Thriller Zone: From the Mental Hospital to the Ghostly World

The vortex on the bald man's stomach gradually widened.

His body, like the swirling pattern on a lollipop, gradually deformed and twisted until it was completely swallowed up by the vortex.

Not even a drop of blood or a trace of residue was left.

This is the price of miscommunication.

Everyone fell silent, watching as the bald man completely erased his existence within ten seconds.

The first round of the relay game has now ended, and the children's square is as bright as day.

The eight small statues on the table vanished silently the moment the bald man shouted.

Zhang Wenyi looked at Zhao Xun first, his eyes revealing a strong sense of vigilance and suspicion.

She speaks very directly:

Did you tamper with the sentence?

The remaining people also looked at Zhao Xun and kept a certain distance from him.

Zhao Xun stood alone in the open space, sweat beading on his forehead. His voice was hurried as he hastily defended himself:

"I didn't change anything!"

"I swear, I passed on everything I heard to the bald man, without changing a single word!"

Yun Yuan sneered repeatedly. She had long realized that this game went against human nature; those who came before could easily alter sentences without being punished.

"Tell me then, what exactly did you convey to him?"

Chen Ji's eyes flashed, and his gaze fell on Zhao Xun.

He didn't think Zhao Xun had deceived the bald man. In fact, Zhao Xun and the bald man had no grudge against each other, so the possibility of Zhao Xun deliberately harming him was unlikely.

The reason Chen Ji remained silent when everyone questioned Zhao Xun was because he wanted to see which link in the chain had gone wrong.

It's even possible that Zhao Xun was also deceived.

Zhao Xun was in front of Wang Xiaoming, and ahead of him was Yun Yuan.

But if Yun Yuan was lying, then she is unlikely to directly question Zhao Xun about what he said.

That would easily expose her, unless Yun Yuan's purpose was to harm Wang Xiaoming.

However, there is another possibility.

Chen Ji's gaze swept over the remaining people, a subtle hint of suspicion flashing in his eyes...

That is, no one lied.

Zhao Xun's veins bulged, and his voice even stuttered as he tried to prove himself:

"What I heard and what I said all boiled down to one sentence!"

"There are eight of us!"

He himself wasn't quite sure if it had been altered, since the sentence did sound really strange.

After Zhao Xun finished speaking, the square fell silent.

There seemed to be some sound, but no one noticed.

Yun Yuan stared straight at Zhao Xun and said:

"These are indeed the words I sent to you."

"However, this still doesn't prove that you didn't lie."

Chen Ji interjected, "That's what I heard too."

He turned his head again, not looking at the remaining people, but directly asked Zhang Wenyi, the first messenger:

"Zhang Wenyi, is this what it says on the whiteboard?"

Zhang Wenyi nodded. If that was the case, at least her message hadn't been altered before the bald man's.

The only problem still lies with Zhao Xun.

Yun Yuan's expression was subtle, and her eyes revealed deep suspicion as she looked at Zhao Xun. Just as she was about to ask more questions, she was stopped by the red-haired man beside her.

"Third Brother...?"

She couldn't help but be stunned.

“Instead of doubting Zhao Xun,” the red-haired man said lazily, “why don’t you just doubt that Gui changed his words?”

Zhao Xun nodded immediately, and said hastily as if grasping at a lifeline:

"If I'm lying, may my whole family die!"

"Besides, I didn't even know the bald guy before, so there's no reason for me to harm him, right?"

"Besides," Zhao Xun gritted his teeth, "I want to live too! If the bald guy is right, the game is over. Why should I bother?!"

Zhang Wenyi glanced cautiously at the red-haired man, then looked at Zhao Xun:

"It's not that we doubt you."

"And up to now, no one has seen a single ghost!"

"If it's a ghost lying, then the most likely culprit is actually you!"

Chen Ji interrupted their argument.

He walked up to the group and abruptly asked:

"Everyone, how many of us are left?"

Zhang Wenyi was taken aback: "Six?"

Yun Yuan nodded, giving the same answer.

A faint voice seemed to appear again in the square, but neither of the women noticed it.

However, Zhao Xun and the red-haired man spoke at the same time: "There are seven."

Immediately afterward, Zhao Xun looked around, seemingly searching for someone: "Where is that person?"

"Um...Wang something, where did you go?"

"Wang Xiaoming, I guess," Chen Ji said, but he didn't see the person he'd forgotten as soon as he saw him.

"Hey!"

"I'm here!"

Look at me!

As if appearing out of thin air, yet seemingly having been there for a long time, Wang Xiaoming, wearing a plaid shirt, suddenly appeared in everyone's sight.

His voice was full of helplessness, yet it seemed he had long been accustomed to it:

"I've been talking, but you just can't hear me,"

Zhang Wenyi was taken aback. It was true. She had spoken to Wang Xiaoming before the game started, but now she didn't know how she had forgotten about him.

Chen Ji frowned, feeling that Wang Xiaoming's presence was even weaker than before.

It seemed as if he would melt into the air at any moment.

It would be completely impossible to say that there was no interference from some strange force.

Chen Ji wasn't the only one with this guess. Zhang Heng smiled and suddenly spoke up:

"Xiao Ming, is that a side effect of the strange object?"

Wang Xiaoming glanced cautiously at Zhang Heng, but did not answer.

"Don't be nervous, I also have a strange creature."

Zhang Heng spoke in a very kind tone, and quietly took a compass from the red-haired man's pocket:

"Look, everyone has some, no one will take it from you."

Wang Xiaoming remained silent, pulling his plaid shirt tighter around himself.

"Don't change the subject."

Chen Ji glanced at Zhang Heng and interrupted his attempt to deceive him: "The priority now is to find a way to survive."

Having said that, he ignored the other person's expression and said directly:

"Now count for yourselves how many of us there are."

Zhang Wenyi had been lost in thought, but now, upon hearing Chen Ji's words, his attention was diverted.

She counted herself first, then the rest of the people:

“1，2，3......6，7.......8?”

and many more.

Zhang Wenyi immediately broke out in a cold sweat!

The bald man is dead, so where did these 8 people come from?

She was a little skeptical and counted again, but there were still 8!

But... as far as she could see, besides herself, there were only six faces!

"what?"

Yun Yuan and Zhao Xun's gazes sharpened, and they quickly counted the number of people in the crowd, but...

There are 8 of them!

One more person!

But nobody knows where that extra one came from!

No matter how you count them, there are 7 faces and 8 people!

Zhang Heng was also a little stunned. He looked around but couldn't see anything unusual.

He made a quick decision, closed his eyes and stopped looking, and began to touch each person one by one...

1, 2, 3...

By the end, Zhang Heng's arms were covered in goosebumps.

He touched eight bodies.

Chen Ji immediately said, "When you look, pay attention to whether anyone's eyes are closed."

This is Chen Ji's speculation, based on the rule of "not looking"!

This time, if the ghost wants to blend into the crowd, it will most likely have activated its hearing or speaking abilities.

Otherwise, it wouldn't be able to hear the messages relayed by the previous person, let alone pass on the altered nonsense to the next person.

Based on the first stage's restriction of "not looking," it is highly likely that once the ghost activates its hearing, it will lose its sight!

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Thanks to Qin Nianyi, for the character summons from Lin Guyi; thanks to everyone who's been lying around; and thanks to the update reminder charm from Ice-Cold Hamburger.

Thank you so much for your support, fellow readers!