# Chapter 441: The Murderous Ghost Shadow
Two players from the Kong siblings' side had also died, leaving six people remaining. If you added Zhu Rumin, that made seven, but three of them were injured. Chu Yuan, Wan Yunrong, Gan Qing, and Miao Yu were mainly responsible for drawing the fire of this group, excluding Kong Hui.
The black-shirted player, the severed-palm player, the gelatin-coat player, the armless female player, and Zhu Rumin and Kong Cheng.
Among these people, some would still be split off to protect Dr. Deng, so the two sides had roughly equal numbers, giving them a chance to fight.
The location was set on the first underground floor. After studying their positions, everyone began making their own arrangements.
Players couldn't trust each other, so they couldn't reveal all their trump cards. It was normal for each to have their own agenda.
Xu Huo also left in the middle of things and only returned a few minutes later.
After that, they simply waited for the Kong siblings to bring their people over. With any luck, they might leave one or two players to accompany Dr. Deng in the western half of the laboratory.
But until the lights came back on, there was no movement from the Kong siblings' side, and no one took the elevator.
Chu Yuan grew a bit restless. "They're not trying to wear us down, are they?"
"Does staying here wear you out?" Wu Xiaonan sat against the wall, eating the food she'd brought. "I think they're probably just delayed by something."
"That makes sense. Bringing so many players and an ordinary person in here must mean they have something important to do." Wan Yunrong seemed relieved.
"Then let's rest for a while," Xu Huo said. "We'll know when the elevator comes up anyway."
Sustaining high tension wasn't a good strategy either, so everyone sat down to rest in place.
"But it seems like the ghost shadow didn't appear last night," Gan Qing said. "I wonder if Qiu Xiangdong turned into a ghost."
"Isn't dealing with the Kong siblings the priority right now?" Wan Yunrong glanced at him.
"I didn't mean anything else. I'm just curious who killed the players on the Kong siblings' side," Gan Qing said.
Although Ge Pan hadn't explicitly said what happened to the player with the vacuum cleaner, it was highly likely he was dead. They'd previously seen a player from Dr. Deng's side suffocate to death, and He Chunsheng and Chang Chengyong had also died from suffocation. If there was a suspect, Qiu Xiangdong was at the top of the list.
Perhaps the player controlling the ghost shadow wasn't the boss hidden in the Deep Blue Laboratory, but someone among them.
"Why else would he have run off right from the start?"
Gan Qing's suspicions weren't unfounded. The other players also secretly hoped that the ghost shadow not appearing on their side meant it was causing trouble for the Kong siblings and their group.
In fact, during the latter half of the night, it was the ghost shadow that had been harassing the Kong siblings and their people.
Zhu Rumin had used a prop to hide among the pile of corpses for a while. Only after Xu Huo and the others had opened up the corridors on both sides did she go out to find Kong Hui.
However, she wasn't clear about the situation outside, so after Zhao Bi died and the Kong siblings led their people upstairs, she missed both sides. She waited until Xu Huo and the others came back down before taking the elevator up to find them.
She quickly reunited with Dr. Deng and the others. At that time, Kong Hui was venting her anger at Ge Pan because they hadn't found anyone at the ambush spot Ge Pan had mentioned.
Everyone knew in this situation that Ge Pan's prop had failed, but since he hadn't shown his face, they could still go back.
Because the ambush plan had failed, the ticket players were likely scattered. Ge Pan's task was to convince them to gather again, preferably to provoke them into making the first move. Dr. Deng was a good bait.
The Kong siblings wanted to wait for their prey, but who would have thought Ge Pan would never return? Kong Hui lost patience and led her people to the corpse storage area, but for some reason, the elevator suddenly stopped working.
She only tried to dismantle one elevator when something strange happened. The armless female player standing behind her silently disappeared, and the gelatin-coat player who was with her didn't even notice how she vanished.
"Could it be that those ticket players didn't go upstairs?" Kong Hui made this guess and scattered with her companions to search. Eventually, in a corner where dust was slightly disturbed, they found the female player's body — dead from suffocation.
"This isn't the work of ticket players," the gelatin-coat player said. "Could it really be like Zhu Rumin said, that there's someone else here?"
"Impossible," Kong Hui said decisively. "If there really was someone else, the Bolen Clan wouldn't have kept it from us."
"Maybe they don't know either. Otherwise, why would they keep sending people in and never find the real potion?"
Kong Hui seemed straightforward, but she was actually quite cautious. Having lost one player, she didn't rush upstairs. Instead, she retreated to the western laboratory and sought confirmation from Zhu Rumin.
Zhu Rumin gave a detailed account and said, "At the time, I was trying to get close to Wu Xiaonan to find an opportunity to strike, but I never expected the ghost shadow to appear on me. Those people are no pushovers, so I had no choice but to flee."
"So there really is a ghost shadow?" Kong Hui frowned and looked at her brother. "The Bolen Clan didn't tell us the truth."
But Kong Cheng said, "They wouldn't dare. Before we left the Saiel Coast, the Bolen Clan had sent several groups of players in. Some returned empty-handed with minimal casualties, but two groups were completely wiped out."
"At the time, we assumed it was the ticket players," Kong Hui said.
"Now it seems that might not be the case," Kong Cheng said. "Those who returned alive knew nothing about the ghost shadow, meaning they never saw it. But three of our people died from suffocation."
"The same way the ticket players died," Zhu Rumin couldn't help but say.
"So you're saying that up until now, all the dead players were killed by this so-called ghost shadow?" Lou Fu didn't believe it. "Have you seen the ghost shadow?"
Zhu Rumin shook her head. Just as she was about to say something, her gaze suddenly jumped past him to the glass window behind him. Panicked, she shouted, "Ghost shadow!"
Everyone immediately turned around, but they only caught a glimpse of a residual shadow flashing past.
The Kong siblings shot forward. Kong Hui actually managed to block the ghost shadow's path. She drew her twin swords and chased the ghost shadow along the wall, slashing wildly. After one round, over a dozen deep, long sword marks appeared on the wall, but the ghost shadow drifted away without any hindrance.
"Selective Hit!" Kong Cheng reached out toward the ghost shadow from a distance. The dark, terrifying female ghost figure was suddenly pinned to the wall. As Kong Cheng exerted force, a thin, shadow-like thing slowly peeled away from the wall.
It was like a layer of adhesive paper stuck to the wall. When the ghost shadow was pulled up, it made a "hissing" sound. But after a tug-of-war between the two sides, the ghost shadow still couldn't be torn off. It broke free, stuck back to the wall, and quickly disappeared into the darkness. Before the Kong siblings could give chase, a sudden cry came from Dr. Deng's side. The two immediately turned back, only to find another ghost shadow had entangled Zhu Rumin!
Zhu Rumin's head was wrapped up, and she was struggling continuously. The people nearby didn't go to save her. Instead, the gelatin-coat player took out a plastic bag and blew into it. The palm-sized transparent bag suddenly grew to the height of a person. He covered it over Zhu Rumin's head, trapping both her and the ghost shadow inside!
(Chapter End)