Chapter 31: Death

Although taking the elevator would be faster and save a great deal of physical strength.

But Ding Mo did not intend to do such a dangerous thing.

Given the current situation... laboriously climbing the stairwell, Ding Mo kept his ears pricked in vigilance.

What he heard by his ears was eerie, fairytale-style background music—this meant the "Substitute Actor" could appear at any moment.

In the current situation, even Lu Zhenhao and the others would likely not dare to take the elevator.

If one were cornered by a "Substitute Actor," there would truly be nowhere to escape.

And besides...

"Wait, when Leng Rourou arrives, I must first confirm whether she is truly her," Ding Mo pondered to himself.

Only, to his surprise, it took him over ten minutes to reach the top floor.

It was mainly because, throughout the way, he was accompanied by this eerie background music, which made Ding Mo jumpy; he had to be on guard for a long time at the slightest sign of movement, wasting quite a bit of time.

The 32nd floor.

Pulling open the heavy, soundproof fire door, Ding Mo arrived at the corridor here from the stairwell.

But before he could set up the scene to prepare for his negotiation with Leng Rourou, he was suddenly shocked!

On the floor and the surface of the walls here, there were traces of some kind of blood!

The bloodstains extended all the way to the deepest part of the corridor.

"……!?"

Ding Mo took a deep breath, crouched down, and began to examine these bloodstains.

The blood was still very fresh, with no signs of much drying or oxidation.

The incident had clearly just happened not long ago; someone must have been injured. Who could it be? Ding Mo stood up and looked toward the depths of the corridor.

After hesitating for a moment, he still drew his sword and walked toward that side.

The top floor of the Hotel, which is the 32nd floor, has two presidential suites in total. Each occupies nearly 50% of the area.

The rest is this corridor and some places like turbine rooms.

The corridor is not long, and Ding Mo soon reached the end.

Here, he gasped, feeling a chill pressing down on his shoulders!

Looking ahead, at the end of the corridor, on the door panel of the turbine room.

A head! It was severed from the neck and stood on the blade of an axe embedded into the door panel!

The face was directly facing him!

The Mask that had been on it lay on the ground.

The headless corpse wearing a court dress lay to the side; for some reason, it was several meters away from the door, perhaps having subconsciously crawled for a while after death.

And that head, which still retained an expression of extreme terror, Ding Mo certainly recognized,

Isn't that Leng Rourou?!

Why is she here?

Did she actually arrive a step before me?

"Damn, she might have been hiding on the top floor or nearby to begin with..." Ding Mo took a few steps back and patted his head in annoyance.

Over ten hours of continuous activity, fleeing, and thinking had truly left his consciousness a bit blurred; he hadn't even considered this!

If Leng Rourou wanted to ambush him here, he would likely have walked into a trap.

However, it seems some accident occurred?

Ding Mo glanced again at Leng Rourou's head, which had been severed by the axe and was resting on the blade of the axe.

A scene could not help but emerge in his mind:

She was running, and something terrifying with an axe was chasing her from behind.

Perhaps it was a "Substitute Actor," perhaps it was something else in the Hotel, it was unknown.

In any case, she ran here, to the end of the corridor, and then had nowhere to escape.

She might have been scared to the point of wetting herself, or perhaps not, and then she was decapitated by that "thing" with one swing of the axe,

And the headless corpse, having subconsciously continued to crawl for a while out of fear, also died completely.

The Mask slid off her face due to the powerful impact, revealing her terrified expression.

The matter ended.

Ding Mo couldn't help but feel his scalp tingle. He looked around; in the silent corridor, the air seemed to suddenly become extremely oppressive!

Ding Mo did not want to stay long. As for putting the corpse into the Crystal Coffin or something, he actually still didn't know where the Crystal Coffin was.

"I'll talk about it later; the situation is too dangerous now, I must leave here first..." Ding Mo sheathed his sword and stepped back, wanting to leave.

But, things seemed not to want to go his way!

The lights all around suddenly went out!

Ding Mo became suspicious and uneasy.

What is the situation this time?

But soon, the lights came on again, yet they only shone around Ding Mo.

Damn! Ding Mo cursed inwardly, knowing he couldn't run.

Glancing at Leng Rourou's corpse and head in front of him, he had no choice but to pick them all up, enduring the sticky blood as he dragged them away.

Fine, I've found the murderer, now where am I supposed to go?

Following the questions in his heart, lights lit up one by one along the corridor, as if guiding his path forward.

Seeing this, Ding Mo hesitated for a few seconds, then dragged the corpse and walked toward that direction step by step.

At the same time, in York's original small room, Dong Xiaoyu on the television also saw this scene.

The room was very dark, but Dong Xiaoyu let out a sigh of relief.

Ding Mo, as long as he was alright.

Thus, the performance of the Second Act had reached its final stage:

Burial!

"..."

"Boss!" In one of the rooms, the Horse-faced man and the others saw all the lights go black and could not help but look toward Lu Zhenhao.

"What is this?" Although Lu Zhenhao did not know exactly what had happened, he already had a vague guess in his heart.

He said, "Stop looking, let's go back to our room first!"

Very quickly, the four of them returned to their large room.

Here, the lights were actually on!

Lu Zhenhao wore an "as expected" expression, and then, his gaze turned toward the center of the living room.

There, a heavy object was emitting a magnificent luster!

Meanwhile, Ding Mo dragged the corpse of Leng Rourou, forcing himself to endure the discomfort as he tucked her head under his arm.

Before him was the open elevator door.

Its appearance was like an invitation from hell, beckoning him to go down.

There was no time to worry about that!

Ding Mo gritted his teeth and entered the elevator with the corpse.