Chapter 45: Spacetime Loop

Back in his room, Gao Tian opened the Galan Society's Chat Group and read through the ghosts' conversation line by line.

Xu Yuan worked fast. Following the trail, he had already unearthed Zhao Qiang's entire family business. His parents, long involved in organized crime and acting out of paranoia, lived in a suburban manor watched by dozens of security guards inside and out. Dense clusters of cameras covered every inch of the property.

But to a ghost, all of that was useless. The basement meant to defend against outside enemies had at some point become a dungeon for interrogating the Zhao family. Xu Yuan posted a picture in the Chat Group—a gruesome scene of torn flesh and gore.

Several bloody, mangled figures hung from iron shackles on the ceiling like cured meat, subjected to brutal torture. They barely looked human anymore.

Falling into the Galan Society's hands was truly worse than just dying.

But "strangely," the Zhao family was incredibly tight-lipped. They still hadn't revealed the whereabouts of the Pot. Their stubbornness was ridiculous.

Ghost Infant and the others had roamed all of Shanghai City without finding any trace of "Zhao Qiang." Even the ghosts couldn't track him down; it was as if he had vanished from the face of the earth.

Gao Tian knew they would never find him, of course. The real Zhao Qiang was already dead. The person wearing Zhao Qiang's face that day had actually been him.

Starting from a false premise, Xu Yuan could search for a lifetime and still never find the whereabouts of the Pot.

Meanwhile, the resident with the ID [Infinite Floor] posted another Black Envelope. According to him, it contained a scouting-type Supernatural Item capable of identifying the effects of other Supernatural Items. The asking price was 1.5 years of lifespan, tossed out to test the waters.

Infinite Floor—Gao Tian actually remembered him. He was an unruly ghost who had repeatedly questioned Xu Yuan's competence as the President of Galan Society, threatening to replace him.

The Black Envelope had been posted for about three hours, yet no other ghost had chosen to claim it.

Should he go ahead and claim this Black Envelope himself?

If he did, that would bring the total lifespan he had spent so far to 2.5 years.

But in truth, once someone stepped into the supernatural world, a few years of lifespan became irrelevant. He could die during his next task, or even his next breath. Haggling over whether he would live to be 80 or 82.5 was simply stupid.

There was also a more important reason. The torn photograph of the little girl left behind inside the Shattered Face Ghost's body could be investigated using this Black Envelope's ability.

He might be able to glean more information about the little girl's past life from it.

Gao Tian hesitated no longer and chose to click on the Black Envelope.

[Are you sure you want to pay 1.5 years of lifespan?]

[Confirm]

...

[Item acquired: Human Skin Gloves]

Effect: While wearing the Human Skin Gloves, touching any Supernatural Item will cause its hidden effects and origins to surface in the user's mind to the greatest extent possible.

Please note: the current database is incomplete. It is not guaranteed to completely display the effects of all Supernatural Items.

Future functions may be developed to reveal a Fierce Ghost's Killing Rule upon physical contact with the entity itself. (Not yet implemented)

...

About two minutes after he clicked on the Black Envelope, Gao Tian's mobile phone received another call from an unknown number. A low, hoarse voice rang out from the other end:

"Hello.

"Your delivery is here. I can't get into the Apartment, so I left it at the door. Come down and get it yourself."

...

...

At four in the morning, the streets of Shanghai City were shrouded in a boundless gray fog. There was hardly a soul passing by on the main roads. Occasionally, a car's yellow headlights would pierce the gloom, rushing past without a moment's pause.

An ominous atmosphere permeated everywhere. These days, with the increasing frequency of supernatural events, ordinary people had begun to sense the chilling bite of winter, even though various websites and news outlets had deleted much of the discussion. People stayed at home as much as possible, avoiding going out.

Gao Tian, Su Jiu, Ling Feifei, and Zhou Yan had set out early, waiting at the bus stop nearest to the Living Apartment.

Gray Ticket Stubs had already materialized out of thin air in their rooms. According to Jiang Yang's explanation, as long as the four of them held onto these tickets and waited at any random bus stop at exactly 4:44 AM, Bus 444 heading to the Supernatural Zone would arrive. All they had to do was get on.

"Hubby, I'm so scared. If we run into danger later, will you protect me?"

Ling Feifei clung tightly to Zhou Yan, not forgetting to act coquettish even at a time like this.

Zhou Yan wrapped a strong arm around his girlfriend and declared with soaring bravado, "Just sit next to me once we're on the Bus. No matter what danger we face, I'll protect you."

Su Jiu shivered. She glanced at Gao Tian and shuffled her feet, wanting to inch a little closer to him as well.

As far as she was concerned, he was the only slightly reliable person here.

Gao Tian was pondering a fragment of the future he had seen in the Pot.

In the end, only he and Su Jiu had gotten off the Bus. That couple had vanished completely.

Given how much that couple loved courting death, it was a miracle they had survived to the third task. Judging by their earlier conversation with Xia Ta, it was entirely possible that the other residents had been wiped out in previous tasks because these two dragged the whole team down with their idiotic behavior.

The way Ling Feifei had spoken during the meeting on the first floor earlier hadn't seemed like a joke at all.

The thought process of a fool was impossible to understand.

But according to the Pot's prophecy, those two ultimately never got off the Bus. In all likelihood, they had finally managed to get themselves killed in the third task.

He would take things one step at a time. If they ran into danger anyway, Gao Tian would be too busy enjoying the show to have any interest in saving them.

Creak, creak.

Far off in the darkness, two glowing halos flared like the eyes of a giant beast. As they drew closer, they grew larger and larger until they seemed capable of swallowing heaven and earth, blindingly bright.

A rust-mottled Bus ground to a halt. When the doors opened, a thick, sour stench rolled out. Stepping inside felt like walking into a rotting coffin.

Judging by its exterior, the Bus had been running for at least decades. A model like this would have been phased out of normal transit lines long ago. There was no telling where this ancient relic had been dug up from.

While everyone else hesitated, Gao Tian was the first to step aboard.

Every seat in the cabin was heavily stained with blood. Upon closer inspection, tiny white dots could be seen squirming on them. Under normal circumstances, a sane person wouldn't sit on them even if beaten to death.

The entire Bus was empty, aside from the four new passengers. In the middle row sat a tall male corpse. Its body was highly decomposed, rotting away until little more than a human silhouette remained. Countless insects had made their homes in its bodily cavities, crawling in and out.

The corpse's back had fused to the seat; he looked like he had been dead on this Bus for a very long time. The only strange thing was that, even in death, he maintained a perfectly upright posture, his hands locked in a death grip on a rusted, heavily notched long blade.

It was exactly like the prophecy in the Pot.

Ling Feifei and the others followed, shrinking back with every step as they boarded. The moment Ling Feifei spotted the male corpse, she shrieked and threw herself into Zhou Yan's arms. Behind them, Su Jiu clamped a hand over her own mouth, exerting a great deal of effort to stifle the urge to scream.

Gao Tian noticed that a display screen at the very front of the Bus showed the passenger count in red digits.

When he first stepped aboard, the count had jumped from 1 to 2. Once Zhou Yan and the others boarded, the number jumped again to 5.

This meant the dead male corpse was also a passenger, recognized as such by the Bus.

With everyone aboard, the front and rear doors let out an agonizing creak and shut simultaneously. The briefly halted Bus rattled, preparing to set off once more into the endless gray sea ahead.

It was time to pick seats.

The four residents needed to sit as far apart from each other as possible, to avoid simultaneously triggering a Killing Rule and wiping out the entire team.

The couple, Zhou Yan and Ling Feifei, completely ignored this rule. They picked the seats furthest from the male corpse and sat down together in the very back row.

When it was Gao Tian's turn, he scanned the situation inside the cabin.

Common sense dictated that the male corpse was likely a dormant ghost, meaning one should sit as far away from it as possible to avoid inexplicably triggering a Killing Rule. Thinking this way was indeed perfectly sound.

But the "Gao Tian" he had seen in the Pot had acted completely out of character. He had sat directly behind the male corpse, performed a series of strange actions on it, and finally just snatched the rusted machete right out of its hands.

That rusted machete had to be an incredibly important Supernatural Item!

That was the only reason the "Gao Tian" in the Pot would have braved the risk of being killed by a Fierce Ghost to snatch the blade from the male corpse's hands.

Gao Tian made up his mind. The seat he chose was directly behind the male corpse.

His bizarre choice of seat made the couple in the back snicker again:

"Is this guy an idiot? Sitting right next to the ghost on purpose."

"And that seat is close to the exit door. When other ghost passengers want to get off, they'll all have to walk past his aisle."

"Sigh. He doesn't even have basic common sense. He probably won't survive until the end of this task."

"Hubby, the seats you picked are still the best."

"Of course. Who do you think your hubby is?"

Gao Tian heard these remarks, but he paid them no mind.

What did a few sneers matter? These two fools had no idea that he could see the future.

Su Jiu hesitated for a long time. She had originally wanted to sit near Gao Tian, but she hadn't expected him to pick such a strange spot. Unwilling to get anywhere near the hideous, tall male corpse, she hovered for a long time before finally choosing a front-row seat diagonally across from Gao Tian.

The Bus slowly started up, driving forward into the unknown future.

Having chosen his seat, there was still one thing Gao Tian couldn't wrap his head around.

The reason he was sitting behind the male corpse in this timeline was because he had seen the actions of the "Gao Tian" from the previous timeline inside the Pot.

But how had the "Gao Tian" of the previous timeline known that the machete in the male corpse's hands could be taken?

Had the timeline before that taught him?

This was essentially falling into a temporal paradox. It couldn't just be that every timeline's Gao Tian was passing the knowledge down like a relay baton to the next timeline's Gao Tian.

Looping like that would be endless.

How did the very first Gao Tian discover that the long blade could be taken?

He couldn't figure it out for now. But there was a high probability that the machete in this rotting male corpse's hands was a top-tier item. No matter the timeline, Gao Tian would brave the risk to his life to get his hands on it.