The moment the old security guard's wrist was severed, two things happened at once.
First, the severed hand on the ground began to rapidly rot and putrefy. The thick stench of decay and corpse fluid, suppressed for three years, could no longer be contained. It erupted instantly, the noxious odor so overpowering that Gao Tian could barely keep his eyes open.
Simultaneously, having lost the severed hand, the old security guard—nothing more than a puppet carrying a corpse piece—no longer had a reason to exist. He began to rot away at a visible rate. Chunks of flesh sloughed off his body, dissolving into puddles of pus on the floor. Soon, only a skeleton with a few scraps of meat clinging to the bones remained, struggling to stay upright. But even this skeletal frame was quickly reaching its limit.
"I... remember now...
"I remember... everything... The scene... I saw that day...
"That thing... It was a monster... with four faces stacked together—a man, a woman, an old person, and a child...
"And a man... wearing a trench coat... stabbed to death..."
The skeleton stood frozen, as if it still could not accept its doomed fate. Its jaw clicked open and shut, forcing the words out:
"The man in the trench coat... left his severed hand... on me...
"From that day on... I was already dead..."This matched Gao Tian's expectations perfectly.
The man in the trench coat was naturally Xu Yuan.
The Fierce Ghost that killed him was an abomination with four stacked faces.
Xu Yuan had seen the old security guard right before he died. Having witnessed a Fierce Ghost commit murder, the guard was doomed to die regardless. So, with his last breaths, Xu Yuan turned the man into a temporary human vessel to hold his severed hand, leaving him to wander in a daze, mindlessly repeating his living routines.
After speaking his final words and flashing back to the tragedy that had befallen him, the old security guard's remaining skeleton instantly crumbled into a pile of ash. A living, breathing human being had vanished into dust right in front of Gao Tian.
Holding the rotting left arm, Gao Tian did not know what to say.
Even though the real security guard had died three years ago, it felt as though Gao Tian had just murdered the man with his own hands.
He had no time to waste here; the clock was still ticking. He had recovered only one of the six body parts. If they failed to find the remaining five before the mall closed, the Green Text Mission's punishment would swiftly follow.
Gao Tian hid the severed arm beneath a machine in the Arcade, planning to retrieve it only after gathering all the pieces. He shut the Arcade doors behind him, navigated the corridors, and re-entered the mall proper.
Through the massive glass canopy overhead, the sky outside was already growing dark. Time waited for no one. Curiously, the white fog had not completely vanished; it had merely thinned out, still lingering across every floor of the Sapphire Mall.
At first, he assumed the fog was a byproduct of the chaotic space-time distortion. But the young Xu Yuan had already returned to his own timeline, and their connection had been severed. Yet the fog had not faded with him—instead, it was spreading.
Up ahead, a large crowd of mall shoppers had gathered. The people at the front looked agitated, arguing heatedly with the mall staff.
Gao Tian switched his two-way radio back on and tuned into Xia Ta's channel:
"I've solved the mystery of the hidden corpses, and successfully secured one piece.
"The true trick of the Green Text Mission is that the six body parts are hidden inside six living humans. And these six have to be actual mall employees. That's the only way they could show up for work every day without drawing suspicion..."
He explained the origins of the first body part as simply and quickly as he could.
"Gao Tian, you are a fucking genius."
Jiang Yang's unsparing praise blared over the speaker.
Boss Jin and the other two rookies also heaped praise on him. After all, with the clock ticking down and not a single piece found, they had grown extremely anxious. A breakthrough from Gao Tian was exactly what everyone wanted to hear.
Right then, Xia Ta's perpetually calm voice cut in:
"I've secured two pieces on my end as well.
"But the situation isn't looking great.
"Stay alert. The entire Sapphire Mall seems to have been swallowed by a strange white fog. Right now, no one inside can get out, and no one outside can get in. The crowds are starting to panic."
As expected of Xia Ta, her efficiency was downright terrifying.
She had already claimed the left leg and the right arm. Combined with the left arm Gao Tian had hidden in the Arcade, they only needed three more parts: the head, the torso, and the right leg.
Moreover, Xia Ta's update was not good news. The mall's lockdown meant the customers inside would only grow more terrified, and terror would lead to crowds and chaos. That would make finding the remaining disguised body parts even harder.
As Gao Tian passed the gathered crowd, he heard the middle-aged man at the front shouting agitatedly:
"My dad's heart is acting up, and we need to leave right now! What right do you mall staff have to hold us here?
"If we're delayed getting to the hospital and something happens to him, I will absolutely hold you legally responsible!"
The two mall employees were sweating profusely, frantically trying to explain:
"Sir, it really isn't that we won't let you out. We don't know why, but a strange white fog has blocked all the exits! Anyone who walks into that fog just loops right back around to where they started. This has been proven countless times already!
"We've already called the police, and we're waiting for rescue teams to get in. Please, calm down. Staying here is for your own good..."
Gao Tian's eyes swept back and forth across the mall managers.
He didn't spot any sign of the remaining body parts on them. Given their complete physical bodies and clear states of mind, it probably wasn't them.
He scoured the entire Third Floor, even checking the restrooms and emergency stairwells. The trapped shoppers were noticeably growing more anxious by the minute. People continuously dialed their mobile phones, complaining to the outside world.
Outside, the sky continued to darken; without him realizing it, the time had crept to 6:00 p.m. He hadn't expected the day to pass so quickly. There were fewer than three hours left until closing time.
"Found it!
"I've found another piece here...
"Hey! You bastard, why are you running? Let's see where you can escape to now!"
Jiang Yang's excited voice suddenly rang out over the two-way radio, mixed with the heavy panting of the two rookies. Evidently, spotting the staff member had sparked a short chase. In the end, Jiang Yang's group had leveraged their numbers to pin the target down.
Right on cue, Xia Ta's eternally composed voice chimed in over the radio:
"I found one here, too.
"The torso."
Boss Jin's hearty laughter echoed in the background. "A hundred thousand cash reward for every piece you find!"
He had every reason to be in a great mood. Gao Tian had one, Jiang Yang had one, and Xia Ta had three. Together, they had secured five pieces. At this pace, tracking down the final piece was only a matter of time.
The left arm, the right arm, the left leg, the torso—they had all been gathered. The only piece still missing was the head.
The two rookies sounded equally optimistic. Three hours was more than enough time to hunt down the final severed head.
This was only their second Green Text Mission, meaning the difficulty was relatively low. With two veteran administrators—both having survived five missions—joining the team, wouldn't a mission of this tier be a complete walk in the park?
Of the entire group, Xia Ta was the only one who maintained her basic calm. Her voice over the radio carried zero trace of joy; instead, she issued a flat warning:
"Don't let your guard down just yet. Until the last piece is found, this game isn't over.
"And the final piece is a head. It won't be that easy to spot. The other limbs and the torso were hidden beneath staff clothes and pants. But where could someone hide a rotting head? There's absolutely a trick to this. Think about it carefully."
Gao Tian pondered this. The hiding place for the final head had to be on an employee who wore a helmet or a mask for their job. Otherwise, walking around with a highly decomposed head, they would have been spotted by the shoppers ages ago.
Furthermore, wearing that mask had to be perfectly normal for their role, drawing absolutely zero attention or suspicion. So much so that Xia Ta and the others had been inside the Sapphire Mall for so long, hunting down five other body parts, yet had completely ignored this incredibly logical entity.
Who could such a person be?
Just as Gao Tian was about to share his theory over the radio and get the group's thoughts, Xia Ta's voice crackled over the speaker again. Only this time, her typically tranquil tone carried a rare edge of anxiety:
"Something's wrong.
"There's something wrong with this Green Text Mission!"
Jiang Yang's lazy voice drawled back: "What is it, Sister Ta?
"Did you spot some kind of wordplay in the mission?"
Xia Ta:
"Check the participant list for the Green Text Mission again. Originally, there were only three names...
"But while we've been hunting for these body parts, another name was added to the list. Now there are four people.
"I'm absolutely positive there were only three names when we received the task. That fourth name was added later. My memory hasn't been tampered with by a supernatural event, but you guys can check it yourselves to cross-verify."
Hearing Xia Ta's words, a heavy sense of dread settled in Gao Tian's gut.
It was true. When he had first seen this Green Text Mission, the listed participants were Boss Jin and the two rookies.
Xia Ta, Jiang Yang, and he were all just joining in as bystanders to the mission.
So who could this extra name on the mission possibly be?
Xia Ta and Jiang Yang were both veterans who had cleared five Green Text Missions; their names wouldn't naturally appear on the roster for a second-tier mission.
That left only one possibility.
That extra name on the list...
Gao Tian pulled out his mobile phone and opened the photo of the wall that Xia Ta had sent him on WeChat—
Gao Tian.
The fourth name, printed against the wall in green text, was undeniably his own.
"Gao Tian, your name has also been added to the Green Text Mission.
"Now, you are no longer just a simple bystander. You are a participant in this mission, a teammate bound by life and death."