The Cremation Urn

Gao Tian remembered that members of the strange group called the "Jialan Society" occasionally sent out "red packets."

Only, the red packets they sent were black, like coffins, and carried an ominous air. People jokingly called them Black Packets. Gao Tian had seen several before. Every time he tried to open one, the system asked whether he wanted to pay a certain amount of his lifespan. As a result, he had never actually claimed a Black Packet.

Thinking about it now, those Black Packets might have been his only lifeline before he drowned.

The Black Packets were surely items related to the supernatural. Otherwise, why would they require a payment in the lifespan of a Living Person? Take the cursed Black Packet sent by the Ghost Cave, for example. It caused the recipient to be haunted by a Vengeful Ghost. It was nothing good, so the lifespan required to claim it was zero.

Lifespan was something young people like Gao Tian still had plenty of. But everyone in this Chat Group was a Ghost, and Ghosts had no lifespan. To them, the years of life allotted to the living were more precious than gold.

Under what circumstances would a Ghost trade something worth more than gold and diamonds for the items in these Black Packets?

Gao Tian wasn't sure whether his reasoning was correct. His life was already on a countdown, and he had no choice but to try anything he could.

As for paying a few years of his life, at this point, it was a negligible price. If he couldn't survive the night, what good would it do to live to a hundred?

Gao Tian scrolled up through the chat history as fast as he could. Every now and then, he spotted Black Packets sent by other members. Either someone had claimed them by paying with their lifespan, or their time limit had expired and they were no longer available.

At long last, he found one that nobody had claimed. It had been sent by a member with the ID [Burning Death Ghost].

The sender had left several messages beneath it, each accompanied by a toothy grin:

This is the latest Supernatural Item I've developed.

It's insanely effective against certain kinds of Ghosts.

Brothers and sisters, if anyone's free lately, please help me take it out and test it on a few wandering Ghosts. I'd really appreciate it.

He didn't seem very popular. The Black Packet had been in the group for two weeks, but nobody had claimed it. Not a single person had replied to him, either.

One thing seemed particularly suspicious. Everyone in this group was supposed to be a Ghost, so why would Burning Death Ghost say things like, "This Supernatural Item is really effective at dealing with specific Ghosts"?

Would a Ghost go out of its way to develop something to deal with its own kind? Wasn't that contradictory?

With time running out, Gao Tian had no other choice. He didn't have time to dwell on this oddity, so he gritted his teeth and pressed down on it.

The familiar warning popped up on the system once more:

Are you sure you want to claim the Black Packet [Cremation Urn]?

Claiming this Black Packet will cost 1 year of your lifespan.

Gao Tian didn't hesitate. He tapped Confirm.

Then, whether it was just his imagination or not, he felt his body grow lighter, as if something intangible had been pulled out of him.

Gao Tian stood where he was and waited quietly for a long while.

Nothing happened.

After claiming the Black Packet called [Cremation Urn], nothing unusual happened to him in the real world.

The Red-eyed Person didn't come looking for him, and the Supernatural Item called the Cremation Urn didn't appear in front of him, either.

Apart from the year of his lifespan that had been taken, nothing had changed.

Gao Tian slumped back onto the bench. The area was quiet, with only the wind whistling through the sparse trees, like nature mocking him.

The swing across from him began creaking and swaying again in the breeze. There was no one on it.

Nothing had happened. Gao Tian couldn't tell whether that was a good thing or a bad one.

His clothes were soaked with sweat, and his nerves were stretched to the limit. He leaned against the back of the bench as if the last of his strength to stand had been drained away.

He didn't want to move. Forget it. If he was going to die, he might as well die here, in peace. If he ran around everywhere, he might end up getting more people killed.

The night sky was clear, without a cloud in sight. If he could forget that he was about to become a dead man, the scenery here was truly beautiful.

Thump, thump, thump.

As if someone were knocking on a door, Gao Tian suddenly sensed a figure standing behind him, tapping on the back of the park bench.

Then a muffled voice, impossible to place as male or female, sounded out:

"Your delivery has arrived.

"Please sign for it."

Gao Tian saw a towering black shadow loom over him. Its shoulders were far broader than any human's, blocking most of the light cast by the streetlamp. With its arrival, the path through the park seemed to grow darker.

There was a thud. A package had landed on the soft grass. Gao Tian forced down his fear and slowly turned his head, inch by inch. Even if he was going to die, he wanted to know what was happening. He had to see what was standing behind him.

Once he had turned halfway around, he saw that there was no one behind him. Only a square delivery box sat in the grassy clearing behind the bench.

The huge shadow vanished the moment it delivered the package, as if it had never been there.

The Cremation Urn he had ordered by paying a year of his life to the eerie Chat Group had arrived in such a bizarre way, less than five minutes after he placed the order.

A Ghost delivery service? That was kind of interesting. It was faster than JD.com. If he could leave feedback, he'd definitely give it five stars.

His heart pounded wildly in his chest. Gripping the armrest, he stood and walked over to the box, trying to pry it open with his bare hands.

His hands were shaking so badly that several times, instead of peeling off the packing tape, Gao Tian dropped the box on the ground. The wooden-box-like object inside shifted against the packing paper, making a dull sound.

Gao Tian thought he'd never manage to open the box. Before he could, the Red-eyed Person, who had been gone for so long, would suddenly appear, wearing a face identical to his own, kill him, and then the new "Gao Tian" would take his package.

But the Red-eyed Person never appeared. Gao Tian's hands were slick with cold sweat, but at last, he managed to tear open the cardboard box, crookedly and clumsily, as if a dog had chewed through it.

Inside was a small, dark-red box, about the width of his palm. There was a slot on it for inserting a black-and-white photo of the deceased.

It was just an ordinary cremation urn, no different from those sold in stores.

With trembling hands, Gao Tian turned it over and inspected every inch of it, hoping to find some Life Path. For a moment, he even wondered if he'd been swindled. This was just an ordinary cremation urn, and that bastard called Burning Death Ghost had cheated him out of a year of his life in exchange for a useless box.

It wasn't entirely useless, he supposed. At least, once Gao Tian died and turned to ashes, they would fit right into the box. Whoever collected his body wouldn't have to buy one for him online.

Just before Gao Tian plunged into total despair, he suddenly noticed something white falling down. He hurriedly picked it up and saw that it was a small card that had been wedged into a crack in the box. It was covered in tiny, densely packed writing. While Gao Tian had been examining the urn, it had fallen to the ground.

Clutching the card tightly, Gao Tian immediately returned to the middle of the street, where the lamplight fell, and began reading it.

It was a short instruction sheet:

[Usage Guide]

Who should use it: People targeted and pursued by a Vengeful Ghost who cannot escape.

Risk level: Extremely high. Use with caution.

How to use:

If you are under some kind of curse and being pursued relentlessly by a Vengeful Ghost, you may take this cremation urn to the site where the first case was discovered and wait for the Ghost pursuing you to appear.

When the Ghost appears, all his Killing Rules will temporarily cease to work. Then, the cremation urn will force him to play a random game with you.

In this game, humans and Ghosts are on equal footing. Everything depends entirely on both sides' luck, strategy, and state of mind.

If you win, the Vengeful Ghost will be sealed inside the cremation urn. He will no longer be able to pursue humans. Instead, the owner of the urn will gain the Ghost's Killing Rules.

If the Vengeful Ghost wins, you will die. Even after death, your soul will be trapped by the cremation urn and become the Ghost's puppet. You will be at his beck and call, suffering endless torment day and night, unable even to be reduced to nothingness.

Therefore, before using this cremation urn, please make sure you thoroughly understand the rules and the consequences.

Note:

The cremation urn is a newly developed Supernatural Item and is extremely unstable.

The game between human and Ghost is completely random. What you will play is entirely a matter of luck at the time. Even the designer himself has no way of predicting it.

Capacity:

One Ghost.

Only one Ghost can be sealed inside the cremation urn at a time.

If you want to seal a new Ghost inside, you must release the previous one and set him free.

Of course, the designer does not recommend doing this. If the Ghost previously locked inside the urn is set free, the first thing he does will probably be to kill you.

Of course, if the cremation urn falls into the hands of a Ghost, there is no limit to the number of humans he can enslave.

That was where the instruction sheet ended.

The designer of this Supernatural Item had gone on and on. Gao Tian summed it up.

He just had to take this box and play a random game with the Red-eyed Person.

If he won, the Red-eyed Person would go into the cremation urn, and he'd gain its Killing Rules.

If he lost, he'd go into the cremation urn, and suffer something worse than death.

What was the game? Even the designer didn't know. It was entirely a matter of luck.

No wonder nobody wanted this thing. The potential reward was great, but the risk was even greater. If he failed, the cost would be unimaginable.

Under the cremation urn's rules, if he lost, he might as well have been killed by the Red-eyed Person in the first place.

Strangely, after he got the cremation urn, the Red-eyed Person, who had been haunting him nonstop, seemed to have stopped appearing for quite some time.

Could it be that the urn's mechanism was so insane that even Ghosts didn't want to come out and play?