Underworld Player

"...Do you always talk like this?"

Temperance Gentleheart looked concernedly at a certain Player who had just pocketed his walkie-talkie and was presently enjoying an apple.

Since Traveler had called for help on the global channel earlier, she had heard the whole conversation clearly, but it had been so abstruse that she zoned out completely.

While Viridescent had Traveler to patiently explain things to her, Temperance was left floundering in a sea of confusion... It felt like being in math class again, getting distracted for some time, only to look back at the blackboard and find it suddenly full of incomprehensible symbols.

"They were asking for your help, after all. Is it really okay for you to be that snide? Even scoffing at their 'mediocre mentalities'..."

"Oh, you see, Chu Xuan*—Senior Colonel Chu—is my role model. I'm working hard to emulate his mannerisms and approach to everything."

As he chewed on a mouthful of apple, Bai Zhi turned his attention away from the room behind the door he had just kicked open and turned to Temperance Gentleheart. Having put a pair of thick, black-framed glasses at some point, he now looked her seriously in the eye.

"Check out my impression, huh? If you think it's a good resemblance, please leave a like."

The corner of Temperance's mouth twitched in exasperation as she stared at him. "...I'm willing to bet anything that you don't have any friends in real life."

"You're imagining things. How could I, a paragon of virtue, lack for companions?"

Bai Zhi smirked, then strode toward the next room.

"As they say, 'he who fosters learning for a day shall be foster-parent for life'**. It's a maxim near and dear to my heart."

"So?"

Temperance Gentleheart caught up to Bai Zhi, and as she looked through the door at the empty room, she felt a sudden shiver, though nothing had prompted it.

"Do we really have to search them one by—"

Bai Zhi suddenly turned to Temperance. "So, when the time comes for my teacher to shuffle off this mortal coil, I shall be there by their deathbed to claim my share of the inheritance. After all, they are my parent. Surely I have a claim to some of their estate."

He nodded gravely.

"That's the true meaning of 'foster learning, foster-parent'. Well, was that moving or what? Do you suddenly feel perceive a glorious, shining presence before you? Such is the light of the virtuous path."

Temperance Gentleheart's eye twitched with irritation as she looked at Bai Zhi, who was currently wearing a bandage on his arm.

"...As I was saying, do we really need to check each room one by one?" She sighed and continued, "Since we've established that the rooms have somehow eaten all the furniture, is there any point to checking them all?"

Just a few minutes earlier, the pair had survived a new crisis as they set foot on the sixth floor.

They had made their way out of the painting—in other words, the stairwell—and up to the sixth floor without further incident, but upon arriving, the staircase connecting the sixth floor to the rooftop caught their eye. Where a normal staircase should have been was a steep, almost vertical ramp that disappeared into the ceiling. However, since their main objective did not lie in that direction, they paid it no further mind.

The sixth floor was where the teachers and other staff who worked at the orphanage lived. Theoretically, it should have been full of clues to help answer the questions they had, like: Just what had happened at the orphanage? Where were all the children? When had the supernatural entities shown up? Et cetera, et cetera.

The last thing they expected to find was a completely empty room—not, as the other places here had been, merely 'unoccupied', but empty empty—all the furniture, including the beds, tables, chairs, cabinets, and the like, were nowhere to be seen.

The floor was spotless, as if no furniture had ever marred its pristine sheen. It looked like a newly-constructed skeleton of a room, what some called 'roughcast'. All the surfaces were bare concrete, and exposed piping ran along the ceiling.

A small sign stood way in the back of the room, facing the wall—it was exceedingly prominent for being the only item found within the rooms confines, but otherwise nondescript.

After debating their next move, Bai Zhi and Temperance decided to enter the room. After all, it was only a small one, roughly ten square meters in area. The door was within easy reach, so even if there was some sort of ambush, they would be able to effect a quick escape.

When up against supernatural entities, running from any and all potential danger was a losing strategy. The shrewd Player knew that, at times, it was necessary to risk it for the biscuit.

However, little did the two of them know just how dangerous this room would be. They soon made it to the small sign unmolested, but before they could read what was written on it... the room came alive!

It was as if the room was a living thing, and the doorway its hungry mouth. The Players had literally walked right into the jaws of a wild beast.

But Bai Zhi never went anywhere unprepared, and at the risk of getting bitten, he swiftly reached for the sign and snatched it up. Stuffing it into his Inventory, he then grabbed hold of Temperance Gentleheart and together, they dissolved into a nearby shadow, which earned them safe passage out of the room.

They had escaped with their lives, but not totally unscathed. The room had managed to take a bite out of Bai Zhi's arm as he was retrieving the sign, ripping a chunk of his shirt away with it, too. Just as Bai Zhi was about to dress the wound with his usual duct tape and stapler, he was stopped by an unexpectedly assertive Temperance Gentleheart, and at her insistence, he let her handle it.

At least now they had an idea of where the furniture in the room had gone... perhaps even the people inside, as well.

The information they gleaned from this encounter was worth the minor injury. It confirmed that the man-eating room was a stationary entity, and relied solely on unsuspecting prey wandering into its gullet to feed, which greatly increased their odds of survival.

Simply kicking open the door and observing the contents of a room would tell them if it was a normal room or a man-eating one, because the man-eating rooms were invariably bare and spotless.

To Temperance's question, Bai Zhi replied, "Sure we do. I, for one, refuse to believe that every single room on the sixth floor has been turned into a monster. We're bound to find a normal one at some point. Besides, don't underestimate these rooms, hey? They're incredibly valuable."

With a shrug, Bai Zhi tossed what was left of his apple into the empty room. It had barely landed on the ground when it was devoured by the room in a matter of seconds.

"...Valuable? What use could these monsters possibly be?"

Temperance Gentleheart looked into the spotless room, suddenly getting chills as she recalled how she had nearly been swallowed whole.

"Garbage disposal, infinite capacity."

Bai Zhi looked at her with complete seriousness.

"Do you know how much money entire countries spend annually on garbage disposal alone? Well, here is a room that, be it dirty napkins or nuclear waste, will make whatever you leave inside it simply disappear. Easy, efficient, and eco-friendly. Just think about it, what a great technological advancement!"

Temperance Gentleheart was left speechless.

*Main character in Terror Infinity. Characterized as a perfect logical genius.

**A Chinese saying, normally alluding to the debt of gratitude one (should) feel for those who have shared their knowledge with us, as we can, in a sense, trace the parentage of 'the person we become' back to them.