Game

Gao Tian stood on the deserted park path, holding the urn, lost in thought for a long time.

So the question arises, should he play this game?

It seemed Gao Tian had no other choice.

From being frantically chased by ghosts from the start, to the driver looking at him as if he were a dead man before leaving; to now finally having a means to counterattack, to slightly control his own destiny, this was already huge progress.

Even if the hope was minuscule to the point of being negligible, he had to seize it. He couldn't just stand there foolishly, waiting for the vengeful ghost to come find him.

What's more, even though the urn's game was unknown, the rewards gained were immense. As long as he succeeded, he could not only escape this disaster but even seal the Red-eyed Person within it, gaining its killing patterns in return.

It was a complete reversal, truly.

According to the instructions, the holder should take the urn back to the first crime scene where they were chased by the vengeful ghost for the best effect, right?

Gao Tian had opened the black packet on the third floor of Pingshui Apartment and was then targeted and chased by the Red-eyed Person that appeared out of nowhere in the alley. Therefore, the best strategy now was to return to Pingshui Apartment, his third-floor room. The starting point of everything.

Since the Red-eyed Person wasn't coming to find him, he would go find it.

Walking on the park path, Gao Tian had initially wanted to prepare himself before going back. But upon careful consideration, there was no need for preparation. The game arranged by this urn was completely random; how could anyone prepare for it?

Gao Tian didn't know how long he walked on the way home, until his legs felt like they were filled with lead.

At the entrance of Pingshui Apartment late at night, the security guard in the guard booth had vanished, no telling where he'd gone. Returning to his original apartment building, Building 3, a hastily hung cordon marked the entrance, a blockade that was as effective as a paper tiger.

It was probably like what the taxi driver said, too many supernatural incidents had been happening lately, even the police couldn't handle it anymore.

The entire society was in a state of semi-chaos, with terrifying events happening around him every day. The normal life Gao Tian thought he had no longer existed, at some unknown point.

This night, he finally saw the true face of this world.

Gao Tian casually tore down the cordon and entered the building.

The voice-activated light, hearing footsteps, made hissing sounds, flickering on and off, unable to illuminate the corridor as it usually did.

Gao Tian's footsteps landed on the stairs, making dull thuds.

He didn't deliberately hide his footsteps like he did when escaping Pingshui Apartment. On the contrary, Gao Tian was waiting for the ghost to find him; he was deliberately exposing his whereabouts to lure the ghost out.

No matter what, everything would be thoroughly resolved tonight.

On the dark corridor, Gao Tian seemed to step on something sticky. Black liquid flowed out from under the apartment doors of the residents he passed, flooding more than half of the corridor floor, emitting a smell of blood.

Some rooms he passed had their doors wide open in the middle of the night, three or four AM, their interiors pitch-black and completely exposed, with not a sound of human life.

Gao Tian ignored these various eerie phenomena, merely holding the urn in his hand, his expressionless, passing the second floor and reaching the third.

He felt his outer jacket pocket. He had been too rushed when leaving and forgot his keys. He had thought he might not be able to get back in, but when he reached his own door, he found that the security door, as thick as a book, had been torn off by half by a terrifying force, completely deformed and ruined.

This is a monstrous strength beyond human imagination.

It was absolutely the right choice to leave immediately back then, instead of confronting it head-on with the baseball bat.

Gao Tian crouched down and squeezed back into his home through the shattered hole.

The interior was a wreck, the bed, wardrobe, and table all thrown around, reduced to a pile of ruins. A thick smell of blood wafted from the kitchen, piled high with black debris, and the buzzing sound of flies.

After the Red-eyed Person crawled into his home, it didn't find him. It seemed to have vented its rage extensively, then charged into other residents to carry out a massacre of vengeance. After that, it left Pingshui Apartment and continued to chase him all the way to that park.

Gao Tian didn't check the kitchen. Instead, he found a relatively open space and sat down. He placed the urn in front of him, quietly awaiting the arrival of fate.

That thing didn't make him wait long.

A moment later, a heavy footstep echoed from the corridor outside the door. The owner of the footsteps grew closer, stopping and falling silent for a moment at Gao Tian's doorstep. Immediately, Gao Tian inside heard the sound of the entire security door being forced open. The owner of the footsteps entered and continued towards the inner room.

Here it comes.

As the distance between them closed, Gao Tian's muscles tensed up again.

He was separated from the ghost by just a thin wall. To be honest, even now, Gao Tian began to regret it again. He started to doubt if his decision to return voluntarily was a wise one. Perhaps staying in the park, the vengeful ghost would have stopped chasing him by then, and it would have been better.

After all, compared to humans, the power of ghosts was truly too immense. Once it found him, all it needed to do was to directly kill him. There was no need to sit down and play some dog-shit game with him.

Now, he could only place his hope on this urn truly having the effect described in the manual.

With a swish, the wooden door was kicked in as if it were just a piece of paper.

The human-shaped silhouette standing at the doorway, its blood-red eyes emitting an ominous glow in the darkness, walked in step by step.

The two Gao Tians met.

Gao Tian saw that the ghost had almost replicated his own face exactly, except its skin was still as pale as a dead person's, and its eyes were cloudy and scarlet. Furthermore, the only thing it was missing was its right eye socket. With just this one eye left, it would be completely identical to him.

"Gao Tian" did not rush to attack after encountering Gao Tian, but merely stood at the doorway. Both Gao Tians observed each other.

Until the urn placed in front of Gao Tian slowly opened on its own without anyone touching it. Countless gray-white powders from the bottom of the box rushed out like a living waterfall, scattering into the dark room, dancing in the air.

At the same time, a bizarre set of rules automatically formed in the minds of both Gao Tian and "Gao Tian":

"Congratulations on drawing the simplest game, Rock Paper Scissors!

"The game is very straightforward: rock crushes scissors, scissors crushes paper, and paper crushes rock. You will play a best-of-three match. The first person to achieve two victories will win this game.

"If there is a draw, that round will be automatically voided, and the game will proceed to the next round.

"Now that all the game rules have been clearly explained, please begin the game as soon as possible.

"If a winner is not determined within ten minutes, both the human and the ghost will be judged as losers and sealed into the urn."

The game they drew was Rock Paper Scissors, a game even children know.

This game had almost no strategy involved; victory was determined by luck ninety-nine percent of the time.

Furthermore, as Gao Tian listened to the game's rules, he noticed the "Gao Tian" opposite him was expressionless and motionless, clearly also listening intently to the Urn's rules.

Without a doubt, the Urn had taken effect. Although he didn't know how it managed it, even such a powerful ghost had to completely obey the rules set by the supernatural item, unable to overstep even half a step.

Upon receiving this information, Gao Tian felt a slight sense of relief. Even if it was a game entirely dependent on luck, at least he had a chance to win. It was far better than the first time he encountered the Red-eyed Person, being chased like a wild dog for most of the street before being killed by the roadside like a wild dog.

As the game was about to begin, Gao Tian looked up at his opponent, attempting to communicate.

After all, opportunities to interact face-to-face with a ghost were not easily obtained; this might be the only chance in his life.

Tense to the extreme, he actually relaxed completely. Even if he died, he wouldn't face death with a sour face.

Gao Tian:

"Hey, even if you're a ghost, you must have lived before.

"Do you still remember your memories from when you were human? What does it feel like to become a ghost?

"I've always been curious, is it really that fun for a Vengeful Ghost like you, filled with hatred, to constantly chase after the living?

"Also, why do you have to turn into my likeness? What will happen when you completely transform into a face identical to mine?"

The "Gao Tian"'s blood-red eyes merely stared blankly and emotionlessly at Gao Tian, his chiseled lips remaining silent.

It seemed this foul creature refused to communicate with him.

If it weren't for the Urn suppressing it here, it probably wouldn't even bother stopping at the doorway and would have just barged in to tear him to shreds.

Since the Vengeful Ghost was introverted and disliked chatting, Gao Tian didn't force it.

The first round of the best-of-three Rock Paper Scissors began.

The person and the ghost simultaneously threw out their arms. Before their palms met in mid-air, Gao Tian's mind raced with calculations.

To say Rock Paper Scissors was a game of one hundred percent luck wasn't entirely accurate; it also contained a sliver of game theory and counter-game theory, which could slightly increase the win rate.

For example, according to statistics, when people engage in the first round, the probability of throwing "rock" is the highest, reaching 37.5%.

This is because rock is formed by clenching the hand into a fist, and a fist gives humans the greatest sense of power and control. Using a fist for the first probing attack to shatter the enemy's defenses aligns with most people's psychology.

If the opponent threw rock in the first round, Gao Tian should choose paper to counter rock and secure the first round victory.

However, what if he was on the second level, and the ghost was on the third? What if the ghost had thought of everything he had thought of, and "Gao Tian" had preempted him by throwing scissors to counter his paper?