Ren heard scratching noises; he didn't need to guess to know if it was Gao Ming or any other possible walking dead as he came out of 2421, already rushing to knock on 2422, where the Professor stayed.
"You know Professor well?" The old woman, Eli, asked as she followed him.
Ren shook his head. "I have never met him before."
Eli grabbed his hand. "And you want to enter?"
He took a breath, looking at the black stained corridors with the scratching getting closer.
"That's why you are here, it will be a two against 1," Ren said, and he pulled his hand slowly out of her grip, which she allowed, before knocking on the door lightly.
Nobody answered. Ren and Eli looked at each other for some seconds before Eli knocked on the door; this time, it was a bit louder.
"Professor, I am from the voice chat. I know that you are inside, and if you don't open the door...
Ren looked to Eli for help. She whispered something, and he nodded.
... I will break the door down." Ren completed, just realizing how that sounds, and about to say something else when the door lock turned, and the old door pushed open slightly, the Professor peeking out wearing thick glasses to analyze Ren.
"Come in." The professor whispered, nodding towards both of them, which they complied with.
Ren noticed that the Professor had taped the camera on his mobile phone, "Hello Professor, this is my well-trusted friend, Eli. You taped your phone?"
The Professor greeted Eli with a nod before he focused on Ren's question. "Yes, I did, also muted the phone just to quench my paranoia."
Ren checked his phone to make sure it was muted. After a brief check, he wanted to proceed directly to business. He raised his phone, which was actually Gao Ming's phone that he had found by coincidence.
"These video chats with the neighbours, I believe they are fake; they seem to exist only in this video," Ren claimed. Eli was obviously the lost one here, which made him feel quite bad.
The Professor raised his eyebrows in surprise. "But we are both real."
Ren could only be sure that he and Eli were real, but he needed to follow through with this matter quickly. He showed both Eli and the Professor the video chat.
"We are seeing Gao Ming come back from the dead to eliminate each of us. So, logic isn't powerful here; hear me out. If Gao Ming is back, then, like a video game, we are the players, but for the people in this video, they are not real but rather something to fool us, and I can prove it." Ren stated.
The Professor and even Eli showed obvious doubt.
"I half-believe you, but how exactly can you prove such a stretch. We just watched each neighbour get killed, so this isn't something to pry into confidently." The Professor said, of course, he knew from youth all the neighbours that had been killed, so that it would be painful, but Ren was sure of his suspicion.
Ren focused their attention back on the video. "Look, Gao Ming is just moving randomly, but right now he is crawling through the fifth floor, which he wants to enter Mr. XY's room, when that happens, we will check into the room 2322 of where I am sure Mr. Yao is, as he has been the most frightened one, he has only turned on his video not said anything since, if what we see inside 2322 isn't what is in the video then I am right."
Eli looked at him like he just confessed to killing her children, it was a risky, and some would say dumb, but before Gao Ming reached them they had to move to figure things out.
The Professor, on the other hand, just coughed and shook his head. "Looking at the situation, we are very screwed no matter where in the apartment we hide, as he would find us. But why can't we wait for Gao Ming to enter Punk's room, that is the Mr. XY you are referring to, and run to call for help? There must be people who deal with these kinds of problems."
"Yeah, she is the specialist, and even she will tell you that they aren't doing anything. No offense, I'm just trying to convince him." Ren said to the Professor while apologizing to Eli. He increased the volume of the video, and a shrieking scream came out; it was Mr. XY, or, as the Professor informed him, Mr. Punk.
The door had been smashed through; a couch that had been used to block the door had also been pushed back. Gao Ming's elongated and hideous head was seen through the camera. Mr. Punk had a fruit knife with him and dashed to stab Gao Ming.
The video shook as a loud smack was heard. The Professor was the only one obviously affected by the video.
Ren wanted to pat him in condolence, but knowing what the Professor's body was like, he didn't bother again.
Eli huffed, "Let's go to Mr. Yao's room."
Ren was glad that she agreed with him; it was nice to have someone from her job with him on this. Now, it was for the Professor, who was whispering a prayer for the safe passage of Mr. Punk's soul.
The Professor nodded and went to get tools to pry open the door, taking his phone with him.
In the video, Mr. Punk's phone drops to the ground at a wide angle to capture everything that's going on. He was stabbing over and over at an incoming Gao Ming as blood was splattered all over the floor.
"I hate you, ugly bastard." Mr. Punk said, slashing everywhere that he could slash as blood was spraying from Gao Ming, some even splattering onto Mr. Punk's face, but Gao Ming smacked him to the ground, Mr. Punk's head bounced off the floor with a thud, and another round of screaming and crying. Gao Ming's bleeding and mangled body started cracking and budging, the pale skin stretching while bones shifted into a weird shape, like a snake's mouth to consume a meal, so was Gao Ming's corpse trying to replicate with its entire body. Gao Ming's body grabbed Punk, who thrashed about as he was being dragged toward the balcony; everyone watching already knew his fate.
Gao Ming's body squeezed Mr. Punk till he could no longer scream, already reaching the balcony, where the rain beat a miserable Mr. Punk, who was now shivering as Gao Ming climbed the windowsill.
"I always hated you." Mr. Punk was forced out of his mouth, and Gao Ming fell with Mr. Punk down the balcony.
The Professor had watched the whole thing in sadness as the three of them had reached Mr. Yao's room, room 2322, Eli and Ren already using tools to pry the door open.
Inside the video, Mr. Yao was shivering with a knife to his throat. Bang! Ren and Eli had prayed the door open at last, and the Professor wanted to rush to console Mr. Yao, but stopped dead in his tracks at what he saw.
The room was dark, with dust covering everywhere, as if it had not yet been inhabited in a long time.
Ren went to his knees; his whole body was sweaty from prying the door and also from wondering what they would see.
"I was right, the whole video chat is fake, a lie, an illusion." He was right, and he had proved it to both the Professor and Eli.
"What now?" Eli asked.
"I have another idea, and this one I don't blame you if you react. We need to talk to Gao Ming."