Translator: CinderTL
Under Director Qi's bail, the security guard released his grip. The young man, who had experienced the Nightmare mission before, stepped forward to check on the woman and found that she was merely frightened and unharmed.
After helping the woman up, the group followed Director Qi as they left.
They walked to a staircase on one side, ascending along it. The staircase still had an old-style wooden handrail, with green rust-proof paint on the iron railings below, exuding a strong sense of age.
Soon, they arrived at an office.
Jiang Cheng noticed that the office was not far from the hospital's respiratory department.
After leaving everyone in the office, the man instructed them not to wander off, saying he would handle some matters and return shortly.
Before leaving, he glanced at the woman who was being supported, trembling and unsteady, clearly dissatisfied with her earlier behavior.
It was evident that the matters he was going to handle were related to them.
After the door was closed, the room fell silent.
The corridor was also quiet.
The woman's earlier behavior had already put everyone in danger, so no one was particularly fond of her. Their gazes were all focused on the young man's face.
After all, what the young man had said had already come true.
"The mission has begun," the young man exhaled and said. "In this world, trying to survive on your own is unrealistic. We must cooperate."
"Let's take this opportunity to introduce ourselves—our names, professions, and the skills we possess. Be as detailed as possible," the young man added. "The deeper we understand each other, the smoother our cooperation will be."
"I'll start. My name is Huai Yi, and I'm a photographer. Besides photography, I also know some basic wilderness survival skills."
After speaking, the young man who called himself Huai Yi looked at the girl nearest to him.
The girl was very young, with a delicate appearance and a hint of light makeup.
Her slightly immature demeanor made her seem less like someone in the workforce and more like a college student.
Before the girl could speak, Jiang Cheng's wolf-like gaze had already dissected her almost entirely.
The result was pretty much what he had guessed. The girl's name was Yu Yu, a college student currently interning here, studying accounting.
The middle-aged man's name was Wang Changguo, a department supervisor at a company specializing in health products for the elderly, mainly responsible for holding large meetings to promote products to clients.
The man dressed as a delivery driver was named Cao Yang. He scratched his head and stammered for a while without mentioning any particularly unique skills, only that he was physically strong and not afraid of hardship.
"Oh, right," Cao Yang looked at everyone and lifted the bag in his hand, asking, "Do you... do you want some milk tea?"
During the following exchange, everyone held a cup in their hands.
The milk tea was still warm, and drinking it felt very comforting, making even Cao Yang seem much more likable.
Jiang Cheng didn't eat the tapioca pearls in the milk tea, so he grabbed a trash bin and spat them out after drinking.
After Weiwei and Du Feng introduced themselves, it was Jiang Cheng's turn. Since there were acquaintances this time, Jiang Cheng's introduction was more reserved.
He was a psychologist, young and accomplished without any inferiority complex, working at a counseling center.
Lin Wan'er's introduction was even more concise. She nodded and said, "I'm his boss."
Everyone's gaze lingered on Jiang Cheng and Lin Wan'er for a moment, filled with a strange sense of curiosity, as if there was some secret between the two.
Finally, everyone turned their gaze to the woman who had remained silent all along.
It was this woman who had nearly caused a major incident.
She appeared to be around 45 years old, slightly overweight, wearing a black knitted sweater, straight-leg casual trousers, and a pair of black flat leather shoes. Her overall attire gave off a rather old-fashioned vibe.
At this moment, she seemed extremely nervous, stumbling over her words. After listening for a while, they learned that her name was Li Kaifeng and that she worked at a logistics company.
Her presence here today was purely coincidental. She didn't work here; she had come to find her daughter, who worked in this building.
After a moment of silence, Wu asked a crucial question, "What did you see in the elevator?"
Everyone remembered clearly that after Li Kaifeng fell, she first showed an expression of extreme fear directed at something behind them, and then she scrambled on all fours toward the depths of the corridor.
Upon hearing this question, Li Kaifeng began to tremble again, "A person, it was that person! No, no, it was a gate, a black gate!"
At the mention of the gate, Wu's eyes paused for a moment. His speculation had been confirmed.
Jiang Cheng continued to feign fear and curiosity, listening with the look of someone who had never seen the world before.
"What are you talking about?" Wang Changguo was displeased. The initial fear of being dragged into the Nightmare had subsided somewhat, and now he was extremely irritable. Just looking at the woman's face annoyed him.
If it weren't for her, perhaps they wouldn't be in such a passive position.
"Was it a person or a gate?" Wang Changguo pressed, "Make it clear."
"It was the cleaner," Li Kaifeng's face turned pale, as if even the memory was unbearable for her, "She... she turned into a gate, right behind you!"
"What?!"
At the mention of the cleaner, many people in the room were stunned. It took a moment before someone began to piece things together, and then an eerie atmosphere started to brew in everyone's minds.
That's right.
There had originally been a cleaner in the elevator.
Why was she now missing?
What was even more suspicious was that before Li Kaifeng brought it up, no one had even thought of the cleaner. It was as if she had been completely forgotten.
But after Li Kaifeng mentioned her, everyone suddenly remembered.
It felt as though Li Kaifeng had lifted some kind of seal on their memories.
"Could it be... that all of this was the cleaner's doing?" Cao Yang showed an expression of disbelief. He was a staunch atheist, but the framework supporting his beliefs was beginning to crumble.
Wu interrupted everyone's thoughts, "No matter what that cleaner did, we're here now, so we should focus on figuring out how to complete the task and survive."
"Easier said than done. Do you have any ideas?" Wang Changguo glared at him, not liking being led by someone, especially a young man like this.
Most importantly, he strongly suspected that this young man was behind everything, although he wasn't yet clear on his motives.
He was in cahoots with those people in this world.
They were all acting!
Unlike the others, Jiang Cheng was still more interested in the missing cleaner.
He observed Li Kaifeng out of the corner of his eye, wanting to ask her directly how the cleaner had transformed from a person into a gate.
Was it a gradual change, a sudden mutation, or something else entirely? After all, he also had a Gate within him.
Moreover, the entity inside his Gate had been quite active recently.
A series of hurried footsteps echoed outside the door, followed by the sound of it being pushed open. A figure entered, and unlike when he had left, Director Qi's expression had softened somewhat.
(End of the Chapter)
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