Free Web NovelChapter 3: Chapter 3: Path to Survival
"Old Zou, Old Zou, you there?
"If you’re still alive, give me a shout."
A muffled, raspy voice belonging to another middle-aged man came through the walkie-talkie.
These taxi drivers all had their own circles. Using a cell phone while driving wasn’t convenient, so they used walkie-talkies to communicate about nearby traffic, potential fares, gas station situations, and so on.
The taxi driver stopped at a red light and asked back impatiently:
"I’m with a fare. If you’ve got something to say, spit it out.
"Old Huang, don’t waste my time."
The voice on the walkie-talkie, belonging to the man called Old Huang, sounded a bit anxious:
"Don’t take any fares near Ping Shui Apartments.
"Something’s not right over there. A whole family died in one of the buildings. It’s probably one of those ’dirty things.’ A lot of residents have already noticed something’s wrong and fled with their families.
"You should also tell the other guys in the area not to drive over there until that thing is gone. It’s no big deal if us old-timers die, but if we accidentally come into contact with a dirty thing and bring it home to our kids, we’ll regret it for the rest of our lives."
A chill ran down Gao Tian’s spine.
Because Ping Shui Apartments was exactly where he had just come from.
Old Zou replied impatiently into the walkie-talkie with a "Got it," then clicked off.
The light ahead turned green, and the taxi continued forward.
Silence lingered in the car for a while.
It was the driver, Old Zou, who finally broke the silence, his voice raspy:
"That ’dirty thing’... is it vicious?"
Of course, he had seen that Gao Tian had fled from the area around Ping Shui Apartments. When he got in the car, his face was pale, and he looked like he was being hunted.
The passenger had wanted to go to the police station at first, but then suddenly changed his mind. Clearly, that safe place was no longer safe either.
At this point, there was no longer any need to hide it.
Gao Tian said:
"Very vicious...
"I provoked something I shouldn’t have. It’s been chasing me this whole time."
The taxi bypassed the overpass ahead, not going up it, and instead pulled toward the edge of the main road, its speed slowly decreasing.
The driver cracked the window open and lit a cigarette:
"Young man, you heard what was said earlier. We all have wives and kids. It’s not easy supporting a family. I’m the only breadwinner. If I die out here, there’ll be no money for tuition or living expenses.
"I’ve heard a little about those things. They’re incredibly dangerous. We can’t afford to get involved. frёeωebɳovel.com
"Please, try to understand my situation. There’s a park just ahead. I’ll drop you off there. This is as far as I can take you."
Gao Tian didn’t say anything. He took out his phone, ready to pay.
He had promised to pay double the fare, and he had no intention of going back on his word.
The driver turned around from his seat, his large, calloused hand pressing down on Gao Tian’s phone:
"Don’t pay, don’t pay.
"This ride is on me.
"I’m really sorry, young man. If I were twenty years younger, I might have just gotten fired up, taken you onto the highway, and insisted on fighting that dirty thing no matter what.
"But I can’t do that now. The older you get, the more you fear death. When I think about going home to my old lady nagging me, and my two daughters going through their rebellious phase and not listening to a word I say... I really don’t even have the luxury of dying."
Gao Tian got out and closed the car door. The older man behind the window didn’t drive off right away. He looked at the young man before him, his eyes filled with pity.
The driver knew in his heart that if he stepped on the gas and left, the young man he was leaving behind was a dead man for sure.
He looked to be about the same age as his own daughters.
Gao Tian looked back at the driver:
"You guys seem to know a lot about these things?"
The driver said:
"Not really.
"We just drive around the city all day, every day. You see a lot. We talk with the other guys on the team, so we hear about plenty of things that are censored from the news.
"The truth is, this kind of weird stuff happens every day, and these things are becoming more and more active. I reckon it won’t be long before they can’t hide it on TV or the internet anymore.
"I’m working myself to the bone saving money, driving from dawn till dusk. I just want to scrape together a big chunk of cash so I can at least send my two daughters to a safe city before things get completely out of control."
Gao Tian still wasn’t ready to give up:
"Tell me, is there any point in calling the police?"
The older man slowly shook his head:
"It’s useless. Once they’ve targeted you, it’s a dead end. What can an ordinary person do to fight them?
"The police are for catching criminals and resolving disputes between the living.
"These things aren’t alive. The police have no jurisdiction over them."
Gao Tian said:
"Then who in this world can deal with them?
"Monks? Daoist priests? Christian priests?"
The driver said:
"I don’t know.
"Maybe the army.
"If even the army can’t handle these dirty things, then society will collapse, and life as we know it will probably be over for us regular folks..."
The car window slowly rolled up.
Gao Tian watched, head raised, as the taxi vanished into the distance as if it were fleeing for its life.
Now, only Gao Tian’s lonely figure remained under the circle of light cast by a streetlight.
This park was already quite remote and rarely visited. On top of that, it was the middle of the night; after walking for about five minutes, he hadn’t seen a single soul.
Gao Tian knew his end was near. He found a long bench by the path and sat down.
The red-eyed figure hadn’t appeared yet. He didn’t know when it would come to take his life. Still, Gao Tian’s survival instinct pushed him to think rapidly, searching for any sliver of a chance to live.
He’d read his fair share of web novels and knew that in this kind of horror setting, there was rarely a supernatural event that was an absolute death sentence. Beneath the seemingly unsolvable killing patterns of these ghosts, there was usually a well-hidden path to survival, giving ordinary people a chance to live.
But web novels were web novels, and reality was reality.
Web novel protagonists had plot armor, and the authors had to consider how to write a long-running story. If the malevolent spirit was too unbeatable, the story would end too quickly, and the author wouldn’t be able to farm any more clicks.
But the ghost in reality was completely unbeatable. It had no need to leave any path to survival for an ordinary person.
Maybe his luck was just that bad. The very first time, he had encountered an absolutely unbeatable malevolent spirit. The moment he clicked on that black packet in the group chat, Gao Tian had already been a dead man.
No wonder Ghost Cave was so confident. According to his strategy, the living person in the group chat had a 100% chance of dying.
’Ghost Cave... that guy.’
When he was alive, his intuition had been terrifyingly accurate.
Even though Gao Tian hadn’t said a single word in the group, Ghost Cave had managed to sniff him out based on pure instinct. The excuse he’d given was so flimsy it made Gao Tian wonder if he was using cheats.
CREAK, CREAK.
A cold wind blew past. Just as Gao Tian was lost in thought, in the small playground opposite his bench, an empty swing began to move.
Gao Tian slowly raised his head. Although he had mentally prepared himself, as death loomed, he was still overwhelmed by endless despair and fear.
’Get a grip. Don’t embarrass the human race in front of a ghost.’
A figure had appeared on the swing at some point. Its deathly pale face, visible through the sparse woods, was turned in his direction, bearing a ghastly smile.
On that large, pale face, which had originally been featureless, a single eye had grown once again.
Although both the iris and the sclera of the eye were blood-red, it was undeniably starting to look more and more like his own.
It was like a "Gao Tian" with pathologically white skin, a single eye, and a blood-red eyeball.
This "Gao Tian" didn’t seem to be in a hurry to kill him. It just sat on the swing across from him, rocking back and forth, waiting for something.
’Perhaps it’s waiting for its face to completely transform into mine before it comes over to kill me.’
Until the red-eyed figure had completely acquired Gao Tian’s appearance, it was temporarily "reluctant" to kill him.
This was also why Gao Tian had been able to safely leave the apartment complex and flee so far in a taxi. It wasn’t because he had escaped the malevolent spirit’s grasp at all; it was because the spirit was toying with him, following just behind him the entire time.
Now, the new "Gao Tian’s" face was mostly complete. This boring game was about to end.
Gao Tian felt it deeply in his bones: web novels were all lies. Fucking lies.
On the internet, you read about people slide-tackling a tiger and piercing its belly, or suplexing a black bear into unconsciousness. In reality, three or four strapping men are just about enough to feed a hungry tiger until it’s full.
A malevolent spirit was far more terrifying than any wild beast. The gap between it and a human was even greater, like an insurmountable chasm. To think you could be like a web novel protagonist, use calm observation to find the spirit’s weakness, and defeat it... was that really something a human could do?
’How is this possible... Is there really no way out?’
At that exact moment, it was as if a bolt of lightning struck Gao Tian’s brain. He froze on the spot, unable to move a single muscle.
’The answer... it might be just that simple.’
The only way to survive had been right in front of him the whole time, but he had been too stupid to notice it until now.
The one who tied the bell must be the one to untie it. Why was he being hunted by a malevolent spirit? Because of that bizarre chat group full of ghosts.
Naturally, his only hope for survival also lay there.
Gao Tian glanced at the swing opposite him and was shocked to find that while it was still rocking back and forth, the figure on it had vanished. The surrounding area was also empty. The dirty thing had, at some unknown point, abruptly disappeared again.
But he didn’t have time to worry about that. Its absence was a good thing; it might have bought him a tiny bit more time to struggle.
Gao Tian lowered his head, opened the chat group as fast as he could, and began frantically scrolling up through the chat history with Ghost Cave and the others.
After confirming that the living person in the group was doomed, Ghost Cave and the others hadn’t posted anything else. Clearly, he was extremely confident in his "black packet." It was an open-and-shut scheme; no matter what the living person chose to do, they could not escape their fate.
What Gao Tian was doing, of course, was definitely not begging Ghost Cave and the others for mercy.
They were dead set on killing the only living person. The moment Gao Tian dared to speak in the group and expose his identity, he would only die faster.
"Here it is.
"I found it!"
The moment he found his only hope for survival, it felt as though a lifetime had passed. Gao Tian felt like he had been reborn.
