Seven people moved silently through the darkened stairwell, their heavy footsteps echoing, each breath quick and shallow.
They all saw it—the corpse with its head twisted unnaturally backward, still standing at the stairwell entrance.
Its figure was swallowed by darkness, visible only when the beam of a flashlight touched it—no statue, but a body.
The five workers forced to come by Ji Li's command were too terrified to breathe. Moments earlier, when the lead middle-aged man had screamed at the sight of the corpse, Ji Li had shoved his gun barrel into the man's mouth without a word, nearly scaring him into wetting himself.
Those cold eyes radiated merciless pressure. No one dared speak again; they followed quietly.
"Manager… why bring me of all people? I'm useless. I'll only drag you down."
Li Xing, unlike the others, felt less intimidated by Ji Li's reputation, and so managed to speak.
And he wasn't wrong. Tongguan, Chang Nian, Yu Guo—any of them would have been far more capable than him. Yet Ji Li had chosen none of them, only him.
In Li Xing's mind, the reason was obvious: Ji Li's reputation had spread through Branch Seven. He feared he had been brought as nothing more than a sacrifice.
But Ji Li ignored him completely.
"We've already searched the second and third floors. Nothing suspicious. We'll move up floor by floor until we find the remaining three, alive or dead."
Li Xing glanced at the middle-aged man beside him, but swallowed his words.
Ji Li searched room by room with his flashlight. The building's layout was chaotic, split into dozens of offices carved apart by small companies. Searching was slow, tedious.
The mission, on the surface, was to rescue three missing people. But Ji Li knew better.
Saving lives wasn't the goal. Their deaths might reveal the ghost's true killing rules.
Even the so-called isolation theory was only one of Ji Li's tools.
Li Xing's role was, indeed, to serve as a possible sacrifice—but not only that.
Ji Li's sharp gaze swept the shadows as his mind worked.
The ghost's ability to divide itself was almost certain.
But how did it choose its targets? That remained unclear.
Then came a thought, echoing from his second persona: *Ji Li is the embodiment of death. Wherever he goes, people die.*
During the first operation, every death had occurred near one of three people: Ji Li, Tongguan, Fang Shenyan.
Combined with the isolation theory, this gave rise to a clearer hypothesis:
"The ghost attacks workers near a store employee—but only when the total number of people present is fewer than six."
Yet this number was still uncertain. Fang Shenyan's group had five people and still suffered a death, which suggested six might be the threshold—but it wasn't conclusive.
This time, Ji Li's group began with seven. If they found the missing three, their numbers would increase.
Two things needed testing: whether the isolation theory was real, and what number of people was required to be "safe" from the ghost.
If proven, this might be the path to survival.
But Ji Li doubted it could be so simple. For a building of this rank, the escape shouldn't be easy. Still, it had to be tested.
*Bang!*
The sudden crash of a door shattered the tension.
"Ghost? The ghost is here?"
Li Xing yelped and tried to dart behind Ji Li. But the middle-aged man was faster, grabbing his arm and holding him back.
The rest of the workers panicked, bunching together, pushing forward until they collided into Ji Li's back.
Ji Li, listening intently, was slammed against the wall, his expression darkening. The sound hadn't been close, and it had already faded. He had only caught its direction.
Then, his third persona whispered sharply: *Upstairs. Southeast corner.*
Ji Li shot the group a glance, said nothing, and sprinted up the nearest stairs with his flashlight.
Fifth floor.
Only a single door slam had echoed there. And yet, that lone sound unsettled him more than anything.
Why, after the blackout, were three workers still upstairs at all? Two possibilities: they were already dead—or they had been asleep.
Based on his earlier deduction of the killing rule, Ji Li leaned toward the latter explanation.
But why would workers, unaware of the ghost's presence, wake up and immediately slam on a door?
And the sound had been so loud that even he had heard it clearly from downstairs.
Li Xing and the others exchanged uneasy glances as Ji Li dashed ahead.
"So… should we go after him, little brother?" one whispered.
Li Xing gritted his teeth. He wasn't brilliant, but he wasn't stupid either. He knew about the isolation theory Ji Li had explained. With Ji Li gone, staying behind didn't guarantee safety.
"Go! Follow him!"
Hearing footsteps behind him, Ji Li knew they had chosen to come. It didn't surprise him.
*Left corner—keep going inside. I hear a woman crying*, his third persona said.
Ji Li frowned. He hadn't heard any such sound on the fifth floor, yet the voice inside him pointed with certainty.
He stopped in front of a glass wall and raised his flashlight. Through the glass, a figure could be seen.
Turning slightly, he glanced at the group catching up and whispered to Li Xing: "Bring four people over."
Li Xing's face tightened. He understood that, since he was here, he couldn't avoid it. Drawing a deep breath, he turned to the middle-aged man.
"Let's move."
With six people gathered outside, plus the woman inside, that made seven.
If the isolation theory was true, then this was the maximum safeguard in numbers.
Would the ghost still strike?
You can read Eerie Overseer ahead by 60+ chapters ad-free and for free at htt ps://ravenarchives. com/book/eerie-overseer]. Bulk uploads are a bit tricky, so updates here might be irregular, but they'll keep coming.