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

Chapter 37 Glass Marbles and Corridors

The crisp sound was like a drop of water falling into a still, deep pool, instantly spreading to every corner of the hall and striking everyone's eardrums.

"Ta...ta...ta..."

The sound was highly rhythmic, neither hurried nor slow. It didn't seem to come from a fixed sound source, but rather hovered above the empty hall, sometimes to the left, sometimes to the right, carrying a playful and seductive tone.

"All personnel on alert! Maintain formation!" An Mu's voice was deep and steady, like a boulder thrown into a torrent, instantly calming everyone's nerves that had been stretched taut by the sudden situation. "Lan Ce, analyze the sound source!"

"Received." Lance's gaze behind his glasses remained calm. He quickly glanced down at the tactical tablet on his wrist, where a complex stream of data cascaded down. "The sound wave frequency is stable at 4000 Hz. It's the sound of a solid object striking hard ground. The material is preliminarily identified as glass or some kind of high-density crystal. The sound source is… Sound source localization failed. It's moving, or rather, it's using the special structure of this space to create multiple reflections, generating an echo that cannot be located. Captain, the energy field here… is very strange."

"How to say?"

“Very calm.” Lance frowned, which was clearly contrary to his prediction. “The mental pollution index is almost zero, and there are no obvious malicious energy fluctuations. This voice is like a simple physical phenomenon, a harmless prank.”

"How is that possible?" Mo Fei said in a low voice, holding his battle axe. "Even the air stinks in this godforsaken place, how could there be anything 'harmless'! This thing is just messing with us! Captain, I'll go up and take a look. Whatever it is, I'll just chop it up with one swing of my axe and we'll be all better off!"

"Halt, Mo Fei." An Mu's voice left no room for doubt. "No one is allowed to act without authorization before the situation is clear."

Lu Yueqi gripped the mental shock sedative gun tightly in her hand, her palms covered in cold sweat.

Her hearing seemed to be more acute than others; in the intervals between the crisp sound of marbles, she seemed to hear some other sounds as well.

It sounded like the cacophony of countless people whispering in hushed tones, or like something gently scraping the wooden handrail of the second-floor corridor with its fingernails.

These sounds sent chills down her spine, but she remembered Bai Yu's instructions and didn't scream. Instead, she moved a little closer to Bai Yu and whispered in a voice barely audible to herself, "Bai Yu... I think... I heard something else..."

"I know, don't be afraid."

Bai Yu's calm voice rang in her ears, calming her wildly beating heart slightly. His gaze remained fixed on the bottomless darkness of the second floor, his deep eyes reflecting no light, only a silent void.

Of course he could hear it.

Not only the noise, he could even "hear" the "emotions" behind the voice.

That wasn't malice, hatred, or resentment.

It was a kind of "expectation" that carried a hint of naivety and cruelty.

Like a child who has been lonely for too long finally receiving the long-awaited "toy," it is inviting them into its "playroom" in its favorite way.

“It’s inviting us,” Bai Yu said, his voice not loud, but clearly drowning out the eerie sound of the marbles. “This isn’t an attack, it’s guidance. It wants us to go up.”

"Heh...what a straightforward and clichéd opening. Using simple 'curiosity' as bait is like dealing with moths drawn to a flame." Hei Yan's voice rang out leisurely from the depths of Bai Yu's consciousness, with the tone of a connoisseur. "But what kind of tragedy does the director of this play want us 'audience' to appreciate?"

An Mu glanced at Bai Yu, trusting in Bai Yu's almost animalistic intuition and emotional perception when dealing with such supernatural phenomena.

He paused for a moment, then made a decision: "Alright. Since the master has extended the invitation, we have no reason to refuse. Mo Fei, you go first. Lan Ce and I will be in the middle. Bai Yu, you and Lu Yueqi will bring up the rear. Everyone, maintain a three-meter distance and advance in alternating cover. Remember, from now on, we are entering a realm with unknown rules. Don't easily trust your eyes and ears. The only people you can trust are each other."

"Yes!"

Everyone responded in unison.

A wide wooden main staircase leads to the second floor. It may have once been grand, but now only decay and ruin remain. The dark red carpet has long since rotted into shreds, revealing the termite-eaten wooden planks beneath. The handrails on both sides are covered with a thick layer of dust, and feel sticky and cold to the touch.

Mo Fei walked at the front, proceeding cautiously to test the weight-bearing capacity of the stairs.

"Squeak-"

The sound was like a groan from the throat of a dying man, and it sounded particularly jarring in the deathly silent hall.

The team moved slowly upwards. Tactical lights on their helmets tore through the darkness ahead, illuminating large patches of peeling plaster on the walls and the dark brown mold spreading like veins behind them. The stench of decaying medicine in the air grew stronger, as if they were entering the interior of a gigantic corpse.

Strangely, the "tap, tap, tap" sound of marbles disappeared as soon as they stepped onto the first step of the stairs.

The entire world fell into absolute silence in an instant.

This silence was even more unsettling than the sound of marbles earlier. It was like an invisible net, tightly enveloping the five people, amplifying every heartbeat and every breath, as if it might awaken some terrifying being lurking in the shadows at any moment.

Lu Yueqi was so nervous she could hardly breathe. She followed closely behind Bai Yu, her eyes fixed on his back, which gave her an unparalleled sense of security.

Finally, they stepped onto the second-floor floor.

Before me lay the corridor that appeared in the photos transmitted by the drone, seemingly swallowed by darkness at its end.

The corridor was long, with rows of tightly closed white hospital room doors on both sides. Each door had a small observation window that could be opened with a metal lever. At this moment, all the observation windows were tightly closed, but they gave the illusion that behind each of those black squares, countless eyes were silently watching them.

The floor was covered with linoleum that had long lost its luster, covered with mottled stains and dried marks. From the ceiling, old chandeliers hung down like suspended corpses, covered with cobwebs.

This place is like a passageway to hell, filled with despair and frozen pain.

"The mental pollution index has begun to fluctuate slightly, increasing by 0.5%, but it is still within a safe range." Lan Ce's voice came through the earpiece. His data report was the only evidence that they were still in reality at this moment. "The concentration of residual negative mental energy here is extremely high. It is recommended that everyone activate 'mental anchors' as a precaution."

“Received,” An Mu replied.

As instructed, everyone began to silently recite the methods Bai Yu had previously taught them.

Lu Yueqi closed her eyes, repeatedly recalling the image of Bai Yu's back as he stood in front of her in the toy factory.

That image was her only source of strength against this boundless fear.

They cautiously explored forward along the corridor. Their footsteps echoed in the empty corridor, sounding hollow and lonely.

After walking about thirty meters, Mo Fei suddenly stopped.

"Wait a minute." He frowned and turned to look at the group, a hint of confusion in his eyes. "Strange... I feel like... we've walked down this corridor before?"

An Mu's eyes sharpened instantly: "Mo Fei, what did you say?" "I don't know how to say it..." Mo Fei scratched his short hair in frustration, "It's just a feeling. I remember... around that corner, there should be a big crack in the wall, like lightning. I even complained about it when I came here last time..."

Last time?

Except for Mo Fei, everyone else's heart sank.

“Mo Fei, this is our first time entering this place.” Lan Ce’s voice was as calm as ice. “Your memory is distorted. Check your mental anchor immediately.”

“Impossible!” Mo Fei retorted. “I remember it very clearly! It was a few of us on that mission, except this girl was missing… We were there to handle some kind of… ‘The Sad Clown’ case…”

His voice trailed off, and his expression shifted from confusion to self-doubt. He realized that apart from the vague memory of the "lightning rift," he couldn't recall any other details about the "mission."

"Beep! Beep! Beep!"

On Lance's tactical tablet, the green dot representing Mo Fei's mental state suddenly flickered violently a few times, its color shifting 0.1 seconds to yellow, which represented "warning," before returning to normal.

"Warning! High-intensity directional cognitive interference detected!" Lan Ce reported immediately. "Mo Fei, you've been attacked! It's trying to implant a false memory into your brain!"

Mo Fei quickly shook his head, forcing himself to forget these false memories and trying to recall his memory anchors.

He slammed his fist against the wall beside him with a dull thud: "What the hell is this ability?!"

He felt a chill run down his spine. For a fleeting moment, he truly believed that memory had actually happened. It felt like someone had secretly replaced a book on your bookshelf without you noticing, and you didn't even realize it, even thinking the book had always been there.

Just then, Lu Yueqi's body also trembled violently.

"Qiqi...it's time to come home for dinner...Mom made your favorite sweet and sour pork ribs..."

An incredibly gentle and familiar voice suddenly resounded deep within her mind.

It was my mother's voice.

In an instant, the eerie and terrifying corridor in front of him seemed to disappear, replaced by his own living room, which was lit with warm, orange lights.

The table was laden with delicious dishes, and Mom, wearing an apron, was smiling and waving at me.

The scene was so real, so warm, that she almost couldn't resist taking a step towards that warm illusion.

"Lu Yueqi? Lu Yueqi!"

Bai Yu's voice was like a sudden blow to her head, jolting her awake from that fatally warm state.

Bai Yu's hands were still on her body, swaying in a swaying motion.

The illusion shattered like glass, and Lu Yueqi still stood in that cold corridor, a fine layer of cold sweat already seeping from her forehead.

"I...I just..." she said, still shaken.

“You were attacked too.” Bai Yu withdrew her hand from her shoulder, her eyes more serious than ever before. “It’s exploiting the parts of your memories that you weren’t on guard against. Family, friendship… these are all things it’s using.”

“It’s a clumsy but effective tactic.” Hei Yan’s voice carried a hint of disdain. “Like a third-rate painter who doesn’t know how to create new beauty, he can only clumsily smear on other people’s existing paintings. However, it’s deadly enough for you fragile mortals.”

Bai Yu could clearly feel a resonance from the "Eye of the Vortex" mark on the back of his hand when those two "attacks" occurred.

really……

“Captain,” Bai Yu turned to An Mu and said, “the source of the Nightmare’s power here is likely the same as that of the ‘Tower of Ten Thousand Heads.’ But their forms of expression are different. The ‘Tower’ absorbs, stacks, and constructs, while here it infiltrates, alters, and covers. What it wants to do is not to turn us into a part of it, but to turn us into ‘others.’”

To become those suffering patients who once died here.

An Mu's face turned extremely ugly.

This confirmed Rancel's worst suspicions. This was a bizarre enemy they had never encountered before. It didn't kill you outright, but rather took over your body and stole your soul.

"Attention everyone! Strengthen your mental defenses! Don't think about anything unrelated to the mission! Focus all your attention on this damned corridor in front of you!" An Mu's voice carried a hint of seriousness and worry about the problem at hand.

"despair."

Just then, the glass marble that had been missing for a long time suddenly rolled out slowly from under a hospital room door not far in front of them.

It rolled to the center of the corridor and then came to a stop, reflecting a glittering light in the beams of the flashlights.

This time, the voice was no longer an invitation, but a clear instruction.

All eyes turned to the half-open door of the ward.

On the doorplate, a number was written in faded paint—214.

"According to the fire report, the victim in ward 214 was a 67-year-old female patient named 'Liu Fen' who suffered from severe paranoid schizophrenia. She firmly believed that she had a seven-year-old grandson who went missing in the fire," Lan Ce quickly recited a series of details.

"Squeak..."

As if responding to his words, the door slowly opened a wider gap on its own without any external force.

A strange smell, a mixture of formaldehyde and rotting flowers, rushed out from under the door.

At the same time, a nursery rhyme, seemingly from an old radio, drifted out from the darkness.

"Little ball, banana pear, Malan flowers bloom at twenty-one..."

"Two five six, two five seven, two eight two nine thirty-one..."

The singing was innocent and carefree, but every note felt like a cold needle piercing everyone's eardrums.

(End of this chapter)