You're a Screaming Chicken, Aren't You?

Yu Xing, completely unaware of this, put away the wire, feeling that the person behind him seemed a little off.

A faint chill suddenly crept over his back.

Had Zhao Yijiu been raised on popsicles?

A human-shaped, self-propelled air conditioner!

Before he could turn around, a voice suddenly came from far away and drew closer. "Thank goodness! You're here! Zhang—Zhang Shuya's missing. Can you help me look for her?"

Yu Xing turned his head. Fang Rui was running over, looking like he'd finally found his saviors. He only stopped when he got close, then bent over with his hands on his knees, panting.

"It's almost one o'clock, and Zhang Shuya's gone missing. I can't find her anywhere!" After catching his breath, Fang Rui looked at them expectantly, his brown hair a disheveled mess.

"She's missing?"

Zhao Yijiu put aside his curiosity about Yu Xing and turned a cold gaze on Fang Rui.

"Yeah!" Seeing that one of them looked completely indifferent and the other utterly bewildered, Fang Rui couldn't help twitching at the corner of his eye. Why didn't these two laid-back guys care at all about a missing beauty?

Besides, there was something seriously wrong with this place!

He could only scratch his head and explain. "At 12:35, I had a stomachache and went to use the bathroom. I figured I might as well search the men's room while I was there, and I found a battery in the last stall."

"Ah... Did you see anything scary?" Yu Xing asked curiously.

"Well, um... After I picked up the battery, I thought I shouldn't keep Zhang Shuya waiting outside by herself, so I hurried back. But before I got back, I think I vaguely heard footsteps."

Yu Xing drew out an "Oh~" and quickly arrived at a possible explanation.

They and Zhao Yijiu had figured out that picking up a battery would draw the attention of a ghost. If they were right, taking the battery would have attracted a ghost to Fang Rui. If the ghost hadn't gone after him...

Then Zhang Shuya, who was closest, must have been attacked instead—just like how Zhao Yijiu had picked up a battery and the innocent Yu Xing had been attacked.

Of course, there was another possibility: Fang Rui was one of the six applicants who was actually a ghost, and was putting on an act.

Zhao Yijiu urged him, "Go on. What happened after you got back?"

"Oh, when I got back, she wasn't there, so I looked around for a while. Then I ran into you two. Do you think she might've gone to another area? Oh, right—what are you two doing by the entrance..." As he spoke, Fang Rui suddenly realized something was off. He glanced at them suspiciously. "You're not trying to leave, are you?"

Yu Xing immediately put on a wounded expression. "You can leave? The door won't open, and we can't send messages. We're trapped here."

He thought for a moment, then said loudly, "Hey, I'll tell you a secret. There really are ghosts here. Believe me or not?"

"I believe you, I believe you!" Fang Rui nodded vigorously. To be honest, when he and Zhang Shuya had found those two batteries in the lobby, a human head had emerged from a machine. Zhang Shuya thought it was a prop, but he'd seen it. The head wasn't attached to some mechanical contraption—there was nothing underneath it!

After nodding, he asked, "What about the windows? Can they be opened?"

"..."

"..."

Yu Xing and Zhao Yijiu fell silent.

They'd forgotten.

There were windows, too.

The nearest ones were right beside them. They went over and tried pushing them. As expected, the frames seemed rusted shut, and no matter how hard they pushed, nothing budged.

All they could do was watch the storm outside beat mercilessly against the filthy glass. Now and then, lightning lit up the sky, followed by a dull rumble of thunder.

They followed the wall and tried a few more windows, but got the same result.

Zhao Yijiu pressed his lips together. He'd forgotten the windows because he already knew neither they nor the door could be used to get out, so he hadn't bothered thinking about them.

Yu Xing was in such a hurry to get out and still forgot about them? There really was something wrong with him.

Could he be like Zhao Yijiu...

"Ah!!"

Just then, a shrill cry sounded faintly from somewhere beyond several walls, interrupting Zhao Yijiu's suspicions.

"A woman's scream." Yu Xing looked away from the desolate scene outside.

Fang Rui jumped. "That's Zhang Shuya! It came from the restroom area. Let's hurry!"

He took off running, leaving Zhao Yijiu and Yu Xing to look at each other.

Zhao Yijiu gave him a knowing smile. "Dare to go?"

Yu Xing shook his head without hesitation. "No way. I'll pass... Hey, damn it, I didn't notice my camera ran out of power!"

"Fine. You said you went." Zhao Yijiu took Yu Xing's meaning at face value, then pulled out the battery they'd found at the restroom sink—the only one they had—and held it out to him. "Here's the battery. I'll give it to you if you go."

Yu Xing hugged his dead camera and looked pitifully at Zhao Yijiu, then glanced at the battery.

At this point, he felt it couldn't be good to ignore the "rules" Assistant Hao had given them. What if that triggered some sort of death condition? Then he'd be done for.

But Zhao Yijiu only had that one battery. If he gave it to Yu Xing...

Yu Xing asked, "Then what about you? Your camera's going to run out of power in two minutes, too, isn't it?"

Since they'd used night vision for different lengths of time, their cameras would run out of power at slightly different times.

Zhao Yijiu reflexively touched his pocket. His fingertips brushed against cold metal, and he said in a chilly voice, "I'm safer than you are."

"Then I'll go!" Yu Xing was full of the will to survive. He quickly took the battery and replaced it as he walked. "Come on."

Their exchange had been quick. Fang Rui had only just reached the corridor.

When they caught up with him, they found him pounding on the door of a room. "I think the sound came from in here. What do we do? Could something have happened to her?"

Yu Xing looked at the sign beside the door.

It read: [Women's Changing Room].

"Damn it, it's locked!" Fang Rui sounded anxious. Surely none of them wanted something to have happened to her. That would mean things were heading in the worst possible direction.

The pounding on the door shattered the silence. Yu Xing perked up at once.

"It's locked? Then I—"

"We're out of time." Zhao Yijiu cut him off. He effortlessly shoved Fang Rui, who looked like a sturdy young man, aside, then kicked the door with all his might!

The door flew open with a violent shudder.

Yu Xing: Is this guy addicted to kicking doors...?

They rushed inside and looked around.

"Ah!!" Another scream rang out. This one came from Yu Xing.

A body with its eyes missing was leaning against the doorframe. Long, curly hair hung messily beside her face, and blood seeped from the empty sockets. It trickled down her cheeks and pooled on the floor.

As soon as Yu Xing screamed, he was already hiding behind Zhao Yijiu. Zhao Yijiu could even feel the trembling in the fingers clutching the back of his shirt.

This...

He couldn't help doubting himself. If Yu Xing was faking it, could he really be this convincing?

After glancing at the corpse, Zhao Yijiu pulled Yu Xing out from behind him and pushed him toward Zhang Shuya. "Aren't you familiar with corpses? Go check how she died."

"Ah, no, don't!" Yu Xing nimbly dodged Zhao Yijiu's attempt, his face full of terror as he refused frantically. "No, no, I'm scared. Don't!!!"

"Are you a screaming chicken?" Zhao Yijiu was exasperated. He'd never seen a man so incapable of keeping his cool. Yu Xing's screams were a little more pleasant than a screaming chicken's, but they were still noisy.

"Me, a screaming chicken? I'm doing pretty well, actually." Yu Xing retreated to a safe distance and pointed at Fang Rui. "You think he's calm? He's already scared stiff."

Zhao Yijiu paused and turned to look at Fang Rui.

Fang Rui was deathly pale, frozen in place, staring blankly at the body of the girl who'd been laughing and talking with him barely twenty minutes ago. The world felt unreal.

Death itself wasn't scary. What was scary was the brutal way she'd died, with both eyes gouged out.

Scarier still was that whatever had killed her was nearby.

He finally managed to come to his senses, only to realize he was so scared he couldn't move. He said weakly, "Yeah... Could you two stop arguing about chickens and maybe check on me?"

"Sure! I'm a kind person, and looking after people is what I do best." Yu Xing immediately went over to support Fang Rui. For some reason, though, Fang Rui couldn't help thinking, Wasn't he the one who said at the start that he couldn't look after women? And now he's the best at caring for people?

"..." Zhao Yijiu watched them for two seconds, his gaze lingering on Yu Xing's hand holding Fang Rui's arm. Then he decided not to say anything and walked over to the body, crouching down to examine it.

"Her eyes were gouged out, deeply enough to reach the brain." His voice was as cold and emotionless as a machine's. He turned the body over. "No other injuries."

Yu Xing imagined Zhao Yijiu saying, deadpan and completely seriously, I'm a shrimp corpse. I have no emotions. His poor, frightened heart started beating normally again.

Now that he could think again, he said, "Eyes... The ghosts here really seem to like eyes. First there was that note telling people to gouge out their own eyes, then one chased me and kept harping on about blinding me, and now this..."

Fang Rui listened, completely confused. Wait, what have you two been through since we split up?

"Oh, that's Zhang Shuya's camera, right?" Yu Xing turned his head and spotted a camera lying beneath a bench.

Fang Rui had recovered somewhat, so the two of them walked over. As Yu Xing picked up the camera, he was especially worried a hand might reach out from beneath the bench and drag him underneath again. Fortunately, nothing happened this time. He straightened up and fiddled with what he'd picked up.

"It's out of power." Yu Xing called to Zhao Yijiu by the body. "Check whether she has a battery on her!"

Zhao Yijiu understood at once and muttered, "You've sure gotten used to ordering people around."

"Hey!" Fang Rui's eyes widened in disbelief. "You can't seriously look for a battery on a dead person. She just died. Isn't that disrespectful to the dead?"

"Hmm," Yu Xing said in surprise. "That's how you see it?"

"Am I wrong?" Fang Rui was still pale, though his complexion was starting to look more like Yu Xing's. "We should show the dead some respect..."

"Buddy." Yu Xing patted Fang Rui on the shoulder and asked, "We should respect the dead, sure, but this isn't what that means. If we leave her untouched, just as she is, until she rots, is that respect?"

He gave a strange smile. "Finding clues and figuring out why she died, so that no one leaves her without even knowing how she died—that's what respect means."

Fang Rui listened, dazed. He suddenly realized that the timid young man in front of him was over six feet tall—actually a little taller than Fang Rui himself, who was six foot two. When Yu Xing was serious for once, he somehow had an imposing presence.

"Oh..." Fang Rui's thoughts were a little tangled.

"No battery." Zhao Yijiu had already searched the body quickly. He'd naturally heard what Yu Xing said and thought to himself, Tch. Who knew this guy could actually seem so convincing when he was serious?

"No battery..." Yu Xing frowned slightly. "We figured out earlier that the batteries attract ghosts. But her camera ran out of power, and she didn't have a battery on her, which means she didn't die because she touched a battery. That means—"

"That means there's another condition that triggers the ghost." Zhao Yijiu picked up where he left off. Based on Assistant Hao's instructions, that led to a troubling conclusion. "If a camera stays out of power for more than five minutes, the person gets killed by a ghost."

"Huh?" Fang Rui couldn't help feeling relieved. "Before I found you, I replaced my battery. Thank goodness."

He was fine, but Zhao Yijiu wasn't.

This was bad.

Because just moments ago, his own camera had run out of power, too.

Yu Xing had realized that as well. Zhao Yijiu had given him the battery, so he asked, "What do we do? Go back and get another battery?"

By "go back," he meant the office area. They'd already figured out where the batteries were in Offices 02 and 03.

"Yeah. I'll go now. I can make it in five minutes." As he spoke, Zhao Yijiu was already running outside.

"You go first. I'll catch up in a bit!" Yu Xing was a step behind. He wasn't letting Zhao Yijiu go ahead because he was scared. He just wasn't very fit, and with less than five minutes, making Zhao Yijiu wait for him would waste time.

Besides, from what they'd seen so far, Zhao Yijiu could run away from a ghost more easily on his own than with Yu Xing along.

After Zhao Yijiu disappeared from view, Fang Rui remarked, "He's really brave, and he's good at fighting, too. What do you think he did before this?"

"No idea." Yu Xing caught sight of Zhang Shuya's body lying on the ground out of the corner of his eye. He walked over and straightened it, taking the chance to get a closer look.

She really was beautiful.

Such a vibrant life... and now she'd died just like that, without even knowing what was happening.

Fang Rui stared blankly at what he was doing. "Weren't you scared!?"