Kanagawa Yume felt her consciousness reaching its breaking point, her ability to think completely gone. Name, memories, identity, actions... in an instant, it was as if they were being wiped away, gradually fading into nothing. Her bones dissolved into a thick fluid, seeping out from her nostrils, ears, mouth, and every pore.
She could no longer remember who she was. Only an endless, primal instinct urged her to close her eyes, relax her body, and leave everything to the hands of time.
Just as the ghostly face was about to completely cover Kanagawa Yume's, a brilliant light flared, so intense that both human and ghost were forced to shut their eyes. Snails thrive in dark, damp environments, hiding by day and emerging at night.
They fear direct light, especially sunlight, and are highly sensitive to their surroundings.
Combined with the steady flame of the candle in the room, the light shone directly on the ghostly face, suppressing its power to a certain degree. In that instant, the face froze, its movements ceasing as if it had crashed.
Kanagawa Yume felt an icy hand touch her face. With a sharp rip, the ghostly visage was torn from her cheek.
Li Mo took out the Bizarre pistol and fired three consecutive shots, engulfing the bed in a sea of hellfire.
"Li Mo?"
Kanagawa Yume was bewildered. How could Li Mo possibly be here? She had clearly entered the Inner World; Li Mo was supposed to be waiting outside.
Is he a ghost? No, the Bizarre pistol is real. Besides, a ghost would have no reason to save me.
Li Mo holstered the Bizarre pistol, hoisted the demonic bed onto his shoulder, and left the room. He returned half a minute later and closed the door.
"How are you?"
"...%&*!@"
Kanagawa Yume collapsed onto the slime-covered dust, momentarily forgetting the human language she had spent over a decade learning.
Li Mo didn't rush her. He stood by her side, waiting quietly, watching as she painstakingly pieced her thoughts back together.
"I... I almost died just now! There's a ghost under the bed!" she finally managed to say. "I don't know what happened, my body just went out of control... But I saw some memories, probably the memories of that ghost."
At the mention of memories, Li Mo's expression became serious. Back at St. Freya High School, "she" had also glimpsed a ghost's memories, providing the crucial clue to break the stalemate. A ghost's memories could help Li Mo quickly assess the situation; calling it a pass for the night wouldn't be an exaggeration.
Still, he remained calm. With his emotions dulled, he had lost the capacity for panic and nervousness. He knew Kanagawa Yume would explain everything in detail, so he didn't press her. The information would be more reliable once she had completely calmed down.
"How did you get here? I remember you said you'd wait outside. I didn't open the door, so how did you know I was in danger?"
"Did you ask the notebook?" Kanagawa Yume suddenly remembered Li Mo's notebook, a superior alternative to the Bloody Newspaper that required no price. As long as the notebook was willing, it would provide an absolutely true answer.
"You're overthinking it. I wouldn't proactively use the notebook just for you."
As he said this, Li Mo paused. He had a premonition. Things were going too smoothly. The notebook had answered him several times without delay, as if everything was proceeding according to its plan. But that wasn't what was truly unnerving. What felt most wrong to Li Mo was... he didn't feel anything was wrong.
The notebook's eagerness, the uneventful progression... It was like a calm sea, peaceful and still, while in the far distance, a colossal storm was brewing, inescapable.
So he absolutely could not open the notebook now. He didn't even have to guess—the notebook would surely offer a hint, and once he had it, he would inevitably chase that clue, knowing it was a trap, to gamble for a sliver of hope.
The ghost in the second room had been dealt with. Surviving tonight shouldn't be a problem. There was no need to use the notebook.
"I didn't actually realize you were in a deadly situation. In the other world, I couldn't hear any sound from the room. With your classmates around, I wasn't alone either," Li Mo explained. "My vision caught a glimpse of light."
He walked over to Kanagawa Yume and, with a bit of effort, pulled the flashlight that was stuck to the floor. In his thrice-dead state, he existed on the boundary between ghost and human—both and neither.
After usurping the Stove's power on Mount Taixuan, Li Mo had permanently acquired one of the Primordial Bizarre Rules, making him extremely sensitive to light in the dark.
"My eyesight is special. As long as I'm nearby, I can quickly detect any light that appears in the darkness, whether it's in a blind spot or another special space."
"The moment you turned on the flashlight, I saw a blurry outline."
Kanagawa Yume was confused. "What does that have to do with you knowing I was in danger? Can you see what's happening in the light?"
"No," Li Mo answered firmly. He could only see a fuzzy image, like a person with 1000-degree myopia looking at a moving pedestrian fifty meters away. He couldn't even tell if it was a person, just a blurry, abstract shape flickering.
"Then how did you get here so quickly?" Kanagawa Yume grew wary.
Li Mo explained calmly, "Because the light fell to the floor. It dropped without warning."
"If you were crawling under the bed with a flashlight, the beam would have been moving. It was, at first. I saw the light moving around and figured you were using a flashlight or your phone to search for the ghost."
"But at a certain point, the light fell from the air and stayed still."
"That meant you had lost your ability to move. You didn't pick it up after a long time, so I figured you'd triggered the ghost's rule and were immobilized. That's why I opened the door immediately."
"When I came in, I saw you seemed to be hallucinating."
The ghost under the bed was very similar to the Cat-Faced Granny. Its killing method was assimilation—robbing its victim of motor control, throwing their consciousness and physical actions into chaos. Once freed from the assimilation process, they would return to their original form.
"So that's what happened... Thank goodness..."
Kanagawa Yume was now incredibly grateful for Li Mo's presence. This mansion was fraught with danger.
If her teammates weren't reliable, she likely wouldn't survive the second day, even if she had been lucky enough to make it through the first. Just as she had seen in the ghost's memory, victim after victim turned into disgusting humanoid snails, clinging to the underside of the bed.
"A hallucination? It was a hallucination? So nothing really happened to me, right?" Kanagawa Yume asked three questions in a row, desperate for reassurance.
"...That's not important," Li Mo said, clumsily changing the subject.
"It is important!" Kanagawa Yume shouted. "So, what happened just now wasn't a hallucination, was it? You saw it... my ugly form..."
Her voice trailed off, and she lowered her head. Her pale lips trembled, but no words came out. Nerves turning into tentacles, connecting to eyeballs that swayed grotesquely, looking this way and that. The filthy, viscous slime seeping from her body, her degenerating tissues... even she couldn't bear it. If she had to become that thing forever, she would rather die.
"That's not important."
Li Mo repeated his earlier answer.
"I don't care."
His tone was still icy, like a machine operating strictly on code, rationally stating its view. No matter what she turned into, as long as she wasn't dead, it was fine.
"Li Mo."
"What is it?"
"You really need to learn the art of conversation. You'll end up with no friends," Kanagawa Yume grumbled.
Even though Li Mo hadn't answered directly, she understood what had happened from his concise words. It wasn't a hallucination. She really had turned into that disgusting snail, the ghost's face on the back of her head on the verge of replacing her own.
Fortunately, at the last moment, he had come in, torn off the ghost's face, and destroyed the snail-shell bed, allowing her sanity and body to slowly recover.
Kanagawa Yume looked up and saw Li Mo's cloudy, dull eyes, fixed on her. He wasn't making a fuss, nor was he impatiently demanding answers. He was just patiently waiting for her to fully regain her senses.
She hadn't expected him to be so gentle beneath his cold exterior. It was just that in a paranormal event, he had to hide that gentle humanity and dominate himself with absolute reason.
The thought cheered her up, and the tension in her heart eased considerably.
It was very reassuring. With him around, this adventure didn't seem so terrifying. In fact, it was kind of exciting.
"Phew..."
Kanagawa Yume took a deep breath, composing herself.
"I saw the haunted manor as it was at the very beginning. A clean, tidy house, very spacious. It must have been the main hall... but I didn't see any other furniture."
"Two people were talking. They... uh, I forgot their names, but I remember what they said. One person told the other to hide, that they were playing hide-and-seek, and that hiding until eight the next morning meant victory."
"The other person seemed very reluctant... um, how do I put it? She was timid and cowardly. I didn't hear the middle part of the conversation, I just remember that in the end, she agreed to the game and said she would hide under the bed."
"After that, I lost consciousness and couldn't think."
Kanagawa Yume recounted everything she had seen in the memory to Li Mo.
Li Mo just stood there, silently lost in thought for a moment.
"I understand the situation now. The layout of the third floor might be different. When we go up tomorrow, we'll bring a few junk beds with us."
"Of course, that's assuming we survive tonight."
"There are no more ghosts in the second room. The Knocking Ghost's knocking can't threaten us."
After Li Mo finished, Kanagawa Yume suddenly realized something and hurriedly asked, "What about the eighth room? Everyone else is in there. If we don't get rid of the ghosts in that room..."
"I know. It's not their time to die yet. I'll make sure at least half of them survive," Li Mo stated calmly. "Even death has to have meaning and value. Throwing lives away so easily is not part of my plan."
There was no resentment, no hesitation, as if the earlier conflict never existed.
Suddenly, Kanagawa Yume felt that Li Mo was very distant from her—not in physical distance, but in basic human logic. Li Mo had divided the lives of others into two categories. One was valuable; he would do his best to ensure their safety when he could.
The other category was made up of those who had lost their value, completely outside his consideration. His words clearly meant that once he was done with the Occult Club members, he would no longer care about them. It wouldn't matter if they died.
Kanagawa Yume didn't call him out on it. She understood what she should do and say right now.
"Then I'll go to the eighth room and keep looking for ghosts."
"No. The risk doesn't justify the reward. You can't handle thirty-two ghosts."
"What just happened proves that the candle can't completely suppress a ghost's rules, at least not after you're 'alone' and enter the Inner World."
"With thirty-two or more rules overlapping and intertwining, I don't think you could come out alive. If you encounter a rule that kills you instantly, I can't save you. Please don't treat me like an omnipotent god."
"What's more, neither of us can convince your companions. They blindly trust the Bloody Newspaper's prophecy. In that situation, it's obviously unrealistic to expect them to all leave the eighth room."
Li Mo's answer was a bucket of cold water poured over Kanagawa Yume's head. It was as if "Hopeless, let them die" was written all over his face.
But Kanagawa Yume didn't lose heart. Li Mo had said he would do his best to keep the Occult Club members alive, so he would surely come up with a reasonable plan.
Li Mo opened the door, motioning for Kanagawa Yume to follow. In the main hall, they saw the group crowded around the large, charred bed that Li Mo had thrown out earlier.
"What are you doing? Why did you burn the bed from the room?"
"How many times do I have to tell you, don't touch anything in the haunted manor, can't you hear me?"
The president pointed at the scorched bed, her face a mask of indignation. Clearly, she was very unhappy with Li Mo's arbitrary and reckless behavior.
But the next second, a bullet pierced her arm. A rich, vibrant blossom of blood erupted from the entry wound, followed by a piercing scream.
"Aaaahhh—!"
The president collapsed, the Bloody Newspaper falling from her hand. She clutched her wounded arm, her face contorted in pain.
The Bizarre pistol was different from a normal one. It wasn't very harmful to ordinary people. Unless it hit a vital spot, it would only cause a minor injury and some bleeding.
"..."
Li Mo was silent for a moment. Kanagawa Yume walked over from the side.
She glanced at the president writhing on the floor and said, oddly, "Did you miss?"
"...No."
"Okay, looks like you missed."
Kanagawa Yume concluded that Li Mo was just trying to intimidate them and had no real intention of killing or harming anyone. His aim was as terrible as ever.
But the effect was excellent. Seeing the gun in Li Mo's hand, everyone's face filled with terror. When they saw him shoot without hesitation, their fear deepened. They scrambled to hide behind one another, no one daring to stand up and challenge him.
Li Mo walked over. After confirming the ghost under the bed was in a deep slumber, he stood up and coldly addressed the frightened Occult Club members. "Move this bed into your room. That's all."
With that, Li Mo turned and left, leaving the others to stare at each other, sighing in relief. The law-abiding citizens of the Far East had never seen a loaded gun before, let alone seen a companion shot. The blood was real, and so were the screams and the pain.
"Yume!" the president suddenly shouted. Kanagawa Yume turned to see her glaring, her eyes wide with fury. Li Mo and she were a team now. People always liked to vent their extreme emotions on the weaker party.
"Kanagawa, get back to work," Li Mo called.
Kanagawa Yume hesitated for two seconds, then turned and followed him.
To the Occult Club members, this was nothing short of betrayal. But words were always pale and powerless. The paranormal event had raised the stakes, turning what could have been cleared up with a simple conversation into a mire of mutual suspicion.
The people they trusted had stabbed them in the back, while the hostile stranger was trying his best to protect them.
Perhaps only after she and Li Mo made some sacrifice would everyone be able to communicate calmly.
Li Mo opened the door to the first room and walked in with Kanagawa Yume. They hadn't triggered the "Being Alone" rule, and with the limitations of daytime, there were almost no ghosts in the room that could threaten him.
Li Mo walked to the bed and stared at it for a long time.
"What are we doing?" Kanagawa Yume finally asked.
Li Mo grabbed the bed and, with a bit of effort, spun it 180 degrees. The base in the middle was strange, like a twisted human face. The rest was covered in cobwebs and dust, fitting for an old mansion that had sat for decades, even centuries.
Li Mo took out the Bizarre pistol. To make sure he didn't miss this time, he kept the distance at a mere five centimeters.
"While the ghosts under the beds are suppressed, we'll beat them all into a dormant state."
This time, Li Mo held back, firing one shot at a time until the Bizarre aura under the bed was weakened to a certain degree.
Three bullets. Each bed required three bullets to achieve the desired effect.
The magazine only held twenty rounds, and the bullets regenerated very slowly. Li Mo still needed to save five for emergencies during the night.
Saving Kanagawa Yume had used three. Intimidating the Occult Club, one. The bed in the first room, three. Subtracting the five for backup, that left eight bullets. At most, he could only subdue two more beds.
This was not good news. He would very likely need these beds on the third floor. He couldn't yet judge if one would be enough to keep him safe, so he needed to prepare several.
"To the third and fourth rooms. Four beds is a bit low, but there's no better way."
"Move one bed to the eighth room. On second thought, you can't move it. I'll do it myself."
Li Mo's strange actions confused Kanagawa Yume, but out of trust, she chose to believe him. The memory of what had just happened was still fresh in her mind. His actions must have a reason; he just didn't think it was worth explaining to her.
The Occult Club members watched Li Mo waste bullets, say something to Kanagawa Yume, and then move the charred bed to the eighth room. They started murmuring in the hall.
"Is that guy possessed? His actions are so weird. I can't believe Yume still has the guts to stick with him. I wouldn't dare."
"President, what do you think? Has he figured something out? Is he trying to take over our room?"
All eyes turned to the president, who had just removed the bullet and crudely bandaged her arm.
"What can I think? He has a gun. If you don't want to get shot, stay away from Yume and that weirdo."
"Also, they probably haven't figured it out. Otherwise, they'd be moving their luggage, not a bed."
"Let's just put up with it for now. The room will be a bit crowded with an extra junk bed."
The Occult Club had been forced to compromise by Li Mo's firearm, even though they had no idea what he was trying to do.
After the frantic activity died down, dusk fell. The tightly closed windows couldn't block the golden afterglow, which seeped through the cracks and cobwebs, adding a touch of tranquility to the room. This atmosphere wouldn't last long; outside the window, the endless black fog remained.
Kanagawa Yume ate a piece of bread from her backpack and offered one to Li Mo.
"Want some?"
"I don't need to eat."
"...You don't seem to have slept yesterday. Aren't you tired?"
"I don't need to sleep."
"...You're too direct. Can't you be a little more tactful? Or just stay quiet if you don't know what to say. You're lucky you met me. Anyone else might have stabbed you in the back, burned the bridge after crossing it."
Everything about Li Mo's behavior and words indicated he wasn't human, but a ghost. Kanagawa Yume didn't quite believe that, but he was close. Perhaps he was the closest a person could get to becoming a ghost while still being able to communicate.
As long as he could get everyone out alive, even a ghost might be a worthy ally. What's more, this ghost had saved her multiple times, and his small gestures were surprisingly gentle.
"Take out your phone. Message your companions. Tell them to hide under the bed immediately if they hear knocking tonight."
"Huh? Will that work? Even if it does, there's only one extra bed in the eighth room. Two or three people definitely won't be able to fit."
"That's their problem. I won't move the extra beds just for two ordinary people's lives, especially since they're not grateful and think the charred bed is an eyesore."
Li Mo said coldly. There were only four beds in total, and the Bizarre pistol might not be fully restored by tomorrow. The upgraded pistol was more effective, but it also recovered much more slowly. Li Mo really didn't want to fire it unless absolutely necessary.
"Alright, message sent."
"So..." Kanagawa Yume suddenly wrapped her arms around Li Mo's neck from behind, holding a pen and notebook in each hand. She giggled, "Is it okay if I write all this down?"
"Erase my name. Do what you want with the rest," Li Mo answered without hesitation.
"You got it~!" Kanagawa Yume got busy with her work.
---||---
Meanwhile, in the eighth room, the members of the Occult Club had all put on an extra layer of clothes.
"President, this room feels kind of cold. It's not scientific. Logically, the bedroom should be warmer than the hall, or at least not that different. But why does it feel so cold in here...?"