Morning sunlight spilled over the streets and alleys of Shanming City.
In the desolate eastern suburbs, the Sanhe residential block carried a faint warmth under the clear sky. Today's fine weather softened the chill of autumn.
A pale-faced but handsome figure, wrapped in a loose trench coat and smoking a cigarette, staggered out of an old apartment building.
Beside him walked a fair-skinned man in a Zhongshan suit, carrying on his back a half-conscious youth who groaned faintly from time to time.
They looked like men who had survived a brutal war, utterly drained in body and ghost.
The trench-coated man hailed a taxi. The middle-aged man settled the unconscious youth into the back seat, then squeezed in with him.
"Moat embankment, southwest public restroom."
The driver, hearing the destination, did not switch on his GPS. His face stiffened into numbness, as though the name alone was enough to guide him.
Beneath that public restroom lay the true place: **Tianhai Hotel**.
"We're back! I'm back again!"
The second persona, silent since Ji Li's injury, finally erupted once they reentered the hotel, shouting like a voice long suppressed.
Ji Li's broken arms, under the hotel's strange power, began to knit together with the sound of bones slotting back in place. The process carried no pain.
For all its dreadful tasks, the hotel provided perfect recovery for its staff.
Yu Guo lay collapsed in the center of the lobby. His ruined leg, crudely treated before, now sealed itself, blood and flesh re-forming with bone.
His consciousness slowly returned.
Fang Shenyan, by contrast, was the least harmed, only weakened from exhaustion. After some rest, his strength returned.
**Congratulations to Tianhai Hotel. Assistant Manager Ji Li of Branch Seven, Staff Fang Shenyan, Staff Yu Guo.**
**You have successfully completed the escort mission.**
**Additional staffs will arrive three days from now, at 2 p.m., in the lobby.**
**Wishing you continued survival.**
The broadcast's sweet female voice faded. Ji Li said nothing.
Of six who began, half were dead. The casualty rate was staggering.
With the hotel's rise to One Star, the difficulty of tasks—and the horror of the ghosts—was climbing fast.
Six members were no longer enough.
He glanced at the black-and-white memorial portraits on the wall and sighed.
Perhaps as the hotel advanced, staff would change as well.
But two more missions remained before the next upgrade.
With so few survivors, they would likely be forced into every task. Ji Li himself had no certainty of surviving the next.
"Three days from now, new arrivals… hopefully some will shine."
"Shit! That hurt like hell! I've never been this badly hurt in my life!"
Yu Guo stirred awake at last. His first words carried his familiar temperament, a sign of recovery.
Even Fang Shenyan's numb face softened into a faint smile.
Yu Guo's strength wasn't just in execution—it was his resilient heart, capable of breaking the suffocating tension.
"Damn, my streaming phone's still in 701. You guys didn't grab it for me, did you?"
He sprang up from the floor with surprising vigor, first thought on his broadcast.
Ji Li gave him a half-smile. "Didn't you already prove the ghost exists? What's the point of streaming now?"
"Of course it matters!
My viewers always call me a fraud. This was the perfect chance to prove it!"
Yu Guo was unusually energetic. Beyond the joy of survival, he regretted not capturing the ghost encounter on stream.
"Then get another phone. Go film on the second floor instead."
Fang Shenyan patted his shoulder lightly.
At that moment, the black eye-shaped mark on his hand exhaled a wisp of smoke.
It swirled into the form of a woman, a number branded on her forehead by some unknown force.
"201."
The shadow vanished, rushing to the second floor. It wasn't its choice—the hotel's rules bound both man and ghost alike.
As it entered, Ji Li clearly heard the doors of the three ghost-occupied rooms upstairs creak open in unison.
It seemed not only humans were curious; ghosts, too, harbored the same urge to pry.
"…Why hasn't the mark on my hand disappeared?"
It wasn't until Fang Shenyan spoke that Ji Li's attention shifted.
He turned to look at Fang's left hand. On the back remained that strange, gothic-style tattoo—unchanged, still etched into his skin.
Yu Guo blinked. He had been unconscious during the ordeal and knew nothing of it.
"What's this? You got inked during the mission?"
"Do you know?" Fang, used to Yu Guo's teasing, tossed the question to Ji Li.
But Ji Li knew little more. After studying it closely, he asked, "Do you feel anything unusual?"
"No. Whether it's there or not, I feel nothing."
Ji Li nodded, then turned toward the memorial portraits on the lobby wall.
His eyes rested on the third one—the former manager of Branch Seven.
He had once led his team to elevate the hotel to Two Stars, the strongest manager of his era.
On his face, too, was an odd tattoo. The pattern was completely different from Fang's, but it radiated the same dark aura.
Ji Li frowned. "I don't know its function, but it must be tied to the hotel's level.
Maybe useless for now, but as the hotel climbs, its purpose will become clear."
With no certain answer, they could only wait and see.
The three returned upstairs to rest.
But once in his room, Yu Guo immediately requested a new phone from the hotel, logged into his account, and came back out.
Grinning to himself, he launched a new stream.
"Still, Fang's the smart one. If I camp out near the ghosts every day, won't the gifts roll in?"
"Brothers, I'm back! Don't ask why I cut the stream last night—I barely escaped with my life!
Tsk, I wasn't lying! Now I'll show you what real ghosts look like.
One cruise ship, one ghost. Two ships, two ghosts!"
Yu Guo seemed to have found his golden ticket. For staffs, money meant nothing—they could have as much as they wanted.
But his mind worked differently. Streaming was his obsession, the gifts just a way to satisfy his ego.
"Nice! Thanks to *Snowfall Won't Fall Without Me* for the cruise ship. Let's start with the headless ghost, just for fun…"
He set his phone stand, aiming at the second-floor corridor. Slowly he moved the camera toward Room 210.
But before he could catch the figure, his stream was forcibly cut. When he tried to relaunch it, his account was permanently banned.
Yu Guo's scalp tingled with fury, ready to curse. But then the replay started on its own.
Onscreen, at the window just feet away, two blurry figures appeared.
One was headless.
The other seemed wrapped in a heavy cloak, its entire body swallowed by the garment, like a trench coat hanging in midair, shifting with the wind.
The headless ghost lingered inside the hotel.
The cloaked phantom loomed outside.
You can read Eerie Overseer ahead by 20+ chapters ad-free and for free at htt ps://ravenarchives. com/book/eerie-overseer]. Bulk uploads are a bit tricky, so updates here might be irregular, but they'll keep coming.