Chapter 364: Ghostly Encounter
The moment that hand touched Chen Chen, he withdrew his hand as if he had gotten an electric shock. He raised his head, flabbergasted, but there was no one in front of him.
Even so, Chen Chen still felt numb all over because at the moment that hand touched him, a bone-piercing cold swept across his body. The muscles of his entire hand were still constantly trembling.
That was not a human hand!
Chen Chen was full of shock. While holding his right hand, he moved back step by step. By now, even the biggest idiot would understand that there was something wrong with this dormitory...
However, when he retreated to the door, he suddenly felt himself b.u.mping against a person. Chen Chen’s heart was seized again. He jumped nervously and at the same time turned quickly, only to see Zhou Jie standing at the door of the dormitory.
“Ah, so it’s Chen Chen?”
Zhou Jie’s face was stupefied like a dead man’s expression with only one pair of eyes staring at Chen Chen. He asked mechanically, “Chen Chen, when did you come back?”
Chen Chen narrowed his eyes, still guarding against Zhou Jie, but then he suddenly thought of everything that happened before. His heart leaped and he moved directly back to Zhou Jie’s desk, then tried to pick up the USB flash drive again.
This time, Zhou Jie still maintained a sluggish expression. He just watched Chen Chen unplug the USB flash drive, but still did not move.
“Phew, my gamble paid off...”
Chen Chen secretly breathed a sigh of relief only when he had the USB flash drive firmly in his grasp.
“Chen Chen, when did you come back?”
At this moment, Zhou Jie asked again, still in the same tone as before.
It was already time for cla.s.ses to end and Zhou Jie stood at the door of the dormitory, blocking the way. However, Chen Chen saw that behind Zhou Jie, there were other students in the dormitory pa.s.sing by, talking and laughing. Thus, without hesitating, Chen Chen raised one leg suddenly and kicked Zhou Jie in the gut!
“Go ask your grandmother!”
In one move, Chen Chen had kicked Zhou Jie to the ground.
With this opportunity, Chen Chen fled from the dormitory and ran down the stairs.
What Chen Chen did not know was that, after he left, several students in the next cla.s.s saw Zhou Jie being knocked down, and immediately took the initiative to help him up. They brought Zhou Jie, who still wore a slack expression, back into Dorm 404.
After they entered, there seemed to be a gust of wind blowing past the corridors and then with a “blam”, the door of Dorm 404 was slowly closed by the wind...
Chen Chen ran out of the dormitory building, out of breath. Only then did he look back while panting heavily.
Fortunately, Zhou Jie did not run after him.
Chen Chen tightly gripped the USB flash drive in his hand, barely aware of how disordered and forlorn he looked. This attracted the attention of students who were moving in and out of the dormitory.
“Lil Chen, what’s wrong?”
Still, after a while, Chen Chen heard the voices of w.a.n.g Wei and Li Bo. He looked up at this sound and saw that they were standing before him. “Lil Chen, have you seen Zhou Jie?”
“He... Went back to the dormitory.”
Chen Chen opened his mouth but the words on the tip of his tongue were swallowed abruptly, and then he said again, “w.a.n.g Wei, Li Bo, I have something very important to tell you. Come here.”
With that, Chen Chen turned and walked toward the school cafeteria.
“If he has something to say, can’t he say it in the dormitory? Why so mysterious?”
w.a.n.g Wei was a little curious. He and Li Bo looked at each other. After hesitating, the two followed Chen Chen.
Chen Chen secretly breathed a sigh of relief when he saw that they were willing to follow. He finally glanced toward the fourth floor, but he immediately stiffened. A chill surged directly to the top of his head and his entire scalp almost flew off the top...
This was because, in the glance just now, he saw that on the window of his dormitory, a woman with a pale body and disheveled hair was sprawled across the window, staring in his direction.
From that angle, Chen Chen knew, without even thinking about it, that she was staring at him!
What in the world was that thing? Was it the legendary...
Chen Chen took a deep breath, said nothing, but went straight to the cafeteria and sat down.
“Lil Chen, why do you look so agitated?”
w.a.n.g Wei asked with concern. He took out his campus card and handed it to Li Bo, who was aside. “Lil Bo, go buy some spicy rolls for Lil Chen to perk up his spirits.”
“...”
Chen Chen waved his hand, indicating that he did not need it. He walked to the shop on the side and bought three bottles of Sprite, then placed it before the two of them. He opened one of them before he said, “Didn’t you hunt down Zhou Jie after cla.s.s? Why’d you let him come back alone?”
“As soon as we ran out, we found that Nostril had vanished without a trace.”
Speaking of this, w.a.n.g Wei was also a little depressed. “G.o.d knows how that guy could run so fast, but we thought about it again — since he can run so fast, it means nothing is wrong. So we just ignored him and went to the cafeteria to eat, before heading back.”
“Then we b.u.mped into you downstairs.”
Li Bo added.
After listening, Chen Chen shook his head. He did not know where to start for a moment. He simply took out the USB flash drive and placed it in front of the two of them. “I’m going to say something that I know might be difficult for you to believe. You might even think that I’m crazy, but I hope that no matter how outrageous or absurd I sound, you’ll finish listening to what I said.”
Hearing this, w.a.n.g Wei and Li Bo turned slightly solemn. They solemnly looked at the USB drive on the table, only to observe that the USB flash drive had become extremely old-looking since some unknown time as if it was picked up from the trash. There was none of its noontime l.u.s.ter.
However, their attention was not on this matter at this time, so w.a.n.g Wei just said, “Say anything you want. We’re all brothers, of course, we trust you.”
Chen Chen nodded. He looked around and checked that no one was paying attention to them. Then he whispered, “Brother Wei, Lil Bo, there’s a problem with the USB drive I picked up today...”
The two did not speak but looked fixedly at Chen Chen.
“Did you feel something was off when you fell asleep at noon today?”
Chen Chen asked, “For example, did you feel that the air in the dormitory was getting cold?”
“Hmm?”
Both of them were taken aback. After that, w.a.n.g Wei said immediately, “Now that you’ve mentioned it, I did feel that. I was sleeping at the time, but it seemed to be getting colder in the dormitory. Although it’s now November, it shouldn’t be so cold. I even thought someone had turned on the air conditioner.”
“Me too.”
Li Bo nodded affirmatively. “Not only that, but I also dreamed of a head poking up from the lower bunk. At first, I thought it was Lil Chen playing a prank, but after I woke up, I realized that wasn’t right because that head had long hair and appeared to be a woman. It didn’t look like Lil Chen at all!”
Chen Chen was shaken to his core and immediately said, “I also felt what Lil Bo felt. When I was sleeping, I sensed something stretching down from the upper bunk, but when I woke up, there was nothing there...”
“Hold on.”
w.a.n.g Wei promptly pointed to Chen Chen and Li Bo in astonishment. “Lil Chen, you’re on the lower bunk and Lil Bo is on the upper bunk, but both of you feel, at the same time, that there’s something strange in the upper and lower bunks. So, what is it that can hide between the upper bunk and the lower bunk?”
“Some things can’t be explained with physics.”
Chen Chen took a sip of Sprite again. “Remember, Zhou Jie uploaded four movies on this USB flash drive and then that peculiar incident happened at noon. Plus, after we woke up, we saw Zhou Jie sitting in front of the computer...”
“So?”
Both of them asked immediately.
“...”
Chen Chen’s words suddenly halted. A series of images flashed in his mind, but they were not of his previous encounter. Rather, they seemed totally illogical.
In the scene, he seemed to be attempting something bit by bit, slowly starting to test the rules of the USB drive...
“Tss...”
Chen Chen only felt a sharp pain in his head. He quickly covered his head and cried out in pain.
“Lil Chen, Lil Chen?”
Their concerned voices rang by his ears, but Chen Chen could not answer anymore. Scenes were flashing in his mind, all related to the USB flash drive, but when he thought about it, these images and what they portrayed had no connection to reality as if they happened in another time and s.p.a.ce...
This pain came and went quickly. When Chen Chen recovered from his dazed collapse, the sharp pain in his mind had disappeared as it came, without warning.
In Chen Chen’s mind, there were only a few strange memories...
“D*mn...”
Chen Chen panted heavily and his face darkened because these few memories were related to the USB flash drive. If the rules in the memory were true, would it not mean that...
Thinking of this, Chen Chen only felt his scalp numb. He said to the two of them, “Zhou Jie has played the four horror films. The four horror films are Ju-on, Final Destination, One Missed Call, and Ring, so our dormitory has now become a gathering place for those malevolent ghosts!”
w.a.n.g Wei and Li Bo both stared at each other with wide eyes for a moment, then w.a.n.g Wei forced a smile and hugged himself. “Lil Chen, don’t tell me that what you said is true.”
“I know it’s hard to believe, but when you were eating just now, I was the first to return. After returning to the dormitory, I saw something that’s difficult to describe in words.”
Chen Chen finally advised, “Anyway, I won’t step into Dorm 404 anymore. I’ve told you everything I should and I’ll stop here. If you still want to go back, I will not say a word to dissuade you.”
As he spoke, Chen Chen put away the USB flash drive. He no longer planned to hand it to the two of them.
If those few rules in his mind were true...
Chen Chen’s heart suddenly started to pound restlessly.
“You’re truly amazing, man.”
Li Bo said in awe, “Lil Chen, if someone else told me this, I’ll beat him up, but the way you said it was so real that I’m almost convinced by you.”
Chen Chen sighed secretly. He knew that since Li Bo said this, it showed that the other guy still did not believe Chen Chen.
w.a.n.g Wei suddenly thought of something. He slapped his thigh instantly, took out his cell phone and said, “Forget it, no matter what, I’ll call Nostril. Lil Chen, didn’t you say that Nostril has returned to the dormitory? I’m going to ask him to come out and ask him what’s going on.”
With that, he got ready to dial Zhou Jie’s phone number.
Chen Chen’s eyes turned completely cold. He stood up without hesitation, turned, and left the canteen without hesitation.
“Lil Chen? Lil Chen?”
Chen Chen ignored the calls from the two behind him. He knew that if they did not see those things with their own eyes, those two would never believe him.
However, after they encountered those things, would they still be lucky enough to survive like him?
Chen Chen did not know.
However, Chen Chen knew that he would not waste time on people who did not believe him. When humans wanted to die, no one could stop them. Even if one tried to hold back those people by force, they would drag one along before falling into the abyss, pulling one down into the abyss of death as well...
Thinking of this, the panicked tremor in Chen Chen’s eyes vanished completely, replaced by a kind of absolute reason and coldness. Even Chen Chen himself could not understand where this kind of reason and coldness came from.
It was as if he should have been this rational and aloof all along.
“According to the rules about the USB flash drive that appeared in my mind, the USB drive can extract many movie props. Then, what I need most now is...”
Chen Chen thought for a while and walked straight out of the campus. He looked at the sun gradually setting westward and his expression became slightly solemn. He knew that he must act quickly.
It was not until Chen Chen had left that w.a.n.g Wei and Li Bo looked at each other with a hint of helplessness in their eyes.
“Brother Wei, do you think what Lil Chen said is true?”
Li Bo hesitated and asked, “Although I don’t believe in all that, something felt wrong at noon today, plus Nostril and Lil Chen are now behaving like this...”
“Let me call Nostril and ask.”
w.a.n.g Wei sighed. He looked at Zhou Jie’s number on the phone, hesitated for a moment, and pressed the dial b.u.t.ton.
However, when he was pressing the dial b.u.t.ton, there was no call interface on the phone. Instead, the screen showed the caller ID interface and at the same time, a clear and lovely ringtone rang out.
“La la la la~ La la la la~ La la la la~ La la la la~ La la la la~ La la la la~ La~ La~ La~ La~ La la la~ La la la~ La la la~ La la la~...”
w.a.n.g Wei subconsciously looked at the phone but saw that Zhou Jie’s number was displayed on the screen.
“Huh...”
However, w.a.n.g Wei frowned and could not help wondering aloud. “This isn’t my ringtone...”
...
Ten minutes later, Chen Chen came to an Internet cafe.
After proficiently arranging for an hour of computer time at the front desk, Chen Chen found a computer in the corner and then inserted the USB drive.
Next, Chen Chen directly opened the movie inventory that came with the computer, searched for a ghost film from the Lam Ching Ying series, and dragged it to the USB drive.
“Ding!”
The sound of a program error came from the headset. The USB drive rejected the movie.
“Since I can’t put a movie about exorcism into the USB flash drive, then the rules in my memory are true...”
Chen Chen frowned. Although he had verified a rule, he did not feel any excitement. Instead, his heart sank.
Having thought of this, he tried a few movies that featured superpowers. In the end, a few such as Chronicle, Push, and The Boys were copied in while others like The Flash, Spider-Man, Batman, Iron Man, and Captain America were rejected by the USB drive.
“The Marvel series and the DC series can’t be placed into the USB flash drive, confirmed.”
Chen Chen verified a rule again and he immediately understood that there was no chance for him to gain superpowers in one step.
In the several movies that could be placed into the USB flash drive, the acquisition of superpowers was very demanding. Moreover, if the rules in his mind were not deceiving him, at this time, after the supernatural ent.i.ties in those movies were released, the USB flash drive was left without the slightest energy...
The sign that the USB drive had run out of energy was that it would look extremely old and battered.
This was what the USB drive appeared to be now.