Chapter 2

Everyone shivered together, and their hearts slowly sank.

They all hoped the elite man was joking.

However, facing the elite man's serious and calm expression, their last bit of hope also sank.

"Can we not go?" a short-haired girl in a school uniform timidly asked.

"Of course you can."

The elite man glanced at her.

"But you'd better sleep with your eyes open from now on."

The short-haired girl was stunned. "What do you mean?"

The elite man sneered again, "Because if you don't go to the room to complete the task, the 'things' in the room will come to find you themselves."

"And they will always find you, no matter where you hide."

"Once they find you, they will..."

The elite man didn't finish his sentence, he just made a throat-slitting gesture with his hand, making everyone shudder.

Charles looked up at the second floor and asked the elite man, "Before entering the task, do you have any special precautions?"

"Yes."

"The tasks in the room, although dangerous, have more than one exit. As long as you can find the exit, sometimes you can leave early even without completing the task."

Charles stood up and bowed slightly to the elite man, then walked towards the stairs and stepped on the first step.

Seeing Charles being so decisive, Jeffrey hesitated for a moment and then gritted his teeth and followed.

Jeffrey quickened his pace to catch up with Charles, whispering behind him, "You've got some guts! Damn, this creepy place."

In fact, Jeffrey had noticed him on the ship.

After all, he was the only one who didn't react when he saw John's scattered limbs and smelled the mix of blood and vomit floating on the water.

"It's not that I'm brave."

Charles chuckled self-deprecatingly.

"It's that we have no choice."

"But when you saw those limbs earlier, you didn't even change your expression. Tell me, have you seen dead bodies often before?"

"Sort of."

"Then you..."

"What?"

"What do you do for a living?"

"What do you do?"

"Fuck, I'm just a park ranger, got tricked for some money and ended up in this damn place..."

Jeffrey wanted to say more, but Charles raised his arm to stop him, signaling him to be quiet.

Looking up, they had already reached the second floor.

A smell of rotting flesh and blood wafted over, and at the end of the dark corridor, a large door appeared in front of them.

It was a wooden door with strange patterns, similar to the patterns on the hotel's main door.

Just as they were feeling puzzled, a line of bloody words suddenly appeared on the door.

"Take care of the bedridden patient for four days"

'Our first task is to take care of a patient?' Charles lowered his head in thought.

Others also came up one after another, and seeing the line of words on the door, they were all confused.

"Is the task really that simple?"

The blonde woman, Rachel Taylor, tilted her head in confusion.

Everyone started discussing in low voices. But suddenly, they all stopped, as if receiving some kind of command, and uniformly looked at the door.

The door was opened and a puff of white smoke drifted out from the crack in the door, and then a withered, pale hand reached out from the door.

Rachel was about to scream, but the next second she suddenly fainted.

Then everyone else fell to the ground one by one.

Charles watched as everyone fell, stepping back, but in an instant, his vision went black, and he collapsed straight down.

When Charles regained consciousness, he looked around.

Everyone else was also shakily getting up from the ground, seemingly not understanding the current situation.

It seemed they were already inside the room.

The mist around them gradually cleared, and a giant rusty sign above the archway became visible: Sweet Home

This was a community, with various houses symmetrically located on both sides of the main road from the archway.

The community was very tidy, even the lawns were neatly trimmed, but strangely, there wasn't a single person in sight, as if the residents had collectively fled.

It was too quiet, eerily quiet.

"Why is there no one here?"

Charles walked around and stopped at the central fountain, surprised to find a nest of rats drinking water.

However, sensing someone approaching, the rats scattered.

Charles continued walking, looking for the house required by the task.

Soon, he found it.

Because it was the only house in the community with someone in front of it.

"Hello."

The speaker was a lady in a black dress, with several large suitcases beside her, looking like she was about to go on a trip.

The "lady" slightly lifted her large black sunhat and gave Charles a polite smile.

"Please wait a moment, not everyone has arrived yet."

The woman in front of him was strikingly beautiful at first glance, but the coldness in her smile made Charles shiver.

Her smile didn't seem welcoming; it felt more like a sneer.

Charles lowered his head and habitually started biting his nails, a habitual action when he was thinking.

Suddenly, a pair of large hands clapped on Charles's shoulders.

He reached out to restrain, only to find it was the bearded strongman Jeffrey from before.

"Your reflexes are quick!"

Charles smiled awkwardly and hastily withdrew his hand.

Seeing that Charles didn't respond, Jeffrey didn't press further and changed the topic.

"So this is the place where we have to do the task, right?"

"Yes," Charles nodded. "But we can't enter the house until everyone is here."

Jeffrey looked around and then dug into the dirt on the ground, muttering, "This house feels off."

Charles, curious about his actions, asked, "What's wrong with the house?"

Jeffrey stood up, smoothed the ground with his foot, and stomped on it firmly.

"I can't say for sure, but this house..." Jeffrey paused, "doesn't seem lived in."

Charles's breath tightened, and he continued to ask, "Have you encountered such a house in the woods before?"

Just as Jeffrey was about to speak, the "lady" clapped her hands, interrupting their conversation.

"Welcome, everyone!"

At some point, all seven people had arrived.

The "lady," who had been standing still, suddenly started moving, walking mechanically back and forth on the steps.

"Because it's my mother's birthday, I must take the children back to the countryside to visit her. My husband, however, became a vegetable years ago due to an accident and needs care."

"Because my husband is very large, he needs someone to help turn him over every day. I'm worried that two or three caregivers won't be enough, so I hired all of you."

"You don't need to worry about the pay. When I return, I'll prepare a generous tip for you all."

As she spoke, she led everyone into the house and up to the second floor, opening the patient's room.

The room was large, as if two rooms had been combined.

Even so, the room was dim, like twilight.

There was also an unpleasant stench.

"Ah!" The blonde woman Rachel's scream drew everyone's attention.

Following Rachel's gaze, everyone looked at the enormous thing that resembled a fat pig. It was hard to imagine it was a person.

The man's skin was gray, and his fat spread out like flowing water. If it weren't for the beeping of the heart monitor, no one would think he was alive.

"This is my husband. Isn't he strong?"

The "lady's" voice was gentle, filled with deep affection.

She bent down and gently caressed the man's face, which was so fat that his features were squeezed together, and softly said, "Dear, I'm taking the children to celebrate Mom's birthday. These seven caregivers will take care of you for the next four days. I'll be back soon, and I'll miss you."

After speaking, she leaned down to kiss the man and whispered something in his ear.

Everyone's faces turned very unpleasant, and some even turned away to avoid looking at the scene.

Finally, the "lady" reluctantly stood up and looked at everyone. "Although my husband is a vegetable, he can still eat on his own. You just need to blend the food into a puree and feed it to him."

"He has a good appetite and needs meat every day."

The "lady" suddenly slapped her forehead.

"Look at me, I've said so much and haven't shown you the kitchen yet. Please follow me."

She led everyone to the first floor and into the kitchen.

The kitchen was very large, with all the necessary appliances.

But the most noticeable were the two huge refrigerators, standing like a wall in front of everyone.

"Since it's not very convenient to go out here, I habitually stockpile a lot of food."

"And it's already summer, the rainy season will come soon. The rainstorms here are terrifying, sometimes lasting for days."

After speaking, the "lady" glanced back at everyone, a barely noticeable cold smile on her lips.

"But don't worry, I've prepared all the ingredients." She opened the refrigerator with a flourish and looked at everyone proudly, "Look, meat, eggs, vegetables, all stocked up."

After speaking, the "lady" looked around at everyone and asked, "Does anyone have any questions?"

Everyone remained silent.

Just as the "lady" was about to speak, Charles asked, "Ma'am, is there no one else living in this community?"