Chapter 599: Ghost Hunting

Fear and terror were the emotions I knew best, and the look on the man's face right now was definitely not an act.

'This guy probably isn't a streamer.' I shoved my phone back into my pocket. With the only light source in the department gone, the Sarcoma Center was swallowed by darkness once again.

The two of us stared at each other in silence; the only sound in the room was the occasional gurgle and glug coming from the water tank.

"Who are you? Why are you here in the middle of the night?" After a tense standoff, the trembling in the strange man's pupils gradually eased. He had stopped stuttering, though a slight tremor still lingered in his voice.

Was he actually even more afraid than I was?

In my current position, it would be hard to react in time if I were attacked. Shifting my weight, I let go with both hands and jumped down from the top of the water tank.

"Then who are you? As far as I know, this hospital has been abandoned for nearly twenty years. Nobody should be in here—where did you pop out from?" I calmed down quickly, wiped the sweat from my palms, and used the Judging Eye to scan the man in front of me.

He was ugly and scrawny, his clothes thoroughly unkempt, with a faint smell of disinfectant clinging to him.

Reaching a hand to my lower back, I quietly gathered Yin energy, ready to summon the spirits inside my Ghost Ring at any moment.

"What are you doing with your hand? Don't move!" The man's expression, which had only just relaxed, shifted again. He seemed to harbor a peculiar fear of me, which left me somewhat puzzled.

"Alright, calm down, take it easy. I don't mean any harm." I tried calling out the Yin ghosts, but all three had suffered heavy damage to their vitality earlier while resisting Xu Yan's talismans, and this time they actually resisted my summons.

If I chanted the Yin-Yang Ghost Art, I could force them into service, but doing so would expose my identity as a Ghost Cultivator. Given the current situation, there was no need for that.

I raised both hands to show I wasn't holding anything that could hurt him. Only after seeing that did he calm down.

"Don't make any sudden moves. Answer me—why are you wearing a mask?" The strange man was deeply on edge. Timid as he looked, there was no way he was a live show streamer.

Neither of us was willing to speak first, and we fell into another stalemate. The gurgling inside the water tank was growing louder and louder; things couldn't go on like this.

Afraid of drawing more people over, I decided to answer the strange man's question first to put him at ease.

"I'm just an unemployed drifter. I heard the livestreaming industry is huge right now, so I wanted to try a different angle and do a ghost-hunting livestream." The entire time I spoke, I kept my eyes locked on the man. If he betrayed even the slightest unnatural look, I would go all out to kill him on the spot.

"Livestreaming? Huh?" The man looked somewhat blank, as if he didn't know much about outdoor livestreaming. His reaction left me scratching my head too, unsure whether he was faking it or genuinely didn't know about livestreaming.

"Yeah, holding a phone and broadcasting yourself to draw viewers." To probe the man's identity further, I made a bold move: I pulled out the Underworld Live Show Phone directly and stepped toward him, intending to let him look at the bullet comments in my livestream room.

"Stay back!" The man wouldn't let me come any closer. He didn't even glance at the phone, instead keeping his eyes fixed warily on my face. "Take the mask off first."

'Is he afraid because I'm wearing a mask?' Holding my phone, I suddenly felt I might have been overthinking things. Although the man was rather ugly, in every other respect he still fell within the bounds of a normal person.

Looking at it from his perspective, tonight's events turned downright terrifying: hearing eerie noises and seeing a brief flash of light deep inside the hospital in the dead of night, running over to take a look, and finding some guy in a black-and-white mask—who looked nothing like a good person—crouched atop an iron tank doing something bizarre.

Wasn't that scary enough?

To win the man's trust—and since I was still wearing the Human Skin Mask beneath my Good and Evil Asura Mask anyway—I wasn't afraid of exposing my true face.

Turning the phone camera away, I casually pulled off the black-and-white mask and spread my hands helplessly. "Take it easy. I'm only wearing the mask for entertainment value, just doing what my dear viewers asked for."

After saying that, I paused and probed, "Sorry for scaring you. Are you a security guard here?"

The strange man shook his head. "Never mind about me first. You say you're a ghost-hunting streamer—where's the proof? You must have equipment if you're livestreaming, right?"

"Hold on, this phone is my streaming tool." I held the Underworld Live Show Phone out in front of the man. From start to finish, his expression didn't change at all. If he were a live show streamer, he would have shown at least some reaction upon seeing a Live Show Phone.

"This is my livestream room, and there are comments from the livestream viewers in here." I was already prepared to kill at a moment's notice. Even in such a tense environment, the livestream viewers' bullet comments remained as "fresh and unconventional" as ever.

Teletubbies Died of Murder tipped the Super Thriller Live Broadcast Room 1 Underworld Coin: "Wearing a mask for entertainment value? Strongly demand a face reveal!"

"Exactly! Bullshitting about doing what the dear viewers asked for? If we told you to stream in silk stockings, would you do it?"

"The women's clothes have already been delivered. You know what to do."

Jiangcheng Veteran Driver: "The Streamer streaming in women's clothes would definitely have a unique appeal, though I'd worry about people harboring indecent designs on the Streamer. It reminds me of a question a philosopher pondered a long time ago: why did a peach blossom and a chrysanthemum go through a security checkpoint together, only for the chrysanthemum to get stopped?"

Teletubbies Died of Murder: "Why?"

Daoist master Wan: "Curious as well."

Jiangcheng Veteran Driver: "Does that even need asking? Because a chrysanthemum is highly explosive!"

Daoist master Wan: "..."

"That sharp turn into the gutter came out of nowhere! Truly thought-provoking!"

...

After reading the bullet comments in my livestream room, the strange man's face twitched. He nodded and handed the Underworld Live Show Phone back to me. "You really are doing a livestream."

"Yeah, a ghost-hunting streamer. No reason to lie to you."

"Still, your livestream room has some pretty heavy tastes." Much of the fear in the man's eyes faded, replaced by a strange look as he eyed me. "Good for you, good for you..."

I couldn't shake the feeling that he had misunderstood something, though now wasn't the time to fuss over that. I put the Good and Evil Asura Mask back on. "My identity has been verified, so what about you? Sneaking into an abandoned hospital late at night—if you aren't a security guard or caretaker here, then your reason for showing up in this place takes some explaining."

"I've actually been staying here for a full day and night already." The moment the man spoke, it caught me quite by surprise.

"You were already here last night? Wait, I don't quite follow what you mean." I couldn't make sense of what the man was saying.

"I'm a horror novelist, and also a paranormal enthusiast. I came here looking for inspiration." The man scratched his head. "I'm telling the truth too. If you don't believe me, you can come take a look at where I'm staying. I brought camping gear with me, and I'm fully prepared for a drawn-out stay. Until I finish the manuscript for my next novel, I'm definitely not leaving this place."

The man wanted to take me to see where he was staying, which I was quite reluctant to do—first because I was afraid he had set a trap there, and second because I still hadn't figured out what was inside the water tank.

He clearly didn't notice my hesitation. Waving a hand for me to follow, he turned and walked toward the exit.

His back was completely exposed in my line of sight. If I ambushed him from behind right now, I had a ninety percent chance of killing him.

I raised both hands, then lowered them again, turning my head to glance at the water tank. 'Tonight's livestream has only just begun. There's time to check the water tank later—no rush.'

Following behind the strange man, I left the Sarcoma Center and walked all the way down the corridor and out of the Outpatient Building.

Once we were out of the gloomy building, both the strange man and I breathed a sigh of relief. He gradually grew more talkative too, asking me questions about livestreaming from time to time.

After walking for a few minutes, the man led me into the building next to the Outpatient Building. This was the Cancer Rehabilitation Center, six stories tall in total and built like a sanatorium, with very pleasant surroundings.

"I'm staying here for the time being." The strange man walked up to the second floor and pushed open the door to the first room around the corner.

It was a single room with the windows shut tight and covered by specially thickened curtains, making it impossible to see inside from the outside.

"Have a seat anywhere. Before coming here, I really never expected to run into a living person in a place like this." With a wry smile, he switched on the emergency lamp on the table, then draped a towel over it so the light wouldn't be seen from outside.

I stood where I was without moving, put away my phone, and sized up every single item in the room.