Chapter 145: Substitute
No one dared to answer the ghost’s question immediately.
Inside the platform, every question from the ghost is deadly.
If it’s not a scenario where an answer is mandatory, one must consider avoiding answering as much as possible, because most of the time, no matter what the answer is, it will fall into the ghost’s killing trap.
While Lu Jinzhao and the other two delayed in answering the ghost’s question, they observed the ghost’s reaction. If this was a ghost that would trigger the killing mechanism if its question wasn’t answered, then they had to give an answer before the ghost’s patience ran out.
But Lu Jinzhao felt it wasn’t.
Sure enough, as time slowly passed, the ghost, which had originally worn a weird smile, gradually changed its expression. Their corners of the mouths slowly pulled down, their expressions gradually becoming chilling, pairs of eyes staring straight at the three, necks stretching longer and longer, like becoming a snake, then slowly approaching the three’s faces.
Human faces against ghost faces, no one spoke again proactively.
The atmosphere was stiff to the extreme. Zhou Zimo felt his heart pounding. He had never encountered a ghost so close before. Normally at this distance, he would either be on the verge of death or have used spirit possession to dispel the ghost.
But he had already invoked a god too many times inside this platform. He could feel that there was at most one more opportunity left.
Now, even though the ghost was already face-to-face, before the other side made any further moves, Zhou Zimo also had to suppress his fear and preserve the last invocation opportunity.
Chilling breath continuously came from those three faces identical to theirs, but just as Lu Jinzhao had predicted, not answering the ghost’s question did not trigger the ghost’s taboo.
Otherwise, it would be too unreasonable, and it wouldn’t match the ghost’s previous behavioral logic.
After the three stalemated with the ghost for half a minute, seeing that they still hadn’t gotten an answer and the three hadn’t made any irrational moves out of fear, the ghost’s behavior pattern changed again.
The mobile phone screen, which had been faintly lit and providing the last bit of light, suddenly failed.
The surroundings plunged into complete darkness.
No one let out a cry of alarm, and no one dared to move randomly.
When the light completely disappeared, the fact that “there is a ghost right in front of you” became even more horrifying.
Because the ghost has no breathing. When it doesn’t touch a person, it also has no temperature, and it won’t make any sound.
You can’t tell whether it is still standing in front of you, still staring into your eyes face-to-face, or if it has left.
Lu Jinzhao began to miss that candle. An ordinary mobile phone couldn’t resist the ghost’s supernatural power at all, but the candle, being a supernatural item itself, could burn in this situation.
If she survived this time, she had to see if she could collect a supernatural item that could at least provide a light source in the darkness.
Unlike Lu Jinzhao who could still think calmly, the moment the light source completely disappeared, Qin Wan’s heart sank into the darkness as well.
She knew how she differed from her other two teammates now.
Zhou Zimo had spirit possession that could at least save his life once. As for Lu Jinzhao, although her fate wasn’t described too clearly, it should be more useful than hers when facing the ghost’s direct attack.
Moreover, right now, only she was suffering misfortune, which also meant that if something was about to happen, that person would definitely be her.
Sure enough, in the second after the light disappeared, Qin Wan felt that the hand the ghost had placed on her right shoulder became heavier.
Immediately after, a second hand landed on her left shoulder.
Then, her back was pressed against by one, one, and another cold hand.
The palms directly against her back, in a weird posture, cold touch, and then another hand covered her mouth, followed by her ears, nose, eyes.
This is bad.
Because the next second, she heard right on her shoulder, as if an extra head appeared, that head using her voice, in a panicked tone, say: “What to do? The ghost seems to be grabbing me!”
“Grabbing you? What’s going on?” Zhou Zimo’s voice came, filled with doubt and a bit of worry. The moment he blurted it out, Qin Wan felt her body suddenly stiffen.
Those hands covering her became colder and gripped tighter.
Even though she was covered, she could still hear the sound, but in that instant, the sound weakened.
Something disappeared along with Zhou Zimo’s dialogue with the ghost on her shoulder.
“Don’t talk, don’t answer.” She heard Lu Jinzhao immediately remind, but she didn’t specify to whom, as if talking to herself.
But it was already too late. Qin Wan felt as if she was slowly “disappearing”.
She didn’t dare wait any longer and could only immediately take out her only and most powerful supernatural item, a pocket watch.
The moment the pocket watch was opened, the ticking sound entered her mind. With each tick, one of the hands covering her receded.
But the time wasn’t much, and the price to control time was so great that she couldn’t use even one extra second, so after feeling that the hands covering her had all been dispelled, she immediately closed the pocket watch.
Thirteen seconds, too long. Her lifespan decreased by another 39 days.
Every time she used the pocket watch, she could rewind her own state, with a cost of three days of lifespan per second.
And this rewind wouldn’t rewind the attack itself, only her own state.
In other words, she could use the pocket watch after suffering the ghost’s attack to return her state to before, and this attack would count as one she had endured.
If not for the high price, the fact that activating the pocket watch required a clear “opening” action, and that someone in first-class wanted to keep her safe, she absolutely wouldn’t have gotten this supernatural item.
But even though she had been careful enough in using it, from obtaining the pocket watch until now, she had already lost four years of lifespan!
Lifespan doesn’t increase. To date, no fate or supernatural item can increase a person’s lifespan; there are only methods and props that shorten it.
Use a bit of time, and you’ll have a bit less.
But the value of this pocket watch remains very high, because as passengers, their latter half of life might not even exist. If so, using it to live a few more days still seems cost-effective.
At this moment, she used her lifespan as the price to restore her state to before the ghost hand touched her. The thing that disappeared due to Zhou Zimo’s reply also returned, but the next second after closing the pocket watch, Qin Wan immediately felt another hand pressing on.
It was simply endless.
And she absolutely couldn’t keep the pocket watch open all the time. Misfortune had about three minutes left, 180 seconds, 540 days of lifespan!
If she spent every platform like this, she wouldn’t need the ghost to kill her; she would die from “cowardice” herself.
Even worse, she didn’t know how much lifespan she originally had or how much was left to use.
The pocket watch wouldn’t kindly inform the user; it would rather squeeze every second out of them.
What to do?
Today there’s still, really changing schedule, working hard!
