“Stop! You know my ability, right?”
Feng Yi firmly grabbed hold of the doctor’s doll.
Doctor Yang found that his legs were suddenly unable to move, and his face was filled with horror:
“Ghosts, you are all ghosts!”
“No, why do you run away the moment you see us?”
Mu Li was quite puzzled. They had kept a very low profile; other doctors just assumed they were patients and family members.
Why had this Doctor Yang seen right through their identities?
Still, now that he was restrained, they could interrogate him at leisure.
As Mu Li walked over and was about to pull the doctor back from the edge of the rooftop, a sudden wave of chills hit his back, making his hair stand on end instantly.
“Get out of the way!”
He immediately shoved the other two people aside.
Before the two could even react, they saw a ghost overflowing with fierce resentment burst out from the stairwell, charging straight toward their direction.
It was a female ghost wearing a hospital gown. Her clothes were stained with blood, her belly was swollen, and a black aura coiled around her entire body.
The moment the three of them saw her, they blurted out simultaneously: “A pregnant woman!”
They hadn’t expected to encounter the victim so quickly, but this vengeful spirit looked extremely fierce.
The moment Doctor Yang saw that ghost, he screamed in a pitch that cracked his voice: “Don’t come over!”
They watched as the ghost mother, clutching her swollen belly, flew at lightning speed directly toward Doctor Yang.
“Wait.” Mu Li called out.
Before he could stop her, the ghost mother slammed Doctor Yang off the edge of the rooftop.
The whole thing happened too fast, so fast that the doctor didn’t even have time to register a look of terror on his face.
“Someone jumped off the building!”
Upon hearing that shout, the entire hospital was shaken. Heads popped out from windows to look outside.
They only saw a bloody, mangled mess on the ground below, causing them to pull their heads back quickly, too terrified to keep watching.
Standing at the edge of the rooftop, the ghost mother looked down at the commotion below, a cruel smile curving the corners of her mouth.
Mu Li stepped forward to negotiate with her: “You are the pregnant woman who was stabbed at the station, right? We are here to help you.”
It seemed this was the target for the current quest.
Just moments before, before they could even ask anything, Doctor Yang had panicked as if he had seen a ghost and spilled everything.
Turns out, he hadn’t been looking at them earlier; he had been staring at the ghost mother standing right behind them!
However, the ghost mother seemed intensely hostile toward them. She suddenly turned around, her voice chillingly low: “The child is mine!”
Mu Li was slightly stunned, not understanding why she suddenly brought up the child, but he still tried to placate her: “I know, the child is yours.”
Shu Lan summoned her courage and stepped forward, her legs shaking: “Where is your body?”
The ghost mother suddenly glared at them with fierce resentment: “You want to steal my child!”
“We don’t want to steal your child.” Mu Li shook his head.
Could it be that someone had tried to steal her child before?
Yet the ghost mother refused to listen to their explanations or answer their questions.
Screaming, she lunged at them.
Mu Li couldn’t even harm the ghost passengers, let alone hurt a ghost mother radiating this level of resentment, but he still stepped in front of the other two.
Just as the ghost mother’s sharp claws were about to pierce the youth,
Feng Yi yanked Mu Li back, and in his other hand, he was clutching the doll of the ghost mother.
“Let’s talk this over properly.”
The ghost mother’s claws stopped midway, unable to inch forward another millimeter. She struggled frantically, and the rooftop was filled with harsh, piercing shrieks.
Watching the sudden reversal of the situation, Mu Li didn’t look particularly happy; he merely pressed his lips together.
Feng Yi had just managed to restrain the ghost mother when he looked down and noticed the youth’s expression seemed a bit off: “What’s wrong?”
The player frowned: “I couldn’t help with anything. It was like that on the train, and it is like this now.”
Seeing the youth’s look of desolation, Feng Yi hurriedly scraped together words of comfort from his mind: “No, you are very useful.”
Mu Li looked down at his own hands: “You don’t need to comfort me. I know.”
This instance is too bizarre; players can’t do a thing against ghosts and have to rely entirely on teammates to fight their way through.
There must be some condition. Once triggered, a player’s attacks could actually inflict damage on ghosts. He just hasn’t found it yet.
Feng Yi wanted to say more, but he felt a heavy impact hit his back.
Lunging forward, he tumbled to the ground, and the doll flew out of his hand.
“What are you doing?”
Feng Yi looked back and saw that the spectacled young man had somehow made it up to the roof, tripping over the very last step and slamming right into him.
“I’m sorry. I’m sorry.” Realizing he had ruined things, the spectacled young man apologized profusely.
He scrambled over to pick up the doll.
However, once the doll left Feng Yi’s hand, the restriction binding the ghost mother lost its effect entirely.
She bolted toward the spectacled young man, snatched the doll from his grip, and shredded it to pieces with her fingernails.
Cotton stuffing drifted everywhere.
“Are you an undercover spy for that ghost?”
Seeing his doll thoroughly destroyed, Feng Yi felt a surge of blood rush up to his throat from anger.
Afraid that the redhead might pull out another item to control her, the ghost mother leaped straight off the rooftop.
Seeing that his quest target had escaped, Mu Li immediately looked down toward the ground below.
He saw a crowd swarming around the crushed body of Doctor Yang. The ghost mother stood right beside the doctor, ripped the man’s soul out, and took a deep breath.
She devoured it.
She abruptly raised her head, flashed an eerie smile at Mu Li, and vanished.
Mu Li had no choice but to turn back.
Seeing that Feng Yi had already stood up, Mu Li grabbed the spectacled young man by the collar, hauled him up, and raised a hand to strike:
“I’ve tolerated you for a long time. I’m going to teach you a lesson today.”
The spectacled young man cowered, pulling his head back and shielding his face with his hands: “I didn’t mean to.”
Shu Lan tried to persuade him otherwise, but standing between them, her words had zero effect.
Mu Li stepped forward, reached out with both hands, and forcefully shoved them apart: “Enough. Now is not the time for infighting.”
He had seen it.
Just now, Pei Kanyan had picked up the doll and stuck something onto it. When the ghost mother tore the doll apart, that object had transferred onto her body.
A chip?
A tracker?
It seemed he had already secured the ghost mother’s movements.
Hiding behind Mu Li, the spectacled young man looked aggrieved: “It was all my fault.”
“You’ve still got the nerve to look aggrieved? Do you have any idea how much it costs me to remake the exact same doll?” Seeing this, Feng Yi felt like his eyes were swimming with angry stars.
The spectacled young man tried to explain again: “I really didn’t mean to.”
Feng Yi grabbed him by the collar once more.
Standing quietly to the side and watching them, the youth finally spoke up: “Are you done arguing?”
Mu Li walked straight toward the stairs: “Let’s go. Doctor Yang is dead and we didn’t get any useful info. Let’s head to the crematorium.”
The player couldn’t kill monsters, the player was extremely annoyed, and the player was pondering how to clear the level.
Seeing the youth suddenly turn expressionless, Feng Yi paused mid-motion.
The youth he had met had always been gentle and warm, but he hadn’t expected that letting his face go cold would actually make people feel a bit flustered.
Clenching his fist, he finally released the spectacled young man’s collar and turned to follow.
As for the spectacled young man, he bit his lower lip, didn’t dare look at the youth anymore, and kept his head down in silence.
Watching their strange atmosphere, Shu Lan scratched her cheek and walked up to the spectacled young man to whisper:
“Is it just my imagination, or does that youth look all soft and delicate, but is actually someone you really shouldn’t mess with?”
Only to hear the spectacled young man say: “He doesn’t hide behind others, nor does he need anyone’s protection.”
Shu Lan: “What?”
“Nothing,” the spectacled young man shook his head. “It’s getting dark soon. We need to pick up the pace and get there.”
The sky was blanketed in darkness.
The four of them walked along the road toward the crematorium.
Mu Li and Feng Yi walked ahead while the spectacled young man and Shu Lan followed behind, maintaining a neither-too-close-nor-too-far distance.
Feng Yi asked Mu Li: “Are you angry?”
Mu Li snapped out of his thoughts: “No. Why’d you ask that?”
“Actually, I’ve been keeping some things from you, but looking at it now, not telling you might put you in danger instead.” Feng Yi seemed to have made a decision.
“What is it? Is there something you haven’t told me?” Mu Li perked up his ears to listen.
“Actually,” Feng Yi leaned in closer and lowered his voice, “that spectacled young man is actually Pei Kanyan.”
Hearing that name made Mu Li catch his breath in a fright, and the look he shot Feng Yi held a hint of shock.
“Pei Kanyan?” Mu Li turned his head to look at the spectacled young man.
“He’s Pei Kanyan’s subordinate!” Feng Yi quickly turned Mu Li’s head back and covered his mouth. “Keep your voice down. Don’t let him realize we’ve figured out his identity.”
A look of utter astonishment suddenly plastered itself onto Mu Li’s face: “No way, how’d you figure it out?”
Feng Yi: “I’ve suspected him for a long time. Back then, he broke the train door and evaded the mysterious person’s attack, and now he conveniently tripped to let the ghost go. These things definitely aren’t coincidences.”
Mu Li scratched his head: “Um, at least the train door was broken by me.”
Feng Yi gave him a look that clearly said that you should look at your own scrawny frame and ask yourself if you have any realistic grasp of your own strength.
Mu Li was sweating profusely.
Feng Yi: “But I haven’t found solid evidence yet. It’s not a good time to burn bridges; keeping the peace is best. Who knows what he might pull if we do.”
Mu Li nodded hurriedly: “Right, right.”
Behind them, the spectacled young man furrowed his brows. Why had they suddenly huddled so close together, and what were they whispering about?
To reach the crematorium, they had to pass through a graveyard.
They walked farther and farther away from the streetlamps.
There were no lights in the graveyard; they had to rely solely on the moonlight to make out their path, and stretching a hand out meant swallowing it entirely in the darkness.
It was dead silent, until suddenly, chilly gusts of wind swept through.
Mu Li stopped in his tracks, and seeing that Feng Yi was still walking forward, he reached out and grabbed him.
“Did you hear something?”
Seeing Mu Li stop, the others grew tense immediately, hurriedly scanning their surroundings, though straining their eyes revealed nothing in the dark.
Shu Lan said in a low voice: “This is a graveyard, you know. Don’t go trying to scare people.”
Mu Li covered his ears and turned up his volume settings.
The sounds of rustling, the sound of digging dirt, the sound of breaking through the earth.
Red names!
Mu Li bolted forward like a flying arrow, kicking away the monster attacking Shu Lan.
Feng Yi suddenly lost track of the youth. In this pitch-black darkness, he couldn’t see a thing, causing him to grope around frantically in the air: “Mu Li, where are you?”
The spectacled young man switched on his phone flashlight and swept it across the surroundings.
Shu Lan covered her mouth in sheer terror.
“The corpses are alive!”
Corpse after corpse crawled out of their graves, planting their stiff footsteps as they swarmed in from all directions, converging toward the four of them.
Reacting as well, Feng Yi quickly pulled out his phone, utilizing its beam to clearly make out the appearances of these corpses.
He immediately crafted a doll, shredded it to pieces, and the corpses collapsed flat onto the ground.
“Hurry up and move in close! My attack range isn’t that big,” Feng Yi called out to the other three.
The three immediately sprinted toward Feng Yi.
Unawares, a thick fog gradually began to rise over the graveyard.
Feng Yi’s heart sank.
The fog obscured the faces of these corpses, and the flashlight’s penetration wasn’t strong enough. By the time he could see clearly, the corpses had already reached them.
Corpse after corpse fell, forming a web-like encirclement around them.
Shu Lan almost got grabbed by a ghost hand and shrieked in fright: “Whoa! Big bro, are you about to reach your limit?”
A thin layer of cold sweat had already broken out across Feng Yi’s forehead. Crafting too many dolls consumed a massive amount of stamina.
Yet they were trapped right in the center of the graveyard, and the corpses before them came streaming in endlessly to attack.
Having buried so many people over all these years, this place was clearly trying to exhaust them to death.
“This won’t work. We need to fight our way through.”
With a swish, Mu Li drew his pen knife, looking excited:
“Leave it to me.”