Global Ghost Stories: I'm Investigating Ghosts in My Nightmare!

Chapter 32 Catalogue of Collections and Whispering Corridor

Bai Yu ignored Hei Yan's dramatic lines. He walked to the coffee table, poured himself a glass of cold water, and then sat down on the sofa opposite Hei Yan.

He needed to use this simple method to bring his hard-won relaxation back to calm.

“‘Gate of Rift’, ‘Visitor’,” Bai Yu began, his voice so calm it was completely unwavering, “These terms are not recorded in the Bureau of Investigation’s database.”

“Of course not.” Hei Yan chuckled, his laughter low and elegant, as if mocking a naive question. “How could a mortal’s archives contain a god’s drafts? The ‘Nightmare’ that the Investigation Bureau fights against is nothing more than a dirty reflection of human fear and despair on the canvas of reality. Although they are dangerous, they are ultimately of the same origin as you, traceable, and governed by ‘rules’.”

He stretched out his pale fingers and gently stroked the swirl-shaped eye branded on the cover of the diary.

“But these ‘visitors’… they are different.” Hei Yan’s tone carried a hint of intoxication. “They come from dimensional rifts, are lonely souls born from the ruins of logic, are scraps forgotten or discarded when the universe was building its order. They are not products of fear; they are themselves a kind of ‘error’ existence. There are no rules, only instinct. Devouring, imitating, merging… what a free art form.”

Bai Yu's eyes narrowed slightly.

Black Words revealed to him a terrifying realm even more chaotic and disordered than "Nightmare".

Nightmares still have rules that can be deciphered and cores that can be broken. But these so-called "visitors," if they truly only follow their instincts, then their very existence is an unpredictable disaster.

“This mortal,” Hei Yan waved the diary in his hand, “wanted to bypass the regular passages under your jurisdiction and simply chisel a hole in the wall of his own backyard to spy on the chaotic primeval forest next door. He was lucky, and even more unlucky. Lucky that he actually chiseled it open; unlucky that what was in the forest saw him too.”

"What is his purpose?" Bai Yu asked the question that concerned him most.

What kind of obsession would drive an ordinary person, or even a knowledgeable scholar, to venture into such a forbidden area?

Hei Yan raised an eyebrow with interest, turned to a page in the middle of the diary, and then floated it in front of Bai Yu as if handing over a menu.

"See for yourself. The answer is often far less interesting than the question itself."

The handwriting on that page was much more illegible than the previous ones, as if the writer was in a state of extreme agitation and pain.

"March 17th, sunny. It's been three years since she left me. They all say that when a person dies, it's like a lamp going out, and they tell me to grieve in moderation. How ridiculous! They don't understand that my world went out three years ago. All the light was buried with her in that cold earth."

"March 20th, rain. I consulted every ancient book I could find, from the 'Strange Tales of Mountains and Seas' to the Western 'Key of Solomon,' from Eastern divination to the Book of the Dead on the banks of the Nile... It's all lies! Deception! They can only summon some pathetic energy aggregates that don't even have self-awareness; they are not 'souls' at all!"

"The first day of the fourth month, thunder. I found it... In the oral mythology of an indigenous tribe, I found a description of the 'gate'. They call it 'the rift leading to the sea of ​​nothingness'. They revere it, fear it, and appease it with the most solemn sacrifices every year. They are wrong... It is not the end, but another beginning! The myth mentions that 'honored guests' have walked out of the gate, and these 'honored guests' can 'give new life to withered trees and make stubborn rocks speak'!"

“…I see.” Bai Yu murmured to himself.

It wasn't for power, nor for immortality. He was simply a sorrowful man who, after exhausting all the methods in the world, was ultimately trying to get a deal from the devil that would grant him the outcome he desired.

“Look, what a beautiful motive, what a clumsy method.” Hei Yan put away the diary, his tone full of regret. “He thought he was praying to a benevolent ‘god,’ but he didn’t know that his sorrowful cries sounded like the wails of a wounded and bleeding young beast on the other side of the rift. It would only attract hungry predators.”

Bai Yu fell silent, thinking of Lin Sheng and A Wan in Luoshui Village.

Both stemmed from the obsession with love and loss, yet both ultimately led to irreparable tragedies. Humanity's most beautiful emotions, in the face of these incomprehensible beings, seem to always be twisted into the most deadly poison.

He stood up and took the diary from Hei Yan's hand. It felt cold and heavy in his hand, as if he were holding not just paper, but the heavy weight of a person's despair.

“I need to take this to a certain place,” Bai Yu said.

“The library?” Hei Yan’s lips curled into a knowing smile. “Fine. Go ahead, go to your ‘temple’ built of steel and paper, and see if the fears left behind by your predecessors, sealed in ink, can give you the answers. I’ll enjoy your performance from now on.”

Hei Yan's figure slowly faded, eventually turning into a wisp of barely perceptible black smoke, which then disappeared back into Bai Yu's body. The feeling was like a piece of ice sinking back into the deep sea, bringing a brief chill before falling silent again.

Without further hesitation, Bai Yu picked up her diary, turned around, and left the dormitory.

……

The Nightmare Investigation Bureau's library remained as grand and tranquil as ever.

Bai Yu wandered among rows of towering bookshelves, these bookshelves made of special alloys like silent armies, guarding all of humanity's knowledge about "reason" and "irrationality" throughout history.

The air was filled with the unique scent of old paper mixed with disinfectant.

Instead of going to the literature section, he went straight to the deepest part of the library—the non-public reading room.

Access here requires at least Level A privileges. The room wasn't large, containing only a few massive terminals embedded in the walls. Bai Yu inserted his ID card into the slot; a soft blue light scanned his iris, and the terminal screen lit up, displaying the Investigation Bureau's simple yet solemn emblem.

He placed the leather diary on the operating table, and the terminal's scanning probe automatically extended, beginning a high-precision scan and digitization of the diary's material, ink composition, and all symbols on the cover and inner pages.

Bai Yu's ten fingers flew across the virtual keyboard, typing not complete words, but conceptual keywords.

[Dimensional Rift]

[Non-standard Nightmare Entity]

[Summoning Ritual Out of Control]

[Structural sources of pollution]

He manually copied the "eye of the vortex" symbol from the diary cover into the search bar.

The massive database began operating at high speed, with countless streams of information cascading across the screen like a waterfall. The vast majority were marked as "irrelevant" or "lowly relevant."

But soon, the system emitted a soft "beep" sound, and several encrypted files marked in dark red were filtered out.

Bai Yu opened the first document.

[File Number: 73-K-04]

[Event Code Name: Mirror Room]

Threat Level: A+ (Under Assessment)

[Summary: ...The target established a connection with a 'mirror entity' through some unknown medium. This entity had no fixed form and could perfectly replicate and 'devour' the target's reflection. After thirteen days, all mirrored objects (including glass, water surfaces, and reflective metal surfaces) within a fifty-meter radius of the target's location were assimilated into 'entrances'. Ultimately, the target disappeared in front of the mirror in their own bathroom... No signs of struggle were found at the scene, only a large amount of unanalyzable biological slime remaining on the mirror surface...]

Bai Yu's pupils contracted slightly. He opened the second file.

[File Number: 91-G-11]

[Event Code Name: The Whisperer]

Threat Level: S (Already locked)

[Abstract: ...A linguist, while studying an almost extinct ancient cuneiform script, inadvertently pieced together a 'prayer'. This prayer produces no observable energy fluctuations, but it directly affects the conceptual level. After the first recitation, the target began experiencing auditory hallucinations, claiming to hear 'the conversations of the stars'. Seven days later, the target completely lost their speech, and all vocalizations were replaced by an unrecognizable 'language' composed entirely of noise. This 'language' possesses highly polluting properties... Subsequent processing records [encrypted]...]

The events recorded in these archives are unlike any of the nightmares he has ever dealt with. They have no clear "rules," but are more like an irresistible, one-way erosion. Like water dripping into a sponge, it is silent, but eventually it completely soaks through.

He continued flipping through the files, and finally, his gaze fell upon the last one. This file was encrypted at an unprecedented level—[Top Secret·Ω].

[File Number: 04-Ω-01]

[Event Code Name: Tower of Babel]

[Abstract: [DATA EXPUNGED]...[DATA EXPUNGED]...This entity is named 'Tower of Ten Thousand Heads,' existing as a collection of 'structural concepts.' It has no will, only the instinct to 'proliferate' and 'stacking.' Any attempt to understand, describe, or record its existence will be seen as an 'invitation' and become part of its 'structure'...[DATA EXPUNGED]...Three S-class investigators...[DATA EXPUNGED]...Final solution: Conceptual Forgetting Protocol...]

Upon seeing the name "Tower of Ten Thousand Heads," Bai Yu's breath hitched.

He immediately looked down at a page of the diary on the control panel. That page had no words, only a strange tower made up of countless twisted arms and eyes, drawn by Lu Yueqi's maternal grandfather with trembling strokes.

The two are strikingly similar.

Just then, the soft lights in the reading room flickered abruptly.

"Zi..."

A faint crackling sound rang out, then returned to normal. The hairs on the back of Bai Yu's neck stood on end.

He slowly raised his head and looked at the huge terminal screen in front of him. The incomplete file was still displayed on the screen, but somehow the black screen that had been closed seemed to have become...deeper than before.

He could see his pale face in that deep reflection, and the rows of neat bookshelves behind him.

Business as usual.

No.

wrong.

Bai Yu's gaze was fixed on the bookshelf in the distance behind her, reflected on the screen. In the shadows between the bookshelves, it seemed... there was something extra.

It was a faint outline, almost imperceptible. Like a hand. A hand belonging to some unknown creature, reaching out from the shadows.

Bai Yu did not turn back.

He knew that turning around now would not reveal anything. The thing was not in the actual room; it only existed in its "reflection."

“Heh… ‘Tower of Babel.’ What an arrogant yet apt name.” Hei Yan’s voice lazily echoed in his mind. “Mortals attempted to build a tower to heaven, but in the end, they only brought divine punishment and chaos. It seems that among your Bureau of Investigation’s predecessors, there were one or two interesting ‘artists’ as well.”

Bai Yu did not respond to him; his entire attention was focused on the reflection on the screen.

He saw the hand slowly emerge from the shadows, its skin an unhealthy grayish-white, its knuckles unusually long.

It groped its way up to the edge of the bookshelf.

Then, a second hand, a third hand... countless hands sprouted from the shadows like bamboo shoots after a spring rain.

They climbed, intertwined, and piled up.

Then, through the gaps between those intertwined arms, eyes suddenly opened.

Those eyes had no pupils, only a murky white. They all turned in unison, overcoming the obstruction of the bookshelf in the reflection, until finally all eyes focused on Bai Yu in the reflection.

That gaze, filled with greed and hunger, seemed to pierce through the screen and drag his soul out of his body.

Bai Yu's heartbeat almost stopped at that moment.

He got it.

When he saw the name "Tower of Ten Thousand Heads" and connected it with the drawings in his diary, he was already "marked".

Understanding is an invitation.

Observation is sacrifice.

"Om-"

The lights in the reading room flickered violently once again. This time, it wasn't just a fleeting flash; the entire room's lighting system seemed to be in a state of epilepsy, flickering on and off and emitting a teeth-grinding "hissing" sound.

In the rapid alternation between light and darkness, the outline of the entire world begins to become blurred and unstable.

Bai Yu stared at the terminal screen in front of him. The text on the screen began to distort, turning into writhing black lines. And those lines quickly reformed into the shapes of eyes.

In the flickering light, the bookshelves behind him seemed to come alive. For a moment, their cold alloy edges would stretch and twist into the outline of arms. The books transformed into piles of deformed, fleshy masses.

The entire reading room is being eroded and assimilated by the concept of the "tower".

“So beautiful…” Hei Yan’s exclamation carried a morbid obsession. “Look, reality is such a fragile canvas. With just a more advanced ‘paint,’ it can be easily reshaped. Bai Yu, feel it, accept it… become a part of this great work of art, become the brightest eye at the top of that tower…”

"Shut up."

Bai Yu forced out two words through gritted teeth. He suddenly reached out, grabbed the leather-bound diary on the control panel, and slammed it shut with all his might!
"Snapped!"

A crisp sound stood out starkly amidst the chaotic static.

As the diary closed, the force that was frantically eroding reality seemed to have its source severed instantly.

The lights in the room stopped flickering and returned to a steady, soft illumination.

The text on the terminal screen became clear again.

The bookshelf behind him still looked like that cold, solid alloy.

Everything returned to normal. It was as if the terrifying scene from before was merely a hallucination caused by his mental exhaustion.

Hallucination?

Bai Yu looked down at her hand holding the diary, and noticed a faint mark on the back of her hand.

It was an eye symbol made up of several twisted lines.

It's exactly the same as the "Eye of the Vortex" on the cover of the diary.

"Tch, how boring." Hei Yan's eyes flashed with a hint of admiration as he looked at Bai Yu, but his voice was still full of disappointment. "You slammed the piano lid shut just as the most magnificent movement was about to begin. You're really a... barbarian who doesn't know how to appreciate art."

Bai Yu was too exhausted to argue with him anymore. He leaned against the control panel, panting heavily, his forehead covered in a fine layer of cold sweat. Those brief few seconds had taken a toll on his mental strength no less than when he confronted the "Mountain God" in Luoshui Village.

He successfully stopped the erosion from spreading.

But he also paid a price.

He transferred that "beacon" from his diary to himself.

From this moment on, he was no longer an investigator.

He was the prey.

Bai Yu slowly straightened up, his eyes showing no fear, only a deathly calm. He clutched the diary, now just an "ordinary old book," tightly in his hand, then deleted all search records from the terminal.

He did it.

He successfully brought all the dangers upon himself.

Anmu, Mofei, Lance... they won't know what happened here, and they can enjoy this hard-won holiday in peace.

Bai Yu walked out of the reading room alone and returned to the vast and empty library hall.

It was late at night, and outside the enormous domed skylight lay the deep, inky night sky. The library was deserted, save for rows of motion-sensor lights that turned on one by one as he walked, then turned off as he passed.

Light comes first, darkness follows.

He walked steadily on the boundary between light and darkness.

But he could vaguely sense it.

In the darkness he had left behind, there stood an unobservable tower made of countless arms and eyes, its cold and greedy gaze fixed firmly on him.

It is waiting...

Waiting for the next opportunity to drag him completely into the abyss.

(End of this chapter)