Crack—!
The sound of splintering wood was exceptionally clear, but this time, the source wasn't the heavy footsteps of the Knocking Ghost, but the Ghost Bed above Li Mo's head.
The ghostly face, seared by the hellfire, was severely suppressed and needed time to recover.
A dormant state wasn't death; it was similar to human sleep.
But Bizarre entities had the characteristic of restarting. Once death was determined, they would immediately rewind to a safe state.
Some would rewind themselves, others would rewind a small portion of the surrounding space-time.
If the Ghost Bed, while dormant, was crushed by weight, it would judge itself as dead.
The ghostly face on the underside of the bed would instantly revive. At that point, he, being under the bed, would face the Ghost Bed's certain-death rule, with no way to avoid it.
The bed's base became more and more distorted. Through the cracks, a grotesque face could faintly be seen gradually opening its eyes.
Attacked from the outside, an indistinct ghostly face seemed about to revive, sinister and terrifying.
"..."
Li Mo glanced sideways. The ghosts outside showed no sign of leaving. They surrounded the Ghost Bed, their stomping becoming more and more frantic.
More and more ghosts climbed onto the Ghost Bed. Perhaps in half a minute, perhaps in the next second, the Ghost Bed would break, and the ghostly face would restart.
Am I going to die?
Li Mo pondered, his right hand tightly gripping his dormant, Sprout-enhanced left hand.
"Usurpation" couldn't be used. Even if it could, to escape this desperate situation, the price would likely be more than just gaining a Bizarre rule.
The price would very likely be true death.
There was no time to use the notebook. Even if it could tell Li Mo how to survive, he would be powerless to act.
"Was my choice wrong?"
Li Mo pointed the gun at his own forehead and spoke without reservation.
Before his last restart, he needed to verify if making a sound under the Ghost Bed would attract the ghosts' attention.
The moment he spoke, all the ghosts' footsteps stopped.
But this was not a prelude to rescue, but the approach of a death omen.
"I see. Making a sound under the Ghost Bed will still attract the ghosts' attention. So the next step is to confirm the target."
As soon as he finished speaking, the ghosts all fell to the floorboards, their hollow, dark eyes pressed against the ground, staring at him grotesquely.
Li Mo met their gazes without a care, his finger on the trigger, but he didn't pull it in a hurry.
He needed to gather as much information about the ghosts as possible before he died.
Restarting early was safe, but he would also miss a lot of information.
Soon, ghosts of all sizes were lying on the floor—men and women, old and young, looking at Li Mo with twisted smiles, stretching out their withered, shrunken hands towards him.
Their mouths opened wide, their teeth filling their entire mouths, their cracked lips moving as if to say something.
Li Mo vaguely heard something like "caught..."
But due to his half-human, half-ghost status, he couldn't fully understand what the ghosts were saying.
It was probably something like, "Caught you, human."
Li Mo returned their gaze with a calm look, exceptionally out of place in the crazed, bizarre darkness.
Li Mo had gathered some information:
The living hiding under the Ghost Bed could not speak.
Ghosts generally wouldn't bend over or crawl on the ground to check if there were living people under the bed; that was not part of their rules.
But if the living made any noise, the ghosts' rules would change to some extent, leading to human-like behavior.
After finding the living under the bed, the ghosts couldn't directly trigger their rules. It seemed they had to touch the person or perform some action to trigger the killing rule.
As Li Mo was thinking, a ghost's hand had already reached his nose.
Thick black nails, an arm reeking of rot, was less than two centimeters away from him.
Half of the ghost's body was under the bed, from all sides, with nowhere to escape.
To make matters worse, the bed base had already collapsed.
"There must be some way for a living person under the bed to survive after being discovered."
Li Mo concluded from the details.
The fact that the ghost hadn't directly killed him with its rule was the best proof.
Unfortunately, he didn't have any more time to think.
Li Mo closed his eyes and moved his finger slightly, wanting to shoot through his brain, to let his consciousness dissipate and enter a restart.
But the expected gunshot never came.
The Ghost Bed had collapsed, the ghostly face had revived, but he felt no pain.
Li Mo's lips were blocked by something hard, raw and viscous.
"..."
Opening his eyes, a stark white skeleton was lying on his chest, blood seeping from its bone teeth, flowing into his mouth.
The skeleton had blocked the collapse of the bed base, stopping the final step of the ghostly face's restart.
And after coming into contact with the ghostly face, the skeleton showed no changes.
There was only one possibility for the sudden appearance of the skeleton: Kanagawa Yume had died for him once.
The ghostly face didn't wake up. Was my judgment wrong?
Li Mo began to doubt his theory that "after finding the living under the bed, the ghosts cannot directly trigger their rules." But if not, then Kanagawa Yume's two substitute deaths should have been used up. There were many ghosts nearby; Li Mo didn't believe only one certain-death rule had been triggered.
"She's... still alive?"
Li Mo turned his head slightly and found that an intact Kanagawa Yume was sleeping right beside him, only her right hand had turned into the skeleton lying on him.
At the same time, all the ghosts that had been targeting Li Mo became sluggish. When they moved again, they ignored Li Mo and went for Kanagawa Yume.
They tore off Kanagawa Yume's limbs, gnawed on her flesh. Before they could use their hands to forcefully tear open Kanagawa Yume's belly and grind her organs to a pulp...
Li Mo broke his own left hand. Immediately, the Sprout-enhanced left hand forcibly restarted itself, returning to its original form.
The ghosts' filthy, foul nails dug deep into the tender, beautiful cheeks, leaving behind familiar scars Li Mo had seen before.
Li Mo once again used "Usurpation," restoring Kanagawa Yume's body to its original state.
Over and over again.
He couldn't let Kanagawa Yume die just like that.
On the first night, after Kanagawa Yume fell asleep, all sorts of shocking wounds had appeared on her body.
It was just like the current situation.
Could it be...
A bizarre thought suddenly appeared in Li Mo's mind, but he couldn't verify it yet.
This thought was also the reason why Li Mo was in this predicament.
No matter how he deduced from the cause and effect, it was very reasonable, but there was no decisive evidence, so Li Mo couldn't jump to conclusions.
He believed in himself, but the facts were also important.
If his thought was correct, then when Kanagawa Yume woke up, he would know the key to surviving the third day.
Li Mo was still thinking. The skeleton on him suddenly condensed new flesh and blood, but it was just flesh and blood, without skin, a terrifying sight.
The flesh trembled, staring at Li Mo but doing nothing.
The confusing event was gradually becoming clear, but more mysteries were constantly emerging.
Li Mo couldn't care less right now. He had to reach the fifth floor alive to end this ritual.
No matter how many secrets were hidden in this ritual, it didn't matter. Li Mo's purpose from beginning to end was only to bury them.
"..."
The skeleton suddenly stretched out its hands and choked Li Mo's neck. The force was great; a normal person would have been strangled instantly.
Fortunately, in Li Mo's thrice-dead state, his healing ability could instantly recover from any injury except for his brain being shattered.
So the skeleton couldn't kill him at all.
Li Mo's cold gaze met the blood-red, flesh-wrapped eyeball in the skeleton. He read her hatred.
At the same time, Kanagawa Yume's brows furrowed, her expression extremely pained. She almost gritted her teeth as she said, "I hate you..."
"Die...!"
With that, the skeleton used even more force, venting Kanagawa Yume's anger on the Li Mo beneath it.
It was very strange. Just last night, they had been expressing their love like a passionate couple, but tonight, it was as if they had met a sworn enemy, wanting to eat his flesh and drink his blood.
This abrupt change, Li Mo didn't know the reason, but there might be a clue he needed.
The truth of Kanagawa Yume.
Li Mo didn't resist, letting the skeleton transfer the pain Kanagawa Yume was suffering onto himself.
This level of attack couldn't kill him.
It was just that...
He had already lost his last chance to restart.
After using "Usurpation" too many times, and forcibly breaking his hand to revive the Sprout-enhanced left hand from its dormant state, Li Mo's body had already endured too much contamination.
Death, for him now, was true death.
He could still restart, but the Li Mo after the restart would no longer possess a human consciousness, but would be a complete Bizarre entity.
Even though he would be walking into a situation with zero margin for error, Li Mo still chose to save Kanagawa Yume.
At least, simply using "Usurpation" would result in much less contamination than a restart. If he restarted, he would probably completely lose the right to use "Usurpation." Using it once might lead to his immediate fall.
"Why do you hate me?"
Li Mo asked the skeleton.
His words no longer contained any emotion. Li Mo's cold, empty eyes were not much different from the ghosts that had crawled under the bed and were constantly trying to kill Kanagawa Yume.
It was just that the ghosts' faces wore all sorts of twisted expressions, while Li Mo was like a corpse. A corpse wouldn't smile, wouldn't be sad, and certainly wouldn't be afraid.
The skeleton gave no answer, the strength in its hands growing stronger. Unfortunately, Li Mo no longer needed oxygen to maintain his life functions.
"Can't communicate."
"Body trembling."
"Pained expression."
"You're afraid. Not of the ghosts, but of me."
Li Mo voiced his thoughts, even though it was unbelievable.
Because it had always been people who were afraid of ghosts, never the other way around.
But just because it had always been so didn't mean it was right.
All things change, and ghosts were no exception.
Stretching out his hand, he gently touched the skeleton's cheek. Instantly, the skeleton, as if startled, immediately stopped its attempt to kill Li Mo, its eye muscles contracting.
The blurry flesh showed no expression, but the movement of the flesh's outline could simply show the change in emotion.
"I'm going to die again."
Li Mo saw Kanagawa Yume once again being mangled and shattered by the ghosts. He raised his left hand, used "Usurpation," and healed all her injuries.
As a price, Li Mo bore all the injuries.
Due to the Bizarre characteristics, these injuries that would be fatal to a normal person healed quickly.
"You're a ghost. I'm sure of that. But the Kanagawa Yume you're connected to doesn't have the characteristics of a ghost."
"What on earth are you?"
Li Mo's question was like an interrogation, with no tone of inquiry, only coldness and deathly stillness.
A piece of the skeleton was torn off by Li Mo, and as expected, it quickly regenerated.
Opening his phone, Li Mo and the skeleton both turned their heads, their gazes drawn to the light.
The ghost on him had the complete characteristics of a ghost, while the Kanagawa Yume it was connected to was a living human.
If she died, she would be truly dead. She wouldn't heal, let alone restart.
The skeleton couldn't speak. Li Mo couldn't get any answers from it.
The time was 7:30 in the morning. The ghosts' movements slowed, and they gradually withdrew from under the bed.
Crack... crack...
The Knocking Ghost turned and left. With every step, it left a footprint and shattered wood fragments on the floor.
The haunted manor seemed to possess the ability to restore itself. At least, Li Mo hadn't seen any footprints when he went up to the second floor during the day, but the Knocking Ghost had indeed been in the second-floor corridor on the first night.
Soon, the large number of unknown ghosts followed behind the Knocking Ghost and left through the exit.
Li Mo noticed that when all the ghosts were following behind the Knocking Ghost, its thin figure became bloated, as if it had expanded.
None of the ghosts following the Knocking Ghost had shadows.
They were more like derivatives of the Knocking Ghost, yet possessed the complete rules of a ghost.
"Too much unknown information, can't make an effective deduction."
Li Mo stopped thinking about the Knocking Ghost. On one hand, the conclusions he drew weren't accurate enough. On the other, it didn't have much meaning for his current situation.
Since he already knew how to avoid the Knocking Ghost, there was no need to delve too deeply into its rules and past.
"The third day..."
"Time to wake up from the nightmare, Kanagawa."
Li Mo dragged Kanagawa Yume out from under the bed, took five candles from the rooms outside the corridor, and placed them at various points around her. Whether she had encountered a ghost in her dream or not, she would wake up.
Kanagawa Yume slowly opened her eyes, her gaze a little dazed. She shook her head, trying to clear it quickly.
"What did you dream about this time?" Li Mo got straight to the point.
Kanagawa Yume turned around. When she found that both she and Li Mo were naked, she panicked and covered her chest, her legs curled up to block the mysterious absolute territory.
She glanced down at the bloodstains on the floor, and her fair face instantly looked like it had been steamed, flushing red from her cheeks to her ears and neck.
"You... you turn around first..."
No matter how much of a tomboy she was, she was still a sixteen-year-old girl from China. She took matters of chastity very seriously.
"Okay."
Li Mo didn't refuse. He closed his eyes and turned around.
Kanagawa Yume scurried into the second room like a rabbit and chose suitable clothes to wear.
Li Mo, on the other hand, just moved his left hand slightly and changed into a clean set of clothes.
When they met again, Kanagawa Yume's complexion had clearly improved a lot. She had finally recovered from her shutdown.
"Last night... what happened? We..."
"We were attacked by ghosts, but we didn't die. That's all."
Li Mo didn't want to dwell on this topic. Kanagawa Yume saw his intention and sighed.
"Just as you guessed, I did dream again last night."
"I dreamed of another me. I can't remember where. It seemed like the haunted manor, but also not."
"The me in the dream looked at me peacefully. When I didn't move, she started running into the distance. When I followed, she would suddenly stop."
Li Mo asked, "Did she say anything to you?"
Kanagawa Yume thought for a moment and nodded, "She did."
"At first, I asked her why she was running, but she didn't answer. Instead, she asked me—"
"Deep down, what was I most afraid of."
"I said it was ghosts."
"She shook her head and said no, it was something else I could never see, yet was right before my eyes."
"After that, I dreamed of those disgusting ghosts again. They were like a bunch of brain-dead idiots, completely ignoring my explanations and just pouncing on me. They kept shouting that I deserved to die, that I was guilty, as if they were seeking revenge."
"It's ridiculous. I don't even know them. Even if they wanted revenge, they shouldn't pick on an innocent person, right?"
"You have no idea how cruel those ghosts were. They..."
Kanagawa Yume was a little angry, vehemently complaining to Li Mo about the ghosts' evil deeds: tearing off her limbs, gnawing on her flesh, tearing open her belly, crushing her organs...
After listening, Li Mo didn't mention what had happened last night.
But he had already made up his mind.
The ghosts in the dream and the ghosts that had suddenly appeared with the Knocking Ghost around the Ghost Bed were the same group.
Kanagawa Yume hadn't mentioned the Knocking Ghost, which meant the Knocking Ghost was special in some way, with a deeper secret.
Those avenging spirit-like ghosts that constantly tortured Kanagawa Yume.
Did they enter the dream from reality, or did they enter reality from the dream?
"Li Mo, you seem to have... changed a little? Is it because of the ghost inside you?"
Kanagawa Yume asked with some concern.
Li Mo's state was too strange. Although he had always had a cold, gloomy poker face, he at least looked like a living person before.
But now, if you closed your eyes, you could say Li Mo was a corpse that had been dead for a long time.
The exposed neck showed very obvious livor mortis, and his skin had turned a dim, ashen gray.
A thick, pungent smell of a corpse constantly emanated from his body.
"Time to wake your companions. I have some things to deal with on the second floor. After that, we'll go straight to the third floor."
Li Mo paid no mind to Kanagawa Yume's words.
He was already on the verge of death, so he naturally didn't care about his own negative changes.
If he couldn't get back alive, it didn't matter how good his body was.
Creak—
Li Mo opened the door to the eighth room. The candle in the room was intact, but not burning.
This was inevitable. Even if the candle were lit, without the dormant Ghost Bed as a hiding place, and without a way to expel the ghosts from the room, the outcome wouldn't change much.
Li Mo lifted the Ghost Bed and glanced at it. It was still usable.
The candle had gone out early, so the Ghost Bed's rule hadn't been consumed too much.
But that was also to be expected. If the Ghost Bed couldn't protect the living after the candle went out, Li Mo wouldn't have risked it.
Everything was part of the plan.
First, he placed the Ghost Bed in the eighth room to let the Occult Club test if it could protect the living on its own.
After verification, he would let Kanagawa Yume fall asleep to gather more information.
After he was in a "Being Alone" state, he would enter the Inner World. The Ghost Bed, which could protect the living without the help of a candle, would be the foundation for him and Kanagawa Yume to survive in the Inner World.
If the Knocking Ghost hadn't returned later and the ghosts' rules hadn't been distorted, everything would have gone smoothly.
And he wouldn't have had to waste a restart.
But reality was never as smooth as one thought. Accidents happened, but fortunately, the result wasn't too bad, within a range Li Mo could accept.
"There are still eleven people alive. That's enough," Li Mo said coldly.
At this moment, under the bed, the members of the Occult Club were hugging each other, trying to get more security from each other.
Their eyes were red and swollen, as if they had been crying.
Their dark circles weren't very obvious. It's not easy to get dark circles after just one all-nighter.
"Is... is that you?"
The president stood up with difficulty, her voice hoarse, looking at Li Mo with fear and excitement.
"How did you end up like this!?"
The president covered her nose and instinctively took a few steps back.
The other members retreated even further, hiding behind the president.
"None of your business." Li Mo's attitude towards unimportant people was as perfunctory as ever.
"Where's Yume? Why isn't Yume with you? What did you do to her?" the president clenched her fists, bit her lip, and asked loudly.
As soon as she finished speaking, Kanagawa Yume walked in from the doorway. "I'm here. Don't worry, I'm still alive and well."
After explaining her situation, Kanagawa Yume shifted the focus of the topic to Li Mo.
"President, you should understand by now that the Bloody Newspaper in your hand can't save you at all. It's lying to you."
"He... uh, you can just call him Mingyue for now. He's a specialist in dealing with paranormal events."
"Last night, if he hadn't moved the treated Ghost Bed to your room and had me remind you, you would have all been killed by the ghosts."
Kanagawa Yume didn't reveal Li Mo's real name. Li Mo hadn't told her his real name at the beginning, so there must have been a reason. Kanagawa Yume wasn't stupid; she naturally wouldn't reveal his real name and step on a landmine.
After surviving the disaster, the members of the Occult Club looked at each other and lowered their heads.
However much they had looked down on him yesterday, they had to lower their posture that much today.
Suddenly, a member knelt on the ground, her hands clasped on the floor, her head lowered to the back of her hands, and shouted loudly at Li Mo:
"I'm sorry, I was wrong yesterday. Please forgive my stupidity. I want to live, save me!"
As soon as she finished, the others wanted to follow suit. No one wanted to miss the only chance to admit their mistake and latch onto a lifeline.
Kanagawa Yume wanted to say something, but after thinking about it, she said nothing.
Li Mo didn't care about these things. Kanagawa Yume knew very well that this person didn't care at all.
Li Mo didn't speak. He looked at these people coldly, not a trace of pity in his heart.
He wouldn't easily promise to take them out, because he wasn't confident he could.
Before more of the Japanese person could put on a show of their prostration skills, Li Mo turned and left the room.
He only said to Kanagawa Yume, "Get the Bloody Newspaper."