Path to Survival

"Lao Zou, Lao Zou, can you hear me?"

"If you're still alive, make a sound."

Through the walkie-talkie, another middle-aged man's muffled, hoarse voice came through.

These taxi drivers had their own circles. It was inconvenient to contact each other by phone while driving, so they communicated via walkie-talkie about nearby road conditions, potential fares, gas station situations, and so on.

The taxi driver stopped at a red light and retorted impatiently:

"I'm picking up a fare, spit it out if it's urgent."

"Lao Huang, stop messing around with me."

The voice on the walkie-talkie, belonging to someone named Lao Huang, sounded a bit anxious:

"Don't take any fares near Pingshui Apartment."

"Something's not right with that place. An entire floor in one of the apartments is dead. It must be some kind of evil spirit. Many residents have already noticed something's wrong and are fleeing with their families."

"You should also notify the brothers nearby. Don't drive there until the evil spirit is gone. It's a small matter if we old guys die, but if we accidentally come into contact with it and bring it home, infecting the children, we'll regret it forever."

Gao Tian's heart began to turn cold.

Because Pingshui Apartment was where he had been.

He hadn't expected that thing to be so ferocious. It probably couldn't find him on the third floor and had started to vent its fury.

Lao Zou impatiently said "Got it" into the walkie-talkie and hung up.

The red light ahead turned green, and the taxi continued forward.

Inside the car, silence reigned for a while.

It was the driver, Lao Zou, who broke the silence first, his voice hoarse:

"Is that evil spirit very ferocious?"

He had, of course, seen that Gao Tian had escaped from the Pingshui Apartment area. When Gao Tian got into the car, his face was grim, clearly being chased by something.

The passenger had initially wanted to go to the police station, but then suddenly changed his mind. Clearly, even that safe place was no longer safe.

At this point, there was no need to hide anything.

Gao Tian:

"Very ferocious..."

"I've provoked something I shouldn't have. It's been chasing me all the way."

The taxi bypassed the overpass ahead, not going over it, but instead veering towards the edge of the main road. The car's speed gradually decreased.

The car window was opened a crack, and the driver lit a cigarette:

"Kid, you heard what I said earlier. We all have wives and kids. It's not easy supporting a family. I'm the sole breadwinner at home. If I die out here, there'll be no money for tuition or living expenses.

"I've heard a little about those things. They're ferocious. We can't afford to offend them.

"Please understand me. There's a park up ahead. I'll let you off there. This is as far as I can take you."

Gao Tian didn't say anything. He took out his phone, ready to pay.

He had no intention of reneging on the agreed-upon double fare.

The driver in the driver's seat turned his head, his calloused hand pressing down on Gao Tian's phone:

"Don't pay, don't pay.

"This part of the journey is on me.

"I'm truly sorry, kid. If I were twenty years younger, maybe my temper would have gotten the better of me. I would have sped onto the highway and fought that filthy thing, no matter what.

"But not now. The older you get, the more you fear death. When I think about going home, my wife nagging me, my two daughters in their rebellious phase, refusing to be disciplined. I really don't dare to die."

Gao Tian got out of the car and closed the door. The uncle behind the car window didn't rush to drive off. Instead, he watched the young man in front of him, a hint of pity in his eyes.

The uncle knew clearly that if he sped away, the young man he left behind was doomed to die.

Judging by his age, he was about the same age as his own daughter.

Gao Tian also looked at the driver:

"You seem to know quite a bit about those things?"

Driver:

"Not really 'know.'

"I drive around the city all day. I've seen a lot. I chat with the other drivers in the fleet, and I hear about a lot of news that's suppressed.

"In fact, these messy things happen every day. They're becoming more frequent. Soon, they won't be able to hide it on TV or the internet.

"I'm desperately saving money now, working from dawn till dusk, just to save a large sum. Before things completely spiral out of control, at least, I want to send my two daughters to a safe place abroad."

Gao Tian was still unwilling to give up:

"I say, would calling the police help?"

The uncle slowly shook his head:

"It's useless. Once they set their sights on you, it's a dead end. What can ordinary people do against them?

"The police catch criminals, they resolve disputes between living people.

"They aren't living people, so the police can't do anything about them."

Gao Tian:

"Then who in this world can deal with them?

"Monks? Taoists? Priests?"

The driver:

"I don't know.

"Perhaps, the army.

"When society as a whole is on the brink of complete panic and collapse, only then will the army be fully deployed, as the last hope for us ordinary people..."

The car window slowly rolled up.

Gao Tian looked up, watching the taxi disappear into the distance as if fleeing.

Now, under the light cast by the streetlamps, only Gao Tian's lonely figure remained.

This park was originally quite secluded, with few people usually coming here. Coupled with the late hour, after walking for about five minutes, he couldn't see a single person.

Gao Tian knew his death was imminent. He found a long bench by the roadside and sat down.

The red-eyed person hadn't appeared yet. He didn't know when it would come to take his life. Gao Tian's survival instinct still drove him to rapidly calculate, thinking of even the slightest possibility of survival.

He had read many online novels. He knew that in such horror settings, there wouldn't be absolutely certain death supernatural events. Beneath the seemingly unsolvable killing patterns of these ghosts, there were usually extremely hidden ways to survive, giving ordinary people a chance to live.

But online novels were online novels, and reality was reality.

Protagonists in online novels had plot armor, and authors also considered how to write long stories. If the supernatural ghosts were too unsolvable, the entire story would end quickly, and the author wouldn't be able to get more clicks.

But ghosts in reality were completely unsolvable. There was no need to consider giving ordinary people any way to survive.

Perhaps, his luck was too bad. The first time he encountered an absolutely unsolvable vengeful spirit, the moment Gao Tian clicked on the black package in the group chat, he was already a dead man.

No wonder Ghost Cave was so confident. According to his strategy, the living person in the group chat was indeed one hundred percent doomed.

Ghost Cave... that guy.

When he was alive, his intuition was terrifyingly accurate.

Even though he hadn't said a word in the group chat, Ghost Cave had somehow managed to find him based on a hunch. Such a flimsy excuse made Gao Tian suspect if it was possessed.

Creak, creak.

A cold wind blew. While Gao Tian was still contemplating, the swings in the small playground opposite the bench began to sway on their own.

Gao Tian slowly raised his head. Although his heart was prepared, he was still filled with endless despair and fear as death approached.

Cheer up. Don't embarrass humanity in front of a ghost.

A figure appeared on the swing at some point. That pale face, through the sparse trees, bared its teeth in a chilling smile towards him.

On that pale, featureless face, a single eye grew once more.

Although the sclera and iris of the eye were both blood-red, it was becoming increasingly like his own.

It was like a "Gao Tian" with unnaturally pale skin, a single eye, and a blood-red eyeball.

The "Gao Tian" didn't seem in a hurry to kill him. It just sat on the opposite swing, rocking back and forth, waiting for something.

Perhaps it was waiting for his face to completely transform into Gao Tian's before coming to kill him.

As long as the red-eyed person hadn't fully acquired Gao Tian's appearance, it "couldn't bear" to kill him yet.

This was also why Gao Tian could safely leave the residential area and escape so far by taxi. It wasn't because he had escaped the clutches of the vengeful spirit, but because the spirit was toying with him, always following behind.

Now, the new "Gao Tian's" face was mostly complete. This boring game was nearing its end.

Gao Tian deeply realized that online novels were all lies. They were all damn lies.

Online, people could slide-tackle a tiger's belly or back-throw a black bear into unconsciousness. In reality, seven or eight strong men could barely take down a hungry tiger.

The terror of a vengeful spirit far surpassed that of wild beasts, and the gap between them and humans was even greater, like an unbridgeable chasm. To find the ghost's weakness and defeat it through calm observation, like a protagonist in a web novel, was this truly something humans could achieve?

How could it be... Is there really no way to escape?

At this moment, Gao Tian froze in place as if struck by lightning in his brain, unable to move even a single inch.

The answer might be this simple.

The only way to survive was right in front of him, but he had been too foolish to discover it until now.

The one who tied the bell must untie it. The reason he was being hunted by the vengeful spirit was because of that bizarre chat group full of ghosts.

The hope for survival naturally lay within it.

Gao Tian glanced at the swing opposite him and was shocked to find that it was still rocking back and forth in place, but the silhouette of the figure on the swing had vanished. The surrounding road was also empty. The foul thing had inexplicably disappeared again at some point.

However, he didn't have time to dwell on that. It was better that it left. He might have gained a little more time to struggle.

Gao Tian lowered his head and opened the chat group at top speed, frantically scrolling up through the chat logs of Ghost Cave and the others.

After confirming that the living person in the group was undoubtedly doomed, Ghost Cave and the others had not posted again. Clearly, he was extremely confident in this black packet. This was an open scheme; no matter what choice the living person made, they could not escape death.

What Gao Tian intended to do was certainly not to beg Ghost Cave and the others for mercy.

They were determined to kill this sole living person. If Gao Tian dared to speak in the group and expose his identity, he would only die faster.

"Here.

"Found it!"

The moment he scrolled to his hope of survival, Gao Tian felt as if a lifetime had passed, as if he had been reborn.