Free Web NovelChapter 5: The Thing Above the Ceiling
The hallway smelled like wet graves.
Chunks of concrete littered the floor. Broken pipes hissed steam into the darkness while black water slowly crept across cracked tiles.
Shen Yu stood motionless amid the destruction, staring at the creature from Room 404.
Or rather—
At the thing pretending to be a creature.
Now that he had obtained Death Echo, he could feel something strange leaking from it.
Emotions.
Fragments.
Residual memories buried inside the horror entity.
Fear.
Pain.
Starvation.
And underneath everything else—
A desperate longing. ƒгeewebnovёl.com
The corrupted woman crawled along the ceiling with twisted limbs while the tiny arms protruding from her stomach clawed endlessly at the air.
"...hungry..."
The overlapping voices echoed through the corridor.
The ghost bride floated nearby, crimson sleeves stained with black liquid from the recent clash. Her expression had become unusually grim.
"This is bad."
Shen Yu glanced at her.
"You’ve said that three times already."
"Because you’re too stupid to understand it!"
The bride pointed furiously toward the creature.
"That thing shouldn’t exist inside this dungeon!"
The creature suddenly twisted its head upside down.
Its hair parted slightly.
Just enough for Shen Yu to glimpse dozens of eyes moving beneath it.
Not two.
Dozens.
Different shapes.
Different sizes.
Like multiple faces had fused together under the hair.
His scalp tingled.
Even he found that unsettling.
The creature whispered again:
"...hungry..."
Then all the tiny arms pointed upward simultaneously.
Toward the ceiling.
Shen Yu’s eyes narrowed.
Upward?
The next moment—
BANG.
Something heavy slammed directly above them.
Dust rained down instantly.
The entire hallway shook.
Another impact followed.
BANG!
BANG!
BANG!
The ceiling cracked visibly.
The ghost bride’s expression changed immediately.
"No..."
Shen Yu looked upward slowly.
"What now?"
The bride’s voice turned stiff.
"There’s something above us."
A long crack spread across the ceiling like a spiderweb.
Then—
A tiny pale hand emerged from inside the crack.
Then another.
Then another.
Dozens.
Small childlike hands clawed through the concrete while faint crying echoed from above.
Shen Yu’s eyes sharpened instantly.
"The children."
The bride stared at him.
"You figured it out already?"
"This thing isn’t one ghost."
He pointed at the corrupted woman.
"It’s a collection."
Death Echo continued feeding information into his mind.
Broken emotions.
Murder.
Dismemberment.
Fear trapped in darkness.
Someone had killed multiple victims here.
And whatever happened afterward fused their resentment together into a single unstable entity.
Another loud impact shook the building.
Then—
The ceiling collapsed.
Bodies fell.
At least six child corpses smashed onto the hallway floor like rotten puppets.
Their limbs bent unnaturally.
Their mouths hung open in silent screams.
Black hair connected each corpse together like strings.
The corrupted woman shrieked violently.
"...MINE..."
The corpses immediately began crawling toward Shen Yu.
Fast.
Far too fast.
Shen Yu activated Blink instantly.
Red light flashed beneath his feet.
WHOOSH.
He vanished just before dozens of tiny fingers pierced the floor where he had stood.
The bride floated backward sharply.
"Stop bringing them near me!"
One child corpse suddenly lunged toward her face.
The bride ripped its head off instantly.
Black blood exploded across the wall.
But the severed head kept screaming.
"...hungry hungry hungry hungry—"
"SHUT UP!"
The bride crushed it into pieces.
Shen Yu watched calmly while analyzing everything.
The corpses weren’t attacking randomly.
They were herding.
Trying to corner them.
Meaning the merged entity still possessed intelligence.
Interesting.
Very interesting.
Then his expression shifted slightly.
The hallway itself was changing.
The walls had started bleeding.
Apartment doors trembled violently.
And the numbers above each room slowly twisted into unfamiliar symbols.
The dungeon was destabilizing.
The corrupted entity was infecting the entire floor.
The system suddenly appeared again.
[Warning.]
[Dungeon Corruption Increasing.]
[Current Stability: 71%]
[If stability falls below 30%, forced collapse may occur.]
Shen Yu frowned.
Forced collapse?
That sounded bad.
Very bad.
The bride cursed under her breath.
"If the floor collapses, everyone trapped here gets erased."
"Even ghosts?"
"Yes!"
Shen Yu looked thoughtful.
"So this thing threatens the Horror Realm itself."
The bride glared at him.
"Why do you sound excited about that?"
"Because hidden bosses usually give hidden rewards."
"...You are mentally ill."
"Probably."
A child corpse suddenly launched itself toward him from behind.
This time—
Shen Yu didn’t dodge.
Instead, he stepped forward.
The tiny corpse slammed into his chest and bit directly into his shoulder.
Pain exploded through his nerves.
But Shen Yu activated Death Echo immediately.
Memories flooded his mind.
Darkness.
Water.
A woman screaming.
Children crying.
A knife.
Hair clogging a bathtub drain.
Then—
A man dragging bodies upstairs.
Shen Yu’s eyes widened.
Upstairs.
The source wasn’t Room 404.
That room was only where the resentment gathered.
The real origin lay above this floor.
The child corpse suddenly tore flesh from Shen Yu’s neck.
Blood sprayed across the hallway.
The bride shouted:
"Idiot! Why didn’t you dodge?!"
Shen Yu smiled weakly.
"Needed information."
Then the child corpse ripped out his throat.
Darkness swallowed him instantly.
[Death Confirmed.]
[Pain Rating: Moderate]
[Insight Bonus Triggered.]
Shen Yu revived near the broken stairwell.
The moment he returned, he immediately checked his memories.
The vision remained.
Good.
Death Echo retained more than combat patterns.
It retained fragments of truth.
Now he understood something critical.
"This isn’t a revenge haunting."
The bride floated beside him warily.
"What?"
"The victims aren’t targeting their killer."
He pointed toward the corrupted entity.
"They’re trapped."
The bride frowned.
Shen Yu continued calmly:
"Normally, revenge ghosts prioritize the murderer."
"But this thing attacks everyone indiscriminately."
"Meaning something interrupted the revenge cycle."
The bride slowly froze.
"...A seal."
Shen Yu nodded.
"Exactly."
He looked around the bleeding hallway.
"This entire floor is acting like a cage."
The bride’s expression became ugly.
"That explains the apartment formation..."
"What formation?"
The ghost bride hesitated briefly before answering.
"Some Horror Realm dungeons overlap with real-world spiritual structures."
She pointed at the walls.
"The apartments on this floor form a suppression array."
Shen Yu’s eyes sharpened.
"Someone intentionally trapped the resentment here."
"And if the resentment grows too strong..."
The ghost bride looked toward the ceiling.
"...the seal breaks."
Right then—
A deafening scream erupted from above.
The entire building shook violently.
The child corpses suddenly stopped moving.
Then all of them turned upward simultaneously.
"...mother..."
A massive pressure descended over the hallway.
Shen Yu’s instincts screamed.
Something far worse was waking up.
CRAAAAACK.
The ceiling split apart completely.
Long black hair flooded downward like a waterfall.
But unlike before—
This hair moved with purpose.
It formed shapes.
Faces.
Screaming human faces emerged from the strands while countless whispers filled the corridor.
"...found you..."
"...hungry..."
"...where is my child..."
The ghost bride’s expression finally changed from irritation to genuine alarm.
"No..."
Shen Yu looked at her.
"That reaction again."
She ignored him completely.
Her eyes remained fixed on the darkness above.
Then she whispered:
"The mother woke up."
The hair suddenly surged downward.
Shen Yu activated Blink instantly.
WHOOSH.
He escaped barely in time as the hallway floor exploded beneath the impact.
The ghost bride also dodged backward.
But the hair ignored both of them.
Instead—
It wrapped around the child corpses lovingly.
Like a mother embracing her children.
The overlapping whispers softened slightly.
"...cold..."
"...hurts..."
"...so hungry..."
Shen Yu observed silently.
This was no longer random corruption.
This was a layered haunting.
The mother.
The children.
The murder.
The suppression formation.
And somewhere above—
The killer.
Suddenly, another system notification appeared.
[Hidden Route Progress: 31%]
[Objective Updated:]
Find the origin of the resentment.
Shen Yu smiled slowly.
"There it is."
The bride looked at him like he was insane.
"You’re happy right now?"
"Very."
"You realize we might actually die permanently if the dungeon collapses?"
Shen Yu looked thoughtful for a moment.
Then:
"That would be inconvenient."
The ghost bride nearly screamed.
"Inconvenient?!"
But before she could continue—
The mother entity slowly turned toward Shen Yu.
Beneath the writhing hair, two blood-red eyes opened.
Unlike the others—
These eyes were rational.
Aware.
And full of hatred.
"...you..."
The hallway darkened instantly.
"...you smell like death..."
Shen Yu’s smile faded slightly.
The mother entity could sense his revivals.
Interesting.
Very interesting.
Then the hair began moving again.
Not attacking.
Pointing.
Toward the upper floors.
The mother whispered softly:
"...bring him to me..."
A chill ran through Shen Yu’s spine.
Not fear.
Anticipation.
Because he finally understood.
The hidden route of Coffin Calamity wasn’t about surviving until midnight.
It was about solving a murder.
