Li Mo walked back to the main hall, observing the paintings on the wall.
As he had expected, the paintings had changed slightly, becoming more vivid, the figures within gradually clearer.
And this was the result of someone dying because of the Bloody Newspaper's deception.
Through an information gap, it tricked the living into acting according to its rules, using their souls as pigment to complete its painting.
But Li Mo had already seen the clues.
"No dust. This is the Bloody Newspaper's true form."
Li Mo took down a painting. It depicted a decaying old mansion, the surroundings indistinct, full of blurry outlines.
It was exquisitely painted, lifelike, with the style of a master painter.
As expected, the Bloody Newspaper would also try to lure him into doing something.
"Perhaps I can play along and extract some information from its answers."
Li Mo hung the painting back up, quietly waiting for Kanagawa Yume to bring the Bloody Newspaper to him.
Dealing with the members of the Occult Club was not his forte. Li Mo didn't know them well; it was better to leave it to Kanagawa Yume.
Li Mo waited for a while before Kanagawa Yume came out of the room.
It seemed she had explained the situation to the Occult Club.
Li Mo didn't care how Kanagawa Yume explained it to them, as long as the goal was achieved.
"I got the Bloody Newspaper. The president and the others realized it was trying to get them killed, so they were willing to give it to you."
"Good. You all stay in the room. I'm going to have a private chat with the Bloody Newspaper. No one is allowed to come out without my permission."
After handing over the Bloody Newspaper, Kanagawa Yume quickly returned to the eighth room to soothe the uneasy hearts of the Occult Club members.
They were classmates, after all. They would see each other every day at school. It wouldn't hurt to build up a mysterious, prophetic persona for herself.
The moment Li Mo took the Bloody Newspaper, with no prompting and no questions asked, Shenzhou characters naturally appeared on its surface.
[Li Mo, I am you from five hundred years in the future, and I am telling you all possible futures through this newspaper.]
The number five hundred was special, at least to Li Mo.
The Mo of the Previous Era had let Fuxi, Nuwa, and Xiao Yun drink his blood, allowing them to achieve immortality and eternal youth.
But around the five-hundred-year mark, they all refused to accept the gift of immortality and chose to die in front of him.
After the contamination in his body deepened, approaching that of a ghost, the flesh and blood of Li Mo, when consumed by the living, would grant a certain degree of longevity.
No, longevity wasn't enough to describe it; immortality was more accurate.
Even those who had just died could be saved in time.
That was Mo, but Li Mo hadn't tried it yet. Once the accumulation of death was cleared, his reason would warn him—
He must never cross that line.
Human experimentation, even if the subject was willing, Li Mo had reasons not to do it.
"Interesting. You seem to have peeked into parts of my memory again."
"The first time, you seemed to only have my memories from the Prime World. And now, you seem to have seen my memories from the Previous Era."
"But can you really see everything?"
"For example, why Hua didn't attend that wedding."
[...]
The Bloody Newspaper was silent for a moment. This brief silence was caught by Li Mo, who immediately had the thought of silencing the Bloody Newspaper.
From the beginning, the Bloody Newspaper's rule was to answer any question, and to answer quickly.
The moment it started to think, it meant it wasn't all-knowing and all-powerful, but it could lie, and possessed a certain degree of intelligence.
[Li Mo, I am you from five hundred years in the future, and I am telling you all possible futures through this newspaper.]
[Five hundred years later, your memories began to become disordered. You forgot the original appearance of many things—time, place, people, events, the general environment... All the memories were jumbled together, becoming unrecognizable. Even their names were all confused, and you could no longer tell who they were, or what your own name was.]
[Your emotions began to lose control, sometimes cold, sometimes irritable. You were sent to an ordinary mental hospital. Here, there were normal people and mental patients, but none of them were willing to get close to you. As time passed, your instincts began to become chaotic, and you became less and less able to control yourself.]
[You are recording something in a diary.]
[Everyone you know has left you, and you are the "last one." But you know you can't die yet.]
[You personally organized your own funeral and wrote a suicide note.]
[But why did you write a suicide note? For whom? For what reason? I won't die, no... you won't die, so why did I die? Why did you die?]
[Who am I, a Bloody Newspaper? Or Him? You are me, I am...]
[I am a ghost that has peeked into the past and future.]
[I try to kill all my users, using their souls as pigment to complete my painting...]
[I have met many people. When they pick me up and continue to use me, I can cut off their future. They will be killed by me.]
[But I met a very special person. I can't kill him.]
[He is already dead.]
Too many memories made the Bloody Newspaper's answer very strange, as if it had peeked into a taboo. The unspeakable rule instantly twisted the Bloody Newspaper's original rule.
It caused its narrative style to undergo some unknown transformation.
Clearly, the Bloody Newspaper had lost its mind and was starting to spout nonsense.
Giving answers that were completely irrelevant to the question, off-topic, beyond its rules.
Given the current frequency of Bizarre occurrences, it wouldn't be long before he died in some paranormal event.
Perhaps the next one, or maybe even this one.
Li Mo glanced at the text at the back of the Bloody Newspaper. The shapes were no longer recognizable, crooked and twisted, even stranger than the text on the first page of the notebook.
It was like several tentacles crudely spliced together, forming a string of writhing hieroglyphs.
"A confession?"
Li Mo didn't expect the Bloody Newspaper to be so direct, admitting its true nature.
But the subsequent statement made Li Mo's eyes turn a little cold.
The Bloody Newspaper said it couldn't kill him because he was already dead.
Although Li Mo was very clear that the Bloody Newspaper, unlike the notebook, could lie within the scope of its rules, this statement still gave Li Mo a strange sense of dissonance.
It was an intuition, and a ghost's intuition was always more sensitive than a human's.
"Peeking into the past and future, your level is much higher than I thought."
"If you couldn't lie, the ability to see five hundred years into the future would have far exceeded my expectations."
"But even if you can't lie, I won't keep you around."
"As you said yourself, you will cut off the future of your users, so I am naturally no exception. I don't believe in being 'special,' because I will also trigger rules, I will also die, even if the manner of death is different."
Li Mo and the Bloody Newspaper looked at each other, their statements surprisingly similar.
The Bloody Newspaper's speaking style was also gradually approaching Li Mo's, but it could never think like him.
Too many memories had long buried the Bloody Newspaper's meager wisdom. That residual rule, like a final burst of light, was like the spasms of some living people after death, a conditioned reflex response.
Li Mo stared at the Bloody Newspaper and asked one last question.
"How can I survive the fourth day?"
The reason for asking this question was also simple. The notebook had predicted he would die on the fourth day, and with the hints from Kanagawa Yume's nightmare, Li Mo had roughly guessed the way to survive the third day.
The fourth day was an unavoidable test. Li Mo wanted to see if the Bloody Newspaper could crack the notebook's prophecy.
As for whether the Bloody Newspaper would lie and set a trap, with its speaking level, Li Mo could tell at a glance whether it was a trap and how feasible it was.
If he felt it was completely unfeasible, he wouldn't even have to consider it.
If it was feasible, then he just needed to be prepared before night fell on the fourth day. When it really came to a point of certain death, doing as the Bloody Newspaper said might not be a bad idea.
Soon, content appeared on the Bloody Newspaper again, but the text from the very first word was extremely distorted and difficult to understand.
[My name is Li Mo, I am you from two days in the future, and I am telling you all possible futures through this newspaper.]
[Five days in the haunted manor. The first two days are "Reception," the last three are "Soul Summoning," "Soul Ferrying," and "Soul Return."]
[Two days later, you arrive at the fourth floor. The construction of the house here has changed dramatically. It is a never-ending corridor.]
[This is a forbidden place for the living, possessing the greatest taboo of resurrection.]
[You are Li Mo. You will die here.]
[The living cannot survive the fourth day.]
"..."
"So it's certain death."
The prophecy on the first page of the notebook was very accurate, but the fact that it could tell him so directly meant it was probably waiting for him to ask for a way to live.
But even the now-strange Bloody Newspaper said the same thing. Could it be that there was really no way to live on the fourth day?
Li Mo stretched out his hand and looked at his ashen-gray arm. His time was running out.
If he couldn't deal with the Bizarre entity and leave this world soon, the contamination in his body would worsen with time, eventually eroding his consciousness and soul.
If he left now, the Bizarre entity would spread. Trying to deal with it then would be a fool's errand.
This was his last life. He had no other choice but to bite the bullet and go on.
Li Mo took out his phone. The battery was still full.
MEI had stored a recording in it. She had told Li Mo that if he really couldn't hold on, he should open the recording she left, and it might help him find himself again.
Of course, Li Mo didn't disbelieve MEI. He recognized MEI's wisdom and foresight.
But the two of them were not in the same space-time now. Even if MEI was as clever as she was, she couldn't eliminate the contamination on herself across space-time, let alone the level of contamination of someone who was about to become a Bizarre entity.
You have to know that this recording existed before Li Mo found the Bizarre Kiana. It had nothing to do with "Wishing," and "Wishing" couldn't save him either.
Mei couldn't bear such a price, so that was ruled out.
So this recording was just for psychological comfort. It was likely not a recording to help him find himself, but a message from MEI, her inner thoughts that she had never told him in person.
Li Mo put away his phone and began to analyze the clues between the lines of the Bloody Newspaper.
He first needed to think about which of these words were true, and which were to confuse him.
After a moment's consideration, except for the third sentence: [Two days later, you are on the fourth floor. The construction of the house here has changed dramatically. It is a never-ending corridor.]
which could be verified on the fourth day, the other words could be true or false, impossible to distinguish.
Li Mo could only start reasoning from the most basic parts.
"Five days in the haunted manor. The first two days are for 'Reception.' The known facts are that the rules for the first two days are 'Being Alone,' 'Sleeping,' and 'Pretending to be a Ghost.'"
"'Reception' doesn't allow 'Being Alone,' 'Sleeping,' or 'Pretending to be a Ghost.' Could it be that the living are treated as staff, not guests? Then the rooms we live in are not guest rooms, but staff dormitories."
"Kanagawa Yume has a faint connection to the ninth room. What she saw in her dream is related to the ritual of the haunted manor."
"The nightmare had two specific events, 'Hide-and-Seek' and what seems to be a game of 'Red Light, Green Light'."
"The third floor is very likely to combine the two games. Last night, under the Ghost Bed, when I was found by the ghosts around the Knocking Ghost, I didn't die. This means being seen by a ghost doesn't mean the game is over. You have to be caught."
"Kanagawa Yume's experience in the nightmare, she ran and the person in the dream stopped, she stopped and the person in the dream ran."
"So on the third floor, after being found by a ghost, to survive, you have to play 'Red Light, Green Light' with the ghost. Using the ghost's behavior as a standard, if the ghost moves, the person can't move. If the ghost stops, the person can take the opportunity to escape and hide elsewhere."
"But the question is, who is the guest? Who is the staff?"
"Or does it not matter, and the living are always guests."
Li Mo quickly deduced the rules of the third floor, but also encountered new variables.
Let's assume the guest and staff are Party B and Party A for reference.
From the perspective of "Hide-and-Seek," the ghost is the staff, and the hiding living person is the guest.
This contradicts the facts stated by the Bloody Newspaper.
There was a discrepancy in the information. Either the Bloody Newspaper lied, or Kanagawa Yume had a problem as a staff member in the dream.
Because the role Kanagawa Yume played in the dream was that of a staff member.
From the perspective of "Red Light, Green Light," the living person found after hide-and-seek is still a guest, and the ghost is the staff, which conflicts with Kanagawa Yume's experience in the dream.
Should he believe the lying Bloody Newspaper? Or the non-lying Kanagawa Yume?
"Kanagawa wouldn't lie, but a person's memories and cognition can. Another consciousness resides in her mind."
"There is a possibility that the perspective Kanagawa described was not her own, but the perspective of the other consciousness in her mind."
"She was the one who ran when the other stopped, and stopped when the other ran."
When human and ghost consciousnesses collide, it's easy for this kind of situation to occur, mistaking the other for oneself.
This was also why Li Mo was unwilling to believe the words of ordinary people during a mission.
They wanted to live, so they generally wouldn't lie, they would just spill everything they knew in one go.
But the thing is, they might not even realize it themselves, and unconsciously speak of the ghost's memories.
Li Mo filed this away in his mind and began to deduce the subsequent statements of the Bloody Newspaper.
The last three days were "Soul Summoning," "Soul Ferrying," and "Soul Return."
"Soul Summoning" was undoubtedly to summon the nearby ghosts to the third floor.
One room could have up to thirty-two ghosts. Li Mo didn't have to imagine how many dormant ghosts there were in the vast mansion.
There's a saying that hits the nail on the head: when you find one cockroach in your house, it means that in the unseen dark corners, cockroaches have already run rampant, because the cockroaches in the dark can no longer fit.
Undoubtedly, tonight, the number of ghosts would reach an extremely terrifying level.
If you didn't follow the rules, any living person would be instantly killed, with no means of remedy.
He was no exception.
"Soul Ferrying," literally means to ferry the souls of the dead.
After a person's consciousness dissipates, the soul that carries the consciousness will also gradually dissipate with the dissipation of the consciousness.
Since it can ferry souls, there must be a way to preserve the soul, and the most important role: the ferryman.
Li Mo thought of the rosemary Irene had given him before. He had kissed the rosemary, and his consciousness and soul should be stored in it.
After waking up, he found a dark path, and at the end of it was a boundless ocean.
In the sea were countless sparkling points of light, like a sky full of stars, shining with a dazzling blue light.
Li Mo didn't see his reflection in this sea, and in the process of crossing the sea, he lost the concept of time.
The seemingly vast, boundless sea was actually crossed in the blink of an eye.
Souls lack real-world cognition, so it's normal not to feel the passage of time, Li Mo thought.
Combined with the description in the Bloody Newspaper: [The fourth floor is a never-ending corridor.]
It perfectly corresponded to the soul having no concept of time.
"This sentence is most likely true."
"If I want to know the clues for the fourth day, I need to let Kanagawa sleep on the third floor tonight."
"Then I need to find someone to stay by my side to prevent Kanagawa from changing her identity after she falls asleep, putting me in a 'Being Alone' state."
The last day, the ritual of the fifth floor, the final process: "Soul Return."
From the literal meaning, it was similar to resurrection, an absolute taboo.
Li Mo had also touched this taboo after briefly obtaining the Bizarre Kiana's space-time power.
Reversing time, bringing someone who had not yet died to his point in time.
This might also be what Otto Apocalypse had been pursuing, to return to the original time and space, to change a predetermined destiny as an outsider.
But the drawbacks were also obvious. The resurrected person would have an ineradicable contamination. If they died of old age, it would be fine, but if they survived for too long through special means, they would become a troublesome ghost.
From all angles, bringing the deceased back to reality was almost impossible, the price was extremely high, and it wasn't easy to do.
"No clue. I can't find many clues about the fifth floor on the second floor. I can only go to the third floor first."
"I have to play games with an unknown number of ghosts tonight. I have to familiarize myself with the environment in advance."
It didn't matter that Li Mo could see in the dark, but the people from the Occult Club were ordinary people. During the game with the ghosts, they absolutely couldn't turn on the lights, and could only rely on hearing and memory to grope their way forward.
"Next, it's time to deal with you. Do you have anything else to say to me?"
Li Mo walked forward and took down the painting from the hall wall.
To his bewilderment, he didn't know when, the painting had become very abstract. The previously lifelike figures and mansion were now a bloody, blurry mess.
Yes, the painting was a bloody, blurry mess. The wording seemed inappropriate, but Li Mo still thought it was a more fitting description.
All the sharp-edged parts had become strange curves and disordered lines. A few long tentacles covered in eyes faintly crawled out of the twisted windows.
These eyes were all staring at him, as if they had life and wisdom.
The figures had all undergone the same bizarre mutation. Bloody tentacles were wrapped in hearts, organs, and blood vessels. Rotten flesh and white bones flowed from their eyes, drilling out of their eyes, mouths, and ears.
Their throats were torn, their necks shattered, their deaths unprecedentedly tragic.
The text that appeared on the Bloody Newspaper still hadn't changed, every character exuding a thick strangeness.
[▀▀▀]
[▀▀▀]
[▀▀▀]
Li Mo couldn't understand its words. The content on it couldn't even be called symbols.
The Bloody Newspaper seemed to have lost its ability to speak.
"Spread out, three parts, repeated three times."
Li Mo could only read this information. Three words, could it be "let me go"?
Obviously not. Ghosts don't beg like that.
"Can't keep this. This painting and the Bloody Newspaper are very strange now."
Li Mo immediately overlapped the painting and the Bloody Newspaper, then decisively took out the Bizarre pistol.
He had four bullets left, but Li Mo generously gave them two.
For the next three days, he would not allow his plan to be interfered with by the unknown. The abrupt change in the Bloody Newspaper and the painting gave Li Mo a strange palpitation. For him now, palpitations were very abnormal.
It was as if he had been entangled by something.
But he had only taken a glance.
---||---
Lost City. Irene, in her room listening to classical music, suddenly opened her eyes, parted her lips, and her rosy lips moved.
Her wine-red eyes stared at the rosemary she was twirling in her hand, her gaze gradually becoming distant.
"How nice, Detective. You're still so unconventional."
"The divergence of ideal and reality, the hazy boundary between love and hate."
"The rules of the Bizarre are fair."
"When you are willing to sacrifice, there will surely be someone willing to sacrifice for you."
"It seems I'm superfluous, Detective. Your Irene has already made a choice for you."
Rosemary smiled a beautiful smile, her distant eyes gradually coming back into focus. She unhurriedly turned off the classical music and walked out into the streets of the Lost City.
Seeing a towering building with flashing neon lights, she walked in with a joyful stride.
Modern Western-style architecture, the formal suits of socialites, and magnificent ball gowns. To the beautiful singing from the party's record player, they danced skillfully together.
"Beautiful lady, may I have this dance?"
A gentleman took off his hat and asked directly.
Rosemary glanced at him, then lowered her head, a meaningful smile on her face.
"Regrettably, I am waiting for a detective to arrive here. But if you can come to this party again in three days, I will accept your invitation."