Gao Tian stood on the deserted park path, holding the Urn, lost in thought for a long time.
Now the question was: should he play this game?
It seemed Gao Tian didn't have much of a choice.
From being relentlessly hunted by a ghost at the very beginning, to the taxi driver looking at him like a dead man walking before driving off, to now finally possessing a means to fight back and slightly control his own fate—this was already a massive step forward.
Even if the hope was so slim it was almost negligible, he had to grasp it. He couldn't just stand there like an idiot, waiting for the Fierce Ghost to come find him.
Furthermore, even though the Urn's game was an unknown, the potential rewards were tremendous. If he succeeded, not only would he survive this ordeal, but he could even seal the red-eyed man inside it and, in turn, obtain its Killing Rule.
It would be a complete reversal of the natural order.
According to the instructions, the wielder needed to bring the Urn back to the original scene where the Fierce Ghost began its pursuit to achieve the best effect, right?
Gao Tian had been on the Third Floor of Pingshui Apartment when he opened the Black Envelope, only to be targeted and hunted by the red-eyed man who appeared out of thin air in the alley. Therefore, the best strategy now was to return to Pingshui Apartment, back to his room on the Third Floor. The starting point of it all.
Since the red-eyed man wasn't coming for him, he would take the initiative and go find it.Walking along the park path, Gao Tian had originally wanted to make some preparations before heading back. But thinking it over, there was no need. The game arranged by the Urn was completely random—how could anyone prepare for that?
Gao Tian didn't know how long he walked on the journey home. He kept going until his legs felt like they were filled with lead.
At the entrance of Pingshui Apartment in the dead of night, the guard in the security booth was gone, vanished to who-knows-where. Returning to Building 3, he found a police cordon hastily strung across the entrance—a blockade that existed only in name.
It was probably just like the taxi driver had said: there were far too many supernatural incidents happening lately, to the point where even the police couldn't handle them anymore.
Society as a whole was already in a state of semi-loss of control, with terrifying things happening around everyone every single day. The normal life Gao Tian once knew had, at some unknown point, ceased to exist.
Tonight, he had finally seen the true face of this world.
Gao Tian casually tore down the police line and stepped into the stairwell.
Hearing his footsteps, the voice-activated lights let out a loud hiss, flickering erratically, no longer able to illuminate the corridor as they usually did.
Gao Tian's footsteps landed on the stairs, emitting dull, heavy thuds.
He didn't deliberately hide his footsteps like he had when fleeing Pingshui Apartment. Quite the opposite—Gao Tian was waiting for the ghost to find him. He was intentionally exposing his whereabouts to bait it into appearing.
No matter what, everything would be thoroughly settled tonight.
In the dark hallway, Gao Tian felt like he stepped in something sticky. Black liquid oozed out from under the nearby residents' doors, flooding more than half the corridor floor and reeking of blood.
Some of the apartments he passed had their front doors sitting wide open at three or four in the morning, their pitch-black interiors completely exposed, devoid of any human sound.
Gao Tian ignored these bizarre and eerie anomalies. Expressionless, he just held the Urn in his hands, passing the second floor and stepping onto the Third Floor.
He patted his coat pocket; he had been in such a rush when leaving that he forgot his keys. He originally thought he might not be able to get back inside, but when he reached his door, he found that the security door—as thick as a book—had been brutally torn open by some terrifying, inhuman force. More than half of it was ripped away, left completely deformed and ruined.
It was truly a monstrous strength beyond human imagination.
Fleeing immediately instead of trying to fight it head-on with a baseball bat had been the absolute right choice.
Gao Tian bent over and ducked through the massive, shattered hole to enter his home.
The inside of the apartment was destroyed beyond recognition. The bed, wardrobe, and desk had all been smashed and thrown about, reduced to a floor full of debris. A heavy stench of blood wafted from the kitchen, which was piled high with black clutter, accompanied by the buzzing of flies.
It seemed that after the red-eyed man climbed into his apartment and failed to find him, it threw a massive tantrum to vent its anger, then barged into the other residents' homes to unleash a retaliatory massacre. Only after that did it leave Pingshui Apartment to relentlessly pursue him all the way to the park.
Gao Tian didn't bother checking the kitchen. Instead, he found a relatively clear spot and sat down. Placing the Urn in front of him, he quietly waited for his fate to arrive.
That thing didn't make him wait long.
A moment later, heavy footsteps echoed from the hallway outside. The owner of the footsteps drew closer and closer, stopping in silence for a brief moment in front of Gao Tian's door. Then, from inside, Gao Tian heard the entire security door being forced open. The owner of the footsteps walked in, continuing toward the inner room.
It was here.
As the distance between them rapidly closed, the muscles all over Gao Tian's body tensed up once again.
He was separated from the ghost by only a thin wall. To be honest, at this very moment, Gao Tian started to feel a twinge of regret. He began to doubt if coming back on his own initiative was a wise choice at all. Perhaps staying at the park, where the Fierce Ghost had already stopped chasing him, would have been better.
After all, compared to a human, a ghost's power was simply too overwhelming. Once it found him, all it needed to do was kill him on the spot. It had absolutely no reason to sit down and play some bullshit game with him.
Now, he could only pin his hopes on this Urn actually having the effects promised in its instructions.
With a sharp crack, the wooden bedroom door was kicked in by the intruder, breaking as easily as a piece of paper.
The humanoid silhouette standing at the doorway, its bleeding red eyes radiating an ominous glow in the dark, stepped inside, one step at a time.
The two Gao Tians met.
Gao Tian saw that the ghost had copied a face nearly identical to his own, except its skin was pale as a corpse and both of its eyes were murky and crimson. The only other thing it still lacked was a right eye socket. Save for that missing eye, it was an exact replica of him.
Upon encountering Gao Tian, "Gao Tian" didn't rush to attack; it merely stood by the door. The two Gao Tians observed each other.
Until the Urn placed in front of Gao Tian slowly opened on its own, untouched by anyone. Countless pale gray ashes burst from the bottom of the box, rushing out like a living waterfall, scattering into the dark room and dancing through the air.
At the same time, bizarre rules automatically formed in the minds of both Gao Tian and "Gao Tian":
"Congratulations on drawing the simplest game: Rock, Paper, Scissors!
"The rules of the game are perfectly ordinary: Rock beats Scissors, Scissors beats Paper, and Paper beats Rock. You will play a best two-out-of-three match. The first to win twice will win this game.
"In the event of a draw, that round is automatically voided, and you will proceed to the next round.
"Now, the rules of the game have been fully explained. Please begin the game as soon as possible.
"If a winner has not been decided after ten minutes, then regardless of whether you are human or ghost, both parties will be judged as losers and imprisoned within the Urn."
...
The game they drew was Rock, Paper, Scissors—something even a child could play.
This game involved almost no strategy; winning relied ninety-nine percent on luck.
Furthermore, as Gao Tian listened to the rules, he noticed the "Gao Tian" opposite him was standing motionless and expressionless, clearly also listening intently to the Urn's rules.
Without a doubt, the Urn had truly taken effect. Although he had no idea how it did it, even a ghost this powerful was forced to completely obey the rules laid out by the Supernatural Item without overstepping a single boundary.
Knowing this, Gao Tian relaxed a little inside. Even if this was a game based entirely on luck, at least he had a chance to win. It was a thousand times better than his first encounter with the red-eyed man, where he was chased down half the street like a wild dog, only to be slaughtered on the roadside like one.
Just before the game was about to begin, Gao Tian looked up at his opponent and tried to communicate.
After all, the chance to have a face-to-face interaction with a ghost wasn't easy to come by; this might be the only time in his life.
Tense to the absolute limit, he actually ended up relaxing completely. Even if he was going to die, he shouldn't die with a bitter look on his face.
Gao Tian spoke:
"Hey. Even if you're a ghost, you must have been alive once, right?
"Do you still remember your memories of being human? What does it feel like to become a ghost?
"I've always been curious. For a Fierce Ghost like you, filled with resentment and constantly hunting the living—is it really that fun?
"Also, why do you have to turn into my exact appearance? What happens when you completely transform into a face identical to mine?"
"Gao Tian's" bloodshot, murky pupils simply stared back at him without a shred of emotion. Its chiseled lips didn't let out a single sound.
It seemed this foul thing was refusing to communicate with him.
Had the Urn not been here to suppress it, it probably wouldn't have bothered stopping at the door. It would have just barged right in and torn him to pieces.
Since the Fierce Ghost was introverted and didn't like to chat, Gao Tian didn't force the issue.
The best two-out-of-three game of Rock, Paper, Scissors began. Round one.
One man and one ghost threw out their arms at the exact same time. Before his hand even fell through the air, Gao Tian's brain was calculating at lightning speed.
To say that Rock, Paper, Scissors was a game of one-hundred-percent luck wasn't entirely accurate. It also contained elements of mind games and counter-strategies that could slightly increase one's win rate.
For example, according to statistics, when an ordinary person engages in the first round of a match, the probability of them throwing Rock is the highest, reaching up to 37.5%.
This was because a rock was formed by clenching the hand into a fist, and a fist was what brought humans the greatest sense of power and control. Using a fist for the first probing attack to smash the enemy's defenses aligned perfectly with most people's psychology.
If his opponent threw Rock in the first round, then Gao Tian should choose Paper to counter the Rock and securely claim victory in round one.
But what if he was thinking on the second level, and the ghost was on the third? What if the ghost thought of everything he did, and "Gao Tian" anticipated his move, throwing Scissors to counter his Paper? What then?