Chapter 319: Room 443

I mulled over the Underworld Live Show interviewer's words, trying to glean something useful, but they were watertight. I couldn't find a single clue.

"When does the ninth livestream start? What does upgrading the streaming equipment mean? Also, since I completed the last task, I earned the right to ask you one question. Can I use it now?" Not knowing when the interviewer might hang up, I blurted out every question on my mind at once.

"Patience. The new livestream task has been temporarily postponed. For now, please make a trip to No-Lights Road. I have something to give you in person. Remember, do not bring any living creatures. You must come alone." With that, the interviewer hung up, giving me no chance to press further.

'The livestream is postponed, and now they want me to go to No-Lights Road?' I hadn't forgotten my last bizarre experience there, nor had I figured out the Old Granny's hint about the Underworld Live Show. 'I'll meet force with appropriate tactics. Maybe this time I can finally lift the mysterious veil over the Underworld Live Show.'

I grabbed some spare change around the house, left Bai Qi behind to guard the place, and took a taxi alone, carrying my Large-Screen Phone.

The ride wasn't exactly smooth sailing. The taxi hadn't gone far before I realized I was being followed.

'The Jiang family? Or the police?' Having just been acquitted in my first trial, my status was highly sensitive. Many eyes in Jiangcheng were fixed on me, waiting for me to slip up.

It took switching taxis twice to finally shake off my tail. By the time I arrived at the Old Town District, it was already ten at night.

I paid the fare and ducked into the Old Town District's labyrinth of alleys. Following my memory, I checked the old buildings one by one until I found the White Goods Store I had visited twice before.

The door was shut tight, but a faint flicker of firelight spilled through the crack.

I stood at the entrance. Autumn had already set in, and the wind sweeping through the street carried a biting chill.

I didn't bother the paper-tying craftsman inside. Using the White Goods Store as my starting point, I traced back the route I'd taken last time.

'It should be this way.' I wandered through No-Lights Road for a long time until I was thoroughly lost. Just as I completely lost my bearings, a familiar nursery rhyme drifted into my ears. "Granny?"

I turned to look, but the end of the street was empty. Following the sound, a few dilapidated buildings soon loomed ahead.

"43 No-Lights Road, 44 Lightless Road..." A dilapidated awning teetered in the wind. I pushed open the door and stepped inside.

I took out my phone for light. Unlike my last visit, the moment I stepped inside, waves of frigid air surged up from the soles of my feet, as if I had crossed into a completely different world.

'Could the Underworld Live Show really be built in the Underworld?' The aged floorboards creaked under my weight as I circled the room and found the stairs leading underground.

The broken wooden handrail looked ancient. Peering into the cracks in the splintered floorboards, I spotted the buried corpses of countless bugs. I didn't know what they were called, but their shapes were grotesque and their numbers massive.

When I reached Basement Level 4, pitch darkness swallowed my surroundings. The only light source was the faint glow of my phone screen. I felt like a wandering spirit carrying a lantern down Yellow Springs Road—unable to see what lay behind me, or what lay ahead.

Trailing my hand along the rotting doors, I leaned close to the nameplates to read the room numbers: "441, 442, 443..."

I hadn't even reached Room 444 yet. My hand had merely brushed against the door of Room 443, but to my surprise, it wasn't locked. With just a slight push, the door cracked open.

'This room is right next to the Underworld Live Show's. Could there be other secrets hidden inside?' I brought my phone to the door and shone its light through the crack. The room was pitch black. A faint wind whistled past, and it looked as though countless shadows were pacing back and forth inside.

'Moldy carpet, a desk and chairs, a massive bookcase, and graffiti on the wall... blood-red graffiti?' I strained to adjust my angle, wanting a clearer look at the drawings. Without realizing it, I pushed the door open another finger's width.

I raised my phone higher. Just as I leaned my face closer, a paper doll face suddenly jutted out from behind the door!

It had pale white cheeks, wearing the unchanging, painted smile of a paper doll.

He appeared so abruptly that I stumbled back in panic, dropping my phone to the floor.

That face was wedged in the crack of the door, staring at me. A Paper Doll Mask hid his true expression. He struggled to shove a hand through the gap. His pale gray arm looked diseased, as if it hadn't seen sunlight in a very long time.

His fingers clamped fiercely around the edge of the door, clearly using every ounce of his strength to try and escape that room. Soon, his neck squeezed out too. But his progress was short-lived. A second or two later, a truly horrifying scene unfolded.

Several pairs of hands—varying in length and thickness—snaked out from the darkness inside. They grabbed the man's body and violently dragged him back in. He thrashed and struggled with all his might. The sheer desperation of his body clashed grotesquely against the placid, smiling Paper Doll Mask on his face, creating an eerie contrast.

Ultimately, he failed to escape. But right as his head was forced back into the room, realizing he had no chance, he purposefully let go of the door and tossed out a small, crumpled ball of paper.

"Bang!"

The door slammed shut, and the room fell completely silent. It was as if everything I had just witnessed was nothing but a hallucination.

I picked up my phone and tried pushing the door again. This time, it was locked tight.

'Did he just throw something out?' I searched the floor carefully. Next to the carcass of a bug, I found the crumpled wad of paper. Out of curiosity, I stood in the hallway and smoothed it open.

'There are words on it?'

A few elegant but crooked characters caught my attention. They were scrawled unevenly, as if the person had written them with their eyes closed. Some of the characters were even overlapping.

"Save me Xia Chi save me."

It was a simple six-character phrase with no punctuation. A shiver ran down my spine as I read it. 'Xia Chi? Xia Qingzhi's brother. Didn't he go missing? Has he been imprisoned down here this whole time?'

I tried mentally inserting punctuation into the phrase and came away with two vastly different meanings.

The first possibility was that the person was crying out for help. They knew Xia Chi could save them, so they specifically included his name in their distress note.

The second possibility was that the person behind the door was Xia Chi himself. He knew that if he wrote his own name in the note, someone might come to rescue him.

I pocketed the wad of paper. I had no immediate plans to mount a rescue. Tearing up my relationship with the Underworld Live Show right now would be nothing short of suicide.

Standing alone in the dark, empty corridor, I shivered before pushing open the door to Room 444.

The room's layout hadn't changed at all. I stared at the large, peeling characters for the Underworld Live Show, took a deep breath, and stepped into the inner partition.

The temperature plummeted even further. Behind this door was the exact place where my livestream had begun.

"Mr. Gao, you have passed all Eight Tests. Congratulations on officially becoming an Underworld Live Show Streamer." The three examiners, all wearing Paper Doll Masks, sat side-by-side behind the funerary table.

Dealing with them for a second time, I was able to maintain my basic composure. I scanned them from head to toe, hoping to spot a flaw in their attire or posture. "Speak. Why did you postpone the livestream task and summon me here?"

"Now that the evaluation livestream is complete, even we have no way of knowing what you will encounter in the future. Likewise, many of the restrictions placed upon you have now been shattered."

"Restrictions? What do you mean?"

The examiner sitting in the middle lightly adjusted his Paper Doll Mask. "For example, the time limit of your livestreams."

Another examiner chimed in to clarify, "During the evaluation livestream, you only needed to survive until dawn for the broadcast to successfully end. But once the real livestreams begin, if you fail to complete the commissioned task, the stream will not stop. Whether it's day or night, you will constantly be at risk of losing your life."

'Bad news right out of the gate.' I frowned in thought. "Suppose I fail to complete my current commissioned task, but I manage to survive until the next livestream starts. Will the two livestreams overlap?"

"I regret to inform you that even if you miraculously survive until the second livestream begins, your previous commissioned task will not pause. You will be forced to conduct the livestream for both commissions simultaneously. The tasks will only terminate upon your death." The examiner's icy tone, contrasted against the painted smile of the paper doll face, felt incredibly stiff and bizarre. He reminded me of a bank lobby manager.

My ominous premonition had slowly morphed into reality. I forced myself to stay calm. "Are there any other changes?"

The interviewer nodded slightly and pulled a box from beneath the funerary table. "Inside is the brand-new streaming equipment we've provided for you..."