Chapter 178: Someone Like You Definitely Ain’t a God
Chapter 178: Someone Like You Definitely Ain’t a God
Staring at the panicked Front Desk Girl, Lu Xin slowly raised his foot and walked towards her.
He was already very relaxed by this point.
But an expression of undisguised terror appeared on the Face of the Front Desk Girl. She clenched the fruit knife in her hand tightly, gesturing with it towards her own throat. Her voice was shrill and her tone frantic: “Have you gone mad? Don’t you really care about her life? You… don’t come any closer…”
Lu Xin didn’t even pause his forward pace. His calm eyes remained fixed on her as he spoke slowly, seeming to ponder as he did so: “Of course I care about her life. Our leader has said that in this world now, every normal person deserves our utmost effort to protect. But thinking about it carefully, I feel you might not actually dare to hurt her…”
“You have nowhere else to run now…”
“And judging by your ability, if possessing a target means the target becomes you… then what happens to you if that target dies? From your reaction earlier, it seems you immediately possess another person after harming a host. Doesn’t that mean you can’t inhabit a dead body?”
“So, when transfer is impossible? What happens if you harm this host?”
“…”
As he spoke, it seemed he was figuring out more and more, becoming quite pleased. He smiled at the Front Desk Girl: “Of course, even if you can survive it, it matters little. Because harming her is a capital offense. And someone like you, who sees themselves as a god? Surely you believe your life is far more precious than others’. So… how could you bear to perish together with her?”
“Therefore…”
While talking, he had walked straight up to the front desk, staring directly into her eyes: “Will you act, or surrender now?”
“You…”
Lu Xin’s composure only made the girl—or rather, the Ghost possessing her—grow more frantic.
Frantic because of a Fear deep within her bones.
Li Mengmeng, leaning against the wall in the distance and who had just secretly opened her eyes, saw a familiar expression on the Front Desk Girl’s face.
It should have been the same expression Li Mengmeng herself wore when she was nearly driven mad earlier.
Now, it was back on the Ghost’s face.
“You forced me to do this! You forced me! I’ll fight you to the death…!”
“How could I, how could someone like me, be pushed to this extent by you?!”
“You have no idea the consequences of angering me…!”
“…”
The expression on the Front Desk Girl twisted grotesquely, like a beast trapped in a cage. Every step Lu Xin took closer increased the pressure she felt. Finally, her eyes turned blood red as if she had resolved to fight for her life. Suddenly she let out a piercing shriek. At the same time, her pupils rolled upwards. A pair of eyes, originally red with Blood Threads, abruptly turned completely white…
Simultaneously, the lights in the lobby, which had just stabilized, began flickering wildly. The sizzling noise of fluorescent lamps echoed everywhere.
Pop! Pop! Pop!
Several lamps couldn’t withstand the voltage, exploding abruptly. Shards and sparks rained down.
The lobby felt as if suddenly swept by a few icy drafts, sending shivers down everyone’s spines.
Within Lu Xin’s Perception, a massive figure suddenly burst out from the top of the Front Desk Girl’s head. That figure towered two to three meters tall, vaguely humanoid and pitch-black. Most striking was the face on the humanoid shape – twisted, arrogant, with incredibly deep eyes burning with indescribable hatred, fixed fiercely on Lu Xin’s face.
“You forced me! Then let us die together…!”
The Shadow roared in rage. Not only Lu Xin, but others in the lobby also faintly heard these words.
To them though, it sounded more like an Auditory Hallucination.
Whoosh!
Lu Xin didn’t attempt to dodge. The Shadow was incredibly swift. The moment it appeared, its immense size and long arm allowed it to directly latch onto Lu Xin’s body. At that instant, Lu Xin vaguely felt a shift in his thoughts. It seemed as though a slew of Emotions, Memories, and Perceptions not his own were flooding his mind, seeming to be wildly proliferating.
Amidst these countless fragments, he saw…
A man, perpetually frustrated and envious of others’ lives, who, upon gaining this power, began endlessly possessing new hosts to experience their lives through their bodies…
…He saw a beautiful woman and entered her husband’s body to spend a pleasurable evening with her.
Before leaving, he used the husband’s body to hang himself in the bathroom.
Then he possessed their daughter, watching with sinister glee as the woman he once thought untouchable wept in utter agony.
…He saw a wealthy man and entered his body, savoring a life of squandering riches and browbeating subordinates. Before leaving, he raped the intelligent female secretary and burned all the documents.
He laughed gleefully through the secretary’s body as the completely bewildered man jumped to his death from the rooftop.
…
At first, he tried using borrowed bodies to benefit his original self – transferring money, securing promotions.
But gradually, he grew weary, feeling it was too slow. He also disliked the appearance of his original body.
Besides, he discovered he could live quite well as a Spiritual Entity. So he abandoned his body altogether.
He began living freely and wantonly in the city as a “Ghost.”
…
…
Whoosh!
Lu Xin opened his eyes.
The Ghost seemed to be intensely trying to influence him, attempting to possess his body.
It partially succeeded, making Lu Xin briefly feel the effects… but only for an instant before it passed.
Something similar had happened before. Qin Ran’s curse placed on him through death should’ve turned Lu Xin into another Qin Ran. Yet in reality, it only affected a part of Lu Xin before Mother discovered it and snipped it away with scissors. Judging by its potency, this Ghost wasn’t even on par with Qin Ran—at least Qin Ran had caused a face to grow beneath Lu Xin’s skin…
This Ghost merely made Lu Xin “see” it.
“So you didn’t just break the law…”
Lu Xin looked up at the Ghost, disgust evident in his eyes.
Having glimpsed the Ghost’s memory, he knew exactly what it had done.
Revulsion warped his voice.
“You…”
Terror contorted the Ghost’s expression as it desperately tried to possess Lu Xin’s body, failing utterly.
Panic consumed it. Suddenly, its jaw unhinged, stretching ear-to-ear as jagged fangs lunged for a vicious bite.
This was an ability it discovered after becoming a Spiritual Entity—it could seemingly bite others?
Admittedly, the skill felt rather useless, so it hadn’t bothered studying it…
Naturally, a pitch-black Shadow hovering mid-air—a three-meter-tall figure suddenly stretching its maw to ear-splitting width and baring jagged teeth for a savage downward strike—still looked fairly frightening…
But by then, Lu Xin had already leaped into action.
He remained planted for just an instant, knees bending slightly before propelling him two meters upward.
His hand shot out mid-jump.
He’d expected Little Sister to grab his hand so he could borrow her power. Instead, she merely squatted beside Li Mengmeng, tilting her head as she observed him curiously, like watching a show. Without her aid, his upward momentum carried him straight toward the Ghost’s gaping jaws. With no other option, Lu Xin swung his palm forward.
_Smack!_
The sensation was bizarre.
Lu Xin’s hand passed clean through the Ghost’s face. His palm tingled, as if brushed by invisible currents—unable to strike the entity physically. Yet after his hand swept past, the Ghost’s face violently caved inward.
It wasn’t Lu Xin’s hand that struck it, but his sheer intent to strike.
_Thud!_
The Ghost crashed to the ground from the slap, its colossal form trembling. Lu Xin descended mid-air. Without Little Sister’s assistance, his body control felt clumsier than usual. Risking a headfirst plummet, he maintained his posture and stomped downward with full force.
_Sssch!_
This stomping motion—or rather, this will to stomp—made the Ghost shriek wildly.
Lu Xin’s foot landed squarely where the fallen entity’s lower torso met the ground.
Where stepped upon, the Ghost’s form distorted, crumbling inch by inch.
Like human-shaped paper scorched by a cigarette ember.
A massive portion of its body vanished. Writhing in agony, howling, it shrank back into the Front Desk Girl’s body.
Immediately afterward, the piercing cries came from the Front Desk Girl herself.
Clutching her lower abdomen, tears and cold sweat gushed from her.
Lu Xin walked directly up to the Front Desk Girl and knocked on the counter.
Meeting her terrified gaze stone-faced, he lowered his voice: “Stay put. Honestly, I thought about not holding back this time… but you’re too weak. I don’t even have the option. Can’t imagine why you’d delude yourself into thinking you’re some sort of deity… Now, before they arrive, do something else for me.”
The Front Desk Girl stared at him like he was a Devil.
Utterly serious, Lu Xin added: “I didn’t come to stay here. I just lured you out to handle this business…”
“So you need to refund the room deposit I paid earlier…”
“…”
“?”
The Front Desk Girl—or rather, the Ghost inside her—felt like madness but dared not disobey.
Trembling, she raised a hand, pulled a stack of bills from the drawer, and offered it shakily to Lu Xin.
Lu Xin paused quietly, then plucked two notes from her grasp.
“Thank you.”