“Where I come from, they call me the King of Dachang. How much do you think one building is worth to me?”
In Dorm 404, a lanky young man was bragging to his roommates. When he saw them roll their eyes at his proclamations, he suddenly sneered. “Don’t believe me? I’ll prove it to you.”
As he spoke, he closed the game Phasmophobia, picked up the backpack hung by the bed, and unzipped it. Suddenly, knickknacks tumbled out of the backpack. “See? I’ve spent a fortune buying all these at Vatican City!”
The lanky young man took out a palm-sized crucifix from the pile and flicked it, proudly saying, “A crucifix, made of pure silver, especially used to prevent ghosts from entering their hunting phase!”
Then, he took out a pack of incense and shook it in front of everyone. “Smudge sticks personally blessed by the Pope. It can also prevent the ghosts from hunting you.”
After that, he took out a camera with a mysterious expression. “You guys who only toy with your equipment will never understand the true realm of photography…”
Everyone did not bother paying attention to the young man in front of them and only a handsome young man next to him said, “Actually… I suspect you may have been cheated.”
“Surely not?”
The lanky young man looked disbelieving. He was just about to continue showing off the “holy items” in his backpack when he suddenly turned his head and stared at the computer in front of him.
“What’s wrong?”
The handsome young man on the side asked instinctively.
“Something’s wrong!”
The lanky youth raised his palms and made a gesture for silence. “I was arguing with you guys on purpose just now because I noticed from the camera at the door that a sneaky guy was listening in front of our door for a long time. He didn’t leave until just now!”
“Are you for real?”
The other three people in the dormitory huddled together. Sure enough, they saw an extra figure on the computer screen of the lanky young man. The figure put his hand on Dorm 404’s door and only turned around and left after some time.
“He was eavesdropping on our conversation!”
The lanky young man looked pensive and solemnly said, “Didn’t you notice? When he walks, he always touches the ground with his heel first. This shows that he has received military training because only the right marching technique of military training will produce this effect.
“At the same time, his left hand was down at all times. This is most likely because there’s a gun hidden in his sleeve. When he wants to kill, in just a flick of his wrist, the gun will fall from his sleeve to the palm of his hand…
“Moreover…”
At this point, everyone could not help but roll their eyes and disperse.
“Hey, there’s more. Why aren’t you listening?”
Seeing that everyone ignored him, the lanky young man turned and glanced downstairs. Sure enough, he saw that the stranger had walked out of the dormitory building and was walking in the direction of the teaching building.
Seeing this, the lanky young man simply picked up his backpack and left the dormitory, silently following the stranger.
The stranger’s walking speed was not fast and the lanky young man followed far behind. They finally came to the front of Office Building No. 1.
The lanky young man waited for a while after the other person walked through the door and only went in when he heard the sound of the elevator from inside the building. He noticed the elevator descending continuously and finally stopping at the third floor underground.
Upon seeing this, the lanky young man frowned and realized that there was more to this affair.
“Why did he go to the basement? Could he be hiding a secret?”
The lanky young man hesitated and after about five minutes passed, he walked slowly down the stairs…
He had to admit that Office Building No. 1 had been around for a long time. As the lanky young man descended bit by bit, gradually the air began to smell moldy.
Not only that, even the voice-activated lights at the bottom of the stairs were out. When he reached the second basement floor, the entire corridor was already pitch black. Seeing this, the lanky young man immediately opened his backpack and took out a powerful flashlight.
With a click, the flashlight emitted a strong beam, illuminating the path leading to the third floor underground.
“Gasp, something’s wrong…”
However, the lanky young man still felt uneasy. He only felt an inexplicable sensation washing over him. He could not tell what it was, but it made his heart pound.
Therefore, he took out a yellow thermometer from his backpack again, pointed it toward the front, and clicked.
“Beep!”
With only one beep, the LCD screen of the temperature-measuring gun displayed the numbers — 6.3 degrees Celsius.
“Phew, fortunately, it’s not bitingly cold…”
Seeing this, the lanky young man breathed a sigh of relief and then continued to walk downward.
When he reached the third floor underground, the lanky young man finally saw a light, but just as he was about to heave a sigh of relief, there was a rustling sound in the corridor as if thousands of insects were climbing over the walls. It sent a chill down his spine!
The lanky young man moved the flashlight toward the wall, only to see that the wall paint was rapidly aging and decaying. It was peeling off completely in the blink of an eye and assuming a rusty, dirty appearance.
At the same time, there was the sound of screaming and running from the depths of the corridor. It seemed that a dozen people were running toward this place together.
“F*ck!”
The lanky young man could not help inhaling sharply, but he immediately calmed down in the next second. He quickly opened the backpack, took out the crucifix, and held it in front of him, then quickly ran upstairs!
“Heh, fortunately, I’ve been playing Phasmophobia for two whole years. I’d better leave this place first!”
The lanky young man said as he ran upstairs, but when he sensed that he had reached the first floor, he was completely dumbfounded because the scenery on the first floor was still the same as the third floor underground.
Currently, the lanky youth finally saw a dozen men and women run out from the depths of the corridor, shrieking. They ran past him and headed up the stairs.
However, before the last few of them ran up the stairs, they saw the first few people who had run ahead were coming up from the stairs below next to them as if space itself had been twisted into a strange loop.
This scene that could only happen in a horror film suddenly stupefied everyone.
“The spirits are trapping us!”
Someone yelled and the group hurriedly found an alternative route and sped toward the elevator door.
Fortunately, with just one press of the button, the elevator door opened immediately, revealing the bright and clean space inside.
This group of people rushed up, scrambling to squeeze into the elevator.
However, after all, the elevator had a weight limit. As a result of more than ten people squeezing in together, no one could leave.
“Move in!”
“Squeeze in a bit more and let me in!”
“Stop pushing, we’re too heavy. You guys wait for the next elevator…”
“Get out!”
The small elevator became a battlefield for more than a dozen people, but at this moment, there was a nauseating sound of splitting metal from the top of the elevator. At the same time, the entire elevator began to sway violently as if some powerful force in the dark was tugging from the top!
“Something’s wrong, run!”
Everyone was taken aback. Someone yelled and everyone wanted to run out of the elevator.
Even so, by the time those few people nearest the door had run out desperately and while the remaining seven or eight people were still hesitating, the entire elevator rang out with a boom and dropped down quickly!
“Agghhh —!”
There was a harsh scream that drew further away. Sparks burst out from the elevator as it fell into a bottomless abyss…
Suddenly, there was only an empty black hole where the elevator had been.
“How, how could it be…”
The rest of the people watched all this in stunned dismay. One pretty girl covered her mouth and said in horror, “This is the bottom floor of the building. How could there be such a deep space?”
“The spirits are toying with this place, we’ve run into some spirits!”
Someone yelled as if that was the only way to vent their fears.
“Don’t panic, everyone, we’ll find a way out!”
At this moment, a tall sturdy man came out. He placated the rest of the crowd. “What we have to do now is not to panic, but to find out why this happened. We must believe in science. There must be a reason this situation has happened!”
It seemed that the man in front of them was a respected figure. At once, everyone looked over.
“Heh, how inexperienced, thinking that science can explain everything in this world.”
At this moment, a cold laugh came from the dark, filled with arrogance and worldliness. “Only through experience will you understand — there are some things that science can never explain…”
“Who’s there!”
The man turned his head abruptly, with a shocked look. Besides his own student council, were there others on this floor?
After this question, a young man carrying a black satchel, holding a crucifix in one hand, and a temperature-measuring gun in the other emerged from the darkness. A glint of arrogance appeared in his eyes and his head was held high, almost looking down his nose at everyone.
“Who are you?”
Seeing the youth in front of him, a look of uncertainty flashed in the man’s eyes, and he immediately asked.
“Isn’t it more polite to proactively report your identity before asking for someone else’s name?”
The lanky young man said solemnly.
“I’m Wang Liang, head of the Publicity Department of the student council!”
The man said immediately.
“Very good.”
The lanky young man nodded in satisfaction. “My name is Zhang Wei and I’m also a student of this school. Maybe you have never heard of my name, but I’m also a member of a ghost-hunting team. I have been in this role for two years.”
“Ghost-hunting team?”
A man among the crowd asked reflexively, “Are there ghosts in the world?”
“Heh, do you think I’m joking?”
Zhang Wei said in a deep voice. He did not explain himself, just stared at the other person until they lowered their gaze, not daring to meet his eyes. Only then did he turn back to the crowd. “Congratulations everyone, you’re now involved in a supernatural event!”
“So what should we do?”
As if clinging to a life raft, the group immediately surrounded him and asked at the same time.
“It’s very simple. If you want to exorcize ghosts and spirits, you must first determine their identity.”
Zhang Wei squatted, rummaged in his backpack, and said, “Ghosts are divided into twelve types namely — Spirits, Wraiths, Phantoms, Poltergeists, Banshees, etc. Only by knowing what type of ghost it is, will we know how to get rid of it. I just so happen to have a few tools to help us determine the type of ghost in this haunted house.”
With that, Zhang Wei took out a few candles and handed them to everyone. “Candles can slow down the decrease of our sanity level. The lower your sanity level, the easier it is to be hunted by ghosts.”
Even as he spoke, Zhang Wei suddenly slapped his head. “Oh, I didn’t bring the pill that will increase one’s sanity level, otherwise I’d be more assured in all this.”
Then, he took out a notebook. “You can put the notebook on the floor. If the ghost writes on it, it means that they’re a Spirit, Revenant, Shade, Yurei, Oni, and so on.”
Finally, he took out a few light sticks. “You can also use this either for lighting or to view the wall. If it’s a Revenant, Spirit or Poltergeist, it will leave fingerprints on the wall. So it can also be used to determine the type of ghost.”
Everyone immediately accepted these tools with great gratitude.
Wang Liang, head of the Publicity Department of the student council, stood in bewildered amazement, wondering if the young man in front of him was telling the truth or just talking big.
“Wang Liang, do you think what he’s saying is true?”
At this moment, a girl who had been silent on the side suddenly said, “I don’t know why, I keep thinking that this schoolmate of ours is a little… Unreliable…”
“Let’s wait and see…”
Wang Liang replied in a low voice.
The girl nodded and stopped talking.
At this moment, Chen Chen, who was standing deep in the shadows of the corridor, also witnessed all of this. The corners of his mouth could not help but twitch because Chen Chen had known from the start that everything mentioned by this young man named Zhang Wei came from a game.
An online game called Phasmophobia.
In other words, this seemingly explosive jargon that the young man kept bringing up was nothing but bluffing…
Still, Chen Chen did not bother to reveal all this. At this time, he just about understood that he seemed to have fallen into a trap. Just like with the previous antimeme, the former owner of the USB drive had set another trap for him.
However, whether this trap was laid by Wang Xi or Zhao Shanhe was a matter to be determined.
Chen Chen seemed to have seen Professor Wang Xi’s body earlier. If Zhao Shanhe laid the trap, then it would make sense. He killed Professor Wang Xi and lured Chen Chen to trace the antimeme here. There would be a high probability of Chen Chen triggering the mechanism and trapping himself here.
Nonetheless, Chen Chen clearly remembered that Zhao Shanhe was dead. He had turned into an antimeme and even wanted to target Chen Chen, but was instead killed by Chen Chen in the hypnotized dream world.
However, if it were not Zhao Shanhe, who would it be?
Chen Chen slowly turned his head. At this moment, the corridor had completely lost all light and became pitch black but in the darkness, Chen Chen could hear the sound of water again.
Still, this was different from ordinary water. This kind of water sounded extremely viscous as if it was a jelly substance that constantly gurgled.
What Chen Chen did not know was that at this time, out of his sight, blood had flooded the entire server room from the crack that was opened. It was as if a tide of blood had filled the room.
