I am a full-level celestial master, you let me enter the strange talk of rules?

Zhang Yangqing glanced back and saw that the gloomy and eerie man was still arranging the room.

He took the paintings out of his backpack and hung them on the wall one by one, very carefully, adjusting the angle of each one several times to make sure it was hanging straight before letting go.

He not only hung up paintings, but also took out paintbrushes and painted on the blank walls on the spot.

To significantly increase his presence here in a short period of time, the melancholic and eerie character should be identified as an artist. An artist's presence comes from their paintings; the more paintings they create, the stronger their presence becomes.

Zhang Yangqing was quite satisfied with how cautious the young man was, and then left the place.

As Zhang Yangqing approached the stairs, he heard footsteps.

Flat shoes, not very big, with soft soles, making a slight "tap-tap" sound when stepped on the floor.

The footsteps were neither hurried nor slow, and the rhythm was very steady.

Zhang Yangqing didn't stop and walked over normally, with the same pace as before.

Not long after, a woman appeared on the other side. She had an ordinary appearance, shoulder-length hair, and the ends of her hair were slightly curled up.

Wearing a gray-blue cleaning uniform with the sleeves rolled up to the elbows, and a pair of rubber gloves stained with water, she carried a red plastic bucket containing a mop and rags.

They look like the cleaners here.

She was clearly taken aback when she saw Zhang Yangqing.

The cleaning lady's gaze lingered on Zhang Yangqing's uniform for a moment before quickly looking away.

She didn't speak or greet him, but deliberately avoided Zhang Yangqing, moved to the other side of the corridor, lowered her head, and walked quickly over.

Zhang Yangqing quickly followed, sensing that there was intelligence at play.

He discerned something from the cleaning lady.

This is the seventh floor, the place where the bandaged security guard was beaten.

The security guard with the bandage was a newbie; the fact that he got beaten up here shows he wasn't familiar with the situation.

But this cleaning lady was different. Her steps were steady, her breathing was even, and her eyes were calm. She was clearly someone who frequented this place.

There are two possibilities regarding the cleaning lady's identity.

The first possibility is that she is a long-time employee of this building, familiar with the rules, and knows which places she cannot go, which things she can see, and which things she cannot touch.

Therefore, the fact that she was able to remain unharmed in this place can be judged from the fact that there were no wounds or signs of fighting on her body.

The second possibility is that she is a member of the third faction who has already possessed the body of the cleaner. Since she has already obtained the identity of the cleaner, she does not have much desire to attack Zhang Yangqing.

Her goal wasn't to kill, but to impersonate, to blend in, and to survive in this building.

Neither of them poses much danger to Zhang Yangqing, and both are safe to come into contact with.

Veteran employees can provide intelligence, which can be utilized by the third faction; he will not miss any opportunity to obtain information.

Zhang Yangqing quickly followed, but before he got close, he spoke first to avoid the other party reacting violently.

His tone was very calm, as if he were greeting a colleague he wasn't very familiar with: "Do you need any help?"

This statement is quite deliberate; it conveys that you have no ill intentions without revealing when you arrived.

If you say something like, "I want to ask you some questions, what is this place?" the other person will immediately know that you are a newbie, don't know anything, and are easy to fool.

The cleaning lady stopped cleaning, her gaze lingering on Zhang Yangqing's face for a moment before moving to his name tag: "Who are you?"

Her voice was soft, with a hint of probing.

Zhang Yangqing looked into her eyes and said calmly, "Monitor, I specialize in suppressing the supernatural. If you are entangled by the supernatural, you can tell me, and I can help you, but you will have to pay a price."

He didn't say what the cost would be; leaving things unsaid is the best negotiation technique.

If the other person really needs it, they will ask themselves; if they don't ask, it means they don't need it.

Sure enough, after hearing this, the cleaning lady pondered for a moment and said, "If you put it that way, I do have a bit of trouble. If you have time later, go to the conference room on the ninth floor. I can't handle those guys in there, and I can't go in to clean."

This appears to have triggered a side quest.

Zhang Yangqing nodded: "No problem, I'm a professional. I have some things to take care of right now, I'll come find you when I'm done, but how can I find you?"

The cleaning lady took something out of her pocket and handed it to Zhang Yangqing.

It was a button, round and blue.

The button's surface was smooth, though the edges were slightly worn. The cleaning lady said, "I also need to clean this area. When you're done, press this button, and I'll sense your presence and come find you."

Zhang Yangqing put the items into his pocket: "No problem."

After saying that, Zhang Yangqing left the place and went downstairs to the monitoring room.

Entering the monitoring room based on the scene in his memory, Zhang Yangqing habitually observed first. The first thing he noticed was the streetlights outside the window, which were on, flashing intermittently, with dim but not completely extinguished light.

The location was confirmed; this was the monitoring room where he first woke up.

Then he sat down at the monitoring station and observed the surveillance footage.

Five screens were lit up, but strangely, people rarely appeared in the surveillance footage before, but this time people appeared in two of them.

The first one is the library.

Someone was reading a book, their gender was indiscernible, and they were wearing a dark hat with the brim pulled low, obscuring most of their face.

She was wearing a loose coat, so her figure was not visible.

Sitting in a chair in the corner, with his back to the camera, he turned the pages of the book very slowly.

The second is a restaurant.

Someone appeared, a woman.

She was dressed appropriately, wearing a dark-colored dress with a long skirt that trailed on the ground.

The hair is tied up and secured with a hairpin.

She sat at the dining table with a glass of red wine in front of her. The glass contained liquid, and the black and white image made it impossible to discern any color.

She didn't drink it, but just stared at the glass of wine, as if waiting for someone.

The black and white image is not very clear, but you can tell that her posture is very elegant.

Zhang Yangqing's impression of this woman was that she was not someone to be trifled with.

The kind of lowly scoundrel who squats in the toilet would probably not even dare to raise his head in front of her.

These two people have one thing in common: neither of them looked at the camera, meaning they didn't trigger rule 2. Zhang Yangqing will ignore them for now.

Zhang Yangqing walked to the door, squatted down, and shone a flashlight on the ground to carefully examine the trajectory of the toy car's wheel tracks.

The wheel-shaped imprint started from the doorway, extended along the corridor, turned a corner, went up the stairs, and headed towards the side that Zhang Yangqing had never been before.

At this stage, he already knew the function of matches: to dispel evil spirits.

The light of a match is a "safe light" permitted by the rules; those things that writhe in the darkness fear it, and those eerie creatures that hide in the shadows fear it.

Zhang Yangqing had a lot of matches, with eight left, the most of all the chosen ones.

So if you encounter any strange attacks later, just light a match.

It has to be said that Zhang Yangqing hoped that what he would encounter next would be something strange. If it were the third faction, it would be a bit troublesome. The third faction was not afraid of matches and did not rely on black energy to survive.

They are just things dressed in human skin, pretending to be human.

However, the toy cars are probably much weirder, which is easy to tell.

Zhang Yangqing followed the tire tracks, the beam of his flashlight drawing a white arc in the darkness, illuminating a small area ahead, but not reaching beyond.

The corridor was narrow, the ceiling was low, and the walls were wet. When a flashlight shone on them, you could see water stains and mold.

The air was so cold that your breath turned into white mist.

His footsteps echoed in the corridor, one step, two steps, three steps, like a person walking in an empty cemetery.

There were spider webs near the window; when the flashlight shone on them, you could see the fine threads shimmering in the light.

The ground was dirty, with dust, debris, and dried-out marks of some unknown substance.

Because of the dust, the tire tracks were very clear, a thin, straight line stretching from one end of the corridor to the other.

Zhang Yangqing judged that something was definitely wrong with this place.

If no security guards have patrolled the area and no cleaning staff have come to clean it, then it means that even the security guards and cleaning staff know there's a problem here.

They didn't come not because they didn't want to be noticed, but because they were afraid to. (End of Chapter)