Chapter 51: Chapter 51 All the Missing Persons.
The vast mall was eerily quiet.
Not a single sound, save for the footsteps of Yang Jian as he made his way through.
Outside, dusk must have settled, the sun shining through the glass windows bringing a trace of light to the dim mall.
But this light wouldnât last for long.
Once night fell,
with the mallâs lights turned off, it would be pitch-black, where one couldnât see their hand in front of them.
âSssss⊠left, on your left, thereâs someone standing there,â Jiang Yanâs tense voice transmitted from the satellite navigation cell phone on Yang Jianâs chest, accompanied by the sound of static.
A middle-aged man with a pale face and emanating a stench of decay stood calmly on the left side at the bend in the corridor, with eyes closed, motionless like a puppet.
Yang Jian strode forward, glanced left, and his eyes flickered, âI see him.â
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He sidestepped and continued forward, passing directly by the middle-aged man.
The man, however, did not move, not even when Yang Jian walked in front of him.
âYouâre amazing, your deduction was right, itâs really possibleâthe ghost didnât attack you.â Inside the surveillance room, Jiang Yan couldnât hide her excitement at the sight.
Yang Jian, however, was not so pleased. He said, âNo, I now suspect these are not real ghosts, they are likely just being controlled by a ghost. The real ghost must be hiding somewhere, or in someone. Donât waste time. The surveillance footage in the control room can be kept for fifteen days. Iâve looked into the mallâs situation; everything happened in about ten days from the incident to the shutdown for repairs.â
âIf you search carefully, you can certainly find the source.â
âDonât worry, I know what to do now,â replied Jiang Yan, her confidence gradually building and her fear subsiding.
âBehind you, in that shop behind you, I see someone,â she quickly warned him.
Yang Jian immediately turned to look.
Behind the glass door of a shop, a youthful and pretty girl now stood, her skin darkened, signaling she had been dead for several daysâlonger than Wuei Xiaohong, and severe decay had set in. With a slight movement, her once shiny black hair fell in a rustling shower.
Thick, foul-smelling fluid dripped from her nose and eyes.
Yet such a corpse raised a hand as though to reach through the glass door, grasping towards Yang Jian.
âAre there more inside the doors?â Yang Jianâs face twitched, and he quickly turned back.
He walked backward, sidestepping.
By not turning his back to them, he could avoid being attacked first. Escaping out of fear would undoubtedly lead to a gruesome death.
Having discerned a pattern, Yang Jian felt that these ghosts were not so difficult to deal with.
âZhou Zhengâs three sentences really summed it up wellâas long as one understands the ghostâs pattern of killing immediately, even an ordinary person could walk out of here,â Yang Jian mused to himself.
Of course, this was only true for ghosts of this level.
If it was a level higher, like that of the Ghost Infant, who killed indiscriminately, recognized patterns could not guarantee oneâs survival one hundred percent of the time; they could only increase the chances of survival significantly.
Having evaded two ghosts that had drawn near, Yang Jian picked up his pace once again.
He could hear footsteps closing in all around him, as well as the eerie operation of the elevator.
Yang Jian knew that whichever direction he faced, ghosts would appear on the opposite side, just that those behind were farther away and needed some time to close in.
If he delayed too long and got surrounded⊠it would be a death sentence.
Of course, Yang Jianâs daring came from being a ghost controller; an ordinary person would never dare play so recklessly.
âThe storeroom is ahead, turn left, move fast. More ghosts are closing in behind you, and I see ghosts continuously coming up the elevator,â Jiang Yan grew tense again; âIâm checking the surveillance footage right now; soon I should be able to locate where that ghost first appeared.â
âI know,â glanced Yang Jian.
Indeed, the elevator on the fourth floor operated, and in the dimness, he could just make out two people traveling to the fifth floor in the lift.
Moreover, the sound of the elevators moving on the third and second floors kept ringing out.
Yang Jian saw several shadowy figures moving about several places downstairs.
âHow many people have gone missing in this mall?â Yang Jian shivered inwardly.
He estimated roughly, at least twenty people, and the number was still increasing, emerging from every corner and floor of the mall⊠The stench of decay in the air grew even more intense.
âThis ghost really knows where to pick its spots, choosing such a bustling mall. Under normal business, a dozen people disappearing in a few days would be unnoticeable. In a less crowded place, there wouldnât be so many chances for a ghost to kill this many people.â
âNow, those whoâve died have become my problem.â
Moving cautiously, he ran toward the storeroom.
Right now outside the storeroom, a man with a face of deathly stillness and pale color stood rigid. His head belonged to a man in his thirties, but his body was female, dressed in a long skirt and wearing coffee-colored high heels.
Clearly, his head had been swapped.
The man numbly pounded on the door, each knock like the heavy strike of a hammer, creating loud booms, almost shattering the door.
But the manâs arm was already a blur of blood and flesh, chunks of skin falling away, even exposing his bones, twisted into an abnormal angle.
After all, human bodies are not as hard as doors.
But all this did nothing to deter his determination to break in.
Those people hiding in the storeroom, upon seeing the door shake and about to swing open, one by one were scared into a cold sweat, trembling throughout their bodies.
âNot, not again, Yan Li, you have to think of something fast, the doorâs about to open, and that thing is still outside, it really hasnât leftâŠâ Manager Li said in frightened horror.
âFive million, Iâll give you five million, just as long as you can get me out of here, I will give it to you.â Boss Tang was no longer miserly, hastily extending his hand as he shouted out the price in fear.
Money is important, but oneâs life is even more so.
At this moment, Yan Liâs face looked particularly ghastly. He looked at his hands, bloodied and soaked through his gloves, with blood continuously seeping out.
The pool of blood on the ground could no longer be completely reabsorbed.
âI canât use this ability anymore, or Iâll die even faster,â he took a deep breath.
Now, the blood on the door had stopped flowing, no longer seeping out, because his hands were no longer pressing against it.
âBang, Bang Bang~!â
The loud noise from the door resumed, the door frame vibrating as dust fluttered down from above.
The force was becoming strongerâŠ
While they were huddled together in terror,
in an inconspicuous corner, Elder Sister Li, who from start to finish hadnât let out a single scream or said a word, slowly stood up.
She closed her eyes, her face pale, her body rotating at an odd angle. She faced the group of people with their backs to her, then slowly extended her hands.
But just at that moment, a loud crash suddenly came from outside.
Something had fallen to the ground with a smash.
Yang Jianâs voice sounded from outside: âHey, people inside, are you still alive? If you arenât dead, open the door; I have a way to get you all out of here?â
âWhat? Thereâs still someone outside.â At this point, the most shocked was Yan Li.
He heard the voice outside with complete disbelief. With so many ghosts in the mall, there shouldnât be any living people, or if there were, they should have already died.
âItâs, itâs the voice of that young security guard. Quickly, open the door and see, ask him if he really has a way to get out of here.â Boss Tang had a good memory and immediately recognized Yang Jianâs voice.
âDonât, donât open the door, who knows whether the one talking outside is human or spirit.â Manager Li said in terror.
Reminded thus, Yan Liâs heart chilled as well, immediately becoming more solemn.
Indeed, there was no evidence to prove that the security guard outside was human.
What if it were a trap?
Yang Jian had finally managed to throw the person at the door of the storeroom down from the fifth floor. Although the fall wouldnât kill them, it would take some time to come back upâtemporarily relieving the immediate crisis.
However, hearing the words from the people inside the storeroom, his expression darkened: âRight, it doesnât matter if you donât come out. I had already watched the surveillance footage before. Among you, Elder Sister Li is also a ghost. I donât know if Elder Sister Li has started to act, but if she has, all of you are going to die in there, so please, make a decision quickly.â
âHuh?â
Upon hearing this, everyone in the storeroom immediately broke into a cold sweat.
What? Elder Sister Li is a ghost?
Almost reflexively, all of them turned their heads to look back.
But in the next moment, they saw that Elder Sister Li, who had gotten up without them noticing, was⊠headless.
âAh~!â
Several screams erupted from inside the storeroom.
Outside, Yang Jian couldnât help but cover his ears.
This sound was loud enough; it would be a shame not to sing soprano.
The next moment.
The storeroom door burst open with a loud bang.
A group of people scrambled and stumbled out as if escaping for their lives, sobbing and sniveling, some even wetting themselves.
âQuick, run!â
âHelp! I donât want to die.â
Yang Jian reminded them again, âItâs okay to shout, but donât run around blindly; there are more ghosts outside, and the faster you run, the quicker youâll die.â
Boss Tang, Manager Li, Master Luo, and their group hadnât gotten far before they were scared into paralysis on the ground.
Without knowing when, the paths on the fifth floor had become filled with people,
In every directionâfront, back, left, and rightâthere were people everywhere.
These individuals were deathly pale, their eyes shut, emitting a rotten stench, with stiff, uncoordinated steps they kept inching closer, blocking all possible escape routes.
All of them were people who had gone missing in the mall.
Today, they all showed up.
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