Chapter Nineteen: The Possessed Face

This Unit 4 building, which appears to be brimming with the vitality of daily life, has seen two deaths thus far, yet the remaining residents have shown no signs of stirring.

Ji Li’s gaze remained a stagnant gray; the situation had gradually cooled down. The man in the raincoat had taken only two minutes to go outside to Room 702; by his estimation, he had about three minutes left before he would need to return. Ji Li tilted his head back, looking up through the layers of railings toward the upper floors. Everything there was deathly silent. It seemed that with Cao Yuan’s death and the appearance of the "sixth person," the ghost’s assault had reached a temporary lull.

For the few employees present, the heavy stone that had been weighing on their hearts finally fell away. From any perspective, they had found the path to survival. Now, they only needed to guard the man in the raincoat to hold out until the dawn of the next day.

Yu Guo leaned against the wall nearby, gasping for breath. His face was flushed with irrepressible excitement as he muttered to himself, "Ghosts—they really exist! After all these years, I’ve finally found them!"

With the lull, the nerves of the group began to stabilize. Ji Li looked at the ecstatic Yu Guo. He always felt that this man, with his plain appearance, had an obsession with ghosts that far outweighed his interest in people. Under normal circumstances, someone who could display such emotions after witnessing the deaths of Ding Miaoxin and Cao Yuan could hardly be considered a normal person.

However, the person who drew Ji Li’s focus most was Fang Shenyan. When Ji Li first met this man, he had caught a scent of death. It was not merely a stain upon him; it was a scent radiating from within. It sounded esoteric, but it was a primal intuition—something others could not perceive. Yet, Ji Li was perhaps the person most familiar with death. He could sense that Fang Shenyan had definitely experienced it—perhaps not completely dead, but he had certainly brushed against the edge of the abyss. That was why he held life in such disregard.

The plan involving Cao Yuan had appeared to be Ji Li’s orchestration, but the initial trigger had been that heavy blow dealt by Fang Shenyan.

As the world quieted, Fang Shenyan returned to his taciturn state, a stark contrast to his outspokenness during their earlier analysis of the mission. Ji Li silently analyzed these two men, ultimately concluding one thing: "No one who survives and performs well in these hotel missions is a normal person."

"According to you lot, even if I survive tonight, will I be haunted by ghosts for all the days and nights to come?"

With no one speaking, the man in the raincoat—the most ordinary character of them all—could not help but voice his concerns. He was arguably the most innocent soul in this entire ordeal, targeted for no reason by a deranged woman, and pursued by her even after she had transformed into a ghost.

This was the inception of the mission.

Hearing him speak, Ji Li finally turned his gaze toward this "special" man. He did not answer, merely watching him quietly. Truth be told, he could see nothing about this man that would be attractive—or in any way worthy of being "favored" or treated differently by a ghost. Even now, one doubt remained like a thorn in Ji Li’s throat: ghosts lacked complex human emotions. Why, then, was the man in the raincoat singled out and seemingly unable to be harmed?

"Let’s head back to 702. Time is almost up," Fang Shenyan said, glancing at his watch.

The man in the raincoat gave a start. The earlier commotion had made him nearly forget the time limit. Ignoring the others, he began to walk upward on his own. Ji Li watched his back, his brow furrowing.

"What is it?" Fang Shenyan asked.

Ji Li shook his head, saying nothing. The moment the man in the raincoat prepared to return to 702, an ominous premonition flashed through his mind. He could not say why—perhaps it was the lingering, unanswered question, or perhaps it was the intuition born from his many previous missions. But after a moment of contemplation, he followed in the man’s footsteps toward the upper floor.

"Do you think that female ghost is right now?" Yu Guo whispered.

Fang Shenyan glanced at him, pursed his lips, and offered no reply. Ji Li also remained silent, for his right eyelid had begun to twitch. A feeling of wrongness grew so intense it caused him physical discomfort. The back of the man in the raincoat, just a few steps ahead, wrapped in that dark garment, became blurred and ethereal in his eyes, as if something were obscuring his vision, preventing him from seeing the truth.

Ji Li’s heart gave a violent jolt. Simultaneously, the voice of his third personality echoed in his mind, filled with doubt.

"That back..."

"Stop! Don't take another step!"

Ji Li’s sharp, sudden command drew everyone’s attention to him.

Fang Shenyan and Yu Guo turned, bewildered, only to see the gloom spread across Ji Li’s paper-white face. Following his gaze, the man in the raincoat slowly turned around. His movements were sluggish, as if he were being restrained by something. Beads of sweat had broken out on his face, mixing with blood to create a ghastly, terrifying visage.

But when he had turned fully, the others gasped in horror.

From the chest of the man in the raincoat, buried beneath the garment, a stark white human face was emerging! Dense black hair clung tightly to its scalp, and the bloated, grotesque features were pressing against the thin fabric of the raincoat, threatening to burst through. It was clear now: the body of the man in the raincoat was being tightly enveloped by the limbs of the ghost!

Yet, the man in the raincoat seemed completely unaware! Had Ji Li not noticed that his back seemed slightly more hunched than before, he might never have realized that the man had already been possessed.

"What... what’s wrong with you guys?"

The man in the raincoat still had no idea what was happening. But at this moment, no one could answer him; no one had even anticipated this sudden turn of events. Fang Shenyan took a silent half-step back and whispered into Ji Li’s ear:

"It’s over. The path to survival was wrong!"

Ji Li and Yu Guo had already reached the same conclusion the moment they saw the possession. The man in the raincoat would also be subjected to the ghost’s attack! He was not special at all!

Sweat beaded on Yu Guo’s forehead. He was paralyzed—neither staying nor fleeing seemed viable. The failure of their judgment had caused his mind to cease functioning, leaving him only able to stare at Ji Li.

Ji Li, though showing no outward sign of distress, was experiencing a mental storm.

"Damn it, we said all along that ghosts don't have complex emotions! We were blinded by what we saw; the fact that he survived several times created the illusion that he was special. But we all forgot—he is an employee too! How special could he possibly be?"

His second personality was on the verge of madness. In his view, the chances of turning the situation around had plummeted to zero.