The Daily Life of the Demon King

After the elevator reached the 17th floor, the doors slowly slid apart. The atmosphere inside was oppressive not only because of the darkness, but also because midnight had already struck — the peak hour of all the ghosts inhabiting the Fan Hua Apartments.

The corridor before them was drowned in shadow. Noticing how tense Chen Ge had become, Alex couldn't help but crack a joke, trying to lighten the mood. The joke worked — the tension eased a little, and Chen Ge exhaled.

The next stop was the 8th floor. Making sure there was nothing suspicious on the 17th, Alex pressed the button marked "8." The elevator doors began closing slowly, as if deliberately dragging the moment out. The cabin swayed slightly and began to descend.

But as soon as the clock's hand ticked past twelve, something strange happened — the soft melody playing in the elevator abruptly cut off. Alex noticed it first and pointed it out to Chen Ge. He too realized they had crossed some sort of threshold — now it was far too quiet inside.

The elevator kept going down, but suddenly came to a halt. The digital display read: 11th floor. The doors slid open slowly, and both men saw… a white dress hanging in the middle of the corridor. It floated in the air as if suspended from an invisible hanger.

Chen Ge froze, a trace of panic on his face, while Alex, on the contrary, stared with genuine interest. It was a good thing the GIR had been streaming everything to the girls this whole time — otherwise, he'd be catching flak for letting them miss the best part and leaving them without a view. GIR, Mimi, and Stitch were still clinging to Alex's back, hidden in the camouflage mode of their ninja suits — otherwise, that trio would've already charged at the strange object.

Although there was no wind at all in the corridor, the dress swayed, as if someone invisible was slowly approaching the elevator. Chen Ge, unwilling to wait for it to come closer, began frantically mashing the button for the 8th floor. The dress seemed to sense his panic — its movements became sharper, the swaying turning into sudden jerks, as though someone had started running straight at the elevator.

The doors seemed to be closing painfully slowly on purpose, and just as the dress was about to reach the doorway, Alex's leg shot out. He kicked the "ghost" square in the chest. The dress flew to the far end of the corridor and hit the wall with a dull thud — a sound far too solid for an empty piece of fabric, as if something had been inside.

Standing nearby, Chen Ge was, to put it mildly, stunned. He even wondered if he had imagined it. Alex, lowering his leg, noticed his stare and raised an eyebrow.

"What?" he asked, tilting his head.

"Nothing… I just didn't expect you could kick a ghost in the chest," Chen Ge said with a crooked smile.

"It's just reflex," Alex smirked, shrugging. "When something attacks me, I just hit first."

Chen Ge winced, imagining what someone had to go through to develop such a reaction. He even felt a twinge of sympathy for the ghost in the white dress. But the appearance of this entity made one thing clear: the building had changed, and from this moment on, everything would be different.

When the elevator arrived at the 8th floor, Chen Ge decided to linger for a bit. He could feel that from here on, the ghosts would only become more frequent. Alex, noticing him leaning against the wall, just shook his head, pulled out a cigarette, and lit up. Leaning against the doorway, he blew smoke into the darkness of the 8th floor corridor.

Chen Ge, looking at Alex's calm face, couldn't help but think, "Is he really not scared at all?" He had no idea that Alex had seen things far worse than anyone could imagine.

Catching Chen Ge's gaze, Alex offered him a cigarette. Chen Ge took a drag, trying to calm his nerves.

"Listen," Alex said, blowing out smoke, "it's only going to get worse from here. You've read about what goes on in the Fang Hua Apartments, right? This place is crawling with ghosts, and after midnight, they come out of their apartments."

"Yeah, I've read about it. People disappearing here is nothing new. The hard part is figuring out who's a ghost and who's not," Chen Ge replied with a strained smile.

"It's simple," Alex cut him off. "Everyone we meet from now on is a potential hostile ghost. Don't talk to them. Before coming here, I spoke with a local—cashier from the diner across the street. He lives on the 13th floor and is already on the brink of madness; a ghost's been haunting him. And on the 14th floor, an entire family was brutally murdered. And that's just two cases out of hundreds."

"I understand that perfectly," Chen Ge nodded. "And I've already had a run-in with some of the local ghosts."

"Well, since you're here now, I'll tell you—you're lucky. Alright, now brace yourself and let's move on. And remember, everyone we see from now on could be a ghost. So don't talk to them. If any of them get into the elevator, just pretend they don't exist. Think of them as regular residents of this building."

Alex flicked his cigarette butt into the corridor and pressed the button for the next floor.

Chen Ge nodded, did the same, and pressed the button for the 16th floor. As the elevator began to rise, he wondered if it might stop on the 11th—where the ghost in the white dress had been.

Alex was watching the floor indicator too, thinking the same thing. But unlike Chen Ge, Alex had no intention of being polite to the ghost in the white dress. When the number ten appeared, he cocked the hammer on the Blue Rose, and Chen Ge tightened his grip on the cleaver.

When the number eleven lit up, Chen Ge tensed. When it jumped to twelve, he exhaled in relief. Alex just rolled his eyes, thinking the ghost in the white dress had decided not to risk another encounter after being kicked in the chest last time.

The display jumped to thirteen, and the elevator jolted to a stop. Alex and Chen Ge exchanged glances. Chen Ge's eyes seemed to ask, "Did we run into another ghost?"

Alex gave a brief nod and gently pushed Chen Ge back against the wall, just in case. Chen Ge didn't resist—he knew a ghost had stopped the elevator again. The doors slowly slid open.

An elderly woman stood there in dark clothing and a thick scarf. She looked very old, her face deeply lined with wrinkles. Her hair was completely gray, and her arms and legs were hidden beneath heavy clothing. She seemed surprised to find anyone inside the elevator.

"Strange… I didn't think there would be so many people in here," she said quietly, scanning the cabin.

"Ma'am, maybe you should ride the next one," Alex said calmly.

"Why are so many people riding the elevator so late at night? There's hardly any room for me," she replied, completely ignoring his suggestion.

Alex raised an eyebrow at her words, while cold sweat began to bead on Chen Ge's back. Alex glanced around the elevator, and when he took in what was really happening, his expression shifted from calm to irritated.

Alex looked at the faces of the ghosts that had literally grown into the elevator walls. When those ghostly faces felt his gaze on them, they all turned to look at him. But upon meeting Alex's eyes, they did something they hadn't done since their deaths — they tried to make themselves as inconspicuous as possible. From his look, they felt danger.

Chen Ge was also glancing around, a wave of panic washing over him at the thought that someone unseen was riding the elevator with them. But after their encounter with the elderly lady, the rest of the ride passed without incident. As she had said, the elevator was already full, so no one outside could enter even if they wanted to.

Alex decided to ignore the spectral passengers whose heads were fused with the elevator walls. The final stop was the 12th floor. When the doors opened there, Alex looked at Chen Ge as if to ask what they should do next. Chen Ge, meanwhile, was studying a flyer from the local ghost story club.

"What now? Do you think we messed up because the elevator stopped to pick up passengers?" Alex asked, raising an eyebrow.

"Hm… the 1st floor corresponds to the 23rd, the 2nd to the 22nd. But the 12th is right in the middle, and there's no matching floor for it. Something's not adding up," Chen Ge said thoughtfully.

"Maybe we have to press a combination of floors to reach the 24th? Or should we start over?" Alex suggested, leaning against the wall.

"Maybe you were right earlier — maybe it's because of the old woman? Could that be why we failed? Should we try again? Or press the button combo that matches the 24th floor?" Chen Ge looked up.

"Alright, let's try the combo. If it doesn't work, we'll start over. Now step aside and let me hit the buttons," Alex said, gently moving Chen Ge away from the panel.

Chen Ge nodded and stepped back, giving Alex room. Alex raised his hands and pressed the 1st and 23rd floor buttons at the same time. A prolonged chime echoed through the speakers, and the elevator shuddered as if unsure where to go. With a loud clang, the doors closed, and the cabin began to move upward. Both men watched the display, counting the floors aloud.

The numbers changed one after another without the elevator stopping. Alex tapped the wall each time the number on the screen shifted. When the 22nd turned into the 23rd, the elevator — unlike before — didn't slow down. The digits on the display seemed to fill with thick, blood-red color. A sudden cold seeped into the cabin, and strange sounds came from outside.

"Looks like it worked," Alex smirked, giving a thumbs-up.

Chen Ge nodded, realizing Alex's idea to press the 1st and 23rd simultaneously had been the right move. Just in case, both of them stepped back toward the rear wall, ready for whatever might be waiting when the doors opened on the 24th floor.

Chen Ge held his breath, waiting for the elevator to arrive. Alex even raised an eyebrow — by his count, the elevator had been moving for over a minute and showed no sign of stopping. It even felt as though it was going down instead of up.

Curiosity got the better of him. Alex glanced down, his gaze piercing through the floor of the elevator, and confirmed it — they were descending, not ascending. Below was nothing but impenetrable darkness.

He understood that without sensing it directly, it would be hard to tell the elevator was moving downward, not upward. After about two minutes, it began to slow. When it finally stopped, the display lit up with the number 24.

"Looks like we've arrived. Be careful. And put on your mask," Alex said, pulling a white mask with a wide grin over his face.

Chen Ge glanced at Alex, who had already put on a white mask painted with a smile, and then did the same, pulling the mask over his own face. Chen Ge nodded, opened his backpack, and took out his Skull-Crusher Doctor mask. He put it on and gave Alex another nod, signaling he was ready.

Alex nodded back and slid the blue rose into the holster on his belt behind his back. Reaching into his coat pocket, he pulled out a pair of silver knuckle-dusters — just in case. He couldn't remember whether a ghost would be waiting behind the elevator doors on the 24th floor, or if it would be an empty landing.

The silvery-gray doors slid open, and as the halves parted, a sticky substance clung to them — disturbingly similar to ground flesh. A wave of metallic blood-stench flooded the cabin. Alex knew such a smell could only mean one thing: somewhere nearby was a Red Specter. And if the smell was here, then the Red Specter definitely was too.

With a sickening squelch, the doors finished opening, tearing the clinging flesh apart. Alex was the first to lean out, scanning the surroundings in case some foolish ghost was lying in wait.

"Looks clear. But stay sharp. And watch your step. I know you've been in places like this before, but there's two of us, and we have no idea how many of them there are," he said, glancing back at Chen Ge.

"Got it. Then let's move slowly deeper into this floor," Chen Ge agreed.

Next to Alex, Chen Ge felt calmer — especially after remembering how Alex had once kicked a ghost in a white dress square in the chest. Seeing Chen Ge fully ready, Alex stepped out first, his eyes darting in every direction — and, importantly, checking the ceiling just in case.

Chen Ge followed, gripping his cleaver, also sweeping his gaze around. On the walls near the elevator door were bloodstains and finger marks, as if people had tried crawling toward the elevator, only to be brutally dragged back.

"Looks like someone tried to escape this place," Chen Ge murmured.

"But didn't make it. Honestly, it's already surprising that whoever it was even reached the elevator," Alex replied casually with a shrug.

Chen Ge couldn't argue. He had been in the world beyond the Red Door before and knew all too well — without rare luck and the help of the ghost that had settled in his shadow, he would have long since joined the ranks of this place's dead residents.

His eyes drifted to his own shadow — in its dark depths lurked the strange female ghost. Once, she had dazzled on the theater stage, the finest ballerina of her time. Now her graceful figure hid within the depths of darkness, a frozen shard of another life.

Alex noticed Chen Ge's lingering gaze and remembered that he had never checked who had taken her place after Zhang Ya became his wife instead of becoming Chen Ge's shadow. Narrowing his eyes, he peered into the shifting outlines and spotted the figure — a ghostly ballerina in a bright red dress.

"Well, that's a twist," he breathed, eyebrows raised. But his surprise soon gave way to a calm nod — the spirit was powerful and clearly bound to Chen Ge just as Zhang Ya had been in the original timeline.

They both kept silently watching the shadow until a sudden metallic clang split the air. The elevator doors slammed shut with a dull crash, and the cabin immediately departed.

"Looks like even if we want to run, we can't anymore," Alex remarked with a cheerful smile.

"Let's hope it doesn't come to that," Chen Ge replied dryly.

"There you go again…" Alex shot him a flat look. "I told you not to say things like that. Or are you secretly wishing every single inhabitant of the twenty-fourth floor would start chasing us?"

Chen Ge gave a quiet, amused snort, realizing he probably really should watch what he says. The elevator disappeared into the shaft, and the entire corridor plunged into tomb-like silence. The only sound was their own breathing. In the elevator, there had still been the occasional noise or muffled cries echoing from the shaft — but here, on this floor, the oppressive stillness was so complete it made their ears ring, and each heartbeat thudded heavy and muffled in their chests.

Alex patted Chen Ge on the shoulder and motioned forward. Chen Ge nodded silently. They moved on, stepping cautiously over the carpet of darkness that smothered the twenty-fourth floor.

Stopping at one of the doors, Alex pressed his ear to the wooden panel, listening.

"Hear something?" Chen Ge whispered.

"Quiet," Alex whispered back. "Someone's breathing in there. And it's… insistent. Just like those psychos who call you on the phone and just breathe heavily into the receiver."

"You say that like you've actually dealt with something like this before," Chen Ge raised an eyebrow.

"I have. Back in the day I had a… very specific line of work. Solving clients' problems. Once, a girl had a stalker who liked to call and stay silent, just breathing into the phone."

"And what did you do?" Chen Ge asked, genuine curiosity in his voice.

"One good hit on the head with a hammer — and the man became a completely different person," Alex said calmly, pulling a marker from his inner pocket and drawing a bold black cross on the door.

For a moment, Chen Ge was speechless. An absurd thought flickered through his mind: what if you really could "cure" people with a single blow? But he quickly pushed it aside, focusing on the door with the cross — now he understood there was a ghost behind it, and Alex had marked it just in case.

Once finished, Alex motioned for him to follow. They moved a little farther, and suddenly the corridor lights began to flicker wildly. An instant later, the lamps went out. Darkness closed in, and when the light returned, the walls and ceiling were smeared with bloody handprints, as if someone had crawled along them, clawing and leaving viscous red streaks in their wake.

Immediately after, a distinct scratching began from behind the apartment doors — the sound of nails dragging across wood. From under one door, blood began to seep out, slowly pooling into a puddle.

Chen Ge stepped aside decisively, making sure his shoes wouldn't touch the suspicious red liquid. But when the puddle reached Alex's feet, it curved around his shoes, as if afraid to touch him. Chen Ge noticed, raising an eyebrow. He looked at Alex's face — hidden behind the mask — and again the question flashed in his mind: Just who exactly is Alex?

Without wasting a second, Alex stepped forward. The moment his foot touched the floor, the crimson liquid stretched out across the tiles recoiled like a living thing, pulling away to clear his path. Chen Ge quickly hurried after him before the puddle could close again and block the way.

They had only taken a few steps from the door the sinister substance had leaked from when a harsh, wood-scraping sound came from inside — angry, irritated. Whoever was hiding there was clearly not happy their trap had gone unsprung.

Alex rolled his eyes. If he had the freedom, he would've gladly kicked the door down and looked that thing in the face. But for now, he couldn't reveal himself.

A little farther ahead, in the gloom, he spotted a half-open door with a faint light spilling from inside. A light tap on Chen Ge's shoulder drew his attention, and Alex tilted his head toward their new target. Chen Ge followed his gaze, saw it too, and gave a firm nod.

They approached the doorway, but just as they were about to look inside, a figure appeared in it — a man wearing a plague doctor's mask. Black lenses, a sharp beak, heavy breathing. Chen Ge instinctively flinched back, while Alex, on the contrary, calmly studied the figure, noting to himself that this strange individual was almost a copy of SCP-049 — though with a few minor differences in clothing.

"Are you both newcomers?" the Plague Doctor asked in a muffled voice, looking them over from head to toe.

"Yes," Chen Ge rasped, deliberately thickening his voice.

"Something like that," Alex replied with a deliberately casual shrug. "If we're here, it means we knew where we were going."

"Hm… curious. Three new participants have already arrived today. And yet here are two more. How did you find this place?" The Plague Doctor's gaze was cold and dark, like a bottomless pit.

Chen Ge swallowed, suppressing his nervousness, and took a folded leaflet — an invitation — from his inner pocket. Alex did the same, though in his case he had to create one on the spot, as he had no original.

The Doctor took both papers, examining them with open interest. Deep within his empty eyes, a strange gleam flashed — anticipation, as if he had just received two new toys.

"Yes… these are indeed our leaflets. But where did these extra two come from? How entertaining," he said, his voice tinged with a warm but unpleasant amusement.

He first leaned toward Chen Ge and began inhaling deeply, as if savoring the scent. Chen Ge tensed and instinctively reached for the cleaver at his belt. Then the Doctor turned to Alex, took a single breath — and his eyes flashed with genuine astonishment, followed by greedy, almost predatory anticipation.

"You both smell… delightful," he said, but his gaze remained fixed on Alex. "Especially you… your scent is so sweet it makes my mouth water."

"That's just the shampoo," Alex replied calmly, leaning slightly forward to look him straight in the eye. "My wife buys it. She likes it too. But keep in mind — next time you try sniffing me, I'll rip that beak right off."

The Doctor let out a raspy chuckle.

"Hehehehe… I'll remember that. Very interesting. Follow me, I'll take you in."

Alex and Chen Ge exchanged glances and followed him. Along the way, Chen Ge glanced into the doorway from which the man had emerged and noticed a wooden crate inside, with a human leg sticking out. He tapped Alex on the shoulder to point it out. Alex gave it only a brief look, showing no surprise — he knew the members of the Ghost Story Society had a taste for human flesh.

As the Plague Doctor passed the apartment doors from which strange noises had been coming earlier, everything fell silent at once, as if the residents were hiding, desperate to avoid drawing his attention. His steps were slow, measured, confident.

Before long, he brought them to the end of the corridor, where there was a door painted in an alarming, almost pulsating red. It stood out among the others like a drop of blood in milk.

"Enter," the Plague Doctor said, tilting his head in a polite bow.

"How thoughtful of you," Alex replied mockingly, testing the Plague Doctor's patience. "Thanks."

The Plague Doctor ignored the jab, simply turning on his heel and walking away. As he passed Chen Ge, he took another loud sniff, as if trying to commit the scent to memory. Chen Ge instinctively took a step back to keep his distance. Alex followed the Doctor with his eyes, the gaze behind his mask narrowing slightly, the corners of his lips curving in a faint smile.

When the Plague Doctor's silhouette vanished around the corner, Alex looked to Chen Ge, silently asking if he was ready. Chen Ge nodded. Alex gave a short nod in return and reached for the door handle.

The door opened, and they stepped inside. The room was far more spacious than it appeared from the outside. In the center stood a long dining table. On either side sat ten people in featureless masks and dark robes: five on the left, five on the right. Three more in ordinary clothing stood off to the side.

The strangest thing was that the five people on the left had no shadows, while the five on the right did. Alex carefully scanned each of them, searching for one particular person — the bastard named Zhu Xu, responsible for Zhang Ya's death.

"Where did the other two come from?" asked one of the hooded figures.

"Don't interrupt the story," another replied lazily. "So they showed up, so what?"

"But that means there are already five new participants," the third one frowned, crossing his arms over his chest.

"What difference does it make," the fourth said darkly. "In the end, only three will remain."

The three newcomers flinched at those grim words, their bodies beginning to tremble noticeably.

Alex rolled his eyes at such an obvious threat and continued scanning the room with his gaze.

A faint smile crossed his face when he realized who the people in the hoods were—especially the one acting so calm, as if everything was under control. A sarcastic smirk tugged at his lips, because that calm man was none other than Doctor Gao, the founder of the Ghost Story Society, who had roped in all the patients from the third ward of the psychiatric hospital.

As if sensing the intense gaze upon him, Doctor Gao turned his head and looked at the strange man in the white mask with a painted smile. Doctor Gao wondered who this person was. He knew the other four, including Chen Ge, but he had never seen the fifth man who had arrived with Chen Ge. That made Doctor Gao both curious and suspicious about this newcomer's identity, the man who had come to the Ghost Story Society's meeting.

Chen Ge, upon hearing "only three will remain," couldn't help but recall the human leg sticking out of the crate in the Plague Doctor's room. The only thing keeping him from panicking was Alex's presence — at least there were two of them. In the worst case, they could fight back. And Alex, he knew, had a revolver.

"You two, over there," said one of the men at the table, the one sitting closest to Alex. "You haven't earned the right to sit with us yet."

Alex looked down at him and barely restrained himself from striking. He knew that if he stayed here much longer, he'd end up punching someone. Slapping Chen Ge on the shoulder, he stepped over to the trio of newcomers standing to the side.

"Number One, continue. No one will interrupt you now," said Doctor Gao, seated at the head of the table — though no one present yet realized he was the leader.

All members of the Ghost Story Society didn't know exactly who their chairman was, but they knew one thing — he was always present at meetings.

The man called "Number One" gave a slight nod and took a deep breath, gathering his thoughts to remember where he had left off. Alex leaned forward slightly, examining the storyteller.

The newcomer known as Number One looked elderly and worn out. His face was hidden behind a black mask, but gray hair protruded from beneath it. His limbs were thin and frail, his skin loose and marked with age spots. Alex shook his head quietly: he had come here to kill, but instead he was forced to listen to ghost stories told by people of questionable sanity.

"Then I'll continue… from where I stopped," the old man said, his voice tinged with both weariness and resolve.

He accompanied his story with wide, slow gestures, as though he wanted not only to convey words but also to imprint his memory into them.

"It happened in the People's Hospital. I saw it with my own eyes, so it was real… I'm a lung cancer patient, undergoing treatment. That night I was lying in the intensive care unit. Another old man was in the ward with me. I don't know what illness he suffered from, but he was in terrible pain, teetering on the edge between life and death. It started exactly a week ago… at night. He slept very lightly, waking at the slightest sound. But then… I noticed he wasn't asleep. His eyes were wide open, fixed on the corner of the room. I looked there too — and saw nothing. I turned on the light and asked what he was looking at. He said… that someone was standing there."

Those seated at the table listened in silence, nodding along to the story as if affirming its plausibility.

Alex, meanwhile, was wondering whether he should tell his own "scary story" — or simply draw his revolver and start shooting.

While the old man spoke, GIR, MIMI, and Stitch silently slipped from Alex's shoulders and back. One small hand gesture was all they needed to understand what to do. Still cloaked in camouflage, they quietly spread out across the hall, ready to wait for the signal when chaos began.

To be continued…

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