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"Youguang, where is your senior? Why didn\'t he come with you?"

The others also turned their puzzled gazes toward him.

Pei Youguang hesitated, started to speak, then stopped, thought for a moment, and scratched his head.

"Haha, we were chatting so happily that I forgot to mention this to him." His plump face broke into an awkward, foolish grin.

As soon as he said this, everyone\'s faces showed dissatisfaction and surprise.

"Second Young Master Pei, how could you forget something like that?" a girl said with a displeased expression.

Pei Youguang forced a smile: "Sorry, sorry..."

Pei Tiancheng seemed contemplative, then after a while, he nodded and said indifferently, "I see... well, let it be then, he has his duties, and we shouldn\'t disturb him."

It seemed he had quite a high status within the group, and though others still had many objections, they no longer spoke up.

Yet subtly, their rejection of Pei Youguang, who had never quite fit into the circle, intensified.

Noticing the somewhat somber atmosphere, Ye Chenglin clapped his hands to draw everyone\'s attention and said with a smile:

"Enough, there\'s still an event tonight. Later, when it gets late, let\'s go explore that suite where someone died; maybe we\'ll encounter something thrilling!"

...

Meanwhile.

Zhao Dequan, the driver who had brought Xue Jing to Rui Zhu Hotel, was using both hands to push a cart toward the elevator, loaded with a cream cake that was stacked seven or eight layers high.

As the hotel manager, he wouldn\'t normally need to do this himself, but the guests at the banquet hall on the twenty-second floor were not ordinary guests.

To prevent any mishaps due to the clumsiness of staff and considering his desire to build relationships with these wealthy and powerful second generations, he had decided to deliver the cake himself.

"Ding--"

The elevator doors opened, and Zhao Dequan carefully pushed the cake inside, moving slowly.

"Hm?"

Once inside the elevator, Zhao Dequan glanced curiously at the person next to him.

It was a tall man, dressed in black sportswear, wearing a black baseball cap, large sunglasses that completely hid his eyes, a mask covering the lower half of his face, and even construction gloves on his hands.

The man was also pushing a cart, on which lay an oblong object completely wrapped in black tape, unidentifiable.

"Uh... hello," Zhao Dequan greeted the stranger out of habit.

The Rui Zhu Hotel had almost been deserted since someone died there yesterday, with guests checking out, and apart from the banquet hall on the twenty-second floor, the entire building was nearly silent.

He hadn\'t expected to meet... a guest?

Something felt off about Zhao Dequan\'s unease.

The man\'s attire seemed suspicious, and Zhao knew all the hotel employees, so this man was most probably not one of them...

However, having grown savvy over his midlife years, Zhao understood very well that sometimes, less is more.

It was not his place to concern himself with who someone was or what they were up to; investigating people was the sheriff\'s job, ensuring safety was security\'s responsibility, and he was just a manager...

Many guests are odd... this is quite common.

He reassured himself.

The elevator doors slowly shut.

The strange man remained silent.

Zhao Dequan fidgeted, feeling as if the eyes hidden behind the sunglasses were constantly watching his neck.

"It\'s so hot today... even though it\'s almost November, hehe." Zhao Dequan forced a laugh and pulled out a handkerchief to wipe the unstoppable sweat on his face.

"..." The man said nothing.

Zhao Dequan\'s hands nervously moved back and forth on the handle of the cart as he watched the elevator numbers slowly climb.

17th floor, 18th floor, 19th floor...

Just as the elevator was about to reach the 22nd floor.

"rustle rustle----"

The object on the man\'s cart suddenly shook, making a strange rustling noise.

Zhao Dequan\'s mind raced back to when he was young, living in a dilapidated rented room where, in the dead silence of midnight, cockroaches would scuttle across his wooden bed right beside his ears...

..."

The strange man turned his head toward Zhao Dequan.

Even with the sunglasses, it was clear that the man\'s gaze was fixed on him, causing Zhao\'s heart to pound like thunder, his eyes gradually filled with fear.

"Ding--"

The elevator doors opened.

"Help--"

He only had time to utter a single word before Zhao Dequan\'s head slid off his neck.

Blood gushed out, turning the huge cream cake into a \'strawberry cake\'.

"Tsk." Duan Kaiping rubbed his blood-stained hand disdainfully against the corpse.

A rectangular object wrapped in black tape suddenly began to shake violently.

Duan Kaiping\'s expression changed, "Damn, it smells the blood and it hasn\'t been fed for a day. It\'s going to rampage!"

He immediately leaned on the trolley, kicked Zhao Dequan\'s body and the cake to one side, and started sprinting down the corridor with the rectangular object as he exited the elevator.

Before long, he saw the grand doors of the banquet hall. By then, the rectangular object\'s trembling intensified, and the black tape made crackling noises as it began to split all over.

Duan Kaiping\'s expression drastically changed. He fiercely pushed the cart toward the banquet hall doors while simultaneously pulling out a remote-control-like device from his pocket.

There was a red button on the device. Duan Kaiping did not hesitate to turn back and dash towards the stairwell meant as a fire exit; he then pressed the red button.

In a hidden spot on the twenty-second floor, a little black circular box suddenly blinked red.

"Beep-- Beep-- Beep--"

...

"Sorry, I don\'t use a phone. I don\'t have WeChat,"

In the hall, Xue Jing was smiling as he shook his head, declining the flirtations of a young woman dressed in a sexy off-shoulder gown.

"Eh~ Don\'t lie, handsome boy, just add me~ I won\'t eat you up~"

The young woman was relentless, whining as she clung to Xue Jing\'s arm, subtly pushing his hand into her soft embrace.

Xue Jing, unperturbed, silently sighed to himself, Rich women sure are something...

Just then, he frowned, pulling out his phone from his pocket.

The young woman\'s eyes lit up, thinking she had managed to coax the attractive young man and couldn\'t help but feel a bit smug.

"That\'s right, come on, add me. I will tell you so*many*things~"

As she spoke, her voice gradually became seductive and enchanting, making her words especially alluring.

Xue Jing, however, paid her no attention, instead silently staring at his phone with furrowed brows.

The palm touching his phone felt a barely detectible tingling sensation. Had he not practiced the Armor Shaking Skill for many days, becoming more sensitive to touch, he might not have noticed it.

Before he could think more about it, the phone\'s screen suddenly went dark.

Following that, the lights across the entire banquet hall all flickered off simultaneously.

The room plunged into complete darkness.

"Eh? What\'s happening?"

Someone exclaimed in surprise immediately.

"Is it a power outage?"

"Wait, let me turn on my phone\'s flashlight... Huh? My phone\'s dead too?"

The noise in the room escalated.

Xue Jing patted his phone in his hand, his eyes narrowing slightly.

--He was quite sure his phone had been fully charged.

Moreover, it wasn\'t just his phone; in such darkness, not a single person out of the dozens present could use their phones to provide light. Apparently, everyone\'s phones were disabled.

Together with all the lights in the banquet hall being out... it seemed like all electrically powered devices were malfunctioning.

All these phenomena inevitably made him think of one thing.

"EMP..." he muttered to himself softly.

Electromagnetic Pulse, a high-tech method capable of instantly destroying all electronic devices.

"Ah! I\'m so afraid of the dark. You have to protect me, handsome," the young woman clutched Xue Jing\'s arm even tighter, burying it deeper into her softness.

She laughed playfully, unfazed by the sudden darkness.

It was just a power outage, after all; what was the big deal?

Just then, a loud noise suddenly came from the direction of the banquet hall\'s main entrance.

"Bang!!"

The sound of shattering glass, along with what seemed like something hitting the ground, was so shrill in the darkness that it startled everyone.

"What the hell!?"

"Damn, that scared the hell out of me!"

"Ahh!!"

The woman in the gown was also frightened, emitting a sharp scream.

Xue Jing took the opportunity to break free from her grasp and walked forward two steps, his deep eyes quietly scanning the surroundings.

In the darkness, it seemed as if invisible monsters were crawling around.

...