Chapter 9 Upgrade

The parking lot was utterly still, the pale light from the ceiling casting long, strip-shaped flares on the sleek, dark gray floor.

The scene of Li Ang's confrontation with the possessing ghost was reflected on the slightly curved windows of the cars parked on either side.

"Leave his body, and I promise you won't die, how about that?" Li Ang said with a smile.

"Are you joking?" Shi Qingsong cracked a smile, "Do you know what dying feels like? At first, you feel a sweet oblivion, like you're drunk and passed out, all around you is pitch black, you can't see anything, hear anything, or touch anything."

"Then, it's as if someone throws a bucket of ice water in your face, you wake up, your eyesight, hearing, touch, and smell, everything starts to come back, even sharper than before you were alive."

"But, this is by no means a gift. You can sense the light, but you can't lift your eyelids. You can feel yourself lying in the morgue's refrigeration unit, cold, piercing, but you cannot move a single finger. The mortician sews up the wounds on your body with needle and thread, and you scream in agony, but there is no response."

"Then... comes the cremation."

"In the narrow space, the flames are scorching, blue and pale, every nerve burning, every inch of flesh dissolving, multiplying all the pain of the world by thousands, tens of thousands even, only then could it compare."

"A pile of ash, that's the summary of your life."

Shi Qingsong's face showed genuine fear and trepidation as he trembled, "Do you think that's the end? No! No! Even after you leave your decaying flesh, you still can't escape!"

"You float in the air, only able to move around in places you've been since you died, those agonies dogging you like flesh-burrowing maggots, eating at you. You watch the living whom you can't touch, you watch their joy and happiness,"

"Every minute, every second, the resentment and jealousy inside your heart grow under the whip of boundless pain."

"There's no such thing as heaven, no such thing as hell, all that talk about the afterlife, the Six Paths of Reincarnation, it's all bullshit! All lies! Only emptiness, endless emptiness, that's all that's left behind for us!"

Shi Qingsong roared, expecting to see fear and dread of death on Li Ang's face, but the latter just nodded indifferently, "Oh."

Shi Qingsong squinted and said, "... Aren't you afraid? You'll be like me after you die."

"So what?" Li Ang laughed, "To most people, the infinite void after death might be terrifying,

Wealthy capitalists will spend a lot of money to find a peaceful afterlife, unfaithful believers will start to pray more fervently, and national institutions would form research teams to study the essence of death."

Social unrest? Spreading panic? Pervasive religious fervor?

"Sorry, but to me, taking care of things in life is far more important than fearing what comes after."

Shi Qingsong stiffened, "I will never leave this body! It's mine, mine."

"Then there's no helping it."

Li Ang sighed, "I'm not experienced in killing ghosts, so it might really hurt in a bit."

Shi Qingsong bared a smile, his face's veins bulging, the area around his eye sockets darkening and sinking. His eyes filled rapidly with blood, protruding like those of a fish.

His normally square face bones stretched suddenly, taking on a narrow, horse-like appearance, while his mouth expanded to the extreme, his cheeks fluttering rapidly like two cracked drums.

"Roar!!"

Shi Qingsong's ghastly howl echoed violently through the underground parking lot, and in an instant, windows of about a dozen cars on either side shattered.

The explosive glass shards flew neatly through the air, falling, creating a mottled, brilliant light, like the dense curtain of water beneath a waterfall.

Car alarms sounded in unison, sharp sirens going off in succession, dozens of headlights blending into one, bright enough to sting the eyes.

Amidst the dazzling white light, a swift slicing noise headed straight for Li Ang's head.

That was Shi Qingsong's hand blade.

His palms were covered in an iron-blue color, the cyan nails extending out more than ten centimeters, narrow and sharp.

Li Ang lightly pushed his sunglasses, calmly stepped back half a step, and at the same time, extended his hands forward, attempting to block Shi Qingsong's wrist.

An overwhelming force transferred from Shi Qingsong's palm, unstoppable, and Li Ang's hands were instantly wrenched aside, his body involuntarily crashing toward the vehicle to his right.

Just as he was about to hit the car door, Li Ang pushed off the ground with his left foot, leveraging the great force to leap upward to the right. He struck the aluminum car door several times in a row with his feet, dissipating the impact while gracefully sliding onto the car roof.

"Up!"

Crouched on the car roof, Li Ang bellowed, grabbing Shi Qingsong's wrist with both hands, and yanked him towards the car door like pulling a weed from dry ground.

Shi Qingsong's arm was still being gripped by Li Ang, and with a "thud," it slammed into the aluminum alloy roof on the side of the vehicle, creating a deep groove in the metallic shell.

"Die!"

As if incapable of feeling pain, Shi Qingsong let out a bitter and shrill howl, and instead of pulling back his seized arm, he pressed his body against the car door. His other hand, transforming into a blade-like shape, reached through the shattered window and stabbed upwards towards Li Ang with ferocity.

The sound of twisting steel was sharp and grating. Aluminum alloy was no match for Shi Qingsong's fingernails; it was sliced and torn apart as easily as frozen tofu.

Li Ang's face was stern as water, he lifted his foot to dodge the knife-like nails, and then slammed it down at an angle, firmly pinning Shi Qingsong's hand to the ground with his sole.

With both hands restrained, Shi Qingsong could only roar furiously.

"Roar!"

"Why are you yelling so loudly?!"

Li Ang countered Shi Qingsong with a shout, raising his foot and fiercely kicking the latter's long, narrow horse-like face, leaving a dark and grimy shoeprint.

Struck violently, Shi Qingsong reflexively staggered backward, and as Li Ang let go of his hold, he leapt off the roof of the car and delivered a knee thrust that hit Shi Qingsong's chest hard.

"Bang!"

Shi Qingsong stumbled back several steps, his body crashing into the car door behind him.

Before he could straighten himself, Li Ang was already upon him, grabbing his neck and dragging him out of the car, slamming his head forcefully onto the ground with a "thud."

Li Ang held Shi Qingsong's hands behind his back, took off his sunglasses, and yelled at him, "Look at my eyes!"

The almond-colored pupils met the blood-red eyes of the possessing ghost.

The illusion activated in an instant, mist swirling and enveloping the parking lot with deceptive speed.

The next second, the scenery of the parking lot was replaced by a construction site in progress, and a yellow-brown asphalt spreader parked right beside Li Ang and Shi Qingsong.

"No! No!"

Seemingly realizing something, Shi Qingsong started to struggle frantically, while Li Ang with bulging almond eyes pressed him down firmly.

Bang!

The axle of the asphalt spreader suddenly snapped, and the viscous, pungent-smelling asphalt poured down like a mudslide, covering both Li Ang and Shi Qingsong.

Intense pain that even death couldn't cool revisited the ghost's heart. Like a panicked drowning person, it "crawled" out of Shi Qingsong's body.

The illusion vanished without a trace, and Li Ang, panting heavily, pulled out a bunch of slender willow branches he had snapped off from the shaded path within the school grounds and said softly to the ghost, "Caught you."

Swish!

The willow branch swept across, slicing the ghost's body cleanly in two as easily as a hot knife through butter.

[Eliminated Possessing Ghost 1/1]

[Regular mission "Aftermath" completed, reward calculation in progress]

[Mission Reward 1: Player privileges upgraded, Personal Panel now available]

[Mission Reward 2: Eliminating Possessing Ghost for 30 Experience Points, additional mission completion bonus of 45 Experience Points]

[Mission Reward 3: Game Coin 100 points.]

[Mission Reward 4: Random item of ordinary quality *1]

[Player Overall Performance: S+, Game Coin and Experience Points earned increased to 160%]

[Prompt: Personal Panel has been activated and player stats can be checked, player equipment information is available, and setting a player nickname is possible in the menu. Nickname does not conflict with player number]

[Prompt: Marketplace section now available, as the current version of the Killing Field game is still in beta testing, players can only purchase items from the marketplace shelves. Marketplace Auction House, Marketplace Lottery, and Marketplace Social Hall will be introduced in future versions, stay tuned]

[Prompt: Player currently has 120/100 Experience Points, eligible to level up from lv1 to lv2. A free attribute point is awarded after leveling up. Would you like to level up?]