Mysterious Awakening

Run.

Run for their lives.

Ah Fei and his crew sprinted forward as though every second was a matter of life and death. Their faces, pallid with fear, mirrored the sheer terror mirrored in their eyes. It was as though they had been confronted with something of incomprehensible horror.

Indeed, they had unearthed a nightmarish spectacle.

Something akin to seeing a ghost.

They continued their mad dash until their exhaustion began to take a toll on them, forcing them to hunch over, gasping for breath.

As the memory of their recent encounter echoed in his mind, Ah Fei could feel a trembling sensation coursing through his limbs.

“A-Ah Fei, what in the world just happened?” One of his friends asked, his voice trembling with dread.

“What else could it possibly be? We must’ve run into some sort of evil entity,” Ah Fei retorted, “Later, we should visit the temple and secure a protective amulet. Damn, we really hit a streak of bad luck today. If only we knew, we wouldn’t have ventured through those deserted areas. Not only did we hardly find anyone to rob, but we also bumped into that… thing.”

Midway through his sentence, another friend, his hands shaking, pointed forward and stammered, “You, you guys, what’s that up ahead?”

As the gang lifted their eyes, their expressions of fatigue were quickly replaced by pure horror.

A public restroom lay ahead, the exact location of their supposed encounter with the supernatural.

Simultaneously, stationed in front of the restroom, was a man radiating a faint, eerie red glow, his unblinking gaze fixed on them. That man was none other than Miles.

In an ironic twist, their long, terror-filled flight had led them right back to their starting point.

The sight was so petrifying that some gang members crumbled to the ground, too horrified to make another escape attempt.

“Run!” Despite his fatigue, Ah Fei was more terrified of Miles, who stood unwavering in front of the restroom. With no time to ponder over the uncanny situation, his only instinct was to bolt away from Miles, the source of all this horror.

At this juncture, Miles frowned, “My ghost domain and the old man’s seem different. He can cause everyone within the entire teaching building to lose their way, altering even the walls and buildings, whereas I can only cause confusion?”

“No, if the ghost domain remains constant, then it must be that I have not yet mastered the technique.”

“Ghosts and humans are dissimilar.”

Taking a step forward, Miles suddenly vanished, only to reappear from the direction Ah Fei was desperately fleeing as though he had traversed the expanse in a split second.

“I see. Within the ghost domain, I can emerge anywhere. This logic fits, and it would explain why the old man who knocked on the door could appear soundlessly nearby afterwards.”

“Ahhh!” Witnessing Miles abruptly materialize in his path, Ah Fei skidded to a halt and fled in a new direction.

“If I can alter my position, can I manipulate the objects around me as well?” A glint appeared in Miles’s eyes as he grabbed one of the petrified, immobile gang members and hurled him against the restroom wall.

Under the influence of the eerie red glow, it appeared as though everything was under his control.

The gang member screamed, agony ripping through him.

The following moment, his head was wedged into a ventilation hole in the restroom door.

The ventilation hole was far too small for a head to squeeze through, yet Miles accomplished this impossible task. The gang member’s head was thrust through the wall, with his neck lodged snugly within the ventilation hole.

“I see, so that’s how it operates.” Miles began to unravel the enigma of the ghost domain.

In this reality, distances could contort, objects could transform, and perceptions could be altered. Everything was a paradox – real yet unreal, isolated yet interconnected.

Within the ghost domain, the world danced to the whims of its ghastly resident.

Born from the ghost, transformed by the ghost.

Miles tested the boundaries of the ghost domain, using the hapless gangsters as guinea pigs. In doing so, he started to comprehend the terrifying power that this ghostly presence commanded.

Inexplicable.

Yes, inexplicable.

To humans, this power, which could arbitrarily warp reality, was indeed ungraspable. No wonder even high-powered explosives could not annihilate the ghost domain.

Because within the ghost domain, reality as we know it ceased to exist.

How could a bomb, capable of decimating everything in the material world, destroy something within the ghost domain that straddles the realms of truth and illusion?

“If the reach of the ghost domain is curtailed, merely enveloping me, then I would exist as a fusion of reality and illusion,” Miles thought, minimizing the power of the ghost domain.

The surrounding red light swiftly dissipated.

Street lamps reverted to their usual glow, neon lights in distant buildings came alive, and the cacophony of car horns filled the air again.

Yet, Miles remained bathed in a subtle red hue.

Taking a step forward, his body effortlessly phased through a wall, entering an adjacent residential building. Here, he found a couple involved in a romantic encounter on the bed, their room illuminated by nothing but a lamp on the side.

Miles gazed at them, and they returned his look with faces of stunned shock and disbelief – mainly because of the soft glowing red coming off of him.

“Apologies for the interruption, please continue,” Miles turned to depart, disappearing into the wall.

“Ahh, it’s a ghost!” The couple’s horrified screams echoed in the room, piercing the silence outside.

A ghost?

Miles reflected upon his current state.

Indeed, as a ghost tamer, he was growing more ghostly and barring more traits of a ghost.

Miles sensed a stirring within him again. The red paper covered one of his ghost’s eyes, but the strain of using this terrifying ghost’s power for extended periods was taking its toll. He could sense the eye within him growing restless again.

“I can only sustain the ghost domain for five minutes. After that, I will have reached my limit.”

Miles glanced at the time on his phone and made a mental note before deactivating the ghost domain state. Today’s experiment had indeed been enlightening.

He then surveyed his surroundings.

Ah Fei and the gang were either cowering behind trash cans, clutching their heads in terror, or frightened into incoherent rambling.

With such feeble courage, they still dare to extort money?

“Brother, you seem to be trembling. In times of crisis, we should assist each other, right? Coincidentally, I’m a bit strapped for cash. You wouldn’t mind helping me out, would you?” Miles quipped, a sly grin on his face as he clapped his hand on a gang member’s shoulder.

Extort money?

He himself was down to his last two hundred dollars. Now, unable to return home, he needed to secure some funds.

“Take this, take it all. Just promise not to pursue me. Don’t haunt me! I’ll even make prayers for you, just please, leave me be!” Ah Fei, pale with fear and on the verge of tears, fumbled in his pocket and handed several bills.

“I’ll consider it a loan then, I’ll reimburse you next time,” Miles retorted with a chuckle, accepting the money.

“No, no need to repay, it’s a gift for you, big brother,” Ah Fei mumbled, head bowed, shaking like a leaf and not daring to meet Miles’s gaze.

A little more than a hundred dollars, why would he want it back?

His only wish was for this ghostly figure to steer clear of him at any cost.

“Just make sure to extort more money in the future so that I can come looking for you again,” Miles stood up, his voice laced with a touch of uncanny amusement.

“Waa, waah.” Ah Fei’s fear had reached a crescendo, and he broke down in tears.

Why was this happening to me? He’s just a kid!

Ah Fei took a solemn vow then, never again would he resort to extortion; instead, he would reform and lead a virtuous life.

Starting tomorrow, he would even help old ladies cross the road.

Miles intimidated the remaining gang members and conveniently borrowed a few more hundred dollars from them.

He believed that today’s ordeal would make them reconsider their life choices since they never know if their next target might be an apparition.

“Playtime’s over, I’ve got serious matters to attend to,” Miles said, casting a casual glance around.

At this point, he found himself unable to suppress a burst of laughter at the sight of the gang member jammed into the ventilation duct, desperately trying to extricate himself.

“He should call someone to demolish the wall tomorrow. That’s what he gets for drawing a knife. He’s lucky he hadn’t crossed paths with a real ghost yet, so this much was a good lesson.”

As pleased as Miles was at making progress with his powers, he soon found his mood back in a negative state after returning to his apartment. The front door was ajar and dimly lit, devoid of the ghostly presence. The previously torn and scattered red paper on the floor was also missing, meaning the ghost had vanished…

“The ghost fled?” Miles’s expression took a serious turn.

He had mentally braced himself for a confrontation with the ghost, only to find an empty room.

“Did my ghost eye intimidate the ghost, causing it to flee? Or had it embarked on a quest for a new victim? I have to locate that ghost,” Miles decided with a renewed resolve.