190: Chapter 190 The Nationwide Ghost-Seeing Exchange Center

National Ghost Encounter Exchange Forum Section:

[ID: Sigh of the Midnight Deliveryman]

"Brothers, my hands are still shaking, and I'm typing with just two fingers. I'm a late-night delivery guy. At two in the morning last night, I got an order to deliver to Room 404, Building 4, Chengnan District 2 in the urban village.

That place didn't even have streetlights.

I carried the takeout up to the fourth floor and knocked on the door.

No one spoke inside, there was only a strange creaking, grinding sound. I got impatient waiting, so I leaned up against the peephole to look inside.

Guess what I saw?

I swear I'm not lying!

Pressed against the peephole on the other side was another eye! It was a pitch-black eyeball with completely no white in it!

It was right behind the door panel, staring dead at me!

Then a puddle of black water oozed out from beneath the door crack. Scared out of my mind, I dropped even my delivery box and scrambled down the stairs.

When I got downstairs and looked back, standing by that fourth-floor window was a woman dressed in red. Her head... was hanging upside down on her neck, waving at me! Help! I'm hiding under the blanket right now, but I keep feeling like there's a sound under my bed!"

Beneath this post, tens of thousands of replies flooded in instantly.

"Holy crap bro, don't scare me in the middle of the night! I live on the fourth floor too!"

"Delivery drivers being a high-risk job is officially confirmed! Did the Red-Clad Vengeful Ghost take a liking to your takeout or to you?"

"OP, hurry and call the police! Stop posting from under your blanket—what if she tracks you down through the internet cable!"

Soon, another long post was upvoted to the top, cranking the horrifying atmosphere to the max.

[ID: Anonymous Programmer]

"I'm a coder working overtime at Zhangjiang Hi-Tech Park. It's eleven o'clock at night right now, and in theory, I'm the only person on this floor working overtime.

But... from the cubicle to my right came the sound of typing on a mechanical keyboard.

The rhythm was fast and frantic—that distinct clack-clack sound of black switches.

Normally this wouldn't be anything strange; working overtime is standard for us programmers.

But... the guy in the cubicle to my right is Lao Wang.

Last Monday, after staying up three consecutive nights to rush a project, he died suddenly of a heart attack right at his desk.

HR took his computer away long ago, so there's only an empty desk there now.

The typing sound is still going, right in my ear.

I don't dare turn around. I used the reflection on my phone screen to sneak a glance behind me...

Lao Wang is standing right behind my chair. His entire body is bluish-pale, with a deep strangle mark on his neck. He's leaning over, staring dead at the code I'm writing, quietly muttering, 'This bug... why can't I fix it... why can't I fix it...'

Guys, I think he realized I'm looking at him through the screen reflection. His neck just made a sharp crack.

What should I do? Waiting online, it's urgent!"

Less than thirty seconds after this post was published, updates came to an abrupt halt.

Countless netizens frantically tagged the original poster below, but received no further response.

This uncanny intrusion into daily life made countless netizens in front of their screens feel chills down their spines and their scalps go numb.

[ID: Late Night Elevator Terror]

"I'm a nurse who just got off the night shift. The old elevator in our hospital has always had issues. Just now I pressed Basement 1 to go to the underground garage, but when the elevator reached the first floor, it didn't stop.

The number on the display changed to '-2'. But guys... our hospital doesn't even have a Basement 2!

Now the elevator doors have opened to a long hallway, with mortuary freezers lined up on both sides.

An older cleaning lady pushing a janitor cart walked in.

She had no feet—she floated in.

She looked at me and asked, 'Little girl, do you want to buy shroud clothes? Buy one get one free today.'

I literally peed my pants right there in the elevator! I pressed the close button frantically, but now the elevator is stuck between B1 and B2! Help!"

Panic spread wildly across the internet.

As more and more people realized that the "sleep paralysis," "ghost walls," and "marbles rolling upstairs late at night" they had previously experienced were all real supernatural occurrences, the entire citizenry of Great Xia fell into unprecedented shock and trembling.

Many fearful citizens turned on every light in their homes, clutching kitchen knives, scissors, and evil-repelling brooms in their arms, shivering in the corners of their living rooms.

...

However.

It was completely different from the apocalyptic sights of monster massacres, rampant evil cults, and widespread devastation in the Western Continent and Sakura Country after supernatural outbreaks.

Although panic ran high on the internet in Great Xia,

on the physical level in reality, there were no large-scale casualties or social turmoil!

Why?

Because in Great Xia, there existed a violent containment machine with deep foundations, built upon the lives of countless front-line operatives—the Bureau of Abnormal Phenomena Management!

In Jiangzhou City, at the three-kilometer cordon outside Taiping Old Street.

Deputy Director Gao Guoliang stood in front of an armored command vehicle, holding a walkie-talkie with eyes cold as iron.

"Division Two, Third Special Duty Squadron! A D-rank wandering spirit cluster has appeared in Chengnan Xincun! Proceed immediately to purge them!"

"Division One, Skynet Radar Team! Lock onto the source of yin energy at the abandoned hospital in the west of the city! Send the coordinates to the Firepower Support Company!"

"Notify all operatives patrolling the streets. Tonight is an extraordinary period—we accept no surrenders and perform no containments! Any evil entity that dares show its face, even if it's just a clump of malevolent qi, blow it to kingdom come with depleted uranium cinnabar rounds!"

"The streets of Great Xia belong to the living. If ghosts dare to take to the streets, strip them of even the right to be ghosts!"

With Deputy Director Gao Guoliang's order given,

the entirety of Jiangzhou City, and even hundreds of cities across Great Xia, erupted under the night sky in an earth-shattering roar of steel!

Heavy armored vehicles emblazoned with the logo of The Ninth Bureau and engraved with Taoist evil-repelling talismans on their outer armor rumbled onto the streets.

The heavy machine guns mounted on top were loaded with high-explosive armor-piercing rounds infused with top-grade cinnabar and black dog blood extract.

The vehicle-mounted spiritual megaphones played on loop electronically synthesized versions of the Great Compassion Mantra and the Golden Light Divine Incantation, processed with modern acoustic technology to deter low-level ghosts.

In a small plaza in the center of Jiangzhou City,

a few foul-smelling White-Clothed Wandering Spirits that had just crawled out from underground were preparing to reach out their ghostly claws toward a few aunties who were still square dancing.

These wandering spirits had been suppressed underground for decades and thought they could finally go on a slaughter today.

The result was...

The lead square-dancing auntie in a red padded jacket not only didn't run, but instead swung her red silk dance fan and slapped the spirit hard right across the face.

"Fuck your mother! Coming out in the middle of the night to scare me instead of sleeping! Didn't you hear on the news that you're illegal entities?! I've been square dancing for ten years—you think I'm afraid of a dead ghost like you?!"

The auntie's booming roar was accompanied by a violent surge of living yang energy.

That low-level wandering spirit was actually slapped back two steps by her fan—infused with profanity and yang energy—and let out a miserable shriek.

Just as the spirit prepared to pounce back,

"Bang! Bang! Bang! Bang!"

A patrol jeep from The Ninth Bureau pulled a clean drift and stopped at the edge of the plaza.

Four fully armed special duty operatives leaped out, automatic rifles spewing tongues of fire.

A dense hail of cinnabar armor-piercing bullets instantly turned those White-Clothed Wandering Spirits into hornets' nests.

The cinnabar inside the bullets exploded within the spirits, instantly burning them into wisps of black smoke that drifted away with the wind.

"Auntie! Nice work! But next time you encounter these things, remember to curse at them first, then run! Leave the rest to the state!"

A special duty operative gave the auntie in the red padded jacket a thumbs-up, cleanly swapped in a fresh magazine, and jumped back on the jeep to continue patrolling.

The auntie stared blankly at her red silk fan, which still bore a trace of black ash, before excitedly turning back to her old besties.

"Sisters! Did you see that?! The country's got our back! That young man's gun hits ghosts dead on every time!"

"What are we still afraid of?! Keep the music playing, keep dancing! Turn on that DJ remix of the Great Compassion Mantra for me, let's blast these shameless dead ghosts to death!"

Scenes like this...

were unfolding constantly in every corner of Great Xia.

Fear stems from insufficient firepower and the unknown.

When the citizens of Great Xia realized that ghosts not only had health bars, but could also be killed...

the resilience in Great Xia's blood and their innate love of drama were thoroughly ignited.

Panic gradually began to transform into a weird, nation-wide euphoria...