A strange smell wafted from the narrow girls' dormitory. Beyond the reach of the flashlight, bed sheets swayed gently, as if something had crawled out from underneath.
Rain pelted the window frame. Outside, a storm raged, but inside the dormitory the silence was so complete it set his nerves on edge.
His arm hovered above a blank sheet of paper.
After reciting the incantation to summon the pen spirit, he felt a distinct additional force on the back of his hand — as though another hand had gently closed around it. He could sense the chill radiating from those fingertips.
"Pen spirit, pen spirit, you are my past life, and I am your present. If you wish to come, draw a circle on the paper."
Chen Ge chanted the incantation a second time. The cold sensation on the back of his hand grew sharper and clearer, but what confused him was that the pen in his palm stood perfectly upright on the paper, neither drawing a circle nor doing anything else.
"The pen spirit doesn't want to come?"
The atmosphere in the room grew heavier, more oppressive. That chill had already spread from the back of his hand up along his forearm.
"It feels like there are several extra people in this room." He focused his gaze, and his pupils contracted slowly in the darkness. Perhaps the yin eyes were taking effect — he could faintly make out three faint silhouettes standing in three different positions, each one extending a hand to grip the pen in his palm.
"Three?" His heart lurched. Chen Ge blinked, and the vision vanished instantly.
Just because his eyes couldn't see them didn't mean they had left. His palm felt as though it had been plunged into ice water. He knew with absolute certainty that at least three additional hands were now clutching the pen standing at the center.
"Three responding at once — is this because of the title 'Favored by the Vengeful Ghost'?" While Chen Ge was pondering this, the pen, which had been motionless on the paper, trembled without warning. The movement was subtle, but he could feel it.
"Is it starting?"
The flashlight beside him seemed to dim considerably. Right before Chen Ge's eyes, the pen in his hand began to rotate slowly.
The nib pressed against the blank paper, the ballpoint at the tip scraping against the surface, and in moments it had drawn a blood-red circle.
His own hand hadn't moved at all, yet the pen had traced something onto the paper. Chen Ge stared at the pattern on the white sheet and recalled the name of this side quest — The Pen Spirit That Won't Leave.
There were three taboos in the pen spirit game. First, never ask about the cause of death. Second, never ask about lifespan. Third, you must always send it away properly. Breaking any one of these rules would produce uncontrollable consequences.
The third was the most serious of all. Once the pen spirit was summoned, if you failed to send it away, it would remain by your side indefinitely — until it either seized the body of the participant or killed them outright.
"I hope nothing goes wrong." Chen Ge silently muttered this to himself and returned his gaze to the white paper.
Head meeting tail, the blood-red circle sat perfectly in the center of the sheet.
"It seems it has heard me. Time to ask my question."
Chen Ge was only here to complete the black phone's task. He had no intention of doing anything reckless or experimental. If he angered the entity, he would be the one to suffer for it.
"Successfully summoning the pen spirit — this is a rare opportunity." After a moment's thought, Chen Ge voiced the question that weighed most heavily on his mind. "Pen spirit, pen spirit, do you know where my parents went?"
During the bathtub game — the nightmare-level mission — the people Chen Ge had most wanted to see were his parents, but his wish had gone unfulfilled. Still, that at least proved one thing: his parents weren't dead, only missing.
Chen Ge genuinely wanted to know the answer to this question, but what he absolutely did not expect was that the moment he asked it, the pen in his palm began to tremble, and fine cracks appeared along the barrel.