Volume One: The Phantom Tower Chapter Six: Defying the Heights of Fate

Darkness draped the sky like a heavy curtain, completely enveloping everything in the world.

The building was deathly silent and oppressive in the early morning hours. Though the interior lights shone brightly, they could not mask the terrifying reality that danger lurked everywhere within.

Under the influence of the disorienting maze-like effect, the explorers had completely lost their sense of direction. This so-called sense of location was essentially an inability to discern their position, especially since all the floors looked almost identical and lacked any numerical markers.

At this moment, in a room on one of the floors, Cheng Fan sat upright with his brows tightly furrowed.

“Are you ready?” Zhao Linxuan asked beside him.

Staring at the large syringe in her hand, Cheng Fan twitched slightly at the corner of his mouth but ultimately nodded affirmatively.

Seeing his nod, Zhao Linxuan no longer hesitated and slowly inserted the needle into the young man’s vein.

“Ugh!”

The pain radiating from his arm made Cheng Fan grit his teeth.

Before long, a tube of Cheng Fan’s blood was drawn into a blood bag by Zhao Linxuan.

She continued the process, repeatedly drawing blood.

Undoubtedly, having discovered earlier that blood could suppress the female ghost, Cheng Fan had devised a plan to survive longer inside the building. Ten minutes prior, after narrowly escaping the ghost’s pursuit, the two had begun searching each floor for a medical room to draw blood for protection.

Their efforts were not in vain. Soon, they found a fully equipped infirmary. As the man, Cheng Fan took responsibility and volunteered to give blood.

Zhao Linxuan held the syringe and drew blood.

After four consecutive draws, they collected four blood bags, which was roughly Cheng Fan’s personal limit.

Once finished, each carried two blood bags, but their ordeal was far from over. With growing unease gnawing at them, Cheng Fan, drenched in cold sweat and clutching a small knife they had found earlier, without a word, dashed out of the room.

He looked like he was racing against time.

Bang!

He kicked open the neighboring door and immediately started searching. Seeing his agitation, Zhao Linxuan curiously asked, “What are you looking for?”

“Of course, rope!” Cheng Fan replied without turning his head. “Quick, let’s search together. And if we can’t find any rope, just tear down the curtains!”

This was Cheng Fan’s plan. As described earlier, unable to fathom the meaning of the oil painting, and with the building’s stairs seemingly endless, he had no choice but to resort to a conventional method. What was this conventional method? Simply put, it was to escape by climbing out the window. Admittedly, the building was about twenty floors high—jumping would almost certainly mean death—but if they had a rope long enough, escape was theoretically possible.

At least in theory, it posed no problem.

It was also the last desperate measure Cheng Fan could think of.

“What are you still standing there for? Hurry up and search!”

“Y-Yes, got it!”

Heeding Cheng Fan’s urging, the two hastily searched room after room on both sides. Finding rope would be ideal, but if none was available, they would substitute with curtains or other fabric. As Cheng Fan had predicted, searching for rope in a business-oriented building was unrealistic. None of the rooms contained rope, but they did manage to gather quite a few curtains and bedsheets.

Time slipped away by the seconds; thirty minutes passed quickly.

Fortunately, the female ghost had not appeared during this time, allowing the two, who remained on high alert, to breathe a slight sigh of relief.

In one room, both Cheng Fan and Zhao Linxuan busily cut the fabric into strips with the small knife, then tied the strips together.

By rough estimation, the height of twenty floors was about sixty to seventy meters. Even if the building was slightly taller, it would not exceed a hundred meters.

After some effort, they fashioned a simple rope nearly a hundred meters long.

With the rope ready, the two wasted no time and rushed to the window.

Opening the window, they ignored the biting cold wind and quickly leaned out to observe the ground below, expecting to gauge the distance visually. But to their shock, there was no end in sight beneath them.

The view below was pitch black.

Even when Cheng Fan took out a powerful spotlight and shone it downward, the beam vanished into the darkness, never reaching the ground.

Not even the brightest spotlight could illuminate the bottom—it must be at least a kilometer away!

“Ah!”

Realizing the building’s height was incredibly abnormal and far beyond their initial estimate, Zhao Linxuan, who had been excited at the thought of escape moments before, changed expression dramatically. Screaming, she stumbled backward, while Cheng Fan was stunned speechless.

“The building… the building’s height…”

Pointing at the window, which seemed like a black hole, Zhao Linxuan’s face drained of color, disbelief etched across her features. “What’s going on? Didn’t they say the building was only twenty floors? Why does it look like this?”

Faced with her trembling question, Cheng Fan remained silent—not because he didn’t want to answer, but because he simply did not know how. He just stared blankly downward, his mind a storm of chaotic thoughts.

Is there no way out? Has even the only conventional escape route been completely blocked?

After a long silence, as if reaching some grim realization, his face pale as death, Cheng Fan finally forced out, “It seems we’ve seriously underestimated that red-clad female ghost. That thing is far more powerful and cunning than we imagined.”

Pointing outside the window, he continued, “Just as I suspected, the building’s height, like the maze effect, has been altered by the ghost through some means.”

“Is this also caused by the ghost?” Zhao Linxuan, on the brink of despair, shook her head instinctively, clutching her head. “No, I don’t believe it. I can’t believe the ghost is that powerful!”

Suddenly struck by an idea, she looked up sharply. “What if it’s fake? Some kind of illusion?”

Her question was precisely the one Cheng Fan had been pondering as well. Of course, verifying whether it was an illusion was simple. As Zhao Linxuan finished speaking, Cheng Fan turned and walked to the corner of the room.

He picked up a computer tower that had long since lost network connection, then walked back to the window and threw it out.

Then came a long silence.

The expected sound of it hitting the ground never came. Or rather, due to the building’s immense height, even though the tower would eventually land, the distance muffled the sound completely.

In the silence, both Cheng Fan and Zhao Linxuan’s faces turned deathly pale upon receiving the answer.

Especially Cheng Fan. Confirming it was not an illusion, a chill from the depths of his soul quietly enveloped him, freezing his hands and feet.

Yet then—

Pat pat pat!

Before the two could finish their silence, the sound of rapid footsteps approached from outside, accompanied by a nearly piercing male scream:

“Help! Somebody help!”