The First Deceased

Li Xing looked at the staff members squatting on the ground, behaving themselves, and felt a bit lost. Just then, he saw Ji Li turn and leave the lobby, heading towards the stairs above.

This made him lose his anchor even more. He quickly shouted, "Manager, where are you going?"

Ji Li replied coldly without turning his head, "I'm leaving this to you. You don't need to manage them. No one in this building will be able to walk out alive from now on. Just stay here."

"I..." Li Xing pursed his lips. Although he was deeply wary of Ji Li, he still felt a bit of confidence from him. Now, with only him and the staff left in the entire lobby, how could he watch over these staff members?

Especially since their companion had just died by Ji Li's hand...

Li Xing looked into the distance at the body that was gradually growing cold. He couldn't help but shrink his head, leaning against the glass door, unable to utter a single word.

Ji Li could already hear increasingly dense footsteps coming from the stairs above. Most of the employees still had to go home.

Li Xing alone might not be able to deter those employees, but he could roughly calculate that since the mission had started and the location was sealed off within the building, they wouldn't be able to escape no matter what. Once they couldn't leave, they would inevitably stay on the first floor.

After all, there was a corpse there that could deter them for a while, and there wouldn't be any major disturbances in the short term.

By then, Tong Guan and Fang Shenyan's teams would also have completed their tasks and returned to the first floor.

This window of opportunity was for Ji Li. He needed to find the building's maintenance personnel.

Power had to be restored in the shortest possible time!

Ji Li saw the employees starting to emerge from above and casually pulled one man over, asking in a low voice, "Where is the building's repair department?"

The man was sweating profusely and had no intention of paying attention to Ji Li's question. He tried to break free.

But he found a dark gun barrel pressed against his temple.

Ji Li asked expressionlessly, "I'm asking you, is there a repair department here?"

The man froze. The subsequent employees couldn't see what was happening in the dim light. They ignored the man and quickly ran downstairs.

"On... on the seventh floor, around the corner... but I'm not sure where they are now. I guess when the power went out, they went to fix it immediately."

After receiving the reply, Ji Li nodded with satisfaction and didn't linger, letting the man go.

Even now, he still didn't know the reason for the building's power outage.

Although it was highly likely caused by ghosts, Ji Li still wanted to try. If the power could be restored, he would have a significant advantage.

The monitoring room!

Up to this point, the true form of the ghosts and their methods of killing had not been revealed.

And he didn't hold much hope for the plan to gather all 43 employees.

He was almost certain that the numbers wouldn't be fully gathered, and those who were left behind would likely be the first to encounter the ghosts.

Ji Li urgently needed an advantage that could coordinate the overall situation and survey every corner!

But all of this depended on whether the power could be restored. The key now was to find the maintenance personnel and see if there was a chance to create this condition.

Just as Ji Li was rushing upstairs, he suddenly heard a commotion nearby.

It was very close!

Ji Li cursed inwardly, turned his head sharply, and saw the crowd of employees parting slightly, everyone's gaze fixed on one person.

His back was slightly dark, one foot forward, his body leaning forward, as if he had just been fleeing but was abruptly frozen!

The people around him looked at him strangely, seemingly wondering why he had suddenly stopped moving.

Someone next to him placed a hand on his shoulder and called out a few times.

"Xiao Liu? What's wrong?"

Ji Li took out the hotel phone from his pocket. This phone was different from ordinary phones; it had inexhaustible battery life.

Without knowing if the power had been restored, using it had an advantage over a regular phone.

The flashlight beam illuminated, and Ji Li realized that the frozen man was the employee he had just asked for directions.

Ji Li was somewhat suspicious and quietly moved a few steps closer. This strange situation was almost a precursor to the ghosts' attack.

But he couldn't figure out why the man had stopped moving...

As he gradually approached, he suddenly saw the man's arm suddenly reach up to his head, accompanied by a series of crisp cracking sounds from his bones and joints.

It was as if his body had suddenly become extremely stiff, and even extending his limbs was very difficult.

Ji Li's eyes deepened. From the man's strange actions, he seemed to see the direction of the situation.

From moving forward to moving backward.

The man's hands pressed on his chin and temples, and to everyone's astonishment, he forcefully twisted!

"Crack!"

His head was snapped off by his own hands. The force was unimaginably great, resulting in an extremely unnatural 180-degree reversal!

It was as if all the bones in his neck had been completely torn apart, and his face, filled with panic and pain, twisted around to face backward!

His head was completely reversed!

The eyes, which never understood why they died until their last breath, cast their final lingering gaze, staring intently at Ji Li behind them!

"Ah!!!"

The employees, who had no idea what was happening, finally witnessed a supernatural attack for the first time. They scattered like headless chickens, fleeing in a panic.

All they hoped for was to leave this cursed place as quickly as possible.

Only Ji Li watched the scene silently. He paced back and forth a few times beside the now stiff corpse.

He glanced at his watch, confirming the time of death as "10:13 and 50 seconds."

"Possession and murder..."

Ji Li touched the joints of this first victim and found that he carried an indescribable chilling aura.

It felt as though he wasn't touching someone who had just died, but rather a corpse that had long been stripped of its life force!

His limbs were as stiff as if he had been in an ice cellar, which seemed to explain why his neck had been broken so easily.

Ji Li was a bit bewildered. This was a peculiar way to die.

Possessed by a ghost and manipulated into suicide – this method of killing was brutally simple.

However, it seemed it could only kill one person at a time. There were so many people around then, yet it only chose this man named Xiao Liu.

Ji Li didn't linger any longer. He began to run quickly towards the seventh floor, intending to find maintenance personnel. Restoring power was the most crucial matter now.

As he ran, he couldn't help but turn his head to look back at the deceased.

In the dim light, he saw the man's clouded eyes, which briefly shimmered with an unusual gloss before vanishing in an instant.

At the same time, a question gradually loomed in his mind.

"Where did the ghost come from?"