"Citizens, an unexpected incident has occurred at Kale Square, please proceed in an orderly fashion according to the safety precautions exercise...zzz...zzz..."
All the lights in the square, the ceiling lights above the corridors, and the fluorescent lights inside the stores began to flicker eerily.
Even during the day, the intermittent lighting in Kale Square was still terrifying.
After a struggle, the lights went out completely.
The brightness of Kale Square quickly dropped, and some areas far from the skylights became grim, like ruins abandoned by all the merchants.
Li Qianxia tensed involuntarily, overwhelmed by an intense fear, and with Su Qin, Song Yuan, and Xu Xiao huddled against her, she fled to Li Changzhou's side.
"Everybody stay calm, crouch down! We are from the Special Warfare Bureau, specialized in handling unusual situations. You are safe with us!"
From above the fourth floor, a loud voice projecting "Before It Gets Dark" resonated throughout the space.
The crowd calmed down slightly, unsure if they were comforted or simply intimidated by the loud voice.
"Before It Gets Dark" continued to speak, "If there are any Players present, please come out and assist us! The Special Warfare Bureau will provide the proper compensation!"
Countless pale-faced, lifeless-eyed, and rotting-skinned dead bodies stood in every reflective surface, silently observing the people.
The corpses were a diverse lot: elderly with liver spots, brides in ancient embroidered shoes, dead infants with blue-black skin, and old women in shrouds.
A chilling energy began to pervade the square, as if intending to turn the place into a morgue for the dead.
"Those people's goal from the start was this!" 'Yu Xi' finished his cigarette, his face had long since lost its composure, and he yelled anxiously, "They want to take everyone in the square hostage!"
"Follow me!" Zheng Qing's eyes were sharp as she led 'Yu Xi' and all the security guards from the square, rushing towards the crowd.
Inside the square, the disturbance among the people began anew as the dead bodies started moving towards them, seemingly about to step out from the mirrors.
"Ah!!" A man screamed in terror as a dead infant grabbed his pant leg.
"No! I don't want to die!" A woman curled up on the ground as an old lady in a burial gown loomed over her from the ceiling.
It wasn't just visual terror; olfactory senses also began to encounter foul smells, with the majority of people smelling the stench of human decay for the first time.
"Don't panic, trust in the Special Warfare Bureau!" reassured "Before It Gets Dark" from above.
'The Court Police without knowledge of Law' was sweating from his forehead, searching for the Players' locations and their true identities.
Zheng Qing, leading her team, pulled back those who were targeted by the corpses.
"Brother, what do we do now?" Li Qianxia's voice trembled as she spoke.
A thudding knock came from behind the elevator, but apart from Chen Zong's corpse, there couldn't be anyone else in there.
This was her most feared ghost story—
In the middle of the night, someone knocked on the door, first on the main door, and before she could leave her bedroom to answer, her bedroom door knocked next. She hurried back to her room, hiding under the covers.
When the knocking on the bedroom door stopped, she felt someone standing by her bed, looking at her, and then, suddenly a hand patted her covers.
Li Qianxia shivered, feeling a draft between her clothes and skin, as if cold air was pouring in.
"They're targeting you, I'll take you out of here first," Li Changzhou said.
"We'll come too!" "Yes, take us with you!" Xu Xiao, Song Yuan, and Su Qin were so terrified their lips had turned purple, almost breaking down amid the knocking sounds.
They could not only hear the knocking sound but also the gurgling rolling noise.
The image of Chen Zong's head rolling towards them played repeatedly in their brains, his eyes still open! Just lifelessly staring at them!
"You're still just as scared as ever," Li Changzhou couldn't stand it anymore, he wrapped his arms around his sister's shoulders; Li Qianxia immediately buried her face in his chest, too scared to look up.
Her fear of ghosts surpassed that of the average person; as a child, even without watching horror movies, she wouldn't dare to go to the bathroom alone, and if she did watch, she'd have to sleep next to her grandmother for a month or two.
One day she suddenly stopped sleeping with her grandmother and wanted to sleep with Li Changzhou instead.
Hiding under the covers, she grasped Li Changzhou's sleeve and whispered the reason to him, saying she was afraid her grandmother would suddenly turn into a ghost.
This fear began when some mean boys talked about a ghost movie involving a dead grandmother during the day.
Every time, Li Changzhou would wait for her to fall asleep before he went to sleep himself, even accompanying her to the bathroom.
Later, to help her overcome her fear, Li Changzhou would drag her out in the middle of the night, dress up as a ghost, and scare the boys who liked to tell her ghost stories, giving them quite the fright.
On their way back, he lectured her: "Aren't you afraid now? The ghosts in movies are all played by people. During filming, those actors often have to stop themselves from laughing. They put on fake dentures, shuffle around at an old age, lie still, brandish a peach wood sword without sense, isn't it all just ridiculous?"