"This is... a spirit-detecting match?"
Seeing that Chen Mo recognized it, Dai Minghan smiled. Like Lin Tianheng, he was a listener who had participated in story missions on the radio station, so he naturally carried some items to deal with ghosts. This box of spirit-detecting matches was an item exchanged from the shop.
Spirit-detecting matches, ten sticks per box, costing 5 plot points to exchange. Once lit, they could detect whether any supernatural force existed within a five-meter radius. Though they lacked the power to harm spirits, they were quite useful for scouting surroundings, searching, or avoiding danger.
Eyes fixed on the direction the flame flickered, Dai Minghan's expression turned serious as he slowly walked forward. After burning three matches, he finally found the source of the supernatural force under their guidance.
It was a door at the end of the hallway, with a sign above it reading: 1306.
Could this be Zhou Xiaomi's home?
As the flame died out, a wisp of black smoke twisted like a ghostly shadow and silently rose upward. At the same time, a faint, indistinct music began to echo through the empty corridor. The electronic synthesized tune, slightly off-key, gave off an eerie feeling.
Pressing his ear to the door, Chen Mo confirmed that the strange electronic music was indeed coming from behind the door of room 1306.
He pressed the doorbell a few times, but no one answered. However, when Chen Mo tentatively reached out and turned the handle, the door opened easily.
As the door swung open, a chill wind blew out softly.
Standing at the entrance and peering inside, the apartment was dark despite it being broad daylight. Chen Mo hesitated for a moment before calling out twice.
"Zhou Xiaomi! Are you home? It's Teacher Chen and Teacher Dai here to see you!"
After several calls with no response, Dai Minghan and Chen Mo exchanged a glance. Then, gritting his teeth, Dai Minghan pushed the door open!
A dim room with its curtains completely drawn was revealed before them.
The room was a mess, filled with the stench of rotting food. A rat, its eyes gleaming green, boldly stared at the group of uninvited guests before scurrying under the sofa.
No one was in the living room, but the music grew louder. Frowning and pinching his nose, Lin Tianheng walked to the window and yanked the curtains open. To his shock, he discovered that besides closing the curtains, Zhou Xiaomi had also covered the window glass with thick cardboard, completely blocking out the light. No wonder the room was so dark even in the daytime!
What was going on? Why seal the room like this? What was Zhou Xiaomi afraid of, and where had he gone?
Just then, Chen Mo noticed that the slightly off-key electronic music seemed to be coming from a nearby room. He walked over, turned the handle, and opened the door smoothly. His gaze landed on an object on the floor.
It was a smartphone, its bright screen standing out in the dim room. The music they had heard was indeed coming from this phone lying on the ground. Chen Mo stepped forward, carefully picked it up, and saw that the screen was shattered. Yet the phone itself seemed undamaged, with its programs still running.
Then, his eyes narrowed sharply.
What he saw was a game screen similar to the one in the story preview!
Green grass, a red house, gray stone paths, and pixelated characters running around like in *Minecraft*. It looked like a peaceful village, with a thin melody playing from the screen. Perhaps due to the phone's damage, the slightly off-key music felt not warm but strange and terrifying.
Just as Chen Mo was about to call Dai Minghan and Lin Tianheng over, the game screen suddenly changed. Red liquid slowly dripped down from the top, forming bloody letters: "Game Over."
Though it was a pixelated style, it still felt horrifying. Then, with a beep, a mail icon appeared on the screen, along with the text "Sending."
The mail icon flickered, another beep sounded, and the text changed to "Sent." Two seconds later, the screen went black and wouldn't turn back on.
As Chen Mo sensed an eerie atmosphere, he heard Lin Tianheng let out a soft gasp behind him. Turning to look, he saw Lin Tianheng pointing at a bulging shape on the bed.
Dai Minghan's face darkened. He stepped forward, grabbed the blanket, and yanked it off. Instantly, everyone in the room gasped. A figure was curled up under the blanket, its face frozen in extreme terror, eyes nearly bulging out of their sockets.
But it was completely still.
It stared at everyone with a twisted expression, motionless, until Dai Minghan approached and confirmed the person was dead.
At the same time... the bluish-purple face indicated that the cause of death was suffocation. The unbearable pain of being unable to breathe had twisted his features so grotesquely that his eyes seemed ready to pop out.
Strangely, there were no marks on the boy's neck, no water stains on his body. If he died of suffocation, how? Could he have smothered himself with the blanket?
There was only one explanation for this bizarre phenomenon: the boy had died from a supernatural attack!
Could he be... Zhou Xiaomi?
Despite hiding at home for days, the boy had ultimately been killed by a ghost in his bedroom!
Though the scene was terrifying, Chen Mo felt a slight thrill.
Because this was finally the breakthrough in the story!
From the phone screen earlier, the participants could now confirm that this horror story was indeed tied to a mysterious "cursed game." And from the "email sent" screen, he even speculated that the game, like the videotape in *The Ring*, might spread to the next victim through gameplay!
Now, what he urgently wanted to know was who the cursed game would "infect" next, who would become the next sacrifice!
And this, presumably, was the story's hint to the participants and an important buffer period!
-- PS: Fourth update