Otherworldly Affairs Office
Chapter 51: The Fear Buried in the Heart

Chapter 51: Chapter 51: The Fear Buried in the Heart

Looking at the ghosts drifting in from the corridor at the bottom of the stairs, some with expressionless faces, some with hair covering their faces, and others with hideous faces bleeding from all seven orifices, then glancing at Pei Yan beside him, who was trembling like a leaf.

Wang Wenze curiously nudged his waist, only for Pei Yan to jump aside like a startled cat, glaring at him with frightened eyes.

"Calm down! Calm down! Take it slow, take it slow!" Wang Wenze hurriedly spread his hands, slowly approaching Pei Yan, and after he calmed down, he lightly patted his back, asking in a teasing tone, "I really can’t understand why you’re afraid of these things? I saw you before looking thrilled and happy seeing monsters scarier than these, compared to those creatures these are much weaker, not even comparable to the first appearing Taunos, so what are you afraid of?"

Pei Yan lowered his head and remained silent for a long time, childhood psychological shadows resurfacing in his heart. Now, he understood that what he and his sister saw back then might not have been an illusion or fragments of some imaginary movie scenes, but something that could have actually happened.

"Hey, are you okay?" Wang Wenze quietly asked as Pei Yan stayed silent for an extended period.

Coming to his senses, Pei Yan rubbed his forehead and exhaled deeply, slowly saying, "I’m fine. I am a bit afraid of these things. Since childhood, I’ve watched all kinds of horror movies, zombie films, Resident Evil, Insect Race, I’m not afraid because I know I have the ability to fight them, at worst I could go out with a bang holding a gas tank, death isn’t a big deal! But these ghost movies, I have no resistance against. I feel like they’re entities I can’t handle, capable of eroding my mind and controlling my body, making me do terrifying things and I’d die meaninglessly; they’re beings that only those trained in professional magic can confront."

"You thought a lot while watching movies as a kid, huh?" Wang Wenze couldn’t help but tease after listening to Pei Yan’s account.

Pei Yan scratched his head; after that incident, he couldn’t help but think more. Whenever watching movies related to ghosts, that blurry memory would constantly torment his nerves like a devil hiding in the shadows of his heart, making him dare not continue watching.

Until finally, he simply stopped watching such films, gradually forgetting them from his mind, until today when the eerie situation in the warehouse corridor and those ghostly figures in the hall once again awakened his inner fear.

"Today, let me resolve your heart’s knot, Pei Yan. Do you know what kind of cases our office handles the most every month?" Wang Wenze pulled out two cigarettes, putting one in his mouth and handing the other to Pei Yan. After lighting it, he slowly said.

Hearing this, Pei Yan immediately understood Wang Wenze’s implication, pointing downstairs with the hand holding the cigarette and questioning, "You mean cases like those involving ghosts?"

"Exactly, actually, in regards to plane rift crossing events nationwide every month, there are only about ten to twenty cases in total, with the highest recorded peak being just over fifty, which was considered a big event. It not only recalled those external dispensable personnel but also utilized military forces. When I hadn’t joined the office yet, I heard Captain Hu reminiscing that at that time, the office thought the frequent opening of planes was about to occur, ready to increase permanent personnel. But after those two months, it quieted down."

After pausing, Wang Wenze wiped his eyes, exhaled a smoke ring, and continued speaking, "So apart from managing plane rift incidents and some miscellaneous related events, the majority of what we handle are these things that look like ghosts; if you call them ghosts, they are ghosts. But from our perspective, they’re a different kind of ability users."

"A different kind of ability users?" Pei Yan asked, puzzled.

"Yes, how to say this!" Wang Wenze flicked the ash off his cigarette, stood straight thinking about how to explain to Pei Yan, and after a while, raised his hand and continued, "Just like what I just told you, plane rifts capable of teleporting people aren’t constantly available. However, minor energy leaks from dimensions happen every moment, but since these minor leaks don’t significantly impact the world’s volume, as they leak, they are gradually diluted by this world and eventually dissipate. Do you understand what I’m saying?"

"I understand? But what’s that got to do with those ghosts?" Pei Yan rolled his eyes, thought for a moment, nodded, and asked.

Wang Wenze took a drag of his cigarette, let out a long sigh with a somewhat helpless expression: "Well, the world has no shortage of resentful men and women and tangled love affairs. When some people die a natural death, their consciousness dissipates with their body’s demise. Yet, if someone dies with an extremely strong consciousness—what we call excessive resentment—and it happens near a place of energy leakage, their consciousness would combine with the leaked energy, rebuilding a body composed of pure energy, which is how the ghosts you speak of are formed. And most of our tasks are dealing with these situations. Oh, right, don’t you remember? It was because we heard about ghost sightings in your neighborhood, suspecting the existence of such things, that we went to investigate and found you."

"Ah, so they’re essentially us without physical bodies?" After listening to Wang Wenze’s account and resolving his doubts, Pei Yan mused while rubbing his chin.

Wang Wenze threw the cigarette butt on the ground and stomped it out, smacking his lips: "Don’t talk like that. Listening to you makes me reluctant to handle them."

"Handle?"

"Yes, of course, handle them. They don’t belong to us nor to any particular dimension. Ghosts with lighter grievances, which aren’t as persistent, will naturally dissipate as their energy dissipates between heaven and earth over time. But those with heavy grievances, unwilling to give up their obsessions, constantly drift near possible energy leakage places, absorbing the leaked energy to maintain their form and continue unfinished business from when they were alive."

Upon saying this, Wang Wenze looked at the scene laden with ghostly figures below, his eyes carrying a hint of pity along with a trace of disgust and sighed, "There’s always something to be condemned about pitiful people. Some become ghosts and then crazily seek revenge on former enemies. Ah, those crime scenes can indeed be described as living hell, and for such beings, our office’s consistent policy has been, regardless of how justified or pitiful their reasons might have been, they ultimately get dealt with here."

"Then how do you handle it?" Pei Yan asked nervously.

"How else can we handle it? We send them to a dimension composed mostly of energy bodies."

"Then what?"

"Then these ghosts who can only exist by absorbing stray extradimensional energy will have their consciousness torn apart by the sudden influx of overwhelming energy, disappearing without a trace. The energy contained in them will return to the world they originally existed in. This is why I say you don’t need to be afraid of these things at all; as long as an ability user can project internal energy outward, they can easily turn that energy into weapons and cut through the bodies of these ghosts." Wang Wenze shrugged his shoulders.

Upon hearing his roommate’s explanation and looking at the ghosts being pushed through the gates, Pei Yan suddenly felt they weren’t that frightening, scrutinizing these "ghosts." Among them were men and women, old and young, one little girl with braids followed an elder fearfully watching her surroundings, not knowing what obsession kept her bound to this world.

An inexplicable urge surged in Pei Yan’s heart but was stopped by Wang Wenze gripping his wrist next to him, "I know what you’re thinking, but I must tell you, don’t think about it. We can neither save the world nor save her. Death is death, we are all the same, and someday you, me, and those we care for will be the same. We must learn to face it."

Pei Yan smacked his lips, loosened his grip on the railing, and sincerely sighed, "Isn’t this what they call ’soul scattered’?"

"Yes, soul scattered."

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