Thriller Zone: From the Mental Hospital to the Ghostly World

Ten minutes ago.

In the cramped lavatory of the rear cabin.

The man leaned quietly against the door, always keeping his distance from the stone cage.

His hand, hidden behind his back, remained discreetly gripping the doorknob, as if he were about to burst out at the slightest sign of trouble.

Many of the stone bricks have already fallen off...

Like a moth emerging from its cocoon, a head tightly wrapped in a gray membrane emerged from the silk.

The face above has degenerated to its original form, no longer having facial features, only a few raised bumps.

"Is this your true form?"

The man spoke cautiously, his hand already turning slightly.

"Original body?"

The gray head emitted a muffled voice: "Your imagination is too weak."

Those bulges were slowly wriggling, it was unclear whether they were making sounds or simply trying to break through the membrane's limitations.

The man fell silent for a moment.

He was unwilling to admit it, but an unbelievable thought did rise in his mind.

"You...you people, aren't you all made of hair?"

Head: "Yes."

“We are just alter egos of our mother.”

It tilted its head back, as if to show the man its gray face:

"Everything we do is to bring Mother back into the world."

Through the delirious murmurs of the skull, the man finally managed to understand what this "mother" truly meant.

It's not here at all.

According to the skull, they were just a few strands taken from the mother's thousands of black hairs.

The mother's true form, however, is imprisoned in a very distant place and unable to escape.

But her consciousness is limitless, and she can travel between her own split bodies.

However, all of this requires certain preconditions to be met.

The head didn't specify what the conditions were.

It soon started muttering things the man couldn't understand, as if it were in a dream.

The man silently loosened his grip.

Looking at the cocoon, and thinking about how this ghost split into three heads and three bodies, he roughly understood what the prerequisite was.

"...Why haven't you made a move yet?"

The head suddenly spoke again.

Are you afraid of dying?

"I told you, I would keep you alive."

This is an additional condition demanded by the man when the trader is left with only one person.

pat.

Another brick fell to the ground.

There are now quite a few gaps in the cage.

"I told you, using birds to spread the virus is very risky."

"You should have passed on the third one when you went to deliver the water..."

The voice from the head was deep and low, filled with suppressed anger.

The man's throat bobbed: "He is not a suitable host."

The head stopped speaking.

The man sneered inwardly.

Just as he suspected.

What the Hair Demon truly desires is not for all those who enter the realm to be killed, but rather for itself to be able to multiply infinitely.

The reason for killing those who enter the domain is because it is afraid, and those who enter the domain also have moss stones on them.

"Pass the hair to the captain..." the man thought to himself, "Can I still complete the mission?"

The domain's goal is to survive until the plane lands.

Even if the Hair Ghost can keep him alive, the Yu River cannot appear until the plane lands, so he can only live on this flight.

He's not a fool.

"How do you plan to retrieve the third strand of hair?" the head asked after a few seconds.

The man smiled and said, "Give me the reward first."

"I want to know first, what exactly is this 'irresistible reward' you promised me?"

The head did not respond.

A human and a ghost faced off.

The man was not in a hurry at all.

He has many options; if all else fails, he can just give up and hide here, since ghosts can't come out anyway.

He will be able to leave the area alive once the plane lands.

How did you confirm that all the moss stones were used up?

After a moment of silence, the head asked.

“They only have two moss-covered stone bullets.” The man smiled slightly. “When I used the bird, my consciousness briefly merged with that silly woman’s, and I saw this message.”

"One will be used on you, and the other will surely be used to imprison that single strand of my hair."

Head: "Not bad."

"When are you going to take action?"

Man: "Five minutes before landing."

"This is a win-win situation for us."

The head gave two sinister laughs.

The man chuckled.

Five minutes is enough for the hair to find a host without affecting the plane's landing.

As for whether there's enough time to kill all the entrants...

This is not actually a mandatory option.

He had already determined the head's true demands, and the initiative was in his hands; he could easily establish a new deal.

"The mossy stones are all used up; this is your real purpose."

The man said, "Give me the reward, and I'll let the third hair out."

He added, "You had no choice."

The head said, "Commendable courage."

Man: "Hmm."

He's always been very bold; otherwise, how could he dare to make a deal with a ghost?

Only a fool like Wu Zhou would think that this deal was proposed by Gui Su and be so apprehensive.

Be flexible in your dealings with others; there are no absolute enemies, nor are there absolute allies.

Time passed by minute by minute.

Twenty minutes left.

The head was writhing restlessly.

The man didn't react; he wouldn't take any action until he received the reward.

Two wooden sticks appeared in his hands at some unknown time, with silk threads hanging from them, but nothing was hanging from the threads.

The man was fiddling with the wooden stick in an affected manner.

"It's garbage."

Skull passage.

"What I'm giving you is a thousand times better than this."

Do you want to have the power of a mother?

A glint flashed in the man's eyes, and he vaguely guessed what the ghost's reward was.

"where?"

The head muttered, "After you get the third hair, it will split off into a new hair, which you can take with you. That's your reward."

The man's heart stirred slightly; just as he had guessed, he could obtain a strange object.

Will it parasitize me?

The man thought for a moment and then asked, "This is the most crucial question."

The head said, "Yes."

"But you don't need to worry."

"Moss-covered stones are very common; think back to them yourself."

The man was puzzled. He picked up the fallen brick and frowned in thought.

He felt that the mossy stone looked familiar.

A short while later...

The man's eyes widened suddenly: "It's actually a stone from there?"

That's quite common now.

From this point on, he was certain that the head was not lying to him; the hair strands were extremely powerful, but the price was that he himself was also parasitized. However, he had a way to control it.

"Row."

The man smiled slightly; this time, the domain had yielded considerable gains.

After a long period of tug-of-war, confrontation, and mutual suspicion, both the human and the ghost showed their sincerity.

Time passed, and all was quiet—

Suddenly, the head let out a mournful cry.

"monkey--"

The man was taken aback: "What?"

"monkey!"

The head roared in fury!

The man was horrified!

"Then there are monkeys?!"

He immediately looked at the head, but the membrane on it began to tremble violently.

"monkey!"

The skull's original voice, filled with intense fear, cried out: "No!"

"How did it get here?!"

"How could it possibly be here?!"

"Get the third hair back now! Quickly!"

The man hesitated for a moment, carefully examining the strands of hair in the cage, but the other person's fear seemed genuine.

Who exactly is the monkey...?

The man began to feel uneasy, sensing that things were starting to spiral out of control.

With only fifteen minutes left, he didn't hesitate any longer and immediately started wielding the wooden stick in his hand.

A phantom appeared on the thin line beneath the two wooden sticks; it could be vaguely seen that it was a strand of hair.

but......

The man suddenly stopped all movement, frozen in place like a puppet.

His thoughts were frozen in that moment, as if time had stood still.

Only the wooden stick operates silently, manipulating the threads and recalling the hair.

The thread got stuck.

"You have failed!" The head screamed shrilly, causing the calluses to tremble violently!

It received no response.

Sudden......

The wailing head suddenly stopped.

It silently turned its head and saw that a... monkey head had grown on one side of its shoulder.

I'm watching it quietly.

His face was covered in wrinkles, with sparse hair, and his mouth was covered with needle-like vertical lines.

The head remained still for two seconds.

It already knows where the third strand of hair is.

They also know their future fate.

Without any hesitation, the cocoon suddenly trembled violently, and its four thin, grayish-white arms rapidly withered, returning all the nutrients to the first head.

The weak head that had previously split off, which had been silently nourished within the hair cocoon, has now also vanished into thin air.

As a result, her hair grew wildly.

Using this force, the already dilapidated cage was forced open by the hair and spread to the still man!

The head is making a final stand.

【sacrificial spirit】

A syllable spilled from the corner of the monkey's mouth.

Inside the restroom...

In that very second, it became completely empty.

Time resumed its flow.

Like a paused movie being played, the man continued his previous actions without hesitation.

The next second, he suddenly opened his eyes wide!

The calluses are gone!

It was as if it had never existed; there wasn't a trace of it in the entire bathroom!

He felt a tickle in his eyes, rubbed them quickly, and opened them again, but still couldn't see any calluses.

The wooden stick and silk thread swayed back and forth, and the man could no longer sense the presence of the third strand of hair.

"What...what happened?"

"What about the strange object you promised me?!"