Guan Ping's face flickered under the staff's gaze, the cold fluorescent lights showing beads of sweat on his brow.
He clenched his fists, bit down as if to speak again, but after glancing at the store workers, finally loosened his hands.
"You said, as long as I sense danger, I'll stop on my own."
Tongguan nodded gravely, not a trace of worry about what they were about to do.
"Yes. If you feel something's wrong, signal Chang Nian—she'll pull you out at once."
Chang Nian stepped forward, standing between them, scanning both sides.
She didn't try to persuade anymore; instead, she prepared to cooperate with Tongguan's decision, as if the habit were ingrained.
Tongguan steadied himself, facing Guan Ping. At his cue, they raised their hands together toward their heads.
It was reckless.
Inviting the ghost to possess them looked like madness, yet it was also a way to break the deadlock and test the mission's ambiguity.
Unfortunately, Ji Li still hadn't called to share what he'd learned.
But Fang Shenyan, silent until now, hesitated and finally dialed Ji Li's number.
Meanwhile, Tongguan and Guan Ping began in earnest.
Their arms stretched, bending slowly, imitating the midnight deaths of the workers.
Tongguan's hands were steady, his face calm, even encouraging Guan Ping with his eyes not to be nervous.
Guan Ping, among these workers, was perhaps the boldest—willing to trust Tongguan despite doubt and confusion.
As they went further, Chang Nian noticed something was off.
Guan Ping's arms showed no stiffness, his expression remained composed. His head tilted only from his own slow effort.
Tongguan's state was the same.
Yet moments ago, when he'd tested himself, his limbs had gone numb the instant his hands reached his head.
But now, during the real attempt, that eerie sensation was gone.
Chang Nian sighed inwardly—the attempt had failed from the start.
The ghost hadn't possessed anyone; even Tongguan, a staff, felt nothing while executing the plan.
Still, she felt a trace of relief. When Tongguan proposed this, something had felt off. She'd had no chance to dissuade him, but now, with the failure clear, her concern faded.
Fang Shenyan was still calling Ji Li, but no one answered.
Yu Guo, curious, leaned in and peeked at the phone.
"What's going on? Did Ji Li die?"
Fang Shenyan glared, but before he could speak, a harsh burst of static rang from the loudspeakers above.
It sounded as if someone had deliberately switched on an old broadcast system, throwing the circuit into chaos.
The noise didn't last long. Soon, a cool, hoarse voice emerged, tinged with detached indifference.
All the staff immediately knew—the speaker was Ji Li, missing for nearly three hours.
"Tongguan, stop what you're doing. Something major has changed!"
Even without Ji Li's words, Tongguan had already paused. The stiffness he expected never came, and he sensed the plan's failure.
His head had turned past ninety degrees, nearly the limit he could manage, yet still no reaction.
That alone proved the idea hadn't worked.
Hearing Ji Li, he lowered his hands, glanced at the speaker above, then at the surveillance camera panning nearby.
Understanding dawned. After a moment, he said aloud, "Seems you've discovered something."
Ji Li's cold voice came again: "Consider this the second field report since our mission began."
...
In the first-floor lobby, only Ji Li and Tongguan's voices echoed—two fronts exchanging intelligence.
As information flowed, expressions shifted across every face.
When Yu Guo heard that the five staff Ji Li had taken were all killed at the same time, he nearly bit his tongue.
"No wonder nothing happened here—it was all aimed at your side!"
Fang Shenyan's face darkened. He pushed his glasses up the bridge of his nose, mind turning over Ji Li's other revelation:
"Once possessed, there's no way to save them—they're doomed."
That conclusion was ironclad, bought with the lives of so many on the eighteenth floor.
But now another thought pressed on him.
Why had Yu Guo's two earlier tests stopped short without fatality…
while Tongguan and Guan Ping had risked everything, yet the ghost still hadn't acted?
The two doubts merged into one:
How did the ghost distinguish between them and the workers?
Tongguan exhaled softly, then relayed every detail from their side to Ji Li.
Ji Li fell silent for a while, as though weighing Tongguan's suspicion that the *mission instructions were vague, perhaps even wrong*.
Before long, his voice sounded again through the speakers:
"As for the task itself, the simplest way to verify it has already appeared.
Do as I say: have all the staff withdraw, and gather every worker in the lobby.
See whether there are further casualties—that's the best plan.
The killing curse I discovered spreads from us. As long as we stay away from the worker, they'll be safe.
Conversely…
if they die whether we're far or near, that will have exhausted every outward-to-inward rescue strategy.
If there's still no solution, then there's no doubt—the mission content we received is wrong!"
Tongguan's brows lifted; Ji Li's reasoning persuaded him. The plan was ingenious—it could reveal the path to survival and confirm the mission's accuracy, far better than Tongguan's own proposal.
Ji Li's approach was a sweeping strategy, carefully refined.
Tongguan turned to Chang Nian and asked quietly, "What do you think?"
She flicked her ponytail. "No problem."
Then Tongguan glanced at Fang and Yu behind him. Neither objected.
The operation began in full. Four clerks quickly left the lobby, leaving a bewildered cluster of staff.
Meanwhile, on the eighteenth floor, Ji Li watched the monitor intently—his final hypothesis.
If it failed, he would have to seek out *Xiao Qi*, still missing but possibly the key to the mission.
Ji Li didn't see Li Xing, sitting in the corner, listening to the deductions between Ji Li and Tongguan.
Li Xing's face twisted with complicated emotions, as if remembering something, or forgetting it.
When he heard the phrase *mission content*, he grew thoughtful, slipping a hand inside his coat toward the hotel-issued phone.
Strangely, as he reached for it, the screen lit by itself.
The wallpaper and apps were gone, replaced by a sudden, bloody palm.
Li Xing's fingers brushed the device—at the same moment, the hand inside the screen seemed to thrust outward.
Inside and outside, the two hands were about to intertwine…
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.