Trembling At A High Altitude

Everyone shook their heads in turn.

Whether those two female staff members were human or ghosts was still unknown; letting them guide us to look for the stout man in the dead of night could mean we might not even know how we died if it came to that.

"He must have his reasons for thinking this way. Staying in this villa may not be safe, and finding the stout man sooner might reveal useful clues, potentially solving all of the mysteries here." Yuki Noto, though feeling a chill at the prospect of leaving the villa in the middle of the night, decided to support Li Teng unconditionally.

Everyone continued to shake their heads.

"Although we feel that there's no pattern to the killings by the Ghostly Entities or Monsters in the villa, there's still one pattern that hasn't been broken.

"That is, after someone dies, there will be a period, about two hours or so, before another person dies. Someone just passed away, so by comparison, we're relatively safe at the moment.

"Taking advantage of this relative safety to quickly search for our companion and clues is the right move."

Li Teng spoke up, trying to convince everyone with a few more words.

No matter what Li Teng said, the group still shook their heads.

Yuki Noto sighed.

She had seen all the movies Li Teng had been in before.

Whenever Li Teng decided to do something, he certainly had a detailed plan in his mind.

Those who followed him had a high chance of survival, whereas those who chose not to accompany him mostly met their end.

"Those who don't want to go don't have to; is there anyone who wishes to accompany me?" Li Teng was determined to venture out in search of the person, asking the group once more.

"I am willing." Yuki Noto raised her hand.

"Anybody else?" Li Teng hoped to recruit a few more expendables.

Because there so far seemed no discernible pattern to the Monster's killings, the more people together, the smaller the chance of being targeted. If it was just him and Yuki Noto, then the risk of something happening to them was fifty percent.

Of course, that wasn't necessarily so.

Earlier on the mountain road, he and Yuki Noto weren't with the others, and in the end, it was the group with more people that experienced a death.

No one made a sound.

"Alright then." Li Teng didn't linger on the subject.

He picked up the phone and dialed the front desk number, and after a while, a female staff member's voice came through.

"We need you to come here; we wish to continue searching for the whereabouts of our companion," Li Teng put forward to the person on the phone.

"Okay." There was no refusal from the other side.

Minutes later, the two female staff members walked over.

They wore the same clothes as during the day, and the same smiles on their faces.

Normally, when visiting any hotel or mountain villa and you see such beautiful female staff members, you would certainly find it pleasing to the eye.

However, seeing them now sent an inexplicable chill down our spines.

"Has Xianyu Villa experienced any incidents in the past, like hauntings or anything of that sort?" Li Teng started chatting with the two female staff members upon seeing them.

Hearing the topic Li Teng brought up, everyone else felt somewhat creepy.

Truthfully, they all wanted to get some information out of these two staff members, but given the duo's peculiar status, they didn't dare to initiate conversation.

Li Teng, on the other hand, clearly was ready to risk it.

"No? Hauntings in the villa? We haven't heard of any," the two female staff members exchanged a glance, smiled, and replied to Li Teng.

"So, what's the deal with the two of you? Why are you still able to work normally here? It's the end of the world outside, with alien warships and all—hasn't it affected you at all?" Li Teng continued to ask.

Everyone fell silent, harboring the same questions Li Teng asked, but they dared not voice them.

Could it be that these two were aliens? Asking them such a question was like tearing off a disguise—would they turn violent and kill them on the spot?

"No matter what happens outside, we must always perform our duties. Our job is to satisfy the customers and provide esteemed guests with various daily services. Please leave us a good review when you go, dear," the two female staff members replied with charming smiles.

Though they answered, they hadn't really said anything useful.

"What exactly are you? Are you aliens, or are you spirits?" Li Teng now posed the soul-searching question directly.

The others held their breath upon hearing Li Teng's question.

Wasn't the question a bit too direct? Weren't they afraid of angering the other party? If the facade fell, everyone might be in grave danger.

"Of course, we are humans, just like you. Serving well is our duty; we love our work," the two female staff members said with beaming smiles.

Just like before, their answers were non-responsive or rather, they simply had no intention of giving a proper response.

"I want the truth! If you do not tell the truth, I will kill her right now!"

Suddenly, Li Teng lashed out, wrapping his arm around the neck of one of the female staff members, then fiercely questioned the other.

There was one thing Li Teng was fairly certain of.

That was, after someone had been murdered, the thing that killed in the shadows had a certain cooling period.

Right after a murder took place, the others were relatively safe.

If he wanted to test something and confirm his suspicions, now was the most appropriate time.

The others, seeing this unfold, were so frightened that they collapsed onto the ground.

Just forcefully questioning the two female staff members was terrifying enough, but now Li Teng had resorted to violence!

These were aliens!

"We are just ordinary workers. Our esteemed guests are welcome to raise any complaints, and we will make sure to improve. Please do not harm us," the other female staff member answered Li Teng in a formulaic manner.

"You won't tell the truth, huh? I'll kill her first, then you!" Li Teng raged, his hands suddenly making one revolution, twisting the neck of the woman he was holding by 180 degrees before laying her down on the ground.

"Please do not harm us," the other female staff member repeated mechanically, like a robot.

"Lead the way; we want to go to the next restroom to look for our chubby companion," Li Teng surmised he either encountered aliens or some sort of extraterrestrial intelligence product and guessed that it was probably impossible to force an answer from them.

Taking advantage of the murder's cooling period, it was wisest to hurry and find out what happened to the chubby man and look for any clues that might reveal the cause of his death.

If he couldn't find any useful leads during the cooling period, Li Teng figured the next person to be killed would most likely be himself.

What's the saying? If you don't seek death, you won't die.

What Li Teng had just done would be considered typical death-seeking behavior in a horror movie.

"All right, please follow me." As if nothing had happened, the female staff member made a 'please' gesture to Li Teng and walked ahead.

Li Teng followed her out of the villa.

Yuki Noto hesitated for a moment before following suit.

The others stared at the corpse of the female staff member lying on the floor of the villa, tearless with grief.

Li Teng had gotten himself into big trouble! Would the body turn into a ghost after a while?

The critical issue was that if the body turned into a ghost, and since Li Teng had already fled, the vengeful ghost would surely begin killing those present first!

Moreover, they did not have the courage to move the body.

"Wait! I'll come with you!"

The male doctor who had been on night duty with Li Teng earlier hastily shouted after Li Teng and the other person, then chased after them.

The four people left in the room looked at each other awkwardly...

Two of them, without saying a word, followed suit and rushed out.

The remaining two, now alone, glanced at the female staff's body on the ground and hurriedly chased out as well, without saying anything.

Once everyone had left and their footsteps faded away, the female staff member on the ground suddenly sat up.

She stretched out her hands to her head and, with a fierce effort, twisted her head, which had been turned 180 degrees by Li Teng, back to its original position.

After a while, her face again bore that signature welcoming smile.

Then she stood up and walked out of the villa's hall.

...

Half an hour later.

The group finally found the fat man in a quiet washroom.

Finding the fat man in the ladies' washroom was somewhat unexpected for everyone.

Especially when the women saw the position in which the fat man had died, they all showed expressions of disgust.

The fat man had died flat on his face, looking into a cubicle, his body rigid in that position until his last breath.

His hand was still holding the smartphone, aimed at the cubicle.

Anyone with a bit of sense could guess what he had been doing before his final moment.

To die in such a posture was really too embarrassing.

After some examination, Li Teng found that the fat man's cause of death was different from the other two.

Based on his limited forensic knowledge learned in the Scripted World, he felt that the fat man had not been attacked before death, but rather had been scared to death.

It could also have been a combined effect of being scared to death and some unheard-of method of assault by Aliens.

The fat man was holding a smartphone in his hand, probably trying to take a sneaky photo?

The phone was now off; if he was spying, he must have captured some valuable clues before he died.

Li Teng forcibly took the smartphone out of the fat man's stiff fingers.

He wanted to see what the fat man had captured on his phone, but it was turned off.

Could it be... he had been filming until the moment of his death, not having time to stop the camera, resulting in continuous recording?

If so, the likelihood of having captured something valuable was even higher.

So now, the priority was to find a suitable phone charger to charge the fat man's phone; only then could they turn it on and see what he had recorded.

"Do any of you have a charger?" Li Teng asked those who had come along.

Everyone shook their heads; although three of them carried smartphones, who would bother to carry a charger in the chaos of an apocalypse?

"Does the Mountain Villa have a suitable charger?" Li Teng had no choice but to ask the female staff.

"Do you need one? We'll bring it to you soon," replied the female staff with a smile, as if she hadn't just seen her colleague brutally killed by Li Teng.

"Get it now and send it to the guest villa; we are preparing to return there and need it quickly," Li Teng said after he had finished examining the fat man's death scene and hadn't found any other useful clues.

"All right," the worker replied and turned to leave.

Li Teng picked up the fat man's corpse, planning to move him back to the villa.

The others followed Li Teng back to the guest villa.

Although they felt unnerved by Li Teng carrying a corpse, since no one else seemed bothered, they kept their comments to themselves.

"What do you think he captured on the phone?"

"Women going to the toilet?"

"Don't be disgusting."

"What's disgusting about that? That's what he wanted to film, right? The phone probably captured that."

"I bet he filmed a female ghost going to the toilet. When she noticed, she killed him on the spot in a rage."

"How pervy is that? At a time like this, he's still thinking about that sort of thing."

"Are all you men into doing that kind of disgusting stuff?"

"Get lost! Only a few freaks do that sort of thing, don't generalize it to all of us!"

"Men are all no good, lecherous and cowardly, not to mention neglecting their families."

"And women are any better? Complaining about this and that, all the while cheating everywhere!"

"Are you sick in the head?"

"You're the one who's sick!"

The man and woman who had previously bickered because of feminism were at it again.

...

When Li Teng and the others got back to the guest villa, two female staff members were already waiting there with pleasant smiles.

Seeing the female staff member whom Li Teng had snapped her neck around 180 degrees and who had then come back to life, everyone felt a chill.

There was definitely something wrong with these two! At the very least, they had Immortal Bodies.

What did having an Immortal Body imply? Most likely they were Evil Ghosts!

Li Teng didn't ask what was going on, and naturally, neither did anyone else.

"We've brought you the charger you requested," said the female staff member who had gone to the restroom with Li Teng, presenting a tray to him.

On the tray was a set of brand-new chargers.

"Thank you," Li Teng said as he glanced at the two female staff members, then took the charger, found a socket in the hall, and started charging the fat man's phone.

He had to hurry.

If he didn't find useful clues or a way to resolve the situation quickly, the likelihood of him being the next to be killed was very high.

Why had he tempted fate by provoking these two female staff members?

Two minutes later, Li Teng successfully powered up the fat man's phone.

But he couldn't unlock it; it required a fingerprint or a pattern drawing.

The fat man's finger couldn't unlock it either.

Unlocking a phone requires bioelectricity, which is the release of electricity by the skin cells on the finger.

A man's finger cells don't completely die until three hours after his death, so there's hope of using the dead man's finger to unlock the phone. However, it had been well over three hours since the man had died; his body had stiffened and the skin cells on his fingers could no longer release bioelectricity, which meant they could no longer function to unlock the phone.

Li Teng was so frustrated he felt like kicking the corpse a few times; he had wasted his energy moving it here.

The key clue, even the answer to solving the mystery, might well be in the fat man's phone, but unfortunately, Li Teng couldn't open the phone to see it.