Terror is resurging, but only I am.

Chapter 1: The Resurgence of Terror, But Only He.

Yan Ming's 20th birthday wish was to be eaten by a ghost.

He prepared for this for a full two weeks.

First, you need to find a sufficiently delicate and tender meat as a supplementary food. Second, you need a lot of cooking oil. The combination of the two can help the ghost swallow more smoothly.

No chewing, no pain.

However, finding these two items in the ruins after the supernatural resurgence was not easy. Fortunately, some wild corpses would spawn in this building. After searching upstairs and downstairs and several dangerous areas nearby, Yan Ming finally managed to gather the supplies.

It was late at night, and the building was completely dark except for a small bonfire burning in the center of the large office he had cleared out.

With the flickering firelight, Yan Ming poured cooking oil into a large plate, then spread the soft and delicate minced meat evenly on top and let it soak in.

It can be kept fresh temporarily until the early morning.

He slowly smoothed the wrinkles on the minced meat with the back of his knife, but his mind was alert. Suddenly, he sensed something and quickly turned around to look at a crack on the pillar behind him.

A small portion of an eyeball peeked out from the crack, staring intently at Yan Ming. A pair of withered, shriveled hands emerged from it, slowly reaching towards Yan Ming's neck.

However, after the two locked eyes, the ghostly hands stopped moving and slowly retracted into the stone pillar, leaving only a sinister and resentful look in their eyes.

Yan Ming picked up a small piece of minced meat and placed it on the crack in the stone pillar to cover the ghost eye, then mentally restarted the timer.

This is a spy.

A month ago, he first sensed that something was watching him from the shadows, so he turned around to look for its traces, and since then he has been haunted by the spying ghost.

A spy could appear around him at any time, silently observing his actions through a crack.

If he doesn't notice it in time, or if he doesn't maintain eye contact until it retreats, those ghostly hands will silently strangle him.

The killing patterns of ghosts are unstoppable. Once locked on, it almost means that one's life is on the countdown. Now, the frequency of the spying ghosts is increasing, and sooner or later he will not be able to detect them, and then it will be his death day.

"It's here again?"

Beside the campfire sat a man in a wheelchair. He looked at Yan Ming and made a judgment: "Your time is running out."

"Let's go tonight."

Yan Ming spoke succinctly, looking at the homemade grill over the campfire, on which hung two tin cans, their rich broth bubbling and sizzling in the firelight, releasing the long-lost aroma of meat into the air.

A can of carrot and beef, and a can of pig's trotters and soybeans, were both foods that Yan Ming found in the drawer of some office worker a month ago, and he had been holding back until today to enjoy them.

In addition, there was a large piece of whole-grain bread as the main dish. Yan Ming cut it into seven parts, placed the smaller pieces on the fast food plate, scooped a spoonful of beef soup with tender meat chunks into a bowl, and then placed it on the wheelchair man's lap.

Don't worry about it being hot; this guy's legs have been numb for a long time.

The wheelchair-bound man, named Wang Ming, claimed to be a PhD in paranormal studies and had extensive knowledge of ghosts wandering in the darkness. This was the main reason why Yan Ming was willing to provide him with food during this period of scarcity.

Six months ago, terror resurfaced.

No one knows where the "ghosts" came from, and they completely overturned the world in just one month.

Unkillable, unconquerable, devoid of reason and emotion, possessing only baseless malice.

The taboos and murder patterns of ghosts differ, but the consequences of being haunted by a ghost are exactly the same—

Death is a relentless pursuit.

Therefore, Yan Ming could only stay in the office building, cutting off contact with the outside world as much as possible and avoiding violating taboos.

Unfortunately, they were still targeted by the spy.

Two weeks ago, he found the wheelchair-bound king on the first floor. The doctor was deeply impressed by his research on paranormal phenomena.

Besides classifying and analyzing the patterns of ghosts, Dr. Wang also has a core research area—

Ghostland.

Each ghost possesses a ghost realm within its body, which can be considered another world. It is a mysterious pure land independent of reality, capable of supporting human life.

Based on theoretical findings, Dr. Wang asserted that Yan Ming might find a human settlement in some ghost realm.

Lost civilizations may flourish again in the Ghost Realm.

If Yan Ming wants to get rid of the prying ghost's entanglement, he can only try the doctor's method—entering the ghost realm.

Ghosts are only interested in humans and do not fight each other. Entering the ghost realm is equivalent to clearing the lock and resetting the hatred.

Different ghosts have different entrances and ways of entering their ghost realms, but the core idea is the same—to be absorbed into the body by the ghost.

The simplest way is to be swallowed by a big-bellied ghost; you just need to let it eat you.

"Have you found the target?" Wang Ming took a sip of beef soup.

"Yes, it's a big-bellied ghost. It's currently active in physical form on the street north of the building." Yan Ming explained the information he had gathered. "It's confirmed to be a starving ghost, not a gluttonous ghost. It still has the desire to eat."

"Big belly" is just an external feature. If it is a gluttonous ghost or a giant ghost, it will not eat easily, but will just crush any human that appears.

Wang Ming repeated his intelligence, sounding somewhat nagging: "Its appetite is best at midnight. After finding the Big Belly Ghost, you need to quickly coat yourself with minced meat and oil to make yourself suitable for swallowing."

He muttered to himself, "If only we could find the tuberculosis demon, maybe we could scrape the phlegm out of its diseased lungs. That stuff can't be bitten off, the big-bellied demon can only swallow it..."

Without chewing, without pain, there is no death.

Yan Ming interrupted him, saying, "I might not come back. There's only enough food here for a week."

"It's alright." Wang Ming twitched the corners of his mouth, revealing a rare smile, like a resigned dead man.

Yan Ming didn't say anything more. He stuffed the bread soaked in the soup into his mouth. The rich aroma of meat rushed from his nose straight to his brain. He ate bite by bite, swallowing the last taste that carried the scent of human civilization.

Food was severely scarce inside the building, so he had to take advantage of his good health and abundant energy to enter the ghost realm to investigate and fight.

If we could find a human settlement, it wouldn't be bad to spend the rest of our lives there; after all, nothing could be worse than the reality we're facing now.

The two remained silent until midnight.

Yan Ming left the building with a large travel bag on his back and quickly disappeared into the night.

He identified the surrounding street scene, and after finding the familiar streetlights, he quickened his pace toward his destination.

He had scouted out the area where the big-bellied ghost was active during the day. Generally speaking, if there are no other living creatures to attract it, the ghost will not move too far in a short period of time.

Yan Ming stood at the crossroads, quickly searching for the Big Belly Ghost by the moonlight. He could hear rustling sounds in the darkness, as if some evil spirits were lurking around.

A chilling aura crept silently toward the back of his neck. Without hesitation, he turned around immediately, but what he saw was not a ghostly eye.

A pair of ghostly hands lunged down at his neck, completely obscuring the ghost's eyes from his vision. Unable to meet its gaze, he was powerless to stop the Spying Ghost from killing him.

Using its ghostly hand to cover the ghost's eyes, when did this spying ghost evolve such a way of thinking?

Yan Ming leaned back, his wandering gaze searching the open space for a moment before collapsing.

This is a crossroads, and there's nothing around. The only thing that could cause cracks is the asphalt road under your feet.

Just as the ghostly hand touched his neck, he finally found the eye hidden in a crevice in the ground.

The ghostly hand stopped abruptly, and the chilling aura receded like the tide.

At the same time, Yan Ming noticed the rumbling footsteps approaching out of the corner of his eye, and looking in that direction, he saw a ghostly creature more than two meters tall.

Its facial features were indistinct, its body was bloated, and its abdomen bulged and drooped. The whole thing looked like a tattered sack filled with filth and dirty water, making its limbs and head appear short, small and cute.

It's a big-bellied ghost.

Yan Ming reached out and took out the canned meat and oil, and began to smear it on his clothes to let the smell of fresh minced meat spread as much as possible.

Throughout this process, he constantly kept his eyes on the spying ghost in order to stop it from killing.

Out of the corner of my eye, I saw the big-bellied ghost turn its head and look over. A hint of longing appeared in its dark, empty eye sockets. Its steps became frantic as it charged towards us.

Yan Ming didn't move, quietly waiting for the big-bellied ghost to grab him up, and a gaping maw like a black hole came straight at him.

There was no odor, and no pain.

The whole process felt like passing through a magic door, with only the fresh smells of another world filling your nostrils.

The next second, he crashed to the ground.

-

"Target disappeared!"

"The Ghost Realm is confirmed to exist!"

The entire top floor of a building about 300 meters from the abandoned office building has been set up as a highly confidential office space.

The sun is shining brightly right now, and the visibility is excellent.

As Yan Ming's figure disappeared from the telescope, the entire monitoring room erupted in chaos. A middle-aged man in a suit walked into the room and picked up a file from the records.

[Event: Ghost covering eyes]

The first page of the file contained a somewhat blurry photograph of a ghost sitting on a man's shoulder, its hands covering the man's eyes.

It covered its eyes with the back of its hand, with its palm facing outwards, and in the center of its palm were two lively eyes, looking towards the camera hundreds of meters away.

Not far away, a large, gluttonous ghost, seemingly having just finished eating, was slowly walking deeper into the street.

[Origin: A vengeful ghost from a bizarre game carved a breach in the Gates of Hell, leading a small number of ghosts to escape into reality, triggering the "Ghostly Blinding" event.]

[Ability: Twisted Possession - The world as seen through Yan Ming's eyes, thereby altering facts and some rules.]

A researcher immediately stepped forward to report the situation:
"According to survivors who participated in the eerie game, the Gate of Hell, which traps countless ghosts in the game, has developed obvious cracks that they are powerless to repair. It is expected to completely collapse in three months, at which time the real world will see a formal paranormal resurgence. We are closely monitoring the 'Blinded Ghosts' escaping from the gap in the Gate of Hell and the subsequent developments of the incident."

The middle-aged man peered through the binoculars at the street corner where Yan Ming had just disappeared. There sat a small, gray ghost, its hands covering its eye sockets, using the eyes in its palms to observe its surroundings.

The researchers added, "The possessed Yan Ming has entered the ghost realm, consistent with theoretical speculation, and the blindfolded ghost could not follow him in."

"Where is the survivor codenamed 'Ghost Eye'?" The middle-aged man still remembered the person who was ordered to enter the office building to contact the possessed person.

The researchers stated, "It's everywhere. The survivor went missing a month after entering the building, and was suspected of being unable to make normal contact with Yan Ming due to the influence of the 'Eye-Covering Ghost.' We noticed that he could only appear a few times, but Yan Ming would remain still and stare into the survivor's eyes, and would not respond to any rescue attempts or cries for help. Just now, we confirmed that the survivor's 'Eye-Covering Ghost' is completely dead."

The middle-aged man turned up the magnification of his telescope and saw a crack in the ground at the crossroads, with twisted words carved out by claws around it.

Help me.

He then looked into the office building, which was Yan Ming's living area for the past few months. The entire large office was filled with cracks and writings left by the survivors' "ghost eyes".

Can you see me?

Don't believe it, let me out.

[Close your eyes! I'm here to save you! Pull me out!]

Don't look at me! Take my hand!

Please close your eyes, I need to get out!

When sunlight shines in from a certain angle, one can notice a narrow gap in the central load-bearing column of the office, through which lies a dark, deathly, fearful eye.

And a corpse completely encased in cement.

The middle-aged man remained silent, turning his gaze to the still-burning campfire barrel.

There was a wheelchair next to the bucket, and on the wheelchair was a body in a white coat, cut in half at the waist by something, so only the upper body was visible.

He recognized the corpse—Dr. Wang, one of the first researchers to realize the importance of the "blindfolded ghost's" abilities.

Two weeks ago, Dr. Wang finished organizing all his research findings, instructed his deputy to record everything Yan Ming would do after his death, and then resolutely went into the office building.

He then died.

"Dr. Wang's research..." The middle-aged man wanted to ask something.

The researchers understood and replied, "He has never done any research on ghost realms."

Silence fell again in the room. The middle-aged man looked through the binoculars at the corpse in the wheelchair. Dr. Wang's mouth was severely torn, forming a square gap that could just fit an old-fashioned radio.

The gears in the radio were still turning, which meant it was still running.

Although they were hundreds of meters apart, the signal had been intercepted, and everyone present knew what it was.

The hoarse voice on the tape had been repeating itself for half a month:

"My name is Wang Ming, and I have a PhD in paranormal studies. I know a lot about ghosts that roam the darkness. Please provide me with food..."

"My name is Wang Ming..."

Outside the high protective wall surrounding the office building, the world remains bright.

The streets were bustling with traffic and throngs of tourists.

　New author, new book, seeking everything!
　　
　
(End of this chapter)