Standing in the elevator, Shiller breathed a sigh of relief.
Peter had sent him a message, and he had replied briefly without going into detail, merely stating that he had left the 19th floor.
But in reality, the crisis had just begun because there were two other lit buttons in the elevator, one for the 13th floor and one for the 7th floor. Without surprises, the elevator would stop at these two floors, and what might enter the elevator at these levels was unknown to anyone.
There was no special mark next to the 13th floor, but given that the number 13 itself is quite special, nothing good was likely to happen there. The 7th floor was marked with the word "restaurant," but in this bizarre hotel, the restaurant was obviously not a safe place either.
The safest method now was for Shiller to press the 18th floor button to stop the elevator there and then find a safe room on the 18th floor to stay in.
But in reality, this was just delaying the inevitable, a slow form of suicide. The situation inside the hotel was worsening, and no room was absolutely safe. If they kept delaying, the situation would definitely spiral out of control.
Shiller had Peter go to find Jerome.
Peter went knocking on the door, which he definitely wouldn't open, but Shiller knew how to negotiate with this cunning man. Jerome seemed very concerned about the fact that Peter and Shiller could communicate in real time, so Shiller had Peter write a few sentences on a sticky note and slip it under the door.
The sticky note was quickly taken away, but there was still no movement from the room. It seemed Jerome was considering whether or not to cooperate with them.
Actually, under normal circumstances, cooperation between the two parties would not be harmful, but the problem was that the anomalies in this hotel clearly could affect human rationality. In such a case, the only trustworthy person was oneself, and recklessly collaborating with others could very likely lead to falling into a trap set by monsters.
While waiting for Jerome's response, Shiller began to replay the experiences on the 19th floor in his mind, because some things could only be confirmed after you had successfully followed through with your own thought process.
Firstly, there were currently two factions within the hotel.
Whether it was the Hallucination Monster and Toilet Monster in room 1905, or the Elevator Monster in room 1900 and the Door-Slamming Monster in room 1913, they clearly were not so compatible.
If they were on the same side, almost no one could escape. The Hallucination Monster could easily hide something by transforming the toilet water, and without exceptionally perceptive eyes, no one could see through it. People would likely be doomed the moment they entered.
The Sound Monster in the elevator could move around the corridors without restraint, and anybody forced into the corridors would be inevitably doomed.
The door of room 1913 was originally open, but it would break out if anyone tried to close it. This was likely due to some force in the corridor exerting pressure on the room, so the door of room 1913 had to remain open. Because once closed, if the pressure was cut off, the monster would start slamming the door. This source of pressure was very likely the Elevator Monster in room 1900.
If all these were craftings of a Behind-the-Scenes Manipulator, then it was essentially tripping up its own legs. Let me repeat, this hotel was not some tale spawned by divine being with rules designed to leave escape paths. Whether it was the Hallucination Monster or the Toilet Monster, viewed separately, each was designed to kill humans. Only because of their mutual restraint, people could still have a sliver of a chance to survive.
According to Shiller's speculation, the Hallucination Monster and the Elevator Monster in room 1900 along with James Gordon should be products of the same system, while the Toilet Monster and the Door-Slamming Monster in room 1913 might have been brought in by others to balance these monsters.
The contaminated water created by the Toilet Monster was a strong restraint against the Hallucination Monster, and the fact that room 1913 crumbled after colliding with room 1900 also showed that they were more or less of equal strength.
As for who was in room 1903 and 1901 actually didn't matter much, since from begin to end, they never left their rooms. Shiller guessed that they too probably had their corresponding counter-options, but by the time he arrived, one side had already won out, leaving behind the more superior monster.
It was clear that one of the factions favored a style of conspiracy and schemes, such as the Hallucination Monster and the Elevator Monster, which seemed unable to kill directly and had to trigger certain conditions.
The other was more headstrong and direct, lacking complicated rules, not needing verbal guidance, and basically, as soon as one encountered it, escape was almost impossible—like getting splashed by the toilet water, or walking into room 1913. These were very simple and straightforward traps that didn't seem like they were meticulously planned.
But undoubtedly, the latter faction, the more reckless one, had stronger control over the hotel, because the toilet itself was a facility of the hotel, and the monster in room 1913 could break the door down.
In comparison, the Hallucination Monster simply couldn't affect the doors and windows of the hotel, and the Elevator Monster couldn't burst into hotel rooms. It wasn't that they preferred to use deceitful methods, but because they lacked the brute strength, they had to set traps.
Having cleared this up, Shiller couldn't help but start to ponder what role the alarm clock had played in all this.
On the previous night, right at midnight—the night Shiller had thrown the sofa out—the alarm clock had been with him and it did indeed ring. This proved there was indeed some connection between the alarm clock and the Elevator Monster.
But Shiller changed his line of thought, thinking it very likely that the Elevator Monster wasn't controlling the alarm clock to ring, but rather, the Elevator Monster was imitating the sound of the alarm clock.
That is to say, the alarm clock and the elevator were related, and that monster had merely interfered, mimicking the sounds of both the elevator and the alarm clock.
Concerning the significance of the existence of the alarm clock, Shiller had also pondered, not to mention that only his alarm clock's battery compartment contained hair. The act of the occupant in room 1903 at that time putting the alarm clock into the water tank must be an important clue.
It was known that there were two factions in the hotel, which could be simply summarized as the Conspiracy Faction and the Reckless Faction. These two factions had a restraining relationship. Hence, the action of throwing the alarm clock into the water tank seemed like an attempt to use the water in the tank to control the alarm clock.
The toilet was within the territory of the Reckless Faction, and it was very likely that they controlled the water in the tank. From this inference, the alarm clock was under the control of the Conspiracy Faction. Someone wanted to use the Reckless Faction to counteract some plots of the Conspiracy Faction, which was why they threw the alarm clock into the water tank.
If the alarm clock could be controlled by the Conspiracy Faction, then the elevator connected to the alarm clock was also likely under their control. But in that case, there was no need for the Conspiracy Faction to create a monster that mimicked the sound of the elevator. Controlling the elevator in this building was tantamount to controlling everything.
Shiller did not believe that the Conspiracy Faction controlled the elevator.
Because it was quite obvious that he had successfully boarded the elevator, and the numerous monsters of the Conspiracy Faction had gone through so much trouble just to kill Shiller here. If they could control the elevator, Shiller would not have been able to enter smoothly.
Therefore, it was very likely that the Conspiracy Faction only controlled the alarm clock related to the elevator. They were unable to control the elevator directly, so they resorted to their usual plots.
It still had to start from the room number plaque.
The room number plaque was the essence of the room. This rule might apply not only to guest rooms, which was the first thing Shiller thought of when he realized he could take the room away through the room number plaque.
He distinctly remembered looking back when he reached the 19th floor. There was a floor number sign hanging above the elevator, but on reflection, this was rather absurd.
Firstly, only those arriving at the 19th floor for the first time needed to know it was the 19th floor. In most hotels, the floor signs are placed directly across the elevators to prevent people from going to the wrong floor.
Those who had entered the 19th floor and needed to return did not need to know it was the 19th floor. Either they were guests of the 19th floor, or they were people who had gone to the wrong floor but had heard from others that this was the 19th floor. There was absolutely no need to look at the floor number again on their way back.
That is to say, hanging a sign with the number 19 directly above the elevator made no sense and did not serve a correct guiding function.
Therefore, Shiller felt that the principle behind the floor sign was probably the same as that of the door plaque. The door plaque was the essence, which was why it needed to be placed on that side wall, rather than according to the common sense of design psychology opposite the elevator.
But there was a problem. Elevators and guest rooms were different. Every floor had guest rooms in different positions, which didn't affect anything. But that wasn't the case with elevators. The elevators on the floors above and below were not in the same position. How could he have come up then? Wouldn't that have been blocked by the ceiling?
Yet, the elevators here could be moved like building blocks. Assuming the first-floor elevator was placed on the far left and the second-floor elevator on the far right, the result would be that neither the first nor the second-floor elevators could be used, because the elevator shafts were not connected, and the elevators naturally couldn't ascend.
Although it was absurd that the elevators in this bizarre hotel still adhered to the laws of physics, on reflection, if they could come up without connection, that would be even more preposterous.
Upon realizing that the elevator was movable, Shiller also immediately considered whether the elevator shafts were connected. From this deduction, he inferred that he might not be able to call the elevator not because someone tampered with it, but rather because its position had been moved, and it was not connected with the elevator shaft below, preventing access to and from the 19th floor.
One might ask, wasn't the elevator still in the center during Peter's time? He could come and go normally; why couldn't Shiller?
As mentioned before, the group of monsters Shiller referred to as the Conspiracy Faction might not have had full control over the elevator at Shiller's time. They could only play tricks, but they could not break the fundamental rules of the hotel. Therefore, to trap people on the 19th floor, they simply moved the elevator to a different position.
But by Peter's time, it was very clear that the entire hotel was operating under the same system, with no conflicts between the tall and the short. The monster in room 1900 no longer emerged, and the door to room 1913 was also closed.
After ruling out the possibility that paranormal activities were completely resolved and the hotel was restored to peace, only one possibility remained: one of the factions had completely seized control of the hotel.
At that time, wherever the elevator was located was completely up to them to decide. Even if one were to think more severely, did Peter really leave when he took the elevator?
If the Hallucination Monster could leave the room and move freely, then it probably was not difficult for it to fabricate the restaurant or some other place.
Once it was confirmed that the elevator damage was likely due to its position being moved, Shiller's next goal of deduction was to figure out where the elevator shaft downstairs was located.