When the system made the announcement, the others hadn’t yet reacted.
Then they saw Dong Zi punch “Lu Qi”—and watched his face collapse into a shapeless mass, only to reassemble into the twisted visage of a short, gloomy-looking man.
The [Ghost] grinned with a mouth full of teeth. “Why don’t you all stay and keep me company…”
He tilted his head back and let out a sharp whistle.
Before anyone could make a break for the door, shadows surged from every corner of the villa, forming a tight circle that sealed off the six players and the [Ghost] at the center. No one could escape.
The cat spirits shrieked in unison.
Agonizing pain stabbed through Fu Changxun’s head as the black cat thrashed violently in his arms.
It let out a blood-curdling cry: “Meeeooow—!”
His ability was still clashing with the [Ghost]’s command, barely keeping the cat from being completely taken over.
But Fu Changxun was still a new player. This was his first time using his ability. Within seconds, cold sweat poured down his face, and the stabbing pain turned into a full-blown migraine. He was seconds away from losing control.
Xu Zhengyi had been frozen in shock. Snapping out of it, he bellowed and charged the [Ghost].
“Don’t just stand there—help! If we don’t fight back, we’re all gonna die here!”
He suddenly reached into the air and pulled out… a steering wheel—then swung it hard at the [Ghost].
Everyone: “…”
The steering wheel was clearly a game item. As ridiculous as it looked, it actually worked.
The [Ghost] was sent flying over a meter away.
Maybe because it had a physical form, it couldn’t immediately recover. Though it could reshape itself, the moment of impact bought them precious seconds to act.
“Meeeooow—!”
The circle of cat spirits tightened.
The high school girl with Yin-Yang Eyes had already started screaming at the top of her lungs.
Dong Zi snatched up the steering wheel from the ground and hurled it at the [Ghost] again.
Seeing this, the other two players also pulled out their own bizarre items.
Fu Changxun fought through the pain to lift his head, only to see shadows flying everywhere—steering wheels, handbags, all kinds of random junk zipping through the air. And strangely enough, he felt a flicker of absurd amusement.
It kind of looked like a group of people playing with cats and dogs.
Just then, the livestreaming guy let out a shout: “What the hell is this?! Ah—A donation? From the livestream?! How do I use it?!”
A loud rustling sound followed as he suddenly received a stack of strange paper cutouts out of thin air.
He held the cutouts with a dazed look and glanced around. Dong Zi, having just been struck by the [Ghost] and rolled across the floor, climbed to his feet beside him.
“Let me see that.”
He immediately handed it over. “The game said it’s from viewers in the livestream.”
What he couldn’t see—was that the bullet comments were flying nonstop:
[Now this is interesting!]
[This stream is way better than the others. Those low-dimension idiots over there all died in a blink.]
[Hahaha! I wonder if they’ll know how to use the item I sent? I can’t wait to find out.]
[That’s… one hell of an item.]
[Whoa, big spender alert!]
[But I think it has some kind of condition attached… Do low-dimension creatures even know how to use it?]
Dong Zi unfolded the papercut. To his surprise, it was packed full of densely written text.
At the center, in bold and crude strokes, it simply read: “Suppress Vengeful Ghosts. One-time use only.”
Dong Zi stared at it for a moment, then charged forward again. Spotting an opening, he tried to slap the paper onto the [Ghost].
But instead, it fluttered to the ground like a feather.
“It won’t stick!” Xu Zhengyi shouted. “I can’t hold him off!”
Amid the chaos, the splitting pain in Fu Changxun’s head finally began to ease. The black cat in his arms stopped thrashing and let out one last meow before flipping over and leaping down.
Fu Changxun didn’t chase it—he suddenly realized his ability was usable again.
The black cat looked back at him with piercing green eyes, as if silently yelling: Since you’re all better now, use that damn ability of yours! Save my siblings from this bastard cat-killer!
Fu Changxun: “…On it.”
Faced with a swarm of cat spirits, his barely recovered ability might overload again if pushed too far.
Dong Zi rolled sideways, scooped up the fallen paper charm, and glanced up—only to realize the cats had stopped attacking him.
That was when he noticed: Fu Changxun was using his ability again.
Dong Zi frowned and quickly scanned the papercut again. This time, he spotted the tiny, barely visible note in the corner: [Must be used with a paper-based item]
The font was so minuscule it was nearly unreadable—clearly designed that way on purpose.
The malice of the higher-dimensional beings practically bled off the page.
But Dong Zi let out a breath of relief and, without hesitation, pulled out a colorful, crumpled flyer from his pocket.
The [Ghost], sensing the cat spirits slipping from its control—and even starting to turn on it—immediately realized someone among them had awakened as a Stealth Walker.
Its vicious eyes swept across the room and quickly zeroed in on Fu Changxun.
Just as it lunged at him, Dong Zi sprinted in from the side.
And he was faster.
By just a hair’s breadth, he reached the [Ghost] first, wrapped the paper charm inside the flyer, and slapped it hard against the [Ghost]’s back.
The [Ghost] froze in place. No matter how it twisted or jerked, it couldn’t shake off the charm.
It was stuck—trapped in place by the ghost-binding item.
“Fuck! Where’d you get that?! Don’t tell me it was those backstabbing damn cats that snuck it to you—”
The tables turned instantly.
The once-beleaguered cat spirits surged forward with a vengeance, eyes blazing with fury as they surrounded their tormentor.
They had died in agony—and been forced to kill others afterward, suffering even more. The [Ghost] who had condemned them to eternal unrest deserved nothing less than their hatred.
Now that he was pinned down, they didn’t care about mutual destruction—they swarmed him, biting and clawing with feral rage, determined to make him feel their pain a hundredfold.
The [Ghost] howled in torment, the agony too intense to even curse properly.
They’d actually won. They’d subdued the killer ghost.
Everyone exhaled in disbelief—relief mixing with exhilaration.
They’d taken down a murderer.
Together, they’d done it.
But before the joy could fully settle in, the ground beneath their feet began to shake violently.
“Shit, the villa’s collapsing!”
Dong Zi shouted sharply, “Forget the [Ghost]—everyone, get out now!”
Snapped back to reality, the others scrambled for the exit. Dong Zi paused just long enough to grab his paper charm on the way out.
The livestream guy’s girlfriend suddenly realized someone was missing. “Wait—the girl! What about her?!”
In that kind of crisis, she didn’t even think—only that there was still a life left behind. Her steps faltered instinctively.
“Don’t stop! RUN!” Fu Changxun shouted.
She hesitated—but her boyfriend grabbed her arm and pulled her along, forcing her to keep moving.
Fu Changxun, who’d been holding his concentration to keep the cat spirits from being re-enslaved, clenched his teeth and forced himself to sprint forward. He caught up to her and gave her a hard tug—just enough to break her daze and push her ahead.
The moment he did, his strength ran out completely. He barely made it to the door before collapsing.
The girl finally snapped out of it and stumbled toward safety.
“Dr. Fu, hurry!”
Xu Zhengyi grabbed both of them—one in each arm—and, together with Dong Zi, dragged them through the door.
The moment they made it out, the villa crumbled into rubble behind them.
“Xiao Hei—!”
At the last possible second, Fu Changxun reached out and caught the black cat mid-leap.
And then, he and the rest of the players were sucked into a vortex.
