"Ah!"

Ai Shiping jumped in fright.

His nerves were already stretched to the limit—just like when he was fully focused on peeking a corner in a shooter game, only for a jumpscare to suddenly flash across the screen.

In that split second, Ai Shiping's tightly clenched fists went completely limp. He nearly threw his phone away.

It took more than a second for him to gradually calm down.

Ai Shiping's flashlight beam swept roughly up and down, quickly gathering information.

There was no step stool beneath Xiao Li's feet.

What hung him was not even a rope—it was hair.

Long, dense, black strands of a woman's hair!

Ai Shiping lowered his voice, speaking directly to his phone.

He became increasingly certain that his viewers were definitely not normal.

Under normal circumstances, his livestream room would have been banned long ago. But clearly, this corpse was something he was bound to encounter as part of the progression.

Ai Shiping remembered that during the intro sequence, 'he' had indeed mentioned letting Xiao Li come in early to set up mechanisms. The real Xiao Li must have died back then. The 'Xiao Li' he saw earlier was highly unlikely to be the man himself—it was probably someone else impersonating him.

Or rather, something else.

That guy had kept calling him 'Boss,' likely because it didn't know his identity, or perhaps it didn't even know his last name.

However, Ai Shiping did not have time to look at the live chat right now. He kept swiveling his head to check his surroundings, his alertness cranked to the absolute maximum.

Obviously, since he had encountered this person here—

It meant Ming Po probably hadn't run into him on his end.

Otherwise, the live chat would have mentioned it to him.

Therefore, this entity only existed within the space he currently occupied.

Ai Shiping checked repeatedly until he was sure there was nothing hiding in any of the blind spots. After planning out his escape route, he finally walked over and began searching Xiao Li's body.

He wasn't sure if that doll from earlier was still useful, and he definitely needed to keep something like a hammer for self-defense!

But unfortunately.

Neither the doll nor the hammer was on Xiao Li.

However, Ai Shiping did manage to find some potentially useful items from Xiao Li's pockets—

A lighter, a pack of cigarettes, and some talisman ash.

Right, talismans!

Ai Shiping remembered.

That was the legacy left to them by the master. He pulled out a talisman and attempted to slap it onto Xiao Li's body.

To his surprise, it actually stuck!

The moment the talisman attached, it erupted into red flames.

Xiao Li, who had been hanging completely motionless, suddenly stirred. His body began to swing, twitching with increasing violence!

Ai Shiping immediately took a half-step back.

What was going on?

Did this talisman just supercharge him or something?

But soon, Ai Shiping realized he had misunderstood.

Because it wasn't the man himself moving.

Rather, something inside the man's body was squirming—

As if provoked by the talisman, black snakes began crawling out from Xiao Li's eyes, ears, mouth, and nose!

More and more black snakes poured out, their numbers rapidly reaching an absurd amount.

Combined, the volume of these black snakes was already more than three times that of Xiao Li himself!

Like sewage splashing against a wall, the filth rebounded and splattered everywhere. These black snakes did the same.

They coalesced into a rushing river—not crawling, but being forcefully pushed forward by even more black snakes behind them!

These black snakes surged and tumbled within the current. If Ai Shiping's footsteps slowed even a fraction, he would likely fall right into them.

"Holy crap!"

Ai Shiping let out a perfectly enunciated curse, turning on his heel to flee. "Why is there a tentacle scene now?!"

Yet at this very moment, he actually grew much calmer—

Compared to a monster appearing and having to run away, having one's memories mysteriously altered was far more terrifying.

If anything, as he fled for his life, he even felt a strange hint of nostalgia and relief—this was exactly the right pacing!

The further Ai Shiping ran, the closer the music sounded.

He had originally considered whether to try using '5' or 'G' as clues to solve the puzzle. But when he tried it, the fifth door wouldn't budge at all. None of the other adjacent doors would open either.

As for running a G-shaped route to lead the wave of snakes in circles, his physical stamina could never keep up. The fact that he could sprint like this without slowing down was already thanks to the energy boost from the cola earlier.

Fortunately, as the music grew louder, Ai Shiping quickly spotted the only open door ahead—

The numbers on the door read 2018.

"2018—"

Ai Shiping's mind raced to recall. "Which incident happened in 2018?"

His memory was decent, and he quickly remembered—the incident where the little girl choked to death should have been in 2016. That was the last piece of news.

By now, the tide of snakes had already caught up to his heels.

Ai Shiping had no time to search for other rooms.

He swiftly pulled open the already ajar door and dove inside.

Then, without the slightest hesitation, he slammed it shut!

On his first attempt to close it, half of a snake that had splattered forward got caught in the doorframe, letting out a squeak like a rat. Ai Shiping immediately cracked the door open, kicked it out, and slammed it shut again instantly.

At this point, a few of the surging black snakes had already tumbled past his position.

If Ai Shiping hadn't entered this room, they would have caught him.

"Whew—"

Ai Shiping let out a sigh of relief and turned around.

He found Ming Po facing him with a look of utter astonishment.

The man was crouching before an open safe, examining a heart-shaped music box. He looked exactly like a burglar caught in the act.

"What are you doing?"

Ming Po asked, a bit puzzled.

Ai Shiping grew highly cautious, taking a half-step back. "Are you the real Ah Po?"

"Of course I am—did you run into a fake one?"

Ming Po questioned.

"Yeah."

Ai Shiping fell silent for a moment before answering, "I ran into a fake Xiao Li right when I was coming upstairs."

He recounted everything he had encountered to Ming Po.

Meanwhile, the rustling sound of the snake tide outside gradually subsided.

"Alright, it's a good thing you're back."

Ming Po pushed up his glasses, his tone calm. "Then we—"

Before he could finish his sentence, a knock sounded from the door.

"Excuse me, is anyone there?"

From outside the door came Ming Po's steady voice. "Ai Shiping, are you inside?"

In an instant, Room 2018 fell into a profound silence.

"Looks like the monster is here."

The Ming Po inside the room pushed up his glasses and pulled his hammer out from his pocket. "Stand back—"

"Give it to me, I'll handle it. Otherwise, if you two get into a brawl, I won't know who's real and who's fake."

Ai Shiping cracked a joke. "If you two decide to play the true and false Monkey King, I won't be able to tell you apart."

"I'm real, he's fake! I'm real, he's fake!"

The Ming Po in the room pinched his throat, speaking with a smile. "Right—sure. Then I'll go grab a longer weapon—"

As he spoke, he handed the hammer to Ai Shiping.

In the very next heartbeat, Ai Shiping swung the hammer backward, slamming it straight into Ming Po's temple!