Chapter 827: The Jason in a Suit
Yang Qi thought for a moment and said, "According to a lot of superstitious legends, the people around us aren't human at all—they're cats, dogs, birds, beasts, animals reincarnated as humans. So they're all beasts wearing human skin. Of course, if you want to get even crazier, maybe they're all lizard people, aliens."
Jiang Ran thought about it and rubbed his temples with both hands.
"Whatever. I don't care anymore. I'm dead tired right now. I'm going back to sleep."
"I should be sleeping like a log right now, but no—it's all Manager Wu Meiling's fault. Ah, forget it, she's been good to me, so I can't blame her. Who knew her aunt Flo would come at such an inconvenient time?"
"Yang Qi, you should get some rest too. Stop messing up your day and night like this. Staying up late damages every organ in your body. It might not show right away, but when it finally hits you, it'll take half your life—or even your whole life."
Patting Yang Qi on the shoulder, Jiang Ran left the rooftop.
As for Yang Qi, he remained standing at the edge of the rooftop.
Drinking his Mixue coffee.
Staring into the pitch-black distance.
"I'm not gonna die from staying up late that easily."
He said.
...
Jiang Ran took the elevator and pressed the button for the third floor.
After that, he just stood there in the elevator, dazed.
His whole demeanor was like an idiot's—that's the state of someone who stays up late, even just a little.
Ridiculously sleepy.
The elevator descended to the ninth floor and suddenly stopped.
The doors slowly opened.
Beyond the doors, it was pitch black.
No one was there.
"Huh?"
Jiang Ran was startled.
Since no one came in, the elevator doors slowly closed again.
He turned his head and glanced at the elevator buttons.
Sweeping his gaze up and down.
Only the button he had pressed for the third floor was lit up with a blue light.
"Could it be that my mind is fuzzy, I'm too sleepy, and I pressed the wrong button?"
Not thinking much of it, Jiang Ran stood there dazed again.
In the dead of night, the rustling sound of the elevator descending was a subtle melody you'd never hear during the day.
When the elevator reached the fifth floor.
Another malfunction occurred.
The entire elevator started shaking violently for no apparent reason.
Jiang Ran, who was heavy with sleep, was jolted awake.
"Is the elevator broken?!"
Startled, Jiang Ran frantically pressed all the elevator buttons with both hands, terrified that the elevator might suddenly plummet.
And sure enough, the elevator plummeted.
From the fifth floor, it suddenly dropped all the way to the third.
Jiang Ran inside the elevator, caught off guard, was thrown to the ground.
When the elevator reached the third floor, it didn't stop and didn't open its doors.
Jiang Ran was just about to stand up.
Suddenly, the entire elevator violently shook again.
Plummeting like crazy.
"Damn! This elevator... it shouldn't be doing this!!!"
The elevators at Alice Apartment were high-end imports from abroad.
They weren't the cheap junk you'd find in resettlement housing communities or old, rundown neighborhoods.
How could something like this happen?!
Fortunately, the accident happened on a low floor.
The elevator crashed down to the first floor, and the doors opened.
Terrified, Jiang Ran scrambled out of the elevator.
Once he was out, he sat on the cold white tiles of the first floor, his butt firmly planted on the ground.
Only then did Jiang Ran finally feel the safety of solid ground.
He glanced back resentfully at the elevator, whose doors had closed again, now parked on the first floor.
Jiang Ran felt lucky to be alive.
"Things have really been going wrong lately."
He lowered his head, panting, muttering to himself.
Just then, a cold danger warning suddenly rang out in his mind:
[Ding! Dangerous person detected! +9 points! +9 points! +9...]
"Huh?!"
In the dead of night, the cold warning kept echoing in his mind.
Jiang Ran opened his eyes wide and looked ahead.
It was pitch black like ink—he couldn't see a thing.
He clapped his hands three times hard.
The entire first-floor lobby lit up instantly.
When the lights came on.
Jiang Ran's whole body twitched.
Because not far in front of him.
A Jason was staring straight at him.
Jiang Ran hadn't watched many horror, thriller, or suspense movies.
But sometimes, while scrolling through TikTok, he'd come across those movie commentary bloggers.
So, while he wasn't an expert, he at least recognized some classic horror movie characters by sight.
The Jason in front of him—he did look familiar.
Of course, he knew very well that Jason was a fictional character.
He couldn't possibly exist in the real world.
The Jason in front of him was definitely someone pretending to be him, a fake.
Just like the chainsaw murderer.
If it were a real Jason, the danger warning would have been cranked up to +100 points without him even doubting it.
But just because it wasn't a real Jason didn't mean he wasn't dangerous.
This Jason was very different from the Jason in the movies.
This Jason.
Wore a pair of black military boots on his feet.
His shirt and pants were a dark blue suit.
As for his face, it was the classic white hockey mask like Jason's.
At this moment, this Jason pulled a cleaver from behind his back.
Then, with big strides, the thumping sound of his footsteps echoed through the first-floor lobby.
"Fuck!"
Jiang Ran scrambled up quickly and bolted toward the stairwell nearby.
As if the injuries from the elevator just moments ago had completely vanished, his body was incredibly agile.
"Help! Help!"
Screaming and yelling in the apartment building late at night was extremely rude, but he couldn't care about rudeness now—his own life was what mattered most.
If he were livestreaming right now.
The viewers watching would definitely find it incredibly ironic.
Because just a few days ago, when you, Jiang Ran, crashed a cement truck into the bar and went on a killing spree, you were wearing a Jason mask, holding a cleaver in your hand, impersonating Jason.
But now you're back in the apartment building, only to run into the same thing—a psycho killer wearing a Jason mask, chasing you with a big cleaver.
It really felt like "an eye for an eye, when will it ever end."
Maybe because this Jason was wearing a dark blue suit, the suit restricted his movements, causing his speed in chasing and chopping up the stairs to be slower than Jiang Ran's escape speed.
By the time Jiang Ran met Yang Qi, who had come down from the rooftop, on the seventh floor, the Jason wielding the cleaver who had been chasing him was long gone from sight.
Yang Qi had heard someone shouting for help, and it sounded like Jiang Ran's voice, so he came down the stairs to see what was happening, and coincidentally ran into Jiang Ran on the seventh floor.
Seeing that it was Yang Qi, Jiang Ran immediately felt at ease, because he knew Yang Qi had real skills.
So instead, he was actually looking forward to that Jason coming up.
But what he anticipated didn't happen.
Yang Qi asked Jiang Ran what had happened, why he was shouting for help.
Jiang Ran told him about the elevator accident, the elevator crashing to the first floor, and his encounter with Jason.
"I see. Then do we need to call the police?"
Yang Qi asked.
Jiang Ran said, "Honestly, last night a little after 8 PM, I was at home eating instant noodles when I heard someone calling for me. I opened the door, and that guy immediately slashed at me with a Nepalese kukri. I called the police then too, but it didn't seem to help much."
"But let's call them anyway! It's better than not calling!"
---