Night Wanderer

When Wu Zhong saw the Taoist pull out a gun, he couldn't help but quip, "So gunmanship counts as a kind of magic too, huh?"

The Taoist's lips curled up. "You've fought ghosts before. Punching and kicking might fool them, but one shot from this Taoist's gun and even a ghost won't be able to take it."

Wu Zhong thought that made sense. Though he had smashed that old ghost apart using his door-welding ability.

But that depended on him being able to smash it apart. If he couldn't create a doorway, he wouldn't be able to trigger his ability either.

That old ghost had been genuinely weak, just a clump of watery vapor. Fighting in its true form had been less threatening than possessing someone else to hunt him down...

Still, since ghosts existed in this world, it wasn't all that strange for there to be a department that caught ghosts.

These people were just too strange. Wu Zhong felt nervous, because he wasn't exactly normal himself.

"What exactly do you mean? Just say it."

The administrative-looking man at the head of the group smiled. "There's no need to be nervous. My name is Lu Guangqi."

"You can call me Captain Lu... Well, we only want to know why you were being hunted by those ghosts and gods."

Wu Zhong curled his lip. "I don't know either. I was sleeping when a ghost suddenly came after me. It made no sense."

"I've never encountered anything this bizarre in my life. I'm still confused myself."

He was genuinely lost. Setting aside the fact that he had superpowers, he sincerely wished for the world to remain peaceful and normal. Ideally, he would be the only abnormal one. So why had he run into ghosts?

"Actually, this isn't the first time something like this has happened to you." The administrative man, Lu Guangqi, suddenly turned on a projector and displayed several surveillance screenshots.

Wu Zhong was startled. They clearly showed the moment he had been trapped in the elevator.

His heart skipped a beat. That had been when he first discovered his superpower. Clearly, they had investigated him and linked the elevator incident from that morning with the events of today, considering both cases together.

"The incident where you were trapped in the elevator this morning was no simple matter either. That should have been the first attempt on your life."

"The ghosts and gods were still very weak at the time. They likely wanted to use the elevator to kill you in a fall, but even that failed."

Lu Guangqi spoke smoothly, leaving Wu Zhong dumbfounded.

"Huh? What?" Wu Zhong blinked.

He found it strange. He hadn't expected them to think the elevator incident that morning had also been caused by ghosts.

Then again, Wu Zhong himself had thought so at the time. He had assumed he'd run into something unclean, maybe that some little ghost had latched onto him.

The surveillance footage hadn't caught him secretly pressing the door-open button. The elevator had been packed, and he had struggled to reach down through several people to press it.

Lu Guangqi continued, "You needn't be surprised. You probably thought it was an ordinary elevator accident."

"But we examined it carefully. There was nothing wrong with the elevator itself."

"If that were the only piece of evidence, it would be one thing. But then you experienced a car accident in the afternoon. That was the ghosts and gods' second attempt on your life."

Lu Guangqi switched slides. This time, it showed the truck crashing toward him by the roadside.

Wu Zhong widened his eyes. "That was caused by ghosts too?"

Lu Guangqi nodded. "Yes. Even in a torrential downpour, the driver shouldn't have rammed straight into you like that."

"This driver hadn't been driving while fatigued recently, and his family said he never drank."

"We performed an autopsy. There was no alcohol in his blood, but we found unusual hydrocephalus in his brain as well. He had been controlled by ghosts and gods."

Wu Zhong sucked in a cold breath.

He knew the elevator incident had been caused by his superpower awakening, so they had misunderstood that one.

But he truly hadn't known that the car accident that had nearly killed him that afternoon had also been a ghost possessing someone to murder him.

If a passerby hadn't casually pulled him away at the time, he really would have been run over and killed!

"Why? Why do ghosts want to kill me?"

Wu Zhong grew anxious. The ghosts' pursuit tonight had already been the second attempt. There would definitely be a third, then a fourth.

Just as they had said when they entered: ghosts would haunt him, and accidents would come one after another!

He might escape the first day, but not the fifteenth. Who could withstand ghosts constantly plotting, openly and secretly, to kill them?

He wouldn't be able to live a normal life at all. Wherever he went, he would have to guard against someone suddenly being possessed by a ghost and stabbing him with murderous intent.

Or against a ghost controlling a driver and causing a car crash, a plane accident, or something like that.

Lu Guangqi tapped the table with his fingertips. "We also want to figure out why these ghosts are trying to kill you."

"To be honest, we discovered these ghosts before you did. Aside from some conflicts, you are the first person they have actively come out to hunt!"

Wu Zhong was stunned. He was the ghosts' first prey?

"What the hell is this?"

"And what did you say? A group? There isn't just one ghost?"

"Where did these ghosts come from?"

Lu Guangqi explained, "Mm, it's a group. It wouldn't be convenient for me to tell you too much about their origins. I can only say that they should all be beings from myths and legends..."

As he spoke, he picked up the drawing of the old ghost from earlier.

"For example, this one that hunted you tonight. His name is Ye Zhong. He is a Night Wanderer."

Wu Zhong's eyes widened. "A Night Wanderer?"

The young Taoist beside him chimed in, "Legend has it that they were born in the southern wilderness. They held hands in a continuous chain, and when day came, they vanished. Since they only appeared at night, they were called Night Wanderers."

"In appearance, they have small cheeks and red shoulders—the sort of wretched, nasty little ghost you saw tonight."

"The Classic of Mountains and Seas records that there were sixteen gods, their arms linked together, serving the Heavenly Emperor by keeping watch at night."

"There are sixteen of them in total. The leader has a name: Ye Zhong. He is the one you encountered, the leader of the Night Wanderers and the strongest among them."

Wu Zhong was dazed. So that was what the old ghost had meant by calling himself a minor god.

He really was a god—a Night Wanderer!

"The leader? And the strongest one? He felt pretty weak to me. Not even as scary as the ghosts in movies."

The Taoist stroked his gun and packed it back into its case. "Mm, he really is quite weak."

But Lu Guangqi said solemnly, "Though they are still weak for now, do you know when they appeared? This morning."

"At first, even the wind could scatter them, and sunlight could kill them. They failed even when they tried to create an elevator accident to kill you."

"But by the afternoon, they were already capable of possession. They caused a car accident, and the driver died."

"Tonight, they possessed more than a dozen people to hunt you down, and four patients died."

"They are constantly absorbing matter to grow stronger. And this is only the first day!"

"Following that logic, what about the second day? The third day? Next month, the month after that? What about one or two years from now? What sort of situation will we face then?"

"Until we find a way to resolve them completely, they have been provisionally designated Delta-class anomalous entities—beings capable of bringing about the end of humanity."

At those words, Wu Zhong shuddered.

Yes, that little ghost Ye Zhong had been weak tonight, but he had still nearly killed him.

And he was becoming stronger. Compared with the car accident in the afternoon, the group hunting him that night was clearly a major escalation.

If he hadn't had superpowers, he would already be dead tonight!

Even earlier, if he hadn't been lucky enough for a passerby to pull him aside, he would have been turned into pulp that afternoon.

If they kept growing stronger like this, wouldn't they eventually ravage the world?

Lu Guangqi said, "For now, only Ye Zhong can wander so far at night to kill you. But by tomorrow, perhaps the other little ghosts will be able to do so as well."

"Before long, all the Day Patrol Gods and Night Wanderers will be able to mobilize..."

"I don't know where the upper limit of their growth lies, but after all, these are gods said to 'serve the Heavenly Emperor by keeping watch at night.' Legend says they can link together into a continuous expanse, blotting out the sky and covering the earth."

"And this... is merely an inconspicuous little ghost among the ghosts and gods that appeared this morning, a minion standing like a lackey."

Wu Zhong felt a chill run through him. Ghosts and gods truly existed in this world, and they insisted on killing him.

"Are we just going to let them grow stronger? Can't they be dealt with?"

"You should have specialized methods for eliminating ghosts, right? Um, do you have superpowers?"

He couldn't help asking. After everything that had happened today, he realized he probably wasn't the only one in this world with strange powers.

Lu Guangqi did not answer directly. He only said, "For the time being, we can suppress them and prevent them from coming out to harm people, but we have no way to stop them from growing stronger."

Wu Zhong frowned. "Suppress them? But they still came out and hurt people!"

"You can't suppress the Night Wanderers, can you?"

Lu Guangqi said, "The Night Wanderers are a special case. Their abilities are highly unusual. As long as it is nighttime, they can roam freely and cannot be stopped."

"The Day Patrol Gods are the same. The one who killed that driver in the afternoon was the Day Patrol God You Guang."

"So you should stay with us. We can ensure your safety and arrange a place for you to live in our base."

Wu Zhong surveyed the group. They were clearly some kind of official special department, though he wasn't completely sure.

"Um, what department are you exactly?"

No one spoke. They waited for Lu Guangqi to answer. "You only need to know that we are a fire department."

Wu Zhong frowned. "A fire department? You're firefighters?"

Aside from the administrative man and the Taoist, the others were indeed wearing firefighting uniforms.

Lu Guangqi smiled. "Firefighting means preventing, controlling, and eliminating all kinds of disasters."

"The firefighters you know deal with natural calamities."

"We, on the other hand, deal with unnatural anomalies."

Wu Zhong asked again, "What's the department called? I've never heard of it. If you're an official agency, shouldn't you show identification?"

Lu Guangqi remained calm. "Don't ask so many questions. We are a legitimate department, but for safety reasons, we are permitted to keep our actions confidential and operate without public disclosure."

"As for identification, I have credentials from seven major law enforcement agencies: public security, national security, urban management, market regulation, ecological environment, cultural market administration, and emergency management. I can show you any of them."

He opened his briefcase, rummaged through it casually, and pulled out a stack of IDs. There were even all kinds of police credentials among them.

Wu Zhong was speechless. They really had something. How many offices did this guy hold?

They would not even tell him the name of their mysterious department, yet they could produce credentials from every public agency. It was clear this department was formidable.

"Then... what exactly do I need to cooperate with you on?"

Lu Guangqi said, "You must remain at designated locations and cooperate with all our operations at any time. You must also maintain complete confidentiality throughout."

Wu Zhong couldn't help asking, "Can I refuse?"

"For now, you can." Lu Guangqi frowned slightly. "But I believe I've made this very clear. If you refuse our most stringent protection, your life will be in danger."

Wu Zhong tilted his head. "For now?"

Lu Guangqi stared at him. "That's right. If we determine that you have a strong connection to the effects or harm caused by certain 'anomalies,' then we may take compulsory measures."

Wu Zhong understood. For now, he was a victim.

A group of ghosts had suddenly appeared and tried to kill him. He had simply drawn the short straw.

Perhaps these ghosts had randomly picked someone to hunt, and after killing him, they would move on to their next prey.

But if the origins of these ghosts, and their reason for causing trouble, were strongly connected to him, then these people would no longer be so polite.

As for what counted as a "strong connection," that was hard to say.

Did him having superpowers count as a strong connection? What if that ghost knew him... would that count as a strong connection?

At that thought, he temporarily suppressed his urge to come clean.

Honestly, Wu Zhong still couldn't understand why Ye Zhong had addressed him with honorifics. Was it merely habit, or had the ghost mistaken him for someone else?

For a moment, Wu Zhong's thoughts were in complete turmoil. He had no idea what "cooperating with all their operations" specifically entailed.

They weren't telling him anything... so he felt utterly uncertain.

But it seemed he had no room to refuse, nor any reason to.

After all, ghosts and gods were hunting him, and these people were willing to protect him. Was he supposed to go out and seek death on his own?

He had originally thought that once he got the one million, he could quit his job, take care of and keep his grandfather company, and live a leisurely life.

But tonight had made him realize that he needed to stay farther away from his grandfather. He could no longer remain by his side to care for him, or he would only bring harm to him.

"...Sigh. Fine, I understand. I'll do whatever you say."

They had expected him to choose this. At once, they took out a document and pushed it in front of Wu Zhong.

Wu Zhong looked it over. It was a confidentiality agreement, along with an agreement to accept close protection.

Their manner really did not seem like that of some unofficial ragtag group. Otherwise, there would have been no need to make things so complicated.

He read through it. It was full of jargon; even simple sentences were twisted around and packed with overly elaborate wording.

Wu Zhong wasn't highly educated. After reading for a while, his head began to ache, and he had already forgotten half of what he had read...

"Forget it, forget it. It's not like I have a choice." He couldn't be bothered pretending to read it seriously any longer.

He picked up a pen and signed it on the spot.