Free Web NovelChapter 171: Chapter 139: Fu Tailan: Apartment 2nd Floor
Going it alone certainly had its endless advantages, but it wasn’t without its drawbacks.
For instance, after Fu Tailan took out his phone and snapped a few pictures—CLICK, CLICK—of the residents’ mailboxes, he stood alone in the silence and couldn’t help but miss Remy a little.
’If she were here, she’d definitely be saying things like "As expected of the supervisor," "So meticulous with the details," or "A normal person wouldn’t have thought to take pictures."’ Whether she meant it or not, it was always nice to hear.
After all, the mailboxes had room numbers and names on them. Who knew? They might come in handy later.
Fu Tailan put his phone away and looked around, feeling the regret of a famous actor with no audience. ’What good was being a professional if there was no one around to admire my work?’
’Whatever. Remy isn’t here, but there are still two future victims up ahead. I’ll just show them the photos after I snatch the Illusion.’
Fu Tailan glanced over his shoulder.
The staircase was located at the opposite end of the building from the main entrance. This meant he had to cross the entire first floor, passing every single apartment door, just to reach it—a distortion that must have been created by the Nest.
Normally, residential buildings weren’t designed to force you past a row of other people’s homes just to get upstairs; it was not only inconvenient, but the residents would also have to put up with unnecessary noise.
In contrast, the "elevator" was in the correct location—pity there was no elevator in that correct location.
Ever since Fu Tailan had entered, every apartment had been silent. Underneath the doors, it was pitch black.
If he listened closely, the only sound in the entire building was his own breathing. He couldn’t hear any movement from Mai Mingle and the other person upstairs. The broadcast announcement about renovations, which had been repeating when he first came in, had also faded into silence, as if it had never happened at all.
’They can’t be dead already, can they?’
Fu Tailan walked toward the stairwell, his steps as silent as possible. His peripheral vision remained fixed on the closed apartment doors beside him.
But his caution seemed excessive. He reached the stairwell without incident. The first-floor apartments remained deathly still; nothing happened.
’Looks like ignoring that soft call from behind the door of Room 103 was the right move after all.’
Standing before the stairs, he shrugged off his backpack. While keeping a wary eye on his surroundings, he reached inside and fumbled around for a moment.
The backpack issued by the Morgan Family was fully equipped.
After Fu Tailan took over the Hunters’ affairs, he had added "disposable phones" to the requisition list. What he took out now was exactly that: a simple phone worth no more than a few dozen dollars.
He went to the ringtone settings, picked a random tune, and the phone began to play it endlessly.
Like the guns, knives, signal transmitters, flashlights, and other gear, everything in his backpack was of a standard model, purchased in bulk by the Morgan Family. The items were only handed out to individuals upon entering a Nest; afterward, anything unused had to be returned to the supply department.
This wasn’t because the Morgan Family was stingy.
It was because this way, both in terms of ownership and in name, the items they carried belonged to the concept of "the Morgan Family," not to them as private property. He left the disposable phone on the floor. Even if he never had the chance to retrieve it, Fu Tailan wouldn’t have to worry about it creating a future liability for him.
Amidst the tinny, looping ringtone, Fu Tailan tapped the floor around him with the toe of his shoe before stepping onto the stairs.
After climbing two steps, he finally had to face his mistake.
’...I really shouldn’t have taken so many painkillers.’
It had been fine walking on level ground, but now, climbing the stairs step by step, Fu Tailan was filled with a faint regret. His legs felt like two pieces of overcooked ziti—not only were they limp, but they also seemed to want to slide right out of his hip sockets. Before taking each step, he had to make a conscious effort to hold them in place.
’Oh well, there’s still plenty of time,’ he consoled himself. ’I’ll just take it slow.’
’Worst case, I’ll just change the plan. Instead of me waiting for Mai Mingle on the sixth floor, she can wait for me. As long as she doesn’t find out, the result will be the sa—’
Fu Tailan snapped his head around.
The open space at the bottom of the stairs was still dim and silent.
The ringtone, which should have been playing continuously, had stopped.
He hadn’t climbed far. He could still see the phone lying where he’d left it, looking perfectly normal.
Fu Tailan hesitated, then started back down. Just as he was about to reach the first floor, the ringtone suddenly blared out again. The shock jolted him, clearing his head a little.
’I can’t hear it when I go up, only when I come back down...’
’So the sound on each floor is confined to that floor? The sounds are isolated, unable to travel between levels.’
If that was the case, it would explain why it was so quiet upstairs where Mai Mingle and her companion were. Even if they were fighting a dinosaur right now, he wouldn’t hear a thing.
Fu Tailan gripped the handrail and stared at the first-floor landing for several seconds.
’...Why is it designed like this?’
A moment’s thought gave rise to a rather grim theory.
’No, wait. If that theory is true—how long have I been on these stairs?’
’I have to get moving. Now.’
"Jeez, can’t relax for a second,"
he grumbled, quickly turning around and commanding his noodle-like legs to climb the stairs as fast as they could. As he went, he kept glancing back.
The first floor remained quiet, with no other signs of anything unusual.
’If there’s no problem below, what about the stairs above?’
Fu Tailan looked up and froze.
His vision was filled with a flat, smooth ceiling. The underside of the next flight of stairs, which he’d expected to see, was missing.
’Strange, where did the stairs go?’
The question had barely crossed his mind when Fu Tailan found the answer.
He glanced at the stairs beneath his feet and muttered to himself, "Are they trying to give people the runaround?"
The staircase for the first floor was at the opposite end from the main entrance, forcing people to cross the entire floor and pass every apartment. Following that logic, the second floor’s staircase was probably the same. freewёbn૦νeɭ.com
If the stairs from the first to the second floor were on the east side, then the stairs from the second to the third floor were likely at the far west end...
This apartment building had no intention of letting anyone go straight up or down the stairs. You had to traverse every single floor to reach the next staircase. This layout was more thorough than many museums, ensuring you didn’t miss a single crisis. How annoying.
Grumbling aside, Fu Tailan quickened his pace and hurried toward the second floor. As he stepped onto the last stair, he couldn’t resist looking back.
The stairwell behind him was empty; the first-floor landing was no longer visible. ’That phone is probably still dutifully playing its ringtone, huh?’
Fu Tailan stepped out onto the second floor.
At almost the exact same moment, his ears caught a very faint sound, like a power switch being flipped.
In the next second, a tide of miscellaneous noises washed over Fu Tailan from the hallway: people talking, footsteps, doors opening and closing, the sounds of chopping vegetables and washing clothes, laughter, arguments, lectures, snoring...
He looked up, slightly stunned.
On the second floor, every apartment door was wide open.
Peeking into the first few apartments from their doorways, he saw a television standing a few feet from the entrance of each one.
Light and shadow flickered across the screens, the glow from the monitors illuminating the hallway. They seemed to be playing movies or TV shows—fragments of dialogue like "How can you expect me to believe your promise?" and "Xiaomei! Get the door, your mom’s home!" jumbled together in a chaotic mess.
All the sounds that had suddenly started were coming from the televisions.
’This is a problem... so there are this many screens on the second floor?’
’Mai Mingle isn’t stupid. She must know I haven’t given up, that I’m still on her tail.’
’She wouldn’t abandon Hai Luwei and run off alone, would she?’
’To escape, she already revealed that her Path is "screens." And from the looks of it, they have to be large screens—at least 24 inches or bigger.’
’When Mai Mingle was being escorted through the Morgan Family offices, she passed plenty of computer monitors and had opportunities to escape. But she ignored them all, waiting until she was in the reception area before diving headfirst into the large TV on the wall playing an advertisement. The biggest difference between them, of course, was the size.’
’It’s true, it’s hard to imagine how a person could crawl into a screen that’s too small.’
’Things related to Nests are always strangely logical in the most unexpected ways.’
’The TV screens behind these apartment doors are all bigger than 24 inches. If Mai Mingle wanted to leave, she definitely could...’
’But she’s a good person. Maybe she wouldn’t have the heart to abandon the injured Hai Luwei and leave by herself?’
’Whether she’s gone or not, I’ll have to go upstairs and look for her to find out.’
The stairs to the third floor were, as expected, at the other end of the second floor, visible in the distance. And just as he’d thought, to get to them, he had to pass through the hallway lined with apartments, walking past one television screen after another.
"Hey, young man, wait a moment."
On the television in Room 201, a woman in her fifties or sixties with heavy, drooping eyelids suddenly turned her head toward the hallway and called out to Fu Tailan, who was standing outside the TV.
’...She can see me?’
"I’m a very spontaneous person, I go by first impressions. The moment I saw you, I could tell you’re not a good person," the woman said with a smile she couldn’t contain. "I like that a lot."
’Spontaneous or not, she’s definitely rude.’
Fu Tailan didn’t answer. He didn’t even look directly at the television, just stood by the door of Room 201, pretending he hadn’t heard.
Unexpectedly, the TV woman’s next words made him realize something.
Mai Mingle was still in this building.
She probably couldn’t get back to Blackmoor City through these TVs.
"I’m telling you a secret because I like you." The woman on the TV leaned closer to the camera, her face eclipsing the screen into a field of shadow. "...Inside the TVs, those are all real worlds."
