It was clearly just a tattered old umbrella, yet the Water Ghost’s movents were so solemn and reverent, as if what it drew out was not an umbrella, but a precious sword.
Seeing the Water Ghost’s movents, Yamamoto Chunai’s heart sank; she realized she was in serious trouble.
As the female ghost slowly opened the umbrella, a fine patter of rain suddenly began to fall inside the previously quiet church. In that mont, Yamamoto Chunai was completely stunned. She rembered that this church had a roof; even if it rained, it shouldn’t be leaking.
What’s more, this was Youjian Mountain Station, hidden in a tunnel inside the mountain. How could it possibly be raining?
At the sa ti, Yamamoto Chunai silently cursed herself—how could she still be thinking like a normal person right now?
She had already seen ghosts; the living, breathing Water Ghost was standing not far from her. In a world with ghosts, what could still be explained by science?
It wasn’t scientific, but it was very real.
As the female ghost slowly, laboriously opened the umbrella bit by bit, the rain grew heavier and heavier. Suddenly, a drop of rain fell, landing right on the back of her hand.
The next second, Yamamoto Chunai almost scread from the pain. The intense burning sensation was no less than strong acid.
But strangely, when she looked down, there were no marks on the back of her hand that strong acid should have left; it was still clean and unblemished.
This scene made her shudder inwardly. Sothing was wrong with this rain. Fortunately, she was hiding under the table; if she had been fully exposed with nothing to shield her from the rain, the consequences would have been unimaginable.
Yamamoto Chunai might lack experience, but she wasn’t stupid. She imdiately realized that this rainwater wouldn’t directly injure people, but it would force anyone hiding nearby and keeping still to reveal themselves.
Once soone couldn’t endure the agony and moved—running, jumping, or screaming and fleeing—they would be recaptured by the Water Ghost and eventually hunted down and killed.
Yamamoto Chunai suspected Ogawa Haruka had most likely been killed this way. This Water Ghost was terrifying, impossible to guard against.
This was an extrely important clue for staying alive. Yamamoto Chunai planned to send it to Mr. Chu Xi the mont the Water Ghost left.
But right now she was facing a crisis as well. This broken table seed to have tiny cracks invisible to the naked eye, and rainwater was constantly seeping through the tabletop, dripping onto her.
The sensation was like so lab tech holding a dropper filled with concentrated acid and letting it fall onto her body, drop by drop.
Yamamoto Chunai steeled herself, curling her body as tightly as possible, hugging herself, enduring the torture one drop at a ti. When she really couldn’t take it anymore, she bit down hard on her collar, clenching her teeth to tough it out.
She already knew how she was likely to end, but she couldn’t just die here so easily. She had to at least survive this ordeal and get the information out.
Ti ticked by second after second. The rain gradually weakened. In the end, once the Water Ghost seed to confirm that no one was hiding nearby, it put away the umbrella and once again shuffled away with those stiff, jerky steps.
Only when the sound of splashing footsteps completely faded did the nearly fainting Yamamoto Chunai finally breathe a sigh of relief. Her whole body was so drained that when she relaxed, she almost fell backward.
Forcing herself to stay alert, Yamamoto Chunai took out her phone. With trembling fingers, she typed a text as fast as she could and sent it to Yang Xiao, telling him in full detail the Water Ghost’s killing thod and informing him that she was about to head to the underground passage.
She said it, and she did it. After confirming that the imdiate area was temporarily safe, she moved out at once, left the church, corrected her direction using the map along the way, and continued toward the underground passage.
This ti, she did not run into the umbrella-wielding Water Ghost again. The whole way was very quiet; those ghost passengers were nowhere to be seen.
Soon, she arrived—thrilled yet unscathed—at the entrance to the underground passage. Besides a shadowy stairway descending into darkness, there was also a rusted, old-fashioned elevator.
So many years had passed that she had no idea whether this elevator could still run.
But whether it could or not wasn’t within her range of choices.
Over the past few days, Yang Xiao had explained so basic common sense about the Nightmare World to her and Xiao Lin Zhengyan. One key point was to never take elevators unless it was absolutely unavoidable.
Although that dark stairway leading down didn’t look safe either, Yamamoto Chunai chose to trust Yang Xiao.
The passage was relatively wide, enough to fit seven or eight people walking side by side. Standing at the entrance and looking down, the passage was very dim with no lighting, but it wasn’t pitch-black. If she looked carefully, she could faintly make out the steps leading downward.
At intervals, there were landings for resting and buffering.
The staircase had no visible end for the mont, so there was no way to know how deep it went. It felt as if it could lead downward forever into so unknown world.
Yamamoto Chunai had been worrying that she didn’t have any lighting equipnt with her. Her phone model didn’t have a flashlight function, and the screen’s light alone was far from enough. Fortunately, she found several crates on a rack near the entrance to the passage.
The crates were thick with dust. When she opened one, she got a fright—inside were rows upon rows of tubular explosives packed tightly together.
Shocked, her mind raced. She imdiately realized these explosives had to be here for a reason; the most likely purpose was to blow up this section of the passage.
A terrifying thought flashed through Yamamoto Chunai’s mind: there was sothing down below, and soone didn’t want that thing to escape.
But judging from the situation, their plan had failed. The explosives hadn’t been detonated and the passage hadn’t been destroyed.
That thing had escaped, and everything happening here was connected to it.
Without a doubt, it was a Ghost. At this point, Yamamoto Chunai was already able to accept the existence of such things.
Her first thought was the Water Ghost, since it had killed so many people. But her intuition told her that besides the Water Ghost, sothing else—sothing even more terrifying—was down here.
During this period, she had also been paying attention to the conversations between other old players. One term ca up frequently in their discussions: Source Ghost.
As the na suggested, it was the origin of all paranormal incidents. The Youjian Mountain supernatural events had been caused by this thing.
So far, they had confird the existence of three ghosts: the Water Ghost, the Paint Ghost, and the Half Ghost on the ghost train. But as to which one was the Source Ghost, there had never been a consensus.
Yamamoto Chunai had a feeling that the thing Chu Xi, Takagi Reina, and the others had never managed to find was about to be discovered by her.
Suddenly, as if sensing sothing, Yamamoto Chunai whipped around. Behind her was still that blue-gray fog.
But she heard it—the familiar sound of footsteps splashing in water, coming from far away and drawing closer. It was the Water Ghost; it was back.
Clinging like a malignant shadow.
There was no ti to think. Yamamoto Chunai snatched an old-fashioned flashlight from one of the open crates.
Yamamoto Chunai had seen similar devices before. She had a friend who was an outdoor sports fanatic. This flashlight had a crank at the back for hand-powered generation; in theory, it could never truly run out of power, so long as you had the strength.
Grabbing the flashlight and quickly confirming that it worked, Yamamoto Chunai imdiately stepped onto the stairs and entered the shadowy underground passage.
Only after she had gone so distance down did she dare to slowly crank the handle, letting the flashlight give off just enough light to see her footing, while trying to make as little noise as possible.
She walked and cranked, cranked and walked. Thankfully, it stayed very quiet behind her. There was no sound of splashing footsteps, which ant the Water Ghost had not caught up.
That was definitely a good thing. In such a confined space, she had no idea how she could possibly deal with the Water Ghost.
Here, with nothing to shield her, if it drew that Ancient Umbrella again, she would be done for.
Yamamoto Chunai kept repeating the motions of watching her step, moving forward, and descending the stairs. Ti passed second by second. Eventually she stopped, her expression turning a bit horrified.
She realized sothing was wrong. From the ti she entered the passage until now, quite a while had gone by. By rights, she should have already descended a considerable distance.
How long was this passage, exactly? Could it really lead down several hundred or even a thousand ters underground? She did not believe that.
At that mont, a sinister chill seed to fernt around her. She suddenly rembered a story she had once co across on an online forum, sothing very similar to what she was experiencing now.
"This is... Ghost Hitting the Wall!" Yamamoto Chunai’s heart gave a violent jolt.
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