Cheng Tingyu did not retreat under the gaze; she walked forward as usual and pressed the apartment doorbell.
Half a minute later, a tall young woman in a black uniform, with faint dark circles under her eyes, opened the door. She nodded to the visitor and introduced herself, "I am Yu Zhishou, the manager of this apartment."
Such a familiar style, Cheng Tingyu thought that besides being the apartment building manager, Yu Zhishou probably also had a part-time job in the inspection team..
After scanning the special ticket that could be used as a temporary ID, Yu Zhishou looked at Cheng Tingyu again: "So, you are a player."
The regular apartment staff couldn't possibly obtain so much information from a temporary ID, Yu Zhishou said, clearly not intending to hide his identity in front of Cheng Tingyu.
Cheng Tingyu asked with a smile, "Besides me, there should be quite a few players in Apartment No. 6, right?"
Yu Zhishou nodded, "Quite a few indeed." He flipped through the check-in records and said, "There are many vacant rooms on the sixth floor. How about I arrange for you to stay in 606?"
Having experienced capsule hotels, Cheng Tingyu nodded. She now had no particular requirements for her living arrangements and didn't mind staying in a high-rise apartment without an elevator
Afterward, Yu Zhishou handed Cheng Tingyu one document after another that needed to be signed
This is a printed "Check-in Notice."
Cheng Tingyu took it and then began to read from the beginning with great interest
"Notice for Check-in"
"Welcome to Apartment No. 6. Before officially moving in, please fully understand the following matters. If you violate the rules during your stay, this apartment will not be responsible for any consequences."
"1. This apartment is fully equipped, with dedicated areas for dining, medical care, and entertainment. The cafeteria is only on the second floor, the medical room is only on the second floor, and the entertainment room is only on the third floor. If you cannot confirm the corresponding floors of the medical room and the entertainment room, do not enter;"
"2. This apartment is a double dormitory, but it will and only will be provided for single occupancy;"
"3. Please keep the other bed in the apartment unoccupied at all times, and do not use it for storing miscellaneous items."
"4. If you notice any signs of activity on an unoccupied bed, you must leave the dormitory immediately and go to the lobby on the first floor to seek help from the staff on duty."
"5. The apartment does not have a built-in balcony. Let me remind you again, the apartment does not have a balcony. If the guest finds any part of the apartment that is inconsistent with the manual's description, please promptly check your mental state and go to the entertainment area to relax as soon as possible, but do not drink alcohol."
"6. There is no lights-out time in this apartment, but guests are advised to go to bed by 3 a.m. If you need to leave your room after 3 a.m. for any special reason, please ensure you have a reliable lighting device with you."
"7. Do not disturb guests who are sleeping. If someone has been asleep for more than twelve hours, please contact the staff for assistance."
"8. During your stay, please do not leave the apartment;"
"9. Do not visit the neighbors. If you must visit, the guest will bear all consequences themselves."
"10. From 6 AM to 9 PM is business hours. During business hours, it is safe to interact with people in the first-floor lobby, the second-floor cafeteria, the second-floor medical room, and the third-floor recreation room. It is also safe to interact with staff wearing blue badges."
"11. No additional procedures are required for moving into the apartment, and all living necessities will be provided by the apartment management during the stay."
"12. To ensure your own safety, guests are required to carry this 'Check-in Notice' with them at all times. In case of an emergency, please reread it as soon as possible."
Cheng Tingyu: "..."
Judging from the contents of this check-in notice, the occupancy rate and survival rate of Apartment No. 6 are both unsatisfactory.
Yu Zhishou explained to the new tenant, "The cafeteria's operating hours are posted on the second floor; you can check them out later. The formation of Apartment No. 6 is related to a 'boundary' and manifests in the form of dreams. Setting up extra beds in the room can reduce the probability of tenants entering a sub-realm after falling asleep." Then he smiled and said, "I heard from the seniors that the initial approach of the inspection team was to completely isolate the location of Apartment No. 6 from the surrounding residential area and prohibit anyone from entering. However, not long after, unexpected situations began to occur—the danger of Apartment No. 6 started to expand continuously, leading to the deaths of many residents. In the end, they had no choice but to handle it in the way you see now."
Cheng Tingyu: "However, the entrance to the instance will still expand irregularly."
Yu Zhishou admitted, "We have already arranged as many people as possible to occupy the slots for entering the instance, but the spread still occurs. The furthest it has ever pulled an ordinary person into the instance was twelve kilometers away from Apartment No. 6, and there was a slight transmission phenomenon."
Therefore, in the files of the inspection team, the conclusion regarding the "F0631-C-4791" copy is "can only be contained, not eradicated."
Cheng Tingyu thought that it was probably for this reason that Wei Xugu, who lived on Mulberry Street, was implicated in the replica of Apartment No. 6.
Yu Zhishou glanced at the new tenant and added, "You must have checked the information on the forum, right? The tips there are not complete. After thirty days of staying in the apartment, the tenants lose their infectiousness, but on the forty-fifth day, it will once again become a dungeon entrance."
Cheng Tingyu's heart suddenly stirred.
Yu Zhishou observed that Cheng Tingyu's expression wasn't particularly tense and reminded him once more, "The capture mechanism of Apartment No. 6 is quite unique. To some extent, it can even bypass the cooldown period."
Some players once tried to exploit a bug by going to other instances to reset the cooldown period before entering Apartment No. 6. As a result, they would close their eyes, open them again, and instantly traverse the instance while in a sleep state.
Yu Zhishou: "Maybe it has something to do with the fact that our bodies didn't enter the instance. In any case, your previous experience with instances might not apply in the apartment, so be extra careful."
Cheng Tingyu smiled, "My cooldown period wasn't that long either."
She spoke very tactfully, but in fact, her cooling-off period wasn't just short; it was practically nonexistent.
Cheng Tingyu had checked on the forum; the acquisition of the cooldown period was closely related to the player's own level, personal abilities, dungeon level, and luck. Generally speaking, breaking through higher-level dungeons made it easier to obtain a cooldown period. When categorized by player ability types, the Boundary Domain was the easiest to get a cooldown period, followed by the Disaster Bug, while the Secret Eye was quite difficult. There was even a rumor circulating on the forum about a Secret Eye player who cleared ten dungeons in a row but failed to obtain even a second of cooldown period, vividly demonstrating to others what it meant to be extremely unlucky.
Cheng Tingyu knew that even if he only considered the gossip that would spread everywhere, he absolutely could not reveal the true name and cooldown duration of his personal abilities..
Yu Zhishou didn't pay much attention to Cheng Tingyu's words—normally, players can't see the exact length of their cooldown period; they can only make a rough estimate. Since Cheng Tingyu said so, it probably doesn't exceed a month.
After signing the "Check-in Notice," Cheng Tingyu received the key and door card for room 606 from Yu Zhishou.
Yu Zhishou gave a final reminder: "Now that you've moved in, you must not leave the apartment until your stay is over."
The other person's words reminded Cheng Tingyu of those hidden glances outside the apartment.
——Although ordinary people cannot feel it, the residents are actually under strict surveillance at all times. She would not be stopped from entering Apartment No. 6 from the outside, but if anyone planned to run away before their term was up, they would most likely experience the harsh methods of the inspection team.
Judging by the environment of the second-floor cafeteria, the apartment building's conditions were slightly better than she had expected—Cheng Tingyu momentarily suspected that the apartment management deliberately left the exterior walls unmaintained to lower the residents' expectations.
The "Check-in Notice" clearly stated that during the stay, the apartment would provide free daily necessities for the guests. When Cheng Tingyu passed by the third floor, she specifically took a turn in the entertainment room. Unfortunately, the facilities inside were not quite what she had imagined. There were just some miscellaneous books for guests to borrow and a few chess and card tables. At most, the only similarity to a vacation was that she didn't have to work.
Cheng Tingyu felt relieved that he had managed to get a phone from the inspection team; otherwise, he probably wouldn't have been able to stay in the apartment for long..
The first floor is reserved for staff accommodation, the second floor houses the cafeteria and medical room, and the third floor is divided into two halves: the east side is the recreation room, and the west side is the residential area, which consists of six rooms. Starting from the fourth floor, each floor has twelve housing units.
The influence of Apartment No. 6 grew stronger and stronger, making it impossible to maintain full occupancy.
Cheng Tingyu walked to the sixth floor and opened Room 606.
The layout of the apartment room was not complicated; it was just an ordinary one-room unit. The washroom was set beside the entrance, and two beds were placed against the wall inside the room.
The interior decoration was not exactly exquisite, but it was clean. Cheng Tingyu walked around a bit and confirmed that the soundproofing of the house was quite good. It was eerily quiet.
Because there was no direct bus, Cheng Tingyu arrived close to noon. After putting down her luggage, she took her keys and room card to the cafeteria for a meal.
Apartment No. 6 had no elevator. The hallway was dimly lit, and the air seemed to be filled with fine, dense dust.
When Cheng Tingyu arrived, there were already five people sitting in the cafeteria: three women and two men, none of whom were very old.
Her gaze lingered for a moment on a girl sitting in the corner.
The other person's facial features had a sense of familiarity. The visual enhancement brought by the "Secret Pupil" made Cheng Tingyu almost instantly think of the source of that familiarity—
The other person's appearance was fifty percent similar to Wei Xusheng, the client from the previous mission.
In the cafeteria, Wei Xu Gui quietly sipped her coffee, dark circles under her eyes from long nights of staying up late.
A young man in a white sweatshirt walked over with a tray in his hands, a smile on his face, exuding a sunny and cheerful demeanor.
Cheng Tingyu greeted, "May I sit here?"
Wei Xugui paused for a moment before nodding, "Please, have a seat."
She hadn't slept well for too long, and her reactions had become somewhat sluggish.
Cheng Tingyu did not find it strange.
Her right eye could assess Wei Xuji's mental state: "[Mental Value (Mild Madness): 72/90]".
For an ordinary resident without any special abilities, Wei Xuguang managed to maintain her condition quite well. She had already been living in Apartment No. 6 for twenty days and would soon be able to leave.
Cheng Tingyu smiled, "I am a new tenant who just moved into the apartment today."
Wei Xugu put down the coffee cup, his voice calm and hoarse: "If you want to know some information, I can tell you, but what I know is very limited."
Cheng Tingyu assumed a posture of listening attentively.
Wei Xugui did not speak immediately; to her, the experiences in the apartment building were not particularly pleasant memories.
The guests would inexplicably die in their dreams, and the fear and pain caused by death would not disappear even after waking up.
Many people thus fell into madness and then completely perished in the real world.
Wei Xugui recalled, "Not every sleep leads to entering a copy; the average frequency is about 2 out of 5 times, while for ordinary people, it's 1 out of 5. According to statistics, the first night after a guest moves into the apartment is relatively safer."
Cheng Tingyu's gaze shifted slightly.
According to Wei Xugui, many of the people living in the apartment building are players.
Moreover, Cheng Tingyu remembered that the forum mentioned the probability of entering the instance was 3/5, so the ratio of players to ordinary people in the apartment building was likely one to one.
Wei Xuguang looked at the person in front of him, seemingly realizing something, and asked, "Do you also have that kind of ability?"
Cheng Tingyu nodded and smiled, "It's not a particularly special ability."
Wei Xu Gui did not ask further but instead provided more clues: "Based on experience, climbing the stairs is slower than staying in place and dying, and each level of the scenario can actually be searched. Starting from the fifth floor and going up, there are rooms that can be opened. These rooms might contain offensive items or recovery items, but be careful not to stay in one place for too long. It is rumored that someone in the apartment building has already mastered a relatively safe way to escape, but this information has not been verified by the staff."
Cheng Tingyu memorized while saying, "Thank you for your tip."
Wei Xu Gui was silent for a moment, then suddenly asked, "Do you... know my family?"
In her view, Cheng Tingyu's attitude seemed a bit too familiar.
Cheng Tingyu spoke the truth: "I just met your elder brother a couple of days ago."
Wei Xugui finished the last sip of his coffee, picked up the tray, and nodded to Cheng Tingyu: "I'm going back to rest now. I hope you can safely get through the next thirty days."
Cheng Tingyu waved with a smile, then watched Wei Xugui leave.
——The reason she chose to question Wei Xuji just now was that, among all the people present, he was the only one whose identity she could relatively ascertain.
However, while Ting Yu could take the initiative to seek out others for conversation, others could naturally come to her as well.
After Wei Xuguang left, a young man approached and greeted Cheng Tingyu, "Are you the new tenant?" Without waiting for Cheng Tingyu to respond, he sighed and said, "As for me, I've already been living in this godforsaken place for over twenty days."
Cheng Tingyu glanced at the other person and said honestly, "Well, you're maintaining your condition quite well too."