me!]

Dan Fei had obtained this equipment by chance.

Its effect was quite powerful, enhancing the sensitivity of the five senses, allowing him to hear every rustle within a thousand meters.

The side effects were a pain in the ass. Wearing it for a little too long would turn him into a half-cat, half-human being.

In the half-cat, half-human state, the player could still use items and equipment normally.

But it was easy to become as timid, withdrawn, and neurotic as a cat.

He would be easily startled by flames, electric lights, and even green pickles.

Using it in combat would be a terrible experience.

Even after removing the headset, it would take ten or twenty minutes for the effects to subside.

However, the cooldown time was calculated separately. He could wear it for only a minute each time, then take it off and put it back on after a while to offset the side effects.

Dan Fei sighed quietly and put on the orange-yellow cat ear headset, resigned to his fate, and began his long and agonizing wait.

00:30

01:00

02:00

...

Dan Fei took off the headset, relieved.

He needed to relieve the side effects of the cat ear headset a little.

His whole body was already covered in cat fur, and his eyes were bloodshot, making him look listless.

He hadn't slept since entering the script, relying entirely on energy-boosting drugs to keep himself going, and he still had to endure the pain of losing his brother.

In his hand were paper and a pen, on which he had written down everything that had happened in room 1172 in detail.

Including the note's content, when and how the note appeared, his handling methods, and the psychological and physiological changes during the waiting process.

In a bizarre survival script, any information was worth paying attention to and collecting.

Writing down the information was for others and for himself—if he could survive tonight, the players could analyze the information recorded on the paper.

Perhaps they could decipher some of the hotel's rules and help them survive.

Dan Fei rested for a while and put the cat ear headset back on. The cat fur that had receded slightly on his body immediately grew back.

Ring-ring—

An extremely faint telephone ring entered his ears.

Dan Fei shuddered and instantly snapped out of his daze. He held his breath, focused his mind, and listened intently.

The phone sound came from... the hallway!

Dan Fei's heart skipped a beat. He pressed himself against the door, his eyes fixed on the peephole.

Across the hallway, in front of the elevator lobby, the screen of the landline phone there lit up with an orange-yellow glow.

Ring-ring—

The landline phone vibrated again.

The caller ID slowly appeared on the screen.

101#

This is...

Dan Fei's heart trembled. The players had tested it before.

What the accommodation guide said was indeed correct: the phones in the hotel rooms could only receive calls and could not make outgoing calls.

Except for the empty front desk.

The only phones that could make outgoing calls were the landline phones installed in the corridors of each floor.

Fourteen floors, two on each floor, for a total of twenty-eight.

When the phones in the floor corridors called other phones,

The caller ID would show "floor, plus 1 or 2, plus #."

# was a fixed symbol that needed to be added at the end of each call.

1 or 2 referred to the left or right side of the floor corridor.

For example, if you used the landline phone on the left side of the first floor to make a call, the caller ID would be 011#.

If you used the landline phone on the right side of the fourteenth floor to make a call, the caller ID would be 142#.

But 101#...

Tenth floor, left side, landline phone.

A chill ran through his body, and Dan Fei clenched his fists tightly.

The landline phone on the left side of the tenth floor corresponded exactly to the room where Kafi had died.

All the remaining thirteen players lived on their respective floors.

Even if someone was attacked by an anomaly and wanted to use the corridor's landline phone to ask others for help,

They could just make a call on their own floor.

Why go to the trouble of going down to the tenth floor to make the call? The corridors at night were full of danger!

Moreover, if someone wanted to ask Dan Fei for help or give him a tip,

Why not just call his room 1172 directly? Wouldn't that be faster? Why call the landline phone on the right side of the eleventh-floor corridor?

Could it be that a player deliberately wanted Dan Fei to break the hotel rules and be killed by the anomaly? But this kind of method was too crude and obvious, wasn't it?

Or was the caller himself an anomaly...

Dan Fei's mind was filled with a jumble of thoughts.

After three rings in the hallway, the orange-yellow light on the landline phone went out silently.

The caller had given up.

...What was going on?

Dan Fei was even more confused, and he forgot to use his pen to write down what he had seen on the paper.

The development of the situation was too bizarre and contradictory, with no logic at all.

"If that was the call I was supposed to pick up according to the note, then wouldn't I have violated the note? Would I be facing an anomaly next..."

Regret arose in Dan Fei's heart. He took half a step back, away from the peephole.