Free Web NovelChapter 1: Chapter 1: Chat Group
"It seems a living person has snuck in among the dozens of us ghosts."
At 1:00 AM, Gao Tian was still at his desk by the window, working through practice problems. Suddenly, his phone buzzed, a new message popping up on the screen.
It was a message from a group member named Ghost Cave.
Gao Tian glanced at his phone, his first instinct to mute the group’s notifications.
Gao Tian had joined this bizarre group chat, the Jialan Society, about a month ago. He had just failed his college entrance exams and was preparing to spend a year studying to retake them. After renting an off-campus apartment, he joined a bunch of group chats for students in the same boat. He wasn’t sure how, but at some point, he had ended up in this strange chat group called the Jialan Society.
He must have joined it by accident, a slip of the finger while browsing. It had absolutely nothing to do with studying for his exams.
The members all had strange usernames, like Ghost Infant, Ghost Cave, "Living Person Apartment," and "Immolated Ghost." They often discussed bizarre and terrifying horror stories. For instance, they’d claim a car crash at a specific time and place was a supernatural event, or that everyone in a certain hospital had been replaced by ghosts but appeared to be functioning normally to outsiders. They even said that a certain church’s exorcism had been a complete failure, and the only reason it was declared a success was because the priest himself had been possessed...
Occasionally, members would also send "red packets" in the chat. Normal red packets were a festive, cheerful red, but this group’s were a dead, flat black with a faint border that made them look unnervingly like miniature coffins. The names of these packets were even more morbid: "Supernatural Item," "Ash Box," "Spirit-Sucking Pot," "Blood Shroud"...
Gao Tian still hadn’t left the group. He figured they were just some niche subculture enthusiasts, and it was all pretty interesting to read. The only thing was, these people were a little unhinged. They discussed their horror stories with dead seriousness, fleshing out every last detail as if they were completely immersed in a role-play. Sometimes, as he read, Gao Tian would even start to wonder if their stories were actually real. ƒгeeweɓn૦vel.com
So today, when he saw the serious tone of the member named Ghost Cave, Gao Tian couldn’t help but chuckle to himself. ’I wonder what kind of game they’re playing this time.’
’I’ve been lurking in this group by accident for over a month, and now my cover is finally blown?’
[Ghost Infant]:
Ghost Cave, what proof do you have?
[Ghost Cave]:
I don’t know. A gut feeling.
[Ghost Infant]:
(Mocking sticker)
If your gut is so good, how come your wife and kid all died during the Rainy Woman incident?
[Ghost Cave]:
Believe me. For the past month, whenever we’ve been chatting in here, I’ve felt the eyes of a living person watching us.
They’re observing us.
Living people aren’t allowed in this group. If there’s one here, we have to kill them.
[Living Person Apartment]:
@Ghost Cave What are you going to do?
Hunt down everyone who’s lurking and kill them through their internet connection?
[Ghost Cave]:
Too much trouble.
Some of our members are underground, or at the bottom of the ocean. Some aren’t even on Earth.
Besides, my time is running out. I can’t waste it on a single living person.
Let’s do this: I’ll send out a "black packet." All of you need to claim it.
This black packet is a curse. Anyone who opens it will be hunted by a vengeful spirit called "Shattered Face" until they’re dead.
[Ghost Infant]:
(Scared sticker)
Waaah, I’m so scared.
If I open the black packet, will that vengeful spirit come after me, too?
[Ghost Cave]:
@Ghost Infant.
Are you an idiot?
You’re already a ghost. You can’t die a second time.
But it’s different for the living person. As long as they open the packet, they’re dead for sure.
If anyone doesn’t open the packet, or just leaves the group...
Ghost Infant, you track them down through their ID and kill them.
[Ghost Infant]:
(Worshipful sticker)
[Ghost Cave]:
After you kill the living person who snuck in, don’t forget to kick their account from the group.
@Group Admin Living Person Apartment
...
...
User [Ghost Cave] has sent a black packet.
Reading this, Gao Tian still found it a little amusing.
But for some reason, he felt a bead of cold sweat break out on his forehead.
"It’s gotten cold so fast."
Gao Tian stood up and slid the glass window shut.
When he returned to his seat, he saw that [Living Person Apartment], [Ghost Infant], and over twenty other members had already claimed the black packet from [Ghost Cave]. The number of members who hadn’t claimed it was dwindling, with more people opening it every second.
’So, what now? Should I claim the black packet too, or just pretend I haven’t seen it?’
Gao Tian didn’t really believe that someone from a chat group could actually track him down through the internet and kill him just because he’d accidentally joined. But if he didn’t claim the packet, Ghost Cave would soon realize he was the infiltrator. At the very least, the group admin would kick him out immediately.
To be honest, Gao Tian found the conversations in the group pretty entertaining. He didn’t want to get kicked out so soon. He wanted to see what other ghost stories these people could cook up.
As he reached out to tap the black packet, cold sweat beaded on his fingertips again.
He didn’t know why, but his temples were throbbing violently. An exceptionally strange thought surfaced in his mind:
’Is it possible... that everyone in this group is actually a ghost?’
’And what I thought were stories... were actually documentaries?’
Gao Tian was startled by his own thought, then let out a disbelieving laugh.
According to Ghost Cave, if he didn’t open the black packet, his identity as a living person would be exposed.
Death.
But opening the black packet meant activating a curse. A vengeful spirit would soon come knocking.
Also death.
’If this group really is full of ghosts, then no matter what I choose, I’m dead either way, aren’t I?’
In the chat, every user had claimed Ghost Cave’s black packet—except for Gao Tian.
Gao Tian was running out of time.
He had to make a choice.
Gao Tian tapped the black packet.
A prompt popped up on his screen:
Claiming this black packet requires a payment of 0 years of life.
Do you wish to make this payment voluntarily?
...
The word "voluntarily" was even bolded, as if to make sure the user didn’t miss it.
’Looks like these "ghosts" have their principles,’ he thought. ’They’ll kill you, but they won’t force a transaction on you.’
The moment he claimed the packet, his phone screen instantly flashed to an image, appearing so suddenly it caught him completely off guard—
It was a large, pale face.
It was impossible to tell if it was male or female, because its skin was too white—so white it seemed to reflect light, almost completely obscuring its features. All that remained was the contour of a face, like a blank sheet of paper.
The only thing that was horrifyingly clear about this faceless person was its eyes. They were blood-red, with no pupils, and they stared intently at Gao Tian from the screen. It was like two dots of red ink staining a white page.
[Living Person Apartment]:
@Ghost Cave
Everyone in the group claimed your black packet.
Correction: all the ghosts did.
[Ghost Infant]:
@Ghost Cave
We didn’t find the living person. Awww.
I thought I was going to have a job to do tonight.
[Ghost Cave]:
Heh.
So the living person is a crafty one, silently watching our chat history all this time.
Perhaps they’ve already realized they’ve joined a ghost chat group, but they’ve disguised themselves well, rarely speaking and never drawing attention.
But it doesn’t matter. As long as they opened that black packet, they’re dead without a doubt.
We don’t need to worry about them anymore.
[Ghost Infant]
@Ghost Cave
Seriously, I think you might be a little too paranoid.
It’d be embarrassing if it turns out you’ve just been shadowboxing with thin air all night.
[Ghost Cave]
Heh.
...
...
For the rest of the night, no one else spoke in the strange chat group known as the Jialan Society.
Gao Tian stared at his phone. The creepy, white-faced, red-eyed image had only flashed on the screen for an instant after he opened the packet before vanishing without a trace.
For the next half hour, he couldn’t focus on his schoolwork. He was working on a true-or-false section of an English practice test, and out of ten questions, he managed to get seven wrong. He would have scored better if he’d just guessed the same answer for all of them.
Feeling his mind wander, Gao Tian put down his practice test and glanced again at the black phone sitting on the corner of his desk.
’Reading their chat history... it really doesn’t seem like they’re joking.’
’They really want to find the extra person and kill them.’
’If... and this is just an if...’
’Even if there’s only a one-in-ten-thousand chance—’
’—that every single word spoken in this insane group is true.’
Gao Tian slowly stood up, needing to clear his head.
Just then, he glanced down through his third-floor window. In an empty part of the residential alley below, a strange figure was standing in the shadow of a streetlight, looking up in his direction.
It was a silhouette, impossible to identify as male or female. From this distance, the only thing he could make out was that its face was white—so white it seemed to glow, washing out all its features.
The "person’s" eyes were a sheet of blood-red. There were no pupils. It just stood there motionless, staring up at his third-floor window.
Gao Tian’s mind went blank with a deafening ROAR.
Without a doubt, it was the same not-quite-human creature from the photo in the black packet.
It took him both an instant and nearly a month to finally realize: this group wasn’t for some niche subculture at all. Every single user was a ghost. The so-called horror stories they told, the threats to hunt someone down through the internet and kill them... it was all real.
’I just opened the packet and glanced at a photo of a white face. And it found me, right below my apartment, this quickly?’
It was just as Ghost Cave had said.
The vengeful spirit was here.
