Chapter 78 - The Shadow that Crawled Out of the Computer

“The Seven-Colored Gloves, which could be taken off seven times a day, changing into seven different colors, would refresh every twenty-four hours.

I’m looking to trade them for a ticket.”

The post also contained a short video, where the person in the video was wearing a single red glove.

Each time it was pulled off, the thin glove changed color like a snake shedding its skin, cycling through red, orange, yellow, green, blue, indigo, and violet.

No one knew if the glove remained the same item with each color change.

Omnipresent Strings could only use any object once, and carrying around a stack of gloves was decidedly inconvenient, let alone expensive to procure from one’s surroundings.

If there was an item that could refresh itself, it would be much more convenient for Strings to use.

Xu Huo immediately sent a private message, but after waiting awhile with no response, he shut off the computer and went back to bed.

In the middle of the night, he half-awoke to see a shadowy figure standing by his bed.

He reflexively kicked out only to meet air, then sat up and turned on the light, finding everything in the room just as it was before he went to sleep.

He got up to look out the window, from the fourteenth floor he could see the entire complex clearly.

“Knock, knock.” Someone was at the door.

He opened it to find the Girl in the painting holding a piece of paper: “I heard a second person’s voice.”

Xu Huo arched an eyebrow slightly, which meant his earlier sense wasn’t mistaken.

“Go get Yuan Yao over here.”

The Girl in the painting left, and after a short while Yuan Yao came over, dark circles under his eyes, “Brother Xu, what’s happened so late at night?”

“Someone was in my room just now.

Help me check an address—I suspect I’m being watched.” Xu Huo opened the forum and found the previous post, still no reply to the private message.

“Whoever it is, they’ve got guts!” Yuan Yao was instantly enlivened.

“Don’t worry, Brother Xu, I’ll definitely find the person!”

He said, then sat down at the computer and started working.

“What happened?” Huang Junjie came over upon hearing the noise.

Xu Huo pointed at the computer, “Just wait and see.”

After a moment, Yuan Yao looked up with an odd expression, “The address is actually a haunted house.”

“Last year a whole family was wiped out here, the whole household registry died, and the house has been sealed since.

Why would someone be going online from there?

Could it be haunted?”

“Maybe someone is hiding there.” Huang Junjie, the rationalist, asked, “What exactly happened just now?”

“Someone entered my room, then vanished in a blink of an eye.” Xu Huo pondered, “It didn’t seem like a living person.”

Yuan Yao rubbed the goosebumps on his arms, “Bro, don’t tell ghost stories in the middle of the night, okay?”

Huang Junjie glanced at him with a complexity in his eyes, “Not being a living person doesn’t mean it’s a ghost.

It could be some strange item or ability.”

“Are you sure it’s the person who made the post causing trouble?”

The latter question was directed at Xu Huo.

“Just a hunch,” Xu Huo paused, “Could it be a fake address?”

Receiving a post from an uninhabited haunted house was in itself unusual.

“How about we go check it out tomorrow?” Yuan Yao suggested tentatively, “If someone is really targeting us, we should strike first.”

“It could be a trap,” Huang Junjie said, “I think it’s better not to get involved.

If they have any intentions, they will surely come again.”

Xu Huo shared the same thought, not knowing what the shadow wanted to do, but if it didn’t succeed once, there would certainly be a second attempt.

But he hadn’t expected the second visit to come so quickly.

As dawn was breaking, a shadow slowly emerged from the computer screen, poking its head out.

In the darkness, Xu Huo watched with half-open eyes as the figure squeezed their body out of the narrow frame and tiptoed towards his bed.

Strictly speaking, this wasn’t a person; it resembled a sparring dummy, having the outline of a human but lacking a face and features.

It stood by the bed and then bent down forcefully, extending its head towards Xu Huo’s face.

Halfway there, it stopped abruptly, as if scared by something, jerked back, and then vanished into thin air.

Xu Huo couldn’t sleep anymore, so he simply got up to run and bought breakfast along the way.

At the breakfast table, he talked about what happened.

Yuan Yao looked serious for a moment, “Could this ghost be a pervert?”

Xu Huo paused from drinking his soy milk, “What drove you to that conclusion?”

Yuan Yao let out a chuckle, “You said it didn’t do anything but lean towards your face.

Maybe it coveted your good looks…

Never thought there’d be a lecherous ghost.”

“Stop joking.” Huang Junjie said exasperatedly: “Since you’ve caught its attention, you have to be careful.

I’m free today, I’ll have a look around nearby.”

“Is Brother Xu busy today?” Yuan Yao asked Xu Huo.

“I’m going to the film and television city,” Xu Huo said.

“What are you doing at the film and television city?

Chasing stars?” Yuan Yao asked, puzzled.

“Work.”

After breakfast, Xu Huo headed to the film and television city alone.

The payment for his previous role as an extra had been settled, but the group head had asked him to help out with a fight scene.

Having a good relationship, he had agreed.

Upon taking a taxi to the film and television city, he approached a fantasy drama crew’s location, only to be stopped by Cai Zhiyuan from afar, “Was just about to call you, and you appeared before I had the chance.”

“Today’s shoot can’t go on.”

“Something came up?” Xu Huo glanced at the noisy studio.

Several young girls were hurriedly transferring luggage and makeup cases to a nanny van.

Inside the van, a female voice urged, “Hurry up, I can’t stand this creepy place for another minute!”

A somewhat famous director stood by the van, speaking softly with someone inside.

“I’ll pay the full penalty fee, but I won’t shoot this drama anymore,” the woman’s voice said determinedly.

The director, in desperation and anger, could only turn away and leave.

“Celebrities from Jing City really are different,” Cai Zhiyuan clucked his tongue in wonder, “If it were any ordinary actor, they wouldn’t dare leave even if the set was haunted, let alone under threat of a knife.”

“Haunted?” Xu Huo was slightly surprised, “Another rumor?”

Some props in the film and television city were quite old, and some crews, in order to create hype, would deliberately spread fake news about these places during filming.

“No, it’s real,” said Cai Zhiyuan, pulling him aside, his voice lowered, “A few nights ago, during a night scene, the big star encountered a ghost in the resting room.

She said a shadow ran past behind her, and though everyone thought she was seeing things, when she returned to the hotel, that very shadow climbed onto her bed.”

“A stalker?”

Cai Zhiyuan shook his head, and spoke with an air of mystery, “How could that be?

As if the celebrity’s bodyguards are just for show.

No one entered her room at all.”

“It would have been one thing if it had happened once or twice, but the next day, when the star was catching up on sleep on set, she saw that shadow again.”

“This time, it wasn’t just her who saw it; the assistant bringing her water saw it too.

It’s just that the lighting was a bit dim, so they couldn’t see it clearly, only a black shadow running out the window.

But when they chased after it to take a look, guess what?”

“There wasn’t a soul in sight!”

“The camera was running at the time, and it should have captured the outside of the window, but there was absolutely no one there.”

“How odd is that?

Two people saw it, but the camera recorded nothing.

That’s why the star isn’t putting up with it anymore and is willing to pay to leave.”

Xu Huo’s gaze swept over a computer bag in the assistant’s hand and turned back to Cai Zhiyuan, “Brother Cai, I’m thinking of changing jobs.”