Free Web NovelChapter 62: Chapter 62: The Terror Begins to Show
A person’s fate is unpredictable.
Just two months ago, Li Jin had been "optimized"—laid off—by his company. At thirty-five years old, he didn’t receive a dime in severance. With his lease also expiring, he scoured the internet for a cheap place to live. And so, inevitably, he was tricked into the Living Persons Apartment, where he was forced to undertake all sorts of terrifying missions.
He’d thought his luck had hit rock bottom, but then, under the guidance of a veteran resident, he survived two harrowing but ultimately harmless missions. This earned him a month-long reprieve, and he slowly began to see that this hellhole actually had its upsides.
No matter how viciously ghosts rampaged outside, the Living Persons Apartment itself was always safe. This was an absolute truth, something every resident had told him after he moved in.
As supernatural events erupted across the globe, a growing number of shocking "homicides," "accidents," and "large-scale experimental leaks" filled the news. The media had exhausted every possible excuse, but the situation had grown too severe to hide.
The streets grew emptier, and many shops closed their doors for the time being.
Thank goodness for the Living Persons Apartment.
He was lugging a large haul of food he’d gotten for free from the first-floor pantry and had just arrived at his door in the second-floor corridor. He pulled out his key, ready to go inside, play video games all day, and enjoy the good life—a life without green-text missions.
For some reason, the corridor lights on this floor were flickering, which looked rather eerie from a distance. It was just like... the classic omen of a ghost’s appearance in a horror novel.
Li Jin just smiled, thinking nothing of it.
’This is the second floor of the Living Persons Apartment. There’s no way there are ghosts here.’
Standing at his door, he set down the large bag of food and began rummaging through his pockets for the key.
’Strange. I’m sure I put it in my jacket pocket when I left. How can I not find it now?’
As Li Jin continued his search, the flickering corridor lights in the distance began to go out, one by one. Darkness crept forward, and it felt as though something was walking toward him.
Only then did he sense something was wrong. He slowly raised his head.
’It can’t be... How could there be a ghost on the second floor?’
’I must be dreaming.’
When Li Jin looked up, he saw a little girl in a floral dress at the other end of the corridor. She wore a smile on her face, her eyes fixed on him as she walked slowly in his direction.
Li Jin let out a long sigh of relief.
’Oh, it’s just someone’s kid who wandered off.’
Even though it was school hours, many schools had temporarily closed due to the multiple supernatural outbreaks in the city. Parents preferred to have their children attend classes online from home.
He smiled at the little girl.
"Hey there, which apartment are you from? It’s school time. Why aren’t you in your online class instead of running around out here?"
’Something’s off.’
The little girl seemed completely unable to understand Li Jin. She maintained her puppet-like smile and quickened her pace toward him.
A sliver of unease began to creep into Li Jin.
’Is there no one else in the hallway besides this strange little girl?’
Logic told him that this was the second floor of the Living Persons Apartment—it was supposed to be completely safe. But emotionally, he was starting to feel a sliver of fear, and he fumbled for his key even faster.
Thankfully, he finally found the key in his jeans pocket. Just before the little girl in the corridor could lunge at him, Li Jin unlocked his door with lightning speed, slipped inside, and threw the bolt.
Outside, the strange little girl dropped her facade entirely. She began pounding on the door furiously, letting out guttural, beast-like wails.
"What is going on..."
Li Jin felt something was very wrong.
’Whose kid is this? She’s acting like she has rabies.’
’I’ll have to report this to Xia Ta, the building manager, later. This is outrageous.’
Leaning against the door, Li Jin gasped for breath. Only after a moment did he find the strength to set down his bag of groceries and walk toward the living room.
He was completely oblivious to the small boy in linen-colored clothes hanging upside down from a ceiling beam, just like a spider. The boy clutched a blood-stained paring knife, a bizarre smile on his face as he watched Li Jin pass underneath.
...
...
On the fourth floor, the administrators—along with Lan Chu and Gao Tian—were completely unaware of the events unfolding on the second floor.
They were, at that very moment, facing a far more terrifying task.
Xia Ta had already twisted the doorknob off and ripped open the door to Room 413.
The moment the door flew open, the group fanned out in an arc, just as they had planned downstairs. Gao Tian, Jiang Yang, and Zhao Zhenjia took the left side of the doorway, while Lan Chu and Xia Ta took the right. They maintained a safe distance, poised for anything that might burst out of the eerie room.
One minute.
Three minutes.
Five minutes.
Room 413, now forced open, remained deathly still and pitch-black. It was impossible to see inside from the hallway, and nothing charged out.
A foul odor drifted out—the stale, dead air of a long-unoccupied room, thick with the stench of rot and mildew.
KSHHHH...
"Good evening, viewers...
"The year is 3154... Month Thirteen, Day Zero... Weekday Eight... lunar calendar... Welcome to the nightly news broadcast...
"First, let’s review the... program’s... top stories... ah..."
In the center of the living room, a black-and-white television crackled with loud static. A news anchor with a bizarre accent read from a script, their voice cutting in and out. The image on the screen constantly warped and stuttered. A bulky, old-fashioned television like this was an obsolete relic from a bygone era, a rare sight nowadays.
’Who’s watching the news?’
Outside the door, Xia Ta and Zhao Zhenjia exchanged a glance.
"Wind Attendant Buddha!"
Zhao Zhenjia chanted the incantation, activating his most powerful Supernatural Artifact. Countless gusts of wind converged, and a figure made of wind—a Wind Person—materialized from thin air. It was a perfect replica of Zhao Zhenjia in both height and appearance, its expression solemn and dignified.
The moment the doppelgänger, "Zhao Zhenjia," touched the ground, it strode forward without hesitation. With steady steps, it walked into the endless, viscous darkness of Room 413.
It was fearless. From the moment of its creation, its sole purpose was to die for its master.
Zhao Zhenjia shared most of the Wind Attendant Buddha’s vision. He sent his "Zhao Zhenjia" inside to scout the way and to trigger any of the room’s lethal rules ahead of time. ƒreewebɳovel.com
The puppet followed the wall, its hand feeling for a light switch.
It found the switch. The overhead bulb flickered once, then dimmed. The living room floor was littered with cardboard boxes and trash bags, and streaks of blood from some unknown animal stained the floorboards.
Xia Ta was clearly experienced and mouthed a command to Zhao Zhenjia across the way:
"The television is the problem. Go turn it off."
Zhao Zhenjia directed the Wind Attendant Buddha inside the room. It felt its way forward, step by step, approaching the black-and-white television.
Opposite the television was a sofa, where the backlit silhouettes of two figures sat. Judging by their posture, they were intently focused on the heavily distorted image on the screen. freewebnσvel.cѳm
Lan Chu had sharper eyes and asked Zhao Zhenjia:
"Who are the two people on the sofa?
"Are they still alive?"
The Wind Attendant Buddha moved to the front of the sofa. Zhao Zhenjia, sharing its vision, frowned.
"A man and a woman, two adults.
"They look like the husband and wife of the family who lived here.
"The woman’s hand is on the remote, and the man is still clutching a beer bottle.
"But they’ve been dead for a very long time. The skin clinging to their bones is desiccated.
"No visible wounds."
After identifying the things on the sofa, the Wind Attendant Buddha paid them no mind and walked straight toward the static-hissing black-and-white television.
Zhao Zhenjia expected the two corpses on the sofa to attack the Wind Puppet the moment the television was turned off. He wasn’t concerned, though. His goal was to provoke the vengeful ghosts in the room and trigger their killing rules.
An unknown killing rule is the most dangerous thing there is. Once you figure out a ghost’s killing rule, it poses no threat at all.
The Wind Attendant Buddha was now in front of the television. The power button on this kind of old model was on the bottom. The "Zhao Zhenjia" doppelgänger bent down, its fingers feeling along the lower edge until they quickly found the small nub.
It pressed the power button down hard.
With a soft CLICK, the only source of sound in Room 413 went silent. The entire room was plunged into absolute stillness.
’Hmm, good...’
The Wind Attendant Buddha slowly turned its head. On the sofa, the two corpses—the man and the woman—remained sitting motionlessly.
They showed no sign of suddenly leaping up and attacking.
’Strange.’
’Could it be that the two corpses on the sofa aren’t the ghosts, but the victims?’
Outside, Zhao Zhenjia was lost in thought.
"I’ll send it deeper into the apartment to take a look.
"Maybe it’ll find some clues in the kitchen or the bedroom."
As the Wind Attendant Buddha continued to explore deeper, it suddenly froze. It heard a strange rustling sound from behind.
