Chapter 89: The Staircase

"In the corridor between Zone B and Zone C—usually just a simple hallway connecting the two departments—a dark blue staircase suddenly appeared around 8:56 this morning. It leads up to an unknown height. A colleague from the marketing department passing by was the first to spot it.

"We checked the security footage. The staircase materialized out of thin air, almost as if the video dropped a frame. One second it was an empty floor, and in the blink of an eye, the staircase was there.

"Judging by its height, it stretches toward the twelfth floor. But when our security guards went up to check the exact corresponding spot on the twelfth floor, they found nothing but ordinary floor tiles. Nothing had pierced through the floor.

"At this point, we can be absolutely certain this is a supernatural phenomenon. It violates the most basic laws of physics. The upper stretch of the stairs leads to a different dimension, entirely outside the physical space of Jinhai Building.

"For now, the staff on the eleventh floor have cordoned off the area around it. Based on our observations, as long as no one deliberately approaches it, no further anomalies will occur."

Hearing the security guard's report, Gao Tian generally understood why the supernatural anomaly on the eleventh floor hadn't yet disrupted normal operations throughout the rest of the building.

The phenomenon remained contained. The building opened daily, handling massive crowds of employees and customers; a sudden lockdown would cause tens of millions in losses. Given the minimal impact so far, the other floors were continuing business as usual.

Shanghai City experienced countless supernatural events every day. If management shut down the entire building over such a localized anomaly, no company would ever manage to stay in business.

"Also—"

The guard wore a strange expression, hesitating as if he wanted to say more.

Gao Tian asked, "Did something else happen?"

The guard thought for a moment, struggling to find the right words. "It's better if I just take you up to the eleventh floor so you can see for yourself."

They stepped into the elevator and soon arrived on the affected eleventh floor.

As they passed through a few different departments, Gao Tian noticed most of the staff were still working at their desks. The supernatural staircase's area of effect was remarkably small, rendering it completely harmless. As long as people ignored it, they were fine.

He really couldn't understand why Wang Wenbo had panicked so much over something so trivial.

Arriving at the yellow caution tape, they saw a pot-bellied middle-aged man pacing the perimeter, constantly talking on his mobile phone. He looked like some sort of manager or supervisor.

He seemed agitated, loudly urging the person on the other end to hurry over and handle the situation.

Even if the staircase hadn't caused any real harm yet, it was still a supernatural anomaly. There was no telling if it might escalate.

If something actually went wrong, everyone on the entire floor would be trapped.

"Supervisor Yao, this is the person President Zhu sent for. He's arrived on the eleventh floor right on time."

The guard presented Gao Tian to the middle-aged man and then turned to leave.

Supervisor Yao lowered his phone, shooting Gao Tian a surprised look. "When did President Zhu ask for someone to be brought up here?

"Are you sure you brought the right guy?"

Gao Tian stepped in to introduce himself. "Oh, I'm from the—uh, the Supernatural Disaster Bureau. We specialize in these kinds of incidents. We received a distress call from your building, so I came straight here.

"I heard you've got a haunting on your hands. I'm just here to take a look. Is there a problem?"

As he spoke, he laced his words once again with the power of the Memory Ghost.

Hearing the name of the Supernatural Disaster Bureau, Supervisor Yao's expression visibly relaxed. He must have browsed enough online forums to know of the agency's existence. "Oh, hello, hello! So you're a comrade from the Bureau. I'm so sorry, please excuse my attitude just now.

"Please, come take a look. Use your professional expertise to assess this. Is this sudden staircase one of those supernatural phenomena trending online lately? Will it lead to some kind of tragedy?"

He casually pulled aside the yellow caution tape and led the way forward.

As Gao Tian followed, he noticed nearby white-collar workers and programmers shooting curious glances in his direction.

The supernatural incident had set half the floor on edge. Now that someone from the "Supernatural Disaster Bureau" had arrived, everyone was secretly watching to see how he would use his expertise to handle the situation.

Gao Tian casually brought it up as they walked. "Do you have a guy named Wang Wenbo working on this floor?

"He might be connected to a supernatural incident. Once I've dealt with this staircase, I plan to take him back to the Bureau for questioning. Would that be an issue?"

Supervisor Yao's mind was entirely preoccupied with the bizarre staircase. As long as this agent from the Supernatural Disaster Bureau could get rid of it, he would agree to anything. He immediately patted his chest and promised, "Not a problem at all.

"Wang Wenbo, you said? I'll speak with his manager. You can take him with you in just a moment."

"You won't dock his pay, will you?" Gao Tian asked.

"Absolutely not," Supervisor Yao replied. "We'll put him on paid leave.

"In fact, we'll just give him a full week of paid time off. Take him back and have him cooperate fully with your investigation.

"Cooperating with the comrades of the Supernatural Disaster Bureau is every citizen's duty, after all."

It was obvious that as long as Gao Tian got rid of this damn staircase, the supervisor would agree to anything.

As they spoke, the two arrived in front of the staircase.

The staircase as a whole possessed a grim, faded blue hue reminiscent of the last century. Printed in stark white font across every single step were the words: "The Path to Happiness."

Glancing upward, Gao Tian saw the text repeating endlessly. The staircase stretched infinitely higher, passing far beyond the ceiling of the eleventh floor. It extended upward toward the twelfth floor and vanished into an endless darkness invisible to the naked eye.

The stairs looked like a relic from the past century. Just staring at them felt like a drain on his sanity.

"Is there some kind of noise coming from upstairs?"

Gao Tian frowned deeply. He cautiously crouched half-prone against the floor in front of the stairs and listened intently.

Waves of sound were indeed echoing down continuously from high above the stairs.

It sounded like—the roar of some wild beast?

The roars were terrifying, but standing down on the eleventh floor, Gao Tian found them muffled and indistinct. The source had to be incredibly far away.

Just how high did these stairs go? The beast's roars sounded like they were echoing down from thousands of meters above.

One thing was certain. While this abruptly spawned staircase hadn't caused any real harm yet, it gave off an intensely unsettling feeling, as if something terrible was going to happen.

Not to mention there was some unknown animal higher up on the stairs. Judging by its roars alone, it was absolutely vicious.

Even though the animal was currently far from the bottom of the stairs, who could guarantee it wouldn't suddenly take an interest and come charging down?

This staircase definitely needed to be dealt with as quickly as possible. If it couldn't be handled, the staff on the entire eleventh floor should be evacuated.

Gao Tian looked back at Supervisor Yao. "Did anyone go up the stairs before I got here?"

Supervisor Yao stammered, his expression turning embarrassed. "When we first found the stairs, we didn't realize it was a supernatural incident. We had a security guard named Liu go up to take a look.

"We didn't expect that he would never come back down. His colleagues tried shouting for him from down here, and we tried calling his mobile phone, but nothing worked.

"It's our first time dealing with something like this, so we didn't understand the risks. If I had known this floor was this dangerous, I absolutely wouldn't have sent him up there."

Gao Tian was speechless.

"How long has the guard been up there?"

Supervisor Yao glanced at his mobile phone. "About three hours."

The guard had almost certainly been killed up there already.

Unable to hold back his frustration, Gao Tian asked Supervisor Yao, "Why would an ordinary person with no knowledge of the supernatural volunteer to climb those stairs?

"He makes a few thousand bucks a month. What gives you the right to make him risk his life for you?

"If he ran into trouble on the stairs, aren't you practically the one who sent him to his death?"

Just then, several managers walked over with a programmer in a plaid shirt. "Old Yao, this is the guy you asked for. Wang Wenbo.

"His paid leave has already been approved. This comrade from the Supernatural Disaster Bureau can take him away whenever he's ready."

The man in the plaid shirt was the exact same person Gao Tian had seen in the Future Urn—the man dry-heaving in the burning ruins until his body convulsed.

He had confirmed it was the right person. This was definitely the Wang Wenbo he was looking for.

Wang Wenbo stared at Gao Tian in astonishment. He didn't recognize him at all. He had clearly asked Jiang Yang to come help; why had a comrade from the Supernatural Disaster Bureau suddenly shown up?

Gao Tian couldn't be bothered to explain. Instead, he had someone take Wang Wenbo down to the first-floor lobby to wait.

Why was Jinhai Building destined to turn into that state in the future? Was it because it suffered a supernatural attack? Right now, it seemed inextricably linked to this abruptly spawned staircase.

Although every moment shown by the Future Urn currently had a hundred-percent fulfillment rate, Gao Tian still wanted to try. He wanted to see if he could avert this future and minimize the casualties and losses as much as possible.

"I see. Looking at the current situation, it's going to be very hard to know what exactly happened up there without climbing the stairs to investigate."

He had delivered those words in an unhurried tone, already forming a plan in mind as he evaluated the staircase from top to bottom.

Supervisor Yao looked stunned, but he also looked at Gao Tian like he was a savior. "Are you saying... you're going to go up there yourself to resolve this supernatural incident?

"Oh, thank you so much! But... won't it be dangerous for you up there? How long should you be up there before we assume an accident happened and call the police?"

Gao Tian wasn't an idiot. No one knew where these stairs led. How could he possibly risk going up there himself? "Who said I was going up in person?

"The one going up is him. Though him going up is no different from me going up."

With a thought from Gao Tian, several gusts of wind materialized in the empty space. Before everyone's eyes, a humanoid puppet—identical to Gao Tian but formed entirely of swirling air currents—manifested out of thin air.