Thriller Zone: From the Mental Hospital to the Ghostly World

At the ferry crossing.

After exchanging all their messages, the group gazed at the small boat slowly drifting in the distance.

Liu Song looked dazed, as if he hadn't yet shaken off the atmosphere of the guesthouse: "It's over just like that?"

"Or else?"

Wei Gu glanced at him: "We've completed all three tasks. What happens after that is none of our business."

He pointed to himself: "I have restored the Ghost."

“You also recognized all of its parts.”

After saying that, he turned to Chen Ji and asked, "When did you 'find' the landlord?"

Chen Ji said, "Very early."

"Then why did you come out so late?"

"Because I can't get out," Chen Ji said helplessly. "If the last part doesn't appear, I'll be stuck at that point in time."

"You too."

The river rippled gently as the small boat approached the ferry dock and picked up the group.

Kui Gu plopped down next to Chen Ji, raising an eyebrow: "Did you create that head with the prosthetic limb?"

Chen Ji nodded.

"...No wonder I couldn't find this part anywhere."

After a two-second silence, Wei Gu asked again, "Did Little C escape?"

“Yes,” Chen Ji said. “You should have noticed that his body can’t be found anywhere.”

"I came to him because he ultimately survived, which means he didn't have a predetermined ending."

After thinking for a moment, Chen Ji slowly explained:

"After Little D died, I understood why I couldn't do anything to the killer before, but I could afterward."

"Because the domain explicitly stated that it cannot interfere with the 'ending where a comrade is dead.'"

"And the prerequisite for the death of the last victim, Little D, is that the killer is alive."

"In this way, I, or rather C, was able to fight the killer, during which D was lured away by the landlord and then killed."

He paused.

Once you understand this, you'll know why you have a prosthetic leg nearby and why a serial killer just happens to be there.

It was the landlord who did it.

Before that, the landlord had knocked the killer unconscious, removed the prosthetic leg, and placed it next to Chen Ji and Xiao D to guide their struggle against the killer.

why?

The answer is simple: the landlord wanted to create a false hope for them, and then shatter that hope just before it was about to be realized.

"Besides Little D, there is another person who will definitely die in my timeline, namely the serial killer."

"So it was Little C who killed the serial killer."

He explained it briefly, which is easy to explain because Phil has confirmed that the head of the Ghost belongs to the killer.

“How Little C kills the serial killer is his business,” Chen Ji said. “But I have to put the prosthetic limb into the serial killer’s mouth.”

"Because after we entered the domain, the form of the Donggui that we found was like this."

"You've all done fill-in-the-blank questions, right?"

"The domain provides a predetermined answer, and I have to fill it in according to that answer."

Liu Song suddenly realized: "I think I understand!"

"So, sorted by time, our entry into the domain was the latest point in time; but based on your experience, it was actually the earliest one!"

“Yes!” Chen Ji nodded: “In other words, I am influencing you, and you are influencing me.”

He borrowed Fei'er's sketchbook and drew a circle with a pen, connecting the beginning and the end:

(1) I put the prosthesis into my head -> (2) So Kuigu got a head with the prosthesis inside, and then created Donggui -> (3) So when I first entered the domain, I found Donggui's prosthesis and head -> (4) So I put the prosthesis into my head

Chen Ji added, "The decisive factor is the third point."

"To put it simply, the effect determines the cause. Although the three time points in this case have a chronological order, the existence of the tape recorder causes them to flow in a non-linear fashion, but rather to occur simultaneously."

Once this point was explained, everyone discussed why the last part was the hand.

"It doesn't have to be a hand."

Chen Ji said, "But I have to sacrifice a part of my body to serve as the last part of the Dong Ghost."

"This is what I think: before everything was over, all the dead people in the guesthouse had already appeared in the form that the demon had already taken."

"The serial killer. Big B, Little B, Little A, Little D. There's still one person missing, so it can only be Little C, which is me."

"Although Xiao C escaped, he should have lost a part of his body, which was left behind in the guesthouse."

"In other words, he eventually encountered the landlord and fought with him, which resulted in his injury."

“I don’t know which part he left.” Chen Ji sighed helplessly: “Because Little D died, the domain no longer forces me to follow the plot, so I can only improvise.”

"So you can just leave any one, it's fine. Anyway, the part missing in the Dong Gui belongs to the small C, but since it hasn't been observed, it can be anything."

Kui Gu waved his hand: "Understood."

After that, he didn't ask any more questions, but instead carefully observed his missing arm.

His expression wasn't very pleasant.

Because the recovery speed is not very fast... Chen Ji's hand grew back as soon as it left the domain, but Wei Gu's flesh and blood are still slowly being reconstituted.

It just grew to the elbow.

On the other side, after reviewing the situation, the group clarified several key points.

First, the landlord's death was likely caused by the original Xiao C.

In the guesthouse created by the domain, it was transformed into a ghost, with no specific form except for its skin.

The Dong Gui was created by Wei Gu and is an aggregate of other dead people.

At this point, Wei Gu interjected, "You still don't understand the abilities of the Spying Ghost."

As the person who spent the most time with the voyeur throughout the entire process, Wei Gu bluntly stated:

"Without a container, it is nothing."

"It can only attach itself to furniture and trick unsuspecting people."

He then recounted his experience.

First, the spy ghost establishes a "mutual dependence" relationship with Kui Gu, thereby strengthening their trust.

Afterwards, it informed Wei Gu, disguised as "Dong Xiaohu," that the Spying Ghost had not yet been revived.

Using this as a foundation, it can easily create illusions to guide Wei Gu to recall what "Dong Xiaohu" said before, thereby lowering his guard and making contact with the iron chair.

"Then I realized something was wrong with him." Wei Gu shrugged. "Actually, I should have noticed something was off about him as soon as we went in."

Because the collection of stories that recorded the guidance disappeared on its own before "Dong Xiaohu" could even read it.