Moonlight

Jian Sheng looked at the mission panel. The rewards look nice, but the punishment was scary. Aside from having a skill removed, he will be forced to play hide and seek with more than 1 seeker for a whole day.

"Time-space?"

[A time-space here refers to a dimension where time and space do not exist alongside other dimensions. Some dimensions' time might be faster or slower than others.]

"So that means there's no concept of time in the time-space? Then how do I play hide and seek for 24 hours if no time exists?"

[Time exists in the time-space. It is just that it does not flow in the same way it does like in your world.]

"More detailed please." Jian Sheng felt like he understood something, but understood nothing at the same time.

[To put it in a way your brain can process, it's a place where time here will be the same as when entering and exiting. For example, you enter the time-space at 10 in the morning. When you exit, it will still be 10 in the morning of the same day. Not even a second passed when you're in the time-space. Is this clear enough for you?] The system sounded a little annoyed.

'Is this still the same system? Somehow it feels like something changed. It used to be playful and noisy, now it is short-tempered and quiet.'

"I think I understand the gist of it. Thanks." Jian Sheng didn't know how to react to the sudden change of attitude of the system.

He looked at the mission panel and the time limit showed 40 seconds had passed. He needed to start or else he would be found by the seekers before finding Wilbert.

Jian Sheng opened his room door and peek outside. The corridor was silent and lights were dim. Totally unlike before where everything was bright and shiny, filled with gold and silver colours.

'Did I get transported to another place or was this still the same hotel just that I see the layer under the surface?' Jian Sheng felt a little scared but also adrenaline and excitement as well.

Jian Sheng slowly pulled the door open. The door was silent as was the entire corridor, there was no sound of children or television playing from the other rooms. Jian Sheng did not dare to breathe loudly.

Jian Sheng half stood half squat and slowly made his way out to the corridor. He couldn't see far since it was dim. The lights on both sides flicker as if they were candles being blown by the wind.

When Jian Sheng stood in the corridor, he looked at both ends of the corridor. He could not see the end as the further ones were too dark. There was also a smell that old buildings will have.

'The game of hide and seek has started. It looks different outside, maybe this is the real appearance of the hotel. Or maybe I was transported to another space when the game started. For now, let's find the fragments and Wilbert.'

Jian Sheng looked left and right, the slowly walked forward after choosing to turn right. Just like how he would choose 'C' for every test question he did not know the answer to, keeping to the right side will by change bring you to where you need to go. Unless it brings you 1 big round and to where you started, then you can think about where to go after that.

Jian Sheng kept his right hand on the right wall and slowly walked forward as silently as he could. The frequent flicker of the lights cast shadows that seem to keep appearing and disappearing.

Jian Sheng walked on for a few minutes but there was no end to the corridor, there was no turn as well. Everything looked the same as when he exited his hotel room. The same stillness in the air and pin-drop silence.

Jian Sheng put his hand into his pocket to pull out his phone to check how long he had been walking. When his hand entered the pocket, he felt nothing. His pocket was empty. He searched around and noticed that besides the wooden box in the system storage and the clothes on him, he had nothing else on him. He left everything in the hotel room.

Jian Sheng panicked a little and looked back. Behind him were darkness and silence. 'Is it just my imagination or is the corridor behind me darker than in front of me? This dimly lit corridor and the silence are making me crazy.'

He looked up at the light and saw it flicker light candle blown by an invisible wind that he could not feel. The frequency of the flicker was different for all the lights. The flickering also made his eyes hurt because of the strain.

Jian Sheng rubbed his glabella a bit and kept going forward. He walked for a bit and he suddenly stopped and squatted low and looked around. Before him were rooms. The door of the rooms was not like the hotel room door, it looked like it was made of wood that could be broken with just a single punch.

He looked at the numbers on the door on the right, '101, 103, 105' while those on the left read '102, 104, 106' and so on. Odd numbers on his right, even numbers on his left. Every door has a key in the keyhole.

Jian Sheng took a deep breath silently and put his hand on the doorknob of room 101. He turned the knob and slowly opened the door. Luckily, the door was silent as well and opened easily.

Jian Sheng opened the door and look inside. The inside of the room was dim but there was light from the moonlight that shone through from the window. He squatted outside the door for a while and only then did he picked up his courage and entered the room.

'The insides are dusty and there is a smell of musty old wood. The furniture here looks like it was from a few decades to a century ago. There's also no light switch in here. Was I teleported back in time?' Jian Sheng thought to himself while he walked and looked around the room.

There are cobwebs and dust all around the room. Jian Sheng walked to the window and looked out. Besides the bright full moon in the sky, everything else outside was pitch black.

When walking back in, Jian Sheng noticed some kind of gas above the drawer by the window. He walked towards the drawer and looked at it closely. It was made of beautiful wood and the designs crafted on it were still visible. There was smoke coming out of the drawer.

'Could it be?' Jian Sheng slowly tried to open the drawer. It was unlocked and he slowly pried it opened as quietly as he could. Inside the drawer was full of black smoke, just like the one at Jian Sheng's room. 'A fragment!'

Jian Sheng took out the box and the fragment was sucked into the ruby. After that, Jian Sheng took a look at his mission panel.

'Wait, I could have checked the time limit when I wanted to check how long I've walked just now. Stress must have made me stupid.'

_________________

Mission: Hide and Seek

Condition:

Condition 1: Find Wilbert

Condition 2: Hide from Seeker

Condition 3: Collect soul fragments ( 2 / 50 )

Condition 4: Finish all conditions above before time limit.

Time Limit: 3 hours ( 355 / 10800)

Reward:

Reward 1: Instant clear for S. Hotel main mission

Reward 2: Unlock status window

Reward 3: +3 Status point

Failure:

Punishment 1: Locked in a time-space where the host needs to hide from the seekers for 24 hours.

Punishment 2: A random skill will be deleted.

Remark: The host needs to put more energy into it. Hide and seek is not a hard game to play. Go find all the fragments! Go! Go!

________________________

'355 seconds? Minus the 40 seconds at the start and the time taken to look around the room, that means I've only walked for less than 5 minutes? How could that be? I could have sworn it was longer.' Jian Sheng was dumbfounded. He also straight away ignored the remark in the panel.

It was a good thing he had more time, but it's unsettling to find out he walked for so long but it was only less than 5 minutes. Time might move faster than he wanted it to, or slow down when he is running from the seeker.

Human psychology states that when a person is under heavy stress or is bored out of their mind, time will seem slower to them due to the different speed the heart beats the person normally does. Everything in the world can be explained by logic instead of relying on supernatural stories of the old.