I'm Not a Flame-Chaser - Chapter 372

"If ghosts were really like that, then there would be no such thing as serial killers in this world. They would be avenged by the vengeful spirits of their victims after killing the first person. And if a person wanted revenge, all they had to do was slit their own throat."

"The truth is, ghosts exist, and there are ghosts with special abilities that can kill people with great resentment, but... at most they are just a type that is slightly stronger than the average person, and they only have the advantage of the fear of people like you."

"Crack!"

The head of a fire axe was embedded in the door panel of the toilet!

At the same time, the piercing scream of the toilet ghost rang out, but Lin maintained his expressionless face, pulled out the axe, gripped the handle with both hands, and raised it above his head—

"Crack!"

"Gah!!!!"

Under Kosma's terrified gaze, Lin continued to chop the axe into the crumbling door until he had created a gap large enough for his hand to pass through.

Lin put down his axe, shoved his head into the gap, and sized up the rotting humanoid figure huddled in the corner, screaming in panic. A sinister smile appeared on his face, "Hello."

"Gah—"

Lin reached in, unlocked the toilet, and then, as the toilet ghost struggled to grab the water pipe, he chopped off its rotting arms with an axe. With a sinister smile, he grabbed its two legs and dragged it out.

A trail of blood stretched out from the dried blood flowing from its severed arm.

Even Kosma felt a pang of pity; the ghost that had startled him was now being tossed onto the balcony by Lin, trembling like a real little girl.

"Lin... this isn't right, she was quite pitiful when she was alive..."

"Huh? It?" Lin turned his head and picked at his ear with his blood-stained fingers, glanced disdainfully at the ghost on the ground, and stomped hard on its disfigured head. "It's the murderer who killed everyone in the dormitory."

"But wasn't she just seeking revenge?"

"What are you mistaken about? I said 'the entire dormitory,' and it was also the one that killed the girl who was bullied in that strange story."

"W-what!"

Kosma thought the ghost in front of him was the bullied girl in the story, but he learned a completely different answer from Lin.

"The inconsistencies in the stories I just mentioned can be explained in one way: this guy killed one of the girls first, and then used that girl's voice as bait to kill other people who were lured in. The entire dormitory was probably killed in this way."

As Lin said, ghosts kill people because people are too afraid to fight back effectively, and because of some "unexpected" attacks.

"But didn't those girls die in different places?"

"It's not like it can only stay in one place." Lin's foot pressed down hard on the toilet ghost's head, stomping it onto the floor. "Didn't you notice? The dormitory we're in now isn't the same one as the one in the ghost story where the victim was killed."

"Ah?"

"Alright, time's almost up, almost..."

"Please, spare me..." Just as Lin glanced at the time and raised his axe to strike, the ghost beneath his feet uttered a hoarse voice, "I was actually also..."

"Bass!"

Without hesitation, the fire axe cleaved down, the blade sinking into the strange humanoid's skull. Blue, red, and yellow liquids splattered all over Lin's expressionless face.

Immediately afterwards, the ghost lost all movement, slowly turning into specks of light and disappearing, along with the blood on Lin's face.

"What a nuisance. Who wants to listen to your stories? There's nothing left to say when you pounce on me to kill me." Lin impatiently wiped the axe blade and put it back in his backpack.

These days, anyone who does something bad tries to justify it with some kind of tragic backstory, not realizing that no matter what kind of backstory they have, they don't deserve to beg for mercy.

Kosma swallowed hard, glancing at the spot where the ghost had vanished. He now felt that Lin was perhaps scarier than the ghost...

"Don't worry, I just sent it to be reincarnated... I guess."

Lin didn't care about any of that. He checked the time one last time and then excitedly took the magic mirror out of his bag.

"It's 1:11, just a few seconds left."

Kosma's heart, which had just settled, tightened again, meaning that a ghost might very well appear in the mirror next...

11:11:09.

11:11:10.

11 o'clock...

Lin stared wide-eyed at the countless reflections of himself in the shattered mirror, which began to change after the designated time had elapsed...

The Campus Seven Wonders Arc Flame-Chasers: A Boy's Daily Life (Part 4)

"What's this?"

Under Lin's gaze, his appearance changed in countless mirrors. Some became more mature, some were younger, and some were not much different from him now, but their temperaments were worlds apart.

"Lin, what did you see?"

"Why don't you come and see for yourself?"

"I... I think I'll pass."

Lin ignored Kosma; he was more interested in the magic mirror in his hand than the ghost in the toilet.

"Is this really me in the 'future'?" Lin saw one of her own versions of herself. "This handsome guy with a cold and unsmiling demeanor looks like a completely different person from me. He looks like he just lost a comrade-in-arms."

"..." Kosma sometimes felt that Lin was too... blunt.

"And... why are there girls here? And who is this white-haired girl? Although she looks somewhat like me and is very beautiful, I don't think I would have sex reassignment surgery in the future."

Upon hearing Lin say this, Kosma felt a surge of curiosity; he actually wanted to see "Lin as a girl."

"Hmm, wait a minute."

Lin suddenly stopped all his movements. He squinted and stared at the mirror in his hand. This time, he wasn't looking at the image in the mirror, but merely at the "mirror itself."

The surrounding wind suddenly stopped, and everything that should have been surging seemed to have been paused.

Immediately afterwards, bright red blood began to flow continuously from the crack in the mirror.

"Hey, Lin..."

"Shh, I can't hear her." Lin made a shushing gesture.

"Her?" Kosma shuddered, nodded hastily, and then took a few steps back.

Lin asked someone who didn't exist there, "Is the image in the mirror my future self?"

"..."

"Not going to answer?"

As Lin Na uttered those threatening words, the amount of blood suddenly increased! As if enraged, the blood filled the balcony in the blink of an eye, and the thick, pungent smell of blood filled the nostrils.

"Okay, I understand."

Lin... he was amused.

He laughed heartily and turned to the bewildered Kosma, saying, "Here, take her."

"Me... me?"

How could Kosma possibly dare to touch that still-bleeding mirror!

"Have you forgotten what I said? Ghosts are at most a little stronger than ordinary people, and they have some fake superpowers. As long as you're not afraid of them, fighting them is no different from fighting ordinary people."

"Really? You're not lying to me, are you?"

"If you get killed, you can just become a ghost and come looking for me, right?"

"..."

This statement seems reasonable, but it also seems problematic...

Without a word, Lin shoved the still-bleeding mirror into Kosma's hands, making him face the mirror towards Lin, and then Lin...

He was unzipping his pants.

"Wait, what are you doing?" Kosma screamed in even greater terror than before, seeing his swift and decisive action.

Even the mirror seemed frightened by Lin, and for a moment dared not bleed any further.

"Didn't you say you didn't want to talk about it?" Lin smiled kindly, then pulled down his pants. "Then you'll die from my self-created Exorcism Technique."

"... Exorcism?"

"The Ultimate Golden Slash!"

No one knows what happened afterward. Kosma only vaguely remembers that in the chaos, the ghost of the girl in the mirror floated out before Lin's next move, "Ultimate Bladder Sword," and begged Lin for mercy, prostrating herself on the ground.

Lin is right. Ghosts are nothing to be afraid of. At least in the face of humans, who are far more terrifying, ghosts are much more docile and endearing.

"So that's how it is in the Parallel World. It doesn't reflect the future, but rather Parallel World, horizontally rather than vertically." Lin Cong the ghost.

Kosma was quite surprised. "So Parallel World really do exist?"

"Would you like to try it?" Lin handed over the mirror, which had calmed down, but Kosma hesitated for a moment and did not take it.

"Forget it." Kosma smiled with relief. "Maybe the me in the Parallel World... might not be doing any better than the me now. Didn't you say that the you in the Parallel World looks sad and miserable? Why add more trouble to yourself?"

"You're quite nonchalant about these things."

Lin smiled; he didn't care about the images in the mirror, his Parallel World self...

He was an extremely arrogant person. He believed that even another version of himself would surely achieve a bright future on his own, and he didn't need to worry about it for that other version of himself.

"I'll let you off this time since you told the truth." Lin put the mirror back in its original dorm room. "Don't do this again."

They had other strange tales to discover, so they didn't stay there for long.

As the two figures walked away, the mirror on the table remained silent. After a while, a person "passed" out of the mirror. Her pretty face was expressionless and cold. She glanced at the two figures who had gone, and her long, silver-white hair stood out conspicuously in the darkness...

"No matter which world that guy is from, they all have this kind of twisted sense of humor."

Lin, Kosma, and Kevin, who had gone to the "The Non-existent Eighth Floor," reunited.

Yes, three people.

"I am the real Kevin!"

"He's an imposter!"

The two "Kevin" pointed at each other and questioned loudly, both with fear of the unknown in their eyes.

Lin coldly glanced at the two equally foolish people, then asked Chrono, "What's the eighth level like?"

"Hmm..." Chrono a while, then revealed a horrified smile, "A place to store garbage."

"All cleaned up?"

"Does the trash need to be cleaned up if it's in its proper place?"

"Hey! Wait a minute, don't ignore me!" Kevin shouted.

"It's me! Not you!" Another Kevin tugged at his clothes.

"Thump!"

The fire axe was embedded in the wall.

The entire audience fell silent. Lin twisted his neck and sighed, "Now, you still have a chance to tell the truth. If I catch you out by myself later, you'll have to play baseball with me and Chrono."

"I really am! Before we even entered the eighth floor, this guy was already sneaking around following us. When I exposed him, he transformed into my appearance, but none of you believed me!"

"I am the real one! You followed us into the eighth floor, and when it was chaotic there, you took the opportunity to transform into my appearance!"

Which one is telling the truth?

When Di Ting faced two Great Sage Equal to Heaven, he had the ability to distinguish them, but he dared not expose which one was the Six-Eared Macaque, fearing retaliation.

Lin, however, did not have such concerns.

Lin, with dead fish eyes, asked, "What color underwear did Mei wear yesterday?"

"Forehead..."

"White!"

"Bass!"

Before the color could even react after uttering "Kevin," a fire axe had already decapitated him...

The Campus Seven Wonders Arc: Flame-Chasers Boy's Daily Life (Part 5)

"It really reminds me of how happy we were in junior high school."

The cacophony of ghosts in the girls' dormitory had ceased sometime earlier. Lin stood in the open space outside the dormitory, trying out a swing of her Baseball Bat, and sighed to Chrono, who was testing the weight of the ball not far away. "Playing baseball under the setting sun, that's our lost youth."