Most of Victor Ravencourt's diary features beautiful and neat handwriting, with very few typos. However, in the section detailing Joseph's return—which recounts Joseph assisting Victor Ravencourt in teaching the younger generation of the family, instructing Walter Ravencourt in managing family affairs, and preparing the Ravencourt family to gradually emerge from the mysterious circle—the paper bears numerous scratches. It appears someone had previously circled and annotated this section, but the marks are so chaotic that their original content is indecipherable.
"From this, we can see that Victor Ravencourt trusted Joseph implicitly, but the person who made the scratches likely disagreed," Anna inferred.
Ling Yan pondered for a moment and then suggested, "What if Joseph himself drew them? If Joseph was duplicitous, it wouldn't be surprising if he deliberately marked this section to mock Victor later."
"If he truly had ill intentions, would the Ravencourt family still need to mock the deceased after their lineage ended? I don't quite understand... Wait!"
Anna suddenly had a realization, snatched the notebook page from the table, and pressed it into Ling Yan's hand. She stared at the parchment for a while before a slow smile spread across her face.
"What did you find?" Ling Yan asked.
"This notebook page is a talisman. Victor Ravencourt completely dispersed the ghosts used in his experiment here, extracted their memories, and transcribed them into a talisman... As long as it's torn into pieces, it can directly impact a spirit and force a ghost to relive those painful memories!"
Ling Yan lowered her head and glanced at the diary, her eyes falling on the very part where Victor Ravencourt had recorded his memory-stripping experiment.
[ This is likely the final achievement of my life. If this method of using the pain of ghosts to attack can be disseminated, I believe ordinary people will no longer be troubled by malevolent ghosts. Thanks to Joseph's assistance, I can complete this experiment with my remaining energy.
All members of my Ravencourt family who inherit this method must not exploit it for excessive profit, must not use it to manipulate the masses, must not become arrogant because of it, and must not boast about its uniqueness. The method of using poison to combat poison is not inherently evil, but achieving the righteous path with it is difficult. It punishes only the malevolent ghosts, not the innocent souls. This endeavor affects not only me and my family but should also serve as a source of mutual encouragement for all comrades in the world. ]
"...Anna, do you think..." Ling Yan hesitated briefly before continuing, "...This Mr. Ravencourt possesses a kind of... innocence that seems out of place with his status?"
"Ah, I noticed it a long time ago," Anna replied, slowly withdrawing the quill from the ink bottle, her tone tinged with emotion.
"Victor Ravencourt isn't naive; he's the kind of person who detests evil and possesses a strong sense of justice. However, there's no definitive standard for justice in this world. Even he didn't explicitly address the private execution of spies within the family. In other words, his justice is simply the boundary he set for himself."
"But he does have a clear bottom line," Ling Yan added.
"Yes, he embodies the principle of 'helping the world when successful.' His countless studies in mysticism aimed to uncover its secrets so that people would not be harmed by demons, ghosts, and evil practitioners. However, he also overlooked that the very essence of mysticism lies in its mystery." Anna smiled and turned to face Ling Yan. "Speaking of which, Sister Ling Yan, do you have even a slight inkling of the world outside this villa?"
Ling Yan's eyes widened slightly. "You mean... this isn't just a survival game setting?"
"Probably."
At that moment, two distinct message alerts sounded from the mobile phones in their hands.
Unbeknownst to them, the night had passed, and the dawn of the crucial sixth day had arrived.
"Well, Sister Ling Yan, as I said before... if my guess is correct..." Anna began.
"...I will help you escape this deadly calamity together," Ling Yan finished.
The time was the dawn of the previous day.
——"The situation could be worse, Sister Ling Yan."
——"What did you say?"
——"In such a deadly game, there's no reason to give us so many open slots to compete. Nine people... don't you think that number is too strange?"
——"Strange? What do you mean?"
——"Sister Ling Yan... I hope you can help me. Next, I will say something that we are very likely to face. I... I don't have the confidence to survive alone."
In the laboratory, Ling Yan turned on her mobile phone. An unreadable emotion stirred within her. Even her hands, usually so steady, trembled slightly.
[ Dear visitors, heavy rain is approaching. Please prepare for flood prevention. Late night and dawn are times when demons run rampant. Those still wandering around should be cautious of what lies behind them. The final and most thrilling moment is drawing near. Are you ready?
Additional tips about ghosts. ]
"Seven days, thirty people, three ghosts, killing three people each day. Under this premise, how can we possibly kill everyone?"
[ 6:. The previous entries have revealed information about the ghosts, and correspondingly, certain advantageous conditions will be provided to them. ]
"How to naturally increase the number of killings by nine? Victor Ravencourt's diary gave me a hint... that is time."
[ The first advantageous condition is the heavy rain expected in the last two days, which will minimize outdoor light, providing invisible ghosts with ample cover for attack. ]
"On the sixth day, or in other words, five days after being killed by a ghost, that person can be resurrected as a fierce ghost."
[ The second advantageous condition is that a person killed by a ghost will transform into a new fierce ghost after 120 hours, and will be bound by the previous fierce ghost constraints. ]
"In this way, the killing quota on the sixth day becomes six, and on the seventh day... it becomes nine."
[ The third advantageous condition is that the newly born fierce ghost will possess randomly assigned new abilities and killing restrictions, which will not be disclosed in the following information. ]
Ling Yan looked up, a look of astonishment on her face.
[ 7: ( Will be unlocked at the end of the sixth day. )
We wish you all a pleasant journey! ]
Simultaneously, in the hall upstairs, a crystal ball struck the floor with a sharp shattering sound.
Wyatt clutched the bottle of red quicksand tightly in his hand. Around the table, a circle of barriers, almost imperceptible to the naked eye, had formed. Just outside the barrier, a mass of black fog, seemingly emanating from a tear in space, was swirling. Behind it was the main house door, now pierced by a round hole of the same size.
Around Wyatt, Rami and his partner, Beom Seok, and Noah had gathered. Noah held no wooden sword, and the flame on the candle of decay remained stubbornly blue.
In the gloomy morning light, not a single lamp in the hall was lit!
"It's a ghost!"
A roar shattered the oppressive silence. Francesco bursts in from the basement with two apprentices. The power outage had been discovered that morning, and Francesco had rushed upstairs to assess the situation. The others had not yet descended, but as soon as the morning message arrived, the attack began, leaving no time to react!
Francesco and his two apprentices ran desperately down the corridor. A wooden sword had been given to him for safety, but now it seemed useless.
The generator was destroyed. In the basement, Ron, another follower of the nouveau riche, had collapsed to the ground with a bizarre smile and embrace. Francesco didn't hesitate after seeing Ron's body. He turned and fled with his two apprentices, but as soon as they reached the corridor, they saw the wall slowly undulating!
"Hey, Uncle Francesco!" Noah shouted, "Come back to us!"
Francesco immediately yelled back, "Wall! There's a ghost in the wall!"
Noah was startled, and Wyatt simply shook his head slowly. The corridor seemed to stretch endlessly as the evil ghost pursued them. Francesco never imagined he could run so fast. In reality, all three of them were already feeling the strain.
"Ah!"
The more reckless of the two disciples suddenly stopped short, as if he had run into a solid wall, and was thrown backward. The calmer one immediately reached out to pull him back. Francesco hadn't anticipated this sudden change. He tried to retreat, but his momentum carried him forward a few steps, instantly creating a gap of about two meters.
"Invisible ghost! Stab it! Stab it!" Rami almost screamed at him.
The calm disciple's eyes darted around. Then, he forcefully yanked his companion's arm, spinning him around half a circle, bypassing the invisible ghost's blockade, and shoving him towards Francesco before sprinting in the opposite direction, deeper into the corridor.
"Come back here, you little bastard!"
Francesco swung his wooden sword wildly, glaring at his apprentice and shouting, but in a fleeting moment, the apprentice vanished into the dark and seemingly endless corridor.
"Master! Master! Senior brother is gone! Senior brother is gone!" The other apprentice beside him sobbed, tugging at Francesco. With their last ounce of strength, the two stumbled into the range of the protective shield and collapsed onto the floor.
Beom Seok approached and offered a quiet, "Excuse me."
"I... I only accepted two apprentices in my life," Francesco said, his eyes red-rimmed. He pulled out a cigarette with trembling hands but didn't light it, simply holding it tightly.
"We are all in trouble," Beom Seok murmured, his head bowed. The previous night, amidst the pervasive fear that had everyone huddled together in the hall, the flat-headed band youth had stood too close to the window, giving the mirror ghost an opportunity.
No one had considered that the shadows appearing on the windows at night when the lights were on could also create the conditions for the mirror ghost to strike. Although everyone had briefly united after the incident, that fragile unity had crumbled with the arrival of the morning's chilling information.
"We will all die."
It seemed someone had uttered those words a long time ago. Beom Seok leaned weakly against the table, muttering to himself, repeating the despairing sentence.
No one expected the protective shield formed by the crystal ball to last for two days. Judging by the ghost's current roaming area, the shield's radius was only about five meters—neither too large nor too small. When the shield inevitably failed, another person would likely perish.
"Don't give up so early!" Noah exclaimed, his gaze darting around vigilantly. "Let's use this time to find a way to survive and see where it's easier to escape! This ghost's mobility seems to be similar to that of humans!"
However, the exhausted survivors offered little response.