Charles gently touched his nose.
"Damn it."
Ever since the data went haywire, the annotations he'd been seeing had become increasingly frivolous.
He was in the storage room of the school's gymnasium. The moment he pushed open the door, like the red-cloaked female ghost were everywhere in the gym.
No mist.
Yet a haunting nursery rhyme was being softly sung.
Walking up to the little girl spirit who was singing the rhyme, Charles touched her head.
Hmm, a bit greasy.She probably hadn't washed her hair for days.
"Little one, could you tell me the way to the center of this mist?"
The little girl stopped singing and looked up, bewildered. After a long pause, she listlessly pointed in a certain direction.
Charles thanked her and proceeded in the direction she indicated.
After he left, the little girl ceased her singing and stood still, plunged into lengthy contemplation.
"Why would a stone speak?"She didn't understand.
Deprived of their senses by the rules, these ghosts couldn't perceive living creatures through sound, taste, or light and shadow.
It was only the fluctuations of emotions—fear, astonishment, excitement, and the like—that could capture their attention.
Even if Charles attacked them, it was highly unlikely they would counter.
It's like if you were hit by a stone, your first reaction would be to find the person who threw it, not to pick up the stone and punch it.
Last night in the storage room, whether Charles managed to block the entrance to the basement or not, the outcome would have remained the same.
Those ghosts were just patrolling the storage room, following some arcane rules.
Of course, Charles didn't want to take that risk.Caution was, after all, his first principle.
Outside the gymnasium, a thick mist enveloped the area.
And the number of ghosts was increasing.
Deep within the fog, there were headless women in tutus performing ballet, demons playing pianos made of human bones, and butchers crazily chopping up corpses with oversized bone-cutting knives.
They hid behind the veil of the mist, potentially appearing suddenly, even possibly colliding directly with Charles!
Yet, no matter what happened, Charles' sanity state remained unfluctuated.
The deeper he ventured into the fog, the more ferocious and terrifying the ghosts he encountered became.
A single wail from a ghostly infant caused Charles's eyes to bleed, nearly killing him on the spot. A single glance from a black zombie led one of his legs to begin rotting away.
Throughout it all, Charles showed no signs of emotional distress, not even a grimace of pain on his face!
Eventually, the fog up ahead began to slowly dissipate.
Dragging his injured body, Charles arrived at a clearing where two twisted corpses lay on the ground. Judging by their clothing, one seemed to be a woman, and the other a man.
He speculated that these two were probably staff members like Matthew, but their identities were no longer of consequence.
Charles crouched down and pulled a long worm from his rotting leg. Taking out his scalpel, he poked the worm's belly.
The worm died almost instantly. With its death, Charles's leg ceased its decay. Hobbling, he made his way to a wooden box lying on the ground.
The box was exquisitely crafted.
Upon opening, it slowly rotated upwards, transforming into a miniature ancient tower.
The tower emitted music as brilliant as a sky full of stars—elegant yet grand, captivating in its solemnity.
In the midst of such musical allure, Charles' gaze only faltered for a moment before returning to its usual focus.
He grabbed the box and swiftly shut its lid.
Runes on the box's surface exhaled a black mist that gradually coalesced in the sky, forming a giant, grotesque ghostly face. A pair of demonic eyes, aflame with black fire, coldly surveyed everything at Mist School.
Then, the face suddenly opened its mouth and inhaled, drawing all the mist and the spectral beings within into its gaping maw, making them vanish.
"Congratulations, you have successfully lifted the curse on Mist School."
"You have gained the ability to inflict minor chaotic damage."
"You are about to leave Mist School; you will enter the Endless Abyss Rail Road."
"Evaluation: Your every action exudes a unique level of perversion, yet your exceptional performance has still earned you an extremely high rating. As for what the hell you're up to—(data deleted)—watch your back, man!"
...
Charles found himself enveloped in a beam of light, the world blurring around him. When he opened his eyes again, he found himself in an unfamiliar place.
Darkness loomed all around, save for a lit train station nearby. A crowd had gathered at the entrance of the station, seemingly absorbed in something.
"Why are so many people gathered?" Charles stopped a woman to inquire.
"Nothing much, someone died," she replied indifferently.
"Don't be too surprised...you'll get used to it. Things like this are pretty common around here."
The woman's nonchalance about the ephemerality of life was palpable. She had seen too much of this already.
As she grew stronger, she found herself increasingly isolated.
The strong are often accompanied by loneliness—a near-ironclad rule.
She sidestepped, clearing a path for Charles to enter the station. He maneuvered through the crowd and was met with the jarring sight of a woman's corpse lying on the ground.
Her fingers were severed, and her limbs were twisted together like strands of rope.
At first glance, it was evident that this wasn't a regular death.
Charles crouched down and tilted her head to examine her face more closely. A disturbing yet eerily serene smile adorned her features. The macabre sight sent shivers down the spines of several newcomers, causing them to step back in horror.
Undeterred, Charles reached out and pinched several parts of her body, his eyes ablaze with intense curiosity.
"The back has a silky wound, all the bones have been meticulously removed without leaving any residue... What's interesting is that the perpetrator preserved all tissues aside from the bones.
Such a masterful technique could only belong to either a doctor or a butcher, but judging from the wide and unrestrained cuts, it seems..."
Here, his expression turned serious.
Tilting his head, he said to a young girl standing beside him:"Got any cola?"
The young girl nodded. She didn't know what Charles planned to do with the carbonated drink, but she quickly fetched one for him.
"Cola alone won't do..."
"Fetch me a sandwich, too. Make sure it's extra cheesy."
Another person immediately dashed into his room and brought back a sandwich.
In full view of the crowd, Charles opened the cola and placed it aside, then inspected the sandwich.
The onlookers grew increasingly curious. What could cola and a sandwich possibly contribute to solving this case?
Charles slowly rotated the sandwich in front of him. After ensuring it was fine, he stuffed it into his mouth in one go!
He chewed a few times, then picked up the cola and guzzled it down.
Glug-glug-glug—
Satiated, Charles finally stood up and departed, unapologetically and in plain sight of everyone.
"Damn... I've been eating potatoes for days at Mist School; it's unbearably awful!"
"Sandwiches are the way to go!"