FEG | Chapter 4

Chapter 4 Danger

After the three entered car 5, they immediately pulled the glass door shut, isolating Sun Fangchi in two separate spaces from them. The blond-haired man pressed himself against the glass door, staring at him.

Sun Fangchi’s gaze was fixed tightly on the new passenger who had come aboard. He was intact in all four limbs, expressionless, and aside from having his intestines dragging all over the floor, he was practically a normal person.

After the gut-dragging ghost came aboard, it acted as if it had not seen Sun Fangchi, going straight to the middle of the carriage and sitting down on the seat opposite Sun Fangchi.

The car door buzzed shut, and the subway set off again.

The air around them seemed to congeal, as if time had stopped at that moment.

Sun Fangchi did not dare move at all. The sound of his heartbeat grew louder and louder, as if it had broken through his body and echoed through the entire carriage.

Thump, thump, thump...

All stray thoughts vanished. Sun Fangchi controlled the rhythm of his breathing, making it into a measuring tool.

His experience growing up amid all kinds of damn ghostly situations had given Sun Fangchi a habit completely opposite to that of a normal person, the more tense he was, the calmer he became.

In the slow passage of time, Sun Fangchi’s thoughts raced.

If Sun Fangchi still had a sliver of hope in this dead end, it would surely rest on the summoning ring.

[Summoning ring: can summon a fierce ghost to help resist attacks, just call out the fierce ghost’s name]

The two veteran players both thought the summoning ring was useless, because it was impossible to know the names of the ghosts in the game. Only Sun Fangchi himself knew that this ring might actually be usable, the ghosts in the game could not be summoned, but he just happened to know one ghost.

There was only one chance to summon it, and the odds were fifty-fifty, so he had to seize the timing.

The gut-dragging ghost’s intestines piled up on the carriage floor, and the strange liquid carried on them stuck to the floorboards, reflecting a nauseating yellow-brown sheen.

Sun Fangchi’s attention was astonishingly focused. A barely perceptible gurgling sound reached his ears, and the winding intestines on the floor began to increase, twisting and writhing like snakes.

The gut-dragging ghost’s abdomen was practically a bottomless pit, and piles upon piles of intestines poured out from the hole in its abdomen, spreading outward.

Gradually, the edge of the pile of intestines drew closer and closer to where Sun Fangchi was standing, and the temperature inside the carriage dropped sharply.

It was coming!

Sun Fangchi held his breath. The gut-dragging ghost, just as he had expected, suddenly turned its head to look at him. In the instant their eyes met, Sun Fangchi seemed to see the gut-dragging ghost roar and lunge at him. Looking more closely, the gut-dragging ghost was still in place, but its intestines shot through the air, stabbing straight into Sun Fangchi’s stomach.

Sun Fangchi raised an arm heavy as a thousand catties to block it, and the intestines pierced straight through.

A stabbing pain tore through his abdomen, as if his intestines were being yanked.

Bu Xiling!

Sun Fangchi called out in his heart.

A white figure drifted gracefully into view before him.

Bu Xiling suddenly appeared on the subway. Before she could even gather her wits, she saw the expressionless gut-dragging ghost sitting in front of her. Looking down again, she saw that the floor beneath her feet was completely covered with its disgustingly vile intestines.

“Ah——” Bu Xiling screamed, lifting her foot to kick all the intestines back onto the gut-dragging ghost. “What kind of damn place is this!”

Seeing that Bu Xiling could touch the gut-dragging ghost, Sun Fangchi felt reassured. The intestines stuck into his abdomen were also kicked back by Bu Xiling, and the stabbing pain eased.

Just as Bu Xiling kicked away the intestines beside her, she saw the gut-dragging ghost stand up and lunge at her. Bu Xiling disgustedly flew up a kick and kicked him over, then followed with a flurry of kicks, until the gut-dragging ghost’s limbs were scattered everywhere.

“...Xi ge, calm down!” Sun Fangchi said weakly.

“Disgusting to death!” Bu Xiling cried out in grievance while kicking.

Sun Fangchi was helpless. “It’s already disgusting, kicking it into pieces makes it even more disgusting.”

Only then did Bu Xiling stop and retreat to Sun Fangchi’s side. “How did you get yourself into such a mess?” A person being pinned by the door, and not even wearing shoes.

“Xi ge, time is tight, do you see any difference between this thing and the ghosts we usually deal with?” Sun Fangchi asked quickly.

“Mm...” Bu Xiling thought about it. “There seems to be a slight difference, it lacks that feeling of life...”

“Ghosts are already dead. How could they have a feeling of life?”

“No, the ghosts we usually run into are like people who’ve lost their sanity, like wild beasts. This thing is different, it’s like a prop...”

Sun Fangchi asked the question he cared about most. “Compared with you, who’s stronger?”

“What danger could a prop have...” Bu Xiling had not finished speaking when her figure had already disappeared.

Thirty seconds, far too short!

Sun Fangchi secretly sighed. The situation was half good and half bad. The good news was that his summoning ring could be used, and the fierce ghost he summoned was basically invincible. The bad news was that it could only be used for thirty seconds, and this task no longer gave him any chance to use it again.

The gut-dragging ghost lay on the carriage floor, a huge mass of intestines covering its torso, its limbs separated, its original form already impossible to make out.

The blond-haired man pressed against the glass door of car 5 had his mouth wide open as he stared at Sun Fangchi. Sun Fangchi ignored him and instead looked at the indicator light above the car door.

Luckily, the next stop would open on his side.

Ding-dong, the subway will soon arrive, please...

The pressure behind him loosened, and Sun Fangchi was freed. Only then did he finally breathe a sigh of relief, having safely survived another stop.

The glass door connecting to car 5 was opened, and the three people entered car 4 in turn, then shut the door tightly again.

Sun Fangchi glanced over and saw that a new passenger had entered car 5.

The blond-haired man rushed two steps up to Sun Fangchi and said excitedly, “Bro, where’d that beauty from just now go? She suddenly appeared and then vanished? Who is she? Introduce us, let me get to know her...”

“That was a ghost I knew before.”

“No way!” the muscular man said.

“There are no ghosts in the real world at all!” the glasses-wearing man said decisively.

“She was beautiful like a big star, how could she be a ghost?” The blond-haired man’s point of focus was different from the others.

“You not having seen them doesn’t mean they don’t exist.” Sun Fangchi had no mind to reshape their worldview.

“Come on, bro, I believe you!” the blond-haired man patted his chest. “Call that beauty out again and chat for a bit...”

Sun Fangchi held out the back of his hand for him to see, the summoning ring flashing with a plain light. “Thirty seconds, I want to call her out even more than you do.”

The glasses-wearing man’s motion of pushing up his glasses became stiff. “The legends of gods and ghosts have already been scientifically proven to be fictional.”

“Then has science told you how this damned game works?” Sun Fangchi retorted.

“This...” The glasses-wearing man was at a loss for words. “Those can’t be lumped together.”

Sun Fangchi said, “To me, they’re the same thing, both are products of human beings’ incomprehensible mysterious powers.”

“Bro, everything you said is right.” The blond-haired man said solemnly, “So, can I chat with that beauty a while longer?”

The glasses-wearing man said, “I cannot agree. I have never seen a single ghost in real life. Scientific research has already thoroughly probed the structure of human beings, and there is no such thing as a soul.”

“Science cannot explain everything.” Sun Fangchi said, “Even now, hasn’t it still proven that the Book of Changes is false?”

“The Book of Changes?” The glasses-wearing man was puzzled. “I’ve never heard of it, is it a scripture?”

He actually did not know the Book of Changes?

Sun Fangchi nearly suspected that he wasn’t Chinese.

At this moment, the subway broadcast sounded, and they arrived at another stop.

The platform was empty, so quiet that the four of them did not dare believe it. Very soon, the subway set off again, and Sun Fangchi looked up at the indicator light above the car door.

It showed there were still two stops left.

“Even if what you said is true, how exactly did you hurt the ghost?” the glasses-wearing man asked stubbornly.

Sun Fangchi said, “Does the game rules say that you cannot attack ghosts?”

“That’s not true, but no one has ever succeeded...”

“Maybe I was just lucky.” Sun Fangchi did not want to mention Bu Xiling too much.

The muscular man pressed closer to Sun Fangchi. “If you’ve got a trick, bring it out and share it with everyone. Keeping it to yourself isn’t very decent!”

Sun Fangchi looked at him coldly. “Oh? I just won’t say it. What are you going to do?” He had not even settled the score for how this guy had nearly gotten him killed before, and he still wanted to push his luck?

“Kid!” The muscular man drew a gleaming dagger from behind his waist. “I can’t fight ghosts, but fighting people is my specialty. I advise you not to refuse a toast only to be forced to drink a forfeit!”

Sun Fangchi clenched his fist. “Go ahead and try!”

The two faced off against each other, neither willing to give way, the atmosphere taut and ready to snap.

“Um...” The blond-haired man suddenly spoke, his voice trembling with barely concealed terror. “You two, don’t fight yet...”

The muscular man said, “You’re itching for a beating too?”

“Not...” The blond-haired man had his back to Sun Fangchi and the other man, retreating step by step. “Is this ghost... reviving?”

What?

The three of them looked over together. The intestines all over the floor were slowly flowing back, severed limbs gradually reconnected, and the gut-dragging ghost’s broken body was slowly recovering.

“Is it still going to get up and attack us?” Sun Fangchi asked.

“No one has ever beaten it down before, how would I know whether it can recover or not!” the glasses-wearing man said anxiously.

“Then what about the people who died in the game?” Sun Fangchi asked again.

The glasses-wearing man was startled, and instantly understood what he meant. “The tasks I cleared before were not closed ones, so it can’t be confirmed.”

While they were talking, the gut-dragging ghost had already recovered and was climbing up from the floor.

“My god, stop overthinking it!” Before the two could come up with an answer, the blond-haired man pulled open the glass door. “The big uncle’s corpse hasn’t moved either, and this side’s almost clear enough to run through. Let’s change places first!”

With the blond-haired man taking the lead, the three entered car 3 one after another. After cutting off the gut-dragging ghost’s route, the four of them stayed in a corner and watched the flower-shirted corpse warily.

The corpse in the flower shirt, missing its head, lay quietly on the floor. The blood that had flowed out from inside it had oxidized into a dull black-red color, and a faint smell of rust filled the carriage, making people uneasy.

“Seems like nothing’s wrong?” the blond-haired man asked in a whisper.

Sun Fangchi did not relax his guard. There were still two stops left. As long as they could safely endure two more stops, it would be fine. However, ghosts were not the only source of danger.

The muscular man used his thick, powerful arm to press down on Sun Fangchi’s chest, pinning him against the carriage wall, while his other hand held the sharp dagger and threatened the vulnerable skin at the artery on Sun Fangchi’s neck.

“Say it!”

Sun Fangchi met his gaze and clearly saw the muscular man’s intense fear and madness. Sun Fangchi remained very calm. “I don’t have any special trick.”

The muscular man’s hand shook, and Sun Fangchi felt a chill at his neck. Warm liquid trickled down, wetting the collar of his T-shirt.

Sun Fangchi did not lower his head to look. “Even if you kill me, I’ll still say the same thing. But compared with killing me, the situation in front of us is more urgent!” Sun Fangchi signaled with his eyes.

At some unknown point, the corpse in the flower shirt had stood up.