In the pitch-black office building, the “tap-tap” sound of leather shoes echoed again.
The man in the checkered shirt swallowed dryly, his voice trembling, “Well, it seems like there might be something like that.”
“Our company is a software outsourcing company. In the past, we used to work overtime frequently to meet deadlines and generate high profits. The boss even advocated for what he called ‘996 blessings.’ But a year ago…”
Checkered Shirt paused, lowering his voice and glancing around warily, as if afraid someone might overhear, “A year ago, an employee died from exhaustion while working overtime at night.”
“At that time, it caused quite a stir. The employee’s family came to the door with banners, demanding answers from the boss. Because it even trended on social media, the incident escalated, and the boss had to lay low for awhile. Since then, he hasn’t dared to force overtime anymore. He issued a rule that everyone must leave the office before seven in the evening.”
“I heard that that brother was quite young. He was about to get married, and he was his parents’ only son. Who would have thought that before getting married, he would die first? He is so pitiful , he spent so many years in college, only to end up as a capitalist’s pawn.”
He gestured toward the computer screen emitting an eerie blue light, “Do you think the ghost causing trouble is that programmer? He worked until he died and after death, he thinks he’s still doing overtime. How tragic and suffocating, even in death, he can’t let go of his work.”
As if in response to Checkered Shirt, the computer screen emitting the eerie blue light suddenly moved by itself, followed by the sound of a keyboard.
“Tap-tap-tap-tap-tap…”
It was as if someone was desperately typing away on the keyboard, chasing after tasks that could never be completed.
Checkered Shirt felt numbness in his feet. The blood drained from his face. It was as if he had been frightened too much that his expression went temporarily numb.
Bai Lixin glanced at the main entrance of the office building. In the middle of the corridor was an elevator, and there seemed to be a fire escape beside the elevator. There was faint light above the elevator, indicating that it still had power.
Bai Lixin: “If you’re so scared, why don’t you leave?”
Checkered Shirt exclaimed in frustration, “Xiao Xin, are you scared out of your mind? We tried just now, it didn’t work.”
“This ghost may be so resentful towards work that it’s become a malicious spirit. We’ve been trapped on this floor and can’t leave.”
Bai Lixin glanced at the dark corridor, “I don’t believe in superstitions. Wait here, I’ll go try.”
Checkered Shirt and the security guard exchanged glances and quickly followed him.
Bai Lixin: “Didn’t I ask you to wait?”
Checkered Shirt whispered, “That ghost is still working at the workstation. I’d rather follow you than stay in the same room with that ghost.”
The security guard agreed, ”Yeah, me too. It’s too scary.”
Bai Lixin: “…”
They quickly arrived at the elevator.
Bai Lixin glanced up and saw that the number displayed in bright light was 36, while they were on the 18th floor.
The security guard pointed at the number “18”, tremblingly, “18, 18, no wonder this ghost is so powerful. The 18 levels of hell. The people who built this building really have no taste. Who would make an 18th floor?”
Bai Lixin: “…”
Indeed, there has always been this saying, there are 18 levels of hell. Just like the number four, eighteen is an unlucky number.
So when constructing floors, the number eighteen is often skipped, and the original 18th floor is renamed the 19th floor, or something similar.
He pressed the down button on the elevator.
The elevator that was originally on the 36th floor began to descend slowly.
When it reached the 18th floor, the elevator came to a halt. The doors opened, revealing light inside the elevator, it was like a gaping mouth of a beast waiting for them to enter.
Bai Lixin paused for a moment, then stepped into the elevator.
Seeing Bai Lixin enter, the other two quickly followed suit.
Checkered Shirt quickly pressed the button for the 1st floor.
Seeing the elevator slowly descending, hope ignited in the Checkered Shirt’s eyes, “It’s moving. Maybe this time, we’ll be able to get out. We must be able to.”
The old security guard nodded repeatedly, “Hmm, yes, yes.”
Without any stops along the way, the elevator descended directly to the 1st floor from the 18th floor.
At the moment the elevator stopped, the metal box shook, and the overhead lights flickered twice before returning to normal.
The security guard suddenly exclaimed, his pupils dilated as he pointed at the elevator’s display screen.
Bai Lixin looked up. The screen, which had just shown the number 1, now displayed 18 again.
The elevator doors opened, revealing the same 18th-floor corridor they had just left.
The security guard and Checkered Shirt were in despair. They deflated like balloons and slowly stepped out of the elevator. As the elevator doors closed slowly, Checkered Shirt kicked the metal door frame beside the elevator in frustration, causing a loud metallic clang to ring out in the corridor.
“Damn it, why am I so unlucky? I decided to work overtime on a whim. If only I had known better, I wouldn’t have done it.”
Bai Lixin walked to the nearby fire escape staircase. The lights in the fire escape staircase were motion-activated, but he found that stomping his foot didn’t turn them on.
With each descending step, the darkness grew deeper until it completely enveloped him.
Seeing Bai Lixin’s actions, Checkered Shirt, who had lost all fighting spirit, sighed, “Stop trying, it’s useless.”
Bai Lixin felt he had to try anyway. After all, action brings true knowledge. “Wait here for me. I’ll go check.”
The other two had no desire to follow him downstairs. They stood at the staircase entrance, pouting, watching Bai Lixin walk do the stairs.
The staircase was dark. Bai Lixin took out a flashlight from his backpack, only to find that even the flashlight didn’t work.
Strange, why wasn’t it working?
Could it be because it got damaged in the Guidance of the Gods space and didn’t automatically repair itself when he exited?
Bai Lixin couldn’t figure it out, so he reluctantly stowed away the useless flashlight in his backpack.
He gripped the handrail and descended the stairs step by step. When he reached where the 17th floor should have been, he saw two familiar figures.
Checkered Shirt and the security guard stood side by side, wearing expressions that seemed to say, “See, I told you it wouldn’t work,” as they waited by the door.
Bai Lixin glanced at the floor display in the fire escape staircase.
[18th floor]
It seemed they had really encountered a ghost hitting the wall.
From the time he entered the copy until now, it was clear that this was a supernatural copy.
He had encountered ghosts hitting the wall before, but back then, he could clearly sense the malice. However, now he didn’t feel any malicious intent from the supernatural.
S419M: [Is it this exciting from the start?]
Escape System: [Should we first deal with the ghost in this office building, help it find peace, and then we can leave? Or should we wait until dawn tomorrow?]
S419M: [It’s only nine o’clock in the evening now. There are still ten hours until dawn tomorrow.]
Bai Lixin: [Well, since we’re already here…]
S419M: […]
Bai Lixin: [I have nothing to do now anyway, so let’s take a walk around. ]
S419M: […]
‘Well, Lord host is still Lord Host.’
Seeing Bai Lixin come over, Checkered Shirt grumbled, “See, I told you it wouldn’t work, right? It seems like that ghost doesn’t have any ill will towards us. Maybe he stays here because his obsession has not been eliminated. Let’s help him get rid of it. Once the work is done, maybe he will become a Buddha and leave, and we can be liberated from here.”
The security guard suddenly saw hope, “Then do you know what the ghost’s obsession is?”
Checkered Shirt: “I think it’s about working overtime. I’ve observed him, he’s been busy coding, so he’s definitely still working overtime. But it seems he’s not very good at it. He keeps deleting and rewriting the code, and he’s been at it for half a day with no progress.”
The security guard nudged Checkered Shirt, “Aren’t you a coder, Xiao Zhao? Why don’t you help him finish?”
Checkered Shirt gritted his teeth and mustered up his courage, “Fine! I’ll give it a try!”
He rolled up his sleeves and strode confidently towards the office lobby.
Bai Lixin and the security guard followed closely behind.
But as soon as they entered the lobby and saw the keyboard continuously tapping and the screen flickering, Checkered Shirt suddenly felt scared again.
Bai Lixin came closer, stared at the code on the screen for a while before saying slowly, “It seems like he’s writing a firewall code.”
Checkered Shirt and the security guard stood about four or five meters away, watching Bai Lixin’s actions with dumbfounded expressions.
Bai Lixin stood behind the slightly lowered office chair. In order to see the words on the screen clearly, he even half leaned forward. This was basically close contact with a ghost!
Wasn’t this guy usually the most cowardly? How come he’s suddenly so brave today?
Checkered Shirt stuttered, “Xiao…Xin, aren’t you from the graphic design department? Can you also understand code?”
Bai Lixin’s peripheral vision happened to catch sight of the open code reference book on the desk. “I saw his reference book. It happened to be open to the page on firewall references.”
Checkered Shirt stopped doubting, “Oh, I see.”
Bai Lixin: “Um, Zhao Jia, why don’t you give it a try?”
Bai Lixin had learned some coding during his early years of quick transmigration. Although it had been a long time, he could still handle basic coding tasks. This code segment was within his capability. However, his character in this copy seemed to be the graphic designer.
Checkered Shirt hesitated for a moment but then bravely stepped forward.
He stood beside Bai Lixin, staring at the screen for a while, “Indeed, it’s a firewall code. How can someone at this level still need to refer to a book? He’s so slow. No wonder he had to work overtime.”
There were only a few lines of code on the screen, but he had been fiddling around, constantly deleting and revising.
Just as he finished speaking, he suddenly realized something and immediately shut his mouth, his eyes fixed on the office chair and keyboard in front of him.
Only when he saw no reaction from the other side did he breathe a sigh of relief, trembling slightly as he reached out towards Bai Lixin, “Should I… help him write like this?”
Bai Lixin: “I feel like he doesn’t mean any harm. Why not give it a try? Come on, you can do it. Whether we can get out or not depends on you!”
Encouraged, Checkered Shirt felt a bit braver and finally placed his outstretched hand on the keyboard.
He didn’t dare to sit on the office chair. Instead, he reached out from behind it and stiffly started to help the ghost write code.
As he typed, he couldn’t help but laugh at himself.
“Helping a ghost write code, this is something I can brag about for a lifetime after I get out. But even if I brag, no one will believe it. Who would believe it?”
Under Checkered Shirt’s typing, the tap-tap-tap from the keyboard came much faster, and lines of code quickly appeared on the computer.
Just as he was about to successfully finish the code, a white light flashed across the computer in front of them, and with a “snap,” the screen went black.
Then the office chair moved back on its own, making a dull, ear-piercing “screech” sound.
The sound of angry footsteps echoed throughout the dark space.
The books on the surrounding office desks shook, the chairs at other workstations made scraping sounds, and the crumpled paper on the floor rolled around haphazardly. The footsteps grew louder and more urgent!
Checkered Shirt looked at the violent commotion around in horror, sweat pouring down his forehead, “He… seems angry. What should we do?”
Bai Lixin: “…”
As if to confirm Checkered Shirt’s guess, they seemed to hear faint screams.
The sound was somewhat muffled, as if coming through a thin film.
Yet it felt very close to them, as if the screams were right beside their ears…
In the pitch-black office building, the “tap-tap” sound of leather shoes echoed again.
The man in the checkered shirt swallowed dryly, his voice trembling, “Well, it seems like there might be something like that.”
“Our company is a software outsourcing company. In the past, we used to work overtime frequently to meet deadlines and generate high profits. The boss even advocated for what he called ‘996 blessings.’ But a year ago…”
Checkered Shirt paused, lowering his voice and glancing around warily, as if afraid someone might overhear, “A year ago, an employee died from exhaustion while working overtime at night.”
“At that time, it caused quite a stir. The employee’s family came to the door with banners, demanding answers from the boss. Because it even trended on social media, the incident escalated, and the boss had to lay low for awhile. Since then, he hasn’t dared to force overtime anymore. He issued a rule that everyone must leave the office before seven in the evening.”
“I heard that that brother was quite young. He was about to get married, and he was his parents’ only son. Who would have thought that before getting married, he would die first? He is so pitiful , he spent so many years in college, only to end up as a capitalist’s pawn.”
He gestured toward the computer screen emitting an eerie blue light, “Do you think the ghost causing trouble is that programmer? He worked until he died and after death, he thinks he’s still doing overtime. How tragic and suffocating, even in death, he can’t let go of his work.”
As if in response to Checkered Shirt, the computer screen emitting the eerie blue light suddenly moved by itself, followed by the sound of a keyboard.
“Tap-tap-tap-tap-tap…”
It was as if someone was desperately typing away on the keyboard, chasing after tasks that could never be completed.
Checkered Shirt felt numbness in his feet. The blood drained from his face. It was as if he had been frightened too much that his expression went temporarily numb.
Bai Lixin glanced at the main entrance of the office building. In the middle of the corridor was an elevator, and there seemed to be a fire escape beside the elevator. There was faint light above the elevator, indicating that it still had power.
Bai Lixin: “If you’re so scared, why don’t you leave?”
Checkered Shirt exclaimed in frustration, “Xiao Xin, are you scared out of your mind? We tried just now, it didn’t work.”
“This ghost may be so resentful towards work that it’s become a malicious spirit. We’ve been trapped on this floor and can’t leave.”
Bai Lixin glanced at the dark corridor, “I don’t believe in superstitions. Wait here, I’ll go try.”
Checkered Shirt and the security guard exchanged glances and quickly followed him.
Bai Lixin: “Didn’t I ask you to wait?”
Checkered Shirt whispered, “That ghost is still working at the workstation. I’d rather follow you than stay in the same room with that ghost.”
The security guard agreed, ”Yeah, me too. It’s too scary.”
Bai Lixin: “…”
They quickly arrived at the elevator.
Bai Lixin glanced up and saw that the number displayed in bright light was 36, while they were on the 18th floor.
The security guard pointed at the number “18”, tremblingly, “18, 18, no wonder this ghost is so powerful. The 18 levels of hell. The people who built this building really have no taste. Who would make an 18th floor?”
Bai Lixin: “…”
Indeed, there has always been this saying, there are 18 levels of hell. Just like the number four, eighteen is an unlucky number.
So when constructing floors, the number eighteen is often skipped, and the original 18th floor is renamed the 19th floor, or something similar.
He pressed the down button on the elevator.
The elevator that was originally on the 36th floor began to descend slowly.
When it reached the 18th floor, the elevator came to a halt. The doors opened, revealing light inside the elevator, it was like a gaping mouth of a beast waiting for them to enter.
Bai Lixin paused for a moment, then stepped into the elevator.
Seeing Bai Lixin enter, the other two quickly followed suit.
Checkered Shirt quickly pressed the button for the 1st floor.
Seeing the elevator slowly descending, hope ignited in the Checkered Shirt’s eyes, “It’s moving. Maybe this time, we’ll be able to get out. We must be able to.”
The old security guard nodded repeatedly, “Hmm, yes, yes.”
Without any stops along the way, the elevator descended directly to the 1st floor from the 18th floor.
At the moment the elevator stopped, the metal box shook, and the overhead lights flickered twice before returning to normal.
The security guard suddenly exclaimed, his pupils dilated as he pointed at the elevator’s display screen.
Bai Lixin looked up. The screen, which had just shown the number 1, now displayed 18 again.
The elevator doors opened, revealing the same 18th-floor corridor they had just left.
The security guard and Checkered Shirt were in despair. They deflated like balloons and slowly stepped out of the elevator. As the elevator doors closed slowly, Checkered Shirt kicked the metal door frame beside the elevator in frustration, causing a loud metallic clang to ring out in the corridor.
“Damn it, why am I so unlucky? I decided to work overtime on a whim. If only I had known better, I wouldn’t have done it.”
Bai Lixin walked to the nearby fire escape staircase. The lights in the fire escape staircase were motion-activated, but he found that stomping his foot didn’t turn them on.
With each descending step, the darkness grew deeper until it completely enveloped him.
Seeing Bai Lixin’s actions, Checkered Shirt, who had lost all fighting spirit, sighed, “Stop trying, it’s useless.”
Bai Lixin felt he had to try anyway. After all, action brings true knowledge. “Wait here for me. I’ll go check.”
The other two had no desire to follow him downstairs. They stood at the staircase entrance, pouting, watching Bai Lixin walk do the stairs.
The staircase was dark. Bai Lixin took out a flashlight from his backpack, only to find that even the flashlight didn’t work.
Strange, why wasn’t it working?
Could it be because it got damaged in the Guidance of the Gods space and didn’t automatically repair itself when he exited?
Bai Lixin couldn’t figure it out, so he reluctantly stowed away the useless flashlight in his backpack.
He gripped the handrail and descended the stairs step by step. When he reached where the 17th floor should have been, he saw two familiar figures.
Checkered Shirt and the security guard stood side by side, wearing expressions that seemed to say, “See, I told you it wouldn’t work,” as they waited by the door.
Bai Lixin glanced at the floor display in the fire escape staircase.
[18th floor]
It seemed they had really encountered a ghost hitting the wall.
From the time he entered the copy until now, it was clear that this was a supernatural copy.
He had encountered ghosts hitting the wall before, but back then, he could clearly sense the malice. However, now he didn’t feel any malicious intent from the supernatural.
S419M: [Is it this exciting from the start?]
Escape System: [Should we first deal with the ghost in this office building, help it find peace, and then we can leave? Or should we wait until dawn tomorrow?]
S419M: [It’s only nine o’clock in the evening now. There are still ten hours until dawn tomorrow.]
Bai Lixin: [Well, since we’re already here…]
S419M: […]
Bai Lixin: [I have nothing to do now anyway, so let’s take a walk around. ]
S419M: […]
‘Well, Lord host is still Lord Host.’
Seeing Bai Lixin come over, Checkered Shirt grumbled, “See, I told you it wouldn’t work, right? It seems like that ghost doesn’t have any ill will towards us. Maybe he stays here because his obsession has not been eliminated. Let’s help him get rid of it. Once the work is done, maybe he will become a Buddha and leave, and we can be liberated from here.”
The security guard suddenly saw hope, “Then do you know what the ghost’s obsession is?”
Checkered Shirt: “I think it’s about working overtime. I’ve observed him, he’s been busy coding, so he’s definitely still working overtime. But it seems he’s not very good at it. He keeps deleting and rewriting the code, and he’s been at it for half a day with no progress.”
The security guard nudged Checkered Shirt, “Aren’t you a coder, Xiao Zhao? Why don’t you help him finish?”
Checkered Shirt gritted his teeth and mustered up his courage, “Fine! I’ll give it a try!”
He rolled up his sleeves and strode confidently towards the office lobby.
Bai Lixin and the security guard followed closely behind.
But as soon as they entered the lobby and saw the keyboard continuously tapping and the screen flickering, Checkered Shirt suddenly felt scared again.
Bai Lixin came closer, stared at the code on the screen for a while before saying slowly, “It seems like he’s writing a firewall code.”
Checkered Shirt and the security guard stood about four or five meters away, watching Bai Lixin’s actions with dumbfounded expressions.
Bai Lixin stood behind the slightly lowered office chair. In order to see the words on the screen clearly, he even half leaned forward. This was basically close contact with a ghost!
Wasn’t this guy usually the most cowardly? How come he’s suddenly so brave today?
Checkered Shirt stuttered, “Xiao…Xin, aren’t you from the graphic design department? Can you also understand code?”
Bai Lixin’s peripheral vision happened to catch sight of the open code reference book on the desk. “I saw his reference book. It happened to be open to the page on firewall references.”
Checkered Shirt stopped doubting, “Oh, I see.”
Bai Lixin: “Um, Zhao Jia, why don’t you give it a try?”
Bai Lixin had learned some coding during his early years of quick transmigration. Although it had been a long time, he could still handle basic coding tasks. This code segment was within his capability. However, his character in this copy seemed to be the graphic designer.
Checkered Shirt hesitated for a moment but then bravely stepped forward.
He stood beside Bai Lixin, staring at the screen for a while, “Indeed, it’s a firewall code. How can someone at this level still need to refer to a book? He’s so slow. No wonder he had to work overtime.”
There were only a few lines of code on the screen, but he had been fiddling around, constantly deleting and revising.
Just as he finished speaking, he suddenly realized something and immediately shut his mouth, his eyes fixed on the office chair and keyboard in front of him.
Only when he saw no reaction from the other side did he breathe a sigh of relief, trembling slightly as he reached out towards Bai Lixin, “Should I… help him write like this?”
Bai Lixin: “I feel like he doesn’t mean any harm. Why not give it a try? Come on, you can do it. Whether we can get out or not depends on you!”
Encouraged, Checkered Shirt felt a bit braver and finally placed his outstretched hand on the keyboard.
He didn’t dare to sit on the office chair. Instead, he reached out from behind it and stiffly started to help the ghost write code.
As he typed, he couldn’t help but laugh at himself.
“Helping a ghost write code, this is something I can brag about for a lifetime after I get out. But even if I brag, no one will believe it. Who would believe it?”
Under Checkered Shirt’s typing, the tap-tap-tap from the keyboard came much faster, and lines of code quickly appeared on the computer.
Just as he was about to successfully finish the code, a white light flashed across the computer in front of them, and with a “snap,” the screen went black.
Then the office chair moved back on its own, making a dull, ear-piercing “screech” sound.
The sound of angry footsteps echoed throughout the dark space.
The books on the surrounding office desks shook, the chairs at other workstations made scraping sounds, and the crumpled paper on the floor rolled around haphazardly. The footsteps grew louder and more urgent!
Checkered Shirt looked at the violent commotion around in horror, sweat pouring down his forehead, “He… seems angry. What should we do?”
Bai Lixin: “…”
As if to confirm Checkered Shirt’s guess, they seemed to hear faint screams.
The sound was somewhat muffled, as if coming through a thin film.
Yet it felt very close to them, as if the screams were right beside their ears…
