Chapter 25 Proof of Powerlessness

If I had to evaluate myself, I'd say Anna is the type of person who meticulously plans to achieve her goals with a single decisive action. This is her own assessment. She seems to have a strong aversion to uncertainty. While this doesn't mean Anna shies away from risks or gambles, it certainly influences her choices.

"I understand."

She didn't know which of them would be able to save more people, but she wouldn't dwell on what had already happened.

"The ghost's attack this morning was just a test. If I'm not mistaken, they're waiting for their last two companions to arrive before catching us off guard."

"They have strategies too?"

"They've been calculating us from the start, from using substitute ghosts to set up a plan to using the information they released to us to cause a separation. There's no doubt the ghosts know our progress, otherwise, the information wouldn't cause confusion so 'just right' every time."

Anna pulled a chocolate bar from her pocket, peeled it, and put it in her mouth. It was almost noon, and she was cold and hungry; her wet clothes clung to her, making her extremely uncomfortable.

But there are still twenty hours...

"We still need to prepare for the night. Remember, if you feel danger, go to the laboratory. The door there can at least provide some resistance... However, there's only one way to the laboratory, so be prepared to go in."

"Don't worry, no one can sleep," Beom Seok joked, taking out food.

Everyone had prepared emergency food in their pockets early that morning, knowing this day would likely be spent like this. Anna ate slowly, analyzing the ghosts' actions in her mind.

The morning's action wasn't flawless. Anna wouldn't have been surprised if one or two people had been killed. However, the fact that nine people were unharmed after such a close call was unnerving.

"They want to start killing at night?"

Speculating on the worst-case scenario, if the evil spirits simply wanted to toy with humans, it would be more logical to strip away all hope before the time came. However, Anna instinctively felt this wasn't right.

That substitute ghost... it's very problematic.

It told many easily exposed lies. One could say it was all nonsense from beginning to end. Yet, if even one or two facts were mixed in, it would completely unsettle people.

Afternoon...

Nine people sat around the table, not daring to leave. As the flame on the Hand of Decay turned blue, everyone's spirits immediately lifted.

Beom Seok quickly summoned his own evil spirits, and the air suddenly grew cold and gloomy, making people shiver. A shadow abruptly emerged from under the table, and simultaneously, black fog began to penetrate downward from the ceiling.

An all-out attack!

"Stop it!"

The black shadow, about to be ejected, was intercepted mid-air by something, and the first wave of murderous intent was quickly halted. But then, the wall began to slowly creep, and the sound of footsteps on the floor was heard.

"They're all here!" Noah shouted.

"They're covering the attack of the two new ghosts. Escape immediately!"

It wasn't a good idea for everyone to gather together. Providing ghosts with multiple options would only increase the mortality rate. On the other hand, only by sticking together could those holding the collection take care of each other.

The new ghosts... Kenzo and Lily died almost simultaneously. This attack was arguably the ghosts' strongest surprise attack, marking the first time four ghosts appeared at once.

Anna quickly escaped from the main house, but at this moment, she suddenly realized everyone was running in different directions.

"Wait! Where are they?"

Only Ling Yan and Wyatt ran out after her; the rest stayed in the house!

"Beom Seok went upstairs, and Uncle Noah seemed to run to the backyard..." Ling Yan glanced back and said, "No time to talk about this! The shadow ghost is out!"

"That's not the key issue—"

At this moment, Anna suddenly saw a figure standing in the distance in the hazy rain, one hand in his pocket, the other raised, waving at her a few times.

"Who!"

"Substitute ghost!"

Ling Yan and Anna shouted in unison. The shadow was too blurry, but who else would be wandering around outside?

"Chase it!"

The three rushed toward the figure without hesitation. The figure seemed to be deliberately teasing them. When it saw someone chasing, it turned and ran, disappearing into the jungle beyond the villa's range in a few seconds.

"Still chasing?" Ling Yan paused slightly.

"What we have is enough to kill it! Chase!" Anna kept moving, but her wrist was immediately grabbed by someone.

It was Wyatt.

"Wyatt! When the substitute ghost is alone, it's our chance! If we don't take advantage of it now..."

Wyatt quickly let go of her hand and gestured. Ling Yan beside him immediately translated: "Don't enter the forest. Be careful of a trap."

Anna glanced at the forest unwillingly. The figure was still standing in a slightly visible spot as if luring her to rush in.

"...You're right." Anna wiped the rain from her face and suddenly remembered something. She turned her head to look behind her. Where was the shadow ghost chasing her? Except for the rain, everything around her was peaceful.

An ominous premonition came to her mind.

"No, let's go back first!"

However, in most cases, people who rush back like this find that everything is too late.

Just as they approached the gate, the three saw the woman from the couple, whose named seem Olivia, kneeling at the door in a daze. The corrupt hand had been discarded somewhere, and the look on the Olivia's face was dull and desperate. Even with their return, she showed no reaction.

"Sister Olivia, where are they? What happened?" Ling Yan squatted down and comforted her softly.

"He... he... put on a mask, and then he was... captured."

Olivia spoke intermittently, her head slowly turning to Anna, revealing a miserable smile: "We obviously persisted until the last day, and we did everything you said... Why did someone still die? Why was it him?"

"Because he wanted to save you," Anna's voice was a little stiff.

"Wearing a mask and being discovered at close range will attract a lot of hatred. If there's only one ghost, he can guarantee your safety."

After hearing this, Olivia suddenly burst into tears.

"If you don't want him to die in vain, tell us which ghost took him away."

Although she knew it was inappropriate to ask this question now, Anna knew there was no time.

"The wall, the one in the wall..."

"Okay, please cheer up, otherwise, it would be meaningless for him to risk his life to save you."

Anna glanced around. The appearance of multiple ghosts just now had dropped the room's temperature to a bone-chilling level, and it still hadn't improved. She hurried with Ling Yan to help her up. At this moment, a sound of falling came from upstairs.

Cairo's upper body was splattered with blood, and his old face was completely colorless. He lay sprawled between the second and first-floor stairs, trembling as he stretched out his hand and shouted to the people downstairs: "That young man was killed by the shadow! Killed!"

It seemed Francesco's last apprentice couldn't escape this death.

"Where are the others?"

"I, I saw Beom Seok chasing in a certain direction, saying he saw a substitute ghost and wanted to catch it..."

Cairo pointed to the second floor tremblingly. Wyatt went upstairs and helped the old man down, then sat back on the chair. Anna looked in that direction, and her heart stirred slightly.

"Did Beom Seok see a substitute ghost?"

"He, that's what he shouted."

Indeed, if it was a method of killing people in contact with substitute ghosts, in addition to using pain memory to freeze the body, the spirit summoning catalog was also a method of arresting without contact. This issue was also discussed last night.

"Then what did we see?" Ling Yan raised this question.

Anna clenched her fist and slammed the table hard: "New ghosts, new ghosts also have entities... Our discussion last night was heard, and they took advantage of us!"

"Took advantage of us?"

"Took advantage of our urgency to chase the substitute ghosts, tore us apart at the critical moment, and then killed people!"

Anna looked up and around, having also realized this problem.

"We are under the surveillance of ghosts. The mirror ghost... can know what happened here! So it follows us at any time, not only preparing to kill but also to pass on information!"

"Then what chance do we have of winning?" She replied blankly, "The information isn't equal... what possibility do we have of struggling?"

"Yes... on the second floor, the camera," Anna gritted her teeth and walked upstairs, "I set the camera to record in a timed manner. If the past shooting mode isn't activated, it can also record in the normal way. Now let's go and see if the substitute ghost in that corridor is real!"

In the past, the camera's normal recording consumption was relatively low. Anna had reset the shooting time before, and everything that happened within the previous hour was recorded.

Noah and Beom Seok were nowhere to be found, and the five people took the camera downstairs and began to check it first.

The camera's small playback window wasn't large. With Ling Yan standing nearby to guard against a ghost's sneak attack, the other four adjusted to the time of the ghost's attack and began to replay the corridor footage.

Although the light was dim, perhaps because it could shoot ghosts, the image in the camera was very clear.

The first thing that appeared was a neatly dressed figure, neither fat nor thin, walking with a very relaxed posture, only a back view. But even with a back view, everyone could recognize that it was the doctor.

"It's really a substitute ghost..."

"No, we still need to see the front face," Anna adjusted the projection progress. At this time, everyone should still be in the hall downstairs. The doctor walked to the second-floor corridor near the hall stairs, made a gesture, and then went into a room next to it.

Less than a minute later, the doctor walked out of the room again, this time to the second-floor railing, poked his head slightly into the hall, and turned back into the room. 

Then Beom Seok rushed into the corridor, followed by a clearly visible unidentified mass. Perhaps he didn't expect the ghost to hide from people, so Beom Seok ran directly towards the camera lens. The substitute ghost waited until Beom Seok ran past before coming out of the room and disappearing around the corner of the corridor.

Then, probably realizing he wasn't following the right person, Beom Seok ran back. At this moment, the doctor showed his head from the other end of the corridor again. After discovering Beom Seok, he immediately went into the room where he was hiding. Beom Seok also followed him in.

"...Let's go check out that room."

Anna stood up, and suddenly her eyes blurred. She stumbled, fortunately, the people around her were close, so she didn't fall.