The Room Where Someone Died

Livestream replay.

After Zhang Ze closed his eyes and began counting, the already dark room grew even darker, as if some ink-like substance were seeping in bit by bit through the gaps in the window.

By the end, the light had dimmed to the point where he could barely see anything.

The bathroom door was suddenly pushed open.

A blurry black figure slowly emerged from the bathroom. Judging by its outline, it was extremely thin, and its gait was bizarre. Its steps came in jerks, while its other foot could only move by being dragged along.

If he had to describe it, it looked like a limping freak.

The problem was...

The bathroom was a sealed space. How could a person possibly emerge from it?

The horror continued.

The shadow approached Zhang Ze at an agonizingly slow pace. According to the livestream timer, it took at least three or four minutes to reach his side.

But Zhang Ze clearly remembered that he had only counted to ten.

It was as if his perceived time and real time had diverged, stretched infinitely apart.

Zhang Ze in the livestream was visibly starting to panic.

At the time, he had heard the strange sound of dripping water and knew that something had slipped in through the bathroom and entered the bedroom.

It was even standing right behind him.

He began trying to find the light switch.

What was strange was that the Zhang Ze in the livestream did not search along the wall for the switch as Zhang Ze remembered. Instead, he walked toward the thing behind him.

Just a few short steps.

Then came a scene that made Zhang Ze's scalp tingle.

The shadow was facing him, less than half a meter away.

The smooth, shriveled wall he had touched was not a real wall at all, but this ghost.

The ghost did not attack Zhang Ze immediately.

Instead, it slowly bent down, as if something in Zhang Ze's bag had caught its attention, and reached for his satchel.

Zhang Ze could not make out exactly what it had grabbed.

He only saw that when the shadow touched the outline of something, it suddenly seemed to be drained dry and turned into a puddle of liquid.

And Zhang Ze happened to grab the shadow around where its head was, as if he had found the "light switch," before opening his eyes.

But by the time Zhang Ze opened his eyes, the shadow had completely vanished.

"What did the ghost want to take from me?"

"And it got dealt with instead."

Zhang Ze could not remember bringing anything useful with him.

Black dog blood, peachwood swords, glutinous rice?

Those things did not work on Fierce Ghosts at all, did they?

At least, Zhang Ze remembered that ghosts only feared other ghosts, or supernatural products such as curses.

Unless...

Zhang Ze pulled out his satchel and immediately understood what the ghost had been after.

It was the pair of severed human hands.

These hands had originally been deathly pale from blood loss, but now they looked as though they had come back to life, their color much rosier. A layer of pitch-black, ink-like liquid coated the cut surfaces at the wrists.

Ghosts could grow stronger by eating ghosts.

Zhang Ze remembered that Xu Yin had not been a Red-Clothed Vengeful Ghost at first.

Chen Ge had later fed her a huge pile of ghosts, forcefully turning her into Red-Clothed.

That ghost had surely been drawn to these hands at first sight. They belonged to the Red-Clothed Female Ghost from the Murderous Painting. If it could eat them, its strength would undoubtedly increase greatly.

To it, Zhang Ze was like a small appetizer.

The severed hands, on the other hand, were a full imperial feast.

Even ghosts could tell which mattered more.

Unexpectedly, these hands were not as simple as they looked. They had devoured the ghost instead.

[Congratulations, Host, for completing the Nightmare Mission]

[Mission reward: Title "Nightmare New Star"]

[Nightmare New Star: You are a delicacy in the eyes of Fierce Ghosts, like a walking feast. Every ghost wishes to devour you as quickly as possible. You have long grown accustomed to becoming prey for the dead, though this means you will never know peace]

Zhang Ze:?

You called this a reward?

Zhang Ze's face immediately fell.

What kind of joke was this?

When ordinary people encountered ghosts, they could not run away fast enough. Yet the system had rewarded him with the title Nightmare New Star, practically turning Zhang Ze into a nourishing tonic in the eyes of Fierce Ghosts.

Had the system watched the livestream and found it insufficiently exciting?

That ghost had not eaten Zhang Ze.

So it gave Zhang Ze this title to put some pressure on him?

"Can I refuse the reward?"

Zhang Ze gave a bitter laugh.

Just then, police sirens suddenly sounded outside the hotel.

Zhang Ze hurriedly put the severed hands back into his satchel, tidied up the scene, and then opened the door.

The moment he opened it, he saw a stern-faced middle-aged man in a criminal police uniform showing him his police ID.

"Li Sanbao... Uncle Sanbao?"

"Mm? Do I know you?"

Li Sanbao was stunned by his words.

He had considered all kinds of possibilities, but never this one. The young man before him actually knew him and even addressed him so familiarly.

The people who usually called him that were junior officers at the Police Station, or young people like Chen Ge whom he had helped.

Li Sanbao looked Zhang Ze over again.

He was certain.

He had never seen Zhang Ze before.

Even if they had only met once in passing, he should have had some impression of him.

"You are such a diligent and dedicated people's policeman, of course I know you."

"Fine, quit trying to butter me up."

"I received a report saying that there was... a haunting here? Were you livestreaming this? The influence is extremely bad!"

Li Sanbao said sternly.

"Uncle Sanbao, listen to my explanation. I was planning to open a Haunted House at Western Suburbs New Century Amusement Park. These days, nobody plays Haunted Houses anymore, so I had to do some promotion..."

"The haunting and all that was just for the show."

"How could there be ghosts in this world? Don't you agree?"

Zhang Ze gave Li Sanbao a serious lecture on science.

He went from sleep medicine to applied psychology, leaving Li Sanbao utterly bewildered.

Then Li Sanbao looked over the scene.

There were some water stains on the floor, but aside from that, there was nothing unusual in the room, nor was there any haunting mentioned by the caller.

Li Sanbao's expression eased somewhat.

"Fine."

"Be more careful with livestreams like this in the future, especially in certain places. The impact isn't very good."

Li Sanbao emphasized the point.

After chatting briefly with Zhang Ze for a few more minutes.

He withdrew the police response and left.

As the sirens faded into the distance, Zhang Ze's expression gradually darkened.

It was the middle of the night. If it had merely been a "haunting," then frankly speaking, it was not important enough for Li Sanbao to come out in person.

But since he had come, and with the ghost that had suddenly appeared in the hotel...

Zhang Ze faintly sensed that something was wrong.

He took out his phone and searched for West Suburbs Peace Hotel.

Several news reports immediately appeared before his eyes.

<Unidentified Female Corpse Found at West Suburbs Peace Hotel, Internal Organs Removed, No Bloodstains Found, Body Soaked in a Water Tank!>

<Utterly Brutal! Mysterious Female Corpse at West Suburbs Peace Hotel, Killer Still at Large. Nearby Residents, Please Watch for Your Personal Safety!>

Sure enough, ghosts did not appear out of nowhere.

The place itself was haunted. The system had essentially used some kind of action to summon this ghost.

Zhang Ze expressionlessly opened the news article. Sure enough, the room number where the murder had occurred perfectly matched his own room number.

His room was the room where someone had died.