Dawn of a New Era - Chapter 44

Chapter 44: Encountering A Ghost

Translator: Lordbluefire  Editor: Lordbluefire

1 a.m., the corridor of the motel’s second floor was quiet and pitch black.

The atmosphere was faintly sinister.

Suddenly, a bizarre figure could be seen pacing back and forth in the corridor.

Its body was covered in fresh blood, its pale face resembled a dead person. It had a blank look on it now.

Where is this place?

Who am I?

He continued pacing back and forth, blankly surveying his surroundings. Only after a long time did he discover that he seemed to be in the corridor of a motel.

He felt that his thinking speed was extremely slow. There were many things he couldn’t remember.

He also felt very tired and weak. He needed a good sleep.

Then he began to walk toward his room. Making the motion of pushing open his door, he entered.

In truth, his body simply passed through the door, like his body was something illusory.

This room was a double room. Other than him, he had one more colleague.

He suddenly remembered that he was a mechanical engineer. This time around, he came to Dongning City with his colleague because a machine produced by their company had some sort of problem. He was here to examine and fix the machine.

His colleague hadn’t slept yet, tossing and turning on the bed, clearly suffering from insomnia.

Staring at his colleague, without a clear reason, he gradually felt an intense sense of anger in his heart.

His calm face then became contorted and malevolent.

…

“There’s a ghost!”

A sharp scream rang out, spreading through the entire corridor.

After that, the door was pushed open. “HELP ME, SOMEONE! HELP ME PLEASE!”

Chen Shouyi was shocked awake by this sudden scream.

The shell girl curling up beside him was also awake. Her eyes opened into a slit due to drowsiness. She glanced at Chen Shouyi before flipping around and returning to her sleep.

What happened?

He hesitated for a moment and then quickly put on his clothes.

When he opened the door, his sharp senses could feel a strange chill in the air. It felt like the corridor had air-conditioning.

Not far away, an old man about fifty to sixty years of age lay limp on the ground. He seemed to have been badly frightened, his hands clenching around his head as he tried to press himself into the wall.

He spoke in fear, his voice was filled with sobbing tone as his body trembled violently.

“Please, don’t come over!

“Little Zhang, there’s a creditor for every debt. The one that caused your death wasn’t me. When I return, I will definitely burn you some incense and kowtow to apologize!

“It’s true that I didn’t help you, but I have parents to support and children to take care of. I was afraid too!”

On this cold and gloomy night, the voice of the old man was abnormally horrifying.

…

What made Chen Shouyi feel strange was that he basically couldn’t see who the old man was talking to. It was like there was an invisible entity ahead of him.

At this moment, many people secretly opened their doors slightly, creating a gap as they stared over.

After some time, many people saw Chen Shouyi standing in the corridor and nothing else happened. Finally, quite a few guests felt emboldened enough to walk out. They were speaking in soft voices, pointing at the old man as they discussed.

“This man should be a colleague of the person who died, right?”

“I think so, it seemed like he has gone crazy. Ghost? Where’s the ghost? Why don’t I see it?”

“He might have done some shameful deed and has a guilty conscience!”

At any time, there would always be no lack of people who loved drama. Very soon, the corridor became extremely lively. But not a single person dared to move near to the old man. Everyone was watching from afar.

They would rather believe that ghosts were real than to risk it. These were the thoughts of the majority of the crowd.

Truthfully speaking, Chen Shouyi also felt some horror when facing this bizarre incident.

Ever since the power failure yesterday night, this world seemed to become somewhat different.

Luckily, there was only a slight trace of fear in his heart. After all, he had killed over ten barbarians and even personally carried their corpses away for disposal. His guts were naturally not something ordinary people could compare to.

Chen Shouyi gritted his teeth. He summoned his courage and walked toward the old man, feeling curious as to how a ghost would look like

Fear came from the mysterious unknown. He who had been entering the Otherworld would have to face such things sooner or later.

Also, he believed that even if there were ghosts, since the intensity of the mysterious forcefield was still extremely low, the ghost wouldn’t be overly powerful. In addition, the ghost had just become one; he was killed not too long ago.

“Little brother, don’t go over. What if there really is a ghost?” A young man warned Chen Shouyi out of goodwill upon seeing him preparing to head over.

“It’s fine. Since I was young until now, I’ve never seen a ghost before. I will head over to see what the situation is like.” Chen Shouyi smiled.

After speaking, he ignored the persuasion of others and continued walking ahead.

As he moved nearer, the sinister and cold aura ahead rapidly dispersed.

Right now, his entire body was brimming with exuberant qi and blood. To the sinisterly cold auras, he was like a blazing sun.

When Chen Shouyi walked to the front of the old man, he felt his consciousness shaking lightly. After that, he heard a sharp scream of resentment and despair.

(Ai, the ghost seems to be gone!)

The corridor was still the same. However, the sinister and cold aura had dissipated. Now, it gave off a hint of warm, human-like aura.

Earlier, when Chen Shouyi walked over, his mental state was still tense and his heart was filled with trepidation.

Who knew that things would be so relaxed? He didn’t use any strength at all and the opponent had already collapsed.

“Sir, are you okay?”

He patted the trembling old man’s shoulder. The smell of urine could be smelt from the old man. Clearly, the old man was so frightened that he pissed himself.

“Don’t…don’t kill me!”

“Sir, you must be having a nightmare, right? Ghost? How could there be ghosts?”

The old man felt better after hearing Chen Shouyi’s voice. He inclined his head while still trembling as he stared at his surroundings with nervousness.

His figure was slightly plumb, and his eyebags were extremely heavy, swollen in an unhealthy manner like he hadn’t slept for a few days.

…

After the drama was over, Chen Shouyi returned to his room.

Looking at the time, it was already 1.30 a.m..

He stared at the shell girl who was still soundly asleep and felt that his earlier nervousness was extremely laughable.

Compared to the Otherworld, ghosts like that entity earlier were unworthy of a single mention.

He guessed that even if he hadn’t gone over, the ghost probably wouldn’t be able to hurt any others.

These were just his conjectures. But… Why could the old man see it while other people including himself could not?

It was unknown why, but he involuntarily thought of what people were saying on the internet regarding types of people that could see ghosts easily.

Although this might be nonsense, there were two criteria that the old man met.

Firstly, old people with illnesses, and secondly, people with weak mental states due to frequent insomnia. The old man fulfilled both criteria, in addition to the fact that the ghost was clearly targeting him. Most probably, these were the reasons why he could see it.

(Forget it, I will stop thinking about it!)

He proceeded to go to the land of dreams.

…

On the second day when Chen Shouyi woke up, he discovered that the electricity hadn’t been restored yet. The mobile signal and internet were still cut off.

His heart was somewhat heavy as he went to the bathroom to perform his morning ablutions.

After he came back, he wore his clothes and placed the shell girl into the briefcase before heading out.

The streets were still clogged by vehicles. Although a night had passed, the roads still showed no signs of clearing at all.

Chen Shouyi noticed many electricians trying to fix the power lines, and he could also see police on the streets along with many armed soldiers.

This caused people to feel the dense atmosphere, like the pressure before a storm.

Chen Shouyi took his briefcase. His steps were heavy as he continued on his pace. Not too long later, he arrived at the newspaper stand.

Without the internet and television, the only way to get information about the external world was through a newspaper.

For an ordinary piece of newspaper, there was actually a long queue for them now.

Everyone was trying to find out more information and there were all sorts of rumors floating around.

Some said that an underground space channel was affecting the power lines.

Some said that there could be a solar storm coming.

Some people even said that the end of the world was coming.

As Chen Shouyi was queueing up, he simply kept an ear open and listened to the discussion of the crowd. After a few minutes, he finally managed to purchase today’s newspaper.

However, after a rough skim through the content, he didn’t gain any information.

The newspaper simply provided information about the power failure and internet cutoff. It also stated that the government was doing their best to repair them and would safeguard the people’s welfare.

However, it didn’t mention any specific deadline. As for the situation outside Dongning City, not a single word was written about it.

Large segments of the newspaper were speaking about the sufficient supply of material in the entire city. The water plant had also activated their independent emergency electricity to guarantee that the city’s inhabitants would have enough water to use and drink. The newspaper also reminded everyone not to panic, snatch and hoard things, or participate in looting.