This Spiritual Energy is Lethal!-Chapter 115 - : The Ghost in the Office Building
Chapter 115: Chapter 115: The Ghost in the Office Building
11 p.m.
On Raffi Road District’s commercial street, in front of a high-end office building.
The skyscraper resembled an emperor’s abode, indifferent to the worldly hustle, its top forty-plus floors piercing straight into the pitch-dark sky, leaving the clamor of the street and the pollution of light from colorful advertising signs to linger on the ground.
A few rows of windows near the top still glowed with light. Chen Ke took out the photo of his target and reexamined the address written on the back.
If Lester’s information was correct, that mean-faced man should be right there.
R𝑒ad lat𝒆st chapt𝒆rs at free𝑤ebnovel.com Only.
Chen Ke stuffed the photo into his suit’s inner pocket and donned black leather gloves; he did not want to leave any fingerprints in the building.
Without a blueprint of the building, he was unclear on its specific layout, and to avoid raising suspicions among the building’s occupants, Chen Ke had not entered to scout beforehand. Tonight, was his first time setting foot here.
However, as a modern office complex, the building required all entrants to sign in, and without an employee badge, one could not casually enter.
It was already night, and the security guard Paul, over fifty years old, sat lazily at the reception desk, his patrol flashlight and baton placed on the surface as he fiddled intently with his portable TV. Tonight, there was a football match between Opportunity City’s Go-Getters and Carefree City’s Winners.
In order to catch this game, Paul had convinced his night shift colleague Jack to do rounds by bribing him with a pack of cigarettes. Being a security guard in the building was a very tedious job, especially in such a tall office tower where, aside from programmers working overtime late into the night, you would hardly see anyone.
Without the TV, Paul feared his imagination would scare him out of his wits.
Right outside the double glass doors was the bustling commercial street. No thief would think to steal from this building, where every elevator was fitted with a surveillance camera.
The stairwell was pitch-black, and the motion-sensor lights would automatically turn off at night – no one would willingly spend a second in such a place.
Paul finally managed to get a clear image on his small TV. The Opportunity City Go-Getters had kicked off, and Macy, the quarterback, clutching the football, sprinted rapidly, expertly dodging the opponents who lunged at him.
Paul felt a breeze brush against his cheek, adjusted his cap, and looked up towards the door – it seemed to have just moved…
Paul looked around the lobby. There was not a soul in sight, the area near the elevators was eerily silent, and the gap under the door of the stairwell looked a bit larger than he remembered…
Paul picked up the flashlight and stood up, but a nameless fear welled up inside him. He hesitated for a moment and then, in the end, placed the flashlight back down and resettled into his seat.
“It’s just the wind, just the wind…” Paul muttered to himself as he continued to watch the game, where on the TV, Macy clutching the ball leaped forward, crossing the opposing team’s goal line.
The elevator indicator light displayed 27, and Jack walked out of the elevator into the dark corridors of the office building.
During the day, the place was brightly lit, and the oversized office space could accommodate over 500 office workers. But at night, it was as quiet as a tomb.
Jack had once heard a terrifying story about office buildings. It was said that some overworked employees, who had died due to overwork, would turn into resentful spirits, wandering in the office building late at night, attempting to make any late-working individual their companion…
But Jack wasn’t sure if these resentful spirits included night shift workers in their social circle.
The corridor was lit only by floor lamps close to the ground, casting a faint glow sufficient to guide the night patrol but insufficient to dispel the fear lurking in the hearts of those engulfed by darkness.
Jack wasn’t sure if his eyes were deceiving him or it was merely an illusion, but he could shake the feeling that he wasn’t alone in this passageway.
In the shadows of the corridor, there seemed to be a man in a black suit moving slowly. He swept his flashlight forward, where the beam briefly revealed the outline of a man’s back, but as soon as the beam moved away, the man vanished…
“Oh, fuck…” Jack’s heartbeat accelerated and his legs began to tremble. Almost involuntarily, he pressed the elevator button. The corridor before him was empty, with nothing in sight.
Chen Ke was crawling on the ground, using both hands and feet. Just moments ago, a guard’s flashlight had illuminated him, reducing his Dark Concealment from 80% to zero in an instant, scaring him so much that he quickly lay flat on the ground.
Fortunately, the guard seemed to have seen nothing, hastily pressing the elevator button to descend. That was a stroke of extreme luck! Chen Ke wiped the cold sweat from his forehead—that was a close call.
The dark suit’s Dark Concealment effect did not render him invisible but rather “passively ignored”.
It was as if your desk was cluttered with many items—you would surely see every one of them, but at a glance, you only remember the one you use most frequently. The others, the ones you use less often, you ignore.
In darkness, Chen Ke became the one who was ignored. This was a form of perception deception.
The 27th floor was not the top level of the building, but the staff elevator went no further. To continue upward, one either had to take a private elevator or keep climbing the stairs.
Not wanting to be captured by the cameras in the elevator lobby, Chen Ke chose to continue upwards by stair.
As he ascended, Chen Ke couldn’t help but stealthily peek through the cracks in the stairwell doors at the corridor.
To his surprise, there were still people working overtime on these floors. Through the frosted glass walls, he could vaguely see several silhouettes seated in the office, the sound of keyboards clacking away.
He moved along the dark edge of the corridor, observing those working inside. Their complexion was sallow, their expressions weary, a mix of skin tones among them. They all wore plaid shirts, thick glasses, either already bald or with receding hairlines nearing the crowns of their heads.
Chen Ke shook his head, not finding his target, but he thought to himself that of course the boss wouldn’t be typing code…
Finally reaching the top floor, there was only a simple corridor, and beside a desk designated for secretary work stood a luxurious set of wooden double doors.
This reminded him of scenes from many Western movies, where the boss just had to press a button in their grand office and the secretary’s phone would ring—a signal for not only routine office matters but also the beginning of matters left to wild speculation.
At that moment, a man’s voice could be heard from inside the room, his tone hysterical, as if he was complaining and pleading with someone.
Chen Ke pressed his ear against the door but it was too thick. Even in the silent environment, he struggled to make out the words clearly.
He carefully grabbed the doorknob, tensing his entire body, and quietly twisted it open just a crack.
“I’ve done everything I could, and you got what you wanted! Why won’t you give her back to me?! Why! I don’t want to pay for you anymore, you monster! You’re too greedy! You’re like a vampire! Why don’t you just kill me?! You could do it so easily… but you refuse to face me again… you took her away, you took her away forever…”
The man’s voice seeped through the slit in the door; it sounded as though he had made a deal with some woman, and the stakes were hefty.
Chen Ke peered through the crack into the room; it was a luxurious office with indoor golf, and a helicopter landing pad visible through the floor-to-ceiling windows. A man in a white shirt was reclining by his desk with a bottle of alcohol in his hand.
