I truly didn’t see this twist coming.

Chen Sheng had already descended from the mountain, where thick fog had obscured his vision, but a certain matter still puzzled him.

“Going to Skull Temple is so easy—why do they insist I go? Is it just because I’m a player, the protagonist in this healing game’s script?”

At this thought, the corner of his mouth twitched suddenly.

He had just remembered that the pile of items his “Police Bureau colleague NPC,” who was also his longtime friend NPC, Yan Shidong, had prepared for him was left behind at that hotel. All those things were packed in a backpack.

“So should I go back to fetch it? After all, those are props, and I feel like there’s more story to unfold at the hotel—maybe I’ll encounter that suspected companion again.”

Following the usual plot structure of movies and games, Chen Sheng quickly made his decision.

He had walked this path before, so he moved swiftly, and when he arrived once more at the hotel’s entrance, it still looked the same—empty, devoid of people.

He glanced around and headed straight to the third floor, stopping in front of the room where he’d stayed. As he was about to push the door open, a woman stepped out from inside.

The sight of her stunned Chen Sheng.

The woman also paused, but then, with a disgruntled tone, scolded him, “You all went too far yesterday!”

“Yesterday? Too far?”

Chen Sheng’s expression became peculiar, for this woman was “Jake’s” girlfriend.

So what plot development was this? Hadn’t the woman and her friends all fled because of Jake’s body hanging in midair? How had she returned?

Just then, the woman gave an awkward smile, reached out her hand, and said, “Sorry, you really scared us yesterday. If you’re Jake’s friend, you should’ve said so sooner. By the way, your magic trick was really impressive!”

Magic trick?

Chen Sheng was even more bewildered, but he recovered quickly, shook her hand, and then replied calmly, “I should be the one apologizing, but you can’t blame me—it was all Jake’s idea.”

He had begun to form a theory.

If nothing unexpected happened, after Chen Sheng killed the NPC called Jake, the hotel’s ghost storyline must have been triggered.

Jake had become a ghost, lingering in the hotel, and managed to lure his girlfriend back.

As for why he thought so? Well, movies always play out like this! It was an old trope—Chen Sheng was more than familiar with it.

He then asked, “I left my backpack in this room yesterday and forgot to take it. Could you help me find it?”

“Backpack? What backpack? There was nothing here when we arrived!” The woman looked genuinely confused.

The look in her eyes didn’t seem fake, which made Chen Sheng feel uncertain.

But, considering the healing game’s meticulous planning, perhaps there was an NPC designed to lie, so Chen Sheng made up another excuse and went inside to check.

“Jake, Jake, where are you?” Chen Sheng shouted as he walked in.

Since the ghost claimed to be his friend, Chen Sheng naturally played the role of a devoted companion. He wondered what expression the ghost would show upon seeing him again.

However, he found the room empty.

The bed was messy, but only with the woman’s clothes. His backpack was nowhere to be found.

“Where’s Jake?” the woman followed him in, looking around in confusion.

Chen Sheng glanced at her and shook his head inwardly.

By conventional plot standards, any woman involved with a ghost was doomed.

Her boyfriend had tricked her into returning, clearly intending for them to become a pair of doomed lovers.

“He’s probably hiding somewhere…” Chen Sheng covered for the ghost, then began chatting with the woman—purposefully.

Before long, he got the information he wanted.

She told him the hotel only got lively at night, with food and drink freely available. All her friends had come back except for the man who resembled Chen Haonan. No matter how Jake pleaded, that man insisted on leaving and even argued with them.

“So Brother Haonan really has brains,” Chen Sheng joked to himself. He meant nothing by it, just felt that the appearance of a Chen Haonan-like character in this healing game was probably the designers’ quirky sense of humor.

Then Chen Sheng described another person.

The woman shook her head. “Called Mountain Chicken? I don’t know him, probably not one of the street crowd. Anyone with a bit of fame in the underworld, I’d recognize.”

Chen Sheng sighed inwardly; Mountain Chicken was as insignificant as ever.

He then prepared to leave the hotel.

Since he suspected the hotel would soon be haunted, and his backpack was missing, there was no reason to linger.

Chen Sheng exited directly, encountering no trouble, until he was about to enter Upper Sanjiang City and was stopped by a squad of patrolling police officers.

It was already getting dark.

“Who goes there?” someone among the patrol shouted, all of them raising their weapons in alert.

“It’s me, Chen,” Chen Sheng said.

But as soon as he spoke, the officers recoiled in fear. One blurted out, “Chen, we might have only met once, but please, for the sake of our status as trainee officers, just leave! If you go inside and something happens, we’ll never become full officers!”

His words spread a wave of invisible dread, making the usually diligent trainees—who worked hard to earn their promotion—retreat anxiously.

Their attitude made it clear: if not for the fear that Chen Sheng might enter Upper Sanjiang City and jeopardize their promotions, they would have fled already.

The scene left Chen Sheng confused, but he quickly understood.

They mistook him for a ghost!

Strange incidents happened often in Upper Sanjiang City, so these trainee officers patrolled day and night. Though they couldn’t handle supernatural phenomena directly, they could spread news quickly and try to drive away the strange entities.

The current scene was one of the more common methods of expulsion.

“What’s wrong with you all? Who said I was dead? I’m alive and well!” Chen Sheng declared, taking deep breaths to prove it.

Ghosts couldn’t breathe; the officers thus confirmed Chen Sheng was alive. One of them couldn’t help but say, “Chen, Captain Yan said the bus you were on crashed and everyone died. We thought you did too.”

“What?”