Gao Tian recalled that members of the bizarre Chat Group known as the Galan Society would occasionally send out "red envelopes."
Except the envelopes they sent were coffin-black and steeped in an ominous aura, jokingly referred to as Black Envelopes. Gao Tian had seen them several times. Whenever he tried to tap one open, the system would ask if he wanted to pay a certain amount of his lifespan. Because of this, he had never actually claimed a single one.
Thinking about it now, those Black Envelopes were the only lifelines left to keep him from drowning.
The Black Envelopes definitely contained items related to the supernatural; otherwise, why would they demand a living person's lifespan as payment? For instance, the cursed Black Envelope sent by Ghost Cave unleashed a Fierce Ghost on whoever claimed it. Since it was nothing good, the lifespan cost was zero.
A young man like Gao Tian still had plenty of lifespan left to burn. But the Chat Group was full of ghosts, and ghosts had no lifespan. To them, the mortal years of the living were far more precious than gold.
Under what circumstances would a ghost spend lifespan—something more valuable than gold or diamonds—to exchange for the items in these Black Envelopes?
Gao Tian wasn't sure if his reasoning was correct. His life had already entered its final countdown; this was a desperate last resort.
As for the cost of a few years of lifespan, that was a negligible price right now. If he couldn't survive the night, what use was the promise of living to a hundred?
Gao Tian swiped up through the chat history as fast as he could. He occasionally spotted Black Envelopes sent by other members, but they had either already been claimed or had expired.
Finally, he managed to dig up an unclaimed Black Envelope. It had been sent by a member with the ID Burned Ghost.The sender had left several messages beneath it, each accompanied by a grinning emoji:
This is a Supernatural Item I recently developed.
Incredibly effective for dealing with specific ghosts.
Brothers and sisters, if anyone has free time, help your little brother take this out and test it on a few wandering spirits. Greatly appreciated.
...
Burned Ghost seemed quite unpopular. The Black Envelope had been sitting in the group for two weeks; not only had no one claimed it, but no one had even replied to him.
One detail was extremely suspicious. Everyone in this group was supposed to be a ghost, so why would Burned Ghost say something like, "incredibly effective for dealing with specific ghosts"?
Would a ghost deliberately develop something to deal with its own kind? Wasn't that a contradiction?
The situation was critical, and Gao Tian had no other options. He couldn't afford to dwell on the anomaly; bracing himself, he tapped the envelope.
The familiar system warning popped up once again:
Are you sure you want to claim the Black Envelope: Urn?
Claiming this Black Envelope requires the payment of 1 year of lifespan.
...
Gao Tian didn't hesitate. He hit confirm.
Immediately after, his body felt lighter, though he wasn't sure if it was just a psychological illusion. It was as if something formless had been extracted from within him.
Gao Tian stood rooted to the spot, waiting quietly for a long time.
Nothing happened.
After he claimed the Black Envelope called Urn, absolutely nothing abnormal happened to him in the real world.
The red-eyed man didn't come looking for him, and the Supernatural Item called Urn didn't appear in front of him, either.
Aside from the extracted year of lifespan, nothing had changed.
Defeated, Gao Tian slumped back onto the park bench. His surroundings were dead silent, save for the wind howling through the sparse trees like nature's own mockery.
The swing across from him creaked as it swayed in the breeze. No one was on it.
Nothing was happening, and Gao Tian couldn't even tell if that was a good thing or a bad thing.
Drenched in cold sweat, his nerves stretched to their absolute limit, he leaned against the backrest. It felt as if the very last ounce of strength required to stand had been drained from his body.
He didn't want to run anymore. Forget it. If he had to die, he might as well die here and enjoy the peace and quiet. Running around blindly might just get more people killed.
Tonight's starry sky was completely cloudless. If he could just forget that he was about to become a corpse, the scenery here was truly beautiful.
Knock, knock, knock.
It sounded exactly like someone knocking on a door. Gao Tian suddenly sensed a silhouette standing right behind him, knocking on the back of the park bench.
Then, a muffled, androgynous voice spoke up:
"Your express delivery has arrived.
"Please sign for it."
Gao Tian could see the tall, dark shadow casting over him. Its broad shoulders, far surpassing human proportions, blocked out most of the streetlight. Its very presence seemed to dim this entire stretch of the park path.
Thud. The sound of a package dropping onto the soft grass. Forcing down his terror, Gao Tian turned his head inch by inch. Even if he was going to die, he wanted to die knowing the truth. He needed to see exactly what kind of thing was standing behind him.
When he finally turned halfway around, he found empty air. No one was there. There was only a perfectly square delivery box sitting on the open patch of grass behind the bench.
The massive shadow had vanished the moment it delivered the item, as if it had never been there at all.
The Urn he had exchanged for a year of his lifespan in the bizarre Chat Group had actually been delivered in less than five minutes through such a macabre method.
A ghost courier? Interesting. The delivery speed was even faster than JD.com. If he could leave feedback, he would definitely give it a five-star review.
Listening to his heart hammer against his ribs, he gripped the armrests, pushed himself up, and walked over to the cardboard box, intending to tear it open with his bare hands.
His hands were shaking so violently that he failed to rip the packing tape several times, dropping the box onto the ground instead. The muffled thud revealed there was something like a wooden box packed with crumpled paper inside.
Gao Tian thought he would never get the cardboard box open. He expected the long-vanished red-eyed man to suddenly appear before he could finish, wearing a face identical to his own, only to kill him and let the new "Gao Tian" take his delivery.
But the red-eyed man never showed up. With his hands drenched in cold sweat, Gao Tian finally managed to tear the cardboard box open, leaving the edges jagged and mangled as if a dog had chewed through them.
Inside sat a small, dark-red box about a palm's width wide. It featured a slot on the top designed to hold a black-and-white portrait of the deceased.
It was just an ordinary urn, completely indistinguishable from the ones sold in normal funeral shops.
With trembling hands, Gao Tian examined it inside and out, hoping to find a lifeline. For a moment, he even suspected he had been played. What if this really was just a normal urn? What if that bastard named Burned Ghost had scammed him out of a year of his lifespan and just sent him a junk box?
Saying it was entirely useless wasn't quite accurate either. At the very least, after he died and was turned to ashes, he could be packed right into it. That would save whoever collected his corpse the trouble of buying one online.
Just as Gao Tian was plunging into absolute despair, he suddenly noticed a white object fall. He hurriedly picked it up and saw it was a small card that had been wedged in the seams of the box, covered densely in tiny text. It had fallen straight to the ground when he was turning the Urn over earlier.
Gripping the small card tightly, Gao Tian immediately returned to the center of the path where the streetlight shone. Holding it up to the glow, he began to read.
It was a small instruction manual:
[User Guide]
Target Audience: Those locked onto and pursued by a Fierce Ghost, unable to escape.
Risk Level: Extremely High. Please use with caution.
Method of Use:
When cursed and relentlessly pursued by a Fierce Ghost, the user may carry this Urn to the scene of the first incident and quietly wait for the pursuing Fierce Ghost to appear.
When the Fierce Ghost appears, all of its Killing Rules will temporarily fail. Following this, the Urn will force the Fierce Ghost into a random game of chance with you.
In this game, human and ghost are on equal footing. Success relies entirely on the luck, strategy, and mentality of both sides.
If you win, the Fierce Ghost will be sealed inside the Urn. Not only will it be unable to continue pursuing humans, but the owner of the Urn will also obtain the Fierce Ghost's Killing Rule.
If the Fierce Ghost wins, the human will not merely die. Even after death, your soul will be bound by the Urn, becoming a puppet for the Fierce Ghost. You will be enslaved by it, suffering endless torment day and night, unable to even scatter your own soul to end the pain.
Therefore, before using this Urn, please ensure you fully understand the rules and the consequences.
Note:
Because the Urn is a newly developed Supernatural Item, its usage is extremely unstable.
The showdown game between human and ghost is entirely randomized. What exact game will be played depends purely on your luck at that moment; even the designer cannot predict it.
Ghost Capacity:
One ghost.
The Urn can only seal one ghost inside at a time.
If you wish to seal a new ghost, you must release the previous ghost and grant it its freedom.
Of course, the designer does not recommend doing so. Once the previous ghost confined within the Urn regains its freedom, the first thing it does will likely be to kill you.
Naturally, if the Urn falls into the hands of a ghost, the number of humans it can enslave has no upper limit.
...
The instruction manual ended completely right there.
The designer of this Supernatural Item had rambled on and on, but Gao Tian quickly summarized it.
Basically, he had to take this box and play a random game with the red-eyed man.
If he won, the red-eyed man went into the Urn, and he would obtain its Killing Rule.
If he lost, he went into the Urn and suffered a fate worse than death.
What was the game? Not even the designer knew; it was purely down to luck.
No wonder no one wanted this thing. While the potential rewards were massive, the risks were even greater. Once you failed, the loss was unimaginable.
Under the rules of the Urn's game, if he lost, he really would have been better off just letting the red-eyed man kill him from the start.
The strange thing was, ever since he got his hands on the Urn, the red-eyed man that had been relentlessly haunting him seemed to have disappeared for quite a while.
Could it be that the mechanics of this Urn were so utterly deranged that even a ghost didn't want to come out and play with it?