Dimensional Store: Welcome to the Apocalypse Apartment - Chapter 190

Chapter 190

Gu Huaiwei noticed Fang Zhao looking down at that crumpled slip of paper again.

The paper seemed to be something quite precious to him.

He stared at it for a moment, then took a deep breath and walked over to the locked wardrobe. He tapped gently on the door and spoke in a tender voice, “Bella, would you like to play hide-and-seek with us?”

The singing from inside the locked wardrobe stopped abruptly.

Then, a young girl’s voice emerged from the cabinet. It was completely different from the soft, pleasant singing; it was exceptionally shrill, like nails scraping across a blackboard.

“Kaka… okay, but I want to be the one who hides.”

The Rules stated that one must persuade the little girl to play hide-and-seek, then find an opportunity to hide in the Toy Room and remain unfound until dawn.

The Trial-taker had to be the one hiding, making the little girl play the ‘seeker’ who searched for people.

Fang Zhao frowned slightly and tried to coax her like a child. “Be a good girl, Bella. For the first round, you be the seeker. After you find us, we’ll switch and it’ll be our turn, okay?”

“No! I want to be the person first… Kaka… If you don’t let me have my way, I won’t play hide-and-seek with you!

The twelve o’clock Bell Toll is about to ring. In a little while, Father will come out… Kaka… Then Father will join our hide-and-seek game, hee hee hee.”

Fang Zhao glanced at the time, cold sweat breaking out on his forehead.

On this night of fire, he had to be hidden before the Library Director appeared.

Otherwise, he would die for violating the Rules.

As the Bell Toll approached, time was running out. He had to persuade Bella as quickly as possible.

However, no matter what he said, Bella ignored him, her shouting growing louder and more piercing.

Fang Zhao felt as if his eardrums were about to burst.

“So noisy,” Bai Miemie said, rubbing her ears.

Gu Huaiwei casually picked up a dusty Miner Doll from the attic. Just a moment ago, the doll seemed to have blinked. She picked it up and patted it, rubbed its eyeballs, and tugged at its limbs. After studying it for a while, the doll didn’t seem to move again.

Finding it uninteresting, she put it back where it belonged.

While Fang Zhao was wasting his breath and working himself into a frenzy up front, the little girl remained unappreciative.

Gu Huaiwei spoke up leisurely, “Do you want me to help you?”

“You… you have a way?” Fang Zhao wiped the cold sweat from his forehead with his sleeve, looking skeptical.

Gu Huaiwei had discovered that as long as the humans of this Dimension were inside what they called an Instance, they became subject to forces beyond their control.

“How about this? I have two conditions. If you agree to them, I can help you through this current predicament.” She held up two fingers and smiled thinly.

Alarm bells rang in Fang Zhao’s mind. He answered cautiously, “I need to hear what your conditions are first.”

He would absolutely not sell his limbs.

Selling one’s body parts to an Anomaly could certainly gain their assistance, but a disabled body would drastically reduce one’s chances of survival.

He wouldn’t take that step unless it was a last resort.

“The first condition is that I have some questions I want to ask you, and I expect you to answer them truthfully.

The second condition is that after you leave the Library, you need to visit my Oasis Sanatorium and stay there for a while, until I have gathered twelve guests.”

“This…”
Fang Zhao could agree to the first condition.

However, the second condition was equivalent to choosing to enter another Instance.

He had a misunderstanding about the Oasis Sanatorium. In his impression, although the Oasis Sanatorium was currently a one-star Instance, it could level up. There was no guarantee that it wouldn’t become a Five-Star difficulty Instance later on.

He was afraid that if he went, he would never return.

Gu Huaiwei simply wanted to attract a customer.

She reserved her kindness and virtue for her patrons.

If Fang Zhao refused, she likely wouldn’t have the heart to keep playing hide-and-seek with him here. Instead, she would head downstairs to find someone else. One had to be flexible; there was no sense in hanging oneself from a single tree.

Though they were in the sixth-floor attic, the cries for help from the fire below were growing louder and louder.

The little girl locked inside the wardrobe was becoming increasingly agitated.

The wardrobe shook, emitting a rhythmic “creak-creak” sound.

“It’s getting late,” Gu Huaiwei reminded him in a cool tone.

Fang Zhao watched the lock on the wardrobe, which looked ready to fall off. His constricted pupils darted fearfully toward the time, finally landing on the relaxed Gu Huaiwei.

He held a total of three clear Rules in his hands.

The best was the S-Rank Clear Rule: complete the Investigative Journalist Mission, find the truth behind the Mining Disaster and the Chemical Plant Explosion Accident, and clear the pollution.

The slightly inferior A-Rank Clear Rule was to gain the approval of the Library Director, remain undercover in the Library to find the truth of the Mining Disaster, and announce the truth in the Library Director’s name.

The worst was the B-Rank Clear Rule: obtain partial clues regarding the Mining Disaster and the Chemical Factory explosion accident, hide the clues, and survive in the Library for ten days while waiting for outside rescue.

Fang Zhao immediately categorized Gu Huaiwei as an NPC related to the B-Rank Clear Rule.

Admittedly, he hadn’t yet obtained the clues for the Mining Disaster and the Chemical Factory explosion accident, and Gu Huaiwei’s identity didn’t quite fit the description of “outside rescue.”

However, he could barely justify it by assuming Gu Huaiwei had a hidden identity. The Oasis Sanatorium she mentioned contained the word “sanatorium,” so it could just barely be categorized under the “outside rescue” mentioned in the Rules.

Seconds and minutes ticked by.

Dying later was always better than dying now.

Left with no other choice, Fang Zhao gritted his teeth and agreed. “Fine. As long as you’re willing to help me, I’ll agree to these two conditions.”

Gu Huaiwei raised her right hand, her long black hair sliding from her shoulder to her chest as she tilted her head. “Then shall we high-five to seal the oath?”

Fang Zhao nervously wiped the sweat from his palms.

The two high-fived, creating a crisp slapping sound.

Fang Zhao stepped aside, watching silently.

He didn’t know how Gu Huaiwei intended to help him.

Once the oath was established, Gu Huaiwei turned her gaze toward the violently shaking wardrobe.

“Little Bella, for the first round, I’ll be ‘it’.”

The wardrobe stopped vibrating, and the little girl’s voice became less erratic.

“Okay,” Bella agreed, though her voice hitched slightly, like a malfunctioning cassette tape. “You have to close your eyes and count from one to a hundred… clack-clack-clack… from one… clack-clack-clack… hundred…”

The lock on the wardrobe fell off, hitting the floor and smashing a hole into the wooden planks.

The wardrobe door slowly creaked open, revealing a narrow slit.