A living person suddenly seemed to sink into a swamp on the hard mountain path and was completely swallowed, leaving no trace of their existence. The residents of the surrounding apartments were plunged into great shock and fear.

"There are ghosts! There are ghosts underground!"

"We can't stay on this mountain any longer!"

"We must split up! Staying together will get us all killed!"

...

After the bizarre disappearance of their companion, the apartment residents began to discuss the situation, their words filled with fear of their current environment, causing them to instinctively want to make some changes.

But soon, two deafening gunshots interrupted their discussion.

"Shut the hell up! You'll move where I tell you to move! Otherwise, I'll kill you all!"

It was the gunman, a middle-aged man. This seemingly ordinary middle-aged player now looked completely different from when he was in the apartment. His face was filled with a fierce expression, as he raised two pistols and aimed them at the six residents in front of him.

"You can't just restrict our fre..."

A somewhat frail-looking apartment resident gathered the courage to respond to the gunman player. Perhaps the appearance of the ghosts had put too much mental stress on him, and he couldn't figure out the current situation.

But his only answer was a bullet!

Bam!

With the sound of the gunshot, the apartment resident fell straight onto the mountain path, with a large amount of blood gushing from his chest.

"Did you all see that?! I'm not joking with you! Anyone who dares to run or speak, I'll send them straight to King Yama!"

The fierce-looking gunman threatened the five apartment residents standing in front of him, clearly not caring for their lives, forcing them to follow orders and not cause trouble.

Wang Zhifan and the young man in a school uniform, both players, remained silent when they saw this. They did not object to the gunman's high-pressure tactics, as in situations like this, arguing with these NPCs would waste too much time; violent suppression was more effective.

So, a few seconds later, under the intimidation of the gunman behind them, the remaining five apartment residents had no choice but to turn around and continue their ascent. They deliberately avoided the spot where the previous resident had disappeared into the mountain path, trying hard not to think about the eerie scene from before, because now they had a greater threat behind them, which could cost them their lives before the ghosts attacked them.

"Tell me, what on earth happened to that person just now? Why didn't you shoot to save him?"

At this moment, the young man in a school uniform, surrounded by red and yellow flames, lowered his voice and asked the middle-aged gunman beside him with some confusion. He remembered the gunman had said earlier that he would reward a bullet for each ghost that appeared, yet despite the ghostly attack just now, he didn't fire or make any moves.

"How would I know what happened to that person? Just now, I suddenly felt a bit dizzy, probably affected by some ghost. By the time I noticed that person, he was already sinking into the ground, and it was too late to help him. These ghostly attacks are often hard to understand, so we should focus on completing our mission."

The middle-aged gunman's expression now lacked the previous ferocity he showed towards the residents. Instead, he appeared somewhat anxious, realizing that some ghost had targeted him and used some means he could hardly counteract. He felt the situation might worsen, making him quite nervous.

"I also feel something watching me, but I can't pinpoint their exact location."

The young man in a school uniform nodded in agreement as he continued to observe his surroundings. Being a Mage player with strong mental attributes, his sensory abilities were relatively strong. However, since stepping onto the mountain path, he sensed something was amiss but couldn't locate the source.

While the two players talked, Wang Zhifan also fell into confusion because he hadn't seen the Assassin girl who went ahead to investigate return.

"Why hasn't she come back yet? Could she have been killed by that female ghost already..."

Wang Zhifan had no choice but to suspect that the female ghost, disguised as the Assassin girl player, had already killed her. Otherwise, according to their agreement, she should have returned to report the situation, as the area to investigate stealthily was just one section ahead, not far away.

Nevertheless, with the Assassin player not returning, Wang Zhifan couldn't afford to stop and hold the team in place. He had to expand his senses, covering his surroundings and the team behind him to prevent being caught off guard by a surprise attack.

After about ten minutes, the team, now reduced to eight members, reached a fork in the mountain path. Two branch roads led away, but the key was not the paths themselves. Instead, it was the glaring items placed on the ground at the fork: one was a blood-stained red long-sleeved jacket, and the other was a pair of similarly blood-covered red hiking shoes.

"Ghost artifacts?"

The sight of these two items placed conspicuously at the fork as if fearing the climbers wouldn't notice them convinced Wang Zhifan that they could be so-called ghost artifacts, as he sensed a strong eerie presence emanating from them.

However, confronted with these rumored ghost-fighting artifacts, Wang Zhifan dared not act recklessly. Rather than rushing to grab them, he quickly turned around, explaining the situation to those behind him.

"There's a jacket and a pair of shoes on the ground ahead. They're very likely ghost artifacts. Does anyone want to go touch them?"

He turned his body around and loudly addressed the five residents and two player teammates behind him.

In fact, his words were mainly aimed at his two teammates since they had control over the team through force, making the right to access these ghost artifacts theirs first and foremost.

"I don't need those ghostly things."

After Wang Zhifan's inquiry, the gunman standing at the back of the team was the first to respond, firmly stating his position. Perhaps due to the spirit bullets in his possession and his aversion to ghosts, he was unwilling to come into contact with such items.

"I'll take a look."

The young man in the school uniform seemed much more interested in the ghost artifacts. He quickly passed through the middle of the team, where the five residents were too intimidated by the gunman to make any rash moves, and reached the top at Wang Zhifan's position, where he saw the blood-stained clothes and shoes at the fork.

"My senses tell me that touching them recklessly could be dangerous..."

The young Mage player stared at the two items for a couple of seconds, then turned to the five residents behind him, pointing at one of the middle-aged men.

"You, walk over to that jacket."

He ordered the resident to go up and test the authenticity of the ghost artifacts.

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