Chapter 87: The Black Ghost |
Bai Mu held the Camcorder, aiming it directly at the monster to record.
[You have collected Evidence: The Resurrected Corpse.]
After finishing the recording, he vaulted over the handrail and dropped down from above.
"Let's go, Stephen. We need to chase after the priest."
"Are we just going to ignore that monster?" Stephen licked his lips, glancing nervously toward the corner of the stairs.
The twisted corpse remained trapped in the mixture of oil and water, completely unable to free itself.
The kitchen knife had slipped from its grasp. It thrashed mindlessly in the gasoline, coating its entire body in the slippery fluid. At this moment, it resembled a victim sinking into quicksand—the more it struggled, the deeper it sank.
"Should we light a fire and burn it?" Stephen asked.
"Don't worry about it, Stephen. It can't get out." Bai Mu patted Stephen's shoulder. "It has no intelligence whatsoever. It operates purely on instinct, just like a mosquito or a moth."
"True." Stephen retracted his gaze, though he still looked incredibly anxious. He turned back to check every few steps, constantly watching to see if the monster had broken free.
In reality, the creature was genuinely trapped at the corner of the stairs. It was hard to imagine that a virtually immortal monster could be completely immobilized by nothing more than gasoline and a moss-covered staircase.
However, figuring out its weakness wasn't too difficult. This kind of solution was actually quite common: if an opponent couldn't be killed, the next best thing was to seal it away. Although its movements were bizarre, it was fundamentally still using a human body. It was highly unlikely to suddenly mutate and grow barbed hooks or bristles to drag itself out of the slick gasoline.
At the very least, based on the intelligence they had gathered so far, the element of mutation did not exist in this Script.
But if they completely destroyed the monster's physical body, they might very well unleash an unsolvable ghost.
All things considered, this was the optimal way to handle the situation. Bai Mu had trapped the corpse without using any supernatural abilities outside the scope of a Reporter, ensuring the smooth progression of the Side Quest.
The two men returned to the Power Room. Outside, alongside the rushing water, they could still hear the wet splashing and squelching sounds of the creature thrashing about. It was still struggling fiercely, but until the gasoline evaporated, there was zero chance of it escaping.
Bai Mu stood over the pit and peered down. Murky water rushed through the sewer below. The space was constructed to be quite wide, not resembling a simple sewage drainage facility. It was fully illuminated with working lights, looking more like a secret underground passageway.
Right against the wall was an iron ladder for climbing. Bai Mu descended the rungs, with Stephen following closely behind.
Aside from the central waterway, the ground on both sides was paved with neat tiles. The walls of the sewer were smooth, built from high-quality materials. There was lighting installed approximately every ten meters.
A person could stand completely straight with plenty of overhead clearance to spare. There was even enough room to push something as large as a hospital bed through without any obstruction.
Standing in this sewer didn't feel oppressive in the slightest. The water flowing through the channel wasn't foul-smelling residential sewage, but rather ordinary groundwater.
On the floor tiles, Bai Mu spotted a set of footprints.
Since the priest had walked through the basement, his shoes had inevitably stepped in water, leaving wet tracks behind. There was only one path forward, as the way back was blocked by a cave-in. Following the footprints would definitely lead them straight to him.
"Bai, what do you think that thing actually is?"
The echoing footsteps of the two men reverberated through the sewer, accompanied only by the rushing current.
"Is it really a ghost?"
"It appears to be a ghost on the surface, but I think it should be classified as a superpower," Bai Mu replied. "That monster was temporarily created by the priest using some substance in a syringe. Since it's an artificial creature, it most likely has nothing to do with gods, ghosts, or the occult."
"Like Captain America?" Stephen raised his right hand and mimed throwing a Frisbee.
"Pretty much."
As they walked, Bai Mu inserted Stephen's Memory Card into the Camcorder to inspect the contents.
Time had been incredibly tight along the way. They had moved at a breakneck pace in order to catch up to the priest.
Now, they finally had a brief moment to catch their breath. Bai Mu checked the Memory Card's storage and opened the folder. There were two video files inside, lasting two minutes and three minutes respectively.
Bai Mu opened the first video. It was shot from the second floor, looking down at the first floor.
Judging by the lighting, the sun hadn't set yet when it was recorded. A bald man dressed in a black priest's robe stood at a podium, holding a Bible and brainwashing the people below.
He was repenting on stage and forcing the patients to repent alongside him.
Chris Wolf stood below the podium, looking around. The patients, missing arms and legs, all kept their heads bowed. Not a single one dared to make eye contact with Chris.
Despite their submission, Chris still hoisted one person up from the crowd of patients and vanished deep into the corridor. Every patient shivered in terror. No one dared to meet Chris's eyes, not even daring to look at his departing back. Only faint cries and pleas for mercy faded into the profound darkness along with him.
They all seemed entirely accustomed to this scene. It clearly wasn't the first time this had happened; it had likely occurred countless times before.
[You have collected Evidence: The Patients' Regular Worship.]
The second video was also filmed from the second floor, but it was taken much later. The lights in the hall were all on, and it was pitch black outside.
The camera shook slightly. Stephen had sprinted for a while before hiding somewhere and angling the lens downward to record.
A squad of heavily armed soldiers burst in through the main doors.
They advanced cautiously through the hall, but suddenly, they were dragged away in all directions. A black, humanoid silhouette flickered in and out of visibility. Bai Mu witnessed the terrifyingly powerful ghost with his own eyes. It seemed there was only one main entity of the ghost.
Bai Mu noticed that in the corner of the video, the bald priest had appeared alongside Chris.
The man fell to his knees as he watched the ghost's massacre. Although the footage was blurry, his devout expression and the tears streaming down his face were clearly visible.
[You have collected Evidence: The Black Ghost of Unknown Identity.]
"So, the priest treats that ghost like it's God?"
Bai Mu turned off the Camcorder, pondering the details within the videos.
"Furthermore, the ghost didn't attack the priest or the Asylum Inmates, which means it has its own consciousness. At the very least, it can recognize people and doesn't just attack blindly. This implies that the corpse from earlier was just an inferior product, likely created from the scraps of the main entity, such as its blood."
Now, Bai Mu no longer believed the ghost was the product of a sacrifice. It was likely born from human experimentation—a unique anomaly that developed supernatural abilities during the tests.
The entire asylum might have been built specifically for this superpowered individual. It was still unknown whether this entity was good or evil, but completing the Main Quest inevitably meant dealing with it. Its abilities appeared countless times more formidable than the corpse from earlier. He still needed to gather as much intelligence on it as possible to figure out a way out of this predicament.
Lost in thought, Bai Mu and Stephen arrived at a fork in the path.
Stephen suddenly froze, then shouted, "My Camcorder!"
His Camcorder had been placed on the ground at the fork, pointing directly at the two of them. Stephen eagerly rushed over and snatched his precious Camcorder back. There was a new video on it. A large, bald head was staring right into the lens, its smooth surface reflecting the light.
It was the priest. He had used the Camcorder to record a video, seemingly anticipating that they would chase him this far.
[Side Quest updated: View the new video in the Camcorder.]