CH 74

The phantoms on the ground were so distorted that members of Unit 9 didn’t dare risk walking on the ground.

Yin Ren was sandwiched between Zhong Chengshuo and Huang Jin like a sack, with Ge Tingting floating behind him. With all his teammates piled on him, Yin Ren flew slowly and carefully, almost forgetting to breathe.

The light green scotch tapes intertwined with each other, forming a cobweb-like structure, and the sticky side was facing the four of them. In the center of the spider’s web, there was a pile of volleyballs and basketballs that looked like entrenched eggs. They would twitch from time to time, tilting in the direction of the four of them.

Yin Ren’s long hair flew about, but none of it touched the “spider silk”.

As the procession on the ground marched onward, the aberrant phantoms continued to throw paper, stationery, or their own body parts. Their heads moved with the four people in the sky, and the sensation of being watched tingled their scalp.

Zhong Chengshuo raised his head and looked at Yin Ren’s face.

Yin Ren’s face was highly concentrated and focused. There was also a faint concern about the current situation. They didn’t know if it was through disdain or not, but he had never hesitated to express his subtle emotions.

After entering the Archive, Yin Ren’s emotion undoubtedly became more obvious.

It was very human-like.

If he didn’t care about the others’ lives or deaths, Yin Ren wouldn’t be so restrained.

It was a strange, evil thing. So far, Zhong Chengshuo could only see this person’s obsession with concealing his identity. As for other purposes, he couldn’t analyze them.

What the hell are you?

Yin Ren’s hair was still lying in the inner pocket of his chest, already warmed by his body heat. Separated by a layer of flesh and a pair of bones, Zhong Chengshuo’s heart was beating. Those hairs would move from time to time, as if looking for the warmest position.

Unlike the severed hair that he secretly stole, they were still connected to Yin Ren’s body and were full of activity. At this distance, as long as Yin Ren willed it, they could pierce his heart in an instant.

But they just turned over quietly and arched around gently, as if they were hiding from Zhong Chengshuo.

Zhong Chengshuo pressed Yin Ren’s arm, and across the black cloth, the other’s body heat was soaked in his hands.

“What’s wrong? Is it hurting you?” Yin Ren quickly lowered his head.

“No,” Zhong Chengshuo replied softly. “Let’s go to the main teaching building first—”

Boom boom.

The small campus trembled slightly.

Hundreds of dark red utility knives rose from the ground and tried to stab the people floating in the sky. The attack came without warning, causing Yin Ren to accelerate. Even with his quick reaction, Huang Jin’s backpack was almost sliced by the blade.

Huang Jin: “What is this…”

“Quiet!” Yin Ren shouted.

He didn’t use his hair to extend, but two hands grew from his shoulder blades and quickly made a fist. In less than two seconds, a horde of jet-black lightsabers suddenly appeared around them; the tips of their swords rushed at them in all directions.

The next moment, countless black rays of light lashed out.

Like sharks that smell blood, they rushed toward the sky with the utility knives. After the continuous collisions and blunt sounds, countless black and red debris exploded above the blue sky.

Among the broken utility knives, a breath of air spread out.

Debris fell like snowflakes, while hostility and hatred flowed like sewage.

The peculiar cold evil qi unique to ghosts continued to stir, and the campus’s bright colors dimmed a few degrees. The bright sunlight became colder, showing an abnormal blue color.

More than 30 hours after they arrived on campus, Yin Ren finally noticed a real ghost.

This ghost was strange. It came from all directions and smelled extremely strong, indicating that it was a powerful ghost. However, it was extremely thin and unstable, and was hidden among the chaos.

Yin Ren didn’t stop attacking. He hung in the air and rarely looked up from the ground. Those spare hands of his pierced through his long shirt and kept casting spells.

A burst of red mist rose from around Yin Ren, flying towards the ground, like pouring blood.

Huang Jing was dumbfounded.

This was a blood mist art that was used to detect minute amounts of evil qi. It was an extremely rare and quite ancient human technique. Some old spirit smiths would use it to identify top cursed spirit weapons.

However, people usually only use a wisp of green smoke from the tip of an incense, carefully protecting it. It was the first time he had seen someone use it like a flood bursting from a riverbank.

Huang Jing instinctively looked at Zhong Chengshuo.

In fact, since Zhong Chengshuo found out about his abilities, he had been guarding against him. Zhong Chengshuo’s body was constantly filled with complicated thoughts, making it impossible for him to decipher.

But even if this were King Yama, he would at least react when encountering this kind of battle, right?

Huang Jin’s guess was accurate. He got what he wanted and saw Zhong Chengshuo’s thoughts—a conspicuous “like”.

Huang Jin: “?”

What do you like? Those black lightsabers? The blood mist art? Or is it the thrill of hanging on by a thread?

His mind was about to be overwhelmed by vigilance and anxiety. He really couldn’t understand this strange “like” and “interesting”. Huang Jin resolutely looked away and looked at the ground again.

The red mist became black when it touched the ground. It rolled close to the ground and turned different shades of black, like a mixed pool of stale blood. The only parts that were bright red were near the main teaching building. It was clean and didn’t contain any evil qi.

The last bit of pure land on this crazy campus.

Yin Ren flew across the sky like a bird and rushed straight to the roof of the main teaching building. Seeing the blood mist on the ground becoming darker, Yin Ren clicked his tongue.

He stopped on the edge of the roof and looked down at the bizarre campus.

The library, the lab buildings, the dorms, the cafeteria… Under the carnival of phantoms, the contours of these buildings became blurred. Their regular windows became crisscrossed and filled with slimy internal organs. The scratches from bloody handprints covered the originally flat walls that were now gradually covered in cracks.

The distorted phantoms tried to follow them into the main teaching building but were unable to enter. Guo Laifu walked in circles around the building, which was now like an island surrounded by a group of sharks.

Many phantoms tried to climb into the exterior wall of the building, but once they reached the first floor, they slid down like oil.

Seeing that the road was impassable, compasses and basketballs formed into spider-like monsters and began to climb to the roof along the scotch tape, but before they were halfway up, they trembled violently and fell apart, descending into the ground with crackling sounds.

The main teaching building was filled with the noise of students reading. Even with the twisted heads stuck to the windows and the blood-stained uniforms swaying in the wind, the students were still attending class seriously.

The situation became a deadlock.

Boom.

Another tremor shook the campus, and the fog on the ground approached an inky hue. The air became sticky, and there was an extra sense of oppression. The feeling of the ghost became a bit more obvious, but it seemed to be separated by a thick film, as if what was going on had nothing to do with it.

“Go to Class 2 and 3.” Yin Ren quickly made a decision.

If there was anything special about the main teaching building—Class 2 and 3 was where Guo Wei was. This was Guo Wei’s biggest, clearest, and strongest memory.

“Shouldn’t we blow up the building?” Huang Jin’s voice sounded bitter. “It’s too difficult to try to escape!”

“No. Zhong Chengshuo’s judgment is correct. He has found the right direction of the ‘game’.”

Yin Ren dragged his three teammates quickly through the corridor.

“Unfortunately, this isn’t a game. I kind of understand what Guo Wei is thinking… Come with me.”

……

Outside of Class 2 and 3.

The phantoms couldn’t approach the high-rise building. Looking out from the window, there was still a clear blue sky. Guo Wei was looking at the window blankly, when his table suddenly shook, causing him to almost jump up in fright.

Lei Xiurong slapped some paper hard on the table. “You still can’t do it. Come to my office between classes.”

During the break, Guo Wei first ran to the bathroom.

As soon as he locked the door to the stall, his three roommates walked into the bathroom with a cheeky smile.

“Let’s share the money from last night,” one of them said. “Don’t buy braised vegetables or barbeque next week.”

“There’s nothing to eat with barbeque. Just a few bites of meat. It’s better to buy a roasted chicken. With this much, it’s enough. It’s believable if we say we can’t eat it,” another person said. “In any case, it’s better if Lao Si* eats a little more—just the way he’s gnawing on steamed buns every day makes me feel aggrieved when looking at him.”

*Kind of like a nickname calling Guo Wei Ol’ Four (as in the fourth of their group/roommate).

“Oh, that kid’s just too stubborn and won’t eat with us.” The third person sighed. “Just buy roasted chicken.”

“Would it be too obvious to leave him a drumstick? Isn’t that bullcrap?”

Yin Ren leaned in front of the bathroom sink. Outside the narrow window of the bathroom, the branches of the green trees shook gently.

When Guo Wei walked out of the stall, his eyes were slightly red. He smiled hard at Yin Ren and continued to bury his head as he washed his hands.

Boom boom.

Not far from the window, between the branches of the green tree, there was a huge hand belonging to a man. His index finger was pointing in the direction of Guo Wei as stale steamed buns and rancid leftovers bombarded it in turns. Broken bowls splintered on the walls, and their porcelain surface was stained with eye-catching blood stains.

They couldn’t touch the glass.

The hand shook angrily, and the faint ghostly feeling swayed with its movements.

……

“Teacher Lei, aren’t you being unethical? The number of subsidized places in your grade is really limited.” A faint conversation came from the office. “Guo Wei really doesn’t meet the subsidy conditions. His father is still in the field and has income…”

“Is his father still human?” Lei Xiurong’s voice was as sharp as usual. “Whether he raised him or not, the wife ran away, and the child is covered with scars. He didn’t give him a single penny and threw the kid into the village like a dog. Is this call ‘not eligible for subsidy’? If it weren’t for that brat thinking about working during the holiday to earn money, he would’ve moved up a class already.”

“But what you’re saying, the one in your class is also difficult.”

“Difficult my ass. He’s easy to fool. Isn’t it just someone’s relative? The sophomore quota is set. If he has any opinions, he can say them to my face. Let’s see if he has the ability to get me fired!”

Guo Wei knocked on the door, and the conversation inside abruptly stopped.

“Come in!” Lei Xiurong glanced at Guo Wei and yelled angrily, “Look at these characters you wrote. Are you not taking what I said seriously? You have self-study for your next class, right? Just copy them here. I won’t let you go back until you finish copying them correctly.”

“…Hey, why are you crying? Do you just cry when it’s just a few words?”

Guo Wei clutched the edge of the test paper. He tried to pretend to be calm, but his moist eyes couldn’t be hidden.

Zhong Chengshuo stood at the corner of the teacher’s office and watched all this quietly.

“Okay, don’t cry. Don’t you know how old you are? It’s quite embarrassing.” Lei Xiurong turned her head. “I’m going to class, so just stay here and do your work.”

She picked up her books and lesson plans. Just as she was about to step out, she added another sentence.

“There are dried sweet potatoes in the drawer, so make do with them. You look like a dead person,” she said sharply without looking back. “Don’t faint in my office.”

Guo Wei sniffled vigorously as he neatly copied the paper.

“Thank you, teacher,” after Lei Xiurong left, he said in a soft voice.

There was a group photo of her and her family on her desk. After Guo Wei finished copying the paper, he looked at it for a long time.

A huge blood-red eye was next to the office window. The dilated pupil rushed straight at Guo Wei. On the surface of its eyes, countless banknotes were folded into frogs that chirped frantically, and the coins gathered together like tadpoles, swimming unhappily.

However, the boy didn’t even look at it. He just stared at Lei Xiurong, who didn’t have as much gray hair in the photo.

……

After copying his paper, Guo Wei rushed to the classroom before self-study was over. When he turned the corner, he bumped into two girls holding papers.

One of them screamed, and the papers in her hand spilled all over the floor.

“Are you sick!” A girl with a vague face yelled angrily. “Don’t you even look where you’re going?”

“It’s okay, Qianqian. We didn’t look ahead either.” The face of the other girl was clear. She looked beautiful. It was Li Xiaoya, Guo Wei’s seatmate at the next table. “Guo Wei, you hurry back. Just now, Lao Chen was lecturing, and he asked where you were.”

“But these…”

“I’ll ask the janitor for help.” Li Xioaya hurriedly urged Huang Jin, who was not far away. “It won’t take long.”

She smiled at Guo Wei and gave him a thumbs up.

“Okay, I’m sorry.” Guo Wei’s ears and neck turned red, and he hesitated before wiping his eyes hard.

“We see each other every day. Why are you being so polite?” Li Xiaoya laughed.

Blood-soaked uniforms and blades crackled against the corridor windows, like midsummer rain. Bright red entrails slid down the window glass, leaving no traces behind.

Inside the building, it was another trivial and ordinary day, like a dream. The student Guo Wei wandered in his biggest, clearest, and strongest memory, continuing a life that no longer existed.

The pomegranates were in full bloom, the grass was green; these countless clear details in his memories on campus couldn’t leave even after his death.

To whom was that school rule that represented the will of the master addressing to?

Was it “can’t leave” or “unwilling to give up”?

……

“When a ghost is born, if no one intervenes, they will descend into madness and pure malice.”

Yin Ren leaned against the wall of the corridor, looking at the students and teachers coming and going.

“Guo Wei, this kid… His attachment to the past is too deep, but his negative emotions aren’t heavy enough.”

“But he doesn’t want to be stuck here forever.” Zhong Chengshuo replied smoothly. “So he wants to use us to abandon these memories and officially become a ghost?”

“Maybe.” Yin Ren looked at the vision outside the window again without giving a solid response.

The more distorted the campus, the stronger the ghostly presence became. Once this campus was destroyed, the deepest memory of the child’s heart would be overwhelmed by blood and madness…

Guo Wei would be born as a true ghost.

The consciousness that was parasitic on the consciousness of others may not be so different from a parasite that latched on to others. He had been “nurtured” by Guo Laifu’s spirit, but he hadn’t been born yet.

They were literally in a “ghost fetus”, which was unprecedented.

“No matter what idea Guo Wei has, the game is still on.”

Zhong Chengshuo wiped his glasses and hummed.

“There’s Fu Xingchuan’s support outside. Since Guo Wei wants to become a ghost, let’s just push that boat along the water.”

“Indeed.” Huang Jin’s spirit was strong. “It’s like an egg here. Those things outside can drill into the seams. If we catch the moment it collapses… Well, we should be able to escape.”

After in-depth exchanges, Fu Xingchuan agreed with the opinions of the two.

“What a pity.” Facing the twisted ghost fetus, Minister Fu sighed. “If you guys weren’t inside, this would have been a wonderful research opportunity.”

“The ghost is quite manageable. You guys grab the right moment and destroy the key memories. While he’s confused, we’ll help you break out from our side. Bao Linlin, Wang Zhou, I’ll set up the magic array. You two record the data.”

“Yes!”

“Also, in order to ensure there won’t be any mistakes in the array, it’ll take me at least until 2 in the morning to finish. You still have three chances, right? Stabilize Guo Wei and protect yourself. Even if your memory is sealed, as long as you come out, there are ways to restore it.”

Huang Jin took a deep breath. His frown had finally relaxed a little.

So far, it sounded like they just needed to hide. When it became midnight, he would shoot himself in the head, and the remaining two shouldn’t have any problems.

They would finally be able to leave this shithole. Huang Jin closed his eyes and relaxed for a bit, then looked at the two powerful men.

Zhong Chengshuo took out a pen and paper. Using the windowsill as a table, he was steadily recording something. Yin Ren kept looking at the chaos outside the window, but there was no relief between his brows.

Yin Ren stretched out his hand and touched the wall of the main teaching building.

Thousands of years ago, he had come into contact with too many ghosts. Guo Wei was far from that desperate point.

The tiles on the walls were smooth and clean. There was not a single speck of dust in the corridor. Besides them, there was a clear sound of lecturing coming from Class 2 and 3 of the high school. Hope and longing were hidden in every corner of this memory, shining with clean light.

On the day of his death, Guo Wei was picked up from school by Guo Laifu and was mutilated by his biological father in a sober state. Despite such an impact, he still failed to become a ghost.

Would such a person really suddenly change his mind in half a year?

Yin Ren walked to the back door and looked inside the classroom. Guo Wei’s classmate sitting behind him was poking his back with a smile while whispering something. Student Guo Wei straightened his back and waved his hands helplessly at him as he continued to listen attentively.

Fu Xingchuan’s decision was indeed the safest, but…

Yin Ren left the back door and silently looked at the ground.

Just as he was lost in his thoughts, Zhong Chengshuo also looked back with interest. Yin Ren’s hair froze on his chest, quite depressed.

Zhong Chengshuo closed his notebook with a snap. “The game isn’t over yet.”

His voice was neither high nor low, and he wasn’t sure who Zhong Chengshuo was speaking to.

That night.

The main teaching building was locked as their group flew to the roof.

Time was approaching midnight, but the monsters on the ground didn’t disappear. It was a carnival on campus as the rest of the buildings became shadowy in the night, as if separated by a layer of fog. There were still dense crowds of monsters outside the barrier, and some of them even managed to squeeze half their bodies in.

The vestibule of the campus was full of entrails that nearly flooded the first floor. The sharp blades, which were higher than a flagpole, went up and down, constantly poking at the internal organs. The sky turned into Guo Laifu’s face, and they could almost smell his rancid breath. A thick ghostly presence rampaged in the night wind, giving rise to uneasiness.

The members of Unit 9 were waiting on the roof of the main teaching building, ready to usher in the second and final wave of elimination.

The windows on the second and third floors of the school were covered with spirit bombs, just waiting for Fu Xingchuan to complete his preparations. If the destructive power wasn’t enough, Yin Ren could supplement it with his spells.

It was 11:35 p.m..

“We have followed Guo Wei’s wishes, so he won’t make things difficult for us.” Knowing that he was about to be shot, Huang Jin was expressionless. “I’ll leave it up to you two.”

“Don’t be nervous,” Lu Xiaohe said through the headset. “Many ghosts can play with memories. Even if it doesn’t go well, we have a way.”

“I’m not—”

Before Huang Jin finished speaking, he suddenly choked.

Just like when he was attacked by the xanthium, Huang Jin’s pupils began to dilate, and his forehead was covered in sweat. His breathing was abnormally short, and his brows immediately furrowed. Yin Ren made a quick decision, and his sleeping technique was activated. Huang Jin was instantly wrapped into another cocoon.

A headless and tailless red rope fell from Huang Jin’s feet.

…It was exuding a weak Evil Force that was almost nonexistent and was tightly hidden by the ghostly presence.

Huang Jin fell just before midnight. At midnight, only Yin Ren and Zhong Chengshuo were standing on the rooftop.

The staticky radio sounded.

“Welcome to Qingjiang No. 16 High School. Welcome to the last day of my life.”

There was a vicious smile in Guo Wei’s voice on the radio.

“You have not successfully left the school. Teachers and family members, please choose someone to exclude from the quota.”

“Play out your best memories and stay here.”

“Stay here forever.”

The author has something to say:

An ulterior motive (physics)