Dog Head

."

"Bring your head closer. I've got something nice to show you.jpg."

Before long, the group members ignored the message Su Wu had posted at the top and started trading memes and chatting.

A notification flashed past amid the group members' chat messages-group member "Young Master Eats Pancakes" had been removed from the group.

The landlord, who owned the group, then spoke up: "Spreading rumors is forbidden in this group!

You're a young person too, so why are you still peddling that old nonsense? How can you spout all that superstitious crap?

I've kicked him out. Let that be a warning to everyone!"

After the landlord's speech, a host of group members began repeating "All hail the group owner" beneath it.

After twenty or thirty consecutive repetitions, someone popped up and posted a link: "A really fun livestreaming site. Come take a look."

Naturally, when someone posted a link, someone else clicked it.

After about three to five people clicked through, the message was collapsed and flagged as an "illegal website."

Wang Xiaogang was an ordinary tenant in Building 6 of Peaceful Garden.

The constant stream of messages in the main tenants' group caught his attention, so he opened it and lurked for a while.

He kept reading until someone posted a link.

With an instinct like a hunter spotting prey, he sensed that this link would very likely lead him to something "really fun."

So he tapped it lightly and opened the link.

After downloading an unfamiliar livestreaming app through his browser, he entered a livestream room.

A female streamer who looked very poor at first glance-judging by how little fabric she was wearing-sat on a bed and spoke into a microphone: "We're just warming up, guys. One yacht gets you a seat. Once all the seats are taken, we'll lock the room."

The streamer wasn't particularly attractive. Even with the beauty filter cranked up to ten, she barely reached the bottom tier of surgically enhanced faces.

Normally, when Wang Xiaogang came across a female streamer with looks like hers, he never lingered. A light swipe of his finger, and he moved on to the next one.

But this time, he didn't.

-He knew this streamer!

She was the woman who lived upstairs, the tenant who often came out in the morning to throw away her trash in a loose, rather short nightdress!

Who would have thought? Who would have thought?

So this was what she did for a living?

Some dark desire swelled in Wang Xiaogang's heart. He spent sixty-six yuan to send a yacht in the livestream room and claim a seat.

"We've got ninety-two now, guys! Only eight seats left, and then we're full. We'll get going any minute!" The woman from upstairs wriggled, her eyes smoldering, while a buzzing vibration came from her body.

Just then, Wang Xiaogang heard a man's voice from off camera: "Fuck! I sent it to the wrong group!"

The streamer's expression changed. She turned toward someone off camera. "What do you mean, the wrong group? Which group did you send it to?"

"Ugh-some dumbass in the group was posting stupid shit about avoiding light at night and turning the lights off to sleep. I was looking at that group for a bit, and I accidentally pasted the link straight into it.

We can't stream today. Let's get out of here!"

A man walked into view. Wearing nothing but underpants, he was flabby and bloated, and he reached out to turn off the camera.

"Don't! I fucking paid for a seat!"

The men who had bought seats flooded the livestream with comments.

Wang Xiaogang, on the other hand, wasn't posting comments. He was busy recording his screen on his phone, with who knew what plans brewing in his head.

"Next time. We'll let everyone know the next time we stream.

We'll have to call it off today. Sorry, guys!" The streamer and these men were only fleeting lovers. They had met by chance, would share a brief encounter, and afterward none of them would know one another, so normally there would be no real problem.

But now there might be an insider among them who could track her down at home. Naturally, she couldn't keep honoring the deal. When it was time to run, she had to run.

"Fuck your mother!"

"You fucking whore!"

"Fucking slut!"

The men who had just been calling her a "goddess" and a "sweetie" immediately began hurling abuse.

Wang Xiaogang recorded the entire thing, feeling thoroughly satisfied.

He stopped recording and was about to leave the livestream room, which had become a cesspool of abuse with none of its earlier friendliness and harmony, when he suddenly noticed something unusual.

In the room occupied by the streamer and the man-whether he was her boyfriend or her lover, he didn't know-the shadows cast by the lights began to squirm.

At the sight, he instinctively tapped the record button again.

Those shadows were like tentacles reaching out of the darkness. After silently writhing for two or three seconds, they suddenly spilled outward, smearing across and engulfing the entire room.

"Holy shit!"

"What the hell is that?"

"Hahaha, the streamer's getting what she deserves!"

The spectators in the livestream still had time to post a few comments.

But the streamer and the flabby man in the room could no longer move.

Both were completely wrapped in pitch-black shadows as thick and sticky as asphalt. After a burst of flesh-rending noises that set teeth on edge, chunks of meat splattered across the walls, the bed, and the table!

Yet not a trace of blood stained the spreading shadows.

They quietly withdrew from the room.

Only the nightmarish scene remained, assaulting Wang Xiaogang's eyes. Trembling all over, he finally remembered the message that had appeared so abruptly in the group.

"Attention: over the next few days, please be sure to shut all doors and windows, cover every light source in your rooms, and turn off all electronic devices!

Stay quietly inside your homes. After consulting some documents, I discovered that an unidentified substance transmitted through light has now spread throughout Peaceful Garden.

If you recklessly open a window to let in light or use any kind of light source now, this unidentified substance will kill you outright!

Please be sure to cut off every light source. Life is priceless!"

It was true!

Light brought shadows!

Shadows killed people!

That group member hadn't been spreading rumors. He hadn't been lying. It was all true!

Wang Xiaogang trembled all over!

He clearly remembered the warning Su Wu had posted in the group, yet remained utterly unaware of the danger he himself was in.

The lights in his room were still bright.

His fingers flew as he exited the livestream, opened the group chat, and typed out a string of words in the message box before sending them.

"It's true! It's true! It's true! It's true! It's true!"

"Everything that group member said is true!"