Bai Qiong's brows twitched. "Has someone already caught the ghost?"

Gu Mian replied, "Of course. By the way, how were you able to call my phone?"

Bai Qiong knew this wasn't the time to waste, so he briefly recounted how he had obtained the Key and reached the underground warehouse.

Then he urgently said, "The ghost has become a true ghost now! I'll inform the others first. Goodbye."

"Wait," Gu Mian interjected. "When you tell them, add that this ghost can teleport and even knows everyone's location."

Bai Qiong paused for a moment. He didn't ask how Gu Mian knew this but simply agreed, "Okay."

The call ended as soon as he finished speaking.

Soon, all remaining players would learn the truth of this instance, and panic would spread among all living players.

And it was currently only 10:40. There was still an hour and twenty minutes before this horrifying instance would end.

And this hour and twenty minutes would be a nightmare for all remaining players. What was originally an instance full of thrills but no real danger would now turn into a true nightmare. All they could do was run for their lives.

In the quiet night, Bai Qiong's voice wasn't particularly soft, so Fatty, who was right beside Gu Mian, heard everything clearly.

Fatty said hesitantly, "Doctor, if Bai Qiong is right, then this instance provided us with clues from the very beginning. It was designed for players to find clues and discover that the ghost could switch identities with them."

There was even a phone left in the final underground warehouse that could call everyone's cell phone, ensuring that once the truth was discovered, everyone could be notified immediately.

"That's right. The standard procedure would be to first find clues and then discover the truth," Gu Mian nodded.

Fatty pursed his lips and asked timidly, "But, Doctor... I don't think I saw you find any clues..."

One could even say he deduced the truth of this instance completely empty-handed.

He's truly incredible, Fatty thought to himself.

Gu Mian had no idea Fatty was silently praising him; he was still deep in thought.

In this instance, the ghost, as a survivor, was at an absolute disadvantage.

But it still managed to turn the tables.

"The Doctor and the ghost are truly incredible..." Fatty's voice came from beside him again. "But Doctor, don't you think the teammates we were matched with this time are also quite smart?"

They were indeed quite smart.

The normal way to clear this instance was originally: "Find clues → Discover the truth → Devise a countermeasure."

But in this instance, someone, with no clues at all, relied on their own deductions to discover that the ghost was constrained by the Hunter—though that deduction ultimately went astray...

The players they were matched with this time were noticeably more intelligent than those from previous matches.

However, smart people may outsmart themselves.

If all the players who entered this instance had been the type with negative IQ who only screamed upon encountering the ghost, the situation wouldn't have developed like this.

By this time, the two of them had gone up another floor.

Gu Mian was pushing open a door in front of him.

As soon as the door was pushed open a crack, a cold wind gusted out, as if a window in the room was open.

When the door was fully open, Gu Mian saw that the window in the room was indeed broken—shards of glass littered the floor, and there was a large, jagged hole in the windowpane.

The whistling wind surged into the dilapidated room.

Thankfully, a figure stood before the shattered window, blocking some of the cold wind for them.

Dim light filtered in from outside, outlining the person's silhouette with a faint glow. Even the glasses perched on his nose reflected the faint light from the window.

"Brother Chu!" Fatty exclaimed, recognizing the person, and walked forward.

But after only a few steps, he felt a familiar sensation underfoot.

When Fatty was a child, he had once accidentally stepped on a dead mouse in a dark room. The sensation under his foot now was disturbingly similar to that of the dead mouse back then.

As Fatty stopped, Gu Mian also looked down at the ground.

It was Ji Bie Li, strangled.

Due to asphyxiation, her entire face was cyanotic, a purplish-blue. Her long tongue lolled out limply, and the whites of her eyes were shockingly prominent in the darkness.

She was looking right at him.

Fatty's expression changed drastically. He stumbled back several steps before steadying himself.

The area where Ji Bie Li lay was so dark that when they first entered, they had only seen Chu Changge by the window and hadn't noticed Ji Bie Li at their feet.

Gu Mian squatted down and saw what was wrapped around her neck: a pair of earphones.

Fatty had now lifted his head and was looking at Chu Changge with a questioning gaze, apparently baffled as to why Chu Changge would be in the same room as a corpse.

Chu Changge walked a couple of steps closer to the corpse. "This office building is in the city center, and it's quite tall. I originally planned to observe the city from up here, but it seems someone else had the same idea. She was already dead when I arrived in this room. It doesn't look like she was killed by the ghost."

Gu Mian nodded knowingly. "The ghost probably wouldn't use earphones to strangle someone unless it was incredibly bored. Besides, didn't Manjusaka, who was killed by the ghost, have no external injuries? This doesn't seem like the ghost's M.O."

Chu Changge's glasses glinted. "After observing for some time, I've deduced that the ghost belongs to the Survivor Camp and is focused on deceiving players to become a Hunter. I trust you two know this as well."

Gu Mian nodded.

Chu Changge continued, "It seems the ghost has now gotten what it wanted. As you know, because the instance initially placed severe restrictions on the ghost, the abilities it was given were absurdly powerful. It would have been manageable if the ghost had remained unable to kill, but now... I'm afraid this instance is about to become a living hell."

Being able to teleport and knowing every player's exact location—these two abilities alone are enough for it to unilaterally slaughter all survivors in the instance.

Survivors have probably already started dying.

Moreover, the roles of survivor and Hunter aren't fixed. Bai Qiong should have informed all living players of the current situation by now. This will lead to survivors frantically hunting down Hunters, attempting to switch identities.

Now, even walking down the street, one might be pounced upon by an oncoming survivor.

Not long ago, survivors were trembling in fear of Hunters...

Gu Mian patted his jacket. "So, we need to hurry."

As he spoke, he stood up, walked around Ji Bie Li, and headed out.

Fatty quickly stood up and followed. "Doctor, are you going to look for the murderer?"

"I'm looking for the ghost," Gu Mian glanced at him. "Why would I look for the murderer? It's not like I'm Conan..."

The murderer obviously had a motive.

This murderer might kill again, but as long as they weren't coming to assassinate him, it had nothing to do with him.

Gu Mian was well aware that this was no time to play "detective."

Now was the perfect time to catch the ghost!

As he walked on, he said to Fatty beside him, "Weren't we supposed to investigate the reason for my anomalous data? I reckon even if we caught the murderer, they couldn't explain it clearly, right? It's more practical to catch the ghost in this instance. It looks pretty smart to me."

Fatty watched, wide-eyed, as Gu Mian adopted an expression that clearly said, 'Strike while the iron is hot!' Cold sweat trickled down Fatty's forehead.

You're incredible, a real piece of work! Everyone else is scrambling to escape, and here you are, wanting to go straight up and wring the ghost's neck!

Meanwhile, Nine Lives, after receiving Bai Qiong's call, was already hiding fearfully among the shelves in the supermarket warehouse.

He had been searching the supermarket for a long time, following the clues on the receipt, but had found absolutely nothing. Then, just when he was at a complete loss, he received Bai Qiong's call.

After the call, Nine Lives was cursing between the shelves, "Damn it, what a treacherous ghost! And it can teleport and knows every player's location? It's not just bluffing, is it?"

Next chapter will be updated first on this website. Come back and continue reading tomorrow, everyone!

If you find any errors ( broken links, non-standard content, etc.. ), Please let us know < report chapter > so we can fix it as soon as possible.