Hearing this, Su Lian looked ahead. "I rember Jin Ye Bai took the Polaroid cara. They took the road ahead."
"Correct." Ningng Busuan nodded. "After careful consideration, finding the path to survival is the best approach. Even if we split up and run, we'll still be chased down and killed by the ghost."
"Didn't you say earlier that we've already missed the path to survival?" Su Lian looked at her.
Ningng Busuan frowned. "That was just our guess. All the evidence at the beginning suggested that the ghost would crawl out of the photo. Therefore, destroying the group photo seed to be the most logical path to survival. But during the ti we were split up, I kept thinking, can the ghost really climb out of the photo? Is its behavior in the photo just a trick to get us to destroy it?" As she spoke, her frown deepened. "Thinking about it now, perhaps destroying the group photo is actually a path to death."
Thankfully, Wenqin Tan Jiu acted quickly and threw that photo away, she thought. However, we also destroyed other photos. Those didn't contain the ghost, so destroying them shouldn't have too negative an impact. Of course, that's also just my guess. Right now, we don't have any evidence, so it's impossible to determine the true path to survival or death.
"Do you have any ideas about the path to survival?" Su Lian asked.
Ningng Busuan hesitated before nodding. "The ghost is invisible, but it shows its form in a photo. It initially existed inside the photo. I'm wondering if we encounter the ghost and use a Polaroid cara to take its picture, can we lock it back into the photo?"
If she had taken a few more steps to the intersection ahead, she would have abandoned this thought.
That's because Jin Ye Bai, who had just tried this very idea, had already beco a corpse. He was lying on another road connected to the intersection, visible with just a turn of the head.
Ningng Busuan didn't know Jin Ye Bai's body was nearby. She frowned in concern. "But the Polaroid is with Wenqin Tan Jiu and the others. It will be difficult to find them."
As she spoke, she sighed. Then she raised her head to look around. "I want to try if other caras can capture the ghost in a photo, but I didn't find any mobile phone or cara stores along the way, nor did I encounter any pedestrians."
It was indeed hard to co by pedestrians in the middle of the night.
There were a few passing vehicles, but Ningng Busuan couldn't possibly jump onto them to snatch soone's phone.
Su Lian pondered for a few seconds. "As for a cara, other players might be carrying one, right? There are many types of special items, so perhaps so players own cara-type special items."
"Wenqin Tan Jiu and Jin Ye Bai didn't have such special items, and it's uncertain if the others do either." Ningng Busuan glanced at the intersection ahead. "Besides, it will be hard to find them. We don't know how far they've gone…"
To be honest, bumping into Su Lian here was beyond my expectations, she thought.
"Let's go ahead and see." Ningng Busuan took a step forward. "I see more stores on the streets that way. Maybe we can find a mobile phone shop or sothing."
"Are you coming with ?" She looked back at Su Lian.
This lone wolf player seems to dislike socializing with others, Ningng Busuan felt. If I hadn't looked back earlier, Su Lian might have just let run off alone.
Su Lian was silent for a few seconds, then followed.
Seeing her follow, Ningng Busuan turned and continued walking forward.
"I hope taking a photo of the ghost is the path to survival," she said while walking. "If this isn't it, then I have no other ideas."
Su Lian didn't speak, simply following silently behind her.
However, Ningng Busuan's hope was soon dashed.
By this ti, the two of them had reached the intersection where they had previously split and saw a figure lying prone on another road.
"What's that?" Ningng Busuan cautiously stepped back a few paces.
The street was pitch black before dawn, and they could only see a person-like figure lying on the road.
"It seems to be a corpse." Su Lian took a few steps forward, adjusting her slightly slipping glasses back onto the bridge of her nose. "The clothes look familiar."
Ningng Busuan stared at the blurred silhouette and muttered absently, "It does look familiar... Wait a minute, is that Jin Ye Bai!"
"It seems so." Su Lian took a few more steps forward.
Jin Ye Bai... is he dead? Ningng Busuan stared blankly at the body. I already witnessed Yu Ji die before my very eyes, and now I'm seeing Jin Ye Bai's corpse. Doesn't this an that only Wenqin Tan Jiu and I are left in our group of four? The four of us entered the instance together. Now two are dead, and one is missing, their fate unknown. I've experienced this so many tis, but I still can't get used to it.
A wave of ineffable loneliness and despair washed over her. I suddenly envy Su Lian for being alone; she doesn't have to watch her friends die one by one.
At this mont, Su Lian started to step towards Jin Ye Bai to get a closer look.
But Ningng Busuan grabbed her. "Don't go over there! The ghost might still be nearby..."
Su Lian looked at sothing next to Jin Ye Bai's body and pointed. "The Polaroid is over there."
Ningng Busuan imdiately turned to look.
She saw sothing indeed hanging around Jin Ye Bai's neck; it looked like the Polaroid cara.
"There seems to be a bowl over there too." Su Lian had good vision and imdiately spotted a bowl lying upside down in a nearby corner.
Ningng Busuan also looked at the bowl. "I know. That's Wenqin Tan Jiu's special item. There's rice in the bowl, which can attract the ghost to eat."
"So, when Jin Ye Bai died, Wenqin Tan Jiu was nearby. But his body isn't around here; he managed to escape." Su Lian looked at the Polaroid next to Jin Ye Bai's body. "At that ti, he and Jin Ye Bai were together. After the ghost killed Jin Ye Bai, it should have imdiately pursued Wenqin Tan Jiu as he was closest. There's no reason for it to have stayed in place."
"The ghost probably isn't here anymore." Su Lian looked at Ningng Busuan. "I'm going over to take a look. You can stay here if you don't want to."
In the end, Ningng Busuan followed.
The two of them approached Jin Ye Bai's body.
As they drew closer, they discovered that the state of Jin Ye Bai's death was horrific.
His neck was twisted a full 180 degrees, his eyes wide open and staring straight ahead, his eyeballs looking as if they were about to fall out.
Heart pounding, Ningng Busuan reached for the Polaroid hanging around his neck and carefully removed the strap.
She didn't hang the Polaroid around her own neck but lowered her head to check the number of film sheets remaining.
"Three shots left?" she murmured in confusion. "They took a picture?"
There were four shots before, she recalled.
At this point, Su Lian had already found the photograph Jin Ye Bai had taken. She stood in front of it, looking down. "It's here."
Ningng Busuan walked over and looked down as well.
The photograph was pitch black and extrely blurry.
Su Lian examined it carefully and pointed to a white object in the middle of the photograph. "This photo was taken here. This white spot must be the bowl."
Ningng Busuan compared the white spot in the photograph with the bowl on the roadside and saw that they indeed matched.
Su Lian glanced at the now empty bowl by the roadside. "It seems Wenqin Tan Jiu and his group had the sa idea as you."
Ningng Busuan stared blankly at the empty bowl.
"They also thought that taking a picture of the ghost might be the path to survival. So, when they encountered the ghost, Wenqin Tan Jiu threw out this bowl of rice to buy Jin Ye Bai ti to take a picture, allowing him to successfully photograph the ghost." Su Lian looked at the small white dot in the photo. "But after Jin Ye Bai took the photo, he died instantly. This proves that taking a photo cannot restrain the ghost."
Dead... Ningng Busuan closed her eyes slightly. Why did this happen? Does taking a photo of the ghost not seal it away? Isn't this supposed to be the path to survival?
"Let's leave here first." Su Lian tugged at the still-stunned Ningng Busuan beside her. "This spot is too exposed. Let's find a more hidden place to examine this Polaroid and the photo."
Ningng Busuan ca to her senses. "Should we take this photo with us?"
"Yes. I have an idea: the path to survival must be related to these photos." Su Lian nodded, reached down to pick up the photo from the ground, and put it into her pocket.
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