Chapter 1912: Chapter 1085: Assault_2
Of course, the reason he dared to do this was because he had a certain level of confidence. Yang Xiao had already helped him figure out the Water Ghost’s method of murder. With his skills, as long as he was cautious, there shouldn’t be any major issues.
Besides, he wasn’t the only one holding the fort here; Sakai Misaki was also with him.
"Mr. Katou, you...you listen..." Sakai Misaki, who had just sat up from the bed, looked pale, her entire body trembling violently, as if she had been terribly frightened.
"Plop."
"Plop."
"Plop."
Kato Shinjiro also heard it, a series of dull sounds echoed from outside the door, coming from the direction of the emergency staircase, as if someone was stepping in water, and that person was coming upstairs.
Unlike Sakai Misaki’s panic, upon hearing the slightly muffled sound of steps in the water, Kato Shinjiro felt somewhat relaxed. It was indeed the Water Ghost; what he feared most was the arrival of an unfamiliar ghost.
An unfamiliar ghost meant a completely unknown method of murder, which was truly deadly.
The unknown killing method of an unfamiliar ghost required trial and error with human lives, and often the first person to encounter the unfamiliar ghost becomes the test subject.
Someone like Yang Xiao, who survived an attack by a ghost on the first night of the mission, is definitely a rarity.
Kato Shinjiro gestured to Sakai Misaki, signaling her to stay calm, not move, not speak, not make any noise. Based on the clues provided by Yang Xiao, the thing outside was likely very sound-sensitive.
Finally, that thing came upstairs, pushed open the heavy iron door of the emergency staircase, then walked step by step to their door, and stopped there.
At this moment, Sakai Misaki’s heart was in her throat. She had heard Yang Xiao’s account of the Water Ghost’s attack that morning, but hearing someone else’s story and experiencing it yourself were two completely different things.
It was also at this moment that she realized just how terrifying it truly was, and she couldn’t help but feel immense admiration for Yang Xiao and Takagi Reina.
"Thud."
"Thud."
The thing outside the door started to slap the door, causing dull thuds, sounding as if its hands were swollen and decomposed by water.
Sakai Misaki once watched a science program that talked about a person who drowned in water. The body soaked in water for a long time, already showing the appearance of a giant. It even showed an image covered with a thick mosaic.
Even with the mosaic, the severely swollen and rotting body still had a strong psychological impact on Sakai Misaki, causing her to have nightmares for several nights when she was young.
Now, her childhood nightmares had come to find her and were standing right outside her door.
Kato Shinjiro was relatively calm. He knew this Water Ghost didn’t have the ability to open doors, so as long as the door was locked, they were relatively safe.
And indeed, the Water Ghost knocked on the door for a while, but seeing no response from inside the room, it stopped.
The knocking sound disappeared, but the Water Ghost didn’t leave. Soon, Kato Shinjiro heard a pitter-patter of dripping water.
At first, it was only a drip-drip sound, but soon, the sound of water grew louder and clearer. The drips formed streams, gushing downward, as if a faucet had been turned on.
It was at this point that the situation changed for the first time. Kato Shinjiro remembered Yang Xiao saying that last night, when the Water Ghost first came to his door, it only knocked and left when there was no response. A phone’s ring drew the Water Ghost back, leading to a second attack.
The intensity and method of the second attack had both strengthened. The Water Ghost began releasing corpse water from its entire body, and these corpse waters seeped in bit by bit through the gaps under the door. The Water Ghost outside used the water’s reflection to search for people.
And this time, at just the Water Ghost’s first attack tonight, it had already entered into the second form, which was indeed beyond Kato Shinjiro’s expectations.
He felt that the Water Ghost had already confirmed someone was hiding in the room and wouldn’t leave tonight without killing someone.
Something must have gone wrong somewhere, but he couldn’t find the reason at the moment.
As the corpse water seeped in through the door, Kato Shinjiro immediately sprang into action. He motioned for the almost petrified Sakai Misaki not to move, then went over himself, had her lie on his back, and carried her off the bed, the two of them hiding behind a wall.
The bathroom was right behind them, a dead corner in the room. Even if the corpse water seeped in, the Water Ghost outside the door couldn’t use the water’s reflection to find them.
Upon learning about the existence of the Water Ghost and its killing methods from Yang Xiao, Kato Shinjiro immediately found a hiding place upon returning to the apartment.
This corner behind the wall was one such spot; he also had backup options.
Worried Sakai Misaki might make a sound, Kato Shinjiro covered her mouth.
He knew the Water Ghost couldn’t spend the whole night here with them. In a few minutes, at most, having failed its attack, the Water Ghost would leave, and the night’s crisis would be over.
However, after a few minutes, Kato Shinjiro’s face changed subtly while hiding behind the wall. Things were becoming strange; the water that had seeped in from behind the door receded, but he hadn’t heard any footsteps indicating the ghost’s departure.
"Drip."
Suddenly, Kato Shinjiro’s body shook, and Sakai Misaki’s face, covered by his hand, turned ashen white at the same moment.
Both of them heard an extremely clear sound of dripping water, right behind them!
They were backed against the wall; the dripping sound came from the bathroom, a small space with only an old toilet and a washbasin stained with unknown grime.
There used to be an outdated shower fixture that should have been discarded long ago, but Kato Shinjiro had dismantled it in advance.
At this moment, the only source of dripping water in the bathroom could be the faucet of the washbasin.
But that was impossible. Since moving in, Kato Shinjiro had cut off the main water valve, so no water could flow from the faucet; she had witnessed it herself.
The anomaly continued as the dripping sound, initially just a slow drip-drip, quickly turned into a streaming flow, followed by a gushing noise as if the faucet had been turned on full blast.
Worse yet, the drain of the washbasin seemed blocked, and as the basin filled, a large excess of water overflowed.
This made even Kato Shinjiro nervous; if the water overflowed from the bathroom door, they would be in severe danger.
Their current position was awkward, located in a blind spot, preventing them from assessing the room’s various circumstances. They feared falling for the Water Ghost’s ruse by recklessly changing positions.
Moreover, the apartment wasn’t that big, and if the water flowing from below the door increased even slightly, they would have virtually no place to hide.
Why...why was this attack different?
He believed Yang Xiao had no reason to withhold information about the Water Ghost’s attack, especially since the mission had just begun. Hiding such critical information could be fatal, and losing personnel early in the mission wouldn’t benefit Yang Xiao unless he was an idiot.
But clearly, he wasn’t. He not only survived the Water Ghost’s attack but also summarized methods to deal with the Ghost’s threat for them.
"Whoosh—"
The sound of water behind them continued, getting increasingly intense. If this continued, they would be in danger.
Meanwhile, Sakai Misaki, whose mouth he was covering, appeared almost on the verge of fainting from fright, her body going limp.
If it weren’t for him holding her up, she would have collapsed to the floor, her breathing nearly stopping.
Kato Shinjiro believed he could escape on his own, but carrying Sakai Misaki in such a state would be impossible. Leaving her behind would merely be condemning her to certain death.
Moreover, he noticed that Sakai Misaki’s condition was becoming increasingly strange, as if under some nightmare’s spell.
Her partially open eyes frequently showed the whites, and technically, a person in such a state should have been fully unconscious, but she wasn’t. She was holding on desperately.
This didn’t seem like her strength. Instead, it resembled...a ghost.
The next moment, Sakai Misaki shivered inexplicably. Her eyes suddenly rolled upward, revealing eerie, terrifying, milky white eyeballs.
