Gradually, crimson blood flowed down pale arms, trickling onto Li Mo's cheeks and dripping from his chin.
Li Mo glanced sideways. Kanagawa Yume's outstretched hands had already melted into a pool of blood, leaving only the fragile, white bones to support her caressing gesture. But Li Mo only felt a cold, grating sensation.
She didn't have the unique, chilling aura of a Bizarre entity. Even when he had been carrying her on his back earlier, the thermometer had given no warning. Yet, he had undoubtedly triggered the "Being Alone" rule. The manor had already dispatched a Knocking Ghost of unknown risk to hunt him down.
Li Mo lifted Kanagawa Yume off his back and placed her on the ground in front of him. Afterward, his hands were only left with the warm scarlet of her blood. All her human flesh had melted into a thick, viscous pool, leaving behind nothing but a complete, white skeleton.
Crack... crack...
The sound of the floor splintering echoed from behind him. It was the only sound, exceptionally jarring in the silent corridor.
Li Mo didn't rush to turn around. If there was only one ghost, the Bizarre pistol with its suppressive ability could easily get him out of danger. But... was it really that simple?
The heavy footsteps were identical to the Knocking Ghost's from the second floor—the same ghost that had been hunting him in the black fog. Why had it come down to the first floor? If the Human-Spider was the hidden boss of the first floor, then the Knocking Ghost should belong to the second.
Or could the ghosts in this manor ignore the rules and move freely between floors? If that were the case, it would be possible to encounter a fifth-day ghost even on the first day.
Based on Li Mo's experience, surviving a ghost's attack outside its designated day was practically impossible. Even if one did survive, they'd be half-dead at best. It didn't make sense.
There was something very wrong with this manor.
Or perhaps his previous judgment was wrong. Could it be that anyone who heard the knocking would be targeted, even if the ghost wasn't knocking on their door? Then why didn't the Knocking Ghost come for him when he heard the first knock?
Was it because of the "Being Alone" rule?
Li Mo's gaze returned to Kanagawa Yume, even though she was now utterly unrecognizable.
"What... are you?" Li Mo whispered, staring at the skeleton before him. The words that had just come from Kanagawa Yume's mouth were definitely not something she would say herself.
Li Mo quickly connected this to what she had said earlier about being sleepy. Did "falling asleep" also represent a rule in this haunted manor?
But if the case of the Bloody Newspaper and Yamashita Tetsuya was true, sleeping through the first day should have been fine. Otherwise, those ordinary people wouldn't have survived the first night.
If there was nothing wrong with the rule, then the problem was with Kanagawa Yume. If there was nothing wrong with Kanagawa Yume, then the problem was with the subjective truth presented by the Bloody Newspaper, or with his own perception.
As Li Mo pondered, the hair tie that bound the Human-Spider's true form came loose. A lurking shadow suddenly erupted from the extinguished sconce, clinging to the ceiling. It rapidly coalesced into a withered, shrunken hand and lunged at him.
Bang!
The shadow was met with a single bullet from the Bizarre pistol. Li Mo's aim was poor, but that didn't mean he would miss at close range. He could accurately hit a moving target within at least a meter. The shadow began to twist and tremble, uncontrollably dissipating and shrinking.
The blue-purple hellfire fiercely burned away its abilities along with its rules. Soon, in just half a minute, the shadow stopped moving, completely suppressed, waiting for the right moment and an unknown contamination to revive.
Li Mo tightened his grip on the Bizarre pistol. This gun was as reliable as ever. But what had been most useful was his dismemberment of the Human-Spider with his Sprout-enhanced left hand earlier.
Otherwise, the shadow would never have attacked so easily. It had pounced the moment he showed the slightest weakness, desperate to devour him. If it had been observant and waited until he was out of options before launching its fatal strike, Li Mo might not have had the chance to restart before being eaten.
"Now, it's your turn." Li Mo turned to face the tall, dark figure that was steadily approaching from outside the corridor.
But the moment their eyes met, Li Mo felt an unprecedented pressure. Yes, in his twice-dead state, his instincts told him he was weaker than his opponent. The three-meter-tall, broad body almost filled the entire corridor, like true darkness sweeping in, closing in on him.
Li Mo still couldn't believe it. The Human-Spider had devoured so many people to enhance itself, yet the Bizarre pistol could suppress it but not this ghost that only knew how to knock. From the information gathered at the door, its only action was knocking.
Thinking this, Li Mo no longer hesitated. He didn't get arrogant, but took the most prudent approach. First, he threw the Bizarre coin. The moment a Bizarre entity picks up the coin is undoubtedly its most vulnerable stage. It wouldn't focus on him, nor would it react to his attacks.
The coin was accurately tossed between him and the Knocking Ghost. As expected, the ghost's head suddenly drooped. It slowly walked to the coin, but didn't bend over or squat. Its arms were long enough to easily pick it up.
"Now." Li Mo seized the moment the Knocking Ghost picked up the coin and fired five consecutive shots at its head. The magazine held only twenty rounds and recovered extremely slowly, unable to be replenished in a short time. Using a quarter of his ammunition was the greatest respect Li Mo could show.
MEI's research had shown that the suppressive effect of each bullet increased with the first five shots.
After the fifth, adding more rounds wouldn't increase the effect and would just waste precious Bizarre bullets. He had expected the hellfire to instantly engulf the Knocking Ghost, and even if it couldn't be suppressed, it would at least be held back for a while. The Knocking Ghost moved quickly in the black fog, but in the manor, it was slower. Li Mo would then have time to leave its attack range and think of another plan.
"How is that possible?" A rare look of astonishment appeared on Li Mo's face.
He involuntarily took a step back. The bullets from the Bizarre pistol merely ignited a few insignificant sparks. The rate of expansion was slow, and just as the sparks were about to spread, they were casually swatted out by the Knocking Ghost's hand.
The hellfire that could easily suppress the cunning Human-Spider was extinguished with a single slap from this ghost?
"Calm down... there's still a little time. The Bizarre coin is lost. I need to find a way to escape." Li Mo wasn't panicked. Even though he had no other means to deal with this terrifying ghost, he knew his death would come when the rules of the Bizarre coin wore off.
"The candles can't suppress the Knocking Ghost. Even if I waste a bullet to light one, it's useless."
"Hiding in a room without a burning candle means death. The Knocking Ghost seems to be able to kill by knocking, so hiding in a room is not an option."
"There are no other ghosts I can use right now, and the Knocking Ghost's rules are unknown, so I can't make two ghosts clash with their rules."
"I'm currently in a twice-dead state. 'Usurpation' is dormant and cannot be used."
Li Mo quickly analyzed his situation. The more he analyzed, the more hopeless it seemed.
The only thing he could rely on now was the Misfortune Ghost in his sea of consciousness. But he had no idea what the Knocking Ghost's killing method was. If it wasn't an attack on the consciousness level, the Misfortune Ghost would be useless.
"If MEI had given me the Head Ghost, maybe I could suppress this one." With the Head Ghost's ability to unconditionally devour any foreign object within its line of sight, combined with the Blood of Rot and Li Mo's ability to fire from outside the scene, the triple-layered rules could surely suppress the Knocking Ghost.
But as MEI feared, the Head Ghost was currently beyond his control and absolutely could not leave the cottage where Elysia's aura remained.
If the Head Ghost ate the Knocking Ghost, the terror level would only become more difficult to handle.
Before Li Mo could devise a plan, he suddenly felt a chilling, murderous gaze focus on him. The Bizarre coin had failed; its rules had been worn away by the Knocking Ghost. The ghost had resumed its actions.
"So fast?"
"Just how complete is this ghost...?"
Li Mo was facing a formidable enemy. He had no more options, not even a chance to use the notebook. The Knocking Ghost was now less than a meter away, ready to attack at any moment.
"In the end, I still have to use the most primitive method." In his twice-dead state, Li Mo's combat prowess surpassed that of any previous generation Schicksal S-rank Valkyrie, but only in terms of melee combat.
First, Li Mo entered the eighth room. Since he was preparing for a close-quarters fight with a Bizarre entity, he might as well verify what the thirty-two knocks on the eighth room's door meant.
He immediately closed the door after entering. The heavy footsteps stopped at the doorway. It could clearly destroy the door, but seemed constrained by some rule, instinctively raising its hand to knock.
Bang! One knock. Li Mo felt nothing unusual.
Bang, bang! Three knocks in total. Still nothing, but the thermometer in his hand gave a warning. The temperature had dropped to -3 degrees Celsius. It had been exactly zero when he entered. Three knocks, a three-degree drop. What did that mean?
Bang, bang, bang! Six knocks in total. Li Mo's heart suddenly throbbed. He found that his vision had split in two. Taking out his phone and using the reverse camera, he saw that his head had been split in half. Yet he wasn't dead.
Open the door!
His head split open, Li Mo couldn't speak.
Brain matter and blood mixed together, pouring out from the split, a grotesque sight. He held onto the nerves connecting his eyeballs just to maintain his vision as he went outside. The tall, dark figure was blocking the doorway.
And behind it, Li Mo saw that Kanagawa Yume's skeleton, like her flesh, had melted into a pool of thick blood. Nothing was left. She had seemingly vanished completely from this world.
A strange thought emerged in Li Mo's mind. He was still alive with his head like this. His twice-dead state definitely couldn't achieve that. She died for me, twice. Once, her flesh melted. Twice, her skeleton melted.
It corresponded to the Bizarre exchange rule: where there is gain, there must be loss.
The first time was the Knocking Ghost's causal killing rule. A ghost that kills directly through causality has an attack interval, which would explain why the ghost didn't attack him earlier when it was so close.
The second time was the ghost that suddenly revived in the eighth room. The knocking was likely not the method of killing, but a means to awaken the dormant ghost in the room.
Thus, if a living person stayed in the room, they would be killed by the ghosts constantly being awakened by the knocking. If they left the room, they would face the Knocking Ghost head-on, with no chance of winning. No matter the choice, it was a death trap...
I see...
Li Mo gradually understood the truth. The next second, he saw the Knocking Ghost strangely raise its hand, but it didn't knock on the door. Instead, it knocked in his direction.
Suddenly, Li Mo's body was torn into pieces of blurry flesh. Organs, blood vessels, and tissues were scattered on the ground. In his final moment, Li Mo saw his own death—he had died from a high degree of dismemberment.
After his death, the Knocking Ghost paused for a few minutes. When his flesh and blood had been used to fill the damaged building, the haunted manor finally judged him dead and used his corpse for repairs.
Crack... crack...
The sound of the floor splintering echoed again. The Knocking Ghost walked towards the main hall, to the staircase, and stepped onto it. It arrived on the second floor, paused at the top of the stairs for half a minute, then walked into the corridor of the second-floor guest rooms and fell silent, not repeating its previous knocking.
---||---
The perfected floor began to crack, then restored itself. Several wooden planks reverted to Li Mo's flesh and blood. Time began to rewind.
It returned to the moment after Li Mo had dealt with the Human-Spider, when Kanagawa Yume was telling him about the Bloody Newspaper, and he was beginning to check the room for hidden ghosts.
"Aren't you tired? I'm so sleepy..." Kanagawa Yume suddenly said, her voice soft as a marshmallow, completely lacking her previous boldness and open-mindedness.
This time, Li Mo didn't casually reply, "If you're tired, go to sleep." Kanagawa Yume, after falling asleep, seemed to transform into a Bizarre entity that could die for him, and her personality changed drastically.
Li Mo began to recall the scene before his last death.
Kanagawa Yume had died by melting into blood, twice: once her flesh, once her skeleton. He himself should have died once when his head split open in the room, and finally from a high degree of dismemberment. The split head was likely the killing method of the awakened ghost in the room.
The room did have a ghost, one that couldn't be observed unless he had the ability of the stove eaten by the Head Ghost. The Knocking Ghost's knocks had awakened the ghost inside, causing the thermometer to drop rapidly. There were many awakened ghosts, which was why he had triggered the rule without doing anything.
Three deaths, corresponding to three different ghosts. This further confirmed his judgment. What he had to do next was simple: do everything he could to keep Kanagawa Yume awake and avoid falling into the "Being Alone" state.
"Aren't you curious about this notebook? Here, just this once, I'll show you how to really use it..."