It seems the building on the box cover was indeed the so-called Dongzhou Apartnt, but unfortunately, apart from the building, everything around it was wrapped in a dim background, only allowing for a faint view of so low-rise building outlines.
Yang Xiao took a deep breath, proceeded to open the script box, inside which two leather pouches of different sizes lay quietly.
Opening the larger pouch revealed an aged rental notice with yellowed edges. To Yang Xiao’s surprise, the notice was entirely handwritten, with a texture vastly coarser than that of paper used nowadays.
There was also a letter behind the rental notice. The handwriting was sloppy and parts of it were smudged away, but after reading through it, Yang Xiao grasped the gist.
The letter was a proof of residency, allowing the holder to stay in room 4004 of Dongzhou Apartnt for seven days and granting them the right to dispose of the items within the room.
As an author who regularly wrote supernatural scripts, seeing a room number like 4004 always unconsciously gave him a weird feeling; not fear, but rather annoyance. Such numbers had been overused by his predecessors.
"Looks like the author of this script is second-rate, no, a second-rate ghost." Having realized the situation, Yang Xiao gradually cald down and even felt like making a sly comnt.
He shook the pouch one last ti, and a bookmark-sized card fell out, on which a figure was drawn with rough strokes.
Yang Xiao inhaled deeply and slowly turned the card over, and as expected, on the top right corner of the back, he discovered a strange, triangular pattern.
The previous ti, and the ti before that, he had received this sa identity card!
This could not be explained by coincidence; it seed every identity card he received was the sa one.
Yang Xiao resolved that if he could survive this ti, he must figure this out, whether everyone received the sa or if it was just him who was the exception.
With doubts in mind, Yang Xiao turned to the back of the letter, where 9 rough figures were abruptly drawn on the blank space, just like the last two tis, as crude as the character cards and indistinguishable in gender.
But what really shocked Yang Xiao this ti was the number of participants in the mission; counting himself, there were a total of 10 people. This was a 10-person mission.
Upon opening the last, smaller pouch and by touch alone, Yang Xiao guessed what was inside—several photos.
There were three in total, but sadly, just like before, each one was not very clear.
The first photo was actually a drawing; to call it "a drawing" was to dignify it—it looked like a child’s random doodle, depicting two figures, one large and one small.
There was a fra drawn around them, presumably indicating that both figures were in the sa room. Oddly, the size difference between the two figures was grotesquely exaggerated, with the larger one being four or five tis bigger than the smaller one.
The second photo was more blurred, as if snapped in haste, showing the number 85, with white on a black background.
There seed to be other numbers in front, but they were not captured, and the background had an archaic gray-white tone, akin to the texture of cent.
What truly astonished Yang Xiao was the last photo, which was nearly pure black in color.
The script wouldn’t offer useless clues. Yang Xiao closed his eyes, steadied his heart, and after a mont, opened them again, staring at the photo. Bit by bit, he actually began to discern sothing.
There was an odd layering to the black on the photo, with the central area seemingly crowded with a mass of things squirming together.
The black on either side of the photo was noticeably lighter.
A mont later, Yang Xiao’s breathing stopped briefly—he saw it, finally saw it. The backdrop was a dim corridor, and the darkest part in the middle was a huge human figure.
The figure was as tall as the ceiling, almost blocking the entire lens.
He was not mistaken; based on past experiences, this terrifying entity was the Ghost ntioned in the mission. But no matter how much Yang Xiao thought about it, he couldn’t imagine what kind of entity could possess such an appearance.
This didn’t look like a person; it more closely resembled the White-robed Ghost Bodhisattva absorbed by the Drama Robe.
Of course, what he was referring to was the true appearance of the White-robed Ghost Bodhisattva, that large and bloated entity covered with chanting mouths, its body putrid and oozing pus.
Just as Yang Xiao steadied his mind and put down the photo in his hand, he suddenly caught a glimpse of sothing strange in the darkness not far away.
It wasn’t extrely dark there, just peculiar. There was a street lamp not too far away, but it seed incapable of dispelling the darkness around that spot.
It was as if... as if all the light that entered was being absorbed.
Realizing what was happening, Yang Xiao turned and ran towards the entrance of the park, where there were more lights and they shone brighter.
He knew what that strange darkness was all about.
Hidden there was a large creature as tall as the surrounding trees, its body pitch black.
Yang Xiao ran fast, keeping an eye on his surroundings. There were no footsteps behind him, but he didn’t dare let his guard down, as he noticed the darkness slowly creeping up on him.
The large creature was closing in, silently approaching, but how it managed to do so, and why there was no noise at all, he couldn’t tell.
Finally, Yang Xiao saw the exit, the iron gate of the fence still open. Around there were four or five street lamps, illuminating brightly, offering a sense of security.
Just as Yang Xiao dashed through the iron gate, before he could even catch his breath, he heard a whooshing sound by his ear, as if so large creature was flying towards him. Yang Xiao dodged to the side. He was already fast, but he still got swept by it, thankfully only hitting his backpack.
Even so, the imnse force caused him to stagger several steps before he could barely steady himself, his shoulder scraped in the process.
When he turned around, he saw several young people in front of him, the one in the middle wearing a school uniform. Yang Xiao recognized the blond kid imdiately.
"Damn you! You’re lucky you didn’t die from that shovel hit!" The blond glared at Yang Xiao viciously, cursing.
There were four people in total, aside from the previously ntioned blond and the heavily-made-up girl, the other two seedy adult n—one holding a shovel and the other gripping a baseball bat—looked at Yang Xiao with unparalleled ferocity.
The cold sensation behind him had disappeared, and Yang Xiao was certain that the entity had left.
"Xiao Feng, is that him?" The man with a scar on his forehead sneered at Yang Xiao, motioning with his chin. He wore a denim jacket, tight pants, and a pair of bean shoes with pure black uppers, the left foot embroidered with the characters for "Haoran" and the right with "Justice."
"You dare ss with our little brother? Didn’t you know he’s under our protection?" Another man with dyed red hair taunted, clutching the baseball bat tightly, "My na is Er Ma Lu Qiang Zi. Today, I’m going to break one of your legs to teach you a lesson."
"Damn you! Been waiting for you a long ti, I’m gonna kill you today!" The blond, now emboldened with backup, had a completely different bravado than before. To Yang Xiao’s surprise, the blond actually pulled out a switchblade from within his clothes, its sharp blade glinting coldly.
"You dare kill soone?" Yang Xiao asked, "Don’t you know that murder is t with capital punishnt?"
"I’m not afraid, I’m young, killing you will cost nothing! At worst, I’ll be detained for a few days, then when I get out I’ll kill your parents too!" The blond was full of confidence with the knife in his hand.
"Zhang Qiang, don’t be afraid. If you kill him, I will wait for you to co out, I’ll marry you!" The garishly painted girl lost her previously aggrieved deanor, loudly egging on the blond to have the three of them attack together and not let Yang Xiao escape.
The blond was one thing, but those other two guys had plenty of fighting experience. Who uses a shovel in a normal fight? It was clear they intended to be lethal.
The three n started to encircle Yang Xiao from three directions.
"Do you know who I am?" Yang Xiao asked with a smile as he set down his backpack. In the shocked eyes of the others, he drew a handgun with a backhanded grip.
"Bang!"
"Bang! Bang!"
"Bang bang bang!!"
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