"What are you standing around for? After him!"
After pulling out all the stops, Liang Fei finally persuaded Wang San to lure Xu Ce back into the village.
He and Zhou Yue had laid an ambush in the village and caught Xu Ce red-handed.
Yet the moment the two of them were about to drag Xu Ce back to the self-built house for interrogation, a terrifying turn of events struck.
Deep within a gloomy alley, the figure of the ghost holding a sheep-horn hammer suddenly appeared.
That soul-shattering gaze froze Liang Fei and Zhou Yue in their tracks for a split second, providing Xu Ce with the chance to escape.
By the time Liang Fei and Zhou Yue snapped out of it, Xu Ce had already broken free from Zhou Yue's grip and vanished into the depths of the alley in the blink of an hour.
"Brother... why did that damned ghost show up again?"
Zhou Yue's legs were shaking, his voice whistling through his teeth as if his mouth were missing several.
He trembled all over, his words stuttering uncontrollably.
"Brother, I... I'm scared."
"Until Xu Ce truly confesses, any outcome is possible."
Liang Fei's expression was icy.
"It can't kill anyone before midnight. Let's go..."
"To hell with it, I'm going."
Seeing Liang Fei charge after him, Zhou Yue gritted his teeth, squeezed his eyes shut, and lunged into the dark depths.
For a big guy, he was surprisingly lucky; in that winding alley, he didn't stumble once.
One right behind the other, the moment they bypassed the ghost, Liang Fei distinctly felt a bone-chilling wave of murderous intent wash over him.
Daring not to pause for even a second, he only vaguely heard Zhou Yue shouting from behind,
"Brother, wait for me!"
Yet, after lingering for those few moments and bursting out of the alley, there was no sign of Xu Ce anywhere.
As bastardly as he was, his familiarity with the village far exceeded that of Liang Fei and the others.
Trying to track down Xu Ce in the dead of night was no easy task.
After a continuous hour of searching, the two of them ultimately returned to the self-built house crestfallen.
Since the village had only two entry and exit points, Qin Kai and Lu Ming's ambush naturally yielded nothing.
"You actually found him, so how did you manage to let him get away?"
Lu Ming shot Liang Fei a sideways glance, then rounded on Zhou Yue with a red-faced, vein-bulging lecture.
"You think I wanted to?"
At the mere thought of the ghost, Zhou Yue shuddered all over again.
"If that thing hadn't blocked our way, I would've dragged him back long ago."
"What?"
Lu Ming gasped, his gaze snapping to Liang Fei. Seeing the latter nod, he asked in astonishment:
"Why would that thing try to stop us? Didn't it want us to find the killer in the first place?"
Faced with everyone's questioning gazes, Liang Fei's expression was grim.
"Its appearance time and frequency seem to be getting earlier and more frequent... However, judging by the current results, before midnight, it seems constrained by some kind of force and cannot inflict harm upon us."
Hearing this, the others couldn't help but let out a sigh of relief.
Yet Zhou Yue remained intensely nervous.
"What if it loses control? When I walked past it just now, I honestly felt like I was going to die."
The breath the group had just let out was sucked right back in. Han Cheng's pupils constricted.
"Does that mean the later it gets, the higher the chance it will eat someone?"
In truth, this was precisely what Liang Fei was worried about.
He couldn't guarantee whether the ghost would break free of its constraints as time ticked away.
If that were the case, the danger coefficient of this mission would be far greater than imagined.
"Brother, since Xu Ce is the killer, why don't we just name him tonight?"
"How do you know for sure he's the killer? What if—"
"What are all these 'whats'? If he didn't have anything to hide, why would he run?"
Before Lu Ming could finish, Zhou Yue cut him off.
A wave of frustration flared in Lu Ming's chest, but he still looked anxiously at Liang Fei, hoping for a definitive answer.
Liang Fei pondered for a moment, then nodded.
"He hasn't confessed outright, but judging by his panicked expression, even if he isn't the sole killer, he's at least an accomplice."
Sole?
None of them had even considered that there might be two or three killers!
"Since he's the killer, we just name him. What is there to wait for?"
"What's your rush? Let the brother finish speaking first."
"I have two main concerns right now. First, the killer might not be working alone."
"Second, if he is the sole killer, what happens if we don't name him tonight—will the ghost lose control...?"
"Also, if Han Cheng needs to provide clues tomorrow, she won't be able to get any more information from Huang Xu. What do we do then?"
As soon as Liang Fei said this, Han Cheng's face instantly drained of all color.
"Naming the killer early requires all five of us to reach a consensus. I've thought it over carefully—doing this carries massive risks, but the probability of completing the mission isn't low either."
Liang Fei looked up at the group. As they exchanged glances, he continued:
"Time is running out now. You all need to decide whether you want to end this as soon as possible, or..."
He left the sentence unfinished, but surely everyone understood what he meant.
Ending it early meant either completing the mission and leaving alive, or dying together.
Hesitant and indecisive, Liang Fei waited for a long moment before speaking.
"You've seen the situation yourselves. All of this is bizarre beyond explanation, and no one can predict what will happen next."
"I... I agree to name the killer."
"Me too."
"Let's just do it."
Zhou Yue, Qin Kai, and Lu Ming all voiced their decisions, leaving only Han Cheng hesitating.
Liang Fei took a deep breath.
"Han Cheng, what about you?"
"I... I agree too."
"Very well. Since everyone agrees, we'll name the killer. Live or die, it's up to fate."
The atmosphere inside the room grew heavily oppressive, lingering right up until midnight.
The moment the ghost arrived on schedule, the group unanimously named Xu Ce as the murderer and robber.
"We guessed right!"
Liang Fei exclaimed as he stared at the ghost, which was standing inches away yet seemed held in place by some bizarre, unyielding force, unable to move a muscle.
At the same time, the blaring horn of a bus outside the window shattered the silence of the night.
Everyone was intimately familiar with that bus.
It was the very same vehicle that had brought them into this bizarre mission world on that fateful day.
"The... the bus is here."
"To pick us back up?"
"Hurry, go..."
Liang Fei glanced out the window.
The instant he looked back, the power constraining the ghost seemed blown away by the startled horn blast.
Crack, crack!
It began to move.
Zhou Yue, Lu Ming, and the others had barely let out a joyful cry when they turned their heads, only for their elation to be doused by a bucket of freezing water.
The terrifyingly thin ghost glared at them with venomous malice.
"Run!"
Liang Fei barked an order and bolted out first.
Even with the killer found, this damned mission still demanded they face the ghost's relentless hunt.
The group rushed out of the room, not daring to pause for a second.
As Han Cheng brushed past the ghost, she finally understood why a tough guy like Zhou Yue had lost track of Xu Ce because of its obstruction.
That venomous glare sapped the strength right out of a person's legs.
If Liang Fei hadn't spotted it in time, once the power restraining it completely vanished, not a single one of them would have escaped.
"Hurry!"
Liang Fei looked back over his shoulder.
"It's started moving."
Running at the back, Lu Ming broke out in cold sweat as he sprinted all the way downstairs.
Thud, thud, thud, thud...
Urgent footsteps echoed through the stairwell. The headlights of the bus downstairs served as their lifeline, guiding the five of them.
At the same time, an utterly terrifying roar closed in right behind them.
"Han Cheng, run! It's catching up!"
A woman's stamina was inherently limited; even running for her life, she had fallen to the back.
Instead of boarding the bus directly, Liang Fei stood at the doorway and roared at Han Cheng.
Behind Han Cheng, the terrifying, spider-like entity crawling at breakneck speed across the ground was a mere two or three steps away.
"Hurry up!"
Seeing the ghost's pale hand about to grab Han Cheng's shoulder, Qin Kai, who was running ahead of her, let out a fierce shout and abruptly stopped in his tracks.
He reached out, grabbed Han Cheng, and hurled her with all his might toward the bus.
Liang Fei's expression shifted drastically at the bus entrance, but with no time to think, he dragged Han Cheng directly into the bus.
Qin Kai, however, wasn't so lucky...
The moment he turned back, his face was still laced with terror.
"No..."
Having crashed onto the floor of the bus, Han Cheng didn't even have time to feel the bone-deep pain across her body before her eyes were struck by a sight she would never forget for the rest of her life.