Chapter 35: Room 4007

And what puzzled Ding Mo and his companion the most was…

Ding Mo's gaze fell on the door panel.

The door was elegantly decorated, yet it clashed with the surrounding environment, looking more like a properly renovated guest room of the Hotel.

The question was, what kind of Hotel would decorate a guest room for "guests" underground?

With no leads on any of these questions, Ding Mo took a deep breath and gestured toward the door handle.

To his surprise, the door… simply opened!

Unlike what York had said about it being tightly shut, this door wasn't locked at all!

Ding Mo walked in, with Dong Xiaoyu following behind.

Once inside the room, they turned on the lights—much to their surprise, or rather, something they should have anticipated.

This was just an ordinary guest room.

A bit smaller than the double room Ding Mo and Dong Xiaoyu had stayed in before, but the decor here—an antique-style curtain, a spotless bed, elegant furnishings—all pointed to that fact.

Only, outside the floor-to-ceiling window was a wall of darkness, and in the center of the room's living area stood a golden statue, completely naked!

Under the white woven lamp, the statue's entire body reflected a yellow gleam, as if cast from pure gold.

The statue's features were very handsome, but at the short hair on its head, there were several snapped-off marks, somewhat spoiling the statue's completeness.

What is this? A golden statue from ancient Greece?

Confirming it was safe, Ding Mo couldn't help but step forward to examine it closely.

He recalled that ancient Greek statues did indeed favor the nude.

"Boss, this place is accessible."

In front of the ventilation duct, the Horse-faced man stood on a ladder, glanced inside, then turned his head and said.

Lu Zhenhao nodded and sneered:

"Byd, that kid Ding Mo thinks I've run out of options, does he!"

"Boss," the Muscular man beside him said worriedly:

"You said Prince's Identity is very important, but Ding Mo and the others have already arrived first. What if they've already got it?"

"So what?" Lu Zhenhao stroked the sword in his hand and smiled:

"The show doesn't start until tonight—it's not even noon yet!

"Even if he's got it, we still have plenty of time to snatch it from him!"

"Brilliant, Boss!" The men laughed at his words.

"Then Boss, I'll go in first and scout the way." At this, the Horse-faced man on the ladder pointed at the vent and said.

Lu Zhenhao was just about to nod, when suddenly…the lights overhead flickered!

What was going on? The men looked up in bewilderment.

It was daytime now. The lights in the Hotel, apart from those in the rooms, were set to off by default everywhere else, including this corridor.

So why now…

Lu Zhenhao sensed something was wrong. He frowned, took a couple of steps, and looked up at the ceiling.

The lights flickered again.

But once they went off, Lu Zhenhao and the others noticed the corridor seemed to have grown dimmer!

!!?

Sensing something was off, the men instinctively huddled together, watching their surroundings.

Boom!

Suddenly a violent thunderclap split the sky, giving them all a tremendous fright!

Was it going to rain?

Seeing this, Lu Zhenhao found a window and looked out.

But he immediately drew a sharp breath!

Outside the window, above the once-quiet forest, ink-thick, all-encompassing dark clouds had rolled down!

The sun was completely blocked out. A fierce wind swept against the windowsill, letting out a "whooo" wailing sound.

The surroundings grew darker and darker, and the warning in Lu Zhenhao's heart grew ever sharper!

He barked: "Stop scouting for now. We first—"

But before he could finish, at the far end of the corridor, the lights suddenly flickered. Immediately after,

came a burst of fairy-tale-style background music, both familiar and terrifying to them!

Terror crossed the men's faces!

At that far end, beneath the flickering lights, stood a figure dressed in attire none of them had ever seen before.

A red cape, a simple blue formal suit, riding boots, and a longsword.

Who was it? Before they could make it out, they saw the figure suddenly flicker!

Along with the flickering of the lights above their heads, a downpour came crashing down! Amid the sound of dark raindrops, the figure had somehow flashed from the far end of the corridor to right in front of them!

Lu Zhenhao's pupils contracted violently!

He instinctively stepped back.

But the Horse-faced man who had just climbed down from the work ladder in front of him wasn't so lucky. He stared blankly at the figure:

"Its" face had no Mask, and no face either! Its features were covered by a layer of skin—utterly bizarre!

At the same time, only when he was close did the Horse-faced man realize that "its" form was flickering like a TV picture with bad signal—dropping frames at times, or vanishing in stages!

What is this… Watching it, the Horse-faced man suddenly felt as though a piece of something was missing from his mind.

【Threshold: 92%】→【Threshold: 68%】!

A surge of searing pain struck him, and before he could even locate its source, he saw that eerie human shadow bring a sword down on him!

The Horse-faced man instinctively raised the steel pipe in his hand to block, but after a twist and a dropped frame, the sword passed straight through the steel pipe!

The two never made any physical contact!

Then,

Without a sound, the Horse-faced man's body was sliced clean in half from head to crotch by the blade, like a slab of lard!

As if what had cut him open was not a length of steel, but some far more bizarre force!

The two halves of the corpse slid out from the intact clothing and slumped to the ground.

The whole sequence sounds drawn out, but from the moment that eerie "human shadow" appeared, teleported, and then split the Horse-faced man in two,

it had all happened in the span of a second or two!

Only now did the rest of them come to their senses, looks of utter, boundless terror spreading across their faces!

Without a thought, without any wasted movement, the men ran for their lives!

"Aaaah-la-la-la-la-la!" The Muscular man ran, his rough voice screaming as he tried desperately to vent his terror!

Just seconds ago, the Horse-faced man had been standing right there in front of them. But seconds later, he was sliced clean in two!

Dead beyond any hope of struggle — utterly, completely dead!

How could such a thing happen? This defied all reason!

"Le-le-le-le-le—!" His strange shriek startled Lu Zhenhao, who was running just as desperately.

While silently cursing him a fool, he could not help but feel a chill at the Horse-faced man's fate.

He had been through 2 Tasks himself, but an inexplicable, unreasonable attack like this was a first!

It had to be that on Ding Mo's end, something had been discovered, or some crucial action taken, that changed the situation,

and so the "Substitute Actor" had gone mad — it had never been normal to begin with, but now it seemed to have flipped into a frenzied slaughter mode!

Lu Zhenhao clenched his teeth and ran for all he was worth.

Damn it!