Strange Arrival 3

Before going to sleep, Ye Zhao turned on every light in the apartment, pulled the curtains shut, and left the bedroom door wide open. Only after confirming that none of the terrifying scenarios from horror films could possibly occur did she feel a slight sense of relief. She lay back down, hypnotizing herself to fall asleep quickly, preferably until dawn.

Ye Zhao had been exhausted all day, her nerves stretched to their limit, and she soon drifted into a deep sleep.

Who would have thought that in the middle of the night, she would faintly hear a sound coming from beneath her? It was like fingernails scratching against wood. At first, it was subtle—a soft, rustling noise that was merely annoying—but it gradually grew more intense and frantic, as if something were trying to claw its way out from under the bed.

Ye Zhao's hazy sleepiness was instantly scratched away. The sound was so close, as if separated from her by only a thin sheet, and it felt like whatever was there could burst through the mattress at any moment!

If she weren't so cowardly and terrified of death, she would have already been frozen stiff; as it was, she nearly jumped straight out of bed.

I'm going crazy, I'm going crazy! What do I do now?

[Sanity Value: -10.]

[Sanity Value: 60.]

If my Sanity Value drops to 60, I'll start hallucinating!

Ye Zhao suddenly felt countless pale, ice-cold hands emerging from the bed, grabbing her body as if to drag her into an endless abyss.

In that instant, cold sweat soaked the sheets. Using the last of her reason to suppress a scream, she pulled a sedative from her inventory and, without even looking, plunged it into her thigh!

The sharp, stinging pain was both agonizing and relieving.

As the medicine took effect, her fear-dominated brain finally cleared. There were no ghostly hands on the bed, and even the scratching sound from beneath it had vanished.

Ye Zhao's initial terror subsided, and she no longer felt quite as frightened as before.

[Sanity Value: 100.]

So, the lower the Sanity Value, the more intense the fear of the supernatural, and the easier it is to sense their presence.

The rest of the night remained relatively peaceful. Ye Zhao drifted in and out of sleep until dawn. Every time she closed her eyes, she felt as if something were staring at her, but fortunately, no further supernatural events occurred, allowing her to breathe a sigh of relief.

The second day of the Survival Game.

Ye Zhao stood before the mirror, examined the dark circles under her eyes, splashed her face with cold water, and smiled. "Another beautiful day~"

For breakfast, she prepared two bowls of hot and sour noodles with extra vinegar. It was sour and spicy, just as exciting as her life.

Thanks to the Lord Ghost Messenger, and thanks to the Survival Game.

It was time for her daily Prophet Skill usage. She hoped the Bodhisattva would bless her with a smooth day.

[Using Prophet Skill. Current Prophet Level: 1. Skill duration: 10s.]

In a certain restaurant, a male employee in the kitchen carried a dish out to the dining area. "Table five, your Lotus Cabbage Twice-Cooked Pork."

The woman sitting at the table looked up in surprise. "You can see me? You can see me?"

The male employee was terrified. The next second, the woman lunged at him. The employee frantically pulled an Exorcism Talisman from his pocket. The diner ghost shrieked and vanished from the spot. The employee bolted, only to see two female customers sitting at another table five not far away.

Damn it! I was tricked!

"Boss, my father died, I need to go home. Can I just take today's wages?"

The boss's face turned as dark as the bottom of a pot, but he gave the employee sixty yuan and told him to get lost.

A female employee was washing dishes in the back of a hotpot restaurant. She kept her head down, thinking that if she did so, she wouldn't encounter anything supernatural.

"Hurry, hurry, hurry! Wash faster, we're running out of bowls out front!"

"I'm washing, I'm washing!" Nag, nag, nag, that's all they know how to do. Fifty yuan a day for back-breaking labor, what more do they want from me? she complained internally, though she continued washing at a steady, unhurried pace. Suddenly, a voice whispered right into her ear, sounding sinister and chilling: "You heard me just now, didn't you~"

The employee: ?!

The employee let out a shrill scream and tumbled into the sink. She reached for her Exorcism Talisman, only to realize she had run out of paper charms. The male ghost transformed into a mass of black shadow and devoured her.

The kitchen remained busy, and no one noticed that the employee had disappeared.

A female Player lay in her rented room, playing on her phone. "Haha, this month is basically a vacation for me!"

She had found a place where she only had to pay one month's rent as a deposit, sharing the apartment with someone else. She had only spent 1,400 yuan, and with 1,600 left, she could easily make it through the next month if she was frugal.

As long as she didn't run around outside, the probability of encountering a ghost would be significantly lower, and her chances of survival would be much higher.

Just then, a knock sounded at the door—knock, knock, knock, knock—accompanied by a woman's gentle voice: "Excuse me, are you the new tenant?"

The Player was about to respond when a thought suddenly flashed through her mind. She remembered the elders saying that only ghosts knock four times.

Terrified, she froze. A few more knocks followed before the movement outside finally ceased. The Player let out a sigh of relief, but then grew tense again; whenever she was nervous, she needed to use the bathroom, and the secondary bedroom she rented didn't have one.

After hesitating for a long time, she carefully pulled the door open. Through a tiny crack, she saw a pale face pressed against the gap, pitch-black eyes staring directly into hers!

"Ah!!!" Even with mental preparation, the Player was startled!

"You see me, don't you?"

The Player scrambled, pulling a Peach Wood Sword from her pocket and swinging it wildly at the female ghost. The ghost shrieked and vanished from the spot...

On an overpass, a disheveled man with long, matted hair lay on the street begging. He kept his eyes closed, lying on the ground with a pair of chopsticks in one hand and a basin in the other, tapping out a rhythm.

"Kind brothers and sisters passing by, have mercy, please have mercy..."

Kind-hearted passersby would toss him a dollar or two, and since he was pretending to be blind, he didn't even need to say thank you; he just droned on listlessly, "Spare some change, spare some change."

A Passerby Ghost paced back and forth in front of him, but he didn't react at all, acting as if he couldn't see or hear a thing...

It wasn't until a coin was tossed into his basin, emitting a soft clink, that he stirred.

Beggar Player: "Spare some change, spare some change..."

The Passerby Ghost tried to approach, but suddenly, a Bronze Mirror was revealed at the Beggar Player's waist. The ghost was struck by the reflection, let out a shriek, and was sent flying back, vanishing on the spot.

System: [Prophet Skill usage concluded.]

The [Prophet] skill turned gray.

[CD: 24h]

Ye Zhao opened her eyes and sighed softly; it seemed that life wasn't easy for anyone.

However, she hadn't realized there were so many exorcism items available. Thinking back to the Bronze Mirror she saw in the final scene, she couldn't help but feel tempted. If she had a mirror like that hanging on her door, wouldn't she be able to stop worrying about ghosts breaking into her room and finally get a good night's sleep?

Otherwise, with her nerves constantly on edge, fifteen days was a long time; there would inevitably be a moment when a ghost managed to slip in.

The problem was that the vision was limited in scope, and she was completely unfamiliar with this city. Finding that specific overpass would be quite difficult for the time being.

Ye Zhao opened her phone and began searching online for images of overpasses in D City.