The black flag in Old Yan’s hands and the set square in An An’s hands were both ghost tools with certain abilities.
When the trainers fled to Su Zimo and turned their backs on him to continue intercepting the scorched black figures that had fallen into madness, their most important combat weapons were the black flag and set square. The more times they were waved around, the more clearly Su Zimo could see the text boxes.
[Li Gui’s Command Flag (Two Stars)]
[Sale Price: 50 yuan]
[Description: The previous owner of the flag had the ability to control a certain number of weak ghosts and made a nifty command flag. The command flag is tainted with the essence of it’s previous owner and is slightly deterrent to weak ghosts.]
[Bloodstained Set Square (Two Stars)]
[Sale Price: 40 yuan]
[Description: The math teacher who was considered to be the most severe and terrifying finally fell forcefully onto his beloved podium and the set square he had with him. Although the set square that was tainted with blood isn’t a weapon against malicious spirits, it feels like the most severe teacher, causing weak malicious spirits to feel scared.]
Neither of the two ghosts tools contained a ghost, so there was no danger of the ghost reviving and causing backlash. Although their powers weren’t strong, as long as one properly took advantage of them, they could be more powerful than the ‘Ghost Eye of the Berserker.’
Su Zimo didn’t know why, but Ghost Umbrella wanted the ghost eye that was already worthless and was about to revive.
“You want this eye?”
Although it was difficult to see A-Liu’s expression through the sunglasses, Su Zimo sort of felt from his tone of voice and the corner of his mouth that A-Liu was not only not angry, but also… was somewhat happy.
“But…” Just after his joy passed, A-Liu’s tone became lost again. “This eye actually came to me by itself, and I even lost my original eye because of it. In fact, I already know that this ghost eye is a curse. I tried to remove it, but I didn’t get any results except several frightened doctors. I can’t remove this eye at all!”
Su Zimo heard the whispers from the ghost umbrella in his ear again. After hearing what the ghost umbrella said, he turned to A-Liu and said, “Relax. As long as you’re not worried about there being a bloody hole in your right eye, and if you can seek medical attention soon enough, I can remove the ghost eye before you clear the task.”
“Didn’t you say that this eye would kill me next time?” A-Liu’s tone became anxious. “AS long as this eye can be remove, I’d sacrifice half my life!”
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“Don’t chat, we can’t withstand it anymore!” Old Yan, who was resisting the scorched black figures in front of them, already appeared rushed. His body and skin were covered with black ash from being scratched by his figures. There were even still wounds on his arms. “I agree to your terms and will give you a ghost tool!”
The trainers’ task was to reach the end of the road.
But now, they can’t go forward at all, let alone finish the road. They even had to go backwards because of the pressure from the scorched figures.
Old Yan and the others actually had ‘Nightmare Brand Standard Daggers’ on them, but the daggers weren’t powerful enough, or perhaps they felt sorry for the innocent passengers who suffered through a disaster on the highway. They hadn’t eliminated even one of the figures.
In other words… wandering down this road wouldn’t get rid of the malicious spirits!
What made Su Zimo feel helpless was that even at that point, Old Yan and the others still refused to give up the cowering, pale, feeble driver. It was as if they put their hopes of task clearance on the driver who caused the accident.
“I also agree to your terms!”
“I agree too!”
“The deal is set!” After receiving all of the trainers’ responses, Su Zimo raised the phone in his right hand. “Unfortunately, I didn’t prepare a contract for this deal. I feel that there’s less of a sense of ceremony.”
After speaking, Su Zimo opened the file labeled ‘Music of the Dead’ in the recording software, and turned the phone’s sound up to its maximum.
Perhaps the ‘Ghost Call’ was simply a good ghost tool, but the sound from it was more clear than that from an ordinary cell phone. Although the effect wasn’t as good as Peng Peng’s live performance, the chaotic and unbearable noise made Su Zimo feel bad enough!
It’s just that Su Zimo had always held the handle of the black umbrella, and the chill that kept pouring into his body allowed Su Zimo to not suffer any negative effects other than a bad feeling.
Su Zimo remained himself, but the other trainers and the malicious spirits were all affected by the ‘Music of the Dead!’
The unbearable noises from ordinary people resounded, and those malicious spirits who had been attacking the trainers stopped instantly. They covered their ears with their scorched hands and exposed bones on their fingers. Their mouths that couldn’t make a sound continued shouting silently, leaving only their two rows of teeth set in their gums unbroken. They seemed to be cursing the song, perhaps because the influence of the ‘Music of the Dead’ infuriated them.
After all, the special ability of the sheet music was that the music played by the creator himself would make people burst with their deepest desires. Although the tune played by Ghost Call wasn’t played by him in the truest sense, and the malicious spirits could only say they were once human beings, the recorded song was equally effective for malicious spirits.
The influenced reaction of the trainers was more straightforward. After all, they could still speak smoothly.
“Appraiser, what’s going on with the music that even your clients are affected?!” Ling-jie, who once said that there were things in the real world she wasnted to ask Su Zimo about, seems to have identified Su Zimo as the appraiser.
“What is this, how can it be so terrible! Businessman, just take my ears away, at least I won’t have to suffer!” A-Liu, who had been pretending to be calm, shouted angrily from over there.
It could be seen that ‘Music of the Dead’ was very terrible!
“Come behind me.” Su Zimo had already heard from Ghost Umbrella how to relieve the influence of the music, so he leaned the handle of the black umbrella onto his shoulders, so that the umbrella could stop the noise from propagating behind him with its mysterious defensive abilities.
In that way, the influence of the music would be reduced for the trainers hiding behind Su Zimo.
It’s just that the trainers couldn’t move freely at that time because of the influence of the music. The expressions on their faces was as if they were being pierced by hundreds of needles at the same time. It was terribly painful, so they could barely move a step.
Su Zimo could only shake his head helplessly and take a few steps forward on his own. He walked into the group of malicious spirits who had stopped attacking because of the song. He used the black umbrella to isolate the trainers from the song, and their expressions eased a lot.
“Retreat.” Even Su Zimo couldn’t stay in the group of malicious spirits for too long, so he immediately let the trainers behind him retreat.
“Thanks… Thank you, even though this trick is a bit self-harming.” Old Yan immediately grabbed the two women who hadn’t recovered and backed them up several steps. “I feel like my head was hit by a drill just now.”
“Sorry, I have nothing to lose myself.” Su Zimo smiled, emphasizing the word ‘self’ and then said, “The pain in your head is nothing. If you listen to it longer, you may announce your bank password and all your organizational secrets.”
“It seems that the businessman also knows of Dawn? Is the organization already famous enough to be recognized by the natives of the nightmare world?” A-Liu said with a ‘stunned’ voice, sounding somewhat dismissive.
“Dawn is just an ordinary organization that lets everyone help each other when they’re helpless.” Old Yan was very supportive of his organization. “Don’t you feel scared when you’re alone in a nightmare world?”
“Hehe. Maybe one day your favorite Dawn badge will be transformed into a slave mark. It’s not as good as being at ease and alone.” A-Liu didn’t speak very well. He was the type where, the more uncomfortable his body was, the more unpleasant his speech became.
Su Zimo didn’t take A-Liu’s words to heart at the beginning. After all, he hadn’t seen any text boxes on the Dawn Organization badges, confirming that they weren’t ghost tools.
But after thinking about what A-Liu said… Su Zimo suddenly felt that if things really developed according to A-Liu’s imagination, then how horrible would the Dawn Organization’s existence become?
While Su Zimo thought about it, the recording of ‘Music of the Dead’ in his hand had unknowingly played to the end, and the next recording played automatically with a click.
There were only two recordings in the entire app. One with words, and one that was a string of numbers without any defining features.
When Su Zimo realized that the recording had switched, he wanted to switch it back, but found that the recording that started to play automatically… It turned out to be the ‘Music of the Dead’ which was played normally by Peng Peng. That is, the song was’ DreAm.’ <sup>1</sup>
It was a song… with deep sorrow hidden within joy.
As a mere prelude, it was reminiscent of a joyful dance on a rainy day, while the dancers secretly shed tears in the rain.
[This was recorded when we were experimenting in the shop.] The voice of the ghost umbrella reached his ears.
Su Zimo originally thought that once the song ended, the malicious spirits who had been tortured by it would awaken and rush over.
But they didn’t!
The notes of the song were like a small river flowing, like rain pattering on the windowsill, like a breeze blowing through a meadow full of yellow flowers, like moonlight reflecting on a lake.
Such leisurely music didn’t sound like it was remotely lethal, but the originally brutal ghosts didn’t move.
No. The ghosts did actually move.
The scorched figures put down the hands that were blocking their ears, then stood there quietly. Their mouths no longer opened and closed, their movements were no longer furious. They just stood quietly, motionless.
The image in front of Su Zimo should be terrible, but he could feel a bit of tranquility and sorrow from it.
The two pieces of music clearly achieved their goal of rendering the ghosts unable to act, but the former seemed to bind its captives with bloody thorns after intimidation and coercion. It could incite fury in an instant, but the captives couldn’t escape.
The latter was like a child who had been coaxed with a milk-flavored lollipop after crying and sobbing. Without any external restraints, they would stand there quietly, staring at you, as if trying to convey a certain emotion.
The strange thing was that the driver was also standing within the group of ghosts. Except, there were no injuries or burns on his body, nor was his expression or actions any different than those next to him.
“Some of you were responsible for reporting the incident, correct?” Su Zimo asked while looking at the driver. “When he was caught by the human services, was he that old?”
“He didn’t seem to be.” Ling-jie shook her head blankly. “If it was such an old man, the report at that time would have definitely treated that as a topic of interest. I remember that the driver should be quite young.”
Hearing Ling-jie’s words, the other trainers also began to look at the old man listening to the music with a sluggish face and weird expressions. The young man from a dozen years ago now looked over seventy years old.
“As a small gift for establishing a transaction-” Su Zimo spoke in a low voice. “The driver may be dead.”
If the driver had passed away, it wasn’t surprising that he would appear in the nightmare that had tortured him for countless hours with this elderly appearance.
“Mr. Appraiser, if you’re willing to tell us how to pass the level, I’m willing to add a… ghost… ghost tool!” the youngest person in the team of trainers was An An. She said at the beginning that she no longer had any nightmare points to deduct to avoid the death penalty.
“I can only give one suggestion.” Su Zimo made a small calculation in his heart, then beckoned An An closer.
Now that the music playing on Su Zimo’s phone would no longer affect the trainers, An An quickly walked to his side and listened to him as he whispered a few words.
“You really want to do this?” An An was a little worried.
“It’s worth a try.”
Perhaps it was the calmness of Su Zimo’s face that gave her a little confidence. An An took a few deep breaths as the ghosts stood obediently, then boldly shouted in her loudest voice–
“Attention everyone! We’re here to save people!”
“We are here! No matter what methods we use, we will rescue you and let you return to your family!”
“If you still have strength, please be sure to say something, we’ll rescue you now!”
“We are here to save you!”
After shouting to the back, An An’s voice was a little shaky.
“Our task is to bring as many people out of here alive as possible. So from the very beginning, we were here to save you…”
The trainers were also silent because of An An’s words.
The task of this nightmare world was to have them find living people on the highway, take them along the road, and then clear the task to leave the nightmare world. The additional condition of the task was for them to find as many living people as possible…
It’s like there was a voice asking the trainers to rescue the passengers trapped within the flames.
“You can save one, this one!”
“If you can save one more, save one more!”
Those passengers who burned up in the flames wouldn’t have expected what would happen merely ten minutes before the incident. Some were going to travel, some were going to the park, some were going to buy congee for their wives, and some were just now finishing work and going back to rest…
The ghosts’ attack on the driver just now wasn’t exaggerated at all.
It was like these ghosts’ silent shouts were them yelling: You’re finally here!
Footnotes
<ol>DreAm was in english in the raws, with the capitalization weird like that.</ol>