Chapter 620: Omens

The words "you might die" were spoken in such a gentle tone by the person before him that the young man momentarily thought his ears were playing tricks on him. He sat rigid in his seat, not daring to move, staring blankly at Chen Ge as though he hadn't yet processed what he'd just heard.

"Tell me everything you know. The more details you give me, the higher the chances I can help rescue your classmates. And remember one thing — no matter where you live, don't head east after you get off this bus. Understood?"

What kind of person was Chen Ge? Saying he'd crawled out of mountains of corpses and seas of blood might be a slight exaggeration, but looking back on everything he'd been through lately, the number of twisted killers who'd fallen to his hands could fill more than one hand. Night after night he walked through the most notorious haunted houses, dancing with ghosts, and without even realizing it, he had taken on some of the aura of vengeful spirits himself.

Right now Chen Ge sat beside the high school student doing nothing at all — merely shifting the tone of his voice — and the student already felt something was wrong. A survival instinct buried deep in his genes screamed at him that he needed to get away from this person.

Chen Ge's body temperature ran a touch lower than a normal person's, which in itself wasn't alarming, but the closer the young man sat, the colder a chill crept up his spine. Bracing his hands against the seat cushion, he inched quietly to the side.

"Bei Wen was the last one to disappear. Maybe because he'd been scared out of his wits, he didn't seem like his usual self."

"Skip the useless talk. What I need are leads on them — did they leave anything useful behind? A diary, text messages, anything?" Chen Ge had backed the young man all the way into the corner of the last row on the bus. "Think carefully."

The young man grimaced and thought for a long time before something finally came to him. "When Bei Wen went missing, he told me no matter what, I was not to tell the police about the Route 104 last bus. He also gave me a key and made me promise that if he hadn't come back after three weeks, I should take that key and ride the Route 104 bus to find him."

"Do you have the key on you?" Under Chen Ge's gaze, the young man fished a rusted key out of his pants pocket. Traces of dried blood still clung to it.

"Let me see." Chen Ge took the key and held it in front of his eyes. He could barely believe what he was seeing. He rummaged through his backpack and, tucked inside a hidden compartment, pulled out a key of his own. The two keys were eight or nine parts identical in appearance.

"You have a key like this too?" The young man was visibly shocked.

"Quiet." Chen Ge set both keys on the seat and furrowed his brow.

The key in his backpack's inner pocket was a reward from the black phone for completing the head-washing dream quest in Men Nan's sub-personality — the Self-Control Key.

This key could help a person regain their true self when they were in a state of chaotic loss of control. Under normal circumstances, it would have been a great asset in exploring the Third Ward. The first time one stepped into the world behind a door, it was easy to be battered by the various negative emotions on the other side and lose oneself entirely.

As far as Chen Ge had guessed, the Self-Control Key was meant precisely for that kind of situation.

The reason he hadn't used it back then was simple: Zhang Ya had been far too savage, charging straight through the door and chasing the Red-Clothed Director all over the place. All he'd felt in that moment was shock — no fear, no confusion, no risk of losing himself — so he'd seen no need to waste the key.

Save it for when it's truly needed. Besides, Chen Ge had always had a nagging feeling the key would prove important someday, so he'd kept it tucked away in the backpack's hidden pocket all this time.

What he hadn't expected was that on the road to the eastern suburbs today, he'd encounter another key that, judging by appearance alone, was virtually identical to his own save for the notch pattern.

"Does the appearance of a Self-Control Key mean something is about to happen?" This key could prevent a person from losing themselves. Bei Wen, before he disappeared, had entrusted the key to the young man and asked him to come find him — could that be an indirect way of saying that wherever he'd gone was a place where it was all too easy to lose control and lose one's very soul?

"Do you know where Bei Wen got this key from?" Chen Ge naturally slipped both keys into his own pocket.