"Old man, can you do me a favor?"
"Even though you lost the game again, there's no doubt your skills have improved. Having a strong opponent to practice with is invaluable."
Qin Nuo said tactfully.
The old landlord thought there was some truth to it and said, "Alright, what do you need?"
"Do you have the tenant information from ten years ago, back in 2011?"
"What do you need that for?"
Qin Nuo didn't answer.
The old landlord pondered for a moment and said, "I do keep the tenant information every year."
"But ten years ago... never mind, come by tomorrow. I'll look for it tonight."
"Thank you, old man."
Qin Nuo stood up to express his gratitude. Seeing the old man wave him off, eager to review the game, he wisely took his leave.
As he reached the fourth floor, he suddenly heard a noise from upstairs, like something heavy hitting the ground.
While Qin Nuo was still puzzled, the game announcement sounded in his mind: "Player 'Cobra' has been hunted by the killer!"
Qin Nuo was startled, quickly reacting and rushing up to the fourth floor.
In the corridor, Cobra's body was already lying on the ground, his head severed and rolled to the side.
"How did it move so fast?"
Qin Nuo frowned, walking over to check on Cobra.
Cobra turned into a cloud of gray mist and disappeared, clearly having respawned.
"Is it hunting players randomly, or is there some pattern?" Qin Nuo pondered.
"Let's head back first."
Qin Nuo stood up, and as he turned, a blood eye appeared on the back of his right hand. The Blood-Eyed Ghost said in a deep voice, "It's still here!"
Just as the words were spoken, Qin Nuo felt a strong killing intent enveloping the corridor.
The walls began to decay at a visible speed.
Qin Nuo's expression changed, swiftly drawing out a machete, as a shadow appeared out of nowhere in front of him.
Before the Blood-Eyed Ghost could act, Qin Nuo's head was already flying off.
Blood splattered on the walls, a vivid crimson!
...
"Sister Rose, I've got enough snacks to last us five days. We shouldn't go out, and we'll definitely make it to the end of the game."
Princess Yao Yao sat on the bed, lightly tapping her snacks, calculating her plan, as she spoke to Black Rose.
"You're so... simple and cute."
Black Rose said with a forced smile, tying up her hair as she walked into the bathroom, "I'll take a shower first, you stay on the bed."
"Okay." Princess Yao Yao nodded obediently.
But at that moment, both of them heard the announcement in their minds that player Cobra had been hunted.
Less than two minutes later, the announcement that player Phantom had been hunted sounded!
"Two players killed in a row!"
Qin Nuo whispered.
The next second, the straw doll moved on its own, climbing onto Qin Nuo's hand, burrowing into his palm, and disappearing.
Qin Nuo looked at his palm, a hint of surprise on his face, "Is that how it works?"
Feeling no discomfort, Qin Nuo chose to rest instead of going out.
Time was precious for Qin Nuo too.
If he got hunted three times in one day due to recklessness, he'd have nowhere to cry.
On the seventh day at noon, Qin Nuo left the room.
The old landlord should have results by now.
At the front desk in the lobby, the old man was unusually not playing chess but lying on a lounge chair, humming a tune.
"Old man, did you find it?" Qin Nuo asked directly.
The old man tossed a yellowed, worn information book into Qin Nuo's hands.
"Return it by this time tomorrow at the latest."
"No problem."
Qin Nuo went to the vending machine, bought some food and drinks, returned to his room, and opened the tenant information book, confirming it was indeed from 2011.
As he flipped through the pages, Qin Nuo gathered a lot of tenant identity information.
At that time, Xiao Yuan's family of three, no... accurately speaking, a family of four, was still in room 301, with Little Yuan's Mom named Gao Xinran.
The Fat Homebody Ghost also lived in 405, named Hai Wuming, a recent graduate and unemployed.
Liu Ze from 406 was a construction worker doing manual labor.
Liu Meng's family from 302 had parents who were ordinary office workers, and Liu Meng was in high school at the time.
These were the tenant's information.
It also recorded some matters outside of the tenants.
Back then, this area was inspected by the construction engineering quality supervision department.
Deemed unqualified, it was to be forcibly demolished, and the Bloodstained Apartment was among the unqualified, but the old landlord and the tenants used some means to muddle through.
Later, in June, a virus outbreak occurred in the city, only transmittable through blood, with a mortality rate of 20% among the infected.
"This should be the virus mentioned in Xia Xinlu's diary." Qin Nuo murmured, continuing to read.
Later, there was a self-narration by the old landlord.
"By accident, we discovered two tenants in the apartment also infected with this virus, exhibiting identical symptoms."
"I sealed off the entire apartment, intending to hand over the infected to the authorities, but the other tenants stopped me, leading to a heated argument. Someone proposed a bold idea, a terrifying idea..."
"For various reasons, I was persuaded to let them proceed..."
"But later, we found that the girl was missing, and everyone searched every corner of the apartment until we heard a dull thud from outside the building..."
Qin Nuo took a deep breath and turned to the last page.
There was no more self-narration from the old landlord.
Instead, there were the names of the infected.
Seeing the names, Qin Nuo held his breath.