It's time to become an evil god.

Bai Ge fell into deep thought. Compared with the previous doll legacy mission, the rewards for this item mission were only average. Moreover, judging from the description, it only required investigating strange events and did not directly require killing anyone.

Perhaps the system has determined that this mission event will not cause fatal damage to the player.

Thinking of the recent spate of ominous urban legends, Bai Ge still reminded taxi driver Lao Zhang, "Xu City is very dangerous at night recently. Try not to go out unless necessary."

"what?"

In the past few days, Lao Zhang, who drives a night taxi, has also heard rumors among his colleagues about drivers giving ghost money as far as rides, and he quickly asked, "Why?"

At this point, Bai Ge's face showed a chill, and he said with lingering fear, "Recently, people in Xu City are in a state of panic and unrest. A friend of mine insisted on going for a night run late at night, and then disappeared. He was found two hours later..."

At this point, Bai Ge paused deliberately, and the taxi driver, Lao Zhang, immediately tensed up, asking probingly, "What did you find?"

"He's eating skewers at the newly opened barbecue restaurant near the entrance of the residential area."

"..."

Taxi driver Lao Zhang took a deep breath and finally asked the rather impolite question with utmost seriousness. He said tactfully, "Mr. Bai, are you sure this mission won't be too demanding?"

"will not."

Holding the paper effigy, Bai Ge said earnestly, "Any profession will become highly skilled if you work in it for a long time. For example, my friend has been an electrician for ten years. He can tell whether a high-voltage line is live or not just by touching it."

He's been touching high-voltage power lines for ten years straight!

Old Zhang glanced at Bai Ge and asked cautiously, "Is your friend that capable? He hasn't gotten into any trouble yet?"

"Anyway, I sat at the children's table when the food was served on the day my friend was cremated."

"..."

"arrive."

The taxi drove onto a bumpy, broken road and arrived at the foot of a dilapidated old apartment building. The exterior walls were covered with old, red and white square tiles, and the gaps between the tiles were full of black stains left by rainwater erosion.

The sky was somewhat gloomy, and the steps inside the peeling paint iron gate looked eerie and damp.

The exterior walls are inlaid with old green glass windows, and the noisy air conditioner outdoor units are covered in dust. Compared with the modern and brand-new high-rise buildings in the distance, this place looks like a terminally ill old man who is about to die.

"Come in."

An old key was inserted into the iron gate, and the dilapidated green door slowly opened. The motion-activated lights in the corridor kept flashing. I walked up the gloomy stairs, and the walls were covered with all kinds of graffiti advertisements. Finally, I stopped in my fourth-floor apartment.

“I originally wanted to move to a new house, but after divorcing my wife a while ago, it was really not easy for me to support my family by driving and working alone. Fortunately, my daughter is well-behaved and sensible.”

At this point, driver Lao Zhang's face beamed with a smile as he turned the key and opened the door.

"Mengmeng, Daddy's home."

A strange, rotten smell wafted over, and he involuntarily rubbed his nose. He suddenly remembered that Bai Ge used to make stinky tofu in the classroom during final exams, because he had believed the teacher's nonsense that boys who could cook would get extra points.

The little girl lowered her head and drew silently, as if she hadn't heard a sound.

The sink was filled with unwashed dishes from the meal, and two bottles of medicine, lithium salt and carbamazepine, were on the dining table.

Children's doodles still hang on the rough walls, but each crudely drawn sketch features a strange face with empty eye sockets, blood seeping out, and a sinister smile on its face.

But is this kind of art too early for young children?

The driver, Lao Zhang, proudly introduced, "These are all paintings by my daughter."

"Um……"

Bai Ge examined it carefully, nodded, and said, "It's clear that your daughter really hates painting."

"..."

Old Zhang told Bai Ge to sit for a while while he went to pour himself a pot of tea.

Taxi driver Lao Zhang's daughter, Zhang Xiaomeng, was sitting at the dining table, doodling on a piece of white paper. Bai Ge leaned over to take a look and discovered that the little girl was drawing a strange portrait.

The drawing on the white paper depicts four people: the bald, middle-aged man in blue work clothes is likely her father, Lao Zhang; the young man in white holding a paper effigy is Bai Ge herself; and the little girl in a green dress with pigtails is herself.

Bai Ge frowned. There were only three people here, so who was this guy peeking out of the room like a thief? He glanced curiously at the bedroom, but the door was locked, and the situation was unclear.

Bai Ge sat down and tentatively asked, "Little friend, why aren't you looking for Grandma again today?"

The little girl suddenly raised her head and looked at Bai Ge in front of her with a blank expression.

"Uncle, are you Dad's friend?"

"grandmother?"

Zhang Xiaomeng tilted her head, blinked, and said, "Uncle, what are you saying? You've been saying strange things ever since you came in."

"Strange things?"

Bai Ge didn't react immediately and tentatively asked, "Didn't your father say you saw Grandma?"

"My dad?"

Zhang Xiaomeng put down her paintbrush and said in confusion, "But my dad died at home last night?"

"Ok?"

In that instant, Bai Ge's smile froze on his face, a chill running down his spine. He forced a smile and said, "Little friend, lying isn't a good thing."

"Lying is not the mark of a good child."

Zhang Xiaomeng's two ponytails swung like rattles as she timidly said, "Grandma said Daddy was naughty, so she killed him and hid him. She also said that if I'm naughty, I'll have to go and keep Daddy company."

"and……"

Zhang Xiaomeng reached out and tugged at Bai Ge's sleeve, whispering, "Uncle, can you help me? It's so cold where Grandma hid me."

It's so cold?

Bai Ge suddenly realized something and abruptly raised her head.

pat.

The crayon fell on the table, rolled to the side, and the little girl sitting in the chair drawing disappeared without a trace.

He turned around, but the taxi driver, Lao Zhang, who had been standing behind him, was nowhere to be seen.

pat.

The refrigerator door in the living room had opened a crack at some point. Bai Ge walked over, grabbed a towel, and slowly opened the refrigerator door.

The lights in the cramped cold storage room turned on automatically, stained a dark red with blood.

One old and one young.

The two bloodied heads of the father and daughter stared blankly at Bai Ge, their dying gazes filled with terror and dazedness.

Chapter Nineteen: Life and Death Are Unpredictable

Congealed blood splattered throughout the refrigerator. People with weak mental fortitude would probably have already bent over and vomited. But Bai Ge calmly reached out and took the only can of Coca-Cola from the refrigerator, under the unseeing gaze of the taxi driver, Lao Zhang.

pat.

The pull tab on the can was opened, so I quickly tilted my head back and took a swig of the drink to calm my nerves.

Bai Ge reached out and closed the two unseeing heads, then turned around and picked up the medicine bottle and prescription on the table, which had Old Zhang's name on it.

"Lithium salts are used to treat bipolar disorder, while carbamazepine is mainly used to treat seizures, epilepsy, and as a specific analgesic for trigeminal neuralgia. This means that taxi driver Lao Zhang may have a mental illness."

Bai Ge seemed to suddenly remember something, quickly walked to the refrigerator, whispered "excuse me," and took out the two cold heads.

The incisions on the necks were rough on one side and smooth and even on the other.

Bai Ge examined the horrifying head in the refrigerator, ignoring the pungent smell of blood, and calmly said, "Because the taxi driver, Lao Zhang, suffers from a mental illness, he experienced hallucinations due to his daughter's stimulation. In a moment of delirium, he mistakenly believed that his daughter was a haunting ghost and cut off her head with a knife."

"After waking up from the hallucination, Lao Zhang was devastated when he saw what he had done. He thought he had killed his daughter. Then the evil spirit that had been following Zhang Xiaomeng made its move and cut off Lao Zhang's head and put it in the refrigerator."

Bai Ge rested her chin on her hand and said hesitantly, "So here's the question: there are only the father and daughter's heads in the refrigerator, where did the rest of their bodies go?"

With a soft creak, the bedroom door behind me, which had been tightly closed, opened, and the sound of chewing came from inside.

Bai Ge turned her head and looked over; a black and white photograph hung on the wall. It's common for elderly people in rural areas to keep a portrait for their funeral at home.

However, in the dim atmosphere with the curtains drawn, the kind old man in the portrait looked eerie and unsettling. The upper half of his face was shrouded in shadow and could not be seen clearly, but the lower half of his face had a half-smile, seemingly kind and friendly, yet revealing a chilling terror.

Bai Ge stepped forward and saw that in an inconspicuous corner beneath the portrait, a hunched figure dressed in funeral clothes had his back to her, and the "Fu" character on the funeral clothes was particularly eerie.

As if hearing a noise behind him, a gray head slowly turned around and gave Bai Ge a sinister smile.

He still had half a finger in his mouth, which he hadn't finished gnawing on.

Bai Ge's eyes narrowed, and he felt a chill run down his spine, an indescribable coldness creeping over him.

Is this the evil spirit that killed the Zhang father and daughter?

She stood up, walked out of the bedroom, stared intently at Bai Ge, and then, with her wrinkled and withered arms as if holding a precious treasure, pressed her palms against the sides of her temples and slowly pulled her head out.

A kind yet sinister smile froze on the old man's face. The crisp sound of bones breaking came from his body as he was slowly squeezed and pulled up by the palm of a hand, hanging above his neck, with blood gushing out continuously.

The broken neck was connected to a string of white vertebrae, dripping with blood.

Bai Ge gasped.

The old woman's scalp was slowly peeling away from her bones, and a few messy, dry, pale strands of hair were slowly rising into the air.

The fragile spine connected to the head opened its cloudy eyes wide, its gaze blazing with fury, and it walked step by step toward Bai Ge, its entire head swaying with each step.

"You're just like..."

Bai Ge, still in astonishment, thought for a long time before coming up with a suitable adjective.

"It's just like a giant paratrooper."

Whether provoked or not, the strange creature suddenly accelerated its charge towards Bai Ge. However, Bai Ge didn't rush to attack. Instead, he retreated while calmly saying, "I've heard an urban legend about an old woman selling umbrellas. Once you accept her umbrella, she'll transform into the deceased relative of the victim and haunt them until they all die. Presumably, the continuous rains of the past few days gave you the opportunity to find the victim. But you never expected that the victim's father would cling to his last shred of obsession and seek my help to save his daughter."

"Urban legends also come in different levels. If you were that kind of terrifying evil spirit, at least the whole family would have died the first day you haunted the little girl, instead of waiting until now, so..."

Bai Ge retreated to a distance from the kitchen, slowly pulled a kitchen knife from the sink, stared at the evil spirit in front of him with hostility, and slowly exhaled.

All of a person's fear stems from a lack of firepower, so once the weapon is in hand, the game is over.

Bai Ge suddenly raised his head. Even though it was a strange creature from an urban legend, he felt an instinctive fear when he saw those sharp eyes.

"Unfortunately, you won't have the chance to leave."

The monster's vision went black, and the light, paper effigy appeared behind it at some point, covering its eyes with both hands.

Immediately, the monster seemed to sense an inexplicable resistance behind it. However, from Bai Ge's position, it appeared as if a middle-aged man was tightly hugging its waist, unable to break free.