DA chapter 14

 

The cat was just about to howl when its whole body was suddenly lifted up and its face fell into a cold hand. It could not open its mouth and failed to howl.

The frightened cat looked at the hand pinching its head. The long, distinct finger bones were visible through the skin, which was bulging slightly due to raised veins. The smell of soap on the hand drifted into the cat’s nose—it was Lin Jia’s hand.

The cat looked up and saw Lin Jia breathing heavily.

After the flashlight was turned on, the single beam of light eased Lin Jia’s stress reaction to the darkness.

The cat licked its lips, wanting to whimper and ask, “Are you feeling better?”

Lin Jia shook his head at the cat, telling it not to make a sound.

The cat stared at Lin Jia. His face was still pale, and a thin layer of sweat covered his forehead. When he breathed, it looked like only air was going in, without coming out.

After ensuring the cat wouldn’t cry out, Lin Jia finally released it. He chose a tricky angle so he could see the gap under the door and aimed the phone light at it.

The cat was startled by Lin Jia’s bold act of courting death, thinking Lin Jia was still crazy, but when Lin Jia shot it a warning look, the cat stopped moving—seems like he was feeling better.

The cat had kept the flashlight on for quite a while, and the red eye at the bottom of the door had been observing the room. Yet, it had not moved further. Most likely, the dead were not sensitive to light.

Because of that, Lin Jia shone the light directly at the gap under the door.

Since things were already like this, it was better to see more clearly—maybe he could even find a clue.

But just as the light swept toward the gap under the door, the red eye disappeared.

Lin Jia raised his gaze and stared silently at the door.

A rustling sound came from outside the door. It was faster than before—very fast, as if sped up tenfold.

If the person had died from falling down the stairwell, their body must have been severely damaged while rolling down. It wouldn’t fall apart completely, but almost; at the very least, it couldn’t stand up. Judging by the state of decomposition, the corpse was crawling on the ground. The “rustling” sound was probably the sound of body parts scraping against the floor while crawling—hands or elbows, perhaps—because Lin Jia could not imagine how the dead could drag its stiff body forward otherwise.

The rustling sound came again, and the eye under the door disappeared, meaning the dead had started dragging itself again.

No one knew who the dead had targeted.

The cat thought differently from Lin Jia. The cat had also heard the dead rustling away just now, but that was not the truth.

Not only had the dead not left, but it was still outside Room 103, using its eye to observe the room.

The cat believed the dead was repeating the same trick.

It was only after a drawn-out scream came from the apartment that the cat abandoned the idea that the dead was stubbornly guarding the door.

The person and the cat lowered their eyes, thinking about whose scream it belonged to. Due to extreme terror, the voice had changed shape, and with noisy rain covering it, it was difficult to determine who was in trouble just from the tone.

The only things certain were that it was a male voice and that there was only one scream.

It could have been Buzzcut, Liu Ying, or the high school boy.

The rain was still falling, showing no sign of stopping.

The floor of Room 103 became wetter and wetter, until the dark wetness completely covered the lighter floor color, dryness no longer existed. The room carried the fishy stench characteristic of rainy days, which made people nauseous.

Leaving the room before the rain stopped likely meant death. Now was not the time to check on those in trouble. The only thing they could do was wait and listen passively.

After the scream came even louder banging sounds. It sounded like the dead had started repeating their death by falling again, but it was hard to say. Without seeing it personally, it was impossible to know whether it was the dead rolling down the stairwell or someone who had been alive before the rain started.

The rain and strange sounds continued, filling the entire apartment with a heavy, suppressed atmosphere.

No one knew how much time passed before the rain gradually weakened and finally stopped after a long while. The sky outside returned to its original appearance—it was night.

The disaster paused temporarily.

The corpse would not remain in place for long; it would eventually disappear. Buzzcut said that it was swallowed in one bite by the Fishman.

If that scream meant someone was in trouble, Lin Jia needed to check on them.

Corpses could speak; their condition of death would silently tell the process of death.

The power in the apartment returned, and Lin Jia twisted the door open and walked out.

Room 103 was closest to Fishman and the stairwell. As soon as he stepped out, he could see the corpse—lying on the last few steps in a falling posture.

The corpse’s face could not be seen clearly, and Lin Jia did not want to touch it. Judging by the clothes, the one who died was the high school boy. It seemed Buzzcut had refused the high school boy’s plea to huddle together before the rain.

Lin Jia lifted his gaze.

There was a clear trail of blood in the stairwell. He stepped up the stairs, following the blood trail, while the cat followed closely behind him, avoiding the blood. The smell of blood was overpowering, and the cat had to resist the urge to vomit several times before finally stopping.

Lin Jia followed the blood trail to the third floor.

As he had imagined, the fall began from the highest step on the third floor. Lin Jia looked at the tightly shut door of Room 303, then retreated to the first floor.

After he returned, the others who had been hiding in their rooms came out one by one.

However, the high school boy’s corpse had disappeared, leaving only Fishman smacking its lips.

Lin Jia glanced at Fishman. Fishman was expressionless and looked dissatisfied with the food, which was no longer fresh. Its deeply protruding eyeballs were fixed on everyone. Compared to corpses, it preferred to eat fresh living people.

Following Lin Jia’s gaze, Liu Ying also looked at Fishman. That one glance made all his hairs stand up. Fishman’s upper body was no longer fixed to the wooden frame like a scarecrow. Now, it could move. Its hands twisted its neck and picked meat scraps from between its teeth. Then, it tossed them back into its mouth and swallowed.

Its arms reached toward everyone several times. If not for its feet, which were still fixed to the floor, it might have rushed over like a zombie, hugged someone, and bitten them.

“At the latest, by tomorrow or the day after, it will…” Liu Ying’s expression became terrible. He did not dare look at Fishman again, lowering his head in fear. “Completely mutate.”

It was extremely bad news, but they had only just gotten one key clue about Soup Base. They had not discovered anything more from that clue and were trapped by it. Everyone feared for their own safety.

Sister Fang saw Lin Jia coming from the stairwell and guessed that he had gone to investigate the source of the blood.

They had come out of their rooms too late and had only seen the bloodstains, not the corpse. They didn’t know who was in trouble or how it happened. Just as she was about to ask Lin Jia if he knew anything, Buzzcut, who arrived a moment later, shouted, “Talk in the room!”

Sister Fang immediately fell silent, glancing fearfully at Fishman.

Then she looked at Lin Jia. Whether they talked in the room depended on Lin Jia’s willingness.

It was still nighttime, and no new questions had come up yet. Talking in the hall would be like pushing oneself into a fire pit.

Lin Jia chose Room 102, the room closest to the stairwell.

Everyone followed closely behind.

As soon as Lin Jia entered the room, Sister Fang asked impatiently, “How did that child die?”

Anyone could see that the high school boy had rolled down the stairs. What Sister Fang really wanted to ask was what the high school boy had done to be targeted and killed by the dead.

Lin Jia: “Don’t know.”

“Better talk about what all of you did when it rained.”

No one knew what the high school boy did; there was no third eye among them. His corpse only proved that he died from falling. However, revealed nothing about how he provoked the dead.

These people were still alive, though, meaning what they did during the rain was safe. Finding overlap in the movements of the living was similar to the method of avoiding death: “not being caught by Room 303’s surveillance.”

After understanding this, Buzzcut looked at Lin Jia with admiration. One by one, the others understood as well. Only the cat thought hard on its own. The high school boy died in the rain, so what was the meaning of Lin Jia asking others?

Buzzcut spoke first. “I forced myself to sleep.”

He insisted on that logic—without enough rest, there was no way to deal with tomorrow.

Liu Ying took out his phone again. This time, earphone wires were wrapped around it. “After hearing those strange sounds, I put on earphones.”

Turn the volume to maximum, and one could deceive oneself that everything was peaceful.

Xiao Mei looked gratefully at Sister Fang and said, “I…I cried from fear last night. Sister Fang kept comforting me.”

Sister Fang nodded, proving what Xiao Mei said was true.

After everyone had finished speaking, their eyes fell on Lin Jia.

Lin Jia said lightly, “Petting the cat.”

Lin Jia was lying. The cat looked up at him.

Knowing the cat wouldn’t reveal that it could speak in front of everyone, Lin Jia wasn’t afraid.

He could not tell others about his fear of darkness causing his consciousness to drift—such a flaw and weakness. Anyway, among these statements, he found no overlap:

Sleeping, listening to music, crying, and comforting—where was the overlap?!

Even when he added his own experience with drifting consciousness, there was still no overlap.

What was the way to avoid death? Because there was no overlap, no answer could be found, and the circumstances surrounding the death became even more confusing. Perhaps they were still alive only because the dead had not chosen them yet. No one could say what would happen in the next rain.

Everyone immediately felt disappointed, but that was natural when you thought about it. How could the realization of a key clue so easily avoid death?

Liu Ying painfully held his head. “We can’t figure out Soup Base. We don’t know how to avoid death. Fishman is about to completely mutate. What should we do?”

Fishman’s mutation progress caused panic. Buzzcut looked out the window at the sky and said, “When day breaks, we have to ask a new question. We need to know if the deaths in this apartment are related to the neighbors.”

Xiao Mei’s expression tightened. “But the dead was just manifested, and now we have to ask a question again for a new manifestation to appear? There’s… there’s more than one neighbor…”

“Or are we supposed to wait for Fishman to eat us one by one?!” Buzzcut roared. “Not asking means death. Asking might mean survival!”

Xiao Mei had no words to refute this and could only cover her face and cry.

Buzzcut informed Lin Jia, “After daybreak, I plan to ask a question.”

Lin Jia neither agreed nor disagreed. After glancing at the sky, he said, “There’s still some time before daybreak.”

Buzzcut paused for a moment. “What do you want to do?”

Lin Jia: “There are only three questions. Don’t we need to arrange them reasonably and ask them precisely?”

If there were another way, Buzzcut wouldn’t want to ask a question about the neighbors. He knew Lin Jia had a plan and quickly asked, “What should we do?”

If it meant staying alive, they would cooperate with Lin Jia unconditionally.

After sensing Buzzcut’s attitude, Lin Jia said lightly, “Room 303.”

“Room 303?” Buzzcut froze. “Delete the videos?”

Sister Fang asked. “Didn’t you say blogger Xiao Wu refused to come out?”

Lin Jia corrected him. “Look for clues about the dead. Logical questions do not need to be asked. Questions that cannot be sorted out or understood can be asked after daybreak.”

Xiao Mei asked, “Why go to Room 303?”

Liu Ying: “What connection does blogger Xiao Wu have with the dead?”

Everyone asked one after another. Since he would need to answer them later, Lin Jia gave one unified answer: “A room in the apartment only becomes vacant when someone dies. Whose room did blogger Xiao Wu, who arrived later, move into?”

Everyone paused. Xiao Mei’s face changed. “It was…the dead’s room.”

Liu Ying quickly asked, “But blogger Xiao Wu has already moved in. Would there still be traces of the dead? Going to Room 303 for traces that most likely do not exist, isn’t that… isn’t that courting death?”

Lin Jia asked back, “Aren’t you the one anxious about Fishman mutating? What if there are? Can you say for sure?”

A trace of embarrassment flashed across Liu Ying’s face.

Buzzcut finally decided: “Go! Anyone who doesn’t want to die, move your ass and start searching! Those who want to die, raise your hands. I’ll help you fulfill your wish.”

With Buzzcut making threats like that, no one objected.

Sister Fang asked, “But how do we go? There’s surveillance in front of Room 303.”

Lin Jia had previously mentioned that there was a problem with the surveillance at Room 303’s door, so they did not dare destroy it directly.

Lin Jia parted his lips: “Cut the power.”

The surveillance camera in front of Room 303 was fixed in place. Unlike a pinhole camera, a high-power camera like that needed electricity to work.

Liu Ying glanced at Buzzcut and asked nervously, “What if there are cameras inside Room 303, too? Wouldn’t that deliver video straight to blogger Xiao Wu?”

Buzzcut cursed. “Are you stupid? If we’re going to Room 303 anyway, just delete those videos. The key is not the surveillance, but how to get blogger Xiao Wu to open the door.”

Last time, when they bought time for Lin Jia, Buzzcut and the others were probably already on blogger Xiao Wu’s blacklist. After a whole day passed, Room 303 remained quiet. It was unlikely that blogger Xiao Wu would open the door just because they knocked.

The high school boy knew how to unlock doors, but he was already dead.

The door wasn’t high quality, but they couldn’t force their way in because blogger Xiao Wu was also a materialized NPC and not completely harmless.

Since Lin Jia had proposed going to Room 303, Buzzcut believed that Lin Jia must have a way to get inside.

Lin Jia: “There is another option.”

Everyone asked, “What is it?”

Lin Jia: “Act out an eye-catching scene.”

In the age of the internet, many people have appeared who will do anything to chase popularity and attention. Blogger Xiao Wu’s job was to film videos and post them online. Naturally, he liked the more eye-catching the content was, and the more traffic it got.

If they delivered material right in front of blogger Xiao Wu, how could blogger Xiao Wu refuse?

After understanding, Buzzcut asked, “Then what should we do?”

Lin Jia looked at Xiao Mei and Buzzcut one by one. “A woman discovers her boyfriend is cheating on her.”

In that moment, the roles were already decided.

Then he looked at Liu Ying, his tone flat. “The cheating partner turns out to be the male mistress.”

Liu Ying: “…”

Buzzcut: “…”

The cat: “…”

He had not finished explaining the scene. His gaze fell on Sister Fang. “The woman and her mother caused a scene at the cheating scene.”

Sister Fang: “…”

Xiao Mei: “…”

The cat found it hard to describe. Who knew what the dignified CEO of a listed group watched all day?

Everyone coughed dryly. Buzzcut awkwardly asked, “Is there any other eye-catching drama that can gain attention and traffic?”

Lin Jia: “Yes.”

It was obvious that no one wanted to act in such a melodramatic plot, so they asked for specifics.

Lin Jia said: “Stirring up regional discrimination, intensifying class conflict, increasing industry contempt, smearing other people’s beliefs, criticizing from a low angle, and casting malicious gazes …and so on.”

He lifted his eyes and looked at everyone. “These are traffic material in some people’s eyes. Which one do you choose?”

Everyone looked at each other. Sister Fang laughed awkwardly. “Forget it… let’s just… use the previous one.”

The others thought the same.

Xiao Mei said, “Should we rehearse first? I’m afraid… I’m afraid my acting will be too fake, and blogger Xiao Wu will notice. Then, he won’t come out.”

Being cautious was wise, so they nodded in agreement.

Buzzcut confirmed everyone’s roles. He pointed at himself and then at Xiao Mei. “I play the boyfriend. You play the girlfriend. He plays the mistress. Sister Fang plays the mother demanding an explanation…”

Suddenly, Buzzcut thought of something and looked at Lin Jia and the cat squatting by his feet. “Then what about you?”

Lin Jia: “A passerby taking the cat out.”

Buzzcut: “…”

 

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