Chapter 71: So It Wasn't a Ghost After All

Qingyan turned her head away in fear, refusing to look at the old man, but his voice lingered in her ears. She clung tightly to Xiyan’s arm.

"Young lady, come over here..."

"Come over here? My foot!" Qingyan suddenly stood up, cutting off the old man’s words with irritation.

Immediately, Xiao Jin charged at the old man and threw a punch at the ticket booth, demolishing it in one blow.

The old man never expected anyone to attack him, so he stood stunned, watching as the booth above his head flew off and fell down the cliff.

He glanced at the booth tumbling away, then turned his head back, bowed in silence for a moment, then lifted his head slightly, still somewhat lowered, and fixed his gaze on Qingyan, a strange smile creeping onto his face.

"Young lady, don’t you know that you must compensate for destroyed property?"

"Compensation? Sure, as long as you stop speaking to me in that weird tone. How much?"

The old man was momentarily taken aback by her reply, then said, "It will cost 10,000 points. If you can’t pay, then you’ll have to—"

"Only 10,000 points?" Qingyan interrupted, looking at him with disdain. "Stop wasting time. Tell me how to pay you."

The old man didn’t respond. Instead, he lowered his head further and further, unnaturally bent until it touched the ground, his body forming a bizarre ninety-degree angle.

Seeing this, Qingyan scoffed and motioned Xiao Jin forward.

Xiao Jin swung his fist at the old man, a strike powerful enough to shatter him to pieces.

But as Xiao Jin’s fist approached, the old man’s body twisted at an unnatural angle, dodging the attack.

"Young lady, you’re clever, but you’re outnumbered."

Qingyan could no longer see how the old man uttered these words, for he was slowly melting into a puddle of sludge, bubbling ominously.

"This is... truly disgusting. It seems corrosive," Qingyan rested her chin on her hand, speculating about the sludge the old man had become.

After the old man vanished, nothing changed around Qingyan, and Xiyan gradually regained consciousness.

"Ugh..." Xiyan rubbed his temples, slowly sitting up. When he opened his eyes, he gradually took in his surroundings.

A gloomy sky, a shattered pavilion, a flickering amusement park light that alternated between bright and dim, and Qingyan’s angry face.

Qingyan didn’t notice Xiyan waking up at first; she was sorting through information in her mind related to the Eighth Survival Zone.

She remembered this place as eerie and sinister, which was why she’d never ventured here before. The last time she came was simply to buy something, so she’d only visited the service area of the Eighth Survival Zone.

Although she didn’t know much about the place, Qingyan was someone who liked to use every available resource, so she opened the "Notice Board."

She searched the Notice Board for a long time but found little information about the Eighth Survival Zone.

This puzzled Qingyan. The Eighth Survival Zone was not formed particularly late; compared to the Ninth Survival Zone, it had existed for a year already.

How could there be so little information after a whole year? In the Survival Zones, a lot can change in a single day, let alone a year.

"Qingyan..."

Xiyan’s voice suddenly broke her train of thought. Qingyan set aside her other concerns and walked over to him.

Standing by his side, she said, "You’re awake. Do you know what happened just now?"

"Just now?" Xiyan frowned.

"Yes." Qingyan wasn’t in the mood to explain what had happened while he was unconscious.

Xiyan carefully recalled, then replied, "I think... someone suddenly attacked us, and then I don’t remember anything else..."

Qingyan nodded. Only then did Xiyan realize that Qu Ya and Lin Shuang were not there; only the two of them remained.

"Qu Ya and the others..." Xiyan looked at Qingyan.

"No idea. But there are traces by the cliff, seems like they fell down," Qingyan answered indifferently.

Xiyan grew worried, but he had learned to keep calm—anxiousness and impatience accomplish nothing.

"That cliff..."

"If they really did fall off the cliff, you don’t need to worry. It won’t kill anyone down there, but I don’t know exactly what’s below," Qingyan interrupted him.

Xiyan pressed his lips together and nodded.

He thought he should find a way, either to look for Qu Ya and Lin Shuang or simply jump down himself, since Qingyan said the fall wouldn’t be fatal.

Just as Xiyan was devising a plan, he suddenly felt a multitude of eyes staring at his back, making his hair stand on end.

Qingyan felt it too, at that very moment.

Without needing to speak, both of them turned together to see what was behind them, and what they saw made their hearts leap.

After turning, Qingyan and Xiyan swallowed hard, slowly turning their heads back and exchanging a glance. Qingyan managed to ask Xiyan with difficulty, "Just now... those people... had no legs, right?"

Xiyan nodded. "They... seem... not to be human..."

The unknown is always the most frightening.

Ghosts have always been a topic beyond human research, and Xiyan had always feared them.

Qingyan too, though she had lived in the Survival Zones for many years, still feared such things.

If it were a monster or a powerful foe, she would feel no fear. But ghosts...

...

"Hello there, what are you talking about?"

While Xiyan and Qingyan were lost in anxious thoughts, one of the "ghosts" behind them suddenly spoke. Xiyan braced himself and turned around, only to find that the speaker was an ordinary man.

This man had legs, flesh and blood, nose and eyes—he looked just like a normal survivor.

But Xiyan remembered clearly: when he and Qingyan turned to look at the group, they had no legs, their eyes glowed green, and their bodies were pitch black—ghosts. How could a regular person now appear?

"Hey? Did you see ghosts? That’s fake. We saw them when we first arrived, too. Don’t worry about it, just tricks meant to scare you."

The man who greeted them had already walked up to Xiyan and Qingyan, enthusiastically explaining.

Seeing it was a person, most of Qingyan’s fear dissipated, though she was still unsettled.

Xiyan fared even better—being a man, he was naturally braver.

"You saw them too?" Now that he knew it wasn’t a ghost, Xiyan relaxed and wanted to ask about the situation here, since there were no other people around, and so far, this was the only man they’d encountered.