Chapter 18: The Sinister Laughter
Unless he was in a situation where death was guaranteed, he wouldn't open the notebook for even a second.
Everyone could rely on him, but Li Mo could only rely on himself.
The notebook was ultimately an anomaly. If he continued to act according to its will, he would only fall into an abyss of no return step by step.
After all, anomalies couldn't die, but humans could.
"But didn't you say earlier that each grave incense stick represents one day of the funeral process? If we use the second one on the first day, won't there be a problem?" Shigure Kira asked worriedly. She hadn't completely lost her judgment and remembered clearly what Li Mo had said before.
Li Mo directly and forcefully inserted the first grave incense stick into the top of the second one. This way, the second grave incense stick would naturally light up after the first one was burned out.
But this also meant that time was misaligned. The first day's process hadn't finished, and the second day's process would arrive.
And if the second day's process wasn't finished, the third day's process would arrive, and so on and so forth...
The process of one day alone was enough to wipe out Li Mo and the others, let alone the supernatural phenomena and the minute details that needed to be observed and dealt with when two days' processes were stacked on top of each other. The terror was not as simple as a simple addition.
What's more, the first day was originally the easiest day...
"There's no time to worry about that. In theory, the five-day funeral process would only become more terrifying each day. By arbitrarily using the second day's grave incense, we've disrupted the order of the funeral, and it's bound to attract some supernatural backlash, even causing conflict with the rituals of the following days."
"The second, third, fourth, and fifth days will only become more difficult."
"But if we can't even survive the first day, then no matter how difficult the following days are, they will be irrelevant to us."
"No one will save us. When the next rescue squad arrives, we will only become dead ghosts that threaten them."
"Desperate times call for desperate measures. What we need to do now is to survive by any means necessary, and we can think about the troubles we might encounter later."
Li Mo showed his extremely strong judgment and execution at this time.
A leader shouldn't hesitate. Those who were hesitant and weak wouldn't be able to survive until now in this environment.
Li Mo hadn't survived until now because he was special. Rather, he was special because he had survived until now.
If one had to say what made him special, it would be that his ability to restart gave Li Mo more opportunities to make mistakes than ordinary people.
The fire suddenly brightened, slightly illuminating the original gloom of the auditorium.
A "rustling" sound suddenly came from the door. It was very soft, like something walking out of the forest and slowly approaching the auditorium.
The figure in the portrait on the spirit tablet suddenly showed a sinister smile, with its eyes staring straight at the real Li Mo.
"Hehe! Hehe!"
A strange laughter lingered near the spirit tablet. Li Mo frowned and immediately turned around to look at the spirit tablet.
The figure in the portrait had returned to normal. There was no sinister smile, and it wasn't looking at everyone anymore.
The empty gaze in the portrait of Li Mo seemed to be staring at the door of the auditorium, trying to see something in the endless darkness.
The only visible things were the blackish-red blood above, indicating that some unsearchable events had occurred just now.
A stench finally emerged from the black blood, like a corpse that had decayed for three years in a dirty sewer, mixed with the smell of dead rat fur and rotten meat.
Shigure Kira made a disgusted face, frowning and saying in an unbearable tone, "Ugh... It's so smelly! Is it the stench from the blood that had spilled?"
"Ugh...!"
"Are you okay? Cover your nose first!"
The stench of the black blood was even more nauseating than the aura of the head-eating ghosts before.
It had only spread for half a minute, but half the people couldn't help but throw up stomach acid and undigested food scraps from their stomach and intestines.
"Why is it so smelly? I can't take it." Some Valkyries activated the air purification function of their armor, which finally made the air in the auditorium slightly breathable.
Only Li Mo stood motionless in front of the spirit tablet, completely unaffected.
He pondered for a moment before finally crouching down and using his index finger to touch the black blood.
Relying on the suppressing effect of the grave incense, Li Mo became more daring with his actions.
"Direct contact with the black blood didn't trigger the rules of the ghost. This blood isn't a ghost's power, but a byproduct. It doesn't have the ability to share the same senses as the ghost."
Li Mo put his index finger in his mouth.
He hadn't lost his human senses, but he was more able to tolerate harsh environments. Even if he smelled the foulest stench or ate the bitterest food, he wouldn't show any expression because he was unable to express them.
"This taste is no different from rotten pieces of corpse meat."
"So, before I came here, many people had already died. The time of death was probably more than half a year, no... not necessarily, but definitely not less than three months. Otherwise, the smell wouldn't be so strong."
Li Mo quickly analyzed, stood up, and looked toward the door of the auditorium behind him, with a profound look in his eyes.
Outside was a blurry darkness. If they didn't go to the door, they wouldn't be able to see what had happened outside. There was only a vast darkness, silently swallowing everything.
"How could you eat that stuff... Aren't you afraid of being targeted by a ghost?" Shigure Kira's mouth twitched. Her expression toward Li Mo became even stranger.
She couldn't imagine how someone could endure eating such a disgusting thing.
Li Mo didn't care. If he hadn't died, he might have been influenced by psychological factors and would have had others taste it, but the results would definitely not be as accurate as if he tasted it himself.
The living Li Mo was ultimately a normal, fun-loving person.
But he had already died, and twice.
The anomaly was reviving in his body, and there was even an urge to burst out.
In order to obtain more accurate data, he had to personally get involved. He couldn't maintain his current state for much longer.
Once he solved this anomaly, he had to return immediately and remove the accumulated deaths.
"Ghosts have targeted me a long time ago. One more won't make a difference. As long as I haven't met their killing rules, they can't kill me even if they are targeting me," Li Mo said indifferently.
He casually glossed over the terrifying matter of being targeted by a ghost.
Although Li Mo didn't know what the real rules were.
Experience was sometimes unreliable. Make bold guesses, carefully seek evidence.
"You're really..." Shigure Kira was about to complain.
Suddenly, the firelight flickered and completely went out, and the entire auditorium was plunged into darkness.
But it quickly recovered, and a faint light lit up again, dispelling the darkness within the auditorium.
Li Mo glanced at his own portrait. There was no change.
The black blood on the ground was also the same as before, without moving an inch.
The ground was still stable, and the head-eating ghosts outside were still dormant.