The woman pushed open the door and glanced at the girl sleeping soundly in bed.
After confirming several times that the girl hadn't left the room, she closed the door.
"Yingzhi? Is that my name?"
Zhao Yingzhi lay on the bed, thinking back to the woman calling her name outside the door just now.
She didn’t rush to get up from the bed. The woman was still outside, as she could hear the footsteps not leaving.
Suddenly, the door slammed open.
The woman's sharp eyes glared at Zhao Yingzhi, and after confirming that there were no abnormalities, she closed the door and left.
This time, Zhao Yingzhi heard the footsteps of the woman leaving and slowly opened her eyes.
"Are they really my family?"
Zhao Yingzhi got up and walked to the window. Through the window, she saw a gloomy sky and a neighborhood with high greenery coverage.
She was on the first floor of the building, and the area was exceptionally quiet, with no sounds of insects or birds.
Not far away on the park path, a boy with his head lowered seemed to be searching for something.
That boy’s face looked somewhat familiar, as if she had seen him somewhere before.
At this moment, the boy also noticed her.
The instant their gazes met—
"Ah~!"
A piercing pain surged into her head.
Azure Isle Academy—
Strange World—
Twenty-five players—
Your identity is—
These strange memories surged in like a tide, and in an instant, she remembered many things.
"I am Zhao Yingzhi. This is the Strange World..."
"My job is a real estate agent..."
"My real identity is—A killer!"
---
---
"Was there someone just now?"
Li Ran looked at a small window on the first floor of Building 5 on the right side.
He had seen a woman standing there just now, but before he could get a clear look, the woman disappeared.
"Strange, no prompts?"
Li Ran wondered. Usually, there would be prompts when seeing someone in the neighborhood, but this time there was nothing.
"Maybe it was too quick, I didn't get a good look."
Li Ran didn’t think too much about it and resumed his "garbage collection" journey.
He still had several tasks pending.
At the top of his list was the marriage certificate hidden by his wife.
He was searching the neighborhood for it, hoping to find some task items along the way.
In addition to the marriage certificate, there was also the subsequent task of "Finding the True Murderer" from Grandma Mi, and the quest item for the "Real Mirror."
The "Finding the True Murderer" task was troublesome; it just required searching.
The back street was complex, densely packed with houses, and the area was chaotic. Finding one murderer in such a place was like looking for a needle in a haystack, so this task could be postponed for now.
"Should I try the 'Real Mirror' task now?"
Li Ran wasn’t sure if the "Real Mirror" would trigger the rooftop madman's task, but he was willing to give it a try.
He glanced up at the balcony of Building 3, 11th floor. "I envy that fool’s first day; even in a dungeon, he’s still so carefree."
Li Ran wasn’t worried about Lu Zhaohui being drained of his yang energy and dying. He had already bought health supplements to strengthen his kidneys before that happened.
What concerned him more was Song Linjia. She hadn’t been absent from the neighborhood meeting point a few days ago, but today, she was missing. Calls and texts went unanswered, as if they had fallen into a bottomless pit.
This was obviously unusual, and it seemed she had encountered some trouble.
"Forget it, I’ll go meet that madman first."
With that thought, Li Ran headed toward Building 4.
---
Arriving at the elevator.
"Ding~!"
The elevator arrived.
Li Ran entered and pressed the button for the 21st floor.
The elevator door slowly closed, and the elevator began to descend.
"Eh?"
Li Ran frowned slightly. The elevator, which should have gone up, was instead going down?
"Ding!"
The elevator reached the second underground floor.
"Underground second floor?" Li Ran’s brow furrowed.
When he first took Li Ziyang home, he drove into the underground parking lot, and he remembered it only had a first underground floor.
How come this time, there was a second underground floor at Building 4?
Had Building 4 designed two underground parking levels?
As the elevator doors opened, a cold wind rushed into the elevator, as if it were a chilly, rainy winter night, freezing to the bone.
But Li Ran’s physical condition was drastically different now, and this cold wind couldn't scare him.
It was obvious that this second underground floor was eerie.
Looking outside the elevator, all he saw was pitch black, as dark as night, unable to even see if it was a parking lot.
"What is this place?" Li Ran wondered in his mind.
He didn’t plan to get off. He still had a healthy respect for the unknown.
(“Dark Palace: A mysterious, dark area. It’s said that only those who have passed away can enter.”)
The prompt appeared accordingly.
"Damn!"
Li Ran never expected the second underground floor of Building 4 to be such a place.
Staring into the endless darkness, he immediately felt as though he had entered the underworld.
This kind of ghostly place—if you don’t have to come, don’t come. Just the dark, lifeless atmosphere could scare anyone to death.
Li Ran decisively pressed the close button, wanting to get away from this cursed place.
"Bang!"
Just as the elevator door was about to close, a pale woman’s hand suddenly slammed against the elevator door.
The hand was so white it didn’t look human, the pale skin showing visible black veins beneath, with long, black nails. The sleeve at her wrist was a striking red.
A woman in a red dress...
Li Ran’s face changed slightly, and a terrifying image involuntarily flashed in his mind. He took a step back.
He quickly drew out the Thunder Dagger, holding it behind him, his sharp eyes locked onto the extremely pale hand.
"Sorry, I didn’t scare you, did I?"
Once the elevator door touched the obstacle, it automatically opened. A woman in a red dress with wet hair stood at the elevator entrance.
Her voice was normal, but in this eerie environment, it sounded somewhat chilling.
Moreover, her appearance in that red dress was terrifying.
"It’s raining, but I made it just in time."
The woman carried two take-out bags and stepped into the elevator. Under the elevator’s light, Li Ran saw that she wasn’t wearing a red dress but a red raincoat. The long raincoat covered her boots, and beneath the wet hair was a pale face. Her lips trembled with a bluish tint, yet her face was full of apology.
"My grandfather used to be a fisherman and saved a thousand-year-old sea turtle. When I was born, a fortune teller came to our family and said our family had accumulated virtue, that someone in the family would eventually wear a yellow gown. Now, I’ve finally achieved that."
The woman lifted the red raincoat, revealing a yellow take-out uniform underneath. She joked cheerfully, her mood clearly good.
"Don’t look at me like that. There are plenty of women delivering take-out. Haven’t you seen one before?" The woman glanced at Li Ran, switched the two take-out bags to one hand, and pulled a dry towel from her pocket with the free hand.
The woman appeared to be in her thirties, with a fresh, pleasing appearance. Her wet hair, sticking to her pale face, gave her a slightly haggard and weathered look. But her cheerful demeanor and the smile on her face made her seem light-hearted.
"Has it started raining outside?" Li Ran asked.
Li Ran remembered that it hadn’t been raining when he entered the elevator, and in such a short time, how could the woman have gotten so soaked?
Clearly, something didn’t add up. Li Ran looked at the woman.
(Delivery Worker: Yang Ping)
(A-Class Spirit Infected)
(Spiritual Power: 1200)
(She died after an accident while rushing to deliver during a sudden storm, with an overwhelming number of orders. She had been working hard to support her family.)
(Prompt: She is still trying to earn a living. If she realizes she’s already dead, she will kill everyone in her path.)
(Prompt: If you help her deliver the remaining orders, you might gain something unexpected.)
(End of chapter)