Chapter 1 The Ghost Story

"So, in the end, the woman fell into a puddle?" Shadow interrupted Feng Bujue at this point, asking such a question.

"Huh? You've actually heard it?" Feng Bujue said.

"I want to hear a story that can scare me, not a bad joke," Shadow replied.

"Hmm…" Feng Bujue sighed. "Then I'll change it." He had plenty of such stories in his head, no problem listing a hundred or eighty. "You want scary, right…" he thought to himself, *But come to think of it, this guy is a ghost himself, yet he's asking me to tell ghost stories, this inexplicable comedic effect is really…*

This time, Feng Bujue seemed to be preparing to get serious. The shorter the story, the better, and it had to be terrifying. It was actually quite difficult to make someone afraid using only the power of language within a limited space.

"That day, I was sitting on a park bench." Feng Bujue suddenly seemed to have schizophrenia, changing into a very strange expression and starting to narrate in the first person. "There was a fountain in front of me. I watched the water column rise high and then fall… The clear evening sky made me feel a bit chilly."

Shadow listened to Feng Bujue's narration without saying a word. From an outsider's perspective, Brother Jue was really getting into the role. His self-referential "I" was also quite convincing.

"I listened to the sound of the fountain's water while spreading out two or three evening newspapers that were at hand. But no matter which newspaper's news it was, there was no news I was expecting to see."

Feng Bujue exhaled a puff of white mist: "About two weeks ago, a girl was found dead in an abandoned empty house in the suburbs. What I'm looking for is a news report about this matter." A bizarre smile appeared on the corner of his mouth. "I had been in love with this girl for some time… I remember that day, it was also an evening. She came to meet me for a secret date, wearing a peach-petal-shaped hairstyle, and wearing a school uniform and a short skirt… That appearance was too beautiful, almost making it hard for me to breathe."

Speaking to this point, Feng Bujue revealed a fanatical look, his breathing also became rapid, and the corners of his mouth twitched a few times in a morbid way: "So… almost subconsciously, I took her to an empty house near the X-level intersection in the suburbs, and then strangled this panicked girl to death." He paused, his eyes wide, meeting Shadow's gaze. "That made me feel relieved… If I hadn't done that, I would definitely have gone crazy, ha… haha…" He laughed a few times, the laughter revealing a sense of satisfaction, as if still savoring the pleasure of that moment.

"I untied her belt, hung her on the roof beam, and disguised the scene as a suicide by hanging." Feng Bujue continued, "Although I went home as if nothing had happened afterwards, from that day on, I would come to this park every evening, buy two or three different evening newspapers, and sit on a bench to read…"

Feng Bujue sneered, "'Young girl commits suicide by hanging,' I was hoping to see such a news headline appear." He suddenly reached out and grabbed at the air beside him, as if there was really something there. "Suddenly, I saw it, on the ground beside my feet, there was a newspaper, an old newspaper that someone had discarded. In the center of a certain edition, three large headlines were published. Those words shot into my sight like an electric current…

Unknown corpse in an empty house.

A corpse of about two weeks old was found in an abandoned empty house near the X-level intersection.

The deceased was a young man dressed as a company employee."

At this time, Feng Bujue's face was already a ghostly and terrifying expression: "I grabbed the newspaper, ran out of the park like a madman, and came to the X-level intersection as if possessed, and stood in front of that abandoned empty house.

I looked around in a panic, making sure that no one had come to this crime scene, before opening the door and going in…

The room was pitch black. I groped around and found the eight-tatami-mat room where the corpse was hanging, lit a match and took a look…"

Feng Bujue shined the flashlight on his face and leaned forward a bit: "The belt hung down from the beam, and my corpse was hanging there. At the same time, from the dark place behind me, came the girl's voice."

"Ohohohoho… you've finally come back to find me…" Feng Bujue's story ended abruptly here.

He changed his face almost a second later, returning to his usual expression: "How was it?"

"Uh…" Shadow's eyes, which emitted a faint blue light, dimmed slightly. "I think the speed of your own transformation is more terrifying than the plot of the story…"

"Enough nonsense!" Feng Bujue said, drawing his gun again. "From the time I came in until now, seven or eight minutes have been wasted (the total time has now passed twenty-six minutes). If you still want me to say…" His last half sentence was: *If you still want to hear, then listen to the gunshot.*

"Okay, I'll take you to the prison cell." Shadow replied before Feng Bujue could finish his sentence. He raised a finger. "Don't worry about what you see next, those are all harmless, so don't try to struggle."

The NPC's words were indeed necessary. If it hadn't given a warning in advance, Feng Bujue would definitely have fiercely resisted the situation that was about to happen…

In the next second, a white light lit up at Shadow's fingertip. The light spot gradually turned into a ball of light, and then, countless strange little things swam out of the light. The color and texture of those things were like shell-less boiled eggs, but their size and shape were closer to insect larvae, pale and ugly larvae…

Their numbers increased, swimming in a ring in the air like a vortex. Although they were acting in groups, each individual seemed to have its own consciousness. These translucent, soft, milky white creatures nimbly chased each other and devoured each other… Seemingly chaotic, but in reality, there was order in the chaos.

Feng Bujue felt like he was watching a drop of water under a microscope, but he didn't watch for long before a bad situation occurred. Those things swam over from the air, circling around Feng Bujue, becoming more and more dense and more and more rapid…

They began to touch Feng Bujue's body, wriggling and gathering on him… until his whole body was covered, and his eyes, ears, mouth, and nose were all blocked.

Just as Feng Bujue felt that the situation was a bit out of control and suspected that he had been tricked, he suddenly felt the pressure around him ease and the coldness disappear. Although his eyes were closed, he could already feel the environment in front of him getting brighter.

He opened his eyes and saw…