Chapter 55: Changing Rooms

Gao Tian had no time to worry about Su Jiu's death; he could barely save himself.

At the slow pace Bus 444 was moving, it would take roughly half a minute to reach the stop.

Opening and closing the old-fashioned doors would eat up another half minute.

From his spot in the waiting shelter, it would take Gao Tian at least a full minute to board.

But the gray footprints spreading across the opposite path were moving so fast they would breach the shelter in a matter of seconds.

Gao Tian absolutely could not die here. Once the filthy things from Pagoda Primary School killed someone, they dragged the corpse back to the campus. If that happened, even if he resurrected using a Ghost Card, he would spawn right inside the school grounds.

That was essentially infinite corpse-camping. Revive once, get killed once—just doing sit-ups in place until he died again. No amount of Ghost Cards could save him from that loop.

In such a desperate situation, his tiny bit of luck was completely useless.

Throughout this mission, Gao Tian had tried every possible method to save a Black Card.

It seemed that this time, he truly couldn't.

A person couldn't be too greedy. If he kept trying to hold onto it, he would die right here.

Without a moment's hesitation, he pulled the Black Card from his pocket and activated its power.

The Black Card rapidly smoldered in his hand. Everything before Gao Tian's eyes twisted as the world spun. The trees on either side and the bus stop in front of him began to recede. Spatial teleportation had activated. A massive, unstoppable force began pulling his body out of this space.

Yet at almost that exact moment, Gao Tian watched helplessly as countless gray handprints crawled onto the ground beneath his feet. The spatial distortion didn't hinder them at all. In massive numbers, they spread up his body at terrifying speed. His legs, his chest, his neck—the gray handprints appeared everywhere.

The handprints were small, seemingly belonging to children. Gao Tian had no time to observe further or react. Two gray handprints covered his eyes, turning his vision into a hazy gray blur. At the same time, several more clamped around his throat. Agony flared as the children's hands tried to snap his neck.

"Stay."

"Stay."

"Stay."

...

...

In the first-floor lobby of the Living Apartment, Xia Ta was leisurely sipping her afternoon tea when a mangled body suddenly materialized beneath the chandelier and crashed heavily into the center of the hall.

From the silhouette, the body was Gao Tian, though his condition was utterly grotesque. He was densely plastered head to toe in overlapping gray handprints, as if countless children with ash-smeared hands had grabbed him over and over again. His limbs were shattered, twisted outward at impossible angles, and his neck was wrenched backward over a hundred degrees, on the verge of snapping completely.

It took Xia Ta only half a second to process the scene. This wasn't the first time she had seen a resident use a Black Card to escape a Green Text Mission, only to teleport back as a corpse.

Life and death were up to fate.

But it looked like Gao Tian might still be saved.

He had hit the marble floor hard and hadn't even uttered a cry for help. The strange gray handprints on his back began to multiply again, creeping toward his neck as if countless children were clinging to him, still trying with all their might to break it.

"Get lost!"

Xia Ta was stunned, hardly daring to believe her eyes. When residents on Green Text Missions died in the Inner World, it was simply their own fault for trespassing into a forbidden zone for the living. But Gao Tian had already been teleported back to the Living Apartment! This place was a forbidden zone for Fierce Ghosts. The things he provoked had actually dared to chase him here to finish the job?

Were those things truly that fierce?

Crack, creak. Gao Tian's neck popped as it was wrenched backward to a hundred and twenty degrees.

The power of the Pagoda Primary School children had been significantly weakened upon entering the Apartment. But even so, they were still outrageously strong.

Xia Ta reacted in a split second. She bolted to Gao Tian's side and clamped her hands tightly over his head, physically stopping the gray handprints from twisting it any further.

The new gray handprints crawling up his neck couldn't keep pace with the ones fading away, causing the total number on his body to rapidly dwindle. It seemed the Living Apartment had finally reacted and was suppressing these invaders from Pagoda Primary School with maximum force.

But according to precedent, any Fierce Ghost that breached the Living Apartment would be instantly obliterated. Yet the children from Pagoda Primary School had actually held on for several seconds. Were they just too ferocious, or was the Living Apartment's suppressive power weakening?

Or perhaps it was both.

Creak, crack.

Black blood trickled from Gao Tian's nose. Every inch of his bones and nerves was trapped in a death struggle. One force was ruthlessly trying to twist his neck back, while Xia Ta—a girl with freakish strength—was pressing down just as hard to stop it.

With two identical, immense forces crushing him at the same time, Gao Tian felt like his entire body was going to explode.

At the same time, the sickening crunch of breaking bones erupted from his arms and legs as they were twisted together like braided dough!

"Quick, come help!"

Xia Ta hollered toward the entrance.

Inside the Living Apartment, the strength of the gray handprints was less than a tenth of what it was in the Inner World. However, Xia Ta didn't dare use her full strength, terrified that a single slip-up would accidentally crush Gao Tian's skull.

The two opposing forces fell into a delicate deadlock.

Jiang Yang and Zhao Zhenjia, who had been soaking up the sun near the first-floor entrance, rushed into the lobby at full speed the moment they heard the commotion. They were met with the grotesque scene. Many of the gray handprints shaking off Gao Tian were even trying to crawl onto Xia Ta.

"They're this arrogant?" Zhao Zhenjia said. "He escaped all the way to the Living Apartment, yet these Fierce Ghosts still won't let him off? They really want to wipe him out completely?"

Zhao Zhenjia had never been to Pagoda Primary School. He had no idea how vicious the filthy things in that place truly were.

But Jiang Yang recognized the gray handprints at a glance, and his heart skipped a beat.

The last time he had visited, the things inside Pagoda Primary School couldn't extend their reach beyond the gates. At best, they could only move within a few meters of the entrance. The location where Gao Tian was supposed to check in should have been absolutely safe.

But now, they had chased him straight out of the campus—even following him all the way to the Living Apartment! He couldn't imagine how many times stronger they had grown in such a short period.

The two men dashed to Xia Ta's side. One pinned down Gao Tian's arms while the other held down his legs, stopping the gray handprints from twisting the young man into two pieces.

Suspended in midair, Gao Tian was clamped in place by the three of them while countless ghost hands tore at his flesh. In that moment, he truly understood what it felt like to be torn apart by five horses. The agony was enough to make a person regret ever being born. For a split second, he actually wished the pain would just kill him on the spot so he wouldn't have to endure the torture anymore.

The deadlock felt like it dragged on for ten thousand years, but in reality, less than half a minute had passed.

The countless gray handprints finally began retreating from Gao Tian's body. The sound of children weeping echoed in the air, mixed with desperate pleas of, "I won't do it again!" and "Spare me, let me go back!"

It seemed that the Living Apartment's suppression, though slightly delayed, had finally and utterly overwhelmed the filthy things from Pagoda Primary School.

For now, the interior of the Living Apartment remained safe.

Like an ebbing tide, the gray handprints on Gao Tian's skin slowly faded away.

Five minutes passed. Only after making absolutely certain that Gao Tian was safe and that the gray handprints wouldn't return did Xia Ta and the others carefully lower his broken body to the floor.

At this point, Gao Tian had been crushed into a human noodle. His arms and legs were completely severed, his limbs hanging limp. It was impossible to tell just how many bones in his body had been snapped.

Looking like this, just being alive was a miracle.

Zhao Zhenjia crouched down and inspected Gao Tian's arm.

"Completely shattered," he noted. "Good thing you held his head, or his neck would have snapped too."

Gao Tian opened his mouth, trying to speak, but all he could produce was a hollow, meaningless groan.

Xia Ta consoled him.

"This is the Living Apartment. A resident's recovery speed here is dozens of times faster than in the outside world.

"As long as you didn't die outside, you'll be fine. Apply some medicine and rest for three days. It doesn't matter what kind of fractures or internal injuries you have; they'll heal."

Jiang Yang propped up Gao Tian's upper body.

"Are you the only one who made it back from this mission?

"I really want to ask you what happened in the Inner World. But looking at the state of you, it's better if we get you to your room to rest. We can talk after you've healed up.

"Your room is Room 313, right?"

At the mention of the room number, the expressions of Xia Ta, Zhao Zhenjia, and the others instantly froze, as if they had accidentally touched upon a terrible taboo.

A brief silence blanketed the lobby. Xia Ta was the first to speak, breaking the tension.

"Jiang Yang, don't you have a spare room at your place?

"Take him to your room for now.

"We can figure out his room arrangements on the Third Floor once Gao Tian is actually able to move again."

Jiang Yang had no objections.

"That works."

Before the two men carried him into the elevator, a wave of curiosity swelled in Gao Tian's mind.

He clearly had his own room, yet Xia Ta and the others were moving him into Jiang Yang's temporarily.

Why could he no longer stay in Room 313?

Had something happened on the Third Floor while he was executing his mission in the Inner World?

Judging by how the two Apartment administrators changed the subject, whatever happened in Room 313 was extremely serious. It was so bad that mentioning it had become a taboo in itself.

Unfortunately, he didn't even have the strength to speak. All he could do was let them carry him.

...

...

Lying on the large bed, Gao Tian was still immobilized, but his brain was undamaged. He was perfectly capable of thinking.

He had survived this mission, but it was a pyrrhic victory.

Every other resident had died. He was the sole survivor.

He had obtained two Supernatural Items out of it.

Finally, he didn't have to rely on the Ghost Transformation Spear as his main weapon anymore.

On the flip side, he had burned a Black Card. He had also drawn a Ghost Card and died once. Balancing the scales, it was essentially a wash.

So, had this operation been a net loss or a net gain?

Overall, his offensive capabilities had vastly improved.

But his life-saving means had been heavily weakened. The crucial Black Card was gone.

Weighing the pros and cons, it was probably a slight profit.

Now that he had completed his third Green Text Mission, he wondered what kind of reward the Apartment would give him.

He hoped it was something powerful. Without his Black Card, no matter how strong a weapon he acquired, he still felt profoundly insecure.

Ding.

His mobile phone received a new message.

The Green Text Mission rewards had likely been issued.