On a night when many people were anxious and unable to sleep, Anna, who shared a room with Grace, slept soundly.
The remaining 28 people formed groups to ensure that there were no fewer than two people in each room. In fact, gathering together seemed more reasonable, but Grace argued that a large number of people would not be very useful against ghosts except for hiding and running.
It would merely distract the ghosts from chasing and killing, and might even get in the way. The most important thing, she contended, was that both ghosts had killed people before. Instead of fearing the remaining killing quota, it was better to rest and conserve energy. In short, except for a few who understood this line of reasoning, everyone else was confused and eventually returned to their rooms to sleep.
And this night seemed safe as if the shock of the day had been enough. In the early morning, the air, washed by the heavy rain, finally brought a hint of freshness.
Anna opened her eyes and saw that Grace had already gotten up, opened the curtains, and was ventilating the room by opening the window.
"Sister Grace... Good morning," Anna mumbled, rubbing her eyes, still in a daze.
"Good morning."
After waking up a bit more, Anna suddenly noticed two black-covered books on the bedside table between their beds. She subconsciously reached out and picked one up.
"Go wash your face first. There's no rush to read that," Grace said with a smile.
Anna had just opened the book and was momentarily stunned when she heard Grace's words. She shook her head and asked, "Sister Grace, where did these come from?"
"I went to the study after I got up this morning and found a mechanism."
"Mechanism?"
"Do you remember that desk? If you turn the handles of those drawers 90 degrees to the right and then pull them up to open them, another drawer will be revealed inside."
Anna recalled that the capacity of the drawers had indeed seemed a bit small compared to the width of the entire table, but at the time, her attention had been focused on the golden statue, and she had ignored this detail.
"I'm sorry, I was the one who checked the table..."
"It's normal. I only noticed the wear marks on the drawer handle today when the light was good. It was cloudy outside when you checked, and there was only a yellow light in the room. I wouldn't have noticed it either."
Grace shook the quilt and spread it on the bed. She spoke lightly, but Anna could tell how carefully she had searched.
"No... wait, you went out alone early in the morning!"
Perhaps due to insufficient blood flow to her brain upon waking, Anna only reacted at this moment.
"Uh, do you think it was wrong of me to leave you behind? In that case, I'm sorry. I just thought..."
"No, there's still a ghost who hasn't acted yet! What if you got into danger?" Anna said anxiously.
Grace smiled and patted the dagger on her waist. "If it's a ghost, even if it wants to kill me, I will kill it first. Don't worry."
"This is too dangerous!"
"Anna, we are racing against time with the ghost," Grace interrupted her.
"After the first day, the ghosts can kill people again. If we don't try to search for things that are beneficial to us when it is safer, what's the difference between us and waiting to die? Survival is not only a matter of luck but also depends on our own efforts."
Anna nodded but remained unconvinced. "Next time, wake me up. We agreed to take action with multiple people. Nothing you say will change that."
"Okay, go wash your face quickly."
The two diaries that Grace brought back were Victor Ravencourt's diaries, judging from the content. These diaries had been stored in a secret compartment in the drawer. There were more than ten in total, but Grace had only taken two to look at initially.
Victor Ravencourt's handwriting was beautiful and regular. Although it was traditional Chinese, it was not difficult to understand. The diaries did not mark the year, only the month and date, and each diary was neatly written from January 1st to December 31st. They were not written every day; many entries recorded his thoughts and feelings.
Reading these was a significant undertaking. After all, Victor Ravencourt also included some of his own understanding and views on mysticism. Anna, afraid of missing any key information, carefully read every sentence. Grace, on the other hand, was much faster. She focused on the diary entries that mentioned the collection items and soon finished a quarter of the first book.
Ding.
The sound of a mobile phone alert pulled the two back from the diary. Anna quickly picked up the phone and checked the battery level while unlocking it—about one-seventh of the power had been consumed.
A new text message was lying in the message bar. Like the previous one, there was no sender information, and new rules had been added.
[ Dear Visitors:
I hope you are satisfied with the thrilling life on the first day.
The following are additional tips for ghosts:
2. Two or three ghosts each have different abilities but can only use one method of killing and can only kill people when certain conditions are met. If they cannot kill anyone within 24 hours, the quota will not accumulate. In addition to special abilities, the movement speed of ghosts is the same as that of humans.
3. ( Will be unlocked at the end of the second day. )
I wish you all a pleasant journey. ]
The message was not long, and it only added the second rule regarding ghosts. However, when Grace and Anna looked up, their faces were grim.
"...Anna, what do you think?"
"It's terrible... In addition to giving us means to fight back and limiting the number of kills, there are so many restrictions. So far, all the information is unfavourable to ghosts. This can only mean..."
"The conditions are actually overwhelmingly unfavourable to us, right?" Grace said worriedly.
However, there were still only a few people who could grasp the implications of this information as quickly as the two of them.
Most of the people who received the second text message seemed relieved, including Noah, who felt that ghosts were not so scary, especially the detail that their mobility was the same as that of humans, which meant that as long as they noticed a ghost approaching, they could run away if they wanted to.
As for how to detect approaching ghosts, the couple with the decaying hands had never stopped burning candles.
In such a situation, even Grace couldn't bring herself to dampen their spirits. In addition, there was good news about the translation of the Mensal manuscript, so most people were in high spirits for breakfast that day.
The news about the Mensal manuscript was shared by the furniture enthusiast named Lily. The bespectacled woman Elizabeth had stayed up late the previous night to translate the manuscript and had already deciphered a large section of information. It was confirmed that it described a method of forcibly sending the dead back to the underworld. If it could be done, at least one ghost could be eliminated—this news was more exciting than the text message. Now, to ensure Elizabeth's safety, people were taking turns guarding her, determined to translate this method.
"Today is the day we fight back!" The two band members were now at the forefront of the battle against the ghosts. Beom Seok also tacitly approved of their approach, but he appeared quite from behind. The dark circles under his eyes indicated that he had not slept well the previous night.
"Let's search more while it's sunny outside. There are still some collections that haven't been found. We didn't search everywhere yesterday," Grace suggested again.
However, her words were destined to be ignored. Everyone's attention was now focused on the ceremony. Besides, the collections they already possessed seemed sufficient. Compared to items that might or might not be found, grasping the tangible things at hand seemed more practical.
Once again, no one responded to Grace's words. She seemed accustomed to it. However, Anna, Kenzo, and Cairo remained by her side at this time. Ling Yan and the hunchbacked man also quietly approached.
"We think it's necessary to make extra preparations. This site is indeed critical, but with so many people... we wouldn't be missing a few of them," Ling Yan lowered his voice, speaking softly to Grace and the others.
The hunchbacked man also gestured and uttered "Ah Ba, Ah Ba" a few times, unable to speak clearly. Ling Yan interpreted his gestures, explaining, "Uncle Wyatt is mute, but he has been on the battlefield and is very reliable. He also thinks that the atmosphere is too optimistic right now. He's not asking others to wake up, but at least we have to continue preparing a backup plan."
Grace glanced at the people who were enthusiastically discussing over there and whispered, "Then at least let me ask... Does Uncle Wyatt have anything useful?"
"Yes," Ling Yan gave an affirmative answer.
In fact, before finding the wooden sword, the only useful item their team had discovered was in Uncle Wyatt's possession: a small copper bottle filled with red fine sand.
The red quicksand in the collection is feared by demons and ghosts. If something with evil spirits touches it, it will cause severe burns. However, the quantity was quite small. The sand in the bottle could only cover an area large enough for three people to stand in the centre.
"In this case, it's safer to have candles in the room. Then Uncle Noah, Ling Yan, and I will go out to search outside. Anna, Kenzo, and Mr. Cairo will stay in the main house. Don't act alone and try to maintain everyone's morale," Grace decided immediately.
No one had any objections, so Grace and the other two quietly slipped out while people were not paying attention.
The couple in the hall, under everyone's persuasion, finally agreed to take the decaying hand upstairs and stand guard outside Elizabeth's door, and Anna and the other two had to follow them upstairs. However, no one dared to go in and disturb Elizabeth except his own teammates. As a result, a large group of people squatted in the corridor, creating a rather comical scene.
Time passed slowly, and Anna returned to the room to retrieve the diary and continue reading it. She didn't know how long it had been when the door suddenly opened, and Elizabeth and Lily emerged.
"How is it!" Someone immediately asked.
"Most of it is done, but some parts are really hard to understand. I need a related professional Latin dictionary, even if it can be translated into English."
"This... where can we find one?"
Anna closed the book, stood up and stretched, and said, "It's in the study. Come with me to get it."
Kenzo also stood up immediately. Seeing this, Noah also remembered. Elizabeth hurriedly said, "That... although I'm a little embarrassed, I still hope that Mr. Noah can stay. I... am very nervous."
Anna glanced at Elizabeth and nodded in agreement. She said, "It's just to get something. Kenzo and I are enough. We will be back in ten minutes."
"Be careful," Cairo said softly.
"Don't worry, we've looked for it in the study before. I remember the place."
After that, the two walked towards the stairs.