Chapter 33

Since he entered the 703 dormitory, about three minutes had passed. Under normal circumstances, this amount of time wouldn't be much, but in the current environment, it already felt quite long.

After all, the red-clothed ghost could break free at any moment, and the longer it took, the more dangerous it became.

Xia Tianqi patted the still unconscious girl again, but she remained deeply asleep, and the chances of waking her were slim.

"Never mind, I'll do a good deed to the end. I'll leave this dormitory to you."

Muttering these words, Xia Tianqi, as he had done with Leng Yue, hid the girl under the bed and covered her with a sheet for some simple concealment.

After that, he left the 703 dormitory.

As he stepped out of the dormitory, his unease suddenly intensified. He instinctively looked down the empty corridor and shivered inexplicably.

Considering the possibility that the red-clothed ghost might have escaped, he didn't dare to linger and quickly slipped into the adjacent 704 dormitory.

He then closed the dormitory door and hid under the bed.

Hiding in the narrow, dusty space under the bed, Xia Tianqi kept replaying the events of this trip to Qihe Women's College in his mind, feeling that there must be a key that could connect everything together.

He reviewed the clues he had gathered from the moment he arrived.

The incident started when a student here was possessed by a ghost, which then lured several other students into playing the "soul-calling" spirit game, summoning the red-clothed female ghost.

Next, the body of the possibly possessed female student was found on the 8th floor the next day.

On the day they arrived, he also saw the red-clothed ghost flash by on the 8th floor, and they had mistakenly taken the 8th floor for the 4th floor's bathroom due to the ghost's deception. There, they found Han Xiyuan, who had already become a corpse.

Thinking about this, he couldn't help but become even more puzzled. Why did the possessing ghost make them think they were in the 4th floor's bathroom instead of the 8th floor's corridor?

After all, the red-clothed ghost had the ability to kill on lower floors, as evidenced by its previous pursuit.

"Could the possessing ghost just be a joker, finding this amusing?"

Xia Tianqi shook his head, feeling lost, but he had a strong feeling that there must be some necessary connection between the red-clothed ghost and the 8th floor of the dormitory.

"If the red-clothed ghost can only kill on the 8th floor, then everything would make sense, sigh."

Sighing helplessly, Xia Tianqi felt that his current thoughts were rather foolish, still believing that the red-clothed ghost could only kill on the 8th floor.

Thinking about the people who died last night, like Li Xiaoxiao and others, they were likely killed on various floors.

After all, no one would have a reason to go to the 8th floor alone in the middle of the night to die.

"Ah, this company is really out to get me, determined to ruin me."

To maintain his resolve to continue fighting here, Xia Tianqi could only find a target for his anger and curse in his mind to vent his frustration.

However, compared to useless cursing, he wished more than anything that this was all a dream. If it were, everything would disappear when he woke up. He would still be that goofy college student constantly sending resumes to get a paid internship, without this twisted company or the trap of high salaries and benefits.

"Ah, if all of this were just an illusion... wait!

An illusion?"

Thinking about the illusion, Xia Tianqi felt as if a previously broken circuit in his brain had suddenly been reconnected, and a possibility that was almost the truth emerged.

The red-clothed ghost might really—only be able to kill on the 8th floor!

At this moment, Xia Tianqi realized this possibility again, but this time he was more certain.

First, he was not certain about the locations where the other victims, except for the first victim Wang Yiran and Han Xiyuan, were killed.

In other words, they could have been killed on the 8th floor or on other floors.

Moreover, from a logical standpoint, no one would choose to go to the 8th floor alone in the middle of the night after learning that people had died there.

However! There was one condition that could make this illogical situation logical.

It would make the red-clothed ghost's previous pursuit a complete illusion and confirm that the red-clothed ghost could only kill on the 8th floor!

And that condition was—they did not know they were on the 8th floor.

Just like they thought they were in the 4th floor's bathroom.

After all, there was one point that absolutely could not be overlooked but had been completely ignored by them: the possessing ghost.

Because they had been constantly pursued by the red-clothed ghost, they subconsciously saw the red-clothed ghost as the instigator of the tragedy, unaware that the possessing ghost was the puppeteer behind the scenes.

The possessing ghost not only had the ability to possess but also the ability to deceive, or more accurately, to create illusions. Since it itself lacked the ability to kill, it could only use possession and illusions to summon the red-clothed ghost as the executioner.

When the red-clothed ghost first appeared, it might not have been as powerful as it is now. But after killing Wang Yiran, Li Xiaoxiao, and others, its malevolent aura grew stronger, making it more powerful.

However, despite its power, the red-clothed ghost had a fatal weakness: it could only move on the 8th floor of the dormitory. Therefore, to kill, it needed to rely on the possessing ghost's ability to create illusions to lure victims to the 8th floor without their knowledge.

The more he thought about it, the more Xia Tianqi felt that this was the truth. Now, he realized that when he first entered the 703 dormitory and saw the girl (the possessing ghost) resting, she was likely controlling the illusion.

However, there was still one unresolved issue: since they had already escaped from the 8th floor, breaking free from the possessing ghost's illusion, what was the possessing ghost still controlling?

Unless!

They had not truly escaped from the possessing ghost's illusion.

In other words, the illusion surrounding them was not just one layer!

They thought they had escaped from the 8th floor, but in reality, they had only temporarily escaped one layer of the illusion and then mistakenly entered another layer.

They had never left the 8th floor!

If his hypothesis were true, then this place was not the 7th floor at all, and the red-clothed ghost had not been trapped below by Leng Yue but was here!

He had actually been with the red-clothed ghost all along, just unable to see it due to the illusion created by the possessing ghost.