IWBL: Chapter 131

The radio equipment started to hum and sounded like an old man with a mouthful of phlegm. The people listening to it were very uncomfortable.

Lin Qili acted according to the manual and first inserted some music. Then she spoke into the microphone of the main console, “Welcome to the late-night radio station. I’m the host today. Nice to meet you. Now let’s listen to the first caller.”

She didn’t know if the first caller was a ghost or not so Lin Qili’s hand trembled slightly. This didn’t compromise her accuracy and they soon received the first call.

“Host, can you hear me?”

It was a male voice that was somewhat hoarse. It played quite clearly through the microphone into the office. It sounded like… a normal person.

Lin Qili was relieved and replied, “I can hear you clearly.”

The hoarse man spoke through the telephone, “That’s good. Hello Host, can you listen to me?”

“Yes, that’s what this late-night radio is for.” Lin Qili’s voice softened. “What do you want to say?”

Somehow, the man was a bit breathless as he gasped out, “I… I want to tell you a story. Do you know there is a game called ‘Summoning Ghosts’?”

A ghost game—it must be ghost-related.

Lin Qili was once again tense. “I haven’t heard of it. Can you be more specific?”

The man said, “This is a summoning ghost game at midnight. Stand in a dark alley and walk towards your shadow while shouting the name. After shouting 13 times, you can see two shadows and one is the ghost.”

“Um, I tried this game just last week…”

“My brother told me about this game. He told me that the ghost could fulfil one of my wishes. Yes, I have a wish. I want to get remarried to my wife. Do you have any desire you want to be achieved?”

Lin Qili smiled bitterly. “My wish s to live in peace and security.”

“Wow, then our desires are different. I… I love my ex-wife. We were junior high school classmates. I was very eye-catching in junior high school and was often bullied. She secretly helped me. Later, we got married but she gradually became disgusted that I was poor, weak and good for nothing. She took our daughter away and didn’t take my calls, severing all ties between us In order to regain her, I did this summoning ghost came. Sure enough, there was a second shadow.”

“I told it my wish and it didn’t give me a reaction. It just disappeared. I was disappointed at first and went home. Everything was as usual but then strange things started happening at my house.”

“It… it was like the ghost went home with me. When I get home, I like to drink a bottle of beer first. I can drink it in one breath. The other day, I opened the beer and went to answer my brother’s call. I came back and found the beer was empty.”

The man’s gasping became more and more serious. Lin Qili was afraid to miss any details and had to interrupt him. “I’m sorry, what are you doing?”

The other person responded, “Ah yes, I am heading upstairs. I will try my best to control it.”

“At first, I thought I was wrong. I threw the beer in the trash and opened another bottle. After drinking the beer and watching the game, I went to bed. I was confused while sleeping and turned over to the left, only to put my arms around something.”

Lin Qili tightened her fingers.

The audience was still saying, “I…I got a dark shadow but there is no one in my home except for myself! I opened my eyes to confirm it but it had disappeared.”

“The shadow was cold and sticky, like a layer of scales.”

“I was so scared I trembled all night and was afraid to sleep until the next morning. I had to go to work after staying up all night. Once I went out, I seemed to see another shadow passing by my house.”

“I didn’t dare to think too much and hastily went to work. Just after work, I thought of the dark shadow at home and didn’t dare go home. I casually found a friend and said I would watch the ball game with him. Thus, I went home with him.”

“I went home in a rather uneasy mood and asked my friend to open the door first. However, my house was empty like everything that happened this morning was my illusion. I told my friend but my friend laughed at me. I comforted myself like this. How can there be a ghost in this world? Maybe the shadow during the day was due to the misplacement of light.”

“My friend left at 10 o’clock that day. After he left, I was busy cleaning up the messy table but just as I went downstairs to throw away the garbage, I saw a dark figure in my bedroom.”

The man didn’t seem breathless anymore when speaking. He seemed to be standing in a certain place and deliberately paused. “Host, can you understand my feelings at that time?”

Lin Qili replied, “Yes, I’m quite able to.”

For the reincarnators, they could sympathize more than others. Kudo sat near Lin Qili with a piece of paper in front of him, frantically recording the story of the first listener on the paper. Xiao Li was closest to the office door. He rested his elbows on his chair and casually listened to the story. Shen Chenzhi hadn’t sat down. He leaned against the wall and watched Xiao Li openly.

The male listener continued, “I don’t know what I was thinking at that time. I was extremely scared and didn’t dare to run away. I could only move into the bedroom bit by bit to see what was inside…”

“This time, the shadow didn’t hide from me. I saw it learning from me, looking out the bedroom bit by bit.”

The reincarnators could almost imagine the scene at the time. In the dark bedroom, the strange dark shadow was making the exact same movements.

“It wasn’t until then that I saw what it looked like. It was like a four-legged lizard, black all over and with a long tail. After seeing me, an excited expression appeared on his face.”

“I was so scared that I couldn’t move my feet. I could only watch it crawl out of my bedroom and slowly approach me.”

“Can you guess the end? Host?”

Lin Qili’s heart had a bad feeling. How could an ordinary person escape after encountering ghosts? This first audience member, there was a great possibility… it was a ghost!

Lin Qili didn’t answer and the male caller laughed. “The end is that it bit off my head and I became one with it. It was a wonderful feeling. I could feel the sharp pain as my vision blackened and… I also couldn’t forget the delicious taste of my head in my mouth.”

“This is my story. Host, in order to repay you for listening to my story, can you please look back.”

The moment he finished speaking, Lin Qili rose from her chair. It was because this sentence didn’t come from the phone but from the door of the office! All the reicarnators in the radio office suddenly looked at the source of the sound and saw a face attached to the unlocked glass door. The face was eagerly spying on the inside from the outside. It was tightly pressed to the door, the nose shoved up against the glass, the liquid of the greedy mouth on the glass.

“I’m going upstairs…”

At this time, Lin Qili suddenly understood the caller’s previous words. He had been on the stairs leading to the 14th floor when he called the radio!

The live radio had just begun and they were already targeted by such a ghost, making them uneasy. Moreover, as they analyzed before, this was a closed office. Once the way was blocked, the only option was jumping out the window and this was the 14th floor.

Chu He subconsciously leaned against the window. The rather bleak moonlight lined with neon shone through the window, sprinkling the place with frost like the face of a dead man.

“It’s useless. I’ve seen you… I remember your face. And… you look delicious!”

The ghost outside the glass door drooled. The glass door wasn’t locked but somehow, the ghost just looked at everyone’s faces outside the door and never came in.

Xiao Li walked to the door, his actions attracting Kudo’s attention. He imperceptibly frowned. He had never heard of the name ‘Hercule’ among reincarnators before but how could a reincarnator  who lived up to the present be so reckless?

Xie Zeqing noticed his friend’s expression and hit the other person’s shoulder. “What is your expression?”

Kudo pushed up his glasses. “Is Hercule throwing away his life? Is he really a veteran? Or did your grandmother ask you to bring a new person? If he is new then it is better for him to give up as early as possible.”

Xie Zeqing sighed. ”No, you know nothing about Hercule.”

Xiao Li had come to the glass door. He pushed the door to the right, making the ghost lean against empty air. Xiao Li looked at him. “It’s better to come in and see it clearly.”

The ghost outside the door, “……”

He had never heard such a strange request for death. In fact, he wanted to satisfy the other person but looking at the confident Xiao Li in front of him, he couldn’t help feeling that something was wrong.

…Didn’t this person know he was a ghost? Why was this man not afraid of him and why was he looking with compassion, rather than the expected panic and fear?

The scene was deadlocked. The ghost had clearly been drooling over the reincarnators but he refused to come in.

No…

Kudo relaxed his original furrowed brow. Had Hercule seen the path to life early on? The ghost would kill only after the hint to living was given.

This was why most of the instance worlds showed the introductory CG and plot characters. The task would often give clues to life in the actions of the plot characters before they died. However, the reincarnators often couldn’t understand it instantly and needed more clues to infer the truth. It was clear that this was only the first call and the clue hadn’t been given, so the ghost was just like beginning of the ghost movie to scare the reincarnators. It wasn’t the time to kill officially.

Kudo (thought he had)  figured it out and exclaimed in a tone filled with admiration, “Your friend is really brave.”

Even if he saw that the ghost couldn’t kill, he was quite brave to face the ghost.

Then Kudo looked at the scene at the glass door and was silent for a moment. He took off his glasses and wiped them. Then he put them back on the bridge of his nose. It was the same scene that previously caught his eye.

Xiao Li took a step forward and the ghost actually took a step back.

Kudo, “???”

Were the roles… the opposite? The ghost might not be able to open the door and kill people but how could it back away? Xiao Li went out of the office and into the dark corridor. “How do you know the number of this radio?”

The ghost froze for a moment and involuntarily took a step back. Xiao Li kept up with it. A strand of hair slowly extended from his pocket and wound around the ankles of the first listener. Since this man wanted to die, it was better to fulfill his wish!

The ghost’s shadow slowly lengthened in the corridor, changing from the appearance of a normal person to a dark shadow. It looked a bit like the four-legged lizard described on the phone. He stuck out his head and approached using the same gestures as Xiao Li, slowly opening his mouth and trying to bite off Xiao Li’s head.

The man in front of him looked delicate and delicious. He should taste this person carefully and slowly. Don’t take a bite and lick him first.

The dark shadow stuck out a slender tongue that was forked at the tip like a lizard. There was a smell as the tongue swept toward Xiao Li’s face. Then something strong grabbed the tongue. The other hand holding a stapler turned the tongue around and stapled it.

“Wu wu wu—”

Ahhhhhhhhh!

The shadow lizard wanted to cry! Where did this stapler come from? The lizard’s eyes protruded outward and blood flowed as he stared at Xiao Li with disbelief.

Xiao Li shook the stapler in his hand, which was taken from a pile of debris in the corridor. It wasn’t just the stapler. There was also a mouse, books and other office supplies.

The ghost covered his mouth.

Kudo saw this scene and couldn’t help touching his tongue. “Old Yan, what do you feel?”

Xie Zeqing’s eyes were like a dead fish. “It is better to ask me what it is like to be the dark shadow opposite us.”

Kudo asked curiously, “What do you sense?”

“In addition to the pain, there is… he regained the feeling of being bullied at school.”

Kudo, “……”

Was it possible to remember this? The shadow lizard was in pain and wanted to instinctively attack. However, the ghost he was blended with was stimulated. This person was cowardly in nature and his first instinct was to escape.

Xiao Li thought the ghost would attack again and was instructing Tan Li to pick up the nail gun when the next moment, the ferocious looking lizard turned to run down the stairwell. It crawled and disappeared into the safety stairs.

Xiao Li, “……??”

He was careless.

…He should’ve torn out the stapler for that guy. Great, he didn’t even get to ask a question. Xiao Li scratched his face and threw the stapler back on the pile of rubbish. Then he returned to the radio office and closed the door. “Let’s continue.”

Lin Qili looked at him, Will looked at him and Kudo looked at him.

Xiao Li saw there was no one at the control station and there was already a phone ringing. He sat in front of it, took the headset and connected the call. “Then I’ll do it.”

The call was connected.