Die, Replay, Repeat

Chapter 15: A Brush with the Specter

"Move! Get outta my way!" Wang Ziteng shouted in fear, shoving past the frozen Zhao Hao and racing forward. Fang Xiu quickly clung to the wall to avoid being knocked over as everyone scattered.

WHOOSH! 

Office employees, who were previously stuck to their desks every day, now ran like Olympic sprinters. They whizzed past Fang Xiu, leaving a gust of wind in their wake. 

Poor Zhao Hao was knocked around before he tumbled to the side.

"Hold up, wait for me! Mr. Wang! Don't leave me behind!" Li Feifei managed to scramble to her feet. She yelled in fright, her pretty face twisted with fear. Her makeup was smudged from crying.

She was lagging behind, not only because she had been pushed but also because her high heels made running difficult. Perhaps fatigue from her earlier activities also contributed to her slower pace. 

She wore high heels and a tight pencil skirt, a stylish and eye-catching outfit that was unfortunately not practical for running. Her skirt rode up as she sprinted, making it even harder for her to move. 

"Ow!" Li Feifei hadn't gone far before she yelled in pain and fell. Her usually pale ankle was now red and swollen. Running in high heels wasn't the best idea. 

Despite the pain, Li Feifei tried to get back up, only to see a curtain of thick, black hair falling in front of her. 

It was the "doctor's" hair.

A chill ran down Li Feifei's spine. Her heart felt like it stopped. Without thinking, she looked and found herself staring directly into the white eyes of the Specter, and she was paralyzed with fear. 

When the "doctor's" hair brushed against Li Feifei's face, she was jolted out of her fear-induced paralysis.

"Ah!" Li Feifei let out a blood-curdling scream. She scrambled forward, ignoring her knees scraping on the concrete and leaving bloody streaks behind. All she cared about was getting away.

"Help me!" she yelled to Fang Xiu and Zhao Hao. They were the only ones still in the hallway. Everyone else had made it to the end and disappeared around the corner. 

"I don't want to---" Before Li Feifei could finish, something shiny flashed. Her world started to spin, then it faded to black. 

THUD! 

A dull sound echoed. It was the sound of Li Feifei's head hitting the floor.

The "doctor's" scalpel was incredibly sharp, and her long arms allowed her to swing with great force. With just one swift cut, the scalpel had done its grim work. It happened so quickly that Li Feifei's body was still trying to crawl even after her neck had been severed.

It was a horrifying sight; her neck was cleanly sliced off, and the area was drenched in bright red blood, spurting out like a geyser. 

Some of Li Feifei's blood splashed on Zhao Hao, but Fang Xiu, who stood behind him, managed to stay clean. 

Zhao Hao had just begun to recover from his initial shock, but a new wave of terror washed over him. The only reason he didn't wet his pants from the horror was that he'd already peed himself from fear earlier. 

After killing Li Feifei, the "doctor" didn't stop there. She meticulously began to cut up the body with her scalpel, displaying precision, tidiness, and unwavering focus. Fang Xiu and Zhao Hao were right there, but she didn't even glance in their direction. 

Once she finished cutting up Li Feifei, she started eating like she had been starved for days. 

Witnessing the gruesome scene, Fang Xiu started to put together a theory. He had a guess about the "doctor's" killing moves: she only targeted the nearest person and only one person at a time. Otherwise, she would've killed him and Zhao Hao too.

The "doctor's" modus operandi involved cutting up the body with a scalpel before consuming it. It likely had to do with what the "doctor" used to do for a living.

With her neat cutting skills and the deftness of her scalpel, it was clear that the "doctor" must have performed a lot of surgeries in a mental hospital before. Normally, a surgeon only operated on one person at a time, and it was almost unheard of for a doctor to handle two operations simultaneously. That was probably why she only killed one person at a time and used a scalpel to cut them up. She was careful, dedicated, and focused. 

As for eating people, she probably started doing that after she became a Specter.

Once Fang Xiu figured out her killing pattern, he stood next to the "doctor." The scene before him was undeniably gory, yet he remained unfazed. He should thank his "wife" for that since he'd been in situations like this before, though usually he was the one getting eaten.

All of a sudden, Fang Xiu clenched his fist and punched the "doctor."

THUMP! 

A dull sound rang out.

Fang Xiu pulled back his fist, and blood trickled from it. He looked at his injured hand, then at the "doctor's" untouched face. She kept eating, not bothered at all by Fang Xiu's punch.

Fang Xiu felt like he had punched steel. This punch made him realize how much stronger the "doctor" was than him. It seemed like all the Specters they'd met so far were way stronger than humans. In the eyes of the Specters, humans were as weak as ants. Maybe becoming a psychic could change that.

A shaky voice came from behind Fang Xiu. "Xiu, let's go!" It was Zhao Hao.

Zhao Hao seemed to have gotten over his intense fear. Unlike their coworkers, who had fled right away, he wanted to get Fang Xiu first before making their escape.

However, Fang Xiu didn't run. He stood calmly. "This Specter only eats one person at a time. So it is safest while she's eating." 

"But it looks like she's almost done," Zhao Hao said.

"Li Feifei had a nice body. She wasn't the skinny type. Even though her legs were thin, her curves were all in the right places. Given how much meat she had on her, it should take at least three, maybe four minutes. No need to rush." 

Fang Xiu delivered those unsettling words with a chilling calm. 

Zhao Hao, already on edge, threw up when he heard "how much meat she had." His vomit---a mix of vegetables, instant noodles, broad noodles, and enoki mushrooms---suggested he'd enjoyed hot pot for dinner.

"Wang Ziteng said that to become a psychic, you need to let a Specter's power get into your soul. And the place where this power is strongest in the Specter Zone is right next to the Specter. So, I'm gonna stick around. If you're scared, you can go."

With that, Fang Xiu stopped paying attention to Zhao Hao. Instead, he reached out to touch the "doctor's" twisted leg, which resembled a giant spider's. He didn't know how to let a Specter's power enter his soul, but he figured touching her might speed things up.

The "doctor" felt as cold as a dead body."