Chapter 426: Like a Shadow

"Smack!" The phone hit the floor. The instant our eyes met, every hair on my body stood on end. Caught completely off guard, terror crashed into me.

The phone had landed screen-down. The public restroom was pitch black, but I could feel that head still staring at me.

'When did he get here? How long has he been watching me in the dark? What is he trying to do? Damn it, I didn't notice him at all.' Goosebumps broke out on my neck. Just thinking about it sent a delayed chill down my spine.

Slowing my movements to avoid any unnecessary misunderstandings, I picked up the phone, turned up the screen brightness, and pointed the camera at the adjacent stall.

Thin eyebrows, an ordinary face, an enthusiastic smile hanging from the corners of his mouth—I had seen this face many times tonight. His name was Feng Minglong.

"Oh, it's you! What are you doing?" I kept my guard up but put on a relaxed expression.

"I should be the one asking you that, shouldn't I?" Feng Minglong said. "The subway station is locked up, so why haven't you left? What are you scheming, hiding in a public restroom?" Compared to before, his voice made me slightly uncomfortable. It felt like something about him had changed.

"Don't misunderstand, I'm not a thief. See this phone?" I pointed at the livestream on the screen, making no effort to hide it. "I'm actually a paranormal streamer. At the request of my viewers, I came to the subway station tonight to investigate and see if the legendary Soul Train actually exists."

"That last train is just an urban legend made up online. You actually believe it?" Gripping the stall partition with both hands, Feng Minglong craned his neck and finally got a clear look at my phone screen. A wry smile appeared on his face. "It's almost midnight. Hurry up and leave, or I'm calling the cops."

He was urging me to leave, but my livestream task required me to board the last train before midnight. No matter what, I had to stall here until after twelve.

Scanning Feng Minglong up and down, my intuition told me something about this man had changed, but I couldn't put my finger on it. "The subway station locks its doors at eleven twenty. It's already eleven fifty, so why haven't you gotten off work?"

"I'm on the night shift," Feng Minglong said, helplessly spreading his hands. "A while back, people kept sneaking in here late at night to commit suicide. Then the station's security cameras kept catching shadows in the dead of night. Management didn't know what else to do, so they had to assign someone to stay behind for the night shift every day. Orders from above. Even without extra pay, we have no choice but to obey. That's the tragedy of working in the system."

To me, his laments sounded more like an attempt to change the subject. I didn't play along, pressing him instead, "When did you come in? How long have you been staking me out in here?"

The hallway was equipped with voice-activated lights, and I had been hiding in the dark the whole time. When I first ducked into the restroom, someone had come in and knocked on the doors, but no one else had entered after that. My hearing was extremely sharp; it would be very difficult to slip past me.

Yet the truth was that Feng Minglong had not only slipped past me but had also been watching me in the dark this whole time—right up until I turned on the Underworld Live Show Phone to start streaming.

If the screen hadn't happened to illuminate him, I probably wouldn't have even noticed the extra head in the stall.

Feng Minglong looked a little embarrassed. "When I came in earlier, I noticed the last stall was locked. I climbed up in the stall next to it to see what was going on, only to find you hiding in there like a creep."

"Which one of us is acting like a creep? Standing next door without making a single sound—are you some kind of psycho?" I held my phone in one hand. "I admit I'm in the wrong here. I'll leave as soon as it hits midnight, so please don't call the cops."

Having placated him for the moment, I pushed open the stall door and walked out.

"Hey, why do you have to wait until midnight? If you don't leave right now, I really am going to call the cops!"

Feng Minglong stepped out of his stall as well. I stole a glance at him. 'His clothes haven't changed, and even his personality is exactly the same as before. What exactly is different about him?'

Upon reaching the restroom door, I suddenly stopped in my tracks. My nostrils flared. A faint scent of blood drifted over.

"I'm warning you, don't do anything crazy!" Feng Minglong took a step back, putting some distance between us.

I gave him a puzzled look and walked outside. My pupils slowly contracted. On the previously clean and tidy platform, several puddles of fresh blood had appeared.

'I was only hiding in the restroom for less than an hour. How did things change so drastically out here? Could Feng Minglong be the killer?' I whipped my head around, only to see Feng Minglong looking as pale as a sheet. Trembling all over, he pointed a finger at the bloodstains, unable to form a complete sentence for a long time.

'It doesn't look like he's faking it. He has nothing to do with this blood.' When I had first ducked into the restroom, I had heard a commotion outside, sounding like something heavy falling to the ground, but I hadn't heard any screams. 'That's right, there was also a beggar in the subway station back then.'

Looking around, I could only see mottled bloodstains; there was no sign of the beggar. 'If all of this is human blood, then where is the body hidden?'

The situation in the subway station was incredibly bizarre. Less than an hour had passed in total, yet the inside and outside of the public restroom had become two entirely different worlds, as if a mass murder had just taken place.

Frowning, I walked among the bloodstains. The yellow warning line on the ground was covered in gore, and a long trail of blood stretched all the way into the ticketed area.

"Did you hear any noises just now?" I asked, looking back at Feng Minglong. This man gave off a particularly strange vibe, but there wasn't a drop of blood on him, so he didn't seem like the killer.

"I didn't hear a thing. I was observing you the whole time."

"Observing?" I paused. That was a rather strange word for a staff member to use.

"Call the police right now. I'm going to take a look inside the ticketed area." Vaulting straight over the turnstiles, I used my phone for illumination and followed the trail of blood all the way to the edge of the tunnel.

There was no telling where the pitch-black tunnel led. The clock on the wall appeared to be broken, the time frozen at eleven eleven.

"Could the killer have crawled out of the tunnel?"

"It's possible."

I had been talking to myself, so Feng Minglong suddenly chiming in made my heart skip a beat. I whipped my head around and glared at him. "Didn't I tell you to call the cops? Don't follow me. It's dangerous here."

"I already called them. The main doors outside aren't locked yet. Let's leave together." Having gotten past his initial terror, Feng Minglong had slowly calmed down.

"Go wait for me outside. I'll be right out." I neither refused outright nor agreed immediately. There were only a few minutes left until the livestream task deadline; I had to wait until after midnight before I could safely leave.

Poking my head out, I peered into the tunnel. The gruesome trail of blood didn't go inside; instead, it turned a corner and finally stopped behind a massive billboard.

As I slowly approached, my sharp hearing picked up a horrifying chewing noise. Tiny teeth were gnawing on bone, and every scraping sound made my heart pound.

A terrible premonition welled up in my chest. I furrowed my brow. If it weren't for the livestream task, I probably would have sprinted away from here immediately.

'I hope I'm just overthinking it.' Taking it one step at a time, I approached the billboard, stepping on the mottled bloodstains. The soles of my shoes felt sticky. Time seemed to slow down; it felt like an eternity had passed before I finally stepped behind the billboard.

The back of the colorful billboard was smeared with fresh blood, as if it had been drenched in a shower of gore. The grisly sight sent a shiver down my spine, and a wave of weakness suddenly washed over my calves.

A face, altered beyond recognition, was tilted upward. His clothes had been stripped off, and his body was split almost completely open. There was a gaping hole where his heart should have been—empty, as if something were missing.

'Heart ripped out?' The moment I saw the corpse, a roar echoed from my spirit platform, instantly putting me on high alert. At the exact same time, a pungent stench of blood assaulted my nose. I subconsciously threw myself forward just as a cold glint flashed past, and an animal's claws tore a massive gash into the colorful billboard.

The celebrity's face on the advertisement was shredded to pieces. Still reeling from the close call, I retreated, scanning my surroundings. Suddenly, I realized that, at some point, a vibrant Blood Fox had appeared on top of the mutilated corpse. Tilting its head at me, its bloodstained eyes harbored boundless killing intent.