Chapter 45: Agent of the Special Investigation Bureau

Soon, Ji Yun returned to the previous room.

When he got back, that terrifying game was still ongoing.

Since none of them were familiar with one another, the others merely glanced at Ji Yun upon his return and paid him no further attention.

Only Zhao Kai stepped forward with concern and asked, "Brother Yun, are you alright?"

Ji Yun shook his head. "I'm fine."

Both he and the fat man had already completed two rounds of the game, so they were temporarily out of danger.

After entering, Ji Yun surveyed the crowd while quietly walking over to the window, which was barricaded by dilapidated tables and chairs.

He stretched his neck out and looked up at the sky.

Sure enough, through the dense canopy of leaves, he caught sight of a greenish moonlight.

At some point, a green moon had hung itself in the sky.

Ji Yun had seen it once before, within the Ruins Realm.

A green moon—this was not a moon of the mortal realm.

It belonged to the netherworld.

Then, he lowered his gaze and looked down.

As expected.

The ground was not covered with any doll props.

Instead, there was a corpse lying in a pool of blood.

A white long dress, long hair... her face could not be seen clearly.

A suspicion arose in Ji Yun's heart: *Could this be the crime scene where Lin Kexin fell to her death?*

......

No one could leave until the game was completed.

These were the rules of the game.

Cheng Yu, who had bolted out earlier, was most likely in grave danger by now.

Ji Yun's gaze swept across the room.

Number 5, Lu Jiu, and Number 6, Senior Sister Li Zi, had already finished their game.

In the previous round, both of them had chosen truth or dare.

This round, it was truth.

Aside from looking somewhat shaken, the two women showed no particular change in their expressions.

Number 7, Zhang Xiaonan, and Number 8, Wu Feng, had chosen truth in the previous round, and whatever they experienced in this round's dare was unknown—one had their palm pierced by a dagger, while the other bore rope burns of hanging around their neck. Both punishments looked severe.

As Ji Yun's peripheral vision swept across the crowd, he naturally caught a glimpse of "Song Wei."

Right on cue, that fellow looked back as well.

The corners of "Song Wei's" mouth curled into a mocking arc, as if he were taunting: *So what if you know I'm a ghost?*

The rule of the game was that Ji Yun could not share the truth of the game with anyone else.

Moreover, he had a strong intuition that killing this guy wouldn't solve the problem.

The corpse downstairs was probably the key.

......

At that moment, the game reached Number 9, Jiang Tian.

The dare he drew was: Shadow Mimicry.

Yet another punishment that seemed normal on the surface.

A shadow appeared on the wall.

It depicted a little stick figure whose hands and feet were contorted into a bizarre posture resembling the Buddhist swastika.

What Jiang Tian had to do was use his own body to replicate that posture.

By now, everyone seemed to understand that the rules of the game had to be obeyed.

Jiang Tian also tried hard to imitate it.

However, the shadow's posture was simply not something a normal human could achieve.

Either a hand or a foot—at least one joint had to be bent backward in reverse to complete it.

Jiang Tian tried a few times, still unable to complete the movement.

Just as the others were wondering whether the shadow's posture was unreasonable, a crisp "crack" echoed through the room, and Jiang Tian let out a painful howl as his right elbow joint was snapped by a mysterious force.

His body instantly matched the pattern of the shadow identically.

......

Everyone was terrified by this bizarre scene.

Even Zhao Kai, who was usually quite bold, shivered his layers of fat.

Ji Yun, by comparison, felt much more detached.

Compared to the corpse in the bathroom, as long as one survived, this punishment could actually be considered gentle.

This was the Ruins Realm.

Everything was prepared for the sole purpose of slaughtering everyone.

Ji Yun also perceived that the entire game was conducted by that "ghost" precisely to terrify everyone and sap their vital life force.

At that moment, the beckoning cat spoke once more: "Number Ten, please begin the game."

Number Ten was Liao Feifei.

Having just watched Jiang Tian's arm snap right before her eyes, how could she dare to draw a lot?

Yet the more she shrank back, the more it directly triggered the rule of compulsory participation.

Liao Feifei's body moved uncontrollably as she pulled out the very last red cat whisker and trembling read out the words: "There is a ghost among your companions. Find it out. Find the right one, and the game ends. Find the wrong one, and the accused dies. The one whom everyone jointly identifies as the ghost must also die. And you shall take the place of the 'ghost' to begin a brand new game."

As soon as these words were spoken, the complexions of everyone present shifted drastically.

A ghost?

Although everyone had guessed that there might be ghosts haunting the place tonight, actually hearing someone voice the word unleashed a terror brought by the collapse of their worldview that simply could not be suppressed.

......

Ji Yun never expected that the final game would be a game of "Werewolf."

He actually knew who the ghost was.

Yet he could not say it.

When he looked again at "Song Wei's" mocking and provocative gaze, Ji Yun understood the true purpose of this round of game.

Division, suspicion, and the draining of vital energy.

And... there was a new game in the next round?

A dark cloud brewed in the depths of Ji Yun's eyes, and suddenly he felt a bit uncertain.

His previous judgment—that the entity required terror to kill and was merely a low-level evil spirit—was called into question.

If it were just that, he truly had a degree of confidence in dealing with it now.

At least he felt dealing with that "Song Wei" wouldn't pose much of a problem.

Yet now, the corpse in the white dress was still lying downstairs, coupled with the [426 Hospital] incident that had experienced hauntings decades ago.

A ghost building laden with multiple layers of paranormal buffs definitely could not house merely a single low-level evil spirit.

There was also the matter of the school covering up the serial falling deaths and sending people to silence them, which concealed deep and massive secrets.

Even the people here were not quite right.

Whether it was Senior Sister Xia Li, Liao Feifei, or the two senior students, each seemed to have a shroud of mystery hanging behind them.

All signs indicated that the matter was far more complex than imagined.

The doubts in Ji Yun's mind grew increasingly numerous, and he did not act rashly.

......

As the game progressed to this point, everyone knew that the legend of the [426 Ghost Nurse] was likely true.

Upon seeing the punishment she drew, Liao Feifei cried until her makeup washed off, looking pitiful and helpless.

If she failed to complete it, she would become the "ghost."

She had long since lost the arrogant triumph she displayed when chasing traffic earlier, and her pleading gaze swept across the people in the room.

Because of what had happened before, no one was willing to stand alongside a selfish, backstabbing, and sinister villain.

In the end, Liao Feifei could only let her gaze fall upon Xia Li.

In the face of life and death, pride could no longer be maintained.

Weeping mournfully, she begged bitterly, "Senior Sister Xia Li, aren't you a spirit medium? Quickly... quickly think of something! Save me... I don't want to die. I really don't want to die."

Having a request to make of someone, she once again resorted to the respectful title of "Senior Sister."

Though everyone despised this sudden reversal of her attitude, their expressions nonetheless lit up.

That's right!

Wasn't Senior Sister Xia Li a spirit medium?

Ji Yun also looked over. During the live stream just now, this senior sister had boasted about possessing Taoist magic items like the "Bagua Mirror," the "Sanqing Bell," and the "Mountain Ghost Coins," claiming they carried the power of incense and dharma.

Dealing with ordinary wandering souls should be completely fine.

At the very least, ghosts should actively avoid them.

Yet reality proved disappointing.

Not to mention that Xia Li herself was frightened half to death.

Even if she hadn't been terrified, there was no way she would help this scheming bitch who had just ruined everything she had.

Hearing Liao Feifei's bitter entreaties, not only did Xia Li refuse to help, but acting as if something had just occurred to her, she pointed angrily at her and shouted, "You are the 'ghost'! You're still acting now! You're the one who found the newspaper about [426 Hospital], and you're the one who insisted on playing the game! You orchestrated all of this!"

Even if Xia Li hadn't said it, everyone already felt that Liao Feifei was deeply problematic.

Hearing those words now, they were so frightened they backed far away.

Staring at the pairs of terrified eyes fixed upon her, Liao Feifei flapped her hands frantically in explanation, "It's not me! It really isn't me! I... I... I... I found that newspaper in a second-hand bookstore, and the beckoning cat was a gift from a fan."

Resentment had long since taken root in Xia Li's heart, and she sneered in a shrill voice, "You still want to lie! From beginning to end, you were the one who lured me into doing this ghost-hunting live stream!"

"I... I..."

Liao Feifei was caught in a trap where a hundred explanations would not suffice.

The already meager shreds of rationality she possessed had completely collapsed.

And indeed, the facts were just as stated.

Providing that old newspaper of [426 Hospital] from the very beginning had been her calculation.

She had simply wanted to ride on the coattails of this internet-famous senior sister's traffic.

Yet she never imagined that there would actually be a ghost in this building.

......

Initially, Ji Yun had also felt that Liao Feifei had massive problems.

Not only because of the reasons Xia Li stated, but also because she was a primary suspect in the falling death case of her roommate, Lin Kexin.

Yet seeing Liao Feifei's terrified expression, which didn't look like acting at all, Ji Yun grew confused once again: *What role is this person actually playing in this paranormal event?*

One could say that without the old newspaper she handed to Xia Li, this ghost-hunting live stream would never have happened.

And even less would the things currently unfolding have taken place.

She truly was the source of the incident.

Yet she also genuinely seemed completely oblivious to everything.

Ji Yun recalled her mentioning a "mysterious fan" on multiple occasions.

The only reasonable explanation he could think of was that Liao Feifei had been utilized by someone else.

Yet if such a "mysterious fan" truly existed, what was his objective?

The more people became entangled, the more enigmatic and obscure the truth of the matter became.

Ji Yun felt his thoughts dissolving into a tangled mess of hemp.

The only thing he could be certain of was that the game had stated earlier there was only one ghost among them.

Therefore, it should not be Liao Feifei.

Because Ji Yun knew the real "ghost" was that "Song Wei."

......

It wasn't just Liao Feifei who was terrified; the others were deeply frightened as well.

Ji Yun could also perceive that this mutual suspicion was causing everyone's vital life force to visibly weaken before his eyes.

Originally, when everyone was united as one, their vital energies converged together, preventing any malevolent ghost from approaching.

Yet now, divided and mutually suspicious, their life force was not only scattered but continuously decaying.

If this continued, even without the ghost resorting to other methods, they would all likely have their wits frightened out of them.

Just as Ji Yun was pondering how to warn the others that "Song Wei" was the ghost without violating the rules, a dramatic scene unfolded once more.

Acting as if she had grabbed onto a straw to save her life in her panic, Liao Feifei turned her head and pointed accusingly at another girl, crying out, "It's her! Zhang Xiaonan! She's the one who might be the ghost! She admitted earlier that she isn't even from this school! She has been lying to us all along!"

Everyone present was now a startled bird at the rustle of leaves.

As soon as those words were spoken, everyone's gazes immediately converged upon the senior sister named "Zhang Xiaonan."

Events proved that during the previous round of truths, no one had spoken falsely.

And in the previous round, they all remembered that this very Zhang Xiaonan had personally confessed she was not a student of Jianghua University at all.

This point alone was enough to arouse suspicion.

If her conscience was clear, why would she disguise herself as a student and join the Paranormal Club?

Not only her, but also the senior student named "Wu Feng."

Ji Yun had long since perceived that these two individuals were somewhat unusual.

Yet after observing them carefully for so long, the feeling they gave him was neither that of ghosts nor that of malicious entities.

The composure they displayed while playing the game felt more akin to "informed insiders" who knew the inside story behind many events.

Being collectively identified would lead to death as well.

Ji Yun was also quite curious as to how these two would defend themselves.

......

Seeing the pairs of skeptical eyes fixed upon her, Zhang Xiaonan's face clearly reflected hesitation and a difficult choice.

Staying silent and offering no explanation at this juncture was definitely out of the question.

After a moment of thought, she spoke truthfully, "I am indeed not from the school. But I bear no malice toward anyone here."

Yet this candor failed to dispel the doubts of the others, and the atmosphere of guarded alertness in the room grew even heavier.

Zhang Xiaonan knew that revealing her identity now would inevitably make her a target for the ghost.

Yet if she failed to make herself clear now, the problem would only magnify.

Pondering for a fraction of a second, she ultimately made that difficult decision.

The gaze she cast upon the crowd suddenly turned sharp and stern as she declared: "I am an operative from the official ' Paranormal Investigation Bureau'."

As these words left her mouth, they carried an aura of righteousness and imposing dignity.