...
The scalded ghost let out a strange, guttural wheeze from its throat and shuffled toward Kang Xiaojia—it seemed to be able to tell which of the two was harder to deal with.
Melting flesh sloughed off as it moved, sizzling as it dripped onto the floor and immediately burning small pits into it.
“Watch out!”
Chen Xi propped herself up on the edge of the bed with one hand, launching her body into the air. Her right leg whipped out like a lash, kicking the scalded ghost hard in the lower back.
She was wearing training pants, but the cuffs were already singed by the heat. Even through the fabric, she could feel the scorching temperature.
“Bang!”
The kick was incredibly powerful, sending the scalded ghost stumbling back several steps until it crashed heavily into the folding table. The stack of rice cakes fell to the floor, shattering into a puddle of white paste that slowly spread as it mixed with the sweet soup.
The red and white bits of roasted meat inside dissolved right into the sweet soup.
“Cop...”
The scalded ghost's muddy eyes stared at Chen Xi as it squeezed two words from its throat, filled with a mix of dread and malice:
“You're a cop...”
It had been arrested by the police when it was alive, and even in death, that instinctive fear remained deeply engraved.
The scalded ghost cast a lingering, reluctant glance at the item in Chen Xi's hand, then took two steps back, pressing against the base of the wall as if trying to shrink back into the kitchen.
Trying to run?
Chen Xi wasn't about to give it the chance.
She pulled the trigger, but the firearm didn't react. Decisive as ever, Chen Xi slammed her palm hard against the sharp metal corner of the bed frame—
“Captain Chen!”
Kang Xiaojia let out a low cry, but Chen Xi seemed completely impervious to pain. Expressionless, she aimed once more—the bloody gash in the center of her palm aligned directly with the gun chamber, allowing her blood to seep inside.
【Blood Bullet Loaded: "Constable" Yang Blood. Damage to low-grade evil spirits +5%.】
Gripping the gun with both hands, Chen Xi locked her sights dead center on the scalded ghost's forehead.
“Bang! Bang! Bang!”
Three rapid shots rang out, each one a dull, heavy thud accompanied by a flash of bloody light.
The bullets struck the exact same spot. Bloody light erupted as the yang blood seared the malevolent entity. Sizzling sounds echoed as black smoke billowed from the scorched flesh.
“Hiss—!!”
The scalded ghost let out a piercing shriek as three bloody holes exploded on its head, spraying a dark red pulp everywhere!
Its massive body swayed as if its bones had been liquefied, then crashed to the floor with a loud thud.
Its flesh melted at a visible rate, turning into a puddle of reddish-yellow slime—like smashed strawberry jelly—slowly seeping into the cracks of the floorboards.
In the end, only a few tattered pieces of work overalls remained scattered at the edge of the slime.
【System Notification: Player "Chen Xi" has killed a low-grade Scald Evil, achieving the first kill of the Instance!】
【Rewards: Bound Inventory Expansion x5 slots, Glass Marbles, Blood-Replenishing Pill x1 bottle, Qi-Boosting Pill x1 bottle】
【Glass Marbles (Iron): Placing one in the mouth restrains yang energy and masks the sound of breathing. Effective against malevolent entities below the level of a fierce ghost. Each marble lasts twenty minutes.】
【Blood-Replenishing Pill: Restores fifty health points upon consumption.】
【Qi-Boosting Pill: Restores thirty mana points upon consumption.】
...
First kill rewards?
Chen Xi stared at the puddle of rotten flesh, lowered her gun, and shook her numbed wrist. This gun was quite different from an ordinary firearm; its recoil was considerable. After firing three shots, even her wrist felt a bit sore and stiff.
“Captain, are you okay...”
Kang Xiaojia crawled down from the bed, her face still slightly pale. She carefully held Chen Xi's palm to administer emergency treatment:
“I brought the medical kit!”
As a 【Physician】, the Special Investigation Bureau had naturally equipped her with the item 【Endless Medical Kit】.
Although it only contained ordinary wound medicine, with Kang Xiaojia's healing bonus, the wound on Chen Xi's palm scabbed over at a visible rate.
“Walk around it. The floor is sticky.”
Chen Xi stopped her and tucked the gun behind her waist. “Check the remains to see if any items dropped.”
“Oh, okay!”
Kang Xiaojia nodded. Obediently picking up an old wooden stick from the corner, she held back her disgust and squatted down beside the puddle of slime to rummage through it.
The slime gave off a sweet, metallic smell of soup that made her dizzy, and the bits of roasted meat inside made it all too easy to imagine horrific things.
Holding her breath, Kang Xiaojia poked around for a long while before finally hooking out a pair of black rubber boots.
They were somewhat worn, with thick rubber soles. Though stained with a bit of syrup on the collars, they hadn't been corrupted by the acidic corpse fluids.
【Item: Silent Rubber Shoe Covers (Durability 6/10)】
【(The favorite shoe covers of the fishmonger when he was alive. Wearing them silences your footsteps and lowers your presence.)】
“You keep them,”
Chen Xi said, flexing her wrist. “If you walk quietly, it'll be harder for supernatural entities to detect you.”
“Thank you, Captain!” Kang Xiaojia didn't mind the dirt on them at all, happily taking them and slipping them over her shoes.
They fit perfectly. When she stepped on the floor, she made absolutely no sound, moving like an agile cat.
Chen Xi walked over to the wall and picked up the picture frame that had fallen to the floor. The glass was shattered, but the photo inside was still intact.
However, the thick-lipped man was gone from the picture, leaving only the woman and the student.
The woman's face was still blurry, but her expression was far more terrified than before. Her position in the photo had shifted slightly, as if she wanted to escape from Chen Xi's hands.
As for the student who had been riding on the man's neck, he was now suspended in mid-air, his posture even more bizarre.
He hung his head, his pitch-black eyes staring straight at the camera, as if looking directly at whoever was holding the photo.
Of the family of three, only two ghosts remained.
That meant the one she had just killed was the male head of the household.
Chen Xi frowned, wondering if burning the photo would count as destroying the room's facilities. In the end, she had to give up the idea. She placed the photo face-down on the table and weighed it down with the soup pot.
As long as they didn't actively provoke her, there wasn't much she could do.
Chen Xi glanced at the old clock hanging on the wall. The hands pointed to 3:45.
There were only fifteen minutes left until 4:00, when they would start the second night patrol.
Completely unable to sleep now, Chen Xi was about to go next door to check on the others when she heard Jiang Chen knocking on the door:
“Captain, something's happened to Wang Lei and the others.”
...
...
“Help me! Help me, I don't want to die!”
Room 1703 was locked from the inside, and Wang Lei's cries for help drifted faintly through the door:
“Captain, the wall is eating people! This room eats people!”
“Lin Jianguo was eaten!!”
Without a second word, Chen Xi slammed her shoulder against the door.
“Crash!”
The already rotting wooden door was busted wide open. The scene inside froze everyone in their tracks, a sudden chill rushing up their spines.
Room 1703 was still that "clean" room.
The two beds were neatly arranged, but the one closer to the door was empty.
Lin Jianguo was gone.
On the wall next to where he had slept, there was a complete, dark silhouette of a human figure.
The imprint was deep and its outline was sharp, so clear that it looked as if it had been painted on.
By the inner bed, Wang Lei was hanging halfway off the wall.
The right side of his body, which was human, had sunk completely into the wall.
His cheek, shoulder, arm, waist, hip, and thigh were all fused with the wall, the boundary between them blurred into a single mass.
As for the paper-doll part exposed on the outside, the wall was still slowly sucking it in—the paper-thin sections sank in bit by bit, their edges getting "chewed" by the wall until they almost curled.
He was slowly being "eaten."
Wang Lei was terrified to the absolute limit. Tears gushed from his left, paper-crafted eye, mixing with the paper pulp and soaking half of his body:
“Captain Chen... save me... I don't want to die...”
“I don't want to be eaten... please pull me out...”
Only the left side of his mouth could open and close, making him look both grotesque and pitiful.
“Don't move.”
Chen Xi quickly walked over, squatted down, and carefully examined the boundary between him and the wall.
The boundary was sticky, like melting asphalt, and was writhing slightly.
Looking closely, the wall was rising and falling slightly, gently and slowly, like the peristalsis of a stomach wall.
“We can't just pull him out,” Jiang Chen also squatted down, his brow furrowed. “If we yank him, the paper side of his body will shatter. The paper part is too fragile.”
“Then what do we do? We can't just stand here and watch him get sucked in!” Zheng Wenxuan said anxiously.
Wang Lei cried even harder. “Don't leave me... I don't want to die... Captain Chen, please...”
“Captain, why don't we try using this to soften it? It might be hot, but at least I can treat any burns.”
Kang Xiaojia seemed to think of something. She pattered back to the neighboring room and returned with a pot of hot sweet soup:
“Since this wall is alive, maybe it likes sweet soup too?”
The others thought the girl's idea was incredibly whimsical, but Chen Xi took the pot of sweet soup anyway. Using a spoon, she began to smear it slowly along the wall bordering Wang Lei's body, as if spreading honey.
“Burp—”
At first, there was no effect. But gradually, the wall let out a sudden wheeze, and a large portion of Wang Lei's body was "spat" back out.
After that, the wall fell still again.
“It's working! It's working!”
Zheng Wenxuan pumped his fist in excitement, while Jiang Chen remained silent.
Chen Xi glanced at the wall. “Jiang Chen, find a knife.”
“On it.”
Jiang Chen immediately stood up and rummaged through the drawers of the old desk. Inside was a messy pile of old newspapers, ropes, and nails—and pressed at the very bottom was a rusty fruit knife.
The blade wasn't in the best shape, but it was sharp enough.
He handed the knife over immediately.
Chen Xi took the knife and pointed the tip at the boundary between Wang Lei's body and the wall. “Bear with it. This might hurt.”
Wang Lei nodded frantically. “I'll bear it! I can bear it! Cut it! Quick, cut it!”
Chen Xi acted without hesitation, aligning the blade with the junction and slicing downward with a steady hand.
“Squelch—”
“Rustle...”
The sound of the blade slicing in was very soft, like cutting through cardboard.
Wang Lei trembled violently from the pain, his entire body convulsing. Yet, he gritted his teeth, not even daring to groan too loudly for fear of disturbing the "thing" inside the wall.
A few minutes later, with a soft tear, the last bit of flesh that couldn't be pulled free was severed.
Wang Lei fell to the floor. A chunk of flesh on his right arm had been sliced clean off, looking both horrific and gruesome.
But at least his life was saved.
Even though the timing was inappropriate, Jiang Chen couldn't help but marvel at how incredibly resilient this guy was.
He actually survived this.
...
...
Kang Xiaojia rushed forward to apply hemostatic medicine to Wang Lei's arm. However, the paper-crafted side that had melted and torn from the sweet soup and tears showed absolutely no reaction to the treatment.
“Captain, the paper-crafted parts... I can't heal them,” Kang Xiaojia murmured, her tone laced with guilt.
“It's not your fault.” Chen Xi shook her head. “His paper-doll transformation is a rule-based curse, not a normal physical injury.”
With that, Chen Xi stood up and walked over to the wall where Lin Jianguo had vanished, examining it closely.
The wall was still rising and falling slightly, but the human silhouette had faded to the point of being barely visible.
She tried smearing sweet soup on the wall, but it had no effect whatsoever.
Leaning closer, she could smell a faint scent of blood mixed with the odor of plaster seeping from inside the wall.
There were still some tiny, fragmented remains stuck to the wall:
A few strands of fabric fiber, half a fingernail, bone fragments as fine as dust, and a few strands of black hair.
—It was as if an invisible, nanometer-fine colander had ground Lin Jianguo's entire body into paste.
Filtering him bit by bit before letting him seep into the wall.
Even his bones had been ground to dust, filtered completely clean.
A grown man weighing over a hundred and fifty pounds was just gone, like that.
Kang Xiaojia covered her mouth, nearly throwing up.
Zheng Wenxuan's face was also deathly pale.
He had seen plenty of corpses who died horrific deaths, but this way of dying—a living person being ground into mush by a wall and sucked inside—was more bone-chilling than any crime scene he had ever witnessed.
Rate on N.U.
