"Is anyone there?"
"No, wait. It's a ghost."
Jiang Qiao watched the drizzle floating down from the sky. Feeling the springlike air, he suddenly had the illusion that he had returned to the Peaceful Era.
This was underground.
More precisely, it was the world reached through the underground.
He had imagined many possibilities.
Supernatural place.
Perilous Prisoner's Cage.
Starry Abyss.
Endless Swamp.
Even a deep well whose bottom could never be touched.
He had also envisioned many dangers.
Vicious Ghosts.
Ghost stories.
Curses.
Weird Rules.
And he had prepared himself for battle.
But he had never imagined that the well would lead to a real world. A real world similar to the Great Qi World connected to the Tongling Island Research Institute.
"Since we're here."
"Let's make the best of it."
"I'd like to see why the bus connects to this world, and why those two Vicious Ghosts came here."
Jiang Qiao held the Paper Umbrella he had picked up.
He lightly wiped his face.
Three slanted scars immediately appeared across it.
They added a touch of fierceness to his appearance.
He was at the edge of a mountain forest. Beside him stood a ruined house containing abandoned furniture and household items. He had found the umbrella inside.
He did not enter the mountains.
Instead, he headed toward the town faintly visible in the distance.
Faintly.
He could still see cooking smoke rising inside the town, as if hinting that people lived there.
The road was a little slippery.
Moss covered everything.
In the steady drizzle, his vision also became somewhat blurred.
After about half an hour.
Jiang Qiao reached the town entrance and saw a sparse scattering of local residents. It really was just like that Great Qi World—everyone was a Vicious Ghost, yet they retained certain human ways