Irene gently set down her red tea, rising to move deeper into the area. Her elegant, beautiful form captivated the gentleman.
This banquet would last for a full month. Three days was a long time, but to dance with this stunning lady was well worth it.
The gentleman watched, entranced, as Irene departed.
A beautiful, unattainable flower. If she could be won so easily, without a single trial, she would be far too cheap.
Besides, for these three days, he could still do as he pleased. He simply needed to have his butler remind him to attend the banquet three days later to dance with this beautiful lady.
The gentleman adjusted the tie around his neck. It seemed a bit tight, as if an invisible pressure was clinging to it, trying to constrict.
"A detective?"
The gentleman mused, puzzled. The profession didn't seem to fit this high-society banquet, but he said no more, not wanting to displease her.
In his circle, he had never known any wealthy heir to have such a hobby. Or perhaps...
There were too few detective agencies in this city. Though the pay was always good, the death rate for detectives was first-class.
Five years ago, there were over a hundred detective agencies. Now, there were barely a dozen.
Only those who were desperately poor and in need of money, with a little knowledge, would choose this path.
To the social elite, this path was obviously foolish and offered extremely low returns.
"Mr. Held, you have visitors."
"Oh? Who is it?"
"They claim to be your admirers and would like to invite you to dinner at another place you frequent."
"The red-light district?"
"Yes."
"How many?"
"Three. You'll like them."
The gentleman glanced at where Irene had disappeared and sighed, a look of disappointment involuntarily crossing his face.
"What a pity to have such regrets tonight. Tell them I'll be there."
---||---
Haunted Manor, Second Floor.
After placing the dormant Bloody Newspaper and the twisted painting in a hard-to-find corner of the third room, Li Mo entered the eighth room, told everyone the survival rules for the third floor, and took the three usable Ghost Beds to the third floor.
The layout of the first and second floors was almost identical, but the third floor was somewhat messy and irregular.
"Is this a storage room? It's so messy, I can't even walk." Kanagawa Yume kicked away a cardboard box blocking her path and grumbled.
"..."
"..."
The members of the Occult Club walked with hunched backs and drooping heads, their eyes blinking, their steps unsteady, as if they could fall at any moment.
A night of high pressure had left them mentally exhausted.
Li Mo didn't need sleep. Although Kanagawa Yume had had a nightmare, she had at least gotten some rest.
Li Mo noticed this. While it was relatively safe during the day, he had to get them to catch up on sleep and regain their energy.
Otherwise, with sluggish reactions and tired bodies, it would be difficult to react in time on the third day.
The game of Red Light, Green Light required stopping the moment the ghost moved. This was no easy task.
One must not be dominated by fear and flee in panic, because inertia would become an aid to the ghost's killing.
"First, clear out a clean space. Three beds. You can lie across them and squeeze in to sleep. Kanagawa will wake you up when the time comes."
Li Mo moved the Ghost Beds to a relatively open area. The surrounding cardboard boxes made him a little uneasy.
Even for a storage room, the number of boxes was abnormally high.
With a dozen people helping, it didn't take long to clear out a simple space to place the Ghost Beds. After eating, they didn't even want to brush their teeth and just fell onto the beds.
Before long, the sound of even, faint breathing filled the air. They had fallen asleep.
During the day, "Sleeping" and "Being Alone" would not be triggered.
"They're all asleep," Kanagawa Yume said as she walked over.
"Mm."
"What do you need me to do?"
"You just need to sleep soundly at night. I need the information you see in your dreams."
"Okay. But speaking of which, why do ghosts enter my dreams? I asked the president and the others, and they haven't seen ghosts in their dreams."
Kanagawa Yume asked the question she had been wanting to ask all along.
Li Mo didn't need sleep, so he couldn't be sure, but of the dozen or so students, only she could see ghosts in her dreams.
After spending two days with Li Mo, Kanagawa Yume gradually understood that many things happened for a reason.
So, if she could see ghosts in her dreams, there must be a necessary reason. As for what that reason was, she didn't know, and it was hard to know, but Li Mo definitely knew.
At least Li Mo knew roughly why, it just depended on whether he wanted to say it.
Kanagawa Yume thought this was very important. What if, after they successfully escaped the haunted manor and Li Mo disappeared, she was haunted by the ghosts in her dreams again? Wouldn't that be game over?
Li Mo glanced at the layout of the third floor. It seemed like there were many places to hide, but in reality, it was just boxes filling the space, making what should have been an empty area crowded.
But this was not a good thing. Normally, the living could hide under the Ghost Bed. As long as they didn't make a sound, the ghosts couldn't find them.
Once the living were found by the ghosts, they had to play Red Light, Green Light with them. Ghost moves, person doesn't. Ghost doesn't move, person moves.
But what if, while the person was moving, they collided with a box and made a sound? Would that wake up the unmoving ghost ahead of time?
"Tidy up all these boxes, stack them, and place them against the wall. After you've cleared out enough space to move freely, I'll tell you."
"Huh? What about you? Just watching?"
"Yes. You can wake your classmates up to help."
Li Mo calmly admitted his slacking. He didn't need to do this kind of thing himself.
If he had to do everything himself, it would be too tiring. There were priorities. What he had to do was find clues, gather information, and deal with various unexpected situations at night.
Kanagawa Yume glanced at him and sighed helplessly.
"Sigh, forget it. I'll do it myself. I'm bored anyway."
With that, Kanagawa Yume got to work, obediently moving and stacking one box after another.
But every time she opened a box, she had a strange urge to crawl inside.
At this, Kanagawa Yume shook her head, forcing the thought from her mind.
Without Li Mo's instruction, she wouldn't dare to enter anything in the haunted manor again.
Just like last time when she crawled under the Ghost Bed, who would have known that just sticking half her body under the bed would turn her into a disgusting snail?
A ghostly face hanging from the underside of the bed, even crawling onto the back of her head. The thought of it made her feel sick.
"Hiss... I should just forget that memory. How could a beautiful girl's body ooze thick slime?"
Kanagawa Yume said to herself with self-awareness.
She threw herself back into the task of moving boxes.
Li Mo pushed aside box after box covered in cobwebs and dust, checking them with the thermometer along the way.
The cobwebs and dust were normal. Sticking the thermometer into the boxes caused a slight, insignificant drop in temperature. Most of them had no clues inside, just empty space.
But occasionally, he could find surprises inside—a strand of hair, a severed arm...
It was just that these corpse remains looked familiar. The current conditions didn't allow Li Mo to verify their identity, so he could only leave them for now.
"Someone has been to the third floor. Why are their remains in the boxes?"
Anyone who could reach the third floor must have their own unique understanding of the haunted manor's survival rules. Whether it was luck or strength, getting here meant they were different.
Li Mo closed his eyes, imagining nightfall.
The person who reached the third floor must have had companions. They hadn't "pretended to be a ghost," nor had they slept at night.
He carefully observed every corner of the third floor, but in the end, like himself, his focus fell on the abnormally large number of strange boxes.
Taking advantage of the safe daylight hours, he searched patiently and found corpse remains inside.
A sharp-minded person would surely know that someone who was found by a ghost at night and hid in a box had met a tragic end. So what would he do?
Li Mo opened his eyes. There were only two answers.
One was to bet on luck and hide in a box again to avoid the ghosts' attack.
The other was to go to the ninth room at the end of the corridor.
The layout of the third floor had changed dramatically, including the disappearance of the eight guest rooms in the corridor.
Only the ninth room remained, always at the end of the corridor.
And the chains were somewhat loosened.
"The ninth room on each floor is connected."
Li Mo recognized the position and appearance of every chain; he wouldn't be mistaken.
The state of the seal on the third floor was identical to the seal on the second floor.
Li Mo first took out all the surviving candles from the second floor and cautiously walked to the boundary of the ninth room's doorway.
After a moment's pause, he slowly threw a lit candle out.
The candle didn't go out. It seemed there was nothing scary here.
After patiently waiting for more than ten minutes, the candle still showed no signs of being consumed. Only then did Li Mo proceed to the next step.
The most special part of his body was his Sprout-enhanced left hand. It was a ghost.
Ghosts don't die, so Li Mo slowly stretched out his left hand, tentatively crossing the boundary, approaching the area of the ninth room's door.
One second, two seconds, ten seconds...
After a full half-minute, he still got no feedback from his Sprout-enhanced left hand. The area in front seemed like normal space.
He didn't even sense the unique, chilling aura of the Bizarre.
But Li Mo didn't believe it. An area that even the Knocking Ghost didn't dare to approach easily was just an ordinary space.
"At least for today, I hope your prophecy is not wrong."
Li Mo glanced at the notebook. The prophecy said he would die on the fourth day.
But the notebook's prophecy could be changed. What it predicted must be what would naturally happen if the user did nothing.
The half-human, half-ghost body gradually crossed the boundary. At first, he felt nothing.
"Nothing happened?"
Li Mo, alone, completely entered the area of the ninth room. It seemed there was nothing special.
The next second, a sense of disorientation filled his brain. Li Mo half-knelt on the ground, one hand clutching his aching forehead.
He could still move his body.
Li Mo quickly withdrew, leaving the area of the ninth room, and the pain in his head subsided.
"A very special pain, like something is being pulled out of my body."
"It's targeting the consciousness level. Why didn't the Misfortune Ghost issue a curse?"
Li Mo had experienced this before, so he was very sensitive to interference on the consciousness level. The situation just now was not physical pain, or he could have endured it completely.
But if it was an attack on the consciousness level, it was unreasonable that the Misfortune Ghost didn't give a warning.
"The Knocking Ghost didn't dare to approach, and with my current state approaching that of a Bizarre entity, the area outside the ninth room is very likely targeting ghosts."
"Ghosts are greatly suppressed within it."
"Then why didn't my Sprout-enhanced left hand feel anything? Or is my Sprout-enhanced left hand missing something, and didn't trigger the corresponding rule?"
Li Mo pondered. The only explanation he could think of was that his left hand was a product of unconsciousness, or that it had no soul.
"I don't know if things will change when night falls, but if there's really no way out, this will be the last safe zone for the living."
Li Mo turned and left. When he returned to the main hall, it had been tidied up quite neatly by Kanagawa Yume. It wasn't clean, but at least it looked decent.
Different boxes were stacked, leaning against the wall, reaching the ceiling.
Most of the walls were covered. In the middle of the hall, besides the three Ghost Beds and a pile of luggage, there was nothing.
No tables, no chairs, no coffee tables, nothing.
"Hmph hmph, how about that? My execution is pretty good, right?" Kanagawa Yume said with a smug smile, spreading her hands, inviting Li Mo to admire her masterpiece.
"Now you should tell me why I keep seeing ghosts in my dreams, right?"
Li Mo glanced around seriously.
She had indeed done as he said. As for the effect, Li Mo didn't dare to compliment it.
"Don't you think it's a little strange?" Li Mo said, pointing to the boxes that were facing the wrong way.
"Strange? What's strange? They've been like this for a long time."
"Sometimes you should look for your own reasons, okay? I think I did a pretty good job."
"Look, I even put all the box openings facing down. That way, even if a ghost crawls out from inside, it won't be able to get out because the opening is blocked."
Kanagawa Yume had been busy all morning and was very angry at Li Mo's nitpicking.
Li Mo didn't mind Kanagawa Yume's mood and explained calmly:
"We'll definitely be hiding under the Ghost Beds tonight."
"You put the openings facing down. If the ghosts can get out, what kind of posture do you think they'll be in at first?"
"An inverted posture," Kanagawa Yume answered immediately.
"..."
The next second, the corners of Kanagawa Yume's mouth twitched. An inverted posture... wouldn't that mean they could see the living hiding under the bed at a glance?
She could already imagine it. At night, everyone is hiding under the bed, and suddenly there's a strange noise from the boxes.
Then a ghost crawls out of a box with a ferocious smile, its inverted head happening to be face-to-face with them.
"Aahhh! I was wrong! I'll fix it right away!"
Kanagawa Yume tore at her hair. She had been busy all morning and now she had to do it all over again. Night hadn't even fallen and she was already going crazy.
The idea that ghosts would appear from the boxes was just Li Mo's guess, because he really hadn't found any other place in the house where ghosts could possibly appear.
The only time the thermometer had shown a significant change was when Li Mo had stuck it into a box.