Global Ghost Stories: I'm Investigating Ghosts in My Nightmare!

Chapter 45 Echoes of the Rift
It was a "mirror" that could not be explained by the laws of physics.

It is both a wall separating two worlds and a window connecting them.

In Bai Yu's vision, the hard, cushioned wall became like a phantom projection, and on the other side of the wall, Lu Yueqi's figure was so clear that it seemed within reach.

He could see her eyes, slightly reddened with excitement, the dripping faucet in the dilapidated washroom behind her, and even smell a damp, decaying scent seeping from that "other world."

In Lu Yueqi's eyes, the scene in the mirror had also undergone a dramatic change.

The bottomless darkness receded like the tide, revealing a small, oppressive cage. Bai Yu stood in that darkness, his white hospital gown the only "color" in that void.

His face was almost bloodless, but his eyes lit up with a starlight the moment they met Lu Yueqi's gaze.

They cannot hear each other's voices; any sound attempting to be emitted through the vocal cords is absorbed by this strange "medium." They can only communicate in the most primal way—lip movements, eye contact, and a tacit understanding that transcends words.

"Are you... alright?" Lu Yueqi asked silently, her eyes filled with worry.

Bai Yu shook his head slightly, then pointed to his temple, making a "very troublesome" expression to indicate that he was being troubled by the medication. He couldn't waste time here; he had to devise an escape plan immediately.

He quickly conveyed information to Lu Yueqi using simple gestures and lip movements.

“Listen,” he mouthed, each word slow and clear, “this world…is ‘alive’…has rules…has ‘guardians’…you can’t just barge in.”

He pointed to himself, then to the outside, and made a gesture of "riot" and "chaos".

“I need to create chaos in the ‘surface world’ to attract the guards… You need to find the corresponding ‘node’ in the ‘inner world’ to interfere with it.”

Lu Yueqi, being exceptionally intelligent, immediately understood his intention. Bai Yu wanted to disrupt the "rules" by acting simultaneously in two worlds, thereby tearing a crack in this seemingly indestructible "wall."

“Node? What’s that?” Lu Yueqi mouthed.

Bai Yu recalled the contents of Ruan Bo's notes and her previous observations.

“Obsession.” He thought for a moment, then gestured with his mouth, “Every patient…every activity…is a node of ‘obsession.’ They are the ‘cornerstones’ that maintain the stability of this world. You need to…find the ‘obsession’ that corresponds to my actions, and then…use your power…to ‘empathize’ with it, to ‘freeze’ it!”

He thought of the man endlessly stacking towers in the activity room. That obsession was one of the symbols of maintaining "order." If he could cause that man's behavior to mutate like a "virus," then the world's "firewall" would inevitably develop a vulnerability.

“Building blocks… a tower…” He described to Lu Yueqi with mouthing and gestures, “In the activity room of the ‘inner world’… find it… and then… wait for my signal.”

Lu Yueqi nodded vigorously, memorizing every instruction he gave.

"And what about you?" she asked worriedly. "How are you going to get out of here?"

A confident smile curved Bai Yu's lips as he made a reassuring gesture toward Lu Yueqi.

“I have a brilliant plan,” he said silently.

Just then, he keenly sensed a faint footstep coming from outside the door.

The caregiver has come to "check on the patients".

"Hurry! Hide! Wait for my signal!" Bai Yu's eyes instantly turned urgent.

Lu Yueqi didn't dare to delay for a moment. She took one last deep look at Bai Yu, her eyes filled with trust, and then resolutely turned and disappeared into the darkness of the bathroom.

As she left, the image on the "mirror" faded away, returning to the cold, hard wall.

“I never thought that you, who have always been everyone’s hope, would one day find your own hope!” Hei Yan sighed deep in Bai Yu’s consciousness. He looked at Bai Yu’s spiritual anchor—a bright moon seemed to be rising faintly on that sea of ​​nothingness.

"Click."

The observation window on the door was pulled open from the outside, and a blinding flashlight beam shone in, scanning Bai Yu's face back and forth.

Bai Yu immediately reverted to "patient" mode. He curled up in a corner, holding his head, his body trembling slightly, as if he was still immersed in immense fear.

After observing for a while and finding nothing unusual, the caregiver outside closed the observation window, and the footsteps gradually faded away.

Bai Yu breathed a sigh of relief.

There isn't much time left for him.

He began to think about how to get out of this "meditation room." Forcing his way out was impossible; the only way was to let the "rules" of this world release him on their own.

How can this be done?
The answer is—"heal".

As long as he demonstrates that his "condition" has been effectively "relieved" after "meditation" and that he has become "compliant," then according to the logic of this world, he will be returned to a regular ward.

"Ha... How ironic." Hei Yan's voice rang out again. "To escape the cage, you must first learn how to wear more perfect shackles. Bai Yu, you are becoming an increasingly excellent 'actor.' I'm starting to look forward to seeing if, when you take this acting to the extreme, you can also manipulate the 'director' of this world. When that happens, we'll have to present that 'director' with the most magnificent finale!"

The next morning, when the caregiver opened the heavy iron door again, he no longer saw the terrifying "Number Seven".

What he saw was a "patient" sitting quietly in the corner, his eyes vacant and his expression numb, seemingly no different from the others there. When the caregiver ordered him to stand up, he obediently stood up; when the caregiver handed him pills, he "ate" them without hesitation.

His "treatment" seemed to have achieved remarkable "results".

So he was taken back to the activity room.

……

Meanwhile, in the dilapidated "inner world".

Lu Yueqi was lurking in the shadows of the activity room. The layout of the activity room was exactly the same as that of the "Surface World," but it looked as if it had been burned by a fire, with charred marks and scattered ashes everywhere.

The eerie graffiti on the wall takes on a more three-dimensional form here. The paint, like dried blood, seeps deeply into the texture of the wall.

There are no "patients" here, nor "guards." There is only deathly silence, and the "echoing obsession" that wanders within that silence.

Lu Yueqi could "hear" the suppressed sobs filling the air, the fear of pain, and the deepest hatred for a certain "devil" in a white coat.

She forced herself to resist the erosion of these negative emotions and, following Bai Yu's instructions, found the pool of building blocks.

The "inner world" block pool wasn't filled with colorful blocks, but rather with piles of charred charcoal. They were scattered haphazardly, like tiny graves.

Lu Yueqi squatted down and gently touched one of the pieces of charcoal.

In an instant, a fanatical, almost insane obsession surged into her mind.

"A tower... I want to build a tower that reaches the sky... so... Mom can see me from heaven..."

Found it! This is the core of the obsession of patient number twelve!

Lu Yueqi immediately withdrew her hand and began to patiently wait for Bai Yu's signal.

... "Table World", activity room.

Bai Yu returned here. He still played the role of the numb patient who had been "cured," slowly walking to a deserted corner to sit down, staring blankly ahead.

But all his attention was focused on "Number Twelve," who was building his tower of despair day after day, year after year.

Bai Yu was waiting for an opportunity. An opportunity when the head nurse and caregivers were temporarily away, or when their attention was drawn to something else.

The opportunity came soon.

The little boy who was sitting on the tricycle, constantly muttering "Why aren't the wheels turning?", suddenly had a flare-up. He jumped off the tricycle and began frantically banging his head against the wall, making a series of muffled "bang" sounds.

The head nurse and two caregivers were immediately drawn to him and hurriedly restrained him, preparing to inject him with a sedative.

It's now!

Bai Yu moved.

His actions appeared to be those of a sleepwalking patient: he staggered to his feet and aimlessly walked toward the pool of building blocks.

He walked over to "Number Twelve," who was still intently building the tower.

He neither knocked down his tower nor spoke to him.

He simply bent down and picked up a few blocks of a specific color and shape from the scattered blocks on the ground. Then, in the instant that "Number Twelve" picked up a new block to stack on top of it, he used a dazzlingly fast technique to forcefully "wedge" the block in his hand into the middle of the tower.

What he built was not part of a tower, but a symbol filled with ominous meaning.

This is an ancient rune that Ruan Bo mentioned in his notes, capable of causing a small-scale resonance and disorder of spiritual energy.

Number Twelve's movements suddenly froze.

For the first time, a hint of confusion appeared in his empty eyes. He looked at the "contaminated" "tower" before him, and at that moment, a fatal "bug" appeared in his pre-programmed system.

“No…no…it’s not like this…” he began to mutter to himself, “My tower…shouldn’t be like this…”

He reached out to remove the "wrong" blocks. But the rune seemed to possess magic; no matter how hard he tried, he couldn't budge it an inch.

"No! No—!"

His long-suppressed obsession, built up over countless years, was completely ignited by this tiny "mistake." He let out a beastly roar and violently pushed the entire tower of blocks, along with the rune, to its knees!
hum-

The instant the runes shattered, a chaotic surge of mental energy suddenly spread out from the pool of building blocks!
The lights in the entire activity room began to flicker wildly, and the eerie graffiti on the walls seemed to be injected with stimulants, wriggling at an unprecedented speed!

The "information entropy" of the "table world" has become extremely chaotic!
At the same time, Lu Yueqi in the "inner world" also clearly felt that energy fluctuation.

It's a signal!
Without any hesitation, she immediately poured all of her "Deep Cold" power into the pile of charred charcoal in front of her!
"I understand your loneliness... and I understand your longing for your mother..." she conveyed her thoughts, "But rest in peace... let it all end..."

click-

Under the influence of the "deep cold" power, a thick layer of frost instantly condensed on the surface of the pile of charred charcoal.

Then, with a crisp cracking sound, they began to disintegrate from the inside, eventually turning into a handful of cold black powder.

This "obsessive node" that maintained the world's stability was destroyed simultaneously from both the "outer" and "inner" worlds!

Bai Yu from "The World of the Face" had already quietly retreated to a corner of the activity room when the chaos broke out, and resumed playing the role of the terrified innocent patient.

His gaze was fixed on a door in the corner of the room that led to a storage room. A square piece of glass was embedded in the door panel for observing what was inside.

At this moment, when the rules of the entire world are violently shaken due to the destruction of nodes, that small piece of glass is the weakest "wall"!
He rushed to the door while all the "guards" were distracted by the crazed "Number Twelve".

He looked at the glass.

The reflection in the glass was no longer his own. It was now the dilapidated storage room of the "other world."

Lu Yueqi was standing inside, anxiously watching him.

Bai Yu did not hesitate any longer. He took out a metal cross from his pocket, which he had found in the broken wall cushion of the "Meditation Room".

This may be a patient's last belief, with a faint trace of "resistance" attached to it.

He gripped the cross tightly and slammed it against the glass!
"Snapped!"

The glass did not break.

It's like a calm lake surface where a stone has been thrown in, creating ripples all around.

A faintly glowing rift appeared before the two of them.

Bai Yu stepped inside without hesitation.

The world is spinning.

When he regained his footing, the pungent smell of disinfectant disappeared, and the familiar stench of the "inner world," mixed with decay and dust, once again filled his nostrils.

And the figure he had always longed for stood right in front of him.

"Bai Yu!" Lu Yueqi could no longer contain her emotions and threw herself into his arms with a sob in her voice.

Bai Yu's body stiffened slightly, then he reached out and gently patted her back.

"I'm fine," he said softly.

Before they could even savor their brief reunion, another unexpected event occurred.

"Squeak-squeak--"

The sound of a wheelchair rolling suddenly rang out from the dark corridor behind them.

Immediately afterwards, an old voice filled with resentment seemed to echo directly in their souls.

"Another...disobedient child...has run in..."

"Looks like... we'll have to treat two more people today..."

　I had a high fever and a bad cold yesterday, so I didn't update last night. I slept it off and am feeling much better today.

　　
　
(End of this chapter)