"What… what happened? What's wrong with me?!"
Li Xing sprang up from the floor after lying there for a moment, feigning ignorance.
But he remembered everything with perfect clarity—his back was already drenched in cold sweat.
The middle-aged man shrank away as Li Xing approached, trembling in fear.
"What kind of monsters are you people…"
Ji Li ignored their quarrel and turned his attention to the bloated corpse.
There was no doubt: this death matched the pattern of a ghost-possessed suicide.
From the looks of it, the man had been dead for some time. Which meant the earlier door-slamming sound hadn't come from him.
So who had slammed the door?
A chilling possibility struck Ji Li. Could it have been the ghost itself?
Not impossible. A slam without footsteps might align more with its nature.
Ji Li glanced toward the distant door. Perhaps the ghost was no longer here.
They had still arrived too late—the man was already dead, and useless for testing the *isolation theory*.
Just as they prepared to leave, the phone by the corpse's head suddenly lit up with a blinding glow.
A WeChat message appeared:
Old Xue, how are things on your side?**
The message was short, but Ji Li noticed seven unread ones stacked above it.
Things were growing increasingly tangled.
He picked up the phone, trying to open the older messages, but it demanded a password.
A sharp pain pressed behind his eyes. This phone's owner had to be one of the remaining missing workers.
He needed them urgently—test subjects to confirm the killing rule. Of the three, one was already dead. Only two remained.
After a few failed attempts at unlocking the phone, another message flashed on the screen:
Old Xue, if you can still see this, bring Xiao Qi to the 18th floor rooftop to meet me!**
Ji Li exhaled in relief. So the corpse was Old Xue.
The three missing workers clearly knew one another: Old Xue, Xiao Qi, and the one sending the texts.
The sender seemed aware of the building's strange state—and perhaps had already encountered the ghost.
Ji Li waved the others forward and led them toward the eighteenth floor.
As for Xiao Qi, supposedly with Old Xue—there was no need to search.
In Ji Li's plan, one isolated survivor was enough to test the rule.
But he still couldn't shake the question: that slammed door without footsteps—what had it really been?
Their footsteps receded down the hall. The office was left in silence.
In a corner, an ordinary cardboard box sat unnoticed.
Suddenly it trembled, then burst open with a bang as a hand thrust out from inside!
But Ji Li and the others missed it completely.
*This counts as our second operation. If we can save the one who sent those messages, we may uncover the pattern to evade the ghost's attacks.*
The third persona analyzed within Ji Li's mind.
The situation wasn't overly complex. The ghost's hunting rule was becoming clear:
It targeted workers members left isolated near a store employee.
Ji Li's mission now was twofold—confirm how many counted as *isolated*, and discover a way to save them.
And that method might not be so difficult.
Possession-induced suicides looked cruel and absolute, but they had a flaw: if he could disable the victim's hands, he might block the death entirely.
The eighteenth floor drew near, and Ji Li's expression grew solemn.
By the dim light of the stairwell, he watched each floor slip by, the unease in his chest swelling. Something was wrong—but he couldn't pinpoint what.
With that tension coiled tight, Ji Li and the six others finally reached the eighteenth floor.
As soon as they stepped into the corridor, Ji Li raised a hand, halting the group. He pressed a finger to his lips.
"I'll go ahead alone. Li Xing, you and the rest guard the stairwell. Don't let that person escape."
If Li Xing hadn't known their mission was to protect the workers, he might have thought Ji Li's order was simply to kill them all.
Ji Li paid him no mind. Straightening his clothes, he walked alone into the silent hallway.
Amid the chaotic arrangement of rooms, Ji Li scanned left and right, listening intently to every corner. Even the ever-alert third persona aided in the search.
"The building's power is out, yet he's stayed hidden from sight. That means not only has he seen the ghost, he's also witnessed us restraining the workers."
The third persona reasoned while probing the surroundings.
Ji Li nodded slightly and whispered,
"He's cautious enough to stay hidden somewhere, waiting to rendezvous with Old Xue."
"But he doesn't know Old Xue is already dead, and that his phone is in our hands. Hearing footsteps, he's probably wondering if the person coming is Old Xue."
The logic fit perfectly. Ji Li pulled out Old Xue's phone—still no new messages.
That proved it: the man already knew someone had arrived.
Ji Li frowned. How to convince him that he was Old Xue and lure him out…
Then, suddenly, his brow smoothed. Beyond the sound of footsteps, he began to whistle.
The tune was the same mournful opera melody they'd heard earlier in the office.
This man knew Old Xue, and Old Xue had kept playing opera even during the blackout, powered by a charger—proof of his deep fondness for it.
Since the man knew Old Xue—and Old Xue had been playing opera even during a blackout—it meant he was a fanatic.
The messenger couldn't fail to recognize it. Only that tune could identify him across the vast eighteenth floor.
*Right side!*
Almost at once, the third persona cried out. At the very instant Ji Li's whistling began, frantic footsteps echoed from the right-hand passage ahead.
Heavy, rapid, urgent.
Ji Li's eyes flashed. Without hesitation, he whipped a pistol from his waistband and sprinted toward the corner.
"Old Xue! The building has a ghost!"
His arm shot forward, colliding squarely with a man's chest, cutting off the words the man had just begun to speak.
In the dim light, Ji Li saw a pale, sweat-drenched face twisted in terror.
"You… you're the killer!"
The man shrieked and tried to turn and flee. Ji Li reacted instantly, grabbing for his shoulder.
But—
Something else was faster.
As the man turned, both his hands jerked up—the same precursor seen in every prior death.
His face still frozen in horror, his head began to wrench violently to the left, completely out of his control!
Ji Li's expression hardened in a flash.
You can read Eerie Overseer ahead by 60+ chapters ad-free and for free at htt ps://ravenarchives. com/book/eerie-overseer]. Bulk uploads are a bit tricky, so updates here might be irregular, but they'll keep coming.