Free Web NovelChapter 108: Chapter 26: Braving Death to Open the Door
The old man was like a ghost, appearing out of nowhere inside the police cordon. He stood in an open space before the ruins of Jin Hai Mansion, tapping his large tobacco pipe on the ground and muttering strange words:
’Not an ordinary ghost... There are traces of a Ghost Realm having been deployed...
’Strange, it seems more than one ghost appeared here...
’What are these fledglings trying to do, have a group party in Shanghai?...
’To force a vicious ghost to deploy its Ghost Realm... Inside Jin Hai Mansion, a ghost was fighting something.
’Shanghai... When did such a remarkable person appear here? How have I never heard of them...’
Seeing the old man completely lost in his own world, ignoring the thick smoke and the debris teetering high above, Ai Ning couldn’t take it anymore. She lifted the police cordon and went inside.
"Sir."
"It’s dangerous here. According to regulations, you need to leave immediately."
She called out three times, but the rustic old man in the military greatcoat was so arrogant he didn’t even bother to lift his head and glance at her. Even someone as good-tempered as Ai Ning was starting to lose her patience.
"Sir, why must you be so stubborn?"
"If you don’t leave now, I’ll have to remove you by force for your own safety."
Ai Ning did have a Supernatural Artifact on her. While it would struggle against a true vicious ghost, taking on three or four ordinary people was no problem at all, let alone removing a stubborn old man.
Only then did the old man in the military greatcoat seem to notice someone was beside him. He slowly raised an eyebrow and glanced at Ai Ning, his wrinkled face creasing as he squinted.
"Remove me?"
"You think you can, little girl?"
Hearing the mockery in his tone, Ai Ning retorted indignantly,
"That’s right. Me."
"Don’t blame me for what comes next, old-timer. It’s for your own safety."
The old man chuckled, tapping his large pipe on the ground to knock out the ash.
"Run along home, little girl."
"We’re colleagues. I’m with the Spirit Disaster Bureau, too. I’ll take it from here."
Hearing this, Ai Ning couldn’t help but laugh.
"Mister, do you take me for a fool?"
"Just to get into the Spirit Disaster Bureau, your clothes alone are a failing grade. Not to mention, according to Rule 147... you need to at least show some identification to prove..."
Before she could finish, Ai Ning abruptly fell silent.
Because the old man in the military greatcoat, the one who had appeared inside the cordon like a ghost, vanished into thin air the very next second, leaving no trace behind.
What the...
Ai Ning rubbed her eyes, making sure she wasn’t seeing things.
’Was I just talking to myself this whole time?’
Just as Ai Ning was wondering if she was hallucinating or under the influence of some supernatural power, and trying to recall what the Safety Manual said to do in this situation,
Suddenly, the countless people on the ground below tilted their heads back, staring at the burning upper floors of the mansion, and began to scream.
It was as if they had just witnessed something unbelievable.
Many people immediately pulled out their phones and started filming the highest floor of Jin Hai Mansion, the part that had not yet collapsed.
Ai Ning subconsciously looked up as well, toward the high-up spot that was causing the crowd to scream and film.
What she saw was the old man in the military greatcoat. He had somehow appeared at the very top of Jin Hai Mansion, standing on a piece of debris jutting out from a collapsed support pillar.
He stood there as if on a narrow bridge.
A sea of fire raged before him. Below his feet, a dizzying drop into the abyss.
With the fire on the upper floors still raging out of control, the small outcropping the old man stood on could collapse at any second.
Yet he seemed completely unfazed. A hundred meters up in the air, he calmly took a puff from his pipe as if he were on solid ground, then tapped the stone pillar beneath his feet with it.
The fierce wind whipped his military greatcoat, making it flutter wildly behind him like a cape.
Ai Ning tried to get a closer look, but in the blink of an eye, the old man a hundred meters up in the air was gone again.
...
...
The Rainy Woman was blocking the apartment entrance. The building’s rules prevented her from entering, but they also prevented anyone else from getting in or out.
Jiang Yang felt a headache coming on. He couldn’t stay in the apartment for the rest of his life. If someone had to leave for a green-text mission right now, it would be a disaster.
Just as they reached a stalemate, a black hole materialized in the first-floor lobby. A second resident had used a black card and been teleported here.
Gao Tian landed on the sofa. Before he could even steady himself, he saw a tall woman holding an umbrella outside the lobby’s glass doors. Her exposed jaw was pressed against the glass as she watched the every move of the two men inside.
The scene couldn’t have been more grotesque.
Gao Tian turned his head instinctively and asked,
"Is that the Rainy Woman?"
He never imagined that right after discussing this very entity with Xu Yuan at the Divine Tree, he would return to the "living person’s apartment" only to see her in the flesh.
Speak of the devil.
Jiang Yang sounded bitter.
"Yeah. I ran into her at the subway station."
"I thought using the black card to get back to the apartment would be the end of it. I never expected she’d be special enough to follow me here."
"Sorry. You’re probably involved now."
The Rainy Woman’s initial killing pattern was that anyone who saw a video of her would become a vector for the curse and be taken away by her on a rainy day.
Seeing her in person was even worse. Gao Tian was most likely infected now.
Even if the apartment could suppress the entity’s curse, the Rainy Woman had already seen Gao Tian’s face. And besides, they couldn’t leave anyway.
One problem after another. To make matters worse, lines of green text began to slowly materialize on the far wall of the first-floor lobby.
A new green-text mission had been issued.
It was impossible to know whose mission it was, but it meant that one of the apartment’s residents had to leave the safety of the building.
Now, they couldn’t lie low even if they wanted to.
Jiang Yang loaded the cylinder of his revolver, gritted his teeth, and made a decision.
"Forget it. I’ll go out and lead this fledgling away."
"I won’t drag anyone else into this."
Gao Tian stared out the glass door at the woman’s eerie, smiling chin visible beneath her umbrella.
"It hasn’t come to that. Don’t go out yet."
"If you leave the apartment’s safe zone now, you’ll die for sure."
’This might actually be an opportunity.’
If the Rainy Woman was allowed to continue spreading her corruption and growing stronger in Shanghai, she would become a completely unsolvable S-Level event.
Because of his vow to the Fallen Evil Buddha, even though Gao Tian knew this secret, he absolutely could not tell anyone, not even the Spirit Disaster Bureau. He couldn’t even allow himself to think about it.
But he had sworn not to tell anyone; he had never sworn not to capture the Rainy Woman.
Gao Tian still had an empty funerary urn. It had originally been used to suppress the Ghost Infant, but now that the Ghost Infant was gone, the urn was empty again.
If he could use this urn to force the Rainy Woman into a game, he might be able to successfully imprison her with the help of his ghostly luck.
That would solve the apartment’s current crisis and, more importantly, sabotage the Jialan Society’s plans.
Two birds with one stone.
Noticing the look in Gao Tian’s eyes as he stared at the woman outside, Jiang Yang guessed what he was planning.
"Are you thinking of using a Supernatural Artifact to deal with this vicious ghost?"
Gao Tian nodded.
"Yeah."
"I have a Supernatural Artifact that has a high success rate against this type of ghost."
But he didn’t rashly open the glass door and step outside just yet.
A memetic horror story capable of growing into an S-Level threat meant to destroy Shanghai had obviously been carefully chosen by Xu Yuan. The terror it held wouldn’t be so easily contained.
Jiang Yang advised him, "That’s risky, Gao Tian."
"This woman can teleport; she’s no ordinary vicious ghost."
"A weak Supernatural Artifact might not be able to hold her."
Outside, the clear, heavy rain had, at some point, gradually turned blood-red.
The world outside the apartment looked like a crimson Hell, a vast ocean of blood and bone heaving and churning.
Through the glass doors, only the woman’s silhouette was faintly visible. Her pure white umbrella had slowly turned a ghastly shade of red.
Gao Tian was running out of time. The vicious ghost was undergoing some bizarre transformation, which was definitely not a good sign.
’I have to risk it. If I win, the payoff will be huge.’
Gao Tian rushed to the front desk, found a small mirror to carry for protection, then turned and walked to the glass doors, glancing one last time at the woman outside.
Supernatural Artifacts couldn’t be used inside the apartment. Gao Tian took a deep breath, and in the very instant he pushed open the door, he opened the urn in his hands and aimed it at her.
No bloody rain fell on him. It was as if man and ghost had been pulled into a separate world, even though their surroundings hadn’t changed at all.
Beneath the umbrella, the woman’s lips curved into a strange smile.
As countless specks of gray powder drifted out of the box, the rules of the game they had drawn appeared before both Gao Tian and the Rainy Woman.
It had worked. The urn had pulled them both into its game without any resistance from the Rainy Woman.
[Compare Points]
The rules of the game were extremely simple and relied entirely on luck.
A deck of playing cards appeared between the man and the ghost. Both would draw one card simultaneously; the one with the higher card would win. If they drew cards of the same value, or if one of them drew a joker, the round would be void and they would play again.
...
When it came to a contest of luck, Gao Tian had never been afraid.
Even a cheater like the Ghost Infant, who could swap out its opponent’s cards at will, had been utterly crushed by Gao Tian’s overwhelming ghostly luck.
Before drawing, Gao Tian opened his Luck Jar and released a portion of his stored ghostly luck.
At the same time, he placed his hand on the deck of cards floating between them and drew his first card.
He drew a 10 of Spades.
It wasn’t a low card, but it wasn’t particularly high either.
It could be beaten by a Jack, Queen, or King, meaning there were twelve cards in the deck higher than his.
Just then, the Rainy Woman’s free hand—the one not holding the umbrella—reached out and drew her card from the deck.
