Chapter 61

Gu Yi’an unconsciously glanced away, then immediately realized she was avoiding the situation and turned back to look at the notebook.
Fine, you’re a god. Whatever you say is right.
Gu Yi’an avoided the topic and only asked, "Were you here just now?"
When she had wanted all the ghosts to come out earlier, only the Hanged Ghost and the little girl had appeared. This notebook guy was nowhere to be seen.
It should have known she wanted it to come out.
Upon hearing Gu Yi’an’s question, new words appeared on the notebook’s page.
"I’ve always been by your side."
So the notebook was there, but it just didn’t come out?
Gu Yi’an was momentarily speechless.
She suspected that the notebook’s purpose in doing this was precisely for this moment, to make her admit that she had missed it.
A few seconds later, Gu Yi’an heard a shout from outside.
"Senior Gu, are you okay?"
It was the male player’s voice.
They were worried she might be in danger.
Earlier, she had nearly been in trouble in the bathroom.
Gu Yi’an now had an excuse to avoid the notebook.
She calmly said to the notebook, "Come back for now. I need to go out."
There were still matters waiting for her outside.
Upon hearing this, the notebook seemed somewhat disappointed.
It closed itself, automatically shrinking back into its miniature form and dropping into the pocket of Gu Yi’an’s jacket.
At the same time, the Hanged Ghost and the little girl voluntarily flew out of the pocket, landing on Gu Yi’an’s shoulders, each taking one side.
Gu Yi’an left the bathroom.
By then, the male player and Xiao Ling had almost finished recounting what had just happened to Dai Qi.
Dai Qi now had a better understanding of the ghosts in the room.
He handed the phone bag to Gu Yi'an.
"Little Gu, thank you for your hard work."
His tone resembled that of a leader expressing concern for a subordinate.
Gu Yi'an didn't mind this. She took out a phone from the bag that was identical to the one she used in real life.
Meanwhile, Dai Qi began assigning the next task to everyone.
He said, "Let's use our phones to record these hidden cameras in the room. Just use the video mode. After gathering the evidence, we'll take the phones downstairs and meet up with Uncle Wu and the others."
With this plan in place, the male player and Xiao Ling had no objections.
They didn't want to stay any longer in this ghost-infested room and were eager to finish quickly.
The male player and Xiao Ling immediately opened their phones' video recording mode.
On her side, Gu Yi'an unlocked her phone.
The phone was indeed almost identical to the one she used in real life, except for a few missing apps.
Gu Yi'an checked the signal strength and battery level in the top right corner of the screen.
The signal was full, and the battery was at 80%.
She then looked at the home screen.
Most of the apps she had in real life were still there.
For example, the messaging app and the payment app.
The contacts in the messaging app were all blank.
The payment app had no transaction history but was functional.
Gu Yi'an focused on exploring the phone and didn't comment on Dai Qi's words.
Seeing that Gu Yi'an was fully absorbed in examining the phone, Dai Qi said, "I've tested it. We can access the internet, and the phones have credit, so we can call the emergency number here."
Upon hearing this, the male player and Xiao Ling exited the video mode and tested the internet and calling functions Dai Qi had mentioned.
Gu Yi'an didn't miss his words either. She nodded and said, "I checked. My payment app is functional, and it's linked to a card that can be used."
Dai Qi said, "I didn't notice that."
He readily admitted his oversight.
The male player and Xiao Ling exchanged glances, feeling somewhat ashamed.
Their minds had been solely focused on quickly gathering evidence and leaving.
When they saw that the phone was identical to their real-life ones, they hadn't bothered to check the calling or payment functions.
It seemed they still had a lot to learn from the experienced players.
The two novice players remained silent, quietly listening to the conversation between Gu Yi'an and Dai Qi.
Gu Yi'an said, "It seems we might need to stay in this world for a while."
God wouldn't provide these tools for no reason, it meant they would have a use for them.
Hearing this, Dai Qi understood Gu Yi'an's implication.
He agreed, "It does look like we'll be staying for a while. Simply recording evidence and exposing what's happening here isn't enough. Our goal should be to ensure the mastermind behind this hotel is arrested and faces legal consequences. Only then can we truly consider it a clearance."
Gu Yi'an nodded.
Seeing her reaction, Dai Qi smiled with satisfaction.
He turned to the two newcomers and instructed, "Start recording. I'll handle the two-way mirror. You two follow Little Gu and let her guide you in recording the hidden cameras in the room."
He had everything clearly arranged for Gu Yi'an and the other two.
Gu Yi'an had no strong feelings about Dai Qi's arrangements. He meant no harm, he just enjoyed taking the lead.
She reminded Dai Qi, "Pay attention to the wall beside the two-way mirror."
Dai Qi chuckled, "They told me about the ghost seeping out of the wall. I guess it's this dismembered corpse. He bricked it into the wall."
Dai Qi pointed at the young man in the room who was carrying a bag of dismembered body parts and heading to the bathroom.
The bag in the young man's hand dripped blood, staining the floor red.
As he reached the bathroom door, his figure, along with the bloodstains on the floor, vanished instantly.
The bed also became pristine and neatly arranged.
Immediately afterward, an identical young man reappeared on the bed.
He wielded a cleaver and swung it at the corpse on the bed.
The scene of dismemberment played out once again.
Gu Yi'an said, "It's not just this corpse."
Dai Qi was taken aback and asked, "Did you find something else?"
Gu Yi'an replied, "There are two ghosts in the bathroom."
The ghost seeping from the wall tiles counted as one, and the finger in the sink represented another.
Gu Yi'an speculated that the ghost in the sink was the one who had been dismembered. Perhaps when the young man tried to brick it into the wall, something went wrong while placing the bag, and a finger fell out, landing in the sink.
The ghost on the wall might be a different one.
Gu Yi'an added, "Maybe someone saw something they shouldn't have through the two-way mirror, and he discovered it, resulting in them being bricked into the wall as well."
Upon hearing this, Dai Qi said, "I'd better not break the two-way mirror."
He didn't know if breaking the two-way mirror would reveal something he shouldn't see.
It wasn't out of fear, but simply a desire to keep his eyes from being tainted.
Dai Qi took his phone and entered the bathroom.
Gu Yi'an said to the male player and Xiao Ling, "Come with me. Both of you, take out your phones and record videos. Make multiple backups just in case."
Gu Yi'an planned for everyone to try uploading these videos to major video-sharing platforms in this world after they left.
"Oh! Okay, okay."
The male player and Xiao Ling immediately followed Gu Yi'an's instructions and switched to recording mode.
Gu Yi'an led the male and female players first to the light switch near the door. Below the switch, on the black product label, there was a small hole, a pinhole camera.
Gu Yi'an had Xiao Ling provide narration to explain the recorded video while all three of them used their phones to find angles to capture the pinhole camera.
The pinhole camera and the logo were both black, making them quite inconspicuous at first glance. Even with the naked eye, they were hard to distinguish, so finding the right angle was crucial.
After the male player finished filming, he glanced at the corridor outside the door and then at the motionless door on the other side.
On a whim, he tried taking a step toward the outside.
An accident happened.
"Bang!"
The door slammed shut abruptly and violently, brushing past the face of the male player as he hastily stepped back.
The loud noise seemed powerful enough to shake a layer of dust off the entire room.
The male player stumbled backward, nearly scared out of his wits.
If he had retreated even a moment later, he would have been caught in the door.
Given the force of the slam, he would have been lucky to escape with just a few bruises.
He had genuinely acted on impulse, merely testing whether he could step outside again. He never expected the door to close right in front of them.
Gu Yi'an and Xiao Ling were standing by the light switch, very close to the door.
Startled by the noise, Xiao Ling trembled and couldn't help but look at Gu Yi'an.
Gu Yi'an stood calmly in place, reviewing the video she had just recorded on her phone as if she hadn't heard the door slam at all. Even the two little ghosts perched on her shoulders remained steady, staring at her phone.
Seeing Gu Yi'an so composed, Xiao Ling quickly calmed down as well.
The loud noise from the door caught the attention of Dai Qi, who was in the bathroom. He immediately rushed to the bathroom doorway.
Standing there, he scanned the room, ignoring the young man in the middle who was once again dismembering a body, and focused on the problem, the door.
The previously open door was now closed.
Dai Qi walked over, his voice betraying no urgency.
He asked, "What happened?"
The male player stared at the tightly shut door, on the verge of tears. "I just wanted to try stepping outside, and it closed."
He was now feeling desperate. "Brother Dai, can... can we still get out?"
Upon hearing this, Dai Qi shifted his gaze to Gu Yi'an.
He had learned from the others that Gu Yi'an was a ghost keeper.
Dai Qi took the lead in looking at her.
The male player and Xiao Ling also turned their attention to Gu Yi'an.
Gu Yi'an glanced at the now-closed door and then at the hanging ghost floating on her shoulder.
"Hanging Ghost, go and have a talk with it."
She found the hanging ghost the most convenient to use.
The hanging ghost beamed with delight. "Your Highness, rest assured. Leave it to me."
The male player, Dai Qi, and Xiao Ling watched as a cute-looking ghost floated toward the door.
Suddenly, it expanded.
The ghost vanished, replaced by a full-grown man standing before the door.
The male player rubbed his eyes in disbelief, while Dai Qi and Xiao Ling were equally astonished.
Could little ghosts change forms?
None of them had ever kept ghosts before, so this was their first time witnessing such a thing.
Gu Yi'an said, "Keep searching for the pinhole cameras. Leave this to it."
With her reassurance, Dai Qi didn't linger and turned back to the bathroom to film the two-way mirror.
Because he turned away early, he missed the moment when the adult-form hanging ghost looked back.
The hanging ghost had also heard Gu Yi'an's words and turned its head to promise, "Your Highness, just leave it to me. I'll devour it right away."
Its head spun a full 180 degrees while its body remained motionless.
The male player and Xiao Ling were nearly scared to death by the man whose neck could twist 180 degrees and who had a pair of white, vacant eyes.
Gu Yi'an, however, was used to it. She glanced at the pale faces of the male player and Xiao Ling and said to the hanged ghost, "Turn back."
"Understood, ma'am."
The hanged ghost turned back and grinned at the door, saying, "Hey, beautiful, come out and chat with me."
As it spoke, its head flattened and squeezed through the door crack.
The male player glanced at Xiao Ling and whispered, "It looks like it could take down a hundred of me."
Xiao Ling replied, "No need to state the obvious."
Leaving the door to the hanged ghost, Gu Yi'an led the male player and Xiao Ling to remove the camera hidden in the socket beneath the TV. She also discovered a pinhole camera in a flowerpot.
Dai Qi, having finished documenting the two-way mirror evidence, emerged from the bathroom and joined their search for cameras. He found another one in the ventilation duct above the room.
Next, the four of them combed through the entire room, leaving only the nightstand area unchecked, mainly because the young man was still repeating the dismemberment scene there.
No one could figure out what the ghost was up to, and for the moment, no one wanted to pass by it.
But now that every other spot had been searched, only that area remained.
Realizing this, the male player and Xiao Ling turned pale. They were worried that Gu Yi'an and the others would insist on searching there.
Dai Qi noticed their ashen faces and smiled, turning to Gu Yi'an. "We have enough evidence, right? Should we leave?"
Gu Yi'an nodded.
She also felt they had gathered sufficient evidence. The ghost repeatedly acting out the dismemberment scene was clearly up to something sinister. She had no strong curiosity about it and, following her intuition, decided it was best to avoid any contact.
Dai Qi reminded everyone to hide their phones and keep them out of sight.
Everyone complied, carefully concealing their devices. Dai Qi alone hid three phones in such discreet spots that even Gu Yi'an couldn't tell where he'd stashed them.
The four of them headed toward the door.
Just then, a human skin squeezed through the door crack, then inflated and reshaped into the form of a grown man, the hanged ghost.
The hanged ghost obsequiously opened the door for them, saying, "Your Highness, after you."
Hearing the ghost address Gu Yi'an this way, Dai Qi gave her a thoughtful glance.
Dai Qi was the first to step out of the room.
The hanged ghost glared at him, then transformed back into a small white sunny doll and drifted back into Gu Yi'an's pocket, followed by the little girl.
The four of them safely exited the room and reached the elevator.
At the far end of the hallway, a door was slightly ajar. Someone inside glanced toward the elevator before closing the door again.
At the elevator entrance, Dai Qi lowered his voice and said to the group, "Someone is watching us."
Upon hearing this, the male player immediately began looking around nervously.
Gu Yi'an said, "No need to look. That person has already closed the door."
"Ding dong."
The elevator doors opened.
The four of them entered the elevator.
Dai Qi pressed the button for the first floor.
It wasn't until they were inside the elevator that the male player felt a sense of having narrowly escaped death. He couldn't help but say, "I feel alive again."
As the elevator descended, he clearly felt himself moving away from that room full of ghosts.
He was overwhelmed with relief at still being alive.
Gu Yi'an, however, felt that their escape had been a bit too easy.
She glanced at Dai Qi.
Dai Qi was smiling as he spoke to the male player.
Noticing Gu Yi'an's gaze, he looked back at her.
Both could see the concern in each other's hearts.
Dai Qi shook his head slightly at Gu Yi'an.
He gestured for her to look at the male player and Xiao Ling.
Both the male player and Xiao Ling were visibly relaxed, as if they had just survived a disaster.
It made it hard to ruin their moment of joy.
"Ding dong."
They had reached the first floor.
As the elevator doors opened, the overlapping sounds of a man and a woman arguing reached the ears of Gu Yi'an and the others.
"Pay up! Look at what's in your hotel, hidden cameras everywhere. I don't care, I want compensation, 100,000 yuan! No bargaining!"
It was Uncle Wu and another female player, Xiao Yu.
As Gu Yi'an and the others stepped out of the elevator, they saw Uncle Wu leaning sloppily against the front desk, behaving like a rogue.
The other female player, Xiao Yu, stood beside him, putting on the act of a shrewish woman.
Several hotel employees stood behind the front desk, softly trying to explain the situation.
"Our hotel does not have any hidden cameras. How about we go up with you to check?"
Upon hearing that the hotel staff wanted to accompany them upstairs, Uncle Wu immediately said, "No. I just want compensation. 100,000 yuan!"
He was taking his unreasonable behavior to the extreme, making it seem to onlookers that he was nothing but a money-grubbing troublemaker.
Dai Qi walked over and raised his voice to catch Uncle Wu and Xiao Yu's attention.
"Uncle Wu, forget it. Let's just not stay here. No compensation. We're not staying in this godforsaken place."
Uncle Wu, being shrewd, immediately played along. "No way. I want compensation. 100,000 yuan. If I don't get the money today, I'm not leaving this spot."
One of the hotel employees, noticing the arrival of Gu Yi'an and the others, quietly slipped away from the scene.
Uncle Wu, Dai Qi, and Gu Yi'an all noticed this.
The female employee who had earlier given Gu Yi'an and the others their room keys signaled to the other staff and said, "Go make some tea for these six."
Then she turned to Uncle Wu and said, "We've been talking for so long. The tea we made for you earlier must be cold now. Have some cool tea to soothe your throats."
Knowing that this hotel was involved in organ trafficking, Gu Yi'an and the others immediately suspected that the tea might be tampered with.
Dai Qi watched the employee leave, guessing that their actions in the room would surely be discovered. They needed to find an opportunity to leave quickly.
Dai Qi said, "Miss, we won't drink this tea. Since there's no compensation, we won't stay here either. Uncle Wu, let's go."
Uncle Wu, seeing that Gu Yi'an and the others had all arrived, had suspected from the start that the tea was problematic. Now, with no lingering concerns, he swept his hand and knocked the cup of tea in front of him, placed at the front desk registration area, onto the floor.
"We're not drinking. Who knows if your hotel might have slipped something in it? I just want the compensation."
The female employee observed their unpleasant expressions. "It was you who insisted on staying here earlier. We didn't force you. And now you're saying you won't stay if there's no compensation? It's just as well if you don't stay."
Dai Qi had been waiting for her to say exactly that. He replied, "You said it yourself. This place is clearly haunted. Uncle Wu, let's go. Even if they paid me to stay in these rooms, I wouldn't."
He got into character, grabbed Uncle Wu's arm, and began dragging him outside.
Uncle Wu protested, "Wait! That's 100,000 yuan we're talking about!"
Though he said this, he still allowed Dai Qi to pull him away.
At Dai Qi's signal, the female players Xiao Yu and Xiao Ling, along with the male player, began walking away while cursing at the hotel staff behind them, accusing the hotel of being unethical and stingy.
The three of them raised their voices together, creating a particularly noisy commotion.
The six of them walked openly toward the hotel's main entrance.
A guest emerged from the elevator, witnessing the scene and hearing the cursing. He asked a hotel employee who approached to assist him, "What's going on here?"
The employee, recognizing a genuine hotel guest, smiled and explained, "Just a group trying to cause trouble and extort money. Sir, is there something you need? You can always call the front desk directly from your room."
The employee scrutinized the guest, a flicker of suspicion in his eyes.
The guest didn't notice this and said, "I'm hungry. I came down to ask if you offer late-night snacks."
The employee dismissed his doubts. "Yes, we do. Right this way, please."
The guest's appearance also caught the attention of the staff at the front desk.
The lead female employee shook her head, signaling everyone to keep up appearances in front of the guest.
She whispered, "Xiao Chen left earlier, did he go to check the surveillance footage?"
The other employees confirmed it.
Still uneasy, she added, "Send someone to follow them. Make sure they don't leave the parking lot."
At that moment, the six of them stepped out of the hotel’s main entrance.
The hotel greeters standing at the door watched Gu Yi’an and the other five but made no move.
Gu Yi’an and her companions also remained still, as they noticed four security guards stationed at the bottom of the steps.
It seemed the hotel staff had no intention of letting them leave.
Gu Yi’an glanced back through the glass wall into the hotel lobby and said, “More people are coming out from inside.”
Hearing this, the male player urged anxiously, “What are we waiting for? Let’s run!”
As soon as he spoke, the four burly security guards below sneered coldly at them.
The two novice female players grabbed the male player, signaling him to shut up.
Dai Qi said, “Looks like we’re in for a tough fight, Uncle Wu, Little Gu.”
Uncle Wu and Dai Qi moved in sync, both pulling out their tools.
Gu Yi’an unzipped her jacket pocket and asked, “Do you have any way to confuse them?”
Uncle Wu and Dai Qi looked at Gu Yi’an with slight confusion.
Just then, a small doll flew out from Gu Yi’an’s pocket.
A little girl’s voice emanated from it.
“Hehehe, let’s play a game together.”
The voice suddenly echoed in the silent night sky, sending chills down their spines.
Something even more terrifying happened.
In an instant, countless children’s laughter erupted from all directions, echoing the little girl’s voice.
“Hehehe, let’s play a game together.”
The four security guards at the bottom of the steps immediately paled, frantically looking around and shouting at the air, “Go away!”
“Get away from me!”
They seemed to be seeing something horrifying and were utterly terrified.
Gu Yi’an glanced back at the greeters and the newly emerged hotel staff, who also wore panicked expressions as they stared into empty space.
Their shouts were slightly different from the guards’.
“It wasn’t me. Don’t come after me.”
“I didn’t kill you.”
They had fallen into hallucinations.
Confirming this, Gu Yi’an turned to the other five players and said, “Alright, let’s get out of here quickly.”
The other five players, including the experienced Dai Qi and Uncle Wu, looked at Gu Yi’an with shock, as if she were some kind of monster.
Uncle Wu muttered to himself, “If I didn’t know you were a player, Little Gu, I might have thought we had to defeat you to clear the game.”
How could a player be this strong?
If she’s this powerful, why would she even enter The Game of the Gods? Is she some kind of loophole?
Dai Qi was the first to snap out of it. He put away the tool in his hand and said, “Let’s go.”
Everyone quickly seized the opportunity and hurriedly left the hotel parking lot.
Once out of the parking lot, they found themselves on a wide street.
They turned a corner and discovered a brightly lit commercial street.
A gentle evening breeze blew, and there were still pedestrians walking along the street.
Everyone instinctively slowed their pace.
Perched on Gu Yi’an’s shoulder, the little girl happily gazed at the surroundings.
Under the dim streetlights late at night, with few pedestrians around, no one paid much attention to the little girl on Gu Yi’an’s shoulder.
Even if passersby glanced over, they only marveled at Gu Yi’an’s appearance.
After walking for a while, Dai Qi finally spoke up, “Alright, we’ve managed to escape. The hardest part is over. We have the evidence, and now all that’s left is to release it online and rally people’s attention to this hotel.”
Uncle Wu and Gu Yi’an remained silent, their thoughts aligning with Dai Qi’s.
The female player Xiao Ling spoke up, "Brother Dai, we only have evidence of the hidden cameras. We didn’t capture any footage of the ghosts, meaning we didn’t record the murders that happened in that room. And Brother Dai, you mentioned organ trafficking, should we expose that too?"
She was a bit worried that they might have to do more than just reveal the hidden cameras.
Dai Qi replied, "For now, all we can do is expose the fact that the hotel has hidden cameras and is secretly filming guests’ private activities. The ghost situation is hard to explain, most people would just dismiss it as rumors. As for the organ trafficking, we need to investigate it slowly. We must have enough evidence to prevent the forces behind the hotel from suppressing the matter. We have to take it step by step."
He glanced at everyone and said, "Let’s find a place to stay first. Does everyone have their ID cards?"
Gu Yi'an, upon hearing this, thought of something.
She said, "I have an electronic ID in my payment app. I’m not sure if it’ll work here."
Hearing Gu Yi'an’s words, the others also started checking their phones.
"I also set up an electronic ID in the real world, not sure if it’ll be usable."
"Mine too."
"Should we go and try?"
An hour later.
Gu Yi'an and two other female players arrived in their new hotel room. The first thing they did was check for hidden cameras.
"Sister Gu, it seems there aren’t any."
"Sister Gu, I didn’t find any either."
The two female players searched carefully but found nothing.
Gu Yi'an also confirmed there were none.
She said, "This hotel probably doesn’t have any. Let’s wash up and get some sleep early. Starting tomorrow morning, we have a tough battle ahead."
Taking down that hotel wouldn’t be easy.
While the female players were washing up and preparing to sleep, the three male players were in a double room at another hotel.
The experienced players, Dai Qi and Uncle Wu, fell asleep as soon as they lay down.
The male player, still shaken from the earlier fright, couldn’t sleep. He moved a chair, turned on the TV, and muted the volume.
The male player didn’t know what TV programs were available in this world.
He glanced at the TV content.
Late-night news, boring, change the channel.
A rerun of a drama, hadn’t seen it before, change the channel.
A woman in red, nice figure, had he stumbled upon an adult program?
The male player looked at the face of the woman in red on the screen. Why did she seem a bit familiar?
Suddenly, the woman in red grinned at him, and a magnified ghostly face abruptly appeared on the screen.
"Holy shit!"
The male player remembered who this woman was, she was the female ghost in red from the hotel TV!
The ghost from there had followed them!
In the room of the three female players, the lights had already gone out, but moonlight still filtered through the curtains, casting a faint glow in the room.
Gu Yi'an slept alone on one of the beds, resting peacefully.
A young man's figure appeared in the room.
He looked at the young woman sleeping soundly on the bed and, without hesitation, swung down the knife in his hand, just as he had acted out the dismemberment scene earlier.
The knife sliced through the air with a sharp, piercing sound.
Suddenly, the sound of the air halted.
The young man looked down.
His knife had met an obstacle.
He had struck a floating notebook.
When had this notebook appeared?
The young man pondered the question.
Not far away, beside the young woman's pillow, a sunny doll and a little girl doll simultaneously cast pitying looks toward the young man.