Chapter 546: [A Godless World] (14)
[Hahaha, just look at Adrian’s face.]
[But what the hell? Does Ember actually think Adrian is weak?]
[After everything that’s happened, Adrian was the one who got them out of the police station. Sure, he acts weird sometimes, but Ember should know by now that Adrian is anything but ordinary...]
"What the hell are you talking about? I’m not staying home," Adrian protested.
Ember frowned at him before saying in a low voice,
"It’s dangerous out there."
Adrian couldn’t help laughing.
"So because it’s dangerous, you get to go outside while I have to stay here? Is that it?"
Ember pressed his lips together.
"I’m different from you."
[What the hell is wrong with Ember?]
[He just wants to earn the most credits. That’s got to be it.]
[I don’t think Ember’s that kind of person.]
"Are you afraid I’ll die? Hahaha. You really don’t have to worry that much. Try taking care of yourself first," Adrian said with a grin, casually patting Ember on the shoulder.
Keeping a cold expression, Ember pulled Adrian’s hand off his shoulder.
He didn’t argue back. Instead, he simply stared at Adrian, making it perfectly clear that if Adrian refused to agree, he wasn’t leaving either.
"Tch. You’re seriously full of yourself." Adrian rolled his eyes in exasperation before waving him off. "Fine, go."
Only then did Ember let out a quiet sigh of relief.
He walked toward the door, but before leaving, he still couldn’t resist turning back one last time.
"You’d better not go anywhere," he reminded Adrian coldly.
Adrian merely waved a hand without bothering to answer.
A moment later, the door clicked shut.
The Adrian who had been lying on the sofa with his eyes closed immediately opened them.
"Is Ember seriously sick in the head...?" he muttered before springing to his feet.
The livestream chat instantly exploded.
[Hey, hey, hey! What the hell? Didn’t you just promise you’d stay put?!]
[He’s not actually planning to sneak out, is he?]
[Honestly, I think there’s a pretty good chance.]
[Probably not. He already agreed to Ember, didn’t he...?]
Even though he hadn’t opened the livestream chat, Adrian somehow seemed able to read exactly what the viewers were thinking. Without the slightest shame, he sneered,
"Just because I promised doesn’t mean I’ll actually do it. You’re all as naïve as Ember."
[...]
[I forgot. This is the guy who has absolutely no shame.]
[No, it’s just that we’re so used to watching Ember. Ember would never go back on his word, so whenever Adrian is with him, we subconsciously assume he’s the same.]
[That’s such an accurate analysis. I’m crying.]
[What an exaggeration.]
Meanwhile, outside, Ember didn’t rush straight to the sixth floor.
Instead, he first took a quick look over the entirety of Lotus Park.
Under the cover of night, only the lit apartment windows cast dim pools of light into the darkness.
Perhaps it was nothing more than a trick of the mind, but he could almost make out wave after wave of shadowy figures passing in and out through the main entrance.
He didn’t linger for long.
Soon, he made his way up to the sixth floor.
This floor was by far the cleanest, with almost no signs that anyone had ever set foot here.
Following the drowned man’s instructions, Ember slowly walked toward Room 606.
As always, the door stood slightly ajar.
Or rather, aside from Room 601, every apartment on this floor had its door left partially open.
Ember passed one room after another, but unlike the drowned man’s description, simply looking in from the hallway revealed no household shrines whatsoever.
He frowned.
After thinking it over for a moment, he finally stopped in front of Room 606.
Creak...
As the door swung open, it let out a harsh, grating sound—nothing like what one would expect from a luxury apartment.
If anyone had actually been inside, that sudden noise alone would probably have scared them into bolting.
But the apartment was completely empty. There wasn’t a single thing inside.
Ember quickly searched the apartment, carefully inspecting every corner without overlooking even the smallest nook. Yet he still failed to find a single clue.
Either the drowned man had lied to them at the last moment, or the cloaked man had already left.
But how could he have packed up and disappeared so quickly?
Ember couldn’t help recalling the police’s description. The household shrine in Room 601 had vanished just as abruptly...
So where exactly... had that man gone?
Lost in thought, Ember failed to notice that the shadow stretching across the floor beneath him had begun to writhe, slowly taking shape...
On the fourth floor, after confirming that the strange noises had finally disappeared, John almost immediately jumped out of bed.
Elle’s head swayed from the sudden movement, and she couldn’t help complaining,
"John, don’t move so suddenly next time. My brain’s about to fall out."
John curled his lips, as though trying to force a smile, but under the current circumstances, he simply couldn’t.
They had agreed earlier that they would head out tonight to search for clues. He had no idea whether those cowards would actually dare to leave their rooms.
But he had to go.
He refused to believe that his career as an artist would end here.
The door opened.
Just as expected, the hallway was completely empty.
At that very moment, however, the door to the neighboring apartment also opened, and two other players stepped outside.
The moment they saw John, they nearly burst into tears with relief, though neither of them dared to raise their voice.
"That was seriously terrifying just now. I really thought they were going to break the door down!"
The other man muttered,
"But the door’s already cracked now. At most, it’ll only hold for another two days."
It was as though that was the dungeon’s unspoken time limit.
The dungeon was supposedly said to have no time limit, yet everywhere they looked, there seemed to be one. If they didn’t clear it soon enough, the thing that would reach its end would be their own lives.
"Less talking. Let’s move."
John spoke coldly as he headed upstairs.
Along the way, he knocked on quite a few other apartment doors.
After all, the more people he could gather, the better. If something happened, having a few extra cannon fodder around would always improve his own chances of survival.