Free Web NovelChapter 25: Chapter 25: Ghost Card
Gao Tian was just giving it a shot.
After all, he’d been pushed to the brink. Even if he failed, things couldn’t possibly get any worse.
He had gambled and won. The headless corpse was indeed Xu Yuan’s. The sealing object Xu Yuan had given him had, naturally, done the trick.
A single thrust of the spear had completed two missions at once: one for the Jialan Society chat group and one for the Living Persons Apartment. It was a thrill—coming back from the dead—that you could only understand if you’d experienced it.
An ordinary spearhead certainly couldn’t pin a powerful ghost, but this had been Xu Yuan’s main weapon for half his life. Even after death, his body reacted to its aura.
The movie star’s head that had materialized out of thin air seemed unwilling to concede. Its beautiful face twisted as it shrieked, driving the body to tremble and struggle violently, as if trying to rip the spearhead clean out of its chest.
But no matter how it struggled, the corpse’s strength gradually waned. In the end, the woman’s head that had grown from the body began to melt. The corpse itself, its six dismembered parts, lost their connection and slowly started to drift apart once more.
Witnessing this indescribable scene, Jin Daxiang, Su Jiu, and the others were still lost in the profound terror of their near-death experience. Just then, the phones of the four mission participants chimed simultaneously with a new message.
Xia Ta, the most experienced of the group, only turned her head to remind them after confirming the female corpse could no longer cause trouble.
"That’s the notification for completing a green-letter mission and receiving your reward.
"Check your rewards. And a word of warning: don’t tell anyone the effects of any supernatural items you receive.
"Otherwise, the item’s effects might be nullified."
As someone who had been inexplicably dragged into a second green-letter mission, Gao Tian naturally received a reward as well. He opened his phone and listened to the voice message from an unknown number:
Congratulations, you have completed the second green-letter mission.
As compensation for the Living Persons Apartment temporarily including you in the second green-letter mission, your first and second missions are both considered complete by default at the time of settlement. This reward is the combined total for both missions.
The reward you have received is—
The Ghost Card.
Ghost Card Effect.
The Ghost Card is a standard 52-card deck of playing cards with the jokers removed, consisting of four suits numbered from 1 to 13.
Every time you die, you will resurrect on the spot. Then, as a penalty, the Ghost Card will randomly draw a card and place it upon your soul.
When your soul holds two cards of the same rank, you will die instantly and permanently. No defensive supernatural item will be able to save you.
...
To make it easier for the user to understand, here is an example.
For instance, the first time, you are killed by Ghost A.
The Ghost Card’s effect activates. You resurrect on the spot and draw the 5 of Clubs.
The second time, you are killed by Ghost B.
The Ghost Card’s effect activates. You resurrect on the spot and draw the King of Hearts.
The third time, you are killed by Ghost C.
The Ghost Card’s effect activates. You resurrect on the spot and draw the 5 of Spades.
The 5 of Spades and the 5 of Clubs have the same rank, so you die on the spot. Furthermore, this death is a direct annihilation of the soul. No matter what defensive supernatural items you use, even if you attempt to enter the Living Persons Apartment to suppress the supernatural power, you cannot prevent this death from occurring.
...
...
’As expected of a reward for two green-letter missions rolled into one,’ he thought, reading the description of his new supernatural item, the Ghost Card. Gao Tian felt a little surprised. ’This thing’s effect is pretty damn broken.’
In theory, the Ghost Card had 13 ranks. That meant he could resurrect a maximum of 13 times.
In reality, however, he’d never be that lucky. Gao Tian figured that after resurrecting seven or eight times, his chances of drawing a matching rank and dying for good would become dangerously high.
Besides, this Ghost Card had a fatal weakness.
The resurrection was on the spot. You came back to life right where you died, with no option to change the location.
This created a very awkward situation.
If Gao Tian ran into a particularly vengeful ghost—say, a face-shattering type—it would kill him, see him suddenly resurrect on the spot, and would definitely kill him again. Then it would just camp his corpse.
It wouldn’t matter how many times you resurrected; the ghost would just kill you again. Revive a hundred times, and the ghost will kill you a hundred times.
In a situation like that, the Ghost Card’s ability would be completely wasted.
Fortunately, Gao Tian had another item in his possession that could perfectly compensate for the Ghost Card’s flaw.
The black card.
After being resurrected by the Ghost Card, if he found the ghost that killed him was still camping his body, Gao Tian wouldn’t give it a second chance. He would immediately activate the black card and escape back to the Living Persons Apartment.
The two supernatural items together would create a synergistic effect, where one plus one was greater than two.
Overall, Gao Tian was very satisfied with the Ghost Card’s effect. Even without the black card to support it, it would greatly increase his margin for error. In this Era of the Supernatural, where every step was like walking on thin ice, it provided a much-needed sense of security.
In any case, obtaining a Divine Artifact from his first two green-letter missions was a good start.
He wondered what items Boss Jin and the others had gotten. Seeing Li Jin’s dejected expression and the way Jin Daxiang fell silent and simply put his phone down after reading it, he guessed they probably weren’t too happy with their new supernatural items.
Regardless, the mission was now well and truly over.
Now that the dust had settled, Gao Tian walked over to the dismembered corpse and pulled out the tip of the Ghost Transformation Spear.
Although the weapon’s primary effect was absurdly dangerous, it was, to be honest, incredibly sharp and could still be quite useful in certain situations.
Besides, Xu Yuan had said that if he completed the mission, this weapon—the one he and his master had spent a lifetime researching—would be his to keep.
As long as he treated the Ghost Transformation Spear as nothing more than a particularly sharp ordinary tool, it could be quite useful. He just had to be careful not to kill anyone with it.
And who knew? Maybe if the spear stayed with Gao Tian and he used it for a while, he really would uncover some hidden secret within it.
Although that possibility was about as low as winning the lottery.
The surrounding crowd was still frantically taking pictures. So many people on the first-floor plaza had witnessed the bizarre scene. There were far too many eyewitnesses; even with his Memory Ghost, it would be absolutely impossible for Gao Tian to modify their memories one by one.
Su Jiu, still shaken and half-covering her face, tugged on Xia Ta’s sleeve.
"So many phones recorded us... Does this mean everything that happened in the mall today is about to go viral?"
This wasn’t Xia Ta’s first green-letter mission, so she was already used to this sort of thing.
"Don’t worry, they won’t be able to post it. ƒrēewebnovel.com
"Supernatural events are reawakening in every corner of the globe. The reason the vast majority of society still hasn’t realized what’s truly happening to the world is...
"All posts related to these things are deleted from the internet almost instantly. By tomorrow, no one will remember what happened at Sapphire Mall."
Her fifth green-letter mission had taken place at a superstar’s concert, which was even more packed with people, and an even bloodier and more absurd scene had unfolded. But after the mission ended, Xia Ta had retreated amidst the chaos back to the central district of the Living Persons Apartment, only to find the internet completely silent. There was no discussion of the incident whatsoever.
The fact that humans and ghosts coexist in the world is simply too terrifying. On this one issue, the governments of the world have a tacit agreement: delay the public from learning the truth for as long as possible.
On top of that, now that the mission was over and the white fog had dissipated, everyone inside the mall was terrified from being trapped. Like startled birds, they all scrambled for the exits, terrified that if they were too slow, the white fog would trap them again. Very few dared to approach and inspect the corpse that had come back to life only to die once more.
Boss Jin looked at the Ghost Transformation Spear in Gao Tian’s hand, his curiosity piqued. He voiced the question the other two newcomers had been wanting to ask but hadn’t dared to:
"That spear of yours... is it a supernatural item you got before you came to the Living Persons Apartment?
"Is its effect really that incredible? It can directly suppress a powerful ghost?"
’In reality, it could only suppress Xu Yuan’s corpse.’
’It was a highly specific tool. Its normal effect... was honestly the most useless one Gao Tian had encountered so far.’
Faced with Boss Jin’s question, Gao Tian didn’t offer much of an explanation, simply asking with a look of surprise:
"Suppress what?
"I don’t understand what you mean.
"A friend of mine who deals in antiques sold me this spearhead. I usually just carry it for self-defense. You know, occasionally use it to chop someone up, that sort of thing.
"It has nothing to do with this supernatural incident."
Seeing him lie so shamelessly, the timid Su Jiu couldn’t hold back any longer and leaned in to interject:
"That’s not right. I saw you. You suddenly stabbed the spear into that thing’s back, and after it was hit, it just fell to the ground, motionless, and broke into pieces.
"I was honestly scared to death back then. I thought I was a goner for sure, because Sister Ta said you can’t kill ghosts. I never expected you to just save my life so nonchalantly. It still feels like I’m dreaming."
In the face of Su Jiu’s renewed questioning, Gao Tian looked into her amber-like eyes:
"You must have been scared out of your wits.
"I did save you just now. But it was because I’m pretty strong. I kicked the corpse away, and right at that moment, its time was up, so it stopped on its own.
"It had nothing to do with this spearhead in my hand."
How could a human possibly compare strength with a ghost?
Even Xia Ta had only dared to say she could try to hold the corpse back for a while; she would never claim to be able to overpower it. Gao Tian kicking a powerful ghost away? That was a lie you couldn’t even fool a child with.
But just then, the Memory Ghost’s power activated again, beginning to affect Jin Daxiang, Su Jiu, Li Jin, Jiang Yang, and the others. The more they tried to recall what happened, the more they felt that, yes, that was how it went. It must have been that the corpse’s time was simply up, and Gao Tian’s perfectly timed kick was what saved Su Jiu in the nick of time.
In any case, Jin Daxiang and the others’ second green-letter mission was finally complete. No one wanted to linger in this ill-omened place for too long.
Xia Ta and the others gathered the scattered body parts, wrapped them back up in the black garbage bags, and prepared to take them away from Sapphire Mall.
After all, if left here, the pieces could reassemble at any moment and become a powerful ghost once more.
The only way to be absolutely safe was to take them back to the Living Persons Apartment for containment.
