Chapter 40 : Clues

With his consciousness almost frozen by fear, Matsuki Yuya stared at the figure in the forest behind him on the screen. He had no intention of reading the comments on the screen anymore. As he stared without even daring to blink, the figure remained motionless with only a silhouette.

As time went by, a thought came to Matsuki Yuya's mind: could this figure be just something far away, or was it his fans who were deliberately causing trouble? You know, he announced where he was going before the show was aired.

Just as he mustered up the courage to turn around and take a look, the scene on the screen sent a chill down his spine, chilling his blood.

Matsuki Yuya could swear that he did not see things just now. The shadow in the forest disappeared in an instant!

Returning to his senses, he quickly looked at the comments. He found that the audience in his live broadcast room also discussed it. However, unlike him, who was personally there, most of those viewers thought it was still a prop from a script or something like that.

Of course, some people seriously talked about ghosts and gods. Still, he didn't know whether they were sincere or just talking nonsense to follow the atmosphere.

Matsuki Yuya looked up at his two assistants, ready to confirm with them, but his expression froze as soon as he raised his head. A human-shaped shadow was walking towards him from behind the two assistants, but... there was no sound of footsteps!

Therefore, his two assistants still had an expression of fear, turning into disbelief. After seeing Matsuki Yuya's gaze, before they could recover from the shock, they heard a voice behind them.

"You guys are really brave."

Matsuki Yuya, whose heart was in his throat, suddenly froze and spoke. It's a person! Thinking of this, he turned his fear into anger and stood up to question him, but then a bright light reflected from something stopped him from continuing.

"That's a sword, isn't it? It's a fake one. What era is it now? Does anyone still go out with a real knife?"

Looking at the figure, who was a human but had most of his face hidden in the darkness, Matsuki Yuya couldn't help but think of another theory about the missing people here - a serial killer.

Why does it feel like the killer is scarier than those illusory ghosts? Matsuki Yuya forced a smile and said, "Sir, we are here to do a live webcast. If we disturb you, how about we leave now?"

The photography assistant seemed to be overwhelmed by the previous fear. After discovering that it was a human being, he uttered a curse and was about to turn back. Still, then he felt an iron arm pinching the back of his neck, making him unable to move at all.

"Don't turn the camera around. Didn't your mother tell you not to take pictures of others? Be polite."

Naturally, he didn't dare to say a word as he was being pinched by the neck by a hand and was about to be lifted off the ground. The photography assistant was quite strong in height and weight, so he naturally understood what kind of person it was who could lift him with one hand.

Matsuki Yuya had more doubts about his identity as a murderer. Even if it wasn't him, it wouldn't be his fans or something like that. He didn't want to be on camera, looked very powerful, and carried weapons.

He swallowed his saliva and quietly pressed the emergency dial on the other phone in his pocket, ready to call the police anytime. He didn't act immediately because he was afraid of irritating the other party and harming the lives of the three of them.

Matsuki Yuya tried hard to force a smile again and pretended to scold his assistant: "If someone doesn't want to be on camera, don't invade their privacy. This gentleman must be out for fun or adventure, so we don't want to disturb you. We'll leave first."

Genichi put the man carrying the camera down, patted him on the shoulder, and was puzzled by what the anchor said. What was he talking about?

He wanted to walk out directly, but he thought that the anchor might record him during the live broadcast. He was carrying two knives and appeared in this place in the middle of the night. To avoid unnecessary trouble, he moved to the blind spot between the live broadcast and the camera and walked out.

The sound didn't matter as long as he didn't get caught on camera. In fact, if he wasn't nagged about something, Genichi didn't even think it mattered to be caught on camera. He came out to find this anchor for another reason, but did he seem to have scared him just now?

"Wait."

He stopped Matsuki Yuya, who was about to pack up and leave as if nothing had happened. To the latter, a voice that sounded like a death wail sounded: "Have you been doing these ghost-hunting live broadcasts around here recently? And recording them with a camera? So where else have you been besides here?"

Matsuki Yuya swallowed his saliva: "No." Under the other party's fascinating eyes, Matsuki Yuya chose to tell the truth: "We have been to several famous places nearby, but this is the only place most likely to be haunted by ghosts."

Matsuki Yuya, who was talking above, also brought his usual live broadcast thinking into the present moment. When he realized it, he stopped and saw the man walking out from the shadow behind his assistant. He was stunned for a moment. In his opinion, that was a young man, or a teenager, who was good enough to make a living on live broadcasts by relying on his looks.

But before he had time to think about anything else, the full picture of the sword on the waist and in the hand of the man opposite him came into his sight. He had used swords to exorcise ghosts before and knew something about this. In his opinion, the unsheathed knife in his hand was very likely a real weapon, which meant that if it was sharpened, it could be used as a murder weapon.

Not daring to be negligent, Matsuki Yuya told Genichi everything about the places they had visited in the past few days. Who knows if the person who came to such a place in the middle of the night with a weapon was a murderer or someone with mental problems? Isn't it said that those who came here to commit suicide are people who have collapsed and are disgusted with this world?

If this guy is the one, what if he wants to take a few people with him before he leaves? Wouldn't we be in trouble? I should have brought some self-defense gear. It's all Shinji's fault. He suddenly felt unwell and didn't prepare many things for him.

Genichi reached out and tapped his mobile phone, which was broadcasting live, signaling him to turn it off. Matsuki Yuya sweated on his forehead; he almost thought the other party was going to attack, but after thinking about it, he lowered his head, said a few words to the screen, and then turned off the live broadcast without paying attention to the comments from the audience.

Then I heard the young man ask: "Have you encountered anything strange these days? Think about it carefully."

Matsugi Yuya wanted to yell out in his heart: You are the strangest thing we have encountered these days, but the knife in the other party's hand cut off these words. However, he still breathed a sigh of relief because of the other party's questions and his behavior of wandering around after he turned off the live broadcast and the camera.

At least he didn't look like a murderer. After all, apart from grabbing his assistant's neck, he didn't do anything to force them. If he was a murderer, he would have tried to abolish their ability to move.

So, he started to ponder in response to the other party's doubts. Still, he hadn't encountered any strange or supernatural things. Although he was doing live broadcasts of ghost hunting, he had never encountered any supernatural events in his years of work. It was said that some of his colleagues had encountered such events. Still, he scoffed at it and thought those people were making up this true and false news for the sake of publicity.

When he was a little worried because he couldn't think of anything, his other assistant in charge of props said with difficulty: "Brother Yuya, if you want to talk about strange things, does Brother Shinji count?"

Matsuki Yuya suddenly had an idea and said quickly: "Oh, yes, there is such a thing, but it doesn't seem that strange."

"Hurry up and tell me."

Genichi, who was walking around checking some of the props they had set up, seemed to have a clue when he heard what he said, so he turned his head and stared at him, asking him to continue.

Matsugi Yuya then confessed everything he had said. There was actually another person on his team who was mainly responsible for some miscellaneous matters. That person was called Shinji. The day before yesterday, after they went to the abandoned temple on the only famous mountain here, Shinji developed a high fever and was in a persistent trance. Still, they only initially believed that Shinji might have caught a cold.

They packed up, sent him to a nearby hospital, and then returned to carry out the ghost-hunting live broadcast. After all, the preview of his live broadcast had been released, and if he failed to do it, his job would be in jeopardy.

Genichi seemed to be thinking about something: "Nonsense. What did he say specifically? Did you go with him at that time? Didn't you feel any discomfort?"

Matsuki Yuya smiled bitterly and shook his head. He understood a little bit. The man in front of him seemed to be very interested in ghost stories. He seemed to want to hear him talk about some supernatural events. Unlike his fans who just read the stories, he wanted the "real thing." But where are ghosts in this world?

"Really?"

This sentence flashed through his mind, but the current situation did not allow him time to think about it. He roughly repeated some of the nonsense that Shinji said when he had a fever.

Then he looked at the young man opposite him, who seemed to be thinking about something. In the eerie silence, the other party spoke again after a while.

"Did your camera record the whole process?"

Matsuki Yuya was stunned for a moment: "Most of the time, yes. This is mainly because we will edit some highlights or supplementary materials later..."

Genichi nodded and said in a tone that would not tolerate rejection: "Lend it to me for a look."

In fact, Matsugi Yuya wanted to say that there were a lot of things, and it might be impossible to finish reading them all in a short time. Why don't we go first and find a place to look at them slowly? It would be best to go to a safe police station.

But the words were just a short "OK" on the tip of his lips. Genichi then took the camera and started flipping through the videos inside to check them out. In order to save time, he even used a technique to finish looking through them in a very short time.

Then, he returned it to them in the face of Matsugi Yuya's puzzled look.

"Thanks."

Genichi thanked him politely and added: "Go home quickly! goodbye."

Then he turned around and left. Matsuki Yuya also breathed a sigh of relief and thought, "See you again."

Then, he quickly called his assistant to prepare to leave. He would have to worry about what happened next, but he was thankful to be able to return safely.