Although she hadn’t gotten more information about the 18th Floor from the imp, Mu Shan had obtained an electric card and a canister of liquefied petroleum gas. This temporarily solved her basic survival issues, so the trip wasn’t in vain.
The gas canister was very heavy. In the simple kitchen, Mu Shan took it out from her backpack and dragged it to the side of the stove.
The bottom of the canister scraped against the floor tiles, producing a piercing “creak.”
At first, she worried it wouldn’t work, but she soon discovered that the gas stove’s pipeline was already in place. She just needed to switch the valve that had been connected to natural gas and hook it up to the gas canister.
However, when using it, she had to open the canister’s valve carefully to prevent leaks that could cause a fire.
Mu Shan wiped the sweat from her forehead. This would have to do; conditions were crude now, and there was no way to test for gas leaks.
Although it was still daytime, the ceiling lights in the safe house always emitted bright light. She gathered the scavenged electric card with the remaining four recharge cards and carefully placed them under her pillow.
The zombie worker was still dutifully guarding the inner side of the enclosure wall. Mu Shan squatted in front of the zombie worker and tried to ask about the activity on the 24th Floor while she had been out.
The zombie’s rotting, bluish-black skin and upturned eyes seemed to ponder for a moment before it suddenly opened its mouth wide: “Heh heh—ah!”
It let out a meaningless roar, flailed its arms, and shook its head wildly, just like a celebrity putting on a show.
“Alright.”
Mu Shan snapped its dislocated jaw back into place. “I get it.”
As soon as she spoke, the zombie worker obediently hugged its knees and sat down again, silent as a stone.
After spending enough time with them, she could guess the zombie worker’s intentions. The howling and flailing were one of the signs that monsters had appeared, meaning ghosts had passed by while she was away, but they hadn’t attacked the safe house.
Mu Shan closed the sunroom door and kept the basement’s double safety doors open, so she could hear any movements from outside at any time.
Time approached noon. Mu Shan grabbed a bottle of stored cooled boiled water, put rice in a pot, and started preparing lunch.
The dish was dried shiitake mushroom stewed chicken legs. Lacking fresh ginger and scallions to remove the gaminess, she had soaked the frozen chicken legs in cold water since morning. The meat turned white, and a layer of blood water accumulated at the bottom of the basin. This way, there wouldn’t be as much foam when blanching.
In the stew pot, the chopped chicken legs and dried shiitake mushrooms tumbled in the boiling broth. Mu Shan lifted the lid slightly, letting the white steam “gurgle” out.
A door-opening sound came from outside the safe house. She lightened her movements; it seemed like the flower gardener Lin Kuan from next door was out throwing away trash.
She heard his dragging, unsteady footsteps. Lin Kuan walked a few steps, paused for a long time—probably twenty or thirty seconds—then turned back. Finally, there was the sound of the door closing gently.
Mu Shan glanced at the fragrant stew pot in front of her and added some glass noodles to it.
While the white rice cooked, the mushroom chicken was already tender and aromatic. She quickly served herself a bowl, then poured the rest into a large basin and put it in the fridge.
Due to the debuff in the instance that caused “food to spoil quickly,” nothing could be left outside the fridge.
She finished the meal quickly; it wasn’t even noon yet.
In traditional Chinese thinking, noon had the strongest “yang energy.” Although the skyscraper was still dim and gloomy with gray haze outside the windows, it should be much “safer” compared to nighttime.
Mu Shan closed the double safety doors, turned on all the lights in the room, grabbed a change of clothes, and quickly went into the bathroom to clean up.
Foam formed small swirls at her feet and flowed into the drain.
The mirror was fogged up. For a moment, Mu Shan seemed to see an extra handprint on it. When she wiped the water from her face, it turned out to be another illusion.
There were too many supernatural phenomena in this horror instance, and these harmless “little pranks” wouldn’t be blocked by the sunroom’s defensive array.
Mu Shan finished her shower quickly.
She soaked her dirty clothes in a basin, then came out to check the outside situation again. The elevator doors were tightly closed, the flower gardener was quiet, and only the zombie worker had shuffled from the right side of the enclosure wall to the left.
She turned off the desk lamp and camping lamp, returned to the bathroom, and planned to wash the dirty clothes.
The quiet environment amplified all sounds. Besides the water and foam in the basin, noises from outside also reached her ears.
It sounded like someone was talking.
Rustling, like whispers right by her ear.
She stopped scrubbing the clothes, dried her hands, and slowly stood up.
The closer she got to the sunroom, the clearer the low murmuring voices became. The air temperature dropped gradually, and water droplets condensed on the mirror.
Mu Shan picked up the laser sword right by the door. She checked the array eye of the defensive array; it was operating normally with no durability loss.
The zombie worker outside made uneasy footsteps, pacing back and forth.
She willed it to stay still and lightly approached the peephole in the sunroom door.
The voices outside chattered on endlessly, kept very low.
But she couldn’t see a single soul.
A sound came from the elevator shaft—the elevator car being pulled by steel cables. Mu Shan gripped her weapon tightly in tension.
With a “ding,” the elevator stopped at the 24th Floor.
[……]
[Hungry, want to eat incense, incense]
[Really want to come back to life]
The moment the elevator doors opened, she finally made out the murmurs from inside.
Her body tensed instantly. Although separated by an entry door and a layer of enclosure wire mesh, Mu Shan still felt like she had made eye contact with whatever was in the elevator.
An old man and an old woman.
Both barefoot, wearing satin burial clothes. Their eyes had no pupils, and they spat out long, bloodless tongues. The mumbling she heard was because the two ghosts had trouble speaking.
They didn’t step out, just stood quietly in the elevator. Their faces showed age, deathly pallor, and emerging corpse spots with a rotting stench.
Mu Shan didn’t dare move.
A few seconds later, the old man in the elevator suddenly raised one arm. Its bluish-gray hand with black nails pointed toward Mu Shan’s safe house, making her heart sink.
Then, the old man and old woman forced their stiff, swollen legs forward, tentatively trying to step out.
Mu Shan couldn’t sit still anymore. She flashed out the door and stood on the inner side of the enclosure wall, pulling out the peashooter. A string of green peas “pop pop pop” shot out.
The peas, which were unstoppable against zombies or bugs, passed right through the old man and old woman like bubbles, hitting the elevator doors with a muffled “bang.”
Mu Shan’s heart chilled.
Provoked by her actions, the two old ghosts’ already terrifying faces twisted further. Their mouths gaped downward, tongues fully drooping with only a thin flap of skin connecting them.
They quickened their stiff bodies, lurching toward her one stiff step at a time. But the dead couldn’t bend their knee joints anymore; they were rigid like ice blocks.
【Eight Gates Golden Lock Array under attack
Energy -1
Energy -1】
In desperation, Mu Shan yanked something out of her backpack—a last resort.
“Thud thud thud—” The small wooden hammer struck the wooden fish, producing rhythmic sounds.
【Rebirth Mantra (Auxiliary)
Playing reduces resentment value of spirit entities
Played via wooden fish: Effect +10%】
The wooden fish sound, harmless to human ears, made the two old ghosts glitch like broken machines. Their movements slowed, each step requiring three pauses, their ferocious faces full of unwillingness.
Sweat beaded on Mu Shan’s forehead as she quickened the tapping on the wooden fish.
But soon she realized the rebirth mantra only delayed the ghosts’ advance; it couldn’t make them return to the elevator.
Just as the two elderly ghosts were about to reach the enclosure wall’s edge, their movements suddenly halted.
Mu Shan saw panic on their faces.
The next second, the dead things retreated into the elevator car at extreme speed, and the doors closed rapidly.
The light in the elevator vanished, plunging the 24th Floor back into darkness, but Mu Shan didn’t feel safe.
Behind her, the zombie worker trembled violently and let out a shrill warning. Something even more terrifying than the old ghosts was approaching.
But the elevator had already gone downstairs.
…Where had this thing come from?