The next day, Wu Mabo woke up from his slumber, let out a big yawn, and faced the concerned gazes of the other three. He murmured, “Not fully awake. Can someone request leave for me? I’ll sleep for the morning.”
“Are you really okay?” Tong Xiaosong asked with concern.
Wu Mabo’s current appearance made it seem like he had been pulling all-nighters for three consecutive days. Dark circles hung beneath his eyes, and he looked utterly exhausted.
“Nothing’s wrong, just a bit tired,” Wu Mabo stretched lazily. “I can manage.”
Wen Dong said, “…You go back to sleep. I’ll request leave for you.”
***
After resting for the entire morning, Wu Mabo’s condition improved somewhat. He still looked fatigued, but at least he had returned to the normal range.
Wu Mabo and Tong Xiaosong went together to find Gu Xuan.
Gu Xuan, looking at Wu Mabo’s appearance, was puzzled and asked, “Why do you look like you’ve had your life essence drained?”
Tong Xiaosong, bewildered, questioned, “Life essence?”
Gu Xuan explained, “Life essence is the soul of a living person, very precious. Losing it is relatively rare. Taking good care of it is generally not a problem, but if you lose too much, it can shorten your lifespan.”
Tong Xiaosong looked at Wu Mabo, his gaze filled with concern.
Wu Mabo said, “It’s fine. I said last night that a little rest would fix it.”
“Last night?” Gu Xuan squinted, scrutinizing the two of them. “What did you do? Why would he have his life essence drained?”
Wu Mabo, somewhat annoyed, replied, “Last night, we tried summoning a spirit with a Ouija board to ask if we should trust you. The spirit didn’t show up, and I went to sleep, and then this happened.”
Tong Xiaosong: … Not much deviation from the truth.
Gu Xuan, looking angry, said, “Who told you to mess around with a Ouija board? You can’t act recklessly! Otherwise, if you die, don’t blame me for not warning you! If you want to stay alive, you must listen to me! Understand!”
Wu Mabo, also losing his temper, sneered, “Listen to you? Why? What exactly are you trying to do from start to finish? Huh?”
Gu Xuan ground his teeth, exchanging furious glares with Wu Mabo.
The two seemed like bulls ready to clash, and Tong Xiaosong anxiously watched, afraid they might resort to violence.
In the end, Gu Xuan swallowed his anger, averted his gaze first, and said, “Actually, I am also a victim…”
“Huh?” Wu Mabo was caught off guard by this unexpected turn.
We’re sorry for MTLers or people who like using reading mode, but our translations keep getting stolen by aggregators so we’re going to bring back the copy protection. If you need to MTL please retype the gibberish parts.
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Gu Xuan’s words sounded sincere, but Tong Xiaosong felt something was off.
It was like when Wu Mabo mentioned they had summoned a spirit with a Ouija board last night.
Though not entirely accurate, it was somewhat close to the truth.
He felt that Gu Xuan was doing the same—what he said should be true, but not entirely the whole truth.
Emulating Gu Xuan, Wu Mabo narrowed his eyes and provocatively asked, “What if we don’t help?”
Gu Xuan sneered, removing the hypocritical mask that lasted less than two minutes. His eyes filled with malice as he said, “You’re no longer helping me, because you’ve also played the ghost game. It has already started and can’t be stopped. Even if you don’t come to me today, after some more bizarre incidents happen in a few days, you’ll come to me anyway. If you insist on waiting for death, let me tell you, after you die, it will also harm your blood relatives. Do you want to involve your own family in your demise?”
Tong Xiaosong and Wu Mabo were dumbfounded.
***
Two years ago…
In the old school building,
Under the flickering candlelight, Gu Xuan and two other classmates held a pen each, whispering.
“Pencil spirit, pencil spirit, waiting for you to come, pencil spirit, pencil spirit, waiting for you to come…”
The candlelight flickered, but the pens in the hands of the three remained still.
“Ah, another failure.”
“Always failing. Maybe there are no ghosts in this world at all.”
Gu Xuan threw the pen, feeling irritated. “Tomorrow, let’s spend the night in the morgue in the city. Are you guys daring enough to go?”
The two classmates said simultaneously, “Who wouldn’t dare!”
As soon as they spoke, the candlelight flickered.
The three subconsciously looked at the table, only to see the discarded pen on the table move. It slowly stood up, as if several forces were contending, shaking wildly.
Gu Xuan widened his eyes, extremely excited, and whispered in a low voice, “Quick! Record it! If we can capture supernatural phenomena, we’ll definitely become famous!”
The only classmate with a phone quickly took it out, opened the camera, and aimed it at the table.
He shook the phone a few times and said, “It’s not working; the screen is glitching.”
“Damn it!” Gu Xuan snatched the phone, aiming it at the table.
However, just as the classmate said, the screen displayed colorful patterns, and they couldn’t capture the wild movement of the pen on the table.
In a moment of urgency, Gu Xuan got closer and closer, but at that moment, the pen suddenly flew up and stabbed toward Gu Xuan like a shot arrow.
Gu Xuan reacted quickly, immediately dodging, and in his shock, he instinctively pulled A-jie beside him. A-jie stumbled and fell by the table, and the pen plunged into A-jie’s eye socket.
A scream echoed through the old school building.
Gu Xuan was dumbfounded.
A-jie on the ground writhed in pain and agony, while the other classmate was already in a state of shock.
Gu Xuan anxiously approached, shouting, “Why isn’t it moving anymore! Why isn’t this pen moving! If we could capture it, I could earn a lot of money! I could buy those 8,000 yuan sneakers! Why isn’t it moving!”
The frightened Xiao Hai was stimulated by Gu Xuan’s frantic behavior and regained his senses.
Trembling, he said, “Gu… Gu Xuan, we need to call for help. He… he’s injured…”
“Call who? Didn’t you see the supernatural phenomenon just now!” Gu Xuan yelled at the top of his lungs, “We were so close to success! Don’t you want to become famous? Don’t you want money?”
A-jie, in pain, struggled, “It hurts! Ah! I need to go to the hospital! Please, quickly take me to the hospital!” He cried, “Please, I beg you…”
Gu Xuan, looking at the blood on the ground, nervously swallowed and advised, “Pull the pen out. Maybe it will move again once you do? And now the pen has blood on it, the effect will be even better when recorded…”
“You’re crazy! You’re crazy!” A-jie, with the pen in his eye, horrified and crying, crawled away from Gu Xuan, who seemed insane.
Gu Xuan hesitated and trembled, but eventually, a sinister gleam flashed in his eyes. He forcefully pulled the person back, shouting loudly, “I’ll pull the pen out! Then I’ll take you to the hospital!”
After saying that, he, in the horrified gaze of the two, yanked the pen out.
Blood and an unknown fluid splattered out. Gu Xuan squinted his eyes, and a cruel smile formed at the corner of his mouth, bearing an expression of madness and brutality.
“Ah—!”
Another inhuman scream echoed.
Xiao Hai, terrified, said, “You’re insane, Gu Xuan, you’re insane…”
Gu Xuan didn’t care; he tossed the pen back onto the table and aimed his phone at it, muttering, “Pen spirit, pen spirit, we await your presence, pen spirit, pen spirit, we await your presence…”
A-jie pleaded, grabbing Xiao Hai’s sleeve.
Xiao Hai snapped out of it, quickly supporting A-jie, glaring at Gu Xuan vigilantly. The two of them awkwardly left.
When Gu Xuan, disappointed, put down his phone, the old school building was left with only him.
Two days later, Gu Xuan found these two again, wanting to initiate the next round of the ghost game.
A-jie and Xiao Hai felt that Gu Xuan had gone completely mad, willing to sacrifice their lives for money and fame.
They severed ties with Gu Xuan completely.
But everything went wrong. After one day, A-jie died.
He gouged out both of his eyeballs with his bare hands, holding them in his hands.
When he was discovered, his body lay stretched out on the hospital bed, stiff in a strange pose.
The death was bizarre but ruled as suicide.
Xiao Hai panicked, and he found Gu Xuan, thinking that the pen spirit refused to let them go.
That night, Gu Xuan and Xiao Hai summoned the pen spirit again in the old school building.
This time, however, the pen remained motionless.
The next day, Xiao Hai was found dead in the dormitory bed, his body covered in sulfuric acid, appearing as if he had melted.
Gu Xuan finally panicked. He pretended everything was normal, concealing all the details, and sought out two other individuals interested in paranormal activities to summon the pen spirit again.
Gradually, he discovered a pattern in the ghost game.
Like an uncontrollable wheel, he couldn’t stop and had to continue the ghost game, using those people as stepping stones to prolong his own life through their deaths.
He lived in the sunlight but seemed unable to escape the unseen fears and death.
Gu Xuan desperately searched for any means to survive.
Fortune favors the determined, and he inadvertently came into contact with Thai black magic, finally finding a glimmer of hope for survival.
By this time, he had already caused the deaths of eight people…
he’s more terrifying than the pen spirit wtf…
Umm…..ain’t he the real evil here? ಠ_ʖಠ
Oh my god this dude needs to be put down
oh he’s crazy…
And I thought he was bad when he was just a bully… dude’s a legit psycho.