None of them are human.

Upon learning that in this place, aptly named the “Mortal End,” one could communicate with spirits as if they were living beings, Chen Sheng immediately sensed that this must be a shortcut hidden within the game’s scenario. After all, what could be more reliable than questioning those involved directly?

However, he soon discovered from the young female ghost that she was not one of the original spirits haunting the villa; she had come from elsewhere. She simply found the villa a suitable residence for ghosts and claimed it as her own.

Chen Sheng nodded in understanding. No wonder, in the tale he’d heard of the wealthy Li family, there had been no mention of a young girl ghost.

“So, what happened to those who originally haunted this villa?” he asked curiously.

“They moved to the basement. They never come upstairs, so I just let them be,” the young ghost replied, claiming to be a particularly magnanimous… ghost.

She could share her space and allow others to rest undisturbed.

Chen Sheng, upon hearing this, was momentarily stunned. “The… basement?” he repeated slowly, barely able to believe it. Up until now, he had always assumed the basement of this villa was meant to be a safe zone for players.

But now he learned that the true horrors of the villa were hidden down there?

What, then, was the motive of the man who instructed him to go to the basement?

“They’re in the basement. I haven’t seen them myself, but I can sense their presence—restless, lingering, constantly plotting harm,” the young ghost said. She glanced at Chen Sheng, her eyes wide. “Did you come here looking for them on purpose?”

“Harming people, you say?” Chen Sheng couldn’t help but think of the one-in-ten disappearance rate mentioned by the precinct’s registrar. He now suspected there was something deeply suspicious about that statistic.

“Yes. If they don’t keep harming people, they’ll be trapped here forever.” The young ghost nodded.

“But isn’t there a person living on the first floor?” Chen Sheng expressed his confusion.

“What person?” The young ghost looked puzzled.

“A man who seemed once prominent, but has since fallen on hard times…” Chen Sheng quickly described the man to her.

After listening, the young ghost shook her head at once. “No, I mean, there’s no one on the first floor. There’s no living soul in the entire villa.”

At last, Chen Sheng understood.

The slightly down-and-out man was a ghost!

A ghost who could appear in broad daylight, no less!

---

Curiosity piqued, Chen Sheng asked, “Do you know what happened in this villa’s past?”

What he had seen so far did not match what he knew.

“Yes,” the young ghost nodded.

“The villa’s owner was once a poor youth who rose to wealth with the help of a friend he’d met by chance. One day, he took a liking to his friend’s family heirloom and schemed to steal it, repaying kindness with betrayal.”

“What he didn’t know was that his so-called friend was not human, and that so-called heirloom was an instrument of punishment.”

As she spoke, the young ghost cast a glance at Chen Sheng—after all, the man before her carried on his person such a fearsome instrument.

“An instrument of punishment?” Chen Sheng heard the term for the first time, but didn’t press further. To him, it sounded like a magical weapon of sorts.

“And then the Li family met their end, didn’t they?”

“Yes, the entire household perished,” the young ghost confirmed. How could any living person hope to seize a spirit’s instrument of punishment? If it could be taken, it must have been by the spirit’s will, and only at a terrible cost to the thief.

“So, are the ones in the basement the original owners of the villa?” Chen Sheng wondered if the down-and-out man fit the image of the once-prosperous Li family patriarch.

Starting with nothing and amassing a fortune—such a background fit the man’s self-proclaimed “former glory.”

However, the young ghost shook her head. “No.”

“When the family died, their resentment was great, but the one who killed them seemed to recall their past camaraderie over wine, and so did not torment them further. He allowed the family’s spirits to dissipate.”

“So the Li family patriarch didn’t become a ghost?” Chen Sheng was surprised. “Then what about the ghost who appeared on the first floor?”

“That must be one of the first or second group of ten who strayed into this villa.”

“The first? The second?” Chen Sheng’s eyes widened with surprise. The information was becoming convoluted.

He inquired further, “According to the police records, this villa has a one-in-ten disappearance rate. Are you saying that this statistic actually refers to different groups of people over time?”

The young ghost, trying to count on her fingers, soon gave up and shook her head.

The numbers were too dizzying—best not to ask her for arithmetic.

---

“I’m not sure about that. All I know is, when I arrived, there were already ten fierce spirits here, trapped in the villa. Only by finding scapegoats could they be freed. Over the years, three of them have escaped, which added three more corpses to the basement. Before my time, whether any others escaped, I cannot say,” she explained, laying out all she knew.

After hearing this, Chen Sheng finally understood.

So the words of the precinct’s higher-ups had been lies—meant to fool only the ghosts!

That so-called one-in-ten disappearance rate was a number cobbled together from fragments of truth and fabricated at will.

Or perhaps it was just a misleading device, crafted by the devious designers of this “healing game” to confuse the players!

Piecing it all together, Chen Sheng came to a conclusion: the Li Family Villa scenario, which at first glance seemed an ordinary haunted mission, was in fact a deadly trap laced with misinformation!

“Still, the game’s designers weren’t entirely unfair—they did leave a subtle clue. But it’s so well hidden that ninety-nine percent of players will be forced to start over because of it.”

Chen Sheng grumbled inwardly, but as a “player,” he could only complain—nothing more.

“So how do I deal with the ghost on the first floor?” he asked.

The young ghost: (⊙_⊙)

Was it really appropriate to ask a ghost how to deal with another ghost?

And furthermore…

The young ghost, full of silent complaints, glanced at the instrument hanging from Chen Sheng’s waist, then crouched down and drew a few strokes on the floor with her finger.

She was skilled at drawing, so in just a few seconds, a simple gallows appeared on the ground.

Chen Sheng took one look and understood.

Wasn’t this his “beginner’s equipment”?