Woo-woo-woo! Woo-woo-woo!
The deafening fire alarm blared through the building, creating a massive racket. Meanwhile, the ghost that had been standing motionless in the hallway seemed disturbed by the loud, chaotic noise. It suddenly turned its head, its pupils devoid of whites, and stared sharply at the camera in the corner.
For Lin Tianheng in the surveillance room, what he saw at that moment was a pale, ghostly face with pupil-less eyes suddenly looking straight at him.
Even through the screen, the horrifying sight sent a strong jolt through Lin Tianheng.
That ghost had found him!
In his panic, he had pressed the fire alarm in the surveillance room, and the ghost had sensed his presence!
At the same time, the wisps of black mist that had been extending downstairs returned to the ghost's main body. Then, the female ghost's form once again dissolved into a blurry black mist, slowly drifting toward the camera.
From Lin Tianheng's perspective, something spine-chilling was unfolding in the surveillance room. In the footage captured by the camera, a patch of black mist gradually filled the entire screen, then eerily spread to other monitors. Before long, all dozens of surveillance screens in the room were engulfed in rolling black mist, plunging the entire space into an icy gloom.
Zzzz, the overhead lights flickered on and off, and the surrounding monitors were all shrouded in black. Perhaps the truly terrifying thing wasn't being killed by the ghost, but the dread-inducing anomalies that could shatter one's sanity before death even arrived.
In extreme terror, sometimes people would be scared to death by these horrific phenomena before the ghost even showed itself.
Though the story painted a terrifying atmosphere all around, Lin Tianheng didn't panic. He didn't even try to open the door and flee. Instead, he stood in the center of the room, his eyes fixed on the screen in front of him, muttering something under his breath.
"Come on... let me see what you've got..."
On the pitch-black screen, the mist churned endlessly. A wisp of black fog slowly seeped out of the screen, spreading into the surveillance room...
The slow process only heightened the bone-chilling terror.
"A ghost that ignores physical laws and can move through cameras or video feeds?"
Watching the black mist gather and gradually form a ghostly silhouette, Lin Tianheng remained unfazed. But he knew he couldn't hesitate any longer. With a raised brow, he reached his right hand to his waist, and when he pulled it back, a pitch-black dagger appeared in his grip—an ancient blade with a dull, lusterless edge.
Clutching the dagger, Lin Tianheng didn't hesitate. He thrust it fiercely into the screen from which the black mist was seeping, shattering it with a crash!
As the screen broke, the dagger's sharp aura made the ghost, which was still forming, let out a painful shriek. The black mist that had already emerged from the screen quickly retreated back into the broken monitor!
Lin Tianheng didn't stop there. He pulled out the dagger and stabbed the shattered screen again. The space around him echoed with the female ghost's piercing scream, and then, the lights in the room exploded with a bang, plunging everything into darkness.
In the dim surveillance room, a female ghost, half of her body hidden in the broken screen, glared at Lin Tianheng with blood-red pupils. Her ghostly face was unmistakably Duan Xue's.
"No matter what you were in life, no matter how unwilling you are, since you're dead, you should go back to where the dead belong." Lin Tianheng pulled out the dagger, holding it in front of him, and made a few gestures.
The female ghost's venomous gaze fixed on Lin Tianheng, but the power of the dagger seemed to intimidate her. Eventually, her form dissolved back into black mist, retreating into the broken screen. Meanwhile, the darkness covering the other monitors slowly receded and vanished.
As the black mist gradually dissipated, the building slowly came back to life with human sounds, as if everything that had just happened was merely an illusion.
Letting out a long breath, Lin Tianheng finally sheathed the dagger. By now, his back was drenched in cold sweat. This was the first time he had used the pitch-black dagger obtained from the mission, and it had indeed shown extraordinary ghost-repelling abilities.
When he first got the dagger, he had studied it. The special items from the Strange Tales Radio didn't seem to be bound to their users, meaning that, under certain circumstances, they could still be snatched away.
That was why he preferred to take risks alone rather than reveal the dagger's power in front of other participants. Fortunately, this ghost, transformed from a deceased participant, was a primary-type ghost but not very powerful, easily driven back by the dagger.
Once the ghost was repelled, the supernatural forces naturally disappeared, and the building returned from the alternate space to the normal world. Lin Tianheng steadied himself, pushed open the surveillance room door, and a staff member passing by gave him a puzzled look.
Meanwhile, on the eighth floor, Li Kai, Ye Sheng, and the others were astonished to find that the supernatural forces in the building had mysteriously vanished, and they had returned from the alternate space to the normal world.
"It's fine now. Let's go." Li Kai called out to the terrified Zhang Yiming, then turned and walked down the hallway with Ye Sheng. Since they were back in the normal world, they no longer hesitated and decided to take the elevator downstairs.
But in Li Kai and Ye Sheng's minds, a lingering doubt remained. Why had the ghost, which was about to kill them, suddenly let them go?
Could it be that Lin Tianheng in the surveillance room had triggered the alarm and drawn the ghost away? If so, how had he survived the ghost's attack?
Did Lin Tianheng also possess a powerful item or ability like Dai Minghan?
Lin Tianheng's unwillingness to go with them was naturally to keep his secrets hidden. The thought of being distrusted left Li Kai and Ye Sheng feeling somewhat uneasy.
"Forget it, don't overthink it. If it weren't for Lin Tianheng, we'd probably be dead by now." Finally, Li Kai shook his head with a bitter smile. "After all, we're just newcomers to this horror story."
Ye Sheng nodded without responding, but inwardly, he made a firm resolve.
If I survive this story, I'll find a way to get a life-saving item like that!
They waited outside for a while and saw Lin Tianheng walk out of the building as if nothing had happened. Of course, Li Kai and Ye Sheng tactfully didn't ask how he had escaped the ghost's pursuit. Then, the three of them hailed another taxi, taking Zhang Yiming with them to the meeting point they had agreed on before parting ways.
Now, it was up to Chen Mo to see if he could find further valuable clues from the house.
After the life-or-death chase in the building, sitting in the taxi, everyone felt exhausted and unconsciously closed their eyes. After an unknown amount of time, Li Kai was awakened by a sound. Groggily opening his eyes, he realized the noise was coming from his phone in his pocket.
Staying up late to watch the game and still managing to update twice—can I ask for your recommendation tickets and monthly votes? Hehe.