Seeing Ghosts

One in the morning.

The second-floor corridor of the silent hotel was pitch black.

It carried a faint, eerie chill.

A strange figure kept pacing the corridor.

He was covered in blood, his pale face, like that of a dead person, held a hint of bewilderment.

Where am I?

Who am I?

He seemed to have no memory of anything that had happened before.

He walked back and forth, looking around blankly. After a long time, he realized he seemed to be in a hotel corridor.

He felt his mind was sluggish, and he couldn't remember many things.

He also felt very tired and weak. He needed to get a good night's sleep.

He took a step and walked towards his room. He made a motion as if opening a door, then walked in.

In reality, his body passed through the door as if it had become ethereal.

The room was a double. Besides him, there was a colleague.

He suddenly remembered. He was a mechanical engineer. He had come to Dongning City with an experienced colleague from his company because their company's machinery had a problem, and they were here for on-site inspection.

His colleague was not asleep yet, tossing and turning in bed, seemingly suffering from insomnia.

Looking at his colleague, gradually, for some unknown reason, a strong sense of resentment suddenly arose in his heart.

His calm face twisted into a grimace.

"A ghost!"

A sharp scream echoed through the entire corridor.

Immediately after, the door burst open with a bang: "Help! Someone, help!"

Chen Shouyi was jolted awake from his sleep by the scream.

Beside him, Shell Girl, curled up, was also disturbed. She groggily opened one eye, glanced at Chen Shouyi, and turned over to continue sleeping.

What happened?

He hesitated for a moment, then quickly put on his clothes.

He picked up his phone and turned on the flashlight.

As soon as he opened the door, he keenly felt a strange chill in the air, as if the air conditioning was on.

But after a moment, these cold, eerie sensations dissipated around him.

Not far away, an old man in his fifties or sixties was slumped on the ground. He seemed terrified, clutching his head with both hands, desperately shrinking towards the wall.

He was saying something in fear, his voice choked with sobs, his whole body trembling.

"Please, don't come any closer!"

"Little Zhang, you have your grievances, and the debtor has their creditor. It wasn't me who caused your death. When I get back, I'll definitely burn incense and kowtow to apologize."

"I didn't help you, but I have old parents and young children to support. I'm scared too!"

On this chilling late night, the old man's voice was eerily unsettling.

But what Chen Shouyi found strange was that he couldn't see who the old man was talking to, as if there was an invisible figure in front of him.

At this time, many doors had been slightly opened, and people were peeking out.

After a while, perhaps seeing that Chen Shouyi was standing in the corridor and seemed unharmed, a few people finally mustered the courage to come out and whispered, pointing at the old man.

"Isn't that the colleague of the person who died earlier?"

"Seems like it. Has he gone mad! A ghost? What ghost? I've never seen one."

"Maybe he's done something he regrets!"

There are always people who enjoy a spectacle, and soon the corridor became lively, but no one dared to approach the old man, only watching from a distance.

Better safe than sorry, this was the common thought of most people.

To be honest, facing such a bizarre situation, Chen Shouyi also felt a bit unnerved.

Since the anomaly last night, this world had begun to change.

However, this unease was only slight. After all, he had killed more than a dozen Barbarians and even carried their corpses himself. His courage was naturally incomparable to ordinary people.

Chen Shouyi gritted his teeth and, with great courage, walked towards the old man. He wanted to see what this ghost looked like.

Fear stems from the unknown. For someone who had been appearing in the Otherworld all along, he would eventually have to face such things.

Moreover, he believed that even if it were a real ghost, it couldn't be a powerful one given the extremely low concentration of mysterious energy at present, let alone one that had only recently become a ghost.

"Little brother, don't go over there. What if there really is a ghost?" A young man nearby kindly warned Chen Shouyi when he saw him preparing to walk over.

"It's fine. I've never seen a ghost in my life. I'll go check the situation," Chen Shouyi said with a smile.

Speaking, and ignoring others' attempts to dissuade him, he walked forward.

As he approached, the cold, gloomy aura ahead quickly dissipated.

His blood and qi were now surging, making him like a blazing sun to such chilling energies.

Before he could even reach the old man, he felt his mind momentarily daze. The next moment, he faintly heard a resentful, desperate scream.

Huh, it seems to be gone!

The corridor was still the same corridor, but it seemed to have lost its eerie, sinister atmosphere and gained a touch of humanity.

Chen Shouyi had been tense and anxious when he first walked over.

He never expected it to be so easy, collapsing before he even exerted himself.

"Grandpa, are you alright?"

He patted the old man, who was trembling, on the shoulder. The old man reeked of urine; he had clearly wet himself from fright.

"Don't... don't kill me!"

"Grandpa, are you having a nightmare? Ghosts, where are there any ghosts?"

Hearing Chen Shouyi's voice, the old man took a long while before he shakily looked up, his eyes darting left and right nervously.

He was slightly plump, with heavy bags under his eyes and an unhealthy puffiness, as if he hadn't slept for days.

After the commotion, Chen Shouyi returned to his room.

He checked the time; it was already 1:30 AM.

Looking at Shell Girl, who was still sleeping soundly, he found his earlier nervousness amusing.

Compared to the Otherworld, this kind of ghost was probably not worth mentioning.

He guessed that even if he hadn't gone over, the ghost probably wouldn't have been able to harm anyone.

He was just puzzled why the old man could see it while he and others couldn't.

For some reason, he couldn't help but recall online rumors about who is prone to seeing ghosts.

Although most were baseless, the old man met two criteria.

For example, the elderly, frail, or sick, and those with weak spirits who often suffered from insomnia. The old man fit both, and since the ghost directly targeted him, that was likely why he could see it.

Forget it, no more thinking!

He went back to sleep.

The night passed without incident.

The next day, Chen Shouyi woke up to find that the power was still out, and the signal and internet remained disconnected.

With a heavy heart, he went to the bathroom to wash up.

After returning and getting dressed, he put Shell Girl into his briefcase and went out.

The streets were still jammed with traffic. A night had passed, and there was still no sign of the roads being cleared.

Chen Shouyi noticed many workers inspecting the power lines by the roadside.

Besides the police, fully armed soldiers were also present on the streets.

It created a somber atmosphere, like the oppressive calm before a storm.

Chen Shouyi walked with his briefcase, his steps heavy. Before long, he arrived at the newspaper stand.

With no internet or television, newspapers were the only way to get information from the outside world.

The usually quiet newspaper stand now had a rare long queue.

Everyone was asking each other for rumors, with all sorts of explanations being tossed around.

Was it the giant underground Space Channel that caused interference?

A solar flare storm?

Some were even saying it was the end of the world.

Chen Shouyi listened in while queuing. After waiting for several minutes, he finally managed to buy today's newspaper.

However, after a quick flip through, he didn't gain any useful information.

The newspaper only briefly mentioned the power outage and internet disconnection, stating that emergency repairs were underway to ensure public services.

It didn't provide a specific timeline, and there was no mention of the situation outside of Dongning.

Large portions of the newspaper were dedicated to reporting that all kinds of supplies in the city were ample, urging citizens not to panic or engage in hoarding.