Frightening Joke: Above the Mist
Chapter 99: Strange Changes

Chapter 99: Chapter 99: Strange Changes

Bai Yanliang quietly sat in the courtyard, with a medical book he borrowed from Gao Fei placed on the stone table.

Allen Allan Poe was napping on his lap, and its wounds had almost healed. After all, it had been half a month since the headless case.

Bai Yanliang wasn’t too concerned about how the case was closed, the murderer was dead, and this case had become a dead end.

Where did the blood in the park go? Why was the body so decomposed?

These two questions weighed heavily on the police, and despite racking their brains, they still couldn’t explain those phenomena.

It’s worth mentioning that unlike Bai Yanliang, Ren Wudao didn’t just walk away once he confirmed the murderer was dead; he seemed intent on uncovering the reasons behind these issues.

But... he was destined to be disappointed.

None of this could be explained by science. Even if Bai Yanliang said it all, they might not believe him, and instead... he was likely to be sent back to the psychiatric hospital again.

Bai Yanliang petted the small black cat, which had been sticking to him more and more lately.

The small black cat comfortably wagged its tail and made a slight purring sound.

Bai Yanliang smiled and took out his phone.

Besides the necessary Fog Gathering mission summaries, he generally didn’t speak in the group.

It was the same this time, but what he was looking at was another page — a chat room invited by Li Mu, with only seven people in total.

Li Mu, Feng Xiuxue, Yu Wenxuan, Gu Pingsheng, Song Que, Xu Zhifei, and him... Bai Yanliang.

This chat room was different from Fog Gathering’s. Since he joined, no one had said a word, not even the most basic welcome.

But today, someone sent a line of text.

Yu Wenxuan: "Today, I received a call, the number was my own cell phone number."

There was a silent pause in the chat room for a few seconds, and suddenly several replies popped up.

Li Mu: "I also received it the day before yesterday. The caller didn’t make any sound, but the number was my own phone."

Song Que: "Same."

Feng Xiuxue: "I got it a week ago."

Gu Pingsheng: "I received it too, a week ago."

Bai Yanliang looked at the lines of text and immediately remembered his own experience; he... received that call just past midnight the day he left Fog Gathering.

"Eighteen days ago, I got that call."

Bai Yanliang thought for a moment and also typed a line of text.

His remark caused a brief silence in the chat room, then the last person also spoke up.

Xu Zhifei: "Eighteen days ago, I didn’t answer, just hung up directly."

Xu Zhifei’s action was unexpected, she was the only one among the seven who hadn’t picked up the call.

"Something’s not right."

The person who sent this was Gu Pingsheng.

"I’ll check it out." As soon as Li Mu sent his message, his information popped out in another chat room of Fog Gathering.

"Has anyone received a strange call recently?"

Li Mu’s influence was undoubtedly strong.

Soon, replies started pouring in.

"Yes! A number just like mine called about... a week ago?"

"Now that you mention it... I think I got one too, the day before yesterday?"

"I got it today! I just received that call not long ago!"

"..."

The messages in Fog Gathering’s chat room quickly became a flood, and soon everyone had responded.

By now, it was clear as day, this... wasn’t a joke, but an actual supernatural event.

A chill inexplicably arose in everyone’s hearts.

Back then... who exactly called themselves?

This wasn’t a Fog Gathering task... This was happening in the real world!

How could such a thing be happening collectively?

The chat room eerily fell into a brief silence, and no one sent any more text.

Finally, after a long pause, a two-word reply flashed up.

"Five groups."

The speaker was Xu Zhifei.

"What does that mean?" Someone asked in confusion.

But this time, Xu Zhifei did not answer again.

"Check the dates when the calls were received." Gu Pingsheng replied.

His words immediately awakened everyone.

Yeah, everyone in Fog Gathering had received that mysterious call, and the time varied, but... there were only five time points in total.

Eighteen days ago, twelve days ago, a week ago, the day before yesterday, today!

"Does this... mean anything?"

"Currently, Fog Gathering has a total of thirty-five people. If you group the people who received calls on the same day, you get exactly five groups, each with seven people." Zhou Li’s reply also popped up.

Zhou Li’s assessment was correct.

In fact, several people had already noticed that the calls received at different times were categorizing everyone in Fog Gathering into five different groups.

But... what was the purpose of doing so?

No one knew at the moment.

Right at that moment, a strong sense of heart palpitations emerged suddenly.

Bai Yanliang felt as if his heart was being gripped tightly by a hand, causing extreme pain, and his breathing became rapid and uneven.

Even someone with considerable tolerance for pain like him couldn’t help dripping with sweat from his head.

"Hm——"

Bai Yanliang clutched his heart, letting out a muffled groan.

Allen Allan Poe, disturbed by his movement, jumped off his lap, but behaved extremely strangely.

This small black cat, usually very affectionate towards Bai Yanliang, arched its back, bared its teeth, and bristled its fur, with its jet-black eyes staring intently at Bai Yanliang.

But Bai Yanliang at the moment couldn’t pay attention to the black cat’s abnormality, and fortunately, it was him experiencing this excruciating pain right now.

Unbeknownst to him, at almost the same time, everyone in Fog Gathering felt the same unbearable heart pain as he did.

The pain was similar to burning, but compared to the physical sensation, this burn felt more like an imprint on their souls.

Their reactions were far worse than Bai Yanliang’s. After all, not everyone had such a high pain tolerance.

This agonizing sensation lasted for almost three minutes.

During these three minutes, Allen Allan Poe dared not approach Bai Yanliang in the slightest, it stayed hunched, emitting a low growling sound from its throat.

But upon closer inspection, one would notice that the small black cat was trembling all over.

It was afraid.

It seemed to have seen something terrifying on Bai Yanliang.

Had it not been for Bai Yanliang, it would have already turned and fled.

This stubborn cat, though trembling and bristling, refused to back off even a step.

Finally, Bai Yanliang felt the burning pain start to subside.

But at the same time, a strong feeling of burning occurred elsewhere, though this time, it flashed and disappeared.

Bai Yanliang spread out his left hand, and there, perfectly and uniformly, was a pitch-black circular mark embedded in his palm.

It wasn’t large, hollow, and being just a simple circle, it couldn’t be considered particularly mysterious.

But... when Bai Yanliang looked at the circle in his palm, an overwhelmingly unfamiliar feeling finally emerged within him.

"Thump... thump thump..."

His heartbeat quickened, pupils gradually dilated.

Bai Yanliang touched his now-painless heart, a remarkably alien expression surfacing on his face.

If someone who knew Bai Yanliang well saw this, they would find it incredibly astonishing.

Because, the expression on Bai Yanliang’s face was... fear.