Chapter 17 Ghosts in the Dark

Chapter 17 Ghosts in the Dark

The next second, a torch dropped from above. Without a second thought, Xie Yunzhu hurled it between Hei Bei and Fu You!

"Whoosh—" The torch flew through the air, trailing sparks, slicing through nothing but thick, blackened air.

Song Ziming raised his gun and fired, bullets striking the floor tiles with sharp cracks.

There was nothing in the darkness. Nothing at all.

Yet that sour, foul odor unmistakably permeated the air—a stench so vile it could only come from someone whose internal organs had severely deteriorated, spewing such rot from their throat.

"It's real... there really is a ghost..." Hei Bei felt goosebumps prickle his scalp. "Wait, no—where did Fu You go?!"

He widened his eyes in confusion in the dark. In that instant, Fu You, who had been right behind him, had vanished!

"To the left," Xie Yunzhu said immediately. "It went left!"

During the brief moment the torch had illuminated the area, the figure he saw was indeed not an illusion. He directed the torch to the left and saw that the previously ajar operating room door was now tightly shut.

Without hesitation, he reached out to push the door. Song Ziming was startled by his boldness and moved to stop him, but just then, a loud "bang—" echoed as the operating room door flew open on its own!

A faint, wavering flashlight beam followed, and Fu You scrambled out, rolling and stumbling, causing another wave of chaos.

"Damn! Something just dragged me into that room!" He clutched his injured hand. "Run, run back! There’s definitely more than one of those things!"

Before he even finished speaking, the five of them had already bolted, sprinting madly down the dark hallway.

Their footsteps were chaotic and disorganized, but no matter how fast they ran, they couldn’t find their way back to the staircase they had started from.

Earlier, they had only walked slowly for five minutes into the hallway, but now, after running desperately for ten minutes and rounding who-knows-how-many corners, they were still faced with the same dark corridor. Hei Bei caught sight of a torch-bearing figure far ahead and felt his heart leap into a frantic rhythm.

It was too late to stop. He stumbled forward toward the figure, and a scorching torch was immediately shoved toward his face. Behind the flickering flames were a pair of dim, emotionless blue eyes scrutinizing him.

"Damn, it’s the boss..." Hei Bei patted his chest in relief. "Weren’t you behind me just now? How did you get ahead?!"

"Stop wasting energy. It’s a ghost wall," Xie Yunzhu said, having stopped after completing the first loop and realizing they were passing the same rooms. "Now that we’re trapped, it won’t be easy to get out."

"This is too creepy. This place is so dark, I can’t see anything. Even if the exit were right in front of me, I probably wouldn’t notice..." Hei Bei’s face fell, on the verge of a complete breakdown. "Boss, what do we do...?"

"Shh, quiet." Xie Yunzhu closed his eyes in frustration. "The tapping sound is back."

"What tapping sound?" Hei Bei asked blankly.

Xie Yunzhu paused. Could Hei Bei not hear it? Was this "tapping ghost" only haunting him?

As he wondered, he suddenly felt a sharp pain in his calf, as if struck twice by a bamboo pole. He immediately kicked out in response, but of course, hit nothing but air.

The tapping sound retreated slightly, as if offended, and began knocking "thump, thump" on the floor angrily.

Now that he thought about it, when they first started running, the tapping sound had grown fainter the faster he went. But when he slowed down, it gradually drew closer...

A bamboo pole, a tapping sound, only keeping pace with the slowest among them... Could it be the ghost of an old man?!

With this in mind, he deliberately moved closer. Wherever the tapping sound came from, he swung his torch toward it. Hei Bei watched in astonishment for a moment, then decided the boss must have a reason for his actions. He immediately rolled up his sleeves and joined in, throwing a set of military-style punches at the air.

Oddly enough, it worked. The annoying tapping sound actually faded away... Xie Yunzhu frowned, unable to make sense of this hospital’s tricks.

By then, the others, whether fast or slow, had gradually regrouped. They had all despairingly realized that this ghost-wall corridor wouldn’t let them leave easily.

"Little Hei Hei!" Xiao Tu ran over tearfully, but before she could complain or cry, the six-foot-tall man buried his face in her ample bosom. "Waaah, Tu Tu, I’m so scared..."

Xiao Tu: "..."

Fu You was grimacing in pain. "Hisss... my hand..."

Xie Yunzhu directed his torch toward Fu You’s palm and saw it covered in dense clusters of pustules and festering sores, some already ruptured and oozing pus. He voiced his curiosity with a questioning "Hm?"

"I don’t know when it started, but I was holding that 'ghost’s' hand the whole time. I kept feeling an itch in my palm and thought it was because Hei Bei had dirty hands. Then, the moment the coughing started, that thing dragged me into the room next to us. I hacked at its wrist with my knife, it let go, and I ran for my life..."

"Did you see what the ghost looked like?"

"I caught a glimpse of its face," Fu You said, still shaken by the memory. "It was just like my hand—covered in dense clusters of, uh, pustules. When it opened its mouth to cough, everything inside was completely rotten..."

"Ugh..." Xiao Tu felt nauseated.

Song Ziming said, "So your hand was infected by it?"

Fu You’s expression darkened. He knew all too well that that was a possibility. Wrapping his hand tightly with a cloth strip, he forced a bitter smile. "Who knows if we can even find a cure in this hospital... *cough*..."

Xie Yunzhu clapped his hands. "Let’s summarize our current situation. First, we have an endlessly looping dark corridor. The exit is unknown, and the conditions for leaving are unknown.

"Second, we have ghosts that are invisible but can still affect us. They seem more focused on intimidation than outright attack. The first is the 'Pustule Ghost.' It appears with unstoppable coughing, has severe bad breath, and can transmit disease.

"The second is the 'Tapping Ghost.' Its main trait is being annoying. It hits people’s calves with a stick, and if you punch it twice, it leaves." Xie Yunzhu continued, "Anyone else have something to add?"

"There’s also the ghost that kept bumping my butt," Hei Bei said frantically. "It kept bumping and bumping, felt like a lump of meat—dammit, what the hell even was that...?"

"Billy King Ghost..." Xiao Tu muttered under her breath.

Hei Bei stared wide-eyed at his sweet, innocent girlfriend. Did you just say Billy King? You totally did!

"Was that lump of meat rod-shaped?" Xie Yunzhu asked earnestly, all seriousness. "About how many centimeters long?"

"Ahhh! I said it was a lump of meat, not a rod of meat!" Hei Bei defended his dignity fiercely. "If I had to describe it, it was like a protruding beer belly—that beer belly was bumping into me!"

Xie Yunzhu "oh"ed. "Third, the 'Butt-Bumping Ghost.' So far, it hasn’t shown any harmful capabilities."

Xiao Tu remembered something and suddenly reached out to touch Xie Yunzhu’s hand. "I think I encountered one too when we were going upstairs. At the time, I thought it was the boss’s hand. That hand was cold and damp—now that I think about it, it felt more like a woman’s hand."

"Fourth, the 'Cold-Damp Hand Ghost.' Also non-harmful." Xie Yunzhu glanced around at his pale-faced companions. "Alright, I don’t know why all of you are so tense. Based on what we’ve seen, either we haven’t triggered the real danger yet, or these ghosts simply can’t effectively harm us."

No, the others thought inwardly. You’re the weird one for treating danger like a meal and staying completely calm...

"Let’s go. Keep moving forward. At least finish this loop and find the Transfusion Department—" As Xie Yunzhu spoke and walked, he suddenly tripped over something.

"!" He stumbled forward, and before he could regain his balance, the "obstacle" persistently crawled over to trip him again, causing him to drop his torch. It clattered to the floor, illuminating for a brief moment something scurrying away rapidly.

The torch’s light was pitifully small, but it was enough to reveal the thing in its entirety. The moment he saw it, Xie Yunzhu felt a chill run down his spine—it had no arms or legs, only a crippled torso and an oversized head!

It relied on an abnormally thick neck to wriggle forward, extending and contracting its head and torso like a maggot, quickly crawling into a nearby restroom. As if afraid he wouldn’t follow, it even stuck half of its butt out and shook it provocatively at him.

Xie Yunzhu hissed. "Fifth, the 'Human Pig Ghost.' The kind that trips people—did anyone get a look at its face?"

Everyone shook their heads. The sudden glimpse was enough to see the Human Pig Ghost’s body, but as for its face, even the sharpest-eyed among them only caught a glimpse of uneven, mottled skin.

"Actually," Xiao Tu shuddered, "did any of you see the face of any of these ghosts?"

A dreadful silence fell over them. Even Song Ziming’s voice trembled slightly. "Also, this spot definitely wasn’t a restroom before. I remember the map clearly—restrooms are only at the corners... And my gun... after that damp hand touched it, it’s jammed now..."

"All the rooms have been jumbled up. We just passed four operating rooms in a row, didn't we?" Fu You's voice was desperate. "Those bloodstains were just a trick to get us inside. Could the hospital have hidden the Blood Transfusion Department too?"

"If it's truly hidden, that means the blood is there," Xie Yunzhu's voice sounded more cold and steely than ever. Since entering the hospital, the eerie darkness, the torment from spirits, and the frequent injuries had completely exhausted his patience. "Keep moving forward. We need to finish this loop."

In peaceful times, he was someone who needed pushing and persuading to take action. But in critical moments, he became more unyielding than anyone else. That will of iron dragged the entire panicked team forward, pressing on relentlessly.

They completed 12 corners—three full cycles—carefully checking the plaque on each door, but as expected, they found no sign of the Blood Transfusion Department.

As they spent more time trapped in the darkness, the supernatural attacks grew more intense. These entities seemed to emerge suddenly from any door, only to retreat quickly when confronted.

Their behavior also escalated. At first, they merely grabbed at hands, but later they began dragging people forcefully.

The third time it happened, Xie Yunzhu felt a chill on his back. Two cold, damp women's hands slipped under his clothes and wrapped around his waist, trying to pull him into a dark doorway.

Its face pressed coldly against his back, with the strange texture of fabric, as if the entire Avīci Hell had descended upon him in an instant.

All the other ghosts, no matter how bizarre, breathed like humans. But this cold, damp-handed ghost didn't even breathe.

It held on so tightly that even Xie Yunzhu struggled with great effort to break free. He turned and swung his torch, but the ghost didn't evade. Instead, it reached out with its cold, damp hands and gently swatted at the spark.

With a sizzle, the torch went out abruptly.

In that final moment, Xie Yunzhu only had time to see a white cloth covering its face and, for the first time, clearly heard its murmuring whisper.

It said, "Come, follow me. I'll take you out."

The voice grew fainter until it was swallowed by the darkness. Xie Yunzhu could no longer sense its presence, but he knew it was watching him from somewhere in the dark.

They're growing stronger... Xie Yunzhu broke into a cold sweat and tried to relight the torch, but the tip was damp and dripping, making it impossible to ignite.

At almost the same time, Song Ziming, who was walking behind him, let out a scream—he had been bitten on the ankle by the crawling Mutilated Ghost and stumbled forward. The flashlight in his hand fell to the ground and shattered completely!

Their flashlights had already been damaged in various ways before. Song Ziming's flashlight flickered twice under the group's desperate gazes before extinguishing its final glimmer of light.

Complete darkness descended.

Author's Note: