"Hehe, thank you! Thank you for letting me do that analysis just now; my Concentration Stance has finally reached Level 3!" Ginger's eyes narrowed into two crescent moons as she clasped her hands together towards Caleb, who was beside her, and happily said, "My analyses were all relatively shallow. Everyone probably already knew a bit before I analyzed them. I hope you don't mind me stating the obvious, haha."
The two were walking towards the huge factory-like building, which was less than a hundred meters from the spawn point cabin.
"It's nothing." Caleb responded indifferently. He had already guessed the reason. After all, anyone with a bit of common sense playing games could figure out the things Ginger analyzed on their own.
"Oh my~ Little brother is a bit aloof, isn't he?" Ginger leaned her head in front of Caleb, teasing him with a familiar air.
"…" Caleb glanced at her and quickened his pace, walking forward.
"Hey! Wait for me."
The two soon arrived in front of the large factory. This place covered a considerable area, but the burn marks were not very obvious. Upon entering, there were no lights inside; all illumination came from the moonlight filtering in from outside, making it dim and pale. The visibility was also quite hazy. Vaguely, several rows of unknown machinery could be seen, appearing bulky and cold. The draft made a whistling sound, and the atmosphere inside the factory was somewhat eerie and strange.
"Why did the art style turn supernatural?" Ginger felt a chill in her heart and tried to make conversation, saying, "What about the promised storyline of mental patients and split personalities?" She hugged her arms, constantly looking around, always feeling as if a pair of eyes were watching her from a dark corner.
"Over there." Caleb, who was walking ahead, suddenly stopped and pointed forward.
"You scared me," Ginger said, annoyed. Then, she looked in the direction Caleb was pointing, puzzled, and found a very familiar wooden table about ten meters away, with an old-fashioned telegraph machine on it.
"Huh? This is…" She walked over to inspect it and found that although the telegraph machine was plugged in, it had no power and couldn't operate at all. The fire-damaged ruins evidently had no electricity supply. "Is this used to send telegrams to the outside world for rescue?"
"Possibly." Caleb nodded, his attention focused on the wooden table beneath the telegraph machine. "The style of this table is consistent with the one at the spawn point. It must have been deliberately placed in this scene, specifically for this type of telegraph machine, right?"
—Your accurate deciphering has increased your Concentration Stance proficiency by +50.
Well, this was a very obvious clue. "So, finding a matching telegraph machine for that empty table is also one of the correct steps to solving the puzzle!" Ginger's eyes sparkled, and she started to get excited again. "Little brother, your observational skills are quite good~" Ginger was starting to look at Caleb with new eyes.
Next, they continued to walk forward.
"I wonder what kind of weapons Military Factory this is building?" Ginger stood in front of a strange, half-finished piece of military equipment, looking puzzled. "But… this probably has nothing to do with the game, right?" Unfortunately, Caleb wasn't listening to her complaints at all; he had already walked towards a red box placed in a corner not far away.
"He's truly an ice mountain." Ginger rolled her eyes, bored.
"?!" Just as she was about to go and meet Caleb, she suddenly felt that strange sensation of being watched again. After looking left and right, she still couldn't find the source of the surveillance. However, a strange birdcage placed between two machines caught her attention.
"Why is there a birdcage here?" Ginger instinctively walked towards the birdcage. "This thing doesn't match the current scene at all. Could there be some clue?" This birdcage, about half a meter high, was wedged between two machines, looking as if someone had deliberately placed it there. Ginger mumbled to herself, then bent down, intending to pick up the birdcage to examine it.
But just as her hand touched the birdcage's handle… Suddenly, a charred and rotten Ghost-faced Man's face abruptly emerged from behind the machine on the left side of the birdcage.
"I found you!" The Ghost-faced Man's face was twisted, his eyes blood-red, and he bared his teeth at Ginger with a sinister, ill-intentioned grin.
"Ah!!" The situation happened too suddenly, and the Ghost-faced Man was terrifying enough, so Ginger was inevitably startled, letting out a short, sharp, piercing scream.
Clatter!
The birdcage in her hand fell to the ground and shattered. Ginger fell backward, landing on the ground with a thud, her small face instantly turning ashen white.
"How dare you trespass into my territory!" The owner of the Ghost-faced Man glared at Ginger, baring a mouth full of fangs, and his charred hands gripped the machines on both sides, as if he was about to leap out from behind them.
"Ah ah ah!" Ginger, who usually prided herself on being quite brave, but now, being stared at by a hideous ghost at such close proximity, she was utterly terrified. Tension made her breathing quicken and her heart race. When these conditions were detected by the game system, the 'Real Fear' effect automatically took hold of Ginger. This subtle hypnosis amplified the players' inner fear, making them temporarily forget that they were playing a game and mistake the game world for the real world.
At this moment, Ginger perceived the approaching Ghost-faced Man as a real entity, and she was too terrified to control herself. She felt that the opponent's fangs would bite into her neck in the next second, and just one bite would sever her windpipe. Then, blood would splatter, and she would be like a deflated doll, unable to stop the reality of impending death no matter how much she struggled.
"No, don't, don't come over!" She was so scared that she lost the ability to think, shaking her head incessantly, instinctively propping herself up with her hands on the ground, and kicking her feet on the ground to retreat backward.
But the Ghost-faced Man was relentless. After leaping out from behind the obstacle, he made a move as if to pounce on Ginger. Everything was unfolding just as Ginger had imagined.
"What's wrong?!" Just at this critical moment, a calm voice, like a timely rain, sounded from behind Ginger.
And the Ghost-faced Man, who had leaped into mid-air upon hearing the voice, immediately vanished without a trace, as if he had disappeared into thin air.
"Ghost! There's a ghost! There's a ghost here!" Ginger was scared out of her wits, clutching Caleb's arm tightly, her body trembling uncontrollably.
"Ghost?" Caleb frowned, his gaze directed straight ahead of Ginger. There was a broken birdcage on the ground, and behind the birdcage, the gap between the two machines was empty. Caleb specifically circled to the back of the machines but didn't see anyone hiding in the shadows.
"There really was a ghost, I swear!" Seeing Caleb look at her with a suspicious gaze, Ginger quickly explained with trembling lips. "It was hiding behind those two machines just now, and it suddenly jumped out when I went to pick up the birdcage. It… it wanted to kill me!" Ginger shivered with lingering fear as she said this.
Caleb saw that Ginger's disoriented appearance didn't seem like she was lying, so he carefully inspected the area behind the two machines.
"Hmm?!" Upon closer inspection, he indeed found some strange marks. In the corner of the back of the left machine, there were two not-very-clear, half-palm-sized black footprints. Someone had indeed been hiding there in a tiptoeing squatting posture!