"This part is a bit blurry," Xu Xingcheng said, pointing to the right edge of the photo. "I rember it wasn't like this before."
Ningng Busuan imdiately looked at the photo. Indeed, a small area on the right edge was blurry. She hadn't looked closely at this photo before, so she didn't know what this part originally looked like.
Hao Laoshi suddenly spoke. "I rember when we saw the ghost in the group photo, its body was blurry. This couldn't be part of the ghost's body, could it?!"
Upon hearing his words, Wenqin Tan Jiu and Ningng Busuan grew sowhat anxious. It was just as they'd feared.
Right after Hao Laoshi spoke, the blurry area in the photo suddenly twitched. The blurry mass moved forward a short distance, its entire form appearing in the photo. It was the ghost!
Ningng Busuan's scalp tingled. The ghost was at the crossroads just behind them, only a street away!
"It hasn't fully reached the crossroads! It hasn't spotted us yet!" Hao Laoshi suddenly yelled, dashing towards the path on the right. "Run, before it notices us!"
The others imdiately sprang into action, running down the path to the right. If they fled straight ahead, the ghost would surely see their retreating backs when it reached the crossroads. They had to turn.
"Let's hide on this road first," Ningng Busuan said. She ran down the path to the right but didn't go far before stopping. She stared intently at the photo showing the ghost. "If the ghost just passes by the crossroads and doesn't turn into the street where we took the photo, we'll return to the surveillance area imdiately after it's gone."
"What if the ghost turns in here?" Hao Laoshi asked.
"...Then we can only run," Ningng Busuan lowered her voice. "The ghost ca too quickly; we didn't have ti to take the last picture."
Hao Laoshi looked at the ghost in the photo, a chill running down his spine. When he'd heard Xu Xingcheng say Gu Mian was going to "stall the ghost," he had been overjoyed. This instance is finally going to end! he'd thought. But I didn't expect to encounter the ghost before Gu Mian!
Xu Xingcheng also hadn't expected the ghost to find them directly. If only I'd known, I would have brought Gu Mian over, she thought. Poor Gu Mian, anwhile, was still racking his brain, searching for any trace of the ghost.
"If the ghost turns into the street where we took the photo, we run imdiately. We'll circle around from here to the crossroads in this picture," Ningng Busuan said, her gaze fixed on the photo in her hand. "We need to get back to the surveillance area as quickly as possible."
The others all nodded.
By now, the ghost had reached the crossroads. They saw it stop in the middle, seemingly considering which path to take.
Please, don't co this way! Hao Laoshi silently prayed.
But his prayers went unanswered.
After pausing for a few seconds, the ghost chose the street where they had taken the photo.
Seeing this, their hearts sank. However, they had no ti to stand frozen in fear. Ningng Busuan imdiately turned and fled down the path to the right, and the others quickly followed.
As they ran, they kept an eye on the ghost's movents through the photos. By then, the ghost had already appeared in the next picture, advancing rapidly.
"Faster!" Ningng Busuan urged, quickening her pace. "It's moving very fast! It'll reach the crossroads behind us in no ti. We need to get out of its line of sight before then!"
Since the beginning of this instance, they had been constantly on the run, with almost no rest. By now, they were all reaching their limits. But even though they were exhausted to the bone, they didn't dare slow down, terrified the ghost would spot them.
While they were running for their lives, Gu Mian was also hard at work. He was holding Xiao Qiao's Big Data Search, struggling to compare the arrows on it.
Gu Mian had typed "ghost" into the search box, but the device's search range was enormous. It didn't just flag the ghost from their current instance; it also marked ghosts from other instances. These markers were all identical arrows, so Gu Mian could only determine which one represented the ghost in their instance by observing their movent speed.
"Theoretically, the closer a ghost is to us, the more its arrow will move," Chu Changge said, also looking at the Big Data Search.
The ghost in this instance was definitely the closest one to them, but with so many arrows on the screen, it was difficult to tell them apart imdiately.
"Has it been stationary all this ti?" Gu Mian muttered, staring at the screen until his eyes blurred. "I don't see any arrows moving significantly."
Just half a second after he said this, an arrow showing significant movent suddenly appeared.
Gu Mian watched as the arrow swiftly changed position, moving from the bottom-left of the screen to the top-right almost instantly.
"That fast?" he murmured, watching the rapidly moving arrow. "This is most likely the ghost from our instance. Judging by its speed, it's not far from us."
As he spoke, he glanced in the arrow's direction: northwest.
Having found the direction, Gu Mian quickly planned a route.
"Go straight down this road, turn left, then straight again... we should be able to find it then," he muttered to himself. "But it's too fast; we probably can't catch it on foot."
Just as Gu Mian was muttering to himself, Chu Changge righted a bicycle he found by the roadside.
He pushed up his glasses. "It's unlocked. No idea who left it here."
"Whoever left this bike here is a real saint," Gu Mian said, instantly stuffing the Big Data Search back into his pocket. He swung his leg over the bicycle and looked back at Chu Changge. "What about you?"
I'm actually quite worried the ghost might double back, Gu Mian thought. What if it suddenly returns and gets Chu Changge?
Just then, Chu Changge righted another bicycle from the roadside. "This one's unlocked too. No idea who'd abandon two of them here."
"Truly a great person!" Gu Mian exclaid sincerely. "Alright, let's go!"
anwhile, Ningng Busuan and the others were marveling at the ghost's astonishing speed.
In less than half a minute, the ghost had crossed an entire street, arriving directly at the crossroads behind them.
Fortunately, they had reacted quickly when they first spotted the ghost. By the ti it reached the crossroads behind them, they had already covered a considerable distance and found an electrical box.
They were now huddled behind the electrical box, concealing themselves. At this distance, the ghost probably couldn't see them anyway, but to be safe, it was better to hide.
Ningng Busuan crouched behind the electrical box, her head down, staring intently at the photo in her hands. She saw that the ghost had stopped at the crossroads again, seemingly undecided.
Please, don't co this way! she prayed silently.
The road they were on was outside the surveillance area. If the ghost ca down this road, everything that happened next would be unknown. They wouldn't be able to see the ghost's position or know how far away it was. The ghost could kill them at any mont!
The others also watched the photo tensely, praying silently in their hearts.
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