The drunkard's question left the tattooed man at a loss. He had no idea why the Soul Hookers hadn't imitated Chen Ge's shadow. This had never happened before.
He stole a glance at Chen Ge, wanting to ask but not daring to speak up. In the end, he managed an awkward smile and deflected: "Just be careful not to stare at them. The Soul Hookers rarely appear in large numbers, but every time they do, it means something big is about to happen."
While the two were arguing, Chen Ge didn't interject. He was watching those figures across the street, his eyes narrowed slightly.
The truth was: "If I capture all of these shadows and drag them back to the haunted house, couldn't I create a special attraction? Have the visitors see themselves inside, using the shadows to disorient them. If I use it well, the more visitors inside, the stronger the terror effect becomes. Real and fake mixed together—no one would know whether the person beside them was a teammate or a ghost."
"Let's leave quickly. These things are tough and hard to kill. While they haven't reacted yet, we need to go." The tattooed man was visibly nervous, constantly urging Chen Ge forward.
"What's the rush? If they're hard to kill, that just means I can keep them around and train them up. I'll turn every last one of them into productive members of society. I'll help them find their purpose, let them feel the joy of contribution and earn people's respect." Others didn't know why the shadows didn't dare imitate Chen Ge, but Chen Ge himself knew perfectly well—Zhang Ya was hiding in his shadow. Rather than saying those monsters didn't dare copy his shadow, it was more accurate to say they were afraid of Zhang Ya.
"Take my advice—don't linger here. There's no point tangling with them. They're just foot soldiers, pawns the shadows use to stall for time. The real killing blow comes later. The longer we stay, the more thoroughly the shadows will set up. Do you understand what I'm saying?" The tattooed man was increasingly unsure whether following Chen Ge had been the right call.
The man was lean, sharp, clever—but when the situation demanded it, he could become cunning, overbearing, and unscrupulous.
He never abided by the morality most people accepted. He had his own set of principles, yet at the same time seemed unable to restrain his own behavior. He was drawn to intense thrills, fascinated by novelty, and violence seemed to lurk in his very bones.
The tattooed man had seen plenty of movies about serial killers. As someone intimately familiar with psychopathic personality traits, he knew the characters in those films were wildly exaggerated. Even the most ruthless criminals didn't exhibit such obvious madness in real life.
True psychopaths were people like Chen Ge—someone you'd brush past on the street without a second glance, never imagining what lurked inside their head.
They couldn't control their innate aggressiveness and showed little remorse or sympathy for their own violent actions. These were the shared traits of the vast majority of serial killers, and by a strange coincidence, the tattooed man recognized every single one of them in Chen Ge. What was even more terrifying was that Chen Ge himself didn't seem to realize just how frightening he truly was.
The tattooed man had never met Chen Ge's gaze directly—not out of contempt, but simply because he didn't dare look into those eyes.
He had been one of the earliest residents of Liwan Town. He had seen the shadows many times, and whether it was a trick of the mind or not, he kept catching glimpses of certain qualities in Chen Ge that reminded him of them.
"Fine. Now really isn't the time. Let's find that out-of-control door first." Chen Ge led the group onward, continuing toward Fan Cong's neighborhood.
They crossed the intersection, and after a few minutes, Li Zheng's voice came from the back of the group: "Stop! Someone's missing!"
Li Zheng held the most distinctive identity among them all, and the moment he spoke, everyone froze.
"Who's missing?" The tattooed man turned around and noticed that the woman dragging the large suitcase had vanished into the blood fog. "She ran?"
"Don't bother looking for her. She's not coming back." Bei Ye spoke in a flat tone, pointing toward the other side of the intersection. "She's over there."
Following the direction the high school student pointed, they saw that the suitcase the woman had been dragging was gone, and she herself was reduced to only half a body.
Her body bore signs of stitching. Her skin was all a normal complexion—it appeared she had cut away her own skin covered in gray patches and sutured on normal skin taken from her victims.
"How did she fall out of the group? Was she trying to escape?" To keep morale steady, the tattooed man forced himself to walk back a few steps, wanting to confirm the woman's condition.
"I don't know—I didn't see clearly. That woman was walking at the very end of the group. Something seemed to drag her away." The high school student had his black backpack on, a switchblade hidden in his palm. He had already taken off his glasses—since Chen Ge had exposed his true nature, there was no point pretending anymore.
"There's something in the blood fog that's targeted us. Stay close, especially those at the rear." Chen Ge didn't care about Bei Ye or that woman's fate, but he cared about Li Zheng. The criminal investigation team leader had helped him numerous times.
"Could the culprit be that woman in the red raincoat?" Jia Ming said in a low voice. "When we left the restaurant, I clearly saw the Red Raincoat following behind us. But by the time we reached the intersection, she was gone. She's a prime suspect."
Chen Ge knew in his heart the culprit couldn't be the Red Raincoat, but he didn't want to reveal his connection to her just yet. So he didn't respond, only urging the others to keep moving forward.
The blood fog grew ever thicker. This eerie, terrifying town seemed to be slowly awakening, and the evil lurking in every corner was watching them with crimson eyes.
After walking along the street for roughly twenty minutes, they finally arrived at Fan Cong's neighborhood.
The blood fog here was several times denser than elsewhere. Standing just a few meters apart, one could only make out a blurred silhouette.
"This went much smoother than I expected—the exit is right here!" The tattooed man looked somewhat excited.
"Calm down. The closer we get to the exit, the more dangerous it might be." They had finally reached their destination, yet Chen Ge was exceptionally composed.
He looked up toward Fan Cong's apartment, but the fog was too thick. Even with his Yin Eye, he couldn't see a thing.
"Fan Cong, Fan Dade—both missing. The computer with Little Cloth's game might have issues too. The Shadow has set up a kill zone here. Every step from now on, I have to take with extreme caution."
"Come look at this! There's a message written in blood! Someone knew we were coming!" The drunkard had stopped at the neighborhood entrance. On the main gate, several characters written in blood radiated pure malice: "I'm among you?"
The blood hadn't dried yet, still trickling down the iron gate.