Chapter 139: Fake Headquarters

At some point, the mannequin head that had rolled downstairs and been shot to pieces by Ai Ning slowly stood up, growing into a complete mannequin.

It appeared behind Ai Ning as if it were alive, breathing against the back of her neck. "Did you hide in this building on a whim because the Woman in the Rain had you blocked off outside?

"What a pity. I didn't plan on killing you."

The moment Ai Ning sensed a ghost behind her, she reacted instantly, spinning around. She kicked her opponent away and fired her gun, trying to suppress it with a continuous barrage.

Her shoes were Supernatural Items—the Repulsion Combat Boots. Striking a paranormal entity would blast the target as far away as possible. The stronger the entity, the greater the repulsion force it suffered.

Unexpectedly, the kick vanished like a stone in the ocean. Striking the mannequin yielded absolutely no feedback.

The next moment, Ai Ning felt weightless as she was sent flying through the air. She watched helplessly as a headless female corpse stumbled forward a few steps like a blind woman without a cane, then collapsed beneath the corridor railing. A silver handgun flew from its grip.

It took Ai Ning a long time to realize her own head had been cleanly plucked off.

Bizarrely, her consciousness hadn't faded. She wasn't dead, but her severed trachea prevented her from making a sound. She could only be moved along, treated like an ornament by the hands cradling her.

Her eyes widened as she stared at the stiffly standing mannequin. Reduced to just a head, she had absolutely no control over her field of vision, left entirely at the mercy of the hands holding her.

"A low-level ghost hunter who ran out of East Gan Third Road, I presume. You were so weak you weren't even noticed.

"Just slaughter her, Ghost Cave. Since she bumped into us installing the Altar here, we can't let her leave."

The mannequin spoke with a deep female voice, evaluating her.

Being judged as too weak left Ai Ning feeling ashamed and furious. Yet, her opponent spoke the absolute truth. In the face of ironclad facts, she had no room for rebuttal.

At the same time, this bizarre, talking mannequin prompted Ai Ning to dig through a wealth of Fierce Ghost data in her memory until she finally recalled the entity's likely identity.

An A-Level Fierce Ghost: the Ghost Infant.

This Fierce Ghost was extremely special. Its Killing Rule was triggered if its right index finger pointed at any target. Regardless of whether the victim was male or female, human or ghost, their abdomen would swell massively and tear open to birth a ghost infant.

While it couldn't compare to a city-destroying S-Level, its Killing Rule was extraordinarily troublesome to deal with. A lone ghost hunter was absolutely no match for her. What made her even more special was that the Ghost Infant was a ghost with intelligence.

The reports from many ghost hunters who survived an encounter with her explicitly mentioned one thing: the Ghost Infant could understand human language, communicate normally, and possessed her own consciousness. She could think, mock, and make value judgments just like a human, deriving amusement from torturing and killing ghost hunters.

Why would the Ghost Infant appear in this building? Sure enough, the attack on Shanghai City tonight was not a simple paranormal outbreak.

It was a highly organized collective operation.

Ai Ning didn't know why she still hadn't died despite her head being detached for so long.

From the corner of her eye, she noticed that the palms cradling her were covered in holes of varying depths, looking incredibly macabre.

Those hands began to rotate her head, forcing Ai Ning's vision to flip one hundred and eighty degrees. When her face turned completely around, she finally saw the true appearance of the Fierce Ghost that had plucked her head off like a watermelon and cradled it—

It had no face.

It was a charred, emaciated corpse, its entire body riddled with densely packed holes piercing straight through from front to back. The head was especially grotesque. Its facial features and brain had been completely hollowed out, leaving only a massive, senseless cavity in the center of its skull. It was entirely empty, resembling some kind of alien creature.

Although it was highly inappropriate right now, Ai Ning suddenly thought of a dark joke—this was the biggest literal hole in a head she had ever seen in her life.

Alright, it wasn't funny at all.

The entity known as "Ghost Cave," despite lacking a mouth, still produced a man's voice. "Don't kill this little cutie just yet. She has a use for me.

"I'll modify her in a bit and reattach her head to her body."

Ai Ning felt those hands, riddled with terrifying holes, gently turn her head in a circle again. From the center of the hollowed skull, an invisible gaze seemed to admire the artwork cradled in his hands.

The Ghost Infant walked over with a stiff, crooked gait, sounding somewhat curious. "The Supernatural Disaster Bureau's headquarters has been destroyed. What use is an ordinary ghost hunter who managed to escape?"

Ghost Cave spoke the most spine-chilling words in the calmest of tones. "The Supernatural Disaster Bureau has two headquarters in Shanghai.

"One is a headquarters placed out in the open, that black building on East Thirteenth Road. Its sole purpose for existing is to serve as bait, meant to be specifically targeted and destroyed when a paranormal outbreak occurs.

"Most of those gathered inside are fringe ghost hunters, just the grassroots level of the Supernatural Disaster Bureau. They aren't core members at all. Tearing down that headquarters means very little; it was always meant to be a scapegoat providing cover for the real headquarters.

"Their true headquarters is hidden away like a shadow. Only when the fake headquarters out in the open is destroyed will the Shadow Headquarters be activated and begin operations."

The Ghost Infant grew curious. "Oh?

"I thought all the higher-ups of the Supernatural Disaster Bureau had already been replaced by ghosts."

Ghost Cave said, "That's impossible.

"Only the higher-ups of the fake headquarters were replaced. They were humanity's abandoned pawns to begin with.

"The Shadow Headquarters is overseen by Ye Jiu. That dog has a nose sharper than an actual hound's. The moment a ghost enters the Shadow Headquarters, he'll discover it immediately. It's impossible for any ghost to sneak in.

"Once those executives were replaced by ghosts, they didn't dare return to the real headquarters because they'd lost the scent of the living. That corpse stench is far too obvious to Ye Jiu."

As Ghost Cave spoke, he slowly set down Ai Ning's head, tucking her away like a collectible. "But this girl is different.

"First, I'll plant a little bomb inside her body. Then, treating her like a Trojan horse, I'll send her into the Supernatural Disaster Bureau's Shadow Headquarters to give those ghost hunters a little surprise."

The Ghost Infant asked in amazement, "You can fool Ye Jiu's dog nose?"

Ghost Cave replied, "I can't fool it, and there's no need to.

"Ai Ning will be entering the Shadow Headquarters as a living person to begin with. There won't be any problems.

"It's just that before she enters, all of her memories will be modified, replaced with the memories and experiences we want her to believe.

"Her birth, experiences, and background will be completely spotless. The person herself is also alive. She can withstand any inspection by instruments and Supernatural Items. In this life-or-death moment when they're severely short-handed, she will most likely be granted an exception and allowed into the Shadow Headquarters.

"Supernatural Items capable of inspecting memories are incredibly scarce. No ghost hunter will find anything wrong.

"This female ghost hunter will infiltrate the Supernatural Disaster Bureau's long-hidden Shadow Headquarters like a computer virus and completely obliterate their painstaking efforts."

The one capable of brainwashing people and modifying human memories was, naturally, the Memory Ghost of the Galan Society Chat Group.

Ghost Cave looked at Ai Ning's head resting on the ground, pulled out a mobile phone, tapped into the Chat Group, and prepared to @ that entity.

Originating from the Divine Tree, this chess piece had been arranged by the President. The Supernatural Disaster Bureau had placed a "fake headquarters" on East Thirteenth as bait, and the Galan Society pretended to fall for it, destroying the fake headquarters.

The true war had only just begun.

The President had already discussed the specific details with the Memory Ghost.

For some reason, after Ghost Cave typed the Memory Ghost's name into the Chat Group, he couldn't quite bring himself to hit the send button.

Perhaps he had recalled the scene of being brutally beaten at the Jinhai Building.

Maybe he should let the President @ him instead?

Although Ghost Cave would absolutely never admit it—

He had genuinely been beaten into a psychological trauma.

Inside a room on the Third Floor of the Living Apartment.

Gao Tian was in his bedroom, doing push-ups. The mobile phone on his desk was streaming today's news, serving as background noise.

"At approximately 15:17 this afternoon, multiple citizens in areas such as Pudong's Yajiazui and Jin'an Temple witnessed a black meteor-like object streaking across the city skyline at high speeds. Its abnormal trajectory and rare form have sparked widespread discussion—"

The two suited television hosts on the broadcast vanished without warning in a burst of static. When the signal recovered, the phone screen displayed an entirely different scene: a muddy country road where rain fell with a steady pitter-patter. In the distance, a woman holding a White Umbrella staggered, slowly walking toward the screen.

Noticing the anomaly, Gao Tian stood up. As he passed the wall, he tried to turn on the overhead light.

He flicked the switch once, then twice, but the dim room remained unchanged.

The power was out.

Gao Tian turned his head again and saw that all the electronic devices in the room had failed. The only thing emitting a faint, eerie white glow was the live stream on his phone.

"The Woman in the Rain."

Looking at this bizarre video feed that had suddenly cut in, he immediately realized what it was.

However, watching the umbrella-holding woman slowly approach on the screen, Gao Tian didn't feel the slightest bit of panic. This was the Living Apartment. If the Woman in the Rain could actually enter this room, he'd give her props. She was just making a cameo on the screen, putting on a show to scare people.

Still, the sudden invasion of the Woman in the Rain's footage into a live news broadcast meant that outside the apartment, in Shanghai City, an untold number of mobile phones and televisions had already been compromised.

They were dropping all pretenses. Were they planning to directly pollute the tens of millions of people in Shanghai City?

Hadn't he already told Old Man Sun about this back at Longshu Temple? The old guy had even promised to handle it immediately upon returning. But looking at things now, not only had the Woman in the Rain's pollution not been contained, but it had actually intensified.

Did Old Man Sun actually go deal with it or not?

Or... did he deal with it, only to end up getting counter-killed?

A big shot like him couldn't possibly be that weak, right?

Gao Tian couldn't quite discern the situation outside for the moment. He casually picked up the phone. Just before the Woman in the Rain reached the front of the screen, right as she seemed ready to break out of it in the very next second... he turned the phone off.

It instantly turned to a black screen.

He changed his clothes, pushed open his door, and went downstairs.

He was going to see what exactly was happening to the outside world.