Chapter 52 – Old Television

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After meeting up with Luo, Xiao Lan and Luo decided that exploring the environment should be their priority, after all, whether it was finding clues to the game or escaping and needing to familiarise themselves with the terrain, these were all based on exploring the environment.

 

Standing in front of the lift, Xiao Lan pressed the downstairs button.

 

The thought of two bodies piled on top of this lift was slightly unsettling, yet the only way to get up and down here was this lift.

 

Xiao Lan has not found any stairs or fire escapes in this building, which is clearly substandard.

 

“Ding…”

 

The lift arrives, and looking in through the gates, it is as old and dirty as ever, empty inside, yet one feels as if something is peering through.

 

Taking a deep breath, Xiao Lan pulled open the gate and entered.

 

Reach out and press floor 3.

 

The lift rattled to life, descending slowly and then creaking to a halt.

 

Because the directions in the lift were broken, Xiao Lan could not tell if it had reached the third floor.
Reaching out and pulling the door open, the two men step out of the lift anyway.

 

The corridor outside is as quiet as ever, about as old as the floors above, still with that uninhabited look.

 

The more Xiao Lan walked, the more he felt something was wrong.

 

Don't the doors here look a little too much alike? Whether it's the wire on the door, the patina of the door's surface, or the few with the New Year's Eve door gods on them, they all seem to look exactly the same as the ones on the fourth floor.

 

Xiao Lan points to the New Year painting and turns his head to give Luo a questioning look.

 

Luo looks at the very faded New Year painting in front of Xiao Lan, with the corners missing, and after a few seconds nods to Xiao Lan: “It's the same as the one we saw before, even the shape of the edges of the missing corners are the same.”

 

This floor is as if it were a replica of the previous one.

 

Xiao Lan had a suspicion in his mind and greeted Luo and the two of them headed for 404.

 

There is indeed a 404 here too, even with the exact same door sign.

 

Through the broken and gaping door Xiao Lan sees the familiar couple inside, stuck together in a familiarly mushy position, the cultist still holding a broken idol, no pregnant woman in sight, wondering if she hasn't come out.

 

Xiao Lan couldn't hide the look of surprise on his face, he did just feel the lift going down, so this was definitely not the fourth floor, how could there be the exact same room, or even the exact same person?

 

And as his eyes turned, he saw something that surprised him even more – the mother and daughter who had died earlier!

 

They look no different from living people at the moment.
The little girl is doing her homework on the table in the living room and her mother is sitting next to her watching, the two of them talking every now and then in what seems like perfect harmony.

 

What's going on at this level?

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Are these people human or ghosts?

 

Xiao Lan frowned at Luo, who also looked pensive, and the two exchanged a look as they quietly retreated from their position at the door of the room.

 

On the way they encountered no other people, it was as if no players existed here at all.

 

After that they went down to the second and ground floors, both of which had the same look as the fourth floor, with the exact same 404 rooms, each of which was also inhabited by those same NPCs.

 

And, even on the ground floor, Xiao Lan sees no such structure as a door at all, as if it were a closed and infinitely circular replica of the fourth floor, with no way for the players to leave.

 

This is an apartment building with no way out.

 

—

 

Getting on the lift, the pair returned to the fourth floor.

 

As the lift goes up, Xiao Lan hears the familiar, if a little nostalgic, noise.

 

“Tell me! Who's that old man on your phone who doesn't show his face?!”

 

“Oh, that's my dad.
……”

 

“Bullshit! Would your dad send you pictures of you working out at the gym!”

 

“Well, that's actually your dad.”

 

“Huh?”

 

“Your father was the one who seduced me first!”

 

“I fucking-“

 

“Ding…”

 

The sound of the lift arriving rang out, interrupting an argument between the two that was about to devolve into another male-female sparring match.

 

The two men turned their heads aggressively, only to see the figure of Xiao Lan slowly pulling open the lift doors, and their entire bodies stiffened.

 

Xiao Lan and Luo came out of the lift, one after the other, and glanced sideways as they passed by.
They were leaning against the wall, holding their heads and covering their faces, as if they had been swept away.

 

Looking at the two quiet as chickens, Xiao Lan was slightly regretful, in fact he was quite eager to know the follow-up of their fight just now, the content sounded very explosive, it seemed ……
to have a big melon to eat ah.

 

Unfortunately, this doesn't look like it's going to be a fight now.

 

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—

 

At dinner time, there were many fewer people at the table.

 

Not only Meng Ze, who hadn't shown up since the morning, but also He Rui, whom Xiao Lan intended to have a friendly chat with, and even the pregnant woman who didn't talk much, didn't come out for dinner.

 

Apart from that, the dinner hour today was unusually quiet.

 

After dinner.

 

After a day of activity and sweating in the hot temperatures, Xiao Lan is ready to take another shower in the bathroom.

 

Because of the previous encounter with the ball, Luo said he would come along with anything.

 

Xiao Lan had no choice but to take him with him and give him a taste of the primitive and inefficient way humans clean themselves.
After teaching Luo how to use the shower, Xiao Lan went to the next room and started to clean up after himself.

 

Within minutes, a mist of water was also steaming up from next door.

 

Xiao Lan watching the super exaggerated water spray: “……”

 

This huge amount of steam ……
Luo This guy is not mixing a boil out of curiosity, I'm afraid?

 

Forget it, he's happy.

 

Xiao Lan is not afraid of boiling water, and since Luo is so skinny, it's healthier to scald him, so he starts to wash himself.

 

This time there was really no little pipsqueak to harass.
It seems the kids have learned that a good ghost can't die with a stick figure and presumably crossed this guy off the target list.

 

Xiao Lan flinches as she returns to the door of her room and prepares to open it.

 

This is because there is a pair of water-stained footprints at the entrance to their room.

 

It looked like a drenched man had been standing in the doorway for a long time, but the footprint had appeared out of nowhere, and there was no sign of walking around.

 

On closer inspection of the door to the room, there were also several wet handprints on it.

 

Is this a ……
aqua?

 

There was also the faint scent of washing powder in the air, and this suspected ghost seemed to be quite clean.

 

But just how many unscientific beings live in this building.

 

—

 

Back in the room.

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It's still early and the power hasn't been cut off in the room, so Xiao Lan turns on the fan to cool off for a while.

 

There is an old TV on the corner pile, stacked in a pile of junk that appears to have blended in with the rags.
As a new-age pauper, Xiao Lan is used to not having or watching a TV and has no intention of turning it on.

 

At this point, an odd hissing sound emerged from the room.

 

It's like an electric current but a bit plausible, making it impossible to think for a moment what the sound is.

 

A few moments later, the TV on the clutter pile, which makes you wonder if it's still on, slowly lights up instead.

 

Xiao Lan just remembered that it was a very old-fashioned kind of sound that only comes out when a big block TV is switched on and hadn't been heard for many years.

 

The picture kept twitching on the TV's old screen.

 

Sometimes flashes of snow, sometimes programmes, between which a distorted human face flashes now and then, as if something is peering inside.

 

The state of affairs was clearly not right and Xiao Lan had no interest in standing around waiting for the face to clear up in the picture.

 

With a long stride of his legs, he rushed directly to the TV, rushed at its power plug and pulled it off with a strong yank.

 

But this non-human seems to be particularly environmentally friendly and comes with his own power generation skills, the presence or absence of power does not affect his play at all.

 

“Zig-zag…”

 

The old TV made an odd noise.

 

Along with the sound, the image on the television is coming into focus, a face distorted and occupying the screen, a face Xiao Lan knows well too, it is – the face of the mother in the lift.

 

The face was now gloomy with a clear grey tinge, her mouth was wide open, and inside it was an unreadable darkness that was coming towards the screen bit by bit.

 

“Cluck ……
Cluck ……”

 

Xiao Lan: “……”

 

Luo looked at Xiao Lan with a look that said, “I told you to bully other children, now the parents are here to take care of you.

 

Xiao Lan tried to reason with her, “Sister, if you have this ability to go to a power plant to benefit society, and lead your daughter to the top of her life, why do you still stay in this small, shabby partitioned room and scare people, don't you think you are too talented?”

 

The TV ghost looks uninterested in getting to the top of her life; she is now clearly only enthusiastic and motivated by the activity of beating Xiao Lan to death.

 

She is still moving forward, her hair already partly poking out of the screen, swinging slowly in Xiao Lan's direction like a flexible snake.

 

Seeing that reasoning was not working, Xiao Lan reluctantly took a different approach.

 

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He just pulled out [it was a dagger covered in poison] from his storage space, not to attack his opponent of course, after all, it only worked on things that were solid.

 

Xiao Lan lifted his hand and in a crisp and brutal movement pried open the lid of the old TV in a single fluid motion, not knowing how many TVs he had dismantled.

 

Looking at the female ghost with a little bit of the top of her head showing, Xiao Lan gave an imperative smile, “Today I'll show you what a little scrap marketer can do!”

 

Then he expertly located the old TV's picture tube and reached out – directly and forcibly – to pull off the electronic gun at the back.

 

According to Xiao Lan's experience in dismantling old appliances, these old tube TVs display images by electrons shot from an electron gun.
This female ghost does not rely on electricity, but seeing as she must wait for the image to stabilise before she can appear, it is clear that she still relies on the picture.

 

“Snort-“, and the old TV's already unstable picture disappeared completely.

 

The grimace of the female ghost also disappeared reluctantly.

 

At the same time, a system alert sounds.

 

“Poverty value increased by 0.005k, Xiao Lan Even this little poverty value is insane”

 

Luo, who had watched the whole thing, couldn't help but applaud: “Bravo, sir.”

 

Xiao Lan smiles modestly, “Life happens, life happens.”

 

Wu Ting, who accidentally walked by the door and was intrigued by the action and watched the whole thing: “Is this how you guys have done it before ……?”

 

Luo smiles: “What's wrong?”

 

It's not right anywhere!

 

Wu Ting looked bewildered: “Great ……
probably because I've seen so little.”

 

The author has something to say.

 

Luo: A real man dares to bathe directly in boiling water.

 

Xiao Lan: I wouldn't dare!

 

Wang Taidi: +1

 

Wang Ke: +2

 

Qi Ning: +3

 

Wu Ting: +4

 

Xiao Lan: You seem to have exposed something upstairs ……