Terror is resurging, but only I am.

Chapter 2 Ghost Fear

Yan Ming opened his eyes, his vision was a little blurry. He rubbed his eyes a couple of times with difficulty, looked up at the bright lights above him, and felt a little dazed.

After calming down a bit, he began to observe his surroundings.

The room features blue ceramic tiles and white walls, with rooms neatly arranged along the corridor, and metal benches and trash cans at the entrances.

There are directional signs on the ground, and cartoon nurse pictures and signs on the walls such as "One patient, one consultation, queue and number call".

This is a hospital, but it's very quiet; the occasional noise seems to come from afar.

It was nighttime, all the clinics were dark and closed, and the whole building was quiet. He followed the sound toward where there were people, wanting to see what was going on in this ghostly place.

Walking to the connecting corridor, Yan Ming looked out through the glass on both sides and roughly understood the structure of the hospital.

The main buildings consist of two adjacent buildings connected by sky bridges on the 2nd and 4th floors. His initial location was in the outpatient department, while the other building was the inpatient area, and the sound came from that side.

Looking further down, there were also scattered figures on the first floor, which should be the emergency room that is open at night.

Yan Ming looked out from the high place. The hospital was located in the city center, and the streets were brightly lit and bustling with people. It was not as desolate and decadent as the outside world.

This ghost realm is at least the size of a city, possessing a relatively stable order and suitable for human habitation.

Ghosts exist naturally, their numbers are conserved, they are neither born nor die, and the ghost realm does not give birth to ghosts. Therefore, this place is far safer than the outside world, and may become a utopia for new humans.

Yan Ming wants to find utopia.

He walked through the deserted corridor and down the stairs at the end, but there was a locked iron gate at the top of the stairs on the second floor, probably to prevent people from going upstairs to steal things in the middle of the night.

The only way to leave the hospital was through the inpatient department, which meant he would have to deal with the doctors and nurses. So Yan Ming turned and went into the restroom, as he couldn't easily be seen in his current state.

His clothes were soaked in oil and clung tightly to his body. At the time, his hair was also soaked in the oily meat paste, and his hair strands were mixed with many granular foreign objects, which looked very strange.

The minced meat used to attract the pregnant ghost is not normal meat, and it will cause big trouble if discovered by either humans or ghosts.

Yan Ming walked into the men's restroom and made sure that none of the five toilet stalls were occupied. Then he went into the outermost mop stall and locked the door behind him.

There was a sink and a shower in the mop room. He had prepared a comb in advance, so now he just needed to rinse the hair and pick out any foreign objects.

The quiet bathroom was filled with the sound of splashing water. Yan Ming rinsed his hair with the cold water, quickly rubbing it to remove the grease, and then used a comb to scrape off bits of flesh from his hair.

The foreign object had a foul odor, but he was mentally resilient and didn't care.

"Da da da."

Amidst the sound of running water, the rhythmic sound of footsteps could be heard, as if someone had entered the restroom.

what?
Yan Ming sensed something was wrong, quickly dried his hair with a towel, and became alert to any movement around him.

He looked up and saw nothing strange peeking through the wooden partition of the cubicle.

Then he bent down and looked out through the gap under the cubicle, but there were no feet or footsteps.

illusion?

Yan Ming changed into the new clothes in his backpack and felt much refreshed.

He quickly turned off the tap and went outside to take a look at the four cubicles inside.

The doors to each stall were open, just like when he checked earlier, and it seemed that no one had actually been in the toilet.

Yan Ming walked to the sink, where there was a large mirror. He observed himself in the mirror and saw nothing unusual except that his hair was a little wet.

and many more.

Yan Ming turned to the side and looked at the toilet in the mirror from an angle, his gaze falling on the sixth stall.

There was an extra cubicle, the door was tightly closed, and the lock indicator was red.

There are people inside.

Without a trace of curiosity, he quickly slung his bag over his shoulder and left the restroom, heading towards the inpatient department without looking back. He only breathed a sigh of relief after passing through the sky corridor and entering the inpatient building.

Mirror.

Mirrors may be one of the mediums that trigger paranormal phenomena, so stay away from them.

Yan Ming remembered this rule, and his ability to survive for half a year after the resurgence of supernatural phenomena largely depended on finding the patterns of ghosts and then avoiding them as much as possible.

He looked towards the second floor of the inpatient department, where the wards were neatly arranged. There were family members carrying fruit baskets in the corridor, a head nurse making rounds, and several elderly people walking with difficulty with the help of nurses.

This is the smell of normal human society.

Yan Ming noticed a familiar phone model in the nurse's hand in the corridor, so he took out his phone from his backpack and prepared to turn it on.

After the outside world completely spiraled out of control, he turned off his phone when it still had 40% battery left, and it's estimated that it still has some battery left.

Surprisingly, the phone was already on with full signal strength, but the battery was low, with only 5% remaining.

"Ding."

A text message popped up on the screen with a crisp sound—

Welcome to Wangcheng Culture & Tourism! For any travel-related issues, please call the Wangcheng Culture & Tourism 24-hour service hotline…

Does this city know I'm an outsider?
Below the text message was another unread message with a red dot, which was an earlier message he had received, but he hadn't received a sound notification before.

[Wangcheng Citizen Service Center] Phasmophobia is a normal condition; the fear of supernatural phenomena can help build a sense of awe. Please be aware of ordinary people around you who are not afraid of ghosts or spirits, and promptly report the situation by calling the emergency hotline 12138.

Ghost fear?
It's natural for people to be afraid of ghosts, but the text message says it's a "normal" and "disease"—can these two words be used together?
He didn't dwell on it too much and instead opened his usual social media apps, but both QQ and WeChat were locked and unusable.

Secondly, there's Alipay, which shows a balance of 0.

Yan Ming knew that he should have more than a thousand yuan in reserve in his account, and the current balance was definitely because he didn't have any money in this city.

"It's almost 10 o'clock. It's time for the relatives and friends who visited the patient to go home and say goodnight to the patient."

The head nurse glanced at the time and announced loudly to the people in the corridor who weren't wearing hospital gowns: "If you live too far from home, for safety reasons you can register for overnight care at the front desk on the first floor. Note that after 10 PM, those who haven't registered are prohibited from staying in the inpatient department; violators may face violent removal."

People in the corridor were looking at their watches and their phones, all with their heads bowed in unison. Then they said goodbye to the patients around them or in the wards, and turned to leave the hospital.

Yan Ming also looked at his phone, which showed 20:21 PM.

Ok?
He glanced at the clock hanging on the wall in the middle of the corridor; it was indeed a few minutes to go before 8:30. His phone had automatically adjusted its time after connecting to the internet, indicating that 20:21 was the current time.

But there's still at least an hour and a half until 10 o'clock, so the head nurse's words are strange.

If it were close to closing time, she would say, "It's almost 8:30. Today's doctor's appointments are coming to an end. You may say goodbye."

If it wasn't closing time yet, why did she remind her relatives to leave so much in advance?

Unless the head nurse wasn't trying to remind him of the hospital's closing time, Yan Ming recalled her words and made a vague judgment in his mind—

10 o'clock is the time I must go home.

This was a consensus among everyone present, so they prepared to leave immediately.

If I'm not home by 10 o'clock, something bad is bound to happen.

Yan Ming had originally planned to leave with the family members visiting patients on the second floor, but he immediately stopped when he thought of this.

He has no home and no money in this city. Where can he go after leaving this hospital?
Relief station?
Almost every city has a relief station, but he wasn't sure if there were any such places in the Ghost Realm, nor how far away the relief stations were.

The hospital's current level of danger has not exceeded his personal safety threshold, so he decided to stay in the hospital to accompany his family.

However, Yan Ming did not go directly to the first floor. He saw through the small window of the ward door that there was a power outlet by each bed, so he planned to charge his phone a little and see if he could go online to get some information about Wangcheng.

He turned to look at the nurses in the corridor, who were placing amulets to ward off evil spirits at the door of each ward.

There were talismans, garlic, crosses, and even a nurse carrying a basin of dog blood, writing a large "辟" character on the door with a brush.

A blend of Chinese and Western styles, it has everything.

The protective charms in each ward are not exactly the same, but there are at least three, which look like they were randomly put together by the nurses.

Is it because of phobia?

Yan Ming always felt that these things were useless and more like props to maintain his "phanosis" persona.

There are no talismans to ward off evil spirits in the real world; nothing can stop ghosts from killing people.

Taking advantage of the fact that no one was paying attention, he chose to enter a room with the fewest patients. There were six beds in the room, and only an old woman was lying by the window, seemingly resting with her eyes closed.

Yan Ming sat on the empty bed some distance away from her, charging his phone while opening his browser. But before the homepage could even refresh, he heard a "thump thump thump" sound from the other end.

Turning my head, I saw that the old woman was kneeling by the bed, kowtowing repeatedly, and devoutly kowtowing to the Captain America toy model placed on the bedside table.

He muttered incoherently:

"Allah, Namo Amitabha Buddha, Amen, Hallelujah, may the heavenly beings bestow boundless blessings."

The Captain America model wasn't large, but it looked brave and imposing; it was definitely not a "ghost or god."

Yan Ming frowned. This kind of reverence was truly indiscriminate, but compared to those religious terms, a simple "Hail Hydra" would probably touch Captain America's heart more.

"Boom, boom, boom."

The heavy thuds of kowtowing continued, the old woman's forehead was covered in blood, but she seemed possessed, still appealing to the model with her faith.

Yan Ming felt a chill run down his spine. He unplugged the plug and quietly prepared to leave the ward.

Suddenly, a questioning voice came: "Why aren't you praying?"

The old woman got up from the ground, her face covered in blood, but her eyes were wide open and very bright.

She repeated firmly, “You just saw it, didn’t you? You saw me worshiping them, but you pretended not to see it because you’re not afraid. You’re not afraid of them, you don’t worship them…”

Her eyes widened suddenly, and she pulled her phone out of her pocket: "Tell me, why didn't you pray?! You wait, you're the kind of person who..."

"What's the phone number again... Let me look for it, you wait for me to look for it..." the old woman muttered, her fingers swiping across the screen.

The red blood fell onto the screen and was spread out by a finger.

Oh no, she's going to report this!

Yan Ming rushed forward to stop her, but the nurses in the corridor would likely be checking on the patients soon, and the old woman would definitely complain. He would have to knock her unconscious.

However, the elderly woman who fainted would also attract the attention of the nurses, as there was a camera right above her head, making it a difficult choice either way.

Should we worship it?
His gaze fell on Captain America's face, and for some reason, the face under the cold white light looked unusually sinister.

No, the act of "worship" might trigger some kind of pattern, and he doesn't want to be assimilated into a phasmophobia patient.

At that moment, the ward door opened, and a male doctor in a white coat hurriedly walked to Yan Ming's side, then said to the old woman, "Grandma, let me help you find it. Give me your phone."

"Oh, okay." The old woman's movements were interrupted. She slowly walked over and handed the phone to the doctor.

The doctor didn't hide anything from Yan Ming. He scrolled down the message page, found the text message about "phanosis," clicked "mark as unread," and then exited the page.

The old woman took the phone, looked at Yan Ming with somewhat bewildered eyes, then at the doctor: "What was I supposed to do again?"

“You should go to sleep, Grandma,” the doctor replied.

So the old woman went back to the bedside. She passed the Captain America model, but did not kowtow. She simply lay back down on the bed, covered her face with the blanket, and soon began to snore.

Red blood stained the white sheets.

Yan Ming observed all of this and instantly made a judgment in his mind.

If you mark this text message as unread on your phone, will the phone owner suffer from amnesia and forget everything related to "phanosis"?

It was as if they had never seen the text message.

This setting...

Wait, that’s not right!
In an instant, the clues in Yan Ming's mind came together.

He doesn't remember turning his phone on; he received the "phanosis" text message before the "culture and tourism" notification, but there was no notification sound...

Because I have amnesia, my text messages were once set as unread!
How long have I actually been in this hospital?!

　New author, new book, seeking everything!
　　
　
(End of this chapter)