The Traitor in the Chat Group

Gao Tian wasn't completely desperate yet, because he still had a Black Card for the Living Person Apartment. As long as he used it up, he could leave the White House immediately and return to the Safe Zone.

But if he did that, he would lose one of his most important ways to stay alive—one even more valuable than a Ghost Card. He would also be disqualified from exploring the Fourth Floor.

So Gao Tian would rather stay here and keep observing. If necessary, he could sacrifice one or two Ghost Cards, but he couldn't use this ultimate trump card.

The Evil Spirit hanging down from the Third Floor looked like a white python with a human face. It slithered across the first-floor ceiling, its Woman Face revealing lips like black holes as it kept making a cackling sound.

Faced with this Supernatural Event, the few remaining thugs had completely lost their usual menacing air. Some futilely aimed their guns at the woman, repeatedly pulling the triggers on empty chambers. Others had wet their pants, filling the air with a foul stench. They'd pissed themselves on the spot.

"Zhao..."

The Female Ghost's lips wriggled as she began her next round of calling out names to mark her victims for death.

Gao Tian backed into a corner, calculating his odds. There were four other people alive here besides him, so the chance of the Female Ghost picking him was one in five. With so many cannon fodder around, he should be able to hold out a little longer and look for a Life Path out of here.

But in the next instant, the Female Ghost's neck stretched out, bringing her face right in front of him. Her eyes, with more white than black, her yellowed skin, and the stench from her pitch-black mouth all pressed in on him.

She'd picked him!

With nowhere to run, Gao Tian could only stand still and wait to die. The Female Ghost's soul-summoning call rang in his ears. The Vengeful Ghost's Killing Rule had taken effect, and he was next to die!

"Zhao Qiang..."

"Zhao Qiang."

"Zhao Qiang!"

Hearing the name the Female Ghost kept calling, Gao Tian went from alarmed to delighted. He had to work hard to keep from laughing out loud.

Because he was wearing Zhao Qiang's face, the Female Ghost had mistaken him for Zhao Qiang!

Was she like Big Data Facial Recognition, determining someone's name and identity from their face alone?

It seemed the Shattered Face Ghost's rule took precedence, even if only slightly, over the Long Neck Female Ghost from the Third Floor.

The Female Ghost couldn't kill Zhao Qiang just by calling his name. The real Zhao Qiang was already dead, and his body had been buried. Gao Tian had nothing to do with Zhao Qiang, either. If she wanted to kill Zhao Qiang, why was she yelling at him?

The scene was both terrifying and ridiculous. But Gao Tian knew he still had to give the Female Ghost some respect. With her size, weight, and speed, she didn't need any Killing Rule. Just bringing her whole body down on him would be enough to crush him to death.

After she called the name three times in that eerie voice, Gao Tian clutched his chest and gave a muffled groan. He staggered a few steps forward, then fell heavily to the floor with a thump, landing in a comfortable position. He rolled his eyes back and played dead.

Seeing that she'd called "Zhao Qiang" to death, the Female Ghost didn't linger over his "corpse." She swung her neck around and turned to chase after the others.

The surviving thugs were so shocked that their jaws nearly hit the floor.

Wait, that actually worked?

That over-the-top acting was enough to fool a Female Ghost?

And the Female Ghost had called Zhao Qiang's name three times. Why had the first two victims died horribly on the spot, while their boss, "Zhao Qiang," was completely fine? He'd just lain down and gone right to sleep!

But their heads were simple to begin with, and they didn't have time to think about it now. The Female Ghost's long neck had already turned toward them, and her face was floating their way.

Seeing that they couldn't get out through the front door, they realized the first-floor living room was quite large but had few rooms, making it hard to evade the Female Ghost. One of them rushed into the bathroom and locked the door. Another came up with an idea in his desperation and ran back toward the stairs to the Second Floor, trying to hide from her.

When people were pushed to the brink, they would do anything. The sturdy men scattered in all directions, and the Female Ghost couldn't wipe them all out at once.

The woman's face, hovering in midair, fell silent for a moment, as if thinking. Then she immediately changed direction, retracted her neck, and floated toward the Second Floor.

It seemed something important really was hidden on the Third Floor of the Old Home. The Female Ghost's priority was to kill anyone on the Second Floor, in case they accidentally made it to the Third Floor.

At the same time, the Female Ghost had temporarily abandoned the first floor. When the eerie cackling stopped, Gao Tian, still playing dead, cracked one eye open. After confirming that the Female Ghost had briefly left, the first thing he did was take out his phone and open the Jialan Society Chat Group.

After reading the messages in the group, Gao Tian realized things were bad. Xu Yuan was incredibly sensitive to his Old Home. The instant they entered the White House, Xu Yuan had sensed that someone had arrived.

Gao Tian wasn't sure what a Ghost Domain was. But it had to be connected to the sky outside the White House suddenly turning bloodred.

He guessed a Ghost Domain was a sealed space that had dragged the entire White House into another dimension. The people trapped inside would be burned to death the moment they stepped out of a room. The Ghost Domain was probably responsible.

No wonder Xu Yuan had been so confident about his Old Home. Ordinary people who entered would either be killed by the Female Ghost or leave the White House of their own accord, only to run straight into the Ghost Domain outside.

The problem was, Gao Tian's act of playing dead could only buy him a little time. Once the Female Ghost killed the others, she would come back to roam the place. Trapped inside the White House by the Ghost Domain, he was going to die sooner or later.

As he watched the others in the group shower Xu Yuan's Heaven and Earth Net with praise, saying it had no flaws, Gao Tian lay on the floor in silent panic. The Female Ghost upstairs could finish killing people and come back at any moment. Was there really no flaw in this place?

In the middle of his panic, Gao Tian suddenly thought of something.

The key to breaking the deadlock was the Ghost Domain outside. The Female Ghost was restricted by her main body on the Third Floor, so the area where she could move was extremely limited. What was keeping them from escaping the White House was the bloodred Ghost Domain that had enveloped them.

But Gao Tian knew nothing about Ghost Domains, a technical term for Supernatural Events, and he certainly had no idea how to deal with one.

Who was the expert who knew how to deal with Ghost Domains?

The answer was simple: the Ghost Users in the Jialan Society Chat Group. They'd been Ghost Hunters when they were alive, and had become ghosts after they died. The Ghost Domain had even been released by Xu Yuan. There might not be anyone in the world who understood ghosts better than they did.

Finding out how to deal with the Ghost Domain was simple. Gao Tian was a user in the ghost chat group now, too. Could he pretend to be curious and eager to learn, then ask Xu Yuan for advice?

The foolish idea came to Gao Tian for only an instant before he pushed it down.

That really would be asking to die.

The Ghost Cave was still suspicious of the Living Person in the group, and the Living Person Apartment wasn't an idiot, either. Besides, so many other Ghost Users were lurking and watching.

If Gao Tian asked that so abruptly and directly in the group, it was impossible that no one would suspect something was wrong with him.

The Ghost Infant might usually joke around, but she really could come kill someone through the internet. If even one person in the Chat Group suspected who he was, the Ghost Infant might show up the very next moment.

So here was the problem: the people who knew how to deal with the Ghost Domain were in the Chat Group, but Gao Tian couldn't ask them directly. He'd gone in a circle only to end up back at the same Death Path.

This wasn't a Life Path at all. It was just choosing between two Death Paths.

[Living Person Apartment]:

From what I can see, it was just a false alarm. The ones who entered my Old Home were a few rats, not organized Ghost Hunters.

Getting rid of them would be as easy as squashing an ant. Releasing a Ghost Domain to deal with them was a bit of a waste.

[Burning Death Ghost]:

@Living Person Apartment

Here's the question, then.

The Ghost Domain blocks those people from leaving, while the ghosts you keep in the house hunt them down and kill them one by one. Put together, this setup really does leave no Life Path.

If an ordinary person were trapped in this house, what would they have to do to break through the Ghost Domain outside and get out alive?

...

(The Chat Group fell completely silent for a full half minute.)

...

Seeing this, Gao Tian's eyes widened. He could hardly believe what he was seeing.

The very question he wanted to ask but didn't dare to had been asked by the Burning Death Ghost on his behalf.

Gao Tian suddenly understood why the other ghosts ostracized this guy, and why the Ghost Cave and the others treated him like he wasn't there. This guy had zero social skills. He really could ask a whole string of suspicious questions out of nowhere at exactly the worst possible time.

Of course, their positions as humans and ghosts were different. But as a human trapped inside the Ghost Domain, Gao Tian really wanted to bow to his phone three times and thank the Burning Death Ghost for typing those words.

Faced with the Burning Death Ghost's ill-timed question, the other Chat Group users naturally ignored him. The Ghost Infant merely sent three periods to show her disdain for the Burning Death Ghost. The only one who replied was the Ghost Cave, and he did so with withering mockery.

[Ghost Cave]:

Why do you want to know that? Whose side are you on?

You're so eager to help the Living Person escape. I'm starting to wonder if you're the Living Person in the group.

[Burning Death Ghost]:

Not really.

I was just asking. Why do you always have to make such a big deal out of everything?

See, you're getting worked up again. First time being a ghost? You see a human in everyone.

[Ghost Cave]:

Heh.

Just make sure you know what you're thinking.

Who would ask that out of nowhere at a time like this?

...

...

If the chat had ended there, it could still have been explained as the Burning Death Ghost having poor social skills, saying whatever came to mind without caring what the other ghosts thought.

It would still have been understandable.

But the next message the Burning Death Ghost sent left even Gao Tian shocked.

He even began to think that the other ghosts had been far too tolerant of this guy, considering they still hadn't kicked him out of the group.