Under the bed, in the wardrobe, in the bathroom

"Ah!"

It was Lin Yue again; she was the first to cry out in surprise, "How is it a person speaking???"

Li Mengyao's face also turned pale. "Stopping halfway through speaking makes it even scarier..."

Liu Zixuan and Zhang Longqi scanned the surroundings curiously, observing.

Shen Qingci frowned. "Don't get drawn into it; I'm afraid this mission won't be simple."

Chen Yu led the girls into the villa's main hall.

Since the main door behind them was closed, the daylight could not filter in.

The entire villa relied on a massive crystal chandelier for illumination, but only a few bulbs were lit. The light was dim and flickering, stretching everyone's shadows long and short.

Ahead, the two teams that had arrived early were communicating.

The appearance of Chen Yu's group of six immediately drew several gazes.

The first to lock onto them was the group near the entrance to the stairs.

Leading them was a man with a buzz cut, who was dangling an unlit cigarette from his mouth. "Another team has arrived."

His gaze swept over the six of them.

He paused for a moment on Shen Qingci and Li Mengyao, his lips twitching slightly.

A skinny man beside him chuckled lowly. "Even brought a casualty?"

The casualty he was referring to was, of course, Zhang Longqi, who was covering his black and blue face.

"Hello there, little beauties~"

Someone tried to take the initiative to strike up a conversation.

But Chen Yu was walking at the very front, his expression too cold, instantly deterring many people.

Everyone was here to complete the mission.

On the first night, no one wanted to stir up trouble.

"Mm."

Li Mengyao and the others were fairly polite.

They exchanged simple greetings with the people in the hall, but there wasn't much to say.

Chen Yu then led everyone up to the second floor.

The second-floor corridor was even darker. The wall lamps were spaced far apart, and the light was weak.

"Our rooms are 204 and 205."

Li Mengyao whispered, her eyes searching for the doorplates on both sides of the dim corridor.

Everyone could see the team's room numbers in their Information Bar.

Finally, Chen Yu stopped. Before them were two adjacent wooden doors.

The doorplates were brass, covered in oxidation spots, but the numbers 204 and 205 were engraved on them.

"It's these two rooms..."

"There's less than ten minutes left..."

Liu Zixuan breathed a sigh of relief. While looking for the rooms just now, he was even afraid they wouldn't find them in time and would be killed by some terrifying things.

Fortunately, this mission didn't set any hurdles right at the beginning.

Below the doorplate:

204: Chen Yu, Li Mengyao, Shen Qingci, Lin Yue

205: Zhang Longqi, Liu Zixuan

"..."

Liu Zixuan's lips twitched. "Six people, two rooms—is this how they're divided?"

His voice was weak, his eyes constantly darting toward the list of names for 204 and then looking at the two lonely names for 205 next door, his face written with reluctance.

Zhang Longqi was also a bit dazed, staring at the doorplate for two seconds. "The two of us occupy an entire room?"

Chen Yu shrugged. "We have to follow the rules, after all."

Liu Zixuan muttered softly, "Who knows..."

Zhang Longqi suddenly kicked him with quite some force.

Liu Zixuan let out an "Ouch" and quickly shut up.

Zhang Longqi glared at him. "Isn't a room for two great!"

Meanwhile.

Li Mengyao, Shen Qingci, and Lin Yue were quite calm.

In fact, Lin Yue looked relieved; she was very afraid of being separated alone.

"Let's go, hurry up."

Chen Yu said no more and directly turned the handle of room 204.

This distribution was, of course, the car owner's intentional doing.

When choosing the participants just now, it was actually adding people to the existing room numbers.

He had naturally chosen the best plan.

Zhang Longqi and Liu Zixuan looked at each other, gritted their teeth, and also walked into the room next door.

Speaking of which.

As soon as Chen Yu walked in, a heavy, stale air assailed his senses.

It felt as if the room had been empty for a long time.

But it had to be said that it was more spacious than expected—it was a suite with a living room.

A sofa and a coffee table were placed in the living room.

The fireplace was cold, with a thick layer of dust accumulated.

The walls were covered in wallpaper with dark patterns, which was mottled in many places.

Most notably, in the master bedroom connected to the living room, there was a surprisingly large European-style bed, big enough for three or four people to sleep in.

This was beyond Chen Yu's expectations.

Originally, he had planned for the girls to sleep on the floor.

Shen Qingci quickly scanned the environment and walked to the window to check the curtains and window latches.

Li Mengyao began checking the wardrobes in the bedroom... Lin Yue stood in the center of the living room, unsure of where to go.

Chen Yu didn't look much at the room's layout; his gaze fell on the master bedroom's nightstand, where a pure black card lay quietly, looking very familiar.

[invitation card]

Description: A metal card shimmering with dark silver light. It seems to have produced a certain special resonance and interference authority with the Vehicle Binding Rules.

Effect: The car owner can invite any Passenger. After the other party agrees, they will join your Vehicle queue. Remaining invitation attempts: 1/1.

Warning: If the other party refuses, this card will still be voided.

Warning: During the mission, the effect of the invitation card will not be announced throughout the process.

"?"

Chen Yu noticed the anomaly immediately.

Because this invitation card had an extra line of text compared to the one from the Second Station.

Which was the final warning:

"During the mission, the effect of the invitation card will not be announced throughout the process."

This meant that if someone was invited, others would not receive any prompts.

If one could change teams silently, then the possibility of betrayal existed.

More importantly... this card appearing in his room was certainly not because he was lucky.

10 points of Luck was just the average level.

Perhaps everyone was currently thinking about how to use invitation cards to poach members.

"Why is this bathroom so eerie?"

Li Mengyao walked to the bathroom door, leaned halfway in, and looked inside with a slight frown.

Old facilities and a blurry mirror.

Chen Yu silently pocketed the invitation card and turned around with his usual expression. "Old houses are all like this..."

Shen Qingci suddenly thought of something.

She quickly walked to the bed. "Do you remember when we first entered the villa, the panicked male voice? In the things he said, the last part involved..."

Lin Yue whispered, "It seemed to be under the bed, the wardrobe, the bathroom..."

[I am hiding under the bed]

[I am hiding in the wardrobe]

[I am hiding in the bathroom]

Suddenly, everyone recalled that eerie speech.

Li Mengyao quickly moved away from the bathroom door. "I... I remember it too, but what does it mean?"

Shen Qingci shook her head, suppressing the chill rising in her heart, her gaze falling on the bed before her.

The bed had a heavy, dark solid wood frame with intricate carvings on the headboard. The mattress was thick, and while it looked like no one had slept there for a long time, there wasn't much dust.

She squatted down, clutched her sleeves tightly, gathered her courage, and suddenly lifted the bed skirt that hung to the floor—

In the darkness underneath.

It was completely empty.

Li Mengyao rubbed her chin. "I've checked the wardrobe and the bathroom; there's nothing there..."