Nightmare Apostle

Chapter 1754: Chapter 1007: Rules (Part 2)

So from this perspective, Yang Xiao confirmed that the ghost last night wasn’t pretending to be Kato Atsushi to lure them in; what they experienced was indeed a scene of slaughter.

Another point of doubt was that Kato Atsushi’s fatal wound wasn’t found.

Yang Xiao couldn’t help but raise his hand, slowly massaging his forehead. He had a problem with migraines, and whenever he thought too deeply about something, they would recur.

The clues were too scattered and chaotic, with many questions left unanswered. Like most players in the hotel, Yang Xiao quietly waited at this moment.

Waiting for the night to deepen, waiting for the sudden scream to pierce the silence, waiting for the next person’s death.

But none of them could be sure who the ghost would target next, and they knew almost nothing about the ghost’s methods of murder and behavior.

In fact, whenever a task begins, both newcomers and veterans share the same fear and confusion since they all face the same unknown, which also means danger that can’t be prevented.

Take this time; newcomer Sakurai Miyuki managed to escape from the ghost’s pursuit, while seasoned player Kato Atsushi died. It’s unrelated to ability and purely a matter of luck.

To survive in the Nightmare World, a bit of luck is indispensable. To some extent, this small amount of luck is even more crucial than so-called experience or ability.

Life is like this, and so is the Nightmare World. Fortunately, Yang Xiao has always had decent luck.

The process of waiting for death to arrive is more unbearable than death itself. Yang Xiao let out a long breath, took the only piece of chocolate from his bag, broke off a piece, and shoved it into his mouth to chew slowly.

As the rich cocoa flavor exploded on his tongue, Yang Xiao broke off another piece and put it into his mouth. This chocolate was unexpectedly delicious and slightly dispelled the gloom in Yang Xiao’s heart, easing his mood.

With only a small final piece remaining, Yang Xiao was reluctant to eat it. He folded the packaging neatly and placed it on the bedside table.

Inspired by Sakurai Miyuki earlier, the first thing Yang Xiao did upon entering the room was to check all the cabinets, regardless of size. After confirming there were no issues, he opened all the cabinet doors to ensure there were no blind spots within his line of sight. Naturally, all lights in the room were turned on, and the bathroom mirror was covered.

There were two sets of footsteps that passed through the hallway. The first was slightly heavier, the sound of leather shoes, unmistakably Mitsuo Takeda, while the second was lighter, belonging to Jiu Shan Sha Yue. At night, only these two could move freely on other floors.

Yang Xiao recorded the time of each footstep, and the interval between them was roughly two hours, which matched their shift change routine.

Shortly after the second set of footsteps disappeared, maybe about half an hour later, Yang Xiao heard a shout, not very piercing. It was a man’s voice, seemingly from a distance, coming from downstairs.

There’s no one below him; Kato Atsushi is dead, and Sakurai Miyuki is missing. He judged it to be someone from the 5th floor, the only man on the 5th floor would be Yamada Kengohei, and Tong Han was also on the 5th floor.

As he ran out the door, Yang Xiao glanced at the clock. It was a little past 9:30 at night, and he remembered clearly that Sakurai Miyuki’s first attack the previous night was near 11 o’clock.

He first met up with Sato Shouta, and then the two went downstairs together. It turned out to be Yamada Kengohei on the 5th floor. At this moment, several other team members also arrived.

Qingshui Cangjie, Nishimura Yuna, Hasegawa Hideji, Takagi Sayo, Tong Han, Yang Xiao, and Sato Shouta, along with Yamada Kengohei, made up a total of eight people.

The incident occurred on the 5th floor, and according to the agreement, people from two floors above and below had to come to support, meaning those on floors 3, 4, 5, 6, and 7 had to come.

The 6th floor was empty, so the remaining eight people from the 4th floor all arrived.

Yamada Kengohei stood in the hallway, leaning back against the wall, his chest heaving intensely but his emotions fairly stable, explaining to everyone what had just happened.

He also encountered a ghost attack, but this time the ghost didn’t appear in a cabinet but in the refrigerator. He heard the sound of rubbing and a "thumping" knocking sound, which was very urgent, scaring him terribly.

Yang Xiao went to Yamada Kengohei’s room and saw the refrigerator just a short distance from the door, on the right as you enter. On the left was the bathroom, and the bathroom door was closed.

Yang Xiao didn’t rashly open the refrigerator but instead took a simple look around the room. He was slightly surprised to see the large mirror in the bathroom covered with cloth, and a smaller mirror had been removed and placed face down on the table, pressed down by a kettle.

Moreover, all the cabinet doors in the room were open, and everything inside had been cleared out.

Besides these, many other details in the room were well-handled. Yang Xiao admitted that even if it were him, he couldn’t have done better.

"Did you teach him?" After seeing the room, Yang Xiao turned to look at Tong Han.

"No, it seems he’s a self-taught master." Tong Han replied ambiguously.

Judging from the room’s layout and Yamada Kengohei’s earlier behavior, Yang Xiao confirmed that this guy wasn’t a newbie; he was faking it.

Yang Xiao crouched down and opened the refrigerator door. As expected, the inside of the refrigerator door was full of scratches and small holes from being pried by an awl. These marks matched those first seen on the inside of the cabinet door in Sakurai Miyuki’s room.

Which meant that this ghost attack failed again. Yamada Kengohei narrowly escaped the close call.

"Hey, could you please recount the whole sequence of events carefully?" Hasegawa Hideji asked Yamada Kengohei after examining the refrigerator door.

"I...I was just sitting in the chair at the time and suddenly heard footsteps outside the door. I thought it was Mr. Takeda or...or Miss Xin Yuan patrolling at night. But soon, I noticed something was off because...because the footsteps were too light, like someone was tiptoeing, and...they stopped right outside my door."

"No one knew I lived here, not even Ms. Tong Han, so I knew...knew that it was that thing seeking me out."

"I didn’t dare to breathe or move. I waited for a long time in silence, hoping maybe it left, but...but then I heard a sound." freēwēbnovel.com

"It came from the bathroom, the sound of water, but not continuous, in bursts, on for a bit, then off." Yamada Kengohei was broad-shouldered and stood there like a large barrel, but now he was visibly terrified. "Can you...can you imagine it, a ghost in my bathroom, messing with the faucet, turning it on and off? It was torturing me, trying to scare me to death!"

"And then what happened?" Yang Xiao asked quietly, "Did it come out?"

"No, I didn’t see it, but after a while, the water sound in the bathroom disappeared, and the rubbing and pounding sounds started coming from the fridge, faster and faster. I was leaning against the window, almost scared to death. I even thought of jumping out the window; it was really...really terrifying!" Recalling the moment, Yamada Kengohei was still visibly shaken.

"The sound was blocked behind the door, leaving me weak-legged, unable to make a sound. It’s not that I didn’t dare; in extreme fear, one can’t make a sound. I covered my mouth tight, scared to alert it."

"And then?" Qingshui Cangjie prompted from the side.

"Then the noise continued for a while, becoming more anxious, but suddenly it disappeared. After waiting for a bit, I couldn’t hold out any longer. Staying inside the room felt suffocating. I braced myself and dashed out, running down the hall while calling for help, and...then you all arrived." When running past the fridge, Yamada Kengohei was petrified the fridge door would fling open, stretch out bloody hands, and pull him in.