From the first moment Lin Mo saw the gaunt man, he had the feeling that the person looked familiar.
However, given the circumstances at the time, he couldn't dwell on it.
Thinking about it now, Lin Mo was certain he had seen this gaunt man before, but couldn't recall where exactly.
Additionally, he was sure the man wasn't one of his neighbors.
By now, chaos had erupted in that building, with thick smoke rising and flames flickering.
Faintly, one could still hear intermittent howls coming from inside the building.
Lin Mo thought to himself, would this fire actually burn down the entire building?
But if it burns, so be it.
Inside the building, there were likely no survivors left, only various terrifying monsters, so let it burn - burning it all down would put an end to everything.
Reflecting back, those dozen or so minutes were undoubtedly fraught with danger at every step. Any misstep could have led to a different outcome.
Not just Lin Mo, but even the pale ghost shadow that had been following behind Lin Mo with ill intentions was subdued. Since earlier, the pale ghost shadow had been unusually quiet, likely because even it had never seen someone so reckless yet somehow still alive.
But no matter how dangerous it was, the result was that Lin Mo survived.
Moreover, he had gained something.
He had a lighter in his hand.
Besides that, in the inner pocket of his jacket, he carried the pencil with the spirit of the planchette attached, as well as that blood-stained diary.
It was only a pity about that knife.
Lin Mo muttered to himself.
From the perspective of a top-tier gamer, these were all crucial items, including the pale ghost shadow still standing behind him at this moment, which could be seen as a status effect applied to him.
With the pale ghost shadow following behind, Lin Mo could feel his physical abilities had improved significantly. Previously, when this thing had possessed Old Zhang from the property management, Old Zhang had become like a fierce beast, clearly a special ability of the pale ghost shadow.
So as long as one didn't trigger the pale ghost shadow's taboos, and had enough courage, it could completely be used as one's own "weapon".
That's exactly what Lin Mo was doing.
Earlier when they reached the first floor, if not for the pale ghost shadow's presence, the face spider would have pounced over already.
Moreover, after experiencing that series of events just now, the pale ghost shadow also stopped trying to lure Lin Mo to look back, as if it was now also puzzled.
Puzzled about whether Lin Mo was one of its own kind.
Otherwise, how could he dare to actively provoke those obviously more terrifying monsters?
Just at this moment, footsteps sounded from behind. Lin Mo reacted extremely quickly, immediately diving forward, then turning to face backwards.
Not far behind him, a person was now standing there.
A middle-aged man, not very tall, looking rather refined and scholarly.
He didn't seem to be a monster.
Lin Mo noticed that the man had likely come over from the Green Garden residential complex across the way. Could he be a resident from over there?
A survivor.
Lin Mo put on a friendly smile and raised his hand in greeting. The middle-aged man opposite seemed a bit surprised, but also nodded at Lin Mo.
He was about to speak when he suddenly noticed the young man across from him had vanished.
The middle-aged man wasn't surprised, but murmured: "Did he wake up in reality?"
It was evident that the middle-aged man was accustomed to such occurrences.
At this point, the pale ghost shadow suddenly lost its possessed target and began moving towards the middle-aged man, trailing wisps of terrifying black energy.
At the same time, a patch of darkness appeared beneath the middle-aged man's feet, like a large pool of boiling black water. Vaguely, one could hear terrifying howls coming from within this dark liquid.
The pale ghost shadow instantly stopped in its tracks.
It sensed a threat.
The next moment, it turned and fled, quickly disappearing into the darkness.
"This nightmare is not simple," the middle-aged man said to himself.
Then he turned his gaze towards the building not far ahead, which was now billowing smoke and flames. "That level-two contamination source is not in Green Garden, it must have been transferred here by someone. But by the looks of it, there's no need for me to intervene."
The middle-aged man could see that this fire was now unavoidable.
Flames were spreading from the corridors on each floor to the surrounding areas, especially on the seventh and first floors, where the fire was already burning fiercely.
In this situation, even he couldn't enter.
The middle-aged man simply stood watching as the entire building was engulfed in flames.
"The influence of that level-two contamination source has disappeared," the middle-aged man sensed something and murmured, "Well, I can write the report like this when I get back: Due to unknown reasons, a fire broke out at the contamination source location, the contamination source was incinerated, mission completed."
After saying this, the middle-aged man stretched out his hand and looked at the watch on his wrist.
Then he sat down on a nearby rock.
During this time, strange shadows occasionally roamed through the surrounding darkness, some even emitting odd cries, but not a single nightmare dared to approach the middle-aged man.
Rather than fearing the middle-aged man himself, it was more accurate to say they feared the large black patch beneath his feet.
It was as if it were an entrance that could lead to the abyss. No one knew what lay beneath this circular black patch, but the unknown is always the most terrifying.
An hour later, the middle-aged man's figure flickered and vanished.
...
Lin Mo was awakened by the sound of someone banging on the door.
He opened his eyes.
"Is anyone in there? Open the door quickly."
Someone was shouting loudly outside the bathroom stall, and it sounded like more than one person.
Lin Mo remained calm, got up and flushed the toilet, then opened the stall door.
Outside stood several people.
Besides a few neighbors, there were also two police officers.
"Can't even use the bathroom in peace," Lin Mo grumbled, intending to take the initiative. He looked at the people in front of him and said, "What do you want?"
The people outside were also somewhat surprised.
One police officer said, "You've been in the bathroom for too long. The neighbors were worried something might have happened to you, so they called us to come check."
"It's good that nothing's wrong. Remember, no matter how tired you are, don't fall asleep, not even for a nap," the other police officer said with relief, seeing that there was no issue.
Like everyone else, they had been up for two nights straight, their eyes bloodshot and expressions weary.
Lin Mo, who slept every night, was in good spirits at this time.
Clearly, no one had noticed what time Lin Mo had entered earlier, otherwise they would have realized something was amiss. After all, who would spend five hours using the toilet?
From when Lin Mo fell asleep until now, more than five hours had passed. It was now already 3 AM.
Outside, the night was at its darkest.
After washing his face with cold water, Lin Mo walked into the hall. The lights were on full brightness, with no one sitting down. People were standing around in small groups, talking.
There was no choice; everyone was at their limit.
Forget sitting, even leaning against the wall might lead to falling asleep.
Lin Mo felt a bit hungry. There was food on the table, so he sat down to eat, his mind still on what had happened in his dream earlier.
Lin Mo didn't pay much attention to that middle-aged man he had seen at the end.
What he was concerned about was the gaunt man.
The more he thought about it, the more familiar that person seemed.
Coincidentally, in a corner of the table in front of Lin Mo was a stack of newspapers.
Many of these newspapers were printed previously, as this was originally a community activity room in the residential complex, with newspapers provided free for residents to read.
Just then, Lin Mo glanced over and suddenly noticed something. He quickly put down the bread in his hand and picked up the newspaper on top.
It was a copy of the "Migratory Bird Daily" from two months ago.
There was a news article about the sentencing of a murderer, with a photo of the criminal printed alongside.
"It's him!"
Lin Mo immediately recognized him.
The photo published in the newspaper was exactly the same as the gaunt man he had seen in his dream.
Identical.
Especially that hollow gaze, which regarded human life as worthless - it was unmistakable.
No wonder Lin Mo had felt the man looked familiar. This murderer had caused quite a stir in Migratory Bird City at the time, with many news reports covering the incident.
Reportedly, the man had brutally murdered eleven people over the course of several years.
The news article didn't go into much detail about the perpetrator's methods, but one could get a general idea from the terms used by the police.
"Extremely brutal", "devoid of humanity".
Just these two phrases were enough to convey the enormity of the murderer's crimes.
The final result was naturally a death sentence, to be carried out immediately.
By the time it was reported in the newspaper, this person had already been executed.
Lin Mo looked at the newspaper, chewing and swallowing the bread in his mouth.
A dead murderer had appeared in the dream, and was continuing to kill people in the dream world. What exactly was going on?
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