The Curse Spreads

"Impossible... How could this happen..."

Li Xing was completely stunned by the scene before him. A chill shot up from the soles of his feet straight to his brain, and he stumbled and fell to the ground.

His arm was raised high, aimed directly at the staff member just a step away, who was about to break his head!

"How could they all be dead! How could six people die consecutively at the same time!"

Li Xing roared out this question, and Ji Li was also pondering the same thing internally.

The residual light from outside the window scattered across his shoulders, but his entire demeanor suggested he had completely merged with the darkness.

Everything happening before him, which he was powerless to stop, was cruelly unfolding a desperate and absurd horror.

Ji Li couldn't understand what could have caused all the staff members to be affected at the same time!

He abruptly turned his head to look at the other dead body beside him. This Text Message Man was the source of everything...

With his death, all the staff Ji Li brought with him seemed to have been cursed and spread the affliction, not a single one escaped!

He stared blankly at his hands. His palms no longer felt that strange stiffness, but they were still a bluish-black color.

"The curse is spreading..."

This sentence began to circle in Ji Li's mind. Based on the current situation, the Isolation Theory was utter nonsense. The reason no one had died on the first floor yet was simply because they were lucky.

Since the Ghost's killing pattern wasn't about isolation, but rather a spreading curse, then what was the source of the curse?

Ji Li slowly raised his head, his vacant eyes fixed on the starry sky outside the window.

The heavy rain out there showed signs of lessening, but the conflict within the building had only just reached its peak.

"Witnessed an instance of possession-induced suicide?"

The Second Personality hadn't spoken for a long time, and its voice sounded somewhat weary now.

"Doesn't seem like it. Initially, it wasn't just us; many people on the first floor saw Xiao Liu commit suicide in the stairwell, but they're all fine now."

The Third Personality softly retorted, then proposed a more likely conjecture.

"Perhaps, we are the source of the curse..."

Ji Li heard this and fell into thought, remaining silent.

The Third Personality continued:

"Actually, we knew from the very beginning that a staff member was present whenever each victim died or was on the verge of death!

This wasn't hard to guess, but at the time, we were all focused on isolation and protection, overlooking this point.

From the situation with the Text Message Man just now, it's clear that once targeted by a Ghost, we are completely incapable of rescuing them.

And after all this, Ji Li, you've experienced more than three instances of possession-induced suicide. The curse has further spread within you.

It can even directly affect the five staff members you brought along.

No one could have imagined that the mission explicitly required us to protect the staff, but the real path to death was to stay away from them!"

Ji Li remained silent, listening to the Third Personality's analysis.

Its conjecture that the staff were the source of the curse wasn't impossible, but it was somewhat hasty.

"You're right, certain aspects do align.

But, where is the Ghost?"

This was the most crucial question. Up to this point, they hadn't seen any sign of a Ghost. Even after killing the Text Message Man just now, those five staff members were affected.

Yet, they still hadn't seen any trace of a Ghost.

"If we are the source of the curse, perhaps the Ghost is within us..."

The Third Personality's tone was somewhat ethereal, as if it too lacked certainty.

Ji Li didn't entirely agree with this conjecture. Was the Third Personality's guess valid?

It could be.

The Ghost was within the staff members and, through them, approached the employees to spread the suicide curse.

This could indeed explain most of what had happened so far.

But there was one thing it couldn't explain.

Lao Xue's death, and the Text Message Man's abnormal behavior!

Although Ji Li wasn't a forensic scientist and didn't understand corpse changes well, having experienced death several times, he could roughly estimate Lao Xue's time of death.

He definitely hadn't died only when they approached the fifth floor!

He wasn't on the fifth floor, but Lao Xue had died beforehand. This already violated the Third Personality's theory that the staff carried the Ghost.

Secondly, the Text Message Man knew Ji Li and had personally said, "There's a Ghost in the building," clearly indicating he knew about all the changes in the building.

However, during the first search, no one had found any trace of him.

This indicated that he had always maintained a safe distance from the staff. According to the Third Personality's theory, he shouldn't have known about the existence of ghosts.

Even if he had seen a corpse possessed and committing suicide, he wouldn't have immediately thought that a ghost was the killer!

The two significant doubts could actually be considered a single mystery.

Lao Xue, the Text Message Man, and perhaps Xiao Qi, whose whereabouts remained unknown, the three of them had discovered a major secret regarding this mission!

And only by uncovering that secret could they truly find the ghost's killing pattern, and even a way to survive!

On the eighteenth-floor corridor, only Ji Li and Li Xing remained alive. He gradually turned his gaze towards the man who was now frozen with fear.

Bringing him along served not only as a potential scapegoat but also because he suspected this man.

In missions, special individuals often became breakthroughs.

For instance, in the previous Peeping Ghost mission, the Raincoat Man was the key to survival.

And Li Xing, why did he enter the hotel three minutes later than Tong Guan and the other person?

Ji Li had never mentioned this, but it had always weighed on his mind. Although Li Xing's performance so far had been exceptionally ordinary.

Out of caution, Ji Li still kept him close.

Ji Li lit a cigarette, slowly got up, and was about to wake the dazed Li Xing when he suddenly heard a faint squeaking sound.

He frowned, looked up, and at the same time, the light tubes above the corridor lit up one after another.

Darkness vanished in an instant, but the entire building was now covered by the glaring cold fluorescent lights.

Ji Li's face, illuminated by the light tubes, appeared even paler, radiating a deathly aura similar to the six stiff corpses standing beside him.

"Lights..."

Li Xing shivered violently and, after a moment of reaction, scrambled to his feet.

"Manager! The power's back on!"

Light always gave people some courage to face fear, and Li Xing was particularly excited about it.

Similarly, Ji Li felt a sense of relief.

However, what he was thinking was that the surveillance cameras could finally be used!

This was a contingency plan he had considered from the beginning, but he only had the conditions to implement it when the mission was nearly halfway over.

Ji Li's face regained its color. Holding his cigarette, he walked forward and said to the Third Personality in his mind:

"Although I don't agree with your speculation, with the convenience of the surveillance room, we can give it a try."