Chapter 13 Jump!

When Gao Ming said he wanted to have a heart-to-heart with the deceased, both the investigator and Teacher Yao thought they had heard wrong.

Three days ago, the suicide who had jumped from a building returned as a ghost, dragging his twisted body with shattered bones and slaughtered the neighbors of an entire building in a video. Now, Gao Ming actually wanted to chat with him, which would be considered utterly explosive in the entire psychological counseling community.

"Are you out of your mind?" The investigator poked Gao Ming's arm with a finger, feeling the warmth of a living person, "You don't seem to be replaced by anything sinister either! Why are you acting stranger than those replaced monsters?"

People replaced by unknown entities still tried hard to conceal themselves to avoid detection, but Gao Ming wasn't pretending at all, his honesty was frightening even to his "teammates."

"A truly brutal ghost would come after you directly, not scare you through a video. As a seasoned psychological counselor, I think this is more like Zhao Xi asking us for help, loathing himself, unable to escape the predicament, unable to change the current situation," Gao Ming didn't tell the investigator the real reason.

In the game "The Only Family," the mobile phone weaves a happy and fulfilling family for the male protagonist, with a warm and sunny environment. Yet, the male protagonist in the game is a lazy, gloomy, and selfish person, and the scenarios constructed by the phone represent what he could never have at that time.

Zhao Xi's situation was the exact opposite. His phone created a very terrifying and sinister video, but he was honest and hardworking in life, always grateful to his adoptive mother. Similarly, Zhao Xi, before losing himself completely, should have also been incapable of doing the things his phone created.

"As the ghost stories in the game merge with reality, if I don't trigger the ghost stories actively, the tragedy in the mobile video might actually happen as they grow and spread on their own."

Gao Ming had both the investigator and Teacher Yao enter room 2607, "It won't be long before Zhao Xi climbs up here, I need your help with something."

"What do you need?" Teacher Yao carried a toolbox, "I'm seriously ill; I don't have much longer to live anyway, so feel free to ask for anything."

"Tear things like bedsheets into pieces, rub them into ropes, and lower them from the balcony window," Gao Ming rushed into the bedroom and began to act, "You two stay in 2607 while I go to 2507 to wait for Zhao Xi. I'll stand on the balcony and have a good talk with him."

"Entities from Abnormal Events don't have emotions; you're basically walking to your death!" The investigator looked intimidating but wasn't bad by nature. He admired Gao Ming's bravery but also worried about his safety.

"I'll be right at the window. If persuading him doesn't work, you'll just pull me up with the rope," Gao Ming said, tearing the bedsheet and adeptly making a "rope."

"How about I go to 2507?" Teacher Yao started unbuttoning his shirt, his chest and abdominal veins bulging and pulsing menacingly, "I've lived long enough; you're still young."

"I am a certified psychological counselor. It's best to leave professional tasks to professionals," Gao Ming actually had another plan in mind—to trigger a good ending in the game, he needed Zhao Xi to destroy his own phone. It had to be Zhao Xi who did it, symbolizing the breaking of his own constraints.

It's difficult for the living to command ghosts, and normal methods won't work, which is why Gao Ming came up with a crazy idea.

When Zhao Xi killed Huang Mingming, he chose to jump from the building with her. Gao Ming was also ready to "try" this method of death.

Once the rope was ready, it was thrown down from the balcony window of 2607. After ensuring everything was secure, Gao Ming left 2607 alone.

Pushing open the door of room 2507, Gao Ming didn't go straight in.

Sounds of flesh crawling up reached him from below, and terrifying, bloody images flashed through his mind, twisted limbs getting closer to the fifth floor.

"Pretty nervous, actually."

He took out a lighter, and the flickering flame drove away the darkness. Gao Ming lit a cigarette and sat on the staircase landing.

The body that fell to the ground crawled over the cold steps, the dead soul inching closer to the living.

Listening to the sound of bones scraping against the floor, Gao Ming watched the stairwell corner.

"Dad and Mom have a lot, a different one every night; my colleague is shrewd and capable of killing eight people in three days; and now the warm and honest neighbor is here too. Such a life looks quite fulfilling at a glance."

Bloodstained hair clung to the ground as Zhao Xi's shattered face appeared between the fourth and fifth floors.

"You're here?"

Gao Ming didn't choose to run like Qiu did, nor did he go mad with offense like Huang Mingming. In his eyes, Zhao Xi seemed to still be the honest Brother Zhao from before.

"Welcome home."

He stood up and walked toward room 2507, opening the home door for Zhao Xi and casually pressing the living room light switch.

"Brother Zhao, I often used to seek you out for chats during my holidays. What I regret the most now is that I thought about consoling you after things settled down."

Gao Ming was walking in front, as the twisted and broken corpse slowly crawled toward him.

"You have been nothing but a tool for making money to your foster mother, who gave all her love to her biological son, and to your sister-in-law. The other neighbors talked behind your back, deliberately making things hard for you at the factory in the Harbor District, seeing you as honest and making you take the blame, falsely accusing you of theft."

Gazing at the mirror in the living room, Gao Ming had noticed it as soon as he entered the game. The life-sized mirror reflected an upside-down world.

"You tried your best to appear optimistic and strong, but inside, you were consumed with pain; you were the pillar of your family, yet no one in your family really cared about your feelings; you talked to me often about the little joys of life, yet your own life was in shambles; the world you longed for was the complete opposite of reality, and the more you struggled to change it, the more desperate you became."

The head of Zhao Xi was carried by his shoulders, his broken neck twisting 180 degrees, and though he was clearly lying on the ground, his face could still turn upside down to look at Gao Ming.

Fear is the most primal emotion, and Gao Ming's body also trembled slightly. His fingernails dug into his flesh, yet his tone remained calm, "You didn't do anything wrong; the root of all your suffering is what others have imposed on you. I have no right to judge you from a third-person perspective, nor will I persuade you to give up on revenge. I just want you to be a little happier. Kind people deserve happiness, and you deserve to have a family that truly understands you."

Stepping backward, Gao Ming had prepared himself mentally, yet when facing the mutilated corpse of Zhao Xi at close range, he still felt indescribable fear, thinking himself too weak.

His back met the balcony window, lightning streaked by, casting a ghastly light on Gao Ming and Zhao Xi.

Taking a deep breath, Gao Ming spoke earnestly, "You don't want to be abandoned again and long for a family; how about letting me be your family?"

Thunder roared, the pouring rain beat against the window panes, and the investigator from unit 2607 and Teacher Yao gripped the rope tightly. They could faintly hear Gao Ming's words. The two stared at each other, each seeing shock on the other's face.

Blood stains on the clothing dragged a long trail of blood across the living room. Zhao Xi was almost at the balcony, his face directed toward Gao Ming.

"I'm not trying to deceive you to save my life or looking for an excuse to escape. We've talked too many times, I know exactly what kind of person you are, so I truly want to help you." Gao Ming took out Zhao Xi's phone, touching the video, "Whether it's the fragments of a good life or making those neighbors receive their deserved punishment, I can help you achieve it! The contents of the phone are ultimately illusory, whereas we can actually change reality!"

Not stepping back anymore, Gao Ming took a step forward, extending his own hand, "You become my family, and I'll be your accomplice."

One brief sentence made Zhao Xi stop crawling for the first time; it was also the first time Zhao Xi had ever stopped.

Seconds later, Zhao Xi's twisted arm lifted, bones stretched, and a grating noise echoed through unit 2507.

Faced with such a terrifying scene, Gao Ming didn't dodge. Beyond fear, there was a flicker of hope in his eyes.

Zhao Xi's hand, covered in wounds, reached for Gao Ming not to grasp his hand but to cover Gao Ming's arm.

Feeling the change in his arm, Gao Ming sighed lightly, as Zhao Xi seemed devoid of emotion, manipulating Gao Ming's body, attempting to push him off the building.

Limbs shattered, Zhao Xi's corpse opened like a giant maw, and Gao Ming crawled backward onto the window sill.

"Get up here!" Teacher Yao and the investigator shouted, the rope swaying in the torrential rain.

"Just wait." Gao Ming wound the rope around his wrist, clenched his teeth, and overcame a fear beyond most people's imagination, staring at Zhao Xi's "open" corpse.

No one could understand Zhao Xi, so Zhao Xi wrapped his neighbors in the same way, making them die in a similar manner.

The corpse pressed down on Gao Ming, the center of gravity moving backward, and at the same time, Gao Ming stuffed Zhao Xi's phone into the split wound of the corpse.

"Come on! Get up!"

Zhao Xi's face was inches away, Gao Ming could see the pain, sorrow, and numbness in his eyes.

Flesh continued to wrap around Gao Ming, Zhao Xi pulling him to leap down together, their bodies tilting towards the window's exterior.

The downpour soaked his hair and clothes, and as Gao Ming toppled backward, he, who had not struggled until then, forcefully pushed Zhao Xi back inside the room!

The collision caused the phone to fall from Zhao Xi's wound, rewriting the tragedy in a different way—Zhao Xi in the room, eyes on Gao Ming as he fell in the rainstorm.

"Hold on to him!"

"Damn it!"

Teacher Yao and the investigator pulled the rope with all their might, Gao Ming's body slammed against the wall between the fourth and fifth floors, his arm bending unnaturally, a gash was scraped across his face, blood flowed, yet he seemed not to feel the pain at all.