Chapter 1989: The Mystery of the Ghost Skull 50

How do I hand the camera over to myself?

In the apartment shadows, Lin An gazed solemnly at the camera in his hand, his mind racing.

He could feel the camera's weight and his own substance, yet in his original self's eyes he seemed nonexistent.

When he first saw his original self, the camera in his hand slipped and fell; logically, even if his original self couldn't see him, he should have noticed something dropping...

Is it that he didn't notice, or that he can't see me? Or even that nothing about me can be reached?

No... If I have no way to contact my original self, how did I pass the camera last time?

But that's not right either; if he just couldn't see me, why did my previous self only hand over the camera and do nothing afterward?

I could leave a note... actively contact myself...

Frowning tightly, Lin An strained to think about the relationship between himself and his original self.

Three main problems now face him.

1, how can he help himself, how to pass the camera, and how to convey the second segment of information from the TV to himself?

2, how did his previous self die, why didn't he save himself, and why did it seem he did nothing at all?

3, if this is the third round, what did his first-round self encounter?

Thus, Lin An at least needs to reconstruct three timelines.

And he must also reconstruct three versions of himself.

Specifically:

Self 1-Ghost 2-Self 3, totaling three selves' choices.

"Self 3, that is, the Lin An now in the apartment, will do what requires the least thought, because his memory is exactly the same as mine now, and I know more."

"The difficulty lies in what happened to the first-round Lin An and the second-round Ghost Lin..."

Unraveling the cocoon, Lin An plans to start with Ghost 2.

If the first round truly existed, he likely died instantly, otherwise he wouldn't have zero memory; thus to reconstruct the hardest Self 1, he must deduce by reverse inference!

"Assuming I am Ghost 2, in the previous round I handed over the camera, which shows I knew the camera was important to me and that I had been to the hospital."

"But Ghost 2 likewise has no memory of Self 1, and his memory should be the same as Self 2's, so how did Ghost 2 know about the camera? And why did he go to the hospital?"

"I couldn't possibly not want to save myself, nor leave no information; by reverse inference, either I was unable to do so then, or I simply knew nothing!"

His eyes flickered; Lin An suddenly lifted his head, intending to simulate Ghost 2's thought process from scratch.

"Assume: I am now Ghost 2!"

"According to my current situation, in the previous round I also appeared outside the apartment, with no memory, just like when I first entered the mission."

His gaze shifted; Lin An's eyes quickly switched to a blank state, as much as possible to simulate Ghost 2's thinking.

"I saw myself appear outside; I would certainly be surprised and would definitely try to touch the light shield to see if I could get in."

"Bang! The light shield lit up—this is what Jin Niu and them saw!"

"Afterward, I realized I couldn't enter, and saw my own head poking out! At that moment I would be utterly shocked, either thinking the inner me was a ghost or the outer me was a ghost!"

Standing in place, Lin An looked around, his whole body jolting, just like the Self of the second round's 'death'.

"I don't even know any information inside the apartment, so what would I do at this point?"

"Would I leave here to look for clues, then accidentally stumble upon the hospital?"

"No... I wouldn't be that reckless; I would definitely wait for the light shield to end, then check things out! Even if I feared the person inside was a ghost, I'd hide aside and observe!"

"So I must have encountered something that forced me to leave here!"

"What drove me away... is..."

"Wait!"

"Damn it! I get it!"

Lin An's heart jolted; he instantly turned his head toward the hospital direction, as if in the distance at the end of the road, a fierce ghost was moving!

"I am not the Camera Ghost!"

"Ghost 2 of the second round never went to the hospital! I initially had no camera in hand, and the photos weren't taken by me!"

"The camera was brought by a ghost! There is a ghost on the top floor of the mental hospital that can see people through the camera. It started moving toward the apartment with the camera at the mission's start, and then saw me outside the apartment."

"I was forced to flee, and the Camera Ghost chased me all the way; taking photos is how it views the outside world, so it captured my escape footage!"

"I blundered or sensed a clue point; anyway I temporarily escaped, fleeing to the studio! Meanwhile the Camera Ghost pursued to the apartment opposite and snapped the final photo!"

Taking a deep breath, Lin An instantly saw the scene before him.

He fled to the apartment, while the Camera Ghost prowled the opposite building. But soon, when the Camera Ghost realized his only hiding spot would be opposite, it unhesitatingly jumped down, then leapt from the first floor into the studio, ready to continue hunting him!

"I hid in the ventilation ducts... unable to find any way to survive..."

At that very moment, Lin 2 and Jin Niu et al entered the building, and Lin 2 accidentally discovered the sign's problem, realizing there was a ghost in the studio.

"Seeing that I had no escape left, and once the Camera Ghost regained the camera, another me would also die."

"At the critical moment, I chose to throw the camera away, and was then devoured by the ghost."

"So... this explains why I did nothing back then, and why the camera's appearance was so strange... because I died, and the Camera Ghost, lacking the camera and interfered by me, could no longer kill—since it couldn't see anything without the camera."

"As for the two shooting methods..."

"It's not necessarily that I and the ghost took them; the first half of the photos in the camera occurred before the Ghost Skull appeared, while the latter half were taken by the Camera Ghost."

Lin An gave a bitter laugh, feeling that the second-round Ghost Lin was truly miserable.

Although the logic still has flaws, this is the only way to explain why I left no information at all.

Because the second-round Ghost Lin truly knew nothing, even harder than what the original self encountered!

His only option was to risk his life to snatch the camera, then let the second-round original self survive! Of course, he might fail to seize the camera, merely by attacking the ghost to make it drop the camera! Just like the ghost's eye, the camera is invisible on the ghost, but becomes visible once detached!

"The logic works, but the cause of death in the first round remains unfound..."

"Following this logic line, could my first-round self have been killed by the Camera Ghost? Still inside the apartment, blocked at the door and slain by the Camera Ghost? Because there was no second me to lure the Camera Ghost away."

"That's not right either; if that's the case, then I would at least have the memory from the apartment..."

"Moreover, according to the timing, the camera ghost should have appeared nearby..."

Lin An furrowed his brows, subconsciously looking toward the distant street.

But suddenly, his face changed, as if he had thought of something, and he sprang to his feet and ran!

"Damn it!"

"The camera ghost from the psychiatric hospital has no camera! If the camera ghost doesn't move, Jiang Haochen will surely die!"