Da Xia Winter Festival Day.

This is a traditional festival in Da Xia, signaling the arrival of winter.

And in folklore, this day is especially significant as the gates of the Underworld are wide open, and it is the ghost festival where lost spirits and wandering ghosts roam the human world!

"Ha ha... Finally, we can go out and play for a night."

Chen Xiaoxia was walking with her best friend, Wu Lei.

They were both middle school students. Middle school in Da Xia had a heavy workload with few holidays and nightly self-study.

However, there were concessions on some traditionally recognized festivals.

For example, on Da Xia Winter Festival Day, although it was not an official public holiday, the school would announce that there was no need to attend the evening self-study.

This was considered a slight compromise to traditional customs and also gave the students a break.

Most students didn't believe in this, and many took the opportunity to openly go out and have fun.

Chen Xiaoxia did just that, taking the rare chance to go shopping with her close friend and enjoying a popular milk tea, which put her in a great mood.

They played until nine o'clock before the two young girls reluctantly prepared to head home, as they still had classes the next day.

Walking together, they left the crowded, bustling commercial street and entered a residential area.

The surroundings suddenly became quiet, but Chen Xiaoxia wasn't very scared.

The public security in Da Xia was very good.

As for the ghost festival?

What era was it now?

The threat of these demons and ghosts wasn't even as intimidating as the head teacher's roar in her eyes!

"It would be great if we didn't have to attend evening self-study every day," lamented Wu Lei.

"Ha ha... You're dreaming too beautifully. Today is the ghost festival! It's quite rare... There might be ghosts tonight..."

Chen Xiaoxia stretched out her hands forward, trying to imitate a zombie's stance, "Here~I~come..."

"Hehe."

Wu Lei rolled her eyes, not scared at all, and her gaze shifted, "This is Qingtian Street, right? I heard there was a recent car accident here, and someone died..."

She also wanted to scare her best friend.

"If there really are ghosts, I'd actually like to see one."

Chen Xiaoxia laughed, "Then we could make a video and share it online, we'd become famous! We could directly catch the trend to become internet celebrities, make lots of money, and not have to go to school anymore..."

As the two girls teased each other, a breeze blew by, carrying swirling scraps of paper.

The dim streetlights suddenly flickered on and off.

Wu Lei's expression turned tense, "What... what's happening?"

"It's just a poor connection... Totally normal."

Chen Xiaoxia's voice trembled slightly. She quickly took out her phone, turned on the light, and thought for a second, quietly starting to record a video.

Whoosh!

Suddenly, they both felt a chill on their necks, and from the dark corner, a white figure slowly emerged...

It was a woman-shaped figure, dressed in a white dress, with disheveled hair covering her face, and most crucially... no feet!

"Ah!"

The girls' screams immediately pierced the quiet of the street.

Chen Xiaoxia looked at the ghostly woman floating towards her, trembling with fear, almost wetting her pants.

"On Da Xia Winter Festival Day, the gates of Hell open..."

A grim female voice entered her ears, "I... died such a horrible death!"

"I have crawled back from the Eighteen Layers of Hell, I seek revenge, I seek revenge!"

Bang!

From not far away, came the sound of someone falling.

"There's a ghost! There's a ghost!"

Although this street was quiet, there were more people than just Cheng Xiaoxia.

As soon as the scream echoed, many nearby buildings had their windows opened, and then some people were scared to pee...

However, there were also some bold ones who started taking out their phones to film.

"Okay..."

Seeing this scene, the director hiding in the dark, He Zudao, nodded with satisfaction.

His Spiritual Energy Resurgence movie project had finally officially launched!

The female ghost was, of course, fake, created using his Illusion Technique. If Cheng Xiaoxia had mustered the courage to touch it, she would've found that her hand could completely pass through the ghost.

And it had no killing power at all.

Even the street lights were tampered with personally by Mr. He.

That was why he chose to start with a ghost story.

If he had made an Immortal appear, He Zudao feared encountering some foolhardy youth who might rush up wanting to find a master to follow, and then awkwardly phase through an illusion...

But a ghost was different.

Even if it was discovered to be an insubstantial illusion, wasn't that a normal setting in novels?

After making sure that already many people had taken photos or videos, He Zudao smiled slightly and canceled the Illusion Technique—after all, maintaining it was a big mental strain.

The next day, the news of Qingtian Street being haunted spread quickly, with many people vowing they had seen the ghost and some had captured videos and pictures.

However, the popularity of this news was not very high online, because similar incidents were happening all around the world and were ultimately proven to be hoaxes.

He Zudao observed all of this on his computer without much haste, "After a few more incidents, my 'Maoshan Sect hermit' will make his appearance... Still no experience points credited... Is it because I haven't gotten involved personally?"

Special Review Bureau.

Secret base.

Xie Biqi, together with her unlucky subordinate Li Ziluo, were first tasked to carry some strange monitoring devices, enter the game several times to gather data, and after having some blood samples taken, she had completed her task to assist with the research and began her own work.

She was now reviewing a video.

It was a surveillance recording of disassembling a game device.

In the video, under the supervision of what appeared to be skilled technicians, the VR glasses with plugs were quickly dismantled, and even the data cables couldn't be spared.

But the result was disappointing.

Examinations and analyses of all the components confirmed them to be ordinary VR glasses and data cables, indistinguishable from others of their kind.

At the end of the video, there was also a specialized VR expert's evaluation, claiming that such junk couldn't possibly deliver virtual reality technology and hadn't integrated any alien black-tech devices...

"In conclusion, we believe that 'Game Otherworld's connection with players is not through the game devices and ports..."

"If not through devices, then how do they enter the game?"

Xie Biqi felt a headache brewing.

At that moment, Li Ziluo walked in, "Captain, there's a situation!"

"What is it?"

Xie Biqi frowned.

"That player 'Zhang Hengzhi' has entered the game again!"

Li Ziluo took a deep breath and reported.

Zhang Hengzhi was the first unfortunate player the Special Review Bureau had found, who had even been convinced to 'contribute' his game device for research.

"Entered the game again? Using someone else's equipment? No, it's locked to the user, or did we compensate him with a brand-new device?"

Xie Biqi casually asked.

She knew Zhang Hengzhi had been cooperating with Special Review Bureau experts on experiments even deeper than hers.

"Neither!"

Li Ziluo swallowed, "He just went to sleep normally, and then the brainwave monitor determined his thoughts had entered the game!"

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