Thriller Zone: From the Mental Hospital to the Ghostly World

[Don't look yet, I'm making changes, there's a fatal error.]

The moment the hoofbeats stopped.

Chen Ji clearly saw that the ghost wearing the yellow miner's hat, still with its back to them, suddenly took a step back.

This proves that the ghost has been discovered, and Chen Ji has seen through its deception.

Without a second's hesitation, Chen Ji grabbed Xu Sandao and Lao Yang, and the three of them turned and ran!

"Keep going straight, the end is District 7, and there's a fork in the road next to it!"

Chen Ji let out a low shout, and the visual ability granted by [Ignore] made him immediately discover that there was another path beside the way they had come.

They were tricked by the ghost into a dead end in a straight line, which is [Sector 7-4].

If I'm not mistaken, the small path is the direction leading to Zone 0.

The three of them ran wildly.

Aside from the ghost wearing the yellow miner's hat, Chen Ji had already guessed the identities of the other three.

The scene from just now replayed in Chen Ji's mind...

There were three ghosts beside the mule, two men and one woman.

They were: a man in leather shoes and a leather jacket, a man in a tattered coat and cotton shoes, and a woman with a braid and a white flower.

This corresponds exactly to the three people who went missing earlier: the thug, the coal miner, and Lao Yang's wife, Lili.

Now that he's on the brink of death, only by escaping can he tell Lao Yang the truth.

And that ghost wearing the yellow miner's hat....

Chen Ji didn't know who it was, but he could clearly see through his night vision that there was a glowing object on the other person's waist.

scrap.

This ghost isn't Liu Yunfeng, nor is it Liu Er... Where did it come from?

There was no time to think about it anymore. Chen Ji pulled hard and led the other two into the side road in District 7.

Upon entering the new space, his field of vision began to expand again, and he immediately looked at the wooden planks on the wall.

This should be Zone 3...

The darkness slowly faded away.

A number appears in the field of vision:

【4】

Chen Ji's mind went blank!

After they turned onto the side road, they returned to the area where the four ghosts had been!

A maze of ghosts.

However, the ghost wearing the yellow miner's hat completely disappeared from Chen Ji's sight.

At this very moment—

The lights in the passageway suddenly flickered.

Immediately afterwards, a faint green light appeared.

Xu Sandao and Lao Yang both squinted for a moment, and when they opened their eyes again, their hearts skipped a beat!

They all saw a dead mule lying on the ground.

And next to the mule's carcass...

Three dark, indistinct faces were exposed to the green light.

They were only a few steps away.

It was as if charcoal had been smeared on their faces; all three faces were blurred, and nothing could be seen clearly.

"...Lili?"

Old Yang murmured in a daze.

The woman wearing the white flower did not react.

A series of "clicking" sounds were heard, and her feet stiffly lifted, followed by her legs, and then her arms holding the pickaxe.

The same applies to the other two figures.

Chen was horrified to see that their steps and movements were completely synchronized, as if...

Like three puppets being held by strings!

Lili walked stiffly past Lao Yang.

Immediately, a clanging sound rang out.

"They're...mining coal?" Chen Ji couldn't understand at all!

This scene was like a dream. The three people had been missing for several days, and when they reappeared, they were actually digging coal in this abandoned mining area!

On the other side, Lao Yang slumped to the ground, his face ashen.

He had a vague premonition that Lili might be dead, but a glimmer of hope still lingered in his heart.

But what he saw shattered his illusions completely.

"Old Yang," Xu Sandao suddenly spoke up, "your wife isn't dead yet."

"Because we are still alive."

This sentence came out of nowhere. Chen Ji looked up, about to ask a question, when suddenly he was startled!

He instantly understood what Xu Sandao meant.

Because, at some point, dark shadows had appeared on Lao Yang and Xu Sandao's faces, and their features seemed to be gradually becoming blurred.

Like Lili and the other two.

“They were also lured here,” Xu Sandao said softly. “Once they come in, they can’t get out.”

"And...have you ever felt that your limbs are a little out of control?"

He pulled his pants up to his knees and looked at his lame left leg.

The skin there was twitching incessantly, and the muscles were twitching wildly, like freshly cut beef.

“I guess if we stay stuck here... we'll end up like them.”

Xu Sandao tilted his head towards Lili's direction: "I can no longer control my body."

clang!

clang!

The sound of pickaxes echoed through the mine tunnels.

The three of them moved in perfect sync, giving off a strong sense of mechanical movement.

"The culprit is that ghost wearing the yellow helmet." Chen Ji immediately recounted everything he had just seen: "It has waste material on it."

All three were silent.

The ghost had disappeared somewhere, most likely waiting for Chen Ji and the other two to completely lose control of their bodies.

After thinking for a moment, Chen Ji decided to go back to the fork in the road again.

This time, he could clearly feel his joints stiffening, and his feet felt as heavy as if they weighed a ton, making it difficult to lift them.

At this rate, they'll become zombies in less than an hour.

Five minutes later...

Chen Ji finally managed to turn into a side road, and then he saw green again, and saw Xu Sandao's back once more.

The cycle of being trapped in a maze is far from over.

Xu Sandao was startled by his appearance.

"Where's Lao Yang?" Chen Ji asked breathlessly.

Xu Sandao's expression was complicated as he pointed behind him.

"He went to see his wife."

Chen Ji turned around and saw Lao Yang standing blankly beside Lili.

"He was trying to drag his wife over here," Xu Sandao sighed. "But he didn't succeed."

Chen remained silent. No wonder he kept hearing Lao Yang talking to someone.

"I have a guess."

After a while, Chen Ji suddenly said, "Do you remember those three miner ghosts who followed Liu Yunfeng?"

Xu Sandao nodded.

The skulls of those three ghosts were all missing a piece.

"I suspect they were killed by the Yellow Helmet Demons."

Chen Ji frowned: "But why?"

He had previously believed that the miners were killed by a ghost that had never appeared.

The appearance of the Yellow Helmet Ghost confirmed Chen Ji's conjecture.

However, instead of pursuing Chen Ji and the other two, the ghost chose to lure and control their bodies.

Given that Lili and the other two disappeared when the Forging Demon first appeared, the Helmet Demon must have existed at the same time, or even earlier.

However, when the headcount was taken at the time, it was indeed true that there were only 5 dead people and 3 missing people, totaling 8 people.

"Is it possible that the Helmet Ghost is the Forging Ghost?"

Chen Ji muttered to himself, but it didn't seem like it.

The mere appearance of the Forging Demon's projection was enough to shatter Chen Ji's mind and spirit, and the oppressive feeling it brought was far beyond what the Helmet Demon could match.

Assuming these two ghosts are not the same, and the number of people hasn't decreased, then...

Perhaps the helmeted ghost has always been hiding among the people.

I'm not feeling well today, so I updated very late. Sorry TT