IWBL: Chapter 83

The phone recording ended and Xiao Li pressed it to start it again so that these words rang through the stairwell. “In seven days… you’ll come down with me!”

The upper body that emerged from the pool of blood was a body of blood and had no obvious facial features. They could only speculate on its meaning from its body language. It clearly turned its head to the phone for a moment, head in an obvious arc like it didn’t quite understand the recording.

The recording of the ghost call kept playing on a loop until Xie Zeqing interrupted him. “Moriarty, what are you…?”

“I recorded it when it called me.”

He took back his phone. Although Xiao Li deliberately maintained a distance between his phone and the bloody ghost’s ears, there was still some blood splashing on the screen of the phone. He hesitated for a moment before looking at Luo Dian. “Do you have any paper towels?”

Luo Dian felt some confusion but she listened to Xiao Li and took out a pack of napkins from his backpack, handing it to Xiao Li. Xiao Li bowed his head and wiped the screen with a paper towel. Then he put his phone back in his pocket and looked at Xie Zeqing.

Xie Zeqing pointed to the blood ghost. “I know it is a recording but why did you let it listen to it?”

“It is a test. The death countdown starts from the third phone call. It means this call is the key to the curse.” Xiao Li explained. “I just don’t know if the key point of the curse if the phone itself or the words that the ghost spoke after the call connected. I also want to know if the curse can be transmitted using the recording.”

Xiao Li explained up to here and then spoke to Xie Zeqing, “You can communicate with it. Ask it what it feels after listening to the curse recording.”

Xie Zeqing, “……”

He somehow felt like he was now a translation platform and was live broadcasting between Xiao Li and the blood ghost…

The young man shook his head and used his physique to sense the blood ghost’s emotions. After a long time, Xie Zeqing opened his eyes. “There is an external force in its body and it is fighting against that force.”

Xiao Li placed a finger in his mouth and bit it twice. “External force, curse… what emotions does it have now?”

Xie Zeqing looked at him with some sorrow.

Xiao Li asked, “What’s the matter?”

Xie Zeqing told him, “I’m not a translator.”

Xiao Li, “…”

Xie Zeqing said so but he still answered Xiao Li’s question. “It doesn’t have any unified thinking, only a general mood. It doesn’t know what is happening and feels panic.”

Xie Zeqing didn’t say that he didn’t know if the panic was towards the phone ghost or Xiao Li.

The blood ghost was in a daze for a while but soon, writing appeared on its bloody body. It was as if a person dipped a finger into the blood and wrote: 96.

It was the countdown. The blood ghost screamed and directly punched the stairs, erasing this line.

Xiao Li took this opportunity to jump past the blood ghost and told Xie Zeqing and the others, “Let’s go.”

Xie Zeqing was a bit reluctant. “Shouldn’t we see the result? The blood ghost and phone ghost fighting is a rare sight. I would like to see the result of the fight.”

Xiao Li walked down a flight of stairs and didn’t look back as he said, “The phone ghost will win.”

The telephone ghost was the boss of this world and the blood ghost was just one of the small mobs. The gap between the two was quite different.

Xie Zeqing had to follow.

Luo Dian had been listening carefully since the time of the recording. Now that everything was straightened out, she looked at her declining number and asked Xiao Li, “Is it… like the Ring? If we spread the phone curse, we can alleviate the countdown?”

The reason was she had never thought of this was because in the Ring, the media was a videotape. Here, it was a phone call. Now Xiao Li confirmed that the recording also contained a curse. Was the ghost’s purpose to make more people stay with her so the curse spread towards others?

“It is a possibility but I don’t think it is the solution.” Xiao Li paid attention to the floor while answering.

Bang. The sound of heavy objects banging was constantly heard from upstairs. It was like the blood ghost was going mad and the entire stairwell was buzzing with the battle against the phone ghost.

Han Jin’s fall didn’t cause him substantial damage but his pants were stained with blood and his body covered in dust.

Han Jin gasped. “We should go quickly in case the winner comes looking for us.”

The group ran down.

The stairs of the safety passage was very dark and there were no windows, which meant no light. They didn’t dare turn on their flashlight in case they attracted the attention of the ghosts upstairs. They could only move forward in the darkness.

They headed from the third floor to the second floor and then went down in a circle. Xie Zeqing wanted to continue but Xiao Li pulled at him.

“What is it?”

“This is the second floor. “

“So?”

“We just came down from the second floor yet we are seeing the second floor again.”

“…………”

Luo Dian pulled out her flashlight and aimed it at a sign in the corner of the corridor which read ‘2F.’ Next to the sign, a door was quietly closed, as if waiting for the reincarnators to go out this door.

By this time, the blood ghost upstairs was quiet. It was unknown if it had failed or just fled. The entire stairwell was quiet. The quiet made people panic.

“Let’s go down again.” Xiao Li raised a finger and pointed down the stairs.

They walked down the stairs, going around twice. It should say ‘1F’ but it still displayed ‘2F.’

They were back at square one.

Luo Dian spoke uneasily. “Is it the ghost hitting the wall?”

She had an item that would’ve restrained such confusion but unfortunately, it ran out in the last world. Xiao Li stood in place, eyes on the door of 2F. He once encountered the ghost hitting the wall on the ghost train but at that time, the pen fairy personally took them out. This time it was different. The ghost deliberately left them a door.

“There is a ghost outside the door.” Xie Zeqing also looked at the door and his face didn’t look very good. “The ghost in the corridor is scattered but there is definitely a ghost behind the door.”

“Try going up?” Going down was a dead end so Luo Dian naturally thought about going up. Perhaps the power of the blood ghost could help them escape from this ghost wall.

They tried again but the reincarnators were still on the second floor. The reincarnators were trapped on this floor. Xiao Li put his hand on the handle of the door on the second floor. He pressed it down and the door opened.

Luo Dian was startled and immediately stopped Xiao Li. “You—”

Xiao Li looked back. “Do you have any other way?”

Luo Dian shook her head.

“It’s fine.” Xiao Li pushed open the door and walked out. “Since it wants us to enter, go in and have a look.”

His outline was almost integrated with the darkness and his back soon disappeared through the door. Based on his multiple experiences, Xie Zeqing didn’t hesitate to follow. Luo Dian and Han Jin glanced at each other before choosing to follow.

On the girl’s covered right arm, the number was reduced by one more to 64. She could live for 64 hours.

******

They walked out the door and didn’t see any ghosts. There was only a melodious violin sound that floated into their ears from a distance. Xiao Li heard the violin music and noticed the scene in front of him.

It obviously wasn’t the administrative building but a more dilapidated building. Every room in the hallway was very large and empty, with a mirror covering the entire wall. There were signs like ‘2-1’ and ‘2-2’ next to the rooms and looked more like a dance room than a classroom.

Xiao Li looked back. The door they came out of had disappeared and turned into a wall of death.

Xie Zeqing took a deep breath. “I can sense the ghost. It is quite happy.”

“Hopefully it can maintain its good mood.” Luo Dian joked.

The road was blocked and they could only follow the music down the corridor. In front of them was a dance room with the lights on. It was the only light source in the corridor and was like a flame that attracted moths.

Along with the advance of the group, the music changed. The light and lively music became heavy and emotional.

Xiao Li whispered, “Did it bring its own BGM?”

This sentence was heard by the closely following Xie Zeqing and he immediately choked on his saliva. If it wasn’t for his sensitivity to ghosts, he would burst out laughing. However, at this moment, Xie Zeqing’s mood was a bit heavy. “The mood of the ghost changed, like it changed with the music. It has become sad and depressed.”

Xiao Li got closer to the dance room. The light from the room slanted his shadow on the wall and Xiao Li could see the movement in the dance room.

The figure was wearing ballet shoes and was on tiptoes. She danced to the sorrowful music, sometimes jumping high and sometimes sinking down. She did all types of difficult movements to fully express the emotions in the music. She turned so fast that no one could see her face.

The group didn’t go over, afraid of disturbing the dance. They stood in a corner and watched her.

“It is a person? Or a ghost?” Han Jin leaned towards Xie Zeqing’s ear, looking like he was biting this person’s ear as he asked.

Xie Zeqing shrank back his neck and pushed Han Jin away. “Please pay attention. It is a ghost… she is the ghost I previously felt.”

It was a fully enclosed corridor and there were no doors to enter apart from a few dance rooms. They stood here watching her dance. Once the song was over, the dancer bent down to thank the mirror and then new music played again.

The musical prelude was a piece that expressed resentment. In the beginning, it was light like the performer was venting. This made people feel unsettled. The dancer’s face changed with the music, from a modest smile to a hate-filled face.

“We can’t let her jump.” Xie Zeqing noticed this and was anxious.

From the joy in the beginning to sorrow and then hatred. It was clear that the dancer’s music mobilized hatred for the reincarnators. It was difficult to say if the dancer would kill them or not once the music ended.

In the third second since the music began, a deafening sound overwhelmed it. There was a loud and powerful male voice that said, “The second set of the middle school students nationwide gymnastics, the era beckons!”

The dynamic music rang out, completely obscuring the previous music of hatred.

The dancer stopped dancing.

Dancer, “???”

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The author has something to say:

Dancer: No one can beat me at my BGM!!!

Xiao Li: Let’s change the BGM.

Dancer: ……