The entity that controlled the illusion seemed to be losing ground, but it was still not willing to give in, increasing the room temperature even higher.
Unfortunately, it still couldn't affect the water in the room. If it really could work together with the entity that eliminated the polluted water, turning the water into steam, filling every corner of the room, Shiller would have had to consider retreating to the couch.
The two sides struggled against each other for quite a while and realized neither could prevail over the other. The water production in the bathroom was limited, and the illusion couldn't appear where there was water. They finally decided to call a truce as the time neared midnight.
Shiller screwed the cap back on the mineral water bottle. He hadn't poured out all the water; some remained at the bottom. After discovering that this thing could restrain some other entities in the hotel, if he didn't have a bigger bottle, Shiller would have had to start a water plant.
Shiller was now about to verify his last hypothesis.
At 11:45, Shiller disassembled a section of the couch that was still in the room from the rest of the couch and dragged it to the door. During that period, the room tried to struggle with him for rights to the couch, but gave up after Shiller splashed it with toilet water.
Shiller successfully dragged the couch to the door, and it was now 11:50. He slowly opened the room door and, without any hesitation, dragged the couch into the hallway.
As soon as he closed the room door behind him, it locked immediately, and with a very loud click, as if some presence was saying, "You better not come back."
When Shiller dragged the couch to the alcove where the elevator was located, it was already 11:53.
Shiller placed the couch in front of the elevator doors, the back against the doors, and set the alarm clock on the couch. It was now 11:55.
Shiller rushed to the end of the left corridor at top speed, arriving in front of room 1910, which was opposite room 1900. He took out a knife and with lightning speed disassembled 1910's room plaque, then just as quickly attached the plaque with 1913 that he had in his hand.
It was now 11:59.
The plaque for room 1913 started to emerge from the wall in about 15 seconds, 45 seconds left until midnight.
Bang!!!!
The entity inside room 1913 didn't leave. Its first attempt to break down the door sent Shiller flying out.
Shiller slammed straight into the wall across, but appeared to be completely unfazed by the surprise; he quickly got up and ran towards the elevator as fast as he could.
There were 30 seconds left to midnight.
The entity inside room 1913 seemed to have stepped back a few paces to gather strength, while Shiller took about 5 seconds to reach the elevator's location.
He didn't bother with the alarm clock or the couch, but stepped on the couch cushion, then the backrest, and stood directly at half the height of the elevator door, looking up.
Right in line with his eyesight, just above the elevator door frame, there was a plaque styled just like the room plaques, with the number "19" written on it in Arabic numerals.
Shiller began to disassemble the plaque.
The plaque was much larger than that of the room, with bigger screws and harder to turn. Shiller took five to six seconds to unscrew each one. As three screws were removed, there were 10 seconds left until midnight.
One turn, another turn, then another. With 5 seconds to go until midnight, the plaque marking the floor was in Shiller's hands, and the elevator below the door frame slowly disappeared.
Midnight arrived.
Ding!
The sound of the elevator arrived as promised, but it didn't come from where the elevator was supposed to be.
The noise came from the end of the 19th-floor corridor, on the left side.
The door to room 1900 opened.
Shiller sighed with relief, his speculation had been correct.
The monster hadn't come from the elevator at all. The sound that had echoed before all the rooms started ringing wasn't the sound of the elevator arriving but the sound of the monster in room 1900 beginning to move.
Because the positions of room 1905 and 1900 had been switched, room 1900 had become the room closest to the elevator. This less than a meter difference in distance made it impossible for people to discern whether it was the elevator or room 1900 that was problematic based on sound alone.
The trap had been laid since the moment Shiller entered the hotel.
The sound of an elevator door opening is quite a unique sound. Shiller had heard it the first time he walked onto the 19th floor, so when he heard it again, he undoubtedly associated it with the elevator immediately.
Therefore, upon hearing the sound in the corridor as n+1, one would certainly think that the first extraneous sound was the sign of the monster arriving by elevator, suggesting that the monster knew how to use the elevator.
Then, with a few word of mouth exaggerations, Gordon led Shiller to the belief that taking advantage of the monster's use of the elevator was the only way off the 19th floor—a perfect trap was set.
Some more cautious people might think, getting close to the monster could be deadly, or although the plan was feasible, one might need to figure out the monster's pattern first.
But everything from the start was a lie.
The monster had not used the elevator at all but had always been in room 1900. Its only ability, aside from killing, might've been to make a sound identical to the elevator's, which was an integral part of its cunning trap, leading people to unwittingly follow it to their doom.
One could only imagine the despair of those explorers who, after enduring much hardship and believing they had figured out the pattern and could succeed in one try, followed the sound of the 'elevator monster' only to find it stopped in front of room 1900's door.
But this time, the monster wasn't so lucky.
Bang!
As soon as the first elevator sound was heard, with the 'elevator monster' emerging from room 1900, a loud thud echoed from the end of the left corridor. The monster from room 1913 had burst out of its door.
Shiller, holding the sign, walked down from the couch and sat down leisurely, although he couldn't see what was happening at the end of the left hallway. Doubtlessly, a collision had begun.
The monster from room 1913 was evidently not on the same side as the 'elevator bell sound' monster.
If it smashing the door indicated anything, it was that it wasn't part of the same system as all the monsters laying the trap. If the monster from 1913 had been part of the plan, it wouldn't have been locked in the room.
A silent collision had started.
Shiller closed his eyes, covered his ears, unseeing, unhearing, unfazed, while the whole corridor began to shake violently, with fragments of screams and whispers rushing into his ears.
Blood flowed from Shiller's ears, but he remained indifferent, just sitting calmly on the couch in the middle of the corridor.
Five minutes later, the corridor quieted down.
Shiller, holding his briefcase, stood up, walked to the middle of the corridor, and glanced to the left. There was nothing there. The doors of rooms 1900 and 1903, both unique, were tightly shut, as if all the terror and fear had been an illusion.
And Shiller knew, he had found the way out of the 19th floor.
He, holding the 19th-floor sign, came to the door of room 1904 and started to remove the room number plate, nailing the one with the number 19 onto the door.
Shiller looked down at the half footprint on the carpet in front of room 1904 and recalled the water-stained footprint Jerome had left when he came out of the closet. The sizes and shapes of the two footprints slowly overlapped in his mind.
This was the answer to the 19th floor.
A brand new elevator door slowly emerged.
"Ding!"