Chapter 1956: Chapter 1107: Hell on Earth (2)
This underground city is eerily quiet, as if it were a ghost town, its silence unsettling the heart. Yamamoto Chunai chose routes that appeared safer, keeping one side of her body close to the wall, ensuring she could escape should danger arise.
From her previous encounters, it’s highly likely that ghosts exist here as well.
The Half Ghost remained on the Ghost Train, and she had seen both the Water Ghost and the Paint Ghost; any ghost that appeared now would be entirely unfamiliar.
And unfamiliar means highly dangerous. After all, no one knows its abilities or methods of killing. Yamamoto Chunai grew increasingly uneasy, daring to speculate that the next ghost is most likely the Source Ghost.
Everything here has been caused by the Source Ghost. An encounter with it would plunge her into extreme danger, and her life would be at its end.
"Tap"
"Tap"
"Tap"
Yamamoto Chunai proceeded cautiously, the buildings around her lined up fairly evenly but gave her a strange feeling.
This did not feel like a train station; rather, it resembled a camp or a crude and simple factory dormitory.
After walking for a while, she suddenly realized the major issue of this place.
All the buildings here lacked a fundamental element.
Windows.
All the buildings here had no windows, only solitary doors, large iron doors that appeared very solid.
On the outside of the doors was even a latch lock, nearly as thick as her finger, its metallic tongue rusty.
No windows, large iron doors, dark closure, locks outside the doors... such a place only made Yamamoto Chunai think of one thing: prison.
This wasn’t an underground city or warehouse beneath a train station, but a prison!
A secret prison!
Intense curiosity drove Yamamoto Chunai to push open a door. Before doing so, she prepared by listening at the door for a while; it was dead silent inside.
She first pushed the door open a little, revealing just a crack through which she peered inside; darkness filled the room.
But it wasn’t complete darkness; rather, it was a hazy darkness, where shadows and outlines could be faintly discerned.
Like a bed, a cupboard, and things like chairs.
After confirming it was safe, Yamamoto Chunai summoned her courage and pushed the door one-third open, seeing clearly now that the interior layout was indeed that of a dormitory.
The two separate single beds were filthy, yet the bedding on them was distinctly of a uniform style; everything in the room was doubled, placed in a somewhat orderly manner.
What truly caught Yamamoto Chunai’s attention were the two chairs. They were two iron chairs, one on the left and one on the right, looking very heavy, their four legs crudely welded to the floor.
Ordinary factories and dormitories would never have such arrangements. The ominous premonition in Yamamoto Chunai’s heart came true.
She was certain that a prison was hidden beneath the train station, concealing unspeakable secrets.
This was crucial: she had to notify Mr. Chu Xi. She took out her phone, snapped a picture of the room, and sent it.
Suddenly, Yamamoto Chunai turned her head towards the direction behind her, vaguely hearing some noises, faint and unclear.
Yet in places like this, danger often falls swiftly. Yamamoto Chunai trusted her instincts.
She quickly departed, not forgetting to close the door behind her, restoring it to its original state.
Her instincts were not mistaken; soon enough they proved right. As she continued to probe her way forward, two more noises echoed from behind her. This time, Yamamoto Chunai heard them clearly.
Two muffled "claps," as if someone clapping hands.
But how could there be anyone in such a haunted place? It could only be a ghost!
Even though she had roughly anticipated danger here, confirming that a ghost was present inevitably made Yamamoto Chunai nervous; she quickened her pace, attempting to distance herself.
She distinctly heard that the clapping sounds came from near the door where she had paused not long ago.
In other words, this ghost was tracking her, following her previous path.
Being caught would mean certain death; she knew nothing of this ghost’s method of killing.
Moreover, it was very likely the Source Ghost that Chu Xi and the others had been seeking, its abilities even more terrifying.
At first, Yamamoto Chunai managed to maintain some semblance of calm, her steps swift yet light, but soon she could no longer withstand it, for each clap echoed closer to her, like a Death Sentence.
Yamamoto Chunai ultimately couldn’t bear it any longer; she began to run faster, choosing relatively narrow alleyways, hoping to use the complex terrain to shake off this ghost.
Unfortunately, things did not go as planned, as she shortly found herself blocked in a dead-end alley.
Though it wasn’t strictly a dead-end: blocking her path was a dark iron door.
The iron door stood three meters high, its surface covered in rust; with no foothold, climbing over it was impossible.
On either side of the alley were rows of cubicles, each door numbered.
The structure and scale here differed entirely from the previous dormitory, its style more sinister and oppressive, yet similarly, the doors had thick latches and could be locked from outside.
What’s more, outside each room door sat a large iron cabinet, though locked, leaving unknown what it held inside.
Most crucially, the latches outside the room doors were locked, the metallic tongues rusted against the iron frame, clearly unopened for many years.
Originally, no force could compel Yamamoto Chunai to enter such a place, but now she had no choice; without quickly finding a place to hide, she would confront the Clapping Ghost directly.
Compared to imminent danger, any other possible crisis took lesser priority.
Yamamoto Chunai immediately moved to unlock the doors, but after unsuccessfully trying two, the lock tongues were too heavily rusted, fused into one solid piece with the fixed iron frame.
Fortunately, she managed to pull open the lock tongue on the third door. Inside was virtually pitch-black, but there was no time for observation as she darted in.
Then she quickly shut the door behind her, leaning against it with her heart pounding.
But just as she closed her eyes, surrendering to fate, a subtle noise from the depths of the room caught her attention.
She couldn’t quite describe the sound; it was somewhat like... teeth grinding.
In this enclosed black room, there was a teeth-grinding noise, causing the hairs on Yamamoto Chunai’s back to stand up instantly. Terrifying images flashed through her mind, more horrifying than all the horror scenes she’d experienced recently.
Knowing it might not be the best course of action, she couldn’t resist anymore. She shakily retrieved her phone from her pocket, fingers trembling as they lit up the screen.
With the faint glow from the screen, Yamamoto Chunai witnessed the most horrifying scene of her life.
A naked, blurry humanoid figure lay prone on the floor not far in front of her, seemingly melted, its head distorted at a bizarre angle, half its face fused with the floor.
Yamamoto Chunai stared wide-eyed in terror, vividly seeing an eyeball nearly falling out of its socket, fixedly gazing at her amid the darkness.
In the next instant, the humanoid’s mouth, melting and broken against the ground, twitched as some muscle pulled at it, dense white teeth resembling maggots writhing in decayed flesh.
"Creak"
"Creak"
In that moment, a buzzing filled Yamamoto Chunai’s mind, not purely out of fear, but... because she understood the shape of its mouth.
Kill me...
What it said... was actually kill me!!
It was asking her to kill it!
Unprecedented fear exploded in Yamamoto Chunai’s heart; even facing a Fierce Ghost, she hadn’t felt such terror. She couldn’t have imagined that this being was still alive!
Despite all those years, it... it was still alive!!
Moreover, it still retained thought and consciousness!
Impossible to fathom how, alone, it maintained such a posture, surviving for decades in this dark, enclosed environment.
As Yamamoto Chunai collapsed emotionally, screaming, the clapping sounds reached the door outside.
