FEG | Chapter 22

Chapter 22 Is It Human or Ghost

“Ghost! The ghost is here!” Zhou Xin said miserably, “We’re all going to die……”

“Don’t talk nonsense!” Bureau Chief Chen snapped, pulling her aside, then looked himself, and his face went pale too. “It’s the dead man in the elevator.”

Jin Qiao was at a loss, and clung to Bureau Chief Chen’s arm. “What do we do? You have to save me…… I don’t want to die……”

“Calm down!” Old Du shouted, sweat beading on his forehead. “Don’t open the door yet, all of you stand closer. Once it attacks, use your skills in order, Bureau Chief Chen first, me second, Jin Qiao third. Listen to my instructions for when to use them. Our skills should be enough to hold out for a few minutes. We’ll seize the chance to get away.”

Hearing his orderly arrangement, Jin Qiao and Zhou Xin felt a little more at ease. The four of them stood together, warily looking toward the door.

“May I ask, is anyone home?”

The person outside, seeing that no one answered the knock, raised his voice and asked.

The four of them were horrified. It could actually speak?

What should they do?

Old Du no longer had any confidence. He had never encountered a vicious ghost that could speak. If vicious ghosts were like people, with thoughts and the ability to speak, then players simply would have no chance of survival at all!

This was too terrifying!

“Is anyone there? I’m Li Xiang from the sales office.”

The four of them held their breath, exchanging glances with one another.

Should they answer it?

Don’t, it’s too dangerous!

What if it forces its way in?

Let’s wait and see!

“No one’s here, huh.” The person outside sighed and left.

The sound of footsteps faded into the distance, but no one dared to relax, and they huddled together in fear.

Old Du’s expression suddenly changed, and he quickly said, “Zhou Xin, can your skill see the result through the wall?”

Zhou Xin froze. “I don’t know, I haven’t tried.”

“Get closer and give it a try. I keep feeling that if we just let it go like this, we’ll miss important information.” Old Du said.

Zhou Xin hesitated, and Jin Qiao pushed her from behind. “What are you standing there for? Hurry up!”

“You!” Zhou Xin was furious, but she knew rationally that this was not the time to quarrel. She snorted coldly, cautiously moved closer to the door, and used her skill.

[Scout]

The number of vicious ghosts within a radius of twenty meters was zero!

Zhou Xin stared in shock, eyes wide. “How is that possible?”

Old Du asked, “What was the result?”

“The result was zero! Could the one outside not be…… But we clearly all saw its corpse……” Zhou Xin herself could hardly accept the scout result.

“What exactly is going on?” Bureau Chief Chen said solemnly, “This game is getting stranger and stranger. Could we have remembered wrong? The corpse in the elevator and the person outside just looked very similar?”

Old Du tapped the knuckle of his thumb against his forehead. “That possibility isn’t out of the question. It’s just that if we missed his purpose, it’s hard to say whether that will lead to bad consequences.”

“Then what do we do?” Jin Qiao complained, “Why didn’t you use your skill earlier? What use is it now that it’s already gone far away!”

Zhou Xin laughed in anger. “Hindsight! What right do you have to say that when you’re only good for dragging us down? Tell me, what use are you yourself? When something happens, you only know how to whimper and beg men for help, you green-tea bitch!”

Jin Qiao disdainfully flipped her hair. “I’ve seen plenty of people like you, jealous of me. Ugly women are always jealous of pretty people. Who told you to be ugly? If no man is willing to help you, you just start speaking in a sarcastic,阴阳怪气 way……”

“You!” Zhou Xin was so angry her chest heaved.

“Shut up, all of you!” Bureau Chief Chen said with a dark face, “What time is it, and you’re still bickering? Women really can’t tell what matters most!”

Old Du paid no attention to the two of them arguing and said directly, “We need to find someone to ask, that ‘person’ called Li Xiang, what his purpose was.”

While the few of them were discussing, the same thing was happening in front of 414’s door.

Sun Fangchi saw a familiar face through the peephole and instantly raised his guard to the highest level.

“Is anyone there? I’m Li Xiang from the sales office.” The person outside said very politely.

Sun Fangchi narrowed his eyes. From the outside, there was not the slightest trace of anything wrong. The movements were natural, the expression lively. Earlier, Bu Xiling had evaluated the ghosts in the game as dead things without life. Sun Fangchi was more willing to regard them as some sort of monster operating through a program.

The person outside was clearly different.

Sun Fangchi was more than fifty percent certain that “Li Xiang” was not a vicious ghost at this moment, and it was worth taking a risk.

More importantly, evening was approaching, and Sun Fangchi still had not found a method that could support him through the dangerous third day.

He tightened the ring on his hand and answered through the door, “Someone’s here, may I ask if you need something?”

The tense air was drawn into Sun Fangchi’s lungs, bringing stiffness to his airways. Sun Fangchi did not dare blink, staring at the “Li Xiang” outside.

“Ah, owner, hello. I’m Li Xiang from the sales office, here to notify you to attend tomorrow morning’s discussion meeting. I don’t know what happened, but the people from the owners’ committee are all not here, and I can’t get in touch with them, so I can only go house by house to notify everyone.”

This answer was far beyond Sun Fangchi’s expectations. He had thought that “a unified response after three days” was merely a time node in the game, but he hadn’t expected there to really be a reply meeting.

“The owners’ committee can’t be reached?” Sun Fangchi caught the key point in the words and asked.

“Yes. I called each of them, and I couldn’t get through to a single one.” Li Xiang said troubledly, “If they don’t show up for the discussion tomorrow, that’ll be bad. Everyone has to attend……”

Why deliberately mention the owners’ committee……

Sun Fangchi was puzzled. Could it be that the members of the owners’ committee knew some inside information? But “Li Xiang” said that everyone was gone, which meant he had already missed the chance to find them……

“I won’t disturb you any longer. Please remember to go to the square outside at ten o’clock tomorrow morning on time to attend the discussion meeting.”

“Li Xiang” turned and left.

Sun Fangchi returned to the sofa and sat down,陷入沉思.

A moment later, the door was knocked again, this time very softly and urgently.

“Who is it?”

“Little brother, it’s us, we’ve got something to discuss with you.” Old Du said through the door like a thief.

Sun Fangchi opened the door and put on a fake smile. “You’re here to see me about something?”

Old Du forced his way in, with the other three following behind him. Sun Fangchi had no choice but to let them in, then close the door.

“Go on, what is it?”

Old Du smiled. “I’m sure the Li Xiang from the sales office also came to you, right? We wanted to hear little brother’s thoughts. What do you plan to do?”

Sun Fangchi did not suspect anything. “Oh? He went to find you too? I still haven’t figured it out, so naturally I don’t have any plans.”

Old Du’s fingers moved rhythmically. “Mainly because what he said was too inexplicable……”

Sun Fangchi’s mind was still tangled up with the owners’ committee, and he said offhandedly, “Not exactly. He said the ten o’clock discussion meeting had to be attended, that was both a prompt and a warning.”

Old Du raised his eyebrows. “Right? I thought so too. Besides that, there’s one more thing, I wonder if little brother noticed it?”

Hm?

Sun Fangchi looked at him with a half-smile. “Trying to pry words out of me?”

Old Du gave a dry laugh. “Look at you talking. We’re here to seek cooperation.”

Sun Fangchi spread his hands. “Your way of seeking cooperation is to try to get something for nothing? Brother Du really lives up to his reputation as someone in sales.”

The mocked Old Du did not change expression. “I won’t beat around the bush. We didn’t dare open the door for Li Xiang just now, so we didn’t get any clues. I really admire your courage……”

“Come on,” Sun Fangchi raised a hand to stop him, “about me having extraordinary courage, superhuman wisdom, and, most importantly, unmatched handsomeness, I know all of that very well. No need for Brother Du to remind me, just tell me the terms of the cooperation.”

Old Du’s friendly smile dried on his face. “Cough, cough, you’re pretty confident, huh.”

Sun Fangchi only smiled and said nothing.

“We share clues, you tell us the information you have, and we protect your safety.” Old Du laid out his condition. “Actually, we already know quite a lot. We were just careless and failed to get Li Xiang’s information, and you still haven’t found a way to save your life, right? And your skill can’t be used either. Cooperating with us is your best choice. What do you say?”

Sun Fangchi shook his head. “Not much of a choice. Clue exchange is one-time. How can you guarantee you won’t break your word halfway through and leave me alone?”

Old Du smiled. “I can’t guarantee that. You don’t need us to guarantee it either, do you?”

Sun Fangchi was silent.

“If I promised you that, no matter what, I would protect you, you probably wouldn’t believe it either.” Old Du made clear the thing both of them understood. “I don’t need to say how dangerous the final day is. No one dares say they have a hundred percent chance of surviving, let alone protecting someone unrelated to them.”

“The four of us, three people’s skills can protect ourselves, Bureau Chief Chen’s skill range is two meters, mine is one and a half meters, Jin Qiao’s skill is rebound. In other words, at the very least, within a range of one and a half meters around us is safe. What we can provide you is this position, not that we will specially protect you. When danger comes, as long as you can keep up with us, you’ll be safe.”

Long before Old Du said the word cooperation, Sun Fangchi already knew their condition. The question just now had indeed been a probe. The essence of this transaction was for everyone to act together.

It was less effort to talk to smart people.

“Fine.” Sun Fangchi agreed. [Summon] only had four uses in this game, far too few.

Sun Fangchi repeated word for word what Li Xiang had said earlier.

“The discussion meeting, very clear, if you don’t attend, you die.” Old Du thought the same as Sun Fangchi, “Li Xiang” was like an NPC, here to issue a quest. “What exactly was the owners’ committee hinting at?”

Sun Fangchi said, “I’m also puzzled by this point. Since he mentioned it, it must be useful, but since the people are already gone, we have no way to find them. To put it bluntly, we also don’t know whether they’re hiding or whether they were swallowed up.”

Old Du tapped his forehead. “If the people can’t be found, could it be related to something else?”

“The owners’ committee……” Sun Fangchi murmured.

What did the owners’ committee connect to?

Bureau Chief Chen said, “Owners’ committees are generally elected by the owners’ meeting, and the basis of their power is ownership of the property. All they can really do is set the rules of the owners’ meeting, choose and dismiss the property management company, things like that. What does that have to do with a haunted apartment?”

“Rules?” Old Du said. “Could it be related to the owners’ meeting? For example, could they protect themselves by setting rules, like not allowing vicious ghosts to attack people?”