A vivid image flashed through his mind: a pair of ghastly pale, slender legs. He suspected that the woman beside him was their owner—the female ghost!
Instinctively, he shifted backward, trying to put so distance between them. In his haste, however, his back accidentally collided with sothing—a wooden rack, perhaps.
Several random objects fell with a thud, so landing on him, most hitting the ground, creating quite a commotion.
Before he could stabilize himself, a new wave of unease ca crashing down. Just as Yang Xiao tried to gather his thoughts, he heard rustling noises in front of him. Even though the darkness was absolute, he vividly rembered that the corpse lay in the direction the sound emanated from.
Yang Xiao felt his blood freeze in his veins at that mont. How had he woken up only to be greeted by a ghost? What kind of hellish difficulty was this? This ti, the nightmare task didn’t seem to offer any chance of survival. He hadn’t encountered a single teammate yet but had already run into a ghost—and in this pitch-dark, cold and suffocating underground basent.
"Thud..."
"Thud... Thud..."
Rapid footsteps echoed from not far away, seemingly within the space beyond. It sounded like several people were rushing toward him. At the sa ti, the movents of the corpse in the dark grew louder and more chaotic. Yang Xiao could even imagine the female corpse twisting its body, crawling toward him.
At the critical mont, a loud "bang" suddenly rang out. Light spilled into the confined space as a door burst open, and several shadowy figures filed in. Yang Xiao’s eyes, still adjusted to the darkness, took a few seconds before they sharpened enough for him to discern the shapes approaching him—four people, two n and two won. One of them crouched down in front of him.
"You’re finally awake..." The man looked at him with relief and extended a hand to pull him up.
"Mmm... Mmm..."
A muffled sobbing sound ca from the side. Turning to look, Yang Xiao saw the "female ghost" lying on the ground.
It was a young woman bound with her arms behind her. Her mouth had been tightly sealed with yellow tape—the kind used for packing boxes. She looked very young, her eyes swollen and red as she sobbed mournfully, her face streaked with tears of fright as she gazed at them.
Yang Xiao, being a veteran participant, pieced together the situation in re seconds. The people before him were, like him, participants in this nightmare task, and the young woman bound on the ground was no exception. She was clearly a newcor and had likely woken up in a panic, screaming uncontrollably, prompting the others to tie her up.
"Brother, what’s your na?" The man who pulled Yang Xiao up smiled and held out a cigarette from his pack for him.
"Chu Xi." That was Yang Xiao’s go-to alias. Though he didn’t smoke, he accepted it out of courtesy. The man promptly pulled out a lighter and lit it for him.
The man patted Yang Xiao’s shoulder, steering him out of the room. Only then did Yang Xiao realize that the space he had woken up in was actually a small darkroom, windowless, with a few shelves against the walls. The shelves held cardboard boxes.
It resembled a warehouse, and the object he had toppled earlier was one of the boxes. It now lay overturned on the floor, its contents scattered everywhere. The items were a mix of Buddhist figurines, amulets, crucifixes, Taoist talismans, and other such artifacts. The assortnt was vast, but their craftsmanship seed crude and cheap at a glance.
The four others ignored the bound woman entirely. Yang Xiao stepped out of the darkroom and found himself facing a small room nearby. It contained several tal bunk beds arranged in tiers. Between the beds stretched lines of wires, used as makeshift clotheslines. Hanging from them were towels and clothes. Beneath the beds, various basins sat holding toiletries like toothbrushes and soap.
Yang Xiao surmised that this was likely an employee dormitory, and their assud identities in this round of the nightmare task were probably employees of this facility.
Walking further out, they ca into a large office space. From its worn-out furnishings, Yang Xiao deduced that this place was at least two decades older than the era he lived in. The desks were covered with glass panels, beneath which lay dark green felt. So desks had sepia-toned photographs tucked under the glass corners.
Scanning the surroundings, Yang Xiao saw no other people, nor did he spot Captain Zhou. "Where is everyone else?" he asked.
"Gone. Just the six of us," a woman replied, wearing heavy makeup and a leopard-print coat.
"When we woke up, there were only six of us," explained the man who had helped Yang Xiao up and handed him the cigarette.
"Have you searched the area?" A team that originally had twelve people now had only six remaining, and Captain Zhou’s disappearance made this the most bizarre opening Yang Xiao had encountered yet.
"Not yet. The situation is unclear, so it’s unwise to act rashly. We just woke up not long ago. Speaking of which, co take a look at this." Introducing himself as Yu Kai, the man led Yang Xiao around the office, showing him the clues they had uncovered so far.
In the office, there were two altars—one positioned in the southeast corner and the other in the northwest. The southeast altar was dedicated to the will-fearing and awe-inspiring deity, Emperor Guan—Lord Guan. The northwest corner housed a statue painted in bluish-green hues. It was ferocious and terrifying, with eight arms and an enraged expression. One hand gripped a sword, another held a lasso, and dark flas encircled its form. The grotesque appearance sent chills down the spine.
"This place is so weird—an altar for Lord Guan opposite an altar for an evil ghost. And they’re facing each other." The man in an old-fashioned suit with a wide blue tie muttered under his breath, clearly discomforted by the malevolent-looking statue.
"Watch your words. That’s not an evil ghost. It’s the Immovable Ming King Dharma Body of Esoteric Buddhism. It’s a revered figure—the leader among the Eight Great Ming Kings. Its wrathful appearance is ant for subduing evil spirits," another corrected him.
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