Despite the sudden threat to their lives, not a single employee from the other departments chose to retreat.
What a joke.
They had come down here with a mission. How could they possibly retreat now?
Sapphire, watching the employees’ high morale, pondered for a moment before reporting her recent encounter to Director Xu.
Soon, Director Xu sent a reply.
“I understand. When you go to collect evidence next, you will likely encounter even more resistance. For safety’s sake, you are free to abort the mission or act independently at any time. You don’t need to report to me.”
“Delegating authority so quickly? Won’t you reconsider?” Sapphire teased.
“There’s nothing to reconsider. I believe in your abilities, Sapphire.”
“Well, thank you for your trust, Director Xu.”
Having received Xu Panfeng’s verbal approval, Sapphire stretched her body. Watching the employees drive away, she felt quite pleased.
Ning Fan, standing beside her, looked curiously at Sapphire, who remained stationary, and asked,
“Aren’t you going with them? Given their abilities, they probably can’t handle dangerous Shadow Beasts, right?”
“No need. I’m certain that person wouldn’t dare do anything to them,” Sapphire shook her head with a smile.
“You’re that confident?”
“Of course. With his half-baked skills, it would be strange if he could actually threaten the investigators who came here,” Sapphire laughed. “I’m going after the real mastermind. The one at the hotel is just a small fry.”
“Oh… So you’re not going to apprehend the one here first?”
“Catching the ringleader is more important. Time is tight and the mission is urgent. Any later, and those missing persons will probably vanish completely.”
“Alright then. You know more than I do anyway. I shouldn’t be telling you what to do,” Ning Fan sighed. “So, where to next?”
“First, let’s meet with the families of the missing persons. I have some questions for them.”
“No problem. Get in the car.”
Following the instruction, Ning Fan immediately pulled open the car door and sat in the driver’s seat, ready to depart.
Sapphire glanced back at the Kowloon Hotel. Her gaze shifted to the untouched Room 404. Smiling at the large floor-to-ceiling window, she made a throat-slitting gesture.
Seeing the tiny shadow in Room 404 shift slightly, Sapphire chuckled with satisfaction, turned around, opened the car door, and got into the back seat.
“Alright, let’s go.”
“Mm.”
With that response, the small white car stepped on the gas and left the Kowloon Hotel, heading towards a new destination.
*
Meanwhile, at Lu Ren’s residence.
Lu Ren looked at the post on the forum and raised an eyebrow slightly.
[Kowloon Hotel Employee Handbook]
Welcome to the Kowloon Hotel as a formal employee.
Before you officially begin your work, please be sure to memorize the rules in this handbook to serve every guest who comes from afar with a full spirit.
1. When working at the hotel front desk, please maintain proper etiquette, allowing customers to feel a warmth like the spring breeze.
2. During work hours, casual conversation is prohibited. Using mobile phones during work time is prohibited. Disturbing guests or entering guest rooms without permission is prohibited. Violators will be fined 500 and receive one written reprimand. Accumulating three reprimands will result in an immediate transfer to work in the basement.
3. During work, please build good relationships with colleagues and actively participate in company-organized team-building activities to adapt to the work life at Kowloon Hotel more quickly.
4. Actively provide assistance to guests for their reasonable requests.
However, if you encounter unreasonable demands, please refuse proactively. If a guest insists on unreasonable behavior, promptly inform the manager.
We adhere to the service philosophy that ‘the customer is God,’ but this does not mean our employees need to give in unconditionally.
5. To better serve guests, please ensure good health and actively participate in the company’s regular check-ups. If the check-up shows no issues, you may continue working the following week. If problems arise, you may apply for home rest, but your salary will be halved during the rest period.
6. When cleaning an unoccupied room, if you detect an unknown odor, find traces of female blood by the Bed, or notice an obvious smell of disturbance, please ignore it and continue cleaning.
7. As an employee of Kowloon Hotel, you must always ensure you are worthy of this job and do not cause displeasure to guests. Therefore, during work hours, you must wear formal attire. Formal attire must be changed daily to appear more presentable.
8. Diligently complete your work and clock in/out on time. If emergency overtime is required, please cooperate with the hotel’s arrangements. Overtime pay will be issued on the designated payday.
9. No matter where you work, please wear gloves before starting your shift and only remove them after clocking out, to prevent greasy contamination in the workplace.
10. This hotel employs advanced facial recognition technology. Please use facial recognition when clocking in and out. Please note, fingerprint scanning is not required for clocking in/out.
Finally, we wish you a pleasant working experience at Kowloon Hotel. We look forward to working hand in hand with you to create a better life and memories together.
Looking at this somewhat strange employee handbook, Lu Ren was puzzled, unsure what mischief the folks on the forum were up to now.
The replies below were getting increasingly clever, with some even cracking jokes.
“Is this a rules-based horror story? Interesting. First time I’ve seen one with absolutely no threats.”
“Looks just like a normal hotel work guide, nothing wrong. I’ve worked in a hotel. This doesn’t seem like a horror story, more like a real employee handbook.”
“Hey, if this is really the employee handbook, hasn’t the poster leaked confidential info? I remember Kowloon Hotel is quite famous. Won’t the poster get a lawyer’s letter warning for this?”
“Wow, looking at this handbook, I’m tempted. What’s the salary? Name a figure, I’ll sign up right away.”
“Don’t get your hopes up. Kowloon Hotel is so famous, their hiring process must involve multiple interview rounds. How could it possibly be your turn?”
“Poster, are you a former employee? Do you know about the mysterious disappearances of Kowloon Hotel staff?”
But when Blazing Flame saw a level-one account asking the poster this question, she immediately perked up and clicked to see the replies.
‘So there’s an urban legend angle too? Interesting.’
‘Horror stories really need these elements to be flavorful.’
Under that level-one account’s question, the poster was the first to counter-question.
“And you? Are you also a former employee? You tell me first, how much do you know?”
“I only know one thing. I once heard a story when I was off duty. They said they once delivered a meal to a guest staying in a room. Just after getting off the elevator, they saw that same guest standing outside the elevator, scaring them half to death.”
“I’m not much better. I only know old employees said there was once a guest who mysteriously disappeared, but was seen returning to their room two days later. They said it was a ghost returning.”
“Haha, Kowloon Hotel sure has a lot of ghost stories. But I think it’s just rich people’s kinks. They love using doubles; pulling this off isn’t strange.”
“I’m not so sure… If you really are a former employee, let me give you some advice. You’d better hope you weren’t ‘selected’ by them, sent somewhere else. Otherwise, you’ll personally experience what true nausea and disgust feel like.”
“? Poster, what the hell are you talking about? What ‘selected’? Explain?”
The poster’s replies stopped there.
No matter how much that level-one account questioned afterward, the user who made the post said nothing more.
Seeing the poster’s mysterious reply, other users had varied reactions.
Some said the poster was being cryptic on purpose, planning to make a reaction compilation in three hours to post on video sites, formatted vertically to farm likes and earn money.
Some said the poster wasn’t lying, that Kowloon Hotel really had problems, advising everyone not to stay there, not to work there, and even to avoid any connection with the company behind Kowloon Hotel.
Others said believing the poster was less likely than believing they were an ancient Ultra Warrior of Light; just send them fifty, and they’d turn into light to save the world.
In short, people said all sorts of things, quite nonsensical.
Lu Ren’s interest was thoroughly hooked by this post, and he immediately felt like going for an on-site investigation.
But remembering the doctor’s advice to rest and recuperate, Lu Ren felt a bit conflicted.
‘What if there really is something behind Kowloon Hotel? Then I’d have to get busy again, wouldn’t I?’
‘Hmm…’
‘Alright, I should probably ask Director Xu, see if he has any urban legends about Kowloon Hotel that need help. That way, it’d be easier for me to take a camera and walk around the Kowloon Hotel.’
‘Sitting around at home is too boring. Gotta find something to do, get my body moving, get some reasonable exercise.’