Chapter 1977: The Mystery of the Ghost Skull 38

Gao Tian, you take the camera and snap photos to report points! Zhang Tie, Golden Bull, you guard left and right! Gusman! You go to the rear to keep watch!

Extremely quick reaction!

Almost at the moment the anomaly appeared, Lin An suddenly turned, his body like a drawn bow, as his whole body's muscles instantly exerted force, he pulled out the rebar stuck beside him and shot it forth with a whistle!

Only see the rebar break through the air! After drawing an arc in midair, it plunged straight into the front of the car! In the empty air, a burst of black blood suddenly exploded—clearly Lin An's thrust was incredibly accurate, directly hitting the invisible ghost!

However, after this strike hit, everyone's vigilance did not lessen. In their eyes, several car roofs had been trampled again!

The ghostly creatures charging head-on are no fewer than seven or eight!

Quickly taking the camera, Gao Tian took a deep breath and hurriedly pressed the shutter toward the front, continuously shooting.

Just as Lin An had judged, as the flash bulb clicked on, the screen suddenly outlined seven fully rotting ghostly creatures.

Only see on the road, seven ghostly creatures like rotting corpses, one of their chests pierced through by rebar like tofu dregs; in pain, they lifted their heads and howled at them!

"Red car straight ahead! Bus left wheel! Fourth green belt fork! One dove under the car! Another I can't see—it's hiding!"

Can see it! Really can see it!

Although somewhat blurry, it's enough to capture the ghosts' traces!

"Good!"

"Whoosh!"

Grabbing another rebar, Lin An threw it without hesitation! Although Gao Tian's reported position wasn't real-time, these ghosts weren't fast either, so estimating the lead still worked!

Their coordination was seamless; despite no prior rehearsal, the effect was quite good.

But as the spear hit repeatedly a few times, Lin An and Gao Tian's hearts suddenly sank.

A hit is a hit, but aside from slightly hindering their approach, they seemed impossible to kill!

"Brother Lin! Are these things unkillable? Or do we need to shoot the head?!"

Holding the camera, Gao Tian watched the ghosts draw ever closer on the screen, feeling his scalp about to explode! Besides Lin An and Brother Zhang being able to dodge a bit, once they got close, they had no room to survive!

I thought they could hold out here a while longer, but judging by the situation, they might have to flee at any moment!

"If we can wound them, we can kill them! I'll try again!"

Extremely calm, Lin An took a deep breath and simply gripped the spear with both hands, charging to the edge of the platform.

Although it's normal that the ghosts can't be killed, he also wanted to give it a try! Not just to stall, but more to verify his idea.

With a restart in hand, he had plenty of trial-and-error opportunities!

(Long-range attacks hitting is already the limit, but if we want a headshot, we can only rely on close combat!)

Seeing Lin An actually want to engage the invisible ghosts in close combat, the Golden Bull on the right suddenly sucked in a breath of cold air.

Damn, this kid is really brave! If it were him in this situation, he'd have planned to run away long ago!

At the same time, Zhang Tie guarding the left couldn't help but want to abandon his side and run to support Lin An.

Facing seven invisible ghosts at once, even with terrain advantage, it's still too extreme!

"Captain Lin! I'll help you!"

Grabbing a fire axe, Zhang Tie let out a low roar, trying to help Lin An.

However, before he could run two steps, the glass beneath the left-side building suddenly shattered, and indeed more ghosts rushed from that direction.

Fuck!?

Zhang Tie jumped in shock, his eyes widening to ovals! Faced with this situation, he didn't know what to do for a moment!

"How can there be so many?!"

The crisis seemed far more than this.

As if anticipating something, only hearing a few heavy objects hit the ground, Golden Bull's face also changed dramatically, staring in shock at his right side.

He was guarding the direction of the burning building; logically, the sea of fire should block anything, so ghosts shouldn't appear. But in his view, a spark flashed within the roaring flames, and at the same time ghosts surged out of the sea of fire!

Surrounded on three sides! Except for the department store building at the giants' backs, which had no ghosts, at this moment at least over ten ghosts attacked in an encircling formation!

"Brother Lin!? What do we do?!"

Everything happened too fast; the ghosts' assault was far from the gradual increase everyone had anticipated.

Faced with this situation, several people began to panic, and Gao Tian didn't even know where to point the camera!

Lin An bore the greatest pressure, but the others' reactions weren't as quick as his! Once the ghosts charged up and broke through the metal frame, they'd be surrounded front and back!

"Go help Golden Bull! I'll handle it myself!"

Lin An's voice was like a dose of tranquilizer, calming everyone's hearts.

Only see Lin An quickly scanning around, then as if he'd thought of something, he thrust his spear and shattered the cement bags piled on the wall top.

With a puff, after tearing the cement bag open, he kicked the powdery cement dust forward, apparently intending to use this method to discern the ghosts' traces!

Admittedly, using dust to reveal shapes doesn't work at a distance, but in close combat it can still be quite effective.

As Lin An kicked open bag after bag of cement, scattering it on the ground below, soon the first somewhat deformed footprint appeared.

(Straight below! That thing is climbing the wall!)

"Pfft!"

As if he could see the ghost, Lin An's eyes narrowed, and without hesitation he thrust his spear, aiming straight at the imagined ghost's head.

Accompanied by a shudder of the spear, a burst of black blood suddenly exploded in the empty air.

These ghosts' flesh was far more "crumbly" than Lin An imagined, like a soaked steamed bun; his spear pierced the first ghost's skullcap in one thrust.

Pulling the spear back, he heard a thud, and Lin An's heart gave a slight leap.

Although he couldn't see the ghost he'd speared, as the falling sound rang out, this first ghost that had climbed up was clearly "dead"!

"Brother Zhang! Watch the left! Two have climbed up!"

"Golden Bull! Under your feet! Run!"

"There's another one! It's stuck to the wall!"

Like a scout running east and west, Gao Tian sprinted back and forth on the platform, his camera clicking nonstop.

Although Lin An alone bore the greatest pressure, ghostly entities appeared on both sides, so he could only shuttle back and forth reporting points to locate the ghosts on each side.

Especially Jinniu, compared to Zhang Tie who swung wildly like a spinning top relying on brute force—able to chop madly at thin air—Jinniu, whose strength was only that of an ordinary person, now darted about like a hiding mouse, jumping up and down the steel frame.

Meanwhile, the three weakest Gusiman fighters desperately grabbed their spears and thrust hard at the spots Gao Tian had reported.

They couldn't match Lin An's reaction speed; even all four together could barely handle the crawling ghosts.

Fortunately, after Xiong Hanzi found the trick, he roared, grabbed a steel pole and swept back and forth, allowing Gao Tian to step away and help Jinniu and the others defend.

Four minutes later.

As Lin An fired a shot that grazed the top of Jinniu's head and blasted the last ghost, everyone collapsed on the ground, trembling and gasping for breath.

The battle ended.

In total, thirteen ghosts attacked; Lin An alone killed nine, Zhang Tie took down two, and Gao Tian, Jinniu, and the others together finished off the rest.

It's hard to imagine, but after just a few minutes of fighting, aside from Lin An who could barely stay on his feet, everyone else—including Zhang Tie—was slumped on the ground.

"Damn it! This is too hard! Captain Lin! If another wave comes, we definitely can't hold them off!"

Lying on his back, Zhang Tie struggled to sit up, his eyelids twitching from exhaustion.

He couldn't match Lin An's precise ghost-slaying; relying solely on brute strength, he basically smashed wildly for a few minutes, literally bumping into and killing those invisible ghosts!

This method naturally consumed several times more stamina than Lin An's!

"My lord Lin An, do we really still need to hold this position?"

Jinniu looked at Lin An with a pale face and couldn't help asking aloud. Although these ghosts could be killed, the greatest threat had not yet appeared!

If that ghost from the workshop were added, they would definitely have been wiped out just now. Frankly, he suddenly felt Lin An's decision was mistaken; Qing Kai perhaps realized this and hurriedly led people away.

"Hold out one more round; if no one comes in the next wave, we'll withdraw from here."

Unlike the wavering Jinniu, Lin An spoke in a low voice, his gaze toward the distance.

He was waiting for Jiang Haochen and Andre to rendezvous; although he didn't know whether the two were still alive, he had to try.

This place is not far from the exit; if his earlier judgment was correct, then Jiang Haochen and his group must be nearby. As long as they're alive, they would surely notice the fire here.

Compared to blindly searching, staying here is the optimal solution. Although it seems they'd face endless ghost attacks, constant movement would only worsen the situation. Holding this position offers terrain advantage; once they fled onto the main road, they could easily run headfirst into the enemy.

Especially if that speculation proves true, the closer they get to the exit, the greater the danger!

"All right, my lord Lin An. I hope your judgment is correct..."

"But we've used the camera so many times and the workshop ghost still hasn't shown up—does that mean it's not nearby?"

Without further questioning Lin An, Jinniu instinctively looked toward the other side's pitch-black building, his brows furrowed.

He had always been on guard against that workshop ghost.

Compared to these ghosts, that workshop one truly deserves to be called a ghost. He even wondered whether the term 'ghost skull' referred to that very monster. And what they had just killed—he had no idea what it was.

He both feared its appearance and couldn't understand how it could show up once and then vanish as if it had never been there.

"It's possible; maybe it's also waiting for something."

Lin An gave a noncommittal reply, then stood up and prepared to grind the remaining rebar.

Jinniu blinked slightly, while Gao Tian beside him looked thoughtfully at Lin An's back. For some reason, he kept feeling Lin An was a bit off—like....

"Then let's go downstairs to find something to eat.."

"Although, maybe we won't find anything to eat..."

The atmosphere grew heavy; Gusiman struggled to his feet.

Everyone's stamina was greatly depleted; they were on the top floor of a three-story supermarket, with the mall below. When they entered, they saw nothing but darkness, but if they searched carefully, they might find some vacuum-packed food.

Having been useless throughout, Gusiman only intended to find something to eat, hoping to give Zhang Tie and the others as much stamina as possible.

Of course, he himself was starving to the point of unbearable.

"Gusiman, I'll go with you!"

With clear division of labor, seeing Gusiman prepare to bring the ogre and Gao Tian downstairs to look for food, Jinniu rubbed his stomach and simply followed them down.

Soon, only Lin An and Zhang Tie remained on the platform.

It was like the calm before a storm.

Just as if they'd been with Lin An too long, Xiong Hanzi furtively glanced around, then sprang up from the ground with a leap and cautiously walked to Lin An's back:

"Captain Lin, I always feel this mission is weird, with a kind of indescribable wrongness."

Scratching his head, Xiong Hanzi looked at Lin An with some worry. Not only did he sense an indescribable wrongness, he also thought Lin An himself seemed a bit off.

"What's wrong? Isn't everything heading in a good direction? This mission should be ending soon."

Lin An turned his head and softly reassured Zhang Tie not to worry.

"Captain Lin, do you really think that? I always feel many things are awkward, logically weird..."

It was rare for him to utter the word 'logic'; Zhang Tie blinked blankly. Hard to imagine, given his way of thinking, even if he understood nothing, he still felt problems everywhere.

The system demanded they complete their cognition, but what was the standard?

They had gathered so much information, yet still didn't know what a 'ghost skull' was.

Those decoded clues, at first listen, indeed seemed terrifying upon reflection, but what did they have to do with this mission?

Everything made Zhang Tie feel irritable and uneasy.

"Is the logic wrong? It's quite right.."

Unexpectedly to Zhang Tie, Lin An calmly disregarded his worry and simply chuckled:

"Missing information is normal. Going forward, whether we can or cannot complete the information, even if we die on the road, as long as I reboot, everything ceases to be a problem."

"After rebooting, I'll head to find you right away; even if something happens to Jiang Haochen's side, I can judge roughly where he'd be based on this experience."

"If one try fails, then two; the crux of this mission is to complete our cognition—without rebooting, finishing it is impossible."

Having said that, Lin An patted Zhang Tie on the shoulder, as if he had already settled on a plan.

Listening to Lin An explain like that, Zhang Tie foolishly nodded his head; whatever Lin Dui says goes.

(This mission is so difficult, not completing the first round is also normal... restart... Lin Dui having a restart is indeed the biggest trump card.)

"Gu Siman, when do you say the next wave will start?"

"Can we really hold them off? What do you say those ghosts just now were?"

Inside the dark Shang Cheng, Jin Niu frowned, unable to help turning his head to look at Gao Tian walking behind them.

Perhaps because the environment is too dark, he always feels a creepy feeling in his heart.

"The next wave probably won't appear until others gather, right? As for whether we can hold them off... Lord Lin An's strength here is still strong, I think that's also his confidence to continue waiting."

"As for what those ghosts are, I guess they are the people who died here, or as Lord Lin An said, other participants? However, I think the latter is unlikely; if so, the difference in appearance between a Fifth Stage and an ordinary person is still quite large."

Shrugging his shoulders, Ju Mo voiced his guess, but before he could finish, Gao Tian, who had been continuously flipping through the photos, suddenly interjected:

"Not necessarily; the photos are very blurry, and what they captured actually can't really be made out as what they are."

As he spoke, Gao Tian approached Jin Niu, gesturing with the back of his hand that Jin Niu and the others could identify them.

The few of them were slightly stunned, subconsciously turning their heads to gather and look.

The screen lit up.

The next second.

Dense ghost faces were reflected on the screen.

Inside Shang Cheng.

It was packed with ghosts.