The number of floors jumped all the way to the 12th floor.
Ding!
The upward elevator stopped abruptly when it arrived. The moment the elevator doors slowly opened, the light inside also shone through the gap. It was like a sharp blade that cut the green lights in the corridor into two spaces.
The first thing that entered Chi Ting's eyes was the shadow cast by the light. Along with the person going out of the elevator, it extended from the ground to the wall little by little.
He didn't know if it was an illusion, but vaguely, he seemed to feel that the shadow had some vitality and a strange, twisted posture.
It was the distinct feeling of being stared at.
Before he could think about it, the person in the elevator had already walked out.
Chi Ting looked up.
The person who came was around 1.85 meters. A heavy satchel was hanging casually on his body, and the neckline of his upper body was slightly open. The line of his collarbone was exposed in his field of view without any concealment.
Undoubtedly, it was a very cool face. Due to the red, thin lips, it had a contradictory but harmonious beauty.
At this time, combined with the light that was cast on him at this moment, the already fair skin became bleaker and unnatural. This formed a strong color contrast with the scarlet stud earring at the base of his ear.
Gloria didn't dare to make the slightest sound for a long time. She was a different person from before. She seemed to be frozen in place. Under absolute panic, even her breathing seemed completely stagnant at this moment.
In the deathly silence, the dark green ceiling light flashed twice.
This time, Chi Ting finally determined it wasn't his illusion. The switch was silent, but the shadow under the man's feet did clearly turn 30 degrees in his direction.
Yes, was it a shadow-related ability?
Chi Ting slowly pinched the strange stone on his chest. In this state, where he should be on full alert, there was a trace of hesitation in his expression.
He once felt a slight human breath when increasing his favorability with the female model next door, but it still wasn't difficult to distinguish her identity as an inhuman creature.
But the man in front of him—the human breath on him was a bit too strong.
So, was he human?
Chi Ting looked the visitor up and down and was rarely a bit uncertain.
Then under his scrutinizing gaze, he saw the man in front of him suddenly change his expression and smiled like a spring breeze. "It seems that you should be my new neighbor, right? This is the first time we are meeting. My name is Yue Ren (Moon Blade)."
Chi Ting glanced at him. "Hello, my name is Chi Ting."
The man called Yue Ren looked straight into Chi Ting's eyes. His gaze slid over the near-perfect face little by little. Finally, he paused slowly on Chi Ting's lips for a moment before retracting his gaze with a smile. "It is nice to meet you, Mr. Chi. I am too busy with work and had no time to visit you. I hope to have more time to cultivate our relationship in the future."
Was there a need to cultivate affection among neighbors in peacetime?
This was the first time Chi Ting heard such a request, and he couldn't help thinking about it. Before he could answer, he saw that Yue Ren had already turned around. "Do you want to go back, Gloria?"
He didn't know when but Gloria had quietly moved to the door of the safe passage.
The foot that had just fallen trembled violently with these words. Her figure stiffened in place and almost failed to stabilize itself. Then she quickly supported herself on the wall. Every movement she made as she turned her head to look was extremely difficult out of fear.
Yue Ren walked toward her step by step, the smile on his face very gentle. "I remember that I seem to have told you before that I am afraid of society and don't like to be disturbed by too many people in my ordinary life."
Gloria stretched out her hand the moment he approached. Finally, it stopped in front of the other person's high nose and couldn't continue moving forward.
She opened her eyes wide in pain. She tried to open her mouth, but her throat seemed imprisoned by something. She couldn't make any sound.
Chi Ting stood where he was and clearly saw the shadows under Gloria's feet spread out one after another as if they had life. They tightly locked the girl's throat and hung her high in the air.
He raised an eyebrow and looked at the initiator of all of this.
Standing not far away, half of Yue Ren's body was in the shadows. The green light fell on his face, and his mouth was still curved up in that faint arc. His tone was gentle like a bewitching whisper. "So please answer me one last time. Can you be a good girl?"
Gloria's hand was moved by a strange force, and she held her own throat.
As if exerting all her strength, she nodded with great difficulty.
The shadow wrapped around her seemed to have never existed, and it disappeared in an instant. Gloria didn't even have time to lie on the ground and catch her breath. She ran up the stairs in a panic despite her body still being numb.
The sound of the panicked footsteps gradually faded away, mixed with occasional screams from other floors. This made her seem more and more flustered.
Yue Ren silently looked at the empty safe passage for a long time.
He probably noticed the gaze on his back. He turned and looked at Chi Ting. "Sometimes, educating children requires tough methods. You shouldn't mind, right, Mr. Chi?"
Chi Ting took a brief glance before also smiling. "Of course not. After all, I think so too."
This was obviously not the expected reaction. A bit of surprise flashed in Yue Ren's eyes. It was only at this time that he took another look at Chi Ting.
This type of scrutiny was frank and explicit. Finally, he touched his chin with great interest and threw the satchel in his hand onto his shoulder. "I happen to have taken a break tomorrow. If you are free, you are welcome to come and visit."
The understated words made it seem like he wasn't the one who almost strangled Gloria to death just now.
The sound of footsteps faded away. Finally, silence returned with the closing of his door.
Chi Ting stood by the door and watched for a while. It wasn't known what he was thinking.
It took a while before he retracted his gaze and returned to his apartment.
The moment the dim light outside was blocked again, the live stream room paying attention to the situation here completely exploded.
[Isn't he afraid? Is this newcomer really not afraid at all?]
[Seeing the look in his eyes just now, it feels like the newcomer has been targeted.]
[He should've run away directly just now. That guy is really crazy. It isn't just players. The last time I watched a live stream of this instance, he slaughtered all the NPCs other than himself. If this instance wasn't restarted, this Love Apartment already wouldn't exist!]
[NPCs? Is that real or fake?]
[A warm reminder to all friends watching this instance for the first time. If you are unfortunately involved in this instance, you must stay away from this Yue Ren. He is a person who completely takes pleasure in completing crimes. As long as it affects his mood, anything can be done! In short—run!!!]
[…Hey, what is this newcomer thinking about? Does he really want to accept the invitation to visit?]
Chi Ting returned to his living room, found a comfortable position on the sofa, and lay down.
Based on his calm expression, there was no panic at all from the experience just now. There was a moment of contemplation before he took out his phone.
The chaos in the player group gradually subsided.
Judging from the content of the exchange, it was chaotic tonight, but it could finally be confirmed that all players were safe and there were no additional casualties.
But just because there were no casualties today, this didn't mean there wouldn't be any in the future.
What happened at night was undoubtedly a signal sent by this instance to the players—this place would become less and less unsafe.
The phone shook slightly.
It was a message from Li Tao.
Obviously, he had been working so hard that he only had time to talk to Chi Ting at this time.
[1502-Li Tao: Dididi, are you there? What is the situation with you? Why did you want a photo of a girl?]
[1202-Chi Ting: It wasn't what I wanted.]
[1502-Li Tao: If it wasn't you, who was it?]
[1202-Chi Ting: Gloria, the little girl on the 13th floor.]
[1502-Li Tao: ...]
[1502-Li Tao: What do you mean?]
Chi Ting briefly explained what happened at night. Of course, to save trouble, he directly skipped the part where he met Yue Ren later.
There was a long silence before Li Tao's message came again.
[1502-Li Tao: That's right. I have a simple guess.]
[1202-Chi Ting: You mean to say that the NPC's activity area will be unlocked with us when the favorability value increases?]
[1502-Li Tao: !!!]
[1502-Li Tao: You think so too?]
[1202-Chi Ting: It isn't hard to guess.]
Just now, Chi Ting had looked at the chat record and paid special attention to it. After a little comparison, he could find that all the NPCs that appeared on other floors this time were NPCs that had their favorability increased by the players. It was just like the female model next door. Due to his 'laziness', he hadn't reached the green value of favorability for her. Therefore, she stayed in her home very peacefully tonight and didn't go out to scare people.
Combine this with the fact that Gloria couldn't enter the 12th floor area during the day, and the conclusion was ready to come out.
Now, this conclusion itself had become the most terrifying existence.
Players who needed to leave here would inevitably increase the favorability of more NPCs to unlock the area. But this also meant that those NPCs were given more active permissions.
Tonight, the range of activities was within the upper and lower floors. Then what about later when more and more movement restrictions were lifted? Once these players lost the value of helping unshackle the NPCs, would these things be willing to obediently stay at the door and have a 'friendly communication' with them like today?
There was no offensive action today. Was it simply because the confinement on them hadn't been completely lifted?
At least from the way that Gloria looked at him at the time, Chi Ting was pretty sure that if she was allowed, she wouldn't have hesitated to tear him to pieces or let him really become a doll in her hands.
A warm-hearted capture strategy game?
No, blindly increasing favorability was never the real way to pass the game. On the contrary, it was likely that they would send themselves to the gate of hell with their own hands.
Chi Ting played with the strange stone on his chest and laughed silently.
His initial hunch was true. This was really an interesting place.
[F*k, look at his expression. Why does it feel like he has already guessed it?]
[I want to ask, is there really no solution? Isn't it okay to directly unify the time of increasing favorability and then rush downstairs directly while the NPCs can't react.]
[This method has been tried by another group, but it won't work. You never know what will await you.]
[Hehe, you will know later that there are even more desperate things.]
[However, at least it can be regarded as the first step. At the very least, it can make this newcomer completely dispel the idea of visiting.]
[Look, what is he going to do?]
In this instance, Chi Ting followed the truth, goodness, and beauty in his heart and lovingly appeased Li Tao, who was driven to the point of madness by the truth. Then he got up from the sofa and headed straight into the kitchen.
He opened the refrigerator and carefully selected the ingredients that had been sorted and placed in categories.
Chi Ting briefly confirmed it. "It should be enough for a lunch for two."
The screen of the live stream room was instantly covered in question marks.
What two servings?
Wait, was he really going to visit?
Visit.
That was exactly what Chi Ting intended.
There was no doubt that the man called Yue Ren was an absolutely dangerous existence. However, just like what he considered before, the rules have already determined that if he couldn't complete the favorability capture of the NPCs on the same floor, he wouldn't be able to leave here and continue to act.
It wasn't clear what he needed to do to clear this instance smoothly, but he at least needed to leave the 12th floor as soon as possible before the safety period was over. He had to go to other places to see if he could collect more clues.
Of course, Chi Ting was quite good at being kind to others. If there was anything he really cared about, it should be the ability and personality of this Yue Ren.
To be honest, it wasn't difficult to see from the attitude toward Gloria that this person was quite crazy. At the very least, it was crazier than him.
When he was in the patrol team before, Chi Ting had come into contact with quite a few shadow-type supernatural beings. Due to the influence of their ability, these people had some psychological problems. Now that he had come to this strange unlimited world, he didn't know if this Yue Ren's perverted personality had always been influenced to some extent.
Of course, Chi Ting wasn't blindly confident.
Aside from his own ability, his years of wandering around in various patrol groups had allowed him to face this type of distorted and perverted personality. He had enough experience in coaxing such people.
He believed that at this time, these experiences would definitely come in handy.