Don’t Play Games at Evil Spirit High

Chapter 5: Horrified

Lu Feng stiffly turned his head, looking toward the staircase behind him that led downward.

At this moment, bursts of strange noises and chilling laughter kept drifting up from the pitch-black staircase below.

The sounds grew closer and closer, as if whatever was making them was crawling upward along the stairs.

Just as Lu Feng’s face grew increasingly pale, all of the sounds suddenly vanished together.

Something lurking in the darkness seemed to have just stopped moving.

Cold sweat trickled down his face as Lu Feng turned on the flashlight on his phone.

The bright white light immediately drove away a large swath of darkness.

He held up his phone, shining it toward the staircase below—

Nothing.

The empty staircase was completely bare.

Lu Feng let out a breath.

He was just about to turn off the light to save his phone’s battery when, out of the corner of his eye, he suddenly caught sight of something unusual.

In that corner of darkness beyond the reach of the light, something seemed to be twisting and writhing…

Lu Feng’s hand trembled slightly.

He held his breath and slowly shifted the beam of the flashlight toward that pitch-black corner.

Nothing, there was nothing there—if only that were truly the case.

In that corner lay a bundle of black hair, its origin unknown.

Suddenly, the hair shifted.

In the next instant, a deathly pale face emerged from beneath the strands of jet-black hair.

Its wide, pupil-less eyes stared fixedly at Lu Feng with a twisted expression that was neither a smile nor not a smile.

Then, two arms stretched out from beneath the hair.

The palms slapped heavily against the floor, the long fingernails digging tightly into the surface, making that same piercing, grating sound as before!

“Hee hee…”

That eerie laugh jolted Lu Feng, who had been paralyzed by fear.

His stiff limbs finally moved again, and his exhausted body lurched back into action.

He dashed madly upstairs like a man possessed!

Lu Feng truly had great courage, but that didn’t mean he felt no fear!

By now, more and more twisted, withered arms were sprouting from within the hair.

Finally, a total of eight arms extended outward, resembling a human-shaped spider!

Then, all eight arms cracked grotesquely, bending backward into ninety-degree angles.

A chilling giggle came from its mouth as the broken arms propped up its shriveled, pale body.

Its nails clawed into the floor as it scuttled rapidly toward Lu Feng!

The sharp nails scraped against the ground with a screeching noise.

Lu Feng didn’t dare look back; he only kept running upward in blind desperation.

But the sinister giggles behind him grew closer and closer, the ghoul’s savage laughter sounding as though it was right by his ear.

“Hee hee… I’m going to catch you…”

Lu Feng’s breath came so hard it felt like his lungs would burst.

His legs were heavy as if filled with lead, refusing to lift.

Yet the ghost’s whisper right in his ear forced him to quicken his pace!

He had long lost track of how many floors he had climbed.

All he knew was that the staircase before him seemed endless.

The ghost behind him still pursued relentlessly, while his own stamina had reached its limit.

At this moment, the only thing keeping him moving was pure instinctual terror.

With the last of his strength, Lu Feng climbed another flight.

At the end of this staircase, he finally saw that long-awaited exit!

He no longer cared where this inexplicable exit might lead.

He sprinted toward it frantically—

With a violent push, he shoved open the rusty iron door.

Lu Feng immediately turned and slammed it shut.

The next moment, his strength was completely spent, and he collapsed to his knees, retching dryly, gasping for breath as if his life depended on it.

Only after a long time did Lu Feng finally catch his breath.

The burning pain in his lungs gradually eased, and he at last had the strength to take in his surroundings.

He now stood on the rooftop terrace.

The ghost from the staircase below seemed not to have followed him, allowing Lu Feng to let out a trembling sigh of relief.

“Xiao Feng.”

Suddenly, a familiar voice sounded behind him.

Startled, Lu Feng turned his head, and to his shock, Yu Mo was standing there, though he had no idea when she had appeared!

“Yu Mo!? How are you here!?”

The girl was standing at the edge of the rooftop.

One more step forward would plunge her into the abyss.

“What are you doing standing there? Get down, it’s dangerous!”

But Yu Mo gave no response to Lu Feng’s words.

Her slightly vacant eyes gazed at him with icy coldness.

That strange, eerie look was one Lu Feng had never seen on her face before.

Then Yu Mo spoke again, her words devoid of their usual liveliness, filled instead with nothing but hatred.

“Why didn’t you come to save me?”

“Save you?”

That out-of-the-blue question left Lu Feng utterly confused.

Before he could ask further, the girl suddenly leapt forward with all her might.

“No!!!!”

Lu Feng screamed hoarsely, rushing forward desperately in an attempt to grab her.

But it was too late.

The girl’s body fell like a severed kite, swallowed by the abyss below.

Bang!!!

A few seconds later, the dull thud of a body hitting the ground echoed from below.

Lu Feng stood frozen in place, his hands still reaching as if to catch her.

He could not believe that Yu Mo’s vibrant life had been severed from this world right before his eyes.

He felt as though his heart had shattered alongside the girl’s body.

Shaking all over, Lu Feng staggered toward the edge of the rooftop.

He dared not look down, but as the final witness to Yu Mo’s last moment, he had no choice.

With his eyes squeezed shut and breath ragged, he leaned out over the railing and forced his eyelids open—

What appeared before him, however, was a pale, savage ghostly face.

“Got you!”

The ghost cackled as all of its grotesquely bent arms reached toward Lu Feng at once.

“Ahhhhhhh!!!”

Lu Feng shrieked as he jolted awake from his sleep.

Just a dream, it was just a dream.

Cold sweat had drenched his clothes through and through.

His body still trembled slightly from the lingering terror of what he had just dreamt.

Looking around the pitch-black room, Lu Feng realized he was lying on the living room sofa.

Suddenly it came back to him: he had ordered takeout, eaten it, then leaned on the sofa to read.

But at some point, he had dozed off without realizing it.

He pulled out a few tissues to wipe the sweat off his forehead and glanced at his phone—it was only three in the morning.

Yet he no longer had any trace of sleepiness.

“Mom? Are you back?”

No one answered.

It seemed his mother was spending the night outside again.

Lu Feng said nothing, quietly stripping off his sweat-soaked clothes and preparing to take a shower.

Just then, a voice whispered in his ear.

“Lu Feng…”

Startled, he turned his head and saw Liuli—the ghost girl who should only appear at school—floating in his home!

“Liuli!? Why are you in my house!?”

But Liuli paid no attention to his question.

She only fixed him with those ghostly green eyes, staring as though she were a vengeful spirit here to claim his life.

“This is all because of you!”

She suddenly let out a piercing scream.

Her once pure and sweet face twisted hideously in an instant, two streams of blood tears running down her cheeks.

“I hate you, Lu Feng!!”

Liuli transformed into a terrifying ghoul and lunged at him.

Before his bewildered mind could even grasp what was happening, Lu Feng clearly saw, with his own eyes, that a bloody red lump of flesh had appeared in Liuli’s hand at some unknown moment—

It was his own still-beating heart!

“Ahhhhhhh!!!”

Lu Feng screamed again, waking once more.

What had just happened was still a dream—he had dreamt within a dream!

Terrified, he scanned the room.

He was now lying in his own bed, the sheets beneath him drenched in sweat.

The sky outside was already pale with dawn, strands of sunlight driving away the darkness in his room.

Lu Feng stood up in a daze.

He remembered: last night he had fallen asleep reading on the sofa, then had woken up in the middle of the night with an urgent need to use the bathroom.

Afterward, in his drowsiness, he had gone into his bedroom…

Thinking of this, Lu Feng pinched his thigh hard, wincing at the sharp pain.

At the same time, he was reassured that he had finally escaped the dream.

Yet recalling that bizarre dream within a dream sent another chill down his spine.

Everything in those dreams was still vivid in his mind.

The words Yu Mo and Liuli had spoken echoed clearly, as though foreshadowing something.

He thought back to what Liuli had said to him yesterday, and unease crept into his heart.

Checking his phone, he saw it was already 7:30.

Class hadn’t started yet.

If he called Yu Mo now, she should be able to answer…

With that thought, Lu Feng dialed Yu Mo’s number—

“Sorry, the number you have dialed is powered off. Please try again later…”

Huh? What’s going on?

From what Lu Feng knew of Yu Mo, she was probably on her phone right now.

How could it possibly be turned off?

Could it be… she had forgotten to charge it last night?

Hmm… that did sound exactly like something that scatterbrained girl would do.

With that in mind, Lu Feng tried calling several other classmates he was close with, but without exception, all of their phones were also powered off.

Hanging up, Lu Feng felt dazed.

If only two or three people had their phones off, it could be explained as coincidence.

But everyone’s phone being off was clearly abnormal.

A sudden, inexplicable sense of dread welled up inside him.

He wanted to go to school to see what was happening, but then he remembered that he had promised Liuli not to go to school today.

Reluctantly, he gave up the idea.

Maybe… he should try contacting Yu Mo’s father?

But what would he say?

“I can’t reach your daughter, you should check on her”?

But who was he to Yu Mo, anyway? Why was he meddling so much?

Besides, it was just a phone call not going through.

What was there to be so anxious about? If she was at school, what could possibly happen?

After wrestling with himself for a while, Lu Feng finally decided to call Yu Mo’s father, just in case.

Face? What was that worth, compared to safety?

“Beep… beep… beep…” After a few rings, the call connected.

“Hello, Xiao Feng?”

“Yes, Uncle, sorry to bother you. I just wanted to ask… have you been able to reach Yu Mo?”

“Who did you say?”

“Yu Mo, your daughter, Yu Mo.”

“……”

It was such a normal question, but on the other end of the line, an eerie silence followed.

“Xiao Feng… are you joking with me?”

Lu Feng froze.

Just as he struggled to understand what Yu Mo’s father meant, the man continued,

“I’ve never had a daughter named Yu Mo.”