Chapter 36: Ghost Fire
“Follow the Supernatural Investigator, updated with exciting stories every night at 12 o’clock.”
The story in the forum came to an abrupt end. Although this person’s words were full of marketing account vibes throughout, this story wasn’t made up.
According to news reports, this residential building did indeed suffer a major fire due to natural gas leakage some time ago, with very heavy casualties.
Zhang Qian walked to the side of the building and slightly suspended his hand above the wall. Even without direct contact, he could feel that special chill.
“Could it be that the supernatural event here hasn’t been resolved yet? Or is this just the supernatural power left by the fierce ghost?”
He thought for a moment and dialed the headquarters’ phone.
For a supernatural event with such heavy casualties, headquarters would definitely send someone to handle it, and there should be records regardless of whether it was resolved or not.
Soon, an operator responded to his call.
“Hello, Comrade Zhang Qian, this is Operator Yao Jin. How can I help you?”
Unexpectedly, it was Yao Jin who picked up the phone again, making it feel like one-on-one service.
“I want to check the information on a residential building.” Zhang Qian said, “A supernatural event may have occurred here. I want to know its information and handling results.”
Yao Jin at headquarters immediately moved her hand to the keyboard and asked, “Okay, do you have the address of this building?”
Zhang Qian glanced at his mobile phone and read out the address above, “Building 3, Liming Residential Area, Flower Market.”
“Please wait.” Yao Jin searched the database according to Zhang Qian’s clues.
In no time, she found the file on that building. Although the record was very brief, it was enough.
“Event code: Residential Building in the Firelight, death toll 78 people. Currently, the remains of 36 people are still missing. Based on their pre-death information, the missing are twelve men and twelve women plus twelve children.”
“The manifestation of the supernatural was white flames, which could not be extinguished by conventional methods like water after attempts. But the flames were not corrosive and did not spread beyond Building 3.”
“This event has been resolved. The ghost controller who submitted the file is Fang Shiming.”
“What about the killing pattern? Didn’t he record it?” Zhang Qian said.
Yao Jin took a breath and added, “Fang Shiming has only a cooperative relationship with headquarters, so his report is not detailed.”
“Forget it, as long as it’s resolved. There shouldn’t be any residents here, right?” Zhang Qian asked.
“According to the follow-up investigation by headquarters, not only does this residential building have no one, but the entire residential area probably doesn’t have many residents either.”
“Indeed.” Zhang Qian looked around and didn’t see many figures.
It was clearly the liveliest time in a residential area at dusk, but this residential area seemed exceptionally desolate, without even any square dance ladies.
“Supernatural events are too terrifying for ordinary people.” Yao Jin said, “The reason of natural gas leakage can cover up the supernatural, but it can’t block the fear in people’s hearts. Plus, with all kinds of ghost stories spreading, over time even homeless people are unwilling to come to places like this.”
“Speaking of ghost stories.” Zhang Qian asked curiously, “Headquarters should be able to easily block these messages, right? If you don’t want the supernatural exposed, why allow the existence of these ghost stories?”
He flipped through the forum on his mobile phone, which recorded all sorts of bizarre horror stories. Although most were made up, several stories had vaguely mentioned that ghosts have a killing pattern.
Probably someone sharing their personal experiences there, or maybe getting some information from a ghost controller’s mouth.
“Headquarters has its own considerations, and I, an operator, am not clear.” Yao Jin paused, then said, “Maybe they’re worried that a blanket suppression would arouse suspicion instead. With a mix of true and false ghost stories, even if one or two are real supernatural events, not many people will take them seriously.”
“It’s said that headquarters has specialists responsible for that forum section, and they won’t let unknown supernatural events be exposed. It’s just that the influence of Building 3 was too great; suppressing it all would seem guilty instead.”
“I have no other matters, thank you.” Zhang Qian said politely.
“No need to thank me, this is my duty.”
Zhang Qian hung up the phone, pushed open the creaking iron door, and exhaled a breath of cold air.
The air here had a faint chill, not as severe as in supernatural events, but staying in a place like this for a long time would definitely be bad for the body.
“Pa—”
He stepped on the thick ashes and entered the corridor, only to find that the situation inside was better than he had imagined.
Even the light bulb and switch on the ceiling were undamaged, completely unlike the aftermath of a large fire.
“This supernatural had relatively little destructive effect on reality?” Zhang Qian was somewhat puzzled and tried pressing the light switch in the corridor.
The light bulb flickered for a moment and actually emitted a dim yellow glow into the darkness, but that flickering appearance wasn’t much better than a candle in the wind.
Swirling dust danced in the light, and Zhang Qian had to cover his mouth and nose to avoid getting a mouthful of ash.
On the other side, after waiting for Zhang Qian to hang up, Yao Jin had already turned to start other work.
Being an operator isn’t easy either. Although the danger is much lower than for frontline ghost controllers, they still have to memorize the information of most ghost controllers and help soothe their emotions.
Moreover, their pay isn’t high. They work twelve hours a day, and their salary in the capital is only average. They even can’t leave the base freely because they know too many secrets.
Staring at the computer screen for long periods made Yao Jin uncomfortable, and she couldn’t help rubbing her somewhat swollen eyes.
Fortunately, her shift was about to end, and she could rest properly.
On the way back to the dorm, Liu Xiaoyu mysteriously sidled up, “Yaoyao, I have some insider info, wanna hear it?”
“What?” Yao Jin tilted her head curiously.
She didn’t know why Liu Xiaoyu’s information was so well-informed; probably because she had family who were leaders above.
“It’s said that operators are about to expand recruitment. Soon, ghost controllers and operators will do one-on-one pairings, meaning our workload will drop dramatically.” Liu Xiaoyu fantasized about her future good life and suddenly asked, “Which ghost controller would you pick?”
“Not sure…” Yao Jin thought about it and finally shook her head, “We probably don’t have the right to choose, right? Better to think about who would pick us.”
“Eek~ What if a lolicon takes a fancy to me?” Liu Xiaoyu rubbed her arms, as if she really saw some terrifying creature.
“You won’t meet them, who knows you’re a legal loli?” Yao Jin smiled, “If we could meet, I bet quite a few ghost controllers would fight over you, huh?”
“Hard to say.” Liu Xiaoyu’s eyes darted, and she grinned mischievously, “Yaoyao, you’d definitely be the most popular pick. Some ghost controllers would even dislike me, but as soon as you talk to him…”
