Kira took Li Mo's clothes, her fingers tightening instinctively as she pursed her lips.
"Keep the gun and the coin," Kira decided, handing the anomalous items back to Li Mo.
"Although I don't fully understand your plan, clothes from a corpse won't protect you. Staying here is far more dangerous for you than for us. You're more likely to survive with a weapon in hand."
The silvery-gray handgun and coin were thus returned to Li Mo.
Li Mo narrowed his eyes slightly, his dull pupils carrying a lifeless gaze.
As Kira had pointed out, the risks he faced were much greater than those faced by the others in the auditorium.
As long as the funeral ritual proceeded as normal and all newcomers were driven away, those in the auditorium would be safe.
But Li Mo's actions were a gamble—one that left him completely exposed to the malevolent gaze of the unknown, with no place to hide.
If the clothes from the corpse proved ineffective, he would be left in a death trap with no way out.
Not only was he ruthless to others, but even more so to himself.
---
6:59 PM
The broadcasting room was deathly silent.
A heavy black curtain of night blanketed the desolate surroundings, void of any living presence. Only the abandoned brick buildings, patches of withered grass, and rotting tree branches remained in this forsaken landscape.
The teaching building where the broadcasting room was located was empty, its long corridors filled with the smell of decay and mildew emanating from the piled corpses.
The bodies were headless, motionless—mere husks of death.
Li Mo stood in the hallway outside the broadcasting room, his clothes appearing to have faded significantly.
"Heehee... heehee..."
A baby's laughter echoed down the hall. Suddenly, the school's broadcast system crackled to life, emitting bursts of static noise.
Bang! Bang, bang!
The corpses in the corridor remained still, but clear footsteps and the sound of a single head rolling and hitting the ground echoed from the stairwell, growing closer and closer to Li Mo.
Out of the corner of his eye, a head with spine emerged.
It wore a black-and-white nun's uniform adorned with the Emblem of Schicksal. The spine extended upward from its neck, connecting to something hidden around the corner.
"It's the inverted head from last night, hiding in the corner."
Li Mo quickly recalled the events of the previous night—a shadowy, inverted head hanging outside the window, staring intently at them.
Unlike other heads, this one had a spine extending from its base. Li Mo deduced that its head and body were separated but still connected by the spine.
Whether it was human or ghost, however, was a question he couldn't answer.
If it was a ghost, the black coffin clothes he wore might protect him from an attack, as no other heads had noticed him.
But the fact that it was clearly targeting him suggested it was more likely human...
Li Mo drew his handgun, aiming at the spine protruding from the neck of the head nun. His nerves tense up, his focus unshaken.
Until he could determine whether it was human or ghost, he dared not pull the trigger.
---
Ding ding ding~! Ding ding ding~!
The bell in the auditorium rang, plunging the academy into a sudden, oppressive silence.
Abruptly, an ear-piercing voice blared through the broadcast system, echoing in Li Mo's mind.
"Ha-ha! I see you! I've found you!"
"See me?"
Li Mo was momentarily confused when a bizarre head slowly emerged from around the corner. Its eyes were positioned below, its mouth above, and its long ponytail trailed along the ground.
Theresa.
The inverted Theresa's murky eyes locked onto Li Mo. Her grotesque form was utterly horrifying, with her two-meter-long, deformed spine dragging her along.
"You're going to die! Finally, you're going to die!"
The voice in his head rang out again, irritating Li Mo.
Bang!
Li Mo fired decisively. The silvery bullet struck the spine, igniting a flicker of blue-purple flame that quickly fizzled out.
The inverted head ghost, Theresa, didn't move forward. She stood in place, staring at Li Mo.
Suddenly, her inverted head twitched, and Li Mo realized his own head was twisting uncontrollably, turning as if to invert completely.
"Tch!"
Li Mo dropped the gun, using both hands to steady his head. But it was no use.
In mere seconds, his head had twisted ninety degrees. His neck strained under the pressure, his flesh beginning to tear.
Worse yet, his spine began to protrude violently from his back, growing longer and longer.
The suffocating aura of death enveloped him—his head was moments away from being torn off.
"Ha-ha! Your head is going to snap! Finally, you're going to die!"
The obnoxious voice celebrated in his mind, reveling in his impending demise.
But such premature triumph was akin to tempting fate.
The next moment, Li Mo braced his hands against the ground, flipping into a handstand. His inverted position aligned his head parallel to Theresa's.
It worked.
Li Mo found his head had stopped twisting. Though his spine still jutted out and stretched slightly, it was a minor injury he could endure.
"Why won't you die? Why do you insist on living?!"
The furious voice in his head only amused Li Mo, who rarely felt such mirth.
It had been a long time since he encountered such a clumsy ghost—all bark and no bite.
Balancing on one hand, Li Mo picked up the gun with his other and fired multiple rounds at Theresa's spine. One bullet wasn't enough to sever it, so he fired ten, twenty rounds.
Finally, the blue-purple flames burned through the connection. Theresa's head fell from her body, rolling to the ground.
Standing upright again, Li Mo observed his surroundings. Nothing seemed out of place.
"So, to deal with this ghost, you must avoid looking at it upside-down. Otherwise, your spine will elongate, forcing your head to rotate 180 degrees."
Curious, he examined the severed head before casually hurling it far away.
The strain, however, left his arm cold and stiff, corpse-like blotches spreading over his skin.
Overusing such power always came with a price. There were no exceptions.
"She's probably not dead."
Without destroying the head, Theresa's inverted ghost couldn't truly be killed. A fall from the second floor wouldn't do her in, either.
Li Mo returned to the broadcasting room and looked out at the auditorium, waiting for Kira's signal.
The protection of the black coffin clothes was far better than he had anticipated. From start to finish, only the half-human, half-ghost Theresa had attacked him.
Counting the broadcast, there were two entities, but the broadcast itself wasn't a ghost but rather an anomalous phenomenon.
Such a useless and boastful ghost didn't even warrant Li Mo's concern.
A ghost that couldn't kill? Pathetic.
He'd never seen such a weak spirit.
===================
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