An Unusual Life Beginning with Evil Spirits-Chapter 154 : Common Ground

Volume 4: High School Arc - “I” Come to Find You~
Thursday, the first night after the game began: Notification.
Friday, the second night after the game began: Zhang Yang died.
Saturday, the third night after the game began: Bai Yao died.
Next came the fourth night, Sunday.
Then the fifth day, Monday.
The sixth day, Tuesday.
The seventh day, Wednesday.
In other words, the day I would die should be at the boundary between next Wednesday night and Thursday, at midnight.
That meant there were four people left, a total of six players.
Lili’s situation should be considered collateral, not part of the original number.
The APP selected six people as players and started this game.
Zhang Yang was dead, Bai Yao was dead.
Next were A, B and C, along with me—four people in total.
And those three must have experienced the same things I had.
If I kept waiting like this, things might spiral completely out of control.
Bai Yao’s death told me one thing… this time, the APP didn’t even bother trying to hide anything.
The sight of two corpses in the room was horrifying.
So… why did it happen this way?
Find *them*.
After finding *them*, then what?
The power to reverse time and force a phone call to connect should be enough to overturn any situation, but even if I found *them*, what could I do?
Then the only explanation…
This game’s strange phenomenon likely only had power during the specific window between 11:30 p.m. and midnight.
In the DV footage, it clearly showed that ‘I’ was around 11:28 p.m. when, the moment I stepped into the room, my consciousness was instantly pulled out.
At the same time, during the period from 11:30 p.m. to exactly midnight, after experiencing Bai Yao’s death firsthand, I returned to my body.
In other words, the time this anomaly could operate was probably restricted to between 11:30 p.m. and midnight.
At other times, this anomaly might not be strong enough.
Of course, this might all just be speculation.
But at least, it gave me a clue.
The word “find”… was extremely eerie.
What kind of “find” counted as “found”?
Knowing the location of the anomaly?
Or knowing what the anomaly actually was?
Both were nearly impossible.
The anomaly’s location should mostly be in the Inner World or Interdimensional Space.
As for the origin of the anomaly, that had never been answered.
So… these two could be ruled out.
The only remaining option was… to witness the anomaly with my own eyes and confirm “this is the anomaly,” and that should count as “found.”
Then… there was the clue in the phone call.
Before, when the phone connected, it always said “I’ll come find you in a few days.”
And in Bai Yao’s memory, the ‘me’ in the DV footage also said, in the first two days of phone calls, “I’ll come find you in a few days,” but by the end, right before her death, the call she received no longer said “I’ll come find you” but “I’ve found you.”
And then came one more line—“I’m behind you.”
First of all, there was no common ground between Bai Yao and Zhang Yang, which meant the two of them might have been selected at random.
Then… how should I explain that “I’m behind you”?
Had Zhang Yang also received such a call before he died?
With those doubts, the night passed in a blur.
The next day, Sunday, early in the morning, I rushed to the restaurant where I had arranged to meet Lu Haochen, riding in Shao He’s car.
I showed him the footage from the DV camera.
Fortunately, I had known in advance that the video would be recorded that night, so I didn’t change into pajamas—otherwise, before showing it to Lu Haochen, I would’ve had to add some mosaics.
Lu Haochen watched the video with complete focus.
Honestly speaking, it was still a bit embarrassing to have someone watch my footage right in front of me.
But in order for Lu Haochen to make proper deductions and guesses, I didn’t interrupt him.
I just sat obediently in my chair, watching the endless flow of cars outside the window, yet feeling no sense of peace in my heart.
The countdown to death was still ticking.
Anyone who could still feel joy in such a moment was no ordinary person.
The key point was, the way Bai Yao and Lili had died was far too gruesome.
It was simply impossible to accept the situation calmly.
After nearly twenty minutes, Lu Haochen watched the video repeatedly several times, then finally put the DV camera to the side, closed his eyes, and thought silently for a while.
“Yunyan, what do you think?”
The first thing Lu Haochen said was to ask for my thoughts and guesses.
Naturally, I told him almost everything I had come up with the night before.
For most of it, Lu Haochen agreed, occasionally nodding, but when I mentioned “no common ground,” his brows suddenly furrowed.
Seeing his frown, I paused, thought for a moment, and asked:
“What is it? Do you think… there are some commonalities between Zhang Yang and Bai Yao?”
“I think there should be.”
Lu Haochen remained silent for a moment, then gave that answer.
“…How did you come to that conclusion?”
I wasn’t particularly surprised by Lu Haochen’s answer. Just curious why he thought that way.
Lu Haochen fell into a brief silence, then lightly tapped his fingers on the table and said:
“This is how I see it—the APP’s games always leave a path to survival. Then where does that path come from?”
Upon hearing that, I frowned slightly.
Where did the path to survival come from?
Lu Haochen gave a faint smile and continued:
“The path in this mission should be those two experiences you had. Although you didn’t fully record the first one, the second one was almost completely captured. The APP’s intent in doing this was probably to have you find clues within those two experiences. If… the two experiences had nothing in common, then there would be no clues to speak of. Under the rules of this game, the only way to find a clue is to find the common point between the two experiences.”
At this point, Lu Haochen paused briefly before continuing:
“No matter how small or insignificant that common point may be, only by finding it can you uncover the key to ending this game.”
Find… the common point?
I pondered for a moment, then nodded.
Lu Haochen was right.
If there truly was no commonality between those two personal experiences, then aside from scaring me, they would have no other value.
But from another perspective…
Maybe this was the APP’s deliberate attempt to frighten me, so I wouldn’t be able to concentrate on anything else.
Maybe, there were simply no clues in those personal experiences at all.
But there was one thing I could be sure of. At the very least, the times of death for Zhang Yang, Bai Yao, and Lili were likely all between 11:30 p.m. and midnight.
Then… the question arose again.
What exactly was it…