Translator-Rhapsodite
Editor-Pierce, Proofreader-adjective
After their first encounter with the machete-wielding black figure, Ji Dong, Mo Tiangen, Fan Hemian, and her brother spent a full two hours trying to deal with it, but still couldn’t find a breakthrough.
They discovered that it seemed like the “haunted locations” in this city each had their own trigger range.
For example, the “Tzu Chi Hospital” that Ji Dong and the others cleared last time, where Zhong Bin’s ghost was causing trouble, was within the entire abandoned hospital.
But this time, the “Life-taking River,” the ghost’s activity range was much narrower.
The four of them were chased by the knife-wielding individual and couldn’t fight back, so they had to run around in a panic, scattering like headless flies.
However, they gradually noticed the pattern of their opponent’s movements.
Every time, the person with the machete would swing it and attack the person closest to them. If the target managed to escape, the black figure would suddenly make a sharp turn and lock onto the person who was closest to it.
At first, Ji Dong and the others couldn’t figure out the pattern and were forced back by the swinging knives. Carelessly, they all left the range covered by the bridge-tunnel, and to their surprise, the knife-wielding person stood still in the same spot. In a flash, their figure shattered into countless pieces and dissipated with the wind.
The group was dumbfounded on the spot, not knowing what to do.
Initially, the first thought that crossed their minds was, could this be resolved?
But then, they quickly realized that this more likely meant that their mission for the evening had failed!
At this point, they no longer had any extra access cards on hand, and they couldn’t even think about rushing to another “10” location nearby to make up for the loss.
While everyone was feeling discouraged, Ji Xiao’niao felt that they couldn’t just give up so easily. After all, there was still plenty of time, and they could try again.
So, they had to start from scratch.
Ji Dong and the others returned to the bridge-tunnel, lay back down, and anxiously pretended to sleep.
This time, they had to wait even longer.
After a full half hour, they finally heard the dripping sound of water and the man’s off-key humming.
“…I’m… so hungry, can I borrow your teeth?… I’m so cold… can I borrow your skin?”
Of course, the singing voice was nowhere near as ethereal and pleasant as the edited nursery rhyme that Ji Dong and the others had downloaded from the internet. The melody was completely different.
The person singing seemed to have phlegm stuck in their throat, struggling to produce hoarse sounds, singing the lyrics in a fragmented manner.
At the same time as the singing, the black figure with the chopping knife arrived.
This time, the four of them were prepared. One second before the blade fell, everyone jumped and swiftly moved outside the reach of the machete.
However, the range of the bridge-tunnel was just too narrow.
It was as if the four of them were forced to play a game of dodgeball in a small circle, where even the slightest mistake could be fatal. They relied on their agility and quick reflexes, dodging the attacks in various risky positions.
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.
Snfgs alwf rbwfbcf kjr obgmfv ab fzla atf gjcuf bo atf yglvuf-aeccfi, atfgf tjv ab yf ja ifjra bcf qfgrbc ktb kfca yjmx lc ab wjxf regf atf bcf klat atf xclof vlvc’a vlrjqqfjg jujlc.
Ktlr mgjhs ujwf bo vbvufyjii ijrafv obg tjio jc tbeg.
Snfgsbcf tjv rbwf ygelrfr bc atflg ybvlfr ab njgslcu vfugffr. Dfmjerf atfs kfgf yers vbvulcu atf xclof, atfs vlvc’a tjnf alwf ab rffx agfjawfca, rb atfs kfgf ybat lc qjlc jcv fztjerafv, qtsrlmjiis jcv wfcajiis vgjlcfv, jcv atflg fnjrlnf jmalbcr yfmjwf rieuulrt.
On the contrary, the dark figure with the knife seemed like a tireless machine, with actions that showed no signs of slowing down. The massive chopping knife danced with great force, striking towards the group.
“Damn it! How the heck are we supposed to fight this thing?!”
Mo Tiangen was on the verge of going insane.
He tried everything he could think of in that half an hour. He used his fists, his folding stool, and even a tree branch he picked up, but every single attack missed the black figure.
Then he unfolded the stool as a shield, hoping to block the sharp chopping knife, but it went through the metal seat, almost splitting his head in half.
“Could it be that fighting it isn’t about using physical force?”
Ji Dong: “!!!”
——No, wait!
He took three steps back, barely escaping the range covered by the bridge’s dome. The person with the machete stopped, turned 180 degrees with stiff and mechanical movements, and lunged toward the sister-brother duo behind him.
——That’s right!
When Ji Dong learned that they were about to enter a supernatural [Film], he did a lot of research during their extended 20-day preparation period.
In various supernatural works, there was a common type of ghost called an “earth-bound spirit.”
They often carried deep resentment due to sudden and untimely death, or unfulfilled strong desires in life. After death, they became ghosts, lingering year after year at the place of their demise, or a place they held dear.
Earth-bound spirits had a crucial characteristic—they only appeared in specific places, as if they were “bound” to that location and could not leave even a step.
The figure in front of him, holding the machete, matched all the characteristics of an Earth-bound spirit; its movements were also limited to a narrow space, like the bridge-tunnel.
——So, does that mean this vengeful spirit died under the bridge?
With this idea in mind, Ji Dong carefully examined the appearance of the figure before him. Suddenly, a light bulb went off in his head.
The person brandishing the machete before them was filthy and drenched, surrounded by a layer of gray-black mist. At first glance, it looked like a mud figure made from wet coal dust.
However, Ji Dong had been dealing with it for quite some time and had the opportunity to get a closer inspection of their opponent’s appearance.
That black figure was indeed a “person.”
They appeared to be around 40 to 50 years old, with a gaunt face and high cheekbones. They were not short, but quite skinny. Their thick beard almost covered the lower half of their face; one could only tell that they were singing by the shaking of their beard.
It had messy shoulder-length hair that seemed to have not been trimmed for a long time. It tangled with the decaying leaves and mud, emitting a foul stench.
Looking at its attire—a tattered patched coat, an indistinguishable T-shirt and sweatpants, and a piece of ragged canvas wrapped around the waist that one couldn’t tell if it was clothing or something else…
…It looked like a… homeless person…
Seeing that the Fan siblings were about to leave the range of the bridge-tunnel, Ji Dong quickly dodged and took the opportunity to pass by the figure holding the knife before they had a chance to turn around, completing a position swap with the two.
——That’s right!
He remembered a classic old detective movie he had watched before.
In the movie, a woman killed her abusive husband but her neighbor, a talented mathematician, decided to help her. He killed a homeless man to use the second corpse to replace the first corpse, therefore creating an alibi for the woman.
Ji Dong recalled that there was a line in that movie.
The detective said to the murderer:
[The person you killed is someone who wouldn’t be discovered even if they disappeared… It must be a homeless person, right?]
——Yes, the one who died here is a homeless person who wouldn’t be noticed by anyone!
——So, in this supernatural place, simply wanting to “eliminate” the person holding the knife won’t work!
While dodging the incoming blade, Ji Dong saw the eyes of the man holding the knife from a close distance.
They were a pair of withered and unfocused pupils, like stagnant water, empty without a ripple.
——Yes, I understand!
——Our situation here might be similar to what Ren Jianmo is experiencing!
Before they set off, Ren Jianmo informed Ji Dong about his situation and asked for his speculation about the Longxing Mountain Tunnel.
At that time, Ji Xiao’niao gave an answer, but Ren Jianmo immediately denied it and offered an opposite idea…
Ji Dong gritted his teeth, and in a flash of inspiration, a bold and adventurous plan took shape in his mind.
“Brother Dagen, Xiao He, Xiao Lu!”
As he stepped back, he shouted,
“You guys hold on, I’ll be right back!”
Mo Tiangen and the Fan siblings: “?!?”
On the brink of going crazy, the three exclaimed in unison, “What are you going to do!?”
However, Ji Dong had already dashed out of the bridge-tunnel like a rabbit, simultaneously summoning his weapon, [Lone Silence].
He pulled out an arrow from his quiver and took out a long, thick hemp rope from his waist pouch. He tied the rope to the end of the arrow and then drew the bowstring, shooting the arrow with the attached rope toward the top of the bridge-tunnel.
With a “whoosh,” the arrow pierced through the metal framework of the ceiling and got stuck between two screws.
The other three: “???”
After securing one end of the rope, Ji Dong hastily tied the other end around his waist. Then, to the astonishment of his three companions, he turned around and with a splash, jumped into the rushing river.
The river water was pitch black, and even with Ji Dong’s keen eyesight, he couldn’t see anything in the water.
Luckily, it was April, so the water temperature wasn’t freezing, the current wasn’t too swift, and the water was relatively clear, despite the strange odor. At least the visibility was decent.
But after all, this was a river with a depth of more than three meters, and it was in the pitch-dark night without any light. Even if Ji Dong was good at swimming, he didn’t dare to be too reckless. He dove down, promptly activated his ability, and like an electric eel, sent out arcs of crackling electric currents.
The bottom of the river was briefly illuminated by the sparks.
Ji Dong held his breath, opened his eyes wide, and desperately searched underwater.
He was certain that since the machete-wielder was an earthbound spirit and restrained within the narrow range of the bridge-tunnel, the “thing” he was looking for shouldn’t be too far away.
The electric sparks only lasted for a second before they quickly went out.
Ji Dong’s vision turned pitch black once again.
Without hesitation, he released a second electric arc.
Still nothing.
So Ji Dong released a third electric arc.
At this moment, the three people on the shore, while avoiding the black figure, saw something glowing in the river in front of the bridge-tunnel, lighting up three times in a row.
They all realized that it was Ji Xiao’niao’s ability, but no one knew what their captain was doing in the water!
After the electric current flashed three times, everything suddenly quieted down.
One second, two seconds…nine seconds, ten seconds…
“Fuck!”
Mo Tiangen was a bit worried:
“Could Xiao’niao have electrocuted himself?! It’s been a minute since he went underwater, why hasn’t he come up yet?!”
Teacher Dagen was a landlubber, but being a biology teacher, he knew quite a bit. He had previously been interested in topics like extreme free diving.
He had read a study that said the breath-holding time a person could endure when they were at rest was completely different when they were engaged in intense exercise.
Usually, if it was just a simple breath hold, boys with better lung capacity could easily go for three to four minutes with enough training. However, during diving, factors like water pressure, complex hydrological conditions, and the body’s oxygen consumption during movement made it impressive for an average person to last more than 10 seconds!
Thinking about this, cold sweat started to break out of Mo Tiangen’s temples.
He quickly rushed to the shore and grabbed the fastened hemp rope, preparing to pull Ji Xiao’niao up.
But just then, the rope in his palm suddenly started shaking violently!
The author has something to say:
The movie reference in the story is actually from Mr. Higashino’s “The Devotion of Suspect X” in the “Detective Galileo” series. It became very popular in China after being adapted into a domestic version. It’s probably the most well-known one, haha! The line is quoted from the Japanese drama version.
