Sudden Seizure
The rooftop of a multi-story building in J City.
A strange bluish-green light enveloped the dim sky, and two people suddenly appeared out of nowhere on the previously empty platform. These two people appeared like ghosts, silent and mysterious, which was a supernatural phenomenon that was difficult to explain with common sense.
A young man in a white coat stumbled and fell to the ground.
A middle-aged man, around thirty years old, stood nearby. His face was deathly pale, his breathing was disordered, and his whole body was trembling slightly. It was unclear whether he was gripped by fear or by some unbearable pain.
"You shouldn't have saved me." Wang Xiaoming struggled to his feet, his face contorted with rage as he stared intently at Li Jun beside him.
He was forcibly taken out of the laboratory by Li Jun.
But this was not what he had hoped for, because he was prepared to die in the laboratory.
"This is an order from above. Professor Wang, your priority surpasses that of a laboratory." Li Jun gasped for breath and slumped weakly to the ground.
He paid a heavy price to ensure Wang Xiaoming's escape.
"The decision made above was wrong. This isn't just a problem with a laboratory. I nurtured this thing with my own hands, and I understand its horror better than anyone else. After the experiment failed, I had the idea of completely sealing away the Ghost Coffin. This coffin, along with that ghost, should be buried forever," Wang Xiaoming suddenly grabbed Li Jun's collar and growled at him.
"Your actions make me feel incompetent, you know? My survival means that many more people will die. I like to measure the value of life because this is the best way: sacrifice some people so that more people can live."
"Because of this belief, this belief that I think is right, I am willing to make many sacrifices, even killing people."
"But this time, you've made me completely lose the beliefs I've always held onto. If I survive, what about the people I killed before, and the people I could have saved but didn't?"
Wang Xiaoming was emotionally unstable; he was roaring and screaming, and for him, his very existence was a source of immense guilt.
"Sacrifice is only for now, but we must win the future, and that future must include you, Professor Wang."
Li Jun wasn't angry when Wang Xiaoming grabbed his collar and yelled at him. Instead, he said very seriously, "So the decision above wasn't wrong, and besides, it was just a ghost."
"So what if it's classified as an S-class paranormal event? There have been at least five S-class paranormal events worldwide, and most of them have already been resolved, haven't they? And without your plan to control two ghosts, Headquarters' program wouldn't have lasted this long, and even more people would have died. And your research has made groundbreaking progress."
"If the plan to disable the vengeful spirit succeeds, the Ghost Tamer will officially have the means to fight against paranormal events."
"This is the future."
"Bullshit! If experiments were that easy to succeed, they wouldn't have dragged on until now. Do you think I'm omnipotent? I'm just an ordinary person, an ordinary person who's only had a little education. What if the new experimental direction fails again?" The usually calm Wang Xiaoming suddenly burst into a tirade.
The reason for his emotional breakdown was not because the experiment failed and caused an unknown level of ghost to appear, but because his survival shattered the beliefs he had always held dear.
If you don't sacrifice yourself when it's your turn, then what do you become?
Hypocrisy, wickedness, treachery—it seems that no amount of infamy is too much to describe them.
"Professor Wang, you should calm down. This is not the time to discuss this, but rather how to handle what comes next. Also, there's something I'm very suspicious about. The ghost coffin was opened in the lab before. If the ghost has finished gestating and come out, it should still be in that room. After all, that room is specially made; once sealed, the ghost cannot escape."
Li Jun slowly stood up and said, "But that ghost wasn't trapped in the room; it appeared in Professor Wang's work area."
"What do you want to say?" Wang Xiaoming asked, staring at him.
"That ghost might not have been your mistake, Professor Wang, but rather it was released by someone else," Wang Jun said calmly.
He has also dealt with paranormal events and has the ability to organize and analyze such events.
"That's no longer important. Whether it was released intentionally or the ghost escaped on its own, the point is we had the opportunity to trap it in my work area. With the lab's layered security measures, the chances of the ghost escaping were slim."
Wang Xiaoming said.
This aspect was considered when the laboratory was first built, so the laboratory is divided into areas that can be sealed off and isolated from each other.
Any area that is accidentally released due to experimental problems or mistakes can be sealed off in time to ensure that a failed experiment does not cause a chain reaction.
Therefore, Wang Xiaoming was not worried that the ghosts in other experimental areas would be released.
"Indeed, there's no point in investigating so much now. So what should we do next? Maybe we'll get lucky and that the ghost won't have time to come out when we escape, and it's still trapped in the lab," Li Jun said.
Wang Xiaoming said, "Absolutely impossible. The ghost didn't kill me the moment I entered the lab; it was waiting for us to leave so it could leave with us."
Li Jun was startled by what he heard and subconsciously glanced around.
"No need to look anymore. After leaving the lab, it will have its own pattern of behavior, so it won't follow us to J City. It should still be lingering near the lab, or it may have already started killing people." Wang Xiaoming's emotions had calmed down a bit. Standing on the top floor of the building, he looked in the direction of the lab.
What's the closest place to the lab?
Li Jun immediately replied, "Training base."
"So it's very likely that it has already infiltrated the training base."
Wang Xiaoming's eyes flickered slightly. "Previously, considering the convenience of collecting information on the Ghost Tamer participating in the training and formulating a plan to control a second ghost, the training base was not far from the laboratory. This gave that thing a place to choose from, which is unexpectedly bad."
The training base is home to a group of Ghost Tamer, some of whom are nearly awakened as vengeful spirits. If such a place were to be attacked even once, it would trigger a terrifying snowball effect.
"Notify Headquarters to contact everyone at the training base and prepare to escape. Leave as many as you can."
"And have Headquarters hold an emergency meeting. All candidates for the Captain Plan, as well as the nominees, must attend. I will personally chair this meeting."
"Okay." Li Jun nodded and immediately began to take action.
Meanwhile, at this very moment, inside the firing range of the training base.
Yang Jian was unaware that Wang Xiaoming and Li Jun had already escaped the laboratory and, due to some mistake, had released an unknown level of ghost.
He was now staring at the human skin paper in his hand, frowning.
"Ghost!"
The irregular black handwriting crookedly filled the entire sheet of paper, with no other information or extra writing appearing.
What's this?
Is it cheating, or a strike?
However, as soon as this thought popped into his head, Yang Jian suddenly realized something and raised his head slightly.
The restless stirrings of the vengeful spirit within him immediately heightened his vigilance.
"What happened?"
He saw that the entire area around the shooting range was pitch black, with no light at all, as if the power had been cut off; the quiet darkness was eerily quiet.
"No, it's not a power outage."
Yang Jian's gaze sharpened as he noticed several searchlights still dimly lit near the firing range.
The brightness was too low; it was dim and yellowish, not even as bright as the light of an ordinary candle. It could only barely emit a faint glow in the surrounding darkness, and it seemed as if it would go out at any moment.
This scene seems familiar.
When did we meet?
Yang Jian recalled the Huanggang Village incident.
It was the same at that time. Because of the failure of the operation, the ghost in the coffin appeared, and darkness came from all directions, as if it wanted to swallow everything. He was lucky enough to hide in the body bag and barely escaped the disaster.
But before he could think further...
Suddenly, a pulling sensation came from the hand holding the human skin paper, and it almost slipped from the grasp.
Yang Jian glanced down slightly.
Suddenly, another pair of hands appeared on the paper, cold and stiff, gripping one end tightly and pulling it back, trying to snatch it from his grasp.