Oh no! I'm surrounded by female ghosts!

The cemetery scene was deathly silent and oppressive.

It wasn't until a figure appeared out of nowhere that this space was brought back to life.

It's Su Ming.

He slowly walked up to Bai Xinglan and asked, "Do you have anything important to give me?"

Bai Xinglan pondered for a moment.

A fountain pen was taken out of the soil.

Su Ming recognized the pen very well, because it was the one Bai Xinglan used to record medical examination data before her death.

I thought it had disappeared, but it actually survived.

According to Bai Xinglan, this pen is her vessel.

Ghosts are intangible, so they must rely on external objects to be contained within them.

And this pen is her home.

The moment I took the pen, a system pop-up window suddenly appeared.

[Obtain the key item "Fountain Pen" to unlock the Ghostly Woman's backstory ①]

[Background Story ①: Silent Perseverance]

My name is Bai Xinglan. I am a psychologist who has healed countless people who were trapped in confusion and breakdown, dismantled thousands of distorted and broken emotions, taught others to reconcile with the world, and soothed restless souls.

I have witnessed countless rotten emotions, absorbed millions of despair and obsessions, and borne the darkness and resentment vented by the world.

But when I decided to embrace the darkness, accepting negativity was no longer a choice, but an obsession, a steadfast commitment I willingly bore before succumbing to darkness.

Looking at Bai Xinglan's backstory①, Su Ming was deeply moved.

As a psychologist, she endures more than anyone else.

Their professional ethics destined them to bear those crazy, dark secrets alone.

No wonder psychiatrists are often the most prone to mental illness.

They are the group of people who accept the most negative emotions among all human beings.

After unlocking the background story, the affinity upgrade quests are also activated.

[Affection Level Up Quest: Find Her Tombstone]

"Looking for her tombstone?" Su Ming murmured to himself.

He only realized it at that moment.

Where did Bai Xinglan's body go?

Previously, the initial assumption was that Bai Xinglan had been erased from the world and thus disappeared.

In reality, she died at some point in the past.

Her true way of dying was not to be erased.

Erasure is merely the final result, not the method of death.

She looked up and sized up Bai Xinglan in front of her.

Based on her own judgment before her death.

She was probably between 21 and 23 years old when she died.

That is, between 8 and 10 years ago.

"From 2016 to 2018," Su Ming stated, citing two years.

This is the period of time in Bai Xinglan's life that has been frozen in time.

Su Ming needs to figure out the approximate death range of the character he is developing.

To avoid unintentionally entering 1996.

I quickly went through their time of death in my mind.

Tangtang died in 2019.

Bai Xinglan died between 2016 and 2018.

Lin Jiajia, who is suspected to be entirely fictional, died in 2015.

According to records, Cheng Yao, who is suspected to be the girl in the mirror, was born in 2023.

Fortunately.

The currently unlocked characters are not set in 1996 in the apocalypse storyline.

Having figured out the approximate timeframe of Bai Xinglan's death, Su Ming took his pen and walked to the edge of the black mist enveloping the tomb.

He raised his hand and touched it, but his fingertips could not penetrate the black mist.

But a fountain pen can stick inside.

After a moment's thought, he sent all the pens into the black mist.

The next second, a powerful force suddenly erupted from the depths of the black mist, pulling Su Ming directly inside.

In an instant, a feeling of weightlessness washed over me.

Once Su Ming regained his footing, he looked up and was taken aback.

Before him stretched an endless cemetery, with tens of thousands of tombstones crisscrossing and neatly arranged.

Each tombstone is engraved with the name of the deceased.

The Tomb of Zhao Lei

The Tomb of Chen Jianglin

The Tomb of Yang Dashan

The Tomb of Zhao Xiang

At the same time, the rules of the game appeared before his eyes.

Yong'an Cemetery

[Game Requirement: Find the tombstones]

[Game Rules: Time Limit 60 Seconds]

The rules of this game were simple and straightforward, and Su Ming quickly understood them.

Within 60 seconds, find the tombstone belonging to Bai Xinglan among thousands of tombstones.

It looks very difficult.

Because the tombstones in front of us are almost identical in appearance, except for the names of the tombs.

For Su Ming, it would only take a little more time.

He has a keen eye.

Once you have a clear view of all the tombstones, you can quickly find Bai Xinglan's tombstone.

Understand the rules of the game.

Without the slightest hesitation, Su Ming immediately initiated the challenge.

"Let's begin."

[Start Game]

[Countdown: 59, 58, 57…]

A blood-red countdown hung in the sky above the cemetery, appearing glaring and terrifying.

Su Ming was currently restricted by the rules and could not enter the cemetery.

The entire cemetery transformed into a giant map before his eyes.

He needs to rely on his eyes to examine each tombstone one by one.

If he has identified Bai Xinglan's tombstone, he can simply mark it with a pen.

Sixty seconds passed in the blink of an eye.

The Great Observer only observed a few thousand.

Unfortunately, Bai Xinglan's tombstone was not found inside.

The penalty for losing the game is different from the previous game rules.

Su Ming was not kicked out of the game.

Instead, a penalty period was introduced.

[Punishment time activated, duration: 60 seconds]

In the blink of an eye, all the densely packed tombstones in the field of vision vanished into thin air, leaving only a solitary tombstone on the open ground of the cemetery.

A sudden gust of wind arose, its howling sound like the wailing of departed souls.

The next second, the grave suddenly cracked open, and a rotten, blackened, withered hand shot out from the soil.

Immediately afterwards, a grotesque, festering ghost slowly crawled out of the tomb, its body radiating a thick aura of resentment.

But the moment the tomb ghost looked up at Su Ming, its resentment dissipated in fright, and even its murky eyes cleared up.

Without saying a word, it scrambled back into the grave and even reached out to close the grave door.

Su Ming's expression was slightly strange.

If he wasn't mistaken.

This ghost that crawled out of the grave should have just reached the danger level.

He walked two or three steps to the grave.

Su Ming reached in, touched it a few times, then grabbed its neck and yanked it out.

"Don't be afraid, I'm not a bad person."

"I'm asking you, do you know roughly where Bai Xinglan's grave is located?"

The ghosts in the grave were terrified.

It shook its head violently, its cloudy eyes filled with terror, lacking even the courage to struggle.

"waste."

Su Ming threw it away in annoyance, and when the punishment time ended, he was kicked out of the game.

I entered Yong'an Cemetery for the second time with a fountain pen in hand.

He was surprised to find that the order of the tombstones in the cemetery was different from before.

"Damn it, it's still random."

Su Ming cursed under his breath and immediately activated his Observational Eyes to screen at full speed.

Ends in 60 seconds.

He still couldn't find Bai Xinglan's grave.

The second round of punishment begins.

[Time doubled, current duration: 120 seconds]

[Number of strange occurrences doubled: Current: 2]

Several hours later.

Su Ming looked at the punishment page above the tomb.

[Time doubled, current duration: 30720 seconds]

[Number of strange occurrences doubled: Current: 512]

Those 30,000 seconds translate to nearly eight hours.

"Is my luck really that bad?"

Su Ming rubbed his throbbing temples.

From now on, the duration of each punishment will increase dramatically.

16小时、32小时、64小时、128小时、256小时。

If he's not careful, he could be trapped here for months, or even years.

As for the more than five hundred tombstone ghosts in front of us.

Although they are numerous, their strength is quite average.

If Su Ming wanted, he could kill them all in an instant.

The problem is, even if he kills them all, Su Ming can't get out. Even using the Boundary Blur technique won't allow him to leave; he has to wait for the punishment time to end.

"Damn it, I don't believe it."

Su Ming rubbed his fists and growled, "Flesh and blood proliferation."

In an instant, his body swelled up.

Three meters, six meters, nine meters, it expanded until it reached ten meters before slowly stopping.

A roar shook the heavens and the earth.

"Everyone, line up properly."

More than 500 tomb ghosts were so frightened that they scrambled out of the tombs like primary school students, and then quickly formed a neat square formation, as orderly as an army waiting for inspection.

Su Ming nodded with slight satisfaction.

"I ask you, who has seen Bai Xinglan's tombstone?"

Within the formation, the ghosts whispered and murmured among themselves, their countless rotting heads staring at each other.

"Never heard of it."

"Never seen it before."

Their answers were basically the same.

"That's impossible." Su Ming frowned.

Bai Xinglan's grave must be here.

Just then, a rather clever-looking ghost seemed to have thought of something and quickly darted out from the group, kneeling before Su Ming: "My lord."

"There is a rather special collective memorial tombstone in our cemetery."

"I heard that all the people buried under that monument died in a major plane crash. Not only were their bodies never found, but even the wreckage of the plane was never recovered."

Su Ming's eyes lit up, and he walked up to the clever little devil in a few steps.

"Go on, keep talking."

"You're right, you'll get plenty of benefits in the future."

The clever fellow quickly nodded and bowed as he spoke.

"Your Majesty, there is no corpse in that monument; they are all his personal belongings."

"Many people's names are engraved on the monument; why don't you go and look for it?"

Su Ming nodded in agreement.

The possibility is great.

He had actually noticed that giant monument long ago.

I just didn't think about it that way.

"Very good." Su Ming laughed and patted the clever boy on the shoulder, asking, "What's your name?"

The clever fellow was flattered and quickly said, "Sir, my name is Li He."

"Li He..."

The name caused Su Ming's expression to change slightly.

Suppressing his shock, he asked, "Do you know Gu Yan?"

Li He tilted his head and pondered for a long time, finally shaking his head blankly: "Sir, who is Gu Yan?"

Su Ming did not give up, but instead carefully observed its appearance.

From its rotten and dilapidated appearance, one can vaguely discern a sense of familiarity.

I opened my horizontal pupils to look.

They won't admit they're wrong.

That's Li He, the officer who accompanied Gu Yan to Pingjiang City to investigate the major ghost incident at the police station.

Unexpectedly, he, like Bai Xinglan, was erased from the world.

Nothing in life is more unpredictable than this.

Su Ming patted Li He on the shoulder and spoke.

"I'll remember you."

"From now on, follow me, and I'll protect you."

Li He immediately knelt down and kowtowed to Su Ming several times.