Cold, terrifying, damp, the air was filled with a faint stench of decay, and the entire room seemed to be shrouded in shadows.
The familiar feeling of suffocation came over Gao Ming, and he knew he had once again arrived at the place where the two worlds overlapped.
"Xuan Wen's method wasn't wrong, doing it this way can indeed actively trigger the ghost story game."
Avoiding the gaze of the corpse downstairs, Gao Ming turned to look at the living room, where the four candles placed in the corner had already gone out, and the room seemed to be frozen in the moment of the deceased's suicide.
"Where is Xuan Wen?"
In the dilapidated room, Gao Ming was alone; the serial killer with a penchant for psychological crimes who wanted to join the game with him was nowhere to be seen.
"Has she already left the room? Or did she never enter in the first place?"
The viscous shadows felt like black seawater drowning his body, Gao Ming stood still, calming himself down, he needed to quickly determine which game had become reality.
"The corpse appeared downstairs, and from the scope of influence, this game is much bigger than the ones I've cleared before, encompassing at least the entire Building No. 2."
"Brother Zhao had chatted with me several times before his death, and I had planned to make a small game to soothe his emotions, I had even thought up several game design concepts at the time..."
The vibration of a cell phone interrupted Gao Ming's thoughts, he slowly pushed open the bedroom door, and found a no-name cell phone on the bedside table.
The casing was yellowed; the charging port was covered with stains and loose hair, the phone was not password-protected, and there were several new messages popped up.
"I saw Zhao Xi use this phone when I chatted with him," said Gao Ming.
Touching the screen, Gao Ming saw the chat group Zhao Xi had joined—Distant relatives are not as good as close neighbors, this was the Lijing Apartment Building No. 2 homeowners' group.
Just now, Mr. Wang from the first floor @ed all group members, sending three videos.
He stood on the balcony of his apartment, capturing the corpse of Zhao Xi from close range.
The suicide victim landed head first; the face was completely misshapen, the neck broken and elongated, limbs twisted, with shattered bones piercing through the skin.
2101 Wang Kuisheng: "I saw with my own eyes Zhao Xi being dragged away! How come his body has come back! What's going on???"
The group chat exploded, some tried to call the police, some wanted to leave their homes to check, but they quickly all fell silent.
2203 Qiu: "Brother Wang, there's something wrong with these three videos! The location of Zhao Xi in the first video is different from that in the third video! He looks like... he's moving!"
Along with the other owners, including Gao Ming, everyone re-watched the videos, and indeed, the location of Zhao Xi had changed in the three videos.
2101 Wang Kuisheng: "How can a corpse move? How can a dead person move?! It must be a problem with the angle of the shot, I'll go back to the balcony and check again!"
The resident on the first floor clearly panicked, seeming to prepare to shoot another video.
Sensing something was wrong, Gao Ming grabbed the phone and ran to the balcony, looking down.
The heavy rain washed away the bloodstains, and the corpse that had been laid at the entrance of the building was gone.
"Has he already crawled into the building?"
Wang Kuisheng, who went to shoot a new video, did not send any more messages, as though he had disappeared.
Lijing Apartment is a typical old neighborhood in the old city, located in a remote area with many empty rooms, and not many people lived in Building No. 2. Now with Wang Kuisheng missing, the remaining few residents became even more frightened, the owners who had boldly declared they would go out to check also stayed in their rooms.
2203 Qiu: "It's over! What do we do! All phones are disconnected, and apart from this group chat, no other messages can be sent out! Why is this happening!"
2304 Li Li: "Could it be because Zhao Xi is in this group, so the group chat is still functional?"
Li Li is Zhao Xi's sister-in-law, living together with Zhao Xi's foster mother, Zhao Yuanyuan, on the third floor.
2409 Fang Shuqi: "Why did Zhao Xi's corpse come back? Is it because your family did something bad? I often hear you arguing and quarreling upstairs! Your family sucks his blood while feeling justified about it, and now the retribution must have come!"
2304 Li Li: "Shut your fucking mouth! His death has nothing to do with me!"
2203 Qiu: "Stop quarreling, you guys! I can hear something! There are noises in the hallway! Something is climbing up!"
Because of extreme anxiety and fear, Qiu sent a voice message directly: "There really is something climbing up! It's right outside my door."
2409 Fang Shuqi: "Let's turn on the group video chat so we can all see each other. We can have a better understanding of everyone's situation and be mentally prepared."
The residents on the fourth floor seemed to intentionally want to verify something. After he spoke, he added all group members, including Zhao Xi, to the group video chat.
When everyone saw Zhao Xi's video turn on, they all gasped, but then they saw Gao Ming appear in Zhao Xi's home.
2304 Li Li: "Who are you? Why are you holding Zhao Xi's phone? And in his home? Did you bring his corpse back?"
Before Gao Ming could speak, a knocking sound emanated from Qiu's video, with about a two-second interval, as if someone was bumping their head against the door repeatedly.
Qiu's face had gone pale with fright. She had the video on as she blocked the living room door with the sofa.
The knocking didn't weaken at all, but instead became louder, and the door panel seemed to vibrate slightly.
Qiu, holding her phone, wore a look of horror. She was trapped in her room.
"What should I do? Can someone help me, please? We're all neighbors! You'll be haunted by it too!"
Huddled on the bed in her bedroom, Qiu pleaded for help through the video, but everyone in the building remained unmoved.
With tears brimming in her eyes and close to crying out of desperation, the lights in the room flickered and then suddenly went out.
Darkness enveloped room 2203 without warning, and the faint light from the mobile phone screen illuminated Qiu's face.
Her body seemed frozen, gripping the phone tightly, her eyes fixed on the living room.
From the pitch-black living room, strange creaking noises could be heard. She didn't dare to breathe and covered her mouth and nose.
A heavy object dragged on the floor, the door was slowly pushed open, and broken nails scraped against the floor tiles, with the silhouette moving in the darkness becoming gradually clearer.
Her heart thudded violently, as if about to burst out of her chest. Qiu, shaking, turned on the flashlight of her phone.
Brief illumination filled the bedroom, and Qiu let out a piercing scream.
In a state of emotional collapse, she flung open the bedroom window in a panic, frantically kicking at the security net, trying to jump out.
The pouring rain soaked her pajamas, and the phone slipped from her palm onto the windowsill. Qiu had forgotten about the video and was kicking the security net like a madwoman.
Through the camera, people could see the ceiling and side of the window in the bedroom. Qiu, attempting to escape, failed to notice a pale face slowly moving up from the lower left side of the window.
The neighbors in the group chat were loudly warning her, but Qiu just shook and turned around.
Her features deformed with terror, Qiu seemed to have seen something extremely horrifying. Her mouth agape, but before she could make a sound, she was dragged into the darkness.
Room 2203 fell silent, and so did the group video chat.
Holding up the phone, Gao Ming silently watched each neighbor in the video, memorizing every subtle change in expression, then he briskly walked to the living room door.
The corpse was climbing upstairs, but that wasn't the worst part.
Gao Ming had seen the face outside the window in the video earlier. That face didn't belong to Zhao Xi, it looked a bit like Wang Kuisheng from 2101.
Shifting his gaze from the 'Distant Relatives Are Not as Good as Close Neighbors' group chat, Gao Ming didn't see the process of his neighbors being killed. Recalling the 'parents' who had been replaced before, what he feared most now was—the neighbors might have already been replaced. Besides himself, everyone else in the building could be "ghosts".