Strange game designer.

Chapter 861 Longevity Bun
"You live here?" Xue Se hated people who dawdled. He took a bunch of keys from Li Zhi's pocket, tried them a few times, and opened the door to the rented room.

"Get in!"

The rented room wasn't big, and it was as dirty as a garbage dump, hardly a place for a human to live. However, after returning here, Li Zhi was noticeably calmer. He grinned foolishly as he placed Li Shou's portrait on the only clean table, wiped the fruit he had found several times, and placed it next to the portrait.

Xue Se didn't disturb Li Zhi; her brows furrowed as she searched the room for useful clues.

Kicking aside the messy trash, Xue Se found Li Zhi's rental record in a corner. It was still a very basic ledger, listing the monthly water, electricity, and cleaning fees. Flipping through it, Xue Se discovered that Li Zhi had been renting there for at least a year. Tucked inside the ledger was a photo of Li Zhi when he first moved in—a sunny and cheerful young man with muscles, radiating vitality.

"What happened to this fine young man? How did he become half-dead?" Old Ma also came over, surprised by the changes that had occurred to Li Zhi.

Li Zhi moved into the Death Time residential area to look for someone, but in the end, he didn't find the person and instead got himself into trouble.

Looking at Li Zhi, who was worshipping the portrait of the deceased, Xue Se was a little puzzled. It seemed that Li Zhi had come to the community to collect garbage. He had accumulated a room full of junk, some of which he would never use in his life, such as a few tattered red women's clothes and an old lady's bound shoes.

After the worship ceremony, Li Zhi huddled under the offering table, his weak arm waving at Xue Se and Lao Ma: "You two hide here too, they're coming soon."

"What do you mean they're coming soon?" Xue Se didn't avoid it. He walked to the door and listened carefully. Soon, he heard footsteps outside. Xue Se looked through the peephole and saw an old man in a tattered coat bowing to the door, holding three sticks of incense. His mouth made a soft, gurgling sound, like ants crawling.

"Please, lend me a way to live, please, lend me a way to live..."

After he finished praying, the old man seemed to sense someone behind the door. He suddenly lunged towards the peephole, crying out, "I'm dying! Please, let me live! I know you heard me! Please, let me live!"

Even with Xue Se's fearless nature, he took a step back. The old man pounded on the door, pressing his body against the door panel, his voice growing louder and louder. This was hardly asking for passage; it was practically a death knell.

The door shook, and Xue Se's face turned pale. The crazy old man's actions meant that everyone in the building could hear that something was wrong, and it might even attract that red monster.

"Don't go, don't pay attention to him, don't say anything, he'll be gone soon." Li Zhi seemed to have weakened again, and said weakly, "Medicine, give me the medicine..."

After a dozen seconds, the old man finally quieted down, pleading with a sob in his voice. Seeing that the door still wouldn't open, he threw a dirty red cloth bag at Li Zhi's door, turned back every few steps, and left reluctantly.

"Does that old guy have some kind of illness?" Xue Se found several boxes of medicine and a receipt from the Human Entrance Hospital in a cabinet on the other side of the offering table. After he fed it to Li Zhi, the other man became noticeably more lucid.

"Are you also a patient at the Human Entrance Hospital?" Xue Se picked up the receipt, glanced at it, and put it directly into the evidence bag.

“It was Dr. Gao from the hospital who gave it to me. He’s a very good person, and he’s the one who told me about my father.” As the medication took effect, Li Zhi stopped stuttering. He leaned against the altar and said, “He tried to persuade me to leave many times, but if I left, I would never find my father again.”

"What exactly happened in this neighborhood?"

“Many elderly people live in this community, and their time is coming to an end. Some have come to terms with death, while others are terrified of it. I don’t know when it started, but people began to try to borrow lifespan from our family.” Li Zhi sat next to his father’s altar. “At first, some residents found strange symbols drawn on the walls in front of their homes, with all sorts of incomprehensible characters written on them. They had someone take a look, and the person’s face changed drastically. He said that someone wanted to borrow their family’s lifespan.” “That family installed a security camera at their door and kept watch at midnight. They discovered that after midnight, an old woman dressed in bright red clothes ran to their door and kept praying to it.”

"The lady of the house was scared, and the man of the house had a bad temper. He was about to drive the old lady away with a stick. But when he opened the door, the old lady, whose teeth were almost all gone, smiled and shouted that she had borrowed the house. She walked away in a daze."

"Less than three days later, the woman miscarried. The man thought the old woman was frightened and went to her house to argue with her."

"When we brought the neighborhood committee members and forced open her door, we found that the old lady's house was filled with all kinds of household garbage that the neighbors had used. It was tainted with the smell of every household. The house was decorated with red and white curses and various kinds of black ink sticks. It was like a ghost cave."

"That night, a fire broke out in the old lady's house, but the firefighters did not find her body inside. After that, various rumors began to circulate in the building."

"Some say that the old lady lived to be 140 years old and kept borrowing other people's lifespans; others say that the old lady is still alive and hiding in the building, and goes to borrow lifespans at night."

"Anyway, since then, more and more people have been trying to borrow lifespan in the building. The young people have all moved away, and people don't dare to talk about it anymore, because the more they talk about it, the more likely they are to be approached by people trying to borrow lifespan."

Li Zhi, unusually lucid, briefly explained the situation inside the building to Xue Se.

"Besides the life-extending feature, I've also heard that there's a room in this neighborhood that eats people. Are you aware of that?"

Upon hearing Xue Se's question, Li Zhi's expression turned grim: "My father lost all contact while inspecting that room."

"have you been there?"

"I've never been close."

“Take me there. I’ll go first and clear the way for you. Let’s see if your dad is hidden in that room.” Xue Se stood in front of Li Zhi, giving him no chance to refuse. “If you’re scared, you can bring your dad’s photo. The old man is protecting you.”

Li Zhi hesitated for a long time before slowly nodding. He was too weak and could barely walk. Fortunately, Lao Ma was there for him.

Stuffing all the medicine into his pocket, Xue Se took the gun and walked out of the room. He kicked over the wooden basket outside the door, and various smelly red burial bundles fell to the ground.

"How many people have borrowed your lifespan? How dare you stay here?" Xue Se grabbed Li Zhi and led him upstairs: "That old man made too much of a commotion just now. They definitely won't give up. Your home is no longer safe. Leaving might be a better choice."

Li Zhi gave directions, and the two men and one horse followed the cluttered stairwell to the thirteenth floor.

(End of this chapter)