Ghost Rider

Fang Xiu tried a few more times after that. Even with a knife stuck in his thigh, he still entered the dream.

By then, Fang Xiu understood. It seemed Zhao Hao would have to get through this on his own. As long as he overcame his fear, he could survive.

"This is an emergency exit!"

"The way out has to be here!"

At that moment, Fang Xiu turned around and told Zhao Hao and the others, "There's a Ghost inside the emergency exit that can make people hallucinate. All kinds of terrifying things will appear in the illusion. It might even make you think you've escaped the Ghost Domain, but none of it is real.

"To break free of the illusion, there's only one thing you have to do: overcome your fear. Inside the illusion, the more afraid you are, the faster you'll die."

"What?! There's another Ghost in here?!" One of his coworkers immediately panicked after hearing that.

From the look of him, he seemed terrified enough already without even entering the dream.

"Ritian, remember this. Everything you see in there will be fake. Don't be afraid. That's the only way you'll survive," Fang Xiu warned him.

Still shaken, Zhao Hao nodded. He knew Fang Xiu wouldn't lie to him.

"Oh, and if you see Li Feifei in the illusion, give her a squeeze. The fake one feels different from the real one. That's a flaw in the illusion."

Zhao Hao froze. "B-but I've never touched the real one."

Fang Xiu ignored him, opened the door, and entered the dream.

Fang Xiu experienced the same dream as before. He had already tested it: Zhao Hao and the others in his dream were all fake. In other words, everyone was having a different dream.

He couldn't help Zhao Hao inside the dream.

Knowing it was a dream made Fang Xiu even less likely to feel any fear, so he soon broke free.

When he woke up, he didn't see the Ghost. He only saw Zhao Hao and the other two sprawled on the ground. At this point, they were still alive.

But they were in terrible shape. Terror covered every face, and some of them had even started convulsing.

Zhao Hao was squeezing his own throat with all his strength. His face had turned blue, and he was on the verge of suffocating.

Fang Xiu hurried over and pried his hands away. Only then could Zhao Hao breathe freely, but he was still in bad shape.

"Ritian, wake up."

He shook Zhao Hao, but it did nothing.

Smack! Smack! Smack!

A dozen or so vicious slaps landed on Zhao Hao's face, alternating between forehand and backhand. He still didn't wake up.

With no other choice, Fang Xiu took out the Scalpel and stabbed Zhao Hao in the thigh. He even activated a trace of his pain ability. Zhao Hao's expression grew even more agonized, but he simply wouldn't wake up.

A moment later, Zhao Hao's head lolled to one side. He died.

Then Fang Xiu died too.

Fang Xiu tried several more times after that, but no matter how he warned them, Zhao Hao and the others died in the dream every time. They couldn't overcome their fear.

Fang Xiu fell silent. He wanted to save Zhao Hao, but he couldn't.

He decided to try one last time. If it still didn't work, he would have to give up.

How could he help Zhao Hao overcome his fear?

He thought of a method: distraction. Since Zhao Hao couldn't overcome it, he could avoid it instead.

He had to find another powerful emotion to dilute the fear.

Fear was an instinctive human emotion. To fight it, he would have to rely on another instinctive emotion.

Thinking back over Zhao Hao's traits, he didn't seem to have any particularly notable ones. He was unattractive, somewhat introverted, timid, a loser, and prone to fantasizing.

His only distinguishing trait was probably how exceptionally horny he was.

Exceptionally horny?

Food and sex were basic human desires.

That was another kind of instinctive emotion.

Fang Xiu felt he had found a breakthrough.

"Ritian, isn't your favorite movie Private Lessons After School?"

Zhao Hao instantly paled in shock. "Xiu, how did you know? You snooped through my phone!"

"Never mind how I know. Take out your phone right now, turn the volume all the way up, and play that movie on speaker."

Zhao Hao began to doubt his own ears. He even stammered as he spoke. "X-Xiu, you're kidding, right? If you want to watch it, we can watch once we escape. Playing it out loud in front of everyone... how's that any different from taking a dump in the street?"

"I'm not kidding. This is to save your life. Hurry up and play it right now."

Seeing how serious Fang Xiu was, Zhao Hao yielded to the pressure and pulled up the movie he treasured.

As the background music began playing, even the atmosphere of terror in the gloomy corridor seemed to dissipate somewhat.

Both coworkers stared at Zhao Hao with very strange looks.

Zhao Hao couldn't have looked more embarrassed. His face flushed red.

"Focus on watching it. You have to put yourself completely in the student's shoes. Once you enter the illusion, ignore everything else. Just close your eyes and throw yourself into that role with everything you've got. That's the only way you'll overcome your fear."

Zhao Hao took a deep breath, nodded, and began immersing himself in it.

"You two as well. Distract yourselves with whatever interests you most so you can overcome your fear."

Those two clearly weren't as exceptionally horny as Zhao Hao, and they had nothing stashed on their phones. They could only watch along with him.

Clearly, the things men were most interested in might differ in type, but were broadly the same.

Five minutes later, Fang Xiu looked at Zhao Hao and decided he was about ready. As for the other two, they hadn't shown the slightest reaction.

Reality proved that not just anyone could get it up in the face of terror.

But that was all Fang Xiu could do. He gave them a few more reminders, then led them through the door.

The dream descended.

Fang Xiu quickly broke free of the dream and looked at Zhao Hao and the other two lying on the ground.

As before, both coworkers wore horribly contorted expressions, as though they were experiencing something dreadful. Wounds even began appearing on their bodies out of nowhere.

Zhao Hao, on the other hand, still looked frightened this time, but there was a faint hint of lechery mixed into that fear.

Fang Xiu found this deeply reassuring. It seemed being exceptionally horny wasn't always a bad thing.

He still remembered something Zhao Hao had once mentioned during a casual chat. One afternoon, after waking from a nap, he found that he couldn't open his eyes no matter how hard he tried, and his body wouldn't move either. He had sleep paralysis.

In his dazed state, he seemed to see a female Ghost in white pinning him down. His first reaction was fear. Her face was deathly pale, without a trace of color.

But his second reaction was to notice how pretty she was. He hadn't known what came over him, but as he looked at the female Ghost pinning him down, he wanted to kiss her. So he struggled to pucker his lips. Just as he was about to reach her, though, he woke up, and the sleep paralysis ended.

Zhao Hao had found that deeply regrettable.

At the time, Fang Xiu had thought Zhao Hao was joking. Now, though, it seemed highly likely that he had been telling the truth.

If a Ghost was pretty, he really did have the nerve to go for her.

A modern-day Ning Caichen.

At that moment, the dream seemed to reach a critical point. Both coworkers' heads lolled sideways, and they died on the spot, blood pouring from all seven facial orifices.

Meanwhile, the fear on Zhao Hao's face grew ever more intense.

But suddenly, the sleeping Zhao Hao let out a low growl of labored, suppressed breathing, puckering his lips every so often.