Chapter 23: Chapter 23: The Non-Existent Head

"The Living Human Apartment... has this ever happened before?"

"No. From the time I entered the Living Human Apartment until I became an apartment manager, it’s been impossible for Green Text Missions to add people at the last minute. This is the first time I’ve ever seen something like this."

Gao Tian understood that he, Boss Jin, and the others would now have to fight together.

The good news was that of the six body parts, only the last one remained to be found. Moreover, after finding it, he would also receive the reward for the Green Text Mission.

’Although I haven’t figured out why I was pulled into this Green Text Mission, it’s not all bad, I guess.’

But clearly, what happened next proved that he had been far too optimistic.

Over the next two hours, Xia Ta and the others split into three groups. They meticulously checked every corner of the mall’s interior (they couldn’t get outside anyway), every staff member, and even the ordinary shoppers trapped inside, but they still couldn’t find the final piece—the head.

Logically speaking, the head should have been the easiest to find. It wasn’t like a leg or a torso that could be hidden by clothing.

As time ticked by, second by second, no one—not even the swiftest of them, Xia Ta—reported any progress over the walkie-talkie.

Two hours passed. The sky had turned completely dark, and there was only one hour left before the mall closed.

"Sister Ta, what’s the situation on your end?"

"Not good. Everyone is acting normal. We can’t even find a single suspicious person."

Xia Ta’s voice sounded haggard. She hadn’t expected to get stuck on the last body part in her second Green Text Mission. She had originally thought that with two apartment managers on the job, a novice-level mission like this would be a piece of cake.

At that moment, Boss Jin’s voice crackled through:

"Could someone be wearing a mask made of human skin or something to change the shape of their face and head?"

Jiang Yang replied:

"Unlikely.

"Even with a mask, they wouldn’t be able to hide the scent. Our dogs should be able to smell it."

Another female voice, timid and soft, chimed in on the walkie-talkie. Gao Tian remembered her; she was one of the two newcomers on the mission, named Su Jiu:

"Could it be... that the staff member with the head snuck out of the mall while the white fog was locking it down?"

Xia Ta’s voice came through again, answering Su Jiu’s question:

"The Green Text Mission clearly stated: ’Find the six body parts within the mall.’

"The body part must still be in the mall, right under our noses. We’ve just been overlooking it somehow.

"If the head left the mall, that would mean the Green Text Mission is breaking its own rules, and there would be no point in continuing."

So where, then, was the final head?

Gao Tian watched the final hour on the clock tick away, and anxiety began to creep into his heart.

Just then, Xia Ta’s voice was heard again:

"The last head must be hidden in a very special place. We’ll never find it by just searching aimlessly like this.

"Everyone, gather on the first floor of the mall. Let’s exchange information."

Gao Tian knew in his heart that Xia Ta was right.

They hadn’t found a single body part in two hours. Their thinking must have hit some kind of blind spot.

He immediately took the nearest elevator down to the first floor. In the main plaza, Xia Ta’s silhouette was already waiting in the center, standing as calmly as a glacier, a stark contrast to the anxious, chaotic crowd around her.

A short while later, Jiang Yang, Su Jiu, and the others all arrived. The six members of the Living Human Apartment were assembled.

"We’ve got the hands, the feet, the torso—everything’s been collected. All that’s left is the head, which should be the easiest part, but we can’t find it for the life of us."

The young office worker named Li Jin had reached his breaking point. He spat out a furious curse and kicked a nearby trash can hard, causing several passersby to turn and stare.

But the others didn’t think much of it. Everyone had been trapped in the mall for over two hours, and he wasn’t the only one losing his cool. The other shoppers just assumed Li Jin was anxious to leave.

Boss Jin was constantly wiping the sweat from his face with a handkerchief. His large, fleshy face was coated in a thick layer of oil that glistened under the lights:

"This kind of thing is all on you young folks. An old guy like me doesn’t get any of it, so don’t count on me."

His tone was tinged with dissatisfaction. He had spent so much money to hire two managers who had completed five Green Text Missions to help him, yet a simple novice mission was turning out to be this complicated. They still hadn’t cleared it easily.

’So much for the thrill of paying to win, getting carried by the experts.’

Jiang Yang was completely out of ideas and turned to Xia Ta:

"Sister Ta, can you think of any breakthrough?"

The expression on Xia Ta’s face didn’t change much:

"Calm down. With that impatient attitude, how do you expect to pass your sixth mission?

"The head must have already appeared before us, but none of us noticed. This isn’t a problem that a few more hours of searching will solve. We’ve fallen into some kind of mental trap.

"This is only the second mission; it won’t be too difficult. Think hard. The answer is right in front of us."

As a veteran who had completed five missions, she had at least five supernatural items in her possession.

In a situation like this, she definitely had some trump cards she hadn’t played yet.

It just wasn’t a desperate enough situation to use them. After all, using a supernatural item on a mission of this level would be a clear loss for her.

Hearing Xia Ta’s words, a strangely bizarre idea suddenly surfaced in Gao Tian’s mind.

The thought was so insane that it even startled him. He was afraid that if he said it out loud, they would treat him like a lunatic.

For the first time, Xia Ta noticed the change in Gao Tian’s expression. Her jewel-like eyes fell on his face:

"Gao Tian, have you found something?

"Anything, no matter how small or insignificant it seems, is worth saying. What we need is a breakthrough."

Gao Tian swallowed hard.

He fell silent for a moment before speaking slowly:

"Perhaps... this head never existed in the first place."

Upon hearing this, even in such a tense moment, the newcomer Su Jiu couldn’t help but laugh.

Jiang Yang couldn’t help but retort:

"How is that possible?

"If the head never existed, how could we possibly find it within the time limit? That would mean the Living Human Apartment wanted us dead from the start.

"But that’s unnecessary. If the apartment wanted to execute us, it could just let the ghost from the fourth floor down. Why go through all this trouble to give us an impossible mission?"

Gao Tian’s reasoning was simple.

If the corpse the Green Text Mission wanted them to find was Xu Yuan’s, then they couldn’t forget how Xu Yuan had died in the Sapphire Mall.

Before the old security guard disappeared, he described what he saw: Xu Yuan had been killed by a vengeful ghost with four faces growing on its body.

This was the key to the problem.

Vengeful ghosts are formed after people die, but how could an ordinary person die with four faces?

In other words, the reason that vengeful ghost had so many faces—Gao Tian boldly speculated—was that it had a habit of collecting the faces and heads of its victims after killing them.

Every time it killed someone, it would take their head and make it a part of its own body. The ghost had likely killed three or four people before Xu Yuan, which was why it had so many extra faces.

Therefore, Xu Yuan, who died at its hands, likely couldn’t escape the same fate. Although his body was dismembered, the most important part—the head—was carried away by the ghost. That was why Xia Ta and the others couldn’t find it, no matter how hard they searched.

Listening to Gao Tian’s utterly absurd words, the only ones who didn’t laugh were Xia Ta and Jiang Yang.

Jiang Yang spoke slowly:

"If... you’re really right.

"Then this is a headless corpse, but the Green Text Mission must have left a way out.

"What we really need to do is find something to replace the corpse’s original head. To complete the human form.

"After all, the Green Text Mission never said the six body parts had to be from the same person, did it? As long as we ’assemble a complete human form,’ the mission will automatically be completed.

"The reason we had to find the first five body parts is that they would have reanimated if they weren’t found by nine o’clock.

"But since we’ve determined the sixth piece, the head, doesn’t exist, we don’t need to keep searching. We can just find something to replace it."

Jiang Yang’s logic was simple, and also chilling.

Even if the corpse itself was missing a piece, it wouldn’t stop them from completing the mission.

Because the sixth part, the head, could be supplemented with someone else’s!

As long as it was a body part, it didn’t have to be from the same dead person.

The first five parts had to be found to prevent them from reanimating; since the sixth part, the head, wasn’t in the mall, they could just use a living person’s head to replace it.

A chill ran down everyone’s spine as they heard his words. The two newcomers shrank back, terrified that the veterans would choose one of their heads to complete the set.

Boss Jin asked, panting heavily:

"So... are we supposed to just randomly kill someone here and take their head to complete the mission?"

Although Boss Jin was ruthless in business, he had never personally killed anyone before. It was a psychological barrier he would find very difficult to cross.

Xia Ta said:

"It hasn’t come to that yet.

"Jiang Yang, Gao Tian, you two go bring all the collected body parts to the first floor and lay them out.

"Don’t worry about what other people think at this point. The mall is already locked down anyway.

"As for the final head, I’ll figure something out."

She looked up at the giant electronic screen at the mall’s entrance. On the screen, a massive close-up of a female celebrity’s face was mechanically applying some brand of cosmetics. Her skin was so white it seemed to glow; not even a person three days dead could be that pale.

"Wait."

Xia Ta suddenly changed her mind.

"Why are so many of the store advertisements and neon lights dark, but this giant ad screen is still on?"

Prompted by her, Gao Tian finally noticed that it was true.

Because of the unexpected incident at the mall, large crowds had gathered on every floor, milling around the exits, waiting to get out and demanding an explanation. The scene was chaotic.

Under the circumstances, many floors and shops had lost power for one reason or another. Yet the electronic screen at the entrance—the thing that consumed the most power—was still shining brightly, completely unaffected. It was a stark contrast to the rest of the dim mall.