Game of Wits

If the Ghost chose scissors, then he needed to choose rock, anticipating the Ghost's anticipation.

After going around in a circle, he was back where he started.

By that logic, if the Ghost was on the Third Floor, he had to be on the Fourth Floor; then the Ghost might well be on the Fifth Floor, so he would have to be on the Sixth Floor. If he kept reasoning this way forever, the whole point of the game would be lost.

After turning it over in his mind, Gao Tian finally decided that it was enough to think one level ahead: the Ghost would choose rock, and he would choose paper. Even if the Ghost was intelligent enough to think of that too, the worst they could do was tie.

He made his choice.

Gao Tian: Rock.

Ghost: Rock.

Round one: a tie.

Gao Tian wasn't sure whether the Ghost had also been playing out several rounds of the Game of Wits in its mind, or whether this was merely a coincidence.

The second round was about to begin.

People were more likely to change their hand signs than keep them the same. If the Ghost assumed he would choose rock again, then it was most likely to counter with paper.

So choosing scissors gave him a better chance of winning the next round.

Gao Tian: Scissors.

Ghost: Scissors.

Round two: a tie. The round was voided again.

After two rounds of stalemate, Gao Tian began to feel anxious. In the next round, he planned to change his strategy and keep choosing scissors. Perhaps the Ghost would guess that he would choose rock to break the scissors, then switch to paper to counter it.

But Gao Tian's prediction was wrong.

Gao Tian: Scissors.

Ghost: Rock.

Round three: the Ghost won. The score was one to zero.

If the Ghost scored again, Gao Tian would lose even the right to die. The more desperate the situation became, the more Gao Tian forgot his fear and grew calmer than usual.

After winning, people were more likely to use the same hand sign and press their advantage. If the Ghost chose scissors again in the next round, Gao Tian's best counter would be rock, letting him even the score.

As the man and the Ghost raised and lowered their arms at the same time, Gao Tian suddenly changed his mind. At the last moment, he switched the rock in his hand to scissors.

If the Ghost was also playing a Game of Wits, Gao Tian had to think one level beyond it. There was no need to go too high. If the Ghost was on the Third Floor, he only needed to be on the Fourth Floor.

Gao Tian: Scissors.

Ghost: Paper.

Round four: Gao Tian won. The score was tied, one to one.

The final round would decide their fates.

While Gao Tian was still thinking carefully about what to stake his fate on in the next round, the red-eyed "Gao Tian" suddenly shot out its hand like lightning and grabbed Gao Tian's right hand. Without warning, it snapped two of his fingers.

Crack, crack.

"Gao Tian" moved so fast that it was nothing more than a blur, too quick for the human eye to follow. Gao Tian only realized what had happened when he saw his index and middle fingers flop down like limp cotton. A wave of excruciating pain swept through his body. It felt like nearly a century passed before he slowly understood that the Ghost had broken two of his fingers.

The fingers were connected to the heart.

The fingers were connected to the heart.

The pain was so intense that Gao Tian could barely think. He curled into a ball, hunched over and clutching his right hand as he writhed across the floor like a maggot. For some reason, when the pain reached its peak, he couldn't even scream.

The red-eyed "Gao Tian" merely stood silently in front of him. Its cloudy eyes showed no emotion at all—not contempt, mockery, or pity.

The waves of pain receded by the tiniest bit. Gao Tian slowly regained some awareness. He was drenched in cold sweat, but the game was still going. The Ghost stood in place, calmly waiting for him to make his next move.

"It cheated..."

"That Ghost... It's playing dirty."

Gao Tian looked at his mangled right hand, at the two fingers that could no longer straighten. Blood was still dripping from them. He knew he was done for. That hand could no longer make scissors.

So this was what the Ghost had been after.

But no matter how much Gao Tian groaned, the ash box between them remained unmoved, turning a blind eye to "Gao Tian's" actions.

That was right. The instructions only said that the Ghost's Killing Rule would temporarily stop working. They never said the Ghost was guaranteed not to hurt humans.

"Gao Tian" was simply taking full advantage of the rules of the game. The ash box showed no intention of punishing it.

The white powder swirling in the air spun faster and faster, as if growing increasingly displeased with Gao Tian for delaying the next round.

It seemed that if Gao Tian kept lying on the floor and refusing to play, he would be punished—not the Ghost that had snapped his fingers.

He understood the situation too. Clutching his still-bleeding right hand, he gritted his teeth and got back to his feet, continuing the next round against the Ghost.

At the same time, a new idea began to take shape in his mind:

Why had the Ghost broken his middle and index fingers in the final round? Because those were the fingers he used to make scissors. With both broken, Gao Tian wouldn't be able to make scissors properly in the next round.

The Ghost didn't want him to choose scissors, which meant there was no doubt that the Evil Spirit intended to choose paper next. It had acted in advance, crippling one of Gao Tian's hands to guarantee its victory.

The game had reached this point, and even the Ghost was starting to feel afraid. It didn't want to be trapped inside the ash box either.

But a Ghost was still a Ghost. Perhaps because it had been dead for too long, the brain beneath its skull had rotted and stunk. It was no longer capable of thinking things through—

What good would crushing one of Gao Tian's hands do? He still had another perfectly good left hand, and he could use it to make scissors!

The Ghost's attempt to be clever had only exposed its intention to choose paper.

So in the next round, all Gao Tian had to do was choose scissors, and he would win the game for certain, sealing this Vengeful Ghost away in hell.

Gao Tian met the blood-red eyes of the "Gao Tian" across from him. The other had exactly the same face as his, but for some reason, it always seemed to wear a faint imitation of human expression. No matter how he looked at it, it didn't seem like a living person.

The third round of Rock Paper Scissors was about to begin. The Ghost had already raised its arm.

Gao Tian deliberately raised his crippled right hand slowly, letting "Gao Tian" see that he was still playing with his right hand.

Just as they were about to lower their hands, a strange thought suddenly surfaced in Gao Tian's mind.

The Ghost had only crippled his right hand and left his left hand alone. Was that really because it was too stupid to think of something so obvious?

Or was this another Game of Wits from the very beginning? He was on the Second Floor, while the Ghost was already on the Third Floor—one level above him.

After all, if Gao Tian was determined to choose scissors, he could always find a way. Simply breaking two fingers wouldn't stop him. Even if he clenched his fist and let the two fingers droop under gravity, that would still count as "scissors."

The Ghost's real goal wasn't to stop him from choosing scissors. It wanted Gao Tian to think that "it didn't want him to choose scissors"!

If the Ghost was afraid of scissors, that meant it intended to choose paper in the next round. By planting that idea in Gao Tian's mind like a virus, it would make him counter with scissors.

The Ghost was exploiting Gao Tian's contrarian streak. What it truly intended to choose was scissors. Scissors was the decisive move in this game.

What a vicious creature. Even its devious schemes had layers upon layers, all just to win.

Gao Tian and the red-eyed Ghost lowered their raised arms at the same time.

According to his original plan, Gao Tian had intended to switch from his right hand to his left at the moment he made his move, allowing him to play "scissors." But if the Ghost had thought one level further than he had, there was no need to pull that trick to catch it off guard.

Though his right hand was so numb with pain that he could barely feel it, Gao Tian slowly opened it and flattened his palm, making "paper."

When he saw the Ghost's hand sign, Gao Tian heard his heartbeat as if it had stopped for a second.

Gao Tian: Paper.

Ghost: Rock.

Round five: Gao Tian won. The score was two to one.

After falling behind by one point and then coming back to win two rounds in a row, Gao Tian reached match point with the last round decided by a hair's breadth, and won the game.

At the sight of this, the expressionless death mask on "Gao Tian's" face finally changed. The two dark-red dots in its bloodshot eye sockets began darting around wildly, glancing from Gao Tian's crippled right hand to his left shoulder.

It seemed unable to believe that Gao Tian had really used his crippled right hand to decide the game. He hadn't switched hands even at the very end.

One way or another, it was all over.

The Supernatural Item [Ash Box] had absolute power. Even a Ghost had to follow the rules if it took part in the game.

"Gao Tian" suddenly turned and bolted toward the door. It was running away. The Ghost wanted to escape.

But it was too late. Countless white particles burst out of the ash box, swirling around "Gao Tian's" body. Then "Gao Tian" suddenly began to burn without any flame. Its terrifying expression changed violently for the first time. Its features twisted together in agony, and it opened its mouth as wide as it could, silently roaring at the ceiling.

Its clothes burned away in no time, revealing its bones and the internal organs beneath its skin, already rotted beyond recognition. The ash box gave it no chance at all. The flames soon burned "Gao Tian" down to a charred skeleton. Then the scattered chunks of flesh and broken bones flew back into the ash box along with the dust.

With a bang, the ash box swallowed "Gao Tian's" ashes and slammed shut again, sealing him inside.

Watching this, Gao Tian knew perfectly well that the Vengeful Ghost wasn't dead. It had only been imprisoned inside the ash box.

The Jialan Society Chat Group had said that Ghosts couldn't die. The instructions had also warned that if the ash box was opened again, the Vengeful Ghost trapped inside would escape once more.

At any rate, the curse unleashed by that eerie Chat Group had been dealt with—for now. That loathsome Evil Spirit wouldn't be able to cause trouble again for a long time.

At that moment, Gao Tian noticed something amid the ashes where "Gao Tian" had stood, now burned down to a blackened heap. It seemed there was still something left.