"If I could, I wouldn't want to be this genius,"
Mi Le sighed, and before he could rest, Duan Chen pulled him along, forcing him into the next floor.
The next four floors were similar to the tenth floor, all of them illusionary challenges. After overcoming numerous difficulties, they finally reached the fifteenth floor.
On the fourteenth floor, as the challenge was completed, Duan Chen and the others walked out of the door into a magnificent and elegantly decorated hall. The hall was unlit, shrouded in darkness.
"Captain."
Jun Ci pointed upwards.
They were standing outside the elevator door, with the numbers "503" marked on the wall above.
Clearly, they had arrived at room 1503 of building 263.
"Everyone be careful."
Duan Chen, fearing any further complications, gripped the handle of his gun tightly, not daring to relax.
"Mm."
Suddenly, all the incandescent lights in the hall flickered on, as if welcoming their arrival.
"Welcome to room 1503, building 263, Tong Shun Community. I am the butler here, Zuo Tian."
A young and handsome butler appeared with the lights and slowly walked up to Duan Chen and his group.
"Butler?"
Duan Chen's eyes held a peculiar expression.
Zuo Tian nodded and explained, "Due to the owner's physical condition, it is inconvenient for him to greet you personally, so he has sent me."
"Who is your owner?"
"It's not convenient to disclose. When you meet him, you will naturally know."
Saying this, Zuo Tian made a gesturing motion.
"You must all be quite strong to have passed the previous floors and reached the fifteenth."
Zuo Tian, noticing their wary expressions, decided to break the ice.
The previous floors... it was the previous dozen floors, wasn't it?
"Did your owner design this building?" Mi Xueer asked curiously.
Zuo Tian, upon hearing this, gave a slight pause and then shook his head.
"No, the owner is a resident of the fifteenth floor. All residents of this building are gathered on the fifteenth floor. There are five of them in total, and the owner is just one of them."
"Then who designed building 263?"
Zuo Tian smiled, "Of course, it was the building manager. I was also assigned to the owner by the building manager. Every resident of building 263 in Tong Shun Community receives this treatment."
Duan Chen frowned, feeling that there was a hidden meaning in his words.
Zuo Tian led them deeper into the hall, where another elevator stood at the end.
"Please follow me upstairs."
"Please."
The elevator was large, comparable in size to a cargo elevator, but its luxurious decor was worlds apart from a cargo elevator. Duan Chen estimated that the lighting alone cost over a hundred thousand.
He began to wonder about the building manager.
Could it be a lunatic like Zhao Nan?
Speaking of which, Zhao Nan had also broken away from the Evil God and started his own venture, creating "Yi Cheng."
Was the building manager similar?
Everything would only be known after meeting a certain person.
The elevator ascended, and it was clear that this was the true fifteenth floor, with the previous hall serving more as a reception area.
The corridor on the fifteenth floor was similar to a normal corridor, with two doors on the left, two on the right, and one in the middle.
Zuo Tian walked directly towards the door in the center.
He took out a peculiar-looking key from his pocket, infused it with spiritual energy, and inserted it into the lock, turning it open.
"Esteemed guests, please."
He was indeed human, and a very cultured one at that. His every movement was impeccable, resembling a disciple from a noble academy in old novels.
Duan Chen marveled inwardly as he entered the door.
Inside, it was a different world, luxurious beyond words.
The living room was decorated in a classical European aristocratic style from the last century. The entire room was warm but not hot. A man was sitting on a plush sofa, peeling an orange in his hand.
"Master, I have brought them."
"Please sit."
The man wore a simple black shirt and denim shorts, the brand unidentifiable. He gestured to the seat opposite him, his hands continuing to peel the orange.
Duan Chen strongly suspected that the "inconvenience due to physical condition preventing personal greeting" mentioned by Zuo Tian was likely due to the man's extreme laziness.
He leaned back on the sofa, a faint smile on his lips, looking very happy, his eyes squinted into crescent moons.
As Duan Chen sat down on the sofa, his entire backside sank into it.
Excessively comfortable.
The day's fatigue melted away at this moment, and Duan Chen let out a long sigh of relief.
It wasn't just him; the others felt the same.
The man chuckled, placed the peeled oranges on a plate. The plate was full, with very little of the white pith remaining.
"Please enjoy."
"No need, we came here..."
"Someone sent you, didn't they?"
The man interrupted.
Duan Chen was taken aback, then nodded, "That's right."
"We'll discuss that matter later. For now, please eat the oranges. You all look exhausted. The floors designed by the building manager must have been difficult to traverse."
"...Alright."
Reluctantly, Duan Chen picked up an orange and ate one.
It was sweet. The sweet flavor spread through his mouth, and a faint spiritual energy quietly slipped down his throat, dispelling the fatigue and weariness that surged through his limbs.
Duan Chen's spirits lifted.
"How was it? That's Zuo Tian's ability."
Duan Chen nodded approvingly.
He had encountered spiritual energy users with auxiliary abilities before; Yuan Qingqing was one of them. However, her abilities were still inferior to Zuo Tian's.
With just a butler being so formidable, Duan Chen was curious about the strength of the man before him.
"Let me introduce myself first. My surname is Yan, as in Yanwang (King of Hell), and my given name is Ming, as in 'er ming' (tinnitus)."
Yan Ming also picked up an orange.
"I am a resident of building 263... one of them. Speaking of which, I should thank your friend. If he hadn't left, I probably wouldn't have been qualified to live here."
"Friend?"
Duan Chen was surprised.
Unexpectedly, Yan Ming was also surprised.
"That man surnamed Wang, wasn't he your friend?"
Duan Chen thought hard, but he couldn't recall knowing any man surnamed Wang.
He looked at the others; they also wore expressions of bewilderment.
"That's strange. Your auras are identical to his."
Yan Ming's eyes widened, and he pointed his index finger at Duan Chen and Mi Xueer.
Duan Chen was stunned again.
"It's absolutely true. Please, you're already here, why not be straightforward? I have no ill intentions." Yan Ming clearly believed they were pretending.
Duan Chen shook his head, completely bewildered.
"You've misunderstood. We really don't know any man surnamed Wang. Perhaps our auras are just similar?"
Yan Ming shook his head with absolute certainty.