"Ding dong——"
"Next stop——Chengyang TV Station."
Wu Liang got off the bus, stretched lazily, and walked into the TV station office building with a smile.
He had read the contents of the letter.
Surprisingly, his advisor didn't say a single bad word about him, mostly affirming and praising his professional abilities.
After all, as a freshman who successfully uncovered the principal's affair, Wu Liang's investigative abilities were well-known throughout the university.
The advisor even mentioned that he had already informed the higher-ups at the TV station, so Wu Liang could just go directly to the human resources department.
Chengyang University itself is a well-known institution for media studies.
As the top student in his major, this interview should only be a formality, and getting the job was practically guaranteed.
"Achoo!"
Wu Liang suddenly sneezed. Although everything was going smoothly, he couldn't shake the feeling that something was off.
Thud——
"Ouch!"
Deep in thought, Wu Liang collided head-on with a soft voice as he sneezed.
What followed was a scatter of papers on the ground and a black handbag.
And a tall woman in a plain suit and high heels, clearly a workplace elite, fell to the ground right in front of him.
This spot was at the stairway corner where she, carrying a large pile of documents, didn't notice Wu Liang standing still in her blind spot.
"Sorry, let me help you pick these up."
Although most people he knew thought Wu Liang was an abstract troublemaker, he at least tried to act decently in front of strangers.
Bending down, he quickly helped pick up the documents and handed them to the woman, not expecting her to keep staring at his face.
Until the point he felt awkward and creeped out, she suddenly spoke strange words:
"You... you should leave here quickly! Don't come to work today!" Her tone was urgent, and her eyes were filled with reluctance.
This baffled Wu Liang, and he reflexively said, "This scene seems familiar. Are you being bullied at work and about to go American-style crazy here?"
He felt like a kid new to school in the neighboring big country.
On the first day of transfer, after helping a classmate pick up an eraser, the other person tearfully said, "No one has ever been so good to me," while touching the MP5 in their guitar case, telling him to go home and not come to school today.
As he finished sarcastic remarks, Wu Liang saw the woman instinctively touch her exaggeratedly large black handbag.
"Huh? You're serious?"
But in his cautious expression, the woman didn't pull out an MP5, only took out her cellphone and anxiously glanced at it.
Then, her expression drastically changed, and she pushed Wu Liang aside, running frantically outside.
It seemed as if something was chasing her, and even running away, her back view looked like she was desperately trying to escape.
"What a strange person, are all coworkers at the TV station so eccentric?"
Wu Liang shrugged, mumbling, not caring about the woman's odd behavior, and headed upstairs to the human resources department to inquire about the situation.
This TV station office building was quite large; he wasn't sure on which floor the HR department was...
However, only a few seconds after Wu Liang's figure disappeared around the corner going upstairs, the woman who had run out in a panic came back through another door of the office building.
Her hands trembled slightly, and she looked back incredulously at the door she had just re-entered, the terror in her eyes becoming even more evident.
Then she collapsed to the floor, muttering incessantly, "It's over... it's too late, no one can get out..."
At this moment, other colleagues saw her sitting on the ground and were about to ask what happened when several puzzled voices echoed in the lobby—
"How strange! Didn't I just exit the door? Why am I back?"
"No way, what is happening?"
"Feels a bit like a Ghost Wall..."
Others who had just left the TV station office building found that no matter which door they used to exit, they always came back through another door.
The entire building seemed, from a few seconds ago, no one could normally leave!
Some began to realize that it might be a supernatural phenomenon occurring inside the office building!
For a time, many in the lobby started to panic, while others stubbornly continued trying to leave from every entrance and even attempted to climb out of windows.
But without exception, those who climbed out would also come back through the doors.
"Cellphones! Check whose phone has a signal, call for the Awakened from the Paranormal Handling Department to save us!"
But people in the crowd had already checked their phones, all having no signal.
This only further confirmed the supernatural nature of the phenomenon.
The presence of a Fierce Ghost would disrupt the magnetic field and affect all nearby electronic device signals, which had been regarded as a proven truth during major disasters.
Panic began to spread in the lobby...
However, already on the third floor, Wu Liang remained oblivious to the oddities downstairs in the lobby.
On floors above the second, at most, people noticed no internet, unaware that leaving the building was already an impossibility.
Of course, no one knew yet—
In the human resources office on the fifth floor, two staff members responsible for maintaining personnel information lay slumped at their desks, twitching continuously.
Their eyes were filled with despair!
Once slightly overweight due to long sitting, their cheeks now looked sunken as if starving for some time, their arms resembling withered wood, covered with dry, cracked skin.
As seconds passed.
As the despair in their eyes reached its peak, the last thread of black-red blood seeped from their facial orifices.
Their convulsions came to a complete stop.
The blood eerily flowed into a dusty teapot on the table, the dark red cracks on the teapot flickered like smiles.
Then, the teapot vanished into thin air from the office.
Leaving only two dry corpses as if dead in the desert for a long time, no one knew when they would be discovered.
......
Outside the TV station office building.
Several police cars, sirens blaring, set up a cordon around the entire building, prohibiting anyone from entering.
Ten meters from the main entrance, two men and two women stood with worried expressions looking ahead.
"Report the situation on the scene!" A calm voice came from behind them.
The four turned their heads to see a white-clad figure who brought a sense of reassurance, none other than the arriving Awakened, He Zhan!
One of them stepped forward and said, "Captain He, when we arrived and set up the cordon three minutes ago, no one had come out of the building, and we couldn't enter through any entrances either. It seems the building is isolated by a Fierce Ghost."
He Zhan looked up, examining the entire building carefully.
The fifteen-story structure made his brow furrow deeply, sensing trouble.
The area was just too vast!
There were unknown numbers of rooms and corners where a Fierce Ghost could hide, and countless ordinary people inside to protect.
"Time is running short. Rose and Cannon will stand guard near the building to prevent the Fierce Ghost from escaping again, while the rest of you will follow me in to protect the people and exorcise the Fierce Ghost!"
"Roger!" "Okay." "Boss, you open the door!" "..."
He Zhan contemplated for only a few seconds before decisively making a decision and issuing an order.
The situation inside the building was unknown, and nobody knew if the Fierce Ghost was already rampantly slaughtering inside; they could only race against time to quickly enter and ensure the safety of the people!
With this in mind, He Zhan stepped forward, extending his right hand, and a mysterious eyeball slowly opened up.
"Hopefully, everything inside is still safe... Open!"