Who says vengeful ghosts can't go on blind dates?

Jiang Xiaowei woke up.

She felt a dull pain in the back of her head, as if someone had hammered a dent into her skull. Even stranger, she could feel something breathing on the back of her head.

It wasn't her own breath, but another independent, putrid, unknown entity.

"You're awake."

The sound came from the back of her head.

Jiang Xiaowei tried to turn her head, but found that her neck was as stiff as a rusty hinge.

She could only turn her eyes and catch glimpses of the hotel lobby's stark white ceiling and the dwindling number of crystal chandeliers out of the corner of her eye.

"Don't move." This time, the voice carried an eerie intimacy. "The back of your head is split open, and I'm helping you stop the bleeding."

Jiang Xiaowei remembered. But precisely because of this, her face was gradually turning deathly pale.

She tried to raise her hand to touch the back of her head, but found that her arm was completely unresponsive, as heavy as if it were filled with lead.

"What are you thinking about?" the faceless female ghost asked.

Jiang Xiaowei remained silent.

"You should thank me. I not only saved your life, but I also kept you under control and prevented you from committing suicide."

Jiang Xiaowei remained unmoved.

A vengeful ghost is a vengeful ghost. The other party must have some ulterior motive for doing this.

Jiang Xiaowei's silence seemed to anger what was parasitic on the back of her head.

The faceless female ghost stopped talking and continued to stand at the front desk, focusing on receiving potential guests.

Jiang Xiaowei's expression darkened.

Her fate may be quite tragic.

Maybe.

As for the mission in the eerie game... the chances are probably slim.

But it's nothing.

Anyway, she had already made arrangements for her funeral.

Death... well, then so be it.

……

kitchen.

The pregnant ghost left as quickly as possible.

Under the chef's orders, the players were forced to enter what was supposed to be the kitchen.

The kitchen is unusually large.

The space appears to be over six meters high and stretches to the horizon, resembling a giant workshop formed by opening up an entire floor.

The ceiling is an exposed concrete structure, with a dense network of pipes and cables hanging down from it. A viscous liquid seeps out from the joints of the pipes, dripping onto the floor.

The ground was made of cement. But the cement surface was covered with a layer of dark brown grime, and if you smelled it closely, you could also detect a slight fishy odor.

The walls on both sides are completely covered by shelves.

The shelves appeared to be made of steel, with rust covering every corner. The rust wasn't the usual reddish-brown, but a deep, almost blackish-purple color.

The shelves were filled with containers.

At the bottom was a glass jar, about half a meter in diameter, filled with grayish-white lumps. The liquid was murky and yellowish, and the outlines of the lumps were indistinct, but occasionally fingernails and hairs could be seen.

The uppermost layers are stainless steel basins, each covered with plastic wrap. The inside of the plastic wrap is covered with water droplets, through which the contents of the basins appear as a blurry pink color.

The top layer consists of open ceramic bowls filled with dried-out contents.

He couldn't see what it was from the plaid shirt, but he could smell it—not a stench, but a more complex smell, like spices and some kind of sweetener mixed together, so strong it was cloying, so cloying it made him want to vomit.

"Go to the center!" the ghostly chefs ordered the players. "Bring the ingredients."

The players exchanged glances.

Are waiters supposed to help out in the kitchen?

But their bizarre game missions don't say that.

What they should have done was use their positions as waiters at the Beihuang Hotel to collect "tips".

But there was nothing they could do; their lives were now completely in the hands of these vengeful chefs.

Ultimately, because no one knew the consequences of disobeying orders, they had no choice but to compromise.

There is a long table in the center of the kitchen.

The table is estimated to be over ten meters long and wide enough for two people to work face-to-face without feeling cramped. The tabletop is made of thick solid wood, with the wood grain filled with oil, making it feel like a solid piece of black marble.

Every meter on the tabletop was an iron ring, with a chain attached to each ring, and a worn leather buckle at the end of the chain.

Knives were scattered on the table.

Not just a few rounds, but dozens.

They do not have a uniform format and vary in size and shape.

Some resemble a butcher's cleaver, with a thick back and an arc-shaped blade; others resemble a chef's slicing knife, thin and long with a slightly upturned tip; still others are completely unclassifiable, with blades twisted at bizarre angles, resembling some kind of torture instrument rather than a tool.

Each knife was stuck in a groove in the wooden table, handle facing upwards, as neatly arranged as a row of tombstones.

The handles were made of various materials. Some were made of wood, some of bone, some of wrapped hemp rope, and some of completely unrecognizable materials. Several of the handles still had dried liquid residue on them, ranging in color from dark red to black.

But these are not the most eye-catching aspects.

It's the ceiling.

The man in the plaid shirt looked up, then regretted it.

Iron hooks were hanging from the ceiling.

The so-called ingredients were hanging on the iron hooks.

Not three or five, but dozens.

Iron hooks hang down from the concrete ceiling and are secured with chains of varying lengths, forming a dense array.

The hooks are all uniformly shaped, with three prongs and barbs. Although the surface is rusty, the hook tips gleam with a metallic sheen, indicating that they have been used frequently.

The things hanging on the iron hooks were all sorts of limbs.

Two legs were hanging from the iron hook closest to the door, severed from the thighs, with the ankles pierced by the iron hook, hanging in an inverted V shape.

Some of the food on the iron hooks had turned an unnatural grayish-white color, like pig skin that had been scalded with hot water and then dried.

Further inside, there is another complete torso.

It has no head or limbs, just a cylindrical body running from the neck to the hips.

"Let's get started."

I don't know who said something.

The players began removing the ingredients from the iron hooks and transporting them to the chefs.

The gunman and his accomplice worked together to remove the intact body.

Later, while moving the body with the woman, he glanced at her subtly.

The woman first looked around. Once she was sure no one was paying attention, she slowly shook her head.

not human.

These ingredients are not people.

Or at least, the corpse they were carrying wasn't.

The gunman then became interested. He lowered his gaze and examined the object carefully for a few moments.

The torso was split open from the front, the ribs were turned outwards like fans, and the chest cavity had been emptied out, leaving only a thin layer of flesh.

Isn't it human?

He instinctively reached for the mole on his chin. However, because his hands were occupied by the corpse, he ultimately failed to do so.

At that moment, footsteps could be heard in the distance.

No, it wasn't just footsteps; there were other sounds too.

It sounded like liquid dripping. It didn't sound like water, but rather something thicker, slowly trickling down from the iron hooks above and merging into the dark brown grime on the ground.

"Put the ingredients here."

The footsteps stopped.

It was the ghost of a chef. A chef walked up to the long table and casually picked up a cleaver.

There were bits of meat stuck to the blade.

The bits of meat were still a fresh pink, and clear tissue fluid was seeping from the cut surfaces.

The chef tapped the table with the back of his knife: "Prepare the ingredients."

He then pointed to the things hanging from the ceiling.

Peel and debone the meat, then cut it into chunks. Each chunk should be neither too big nor too small.

After saying this, the chef ghost walked away with the knife.

All that remained were a group of humans with ugly faces.

……

Fourth floor.

"Oh, I'm so sorry." The cameraman suddenly stood up. "The food is taking a little long to arrive. I'll go and check on it."

"Um."

"Thank you very much for your patience."

After offering a few casual compliments, the cameraman left the private room.

He had two objectives.

First, go to the kitchen and check on things, then urge them to hurry up.

Secondly, they went to the main hall and had the faceless female ghost take Jiang Xiaowei's body away.

If the film reel inside his head isn't changed, the cameraman will monitor the places he's just visited in real time.

Using this ability, the cameraman witnessed everything that happened in the lobby.

Ren Zhizhe knew Jiang Xiaowei, but even now the cameraman still couldn't understand Ren Zhizhe's attitude towards humans.

What would happen if Ren Zhizhe met Jiang Xiaowei standing at the front of the stage is completely unknown.

Considering the possibility of some unnecessary conflict, he decided to try to persuade the faceless ghost to leave that conspicuous spot.

He walked towards the elevator. However, after pressing the buttons for a long time, the elevator did not respond.

The cameraman tapped the camera lens impatiently. He used his ability to look inside the elevator, but couldn't see anything unusual.

The elevators at the Beihuang Hotel are operated by buttons, not levers, much like elevators in the human world.

Because it was different from most elevators in the eerie world, the cameraman had to rely on his own abilities to observe for a while before obtaining the information he wanted.

—One of the buttons on the elevator is labeled "Kitchen".

In other words, the elevator can actually lead directly to the kitchen.

If you can't get in, you'll have to take the stairs to the lobby first, and then go through the lobby to the kitchen.

The cameraman didn't rush downstairs; instead, he looked at the stairs first.

His core rule of killing is related to photographs. If he obtains a clear, realistic photograph of a person or a vengeful spirit, he can tear it apart and harm the person in the photograph.

A vengeful ghost may not necessarily die, but a human would certainly die if there were no other rules governing killing.

Even if there's a conflict with the rules, it's fine. The moment the photo is torn up, the medium is destroyed, and the rules won't affect him.

The downside is that, because the medium is destroyed, he is unable to continuously output his rules of killing.

This means that the damage can only be caused at the moment the photo is torn up, and it has very little power against the vengeful spirit.

However, the cameraman's murder rule has another application.

His head is a camera. So, naturally, he can take pictures at any time.

When monitoring a certain area, he can proactively take photos of the target.

These photos, which he took voluntarily, are different from the photos mentioned earlier.

Because the photograph itself is a product of the photographer's murder rule, he can harm the things in the photograph without damaging the photograph itself.

Is taking the stairs the only option?

"Let's go to the lobby first."

……

Inside the lobby, the faceless female ghost was greeting one guest after another who had booked rooms.

It's not yet time for meals at the Northern Wilderness Hotel. So, quite a few vengeful ghosts who booked rooms today will still be arriving.

But the faceless female ghost's human body was truly eye-catching. Almost every ghost that passed by couldn't help but glance at her a few times.

Several vengeful spirits even hesitated to make a move. But since this was the territory of the Northern Wilderness Hotel, they ultimately restrained themselves.

After getting used to it a few times, the faceless female ghost had learned to do things backwards.

Although it was a bit strange to take things with the arm behind her back, she had controlled even stranger ghost bodies before, so she adapted quickly.

During this time, Jiang Xiaowei seemed to have resigned herself to her fate and did not say a word.

Welcome!

More guests entered the lobby. This time, it was three vengeful ghosts together. Their faces were still relatively intact, but their skin had an old, yellowish hue, like pages from a book that had been stored for decades.

They were still asking about the location of the private room. The faceless female ghost was waiting for them to come over, but the cameraman suddenly came down the stairs and went to the front desk first.

"Um, sir? Is there anything I can help you with?"

Seeing that the three vengeful ghosts seemed somewhat resentful, the faceless female ghost quickly tried to send the cameraman away.

The cameraman didn't rush to speak, but first glanced in Jiang Xiaowei's direction.

Although he said he was looking, his face didn't change at all. His eyes, which were always in focus, only slightly adjusted the angle, as if adjusting the focus, trying to frame Jiang Xiaowei's entire body within the frame.

"Ah, you guys go ahead with your work." The cameraman glanced at the three vengeful ghosts, then stepped aside to make way for them.

The three vengeful ghosts were satisfied.

Although they were still eyeing the cameraman with ill intent, they chose to leave after getting a seat in the private room instead of causing trouble.

Seeing that most of the irrelevant people had left, the cameraman approached the faceless female ghost.

"I am the manager of Sunset Cinema."

The moment he said those words, Jiang Xiaowei's expression changed instantly.

"Hmm?" The faceless female ghost on the back of Jiang Xiaowei's head clearly sensed Jiang Xiaowei's unusual behavior.

She turned around and looked at the cameraman with her featureless face.

Do you know this human?

"I guess so." The cameraman quickly changed the subject.

"I suggest you leave as soon as possible," he offered his sound advice. "We have a guest who has a very close relationship with this human."

"You want me to leave my post?" The faceless female ghost sneered.

This is impossible.

Employees who leave their posts will be punished by the Beihuang Hotel. If she does that, she will be immediately locked in solitary confinement.

The ghostly employees locked in the solitary confinement room are forced into a deep sleep, which lasts for one, two, or three days.

If that's the case, she'll have to postpone her plans to go to the hospital for treatment.

"Oh, never mind then. Where's the kitchen? Our honored guest hopes the food can be served quickly."

"The meal service time is fixed..."

"Then your store will have to bear the consequences."