Chapter 53: The Knocking Ghost: Where Is My Door??

Bai Wan and the painter froze for a moment at the same time. Seizing the opportunity before the painter could react, Bai Wan quickly slammed the heavy door shut with a snap.

"Phew... Good thing my hands are fast." Bai Wan felt immensely relieved. If that terrifying painter had managed to escape, even with two team leaders present, the situation might not have ended well.

Meanwhile, Luo Yimeng and Zhao Jie froze in unison for several seconds.

Luo Yimeng: "???"

Zhao杰: "???"

"Was there something inside just now?" Luo Yimeng couldn't help rubbing her eyes.

Bai Wan shook his head firmly and said, "No, there was nothing at all."

Luo Yimeng's mouth parted slightly as she said uncertainly, "But just now, it looked like I saw a very fierce-looking person painting inside..."

"I think I saw it too... That look in their eyes was so terrifying..." Zhao Jie looked somewhat bewildered.

Cold sweat formed on Bai Wan's forehead as he said, "Ah, you two fight supernatural entities year-round and carry heavy psychological pressure. Experiencing illusions is completely normal. There's no painter inside the headquarters."

Upon hearing this, Luo Yimeng fell into doubt.

That made sense; where would a painter come from in the headquarters? Were they really hallucinating?

Luo Yimeng pulled open the door. Behind it was a normal headquarters corridor, and indeed, there was nothing there.

"Never mind, let's go... Maybe the pressure has just been too high lately." Luo Yimeng rubbed her head, realizing she probably needed some rest. Even so, vigilance lingered in her heart—could some terrifying supernatural entity have actually infiltrated the building?

Luo Yimeng and Zhao Jie led Bai Wan to a very spacious room.

Inside, there was only a single table with a purple box resting upon it.

Bai Wan sensed a strange fluctuation emanating from the box; it was clearly no ordinary object.

Luo Yimeng smiled and said, "This is the testing ground for the first stage, designed primarily to test observational and analytical skills. To protect the personal secrets of Ghost Hunters, there are no surveillance cameras. Xiaojie and I have also signed non-disclosure agreements, so none of your secrets will be leaked.

"The supernatural entity used in the test is controlled by us through special methods. If you encounter danger, we will immediately suppress the entity's actions. Please feel free to test with peace of mind."

Bai Wan nodded.

"Alright, you should activate the Hunting Mode first. Only after activation can you deal with supernatural entities in reality," Luo Yimeng instructed.

Bai Wan nodded and, following Luo Yimeng's instructions, activated the Hunting Mode within the gaming system.

Whoosh!

The moment he clicked to activate Hunting Mode, an invisible domain enveloped the entire headquarters.

A system prompt arrived:

【Player 'Family Member' has activated Hunting Mode. The temporary bug skill you purchased and retained can be used immediately under Hunting Mode without waiting for the cooldown. However, deploying supernatural props will still consume Ghost Coins. The supernatural entities encountered in Hunting Mode are unrelated to this system; their strength will not be suppressed, and no guaranteed path to survival will be provided. Please strive to analyze the entity's killing pattern and do your best to survive. Good luck.】

This was the first time Bai Wan had activated Hunting Mode.

To his pleasant surprise, the temporary bug skill he had retained could be used immediately, which was certainly good news.

"Your Hunting Mode has been successfully activated. Shall we begin the test now?" Luo Yimeng asked, seeking Bai Wan's opinion.

"Proceed."

"Alright, we will count down. The test will begin in ten seconds. The objective of the first stage is to successfully escape the room under the entity's assault," Luo Yimeng said, stepping into the corner of the room. She pressed her stopwatch and began the countdown.

Ten seconds later, the test officially commenced.

Simultaneously, a knocking sound began to echo from the heavy door of the room.

Thump, thump, thump!

A rhythmic knock sounded from outside the door.

The knocking was mechanical, resembling a robot striking the door at fixed intervals.

Sensing the chilling aura from outside, Bai Wan immediately realized that a supernatural entity was knocking on the door.

Next, Bai Wan keenly observed that a spider, which had been crawling on the floor a moment ago, suddenly stopped moving and collapsed dead.

After observing for a second, Bai Wan walked over to the table and opened the purple box. The contents inside caught him somewhat by surprise.

Inside the box lay a piece of paper covered in writing and a human arm.

The arm was a bruised, dark cyan color, and a faint, chilling aura emanated from it.

This was a supernatural arm.

Bai Wan picked up the paper and began to read.

It told a story: An earthquake had struck a certain city, trapping a man in the ruins, unable to escape. After finally waiting for a rescue team, because location tracking failed, the rescue team and the man missed each other by the narrowest of margins. The man frantically pounded on nearby doors, but his cries were muffled and could not get out. Ultimately, the man was buried alive and died in despair.

A month later, reports began to circulate that at night, a one-armed man would wander through other residential areas within the earthquake zone, pounding on residents' doors and asking everyone if they had seen the arm crushed during the earthquake. All the residents whose doors he knocked on met tragic, brutal deaths. This incident caused a massive uproar.

"A knocking ghost?" After reading the contents of the paper, Bai Wan formed a preliminary hypothesis regarding the first stage of the test.

Meanwhile, Luo Yimeng and Zhao Jie were secretly observing Bai Wan from the corner.

"Not bad, he's quite calm when encountering a supernatural entity. His psychological quality passes the mark," Luo Yimeng whispered, watching Bai Wan look over the note with an untroubled expression.

Zhao Jie nodded in agreement, saying, "Indeed. Many test subjects have decent talent, but their psychological fortitude is lacking; they break out in cold sweats the moment they encounter a entity, which means they won't go far. But 'Family Member' here is—What the hell!!"

Before Zhao Jie could finish his praise, he let out an exclamation of disbelief, staring dumbfounded as Bai Wan began twisting his body right in front of the knocking ghost...

"Is... is he dancing at the entity?" Luo Yimeng and Zhao Jie watched in utter astonishment as 'Family Member', after reading the note, seemed to take an interest and began dancing to the rhythm of the knocking ghost outside the door. Even more absurdly, his dance steps closely matched the frequency of the ghost's knocks.

Good grief, mister, are you using the knocking ghost as your personal backing band?!

She couldn't help asking in bewilderment, "Shouldn't we deduct points for this?"

Zhao Jie hesitated for a moment and said, "But it doesn't seem like he did anything wrong..."

"Still, under no circumstances should someone dance at a supernatural entity..." Luo Yimeng was somewhat at a loss.

Suddenly, Zhao Jie thought of the eccentric and unconventional Four S-Rank Team Leaders, and said, "Sister Meng, every powerful Ghost Hunter has their own unique personality."

"Including dancing at a supernatural entity?"

"Well... this actually proves that Bai Wan's psychological fortitude is rock-solid."

Luo Yimeng stood holding her notebook blankly, momentarily unsure of how to record this. Rock-solid psychological quality—that description wasn't wrong, but how was she supposed to write it down?

Should she write: Ghost Hunter Bai Wan possesses exceptional psychological fortitude, remains unfazed in the face of danger, and mocked the entity by dancing at it?

That didn't sound quite right...

"Alright, he's stopped his madness. Let's continue observing."

Seeing Bai Wan finish his dance and stop his provocative behavior with an expression of disappointment, Luo Yimeng breathed a sigh of relief.

Goodness, thankfully he still had some sense left.

If this top-tier newcomer had just kept dancing indefinitely, she genuinely wouldn't have known how to document it.

The purpose of this stage was actually to test observational and analytical skills.

The assessors had placed many small, inconspicuous crawling spiders inside the room beforehand.

The killing rule of the knocking ghost was to knock on doors and kill through sound waves.

If the test subject was observant, they would notice the spiders on the floor dying one by one.

From the deaths of the spiders, one could deduce the ghost's killing pattern, and by using the small note left in the box, deduce the condition required to successfully escape.

The knocking ghost was constantly searching for its arm; therefore, as long as one opened the door and returned the arm to it before it finished knocking, they would pass the test.

If all the spiders on the floor were exhausted and the test subject still hadn't figured out the entity's killing rule, the test would be considered a failure. After all, with no spiders left to absorb the damage, the next one to die would be the test subject.

Luo Yimeng and Zhao Jie held their pens, waiting to see Bai Wan's performance.

They wondered how the brain of this currently most popular mysterious newcomer worked and whether he could successfully crack this challenge.

If he could, how long would it take?

Figuring out the pattern within a minute would be considered excellent.

Yet Bai Wan had already spent over ten seconds dancing... his time was running out.

Suddenly, Luo Yimeng saw Bai Wan charge directly toward the door.

"He's actually charging straight at it without taking the severed arm..." A trace of regret flashed in Luo Yimeng's gaze.

What a pity; this most outstanding newcomer was going to be eliminated right on the first stage.

Although he had figured out the knocking ghost's killing pattern and rushed out while it wasn't knocking, he had overlooked the fact that the severed arm was the actual path to survival.

Test failed, grade: unsatisfactory.

Just as Luo Yimeng was about to put pen to paper in her notebook, she saw Bai Wan walk swiftly up to the door and skillfully wipe his hand across the wall.

Then, under the dumbfounded gazes of Luo Yimeng and Zhao Jie, the sturdy door suddenly turned into a solid brick wall.

Thud!

Abruptly, a muffled impact echoed from the other side of the wall, followed seemingly by the sound of cracking bones...

And then, the so-called knocking ghost was instantly silenced.

The entire room fell dead silent.