Their eyes met.

Qin Kelian giggled: "I'm not that curious! Alright, alright! Now that I see you're fine, I'm relieved! I'll be going then—I still have my evening skincare routine to do!"

Her jade-like finger tapped her alabaster cheek.

After saying goodbye to Jiang Ran, Qin Kelian left his apartment.

After Qin Kelian departed, Jiang Ran changed out of his bloodstained jacket and pants, putting on fresh clothes before leaving home.

Leaving home used to feel completely ordinary.

But now, stepping outside filled him with extraordinary tension.

He constantly feared that system alert sounds would suddenly echo in his mind wherever he went.

However, the entire journey proceeded smoothly.

Jiang Ran successfully took the elevator down to the first floor.

Today felt somewhat strange—even Manager Xiao Zhang, whom he usually encountered frequently on the first floor, was nowhere to be seen. As he reached the main entrance and glanced back, he noticed a young security guard in the security booth, holding his phone as if reading an e-book.

He left Alice Apartment without looking back.

When the child personality had controlled his body and stumbled back to Room 304, the system had already consumed points to heal the power drill injury on his left arm.

Thus, Jiang Ran's left arm now only caused him slight pain.

Besides going to the hospital for basic bandaging, his reason for coming out was to contemplate his next course of action.

This matter was whether he should continue living in Alice Apartment or not.

Jiang Ran pondered this question intensely throughout his journey.

Arriving at the hospital, after getting registered, doctors and nurses examined Jiang Ran and found no serious issues.

They simply disinfected his left arm. While the nurse was treating his left arm, Jiang Ran made a decision.

That decision was—to temporarily not leave Alice Apartment and continue living there.

Why? What's the reason!

The reason was quite simple: it all came down to money, didn't it?

First: Alice Apartment was his own property. If he didn't live here, he'd have to rent another place elsewhere. That required money.

Second: His current job as an assistant manager.

Think about it carefully—if you don't live here but continue working here, wouldn't that be like taking off your pants to fart? It wouldn't be much different from continuing to live here, except the time spent here would be shorter.

You'd still be just as unlucky when misfortune struck. Take this clown incident—didn't he encounter it precisely because of his assistant manager job?

Was it really because he happened to live here?

If he didn't live here anymore, he'd have to quit this job too... then find a new job, and he wouldn't find one this good...

Third, and most importantly:

Even though the Danger Warning System constantly alerted him to dangers,

That the apartment was dangerous, that many people in the apartment were very dangerous.

But, honestly speaking,

In his own memory, it seemed he hadn't encountered that many incidents.

The clearest, deepest impression was this recent one.

And this time, he clearly remembered that besides reminding him about Wang Nuli's +8 points,

More importantly, there was a 【Wang Nuli +8 points】 that suddenly changed to

【Detected that host is about to encounter danger! Please distance yourself quickly! +10 points】 or something similar.

This should represent that this danger-warning clown currently intended to kill him.

Therefore, he could rely on this change in alerts to assess the current situation.

After all, when he randomly encountered danger-warning individuals in the apartment, those dangerous people hadn't actually done anything to him.

Probably only when this "about to encounter danger, +10 points" alert appeared did it mean he was truly in danger.

Of course, Jiang Ran couldn't remember whether he had heard this "about to encounter danger, +10 points" warning before.

Perhaps he had encountered it previously.

There was one thing Jiang Ran himself didn't understand: because other personalities had taken control of his body, the memories from the period before other personalities took over would be forgotten by him.

This time, this "+10 points" warning about impending danger, the memory point was relatively distant from when other personalities took control of his body, so he still retained it.

Jiang Ran felt that with this sudden change alert,

Plus having the system, and in crisis situations, his other personalities would emerge to solve problems... it didn't seem that terrifying after all...

Of course, there was another reason he dared to continue staying here.

Back at the pancake shop,

The Danger Warning alerted him that he was in a dangerous area.

Remember what he thought at that time?

What if this place was truly dangerous?

If I die, then I die—living is painful anyway.

Yes, Jiang Ran wasn't exactly fearless of death, but if fate truly destined him to die here, then he could only die.

Having clarified these thoughts, Jiang Ran suddenly felt enlightened and breathed a deep sigh of relief.

Of course, what Jiang Ran didn't know was that what truly decided his staying to live and work here wasn't the reasons he thought of tonight, but the reason he would learn tomorrow from Manager Xiao Zhang—the real reason he couldn't leave the apartment!

...

Round 27, Day 6, at 12:10 AM.

The long-haired beautiful host appeared in the live stream room.

She announced that because Mike failed to return to Alice Apartment before 12:00 AM today,

He was directly eliminated this round.

The 89 million points bet on him were all transferred to the final prize pool.

This round's lab rats only included Jiang Ran and Wang Anjian.

Although there were no thrilling scenes during the late night hours,

Many people remained online, all waiting for the arrival of the new day at 12:00 AM.

They insisted on seeing whether Mike would return before they could rest peacefully and go to sleep.

When they saw the time had passed and Mike still hadn't returned,

Those who had bet on Jiang Ran completely celebrated in the live stream room.

Message after message expressed schadenfreude, mocking Diamond Bachelor and the unlucky ones who had bet on Mike.

...

The long-haired beautiful host appeared in the live stream room.

After reaching clarity last night, Jiang Ran had returned to Alice Apartment.

He took a shower in Room 304 and then went to sleep.

The 89 million bet on him was entirely transferred to the final prize pool.

This round's lab rats only remained Jiang Ran and Wang Anjian.

But he had nothing else to do at home anyway.

Might as well continue working, slack off at home, and collect his salary. So he applied to Xiao Zhang.

They insisted on seeing whether Mike would return before they could peacefully go to sleep.

And even asked Jiang Ran to come find him on the first floor—he had something important to give him.

Those who had bet on Jiang Ran completely celebrated in the live stream room.

He discovered that on Manager Xiao Zhang's desk in the management office, there was a large pile of kraft paper envelopes.

Seeing Jiang Ran arrive, Manager Xiao Zhang grinned and pulled one from this stack of kraft paper envelopes and handed it to Jiang Ran.

After receiving it, Jiang Ran noticed three large characters written on the envelope's surface: To Jiang Ran.

Additionally, on the envelope surface was a postage stamp.

A golden koi fish stamp.

"What is this?"

Jiang Ran felt both confused and curious.

Manager Xiao Zhang said: "You'll know when you open it."

Only after opening it did Jiang Ran discover that inside was his monthly water, electricity, and property fee bill.

He had only lived here for a few days short of a full month.

But the billing date here was fixed each time.

So, for this bill, Jiang Ran was only charged for 25 days.

Yet these mere 25 days of charges completely broke Jiang Ran's defenses—this was the fundamental, unshakable reason why he absolutely had to continue working and living here.