I can rewind time to prevent death

Chapter 179: The Eleventh Person (Part 3)



As the president of the Strangeness Alliance Association, Ma Dun was known for his bravery. Even upon encountering the unfamiliar woman before him, his face might have turned pale, but he managed to maintain his composure and shifted his gaze to the next chair.

Sitting on the eighth chair was Liao Jing, everything as normal; the girl was staring right at him.

Glancing back again at the seventh chair, the same woman in the soaking wet gray dress was there, sitting with her feet together, very proper and demure.

However, this time, when Ma Dun's gaze returned to her, she seemed to respond, slowly lifting her bowed head as if her neck were a bit rusty. The movement wasn't smooth but jerky, like a stiff puppet.

During this action, some of the long hair that had been clinging to her cheek fell away, exposing terribly pale skin and eyes devoid of whites. Her head slowly tilted back, her gaze seeming to slant downward, looking at Ma Dun.

"Fuck!" Ma Dun shuddered with fright.

He pulled his gaze back, and in a blur, when he looked again, the woman in the long gown had vanished without a trace, leaving only Li Bin staring at him in confusion.

The others had noticed that Ma Dun had visibly shuddered just now and turned to look at him.

Yang Yang, who was beside him, leaned over and said, "You okay? What did you see?"

Zhang Ying and Liao Jing, the two girls, also stared at Ma Dun in surprise. They remembered that even when encountering the "Peephole Strange Creature" at Experiment Building No. 4, the president had not shown such an expression of terror.

"I saw an eleventh person," Ma Dun said, extending his hand, his finger trembling as he pointed in Li Bin's direction, "Right next to Li Bin, there was a woman sitting all drenched, as if she had just been pulled out of water."

Whish!

As if avoiding the plague, the others stood up abruptly, pushed their chairs away, and hurried towards Ma Dun's direction.

Li Bin, scared stiff, grasped the arms of his chair and found himself shaking all over, unable to stand up.

Amongst them, only Ma Dun, Zhang Ying, and Liao Jing remained seated.

And, of course, there was Yan Junze.

Liao Jing turned her head to look at Li Bin, who hadn't been able to stand up beside her, and inquired in confusion, "Is there someone else next to me? Isn't it just Li Bin?"

Zhang Ying nodded in agreement.

Yan Junze said, "They have all moved now, certainly there's nobody there. In dealing with strangenesses, this phenomenon has a specific term, called 'insertion.' You don't realize when this woman mixed in among you, and you never even noticed her. If she had wanted to harm you, she would have done it already, not waited until now."

"So why would she blend in with us?" Ma Dun seemed to have forgotten Yan Junze's identity, a freshman who had not officially joined the Strange Club yet.

"Obsession. Perhaps someone among you has caused her to form some sort of obsession," Yan Junze explained. "If this strangeness prefers to 'insert' herself, it doesn't matter how many people you bring, it's futile, you can't stop her."

By now, except for Zhang Ying, Liao Jing, and Li Bin, everyone else had fled behind Ma Dun, eyes wide with terror and staring in Li Bin's direction.

Li Bin, not that he didn't want to join the others, his legs had just gone weak. Although they weren't as weak at that moment, he couldn't leave because Liao Jing and Zhang Ying hadn't moved.
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Turning his head to look around, Yan Junze on the other side hadn't moved either, and Li Bin hadn't seen any long-dressed woman himself.

Just as Yan Junze had finished speaking about the 'insertion,' the door of the activity room was suddenly pushed open, and a boy walked in, flinging his wet hands around, probably having just returned from the restroom.

When the boy realized everyone was staring at him, he froze in place, unsure whether to advance or retreat, and asked in a daze, "What's going on with... everyone? I... I went to the restroom, and now you don't recognize me?"

"Yang Yang?" Ma Dun looked at the person who had just come in from outside with a fearful expression.

Not just him; everyone wore a look of terror, including the two bold girls, Zhang Ying and Liao Jing.

Everyone remembered that Yang Yang had been in the activity room the whole time and had never left. So, who was this person who'd come in claiming he had just gone to the restroom?

If he is Yang Yang, who was the person that just hid behind Ma Dun with the others?

Upon that thought, Xu Yongqiang, Xia Kai, and the others who were still hiding beside Ma Dun turned their heads toward the spot where Yang Yang was originally standing.

Where Yang Yang had been standing just moments before, they now saw a woman in a gray long dress, the garment clinging tightly to her body, her hair matted together by water, emitting the foul stench of sewage.

The woman was dripping wet, and a puddle had already formed on the floor where she stood.

Splash!

Including Ma Dun, everyone was so frightened that they rushed towards Yan Junze's seating area, knocking over several chairs, even the bravest of them, Zhang Ying and Liao Jing, hid behind Yan Junze in terror.

Subconsciously, at that moment, they all regarded Yan Junze as a reliable person to turn to.

Because it was he who first noticed that there were eleven people in the room and articulated the method to spot the eleventh person by counting chairs.

Just now, Yan Junze had also described the way this strange woman appeared among them, calling it some sort of intrusion.

Although these people were only interested in studying strange magnetic fields from a scientific perspective and did not know much about exorcism, they still possessed the basic discernment to feel that Yan Junze's words were probably not far off.

Otherwise, why was he the first to notice the oddity while no one else did?

So at that moment, subconsciously, after fully confronting the real form of the strange woman for the first time, everyone's first reaction was to seek refuge behind Yan Junze.

If push came to shove, even if they had to flee through the door, they wanted to do it quickly, as at least Yan Junze was the closest to the exit. Even Yang Yang, who had just returned from the restroom, hid behind Yan Junze with a face full of terror and confusion.

He couldn't understand how things turned strange right after he returned from using the bathroom.

But fortunately, no one ran away yet, because Yan Junze's demeanor was too calm. From beginning to end, he sat there without moving an inch.

For a moment, Ma Dun somewhat regretted, wondering if this wouldn't have happened had he not let Yan Junze tell one last story?

But on second thought, it seemed unlikely. Even if Yan Junze hadn't told his third story, if this woman was already here, she would still have intruded into their midst, and wouldn't have refrained from appearing because Yan Junze didn't tell a story.

At that time, Yan Junze was sizing up this strange creature. Coincidentally, the moment he walked into the activity room, he had noticed the woman's presence.

But, sensing no immediate danger, he had remained still, waiting to see what would happen. Little did he know that Ma Dun's actions had pressed him into a corner.

Since he wasn't scared, he thought that this should satisfy them by now.

After a careful observation, Yan Junze guessed that this strangeness must be the spirit of someone who drowned otherwise, there was no explaining the continuous dripping.

It surely couldn't be that she died from drinking water until she burst—that would be absurd.

"Has her intrusion always been here?" Liao Jing suddenly asked beside his ear.

"From what it seems... yes," Yan Junze nodded.

"Yan Junze," Zhang Ying suddenly spoke into his other ear, "I always felt you were extraordinary. Do you have a way to deal with her so that she can't intrude on us?"

Zhang Ying indeed had nerve; even in the current situation, she could still calmly consider the issue, which somewhat impressed Yan Junze.

"Of course." Yan Junze gave a definitive answer and first turned his head towards Ma Dun, "Now do you believe the stories I just told are from personal experience?"

"I... believe." Ma Dun nodded awkwardly.

"Alright then." Yan Junze turned back around and shrugged, "Her intrusion is because of obsession. Now... if anyone here recognizes this woman, step forward and claim her."


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