"Got you," Shigure Kira said calmly, reigniting the candle. In an instant, the flame illuminated both the inside and outside of the room.
A giant spider hung suspended in the air, its body a grotesque patchwork of human limbs and organs. The sections of its head were clearly from different people. Its face displayed a myriad of expressions, mostly fear, panic, terror, and alarm... but these were not the ghost's emotions. They were the final expressions of the people the humanoid spider had killed.
"Hmm?"
Shigure Kira turned to find the streamer collapsed on the floor. She went over to check on her; she had only fainted.
Was she that scared? Or something else? A handprint was visible on her ankle... It seemed the humanoid spider had done something. A corpse-hand lurking in the shadows?
Still, it was for the best. A quiet person to protect was much more conducive to thinking than a noisy one.
"Just like he said, this ghost never intended to get its own hands dirty from the start. It prioritizes cutting off every factor that helps the living survive, cornering them until they're trapped and die. It only reveals itself to backstab them if the trap itself fails to kill."
Shigure Kira walked forward and pushed over the body of the streamer's friend. The back was completely empty. It was just a layer of skin stretched over a few supporting bones. All the internal organs and flesh had been hollowed out. This wasn't a ghost, but merely a corpse used to deceive the living. No wonder it hadn't moved; it was as dead as dead could be.
"I never left the room, so the humanoid spider didn't rush to attack. It must have been on the ceiling above the doorway."
"It only revealed a flaw when I blew out the candle."
"Because if a candle can be blown out by a person, it can be lit by one too."
"If I had immediately closed the door and relit the candle, the ghost would have lost its chance to kill us tonight. So it had to take a risk and enter the room to make sure the candle stayed out."
"Li Mo said that as long as a ghost remains in a room, the candle will burn out quickly. The ghost knows this too. But what it could never have imagined is..."
Kira extended her hand, a bizarre, blood-red light swirling between her fingers. Her azure eyes were gradually being overtaken by scarlet, within which stars and moons flickered, filled with corruption and ill omens.
"I can 'kill' it instantly."
The ghost she carried had many abilities, most of which she was unaware of. But knowing she possessed absolute authority over time and space was enough. Although the locked ghost would reawaken in the near future, breaking free from the time lock, Shigure Kira could reach the third, fourth, or even fifth floor by then. After she completed the ritual, it wouldn't matter if these ghosts broke free.
"It's just... a shame. The others are all dead."
She could save them all by rewinding time, but doing so would likely drain her consciousness before she even reached the third floor. Just using her time-space power for a single moment had caused a noticeable "fading" of her consciousness. The cost of just locking a segment of time, not even rewinding it, was far too heavy.
"I should have used force to make them do as I said. But why..."
Shigure Kira slanted a cold glance at the streamer on the floor, and then at the empty human husks in the hallway outside. She was surprised to find not a shred of conflict in her heart. It was as if... such a cruel scene was commonplace, unable to stir the slightest ripple within her.
This feeling of indifference to morality was hard to describe. Shigure Kira knew clearly that it was wrong. Because she didn't care about anything, she felt no guilt. In fact, her most direct feeling was that this state was rather pleasant, as it freed her from many worries and burdens.
But her sober reason told her this was extremely dangerous. She had become this apathetic after only temporarily losing her humanity. What would she become if she remained in this state for a long time? Would she see human life as worthless, eliminating anyone who stood in her way—be it family, friends, lovers, or mentors? Would she be able to strike down even a parallel-world version of herself without a second thought?
The feeling was wonderful, and also terrifying.
"If I can't escape this state, what should I do?"
Shigure Kira froze on the spot. She dragged the streamer back into the room, not placing her on the sofa, but leaving her to sleep on the cold floor.
This was a very conscious descent into depravity. She was fully aware that she was gradually heading toward a terrifying extreme, yet she couldn't control herself, couldn't turn back. She could only watch as she became unrecognizable, stripped of all humanity.
"Li... Mo..."
When faced with a problem, the first person Shigure Kira thought of was Li Mo.
Suddenly, a light flickered in Shigure Kira's dim, crimson eyes. She shifted her gaze to the streamer on the floor, walked over, and lifted her onto the sofa, covering her with a blanket. This way, she won't catch a cold.
Next was to turn off the livestream. However, with such a major incident, the official organizations of this world must have noticed. She wondered if she would encounter Valkyries from Schicksal...
Shigure Kira shook her head. "No, no matter how much hype the haunted house gets, Schicksal won't pay attention in the short term. Even if they do notice, they won't intervene. There are too many similar incidents, and the Valkyries don't have the time or energy to spare."
Fighting the Honkai was already difficult enough. It was impossible for them to deal with paranormal events of unknown origin all over the world. Such matters were left to local authorities to handle. But from the looks of it, the Far East's government had no intention of doing so.
"I'll worry about that later. The rule for the second day is 'Sleep,' and the most dangerous thing is the knocking. The Knocking Ghost knocks based on the number of ghosts in the room. Anyone awake will be judged as a living person and killed by the reawakened ghosts inside. But sleeping people will be killed by the ghosts in their dreams."
"The key to breaking this is to expel all the ghosts from the room before the Knocking Ghost arrives, and to stay awake through the night."
"I already know that the ghost is the Snail with a human face from under the haunted bed. I just need to move the haunted bed out tomorrow to get through the night safely."
Shigure Kira gave her own analysis a thumbs-up. As expected, with the right intel, surviving a few days wasn't that hard. After all, the unknown is the greatest terror.
Shigure Kira opened the window and stared out at the boundless, seemingly endless, thick black fog. It was filled with blurry silhouettes, large and small, like countless people queuing up, slowly shuffling their way out. The uniform, rigid pace immediately gave them away as not being human.
Living people would bob up and down as they walked, occasionally swaying from side to side. Only ghosts would move with such mechanical, lifeless precision.
This number...
"There are so many. It's hard to imagine how to deal with this many ghosts without completing the ritual."
"Do people who die in different timelines all become ghosts that wander through every other timeline?"
"Why is this happening?"
Having gained the power of time and space, Shigure Kira knew very well that strict barriers existed between different timelines. Traveling between them required special mediums and power.
Night fell. Unknowingly, Shigure Kira had stood at the window all night. Her once clear, azure eyes had become bewitching and bizarre. A crimson light pierced through the black fog, like the scarred red moon in the sky, monitoring all the temporal nodes and corners of this world.
The next day, Shigure Kira woke the streamer up early. Following the information Li Mo had provided, she led the streamer to the second floor, moved their luggage into the second room, and then carried the haunted bed down to the main hall.
After all this was done, the streamer quickly pulled out a power bank. While charging her phone, she didn't forget to start her livestream. The moment she opened the app, she saw that her private messages showed 99+.
"I'm famous?"
The streamer was stunned, a little surprised, an involuntary smile creeping onto her lips. She saw that her follower count had surpassed one million. Before coming to the haunted house, she was just an unknown streamer with a paltry twenty to thirty thousand followers.
For someone from her social class, a million followers was practically a well-paying job.
She was about to share the news with her friends when she turned around and her expression faltered. They were all dead.
"..."
"..."
The streamer stood frozen, her heart feeling like dead wood. She wanted the views, yes, but if this fame came at the cost of so many of her friends' lives, wasn't she just feasting on their blood?
"It's not your fault," Shigure Kira said, stepping forward to comfort her.
"But... I'm the one who brought them here... If I hadn't invited them to help me with my livestream, they'd be at home right now, sitting on their soft sofas... eating delicious but unhealthy snacks... watching all kinds of TV shows... They wouldn't have been in danger, if I hadn't insisted on coming..."
Like any normal person, the streamer was consumed by deep regret. Regret for tempting fate and bringing her friends into a haunted house, regret for believing the forum posts and coming here on an adventure in the first place.
Shigure Kira was silent for a long time, looking at the streamer's bowed head. She seemed to see a shadow of her past self.
"Once a person makes a choice, they must bear the consequences. That applies to you, me, and everyone else."
"Even if you hadn't brought them here, it wouldn't be long before this world was invaded by ghosts anyway. It was only a matter of time."
"Don't wallow in grief. That's just a waste of time. What we should be doing now is going to the next floor and finding the person who can truly solve this haunted house problem."
Shigure Kira's tone was indifferent for the first part of her speech. But when she reached the last sentence, her voice gained an inflection, and a faint light flickered in her eyes, like a ray of dawn.
"The person who can truly solve this? Who?" the streamer asked.
"A very capable person," Shigure Kira smiled. "Alright, what's done is done. You can continue your stream. Think of it as informing the public about what's happening here. Right now, many people probably still think this haunted house incident is just a marketing stunt. If you can reveal the truth to everyone, you might be able to save a lot of people."
For some reason, this idea suddenly came to Shigure Kira. A feeling of wanting to help, to save who she could.
Paranormal events didn't interfere with electronic devices as severely as they did in the movies. In fact, electronic devices could be used in the vast majority of paranormal incidents, including the extremely bizarre Bizarre Cave, St. Freya High School, and this haunted house.
Many ghosts had the ability to alter, blur, or distort information. Information transmitted through electronic devices was still information, and there was no guarantee it would be accurate. Therefore, electronic devices were not a reliable enough tool and didn't have much practical value.
But things couldn't get any worse right now. Since everyone already thought the haunted house was a hoax, the information transmitted would, at worst, just be seen as another layer of the hoax. With luck, revealing the truth could prevent a lot of people from dying out of curiosity.
The two of them quickly tidied up the second room, and the streamer started her stream as usual. Unlike her usual eager and enthusiastic self, today her expression was grim, her brows nearly knitted together, and there wasn't a hint of a smile on her face.
BlindFishAzathoth: Streamer doesn't look too good today. What happened?
TenYearFan_HereUninvited: Look at my ID. I'm a ten-year fan of this streamer. Something's wrong. The streamer is really not herself today. Usually, she greets us at the start of the stream with, "Family, another energetic day! Let's get it!" But she didn't say it today. Did something happen? Was yesterday's stream real?
Truth-MirrorAbyss: She's only been streaming for two and a half years. How are you a ten-year fan?
GreenCorpseLetter_Warning: Little hater, you've finally shown your true colors!
InvincibleUltraChaoticDarkTyrannoWarGod: Streamer, what really happened last night? Was the stream real? Not scripted?!
The chat flooded with comments, all desperate for answers.
"Everyone, listen to me..." The streamer's voice was hoarse, her eyes swollen and red. She didn't use her usual flippant address, but in a very serious tone, told everyone the truth that Shigure Kira had shared with her.
At the very end, the streamer bowed to the tens of thousands of viewers in her stream and said earnestly, "If I have told a single lie, I am willing to take full responsibility for my words."
Instantly, the chat erupted into conflict. Those who didn't believe still didn't believe, thinking it was just shameless hype. Those who did believe were deeply shaken, a strange fear of the haunted house rising within them. They felt like a ghost was standing by their bed, staring at them as they slept.
At that moment, a clear female voice broke the silence.
"Back to the room. The ghosts are coming."
Without a second word, the streamer grabbed her streaming equipment and ran for the room.
FouIsEverywhere: For real? The streamer looks really panicked. It doesn't look like acting. If it is, she could totally be an actress, it's flawless.
FiveEqualPartsShangYang: Seriously, I feel like I can hear the streamer's heartbeat.
OffToTheDocksForFries: I don't know about the streamer's heartbeat, but the guy above me definitely doesn't have one.
SexyMotherCockroach: What a dark joke. Anyway, has no one noticed how terrifying Miss White Flower's eyes have become? Just one look at them gives me the creeps. They don't look like human eyes. I thought they were colored contacts at first, but then I thought, what kind of contacts look that weird?
TheWayOfForgetting: Not at all, Miss White Flower's eyes look perfectly normal. You should probably get your eyes checked. (lol)
DoYouChargeQCoins_IM_ASKING_YOU: How DARE you! Heretic! Get out of this stream!
With no time to deal with the chat, the streamer shut the door immediately after entering the room and curled up on the sofa.
"Point the camera at the door. You can't sleep tonight. If you feel drowsy, tell me and I'll wake you up."
"What happens if I fall asleep?"
"You'll dream of ghosts."
"If I meet a ghost in a dream, will I die?"
"It may be a dream, but it's probably no different from reality. Just like how many people get confused when they're half-asleep and mistake dreams for reality. When the line between the two blurs, the dream becomes reality. The joy you feel in a dream will carry over to reality, and so will the pain."
Shigure Kira calmly explained to the streamer. This wasn't her own knowledge, but information about "dreams" that Li Mo had supplemented her with. To make it easier to understand, Li Mo had even used the classic Chinese story of Zhuang Zhou dreaming of a butterfly.
Did Zhuang Zhou dream he became a butterfly, or did a butterfly dream it became Zhuang Zhou? Who is the true self, and who is the source?
Shigure Kira didn't understand why Li Mo had emphasized this point among all the vast information he'd given her. There was so much intel on ghosts; clearly, this kind of philosophy wasn't important for survival. But since he had mentioned it, it was something she had to remember. Whether for her own sake, or because...
Shigure Kira pursed her lips, her expression wavering as she placed a hand on her lower abdomen.
The streamer pointed her phone's camera at the door. Although she didn't know why, she firmly believed White Flower wouldn't deceive her. Because if she couldn't even trust White Flower, she really didn't know who she could trust.
This action, however, also raised questions among the viewers.
B-Baka...WhoProposesWhileInTheMiddleOfIt: Just asking, why does Miss White Flower want the camera pointed at the door? Doesn't seem like there's much to film, just an ordinary door. Is it to see invisible ghosts? I've seen in some movies that the human eye can't see ghosts, but a phone camera can capture their full image... Hiss, just thinking about it is terrifying. Taking a nice selfie, and suddenly there's half a head next to you, staring...
Pessimist-LifeIsPointless-BaobhanSith: Sob... stop talking... I've seen that too, it's so scary...
DemonPoGongWithTheTwelveTalismans: Whatever. Uncle will take care of it.
The streamer asked in confusion, "White Flower, what's this for?"
Shigure Kira replied, "Testing, and collecting."
On the second night, the Knocking Ghost would stop at the doors of the first eight rooms and knock according to the number of ghosts inside. There were no ghosts in the second room. Or rather, there was one ghost.
Herself.
So, it was inevitable that Shigure Kira would have to act.
The moment it knocked, she would lock the Knocking Ghost's time. This was to prevent the ghost inside her from awakening prematurely. This process could succeed, or it could fail. But no matter what, Shigure Kira believed she wouldn't die.
As for whether it would work on the highly complete Knocking Ghost, she wasn't sure. After she found Li Mo, she would show him the video of her fight with the Knocking Ghost, and he would get more useful information.
The streamer didn't ask any more questions, quietly holding her phone.
Knock! Knock! Knock!
A clear knocking sound rang out. It was from the first room, next door.
"M-Miss White Flower! The ghost is here!"
"I know."
Shigure Kira stood up and walked to the door, her eyes sharpening.
The chat was bewildered. Since the stream started on the second day, they hadn't seen anyone other than the streamer and Shigure Kira. So who was knocking now?
It was like that thought experiment: everyone in the world is dead except you, but then there's a knock at your door... Was it another actor? But the streamer was just an ordinary high school student. Where would she get that kind of money? The corpse from last night was unbelievably realistic.
Crunch... crunch...
The sound of the floorboards cracking grew closer, stopping right in front of Shigure Kira. The Knocking Ghost was heavy. Li Mo had mentioned that its footsteps made a distinct sound of the ground cracking.
However, the knocking didn't come.
Is it still making a judgment...? Shigure Kira thought. She wasn't sure if her current state counted as human or ghost. It probably leaned more toward human, just with a few ghostly traits. But what her final identity would be judged as was hard to say.
Tap...
A light knock sounded. In that instant, Shigure Kira threw open the door and immediately used her time-space power to lock the space in front of her.
But she hit nothing.
That's right, there was nothing at the door.
"How is that possible?" Shigure Kira was very surprised. She had clearly heard a knock, although it sounded a bit different. And she had distinctly felt an icy presence right at the door.
Shigure Kira looked down and saw that the floorboards were cracked. This meant it wasn't a hallucination. The Knocking Ghost had indeed been standing there and knocked just a second ago. But for some reason, it had disappeared.
"...No, that's not right!"
Shigure Kira noticed another thin, slender shadow next to her own on the floor. She immediately whipped her head around, only to see a tall, dark figure with a swollen body, as if ghosts were about to burst out of it at any moment. It was watching her from the side, motionless.
"Lock!"
Without thinking, Shigure Kira subconsciously used her time-space power to lock the Knocking Ghost.
But unexpectedly, the Knocking Ghost disappeared again. This time, it reappeared at the entrance of the hallway...
"No, that's not right..." Shigure Kira clenched her fists. "I clearly felt the time-space lock succeed. It's an instantaneous trigger, there's no time to escape."
"Every time I lock it, this ghost goes back to a previous moment in time. Is it restarting? But I didn't kill it!"
One of the most indelible primordial laws of the Bizarre: death restart. This was fixed. A being had to be judged as dead to restart to a safe point in time, resurrecting immediately and removing most negative statuses. But locking time didn't mean death. Ghosts don't have a concept of time. So why did her attempt to lock the Knocking Ghost's time fail?
At this moment, Shigure Kira stood at the doorway, face to face with the Knocking Ghost. Her body was on the verge of collapse, her temperature plummeting. A consciousness in her mind was threatening to break free.
Shigure Kira forcefully suppressed it. Overusing her time-space power had left her in a very poor mental state.
Crunch... crunch...
The Knocking Ghost turned and left. This was the first time it had left the haunted house with its heavy steps before morning.
The reason... was unknown...