Chapter 79: I'll Give You One Chance to Reconsider Your Words!
A strange odor wafted through the cramped girls' dormitory. In the areas beyond the flashlight's beam, the bedsheets swayed gently, as if something had crawled out from beneath them.
Raindrops pelted the window frame; outside the dorm, wind and rain raged, but inside, the silence was unsettling.
His arm hovered over the white paper, Chen Ge gripping the pen, trying his best to relax.
After reciting the incantation to summon the spirit pen, a distinct force pressed down on the back of his hand, as if another hand were gently holding it. He could feel the chill emanating from the other's fingertips.
"Spirit pen, spirit pen, you are my past life, I am your present life. If you wish to come, draw a circle on the paper."
Chen Ge chanted the incantation again. The icy sensation on his hand grew clearer, but what puzzled him was that the pen in his palm stood upright on the paper, neither drawing a circle nor doing anything else.
"The spirit pen doesn't want to come?"
The atmosphere in the room grew even more oppressive. The cold feeling on his hand had now spread to his arm.
"It feels like there are several more people in here." He focused, his pupils slowly contracting in the darkness. Perhaps due to the effect of his Yin Eyes, he vaguely saw three faint shadows standing in three different directions, each extending a hand to grip the pen in Chen Ge's palm.
"Three?" His heart skipped a beat. Chen Ge blinked, and the scene he'd just seen vanished instantly.
Just because his eyes couldn't see them didn't mean they had left. Chen Ge's hand felt as if it were plunged into ice water. He was certain that at least three other hands were now gripping the pen standing upright in the middle.
"Three 'people' responding at once? Is this because of the 'Favored by Wrathful Spirits' title?" As Chen Ge pondered, the pen, which had been still on the paper, trembled without warning. The movement was slight, but he could feel it.
"Is it starting?"
The flashlight's beam beside him seemed to dim significantly. Under Chen Ge's watchful gaze, the pen in his hand began to rotate slowly.
The tip pressed against the white paper, the ball at the top of the ink cartridge scraping against the surface, quickly drawing a blood-red circle.
His own hand hadn't moved, yet the pen had drawn something on the paper. Chen Ge stared at the pattern on the white sheet, recalling the name of this side quest—The Spirit Pen That Won't Leave.
The spirit pen game had three taboos: one, never ask about the cause of death; two, never ask about lifespan; three, you must send it away. Breaking any of these would lead to uncontrollable consequences.
The third was the most severe. Once the spirit pen was summoned, if it couldn't be sent back, it would stay by your side until it possessed the player's body or killed them.
"I hope nothing goes wrong." Chen Ge muttered to himself, then refocused on the white paper.
End to end, the blood-red circle was drawn right in the center of the paper.
"It seems it heard me. Now it's my turn to ask questions."
Chen Ge was only there to complete the black phone's mission; he had no intention of making any bizarre attempts. If he angered the other party, he'd be the one to suffer in the end.
"Successfully summoning the spirit pen is a rare opportunity." After a moment's thought, Chen Ge voiced his biggest doubt: "Spirit pen, spirit pen, do you know where my parents went?"
During the previous nightmare-difficulty mission—the Bathtub Game—the person Chen Ge most wanted to see was his parents, but he hadn't gotten his wish. Still, it at least proved one thing: his parents weren't dead, just missing.
Chen Ge genuinely wanted to know the answer to this question, but what he never expected was that after he asked, the pen in his palm began to tremble violently, and fine cracks even appeared on its shaft.
This was nothing like the scene he had imagined: "Is my question really that hard?"
Two or three minutes later, Chen Ge felt the room brighten slightly. The pen in his hand started moving again, drawing another circle on the paper.
"What does that mean? Skipping it?" Chen Ge looked at the two circles on the paper and roughly understood the spirit pen's meaning. Awkwardly, it didn't know the answer to that question either.
"The spirit pen's reaction just now was strange. It seems my parents' disappearance isn't simple." Chen Ge fell silent for a moment. Aside from that question, he couldn't think of anything else to ask. "Forget it, I'll just ask something random and finish this side quest quickly."
The chill on his arm had already spread to his shoulder. As the game progressed, Chen Ge felt half of his body going numb, gradually losing control.
"Let me change the question. Spirit pen, spirit pen, can you tell me who my future wife will be?"
The pen tip quivered. The flashlight's beam flickered a few times, as if something had passed by, and the room's tension heightened again.
The window frame creaked. Fine raindrops fell into the room. Lightning split the night sky, and for a moment, four shadows were cast on the wall.
His hand clenched loosely, and the pen in Chen Ge's hand moved again.
Blood-red characters appeared on the white paper, stroke by stroke. Soon, the first character was written.
"Xu? Is it Xu Wan?" Chen Ge was genuinely curious this time. The pen in his hand didn't pause; it continued from the last stroke of the previous character to write the next one.
But halfway through, the ballpoint pen suddenly stopped moving.
"What's going on?"
Chen Ge watched everything passively. He wasn't applying any force, but the pen in his palm began to tremble violently, the cracks on it growing more numerous.
"Bang!"
In the eerie dormitory, it seemed several different forces were clashing. The ballpoint pen couldn't withstand the pressure, and the top of its shaft completely split open.
One side seemed to choose compromise, and then Chen Ge witnessed an astonishing sight.
The pen in his hand crossed out the previously written "Xu" character, then wrote another name in the blank space beside it!
"Zhang... Ya?"
The blood-red name was neatly written on the white paper, leaving Chen Ge at a loss for words: "Spirit pen, are you sure this is what you originally meant to write?"
There was no response. The cold sensation on Chen Ge's arm also disappeared. "Spirit pen, are you still here? Draw a circle if you can hear me."
The icy feeling completely faded, and the room returned to normal. It seemed the spirit pen had left without saying goodbye, but to be safe, Chen Ge still recited the required incantation: "Spirit pen, spirit pen, you are my past life, I am your present life. If you wish to leave, please go back."
The game ended. Chen Ge stood up from beside the chair. As soon as he let go, the ballpoint pen in his palm cracked and broke into several pieces, looking quite pitiful.
"The spirit pen game I played seems different from others'."
Chen Ge picked up his phone. Due to poor signal, the live broadcast of the spirit pen session hadn't gone through.
But he was astonished to find that his stream's viewership had inexplicably surpassed twenty thousand—a new record for him.