Chapter 29: The First Victim

Li Xing stood by, watching the staff members huddled on the floor, feeling completely at a loss. Just then, he saw Ji Li turn away from the lobby and head toward the stairs leading upward.

This left Li Xing even more unsettled. He hurriedly called out, "Manager, where are you going?"

Without looking back, Ji Li said coldly, "I am leaving this to you. There is no need to manage them; from this moment on, no one can leave this building alive. You just stay here and keep watch."

"I..." Li Xing hesitated. Although he held a deep sense of trepidation toward Ji Li, the man had at least provided him with a sense of security. Now, he was the only clerk left in the entire lobby; how was he supposed to control these employees?

Especially since their colleague had just died at Ji Li's hands...

Li Xing glanced not far away at the cooling corpse and couldn't help but shrink back, leaning against the glass door, unable to utter a single word.

Ji Li could already hear the increasingly dense sound of footsteps coming from the stairs above. Most of the employees were still trying to get home. Li Xing might not be able to intimidate them alone, but Ji Li calculated that since the task had begun and the building was locked down, they wouldn't be able to escape regardless. Once they realized they couldn't leave, they would inevitably stay on the first floor. After all, the presence of a corpse would serve as a deterrent for a while, preventing any major chaos in the short term.

By then, the teams led by Tong Guan and Fang Shenyan would have completed their tasks and returned to the first floor.

This window of time was what Ji Li needed. He had to find the building's maintenance staff. Power—the electricity had to be restored in the shortest time possible!

As Ji Li watched the employees emerging from above, he reached out and grabbed a man, asking in a low voice, "Where is the building's maintenance department?"

The man was sweating profusely and had no heart to heed Ji Li's question, trying to break free. But he suddenly felt the cold, dark muzzle of a gun pressed against his temple.

Ji Li asked expressionlessly, "I am asking you, is there a maintenance department here?"

The man froze. The following employees, unable to see what was happening in the gloom, brushed past the man and ran toward the ground floor.

"It's... it's at the corner of the seventh floor... but I'm not sure where they are now. I imagine they went to make repairs the moment the power cut out."

Satisfied with the answer, Ji Li nodded and let him go without further trouble. Even now, he still didn't know the cause of the power outage. While it was highly likely the work of a ghost, Ji Li wanted to try; if the power could be restored, he would gain a significant advantage.

The surveillance room!

Until now, the ghost had yet to reveal its true form or its method of killing. Ji Li did not hold high hopes for the plan to gather all 43 employees. He was almost certain they would never all be collected, and those left behind would likely be the first to suffer the ghost's attack.

Ji Li urgently needed an advantage that would allow him to oversee the entire situation and scout every corner. But all of this depended on whether the power could be restored. The key now was to find the maintenance staff and see if he could create that condition.

Just as Ji Li was sprinting up the stairs, he suddenly heard a commotion nearby. It was very close.

Ji Li felt a sense of dread. He turned his head abruptly and found that the crowd of employees had slightly dispersed, everyone’s gaze fixed on one person.

The man’s silhouette was dark. One foot was thrust forward, his body leaning ahead as if he had been in the middle of fleeing, only to be frozen in place!

The people around him looked at him with strange expressions, as if they couldn't understand why he had suddenly stopped. A man next to him placed a hand on his shoulder and called out, "Xiao Liu? What's wrong with you?"

Ji Li pulled out his hotel-issued phone from his pocket. Unlike a normal phone, it had an inexhaustible battery. In a situation where it was unclear if the power would return, it held a distinct advantage over standard devices.

As the flashlight beam clicked on, Ji Li realized that the frozen man was the same employee he had just questioned. Ji Li grew suspicious and quietly moved a few steps closer; this bizarre situation was almost certainly a precursor to the ghost’s strike. But he couldn't figure out why the man had frozen...

As he drew closer, he suddenly saw the man’s arms reach up toward his own head, followed by the crisp sound of snapping bones and joints. It was as if his body had suddenly become unnaturally rigid, making even the simplest movement of his limbs difficult.

Ji Li’s eyes deepened. From the man’s strange actions, he seemed to perceive the trajectory of the event.

The forward momentum had shifted into a backward struggle. The man’s hands clamped onto his own chin and temples, and in the horrified sight of everyone, he pulled with all his might!

*Crack!*

His head was snapped off by his own hands. The force was beyond imagination; it underwent a completely anti-human 180-degree reversal!

It was as if every bone in his neck had been torn apart. That face, filled with terror and pain, was twisted around to face his own back!

His head was completely reversed!

Those eyes, which would never understand why they died, were casting their final light, staring fixedly at Ji Li standing behind him!

"Ah!!!"

The employees, not knowing what had happened, witnessed a supernatural attack for the first time. They scattered like headless flies, running wildly in a desperate attempt to flee this hellhole.

Only Ji Li stood still, watching the scene, pacing back and forth a few times beside the now-rigid corpse. He glanced at his watch, confirming the time of death as "ten thirteen and fifty seconds."

"Possession and murder..."

Ji Li touched the joints of the first victim and found that the body carried an indescribable, icy chill. It was as if he wasn't touching a man who had just died, but someone whose life force had been stripped away long ago!

The limbs were as rigid as if they had been kept in an ice cellar, which seemed to explain why his neck had been broken so easily. Ji Li felt a sense of bewilderment; this method of killing was unique.

Being possessed by a ghost and manipulated into suicide—the method was simple to the point of extreme cruelty. However, it seemed the ghost could only kill one person at a time; out of the many people in the crowd, it had only chosen this man named Xiao Liu.

Ji Li didn't linger. He began to run toward the seventh floor, intent on finding the maintenance staff. Restoring the power was the most critical task now.

As he ran, he couldn't help but turn his head to look at the victim one last time. In the gloom, he saw the man’s clouded eyes flicker with a strange luster, which vanished as quickly as it had appeared.

At the same time, a question began to loom in his mind:

"Where did the ghost come from?"