“Thump.”

“Thump.”

……

The knocking continued, heavy and slow. Jiang Cheng could even discern the posture and movements of the person from the knocking. He was certain that the Knocking Ghost was standing outside his door.

The Knocking Ghost was coming for him...

But… why?

Where exactly did things go wrong?

Clearly, Huai Yi’s time was supposed to be... Jiang Cheng seemed to realize something, and his gaze paused. Neither he nor Fatty had seen the time in Huai Yi’s room. The time of 2:46 was something Huai Yi himself had said.

Coupled with Huai Yi’s recent behavior—his hesitation after opening the door, the words that had angered Fatty, and what he had just said to him—connecting all these clues, Jiang Cheng felt a pang in his heart.

That was it. Huai Yi had lied to them. The second in line wasn't him at all, but Huai Yi's room!

This was a complete deception!

This man, who had looked so fierce when offering Bai Xiaojie as a sacrifice, had chosen to face Halesen himself so that he and Fatty could live. It was all his fault for being completely absorbed by Halesen, and not realizing something like this could happen.

Fortunately, he still had a chance to remedy things.

Coming back to his senses, he was about to open the door, but he suddenly realized that the knocking outside had stopped sometime ago.

At the same time, a chilling coldness seeped in along the crack in the door, and the room became even darker. Jiang Cheng’s expression darkened. He quickly reached out to pull the door open, but another hand, faster and stronger than his, grabbed his wrist.

“What are you doing?” Jiang Cheng asked, looking at Wu, who had suddenly appeared beside him, urgently.

Wu had returned to his appearance in black robes. He ignored Jiang Cheng, his crimson eyes gazing at the wall, as if he could see through the wall to the outside.

Wu was looking towards the other side of the corridor, in the direction of the stairs.

“Don’t go out,” mottled writing appeared on the wall.

“He’s here, isn’t he?” Sensing the coldness, Jiang Cheng had a bad feeling, but he didn’t expect Halesen to arrive so quickly. “Can you save him? You can definitely save him!” Jiang Cheng didn’t care if he was exposing himself. His voice was hurried.

As another line of writing appeared on the wall, Jiang Cheng began to tremble.

“Too late.”

……

In another room, Huai Yi was leaning against the wall. As Halesen's target, the pressure he felt was much more profound than Jiang Cheng’s.

"Huff—"

"Huff—"

He breathed heavily, but his gaze wasn’t on the door, but down at the screen of his phone, which displayed a message that he hadn’t had time to send.

The message was something he had written not long ago, meant for Jiang-ge and Fatty. But he didn't dare send it too early. Jiang-ge was a particularly clever person. If he sent it too early, he would see through his plan and come to save him, and then everything he had done would be meaningless.

He just wanted to say a proper goodbye to them while he was still alive.

The time in this room was 3:24.

Only 5 minutes later than Jiang Cheng's.

Strangely enough, he had been terribly afraid while waiting just now, but now that Halesen had really come, he wasn’t afraid anymore. On the contrary, he felt a sense of relief and composure, as if a scheme had succeeded.

He was trading his life for the end of this mission. No matter how you looked at it, they weren't at a loss. Halesen was still cluelessly fooled into killing him, the least valuable member of the team. He even felt a sense of accomplishment, as if he had the boss of the instance in the palm of his hand.

Compared to him, Jiang-ge and Fatty were the ones who deserved to live.

He had received too many favors from them recently, and he always wanted to find a way to repay them. Hey, it just so happened that an opportunity presented itself.

Without Jiang-ge’s help, he would have died in the hospital long ago. To put it bluntly, every day after leaving the hospital was a bonus. He had freeloaded in this world for so many days, and there was nothing to complain about.

But there were some regrets, more or less. He wouldn't be able to accompany Jiang-ge and Fatty to the end, to witness them defeat the bus, to witness Fatty bring his brother off the bus...

“Hehe.” Sensing that terrifying aura approaching the door, Huai Yi patted his face, then straightened his body, tidied his collar, and rolled up his sleeves. “Jiang-ge, Fatty, take care. I’ll face this Halesen for you!”

As soon as he finished speaking, a deathly gray, cold face emerged eerily from the door. It was the butler they had seen before!

Huai Yi knew that he couldn't escape his fate today, but it was impossible to make him give up resisting. He was, after all, a disciple. Although the door he bore couldn't compare to those of his two brothers, it was a curse, but also a source of power. He hadn't dared to use it too much before, because he was worried about being backlashed and erased by the rules here, but now, all those worries were gone.

His skin gradually turned red, and the red blood vessels in his eyes spread. His heartbeat quickened, and his arms began to swell, comparable to those of a professional bodybuilder. He roared and grabbed the iron chair, charging towards Halesen.

“Die!” Huai Yi slammed the iron chair heavily into Halesen’s sinister face.

This strike had nothing to do with skill; it was pure brute force. Under his reckless pull, the door within him finally responded. Huai Yi felt an explosive sense of power throughout his body.

But the next second, a bizarre scene occurred. Halesen, who had been attacked like this, didn’t even move. Instead, a huge force rebounded back, directly sending Huai Yi flying and slamming heavily against the wall.

Huai Yi spat out a mouthful of blood, feeling as if he had been hit by a battering ram.

Halesen continued to walk towards him, his expressionless face like a machine that had been programmed. With every breath, Huai Yi could feel the bloody froth in his throat.

With just that one blow, most of his ribs were broken, and the broken ribs had pierced his lungs.

Sure enough, the huge gap in strength couldn’t be bridged by courage.

But he had done all he could. According to his plan, Jiang-ge and Fatty would take advantage of Halesen dragging his body away, follow behind them, find that non-existent room, and then leave this strange and terrifying world.

Just as he was about to close his eyes, a red phantom emerged from his body, slamming into Halesen at a terrifying speed, but it was quickly bounced back.

After standing up, the phantom continued to repeat the previous impact, each time with an indomitable momentum, preventing Halesen from approaching Huai Yi, but each time it was knocked away. The already translucent figure became increasingly illusory, as if it would completely disappear the next time.

Seeing this scene, Huai Yi was completely dumbfounded. Then, large streams of tears welled up from his eyes. He hadn't expected that at this time, there would still be someone willing to stay by his side.

And this "person" was the guy he had tried so hard to get rid of.

His door.