“Oh, you should be able to see it now. I think it’s your contact with ghosts that has gradually awakened your spiritual sense, so you’ve developed the initial ability of ‘spirit vision’. So… hehe…” At this point, Mr. Cat suddenly leaned over, opened the passenger door, and kicked William Carter out. William Carter didn’t even have time to react before the car had already sped ten meters away. Fortunately, most of the roadside in this suburban area was covered with weeds—if William Carter had hit the concrete at that speed, his bones would probably have shattered.

That beat-up Honda stopped not far away. Mr. Cat stuck his head out of the car and shouted to William Carter, “Since you’ve already managed to achieve this level of spirit vision, I’ve decided to give you a chance. If you can make it to my office alive today, then you’ll have passed my test, and I’ll bring you into the ghost-hunting business. After all, there are fewer and fewer people in this line of work these days…” As he said the last sentence, he had already sat back in the car, lit a cigarette, and stepped on the gas, ready to leave. But in the rearview mirror, he suddenly saw a blood-covered man clinging to the trunk of the car.

It turned out that after being kicked out of the car, William Carter wasn’t seriously injured—just a cut on his forehead bleeding a bit. But Mr. Cat’s words reignited his desperate urge for revenge, and despite the pain, he charged forward again and, within seconds, clung to the back of the car.

“You really are… tough…” Mr. Cat actually started laughing at this point.

“You’re giving me a chance? Testing me? Let me tell you, soon you won’t have anything left to give anyone—at most, someone will send your mother a memorial photo and a box of ashes! When I catch you…” Before William Carter could finish, a sharp turn flung him off. The last thing he heard in the air was, “If you can’t make it today, you might die. Be careful…”

Chapter 3: Arrested

William Carter quickly regained consciousness. Although he was in a remote suburb with few pedestrians, the stunt he’d just performed—being flung from a moving car—wasn’t something you saw every day. Soon, a crowd gathered to watch. Someone had already called an ambulance, and a few busybodies, impressed by William Carter’s death-defying act, came over to ask if he was shooting a movie and needed extras.

But not a single person could see the “zombie horde” approaching in the distance. William Carter tried moving and found that, aside from multiple bleeding wounds and bruises all over, his bones were still intact. He actually managed to stand up on his own without anyone’s help, then pushed through the crowd and ran off.

He ran in the direction where Mr. Cat had driven away. Blood was oozing from the wound on his right foot, leaving a trail of drops along the roadside. Every passing car slowed down to look at this guy, covered head to toe in blood, still running. After about a kilometer, William Carter finally stopped, sitting by the roadside and gasping for breath. The ghosts behind him had gradually faded away and disappeared earlier—William Carter figured it was because they couldn’t stray too far from that graveyard.

“My bag’s at home. Now, except for this broken bamboo scroll and these bloodstained clothes, I don’t have a penny on me. With how I look now, there’s no way I can hitch a ride. There aren’t many taxis here to begin with, and it looks like I can’t even sneak onto a bus—no one would stop for me like this…” William Carter looked at the address on the business card: 2nd Floor, No. 13 Dongfang Street, S City. As someone who’d rented all over the place, he was pretty familiar with the city’s transportation. He roughly estimated the distance—if he walked, he’d still have to go a bit after reaching the city center, but it wasn’t too far, maybe about fifteen kilometers. As long as nothing unexpected happened, he could get there in three hours…

The closer he got to the city center, the busier it became. There were more people and cars. It was around six or seven in the evening, and S City was bustling. At this hour, the city was packed with people—the end of the workday and the start of nightlife. No one noticed the guy covered in mud in the crowd. In William Carter’s own opinion, rolling in the mud was a clever move—only something dirtier could cover up the bloodstains on him. That was his logic, but the result was that he’d gone from a suspicious, blood-soaked figure to a 100% beggar in everyone else’s eyes.

Even so, William Carter stayed on high alert, watching his surroundings. If someone who looked three parts human and seven parts ghost suddenly jumped out of the crowd, he wouldn’t panic—he’d just swing the bamboo scroll at them first and ask questions later. Since Mr. Cat had mentioned a “test,” there were bound to be monsters or ghosts along the way. William Carter firmly believed this. He’d only met Mr. Cat twice and had already suffered twice—anything related to this guy was sure to go in the worst possible direction.

William Carter kept moving forward warily, though his mind occasionally wandered—like when he noticed the pretty girl trying on clothes in the shop across the street. Tsk tsk, she really did have a great figure. That outfit looked good on her, and so did the purple one she tried earlier, and the one before that… Wait, why am I seeing her again! William Carter was suddenly struck like lightning. Only then did he realize he’d walked this street three times already, and he hadn’t turned at all—why did he keep ending up back here?