Chapter 71: The Death of Lin Nan'an

July 2, Rain

I started talking to the children upstairs.

I knew they were ghosts. It didn't matter.

More and more people were dying, and I no longer held any hope of leaving the apartment.

Even on the verge of death, I just wanted someone to talk to. Here, in this completely rotting, reeking place.

I asked them why they had run upstairs, and the children answered me enthusiastically.

Some were residents from over ten years ago, while others couldn't clearly explain how long they had been up there. There were also those like Xiao Dingbao, who had only just gone up.

Xiao Dingbao told me it was very safe upstairs, not nearly as terrifying as we adults thought.

There was endless food and infinite time. Once you arrived, you never had to do another Green Text Mission or live in fear again.

Maybe I was going crazy. Hearing them describe this paradise, I actually felt a trace of envy.

I asked Xiao Dingbao what that room was called.

Xiao Dingbao answered me: the Children's Home.

Just as I had suspected.

July 7, Rain

My health had been deteriorating lately.

I frequently experienced visual and auditory hallucinations.

Walking down the fourth-floor corridor, I heard someone calling me from behind.

I turned around and saw innocent children standing on the stairs to the fifth floor. But when I looked closely, they vanished, like an illusion.

I took some fever medication, and my sanity recovered a little.

Another administrator died. Now I was the person with the highest completion count in the apartment.

An unbidden thought stirred in my mind.

Perhaps, before the entire apartment fell into ruin, I should take the initiative to go upstairs. I could head to the fifth floor, find that legendary Children's Home, and see what was really happening up there.

If Old Cao were still around, he definitely would have opposed this plan.

But Old Cao was dead. I could go wherever I wanted, and no one had the right to order me around anymore.

Let me think. When should I set off?

My head hurt so much I could barely hold my pen.

Let's make it tomorrow. I wasn't even sure how many more days this body of mine could survive.

Before I died, I had to uncover the truth about the Living Apartment. Otherwise, I wouldn't be able to rest in peace.

...

...

Reading up to this point, Zhao Zhenjia paused.

There were very few pages left in the back. It seemed Lin Nan'an's life, just like the remaining pages of the log, had entered its final countdown.

Seven years ago, Lin Nan'an, the administrator for the previous generation of apartment residents, had unexpectedly faced such a broken and desperate situation.

He wasn't like Xu Yuan, who possessed terrifying talent and had managed to survive ten missions.

Nor was he like Xia Ta, Jiang Yang, and the other administrators of the current generation. When they proposed going upstairs this time, everyone had unanimously agreed. Not a single person objected.

Although Zhao Zhenjia, Gao Tian, Xia Ta, and the others all had their flaws, none of them were selfish cowards who only cared about their own survival.

Under that bleak and despairing atmosphere, it was no wonder the residents of that generation were completely wiped out. They had even left a mess for their successors, allowing the fourth floor to be swallowed by the supernatural.

"I have a question, Jiang Yang," Zhao Zhenjia said.

"You and Xia Ta are the most senior residents of this generation, right? You moved in about two years ago."

"More or less," Jiang Yang said.

"Xia Ta came in a month earlier than me. When we first arrived, we started from the very first rookie mission. The apartment's population was extremely sparse back then. Even the strongest person had only completed three missions, and the concept of an apartment administrator didn't even exist.

"Everyone was just fumbling around on the edge of life and death. Many of the rules were established much later."

"Under those desperate circumstances, Lin Nan'an's generation of residents definitely faced a total wipeout," Zhao Zhenjia said. "There was no other possible outcome.

"Is it possible that this apartment is going through some kind of cycle?"

"What do you mean?" Jiang Yang asked.

"Think about it," Zhao Zhenjia said.

"That legendary Xu Yuan who completed ten missions was here about thirteen years ago.

"Lin Nan'an's generation was here about seven years ago.

"And our generation arrived about two years ago.

"Every so often, the Living Apartment reaches this kind of conclusion. Either everyone dies and there are no survivors left, or a fierce person like Xu Yuan becomes the final victor.

"Regardless of the scenario, the apartment then shuts down and rests for a period. After a certain amount of time, it recovers, reopens, and recruits the next batch of residents to come in.

"This apartment is like a living organism. It hibernates for a while, then revives and begins to feed. It's just that its food consists of human lives and fear."

Such a conclusion truly made one shudder.

If Jiang Yang's generation all died out, would the Living Apartment temporarily seal itself away, leaving their corpses and stories to rot in some unknown corner?

And then, seven years later—or maybe six or five—a completely renewed apartment would reopen, waiting for a new batch of residents to move in.

Administrators would emerge among them, countless new stories would take place, and a new cycle would begin once again...

Right now, however, Jiang Yang was more concerned with another issue.

"The downward descent of the supernatural is an objective fact, not something unique to our generation. Lin Nan'an's group experienced it too. They just chose to rot away and wait for everyone to die.

"I suspect that during the legendary Xu Yuan's year, they could live up to the fifth floor. By the time it was Lin Nan'an's turn, only four floors were left. For our generation, we've already been restricted to three floors. If we all die, the next batch to enter the Living Apartment will only have a safe zone of two floors.

"Right before every downward spread, the same omens appear. First, children go missing, and people start hearing kids' voices from the rooms above them.

"Then, various supernatural events spread downward. At first, these events don't kill anyone; they just cause some anxiety. But if left unchecked, they quickly trigger a chain reaction."

Back then, Lin Nan'an had simply watched helplessly as the entire apartment headed toward decay and death.

"This so-called Children's Home is the core of all these mysteries," Zhao Zhenjia said.

"Why are there so many kids in the Children's Home? Why did they summon so many children upstairs?

"According to Lin Nan'an's description, this Children's Home is located on the fifth floor. It seems that to end all of this, we have to go up to the fifth floor today.

"Of course, the prerequisite is that we make it out of here alive and regroup with Xia Ta and Gao Tian."

Could the tragedy from seven years ago finally be brought to an end by Jiang Yang's generation?

Sweeping his gaze past the desk in front of the corpse in the Study, he noticed there seemed to be a few more pages at the end of the log.

"Have the Wind Attendant Buddha read the contents of the last few pages," Jiang Yang said.

"Those two pages seem to be stuck together," Zhao Zhenjia said.

"Wait a moment. I'll control the Wind Attendant Buddha to peel them apart. It'll take a little time."

Finally, the Wind Attendant Buddha managed to force the logbook pages apart. Some of the handwriting had become blurred, but the contents written by Lin Nan'an could still be roughly made out—

July 10, Rain

I had originally made up my mind to set out the day before yesterday and head up to the fifth floor.

I don't know why, but right before death, my survival instinct was slightly triggered.

Through various excuses and delays, I holed up in my room and squandered another two days.

This morning, when I went downstairs to grab food from the pantry, I found that the second and third floors were completely empty. Not a single resident was left alive.

They had either been killed by a Green Text Mission, leaving their rooms vacant, or killed by the supernatural events inside the Living Apartment, their corpses left to rot and stink in their rooms.

Or they had moved out early, pretending the Living Apartment didn't exist until the day their lives ended.

In short, I don't know when it happened, but somehow I am the only living person left in this massive apartment.

This feeling of empty loneliness is truly awful.

It is even worse than waking up on graduation day and discovering that all my roommates had already left.

Before going upstairs to my death, could I really not find even a single person to talk to?

When I returned to my room, my headache worsened again.

Perhaps I should delay for one more day, and go upstairs tomorrow.

July 10, Late Night

Fast asleep in bed, I was suddenly jolted awake by an urgent knocking on my door.

Dazed, I subconsciously got out of bed and prepared to open it.

It took me a long time to remember a certain fact. Everyone in the apartment was dead; I was the only one left. There were no other living people in this building.

At a time like this, who could possibly be standing in the corridor knocking on my door?

I tried not to respond, pretending no one was in the room. But the pounding outside grew louder and louder, as if an elephant were ramming into the wall.

I inched my way to the door, intending to look through the peephole to see who the visitor was.

The apartment's electricity had been cut off a long time ago. The corridor was pitch black, and I could only make out two human silhouettes. Other than that, nothing was clear.

It seemed that if I didn't open the door for these two visitors today, they absolutely wouldn't let this go.

I slowly opened the door.

Standing in front of me were a slender, silver-haired young man and a heavily built, gorilla-like man in his fifties.