Free Web NovelChapter 886: Chapter 850: Who Is the Traitor?
The Big and Small Ghost just stood there rigidly, like it had turned into a cardboard cutout standing at attention.
"Ten minutes are up." Fatty considerately reminded it in a low voice.
The Big and Small Ghost didn’t move at all, just used its two huge eyes to viciously glare at Fatty.
"Pick big or pick small?" At this moment it heard a voice from below, like a demon whispering.
The Big and Small Ghost stiffly rolled its eyeballs downward and saw that the demon below was staring fixedly at it, a terrifying expression plastered all over his face.
It didn’t dare move, and didn’t dare speak either.
"Pick big or pick small?" The demon below asked again, this time a bit louder.
The Big and Small Ghost couldn’t keep pretending it hadn’t heard. It hunched its body as thin as a sheet of paper and quickly replied, "Small."
The word "small" hadn’t even fully left its mouth before it shot out the next sentence at lightning speed: "I lost, I should go up on the platform for exhibition."
Wait a second—Fatty’s eyes went wide. This tense, thrilling little game had lasted not even half a second.
By now the Big and Small Ghost had already launched itself toward the exhibition platform not far away with a speed that caught even lightning off guard.
As long as it got onto the exhibition platform and was scored, it could retire with honor.
Hope was right before its eyes, yet at the same time hopelessly out of reach—its trailing leg was grabbed by that demon behind it.
Gu Mian tightly clenched the human skin in his hand and slowly dragged it back.
The Big and Small Ghost’s Skin had hardly any color to begin with; once Gu Mian grabbed it, its face turned even more ashen, looking like it had completely lost all hope in life.
Gu Mian rolled the human Skin in his hand like toilet paper, rolling it into a long human-skin tube. The Big and Small Ghost’s head was at the very front, so when it was fully rolled up its facial features were exposed on the outermost layer. Fatty could still see its dead-water-like eyes exposed outside.
"This way it’s easier to carry." Gu Mian nodded in satisfaction. He wasn’t planning on letting the ghost go up for scoring yet, and besides, the scorer wasn’t even here—he was still tied up upstairs.
"This is the ghost that was knocking on the door just now?" Fatty leaned in, curiously staring at the human-skin tube in Gu Mian’s hand.
Gu Mian turned and pushed open a crack in the Jinche Room’s greenhouse door behind him, glanced inside, then shook his head. "No."
The last time he pushed the door open he’d seen the Big and Small Ghost’s seedling, but now, looking again, the spot where that seedling had been growing was completely empty. That meant this Big and Small Ghost had just transformed from a seedling into its mature form and left the soil; it had only matured after the knocking sound appeared.
But the Ghost Seeds in the greenhouse were growing way too fast. One moment they were seedlings, the next glance they’d gone straight to maturity, skipping the entire middle developmental stage.
Gu Mian even suspected the scorer had secretly pumped those seeds full of hormones while he wasn’t looking.
"So that means there’s still a ghost somewhere and we don’t know where it is?" As he spoke, Fatty edged a little closer to Gu Mian.
"Yeah." Gu Mian pondered. "Do you still remember the first three seeds that sprouted in the greenhouse?"
"I remember." Fatty tried to recall. "There were two Sacrificial Ghosts, and one plastic-head ghost. That plastic-head ghost bolted in fear the moment it saw the doctor, so there were only two Sacrificial Ghosts left."
"Right. In that case there were at least two Sacrificial Ghost seedlings in the greenhouse, but when I just checked, there was only one left inside."
"Huh?" Fatty scratched his head in confusion. "How’d that happen?"
"Those two Sacrificial Ghosts—one sprouted first, the other popped up later. Fatty, did you see how the first Sacrificial Ghost grew out?" Gu Mian asked.
Fatty nodded. "Yeah, I saw. The scorer was talking about that team that managed to cultivate a Sacrificial Ghost, and then I suddenly noticed the soil by your feet, Doctor, was bulging up. I stared right at it;
"I kept watching and then saw a Ginsengfruit-like little head poking out, then the body, and finally the whole little guy whooshed out just like that."
"But the second Sacrificial Ghost didn’t sprout like that." Gu Mian recalled the scene. "At the time I saw two more sprouts pushing up from the soil. One of them was directly a human head, while the other one grew in a textbook-perfect way."
So standard it looked like the plant seedling from a biology textbook.
It hadn’t looked like a Sacrificial Ghost at first, but by the time 007 reached the greenhouse door, it had already changed appearance.
"So what I saw was the first little Sacrificial Ghost shooting straight out of the soil, but the second Sacrificial Ghost you saw, Doctor, actually didn’t look like a Sacrificial Ghost at the start—it only turned into one later?" Fatty said.
"Yeah." Gu Mian looked back at the main doors of the Jinche Room. "And the Sacrificial Ghost seedling that disappeared is precisely that latter one that changed its form."
"In that case, the second Sacrificial Ghost back then might actually not have been a Sacrificial Ghost," 007 said, frowning. "It can change its form."
"A Shape-shifting Ghost." Keke felt the situation getting tricky.
It might turn into a rock, turn into dust, maybe even turn into another ghost’s appearance. freēwebnovel.com
And now that Shape-shifting Ghost had already left the greenhouse. Very likely the knocking sound they’d heard had been made by that Shape-shifting Ghost, and when Gu Mian opened the door it turned into a speck of dust and slipped out of the greenhouse.
Fatty quickly swept his gaze across all the ghost models in the hall again and didn’t find any extra models. "This Shape-shifting Ghost must be a rare species too. There’s no introduction for it in the hall."
realized something. "If this ghost can turn into other ghosts, then it can turn into a person too, right?"
Hearing that, Fatty tensed up.
He carefully tried to open 007 and Keke’s player panels, and only when both opened normally did he finally breathe out.
Even if a ghost turns into a player’s appearance, it can’t mimic the player panel.
Just then, a hand suddenly settled on his shoulder from behind, and a chilly voice sounded by his ear: "Aren’t you going to try opening mine?"
Fatty was startled by Gu Mian, clutching his heart nervously. "Doctor, we’ve been together this whole time, and besides, ghosts don’t kill each other..."
As he spoke, Fatty sneaked a glance at the Big and Small Ghost in Gu Mian’s hand that looked like it had given up on life.
"I’m not doubting anyone here. After all, ever since we planted the ghosts we’ve been in the hall the whole time and haven’t left anyone’s line of sight," 007 said, pausing for a moment before continuing. "What I mean is... Xie Bi’an."
Right, when Keke used Money Can Make Ghosts Push the Mill just now, the Xie Bi’an upstairs came down.
Then the Big and Small Ghost suddenly appeared, and everyone got sidetracked by it, shifting their attention away from Xie Bi’an.
Gu Mian glanced in the direction where Xie Bi’an had been standing. No one was there now; he’d gone upstairs again at some point.
"Was that really Xie Bi’an just now?" 007 questioned. "It might also have been the Shape-shifting Ghost drawn over by Money Can Make Ghosts Grind, if the ghost had turned into Xie Bi’an’s appearance."
Gu Mian had to stay at the greenhouse door and couldn’t go up to the second floor to investigate.
These ghosts were growing at a pace like they were on hormones, and most of them were rare species. If he left for a bit, who knew how many more would pop out.
The last thing he wanted was to be running all over later, hunting down unknown ghosts.
"Use Ghost Grind one more time and see if Xie Bi’an comes down again." Gu Mian said.
Fortunately, Ghost Grind only reset the user’s Game Coin to zero each time, without limiting how many times it could be used.
Keke’s Game Coin had already been wiped to zero, so she couldn’t use it again.
007’s remaining Game Coin was almost gone, probably not enough to last until the ghost came down from the second floor.
So this time Fatty would be the one to use Money Can Make Ghosts Grind.
Fatty watched his more than one thousand Game Coin drop to zero, heartbroken, his expression twisted with pain.
The moment the millstone appeared, footsteps sounded upstairs again.
