The gunshot in the hotel immediately set off blaring alarms, startling guests on every floor.
Since this was the venue being prepared for the Asian Anti-Paranormal Research Conference, most current occupants were internal staff from the Special Strategy Division and other departments, tasked with setting up the conference site.
Additionally, a small number of Anti-Paranormal Agents and Fighters were present for security and assistance.
Therefore, the moment the alarm sounded, the Anti-Paranormal Agents were the first to spring into action. They contacted hotel staff to use the public address system, directing guests on each floor to evacuate.
Simultaneously, Division Three of the Capital Special Strategy Division, located closest to the Peace Hotel, immediately dispatched three squads of Anti-Paranormal Agents and a regiment of Anti-Paranormal Fighters. They first sealed off the entire city block around the hotel, then initiated an evacuation operation upon detecting Paranormal Space activity.
Having learned from the previous major Paranormal disaster in the capital, the Capital Special Strategy Division now had extensive experience dealing with large-scale Paranormal incidents. In less than half an hour, they had cordoned off the hotel and completed the evacuation of surrounding civilians.
However, the Paranormal Space within the hotel was spreading rapidly. Only two Anti-Paranormal squads from Division Three managed to enter before the rest were blocked by an intangible barrier.
Fortunately, the “Paranormal Energy Detector” research team had made significant breakthroughs over the past six months in detecting Paranormal Energy and breaching Paranormal Space barriers. With the machines now brought to the scene, they began attempting to “forcefully” breach the Paranormal Space.
If only Shen Ge weren’t trapped inside the Paranormal Space at that moment, seeing the Capital Division’s efforts would have made him realize he had indeed wrongly suspected headquarters.
The Paranormal incident at the Peace Hotel was not orchestrated by headquarters. Even the commanders of the Capital Division’s three departments were currently baffled.
After all, preparations for this year’s Asian Anti-Paranormal Research Conference had been underway since it was confirmed in the first half of the year that China would host. Everything had been peaceful for the past six months, so why was the Peace Hotel, the designated venue, suddenly being engulfed by a Paranormal Space today?
The key point was that the Paranormal Space wasn’t spreading outward from the hotel center across the neighborhood as usual. Instead, it seemed to be spreading upward from the base of the hotel itself.
In other words, the Paranormal Space appeared intent on covering only the Peace Hotel.
Such an unusual method of expansion left headquarters utterly confused. Had the Paranormal Space gained sentience, allowing it to target its spread so precisely?
——-
At that moment, on a certain floor of the hotel.
Two Anti-Paranormal Agents from Division Three of the Capital Special Strategy Division, leading a full squad of about a dozen Anti-Paranormal Fighters, were systematically advancing deeper into the floor, searching for survivors lost within.
Suddenly, a series of heavy, rhythmic thump-thump heartbeats caught the squad leader’s attention. He raised a clenched fist, signaling the squad to halt and assume defensive positions.
Thud.
Thud.
The eerie heartbeat was accompanied by heavy footsteps emerging from the far end of the corridor. The squad leader raised his Paranormal Energy detector for a scan. Instantly, the Paranormal Energy intensity value on the display screen skyrocketed!
“Not good! A reaction above Tier 4!” The squad leader could no longer maintain his composure the moment he saw the reading. A Tier-4 Paranormal Entity was clearly beyond their capability to handle.
Strangely, the highest-tier Paranormal Entity to appear in the capital over the past few months had only been Tier 3. The Paranormal Energy intensity of a Tier-4 entity would manifest as a black fog-like energy covering the area, detectable even without specialized equipment.
Furthermore, after the last major Paranormal disaster, the capital had installed the latest Paranormal Energy detectors in various districts. These detectors could uncover even Tier-1 or Tier-2 entities, let alone a Tier-4. Therefore, this Tier-4 entity had clearly appeared suddenly within the hotel.
Moreover, Paranormal Entity mutations followed predictable patterns. It was almost impossible for a low-tier entity with weak energy to go undetected, lurk in the hotel, and then suddenly mutate into a Tier-4 entity.
The agents and fighters from Division Three had initially assumed they would be dealing with, at most, Tier-1 or Tier-2 entities, maybe a Tier-3 at worst. Even if they couldn’t defeat it, they could hold out until reinforcements arrived. Who would have thought they’d run face-first into a Tier-4 entity?
There was no time to ponder further. The Tier-4 entity was already upon them, and retreat was no longer an option. They raised their Paranormal Energy firearms and equipment, preparing to engage.
Suddenly, the air ahead rippled. The lead squad leader felt a blur before his eyes, and a pale, hulking figure materialized right in front of him.
However, what appeared before the group was not some indescribable Paranormal Entity, but a Paranormal-human nearly two meters tall. Its body was covered only in a layer of grayish-white, withered skin stretched taut over its frame.
The creature was completely hairless. Its face resembled a skull, its arms hung down to its knees, and its hands were larger than its head.
Its legs were as muscular as an ox’s. With a burst of speed, it had crossed the corridor from the far end to reach the squad in mere seconds.
Each step it took hit the ground with terrifying force, cracking the floor tiles beneath and leaving fissures in the concrete below.
“Ca—” Before the squad leader could finish uttering “Careful!”, the Paranormal-human’s fist smashed into his face. Then, it opened its skull-like maw wide and let out an ear-splitting roar.
The roar caused visible ripples in the air. The squad leader and two fighters behind him, who had just activated their Paranormal Energy gear, had no time to react before their heads exploded like watermelons into a spray of blood and pulp!
The remaining Anti-Paranormal Fighters were petrified, but instinct and training took over. In that moment, they unhesitatingly squeezed their triggers. Instantly, the muzzle flashes from their Paranormal Energy firearms illuminated the dim corridor.
Yet, no one noticed that the pale figure was nowhere within the area covered by the gunfire. By the time the fighters realized this, the Paranormal-human was already standing among them…
“Ah—”
Several fighters, believing their end was near, instinctively screamed. However, they didn’t feel the expected pain or chilling sensation.
“Where did it go?” They looked around but saw no sign of the Paranormal-human. The corridor was eerily silent, as if everything had been an illusion.
But soon, they noticed the headless corpses of their squad leader and two comrades ahead—a grim reminder that it was no illusion.
Where was the Paranormal-human?
Had it just… let them go?
Before the surviving fighters could sigh in relief, several of them suddenly felt an intense discomfort in their stomachs—a nauseous, retching feeling akin to a severe hangover when you feel like vomiting but can’t.
Gag.
Gag!
Several fighters began dry-heaving simultaneously. This phenomenon spread like a contagion, quickly sweeping through the entire squad. Soon, all surviving fighters were gagging.
The burning, painful sensation of retching with nothing coming up was something only those who had experienced a bad hangover could understand. A few couldn’t bear it and stuck fingers down their throats, attempting to force themselves to vomit.
The corridor echoed with the disgusting sounds of dry heaves. Soon, someone actually did “vomit” something out—but it wasn’t stomach contents. It was a pale, human hand.
The fighter’s mouth was stretched impossibly wide by the hand, becoming a “skull-maw” similar to the Paranormal-human’s earlier. Then, the hand emerging from the mouth clamped onto the fighter’s forehead.
The “controlled” fighters immediately froze in place. After a few seconds, they began moving like puppets, swaying as they turned and shuffled toward the far end of the corridor.
……
Back in the room, Shen Ge attempted to envelop himself and Hu Tinglan within his Paranormal Domain, then passed through the intangible barrier at the doorway into the corridor.
The corridor was quiet, almost identical to when he had arrived.
But Shen Ge had a keen memory. He distinctly noticed that the state of several doors—open or closed—was different from before.
Or rather, reversed.
Doors that had been open when he arrived were now closed, and those that had been closed were now open, creating a sense of a mirror world inversion.
Shen Ge walked to one such door that was now open but had been closed before. Standing at the threshold, he switched on a flashlight and swept the beam inside. The room was empty, with no signs of occupancy.
“Stay close,” Shen Ge said to Hu Tinglan and then headed toward the elevator lobby.
Passing a stairwell exit, Shen Ge instinctively pushed the door open. Hu Tinglan thought he was going in, but he simply closed it and stepped back.
As a headquarters logistics department official, Hu Tinglan naturally knew Shen Ge’s reputation. His presence gave her a significant boost in confidence.
And Shen Ge, being a “professional” Anti-Paranormal Agent, undoubtedly had far more experience dealing with Paranormal incidents than she, an internal staff member. So, Hu Tinglan wisely stayed quiet and followed closely, refraining from bombarding him with questions about his various odd actions like an inquisitive child.
Upon reaching the elevator lobby, Shen Ge very naturally pressed the “down” button, as if they weren’t trapped in a Paranormal Space but simply preparing to take the elevator down like any normal day.
“Agent Shen, wait, please!” Although reluctant to question Shen Ge’s decisions, Hu Tinglan almost instinctively grabbed his arm as he moved to step into the elevator.
Shen Ge turned back, looking at her with a puzzled expression. “What’s wrong?”
“This… we’re taking the elevator?” Hu Tinglan asked with a subtle expression, testing the waters.
“It’s the 18th floor. Were you planning to walk down?” Shen Ge hadn’t entirely dismissed the idea of using the stairs, but on his way over, he had detected intangible barriers blocking the stairwell.
Based on feedback from both the system and Little Seven, this place seemed like a Rubik’s Cube world partitioned by countless invisible barriers, with each floor divided into many sections.
Shen Ge chose the elevator for two reasons. First, the fact that an elevator was still functioning normally within a Paranormal Space was highly suspicious in itself. He wanted to see where this eerie elevator would lead. Second, since the surrounding area seemed segmented into countless blocks, this bizarre situation called for systematic exploration, one section at a time.
“That… Agent Shen, I’m not questioning your judgment. But look at horror movies, and our Special Strategy Division’s Anti-Paranormal Operational Guidelines… from all angles, taking an elevator at a time like this doesn’t seem like the best choice. Eighteen floors of stairs… I can manage!” Hu Tinglan spoke cautiously, afraid of angering Shen Ge and being left behind.
“This place is more complex than you think. Based on my assessment, it’s likely an overlapping Paranormal Space. I detected another Paranormal Space reaction at the stairwell location. So, I believe it’s better to explore step by step here first, rather than jumping from one space to another, to avoid potential spatial distortions.”
“A few months ago in Korea, during the severe Paranormal disaster in Seoul, distorted spaces caused city blocks to be jumbled together like a Rubik’s Cube. This feels very similar. I suspect each floor of this hotel has been scrambled and reassembled.”
“In other words, it’s possible that if we step into the stairwell and go down just one flight, we could ‘fall’ from the 18th floor to the 50th, and then plummet from the 50th to the ground floor… In that scenario, I might still have a chance of survival. But you? Have you ever tried jumping from the 50th floor?”
“And don’t you think it’s weird that the elevator can still operate normally in the weird space?” Shen Ge asked rhetorically.
Hu Tinglan was quite grateful for Shen Ge’s patient explanation of the possible “composition” of multiple Paranormal Spaces, but it was somewhat overestimating her capabilities.
Forget the 50th floor; jumping from even the 5th floor would likely be the end of her.
However, Shen Ge made a valid point: an elevator functioning continuously within a Paranormal Space was indeed highly suspicious.
According to standard Anti-Paranormal Agent operational procedures, this situation would warrant investigating why the elevator was unaffected by the Paranormal Space. So, Shen Ge’s decision was sound, albeit rather direct… using himself as test material.
Ding—
The sound of the elevator arriving on their floor snapped Hu Tinglan back to reality. Shen Ge had already stepped into the elevator without the slightest hesitation.
Her sole hope for escaping the Paranormal Space had already gone in. What could Hu Tinglan do? No matter how despairing, she could only follow him into the elevator.
After Shen Ge pressed the button for the first floor, the elevator doors slowly closed. Hu Tinglan, terrified, instinctively moved closer to Shen Ge. If the scenario Shen Ge described actually happened—if the 18th floor suddenly “fell” to the 50th, initiating a freefall—being closer would make it easier for her to cling to his leg.
Yes, literally “cling to his leg.”
Eerily, after the doors closed completely, both Shen Ge and Hu Tinglan could feel the elevator moving, yet the floor indicator light stubbornly remained on “18,” showing no change.
Fizz.
Fizzzz.
Suddenly, the elevator lights began flickering. They flickered erratically before abruptly going out completely. Hu Tinglan let out a short scream. She wanted to grab Shen Ge’s arm, but fearing it might hinder his movements, she quickly switched to clutching his clothing instead.
Thud!
As the lights died, the elevator jolted to a stop. The doors remained tightly shut, showing no sign of opening.
Shen Ge stepped forward and pried the elevator doors apart with his hands. The opening revealed that the elevator had stopped between floors: the lower half was solid wall, while the upper half showed what looked like a “corridor.”
“It… we… are we going out?” Hu Tinglan’s voice trembled as she asked.
“Quiet,” Shen Ge made a silencing gesture. He then shone his flashlight upward through the opening. What Hu Tinglan saw next would be etched in her memory forever—
Several skinned, blood-drenched corpses were “hanging” from the ceiling. ‘Hanging’ wasn’t quite accurate, as these corpses were headless. From the neck up, grotesque, fleshy appendages resembling the maws of carnivorous flowers acted as “suckers,” attaching them to the ceiling.
Even more terrifying, these “corpses” seemed to sense the beam of Shen Ge’s flashlight. They released their sucker-like grips, dropped from the ceiling, and began crawling toward the elevator
