They returned to the first floor and took the stairwell up.
In most high-rise buildings, there are usually both elevators and stairwells, and the stairwell provides access to each floor.
With their C-grade player stamina, they could easily climb up to the 20th floor without breaking a sweat. Gu Jiu started from the first floor and climbed upwards, her steps light and agile. Her recent training in the Boundless City training ground seemed to have paid off well; she felt she could climb fifty floors without feeling tired.
When they reached the second floor, they noticed the second-floor stairwell door. Wan Xingzhou ran over to open it and peered through, finding nothing unusual.
Finally, they arrived on the third floor, where Wan Xingzhou tensed up.
Each floor’s stairwell door remained closed, requiring players to open the door themselves.
He wasn’t sure if opening this door would lead to yet another bout of misfortune. According to Chai Yingying, the hidden third floor was extremely dangerous, likely lethal.
He drew out his Red Sword.
Seeing how nervous he was, Gu Jiu didn’t make it harder for him. She stepped forward, took hold of the door handle, and easily pulled it open.
Wan Xingzhou stared at her slender figure, realizing that in this moment, her aura was a towering two meters eight—she felt more dependable than any burly man.
Seeing her standing at the doorway, unmoving, he cautiously moved closer and took a look.
“Huh? This is the third floor?”
They had already been on the third floor before, and Wan Xingzhou could immediately tell that this place looked identical to the area they’d previously explored. It wasn’t the hidden third floor Chai Yingying described with a reversed layout.
Gu Jiu scanned the third floor and happened to spot a dark-skinned, burly male player emerging from the elevator.
The male player glanced toward the stairwell door, saw Gu Jiu and her companions standing there, and instantly understood their purpose.
The male player asked, “So, you haven’t found the hidden third floor either?”
Gu Jiu keenly picked up on his implication and asked gently, “You haven’t found it either?”
The male player nodded, looking puzzled. “If Chai Yingying wasn’t lying, then the third floor is indeed hidden, only appearing at unpredictable times.”
According to Chai Yingying, she had discovered the hidden third floor around 4 p.m. the previous day.
There was still an hour and a half before 4 p.m. today, so perhaps the hidden third floor hadn’t appeared yet simply because it wasn’t time.
Of course, there could be other reasons. Perhaps triggering some mechanism was necessary for the hidden third floor to appear, or there might be another factor at play. In any case, there were several possibilities, all requiring players to explore and test for themselves.
The male player hesitated, then walked toward them and entered the stairwell.
He had come up earlier via the stairwell to investigate but hadn’t found the hidden third floor.
“Hey, buddy, what’s up with that?” Wan Xingzhou asked curiously.
The male player laughed heartily. “I want to see if anything changes here when four o’clock comes.”
His approach was understandable; players who enter the game world aim for clearance and points. Clearing the level is a matter of survival, while points ensure they can purchase more rare, life-saving items—both are indispensable. Hence, players were determined to explore the hidden third floor. If they could find “Lingyuan” there right away, the points gained would undoubtedly be significant.
After chatting awkwardly for a while, Wan Xingzhou and the male player became naturally acquainted, exchanging names.
The male player was called Wu Wei, and he had entered the game world alone this time.
“Why don’t you find a partner?” Wan Xingzhou asked curiously. It couldn’t possibly be like his situation, where his bad luck put his teammates in such peril that no one wanted to partner up with him anymore.
Since the Boundless City offered items that allowed players to team up, it was clear that the Multiverse Games didn’t discourage players from forming teams in the game world; in fact, it likely encouraged it. Having a partner by one’s side in a dangerous game world undoubtedly increased safety. Most players entering C-grade arenas had partners; lone wolves were rare.
Wu Wei took out a cigarette, ready to light it, then looked over at Gu Jiu and Lu Ji. “You guys mind if I smoke?”
Gu Jiu smiled slightly but didn’t say anything.
Seeing her reaction, Wu Wei didn’t insist on smoking and instead tucked the cigarette behind his ear, saying lightly, “I lost my previous partner, and for now, I haven’t found a new one.”
Finding a good partner wasn’t easy; there had to be mutual trust. Without that, it was often better to go it alone.
The three of them understood what “lost” meant—his partner had died in the game world.
The two men continued to chat idly.
Gu Jiu pulled out two chairs from her portable space, inviting Lu Ji to sit down beside her casually as they waited.
When Wan Xingzhou and Wu Wei saw her relaxed demeanor, Wu Wei felt a bit surprised, while Wan Xingzhou looked unsurprised. After their experience in the previous game world, he had come to view everything Miss Gu Jiu did as inherently correct.
This was largely due to Gu Jiu’s usual behavior; everything she did was confident, as if perfectly natural and beyond question. Over time, everyone who knew her grew accustomed to her ways.
As they talked, footsteps sounded from below on the stairs.
Gu Jiu and her companions looked over and saw a few players coming up from the lower floors.
Seeing the four people in the stairwell on the third floor, the newcomers nodded knowingly and found a spot to wait as well.
Like Wu Wei, they had searched earlier in the morning and hadn’t found the hidden third floor, so they decided to wait until 4 p.m. to see if it would appear.
Shortly after, more players arrived, including Chai Yingying and her team.
Chai Yingying walked over to Gu Jiu with a captivating, seductive smile that naturally drew the gaze of nearby men. Yet, before long, their eyes shifted, almost unwillingly, back to Gu Jiu.
The two women were strikingly different types of beauties, but when it came to sheer allure, Gu Jiu undoubtedly had the upper hand.
Gu Jiu possessed a unique aura; her classically gentle features were not overshadowed by Chai Yingying’s glamour. Instead, her presence became even more magnetic, making her the center of attention wherever she went.
As a beauty, Gu Jiu was accustomed to the attention and sat there calmly, nodding politely to Chai Yingying with a faint smile.
Chai Yingying asked, “Miss Gu, what’s your take on the hidden third floor?”
“I’m not sure,” Gu Jiu replied bluntly. “I haven’t seen it with my own eyes, so it’s hard to say.”
Chai Yingying laughed softly, unsurprised by her answer. If Gu Jiu had made any sweeping claims without knowing the situation, she would’ve started doubting her judgment.
The two exchanged a few casual remarks about the hidden third floor.
“I think the Lingyuan must be on the hidden third floor,” Chai Yingying voiced the sentiment shared by everyone. “This time, our task is to find the Lingyuan. We’ve searched the entire hotel and still don’t even know what the Lingyuan is.”
When they discovered that the hotel might have a hidden third floor, any sensible person would naturally suspect that the Lingyuan could be there.
The two continued their conversation, all the while keeping an eye on the time.
As four o’clock approached, Chai Yingying and Gu Jiu stopped talking and both turned their gaze toward the stairwell door leading to the third floor.
At that moment, the door was closed. Players weren’t certain if opening it would reveal the hidden third floor, so they had decided to keep it shut for now.
“It’s four o’clock,” Chai Yingying reminded everyone.
Gu Jiu stood up, and Lu Ji casually stowed away the two chairs, following her like a dutiful attendant beside her young mistress.
The male player closest to the stairwell door reached out and pulled it open in one swift motion.
Everyone’s gaze turned towards the space beyond the door.
“Doesn’t seem like anything’s changed,” Wan Xingzhou muttered.
Everyone present was a C-grade player, all with sharp senses, and since they were nearby, they clearly heard him.
After the door opened, the third floor remained as it was—still the same third floor, not the hidden one.
The group turned to look at Chai Yingying. She shrugged, “Why are you all looking at me? I have no reason to deceive you. Maybe it’s because I opened it yesterday, so it doesn’t work today?”
As she’d said before, no one knew exactly how the hidden third floor appeared or if there was a specific pattern to it.
Chai Yingying had only stumbled upon it by chance. There was no guarantee that opening the door at exactly four o’clock every day would reveal the hidden floor.
The players understood that things wouldn’t be that straightforward, though they couldn’t suppress a sense of disappointment or the dread of the approaching night.
After standing around for a while and confirming that there was no change on the third floor, everyone left in disappointment.
Gu Jiu’s expression remained calm, showing no hint of disappointment.
“Aren’t you disappointed?” Wan Xingzhou asked in surprise. He himself felt incredibly frustrated, enough to want to pull his hair out.
Gu Jiu replied, “When I opened the stairwell door for the first time and found nothing unusual, I knew we wouldn’t find it today.”
“Is that intuition?”
“Something like that.”
Wan Xingzhou thought to himself, ‘Looks like Miss Gu’s instincts are spot-on. Not surprising for someone who acts so confidently on intuition.’
After leaving the third floor, Gu Jiu and her group wandered around the hotel for a while, and soon it was time for dinner.
The players gathered in the second-floor dining hall.
“Huh, someone’s missing?” Wan Xingzhou commented, turning to look toward the elevators.
There had been fifteen players at breakfast this morning, but now only fourteen had shown up—clearly one was missing.
The players paused in their meals, their gazes sweeping over everyone in the dining room as they quickly recalled who was absent. Although there were quite a few players who had entered the game world this time, it wasn’t difficult to remember everyone’s faces. And with all fifteen present at breakfast, it was immediately obvious who was missing.
Zhan Shaohong, while eating, noticed Gu Jiu’s interest in the matter and loudly suggested, “That guy might be dead, don’t you think?”
“We could check the guest registry on the first floor to see if a room number is missing,” Chai Yingying proposed.
Zhan Shaohong sent two of his lackeys down to the first floor to check the registry.
The two quickly returned, one of them looking visibly frightened. “There are only fourteen names on the registry now.”
The players exchanged shocked looks. Another player had died during the day?
Even though they hadn’t been in the game world for very long—just three days—it had been enough time to establish a pattern: players usually only died at night, when things were most dangerous. Generally, daytime was relatively safe.
During the first and second days, no player had encountered trouble during the day.
They remembered the player who had died, but the problem was that he had been moving alone all day, and no one knew exactly where he’d met his end.
It wasn’t as if he didn’t have a companion; his partner had died the first night, so he had to navigate on his own from then on.
Gu Jiu spoke up, “Is it possible he went to the hidden third floor today?”
“Impossible, right?” Wan Xingzhou blurted. “The hidden third floor didn’t appear, did it?”
Before anyone else could respond, Chai Yingying quickly interjected, “I get what you’re suggesting. You’re saying that the player who died might have been the first one to find the hidden third floor today—and maybe he managed to open it?”
Gu Jiu nodded, a faint smile on her lips. “Exactly.”
Since the hidden third floor hadn’t appeared at four o’clock in the afternoon, could it be that only the first person to open the stairwell door could see it?
The players exchanged uneasy glances.
With Gu Jiu and Chai Yingying’s analysis, they started to understand. Perhaps only the first player to open the third-floor stairwell door each day could access the hidden floor. Yesterday, Chai Yingying had been the first to take the stairs, and upon opening the door, she encountered the hidden third floor.
It did seem possible.
Gu Jiu suggested, “Why don’t we test this together tomorrow?”
“Sounds good!” Zhan Shaohong agreed eagerly, sensing another chance to show off. “I’ve got a few tools. If there’s danger, just stick with me.”
Everyone else: “…” They all felt a sudden urge to take him out and steal his gear.
Lu Ji gave Zhan Shaohong a dark, unyielding stare, one that made the excited “Young Master Hong” slowly tense up and look away awkwardly.
Gu Jiu calmly placed a piece of curry beef into Lu Ji’s bowl, and she quietly, obediently ate it.
Zhan Shaohong wiped the cold sweat from his brow, thinking to himself that this seemingly mild-mannered yet fierce girl was terrifyingly two-faced.