Cockroach, who fell from the ceiling during the second cycle, had gone completely unnoticed by previous players.
But what no one expected was that by following those two cockroachs back to the first corridor, something would finally be uncovered.
Mr. Zhongli walked over to check out the photo frame that had fallen to the ground. Part of the glass had shattered.
Picking it up, he immediately remembered—this exact photo frame used to hang on the wall near the clock.
On the back, there was a note: a hint that unlocked the ability to zoom in on his field of vision.
"Zoom in to see more clearly. That means the next clues are gonna need this," Mr. Zhongli muttered.
He realized he'd stumbled upon something major—possibly the key to breaking the loop.
So he zoomed in on every corner of the circular corridor. After confirming there were no clues left, he moved on to the third cycle.
With his vision zoomed in, he started scanning the area again, patiently checking every nook and cranny.
At the corner of the wall, near the spot where the clock used to be, something flickered into view:
[as his fingertips run across my hand]
Yup—zooming in really was the key.
Then, under the dresser where the clock had been, another sentence appeared:
[I waited motionless]
Two pieces of the puzzle. They felt like they were connected, but he wasn't sure how yet.
There had to be more.
Under the window at the corridor corner, he found a third sentence:
[Through the fog of fading consciousness]
Then, on the ceiling of the second corridor, zoomed-in vision revealed a fourth line:
[I believe I heard a call]
Suddenly, there was a knock from the bathroom again—this time with the unmistakable sound of a baby crying.
"Baby crying, parallel worlds... Could it be...?"
Grandpa Zhongli narrowed his eyes at the bathroom door. After a moment of thought, something clicked.
If this corridor really was looping through parallel timelines, then the one trapped inside the bathroom right now might actually be the player character from a future cycle.
And the person who had tried to open the door from the outside back then... might be the current protagonist of cycle three.
The more he thought about it, the more it made sense. Unfortunately, the furthest anyone had gotten before was the progress Childe had made. No one knew what lay beyond.
Once inside the fourth cycle, the ghost of a little girl flickered past the bathroom door.
But in this loop, Mr. Zhongli couldn't find any new clues with his zoomed-in vision.
Moving into the fifth cycle, the female ghost—Lisa—was waiting under the chandelier at the entrance.
But Grandpa Zhongli had no fear of such things, especially not when he already knew he could just walk right through her.
In the sixth cycle, he found a flashlight in the bathroom. The embryo was crying in the sink, and someone was pulling at the bathroom door from outside.
That only made him more convinced—when the door's shut, the space inside and out belongs to two different timelines.
And if Lisa really were just a ghost, no locked door would be able to stop her anyway.
In the seventh cycle, Mr. Zhongli still didn't find any new messages while zoomed in.
Maybe that was it for the clues.
Still, those four earlier passages were tough to piece together into something coherent.
In the eighth cycle, the lights went out. The sharp click of high heels echoed behind him—it was Lisa again.
And this time, Mr. Zhongli did something Rui Shen never expected:
He turned around—right into a jumpscare—and got killed by the ghost.
But Grandpa Zhongli didn't even flinch. He was just testing a theory.
"Haaah, it's not easy trying to break Grandpa Zhongli's calm," Rui Shen sighed, heart aching.
This felt like having a gold mine in front of you, but no tools to dig it up.
That's not to say Mr. Zhongli wasn't helpful.
On the contrary, when it came to maintaining composure and clarity under pressure, he was almost on par with Childe's defensive skills.
Which meant—if Grandpa Zhongli did ever lose it, the emotional points generated would probably be enough to power all of Liyue for a whole day.
So yeah, better to start farming emotional points early and prep a new branch in Mondstadt. Gotta start milking that emotional energy from Wendy and little Lumine.
Nashida?
Please. God of Wisdom over there probably won't even get spooked by these games.
But Wendy and Lumine? Especially Lumine, who's always whining when she doesn't get her desserts or novels—that one's prime farming material.
Back to Zhongli's gameplay.
Turning around, dying in the bathroom, answering the phone—Mr. Zhongli tried every possible way to get killed during the eighth cycle.
Even though he couldn't turn back without dying, he figured out he could walk backwards.
At the reception counter by the gate, he zoomed in again.
Inspecting the wedding photo triggered a prompt: Dig down!
Mr. Zhongli was still processing that when a hole suddenly appeared in the woman's right eye in the photo—like it had been gouged out right in front of him.
At the same time, a lock clicked open in the shadows beneath the stairs.
The path to the ninth cycle had opened.
Looking at the photo, Mr. Zhongli remembered—the ghost woman's right eye had been gouged out too.
Was it the husband who killed the whole family?
The radio had said the husband shot his wife—but there was no mention of the eye.
No... something's off here.
Then came the sound—the ghost's moan. A strangled sob, like someone being choked.
Thinking it through, Mr. Zhongli headed for the unlocked door leading into the ninth cycle.
At that moment, Childe and the rest of the crowd watching the stream were totally floored by his gameplay.
This man... does he not know what fear is?
From beginning to end, it was less like playing a horror game and more like a casual stroll through a haunted house he owned.
Everyone else was dodging ghosts like crazy—this guy was out here walking up to them, volunteering to die.
And on top of that, he cracked most of the major clues and finished the eighth cycle in under an hour.
"Mr. Zhongli's wisdom and guts are truly unmatched. I, Childe, admit defeat—completely."
Childe was in awe. Compared to this former guest of the Wangsheng Funeral Parlor, his own courage was child's play.
Not to mention, Mr. Zhongli was calm and analytical. In that department, he had him beat too.
Boss Hu Tao just rolled her eyes.
C'mon. This guy's been around for 6,000 years. What hasn't he seen?
You could throw 10,000 ghosts at him and he'd still be sipping tea.
Back in the game—
Grandpa Zhongli stepped up to the door to the ninth cycle and found a new message written on it:
[Forgive me, Lisa. I have a monster inside me.]
Lisa? That must be the name of the ghost.
And the person who wrote this... probably the same husband who killed everyone. He claimed something monstrous lived inside him.
The radio had mentioned strange behavior and ties to some kind of cult.
"Evil spirit possession," Mr. Zhongli muttered. "That would explain the madness."
He'd seen his fair share of tragedies caused by spirits taking over mortals.
Even now, after all the peace brought to Liyue, there were still hidden places untouched by light, where dark things lingered.
Shaking his head, Grandpa Zhongli walked into the ninth cycle corridor.
It was dim, baby cries echoing through the air.
The bathroom door was locked.
At the far end, a piece of glass suddenly shattered.
Then—the sharp sound of high heels behind him again.
Mr. Zhongli ignored it and calmly walked through to the next cycle.
Surprisingly, the door wasn't locked.
He stepped straight into the tenth loop.
"Which means... if he had hesitated just now, he would've died," Zhongli mused.
Now inside the tenth cycle, he continued exploring.
Suddenly, he heard the sound of liquid hitting the floor.
Turning the corner, he saw an eerie red light glowing at the end of the hall.
Approaching, he realized there was a fridge—or maybe a cabinet—suspended from the ceiling, with blood seeping from its door.
The radio crackled to life:
"Father hanged himself using the rubber hose—umbilical cord—from his car after killing his family."
Two voices overlapped here: one said "rubber hose," the other said "umbilical cord."
Given the surreal horror of the game, umbilical cord felt like the more accurate version.
Now Mr. Zhongli had one big question in his mind:
Who exactly was he playing as?
It was clearly a man.
But according to the radio, the 10-year-old son was shot, and the father hanged himself with the umbilical cord.
So... maybe the player character isn't even alive?
Or maybe the father didn't actually die?
There's also the chance that the son somehow survived... and returned to this house years later.
Too few clues to be sure yet.
Mr. Zhongli kept going.