Chapter 93: Ghost Cave, Ghost Infant

Watching the messages pop up line by line on his mobile phone screen, Gao Tian felt the ambient sounds around him fading away.

He really had been sloppy. Claiming the Black Envelope in the Chat Group was bound to leave traces.

If any ghost bothered to look, the trail would eventually lead right back to him.

But he had had no choice. If he hadn't claimed the Black Envelope, he would already be dead. He never would have survived this long.

He was lucky to have hidden it for this long before being discovered.

In the Chat Group, Ghost Cave's messages continued.

[Ghost Cave]:

That person who claimed the Black Envelope—

It was you, wasn't it, Memory Ghost?

[Ghost Infant]:

@Ghost Cave He just happened to claim the Black Envelope after you issued the curse. It might simply be a coincidence.

This doesn't prove that Memory Ghost is a living person.

That assumption is a bit of a stretch.

[Ghost Cave]:

Hahaha, naturally. I never said our friend Memory Ghost is definitely a living person.

However, I am a deeply suspicious person. Now that I have my doubts, I absolutely must confirm them to put my mind at ease.

After all, we have paid a massive price and planned for years. That matter is right around the corner, and we cannot afford a single mistake.

Memory Ghost, I know you are staring at your mobile phone reading this right now.

I can feel it.

I'm coming to find you now. It won't take up much of your time. You don't mind, do you?

@Memory Ghost. Watching the lines of text pop up in the Chat Group, Gao Tian felt a massive weight bearing down on him just from holding his mobile phone.

This day was bound to come sooner or later.

He had already rehearsed every possible scenario in his mind ten thousand times.

His identity was just being exposed a tiny bit earlier than he had expected.

Stay calm.

—

He walked briskly toward the empty restroom while replying to Ghost Cave's question on his mobile phone.

Since the other party had made a move, he had to face it head-on. Ghost Infant could kill through the internet, and now that Ghost Cave had spoken up, it could arrive at any moment.

[Memory Ghost]:

I don't mind.

However, once you confirm that I'm not a living person today, stop suspecting me in the future.

Don't buzz around investigating me like an annoying fly.

Do you need me to tell you my current address?

[Ghost Infant]:

You're at the Jinhai Building right now, aren't you?

I'm not entirely sure which specific floor you're on, but the general location shouldn't be wrong.

[Ghost Cave]:

Memory Ghost, let's play a game.

I am a person—oh, wait, a ghost—who always likes to give others a chance, a way out.

If you really are a living person, then starting right now, I'll give you half an hour to run for your life.

You can flee the Jinhai Building, escape Shanghai City, and run to anywhere you think is safe.

I won't set out to find you until half an hour has passed. How about that?

In truth, Gao Tian had considered directly activating his Black Card to teleport back to the Living Apartment the moment Ghost Infant locked onto his position.

But he quickly suppressed that thought the moment it arose.

Only an idiot would do that.

There was no way Ghost Cave was actually going to give him half an hour to escape.

It and Ghost Infant were singing the same tune, playing a game of cat and mouse to toy with him.

If he actually ran away, wouldn't he be openly admitting that he was the living person in the Chat Group?

Right now, Ghost Cave lacked substantive proof, and was the only one in the entire group showing this much interest in him. If Gao Tian ran, every ghost in the Chat Group would start hunting him down.

That included Xu Yuan and dozens of other ghost bigshots.

That would be his true time to die.

[Memory Ghost]:

I don't care.

You can come over right now.

It's just that the Jinhai Building isn't a convenient place to talk. I'll head downstairs and we can chat at the construction site across the street.

That should be fine, right?

Gao Tian quickly settled on his plan.

Ghost Cave was like a wolf that had caught the scent of blood. Now that it had locked onto him, there was no shaking it off.

All he could do now was leave the Jinhai Building as quickly as possible.

There were too many people here. If the ruthless Ghost Cave actually descended upon this place, it would likely slaughter innocent bystanders in passing.

There was a long-abandoned construction site directly across from the building. Gao Tian had glanced at it when he arrived earlier, and it appeared completely deserted.

By inviting Ghost Cave there, even if it went on a frenzied killing spree, it wouldn't find any innocent people.

He needed to make his stance clear upfront.

His choice to go downstairs couldn't be misinterpreted as fleeing in fear.

No matter what, he absolutely could not admit to being a living person. The other ghosts in the Chat Group were watching, possibly including Xu Yuan.

—

After Gao Tian typed out those words, no one in the group responded.

It was as if the jackal-like Ghost Cave had suddenly lost interest in him and given up the pursuit.

Strange.

Gao Tian instinctively sensed that something was wrong.

Ghost Cave wasn't the type to let things go. Once it locked onto a target, it would never simply give up.

Unless—

Inside the restroom, the ceiling lights began to flicker, casting erratic shadows over the space as a bone-chilling cold set in.

In the row of stalls behind him—which had previously been completely empty—all five partition doors suddenly began to swing without any wind. They clattered loudly, shaking the entire restroom with their violent banging.

Creak, creak.

Amidst the flickering lights, a skinned arm with bulging blood vessels slowly reached out from one of the stalls. It was covered in strange, gaping holes.

"This is our first time meeting, Memory Ghost. I didn't expect it to be in a place like this—" The voice paused. "Looking at your intact skin and beating heart, you certainly seem to be a living person."

"It seems the probability of my assumption being correct just increased by another dozen points."

The stall door behind Gao Tian slowly swung open, revealing a highly decomposed, emaciated male corpse sitting on the toilet.

The corpse looked as though it had been riddled with countless bullets. From its torso down to its feet, its body was completely covered in see-through holes.

As for its head, its facial features and brain had been completely removed, leaving behind nothing but a massive, empty void.

This was Ghost Cave. Its entire head was literally a hole.

It was the largest head hole Gao Tian had ever seen in his life.

Ghost Cave had arrived.

"Please forgive me.

"When I was alive, I drowned inside a very, very deep cave.

"As a result, I am now exceedingly fond of anything related to holes."

Just as Gao Tian was still reeling in shock from Ghost Cave's arrival, an eerie, girlish nursery rhyme echoed from an unknown corner of the restroom:

The moon rusts into a coin; the button eyes Mommy sewed sprout fungal threads at midnight.

They say: Come here, a ladder to the earth's core hides beneath the pillow; when the clock tower swallows the key, the ragdoll begins to unravel its own yarn.

On the white tiles at the front of the restroom, like an object rising to the surface of a placid lake, a bloodstained ragdoll began to emerge amidst a wailing shriek.

With a loud crash, the tiles shattered. The bloodstained ragdoll landed on the floor and rapidly sprouted a woman's head, arms, and long legs. Moving with clumsy, jerky motions, it slowly stood up.

This woman, whose skin was pale to the point of being sickly, was none other than Ghost Infant.

Ghost Infant had also arrived at the Jinhai Building.

The Chat Group's two Fierce Ghosts, one in front and one behind, had already trapped Gao Tian between them. There was no way to escape.

Gao Tian didn't have any intention of running anyway.

Running would prove his guilt, and that would be a true dead end.

Ghost Infant was the first to act.

With only two bloody holes left for eye sockets, she scanned Gao Tian up and down.

—

"Are you Memory Ghost?

"Looking at you, your internal organs are all pulsing. You certainly seem more like a living person.

"But it's hard to make that judgment right away. Many bigshot Fierce Ghosts like to possess humans or disguise themselves as the living.

"If he's a living person, how did he enter our Chat Group? Didn't the boss say that every ghost's qualifications for entering the group were personally verified?"

Ghost Infant feigned hesitation, putting on an act as she asked.

Behind him, Ghost Cave, still sitting on the toilet, let out an inhuman shriek of laughter, as if every single hole on its body was snickering menacingly. "It's quite a simple matter.

"What is the biggest difference between a ghost and a living person? Ghosts are immortal and indestructible. They can never be killed.

"To verify whether this one is truly a ghost, all we need to do is kill him once and see how he reacts.

"Mr. Memory Ghost, you wouldn't mind if I killed you once, would you?"

Gao Tian caught a glimpse of Ghost Cave out of the corner of his eye and replied mildly, "Of course I wouldn't—"

Before the word 'mind' could even leave his lips, Gao Tian felt an agonizing, piercing pain. He slowly lowered his head and saw a massive hole in his chest. His severed blood vessels and shattered bones were completely exposed to the air.

He slowly turned his head. Ghost Cave was still sitting on the toilet, grinning widely as it clutched a still-beating heart in its hand. Thump, thump.

In the blink of an eye, it had ripped out Gao Tian's heart.

"If you are a ghost, then resurrect right now and show me."

Gao Tian's vision spun, and he collapsed heavily onto the floor.

The effect of the Ghost Card began to activate.

Currently, the playing cards imprinted on Gao Tian's soul were the Ace of Hearts and the King of Spades.

In theory, drawing two cards already carried the risk of a point conflict. However, at the exact moment of his death, the Black Tie triggered as well.

His luck received a minor boost. It couldn't possibly be so terrible that his third card draw would lead to absolute death.

In fact, Ghost Cave choosing to kill him today was actually a good thing.

Seeing him resurrect right in front of them should be enough to dispel the doubts of this paranoid jackal.

With this resolve, Gao Tian watched as the Ghost Card drew the Two of Clubs.

Let this crisis end right here.

—

On Gao Tian's heartless corpse, the gaping void regenerated at a visible rate. His dilated, lifeless pupils began to refocus. Flesh and blood knitted back together, covering a strong, beating heart. Gao Tian had returned from the underworld.

He was resurrected.

A moment ago, Gao Tian had truly become a corpse; that was an undeniable fact.

In the next moment, he woke right back up. It was easier and more effortless than drinking a cup of coffee or putting on a shirt.

Gao Tian turned his head, staring coldly at Ghost Cave from a bizarre, unnatural angle.

A sneer tugged at the corner of his mouth. "Even though I can never truly die, being suddenly killed like this still feels incredibly insulting.

"Do you need to try again?"

With a personality like Ghost Cave's, begging for mercy was absolutely useless. It would only provoke its brutal nature even further.

On the contrary, Gao Tian's current nonchalant attitude was exactly how a true Fierce Ghost would act.

A real ghost didn't fear death, nor would it fear these two from the Chat Group coming to investigate. A true Fierce Ghost would only find Ghost Cave and Ghost Infant highly offensive and profoundly annoying.

"How interesting."

Ghost Cave casually crushed the heart in its hand. The massive hole in its head remained empty, but it seemed to be watching Gao Tian with great interest.