Doomsday Jigsaw Puzzle

Chapter 115: Chapter 115: Seeing a Ghost

Qin Lin found it strange that the bed was so warm, even though he had only just gotten into it.

It felt as though someone had been lying there before him. Despite not being overly courageous, his thought process didn’t lead him toward fear.

He feared tangible dangers but wasn’t afraid of ghosts. If ghosts really existed, Qin Lin thought, they wouldn’t bother him as long as it wasn’t past midnight.

So, he bravely lay down in bed, ƒгeeweɓn૦vel.com

and became the first of the six people to fall asleep.

Even as he started snoring, it hadn’t yet reached midnight, and his quality of sleep was surprisingly good.

As Qin Lin fell into a deeper sleep, the other side of his quilt slowly began to rise.

Strands of black hair entwined around Qin Lin’s neck, which he found itchy; he scratched his neck, smacked his lips, and turned over.

At that moment, the time was 11:59 pm, the last lucky minute he had.

At that time, the greatest fortune was being able to sleep through the spiritual invasion. fɾeewebnoveℓ.co๓

In his dream, Qin Lin became a woman, patiently waiting in a room for a man to return.

This was supposed to happen an hour later, but because Qin Lin was a bit careless, he fell asleep directly and missed the most terrifying scene.

If he had opened his eyes, he would have experienced what Yin Shuang was going through right now.

In the previous hour, Yin Shuang had rummaged through the house, searching every nook and cranny without finding a single fallen hair.

Even the hairs she had just brushed off had disappeared.

The quilt had been cool not too long ago, but when she lay down, it was surprisingly warm.

Even if Yin Shuang fell asleep at that point, it would be a light sleep; she wouldn’t be able to enter deep sleep.

Moreover, she wasn’t asleep, so Yin Shuang saw the most frightening scene unfold.

The quilt slowly swelled up, and a woman with black hair emerged from under it, her back toward Yin Shuang.

Every occupant who moved in would feel fear at night, and Yin Shuang was indeed a bit scared.

So much so that, even though she was an investigator, her first instinct was not to fight but to flee through the door.

But the door... was locked.

Filled with fear and anger, Yin Shuang gave the door a fierce kick.

What happened next was bizarre—

The door did kick open, but outside was not a hallway but the very room she had been trying to leave, with a woman standing with her back to Yin Shuang.

What made Yin Shuang’s scalp tingle was the woman was wearing the same pajamas as her and had a similar figure. Instead of leading to a corridor, the door opened to another identical room.

It is as though there was a loop; kicking open the door only led to another identical room.

The terror of a ghost remains the same even in a post-apocalyptic world because for people, High Tower can keep Evil Fallen at bay, but it can’t keep the fear inside someone’s heart away.

Despite the fact that no one has ever been able to prove their existence, it’s something that always frightens people.

But Yin Shuang was, after all, a member of the Vanguard Group who had experienced field investigations outside the tower. Suppressing the fear in her heart, she took big strides towards the bed, an instantaneous leap with long legs, and flipped the quilt open, ready to confront the female ghost head-on.

But the moment the quilt was lifted, all she felt was a cool, ticklish sensation on her neck. There was nothing in the bed.

The lights in the whole room suddenly started to flicker.

"Are you looking for me?" a shrill female voice reached her ears.

Countless doors opened, and the same phrase echoed from many rooms at once, all the women with their backs turned to Yin Shuang suddenly spun around.

Their wretched faces all stared directly at Yin Shuang.

Seeing this, Yin Shuang’s head buzzed, and her mind went blank.

Then, she collapsed to the ground, passing out.

In her dream, she became another woman.

At that time, Qin Lin was fortunate; he didn’t have to go through the scene just now, skipping the most terrifying part and jumping directly into the spiritual invasion.

Otherwise, as someone who has typically been a mascot, mostly mingling in the white areas and being inconspicuous, the scene Yin Shuang had just experienced would probably have left Qin Lin with a mental scar.

...

...

Lin Wurou punched the mirror and shattered it. He gasped for air.

Just moments ago, he had seen his reflection in the mirror, smiling at him.

Combined with the knocking sounds that always came soon after he lay in bed, Lin Wurou decided to smash the mirror.

The mirror, which should have been mounted on the wall as a cabinet door, now lay in pieces on the ground, and the "Lin Wurous" inside the broken fragments were still smiling at him.

However, Lin Wurou’s attention was entirely seized by the deep, dark passage revealed behind the broken mirror.

"Come and play with me."

What should have been a cabinet for toiletries had suddenly turned into a tunnel with no visible end.

Lin Wurou listened to the voices coming from inside and cursed.

"Damn it, this is so sinister!"

He felt an indescribable sense of danger and decided to leave the place.

But what awaited Lin Wurou was an even deeper layer of terror.

The door seemed like a device that angered the evil spirits of the manor; anyone who tried to open it would be punished!

After Lin Wurou discovered the door was locked and forcefully broke it open, all he saw were numerous mirrors and a passage leading to a pitch-dark depth.

All his reflections in the mirrors were making different gestures, like numerous little children showing off their mischief.

Lin Wurou instinctively felt something and stepped back a few steps.

But deep within the tunnel, it seemed something was approaching.

"Do you also like eating layered cake?"

"Do you think my clothes are pretty?"

Bang!

Lin Wurou suddenly closed the door, and all the terrifying images vanished.

The oppressive sensation coming from the vast dark tunnel outside the door dissipated quickly, and he breathed with difficulty, wondering what exactly had happened here, but he forgot that there was another tunnel.

A black arm reached out from the dressing cabinet and covered Lin Wurou’s mouth.

"I love eating layered cake the most, Mom made it, and Dad fed it to me!"

...

...

The barking of dogs outside kept Wu Jiu from falling asleep; it was the first time he had heard such a sound from an animal, yet strangely, it did not feel unfamiliar to him.

Wu Jiu was the bravest of them all, not counting Bai Wu—that wasn’t so much bravery as it was madness.

Therefore, Wu Jiu did not close the window; instead, he chose to sleep through the barking. For Wu Jiu, being aware of the movements outside was essential.

If the animals were barking due to some external force frightening them, he needed to be more alert, willing to catch up on sleep during the day, as he had decided to protect everyone during the night.

The window was not closed, and so the television remained silent.

All the events that occurred in the manor today seemed to Wu Jiu like a bowl of sweet soup with a few drops of blood mixed in.

The whole bowl was still red, but the faint sense of fear lingering in his heart was something he could never wipe away.

He certainly hadn’t really fallen asleep. This was outside the Tower, and he wouldn’t consider it truly safe.

But four hours had passed without any negative attributes, and he hadn’t sensed any Evil Fallen.

As it neared midnight, the barking stopped.

Wu Jiu hadn’t fallen asleep; the window remained open, so he heard the sound.

It was the sound of hands tapping on something.

This sound, though, seemed very ethereal, different from the knocking on the bathroom door that Lin Wurou heard.

Wu Jiu frowned, the sound seemed to come from the opposite direction, and he hadn’t noticed the books on the shelves or that the television was actually switched on all this time while resting with closed eyes.

He and Bai Wu were different, at this moment Bai Wu was examining the mysteries of the television set, rummaging through drawers and cabinets in search of the remote control, while also noticing that the door was surprisingly locked by some external force, unless it was broken through.

Bai Wu didn’t break the door but continued to search for clues.

Meanwhile, Wu Jiu arrived at the window and witnessed a bizarre scene.

He was facing the window of Bai Wu’s villa. There was someone by the window.

Wu Jiu looked at this person, and this person also looked back at Wu Jiu.

In the darkness, it was impossible to see the details clearly, but Wu Jiu felt that this person was not Bai Wu.

Suddenly concerned about Bai Wu’s safety, he made a hand signal secret to the Investigation Corps towards the person by the window.

Almost simultaneously, the figure by the window made the exact same hand signal.

What Wu Jiu conveyed was, "Who are you?"

The response given back to Wu Jiu was, "Who are you?"

Wu Jiu found it very strange, took a step back, and prepared to find Bai Wu immediately.

But the figure outside the window at the corresponding villa also took a step back, as if it too were about to search for something.

The vigilant Wu Jiu suddenly realized that the other person’s movements were incredibly synchronized with his own.

So Wu Jiu stopped abruptly and made a waving gesture.

The other party also made the same waving gesture, as if a shadow mimicking Wu Jiu.

Wu Jiu was slightly taken aback and called out loudly:

"Bai Wu, is that you?"

"I am not called Bai Wu."

The response came swiftly, but the voice did not come from across the way; at least to Wu Jiu, it seemed as if the voice came from somewhere very close.

Wu Jiu decided to get closer, he stuck his head out of the window, and at the same time, the figure in the villa across stuck their head out too.

Although the team leader was very brave, his heart was still racing.

Surrounded by darkness, he still couldn’t see the person clearly, but he had a premonition that what he was seeing... was a reflection.

Unclear.

Unless he went to that villa.

Wu Jiu decided to leave, but the moment he was about to turn around, the scenes in both windows ceased to be mirror images of each other.

In the room of the other villa, Wu Jiu saw another tall figure, holding an electric saw standing behind the person whose movement had mirrored his own.

Anxious to help, Wu Jiu shouted loudly:

"Danger! Behind you!"

"Danger! Behind you!"

Two voices sounded at the same time; this time Wu Jiu heard it, coming from across the way.

He was startled, turned his head to look, and saw a middle-aged man holding an electric saw, staring at him with a ferocious expression.

"I am not called Bai Wu."

The last thing Wu Jiu heard was the middle-aged man’s words, followed by the sound of the window slamming shut.

...

...

There were five minutes left until midnight.

Bai Wu was uncertain whether the experiences of everyone else in the other rooms were similar.

One person, when afraid and rational, extremely afraid and extremely rational, would have very different behaviors, and correspondingly, the feedback from the environment would also be different.

Bai Wu believed she might have found the most clues. For example, the television program was actually reporting about the area of Food City, some events before the apocalyptic migration.

This place was likely a luxurious manor on the outskirts of Food City.

The female host was very skilled at cooking, probably a famous female chef, and moreover, a beautiful one.

The man was responsible for food ingredient trading.

They had a daughter.

And... they had boat tickets.

Whether the boat tickets were still in the manor or not, Bai Wu wasn’t sure.

He still lacked some clues.

"It seems that the clues obtained by closing and opening the windows cannot be obtained at the same time... My damn compulsion to collect all saves..."

Bai Wu discovered that closing and opening seemed to correspond to some sort of mystery.

At least after he closed the window, the atmosphere in the room changed instantly, and some force tried to prevent him from opening the window.

But he couldn’t explain why this was all happening.

Even though extreme rationality could yield the most information, there were also some clues that required a proper atmosphere of fear to trigger.

Just like Bai Wu had no desire to open the door, but the others, except for Wu Jiu, were all scared and wanted to flee.

Seeing all the different conditions inside the rooms as much as possible was the only way to restore them to the maximum extent.

In the end, Bai Wu closed the window for the sake of the TV program, so he didn’t see the chainsaw man scene, otherwise, his deductions could have gone deeper.

"Since I entered this manor, I haven’t seen anything abnormal... But the lack thereof is an abnormality in itself."

Prayle’s Eye had given feedback that there was a problem when he first saw the manor’s gate, but after entering the manor, Bai Wu had not seen anything unusual.

The window, with its soundproofing so extreme that it felt like stepping into a different dimension.

A TV that could broadcast programs from seven hundred years ago, with a female ghost’s face popping up for pranks every so often.

All of this seemed normal, and Bai Wu even remembered something—when he went to the kitchen and saw the refrigerator, there was nothing unusual about it.

This was the most eerie thing of all.

"If Prayle’s Eye stopped working, there should be no pop-up notes, but that didn’t happen. That means one thing..."

Bai Wu’s eyes widened:

"These things are indeed normal, the source of the abnormality doesn’t lie in these objects, but in something else."

"What could it be? Hiss... If only there were cameras, I could see what’s happening in the other rooms, and I might be able to deduce what happened here today, what the secret of this manor is."

"Should I go out and check? Maybe I could get some clues from the dog."

Bai Wu did what he thought and decisively opened the door.

Although his purpose and mood for opening the door were different from the others’, the subsequent reactions triggered by the action were the same.

"Eh, what kind of spatial rule is this?"

Obviously, outside the door was not a corridor, but a room identical to the one he was in.

Bai Wu found it very interesting.

"Will this be triggered every time? If so, this manor could house a lot more people."

Without any hesitation, Bai Wu decided to explore this repeating scene to see if there was an end to it. He pulled out a drawer underneath the TV by one centimeter.

Then he walked into the next room.

In this room, Bai Wu noticed that the drawer under the TV cabinet was also pulled out by one centimeter.

"Interesting. This basically means that I have returned to the room I was in, right?"

"A looping space?"

Until now, Bai Wu still had no negative emotions.

Mr. Wang upstairs, ear pressed against the floor, tried to listen for any movement below.

He didn’t understand... why he couldn’t hear any intense commotion.

Could it be that this person... wasn’t afraid? Or had they fainted from fear already? Had the ritual begun?

Mr. Wang heard the sound of the door opening, a mix of joy and fear, because opening the door was taboo. The scene he saw when he first opened the door was still unforgettable; he even thought that after leaving the manor, he would spend the rest of his life digesting these fears...