Celestial Human Diagram

Chapter 370 - 101: Abnormal Hotel

After ending the call with Old Qi, Chen Chuan used the Realm Token to look up the area. He discovered on a related link that the incident had actually made the news yesterday, which was quite rare.

Hongsheng District was known as the most neglected area in Central City. "Old and backward" were the words to describe it. It was home to a large population of residents without citizenship, rife with gangs of all sizes, and even city patrol teams rarely came here.

Therefore, it was one of the areas with the most supernatural occurrences. The Golden Shrimp Team’s headquarters used to be located here. However, the troubled street was in the southeastern part of Hongsheng District, on a section that extended toward the city center. This might have been why it had attracted attention.

But from what he knew, no matter how much attention the incident got, it was pointless to expect anyone to solve it. It would be easier to just suppress the news.

A mass disappearance event, if it was truly a supernatural phenomenon, meant that it was growing stronger. If it wasn’t dealt with now, it wouldn’t be long before it caused even larger-scale casualties.

He pondered for a moment and decided to go handle it.

He made some preparations, putting everything he might need, including Ritual Materials, into a tote bag. After changing into casual clothes, he went downstairs, got his car, and drove straight to the site of the incident.

On the way, Old Qi sent him a photo of his missing colleague. She was a woman in her thirties with short hair, wearing glasses and an office uniform. She looked very capable. The reason for her disappearance was that a client had hired her to go to the hotel and retrieve a guest list from the previous year.

Since the client offered a high price, and based on past experience, it was generally safe as long as you didn’t stay overnight, Old Qi’s colleague accepted the job.

Unexpectedly, however, the hotel was no longer a place where you were safe as long as you didn’t check in. Now, it was a one-way trip in. She was trapped inside.

But it had already been ten days to half a month since the incident, so he wasn’t optimistic about Old Qi’s colleague.

Around two in the afternoon, he drove along the main road and reached the area. He saw that someone had placed a pile of obstacles in the middle of the road, but they didn’t completely block the wide intersection.

He slowed down and drove through a gap on one side. Once past the obstacles, his view opened up. The street was deserted, and he could seemingly see all the way to the end. The only signs of life were some furtive figures lurking in the corners of buildings and in alleyways.

They appeared to be gang members. He paid them no mind and drove straight on, soon spotting the hotel.

He noticed, however, that there were no parking spots ahead, and the nearby ground was littered with junk and trash. Fortunately, there was an empty parking lot about a hundred meters away, so he parked his car there.

He got out of the car with the Snow Monarch Blade in hand. After closing the door, he started walking toward the hotel.

At first, he didn’t feel anything unusual, but when he was about thirty to forty meters away, his Second Self began to show faint signs of dematerializing.

"Hey, don’t go in there," a voice suddenly called out from behind him.

Chen Chuan stopped and turned to look. On one side of the street, up in a residential building, a child with a grimy face had shouted at him. But as soon as Chen Chuan’s gaze fell upon him, the child ducked his head back inside.

Old Qi had told him this place was deserted, but as he’d approached, he could feel many eyes on him. Only when he got close to the hotel did the number of gazes gradually decrease.

’It makes sense, thinking about it. How could the ordinary people here just abandon their homes? The ones who could afford to run were likely only those with some savings.’

He turned his head and said, "I’m here to solve this."

With that, he continued walking forward. But after a moment, just as he was about to enter the hotel’s main doors, the boy shouted again, "Don’t solve it!"

’I can roughly understand the sentiment,’ Chen Chuan thought. ’While this anomaly is dangerous, its presence probably also means fewer people come to exploit or control them. But if it’s truly a supernatural phenomenon, its range will constantly expand. The people hiding here will eventually be swallowed up by it.’

’Or they could wait for the problem-solvers to arrive. But compared to solving the problem, getting rid of the people is actually simpler and cheaper. And with no people, the supernatural phenomenon would naturally disappear.’

He called back, "Stay where you are and don’t wander around."

As he spoke, he stepped onto the hotel’s entrance stairs. A few steps later, he pushed open the glass doors. The instant he crossed the threshold, his Second Self showed intense signs of dematerializing.

Once inside, he glanced around and found the lobby empty. The half-drawn curtains and the old chandelier were clean and dust-free, as if meticulously wiped down. The floor tiles were polished like a mirror.

The dining tables in the lobby were neatly arranged. Guests’ clothes were still draped over the backs of chairs, and the tableware and food looked as if they had just been set out. He even saw a half-eaten slice of cream cake, whose sweet aroma he could almost still smell.

The problem was, the incident had happened nearly a month ago. In this weather, the food should have rotted long ago after so many days, but it still looked as fresh as ever.

He touched the Lower Realm Token. Under the influence of the intense dematerialization, the item was now unusable, just as he had expected.

He first walked around the ground floor lobby. Aside from the traces left by guests, there was nothing else of note, so he decided to check upstairs.

He noticed that the elevator was still lit up and operational. After a moment’s thought, he decided against taking it and instead walked up the stairs.

Not long after he entered the hotel, five cars drove onto the street. The passengers’ hair was styled to look like moss and dyed in gaudy colors. They were clearly members of the Moss Gang.

After driving some distance down the street, the cars stopped. The gang leader sitting in the front vehicle stood up and waved toward an alley. Two men immediately ran out. The leader stuck a cigarette in his mouth, and a subordinate quickly lit it for him. He took a drag and asked, "Anything happen these past two days?"

The man replied, "Boss, those scumbags have been behaving. No one’s dared to cause trouble. But just now, a car drove in. Looked like it was heading straight for the hotel."

The gang leader was surprised. "Someone really went in there to die?"

A subordinate next to him said, "Boss, probably someone from a commission company. Those guys ain’t afraid to die as long as the price is right."

The gang leader spat out of the car window and said with a sneer, "I don’t care who he is. If he wants to die, let him. We’re just following orders from above. Nobody who goes in is allowed to come out." He pointed with his hand. "You guys, get the barricades at the intersection set up properly."

"Yes, Boss."

Watching his subordinates get to work, a trusted crony asked, "Boss, are we just gonna keep watch here? How long do we have to do this?"

"At least two months."

The gang leader exhaled smoke leisurely and said, "The city’s martial arts tournament is about to start, and a lot of people from other Central Cities are pouring in. If this place causes trouble, it’ll make the city officials look bad. The big boss said as long as we keep this place on lockdown, there’s a bonus in it for all the brothers afterward."

The crony looked at the twelve-story hotel ahead. On this street, it was one of the tallest buildings. He said, "Sigh, Boss, if that hotel’s the problem, can’t we just blow it up? Wouldn’t that be a lot easier?"

The gang leader shot him a look. "Blow it up? You gonna do it, or am I? Haven’t you heard? Anyone who walks up to the entrance goes in like they’ve lost their damn soul."

"Is it really that freaky?"

"It’s exactly that freaky!" The gang leader finished his cigarette and seemed to spot something. He beckoned a few of his subordinates over. "Come with me, let’s go check it out."

They walked over to the armored car in the parking lot. The gang leader circled it, clucking his tongue. "Another new car already? Get a few guys to take it back."

Just then, one of the subordinates noticed a child across the street peeking at them. He raised his gun, aimed, and made a "BANG" sound with his mouth. The boy’s head immediately disappeared, and they all burst out laughing.

One of the underlings looked at the car and said, "Boss, this must be the car of that guy from the commission company. To take a job like this, he can’t be simple."

The gang leader said dismissively, "Are you an idiot? You think there’s any way to survive inside that hotel? Just get it out of here, quick."

But the subordinates fumbled with it for a long time without any success. One of them looked up and said, "Boss, this is a modified armored car. The glass is thickened and bulletproof, and the lock is a heavy-duty dial. We can’t pry it open."

The gang leader didn’t believe him and walked over to look at the lock. He involuntarily cursed, because the lock was a shallow, two-millimeter rotating disk.

This modified car from You Xing didn’t have a normal lock; it was customized based on the owner’s specific traits. Without a certain level of finger strength and Power, one couldn’t even dream of turning this lock. Of course, for Chen Chuan, it was no problem at all—he could open it with a simple twist. But an ordinary person couldn’t even get a grip on it without special tools.

"I don’t fucking believe it. Dammit, go get a car with a tow cable and haul it away."

Inside the hotel, Chen Chuan went from the first floor to the twelfth. He found all the rooms and hallways empty. The scenes within were frozen at a single moment in time, as if their occupants had just left.

Furthermore, ever since he had entered, he’d had the feeling of being watched.

By now, he had been to almost every part of the building, including the rooftop. However, there was still one place he hadn’t checked: the basement.

It was an old building and didn’t have an underground parking garage. According to the floor plan, the basement housed the backup generator and cold storage.

He came down from the upper floors, pushed open a pair of fire doors, and headed down into the basement.

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