Chapter 748: Two Kinds of Footsteps
After all, they were few in number. According to Xu Huo, starting from scratch to understand the Mirror Hotel would take too long, especially with the danger outside. Fighting alone was simply unwise.
Soon, Peng Fengnian also got results. Besides Peng Fengnian and the young man, there were two other players, one male and one female.
Peng Fengnian looked unwell, introducing his companions to Xu Huo with a hint of emotion.
The young man was called Sun Bo. The other two were Lin Zhenhuai, male, and Gao Xiaoyue, female.
Sun Bo’s disdain for Xu Huo’s group was written all over his face; he couldn’t even be bothered to greet them. Lin Zhenhuai and Gao Xiaoyue, however, gave Xu Huo a thorough once-over. Lin Zhenhuai, a middle-aged man who seemed easy to get along with, shook Xu Huo’s hand. “I’ve heard so much about you! When Peng Fengnian mentioned Brother Yu, I wondered what kind of person he’d be. I never expected someone so young—truly impressive!”
“Whether we can escape this alive depends on you, Brother Yu. Although we entered earlier, we haven’t grasped the key points. We’ve only managed to find the obvious things. Feel free to ask anything; we’ll tell you everything we know.”
His words were well-spoken, and Xu Huo responded politely before getting down to business.
First was the footsteps. Whether they were outside or inside the Mirror Hotel, they could only hear the sound at night—a conclusion they reached after staying awake for several days and nights.
But aside from the sound, they found nothing else. There were absolutely no traces on the ground.
“We tested it with items. There’s definitely nothing extremely light and invisible,” Peng Fengnian emphasized.
“What items did you use to test?” Xu Huo asked.
“You want to see our items?” Sun Bo said coldly. “What exactly are you trying to find out?”
“Do you want to get out?” Xu Huo’s friendly demeanor toward his “friends” vanished, his gaze turning sharp as he looked at him. “If you want to get out, shut up.”
“You…” Sun Bo was furious, but Lin Zhenhuai and Gao Xiaoyue blocked him from both sides. Lin Zhenhuai shot him a look before turning back and saying, “Brother Yu, it’s not that my companion is being sensitive. Asking to check our items means you don’t trust us. I can assure you, even a feather would be detected by that item.”
He didn’t specify what the item was or who it belonged to, handling it very carefully.
Xu Huo glanced at Peng Fengnian, and only after seeing him nod did he continue, “Alright, let’s keep talking.”
Next was the sequence of the footsteps.
Peng Fengnian was certain they had heard the footsteps first and then followed them, which was the opposite of the footsteps outside that followed behind people.
“That doesn’t make sense,” Yu Guangnan questioned. “You chased the footsteps, thinking they were made by players entering the Corpse Hotel. Why did you keep following behind?”
“We didn’t keep following behind. We tried every method we could,” Gao Xiaoyue said. “But it felt like, aside from the sound, the person moving was completely in another space we couldn’t touch.”
Xiao Ling and Yu Guangnan exchanged a glance. This was different from their situation outside, where the footsteps they encountered had always been behind them.
“Does this mean that the ‘opposite side’ people encountered inside and outside aren’t necessarily the ones they think they are?” Xiao Ling said.
“That’s possible.” Xu Huo thought of something else. The real Corpse Hotel and this Mirror Hotel, entered after hearing the footsteps, might be two separate spaces. If so, that didn’t rule out a third “space.”
“Maybe it’s just a special item,” Sun Bo said. “It has nothing to do with entering the Mirror Hotel.”
“Whether you’re saying this because you’re simple-minded or just to argue with us,” Xu Huo said, his expression darkening, “if you’re going to waste time with meaningless words like that, I suggest you don’t speak.”
Sun Bo was enraged. “Yu, don’t be too arrogant. Do you really think you can leave this place alone?”
“Then why are you here?” Xu Huo countered.
Sun Bo was speechless. Gao Xiaoyue grabbed his arm. “Say less. This was our collective decision.”
Seeing that his companions weren’t on his side, Sun Bo shook off Gao Xiaoyue’s hand in a huff, crossed his arms, and sat to the side, a sneer on his face as if to say, “Go ahead.”
The detailed exchange resumed.
“When you came in, the footsteps you heard were behind you, right? When you split up, did the footsteps ever occur simultaneously?” Xu Huo asked.
This was a relatively key point. In fact, Peng Fengnian and the others had only sorted it out after they were all inside. Three people in their team had recorded the start times of several footsteps occurrences before moving to the Mirror Hotel, and the times didn’t match.
However, since they hadn’t spread out too far, the time intervals between footsteps weren’t very significant—if they were on different floors, the intervals between each set of footsteps could roughly reveal the movement pattern. For example, whether the time it appeared behind someone was affected by the distance between two people. If the distance was long but the interval was short, it meant the footsteps weren’t moving like a normal human. But if the distance was long and the interval was long, the footsteps might be caused by a “person,” even if not a real one, at least somewhat similar to a real person.
“Besides those three, the others either didn’t pay attention to the time or were killed by that monster before they could regroup,” Peng Fengnian said regretfully. He paused and added, “Is this detail important?”
“Not particularly,” Xu Huo said. “The ‘footsteps’ might not track every player. They might only appear where players are gathered, or simply choose targets at random.”
“But since you and your companions are all here, it means the ‘footsteps’ will eventually find every player—it’s just a matter of time.”
“That’s enough to conclude that the footsteps are related to entering the Mirror Hotel.”
“That’s what we thought too. That’s why, whether the footsteps were a trap set by the Corpse Hotel or made by other players, we would actively follow them,” Peng Fengnian said.
“Have you encountered other players before? Did their walking paths overlap with the locations where you heard the footsteps?” Xu Huo asked.
“Six people came in after us. Three of them crossed paths with us, and the locations and times matched.”
“So, were the footsteps we heard outside really from the Mirror Hotel?” Yu Guangnan asked.
“Do you think anyone in the Mirror Hotel could wander around like they’re at a market?” Xiao Ling shot him a look.
“That’s strange,” Yu Guangnan said, puzzled. “If the footsteps were made by players, then Peng Fengnian and the others shouldn’t have heard the sound before entering. If not, why did the footsteps they heard later match up with other players?”
To put it simply, certain characteristics of the “footsteps” in the Corpse Hotel and the surface-level hotel didn’t align.