Chapter 3 : Chapter 3
Chapter 3: The Female Ghost in the White Dress
That thing had not left!
Zhao Mingyue’s pupils contracted sharply. Her body, which had just relaxed, tensed once again.
Wasn’t the game already over? Why was this happening?
Could it be that the game only summoned ghosts but had no ability to send them away?
She was certain that the shrill male voice was the same thing that had called her name outside the door earlier and smashed the door.
At the time, she had felt that the voice sounded familiar but could not remember where she had heard it.
During the ritual, everything had sounded hazy and unclear. Now that the voice was distinct, the image of a thin man appeared in her mind.
She knew who the ghost outside was.
No wonder the voice had sounded familiar. No wonder it knew her name.
She remembered that half a year ago, when she had first moved here, the upstairs neighbor had kindly helped her carry her suitcase into the apartment.
At first, she had thought the middle-aged man was a good person.
He was unkempt and carried a heavy smell of tobacco and alcohol, but he seemed decent enough.
However, a month later, her opinion changed completely.
One night, she had been visiting a friend and did not return home until after eleven.
As she climbed the stairs, she saw someone standing outside her door, seemingly peeking inside.
When the person heard her footsteps, he hurriedly ran away.
That person was the same neighbor who had helped her move her luggage.
From that day onward, every night at eleven thirty, she could see the man’s face through the peephole on her door.
Once, when she pressed her eye against the peephole to look outside, she saw a bloodshot eye staring directly back at her.
At that point, she had already called the police.
Being watched like that for three consecutive days had terrified her.
When the police arrived, they lacked sufficient evidence and could only warn the man before leaving.
On the fourth day, the man stopped appearing.
For the next month, the same pattern continued.
However, every night at midnight, she could hear coughing coming from upstairs.
It lasted for an entire month.
One night, she again heard rustling sounds outside her door.
The man was peeking again.
His complexion looked terrible.
His eyes were bloodshot, and his skin had turned a sickly bluish gray, completely bloodless—like the face of a corpse.
Then he vanished in the blink of an eye.
The next day, the police arrived.
Not because she had called them, but because the landlord had.
That day, the police carried a severely decomposed corpse out of the upstairs apartment.
It was the man.
The suspected cause of death was alcohol poisoning.
“It’s him… It must be him!”
Zhao Mingyue hugged the rabbit doll tightly and retreated to the corner of the wall.
The mirror behind her cracked down the middle.
At some point, the figure of a man had appeared inside the mirror.
But that was not the worst part.
The worst part was that the perspective inside the mirror seemed to be from the bathroom door.
Behind the man was the living room hallway leading to the bathroom.
Because of this, Zhao Mingyue could not determine whether the ghost would come out of the mirror… or through the door.
Death itself was not the most despairing thing.
Waiting for death was.
BANG! BANG! BANG!
The sound of pounding on the door rang out again.
The mirror shook violently.
Through the mirror, she could see the man smashing his hands against the glass.
A venomous voice squeezed through his teeth and echoed from every direction.
“If you don’t answer me… I’m coming in!”
The man inside the mirror was no longer a shadow.
His bluish, heavily decayed face pressed directly against the glass.
Because his lips had rotted away, when he lifted his head, pieces of decomposing flesh stuck to the mirror.
Zhao Mingyue could see most of his gums.
His yellowing teeth—almost black—hung before her eyes.
He wore black cotton pajamas covered in dark red bloodstains and disgusting vomit.
Beneath the fabric, clusters of maggots wriggled.
His eyeballs had already melted away.
He slammed his head against the mirror.
The mirror trembled and cracked into hundreds of fragments, splitting the horrifying face into countless pieces.
At the same time—CRASH!
The door burst open slightly.
Everything happened too quickly.
Zhao Mingyue remained pressed against the corner wall.
She was terrified.
Yet her mind was strangely calm.
She had always been like this since childhood.
The more dangerous the situation, the calmer she became.
Unfortunately, calmness could not solve anything.
The bathroom window could not be climbed through.
The door was blocked.
In such a cramped space, there were no weapons.
The only thing she could hold was the toilet plunger in the corner.
It was almost laughable.
The only thing giving her any sense of safety was the rabbit doll in her hands.
And she knew this doll was the vessel of another ghost.
She now had two choices.
One: stall the ghost and find a chance to rush out of the bathroom.
Two: the moment the ghost entered, throw the doll at it and let the ghosts fight each other.
“Are you there? I’m coming in…”
The decaying man grabbed the door and pushed it open with a creak.
At the exact moment the door opened—A bloodstained doll flew toward him.
The middle-aged ghost froze in confusion.
The doll stopped midair.
It was as though an invisible hand had grabbed it.
Zhao Mingyue had been preparing to escape.
But the instant the doll left her hand, she felt the temperature in the bathroom drop sharply.
It was June.
Yet the cold pierced her bones.
Just as she had guessed—A third figure appeared in the bathroom.
BOOM!
The bathroom door slammed shut.
Thin blood-red threads, as narrow as pencil lead, began to emerge from the corners of the walls.
They crawled from the cracks in the floor and spread across the walls.
Those threads formed the silhouette of a young girl.
A white dress.
A slender and elegant figure.
Long black hair flowing to her waist.
She looked like a ballet dancer.
Or perhaps a proud white swan.
From that single view of her back, a ridiculous thought arose in Zhao Mingyue’s mind.
If she could see her face.
No.
When she was alive, she must have been incredibly beautiful.
The reason Zhao Mingyue called her a ghost instead of a girl was simple.
Although the figure was perfect, the exposed skin beneath the white dress was covered in black cracks.
Against the pale skin, they looked like fractures in flawless porcelain.
Bai Yu stepped forward half a step.
Thin strands of black mist seeped out of her body.
It was condensed resentment.
Beneath her black hair, crimson eyes stared at the middle-aged ghost at the door.
His grotesque appearance evoked nothing in her except disgust.
She raised her right hand.
Her slender fingers clenched.
She examined her small fist.
The body of a Fierce Ghost was far weaker than she had imagined.
Not even one percent of her original body.
While Bai Yu was still adapting to her new body, the middle-aged ghost instinctively stepped back.
He wanted to escape.
But the door behind him was already covered with blood threads.
“Ghost…”
A hollow voice escaped from Bai Yu’s lips.
The raised right hand became wrapped in thick chains under the cover of black mist.
Each chain was as thick as two fingers.
Her arm no longer looked fragile.
BANG!
Her small fist shot forward like an arrow, dragging black mist behind it.
The middle-aged ghost did not even have time to react.
The punch blasted straight through his chest, shattering half of his body.
He let out a pig-like shriek.
At that moment, Zhao Mingyue was the last thing on his mind.
He jumped, attempting to flee through the wall.
But the instant he leapt, a chain tipped with a spike pierced through his ankle and dragged him back down.
Bai Yu stared at him coldly.
“Why are you running?”
Zhao Mingyue watched the brutal scene from the corner.
Her throat tightened.
For a fleeting moment—She even felt a tiny bit of regret.
One ghost was already terrifying enough.
And she had just summoned an even more ruthless one.