Nightmare Apostle

Chapter 1474: Chapter 903: Encounter

"Damn, it’s here again!"

Swearing silently to himself, Zhang Jianjun quickly poked his head out and glanced down the corridor.

The lights in the corridor had gone out at some unknown time. With the dual effects of darkness and smoke, visibility became very poor. He couldn’t see if there was anything strange appearing in the corridor.

Zhang Jianjun now faced a tough choice: should he leave immediately or stay put?

If the knocking sounded far away, he would relocate without hesitation. But the problem now was the knocking was too close. He worried he might run right into whatever was knocking if he stepped into the corridor.

Before leaving, Munan repeatedly reminded him to change positions frequently, especially after encountering anomalies.

This was advice passed down from survivors of the previous two nights. Both Chen Moting and Chu Xi had emphasized it.

The office’s position was somewhat awkward. The space wasn’t large, and there were only two choices to get farther away: either open the door and run out to join Munan Chen Nang’s group, or, with gritted teeth, run into the corridor connected to the office, hoping to find a room to hide in, but that might lead straight into the knocking ghost.

"No, I have to change positions, even if it means taking some risks!"

Zhang Jianjun resolved to gamble. Even if he didn’t trust his own judgment, he had to trust Chu Xi’s judgment; the latter had already demonstrated his value through actions.

But escaping to the corridor was too risky, so he decided to use a cunning method. freeweɓnøvel.com

Zhang Jianjun crawled out from the corner, then moved quietly and swiftly from the northeast corner of the office to the southwest corner. He found a table against the wall, quickly crouched under it, and pulled a chair over to block his body.

This counted as changing positions, even if it was within the same office.

At that moment, Zhang Jianjun’s heart was pounding. This was a high-stakes gamble, with his life on the line.

Just after he changed positions, something unexpected happened. The knocking in the corridor gradually thinned out, as if it had left, but before Zhang Jianjun could relax, the next second, he shivered violently. frёewebnoѵel.ƈo๓

"Thud."

"Thud."

"Thud."

The knocking resumed, but this time, it was nearby, within this not-so-large office!

Even more terrifying, he heard it clearly this time, the sound came from the northeast direction, right from... right from where he had been hiding a few minutes ago!

Zhang Jianjun gasped. He could confirm that if he hadn’t moved, he would be a dead man now. Ghosts don’t reason with you.

Meanwhile, Zhang Jianjun sharpened his ears and keenly detected another sound, a scraping noise that wasn’t very distinct.

The sound was slow and dragging, like an old man nearing his end scratching his feet in place, the sound of shoe soles grating against the ground.

Ghosts don’t do meaningless things. According to Zhang Jianjun’s understanding of these ghostly entities, they were like programmed killing machines, devoid of emotion, incapable of communication or even understanding, acting entirely on instinct, existing solely for destruction and slaughter.

Out of curiosity and a desire to survive, Zhang Jianjun knew he had to take some risks. He curled up his body as best as he could, and then, without making obvious noises, moved his body under the cramped table, facing towards the ghost’s position.

He finally crouched down, desperately pressing his face to the floor, awkwardly turning his head to peer through the gap below the table, towards where the sound was coming from.

This was quite a risky move. First, the sound he made might be picked up by the ghost. Second, he didn’t know this ghost’s abilities; perhaps... the moment he saw the ghost, he’d be locked in by them as well.

And at such close range, once the ghost locked into his position, death would be inevitable.

But Zhang Jianjun was determined to do this. First, he needed some way to confirm the ghost’s killing method; otherwise, he’d be on the run all night, gambling his life away repeatedly, which might work once or twice, but no one’s luck lasts forever.

Additionally, he needed to account for his team. In the Nightmare World, there was an unwritten rule: only those with value deserved to survive.

As an experienced player, he knew how dangerous this task was. That night, Munan Chen Nang took on the crucial task of finding new clues, and he couldn’t just sit idly by either; he needed to make some contributions for the team. Otherwise, if something unexpected happened later, no one would save him, and he’d be discarded like Wu Zhuo and Su Xiaomin, considered as trash.

The night wasn’t the most dangerous, and surviving it didn’t guarantee he’d leave the mission alive; he had to take a chance.

His thoughts raced, but in reality, it was only a moment. He pressed his face to the ground, looked towards where the noise was.

As his eyes slowly widened, indeed, he saw it. From his angle, he couldn’t glimpse the full form of the ghost. He only saw part of a lower leg, and below that lower leg, a pair of polished shoes tainted with ash.

More horrifyingly, those shoes were slowly turning. The legs didn’t move, only the shoes, inching around in place, the movement very small but indeed turning, the toes gradually pointing in his direction.

At that moment, Zhang Jianjun understood everything. The ghost didn’t need to expend effort tracking his position. It only needed to stand there, and as those toes pointed, it could find his hiding place; the only drawback was it needed some time.