LIGHTNOVELWORLD Chapter 45: Team Wipe
No one realized that a ghost that could move at any time had set its sights on them the moment they left the auditorium as a group.
It hadn't gone far. When all the bizarre entities rushed to the auditorium on the day of the mourning, it had already broken free from the notebook's control. And after it devoured a grave incense stick on the next day, it was no longer affected by Li Mo's death announcement on the broadcast.
And because of the auditorium's ability to shield ghosts from being perceived, it wasn't able to enter.
Thus, it continued to roam around outside, and by chance, had survived.
The trainees, no longer under the protection of the grave incense, had been targeted by the ghost the moment they left the auditorium.
The Cognitive Ghost's rules seemed to be different from the head ghosts'. It had a complete body and didn't need to obtain better body parts from elsewhere.
However, the funeral hadn't ended yet. St. Freya's space-time was still frozen at another point in time. They could only enter and not leave.
No matter how you looked at it, from the very beginning, these people who had abandoned their promise had no chance of surviving.
The Cognitive Ghost followed them all the way, warping their perception and interfering with their memories.
Finally, it brought them to the most familiar, most intimate place to it, a room that was as warm as a human "home"—the infirmary that had been affected by Bizarre Kiana.
Although to the living, this place was an endless hell of despair.
Entering the door meant death. Even if they were lucky enough to survive, there would be many more bizarre entities lurking in the dark corners, watching them.
Although the Cognitive Ghost wasn't born here, the source of it, and of all the bizarre entities here, was the same…
At this moment, a girl raised her hand and loudly suggested, "Let's all talk about how we survived during the second day's watch."
"Senpai said that there were nine people who survived. Senpai has died, and Shigure Kira and Saori Tsuruyo stayed behind in the auditorium. So, there should only be six people here. I remember that there were only two people under the table, and everyone else was in the black coffin."
Everyone nodded, and one by one, they said how they survived.
"Let me go first, since it was my suggestion. At that time, I was under the table with my best friend, so it definitely wasn't any of you who was under the table with me."
"I was inside the black coffin."
"Me too."
"Me too."
"I also talked to you all inside."
"I… was also in the black coffin."
Everyone suddenly realized something. The people who were under the table and in the black coffin had already been confirmed. Then where did this last voice come from?
But when they saw the speaker's face, they didn't feel anything was strange. They seemed to have interacted with her inside the auditorium and had many conversations with her.
A seventh person had appeared in the six-person group? How was this possible?
"There's one more person? There's a ghost among us… I clearly remember that there were only six people when we left. Nine minus three equals six, right? Why didn't we notice?"
"That doesn't matter. The important thing is to find this seventh person! It's daytime now. Once we identify the head ghost and kill it, we can survive!"
"Show your neck. If there are any cracks on your neck...then don't blame us for being ruthless."
In this kind of situation, no one was an exception.
Everyone firmly believed that they themselves were not head ghosts, confidently raising their necks, cooperating with each other.
"Found her! Hurry, kill her!"
"Wait, I'm not…"
The girl who was closest suddenly realized that there was a noticeable crack on the neck of the classmate next to her. The sunlight was dazzling, causing the blood inside to gleam, making it very easy to see.
Before the girl could react, one of the girls pulled out a small pocketknife and stabbed her neck.
Instantly, the head fell to the ground, rolling away, like a lifeless doll, falling motionless and beginning to decompose.
But this was only what they were seeing. In reality, there were still only six people in their group. The seventh person had been created by the Cognitive Ghost.
The girl who was killed was a normal person, and there hadn't been a crack on her neck. And the head that fell also hadn't decomposed.
Everything was messed up.
Even after Li Mo realized that Ekri was a head ghost, he hadn't chosen to kill her, but rather, a better way to deal with the situation.
Killing wasn't the only solution.
Trapped in panic, they only knew how to kill, kill, kill, killing everything that was unfavorable to them.
"I…I...I killed someone?"
The girl who had used the knife stared at the people next to her, trembling.
"It's fine. You killed a ghost, you saved everyone. Look, there's a crack on her neck. We can even smell the decaying flesh," everyone comforted. One person dying to save the lives of many. As long as the person that had died wasn't them, then the act was always "just."
"Yeah. But where are we? And what's up with all of these bed sheets? There are so many small bottles in the cabinets. What's inside?"
"Wait… Isn't this the infirmary?"
A girl recognized their current location.
"So it's the infirmary. So what? We can just climb out of the window. It's only a short walk from the school gate. The infirmary isn't far."
"...But, senpai said that we absolutely shouldn't enter the infirmary. It's no less terrifying than the academy after 7:00 PM…"
"We're still alive, aren't we? As long as we climb out of here…"
The moment the overconfident girl touched the window, she suddenly disappeared from their sight, as if she had vanished into thin air.
"Aaaaaah!"
A moment later, a scream made everyone abruptly turn their heads.
A headless corpse was lying by the door. And the large bottles that were supposed to be for medicine were instead filled with the heads of the girl.
"How… how did she die?"
Before they could solve the mystery, they saw… five more bottles filled with heads.
Without exception, each bottle corresponded to each of them.
But the heads inside the bottles were lifeless. Everyone's expression seemed like they had been carved from the same mold. They had no expression.
"No, it can't be… my head is fine, it's still on my neck! I'm not dead! Hahaha! As long as we don't leave, we won't die!" One of the girls started running around wildly in the infirmary.
Until she tried to touch her head and felt the sticky, incomplete spine…
She turned around tremblingly to look at the mirror in the infirmary. There was no head in the mirror. There was only an upright corpse, imitating her movements.
And the moment she realized that she was dead, the headless corpse in the mirror suddenly fell. And the real her collapsed as well.
The head in the bottle that corresponded to her had gained a new expression… Eyes wide open, mouth agape, and a look of astonishment and horror.
That was the final expression on the real person's face the moment they realized that they were dead.
Four people, three people, two people, one person…
When the last person couldn't see their own head, her consciousness instantly dissipated, and the characteristic of bizarre entities maintaining life and consciousness was instantly broken.
Six people had been led into this terrifying infirmary by the head ghost.
The rule of instant death upon entry immediately killed all of the living people who had come in.