Counting again, there were still eleven people.
Zhao Daxian broke out in a cold sweat.
When?
Just when had that thing latched onto them?
That wasn’t even the most terrifying part.
The truly horrifying thing was that he couldn’t tell which of the eleven was the ghost.
Every member of the action squad had been personally selected by Qin Yue, so Zhao Daxian naturally recognized all of them.
Yet right now, his mind felt as though it were veiled, clogged like thick paste. Everyone looked familiar; everyone seemed to be someone he knew.
Damn it, he was caught in a ghostly shroud.
With no time to overthink, Zhao Daxian immediately turned toward Qin Yue and subtly signaled her with his hand.
Although the two were still in their adjustment phase of working together, the latter was seasoned and instantly caught on that something was wrong.
“Break is over.”
Qin Yue’s gaze flicked back and forth across the squad members’ faces. Locking onto one of them, she barked, “Attention! Split into two columns, left and right. Count off starting from you!”
Suspecting nothing, the squad members immediately formed up, their movements crisp and uniform:
“One, two, three, four!”
“One, two, three, four, five!”
Eight people, divided into two columns.
Where did a fifth come from?
Confusion rippled through everyone, yet the voice had undoubtedly come from within their ranks.
They counted off again, but the result was the same.
There was an extra one.
Yet no one could identify who the extra was.
Qin Yue had an excellent memory and called them out one by one by name, but no matter how she counted, there was always an extra person in line.
What on earth was going on?
A supernatural phenomenon?
Everyone looked at their familiar colleagues, yet traded wary glances, scrutinizing one another with suspicion.
Could he or she be the ghost?
Could they still trust the person beside them? Could they entrust their backs to them?
Would a colleague turn into a murderous evil ghost the moment their back was turned?
Ghosts truly were cunning and deceitful.
Hiding in plain sight among the crowd, sowing mutual suspicion.
Worst of all, their earpieces had gone dead.
Only the body cameras mounted to their chests still blinked red, continuing to record.
“Do you have a way to deal with this?”
Qin Yue’s expression darkened as she whispered to Zhao Daxian. “It’s hiding among our people right now. As long as we stay together, we can maintain some mutual trust for now. But with this thing clinging to us, how do we drag it out?”
“This ghost is crafty. It knew we came here looking for trouble, so it struck first by blending into our group to confuse our perception.
“This is called a ‘ghostly shroud.’ I don’t know when we were caught in it, but those affected will subconsciously perceive the ghost beside them as their friend, relative, or coworker.
“You play video games, right? Think of it like a magical attack—distorting your cognition, clouding your brain, and making you misjudge reality.”
Zhao Daxian took a step forward, dropping his voice even lower:
“Fortunately, it’s not hard to break. Ghosts don’t have physical bodies. It can only fabricate illusions to make us believe it exists in this physical space.”
No physical body?
Then that made things simpler.
Qin Yue nodded, turned to grab a marker from the front desk, and instructed Zhao Daxian:
“Stand by the stairwell and await my command. As each person passes you, call out their name and make a mark on their hand.
“In the end, whoever has no mark on their hand is the extra.”
“Great idea!”
Zhao Daxian beamed excitedly:
“When the time comes, you guys just open fire on the extra one. We’ll blast it with Five Yin Water and teach it a lesson it won’t ever forget.”
“This is a busy downtown area. We can’t open fire unless absolutely necessary.”
Qin Yue rested her hand on her hip. Feeling the weapon at her side, roughly half of the unease in her chest subsided.
“Use the Five Yin Water first. If that doesn’t work, we’ll reconsider.”
She shot Zhao Daxian a meaningful look, then rhythmically tapped her earpiece, producing steady clicking noises: da-da-da.
“Agreed, then. Whoever has no mark on their palm is the extra.”
Zhao Daxian paused for a split second before realization dawned on him.
Before the operation, everyone had been outfitted with gear specifically designed to counter evil spirits from fire scenes: portable impact-triggered liquid fire extinguishers, compressed desiccant, water bomb pouches filled with Five Yin Water, and, of course, bullets soaked in black dog blood.
Five Yin Water was concocted by soaking the bark of locust, willow, elm, mulberry, and poplar trees in well water, then leaving it to bathe in moonlight overnight.
As the saying went, the world was governed by the Five Elements, and ghosts could naturally be classified the same way.
Ghosts who died in fires were considered fire ghosts, making the supremely Yin, water-aligned Five Yin Water the perfect counter against them.
Following the plan, one took the front of the line to call out names, while the other brought up the rear.
“Lyu Qing.”
“Wang Cailiang.”
“Chen Guofu.”
“Liu Ye.”
...
“Zhao Daxian.”
At the very end, another hand reached out. Holding the marker, Zhao Daxian called her name:
“Qin Yue, Section Head Qin. Now, everyone, show your hands.”
Eleven people raised their hands in unison.
Men and women, with hands of every kind—fair, dark, rough, smooth.
Yet only a single person’s palm bore a circular mark.
Every eye snapped onto him.
It was a young man, around twenty-three or twenty-four, with shaggy, shoulder-length hair and bangs covering his eyes, obscuring half his face.
The clothes on his body looked like an outdated style from several years ago—tattered and scorched, with one sleeve burned halfway off, revealing a pale, sickly greenish-white arm.
He had clearly suffered excruciating agony before death; the skin below his calves was charred completely black, carbonized.
With every movement he made, countless black flecks flaked off continuously.
He was distinct enough to recognize at a single glance, yet just moments ago, everyone had been as blind as bats, utterly oblivious to the fact that he was mingling right among them.
Even so, he had exposed himself.
A faint smirk curved Qin Yue’s lips.
She had secretly sent a signal via Morse code earlier: the one with a mark was the evil ghost!
“Throw!”
Without a second thought, Qin Yue crushed the water bomb filled with Five Yin Water in her grip and hurled it fiercely toward him!
In a flash, dozens of water bombs hurtled through the air, crashing against the floor and bursting into splattering splashes:
Smack!
Smack, smack!
Smack!
Smack!
“Aaargh! Aaaaargh! Ahhh!”
As the water bombs exploded, the liquid contained within splashed outward. The young man shrieked, and as if dropping frames, his entire figure vanished into thin air.
In merely an instant, the man disappeared without a trace, leaving only faint echoes of wailing reverberating through the stairwell:
“It hurts... It hurts... It hurts...”
“So hot... It’s so hot... Save me... Save me...”
The wailing grew progressively louder, shifting from an elusive murmur to howling right beside their ears. And as 11:30 PM arrived, the smell of scorching suddenly permeated the air.
It smelled like burning leather, or pigskin plunged into boiling water, mingled with the foul stench of scorched chicken feathers.
Qin Yue recognized it immediately—it was the stench emitted when human tissue burned.
Yet she had no time to ponder it.
Thick smoke surged, and flames soared skyward.
Without them noticing, raging fire had already surrounded them, and black, toxic smoke crept up the stairs, threatening to engulf them whole!
To make the escape room feel authentic, the owner had piled countless flammable items inside the rooms.
The moment the fire erupted, tongues of orange-red flame licked across the ceiling, the blistering heat intense enough to practically melt them alive.
Everyone immediately threw their portable impact extinguishers, yet the fire only flared higher instead of dying down—
“What’s going on?! Where did the fire start?!”
“The temperature really is rising, this isn’t an illusion! We need to notify the building’s residents to evacuate immediately!”
“Captain Qin, cough cough, the fire won’t go out!”
“Cough cough cough! Captain Qin, communications are down!”
“Cough cough cough! Captain Qin! The fire escape alarm isn’t working either!”
“Mission suspended! Notify the building’s residents to evacuate at once, contact the fire department, and assist with the evacuation! Move, quickly!”
Thick smoke cut the squad members off from one another. Qin Yue made a split-second decision, smashing a water bomb to soak a towel to cover her mouth and nose as she searched for a path through the smoke:
“Take the stairs!”
Commotion seemed to erupt throughout the entire building. Countless people panicked, making it impossible to tell whether the desperate cries were the grievances of ghosts from the past or the frantic prayers of the living:
“Help! Save us!”
“Help! Fire! Run!”
“He’s coming! He’s coming! He’s coming!! Run! Run, run!”
“Aaaaargh! I don’t want to die!”
“So hot! It’s so hot! Mom, I’m so hot, it hurts!”
“Sob... Honey, I won’t make it home!”
Rate on N.U.
